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Wanting to be first is worthless if you also want to be the only one

Recently, on my way home, I was driving down a busy highway where a group of trucks were blocking the two available lanes. But that didn't stop a “rushing” driver from getting up close behind my vehicle and, in addition to his rude gestures, trying to pass, even though there was nowhere to do so.

Finally, after many miles of traveling at relatively low speeds, one of the large trucks was able to change lanes, thus creating enough space for me to change lanes as well, and consequently for the reckless driver behind me to move away at very high speed.

Clearly, the man in the other car cared about only one thing: passing all the other vehicles and getting the hell out of there. For that reckless driver, the other drivers, or simply the others, are, as Sartre would say, “hell”.

If all other people disappeared and their vehicles with them, then the road would be empty and the reckless driver could drive as fast as he wanted for as long as he wanted because, under those conditions, he would not only be the fastest, but also the only one.

But that paradise with no others in sight will be short lived and it would become a hell because, if hell is the others when they are present, that hell is even more palpable when all the others are absent.

Let us suppose for a moment that, thanks to a miracle or an unexpected intervention of the universe, the irresponsible driver manages to fulfill his desire to be the only one on the road and, therefore, does not face any obstacles to his desire to drive at high speed. nor should you interact with other drivers.

If that happened, that driver would have the entire road to himself, but for how long? Suppose that, for some reason, a tree fell on the road, or a truck was impaled on the asphalt, blocking all lanes. Without "others" to remove the obstacles, the obstinate driver will be able to do little.

And what happens when your vehicle runs out of fuel and there is no one to help you fill up? In fact, there will be no one bringing gasoline to the gas station. Nor will there be anyone supplying supermarkets or providing medical assistance in hospitals.

The key idea of these examples is that, as much as we do not like the others, we cannot live without them. Without "others" in our lives we would not even have been born nor would we have survived all those years in which we totally depend on someone to take care of us precisely to survive.

The “others” are “hell” because without the others none of us would exist. Believing that we can get rid of others and continue to exist is a dangerous fantasy typical of the most dangerous level of narcissism that leads to the insolence of believing oneself the best, the fastest and the only one. We are the others.

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