The Year Insecurity Drove the World Crazy

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The Year Insecurity Drove the World Crazy
By: Umair Haque - Eudaimonia & Co.
Re: https://eand.co/the-year-insecurity-...y-3760962aed9b

The Paradox of Runaway Insecurity, and How it’s Ripping the World Apart

It’s been quite a year. One when we learned the worlds we live in are more fragile than we might supposed. The political world, the social world, the natural world, the economic world. That all these things, too, which we take for granted, can shatter like glass. But what does fragility do? It creates insecurity. So we live in an age in which a gigantic tsunami of runaway insecurity is roaring across the globe — and it’s beginning to drive people a little crazy. Or more than a little. I mean that quite literally — not in some vague metaphorical way.

There are many kinds of insecurity, and the problem is that one) they are all hitting our worlds at once, two) they are all accelerating and skyrocketing out of control, like a terrible simultaneity of catastrophe, and three) when they combine, they are multiplicative, not additive. 2+2 does not equal four, it multiplies into ruin. Let’s talk about some of these many forms of runaway insecurity — and you can judge for yourself how many affect you.

There’s economic insecurity — precarity, fresh poverty, the collapse of a formerly prosperous middle, now living at the edge of ruin. How will we make ends meet this month? Will I skimp on that medicine I need — so that my kids can have food? No matter how hard I work, it seems — I am constantly living paycheck to paycheck. How did I end up like this? I played by the rules! I studied, worked, saved! Though we don’t often know it, in our moments of darkness and rage — it’s not just you, my friend — it’s almost everyone.

There’s social insecurity — the loss of belonging, the collapse of trust, the loss of faith the future, the implosion of social bonds, the gnawing at relationships, growing isolation and atomization, the sense that nobody cares about you, that society is just a Darwinian contest of survival of the fittest. How do people respond to this? Through the rise of identity politics — yet another form of every person for themselves. Through the re-emergence of old notions of supremacy — especially amongst the downtrodden. Through a desperate struggle to forge an identity, that reigns over the rest. Through technology — which only gives us cheap, malnourishing substitutes for genuine relationships.

There’s cultural insecurity — the loss of meaning, of purpose, the implosion of norms and values of decency and truth and goodness. How do people respond to this? Some, by giving up on life. Some, by turning to superstition — maybe supernatural forces can provide the meaning that life has lost, the truth that seems to have gone missing, the purpose that’s absent. Some, again, through supremacism — maybe rewinding a thousand years to when your people were kings can provide your life some meaning, some hope, some purpose. Some, if they are rich enough, simply by trying to buy a sense that they count, with more toys and baubles, or maybe likes and fans and Instagram posts. Many, through tribalism, seeking safety in the tribe, through spectacles of submission and dominance, played out endlessly every day in more grotesque and public ways.

There are many more. Environmental, political, intellectual insecurity. But that’s enough to get us started. What I want you to see is the effect.

This tsunami of insecurity in our worlds is leaving us desperately insecure inside, too. Profound insecurity in our worlds means desperate insecurities in our selves — and the paradox and the problem both is that twist of the human soul leaves us unable to respond, adapt, change, grow, develop, at precisely the moment we need to most. We become fragile, desperate, anxious, clinging, things, desperate to take what makes us feel superior and powerful, instead of giving truth and decency and humanity. And that way, my friends, the 21st century is going to be a tough ride — all the way down into the abyss.

Insecurity is leaving some of us depressed and anxious — the ones who can cope with it best, in fact. It is leaving some of us suicidal and self-destructive, especially those in badly broken societies, like America, where the suicide rate is skyrocketing. It is leaving some of us — especially the young — in a kind of constant state of mourning, grief, and sorrow — over lives they will never know. It is leaving many of us traumatized, in a kind of perpetual state of shock, numb, exhausted, weary with disbelief. And it is leaving some of us exploding with rage and fury. Do you recognize yourself — even if you are reluctant to admit it — somewhere on that list? Whatever the outward symptoms, it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that insecurity is driving the world mad.

What are the effects of a mind living in insecurity? It’s mind, it’s persona, it’s self becomes riddled with insecurities, too. Am I good enough? Do I belong? Do they really like me? Do I matter? Will I be able to make ends meet? And so on. A human being living a world of economic, financial, social, cultural insecurity will also be a person whose mind is a turbulent sea of existential, relational, and personal insecurity, too.

It sounds paradoxical, but the effect of runaway insecurity is narcissism. In particular, a person feeling profound insecurity will feel three things that have come to define — at least to me — the strange, twisted, psychology of this age. They will feel that they are not valued — and hence, seek to devalue others. They will see the world as a hostile place. They will come to treat others with suspicion and bad faith, as adversaries and rivals — not friends and allies. They will feel, therefore, that the world must revolve around them — and only them.

