Decline is a Choice

We can just not do things that are bad for us

Photo by Max Harlynking on Unsplash

One of my concerns about contemporary society is that it suffers from a perceived lack of agency. As I’ve mentioned many times before, Alain Ehrenberg notes in his book The Weariness of the Self that inhibition is one of the main experiences of contemporary depression. He ties it to the burden of being a sovereign self, an overwhelming experience for most people that often leaves them frozen and feeling unable to move in the world. My sense is that many people, depressed or not, share this experience of inhibition. They believe that their agency in the world is highly circumscribed by political, technological, corporate, and biological forces which they are helpless to resist. The limits of their agency are complaints and bitterness, which they primarily express online. And that online expression is often a desperate act of self-actualization, an attempt to make themselves feel seen and felt in the world. Of course this is not true for everybody, but I do think it describes the experience of a great many people.

We see this perceived lack of agency in many areas of contemporary life. For example, on the one hand, we know it’s unhealthy and self-destructive to be doom-scrolling for hours on Instagram or Twitter; on the other hand, we feel helpless to stop ourselves. We know our children shouldn’t have smartphones, but the pressure to conform to our peers compels us to give in. We know we should build and live in community, but our jobs demand so much of our time and it’s difficult to put ourselves out there. We know Congress should be active in legislating instead of merely following the Executive Branch, but we feel like we have no voice in influencing our elected representatives. We desire romantic relationships, but are hesitant to risk heartache and heartbreak. We know the Church needs to be built up, but we are afraid to do the work of building up the Church. We know desire is key to mental health recovery, but we’re afraid to start. And so on.

In short, we’re aware of what’s being asked of us, what’s good for us, what we ought to do, but we feel helpless to do anything. And this just so happens to be highly profitable for many people in positions of power.