From: jimruttshow8596
This article explores the complexities of navigating social justice while maintaining personal integrity, drawing on the ideas of philosopher Hanzi Freinacht, particularly from his book 12 Commandments for Extraordinary People to Master Ordinary Life. It delves into the intellectual and cultural shifts that have shaped contemporary approaches to self-improvement and societal change, positioning metamodernism as a path forward that integrates critical perspectives with a constructive, developmental vision.
The Postmodern Critique and its Aftermath
Hanzi Freinacht’s philosophical journey began in a postmodern academic setting, where critical perspectives on power relations, language, the social construction of reality, and gender/class dynamics were central to understanding society. This environment highlighted how knowledge is always subject to power relationships 02:22:02. While acknowledging the importance of these critiques and the “moral sensibilities” of postmodernism 03:08:08, Freinacht sought to move beyond mere deconstruction. He aimed to “construct something” new, embracing integral theory and developmental psychology as “important pieces of the puzzle” 03:01:05.
This led to his engagement with metamodernism, a term originating from cultural theorists analyzing contemporary arts and pop culture. Freinacht proposed combining the “sensibilities of really analyzing culture at depth” with “more spiritual and developmental perspectives that try to construct something after the postmodern deconstruction” 03:52:00. This approach maintains the “critical elements that sociologists and people in the humanities and people on the political left or people with Outsider perspectives have cultivated for a long time” 04:12:00 but uses them “for creating visions” 04:27:00. The goal is a “developmental view of that if we are to create sane Societies or sustainable Societies or societies capable of surviving we must become much better at supporting the inner growth of human beings” 04:32:00, optimizing institutions for this growth.
The Response to Postmodernism: Peterson vs. Metamodernism
Hanzi contrasts his metamodern approach with that of Jordan Peterson, whose rise gained significant cultural momentum around 2017. Peterson, in Hanzi’s view, mounted a crusade defending “truth University versus justice University” 05:31:00, later formalizing his political philosophy as conservatism or classical liberalism 06:25:00.
“The response to post-modernism was here but it wasn’t metamodernism it didn’t take a step forward… it just took a step back” 06:10:00.
Peterson’s focus on “modern values of responsibility, of individualism, of being careful with to sloppily using a collective identities” 07:11:00 represented a “regression backwards Back to Basics” 07:08:00. While Peterson’s critique of postmodernism was “timely and in many ways useful,” it “didn’t bring with it all the gains of or the moral sensibilities of post-modernism” 08:19:00. According to Hanzi, this intellectual edifice did not lead to “the birth of the movement that our world needs nor the birth of a movement which I feel is intellectually and spiritually satisfying” 08:53:00.
Hanzi’s book, 12 Commandments for Extraordinary People to Master Ordinary Life, serves as a direct “metamodern response to Jordan Peterson’s self-help” 09:42:00. It offers a “completely different life philosophy,” with an “underlying sentimentality” and “aesthetics” that are distinct 10:06:00. It presents a “somewhat more laid back Vision” and a “more hopeful Vision” that is simultaneously “more secular and skeptical and more deeply spiritual or religious” 10:37:00.
Instead of retreating to values reminiscent of 1965—a time when “women were subordinated to men black people in the United States… were legally subordinated” 12:09:00—metamodernism seeks to move forward. It aims to “take what’s useful from modernism what’s useful from post-modernism and step to the next level which is meta-modernism” 12:41:00. The book is intended as a “handbook for sanity” for individuals and communities within the “liminal web of radical social Changers” 01:24:00, particularly the “transnational creative class” or “Triple H population (the hippies the hipsters and the hackers)” 39:13:00. It addresses the “mad potentials” but also the common pitfalls like failed relationships and projects, emphasizing the need for a “life philosophy that is congruent with being crazy with being radical or thinking outside of the box” 14:45:00 without reproducing a world that is “going down the drain” 14:38:00.
Addressing the “Meaning Crisis” and the Role of Magic
The discussion touches on the “meaning crisis,” often attributed to the rejection of “two-world thinking,” magic, and the supernatural 15:37:00. Hanzi Freinacht acknowledges that this leaves many feeling at sea. He clarifies his stance on “magic”: not as something that breaks the laws of physics, but as a deeper “phenomenology” or a richer “fabric of the world” experienced by “highly developed people” 17:53:00.
He posits a “paradox”: while enlightenment often implies the removal of superstition, more “enlightened people” might experience “magical thinking” more often 17:16:00. This occurs when there’s a gap between one’s “cognitive capacities and models” and the “sense of the Enchantment of… reality” 19:05:00. This gap is then “filled with magic” 19:29:00. Conversely, if one’s mind explains more than their phenomenology senses, the world can appear “dead matter or somehow dull or mundane,” leading to “reductionism” and an “anti-spiritual” tendency 21:09:00.
