Welcome to the Existential Vacuum, Ben!
October 30, 2007 | Kudos
All I can say is… thank your lucky stars for parents that taught you how to find Meaning in life:
[From an essay by Genrich L. Krasko]
This “sickness” is the loss of meaning in people’s lives. In one of his books (Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning, p.94.) Viktor Frankl writes:
“Unlike an animal, man is no longer told by drives and instincts what he must do. And in contrast to man in former times, he is no longer told by traditions and values what he should do. Now, knowing neither what he must do nor what he should do, he sometimes does not even know what he basically wishes to do. Instead, he wishes to do what other people do… or he does what other people wish him to do…”
Frankl picked up on the devastating effects that would plague the generations after World War 2 and called the culprit “Meaninglessness”:
“What threatens contemporary man is the alleged meaningfulness of his life, or, as I call it, the existential vacuum within him. And when does this vacuum open up, when does this so often latent vacuum become manifest? In the state of boredom. ”
In this situation when people “lose ground” the old liberal social philosophies also fail. The bitter truth, says Frankl:
“For too long we have been dreaming a dream from which we are now waking up: the dream that if we just improve the socioeconomic situation of people, everything will be okay, people will become happy. The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for.”
Robert Kaplan (1994), a noted American journalist gives a vivid picture of the existential vacuum that has engulfed America:
“When voter turnout decreases to around 50 percent at the same time the middle class is spending astounding sums in gambling casinos and state lotteries, joining private health clubs and using large amounts of stimulants and anti-depressants, one can legitimately be concerned about the state of American society. We have become voyeurs and escapists. Many of us don’t play sports but love watching great athletes with great physical attributes. It is because people find so little in themselves that they fill their world with celebrities. The masses avoid important national and international news because much of it is tragic, even as they show an unlimited appetite for the details of Princess Diana’s death.”
Pop would be proud of you for seeing the wastefulness of gambling and lotteries. He always pounded on that horn:)
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