Despite what vendors would have you believe, the anxiety is not only a gel product chiseled, perfectly tousled Twilight phenomenon. Holden Caulfield is the king of the twentieth century, anguish, and he was walking around with a buzz cut in the 1950′s. Søren Kierkegaard set the bar of the philosophical angst in the nineteenth century and achieved while wearing a hat. And who can forget Prince Hamlet, skull-carrying, wear pants angst-er’s original European canon?

Kierkegaard, of course, looked at the distress of a strictly Western, Christian point of view, but the literary figures such as Holden and Hamlet has a record much more universal. (That is, unless you’re tired of all the agony and hesitation, in which case you should go read To Kill a Mockingbird for some of shoot first, ask questions later, he asks Scouts of wisdom). In fact, despite the language barrier potential (Hamlet: “What / is this quintessence of dust man delights not me?” Holden: “That guy Morrow was as sensitive as a goddamn toilet seat”), the two have a remarkable amount in common.

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