Paralysed by the Infinite

How do we deal with our own autonomy in a world full of opportunity?

By Aman Fazil

We inhabit a time where we can easily conquer previously insurmountable thresholds; barriers that once naturally ensured less choice in our lives. Whether it's the physical ability to cross entire oceans through accessible travel or outstretching our digital hands across feeds of endless information, this level of globalised interconnection grants us access to live wherever we’d like, to learn whatever we please, to fulfil what we desire - at least, more so relative to the past (Butt, 2017). Notably, all sorts of structural barriers keep many from accessing this individual autonomy that a globalised world theoretically grants - but irrespective of that, it's perhaps worth questioning the merit of such unfettered choice in our hands. This is not to argue against acquiring that autonomy, but more so to confront the truly daunting nature of free choice. In this world ripe with opportunity like never before, how do we take confident steps into new paths, especially given the ultimate constraints of our mortal lives?

We will likely all exist through an evident point of great change  - not the gradual sort of growth over many years, but the lived experience of a singular time. It could be during the solemn days following a departure from your hometown or in a procession of uneventful afternoons after graduating from school. In these certain stand-still moments, the end of a given narrative, we are prone to be made stagnant; paralysed by the sheer amount of choice that faces us. This is only accentuated further by our globalised context. When we can split our livelihoods across continents and discover new cultures and ideas through the press of a button, our autonomy is empowered - and wielding such power can leave one dazed. This feeling has been recognised long before our current time, particularly in Soren Kierkegaard’s ‘The Concept of Anxiety’. He characterises anxiety in particular as the ‘dizziness of freedom’, when the opportunities ahead of us are so infinite, the choice between them all leaves us confused - and either we remain indecisive, or retreat into a set path (Kierkegaard, 2015).

To venture out from an established path and away from set tradition to plunge yourself into the instability of possibility is indeed, in Kierkegaard’s view, a daunting yet worthwhile endeavour. He writes of a ‘pupil of possibility’, acknowledging that this person would certainly face assaults of anxiety that one who simply follows the will of the world would not. He does not malign the latter example, as a “commonplace life no doubt has experiences enough”, only surveying that true freedom is essentially a trade-off for this commonplace existence, as those living it are left to emulate those around them rather than forge their own path. Once again, given our current context, is defaulting to the paths set for us so egregious? Kierkegaard’s assessment of anxiety as the dizziness of freedom is only made all the more palpable when we consider just how overwhelming it can feel to be in touch with the whole world, let alone choose to venture out into it. Surely, it is justified to inhabit an existence where one lives according to the structure one is born into. Yet, for all the torture that anxiety can inflict upon us, Kierkegaard still suggests that to become a pupil of possibility is to experience things more perfectly, more true - and perhaps, therefore more worthwhile (Kierkegaard, 2015). More pertinently however, we are likely to encounter anxiety of some kind during our lives. Even those who opt for ‘commonplace lives’ will come across times of change, whether through loss or love. Kierkegaard’s advocacy to then embrace anxiety through our autonomy takes on more pragmatic reasoning - we are made more emboldened by approaching the unknown, so much so that when we encounter it through external causes, we are better equipped to deal with it. 

Whilst this offers little advice in the way of what to actually choose, we can perhaps at least rest a little easier in times of great change and uncertainty, believing in the virtue and pragmatism that Kierkegaard advises about the anxiety we bring upon ourselves when we have to make a choice. It is worth reckoning with our ever-salient autonomy in this globalised world rather than shrinking back from it, granting us confidence in whatever path we decide to take.

Bibliography

Butt, G. 2017. Globalisation: A Brief Exploration of Its Challenging, Contested and 

Competing Concepts. Geography, 102(1), 10–17. [Online] Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/45154573 (Accessed 13 Oct. 2024).

Kierkegaard, S. 2015. The Concept of Anxiety. Translated from the Danish by Alastair 

Hannay. WW Norton.