Existential Freedom and the Modern World (Part 2): Finding the Balance

"But where shall I start? The world is so fast, I shall start with the country I know best, my own. But my country is so very large, I had better start with my town. But my town, too, is large. I had best start with my street. No, my home. No, my family. Never mind, I shall start with myself."

                                                                                        - Elie Wiesel

In a recent post, I discussed a few things that make it difficult for the modern-day individual to identify what he or she can control in this ever-confusing world. And yet, I also made the case that appreciating the parameters of one's existential freedom may be more important than ever. So the question now is, given all of the variables of our modern environments that seem perpetually close to swallowing us whole - our social stratification, our genetics, our family histories, the media, politics, advertising - how do we modern adults get in touch with the one variable that matters most: ourselves? Well, essentially I think the answer to that question is two-fold: 1) On the one hand we need to acknowledge our ability to direct our responses to the world and make choices about our actions. The fact is that we all have the tendency to get overwhelmed, and to stop paying attention to what we're doing. And yet, we are not completely at the mercy of the world's forces. We can exert control over our lives. 2) But we also need to make sure that we don't take responsibility for that which is out of our control. Because we also, from time to time, accept the burden for far too much, and develop delusional beliefs and expectations about the extent of our power and influence over the world. We are, each of us, tiny creatures, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Sounds easy, right? Ha. Here's what the modern adult struggle for existential freedom might look like on a hypothetical continuum...

    Existential Freedom 

<------------------------------------------------------> 

    Powerless               Self-Empowered          Overburdened

Powerless: On one end of the spectrum, we become overwhelmed by the world's larger forces. We may constantly go along with whatever our culture, the television, our friends, and our families are doing. We may forget to take the time to identify our own identity, our own values, and act accordingly.

Overburdened: On this end of the spectrum, we actually develop a delusion of having too much power and control. We take personal responsibility for all of the world's problems. We may become depressed by the actions of others, whether they be our family members, state and national politics, or global issues. And yet, the problem is ultimately with us. We are taking on too much personal responsibility for the rest of humanity. We must remember that we cannot control the actions of other people. All we can do is take responsibility for ourselves, and do the best that we can. 

Self-Empowered: The ideal relationship with our freedom, I would argue, would be some place right in the middle. In this ideal state, we take responsibility for the role we play in our relationships, the work we produce at our jobs, and the way we respond to our problems. And yet, we let go of those things we can't control. We realize that we are not at fault for the experiences of injustice that we suffer. We accept that we cannot control the actions of others. And we play our small part in impacting the big global issues that face humanity without carrying the weight of these problems on our shoulders. 

How each individual reaches this ideal self-empowered state, I can't say. We each inevitably have our own challenges, and our own path towards improvement. I am able, however, to speak about my own challenges in this area. So keep an eye out for some upcoming posts on my own struggles with feeling both powerless and overburdened. Until then, thanks for reading.

Personal Mythology Addition: Vanilla Sky

"Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around."
                                                       -Sofia Serrano

Ever since first viewing it about 12 years ago, I've felt a strong connection to Vanilla Sky. And yet my adoration for the film has often been a little hard to place. I mean, I've appreciated the performances of Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz, both of whom it seems to me put their all into making this movie. And I've found the story, of the protagonist losing his one chance at true love, to be sad and moving. But I've also had a sense that there were deeper themes at work that, while I never managed to identify, had nonetheless worked their way into my experience as a viewer. And then, a few nights ago, I decided to watch Vanilla Sky for about the umpteenth time, and it all fell into place. Thanks to my recent musings on existentialism, it occurred to me that Vanilla Sky is basically existential thought put to film. And I think that it is the film's engagement with existentism that really elevates it from being just another one of my favorite movies to being a work of art that has had a significant and meaningful place in my life. If anyone out there has yet to see the movie, I suggest checking it out before reading ahead (i.e. spoiler alert). For anyone else, here's a breakdown of the film from an existential perspective...

Vanilla Sky touches upon a variety of existential motifs, most notably death and freedom. David Ames, the protagonist, is a man who has it all; money, power, and friends. And without want or worry, David's life is pretty much just an extended party. His frivolous existence, meanwhile, only serves to distract him from ever paying attention to the big existential concerns in life (i.e. freedom, death, isolation, and meaninglessness. For more, read here). When tragedy strikes and David is horribly disfigured in a car accident, he experiences for the first time in his life the harsher realities of existence - rejection, heartache, pain, loneliness. Finding his new life intolerable, David falls into despair. He becomes defeatist and self-pitying. And, ultimately, he ends his life. But thanks to a slightly confusing sci-fi plot the film doesn't end there. David, it turns out, has signed a contract with Life Extension, a futuristic company that provides clients with the opportunity to enter a state of suspended animation and permanently dream a life of their own design. Upon David's death he begins the "lucid dream" that he has purchased; a virtual reality of sorts in which his life has turned out much differently. A surgeon has now corrected his disfigurement and he is living happily ever after with his true love Sofia. Over time, however, David's subconscious rejects the dream, which throughout the film slowly devolves into a nightmare. David is eventually visited by a Life Extension representative, who offers him a new choice. He can have his lucid dream corrected and continue to sleep, or he can wake up and live a real life again, with all of its pleasure and its pain. In one of his last lines of the film, David states "I want to live a real life... I don't want to dream any longer."

