Flexibilisation of society makes people restless and restless. For some, this endless life is a pleasure and a privilege, and for others it is a curse. We are all intertwined in a society that surrenders itself completely to the rat race in order to get the most out of life. Especially the elitist nature of this phenomenon and the problem of maintaining control over your life must be kept in mind when you hear a hymn of praise about endless life.
Restless people
Living life to the max, taking out what’s in it. That seems to be the motto of our time. We want to progress in our work, maintain a large circle of friends, have a healthy lifestyle, be a good parent and partner, and develop ourselves. The flexibilisation of society and a variety of new technologies also makes it possible to do all this interchangeably. It’s just as easy to do an errand or exchange the latest whatsapps while you’re at work as it is to prepare a meeting for the next day on the couch in the evening. No wonder we’re busy and sometimes need some rest.
Restlessness, a plea
for an endless life, the ‘busy, busy, busy’ that we hear all around
us is not a call to take it easy. Nor is it a phenomenon that is
particularly new. We are restlessly looking for new challenges.
We
prefer hunting to loot. When the booty is in, boredom and
restlessness are imminent. It is true that we reward ourselves with a
temporary moment of dispersion, but then the next item on the
infinite agenda soon follows.
Our fundamental
motive is the continuous pursuit of progress.
Who you are and
what you do is no longer a fixed fact, which means that you have to
make choices over and over again without knowing whether they are the
right ones. That creates restlessness. We live like an acrobat who
doesn’t know exactly which exercises will keep him from falling. All
that remains for us to do is to be constantly alert to the risks of
life and then plunge fully into active life. This is how we build an
existential CV. This construction project only ends when death
occurs. I don’t scare you as a reader, but read on…
…who are also looking for peace and silence
At the same time,
modern man is regularly visited by a little devil who offers us a
quiet and ascetic existence. In order to (temporarily) escape the
hectic existence we regularly resort to zen or other forms of
meditation, mindfulness and yoga. It does not bring real peace,
because the lesson, exercise or course has not yet ended or the
project ‘life’ has been revived.
As long as we remain at the
mercy of our wishes – with all the hope and fear that this entails –
as long as we are subject to our will, we will never have lasting
happiness or peace.
At the same time, our life, combined with
the constant acceleration of our existence, which is accompanied by a
strong increase in means of communication, the fact that we are
always online and the pursuit of ever more fleeting goals, can affect
the quality of our existence. The continuous flow of communication
that results from this leads to superficiality.
For me,
that’s a side issue. I especially see the opportunities, the
challenges, the possibilities to lead a passionate, exciting turbo
life and advocates for an endless immersion in the ‘vita assets’. Why
should we live a quiet or balanced life? Many will repeat it to me
and live by it, because blogger, speaker, husband, friend, etc. and
probably much more, an exponent of my own philosophy.
Personally,
I am also very sympathetic to things and try to get the most out of
it, just like others.
In my opinion, two aspects remain
underexposed, which are important to understand whether restlessness
really is such a blessing for the modern man of our time. The first
concerns the question of the distribution of opportunities and
possibilities to live a passionate life.
The second question
concerns the organisation of restless life and the fact that each
individual is part of numerous networks and associations which make
demands on him or her or at least have expectations about the active
involvement of the individual.
Many of you all
experience the same restlessness and are satisfied with it because it
gives a feeling of real life: performance on many fronts
simultaneously leads to the feeling of a fulfilled life. In
principle, this should apply regardless of rank or status – and in a
way, of course, this is the case. The nurse, agent, garbage
collector, teacher, bank employee or shed can all go down in a
restless existence. They can throw themselves into their work to make
the best of it. As a thoughtful person, I can also say that restless
life is mainly reserved for the Goliaths of our world.
Control
That brings me to my next point. To what extent is the individual still at the helm when the social relationships in which he or she participates demand more and more of him or her? What is the space to say no or to do anything other than what the environment demands of us? If we are part of different (sub)systems in which we play a role – be it within our immediate family, our work, the sports club, or any other context – then we are expected to be actively involved.
It is not enough, then, to say that crowdedness is not an exclusive challenge for our time, nor that a lack of experienced meaningfulness of life can also arise in an environment that is free from social pressure. The central question is whether the organisation of our life and work leaves the individual in all his or her subsystems the (control) space to operate the accelerator of restlessness.
Differences in degrees of freedom and control space between different groups of individuals require further analysis in order to determine where and when the risks of restlessness also leading to serious forms of stress increase. This is not just about the ‘coping behaviour’ of an agile acrobat, but about creating safe structures in which others can also enjoy their restlessness. Where that does not happen, restlessness seems to be the privilege for those who can afford it.
There is always a sacred need in the working environment and in the private sphere. However, this is not only a sacred must that is imposed from the outside, but is also stimulated from the inside. The challenge, however, will be to find the control panel and gain control of it, because ‘Living to the max’ explicitly includes risks – for ourselves and for the connections and networks of which we are a part.
I hope that with this somewhat philosophical approach I have informed you as a reader enough to press your brake pedal and to evaluate yourself and make adjustments where necessary.
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