Queer Mechanics

The look wrt death and social anxiety

by Sophie

I believe there are parallels between the fear of death and social anxiety in that they are both connected with surrendering one’s subjectivity monopoly as an authority on oneself and become an object for consciousness. In both cases i give up my sovereignty over myself in the sense that i accept becoming an object for others. If there isn’t a really high level of trust giving someone the power to to know anything about me, to judge me and thus to objectify me can be absolutely terrifying. One of the things that can make death so scary is that one is forever giving up the ability try and alter what sort of object oneself is or becomes in others memories. It’s a total loss of control, one is utterly and forever at the mercy of others with no more input anymore, even to the limited extent that one could have during life (As a side note i think conceptions of god as the ultimate, all encompassing subject can serve as a sort of insulation to that). Social anxiety is just having that fear even while living: I don’t want to give up myself. I’m scared of surrendering who i am to others and living in their mind. I imagine more socially comfortable people are either more confident in their ego being maintained by their subjectivity alone or are able to sufficiently communicate so that they can bridge the gaps their internal sense and the object others create.

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