An exploration of Existentialism
The following was sent to me (Nicole) in Facebook messenger, and is posted here with permission from Mrs. Goodman. Edited for clarity.
Excellent, Nicole! I was concerned about you getting all of those thoughts into a cohesive, coherent format, but you did it! You are grappling with some of the same conflicts I have been facing the last few months. Existentialism is one of them. It answers many of my questions, especially those about religion, or the lack thereof… Are you familiar with transcendentalism? Ralph Waldo Emerson was a huge proponent. I also find your comments on trauma pertinent, as I have suffered horrendous trauma in my life.
My MA was in American Studies. Anarchy is having no rules or regulations no one in charge, kind of like we have now with no president and no sane Republicans in the Senate. Each person does as he or she wants. I think we need enough structure to enforce the old saying that “Your rights stop at the end of my nose,” or “When your right (to go mask-less, for example) infringes on my right (to stay alive!)”
You have probably read Lord of the Flies. Life is chaotic now because no one is in charge, and in fact, the person supposedly running the country is doing every thing he can do hurt/destroy as many of us as he can because we “don’t like him.” That is an understatement! His niece wrote in her book that he delights in watching people suffer. He is a psychopath.
Existentialism states that life has no meaning, that no person in the sky has a plan for our lives, that we are on our own to decide what makes our lives meaningful. I am not expert on the subject yet, but it makes sense to me so far. Individuals have to decide for themselves what makes life meaningful for them. Some people would say it’s making baskets full of money; some would say living the word of God, some would say raising a family.
I think it should go further than raising a family. For me, helping others and “touching the future” give life to me, and I have been fortunate to have had opportunities to do that. At age almost-78. It is time to take stock!
My skeletons go back to childhood. Bio-mom abandoned us while bio-dad was in WWII. She earned a terrible reputation after she left us and divorced bio-dad, which everyone in town knew about. She was disowned by her parents and siblings for the sin of getting married, ’cause you know what married couple do!! Shame, shame! More than likely, she was pregnant with me before they got married. Her dad (my grandfather), and two of her brothers, (my uncles), never spoke to her again, nor to me because “the sins of the mothers” and all that religious junk!
To make matters worse, she shot herself when I was 12. She was 31, I think. Heartbreaking to see the look of relief on family members, so happy to see that their scandalous sister/daughter would no longer embarrass them. Ten years later, my younger brother shot himself; he was only 21. Not the biography for a political candidate! Adopted mom could not stand me, telling me constantly that I would, “end up just like your mother.” I did not have one word of encouragement from her, ever. It was taken for granted that I would be a loser, a failure! I am still angry at all of them for that. However, I would never have hurt the feelings of any of them! I did not want anyone to know how I was treated, partly because I did not want others to think unkind thoughts about my relatives! How stupid is that!
Thank goodness my best friend was at my house all of the time, and was witness to the torment. Now I believe firmly that people should be called out for the unjust things they do, and I stopped keeping my mouth shut a long time ago! Telling the truth is always the best thing to do.
Another important aspect of existentialism is the belief that if we choose our own meaning of life, then we, and we alone, are responsible for what we do with those choices. It is not “God’s plan,” nor fate, nor the fault of anyone else. We are in control, or not, but we cannot blame others, no matter what they have done to us. That appeals to me.
Being an existentialist typically means being an atheist, however, believers can be existentialists too. This is Deism. A few Founding Fathers, including Benjamin Franklin, were Deists, meaning they believed in God, but did not believe He was involved in every second of people’s lives, nor that He had a plan for each person’s life.
Curiosity Killed the Cat 