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Modernism vs Existentialism

Article by Nadia Ghaffar I know that the topic I want to write about is somewhat unique and seems to be difficult to understand apparently. But its just a matter of in depth analysis of the things going around you. Its related to your own world and nothing else. A layman definitely doesn’t know what existentialism is. Existentialism was actually a philosophical movement of 19th and 20th centuries. This philosophy was pessimistic and somewhat atheistic in nature. The major exponents of this philosophy were Jean Paul Sartre, Martin Heidegger, Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche and many more. It has to be kept in mind that all the major themes and features of this philosophy are cynical. The reasons of this pessimism also will be given due consideration. The advocates of this theory hold the view that anxiety is part of human nature. Generalized uneasiness, fear or dread which is not directed to any specific object is an essential ingredient of human personality. According to them, to exist as a human being is wholly absurd. The existentialist philosophers thought that each human being is just thrown into this time and place but nobody knows why here and why now. Our existence has no meaning. Sartre exclaims:

“All existing things are born for no reason, continue through weakness and die by accident… It is meaningless that we are born, it is meaningless that we die.”

Human Limitations is another theme of the movement. Human beings are caught in the boundary of human situation. They come into the world for a specific time and they leave it at another specific time. We don’t have any choice of our own. They supported the idea that individuals are responsible for their own actions. Kierkegaard said that a feeling of fear which everyone experiences is God’s way of calling each individual to commit to a personally vivid way of life.

Sartre states: “Once thrown into the world man is responsible for what he does.”

Moreover existentialists also suggest that we all are alienated from each other, from our society as well as from our own selves. In the same society, the wealthy landowning class and the large class of poor workers are alienated from each other. Like wise the growing scientific progress has alienated us from nature. The modern industrialization and new technologies have come in the way and have adversely effected our contact with nature. Existentialism had a profound impact on the thoughts of the great writers like Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett and many more. They produced great pieces of literature on the basis of this theory. If we throw light upon the reasons of the emergence of such a pessimistic group of ideas in the creative minds of the philosophers, we will come to know that it was the feeling of depression that was lurking behind all these thoughts.

Modernism is a term which is precisely defined as: “New ideas or methods in contrast to the traditional ones especially in art and religion.”

These days however modernism mostly includes denunciation or rejection of moral and religious values, promotion of vulgar fashions and ideas, trying to be as westernized as possible, loud and nonsensical music and emphasis on money rather than feelings or emotions. Every modern man who has adopted all these “golden virtues” is unconsciously suffering from loneliness, anxiety, agony, hopelessness and despair. If we analyze it carefully all these so called modern things are making us empty from inside. Just be objective and analyze. Loud music, rash driving, action movies , they all give entertainment for a short while and after that it just adds to your inner noise, never gives you peace. What kind of soul food it is? We just try to copy either Indian actors or the western ones, no identity of our own. Through out the life we keep on copying them and even then we say: “We are proud to be Muslims and Pakistanis.” Wow! What a sharp contrast of action and words. We often try to disown our religion by ignoring the demands of it. We regard our religion as conservative and we pose our selves to be broadminded, even when we don’t know the meaning of broadmindedness in its fullest sense. This is a term which is widely misunderstood. Broadmindedness doesn’t actually mean the open mixing of boys and girls or of copying other nations. Broadmindedness means looking at everything with a broader perspective keeping in mind all the factors, and sensibly analyzing what is good and what is bad for you. It is your thinking that you have to broaden up not only in the things of our own choice but in everything. When we get indulged in all the immoral activities which keep us apart from God what happens to us.?? We get mentally disturbed, unaware of the reasons behind. It’s quite automatic and by now it has been tested and well experienced. It is a commonly known fact that depression is a characteristic disease of the modern era. The group which is most adversely affected by it is the Youth. A depressed young man or woman can give nothing to either his family or nation. When the innocent youth unconsciously goes in depression the result is obvious. The feeling of anxiety and despair over powers us all the time. Then a sense of dread and fear emerges which horrifies us. Everything appears as absurd to us having no meaning and a dreadfully sad end. We think as if we are a prisoner of fate. The sense of loneliness alienates us from everything around. We feel like to do nothing. We feel ourselves unable to put our heart in anything we do. These disastrous symptoms of depression prevent us from doing well in any field. This is the matter which was basically behind the Existentialist movement. The purpose of finding a relation between an old movement and modernism is just to draw the attention of the readers to the fact that depression lead to the existentialist movement which was a body of pessimistic ideas. The negative trends in modernism are also leading us towards depression. Unconsciously or indirectly we are again moving towards existentialism. Modernism if adopted carelessly can prove to be a way to existentialism.