In the 1960s existential meant black. Black polo necks, black straight hair, black framed glasses & no doubt black lungs from smoking all those Gitanes.
Jean Paul Sartre. Montmartre. Simone de Beauvoir. The Left Bank. Juliette Greco. And late night student discussions putting the world to rights.
Fifty years on & existential is back as a buzz word, a media cliché.
World War II was an existential struggle for the UK, according to someone taking part in a radio discussion on the morality of war.
According to The Times front page, Angela Merkel has said that the single currency is in the midst of an existential crisis.
Existential now seems to mean one’s very being.
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