The central task is to learn to oscillate between these seeming opposites—skepticism (irony) and spiritual experience (sincerity) 22:02:00. Initially difficult, this oscillation becomes faster and more refined. Eventually, the mind makes a “leap to a third position or into a superposition where both are true simultaneously” 25:23:00. From this vantage point, “the more ruthless you become in your scientific scrutiny of reality the farther you can safely travel into the magical realm and into spiritual experience” 25:40:00. This approach seeks to transcend the traditional divide of science and spirituality. Other figures like Brendan Graham Dempsey (with “Emergentism,” a “secular religion out of complexity and the phenomenon of emergence”) and John Vervaeke (with his “religion that is not a religion”) are also exploring this “third stage” of integration 26:42:00.
Subjective States and Societal Well-being
A core concept in Hanzi’s work is the idea of “states,” referring to “first-person reality” or “phenomenology” 28:50:00. These range from low states of “sheer Terror” 29:36:00 to high states of “cosmic expanse” and “intense beauty” 30:10:00. Hanzi introduces “State 7” as the “medium range” where most people are “okay dot dot dot sort of” 30:27:00, characterized by underlying tension or uneasiness. “State 8” signifies a “genuinely okay” feeling, a sense of “safety and okayness” where “life feels fresh and alive” 32:25:00.
Hanzi argues that modern civilization’s complexity, information deluge, and looming global pressures (geopolitical shifts, climate change, demographic crunch) contribute to the prevalence of State 7. He believes that “life is going to get tougher” 37:01:00, making it “yet more important that we become masters of our own subjective states” 38:27:00. This mastery fosters “social resilience” and enables more “productively and energetically” responding to challenges, rather than “overreacting” or “buy[ing] into crazy schemes” 38:45:00. The book aims to provide clarity to achieve and maintain State 8 39:00:00.
The 12 Commandments: Principles for Extraordinary People
Hanzi’s new book presents “12 Commandments” as a guide for personal transformation.
1. Live in a Mess Moderately
This commandment directly counters Jordan Peterson’s “clean up your room” philosophy. Hanzi argues that “you don’t owe having a neat home to anybody nor do you have to have a life in perfect order to valuably partake in society and work for its improvements” 41:00:00. He cites research suggesting a correlation between intelligence and messiness 41:24:00, and warns that excessive orderliness can lead to judgmentalism 41:42:00. He differentiates between “social reductionism” (reducing individual issues to societal ones, avoiding personal responsibility) and “individualist reductionism” (reducing social issues to individual ones, blaming the victim) 43:03:00. The point is not to ignore personal responsibility but to avoid imposing a rigid, external order that may hinder creative and social engagement.
2. Fuck Like a Beast (Cosmoeroticism)
This controversial commandment emphasizes reconnecting with one’s animalistic, embodied self to “feel alive” and develop a “cosmoerotic” love for reality 45:11:00. It’s about overcoming inhibitions and getting “through your traumas and these blockages that you have of the emotional body” 46:13:00. When “life is on mute” due to unhealed issues, “we dial down everything the hurt and and the pleasure and the joy and the aliveness” 46:52:00. The path to “unleash the Beast” involves facing difficult issues, getting “in trouble” and resolving it, which can unlock a sense of aliveness, clear thinking, and passionate engagement with life 48:21:00. This process allows for increased “free flow” by going “through the pain” 48:12:00.
3. Live Sincerely Ironic
This commandment addresses the oscillation between skepticism (irony) and deep belief (sincerity). Hanzi argues that “you cannot be sincere enough if you are not entirely ironic as well” 50:46:00. Irony allows for distance and self-awareness, acknowledging that one’s beliefs might be wrong 51:39:00. However, “if you’re just stuck in irony you have nothing to live for nothing to believe in” 52:25:00. True sincerity, conversely, requires “ironic enough to check your facts to check the counter position to leave a certain amount of Doubt” 54:54:00. This “ironic sincerity” is “real sincerity” because it incorporates self-critique and openness to being wrong, preventing dogmatism and cult-like belief systems often seen when people are “zero percent ironic” 55:29:00. This posture allows for “intelligent defenses” that lead to relaxation and the ability to “express every thought that you have and put it on paper and publish it without a blink” 57:05:00.
4. Quit
Often counter-cultural, this commandment emphasizes that quitting can be a strength. While “never give up” is often touted, quitting is “underemphasized” 01:01:04. Hanzi argues that “the strength of quit is also largely has also largely gone unseen” and that “it is the basis of Freedom” 01:01:38. Knowing one can quit a job, habit, or even a relationship provides a sense of choice, allowing greater energy to be applied to chosen paths. Practicing quitting small things builds the “skill set” for larger, more difficult decisions, freeing up time and resources for new, more optimized opportunities 01:02:47.
5. Do the Walk of Shame
This is not about public humiliation but an internal “walk through your own gallery of shameful Memories” 01:05:16. Shame is “the most inhibitory feeling” 01:05:31, locking down the body and mind. The goal is to inventory shameful memories and “feel through the shame until you get used to it until it leaves your body” 01:06:53. This process, along with addressing guilt (which requires deeper self-honesty to overcome “obfuscations of the mind” and excuses) 01:08:56, is crucial for breaking blockages and increasing aliveness. It allows individuals to revisit past situations with new wisdom, distinguishing between valid guilt and misplaced shame based on idiotic “local convention[s]” 01:08:11.
