Crumbling of the Sense of Meaning

Crumbling of the Sense of Meaning
Gadi Taub
(A Dispirited Rebellion: Essays on Contemporary Israeli Culture)


I would like to indicate the connection between the crumbling of the old structures and the regression and reduction into the boundaries of the individual.
The centrality of self realization in the American style, in the yuppie version or in the hippie version, focusing on our "inner child", the health obsession, physical fitness, the need to learn to accept yourself for what you are, to loose weight, to stop smoking, to smile, to live out your creative, physical and emotional potential, to fight wrinkles, to bring down pH levels in your mouth, to suntan with no radiation, to project self- confidence, to know how to "communicate", to be in touch with yourself, to learn how to cry, to remember to say that you love people, to be assertive, to meditate, to jog… all of these things, more than they are an evidence of a new liberation, they are evidence of a new distress. The uprising of the "me" culture, is the outcome of terrible despair, of a feeling of emptiness and lack of meaning. This culture brings about the collapse of the structures that tie people to what is good and bad, to something wider and larger than their own selves. This is our reaction to the loss of order and meaning.
When we lose the feeling that there is a significance to the human existence beyond here and now, when a person becomes in his mind a lonely individual, his only choice is to turn inwards. And this turning inwards is not an in-depth process of self- molding, it expresses extreme desperation and loneliness, and intensifies the feeling of pointlessness.

The idea of "seizing the moment", not letting memories or plans interrupt the spontaneity of life, is basically the result of the loss of confidence in the prospect of stability. It is the behavior of someone who is going somewhere not knowing whether they will come back or not. The desire not to commit to anything is an evidence to the crumbling of security and not to a struggle for a new freedom. This is because obligation, that is perceived more and more as an obstacle and burden for the individual, as a limitation to freedom, is in fact what assured the individual his link to the future.

A person needs the feeling of obligation to his children, family and surrounding society in order to feel that his existence will have a continuation, in order to diminish the basic feeling of loneliness he feels as a product of being mortal. The chase after "fun" and "excitement", the constant search for strong stimulations, are a product of losing trust in the more stable emotions that obligation brings. They are testament to the pressing feeling that the present, the here and now, is all there is. Moreover, to escape the issue of loneliness, we have created an illusion for ourselves, as if humans do not need society and community, as if they do not need to feel love and belonging. In this way we escape confronting ourselves in an encounter of truth, an encounter that can only be possible through conversation between people.

The new society, "the society of the masses", has apparently created a new type of quiet desperation. A feeling that almost everything is legitimate and nothing has a dramatic significance, neither outrageous or spirit- lifting. A new vagueness surrounds everything.
This society is a society in which population becomes passive, indifferent and divided. A society in which loyalties, relationships and traditional gatherings become loose, or are completely destroyed. In which a person becomes a consumer, and is also a mass product just like all the products, attractions and values he absorbs.
People are floating in a life loaded with liberty, a liberty that they cannot realize and cannot abandon legitimately.

Of this view of the world rises very deep pessimism. A despair that indicates a severe destruction of anything that gives a sense of fullness, meaning and value. This view is a result of the isolation of the individual, and not his liberation. Because this freedom, as opposed to its portrayal in our culture, might be exciting and stimulating, but is far from being fulfilling. This freedom might create an illusion of satisfaction, but leaves the individual with a heavy sensation of emptiness.