Existential tragedies, a partial list (revisited)

We all know there is a suite of “existential” tragedies inherent to human existence. Defining the concept precisely is impossible, but I would say roughly that an existential tragedy is a tragedy that arises from fundamental and universal, or near-universal, aspects of our experience. I thought it could be interesting to list them. Let me know if you can think of any others:

Note: This is the first in my revisited series. I’m reposting old articles worked over with new thoughts and ideas I’ve had since first writing them.

• The inevitability of one’s own death

• The inevitability of the death of those one knows and loves

• The alienation of the living from the dead, and of all those who have loved, but will never see each other again.

• The endless loss of parts of oneself that one wishes one could still hold. The wonder of a child. The confidence, and often productive arrogance of a young man. That side of yourself that only came out with that one friend who is now gone from your life.

• The permanent and irrevocable loss of goodness and beauty even to memory. How many Pleistocene saints have we forgotten? And ordinary people who were filled with nuggets of love and beauty?

• The probable unknowability of important cosmic truths

• The apparent existence of meaningless suffering serving no higher purpose

• The inherent trade-offs around what can fit into a single life or the incompatibility of things which are undeniably good. I want to be a poet. I want to be a philosopher. There’s no time for both. I want to be friends with Alice, Bob, Carol, Dane, Evans, Fortuna, etc. etc. but I haven’t the time. Sometimes this goes beyond time to other forms of exclusiveness. I want to have a reputation for patience, and I want to have a reputation for not tolerating cruelty- it may be impossible to have both. Perhaps even certain virtues are contradictory in themselves.

• Forgiving, and not forgiving have incommensurable costs and benefits, and we cannot have the benefits of both, or the costs of neither.

• If one seriously harms a person, it is almost always impossible to adequately compensate them. For example, what compensation would you think was fully adequate to missing a father during your childhood, or spending twelve years in prison for a crime you didn’t commit?

• If we participate in a democracy, we have moral culpability for all our failings of compassion and contemplation at the ballot box. If we are subjects in a tyranny, we are unfree. If we live in a society without any central coordination of its common affairs, many will die. All are grave evils but we must choose (at least) one.

• The possibility of unrequited love (and I certainly don’t just mean romantic love- unrequited familial love is usually worse)

• Our total lack of control over the most important factor of our lives- the circumstances of our birth

• The unequal and random distribution of talent. It is not just that we are unequal in various particular talents, it is that we are unequal overall, with some of us just far more talented in an all-things-considered sense than others. These inequalities are random with respect to the social and individual good.

• Our inability to consistently embody even our own idea of the good

• Our strengths, loved ones, talents, reputation, even possessions, etc. necessarily are also weaknesses insomuch as they become things we fear losing and might lose.

• The erosion of treasured (or simply important) personal memories by time

• The erosion of vitality, intellect, beauty, and all our powers by time

• The unknowability of the full results of our actions, whether in advance or in retrospect

• The privacy of experience even when we wish it were otherwise

• The impossibility of total trust, the perpetual possibility that any given statement may be a lie, or a misperception.

• The perpetual possibility of being disbelieved, even when we are speaking important truths about ourselves and our lives

• The frustration of words that can never fully convey what we mean

• The alienation of

• The possibility of being wracked by want for something that is literally impossible, and the various contradictory and incompatible things we all want.

• The impossibility, at the most basic level, of choosing our own desires, even if we may wrestle with desire to a degree.

• Our actions are irrevocable- in a few lucky cases we might be able to prevent or fix all the harm we caused, but even then, this does not undo the action itself

• That our reputations never embody who we are.

• Even an orientation towards the good can become a basis for numerous misdeeds and flaws, from narcissism to moralism.

• The possibility of unrecognized goodwill- a person, rightly or wrongly reviled- might have genuine goodwill, yet have it go unrecognized due to their perceived deeds or features

• If we were to overcome both human and natural evil completely, heroism would be impossible, and courage would be unimaginable. Even the idea of generosity would not make sense- for what scarcity would there be? Even the rule of good over evil has tradeoffs.

Suggestions by readers

The possibility of individual goodwill not translating into good results through collective action and coordination problems.

• Sartre’s conundrum- we are condemned to be free and make (often painful) choices, insomuch as even choosing not to choose is making a choice.

• The inherent rivalrousness of most material goods- if someone uses some food or shelter there is necessarily less food or shelter available for others

Suggestions by friends

• From the Talmud “A man loves his son before all, but his son loves his own son before all”.

• We’re not quite sure how to phrase it, but something along the lines of the human tendency to be emotionally captive to the expectations of others, even when we don’t think they deserve that authority over us.

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