Freedom, Patriarchy, and Racial Oppression

Freedom, Patriarchy, and Racial Oppression

The French philosopher Jean-Paul Sarte is known to have established existentialism in France after the liberation of Paris in 1944. Existentialism is the philosophy that states that the values people choose influences the choices they make and how they interpret the meanings of their decisions. When existentialism was introduced in the United States, it challenged Americans to access their ethical standards from a different perspective.

America is associated with being "The land of the free". However, the American society has set standards on women's roles and racial castes and until these oppressions are eliminated the entire society will never have freedom. What is freedom? Freedom, as defined by Krisnamurti, is a state of mind in which there is no fear or compulsion, no urge to be secure. In the American society there is a need for security and there is fear. People conform to society's ideas to feel secure and fear being different, fear thinking on their own to set their own standards and choose their own values. Sartre's existentialist view of freedom is that it preexists value choices. Because people do not freely choose and follow their values, society creates ideals that control their views in life. These ideals are supposed to maintain order in society by showing everyone their place, but these ideals displace what society should stand for and prevent people from freedom. Should people follow societybs norm or become existentialists and think on their own?

Society has set limits on gender roles with ideals such as male privilege and patriarchy. Patriarchy is the political structure to control womenbs thoughts on their sexuality, laboring, and place in society so...

... middle of paper ...

... the exact abilities that they have and that those views and values weakening society. They could choose new values that would allow equal opportunity for all people and a better society would be able to come into existence. Minorities could use an existentialist perspective to improve their standards of themselves.

The American ideals on patriarchy, male privilege, and race will continue to oppress the entire society from freedom until these views can be changed as people realize what freedom really is. People must first free themselves from society's views by realizing that they have a negative affect on everyone. They must freely choose their own values. When people in society assess their ethical standards from a new perspective and become existentialist, freedom will preexist value choices and people will choose values with the equality of everyone in mind.