Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
When I saw “feeling disoriented” at the top of this article, I immediately knew it was going to be useful. And I think it is. We are probably all familiar with the concept of getting in touch with our own dark sides, and this, while similar, is a little different – more like getting in touch with our share, whatever that may be, of community distress in order to heal, or help heal, the community. But see what you think.
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Feeling disoriented by the election, pandemic and everything else? It’s called ‘zozobra,’ and Mexican philosophers have some advice
Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Francisco Gallegos, Wake Forest University and Carlos Alberto Sánchez, San José State University
Ever had the feeling that you can’t make sense of what’s happening? One moment everything seems normal, then suddenly the frame shifts to reveal a world on fire, struggling with pandemic, recession, climate change and political upheaval.
That’s “zozobra,” the peculiar form of anxiety that comes from being unable to settle into a single point of view, leaving you with questions like: Is it a lovely autumn day, or an alarming moment of converging historical catastrophes?
On the eve of a general election in which the outcome – and aftermath – is unknown, it is a condition that many Americans may be experiencing.
As scholars of this phenomenon, we have noted how zozobra has spread in U.S. society in recent years, and we believe the insight of Mexican philosophers can be helpful to Americans during these tumultuous times.
Ever since the conquest and colonization of the valley of Mexico by Hernán Cortés, Mexicans have had to cope with wave after wave of profound social and spiritual disruption – wars, rebellions, revolution, corruption, dictatorship and now the threat of becoming a narco-state. Mexican philosophers have had more than 500 years of uncertainty to reflect on, and they have important lessons to share.
Zozobra and the wobbling of the world
The word “zozobra” is an ordinary Spanish term for “anxiety” but with connotations that call to mind the wobbling of a ship about to capsize. The term emerged as a key concept among Mexican intellectuals in the early 20th century to describe the sense of having no stable ground and feeling out of place in the world.
This feeling of zozobra is commonly experienced by people who visit or immigrate to a foreign country: the rhythms of life, the way people interact, everything just seems “off” – unfamiliar, disorienting and vaguely alienating.
According to the philosopher Emilio Uranga (1921-1988), the telltale sign of zozobra is wobbling and toggling between perspectives, being unable to relax into a single framework to make sense of things. As Uranga describes it in his 1952 book “Analysis of Mexican Being”:
“Zozobra refers to a mode of being that incessantly oscillates between two possibilities, between two affects, without knowing which one of those to depend on … indiscriminately dismissing one extreme in favor of the other. In this to and fro the soul suffers, it feels torn and wounded.”
What makes zozobra so difficult to address is that its source is intangible. It is a soul-sickness not caused by any personal failing, nor by any of the particular events that we can point to.
Instead, it comes from cracks in the frameworks of meaning that we rely on to make sense of our world – the shared understanding of what is real and who is trustworthy, what risks we face and how to meet them, what basic decency requires of us and what ideals our nation aspires to.
In the past, many people in the U.S. took these frameworks for granted – but no longer.
The gnawing sense of distress and disorientation many Americans are feeling is a sign that at some level, they now recognize just how necessary and fragile these structures are.
The need for community
Another Mexican philosopher, Jorge Portilla (1918-1963), reminds us that these frameworks of meaning that hold our world together cannot be maintained by individuals alone. While each of us may find our own meaning in life, we do so against the backdrop of what Portilla described as a “horizon of understanding” that is maintained by our community. In everything we do, from making small talk to making big life choices, we depend on others to share a basic set of assumptions about the world. It’s a fact that becomes painfully obvious when we suddenly find ourselves among people with very different assumptions.
In our book on the contemporary relevance of Portilla’s philosophy, we point out that in the U.S., people increasingly have the sense that their neighbors and countrymen inhabit a different world. As social circles become smaller and more restricted, zozobra deepens.
In his 1949 essay, “Community, Greatness, and Misery in Mexican Life,” Portilla identifies four signs that indicate when the feedback loop between zozobra and social disintegration has reached critical levels.
First, people in a disintegrating society become prone to self-doubt and reluctance to take action, despite how urgently action may be needed. Second, they become prone to cynicism and even corruption – not because they are immoral but because they genuinely do not experience a common good for which to sacrifice their personal interests. Third, they become prone to nostalgia, fantasizing about returning to a time when things made sense. In the case of America, this applies not only to those given to wearing MAGA caps; everyone can fall into this sense of longing for a previous age.
And finally, people become prone to a sense of profound vulnerability that gives rise to apocalyptic thinking. Portilla puts it this way:
“We live always simultaneously entrenched in a human world and in a natural world, and if the human world denies us its accommodations to any extent, the natural world emerges with a force equal to the level of insecurity that textures our human connections.”
In other words, when a society is disintegrating, fires, floods and tornadoes seem like harbingers of apocalypse.
Coping with the crisis
Naming the present crisis is a first step toward dealing with it. But then what is to be done?
Portilla suggests that national leaders can exacerbate or alleviate zozobra. When there is a coherent horizon of understanding at the national level – that is to say, when there is a shared sense of what is real and what matters – individuals have a stronger feeling of connection to the people around them and a sense that their society is in a better position to deal with the most pressing issues. With this solace, it is easier to return attention to one’s own small circle of influence.
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Uranga, for his part, suggests that zozobra actually unifies people in a common human condition. Many prefer to hide their suffering behind a happy facade or channel it into anger and blame. But Uranga insists that honest conversation about shared suffering is an opportunity to come together. Talking about zozobra provides something to commune over, something on which to base a love for one another, or at least sympathy.
