waking life

Waking Life Reaction Paper

“I’m afraid we’re losing the real virtues of living life passionately, the sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something out of yourself and feeling good about life. Existentialism is often discussed as if it’s a philosophy of despair. But I think the truth is just the opposite. Sartre once interviewed said he never really felt a day of despair in his life. But one thing comes out from reading these guys… is not a sense of anguish about life so much as… a real kind of exuberance of feeling on top of it. It’s like your life is yours to create…And when Sartre talks about responsibility, he’s not talking about something abstract. He’s not talking about the kind of self or soul that theologians would argue about. It’s something very concrete. It’s you and me talking. Making decisions. Doing things and taking the consequences. It might be true that there are six billion people in the world and counting. Nevertheless, what you do makes a difference. It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms. Makes a difference to other people and it sets an example. In short, I think the message here is…that we should never simply write ourselves off…and see ourselves as the victim of various forces. It’s always our decision who we are.”

My interpretation of this part of the film is that people nowadays are living their lives without realizing the real value of it. As I’ve noticed, some people live exactly as what the society dictates. Our nature to be individuals or to become different from the others is not realized because what happens now is that, what the society finds suitable or perfect, people follow it. So, the result is, if this is the trend, for example, people’s minds are set to following these and if not, they are most likely not acceptable.

The truth is we as individuals can live our lives different from the lives set by the society. We are individuals. We CAN and we MUST be different from others. For a growing and maturing child, for example, what he sees and thinks of his environment, he believes these and then, he follows the teachings, behavior, actions, etc. There is still a possibility that his mind can be changed and, then he decides to be different from the rest, in terms of his actions, beliefs, behavior, etc.

In this way of living as unique individuals, we have the capability of know and understand ourselves deeper that whatever situation happens, we will be able to make decisions not relying on the dictates of the society.