1- Introduction

Antonin Artaud in face of the evolution of modern world said "We have no other way out that is not the consciousness", and that we have to "open to the consciousness of oneself", because "what is not conscious human also is not" - cited by Georges Bataille in the Tears of Eros

As I have pointed out in previous posts, anarchy, decentralism, individualism, self-liberation, and existentialism, are all defined in the balance of the trilogy of fundamental human values: Autonomy, Responsibility, and Freedom as the pillars of our lives and relationships with others.

Existentialism emerged in an era of common disbelief of centralized institutions, power repression, and an education disconnect from reality, and this political delusion has a lot of similarities with today´s, and the only difference is that the problem is much deeper rooted in wheels of existence and crushing much more victims because the patterns of dominance have acquired a tremendous power.

Power is increasingly being centralized and crystallized in a suffocating reality that crushes the individual will.
In this the post-industrial era society, where we have to manage the scarcity of resources for the survival of our planet Earth and species, we have to act before it is too late.
This power is interfering with human consciousness, augmenting the fear to act and fight for human rights and dignity in the eyes of true justice as equality.
There was never so much need for openness to consciousness as the node of survival that differentiates our human species in the relation with reality and the planet, like the Extinction Rebellion environmental movement that will come to the streets with a long program of events all this year.

2 - Existentialism as a Living Philosophy

"Man is truly free only among equally free men."- Michael Bakunin

Existentialism celebrates the specialness and uniqueness of every human being.
The use of Philosophy, as a friend always suspicious of science and politics, with its values internalized by the exercise of power that corrupts and influence its outcomes, turning it against human nature, emerges as a tool to repair reality and our sense of powerlessness to transform it.
Philosophy is the only individual weapon available for survival against the uncertainty of future, and to find opportunities that can unite people to create collective action, which can not be confused with collectivism, because it always implies the authority of a narrow group.

As G. Edward Griffin says, collectivism prevails over individualism because it arises autocratic power, coercion, and violence but it shouldn't be confused with its opposite, the collectivist action, made by free individuals without centralized authority.
Philosophy is always dead, unless we have a live one like existentialism on the streets May 68 in France, as a collective praxis to change the world.
The first parallel comes from the vortex of the French sociology students, to show a total lack of satisfaction with the curricula and superior education system disconnected from reality, like Universities today give the students titles for no jobs, and a financial debt curse for life.

The book Roads to Freedom is the existentialist practical approach of Sartre to reality, and instead of worrying only with the theoretical paradigms, it shows show some possible actions to fight for freedom.
There are two kinds of philosophy, a dead one sleeping in the books, and a live one that jumps from the pages to reality, that is expressed inside the social movements that historically arise, questioning the ways of living to change society.
For Sartre society dynamics was based in the thought of opposing classes conflicting for power, and living Philosophy was the emerging culture and arts of the social class in ascension, taking over an old decaying class (making it obsolete).

We are not here to break rules but to act under our own responsibility, to grow our Being in time, and have a meaningful life trying to find sense, to build our destiny like our existence, because our lives will surely end in aging, decay, and death, like a burden of Fate that Man can't control.
All other philosophies are dead, but it is very important to know and study all the insights of these individuals, that found the breaches of the wall of thought of one civilization era, to exorcize its ghosts, that are still alive in anybody's mind, that is not aware of our blind shades of reality.

3 - Existentialism: The Players and the Times - Then

We are free, because we are condemned to make choices for our actions, and deal with its consequences.
Acting like a person of thought in high consciousness will make him/her think like a person of action puts him/her closer to the truth and reality.

“The world is... the natural setting of, and field for, all my thoughts and all my explicit perceptions. Truth does not inhabit only the inner man, or more accurately, there is no inner man, man is in the world, and only in the world does he know himself. ” - Maurice Merleau-Ponty

The big stars of the existentialist philosophy wanted to shake the foundations and thought of Western civilization, with phenomena that turned into a social-political action movement.
The most known Players and intervening voices at the time where among others, were Gabriel Marcel, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, and Maurice Merleau-Ponty that I'll dedicate exclusive posts, and others that I'll mention during this series of posts about existentialism.

Photos Source: wikipedia

The world is not what we expect it to be, so we should align our expectations and actions to build the world we want to see and fight to "taste it" in reality.

“My freedom is not and cannot be something that I observe as I observe an outward fact; rather it must be something that I decide, moreover, without appeal. It is beyond the power of anyone to reject the decision by which I assert my freedom and this assertion is ultimately bound up with the consciousness that I have of myself.” - Gabriel Marcel

An existentialist, an individualist or an anarchist, are persons that value independence of spirit, and freedom of movement above everything else in life, and doesn't like to forcefully suppress his/her natural desires in the existing environment with moral limitations or social pressure, and he/she is aware of those constraints.

“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” - Jean-Paul Sartre

This creates anxiety, intense frustration, resentment, mental stress, and an inherent feeling of restlessness, so we must wish to break free from these limitations, and have the necessary mental strength to do it, and avoid the burden of everyday's life constraints and to find our own, free independent way, as a catharsis solving the Angst of Existence.

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." - Albert Camus

An existentialist is a really intense and passionate person with a desire to live life to the fullest, that can be seen in an emanated intense energy that reflects in the animated behavior, colored with an enthusiastic way of speaking, giving a sense of belongingness to the people they speak, with love reigning above all in his/her mind.

“One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others.” - Simone de Beauvoir

An existentialist tends to get away from anything which in his/her opinion is coarse, vulgar, or of low taste, and knows that the money of the privileged class owns the legislators, coding the machine with their bellybutton laws, while the veritable lawmakers can only be all the people's voice, defending their natural born rights and freely exercise their will for power.

4- Existentialism: Now - Extinction Rebellion and Yellow Vests

"We have to align our actions with our beliefs if we want to feel the taste of freedom" - charlie777pt

Our era of political cultivated Intolerance, that has a long time ago surpassed Love, leading to War and drowning Peace.
People just want to hear what is congruent with the narrative the system and the TV box has planted or implanted in their heads, a Prisma that obfuscate the truth and creates hate towards any messenger that brings the dark side of reality the power tries to hide.

Any revolutionary-of-consciousness or whistleblower is a danger to the system, an outlaw and a terrorist because he dares to challenge the Golias and disrupt the Machine that is not serving the humankind anymore.
The system loves all kinds of dissidence and calls it terrorism because it is used as fuel for the beast of the system.

"In order to exist, man must rebel, but rebellion must respect the limits that it discovers in itself - limits where minds meet, and in meeting, begin to exist." - Albert Camus

Collective Social Innovation is only possible with Decentralization as a self-conscious movement that will make centralized strucutres obsolete, and to be replaced by horizontal communication that will transform reality.

Like history have shown us we need "Civil disobedience to stop ecocide" (Chris Hedges) an interview with Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion (XR) , where he says that 'We have a duty to act' (has called for) "nonviolent acts of civil disobedience"on April 15 in all the capitals around the world to reverse our "one-way track to extinction".
This new nonviolent direct action movement is an example of forms of passive resistance that since Gandih has shown us that can really bring about profound social changes. Let's see what happens . :)

Join the Rebellion

Rebels from outside the UK please sign up at xrebellion.org