5 — Final) ———>

Unlike Sartre, I do not believe that other people are our hell, because my deep conviction is that paradise, too, does not arise in a vacuum created by the non-existence of others. But like Sartre, I believe that “living in the gaze of others” reduces us to an object: deprived of freedom and incapable of transcendence.

In my view there is a profound difference between loneliness and standing uniquely as “one individual.” In the first condition, the invisible chains of others remain around our feet; in the second, we stand among everyone else without chains. Freedom from others in this sense is the first condition for being able to liberate others.

In the end, we are in this world with others, and without doubt there is no exit from this room for any of us.

Aydin Areta