Francisco Gallegos, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Wake Forest University and Carlos Alberto Sánchez, Professor of Philosophy, San José State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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AMT, the outcome may be known (with a couple of significate exceptions), but the aftermath seems not only uncertain, but getting more so every day. I’ll bet you are in touch with spirits like Tlaltecuhtli, Quetzalcoatl, and Tlaloc, and would be able to discuss this with them and help us come to terms with our uncerainties and anxieties, and build community through sharing.
The Furies and I will be back.
17 Responses to “Everyday Erinyes #240”
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JD, this is a really interesting piece. I subscribe to “The Conversation,” but, obviously missed this piece; don’t check it out on a daily basis.
A friend has a niece living in Mexico, moved there last year to get married to a Mexican fellow. The bit about Mexico becoming a Narco State is upsetting!
Thanks Joanne. I think some faith communities also succeed in filling this need for their members. Time will tell if Biden’s focus on decency, et al, will prove to countering the uncertainties and anxieties and include sufficient populist policies to move those now in barest survival mode back to at least minimally sufficient resources for meeting basic needs to again participate in community building.
Very well researched, and most informative post.
I can relate to Zozobra (the last 4 years) and the feelings of doom and gloom, the anxiety, plus the pandemic that is raging across the land.
I tend to try and look for things that are comforting, with incidents and feelings of happiness and hope within my space. Plus…staying positive for myself, family and for my community.
Excellent post, Joanne, Thank You!
Thanks JD. That’s a very interesting piece.
Believe it or not, the earth actually does wobble on it’s axis. It the variation in the obliquity of the ecliptic and it’s used for calculations in astronomy and astrology.
Sure. But people don’t feel it. Thesensation of it happening is something else.
You just added a word to a lot of personal vocabularies.
Including my own.
It’s a word whose time has come.
Thank you…..
“Need for Community!” I often think…what an enormous help the internet is now–discussion groups–funny satires and memes, etc. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU FOR HELPING ME GET THROUGH THIS! xoxo
My dear, you are so welcome. And as part of this community you are helping us too. Don’t be a strabger.
Interesting piece. Enjoyed it.
This last election was a doozy all right. Stressing all of us in various ways.
Today there’s people here in San Diego, like in Washington D.C. who are out marching for tRump. Seeing them on the news, not wearing masks. Insane. What part of tRump lost legally don’t they understand?? All because of a poor loser.
We’ve been suffering far too long with tRumpism these past 4 years.
Zozobra, perfect title to fit the current wave running across our country.
Hopefully January 20, 2021 will turn our country back into moving forward in a positive direction.
Thanks Joanne
I’m experiencing Zozobra at max at the moment; commenting on your excellent article is writing therapy for me right now.
I experienced the immigrant’s Zozobra mentioned above for a certain period after August 2018, when my husband and I started a new life in a new country, combining retirement with immigration. It took a while to find our bearings but by the time we seemed to have Zozobra under control after 10 months, my husband died unexpectedly and I was in Zozobra’s grip once more.
That wobbling feeling was exacerbated by the continuing drought and the bushfires that closed in on this area. But we were lucky and escaped without major damaging fires. The drought continued however and then COVID-19 hit in February and the whole world was rocking again.
Again we were lucky in this community; nobody contracted the virus and by now the whole of the country seems to have the pandemic under control and we’re going back to a semi-normal life while my family in The Netherlands are locked down again by the second/third? wave. But America’s election made Zozobra creep up on me again.
And now I’ve packed some suitcases with some valuables and such important stuff as papers and computers and have the bench ready for my cat Molly because a bush fire has started this morning at the other side of the road, directly opposite my property. I was having a coffee with friends in the village when someone alerted us of the fire and after instructing them to call 000 (our 911) to get the call into Firecom, I went back to my property while asking the captain of our brigade over the phone what to do because I could see the flames coming down the hill. I was instructed to stay home.
I’ve been following what is happening on my Queensland fire app, which told me there’s currently no threat to property (the wind is blowing away from the properties on this side of the road) and the fire is attended by 6 vehicles and helicopters which can bring in small loads of water. I’ve heard them come over for the past few hours, definitely increasing my Zozobra.
It’s scorching hot today (and forecasted even hotter for tomorrow) but fortunately, there is little wind. The fire is blown away from me for now, but that also means it is burning in the impenetrable bush which the firies can’t get to with their vehicles. If the wind turns and it comes back and threatens to cross the road, I’ll have to evacuate because my only exit is on that road, so I can’t stay to fight to keep my house and shed from burning.
So all I can do now is wait and hope for the best.
Sorry for this outburst, but I need something to occupy me and stop the world from wobbling for a while.
Dear Lona, you are more than entitled to that outburst. We in the US are so obsessed with the attempts to destroy our government that we tend to for get we aren’t the only ones with problems. I can’t be there and help, but I can and do weep with you. We are a community and as such we send you as much hope ans we can, and prayers from those of us who pray.
Lona, I’m so sorry! I can’t imagine anything more frustrating than what you’re enduring.
Lona, I wish you nothing but the very best…and for your Zozobra to lessen, and go away.
Prayers up for you, and hope for the fires to begone! and that you will be all right, and your property/house too.
You are in my prayers, and for you & Molly to be well and safe.
Take good care, Lona, I’m thinking of you, and virtual hugs!
Lona, I’m never realized that you were facing such major obstacles.
I do pray daily and will definitely add you and Molly to them. I do care.
Hugs and prayers your way.
Please keep safe and please DO keep us posted.
Take care, Lona
Oh, Lona, I had no idea! And it’s much later now. I do hope you, and your place are ok.