In the Art of Manliness Community, members often pose questions to the forum asking for advice. One question that pops up from time to time runs something like this: “I feel like I’ve lost passion for everything in life. Nothing seems to interest me and life feels empty.” Other members often respond that the person is likely clinically depressed and should go see a doctor.
Such advice is meant to be helpful and for some it probably is. But it also assumes that these kind of feelings always originate from the individual himself. Something is wrong with his mind that needs to be fixed with therapy or medication. But is this always the case? Or could that empty feeling be caused by much bigger cultural currents?
What Is Anomie?
At the turn of the 20th century, French sociologist Emile Durkheim was interested in a similar question. While suicide is often thought of as the result of deeply personal problems, Durkheim wanted to investigate if the act was really influenced by larger cultural factors. He studied countries’ weather and religion and economy, looking for what might negatively or positively effect the suicide rate. What he concluded, in his seminal 1897 work, Suicide, was that the suicide rate was greatly impacted by the presence in society of something he called anomie.
Anomie, which literally means “without law” in German and French, was defined by Durkheim to be a state of “normlessness.” Durkheim posited that in times of social change and upheaval, clear societal standards and expectations for individuals vanish. Without “clear rules, norms, or standards of value” people feel anxious, rootless, confused, and even suicidal. Life in an age of anomie can often feel empty and meaningless.
Towards a Normless Soceity
As we’ve discussed previously, part of the reason we sometimes feel nostalgic for the “good old days” is that it was a time with clear expectations and shared cultural values, rules, and norms.
But people rightly felt chafed by such constraints; too many folks didn’t fit inside the tidy boxes. And so society threw off the old rules in favor of a world where personal freedom ruled supreme, a world where the only real rule was essentially “live and let live.”
The WWII generation found meaning and purpose from the great many social norms that governed their lives. The Boomer Generation found meaning and purpose in rebelling against those norms.
But now we have neither social norms, nor anything left to rebel against.
What we have is an essentially “normless” society. There are still a few expectations that linger but “live and let live” generally reigns. You can get married at 20 or 40 or never, live with someone for decades and never get hitched, have 9 kids or none, or your first at age 60, wear what you want without anyone saying anything, date a woman from a different race, pierce any part of your body, walk down the street holding another man’s hand and not get roughed up, father a child out of wedlock and not be shunned by others, be a corporate warrior or a stay at home down or go back to college at 50. You can pretty much do whatever you want, short of breaking the law, and endure minimal social repercussions.
Certainly this unfettered personal freedom has its very positive aspects, allowing people to be whoever they wish. But in this blessing also lies the curse, when you can do anything and everything you want, how do you ever decide what it is you want to do and feel real satisfaction when you’re doing it?
Adrift in Personal Freedom
Personal freedom without any constraints is a recipe for anxiousness, restlessness, and unhappiness. This isn’t some Puritan maxim-it is argued by sociologists and psychologists alike. Personal freedom without any guideposts, standards, or expectations is like being adrift in deep space. The weightlessness is initially exhilarating, but you lack any frame of reference for where you are-up and down, left and right are meaningless.
When we look back on men in the 1950s we sometimes think, “Those poor saps. Had little choice but to get married right away, have three kids, live in the burbs, and work at some corporate job for 50 years. How suffocating.”
But we have our own problems in our time. The men of the 50s might have been very constrained, but they also had clear indicators of whether they had attained success and happiness. They had a clear sense of where they stacked up in the game of life. Now success and happiness can mean a million things and no one is sure they have it. With so many choices, we are ever restless about which to pursue and if the avenue we’re taking is really the right one.
I have a friend who is endlessly lamenting that he wants his life “to be extraordinary.” But when I ask him what that means, he shakes his head, and says, “I don’t even know-it’s just this feeling that haunts me all the time.”
The Bucket List Generation Looks for the Meaning of Life
We are truly deeply social creatures. For hundreds of thousands of years of human history, people lived in tribes with their lives governed by the rules of the tribe and close social ties. Only very recently in the grand scale of things have we become tribes which consist of lone individuals and nuclear families, each micro-tribe living in its own isolated pod. (As a side note, people often talk about women being stay-at-home moms as the most natural thing, but there can hardly be anything more culturally unnatural than a woman, separated from family and friends, alone with her baby day after day).
