Saturday, June 14, 2014

My Existential Dilemma

"An existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions the very foundations of their life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose or value.
An existential crisis may result from:
The sense of being alone and isolated in the world;
A new-found grasp or appreciation of one's mortality;
Believing that one's life has no purpose or external meaning;
Searching for the meaning of life;
Shattering of one's sense of reality, or how the world is;
Awareness of one's freedom and the consequences of accepting or rejecting that freedom;
An extremely pleasurable or hurtful experience that leaves one seeking meaning;

An existential crisis is often provoked by a significant event in the person's life — psychological trauma, marriage, separation, major loss, the death of a loved one, a life-threatening experience, a new love partner, psychoactive drug use, adult children leaving home, reaching a personally-significant age (turning 16, turning 40, etc.), etc. Usually, it provokes the sufferer's introspection about personal mortality, thus revealing the psychological repression of said awareness.
An existential crisis may resemble anomie (a personal condition resulting from a lack of norms) or a midlife crisis. Sometimes, an existential crisis stems from a person's new perception of life and existence. Analogously, existentialism posits that a person can and does define the meaning and purpose of his or her life, and therefore must choose to resolve the crisis of existence.

In existentialist philosophy, the term 'existential crisis' specifically relates to the crisis of the individual when they realize that they must always define their own lives through the choices they make." -Wikipedia

I think "Existential Angst" would make an excellent board game for adolescents, young adults, anyone with a mid-life crisis, baby boomers, and/or are experiencing an 'anomie'. This would not be a game to play alone, as existential crisis loves company. The players could spin the wheel and it wouldn't make an difference which direction they moved or how they decided to resolve their existential angst. The only rule is one can't choose to extinguish one's existential crisis with another (e.g., coming to grips with the meaning of life by taking psychoactive drugs, impulsively getting married because you're high, divorcing after you realize you've married a serial killer, and narrowly escaping a life-threatening situation because he found out you know about his secret). The goal is to find the meaning of life for your particular angst, even though it may seem meaningless to the other players. After all, this is not an approval oriented game. Once you accomplish your goal of purposefulness and the meaning in your life, you will have a temporary respite until the next anomie.






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