A Word for Conflicting Perspectives
Zozobra • noun • (so-so-bra)
Definition: anxiety, largely due to conflicting perspectives and uncertainty
Origin: Mexican Spanish
A good friend of mine and subscriber to The Word, Peter Loge, shared this word with me last year, and I’m glad to share it with all of you today. If any of you have words that you would like to be a part of The Word, please contact us.
Zozobra means anxiety in Spanish. Especially the wobbling, groundless feeling of anxiety one can have aboard an unsteady ship that does not know which direction to take or the actions to make to bring clarity and stability. Around the turn of the 20th century, zozobra began having a philosophical connotation stemming from the unique anxiety emanating from Mexican society. Zozobra is a type of anxiety that stems from being unable to settle upon a particular point of view, and often occurs when two cultures clash.
Mexican philosophers argue that zozobra has been a part of Mexican life since the arrival of Hernán Cortés in the 1500s. For 500 years in Mexico, the traditions of the Spanish have clashed with the traditions of Indigenous peoples, and for Mexico’s culture of mestizo (mixed Indigenous and Spanish) people, this can create an uncertainty of perspective. This perspective isn’t an absolutist view, where either the Spanish or Indigenous people are correct, but instead an uncertain, anxiety-riddled pursuit of truth and stability from two diametrically opposed cultures who are the foundations of their modern society.
America is encountering a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about our present and future, and having the language to articulate our problems will help us navigate through these difficulties. Zozobra, much like angest, helps us make sense of our worries.
Zozobra vs. American Individualism
A key realization about what causes zozobra is the acknowledgement that our understanding of the world initially emanates from our community. Where we grow up, where we live, and the people who surround us help shape how we see the world. Our community helps alleviate anxiety because there is a comfort in knowing that we see the world in a similar way. Mexican philosopher Jorge Portilla describes this dynamic as a “horizon of understanding.”
Zozobra occurs when communities with a different “horizon of understanding” interact and the people have to make sense of different cultures coming together with their varying perspectives. As a nation with an abundance of immigrants, America clearly encounters zozobra when people with new cultures arrive, but I posit that our greatest source of zozobra may derive from the individualist culture America has created.
American individualism encourages people to become islands and break free from their community in pursuit of wealth, freedom, and happiness. As we become more individualistic, our “horizon of understanding” narrows. We become singular minded and interactions with other people create anxiety and zozobra. There is little expectation of a shared understanding. Talking to a neighbor or interacting with a random person at a store can create zozobra in America, but this is a self-inflicted anxiety.
American individualism is a “horizon of understanding” that derives from ethnocide and the destruction of culture. In a society absent of a collective culture, America expresses a hypocritical culture of individualism. Our individualism, absent of a preceding collective culture, makes all of us anxious because now we are charged with making sense of the world on our own.
Anxiety & American Chaos
The belief in American individualism more often than not is expressed by the ethnocider. Those who see the benefit of destroying culture, also must hypocritically form a group, or culture, around being able to be individuals together. They need others to share in their belief of not needing other people. They will profess an individualistic interpretation of freedom that hinges on the ability to own land or property so that they can express their personalized “horizon of understanding” without any repercussions or limitations.
Many Americans aspire to obtain this iteration of freedom, but it is a naive, dangerous fantasy because none of us can exist without other people. We can never be “self-made.” American individualism creates anxiety, and far too often the ethnocider resorts to violence to confront their anxiety. We even have laws that make it easy for anxious, gun-toting Americans to kill people who enter their property. The attack on the Capitol is another chaotic expression of America’s self-inflicted anxiety.
As America becomes more diverse segments of white America are growing even more anxious about the changing face of America. Their anxiety is projected primarily upon people of color regardless of whether they are or are not immigrants. Their lack of a white essence means that their “horizon of understanding” will clash with America’s dominant white culture. In America, the culture clash that creates zozobra is not actually a clashing of cultures, but the clashing of white essence with the rest of existence.
Non-white Americans may encroach on the property that a collection of individualistic ethnocidal Americans believe they own, and in response the ethnocider will use violence to reclaim their property. Likewise, ethnocidal Americans will also profess how they should not suffer any repercussions from their actions because responsibility would be a denial of their freedom. Additionally, they will not hesitate to use force to defend their right to be irresponsible.
The chaos that we see in America today is largely due to the anxiety that an ethnocidal society creates as it remains incapable of equitably surviving alongside other cultures. Zozobra is a great word for helping us understand our distinct American anxieties.
