Thrownback to Responsibility

To be thrown-into-the-world (geworfenheit) is not simply one being born into this world without one’s consent and being forced (coerced) to participate in society and its intricacies. While it is true that despite the multitude of choices we have, the one thing we cannot directly participate in is our birth, our entry in this world (and at times, even our death), I hereby affirm that even though we are thrown into the world and are thus “…condemned to be free”, this thrownness and freedom asserts a higher level of responsibility.

To accept one’s thrownness is also to accept the thrownness of all other beings around him, regardless of gender, class, status, profession, or role, given that such thrownness resides under such social paradigms. While the state of being thrown-into-the-world would mean, at least logically, that one is free to move about the world and act according to his will minus any responsibility since one is thrown in this world without any consent, it also underscores an interaction with all of existence without any form of responsibility: weightless, inauthentic interaction that I think we are, aside from being free—thrown, also condemned to do.

Nowadays, these inauthentic interactions run rampant in our day-to-day cycle. I say cycle because most of us are residing in a vicious cycle, the workings of means and gears of Capitalist ideology, where one’s essence is usually verified by one’s hard work laced with “positive vibes”, “non-toxic environment”, and other disguises and distractions. Hard work here does not mean the perseverance to commit to a specific activity in such a way that one does not feel alienated or marginalized from such activity, but pursues it for long-term goals and positive social change, rather this definition of work is merely to survive daily while at the same time maintaining the same old status quo, its gates kept shiny and golden by its enablers and maintainers—the ones committed to keep the distractions flowing, while all the profit bloat their self-interests.

Accepting the thrownness of other beings is to validate one’s existence. Meaningful and authentic interactions happen when this thrownness becomes obsolete because one affirms the fact that to exist is to recognize that one did not choose one’s current state of being. The poor did not choose to be poor, the marginalized, the neglected, never chose to be forgotten by social institutions. Rather, there are other beings who used their advantage to turn a blind-eye towards other forms of existence and used that to construct a system that shall serve their best interests. We are condemned to interact with all forms of existence, but all of us have the freedom to turn our back against such beings.

To marginalize other forms of existence, and to reject the idea that social problems exists and inhibits other people’s chances of finding their individual essence (and contribute to a positive social change), is to reject existence in itself. And to reject existence is an irrelevant action done by those who refuse the pursuit for truth in this troubled world, in this troubled time.