The beauty of Vanilla Sky is that what should for all intents and purposes be a depressing movie is an uplifting treatise on embracing life, meaning, and freedom in the face of pain and loss. Ironically, David's previously carefree life of partying, snowboarding, and womanizing - what most Americans might refer to as living life to its fullest - was just an empty charade. It is not until the film's conclusion, when David chooses to return to the real world with full knowledge of life's difficulty, that he finally understands what it means to really live. As one of the film's characters is fond of stating "The sweet is never as sweet without the sour." Here's the film's climactic scene...

As an additional point, I have to say that the decision to take a heartthrob actor like Tom Cruse and ruin his good looks was, in my opinion, a pretty brilliant move by the film-makers. Say what you will about Tom Cruise, the man has shown throughout his career a desire to take on serious and challenging roles. And the yearning and despair he shows in this movie reveal the depths of his talent.

In any case, Vanilla Sky has definitely made canon status in my personal mythology. I should add that the film is actually an American re-imagining of the Spanish film Abre Los Ojos, so anyone with an interest in Vanilla Sky might want to check that one out as well.

Personal Mythology Addition: Dune

As the first literary addition to my personal mythology, I'd like to add Dune by Frank Herbert. Not because it’s especially meaningful to me on a personal level, but because I think it exemplifies the potential of human creativity on a level above most other literary works. I’m not exactly sure what Frank Herbert was smoking when he wrote this book but he managed to achieve something completely otherworldly. And since I value the imagination as one of the cures to what ails us, Dune has always stuck with me as a remarkable achievement. Here are a few of my more specific thoughts about this great work of art…

• Dune is, in my opinion, one of the greatest science fiction books ever written because it does what science fiction is supposed to do, which is to create a world that does not yet exist but still seems plausible. As a reader of Dune, you are immediately aware that you’re in a strange and unfamiliar world. The names of things (“the Orange Catholic Bible,” “the Mentats,” and the Butlerian Jihad,” for example) are strange abstractions of today’s language, so that they are both evocative and foreign at the same time. The cultures and the technologies, meanwhile, feel exotic and new, which is what one would expect with a span of 20,000 years separating the events of the novel from the present day. This sense that the reader gets of exploring a new world, with just a touch of familiarity, makes for a pretty thrilling read.

• Dune is clearly an intellectual feat. It contains a fully imagined world with detailed accounts of its politics, history, religion, and geography. And it reveals pretty relevant messages about cultural conflict, power, oppression, and the struggle for resources. But I gotta say. Most important is the fact that Dune has action and suspense. For all of its intellectual qualities, this book is actually a pretty good page-turner.

• In many ways, Herbert paints a fairly bleak portrait of human nature. The book's characters seem to be almost completely driven by self-interest, and the ending is foreboding of dark days to come. And yet, there is something strangely comforting about Herbert’s vision as well. First, is simply the fact that throughout the centuries mankind has found a way to survive. And in the process of surviving we've managed to develop some incredible technologies that allow us to shape the natural environment and transport us across space. And I think the book also presents a fairly optimistic vision of the human mind and its yet-to-be realized potential. The events of Dune take place at a time when “thinking machines” have been outlawed, and men and women have been forced to develop their minds (I'll leave out the details for anyone interested in reading the book, but let's just say that the results are expectedly bizarre). So amidst the darkness, there is a somewhat reassuring message.

• The book was also made into a controversial movie, which was a huge box-office disaster, and of which I’m a big fan. I mean, who better to make the flim adaptation of this freaky book than David Lynch? My recomendation, however, for anyone interested in exploring the world of Dune is to definitely read the book before watching the movie. The movie is more of a visual accompaniment to the book, and does not stand well on its own as a storytelling device. This is fine since I’m not really sure the book could ever be made into a good film. In any case, the images of Lynch’s film are ridiculously imaginative and haunting, and in many ways actually improve upon the book.

• My last point is another recommendation for anyone interested in looking further into Dune. If you plan on reading the 5 sequel books that Herbert wrote, do so at your own risk. The first book, in my opinion, tells the story that needs to be told. And it was clearly the result of an inspired artist. The other 5 books just become more bizarre and directionless as they go on, and really spoil the mood set by the first book. But that’s just my take. A lot of people seem to really enjoy all of Herbert’s books. So what do I know.

In any case, Dune is now officially a part of my personal mythology. Since it's a work of art that deals with our human nature and where it may take us in the distant future, I'll be placing it in the philosophy section. Keep an eye out for more additions from the art world in the future.

