From: jimruttshow8596
The meaning crisis is a concept with two primary components: the perennial and the pertinently present [00:09:11].
Perennial Component
The perennial aspect refers to the idea that the cognitive processes making humans adaptively intelligent also render them perennially susceptible to self-deceptive and self-destructive behavior [00:09:18]. Cognition is understood as complex, dynamical, self-organizing, recursive, embodied, and enacted [00:09:32]. Due to this complexity, single, “one-shot” interventions to mitigate self-deception are likely to fail [00:09:37]. What is needed instead are “complex ecologies of practices” that can both ameliorate self-deception and enhance the fundamental adaptive connectedness at the core of cognition [00:09:44]. This connectedness is experienced by people as meaning in life, which is highly valued [00:09:57]. The coordinated engagement in both ameliorating self-deception and enhancing connectedness is considered a good understanding of wisdom [00:10:03].
Pertinently Present Component
The pertinently present component highlights a contemporary “wisdom famine” [00:10:56]. While information and knowledge are readily available (though often contested), people are unsure where to go to cultivate wisdom, which is not optional [00:10:11]. Many attempt to make “legacy religions” work or try to cobble together personal solutions [00:10:25]. This is evident in the growing demographic of “nones” – individuals with no official religious belief who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious, indicating a search for wisdom and meaning [00:10:36]. However, they do so autodidactically, which carries inherent threats and risks [00:10:50].
Historically, ecologies of practices for cultivating wisdom were “homed” and “situated” within communities by legacy religions [00:11:00]. These communities supported individuals, corrected them, and challenged them when needed, functioning as cultural education [00:11:06]. However, for many, these traditional religions are no longer viable due to historical and other reasons [00:11:21].
Pseudo-Religious Ideologies
In the absence of viable traditional frameworks, the meaning crisis is often met with “pseudo-religious ideologies” [00:11:51]. These can manifest as:
- Nostalgia/Fundamentalisms: Orienting pseudo-religiously backwards [00:12:06].
- Utopian Proposals/Totalitarianism: Orienting pseudo-religiously forwards with proposals for utopia [00:12:15].
These ideologies are seen as dangerous, often leading to bloodshed [00:12:20]. The challenge is to help people address perennial problems like self-destructive behavior, a sense of absurdity, alienation, and pervasive anxiety [00:12:37], by providing a framework integrated with a scientific-technological worldview that can also cope with the accelerating complexity of the modern milieu [00:12:50].
Meaning of Life vs. Meaning in Life
A crucial distinction in understanding the meaning crisis is between “meaning of life” and “meaning in life” [00:13:21].
- Meaning of life: Refers to a metaphysical proposition about a pre-authored or pre-ordained plan or destiny for an individual or humanity [00:13:37]. This might be preordained by an agent, a cosmic force, or other similar concepts [00:13:49]. This concept is often rejected as it presupposes a teleology to the universe that may be absent [00:14:05].
- Meaning in life: Is agnostic on metaphysical plans [00:14:17]. It refers to the “enacted senses of connection” an individual has to themselves, to other people, and to reality, which makes life worth living despite its inevitable futility, failure, frustrations, and loss [00:14:24].
Historical Context and Legacy Religions
The meaning crisis is deeply intertwined with the decline of Axial Age religions [00:19:00]. These religions (e.g., Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Abrahamic traditions, Greek philosophy) emerged after the Bronze Age collapse around 1200 BCE [00:19:05]. They arose from a period of social and cognitive experimentation, fueled by new psycho-technologies like alphabetic literacy and numeracy [00:19:30].
A uniting feature of these religions was the “Two Worlds mythology” [00:20:54]. This mythology posits that the everyday world is illusory, decadent, or misshapen, a realm of violence and suffering [00:20:57]. Through wisdom practices, one could transcend to a “real world” where things are seen as they truly are, leading to reduced suffering and violence [00:21:05]. This mythology, while initially an antidote to a world governed by raw power and empire, is no longer viable or reconcilable with modern scientific evidence and philosophical argumentation [00:22:22].
The “Two Worlds mythology” has become deeply ingrained in human cognition, leading to divisions between mind and matter, self and world, and natural and supernatural [00:23:07]. These divisions have had “noxious consequences” [00:23:38], trapping individuals in subjectivity and creating alienation from the world [00:23:44]. As Nietzsche’s critique suggests, if the purpose of this world was to lead to an “upper world” that is now considered absurd or non-viable, then this world itself appears empty of meaning [00:23:55].
Technocracy as a New Pseudo-Religion
The modern “technocracy” is presented as a new form of pseudo-religion [00:16:45]. It attempts to make choices in life by prioritizing propositional knowledge and using complicated systems to manage complex ones [00:16:49]. This is considered a “category error” [00:15:43]. Human civilization has slipped into a habit of unconsciously reaching for technological solutions (software, processes, algorithms, stories) to solve complex problems, even when these tools exacerbate the problems themselves [00:17:10]. The acceleration of technology further increases expanding complexity [00:18:17].
The secularization of the “social engineering project” (which originated in the Axial Age with the Promethean project of transcending to an upper world) means it now functions as the bearer of sacredness, rather than its servant [00:31:18]. This leads to totalitarian outcomes where “the ends justify the means” [00:31:27].
The Solution: A Religion That Is Not a Religion
The proposed solution, a “religion that is not a religion,” aims to address the meaning crisis by providing:
- A home and community for ecologies of practices [00:03:06].
- Integration with a non-avoidable scientific-technological worldview [00:03:19].
- Functionality to help people deal with self-deception and enhance their meaning in life at individual, community, and cultural levels [00:03:36].
- It seeks the functionality of traditional religions (which historically brought about significant transformation and homed practices) without their Two Worlds mythology, worldviews, or historical problems [00:04:48].
- It is explicitly non-supernatural in the everyday sense [00:22:50].
Instead of seeking “firm foundations” (a “philosopher’s disease” [01:07:16]), the focus shifts to cultivating wisdom and finding ways to cope with anxiety and absurdity without the promise of Cartesian certainty [01:10:00]. The “religion that is not a religion” aims to be a viable alternative to the void left by failing institutions, offering meaning and purpose without resorting to dangerous pseudo-religious ideologies [01:11:26].