Apocalyptic anxiety

 

Traduction française à venir.

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“We keep expanding the space in which you should worry."

— Ezra Klein, GLP-1s and the “Wild West” of Wellness podcast

 

 

Global pandemics.  Forever wars. Terrorism, domestic and otherwise. Algorithms. Climate change. AI.

 

Our anxieties have taken on an Apocalyptic tinge.  

 

In addition to everyday worries about work or our children or our relationship or our health, we are now invited at every turn to worry about the extinction of the species.

 

Apocalyptic anxiety affects how we envision our future, obliterating the sense that we have some kind of meaningful control of our lives. 

 

It leads to bouts of strategizing and optimizing, to late nights researching the comparative benefits of stocks and bonds, the feasibility of a balcony air-conditioner, calculating how much cash we should have on hand in case the next time an AI decides to swarms something, it hits up the bank. 

 

Apocalyptic anxiety leads us down countless rabbit holes trying to figure out how best to game a future for which we have no playbook. And when we end up feeling powerless, as each potential disaster demands a global response that is beyond our individual means, it can lead to stagnation, throwing in the towel because, "what's the point?"

 

Major life decisions — notably having children — are called into question.  And relationships between generations become strained, as younger people struggle to make their concerns understood by an older generation who has lived with an historically high level of comfort and security.

 

How then, with annihilation staring us in the face, do we continue to live? Even, to live well? Is it possible to transform our anxiety into an even greater commitment to life and living? 

 

“Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.”
                                               ― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning