Yes, Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom
I love science fiction stories and their ability to explore the human condition amidst new technologies and societal norms. While the worlds may be different than ours, the problems are usually the same and so are the truths. This is comforting to me.
I wonder what it would be like to frame our current world right now as a science fiction plot. Example:
Imagine a society where people spend more time looking at screens than the world around them. The most relationships they see are through a screen. People interact with one another majority of the time via a screen. Because of this constant nearsightedness, many people have become slightly cross-eyed. This screen time obsession is further heightened when a disease breaks out — an invisible, fatal disease that is transmitted through the air. As the disease is new and widespread, there is no cure for the disease and many of its causes and symptoms are unknown and unpredictable. People become fearful and are strictly advised to stay away from one another to prevent the spread of the disease. As a result, many companies have scrambled to invent online realities and platforms that provide people with the experience of connectedness and distraction from the outside world around them.
Or social media, defined by science fiction terms:
A new technology that allows people to connect with other people, no matter the distance. The catch is that this connection is not organic: to be seen, one must post onto their profile. Everyone’s profile is a curation of who they want to present themselves to be. Therefore, everyone is obsessed with controlling the narrative of their most personal story: themselves. Whereas people are now connected and talking more than ever, loneliness reaches new highs. People are now looking at each other more often, at what are mostly the highlights of everyone’s stories, and comparing it to their own dissatisfaction. There is an endless distraction now, always something new to catch up on. An algorithm that aims to keep you in your own contained bubble of what you like and what you believe in, and people similar to you. The ability to view people’s lives without live engagement and accountability. Comments and buttons replacing dialogue and empathy. A caricature of human communication.
Although this new technology makes most of its users unhappy, most users are also unaware that this technology is a large contributor to their issues. Society is built around the use of this technology — you would be a minority and heavily left out if not online. Everyone is addicted, which means that no one has admitted to it being a problem. It’s just normal. This generation of society has a new problem: spending a large part of their days passively watching life happen through a screen, acted out by not only actors but also just average people. The lines have blurred between reality and performance.
I love Ted’s stories as he explores so deeply yet concisely the human aspect and the relational impact of the world that his characters live in. Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom made me ponder about so many of its underlying themes:
- Just because you have the option to know something doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to know it. In fact, even the availability of this option makes your world more complicated. More choices, more anxiety. Ted knows this.
- More knowing doesn’t equal more happiness or contentedness. Some things we are better off not knowing, because we are simply not capable of knowing the full story. Rather, when we are presented with any knowledge, we have the tendency to create a narrative around it based on our own already conceived biases.
- Ted knows our self destructive human tendencies very well. Of our curious nature and our stubborn belief that trying every exhaustible option will quell our dissatisfaction or regret. Of our tendency to create our own narrative from little context. Of being stuck in the looping narrative of hopelessness we often tell ourselves. Of thinking that everything is within our control, or the byproduct of our actions. Of the questions of the century: Is this the happiest I could be? Did I miss an opportunity to be happier? Is someone out there happier than me right now? What can I blame this shortcoming of happiness on?
I loved the truths that this story hinted at, sometimes cleverly through the use of therapy. The truth that no matter the world we live in, the only way we as individuals can move forward is to take responsibility for our own actions and choices here and now. Not blame them or justify them by others, even our parallel selves. The truth that yes, even small acts of honesty and goodwill are important and are incrementally changing ourselves and our future selves to that direction. The truth that there are too many factors in this world for anything to really be explained by our few actions alone.
I especially loved the exploration of the idea that it’s not a situation or decision that leads to our downfall, but it’s ultimately who we are (our mindset and character) that will dictate where we go from these situations and decisions (Vinessa and Dana’s example).
“And do you want to know the answer?” asked Dana. “No, let’s put it another way. What would you like the answer to be, and what are you afraid it might be?”
I think I might need to reread this story a few more times to let everything fully sink in. All in all, probably the best story I’ve read in 2020 thus far. Thanks for the free therapy, Ted.
