How to be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question

by Michael Schur

And yet, for all the anguish it entails, Sartre believed, about existentialism, that “no doctrine is more optimistic.” The way Sartre puts it, in his trademark “everything I say is kind of terrifying, even when I’m trying to reassure you” style, is this: “Man is condemned to be free.” We have no crutches, or “reasons” to do whatever we choose to do, except that we have chosen to do them. (And I know what you’re thinking—what if I just don’t choose anything? No go. “If I decide not to choose, that still constitutes a choice,” he says.4) The “optimistic” thing about this condition, for him, is that “man’s destiny lies within himself.” If we embrace the idea that all we are is our choices, we are forced to freely make any choice we want, whenever we want. We have no other option—there’s no other way out of this anguish-filled mess. All of which makes existentialists super fun at parties.