Schopenhauer on Uncertainty: Is Fear Just the Will to Control?

You ever try to grab water? The tighter you squeeze, the faster it slips through your fingers.

That’s life. That’s control.

That’s the joke the universe plays on us.

Arthur Schopenhauer—the grumpy German philosopher who thought life was a miserable joke—had a theory about fear.

It wasn’t just about tigers in the jungle or creditors at your door. It was about uncertainty.

The creeping realization that no matter how much we plan, no matter how many safety nets we build, we are still just one random event away from chaos.

You want to control the uncontrollable? Tough luck.

1. Fear is Just the Brain on Overdrive

Your brain is a lousy gambler, always placing bets it can’t win. It scans every situation like a security guard on overtime, looking for threats.

And when it doesn’t find one? It invents one.

You ever sit in a perfectly quiet room and feel nervous for no reason?

That’s your brain running simulations, trying to predict disasters.

You could be sitting on a comfortable couch with a sandwich in your hand, and your mind will whisper, What if you lose your job tomorrow? What if your car breaks down? What if the sandwich is poisoned?

It’s exhausting.

Schopenhauer would say this is just the Will messing with us—this blind, irrational force that keeps us moving forward but never lets us rest.

It doesn’t care if you’re happy. It just wants to keep you chasing, keep you fearing, keep you planning.

But here’s the thing: the future is never what you expect.

The job you’re worried about? Maybe you quit before you ever get fired.

The car breaking down? Maybe it leads you to an old friend at the repair shop.

The poisoned sandwich? Okay, that one’s unlikely.

Point is, the future never listens to your fears.

2. We Are Not That Powerful

People love to think they’re in control. We wear fancy suits, make grand plans, and schedule dentist appointments six months in advance, as if the universe is taking notes.

But we’re just overgrown apes, stumbling around, pretending we know what we’re doing.

Deep down, we know it’s a lie. That’s why uncertainty rattles us—it reminds us that we’re just passengers, not drivers.

Imagine a monkey trying to control the weather. That’s us, refreshing the news every five minutes, hoping the stock market won’t crash, hoping the doctor calls with good news, hoping the world won’t throw a curveball.

But the weather doesn’t care. The stock market doesn’t care. The world doesn’t care.

Schopenhauer would say the only thing we control is our own perspective. And even that is debatable.

3. The Illusion of Control is Our Favorite Drug

Control is addictive. That’s why we overanalyze texts, double-check locks, and rehearse conversations in our heads before they even happen.

Ever watch someone lose their mind over a delayed flight?

They act like yelling at the airline will make the plane appear. It won’t.

But it makes them feel like they’re doing something. That’s what we do with uncertainty. We keep busy, we keep checking, we keep tweaking things, hoping it’ll make a difference.

It rarely does.

You ever notice how the people who try to control everything end up the most miserable?

They’re the ones sending five follow-up emails, watching GPS updates like a hawk, planning every second of a vacation until it feels like a corporate retreat.

Meanwhile, the people who accept uncertainty—the ones who shrug and say, We’ll see what happens—they’re the ones laughing, relaxing, living.

Schopenhauer would tell you to stop trying to tame the ocean. Just ride the wave.

4. Anxiety is Just Fear in a Fancy Suit

Schopenhauer had a way of making everything sound dramatic.

And maybe he was onto something. He saw anxiety as just another form of fear—a fear without a clear enemy.

A lion in front of you? That’s fear.

A vague sense that something terrible might happen? That’s anxiety.

And anxiety is dangerous because it never runs out of material. It doesn’t need real threats.

It just needs possibilities.

What if she leaves? What if they laugh at you? What if the world ends next Tuesday?

It’s like an artist painting nightmares on a blank canvas, except the canvas is your brain.

Schopenhauer would say the only way to stop it is to step back and see it for what it is—just the Will throwing shadows on the wall.

And shadows can’t actually hurt you.

5. The Internet Makes It Worse

Schopenhauer didn’t have Wi-Fi, but if he did, he’d probably throw his laptop out the window.

The internet is an uncertainty machine. Every time you check the news, you’re rolling the dice.

War? Economic collapse? A new study that says coffee will kill you? It’s all there, waiting to fuel your fear.

We weren’t built for this. Our ancestors worried about nearby dangers—wolves, storms, angry neighbors.

Now we worry about everything, everywhere, all at once.

And social media? Even worse. It’s just people trying to control how they’re seen, curating their lives like museum exhibits.

But the more we control our image, the more afraid we become of losing control. It’s a trap.

Schopenhauer would probably delete his account.

6. We Sabotage Ourselves Because We Can’t Handle the Wait

You ever see someone ruin a good thing just because they couldn’t handle the suspense?

They text too much. They micromanage. They push people away before they can leave first.

It’s not that they want to ruin things—it’s that they can’t handle not knowing what’ll happen next.

Waiting is torture. The unknown is unbearable. So instead of letting things unfold, they pull the plug themselves. At least then, they’re the ones in control.

Schopenhauer would call this a tragedy. I’d call it human nature.

7. The Only Way Out is to Stop Fighting It

You ever see someone float in the ocean? They don’t thrash, they don’t fight—they just let the water hold them up. That’s how you deal with uncertainty.

You stop trying to control every outcome. You stop demanding guarantees. You stop checking your phone for answers that don’t exist.

Schopenhauer would say suffering comes from wanting things to be different than they are.

So maybe the trick isn’t to eliminate uncertainty. Maybe the trick is to learn to live with it.

Table Summary: Schopenhauer on Uncertainty

Point	Takeaway
Fear is just the brain on overdrive	Your mind tries to predict the future, but it sucks at it.
We think we’re gods, but we’re not	Uncertainty reminds us we’re not in charge.
The illusion of control is our favorite drug	We micromanage everything just to feel safe.
Anxiety is fear in a fancy suit	Fear of the unknown is worse than actual danger.
The internet makes it worse	More news, more uncertainty, more stress.
We sabotage ourselves	If we destroy things first, at least we controlled something.
The only way out is to stop fighting	Accept that life is chaos and learn to float.

So What Now?

You’re waiting for some grand solution, aren’t you? Some neat trick to make fear disappear?

Well, there isn’t one.

Schopenhauer would tell you that life is uncertainty.

The Will is always going to want control, and you’re always going to feel the fear of not having it.

But if you stop trying to predict, stop trying to win the unwinnable game—maybe you’ll finally breathe.

Or maybe you’ll keep checking your phone. Your move.