From Anxiety to Anguish and Comfort

Professor Robert Jensen wrote said some wise things in an interview recently, in which he not only explained how the pervasive anxiety in this culture makes people ideologically rigid, stupid, and incapable of critical thinking.  He also explained the road out, which is to embrace anguish.

I saw a little more about how Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted."  As Jensen explains, anxiety results from living in denial.  So the beginning of the cure is to accept the reality that we're in trouble.  Reality is less frightening when we're not lying to ourselves about it, although we're no longer avoiding the anguish.  At that point, comfort is possible.