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Everyone’s Existential Crisis

palladiummag.com · 4,466 words · saved by 1 readers

Many believe we are undergoing a crisis of meaning as a society. This sentiment is common among my friends in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I have encountered it far and wide beyond my social circles. The sense is that in the fairly recent past there were social narratives that were both fulfilling and rewarding to participate in, but that for our generation and seemingly subsequent generations to come, it is becoming harder and harder to find and buy into a compelling shared telos. This is the sense of meaninglessness that prompts some people into wistful longing for war, causes others to turn inward and overindulge in meditation and psychedelics, and prompts many to talk about needing a sense of “shared mission.” The experience has spurred and will continue to spur discussion of values, policies, and culture—arguments over which beliefs and tenets are importantly right or importantly wrong, and which behaviors we should encourage or discourage. Much of this discussion is futile, be

Brian Ziff/Grimes Many believe we are undergoing a crisis of meaning as a society. This sentiment is common among my friends in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I have encountered it far and wide beyond my social circles. The sense is that in the fairly recent past there were social narratives that were both fulfilling and rewarding to participate in, but that for our generation and seemingly subsequent generations to come, it is becoming harder and harder to find and buy into a compelling shared telos. This is the sense of meaninglessness that prompts some people into wistful longing for war,

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