Making Sense of the Meaning Crisis | John Vervaeke
Making Sense of the Meaning Crisis | John Vervaeke
And how it interacts with the metacrisis
Appears in this episode
“One of the problems that science has is it provides us with this explanation of the world, but doesn’t give us yet a good explanation of how we generate science. So science itself doesn't have a home in that scientific worldview, and we don't have a home within that scientific worldview. And that’s very problematic if you want people to feel connected to themselves, each other.
“So we had this historical movement which has undermined ecologies of practices and wisdom institutions. We keep trying to make politics the place that does all this heavy lifting. We drenched the world in blood in the first half of the 20th century, in which we created mass pseudo religious political movements, and we’re doing it again. Everything is politicised—but everybody feels disenfranchised from politics. They think it's corrupt and full of bullshit and gridlocked. That paradox tells you that people somehow know intuitively that that framing isn't the right way, but they don't know what the alternative is.”
John Vervaeke is a cognitive scientist at the University of Toronto and world renowned thinker, bridging science and spirituality in order to understand the experience of meaningfulness: how to cultivate it and why it’s crucial for human beings.
John joins me to discuss “the meaning crisis”—the global phenomenon of modern humans having access to so much, and yet so little profundity. Referencing neurobiology, faith and behavioural science, John explains the impact the meaning crisis is having on individuals all around the world, and what to do about it.
We then explore its intersection with the metacrisis, and the historical traditions which are the root of our global energy, economic and climate crisis. Critically, John says we cannot solve the climate crisis without addressing the cultural forces driving the meaning crisis.
Making Sense of the Meaning Crisis | John Vervaeke
Fabulous.
This conversation took actual effort and patience to follow but totally worth the time and investment.
Thank you so much.
There is so much in this episode that it's going to take many listens. I got to about episode 20 in John's 50 part series about a year ago, but got a bit lost, so it was really useful to hear this distilled version. I think this goes hand in hand with the Jeremy Lent episode. If people individually and collectively have lost the meaning of their existence and grip on reality, how can they be expected to engage with, or even care about the existential problems we face.
Question: Is it possible to describe meaning without using the word "meaning"?
I'd be interested to know if John was talking about something specific when he said that he was witnessing a new movement of meaning growing..not his exact words, or was it a general impression. I heard someone once describe this as being like mycelium, a vast network growing underground, that we don't see or perceive until at some point like magic, the fruiting bodies will start to appear.
As always, insightful and searching questions from the interviewer. Even John was impressed.