In other words, A person who’s defined by insecurity will constantly seek reinforcement, validation, and support, often in obsessive, demanding, clinging ways. They will seek to take it away from others, too. They must be the most important ones, the only ones, the most special, unique, and admired ones, the true ones. Perhaps they will do it in veiled ways — passive aggression, martyrdom, helplessness, histrionics. Or perhaps openly — with aggression, spite, selfishness, even hate. Doesn’t all that sound a little bit like now to you? Like Trumpism and Brexit and European neo-fascism? And like the juvenile leftism of identity politics and gender-sexual-relationship-anarchy over, say, the planet melting down, too? Both are just different forms of egoism, of narcissism. Narcissism now defines our world — and the problem is that the 21st century demands the precise opposite.

Fragility creates insecurity. Insecurity creates narcissists. Narcissists constantly seek the reassurance and validation they need, but cannot seem to get — since they feel that that they are nothing, nobody, no one at all, in the first place. Yet how can anyone get the kind of support they need when the world really is becoming that insecure? When it really is making people feel as if they are nothing, just interchangeable commodities to be disposed of in the most brutal ways, the instant they are no longer profitable? That they have no inherent worth, value, or meaning? And yet when narcissists don’t get the recognition, admiration, validation, they need, don’t get it, one of three things happens. Some lash out in bitter rage, retreating into supremacism. That’s Trumpism. Some sigh loudly, declare themselves martyrs, and fall on their swords. That’s Brexit. And some go into a posture of helplessness, of defeat, and give up on life — depression and suicide and so forth. That’s much of the world, too, now, especially America.

Hence, when I look around the world, I see a devastating tsunami of insecurity resulting in a ruinous epidemic of narcissism. You can see it on both the left, the right, and in the center, too, if you care to look. My-right-to-gender-anarchy-is-the-only-thing-that-matters-in-the-whole-world is every bit as narcissistically selfish as my-tribe-is-the-only-one-that-must-reign-supreme, after all. So I don’t mean that in the way American pundits do — a condescending and trivial way, code for “lazy poor people”, or “coddled ungergraduates!!” I mean it in a very different way.

People’s most basic selves are literally being eroded into nothingness, shattered into oblivion — runaway insecurity is leaving them catastrophically insecure — and so they are becoming desperate to be told they count, they are powerful, they mean something — and cling for dear life to anyone who does, whether a Trump, Farage, Salvini, or so forth (or the various identity politicians of the left). I mean people are being driven crazy by accelerating insecurity — to the point that they constantly, obsessively, crave and need reinforcement, support, and validation, like wounded children, for precisely the things that this age has taken away from them, and will do anything to get it, including martyring themselves, lashing out at their neighbours, or burning down their societies. They are doing all that to try and win back a sense of security in just the ways this age has denied them. The sense that they have value and worth. That their lives hold meaning and purpose. That they belong and count. That they will be able to endure and persevere.

It’s no coincidence that people feel the very opposites of all these things things today. That their lives don’t count. That they have no inherent worth or value. That they don’t belong to anything, and nothing really belongs to them. That life is both traumatizing and meaningless. That there’s little that’s true or real or just or genuine anymore. These are precisely the malaises of capitalism, well described at this point by thinkers from Marx and Durkheim to Bourdieu and Fromm and Baudrillard. We live in an age where predatory capitalism gone haywire is causing the world, the planet, society, and democracy to melt down, in a blazing fire of insecurity — of precarity, of meaninglessness, of atomization and isolation, of inequality, of climate change, of stagnant lives and shattered possibilities. As a result, the world is turning narcissistic: supremacism and extremism and fanaticism, after all, are really just different forms of narcissism, as are violence, martyrdom, hate, and spite.

Where the old thinkers were wrong was in supposing that all the ruinous malaises of capitalism would naturally lead to revolution — as people fought against them. They didn’t. Instead, they twisted in upon themselves. What do you think a tsunami would do? Everyone would run for the hills — and it would be every person for themselves. Maybe people would climb over one another — or maybe even pull others down — in a desperate quest for the high ground. In just that way, a tsunami of insecurity created a wave of furious, bitter narcissism — every person for themselves, desperately trying to take a sense of identity, meaning, purpose, belonging, value, and worth away from the next person, but all too few people making, giving, sharing any of that. Whether the right’s resurgent supremacism, or the left’s sex-obsessed gender politics — both are forms of the same thing, which is narcissism.. Capitalism didn’t implode into revolution. It just imploded into spectacular navel-gazing competitions.

But holding a navel-gazing contest while the floodwaters are cresting above you is a recipe for ruin. And so our challenge today is this. Not deciding who’s the supreme genetic tribe — or what the most outlandish sexual identity and relationship is human beings can create is. But really creating a world in which all the forms of insecurity tearing the globe apart begin to recede, shrink, and wither — not continue to grow and spiral out of control. That will mean rewriting social contracts, rethinking the role of corporations and governments, reimagining what economies and societies and even leaders and the point of human endeavor and insight and work are. It’s a big job. We haven’t even started it yet. And that is because, most of all, I’ve come to think, the 21st century asks to get over ourselves. The paradox of insecurity is that it makes us fight ever harder — for ourselves, as selfish and egoistic things. But in this age, we will prosper — or perish — together. As a planet. As a species. As democracies. As a civilization.

Are we capable of really understanding that? That part’s up to you.

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Personal note: Sorta puts things into perspective.

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