No Longer Existential
How many times have we heard pols and pundits describe the world’s biggest and most critical issues as existential? Our fragile environment has been a favorite.
But what is it exactly? What makes any problem existential?
Does it mean it’s a far-away problem? Beyond one’s ability to understand, let alone solve it?
Existentialism has its roots in the 19th Century. Most defined it as an all-encompassing philosophy about our lives, what it means to exist, and why. It’s been written about by many of history’s deepest thinkers … Camus, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Sartre … a long and distinguished list with most of their conclusions challenging us to strive for authenticity. To be true to ourselves.
Confusing, maybe, but noble.
Authenticity requires us to own up to our real selves. To accept and take responsibility for oneself. Choosing a different path is to be inauthentic, to live in bad faith. To lie, cheat, to be a phony, to cave to the most trivial of distractions. To be absurd.
One of the earliest statements of existentialist thought was from Kierkegaard: “what I really need is to get clear what I must do, not what I must know. To find a truth for me.”
Most of us try to find meaning in the simplest things, because to dig deep can be a risky proposition. Those who do often find themselves in a state of existential dread and anxiety … a major reason why the health of planet Earth and our very existence is a topic to avoid, other than countless blue-ribbon panels discussing it in ‘existential’ terms.
Life expectancy in the U.S. is on the decline. Surges in drug overdoses, high rates of chronic disease, the highest rates of gun violence in the world, staggering rates of poverty with limited access to preventive care, sedentary lifestyles, etc. We have fallen so far behind peer countries it’s unbelievable. Some may say absurd.
Are these existential problems? Are they far-away and unsolvable? Are we also leading the world in deaths of despair?
Just 18 months ago, America chose to accelerate our national decline.
Most chalked it up to politics and having opposing views of what’s important and what’s not.
Truth and authenticity, despite their intrinsic value, were ignored because America was preoccupied with other distractions.
The fact is an absurd choice was made. It wasn’t the least bit existential.