The late comedian Robin Williams was once asked what he thought of Roe v. Wade. He said, in essence, that he preferred row because you get wet when you wade. Roe v. Wade, of course, was not a joke. Indeed, it was a tragedy. More important than that, it was a tragedy based on an illusion. The illusion, constructed on a judicial error, was that for 50 years people believed that abortion was a constitutional right.

The extreme reaction on the part of many pro-abortionists to the overturning of Roe v. Wade is a clear indication of how infuriated people can be when their illusions are withdrawn from them. In some cases, this removal has led to vandalism and threats of violence. People find comfort in illusions because they do not have enough reality under their feet to guide their lives. When their illusions are taken away, they collapse. It is as if the wind is taken out of their sails.

In the 1950 classic, Sunset Boulevard, former silent-film star Nora Desmond (played by Gloria Swanson) holds on to the illusion that she could make a triumphant return to the screen. The tragedy of this aging actress, however, is that the fantasy world she created paved the way to madness. Bit by bit, reality surrendered to her illusions until they enveloped her. By contrast, actor Johnny Depp spoke of abandoning the illusory world of Hollywood and returning to life: “Anything I’ve done till May 27, 1999, was kind of an illusion, existing without living. My daughter, the birth of my daughter, gave me life.” New life is not an illusion. It is life that summons love.

Illusions can appeal to our egos. How many of us can be a baseball hero, hitting a clutch home run at a key moment when the game is on the line? It is a dream, but seldom a reality. Former Boston Red Sox broadcaster Ken Coleman arranged this illusion for his listening audience of non-heroes. For a small fee, he would produce an audio tape, replete with crowd noise, creating the impression that the subscriber was the hero of the moment. It may have been innocent fun for the listener to hear his name glorified, but it remained a concocted illusion from which no sensible person could derive any real satisfaction.

Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard maintained that the principal function of a philosopher is to dispel illusions. Most people, he wrote, preferred to live illusory lives. Reality for them was too difficult to bear. Therefore, Kierkegaard held that most people go through life in a state of despair, alienated from who they really are. Social life for them was a masquerade party, a convivium of people who had rejected their authentic personalities. 

In Sickness unto Death, he writes: “That one is in despair is not a rarity; no, it is rare, very rare, that one is ... not in despair.” Walker Percy cites Kierkegaard in the epigraph of his National Book Award-winning The Moviegoer, saying “the specific character if despair is precisely this: it is unaware of being despair.”

Kierkegaard may have been a melancholy Dane, but he did recognize the disconcerting fact that many people are in a state of despair concerning who they should be (or the person God wants them to be). He elaborated on the “despair of weakness” (I am unable to be who I am) and “despair of defiance” (I reject who I am). Substituting an illusion for something authentic, unfortunately, is a decisive step away from reality.

Life is a series of stages. As we age, we put aside the stages that once were and make the best of what lies in front of us. Each stage passes and becomes a locked door that we cannot re-open. It is a common illusion that we can recreate past stages. Yet, each new stage offers new opportunities and unexpected rewards that previous stages did not. 

Even old age has its special blessings. Cicero, in his classic, De Senectute (On Old Age), castigates those who allege that old age is devoid of useful activity. “It is not by muscle, speed or physical dexterity that great things are achieved,” he writes, “but by reflection, force of character and judgment; in these qualities old age is usually not ... poorer, but is ever richer.”

Pope St. John Paul II adjured his priests to follow their vocation as priests and not to pursue alien interests. “You must be priests,” he urged, “not social or political leaders. Let us not be under the illusion that we are serving the Gospel through an exaggerated interest in the wide field of temporal problems.”

The second tragedy of living a life of illusions is that once they are no longer believable, the reality that was suppressed cannot be reclaimed. It is as if people were amputated. Hence, the rage. “Do not take away our illusions,” they cry. 

The painful truths, however, are that the United States Constitution does not contain a provision for abortion, and that abortion is not a harmless procedure. Those who lived for nearly 50 years mesmerized by this twin illusion need an infusion of reality and a return to life. The “right to rage” is a form of desperately trying to maintain their illusions. It is an illusion that is trying to preserve another illusion. It is an attitude of despair.