As our own micro-tribe, we are charged with the task of creating our own rules, values, and expectations, our own personal meaning for the world. Yet it is often an unsatisfying task; it is like creating a personal language; it is uniquely ours, but we can’t use it to communicate with anyone else. Our personal creeds exist in a vacuum; without standards and social institutions to provide some structure, they have no context and thus no meaning.
Not feeling well a few weeks ago, I caught back to back episodes of a new show on MTV called “The Buried Life.” Now as far as “unscripted television” goes, this show is light years beyond most drivel that appears on the boob tube. Four telegenic 20-something lads decide to “break away from the normal track,” and drive a purple bus around the country, checking off various items on their “bucket list.” For every task they complete, they help a stranger do something they want to do before they die.
The show is warm and fuzzy and inspiring, but I couldn’t help but notice a couple of things. One is that when the guys ask other people what they want to do before they die, and they tend to ask lower-income, minority folks this question, these people come up with meaningful things like “Reunite with my son who I haven’t seen in 20 years” and “Visit my mother’s grave in another state.”
But the things the guys themselves, who are white, middle-class types who likely have lived pretty charmed lives, want to do before they die are a collection of fairly superficial tasks: “Give a toast at a stranger’s wedding.” “Throw a badass party.” “Crash the Playboy mansion.” “Ask Megan Fox on a date.”
Now I don’t have anything against bucket lists. In fact, we’ve encouraged men to come up with one. But seeing one played out on television made me realize how hungry guys in my generation and socio-economic bracket are to find meaning in their lives, and how hard it is to come up with meaningful avenues to do so. In a world without norms, a very comfortable world without the age old challenge of simply meeting one’s basic needs, we have been forced to invent checklists of random items in hopes they can guide us to a fuller life. But the challenges we pick for ourselves will never ultimately satisfy our need for a feeling of purpose or fulfillment. Challenges get their meaning from being tied to something greater than self-to God, home and family, or country. You can give a toast at a stranger’s wedding, feel the initial rush, but the satisfaction will not be lasting because the “accomplishment” doesn’t have any impact beyond the self.
The Task Ahead
I know this post seems rather pessimistic, but it’s not meant to be a doom and gloom hand wringing exercise, and it’s certainly not a nostalgic longing for the past. People can talk about a revival of traditional values til they’re blue in the face, but we’ll never see a return to strict societal norms. The cat is out of the bag, and people will not relinquish the personal freedoms we have gained to put it back in.
It’s simply something I’ve been thinking about lately. It’s not a problem where I can generate some bullet points on how to fix it. It’s something complicated we all need to think through. But it’s important to understand what you’re dealing with in life, and that if you sometimes get the sense that life feels awfully empty, that you know you’re not alone and that there’s a reason for it. It doesn’t mean we should give up. While society may never again have shared values, it doesn’t mean we cannot each strive for personal excellence. Or that our lives are destined to be meaningless. Every generation, every age has its own set of challenges. The challenge of ours will be to find true meaning and purpose in the age of anomie. How do you think a man can go about this task?
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People just don’t know what to do with themselves when they have unlimited freedom. You’d think it would make people happy, but nope. People lose sight, or perhaps they never had it, of what they want in life, what’s important to them, etc. But there are a lot of people out there who aren’t just drifting by day to day with no attachment to the world. I think the main problem is that the people who are having a hard time grasping onto something think about why they can’t for way too long, way too often, lol. They get so many ideas in their heads about society this and society that, and become fixated on the one issue that makes the most sense if their head, even if it may not necessarily be true for society as a whole. I mean, we all have different perceptions on what makes life meaningful, and some people are totally lost whenever the thing that gave them meaning doesn’t quite make sense anymore. I just hope that those people are able to find whatever they’re looking for! Helplessness is bad.
This is a great post. I have been facing this problem for the last few years. With all the freedom I could ever want and no direction, I have dealing with a constent feeling of being bored and restless. This has led to a lot of trouble in my personal life including runins with the law. I have recently discovered that the only way to really be content is to do two things: First, create my own set of moral guidlines and codes of conduct to govern myself. I based this of my own father, some of my role models in life, and great men that I admire. I try as hard as possible to stick to these guidlines, using them to judge every action I take and holding myself personally responsible when I mess up. Second, create several goals and stick to them. This helps because it not only gives you a sense of accomplishment and pride but also keeps you busy. That way you don’t have as much time to dwell on the feeling of anomie.
