Summary:
The existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once wrote that "man is condemned to be free." While it is considered that fascism slowly kills of the mind through oppression, its exact opposite (freedom) slowly kills the conscience through personal liberty. Whenever an individual must decide from several equally good options, and that individual must be held accountable for the decision he or she makes, the freedom otherwise enjoyed by that individual becomes more of a condemnation and a potential trap.
Al Pacino,
Glengarry Glen Ross (1992).
"You Think You're a Thief, So What""
Sartre, as the foremost existentialist of his time, voiced a lifetime of existential thoughts. One of these thoughts presents that "fascism is not defined by the number of its victims, but by the way it kills them." I find it interesting that he demonstrates fascism as an evil (especially with his endorsement of Stalinism) while also condemning freedom in another thought: "man is condemned to be free." At first glance, Sartre comes off as a lunatic, a man unable to keep track of his own words. With further reflection, the reader notes that both statements are indelibly true, that fascism represents a slow murder of the mind, through stultifying oppression, and that freedom represents a slow execution of the conscience, through staggering liberty.
Fascism totally.....
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