What Is Existential Dread?
It is anxiety due to the awareness of existential fragility. But how do we deal with it?
You wake up, consume the news and you are immediately injected with a feeling. Nations, politics, wars; businesses, politics, propagandas. You then agree with Nietzsche in that they vomit their bile and call it a newspaper. You then decide to do better: you decide to learn something deeper. You consume history, science, philosophy, arts. But guess what? — the feeling is the same.
One day you wake up and contemplate on your life. What’s going on, Where’s it going, etc. and you are injected with the same feeling. Name, social politics, competitions; business, social politics, manipulations. You still agree with Nietzsche on a lot of things. You then decide to do better: you decide to know yourself deeper. You reflect on your life from birth onwards: family, friends, lovers, people. The feeling is the same!
I call this feeling EXISTENTIAL DREAD: It is anxiety arising out of the realization of existential fragility.
What fragility?
Think about it. Look around. The world, the human affair, the context. The inability of human beings to control the urge of power, the inability of human beings to see and speak the truth. Isn’t it dreadful? You never know which megalomaniac will bomb your home tomorrow, you never know which rock from above will hit you in your head the day after. And the irony of it all is, you have no way to figure out the truth of the knowledge that is passed around. Too much politics, too much self-interest! You are inside an abyss with a swarm of lies staring at you from above. This is dreadful. This is fragility.
The same is with your personal life. You are powerless. You are incapable of producing your own success in your own accord. You are incapable of determining your fate with your own thoughts. Isn’t it dreadful? You never know which disease will occupy your body tomorrow, you never know which bastard will run over you with his car the day after. And this one is painful: you have no way to figure out what’s going to happen to you. Too much randomness, too much chance, too much absurdity! You are still inside an abyss and some god has put a lid on it.
This is existential dread. It’s anxiety because of the realization of fragility of life and the world — individual and cosmic.
So, what do we do? How do we cope with this dread?
Do we cry? Do we laugh? Do we ignore? Do we pray? Do we kill ourselves? What do we do?
I am talking about nothing new here. This phenomenon has been described and talked about forever. In different form and color, this has been addressed a lot. Yet, we still feel it. I feel it.
So what do we do? How do we cope with this dread?
I don’t want to repeat what all those have said — there’s no point doing that — you guys are more read than me. I haven’t come up with an answer myself, I don’t know what to do. But I have discovered a way to cope:
While I talk to you through this medium about this dread, I feel hopeful. I get calm. I feel strong. I don’t know who you are, I don’t know what you do, but I feel a connection with you, that’s why I write and dare to publish about this dread. I feel this dread is common in us. If I went to YouTube or TikTok or to Parliament, I don’t think I would have felt the similarity: but here I do. In this medium, in this mode of communication called writing, I have found a way to cope. This writing is helping me and I know pressing the publish button will help more. And I am sure, checking notifications of this article will make things even better. It will give more hope. More solutions. More perspectives.
As of now, I don’t want to let go of the dread. I don’t want to ignore the situation or pretend everything is alright. I want to solve this riddle. I want a new meaning.
Being courageous and talking with you is one solution I have discovered for now — whoever you are.
and the anxiety has gone (for now)…
