Every act toward the Other, even consolation, forces and instrumentalizes their freedom

Evidence

Thus I am brought to that paradox which is the perilous reef of all liberal politics and which Rousseau has defined in a single word: I must “force” the Other to be free. Even if this force is not always nor even very frequently exercised in the form of violence, nevertheless it still governs the relations of men with each other. If I offer comfort and reassurance, it is in order to disengage the Other’s freedom from the fears or griefs which darken it; but consolation or reassuring argument is the organization of a system of means to an end and is designed to act upon the Other and consequently to integrate him in turn as an instrumental-thing in the system. — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1007

Categorization

• XREF: This is the systematic backbone for Beauvoir’s ethics of ambiguity — the impossibility of treating the Other’s freedom as an end without transcending it, which she inherits and attempts to resolve. — connects to: Acts that respect one person’s freedom can tyrannize another’s. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 132
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that even comfort and reassurance are exercises of instrumentalizing force against the Other’s freedom is dense enough to sit with — it undercuts ordinary benevolence at the level of its structure, not just its application.
• ADDENDUM: Could support a piece on sacrifice: forcing the Other to be free is a form of benevolent coercion that mirrors how ritual sacrifice compels the divine/god through structured violence.

Broader Connections

• Acts that respect one person’s freedom can tyrannize another’s. #complicates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 132