We Traded Meaning for Convenience

The decline in American meaning -- when exactly did this seem to begin?

I spent a chunk of October writing longer-form stuff, including ditties on purpose and belonging, following something I did last year at the holidays on connection between people. I’m kind of a mess as a human being: divorced once, don’t have many friends, seem to alienate or get left behind by lots of people, etc. Can be an asshole when I drink, which thankfully I haven’t been doing as much (or at all) recently. Beyond my own particular limitations, though, I do generally believe that we’re seeing less connection and less sense of belonging among people.

I’m not working a ton these days — some smaller freelance projects — and so I’ve been doing some job-searching, sending out emails, walking the dog, writing, and watching some YouTube. I came across this the other day:

The whole thing about “OMG The World Is So Crazy!” is a little bit “overwhelm” excuse, kinda like people hiding behind “Everything is so busy” (as they know every plot point of every streaming show) or “So busy with the kids!” (as they stick their nose in their phone at every kids’ event). It’s all a bit of a farce, but at the same time, we are scaling burnout and stress — at least in America, but probably in other parts of the world too — and there’s a whole sense of people being “left behind” by “the system,” which older people tend to argue is people “quitting” or “not working hard enough.” It’s a semantic minefield out there.

Let’s dance a little bit here.

Putting some definition on “meaning”

This guy in this video defines the idea of “meaning” in 1.0s, 2.0s, that type of linear logic. To him:

• Meaning 1.0: Organized religion

• Meaning 2.0: Liberalism, good jobs, corporations, academics

• Meaning 3.0: Maybe something Elon tweets about?

Because there’s a gap between “Meaning 2.0” and “Meaning 3.0,” we’re seeing all the normal bad actors kinda rise up:

• Nihilism

• Populism

• Conspiracy theories

What happens then is people are searching for this meaning, and they find it in different ways: