Thursday 10 March 2011

The Other People, Hell and Sartre

My question is a window through which I see and my answer is what I see.

When I raise a question and You answer, it means I see through my window the world you have perceived.

When You raise a question and I answer, it is my vision of the world that you see through your window.

My questions and your answers and Your questions and my answers are making all this a very interesting imagery that is being written, drawn and painted by our interaction.


What I see through your answer is You and how you perceive me. What you see through my answer is me and how I perceive you.

This interaction is making our world richer and greater but only when we share and respect each other. The world is as beautiful and as miserable as we understand it and make it look. I am quite startled when I read from Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980) “there is no hell, other people is hell”. This world view is acquired from personal isolation and reflects not only how he is viewing other people but in fact how other people view him. The hell that is reminiscent in others is actually a hell scorching and burning in oneself.

The other is me, outside and on the other side of my window, if he is in peace I am in peace, if he is in hell I can’t be in heaven.

13 comments:

  1. hmmm.....once again...profounding post !

    Dar Sahib...I believed that people look onto us what we show them about ourselve...but they look into us when they want to see what they want to see in us...

    So...none can change the perception of people because they always somehow take out the exact essence which they want...

    But yes...communication may change some of their views...not always...works.

    So much to learn from your thought provoking posts....thanks for sharing.

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  2. The other is me, outside and on the other side of my window, if he is in peace I am in peace, if he is in hell I can’t be in heaven...

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  3. Thinking, what you say is also true, I personally what to see what is good in people, so in reaction other people would also leave my faults and would see what good I have. This can be a win win situation, if this cliché is any good.

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  4. A good way to look at things, Mr. Dar, if only people would care to actually perceive as such. But one question, dare i ask, where does one draw a line between realism and optimism? Being realistic is I see in you what I see in you, and being optimistic is I somehow see in you what i dont see in you? right? Isnt it a butter-coated way of befooling oneself and mere pretension that you see in me that which you really dont see? What if I am showing you only the bad me, myself and i?

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  5. :)
    Question=Window, Answer=view through that window...
    Great comparison Sir! You like to see different views and scenery. :p So i am assuming that you would've seen many views up till now...
    Did you try to jump out of the window at some point of time? :D

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  6. Dar Sb
    "What I see through your answer is You and how you perceive me. What you see through my answer is me and how I perceive you."
    A good concept of judgments and perceptions.
    What is the importance of reality? We have a friend who has the ideas that what we know are merely perceptions and no one can access to reality, everyone has his/her own level of understanding and perceiving the world around us. Can you please put you valuable words on this concept.
    Secondly he thinks that best way to have a beautiful world is to perceive it better, look and thing positively. How would you define this phenomenon?

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  7. Thanks Sadia for interesting observations.

    Optimist is someone who thinks reality is always a win-win situation; realist is somebody who thinks winning and losing is part of the game. Realism is saying this can turn out either way, optimism is maintaining that positivity would be the end result. The dividing line between realism and optimism is the belief that optimist steadfastly holds and remains optimist and realist also hangs on with it but with uncertainty but hoping for the best and prepared for the worst.
    In my opinion, what I meant in the post is that all that what we see is possible because me and you are interacting and giving meanings to what is out there. If you do not show who really you are and I do not show who really I am is quite possible but then the world that would come into existence would be that of deception and falsification. This is possible, between some people but at a large scale with all people all the time this is not possible. Eventually the truth and the positivity and the goodness which is a dominant element in human beings stares right back triumphantly.

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  8. rIZ it is always pleasure reading your comments, btw why you always think out of box?

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  9. Peerless thanks for reading and sharing, I think absolute reality lies with God, what we see, I would rather rephrase it to perspective reality than mere perception. What we perceive is also real but in a different relationship, the relativity concept applies here.
    And the second part of your comment explains it well that our world view is made from our sense of it. My world would be as bright, beautiful and cheerful as my positivity through which I see it, or as gloomy, melancholy and sad as my negativity through which I look it. Taking a cue from your presentation while you write I would quote Nasir Kazmi

    Dil tu mera udaas hai Nasir
    Shaer kyoN saiN saiN kerta Hai

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  10. Err... don't know :(
    May be i can't see the box, so can't estimate its dimensions...
    oho leave it! btw by reading your post, i imagined some beautiful scenery out of the window, same as your posted picture. I liked the scene so much that i wanted to visit the place. That's why this question came to my mind.

    Any answer that you liked so much & which satisfied your question and you considered it as the true and final answer(you jumped out of the window)?

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