The modern burden of freedom
“What is the meaning of life?”
This is a modern question. It may have crossed our ancestor’s minds from time to time, but for the longest time, human life was very fixed. We were born into a certain context, and our lives took the shape of what was needed from us in that context. Life was a should1, not a could. If you were born a male and your dad was a blacksmith, well, you’d better get pounding. And for women, well, you’d better start having babies.
Pretty simple, really…
As tough as life could have been in premodern times, anxiety wasn’t really a factor. Dread, yes. Survival, for sure. But anxiety? This is largely a new thing. Anxiety is the affect that arises out of not knowing what to do.
The anxiety plaguing our Western culture today is a burden, but it’s a symptom that arises out of our freedom of options. We live in a culture of coulds today, not shoulds. You could do anything you put your mind to, they say. In this way, freedom becomes a burden that springs up out of the tension between life as-is and the ever-increasing unrealized potential that we idolize.
This existential dread marks us as modern subjects.
Actually, life was more of a must.