Koinophobia: The Fear of the Ordinary Life

Doesn’t ordinary life just sound so much better on paper?

Spend your first years in a brilliantly bright new life. Leap into the realm of education for as long as it takes to receive all the knowledge of the world you want. Do whatever one of thousands of jobs you most want to do. Explore all the most mesmerizing places and have all the most enthralling experiences when work doesn’t beckon. Find friends, find love, and through them, find meaning. Retire when you’ve grown old, and live out your days in peace.

But that’s just a fantasy; now, especially, but arguably, it always has been.

I know innumerable people living just as they were supposed to — people who played their lives by the book and not once took a risk they didn’t have to — and ended up broke, alone, and miserable. And I’m sure you do, too. Thus, we arrive at what might just be the most sensible phobia around. The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows never fails to provide the world with poignant new terms, and koinophobia, the fear of living an ordinary life, is no exception.

A hundred years ago, of course, we wouldn’t be having this discussion — not in the West, at least. Even twenty years ago, few Americans seriously considered deviating from what was, seemingly, such a perfect pop-path to every kind of success. Now, though, “the ordinary life” doesn’t conjure up pretty little images for most people. Most adults around aren’t living comfortable lives. Most people aren’t content with the social narratives…