The Geometry of the Meaning Crisis
Toying with this idea of "the geometry of the meaning crisis." Maybe this abstract society-scale idea will make more sense through (8) visuals and patterns. Before I unpack each, here’s a sentence on what’s going on and how to fix it: Society used to provide rigid/objective packages of meaning; we found value in shedding them, but now we’re in a world where meaning is completely subjective, and we’re lost; so instead we need to understand the structures we dissolved, synthesize opposites, and not discard them, but transcend them. (What triggered this)
OLD WORLD OBJECTIVITY WAS BAD:
- Oppressive kings
- Male dominance & slavery
- No individuality at all
- Sexual repression
- No ability to build wealth
- Single world view
- Crammed in cities
- No autonomy of thought
BUT SUBJECTIVITY LED TO EXCESS & SCRAMBLING:
- Hierarchy flattening (decline in excellence)
- Duality dissolution (gender dysphoria)
- Downsampling (identity politics, psychographics)
- Hyper-salience (sexualization of everything)
- Hyper-commodification (influencer culture)
- Rationalization (death of religion)
- Disaggregation (isolation in the suburbs)
- Complete relativity of thought (conspiracy theories)
AND SO TO SOLVE THE MEANING CRISIS, WE NEED TO NOT ABANDON FORM, BUT TO RECONFIGURE AND TRANSCEND IT:
- Create your own journey in context of death
- Honor opposites & resolve paradoxes
- Defy labels & become 1 of 1
- Build attentional discipline & immunity to triggers
- Act with agency, honest income
- Pursue mystical experiences & altered states of consciousness
- Take responsibility to forge community
- Intentional evolution of your consciousness every week