By the way, I believe in God but do not associate myself with any particular religion. Any restrictions imposed on one by an organization are meaningless unless you personally believe in them. I was raised Christian but stopped practicing when I realized most people were there for purely appearences sake. That holds true for every religion I have ever witnessed. Most members go to church, pray, make a big show of supporting the religion, then go home and do exactly what they have been preaching against. Codes of conduct only matter if you truly believe in and embrace them, otherwise there just words you say.
The societal norms that we shed took a long time to evolve. The revolution of getting rid of them was quick. Time will give our culture new norms (hopefully better ones that respect freedom). But the point I’m making is that the old norms were not static and had not been around “forever” they had been around for a fairly long time, but traditions started out as “crazy new ideas”.
Hate to proselytize, but cannot answer otherwise. The only satisfying worldview to life is Catholicism. Often hated and misrepresented by the world, I consider it the world’s greatest open secret. Either way, I suggest an honest search for truth with humility, and go where it takes you. Study philosophy and theology. The only criteria is truth. But I think its not reasonable for a man of intelligence to not consider the Church in his search for truth. Without referencing God, it is impossible to give meaning to life, and any meaning you can give is superficial. Life is by definition meaningless then.
“Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. … Whereas relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and ‘swept along by every wind of teaching,’ looks like the only attitude acceptable to today’s standards.” – Pope Benedict XVI
Not 100 in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is. — Bishop Fulton J. Sheen
It is better to be the child of God than king of the whole world. — St. Aloysius Gonzaga
“Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried” – Chesterton
“These are the times a Christian is expected to praise every creed except his own” – Chesterton
“Without God, everything is permitted” – Doestovesky.
Frank Herbert, Dune:
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires, seek discipline and find your liberty.
But why? Why can’t we “get the cat back into the bag?”
We feel just how wrong this society is. How our separatist microcosms of individuality go against civilization. I’m not a conspiracy theorist but I can’t help feeling that we have been divided and conquered.
Neighbors seem hard to warm up to, people seem distrusting and guarded. It all feels uncomfortable. There doesn’t seem to be the genuine air of friendliness that there used to be. There has to be something we can do to change this.
Why can’t like-minded individuals reclaim the overabundant personal freedoms and re-establish fundamental rules? It seems that we are so concerned with possibly hurting peoples feeling nowadays that we decide not to talk to them just in case we insult them or have them insult us. Our society has become so PC we can’t be comfortable. I strongly believe that a lot of this stems from modern psychology. By trying to get more in touch with our inner feelings, we have gotten out of touch with logic and the external.
This is definitely an issue I feel needs far more attention and more input.
With all the choices we have today, it’s no wonder that we feel so helpless and hopeless. And really, all we have is the illusion of choice. Look at the charade called “politics” in the United States; either you vote for this corrupt politician or that one. But I don’t want to talk about politics because its all a game, and I don’t like games. We have and if you look at it very carefully, have always had the freedom to do what we “want” to do. Those guys in the 1950s that had it so “clear cut” as to what to do, they had the power to do whatever they wanted. And not everyone followed the social norms and traditional way to live. It is ultimately up to the individual as to what path to take. It is the ultimate choice, but we are so bombarded by the media that we have to live extraordinary lives, or that we have to have this or that in order to be happy. And that’s all a lie. Its nothing to get bitter or angry about, or to feel cheated or whatever. No one pulls your strings but you. No higher power, no room full of sinister men with levers and buttons. But its easier said than done. So we need to quit talking about it, with therapists or bartenders or friends and just go out and do it, whatever it is that “it” is. Life is made out to be so difficult and full of pain and suffering but its only when you want too much and you seek happiness outside of your self that the pain begins.
I stumbled on this post via another that my husband directed me to.
I love that word “anomie”. Your explanation encapsulates various things I’ve noticed in my own life.
When I was at school I was academically proficient at just about any subject (bar sports) that I tried. That actually meant that it was harder to decide what career to pursue / degree to take at uni because there were so many equally valid options.
I found a few years ago that buying things didn’t give me a thrill the way they did in childhood. I realised that in childhood I’d had to do extra chores and save pocket money for weeks on end if I wanted to buy even a single, let alone an LP. Now, as an adult, I can buy 20 DVDs at a time (if I really wanted to clutter my house) without denting the budget but it feels hollow, even if they are ones I’ve wanted for years, because it isn’t a goal I’ve had to actively work towards (and learn things like self-discipline in the process of that work).
