If, according to Sartre, “Hell is other people,” then I’m in it every day. Barbara Streisand sang, “People who need people are the luckiest people of all,” but I think they’re more like moochers. To start out my essay this way is probably misleading. I’m not anti-people. I don’t loathe society with every fiber of my being–it’s too much effort. However, I have buckets of sarcasm, so my first thoughts about these quotes were, to put it lightly, negative. The question is, to what extent is life better with other people, and to what extent is it better without them?
There’s no denying it: I’m an introvert. I’m not skilled at dealing with others. My mother has, in the past, labeled me “socially inept.” I think I’ve made peace with that. If I can’t communicate by talking, I’ll write, and even though no one reads it, that’s just more philosophy for me.
I think that one of the worsts things about other people is how they are everywhere. They take up space. They gather in large throngs. They cause noise pollution. There’s no peace to be had with all these homo sapiens mucking up the works. I’m generally not a part of that chaos, so other people being around tends to just annoy me. People also set standards. Everyone compares themselves to everyone else which only leads to no one being satisfied with anything. Life would be much simpler without pressure to have better grades than so-and-so and a higher ACT score than Das Smarter Than Joo and straighter hair than Miss Perky Pants. It’s difficult to stay on track with my own business when I’m constantly distracted by everyone else’s.
To think about life without other people, though, is dismal. For almost every negative there’s a positive to cancel it out. People only annoy me because I wish I could be included. People set standards that keep me trying to achieve. If I had no basis of comparison, how would I know how good or bad I was doing? I know that I need people. I’ve had plenty of experience with the bitter, “society blows” loner act, and it didn’t work out too well. I like having friends. I like going out and doing something fun and worthwhile instead of sitting at home, watching The Simpsons while my mom snores, slowly falling off the couch. I also like being much happier because of it. (This is not applicable at school because school is a horrible place and I don't want to be around any of them.)
At first, I didn’t think I would, but after giving it a lot of thought, I would have to agree with Barbara Streisand. I don’t, however, think that people who need people are the “luckiest people of all,” they’re just normal. I’ve got the same basic, somewhat cheesy need to have other people around, because as much of a pain as they might be, it would be much worse without them. Especially without anyone to get you snacks.
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