6. Sacrifice Immortality
This commandment confronts the fear of death and the human tendency to be “ashamed of their strengths virtues and talents” 01:12:44. Hanzi posits that a “lingering part” of fear of death, potentially influenced by religious concepts like hell and eternal damnation, remains, despite secular reasoning 01:14:18. This fear is deeply rooted in stages of human development and cultural conditioning. The “reverse death therapy” concept involves imagining oneself without one’s gifts and successes, stripping away external achievements to reveal what remains 01:17:48. This process, often uncomfortable, serves to anchor an individual in their core being.
7. Heal with Justice
This commandment represents the “top of the Arc” of the book, linking personal healing to social justice. Once liberated from personal shame, guilt, and fear, and free from spiritual bypassing, one can become a “Righteous Rebel” 01:19:11.
“Justice Means wholeness or it means that social relations are put in into proportional” 01:19:54.
Injustice, where social relations are asymmetrical or based on “false premises,” causes hurt and diminishes aliveness 01:20:06. Healing involves aligning “words… actions… perceptions… [and] emotions” in the “transpersonal space between us” 01:20:52. The world is full of “disalignments” and “cracks in Social reality” 01:21:42.
“To heal the world is to fight for justice it’s not necessarily about Naval gazing it’s not about being kind or tough it’s not about creating one particular political system it’s not about fighting for this particular group against that one or this particular religion it just gets back to this okay are things are the social relationships in proportion” 01:21:56.
This aligns with Carl Rogers’ idea of “congruence,” where deep values are lived, not just held 01:23:27. It means starting social justice “from within with congruence in your own life” 01:25:15, flowing into external action that is “non-hypocritical” 01:26:10. Hanzi notes that a tell of injustice or lack of congruence in communication is the excessive use of adjectives, suggesting a need to “skew the language” to hide something 01:27:38.
8. Burn Your Maps
This commandment challenges deeply held worldviews or “maps of the world” 01:28:45. People tend to believe their personal map is the “best possible map,” an “optical illusion” 01:34:26.
“Wouldn’t it be a very good investment in time and resources and in ourselves to maybe put aside some of our efforts to challenge the actual map” 01:31:07.
Holding onto a flawed map can lead to doing “more harm than good” 01:33:46. By shedding personal burdens (shame, fear, unhelpful relationships), one gains “inner spaciousness” to hold their map “less hysterically” and “sincerely ironically imagine other possible worlds” 01:32:06. This continuous process of “radically refactor[ing]” one’s world map is crucial for growth and living a fulfilling life 01:34:05.
9. Kill Your Guru and Find Your Others
Hanzi critically views the “guru game,” where individuals seek “secret knowledge” from a single authority figure 01:36:35. He finds it problematic that people spend “hours and hours” consuming content from one person, suggesting it’s a form of “Guru enthralled” pseudo-participation 01:37:40. This often stems from what Jungians call the “Golden Shadow,” where one projects their own unexpressed potential onto a guru, anxious about fully manifesting their own gifts 01:38:37.
“That is an adult version of believing in Santa Claus” 01:39:53.
Instead of following gurus, true growth comes from “triangulating different perspectives” and “exploring the world everywhere,” turning “every Rock” 01:40:11. The commandment to “kill the guru” means embracing personal enlightenment and forging one’s own path. The alternative is to “find people who can actually play laterally with you who can actually be part of your team” 01:41:08. These are “loyal friends” who are on the “same wavelength,” allowing for true collaboration and exponential power, as seen in the “game B” principle of “find the others” and “coherence” within groups 01:42:14. This model promotes shared leadership and transparency, moving away from “worship[ing] these plaster Saints” 01:43:37.
10. Play for Forgiveness
The final commandment brings the book’s arc to a “happy point,” emphasizing that “happiness in and of itself actually contains ending or conclusion within it” 01:45:07. It’s not a command to simply forgive, which might be unrealistic or premature in ongoing struggles. Instead, “you must play for forgiveness” 01:45:39, recognizing it as the ultimate conclusion to life’s narratives.
“When the whole thing is Forgiven when when it no longer has a grip on your soul when when there’s no longer resentment poisoning your mind when you have a sense of Letting Go a sense of of just openness” 01:46:19.
An “accomplished life” is one where “we forgive the world for not being perfect for not being good to us all the time” 01:46:34. This involves acknowledging the difficult and unfair aspects of reality without allowing resentment to dominate 01:47:19. Hanzi introduces “reverse Christianity,” where instead of God forgiving sins, “it’s we that you should forgive God” or the highest principle for the “imperfections of reality” 01:47:49. This leads to greater “peace of mind” and ensures that actions stem “less from resentment and more from care and love or or search for truth” 01:48:18. Forgiveness is presented not as a binary state but as a process with “sub steps,” beginning with self-forgiveness and moving towards forgiving others and the situation itself, ultimately leading to a “primordial wholeness” where “there is nothing to forgive” 01:49:19. This commandment sets a “deeper direction” for life, guiding individuals “home to this world” by releasing the grip of unforgiveness 01:50:45.