There are levels of consciousness to expressions of despair. (
here) The lowest level deals with "The Despair that is
Ignorant of Being Despair, or the Despairing
Ignorance of Having a Self and an Eternal Self"
Compared with the person who is conscious of his despair, the despairing individual who is ignorant of his despair is simply a negativity further away from the truth and deliverance.... Yet ignorance is so far from breaking the despair or changing despair to nondespairing that it can in fact be the most dangerous form of despair.... An individual is furthest from being conscious of himself as spirit when he is ignorant of being in despair. But precisely this—not to be conscious of oneself as spirit—is despair, which is spiritlessness... (p. 44f.).
Basically, this is a human being that, for all intents and purposes, completely identifies themselves with their embodiment, environment, personal memory and imagination such that they are
NOT really living as true "persons"...but merely as "individuals" that are little more than reflections of enculturation and socialization. This is in the Aesthetic Stage. This is what I believe, Jeff, you described in the bolded part of your statment above. Still despair...just less conscious. Using language from the movie "The Matrix", it would be like "coppertop" human beings in the Matrix that have become identified with and defined by their sensory experiences in the Matrix...obliviously letting the Matrix tell them who they are.
I think
MOST PEOPLE live that way. Spiritual zombies. Walking billboards of culture.
The person in the Ethical Stage actually believes that he "has a self" and a serious responsibility as chooser--therefore more personal commitment than what exist in the Aesthetic stage--but then LOSES himself in moral functionalism to universal and/or divinely ordained principles, trying to choose for the right principles in order to ground himself as "self" in his choosing rightly...instead of throwing himself on God's mercy and love in all his OWN particularity.
This seems just like what Kantian altruism would lead to.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.