On the other side of the coin, at the time when I realised this, I was living in an expensive town where I felt that the chances of owning my own home before I die were so low it wasn’t worth pursuing. So, while I didn’t have small financial goals, I also didn’t have big ones or even medium ones (we own our one car outright and have no desire to pay for registration, insurance or maintenance on a second).
It was actually a combination of this psychological malaise about finances, desire to understand my hobby business better and a (Christian) belief that I am to be a good steward of resources under my control, that led to my enrolling in a Diploma of Accounting 13 years after completing my engineering degree. (In the right sector, I am as happy as a lamb to work as an engineer.)
I have found that learning something helps pull me out of the doldrums because it gives me a focus. I intend to be a lifelong learner, but the learning doesn’t have to result in a piece of paper to show others.
Great post. This very topic is something that always haunts me. I don’t have an answer. And I don’t know that anyone truly does. But I have some theories. I have noticed that the times that I am most passionate and driven is when I have a goal. Right now that goal for me is to venture out on my own and quit an unfulfilling corporate career (at a company that many people would kill to work at). I’ve often found this to be the case – it’s in the pursuit of things that we find the most meaning. However, the irony is that once we get there, the satisfaction is hollow, and we begin looking for the next thing. That’s why I think that some eastern religion and philosophy that revolves around the center principle of just ‘being’ tends to be the truest path. Unfortunately, being in a westernized culture, I have had a hard time escaping the constant ‘bigger, better, faster, smarter, shinier’ pursuits of our culture (planted or enhanced by Christian values).
The bottom line is that no matter how smart we are as a species, we are really just that – the smartest animals who have learned to manipulate nature towards our benefit and our ultimate destruction. There really is no purpose for us on an individual level other than survival. But with everything our present society throws at us, we are tricked into thinking there is. Those who come to that realization and TRULY accept and thrive in it are the ones that seem to live the most satisfied lives. Everyone else is simply motivated by false promise to keep going.
The reason we are where we are, in the middle of a phase shift, is because for the at least a few thousand years we have been looking ‘outside’ for a solution, and we’ve been trying to ‘save the world’ to make up for the lack of purpose we have felt.
Faith into some ‘rules’, religion, doctrine, or anyhtng coming from outside ourselves will not satisfy, only make things worse. We are not robots, or computers, we don’t need programming. (And that’s what religion, TV and society does). We have to go deeper inside, and find the truth within ourselves.
” Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world. We’re not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world. The influence of a vital person vitalizes.” – Joseh Campbell
So, in away this is your answer. Know yourself. Wake up.
You will never be able to see what makes you happy while you are stuck, clogged by your programming. First see the programming. See how commonly held beliefs are not correct, how pretty much everything in your envirnonment is not coherent with how you intuitively feel thing should be. Realize you live in a broken house about to collapse.
Then look for clues, like this blog, of others who figured out the same thing. By pointing out the problems, the incoherences, you remove layers of dirt, old wallpaper, plaster, dirt, and then you will get to the Truth. And as they say, the Truth shal set you free. So, in one word, do not look for somethign to give you meaning while holding the old beliefs. You will not find it. All you have to do is remove the layers, programming, old stuff, just like clearing up a diamond in the dirt, and then you will get to the diamond, and it will shine by itself, no effort form your part. Just wake-up, and clean-up. Learn who you really are. Don’t believe anyone but listen to everyone.
The rest wil come by itself.
Of course it will be painful to let go of the old belief structures. They have their own defense mechnism and are linked to your endorphines. Unfortunately there is no other way. The only way over the way through. Any other questions ?
It does seem like the belief structures that we’ve been conditioned to accept are ineffective and not really worthwhile. I think this is both a good and a bad thing. It’s a bad thing because unless we are proactive, I think that we can be lead by our conditioning to live a life that is far less than what we deserve to experience. However, it does seem to be a good thing because as a generation, we have an incredible opportunity to rise above this sea of apathy and define our own value systems. In essence, I generally agree with the message of this blog and feel like never before has an opportunity been available for a generation to be the architects of their own lives. It’s truly exciting to consider the possibilities. I’m glad that blogs like this one are around to point us in the right direction.
