DE Weekly: The Hurt Locker, Cereal, & the Burden of Choice

Jean-Paul Sartre made famous the Existentialist idea that, as humans, we are “condemned to be free.” By this, he meant that we did not choose to be alive, but once alive, we are responsible for the choices we make. Even not choosing to choose is a choice.

This level of absolute personal responsibility––what Sartre called our radical freedom––often leads us to anguish and dread. The overwhelming weight of being the one responsible for your choices is terrifying, on some level; in the end, we are the one true author of our life.