Today in class we concluded The Fall. The group that presented talked about 5 themes touched on by Clamence through Camus. The first theme was about manipulation. The class then discussed about how it ties in with relationships, throwing in the phrase ‘mental slavery’. I think a lot of the time we do favors (not sexual, or sexual, I don’t care what you do) for somebody with a mindset that we will receive something in return. Is this a form of manipulation? I believe so because it becomes an action—reaction response for both participating partners. This mechanism could be used to get something out of the other person. Some of the other themes were righteousness, pride, and shame. (When I saw the word Shame on the group’s power point, I couldn’t stop thinking of Steve McQueen’s Shame. If you haven’t seen it, I definitely recommend you stop reading my blog and check it out.) Is it hypocritical to judge others for the same faults that you see in yourself? I think we all would say yes, but we want to say no because we are all fucking guilty of doing it. I think if we judge others, but we have the same faults, we just can’t admit it to ourselves and come to terms with it. Why would you need to continue to judge other people if you are content in yourself? Discontent people are the ones who judge others. They cannot find peace within themselves and they project it outward, or at least that’s what I think. The group also coined a term “Jaumness”, which sounds a hell of a lot like jaundice. It is harmful to the human psyche to linger negatively on memories that have already passed. It will just make you into a human shell of anxiety with an inferior complex. Finding an inner peace seems to be the answer once again.