Despair and feeling of void - Kierkegaard

A universal despair ?

One of the things that stroke me the most in the analysis of despair made by Kierkegaard is that someone who thinks not to be in despair can actually be in despairs. As someone suffering of an illness is not necessarily aware of his own condition, someone who is in despair is not necessarily aware of it either. But the difference is that it is harder to become aware of being in despair, and even more to get rid of this state of despair, as according to Kierkegaard, one needs to constantly fight despair in order to be not in despair. The author goes even more further when he says that despair is a universal sickness, that everyone, aware of it or not, is concerned by despair.

But are we all really in despair ? How did Kierkegaard reach this conclusion ? How are we supposed to agree with this statement ? First we are supposed to be aware of our own despair to know that it actually exists, but this is not obvious as Kierkegaard said it previously; and furthermore we are supposed to know that this feeling is also present in others. It is easy to imagine that others are in despair, but it seems hard to conclude that this “sickness” is universal only by noting one’s own feeling and the echoes that one has about others. 

Become aware of our despair vs. stay ignorant and happy ?

But let’s say that this statement is true, that despair is actually a universal sickness. Kierkegaard says, if I understood him well, that we have to become aware of our despair to fight it and get rid of it eventually. But he also says that the more one is aware of his despair, the greater the despair is. Thus, I wonder if we should really become aware of our own despair. Wouldn’t it be less painful if we just stay in our ignorance and try to be happy in our own way ? In this case, knowledge doesn’t bring happiness.

For Kierkegaard, it is a duty to become aware of one’s own despair in order to fight it, because not fighting it or doing nothing to get rid of despair is a kind of sin. And according to Kierkegaard, only good Christians are able to do so, not any other religion is, which makes Christianity a kind of superior religion. When Kierkegaard wrote this, religion was still a very important part of the life, and he was himself a fervent Christian. But what would it be today ? Today, religion is not that much present in the public sphere, and many different religious and non religious communities have to coexist. This kind of argument wouldn’t probably be relevant (or would it be?). So beside the religious argument, is there another kind of argument to justify that we have to become aware of despair ? Is there a moral one ?

As for me, I like to think that no matter how hard life is we should keep faith in it and have hope in all the opportunities that life gives us. My opinion is definitely linked to my own life and experiences, but so is Kierkegaard’s I think.

The feeling of void

Finally, the other idea that strongly stroke me when I read Kierkegaard was that despair could come from that feeling of void that we seek to fill. This is a feeling, maybe not universal but which, I assume, touches a very large number of people. Maybe you all had already this kind of void that you want to fill in, or tried to seek a sense to your life, your actions, your choices. Or felt that, no matter how perfect your life seemed to be, something was missing. Or felt a suddent and violent desire to escape the reality of your life.

That idea was perfectly showed in the movie Requiem for a dream (Darren Aronofsky, 2000). The best part of the movie that showed this feeling was the one when Harry came home to see his mother after weeks of absence. He finds out that she has been taking amphetamines in order to lose weight and fit in her red dress again, as she is obsessed with participating to her favorite TV show . Harry tries to convince her to stop taking those amphetamines but he remains speechless when she explains how much all this gives her strenght to carry on, a sense to her life, a social position. Believing that she will one day appear on the TV gives her a reason to live, to smile, to get up on the morning and do the dishes; because, as she says, she has no one, she is lonely and old. She needs to fill up this void and to find a sense to her life.