It’s great to encounter such a thought-provoking discussion on a challenging issue. I find it helpful to know that others struggle with this issue—makes me feel more connected, which apparently is part of the “cure” for anomie. I have struggled with the issue since my teen years. Nearing 60 years old, I seem to be past the productive middle part of life where child-rearing and vocational accomplishment provided a strong sense of meaning (Frankls’s book helped me move from the practice of law to social work in the middle of my career). Lately I’ve been taking more of a self-focused Bucket List approach and last June I completed a three year sailing circumnavigation (saliblogs.com/member/bluestocking has the details). I knew I’d face a horrible crash of meaning when that adventure was done, and sure enough I have. Anomie was less of an issue during the preparation and execution of the circumnavigation, naturally, but once it was done, it was done and there was little lasting sense of satisfaction, but rather a sense that a new project had to be found, which I have been working on with some success.
During a lifetime of struggle with anomie I have come up with a few strategies and techniques for getting through periods when I am not caught up in some external cause which at least seems to give life some meaning:
1. Physical discipline seems always to be helpful–better diet, more exercise, both aerobic and strength training. Part of the reason may be that for most of us other people depend on our health and longevity–it is not merely selfish to get into better shape. I have not been a substance abuser but I am a social drinker on and off and I seem to do better with the anomic feelings of emptiness when I don’t drink at all. Alcohol is a depressant after all and it probably makes sense to stop taking depressants before starting anti-depressants IMHO.
2. I envy those with actual faith but my rational mind finds supernatural beliefs to be entirely unconvincing. I have discovered though that the part of our mind that needs religious faith doesn’t really care if the rational part also believes. As a practical matter acting as if there is “someone out there” who cares about what we do seems to be very helpful in fighting anomie. I have run into this idea in at least three places: the early pshychologist/philosopher William James, the Higher Power concept of the 12-Step Movement, and, more recently, a current popular guru by the name of Julia Cameron. Whether or not I really believe it, it is incredibly powerful to act and think, even pray, as if I do. Not for everyone, I know, but it works for me. I think by the way that a lot of “people of faith” don’t really believe at the rational level but they know it works for them. It may be that this creates a lot of internal conflict for the individual “believer” and also a sense of hypocrisy for the observer. Viewed in this light maybe some of these difficulties are unnecessary .
3. Journalling. Julia Cameron’s book, T”he Artist’s Way”, I think it’s called, reminded me that daily journalling is a powerful technique for getting in touch with one’s own deeper (in the sense of less accessible) thoughts, needs and desires. I try to do it first thing every morning (I look forward to it, so it helps me get up early when I am sleeping too much and reconciles me to getting up earlier than usual when I am sleeping too little). On a difficult anomie day such as today has been (which led me to this blog) I journal several times during the day. It doesn’t feel like vegging out as watching TV and certain kinds of reading often can. By getting me in touch with my less obvious, but, I suspect, more fundamental needs and wishes it moves me away from anomie. Frankly, and again this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, I prefer my goals and norms to come from within (even though many would say that this is actually a way of communing with God.)
4. Living in the moment. This is a bit of a challenge at a time when one is thinking hard about what to do next, but it is all the more important at such a time. Other comments have covered this topic well, but to me it basically involves paying attention to the details of the world around you from moment to moment, and especially paying close attention to the other people one comes into contact with and accepting some responsibility for bringing something pleasant into others’ lives. Even if all you have for others is friendly eye-contact an d acknowledgment, for some that can be quite a lot. It can backfire of course–some people unfortunately see almost any attention as threat–but with practice you get better at it.
Through the journalling medium (and in connection with kind of a modified carving-away process as another commenter described very well) I have concluded that traveling is my thing and what I have to commit my energies to. I’ve had enough of boats for a while and I’m pretty broke anyway, so I am beginning to explore the world of bicycle touring. As I prepare to become some kind of bicycle nomad (and I discover that there are lots of them out there) I am looking for a unifying structure or system of goals for my traveling—something that will connect it to something larger than “just me.” If anyone has suggestions along these lines–not fundraising rides–I’d welcome them.
I can’t resist a comment about the idea that serving in the military is a wonderful cure for anomie, which may apply equally to a lot of organized causes. There is no doubt that–in the moment–the cameraderie of battle is the ultimate antidote to anomie. But the battle survivors of every war, most poignantly Vietnam, have included many who concluded during or after their experience that the cause for which they were fighting was pointless at best and very possibly intentionally fraudulent, even evil. No one has ever made this point more effectively than Tolstoy in his “Letter to a Young Conscript” which probably will never be required reading at the local recruiting office. I certainly recommend it to any young person who finds the glory, honor and sacrifice stuff that JC is putting out to be seductive. He makes the case well, but entirely leaves out the ethical dimension, which in my opinion, deserves careful consideration. Quasi-military roles (law enforcement, rescue, etc.) may give similar satisfaction with fewer ethical problems.
