Serious-mindedness naturally makes one a tyrant who sacrifices others to the idol

Evidence

Therefore, the serious man is dangerous. It is natural that he makes himself a tyrant. Dishonestly ignoring the subjectivity of his choice, he pretends that the unconditioned value of the object is being asserted through him; and by the same token he also ignores the value of the subjectivity and the freedom of others, to such an extent that, sacrificing them to the thing, he persuades himself that what he sacrifices is nothing. The colonial administrator who has raised the highway to the stature of an idol will have no scruple about assuring its construction at the price of a great number of lives of the natives; for, what value has the life of a native who is incompetent, lazy, and clumsy when it comes to building highways? — Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity, 47

Categorization

• XREF: The colonial administrator example is the clearest concrete modern case of serious bad faith, directly useful for the reader’s sorting project. — connects to: The serious attitude makes a person a passive consequence of the world — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1355