Fear of stress?

How do you get from freedom to stress? It's rather easy actually. Stress is caused primarily by uncertainty and I would maintain that we live in one of the most uncertain times in human history. We've been at it for as long as I've been around, and a quick glance at literature will convince you it goes back much further than just me.

In the Middle Ages, things were anything but in order: wars, famine, peasantry, serfdom. But, everybody knew where they fit in. They didn't have to sell their talents on the open job market, they didn't have to worry about their housing being taken away from them because they couldn't pay their loans, they might have wondered where their next meal was coming from (though almost half of the people receiving food stamps in America are working, but not earning enough to feed themselves, but at least they can get some kind of help). God was in heaven, the king was on the throne, the aristocracy and clergy had the upper hand and the rest of us simply knew our place. With the Renaissance and Reformation, that all changed. Suddenly, we were on our own. We didn't like it then, we have had a lot of trouble coming to terms with it since, and we don't handle it very well now. Why is that?

I don't think there's a simple answer, but I think I know in which direction to look for one. Being taken out of the group and placed on one's own is not something that we're used to as human beings. The next thing you know capitalism was on the rise, and it's been rolling like a juggernaut ever since. Every person for himself! Take what you can while you can get it! God's dead (according to Prof. Nietzsche) so there's nothing to hold you back ethically any longer! It's the survival of the fittest, says Mr. Spencer (not Darwin ... he never said such a thing)! And the dog-eat-dog, brutish life we imagine our forebears endured has been thrust upon ourselves. By ourselves.

Was this such a good move? I don't think so. I've been doubting it for quite a while. When we are left on our own, all we have are ourselves, and that is simply not enough. Regardless of the ideology that's driving it, no one ever does, nor has ever done, it all on his or her own. Truth be told, without one another, we're just not much of anything at all. At the end of the day, we're all in this together, so it would really be in our own best interest to take advantage of it. Even though others can often be a real source of stress, when approached more openly, I think you'll find they might be the best antidote, too.

Fear of freedom

The title of this blog is actually the title of the British version of Erich Fromm's classic study, Escape from Freedom. I have never really figured out why different titles are necessary, but I'm not giving it much thought either. His thesis – and I have to say I think he argues it rather convincingly – is that we moderns (at any rate) are simply afraid of being free. The first chance we get, we'll give it up to anyone who promises or appears to promise us a little safety and certainty in exchange.

Oh, I hear the murmuring in the crowd and in some corners of the audience the downright outrage brewing. But I'm sticking with this one. I think he's onto something. The problem ... well, one of the problems: life in the modern world. Think about it for a moment: how secure are you in your job, your relationship or marriage, your finances, your ... well, you can just fill in the blank for more. I know, that's just the way things are, but have you ever asked yourself why things are that way? How did they get that way? And if you think it's always been that way, you must have been asleep that day in history class, for there was a time when we feared for our physical well-being, that's for sure, but we've never been so psychologically insecure as we are today.

The key indicator to this is stress. Do you know anyone who is really stress-free ... even all you retirees out there. Nothing you worry about? The state of the economy, the next social-security increase, prescription drug funding, Medicare ... nothing? We know that everyone who has a job, full or part time, is stressed out most of the time. One in four cancers are stress-induced. Stress is a leading cause of heart problems, strokes, digestive disorders, and more. We in the Western economies have – allegedly – never had it so good, being so rich, so well-fed, so lavished with opportunity ... why are we so stressed?

To me the answer is rather elementary: we aren't sure of anything anymore, and those who claim they are often find themselves clinging to ideas or even illusions that when they unravel cause more stress than before. Quite the dilemma, don't you think?