Came across this reading a collection of essays and interviews by Jean-Paul Sartre (Jean-Paul Sartre: Between Existentialism and Marxism). This specific quote comes from an interview given by Sartre to Madeline Chapsal in 1959 published under the title The Purposes of Writing.
I quote this passage - at least - out of motivation from observation. Though the respective epochs in comparison differ, our relationship with history remains unchanging:
Do you believe that one fashions one's epoch?
When you reach the age of 54, you can be excused from speaking in the past tense. But it doesn't matter how old you are, it always remains true that History makes man and man makes History.
Would you say that we are responsible for it?
Yes, both responsible and complicit. The whole of French society is responsible for the Algerian War, and for the way it is being conducted (torture, internment camps, etc.) - the whole of the society, including the men and women who have never stopped protesting against it. We are inextricably involved: the slightest discussion between the left-wing groups who were gradually assassinating each other had the effect of encouraging torture, or a putsch. All these soft and well-meaning gentlemen we have become - we have all had to interiorize the war. The result is that we are solidary with it, plunged ever more deeply in violence. This, among other things, is what I was trying to convey in Les Sequestres. The dying Frantz, the executioner, he is us, he is myself.
My point is not to entice discussion over the specific nature of differences of each epoch, rather point out a theme of similarity.
1 comment:
What I think is cool, while it is off-topic, is that I'm sure you just wrote that while listening to some crazy-ass techno music. Right on
There are definitely some interesting similarities to be seen there. I, too, have been finding that to be the case with things I read lately, and have been discussing it some with people.
I'm reading Money: Whence it came, where it went (by the way, EVERYONE READ THIS BOOK IMMEDIATELY!) right now and have noted that we tend to forget our past blunders in times of relative prosperity, then through a generation, our ignorance of these past lessons comes back to bite us, at which point (and over a generation or so, once again) we force ourselves (although the selves are obviously different selves) to relearn the hard lessons of the past. Rinse, repeat. But it of course gets worse each time, with the money and banking thing anyway. Each step up the balsa wood ladder you take, the harder the eventual fall, I guess. (blah blah, what is this guy saying about a ladder?)
It's all about education. As cliche as it might sound, I say that all the time. And that is why. People can always seem to remember the phrase "history tends to repeat itself" but they never seem to remember said history.
I need to sleep sometime...
Peace
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