Our Excruciating Modernity

On the final distraction

Fear not, for your fear, and your fear of fear, are burdensome absurdities

Another distraction plagues existence: fear. Fear restrains, breaks, terrifies, stalls, and brings Man into lifelong hesitation. Man fears and therefore does not dare move, think, or blink, for fear blinds him with the projection of the threats posed by effort, or, in other words, with the ridicules, failures and risks of the encounters of, and with, life. Man naturally fears, a trait necessary to his survival, but instead of controlling his fear, he has let fear control him, letting it run wild and become an all-consuming force, an omnipotent and omnipresent entity of such power that it has discreetly nudged Man into the pneumatic couch of idleness and paralysed him to keep him from ever getting up from it. This couch leads straight towards Man's grave, and for there to be life he must rise from it, become free, and abandon fear. How can Man abandon fear, that invincible empire with complete hegemony over the mind? Man has opened the cage in which fear resided, has let it trample the flowers of society and devour its members, but fear, on its own, is absurd, and it is in recognising this absurdity that Man may rid himself of fear, liquidate its clouds and set existence ablaze with the sparks of motion. To notice, and then recognise, the absurdity of fear, Man need look no further than his own being. Man must begin the assessment of his fear by dissecting it into packets of specific fears destined to be individually contemplated, and if this process is completed correctly, eventually rejected as ludicrous and burdensome. Now, let Man consider his fear of embarrassment as an example. I see embarrassment as the reaction one has to one's detachment from the group, to the deep contrast formed between one's existence and the norms of one's community, and, consequently, to one's inability to attain his personal expectations or those of society, both of which are typically of a sociocultural, religious, or financial nature. Concerning society, it deems meeting the expectations and abiding by the norms it has forced upon its members as individual and then collective successes, because it has, in its lies, come to see these achievements, these thresholds of life that often involve the promotion of the individual through various hierarchies, as the singular path towards happiness, and happiness for the community. This is a flawed conclusion for it is not in a larger house, in having three rather than two children, or in the expansion of his social circle, that Man may find genuine and sustainable contentment. This he can only achieve in and by himself. Happiness is a state, and regardless of its subjective definition, it is reached not through attainment, achievement and success, but through the changing of one's state of mind, which in itself can be described as a success, though it is existential, not material. This mindset, prerequisite to the attainment of happiness, or of meaningfulness, which should be held in higher esteem than happiness, is characterised by an ability to notice what one holds as valuable whilst staying true to one's reality, the tireless pursuit and fostering of meaning, and the ability to observe one's own existence, and in it find serene satisfaction, instead of seeking it by peering into the windows of the neighbour's sumptuous, but assuredly desolate, house. For Man, not meeting the expectations, and not conforming to the norms, of his community is no failure, for they are illusory deeds that have erroneously come to be deemed as necessary to the attainment of happiness. Man should, and must, understand that because the premise behind these expectations, that they bring happiness, is completely false, his embarrassment, and fear of embarrassment and rejection from the group, is misplaced and worthy only of abandonment.

"As we got farther and farther away it diminished in size. Finally it shrank to the size of a marble ... That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart." [10]

Man may also consider the scale of society and its members. He should acknowledge that the systems of mankind, along with their creators, are irrational, provincial and primitive, that they are crumbs when observed from the outer galaxies, and that there is no shame in not achieving this or that feat, for even if Man had achieved said feat, he would still be embarrassed by the many delusions of his earthly existence, the infinitesimalness of his world, and the triviality of his earthly glory. This is a message to Man, and it brings him to question the absurdity of his fears, which unravel on a decaying dot interspersed with delusional inhabitants who are concerned only with pointless feats they fallaciously hold as the providers of meaning to their brief and senseless lives. But, even if Man does what he wishes, is alienated and, as I hope he will be, stops fearing this very alienation from the group, he shall remain alienated, which is indicative of an issue embedded into the very fabric of the group. Society respects a dying man's wishes, yet if Man, who is born directly onto the sheets of his death bed, dares to differ from the group, he and his wishes are immediately banished. If the wishes of a dying man deserve our respect, those of Man deserve it just as much, for he too is dying. This does not imply that we should obey each other's fantasies simply because we are continuously dying, but rather that these very fantasies, and those who entertain them, should not be automatically judged, condemned and rejected, for if they are, an entity, initially a mere tumour of bitterness, will feed off of itself to become a fiery orb of corrupting resentment capable of pushing Man over the cliff and towards the pursuit of chaos and the destruction of the collective, whom he holds responsible for his alienation. In society's repression of the ambitions and wishes of Man, and accordingly, of the mind, there is a naive disregard for its terrible power and ability to devise hatred and sufferings of all sorts.

Man has nothing to lose in the pursuit of his ambitions, for he is dying.

We must also consider the fear brought by the prospect of failing to meet one's expectations, which brings us to the next example: the fear of failure. Though personal expectations may be shaped by the aforementioned societal norms, this discussion is, in this situation, not worth our time or consideration. Failing to meet one's expectations is another common source of embarrassment, and this shame, fruit of Man's reaction to his personal shortcomings, consumes his bowels for he has only himself to blame and to be blamed by. But, the embarrassment, and its immobilising prospect, should be discarded by Man. Some may say this embarrassment, the disappointment that develops into a hatred one holds towards one's existence, is worthy of preservation due to its reflective qualities and enlightening nature. They will explain that in this embarrassment, in this self-contempt, Man will come to illuminating realisations that concern himself, that will instruct and guide, and are otherwise unattainable. This is wrong, for the embarrassment I am writing on is one that does not allow for, or create, insightful thought, it is one that freezes Man's synapses with shame and despair to give way only to the debilitating flux of absolute revulsion. Man has come to fear this embarrassment after sensing its looming approach in the earliest stages of his very first endeavours, which has frightened him, made him fear failure itself, and urged him to abandon any attempt at personal achievement, ultimately leading the individual, inevitably followed by the collective, into stagnation. The situation we have reached, one of an idle world, is not one Man should comply with. He must, therefore, rid himself of this fear, but to do this must grasp the value of failure. In mistake, in misstep, in blunder, oversight and miscalculation, there is no failure, only success, strength and wisdom. These are found in the learnings extracted from what were initially deemed unfavourable encounters which grow, once undergone and endured, into fertile grounds for lesson. Man must fathom the quality and quantity of knowledge that is contained in the boxes he has feared to open, terrified by the prospect of his own failure, and which shall instruct more, and better, than even his wildest dreams of success. In this lesson, Man shall abandon the fear of failure to embrace the prospect of mistake, and he might even surprise himself by finally coming into contact with the incredible powers of his psyche and by attaining, in his courage and disregard of fear, the successes he had once dreamt of.

Modern Man shouts, kicks and squeals when his fantasies are not satiated, but as he returns to his suburban lair and finds his children taking after him and behaving as he does, he dares punish them on accounts of childish ungratefulness.

Let us not forget the distraction that is loud and raging anger, which consumes Man and his potential success on a scale nearing that of fear. I am enraged by the rage of our times, but unlike the ordinary man, my rage is not physical and emotional, for I understand, or at least acknowledge, the ravages of rage. Man must understand them as well, in order to lower his threatening fists, abide by his prohairesis to conquer the emotional distresses which have contaminated his already diluted mind, and give way, as he enters a state of rationality, equanimity, and, let us not forget, virtue, to a productive medium of interaction, such as patient reflection when it concerns himself, or honest conversation when it involves others.