Hi Chance (and others),
I often use the Maslow schematic to make exactly the point you make here. I will regularly frame it in terms of the problem of psychology. That is, modern science oriented us to gain mastery over the material and biological worlds, but our advances in both psychological knowledge and psychological fulfillment have not kept up. Indeed, we are arguably more alienated and disenchanted than in times past. And, of course in recent years we are seeing a very clear mental health crisis and a full blown Age of Anxiety.
So, we definitely need work on fostering belonging and esteem needs. That is we need to “solve the RV-SI” Black line problem and foster social institutions, cultural values and community and family connections and enable us to engage in the love of the other while protecting and honoring our self (to use a frame my friend and fellow TOKer Michael Mascolo often invokes). We also need to revive “spiritual” practices that enable greater capacities for us to transcend the ego and actualize our potential.
As I have mentioned a couple of times on this list, I recommend John Vervaeke’sAwakening to the Meaning Crisis series for those who really want to dive into these issues (it is 50 hour long lectures, so it does require serious investment). If you want a summary of his thinking in a single interview, here is one he recently did.
Hope everyone had a good new decade celebration. Let’s hope there is an awakening in the 2020’s and we are able to achieve some more clarity and consensus regarding the situation we find ourselves in.
Best,
G
From: tree of knowledge system discussion <[log in to unmask]>On Behalf Of Chance McDermott
Sent: Tuesday, December 31, 2019 3:38 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: best year ever?
Thank you Gregg,
One take away is that the aggregate world is getting better within the first 2 levels of Maslow's Hierarchy (sustenance and physical safety), whereas we at the individual level may experience a decline in material wealth whilst tasked with synchronizing chaotic justification systems and relational needs.
-Chance
On Sun, Dec 29, 2019 at 11:02 AM Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi TOK Society,
I hope this finds you well. In many ways, 2019 has seen a continuation and deepening of the Age of Confusion, and I remain scared for our future. At the same time, it is also the case that the nature of news and how we pay attention to the larger world deeply shapes our impression of it. (One cognitive science reason for this is that if we pay attention all the time to bad stuff, that means we have many available examples of bad stuff, which means we think it is happening at a much greater rate than it is…this is one of the biases of how we think called the availability heuristic).
The fact is the world is very complicated and many things are happening at once. The real world is much, much more complicated than our models of it. And it is clearly the case that we need to look at the world via many different lenses. For those who are pessimistic and feeling a bit dismayed, I recommend Nicholas Kristof’s annual summary of how the world is improving. Here is his 2019 version.
I recommend it. I also recommend Ross Douthat’s interesting piece on why the 2010s were “psychologically traumatic”. Indeed, I think they were. Few things more traumatic to the psyche than profound existential confusion.
Warm regards to all,
Gregg
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