It’s all very well the religious arguing for faith as the answer, but you might as well tell me to believe in the Tooth Fairy as I find the concept of God equally absurd.
Catholic Intellectual – your religion and the crimes its adherents and followers have perpetrated are the last thing on earth I would turn to for guidance.
All ethics and moral codes were created my man, God is just an externalised personification of them invented to make them sacrosanct and unchallengeable!
@Brett, your posts are so well thought-out and precise. You can hit a bulls-eye from miles away. You may have made one error in judgement, that “the cat is out of the bag” and that people will not give-up their personal freedoms. I think that many people here on this web-site reading your material are more than interested to consider trying something new other than indulging our personal freedoms. I am at the point where I could have any material thing I want, but to my shock and amazement I want absolutely none of it. Something has gone deeply wrong and I am prepared to try something crazy, like putting myself back in a perceived cage that may actually just be a set of tracks.
For the past two years I have been making a plan to get involved in science education. This stems from childhood fascination with building things from Lego castles to working hydro-electric dams in the roadside gully (until the street cleaner came and demolished it). Those were the days, it was easy to find someone to join you. Now I find it extremely difficult to find others even willing to entertain these ideas let alone interested in coming-along for the journey. My peers are more interested in mortgages, partying, women, to be bothered working on something challenging. Some people try to reason with me to invest in a relationship, but what woman wants an aimless man? Do I want a woman who settles for an aimless man?
I have never felt more alone in this quest to find a community of like-minded individuals willing to entertain my (backwards?) ideas of sharing and increasing knowledge. Most importantly, it doesn’t feel “right” to do this alone. Perhaps I really do need to pray about this as No BS commented.
“But the challenges we pick for ourselves will never ultimately satisfy our need for a feeling of purpose or fulfillment.”… “You can give a toast at a stranger’s wedding, feel the initial rush, but the satisfaction will not be lasting because the “accomplishment” doesn’t have any impact beyond the self.”
This underlying feeling i think is something so rarely openly expressed by both men and women alike. I’ve read a lot of Durkheim, and i have to say his thoughts were some of the more interesting ones that i discovered when i decided to become a philosophy then sociology major in college. These quotes hit on some of the everlasting questions of human existence that i think will perhaps always go unanswered, no matter how hard we try to figure them out. I completely agree both that in studies and just my own personal observation that those with a more difficult life (albeit their hardships) are not as philosophically tortured, because to them, their needs are very basic ” seeing a child they haven’t seen in 20 years” “having enough money to get an education” or “affording day care”. When you have more responsibilities, and more hardship, you have less freedom. Obviously this isn’t a good thing, but it certainly prevents you from having the time or luxury to ponder what your meaning in life is. I whole heartedly believe that without some guidelines and external boundaries (whether they come in the form of hardships or perhaps just societal restraints (that may or may not have been fair) we are perhaps perplexed with what to do with all of this freedom. How do we know we are choosing the right path when we are free to choose any number of paths that could be the right one? With this comes feelings of guilt and a different kind of personal responsibility now in this generation: “well if I’m free to choose any path, and I choose the wrong one, I know it’s MY fault, and not SOCIETYS fault because there is nothing limiting me from reaching my goals anymore.” Knowing that our decisions are now completely up to us rather than the default of whatever we are allowed to do throws away any excuses we have for personal failure. In other words, being completely Free= being completely responsible for our mistakes. I do think this puts a kind of pressure on individuals that wasn’t there before. Sometimes it may be so much pressure, that individuals just “freeze” or give up in the decision making process in their own lives, subconsciously choosing no path versus one that may lead to failure and thus their own guilt. There is no generation so obviously a victim of “Freezing” than this one. People have delayed getting married, delayed kids, delayed finding real careers or even pursing what they love (even if it is none of the above) because they are afraid to commit to anything since there are too many options laid before them. There are other explanations for these things being “delayed” but perhaps this concept is one of the factors. Freedom is a necessary and fiercely fought for concept that we cherish every day we have it, but like everything, good things come in moderation, and even freedom I’m afraid in excess, can have significant consequences when it comes to the inner workings of the human mind and soul. Anomie is one of the greatest concepts to be considered when dissecting why it is we feel these notions in modern times and how we can identify the source of these particular issues.
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