When one thinks about it, we are living in a highly bureaucratic society and there are not many freedoms we are allowed to express. What was once a country of free speech has now been devolved into a nation where one can’t even express their own feelings and opinions without fear of being labeled as a racist, misogynist, or bigot (despite some opinions being worthy of those titles.) Overall, in an age of political correctness, speech limitations, and an uneasy sense of what’s going on in the world, one is going to feel anxious, powerless, and helpless to amend the situation. This is the core of feeling “Kafkaesque.”
The word Kafkaesque, derives from the Jewish Czech writer, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), and the fear and anxiety he captured in his stories. His stories showed the true helplessness of the individual in a time of deprecating family values, uneasiness, and crushing bureaucracy, and how it could affect someone in a way that could make them doubt what kind of a person they are. In his most famous story, The Metamorphosis, Kafka described the pressures of modern life as the protagonist, Gregor Samsa, wakes up to find himself transformed into an insect due to the pressures of work, and family. The lengths that Kafka takes shows a new form in the human psyche, which mixes feelings of terror, helplessness, and insignificance in a system that destroys one party, yet cannot support itself. Much like the one we live in.
As mentioned before, we are living in a society that does not place much emphasis on individuals and often siphons entire groups of people into groups. Laws are passed that make it nearly impossible to carry on with our day-to-day lives, bureaucratic red tape cuts us off from pursuing many things we want to, and there is a lot we would like to fix, but sadly, cannot. This is an age where stress and anxiety are normal amongst people, while individuality is usually compromised with making ends meet. This is the essence of what it means to feel Kafkaesque, and the sad thing is that as an individual, nobody in power cares about you. Governments silence us, bureaucracies limit us, businesses only want obedience, while the individual bears the effects caused by the first three. It catches all of us at an inconvenient position when we are all too afraid to express our own creative prowess and live our lives how we want to.
This feeling of modern day Kafkaesqueness has given us an intense sense of self-consciousness where we need constant reassurance that we are doing exactly what is expected of us. We rely on social media to show others how “outgoing” or “adventurous” we are and expect reactions from those people to say that we are living our lives in accordance to what society wants. One of the side effects of feeling Kafkaesque is a constant need for verification; confidence is abandoned as the true opinions come from the elitists and higher authorities. A person who is deemed introverted and not wanting to socialize as much with other people is given a negative label, in saying that they are isolated, queer, odd, or given the idea that something is terribly wrong with them. Labels are a constant need in a Kafkaesque society as it not only discredits certain individuals of potential higher qualities, but it also brings a sense of relief to the labeler in that they have found somebody they can be superior to. The individual has officially been reduced to a quivering mess that seeks constant redemption from everybody they meet; should anyone think as much as a bad thought about them, they will think that something has gone wrong and attempt to correct it…with often gruesome consequences.
As a result of this Kafkaesqueness, we have become subservient to the highest bidder and willing to sell ourselves to them so long as it will alleviate our suffering. We are trapped in a confusing, self-conscious, existential void in where we are not even allowed the most basic individual freedoms and you aren’t recognized as a person until the sprawling arms of bureaucracy and everyone else deem you as one. Lost in a scary and petrifying existence, we are doomed to let ourselves be subjected by everyone who doesn’t share the same pain as we do and let ourselves be tossed around like a ragdoll.
Much like Josef K. at the end of Kafka’s, The Trial, we got so caught up in trying to fit in and prove ourselves innocent when we haven’t committed any wrongdoings. When all is said and done, the only thing we have left to look forward to from our hollowed out selves is death bringing a swift, quick end to things.
This is what Kafka feared, and this is what we are living.
