Meaning Crisis
Contextual Quote
"Nihilism scales. We all know a sense of meaninglessness can drive a person to engage in unhealthy, self-destructive behavior (like addiction to drugs, alcohol and pornography; carelessness about relationships and breach of ethical responsibilities; apathetic lethargy, or the endless risky chasing of ephemeral highs). But when that sense of meaninglessness affects an entire society, the self-destructive symptoms manifest proportionally. The civic fabric frays; community hygiene deteriorates; the future holds no purchase on the present generation. Not just our relationships, but our institutions erode; not just our backyard, but Nature herself is left trashed. Our collective prospects dim—not singly, but en masse; not from without, but from the dark within."
- Brendan Graham Dempsey [1]
More information
- John Vervaeke, a professor of psychology and cognitive science at the University of Toronto, has made repeated reference to this survey (e.g., in an article written with Christopher Mastropietro,"Diagnosing the Current Age: A Symptomology of the Meaning Crisis," [2]. The survey in question was performed by Yakult UK, a purveyor of products and services concerned with health and wellbeing, in a poll of 1,500 Brits. The findings were first published in The Sun on August 1, 2019: [3].
- Talk by John Vervaeke: "The Meaning Crisis, Religio, and Religion in the 21st Century," available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0JxL-acvuM
* Book: Meaningness. By David Chapman.
URL = https://meaningness.com/
"David Chapman:
"meaning is real (and cannot be denied), but is fluid (so it cannot be fixed). It is neither objective (given by God) nor subjective (chosen by individuals).
The book offers resolutions to problems of meaning that avoid denial, fixation, and the impossibility of total self-determination. These resolutions are non-obvious, and sometimes unattractive; but they are workable in ways the alternatives are not."