Note: Written in June 2021 as a final exam for Making of the Modern World 15 — the last course in the sequence, submitted online, at the tail end of my sophomore year and what felt like the tail end of coherent reality. The question was essentially: how do you fulfill social responsibility while staying autonomous? I had Sartre, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mike Davis, and a year of pandemic fatigue to work with. The essay is more honest than most because exam conditions have a way of