HI List,
Thought I would share some essays I am working on. I just sent them to Alexander's Intellectual Deep Web list in response to a post noting that John Vervaeke is doing a great job highlighting the current meaning crisis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54l8_ewcOlY, but also that he does not offer much in the way of novel solutions.
Per usual, I welcome thoughts, critiques and suggestions.
Best,
G
-----Original Message-----
From: Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx
Sent: Friday, July 19, 2019 10:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: John Vervaeke - our next You Tube superstar?
Dear Alexander and other IDW Folks,
I completely agree that Vervaeke is both a brilliant teacher and highlighting a central issue for our time. And I agree with the critique that he is not offering a solution. I believe that the Tree of Knowledge System offers some key avenues for solving the global meta-crises we face. After I finish my Psychology Today Blog Series on Depression (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201905/what-do-if-you-are-depressed), I am likely going to start the process of using my blog to document the Blue Church/Red Pill problem (to use Jordan Hall's language), highlighting the argument that the West is on a trajectory akin to the Titanic and there are icebergs on the horizon and we better adjust our trajectory or profound trouble will emerge.
Attached are two drafts of essays that, if folks are interested in, I would welcome feedback. The first characterizes our meta-crises in terms of four deep problems, which include the meaning and mental health crises, the techno-environmental crisis and the digital globalization crisis. I collapse them all into the "Digital Identity Problem", and I should note here a nod of debt to Bard's Digital Libido.
Let me comment that the focus of our last Theory Of Knowledge Society Conference (held here at JMU in April) was on how we needed new "Enlightenment 2.0" knowledge/wisdom systems that could enable us to move from a postmodern fragmented pluralism to a much more integrated pluralism. Structured with this in mind, the second essay offers up the beginning of an argument as to why the dimensions/planes of existence provided by the ToK System (i.e., Matter, Life, Mind and Culture) provides a just such a map for the 21st Century. The short of it is that it is a new synthetic philosophy that affords us new ways to intersect science, human phenomenology and morality.
I am trained as a clinical psychologist, so I am ultimately thinking about this in therapeutic terms and stage of change and moving from maladaptive to more adaptive ways of being in the world. This orients me to argue we have to help humanity become aware of the problem it faces. Right now, we can see the Age of Confusion (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201512/welcome-the-age-confusion) as the symptom of the problem. People who are just living it out, think the answer is to remove their enemies. However, the actual task is to develop a stance of meta-cognitive awareness of the etiology of the symptoms and then move from that insight into a dialectic of acceptance of what is and commitment to achieving valued states of being going forward. The 2020s needs to see a great awakening of the meta-crises we face. Vervaeke is definitely doing his part. And the next phase is the deeper diagnosis that allows not only a pattern recognition of symptoms, but a structure of understanding that sets the stage for a "treatment plan" toward more optimal and sustainable functioning.
Best,
Gregg
.
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