Existentialism is a philosophy that deals with the perspective that we exist, no more and no less.
From this perspective reality is cold, we are mortal, we have no greater purpose than to exist, individually we are insignificant.
So why bother? An 'existence only' view of life can seem a bit bleak and not very motivating.
Insects don't have to consider such issues, it seems only humans are burdened with reflective awareness. That is, the ability to look at ourselves in the greater picture of life and see our individual insignificance as a curse.
A curse that needs a charm.
Denial is the charm. When in doubt, block it out.
Denial is existential sunscreen
We all need to deny aspects of reality to stay motivated and functional.
Humans have developed the most incredible ability to ignore what is obvious, but unhelpful to the cause.
When a baby is born it is obvious it is special, the centre of the universe.
All of baby's needs are met on demand, if not anticipated, by an unfailing goddess – mum.
Mum is 24x7 servant with nothing but love, warmth and kindness.
Without a doubt, baby is the most deserving and important occupant of the universe. How could a loved baby reach any other conclusion?
The perfect world does not last for too long.
Eventually mum fails to obey every command. Mum is annoyingly interested in other things, like answering the phone and going to the toilet.
Mum's behaviour must be corrected. Baby demands total acquiescence!
Welcome to the 'terrible twos'. It is normal for children to want to go back to the way things were – after all, they were good times! Sometimes older children who play with younger children, who are still in the 'Special One' phase, will regress back to the younger child's state and have another crack at staying there.
Many parents will have experienced this behaviour. It is not just young children who wish to regress back to being the centre of the universe. Even as adults there is a tendency to seek the centre of the universe experience, just observe how people like to be treated in smart resorts and restaurants. Consider how much people will pay to have others clean up after them, bring their food to the table and treat them like very big babies.
As if a disobedient mother was not enough to deal with, things just get worse. Now there is pain from falls, failure as they try more difficult tasks, discipline and even worse... allegedly baby stinks.
Imagine how confronting it must be for baby to go from being the centre of the universe and perfect in every way, to dealing with the horror of poo coming from their backside. Poo is something that everyone seems to despise. Others hand baby back to mum with comments like “Whoa, that's a nasty one”.
Even mum's sense of humour and tolerance is waning and baby finds out that this nasty little poo problem is going to become theirs to deal with.
How does baby deal with this nasty situation? The same way as everybody else, keep it a secret, deny it. Once they can successfully manage and hide the whole poo thing they never mention it again.
The first step is the development of the basic denial mechanism, “Don't mention the poo!”
As baby develops though, the realisation of their general frailty and vulnerability grows. Not only do they have accidents of their own, but they witness others getting sick, relatives dying.
Baby is confronted with the reality that to live is to spin the wheel of doom. When will baby's number come up? What nasty fate is waiting for baby around the corner?
This is the stage when baby starts to have nightmares as horror scenarios are played out alone in the dark of night. Mum, and now dad too, have a new role as defenders and protectors. Imaginary friends and comic book heroes also play a part. They let baby experiment with dividing the world into good and evil, with baby safely camped in the world of good.
Baby learns to frame the world in a simple way that masks their fears and lets them get on with enjoying life without the challenges that the cold harsh reality of life can present.
As baby grows new challenges present themselves. The teenage years can be challenging. One cause of teenage angst is the reluctance to move into the adult world. Adult activities look boring and in many cases pathetic to a teenager. There are too many constraints, responsibilities and boring things to do, like going to work.
This stress is compounded as the teenagers' earlier beliefs start to run out of puff. Superman and fairies just don't do the business any more. Teenagers can find themselves caught between two worlds, one that does not work any more and one that looks like little fun.
Eventually, the teenager is forced to cross over to the adult world in order to have some control over their lives, such as what they eat and when they go to bed.
This section may not be what you were hoping for :-)
Once camped in the adult world the real fantasies kick in: I matter; I am significant; what I do matters; my stamp collection is really important.
Of course, none of these things is true, either in a biological sense, or a societal sense. But we need to believe them to keep going, to keep motivated and to play our part in society.
There is much evidence of man's struggle to overcome his insignificance. It is seen in immortality projects like naming public spaces after people, attempting to achieve immortality in war and sport by becoming a hero, “We will remember them.”
Many people seek to hide their mortality and imperfections by surrounding themselves with perfect things like gleaming cars and fancy homes. "Don't look at me, look at all this shiny stuff!"
Others seek to distance themselves from their imperfect biological existence by focusing all of their attention on high art.
Others seek to get as far from appearing as animals as they can by ripping out body hair, masking farm animal like smells with perfume and covering their bodies to hide the overtly animal bits
Existential drives result in behaviours that deviate from the biological road map.
Whereas there is a biological basis for violence in some cases, such as to defend oneself or the clan, existential drives allow violence to venture far beyond these boundaries.
Man's need to associate himself with things that persist and mask his mortality can result in inappropriate allegiances to seemingly immortal leaders who appear to rise above their biological constraints.
Furthermore, it is important to man that his immortality projects appear more immortal than those of others. What better way to prove this than to put the others to the sword, to make them face their mortality.
Early skirmishes between hunter gatherer clans most likely were over access to scare resources like water. Modern warfare has often been about ideologies, or crazed leaders on a crusade to be seen to have risen as far beyond the rest of us mere mortals as they can.
At an individual level, existential angst may motivate drug taking and binge drinking in an effort to “get out of it”, a quick and easy escape from reality.
The association between wealth, social status and the existential 'high ground' lessens the interest of those with social status from associating with the 'great unwashed.' This in turn can exacerbate the social divide.
On the upside, existential drives are one part of what motivates the gifted to create works of art and the community minded to strive for better communities. The desire to get as far from the biological shackles as possible has many upsides. From the simple, such as better restaurants where customers can once again bask in the indulgences proffered to 'The Special One', to the more complex, such as the relentless striving to improve medical care and demonstrate the conquering of our mortality.
Beyond the basic needs lie the existential ones.
An organisation can meet many of an employee's existential needs by being seen to be successful and persistent, to allow them to be a party to a worthy immortality project.
The philosophy of existentialism does not point to the validity of any particular belief system, or whether belief systems are in themselves valid. Existentialism, however, does reveal the fundamental need for individual humans to have a philosophy that allows them to get beyond a simple mechanistic view of life, to one that provides meaning and purpose for them.
In this regard we all need beliefs and purpose to operate, we are all 'necessarily mad'.