Existential Insecurity
SYNOPSIS:
We can feel insecure in several practical dimensions:
But a much deeper level of insecurity—existential insecurity—
cannot be solved by any of the security-operations
that will resolve our ordinary worries about not being safe enough.
If we explore our underlying existential insecurity,
we might discover creative ways to deal with this Malaise.
OUTLINE:
I. ORDINARY FORMS OF SECURITY AND INSECURITY
II. EXISTENTIAL INSECURITY
III. SECURITY-OPERATIONS TO COMBAT INSECURITYIV. HUMAN PORCUPINES POP OUR BUBBLES OF ILLUSION
V. FIVE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
ORDINARY INSECURITY AND EXISTENTIAL INSECURITY
I. ORDINARY FORMS OF SECURITY AND INSECURITY
There are several forms of practical security:
financial, physical, social, interpersonal, & emotional.
Financial security means we have enough money
to prevent most financial troubles in the future.
Physical security means that our living and working conditions
are safe from fire, flood, riot, war, accident, & violence.
And health-security means that we have good ways
of protecting ourselves from disease, injury, & disability.
We are socially secure when our social standing is assured,
when we have the approval and recognition of the people we respect.
Interpersonal security refers to close personal relationships.
We often seek relationship-stability thru marriage and family.
We all appreciate good personal relationships, but children, especially,
need the security and protection of dependable, loving parents.
Emotional or psychological security means we can depend on ourselves.
We are self-confident, internally-strong, & self-reliant.
When these desirable conditions are missing, we become insecure:
When our incomes are uncertain and our savings small,
we might experience economic or financial insecurity.
When the conditions protecting our health and safety are absent,
we might worry about catching diseases or being physically hurt.
We might become socially insecure if we lose our friends.
If our personal relationships are unstable
we might feel threatened by interpersonal insecurity.
And when our inner selves become unstable,
we feel emotionally and psychologically insecure.
II. EXISTENTIAL INSECURITY
But beyond all these forms of ordinary security/insecurity
lies another level of vulnerability
Even when we have every form of objective security and safety,
we might still feel threatened and unstable.
Existential insecurity differs from ordinary insecurity in five ways:
1. Instead of being the result of unsafe conditions,
our existential insecurity is free-floating and generalized.
It is an unexplained sense of uneasiness gnawing at our guts.
2. Existential insecurity has nothing to do with identifiable threats
onto definite dangers, perils, & menaces in the real world.
It is more acceptable to fear crime, cancer, or car-theft
than to admit that we are scared and insecure for no particular reason.
Existential insecurity often intrudes
when we know that everything is safe and sound.
3. All forms of ordinary security/insecurity rise and fall
with the objective conditions for our safety, health, & well-being.
But existential insecurity is a permanent condition of our beings.
Telling ourselves that we should feel protected and confident
does not abolish our inward, underlying insecurity.
4. Each form of security/insecurity is separate from the others.
Financial troubles might have far-reaching implications,
but being poor need not affect our interpersonal or emotional lives.
However, existential insecurity threatens us in every dimension.
Everything seems shaky, unstable, exposed, & vulnerable.
5. And finally, we cannot cure our existential insecurity.
We know how to obtain various forms of objective safety and security.
But even if we are rich, healthy, shielded from all external dangers,
socially well established, with good marriages and families,
we might still feel fundamentally insecure.
III. SECURITY-OPERATIONS TO COMBAT INSECURITY
Because we often confuse ordinary and existential insecurity,
we use security-operations that would be appropriate
for obtaining financial, physical, or emotional security
when we are really struggling with our existential insecurity.
If our deep vulnerability disguises itself as ordinary fears,
putting more locks on the doors or buying more insurance
will not overcome our existential insecurity.
If we have all the conditions of a reasonably secure life
Love is often one of our largest security-blankets.
But trying to strengthen and secure our relationships
will not overcome our existential insecurity.
Having a job is another major security-operation.
Work gives us constructive ways to organize our time.
But if we lose our jobs, our Existential Malaise might be disclosed.
We construct safe worlds for ourselves.
We surround ourselves with others who agree with our world-views.
But if we have structured our lives to control existential insecurity,
any small hole in the security-blanket might release our whole Malaise.
Thus minor disruptions sometimes 'cause' catastrophic consequences.
IV. HUMAN PORCUPINES POP OUR BUBBLES OF ILLUSION
Some people frequently challenge our security-operations.
If we picture each of us encapsulated in a thin security-bubble,
these professional disillusioners are like human porcupines:
They destroy all the security-bubbles that come near
Everyone within range feels existentially insecurity.
Such bubble-poppers are very intense people;
they will not allow us to cling to our cultural evasions and escapes;
they undermine our security-operations and pull away our security-blankets.
In the presence of these spiny creatures, we must be serious;
they force us to ask ultimate questions about the meaning of life.
At first we do not appreciate their bubble-popping function,
unless the eruption of our existential insecurity opens new possibilities.
Whatever games, techniques, operations, & devices we invent,
these methods will never overcome our existential insecurity.
The measures effective against ordinary perils and threats
simply do not work when applied to our existential precariousness.
V. FIVE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
ORDINARY INSECURITY AND EXISTENTIAL INSECURITY
Ordinary Insecurity Existential Insecurity
1. Specific feeling of vulnerability. 1. Non-specific, indefinable,
unintelligible uneasiness.
2. Caused by the absence of 2. Not caused by lack of definite,
specific conditions of security. objective security conditions;
arises from within.
3. Comes and goes with conditions 3. Continuously-present, permanent
of security
4. Each kind of insecurity affects 4. Pervades and threatens
only one dimension of life all dimensions of life.
5. We know how to obtain 5. Cannot be overcome by our efforts;
the missing security. we cannot achieve ultimate security.
Questions for Discussion
1. Which form of security/insecurity is most important to you?
2. During what periods in your life were you very secure or very insecure?
3. Are your everyday activities intended to create security?
4. Have you learned to live with a certain degree of insecurity?
5. Do various forms of security/insecurity sometimes become confused?
For example, when you seek financial security
are you sometimes also seeking emotional or psychological security?
6. What are your main security-blankets?
Job, love, family?
7. Are your security-operations sometimes excessive?
Are you really trying to overcome your existential insecurity?
8. Do you think that paranoia might be a sign of existential insecurity?
9. Are you a human porcupine, popping everyone's security-bubbles?
10. Do you enjoy pulling away other people's security-blankets?
This has now become a chapter
in a small book called Inward Suffering.
AUTHOR: James Park is an existential philosopher
and author of five books in existential spirituality,
all of which will be found in the Existential Spirituality Bibliography:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/B-XSP.html
Much more information about James Park
will be found on his website:
James Leonard Park—Free Library
Created May 30, 2008; Revised July 2, 2008; 2-11-2009; 4-29-2011;
12-21-2012; 11-2-2013; 4-10-2015; 2-19-2019; 4-30-2020;
Further Reading on Existential Insecurity
James Park Inward Suffering:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/INW.html
James Park Our Existential Predicament:
Loneliness, Depression, Anxiety, & Death
(Minneapolis, MN: Existential Books, 2006—5th edition)
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/XP.html
Ch. 11 "Existential Insecurity: When all Security-Operations Fail" p. 267-274.James Park In Quest of Fulfillment:
Money, Achievement, Marriage, Children, Pleasure, & Religion
(Minneapolis, MN: Existential Books, 2007—2nd edition)
https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-website-jamesleonardpark---freelibrary-3puxk/QF.html
This book is now out of print.
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