Existential Freedom and the Modern World (Part 1): The Challenges

Irving Yalom identified freedom as one of the four ultimate concerns of the human condition. The fact that we can reflect upon our lives - look back at where we've been and ahead to where we’re going - and ultimately make decisions about our current actions - this is what existentialists refer to as freedom. And this freedom, perhaps unexpectedly to some, brings with it a great deal of psychological suffering and anxiety. We may feel shame and guilt over past actions, fear over impending consequences, and insecurity over whether or not we can trust ourselves. Adding to this anxiety, a number of factors in this mad-hat modern world make it difficult to say with any certainty where our freedom begins and where it ends and what, if anything, is under our control. And yet, despite all of our anxiety and all of the barriers that we face, I believe that it is perhaps more important than ever that we adults develop an understanding and appreciation of our freedom, especially if we want to develop an authentic sense of its complimentary trait – responsibility. So I'm going to go along with Yalom on this one and include freedom as one of the four areas of my adult development model. But I’m also deeply aware that existential freedom is a difficult topic. So before I discuss what a well-developed sense of freedom and responsibility might look like in the modern world, I'd first like to identify those things that make it really, really difficult for us to understand our freedom. 

• The Self-Serving Bias: Researchers in the field of Social Psychology have found that our brains tend to adjust the level of personal responsibility we accept based on the outcome we receive. For example, when we win a game of Scrabble we might attribute our success to our impressive spelling skills while when we lose we might harp on the lousy selection of tiles we were dealt. Basically, our brains prefer to use reasoning that best maintains our self-esteem. And while this may be a good thing for our mental health, it sure makes it difficult to develop a clear and objective understanding of what is and what isn't under our control. So I would argue that an awareness of our biased perceptions is essential to gaining a realistic sense of our freedom and its limits. We must realize that many of the things we tell ourselves that we have no control over are actually well within our ability to change. Likewise, some of the things we take full responsibility for (good and bad), might largely be out of our control.
• The Just World Hypothesis: Humans have the tendency to believe that our natural and social environments hand out just consequences. We don't like to believe that bad things happen to good people, or that good things happen to bad people. Thankfully, the world does function in a just way much of the time. The hardest worker does sometimes get the promotion. And individuals who've committed horrible crimes are often caught and punished. And nice people sometimes live happily ever after. But the world is also partly chaotic. Every day innocent people are victimized through no action of their own. And in addition to their work ethic, people are also judged based on things like race, religion, gender, and body weight. Given our faith in a just world, we can become deeply troubled when confronted by the world's chaos. Women and children who experience abuse find it hard not to blame themselves. A husband will search for a reason as to why his wife died of cancer. And we all struggle to understand why people who behave badly get ahead. Ultimately, complete faith in a just world leads to a misguided understanding of our freedom. The fact of the matter is that the world contains both order and chaos. And we must take responsibility for ourselves in a world that won’t always reward our good actions or punish our bad actions (although hopefully more often than not this will be the case). Furthermore, we must realize that our own actions - towards kindness, mercy, hatred, resentment - all play a small part in how fair the world is for others.
• The Information Age is providing us with constant updates on the state of affairs across the globe - the genocides, the melting polar icecaps, the poverty, the starvation. We're watching 24-hour cable news programming and being asked what we think (but more often being told what to think) about all manner of issues outside of our training and experience - global economic systems, healthcare policy, international relations. And the more we allow ourselves to be seduced by the news, the more we are at risk to develop delusions about our existential freedom. We can become preoccupied with large abstract issues at the expense our immediate surroundings. We can become frustrated by our powerlessness to make a difference on a large scale. We can feel the weight of the world upon our shoulders. The challenge, in the face of this information overload, is to develop a realistic understanding of the limits of our own power.
• Modern American Politics: This one is more of a semantic issue worth clarifying. The concepts of freedom and responsibility are deeply ingrained in American politics, and are, unfortunately, often used towards hateful and ugly ends. The term freedom, for example, has become a sort of nationalist rallying cry, to imply something special about us Americans in contrast to the rest of the world. Responsibility, meanwhile, is often used by individuals, not to talk about their own responsibilities, but to disparage and pass judgment on those utilizing public assistance. All of this is, of course, against the spirit of existential freedom and responsibility, two terms intended, not to stroke our own egos or judge others, but to empower us to look critically at our own actions. In order to talk about freedom and responsibility from a developmental standpoint then, it is essential that we separate the terms from the politics, and reclaim them in a sense.

Okay, so that's the breakdown of the challenges. The question now is, in the face of our biased thinking, our myths about a just world, and the overwhelming distractions of the information age, how on earth are we supposed to develop any understanding of our freedom, let alone a sense of responsibility? What, if anything, is under our control? I’ll leave the answer to that one for my next post. For now, I'm going to sit with the question.