Sartre's second century

84 Chapter Six
Afghanistan. Both need to remember the history lesson that Sartre has
taught us, that liberty is a process and not a commodity.
"The freedom genie is out of the bottle in the Middle East", ran a
headline in a US newspaper in March 2005. Certainly, we are living in
historic times: the prospect of women being given the vote in Saudi
Arabia, the prospect of Syria's withdrawal from a part of Lebanon, the
prospect of free elections in Egypt, and—perhaps most surprisingly—we
witnessed a large turnout in the first post-invasion elections to be held in
Iraq. Each of those Iraqi voters had been faced with perhaps the ultimate
existential situation-limite (extreme situation). Their original choice to
vote must have been accompanied by fear and anguish in the ever-present
threat of death. From an existential perspective, hope for their future—
which is also hope for our future—lies in a commitment to furthering the
cause of human freedom: a freedom expressed not just through the ballot
box, but in re-affirming each and every individual's right to freedom of
speech and social justice. Will the Iraqi voters of today experience history
as alienation, or as the affirmation of individual choice? In exercising our
freedom of choice, we need to remember, with Sartre, that there is no
freedom without responsibility, and that our freedom engages the whole of
humanity in the future course of world politics.
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Farrell Fox, Nicholas. The New Sartre. London: Continuum, 2003.
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