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Over the past thirty years, the world has seen the force of existentialist thought cause many sweeping changes in the social climate of our planet. Citizens of almost every nation reap the rewards and taste the horrors of social changes brought about by the free will based thought professed by philosophers such as Kirkegaard, Sartre, and Foucault. For good or ill, the force of existentialism is no doubt here to stay and will be part of both solutions and problems for the grievous and inevitable tasks waiting for the future generations of mankind. Existentialism is the belief that each person should have the right to forge his or her own destiny, perception, and overall reality in a free society devoid of the hindrances that have plagued the free will of man since ancient times. Nowhere in the world is this ideal system more personified than within the borders of the United States of America.
While often not the most liberal nation in the world with regards to social and foreign policy, the United States has done more than any other nation to promote the ideas of equality and free will on the world stage and on more than one occasion intervened on behalf of existentialism to block the spread of communism, a slightly altered version of utilitarianism based on Marxist thought. With these victories on political, military, and most importantly idealistic fronts; the United States has taken upon itself a grave responsibility. How will this nation of free thinkers and idealists guide a world stricken with tyranny into an uncertain future and most importantly how will this country not fall victim to the end product of the very ideal system many of its people have died trying to protect? Existentialist thought implies that there should be no boundaries with regards to human thought and no laws preventing these same thoughts from manifesting within the existence of the thinker. This thought forms the basis of one of existentialism s most obvious shortcomings. How can each man be truly free in the midst of the greater society which is populated by other individuals who possess ideal systems and perceptions which differ from and sometimes outright contradict his own?
The United States has taken great strides to protect the sovereignty of the individual while still allowing enough structure for a society to exist. The product of this ragtag union is a complex and tangible form of existentialism called democracy, which must be in a constant state of evolution in order to maintain the odd balance, which gave birth to it. Through the process of legislation and the implementation of laws and social policy, the United States promotes the expansion and evolution of free will in an unending manner by assuring its citizens that: almost any constraint of social policy can be alleviated in an orderly fashion by a civil majority. Due to this direct promotion of free will, the citizens of the Unites States have come to support their great nation with a feverish determination. Unlike a monarchy, dictatorship, or communist state, in which the individual is either insignificant or a tool of the common will; the existentialism embodied in the democracy of the United States allows each person to exercise their right to make decisions for themselves in nearly all facets of existence. The existentialist nation also bestows upon its people a sense of purpose with which to fight off the fear and angst of the absurdity of their own existences.
Through the functioning of this symbiotic loop, both the society and the individual benefit and prosper. The free thinker will protect his state and his purpose by confining his actions slightly as to not interfere with another s free will and in return, he will be allowed to be a free thinker. The society which inspires people to think freely in world where such a thing is quite is uncommon will surely reap the benefits through the unending dedication of its populace. Despite the promising nature of the existentialism s introduction into modern society, there are many who speculate that such a society is doomed to cave in on itself over time. Overpopulation, gridlock between ideal systems, and social instability are just a few of the problems which may, if left unchecked, cause existentialist democracy to explode into a state of anarchy and confusion. There are some thinkers who follow the ideas of Jean Paul Sartre in his later years in suggestion that blatant existentialism is much to volatile to be implemented as a form of government over the masses.
Sartre believed that tempering existentialism with some aspects of utilitarianism could save the existentialist state from utter demise. The United States has already implemented many policies, which follow Sartre s line of thinking, however; Mr. Sartre never states exactly what is the optimum mixture of existentialism and utilitarianism. This leaves the leaders of existentialist nations to fumble in the proverbial dark of trial and error while trying to ensure the survival of their way of life. Perhaps the greatest comfort is in knowing that even if this great society does fall the pieces around its citizens through social conflict, that it would have been the product of free will which caused the event, and not by the force of a single tyrannical hand. 324
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Research essay sample on Existentialist Thought Social Policy
