Tags
chronic self-alienation, existential angst, false persona, fear of death, mortal individual, pain of loneliness, Simone de Beauvoir, social alienation

Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul Sartre wanted more from life than it could give. (Photo: Wikipedia)
Like all those who place the ego’s false persona before all else, Simone De Beauvoir struggled mightily with the reality of death. She writes of “the scandal of finiteness,” referring to our inescapable mortality. When you insist on emphasizing your separateness and see yourself as merely an isolated conscious ego, it becomes inevitable that fear of the permanent extinction of consciousness – occasioned by physical death – will threaten your peace of mind. Death can become something of a preoccupation.
The real scandal here is de Beauvoir’s way of ignoring the bigger picture – the immortality of the human race, which transcends individual mortality. Unfortunately, for those locked into believing they are merely a self-made false persona, only the individual counts. They never look beyond the boundaries Continue reading