To the Editor:
As a college English major we were “forced” to attend a one act play by the French philosopher and existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre.The play’s title was “No Exit.”
The play consists of three people who are in hell. Forget any preconceived ideas because hell is simply a huge room with everything they would ever want Where’s the punishment? The three people began constantly fighting among themselves and there did not appear to be a solution which was tragic since they were there for eternity.
The moral of the play is simply that hell is other people.
We massacre those whose religion is different, those who simply disagree with our political views, those who’s culture is different. The list is endless. Man’s inhumanity to man has no limits.
Now we are shell shocked due to the recent (and ongoing) war in Israel. The scenes of brutality are hard to watch but it has gone on for centuries. There is little “holy” about the Holy Land when it comes to acceptance and kindness. Nothing changes, nothing learned.
On a much smaller scale I look around The Villages and see all the beauty and think how blessed we are to be able to live here. Why then is there so much antagonism between residents over political beliefs, religious beliefs, too many outsiders etc. The list goes on and there appears to be No Exit and that’s tragic because we are all here together on one big planet and no where else to go much like Sartre’s three characters. As one of Sartre’s characters asked,
“Why can’t we just get along?” Well it appears we simply can’t and that is a tragedy.
Cheryl Mccormick
Village of De La Vista West
