metacrisis

about

the term "metacrisis" was coined by philosophers nicholas hedlund and sean esbjörn-hargens, and has been further adopted by a loosely associated community of big picture thinkers, spiritual practitioners, cognitive scientists, regenerative activists, systems change facilitators and more, often also gathering around the terms metamodernism, integral theory and regeneration, with daniel schmachtenberger probably being the most well-known spokesperson. (see: life itself's ecosystem map for an overview of associated/adjacent communities)

the term has several different definitions (which i explore more below), but the one i like the most sees it as pointing towards the perception that the set of interconnected crises of our time - social, ecological, economic, political, informational, existential - might share a same root cause, the same underlying set of generator functions.

there are other terms often used by other researchers and practitioners that point to similar perspectives, such as polycrisis and the anthropocene, however the body of work that has been emerging out of the "metacrisis" space provides the deepest and broadest analyses i've found of our present human predicament, which can help us navigate the complexity and make informed decisions to address the uniquely challenging state of the world.

i.e., in short: i use the term "metacrisis" to refer to our human condition of growing existential and catastrophic risks propelled by recurring coordination failures in trying to address the root causes of systemic degeneration and the need to redesign our civilizational systems as omni-considerate ones, if we're to be wise stewards of the first truly global society in the history of human civilizations.

the many different perspectives on the metacrisis seem to converge to two conclusions:

at the core of the metacrisis there's 1) the dominant metaphysics, ontology and ways of living of our culture being disconnected from value, sacredness, and a sense of interdependence with each other and with nature itself, and consequently 2) a socioeconomic system that predates on its own life support systems (ecological substrate).

why learn about it

upon coming into contact with the term, i notice many people feel intimidated/overwhelmed by it. "aren't we doing much better than in the past?" "i don't want to be thinking about the times we're living as a crisis, it seems too negative." and while there are many other perspectives in the space that emphasize the brightest aspects of our times (from crisis to crossing, the great transition, the regenerative renaissance, a second renaissance, etc) i found that there's a very good reason to use this term.

when you stay with the perception that for many people around the world - alive now and in the world to come - these crises are or will be very present in their immediate reality, and there might be a limited set of specific underlying dynamics that are determining vast majority of the outcomes of our prevalent systems, there's enormous hope and energy that we might actually be able to recognize it and design better ones. it can be very powerful and liberating to see that.

there's a lot of work in trying to understand what's really going on, balancing the different perspectives, interests, power struggles, etc. however, if we want to survive and thrive as a species, at this moment, we're both uniquely challenged and prepared to do so as well. the more perspectives, and the more ways to navigate them, the better.

unfortunately, it's very common to maintain attitudes of indifference/complacency or resignation from the struggle of dealing with/working on transforming the dominant power structures. if we say we care about life on earth - be it only our dear friends/family, humanity at large, animals, plants, and/or all beings - we have a responsibility to care for it. collectively, we are not doing nearly enough, letting outdated systems of command and control bring out the worst of us and limit both our actions and our imaginations.

we might feel powerless to address all of that, but broadening our horizon of care and slowly developing capacity to hold the complexity of what's going on and maintain a healthy conduct is a practice that wisdom traditions seem to be proposing since the beginning of our history.

recommended resources

the simplest introductions i found were this 4-minute read by ernesto van peborgh and this 11-minute video by ashley hodgson: What is the Metacrisis? Why is it Hopeful?. a bit more technical one is najia shaukat lupson's introduction to the metacrisis podcast (47 min).

if you want to get started diving into this content, i strongly recommend checking out this playlist that i curated, interwoven with the other text-centric resources i list below.

this introductory infographic also sums it up in somewhat nicely (with some account for the tech-centric bias/propositions of the creators):

other references that are briefly introduced in the playlist and that deserve very considerate readings are:

first principles and first values - forty-two propositions on cosmoerotic humanism, the meta-crisis and the world to come⁹⁶ - a must read. the authors propose that at the root of the metacrisis, there's an intimacy crisis⁹⁷. a crisis of disconnection. of ourselves, of the other, of the planet - and primarily, of the field of value (which is different but very close to what's often times referred to as "the sacred" or "the true, the good and the beautiful" by other wisdom traditions). this, in turn, has deep consequences in the design of pretty much every dominant system and institution in our society today, leading to the many crises we're witnessing.

andrea farias (diome.xyz⁹⁶), vanessa andreotti⁹⁶ (hospicing modernity) and culture hack labs⁹⁵ (post capitalist philanthropy & their issues) also evidence the underlying systems dynamics of the metacrisis in different but similar ways.

other powerful perspectives include:

zak stein - education is the metacrisis - manifesto for the transformative education alliance - one of the best breakdowns of the metacrisis + very powerful, clear, inspiring writing

john vervaeke - meaning crisis⁹⁷ - lots of good content from around it, more useful for understanding/navigating the (inner) psychological crises of our time.

jonathan rowson - tasting the pickle: ten flavours of meta-crisis and the appetite for a new civilisation

josh williams's an introduction to the metacrisis introduces it pretty well especially from the perspective of catastrophic and existential risks.

josh field - flow crisis⁹⁷ - a few less-known but very interesting/valuable perspectives on it.

life itself ecosystem map - a pretty good map of the organizations/communities in the space.

a few extensive websites/compilations:

https://www.sloww.co/meta-crisis-101/ - the deepest / most multi-perspectival introduction to it, though quite dense, especially for first timers. i recommend checking out some of daniel schmachtenberger's videos on the playlist i mentioned before, as a more palatable introduction.

https://metacrisis.org/ - a meta-resource - links to lots of other great content and resources.

https://wiki.metacrisis.xyz/ - a great and extensive index of perspectives for diagnosis, response patterns and projects addressing multiple parts of it.

https://metacrisis.xyz/ - a few particularly influential folks trying to curate, articulate and coordinate around the metacrisis.

https://www.gameb.wiki/ - a wiki with not a lot, but very relevant content, great for rabbit hole investigations/deep dives.

an incomplete yet useful way to break down the metacrisis

i found it useful to highlight 5 "core", interdependent crises underpinning the metacrisis:

the spiritual/psychological, ecological, political, economic and educational crises.

which can then be broken down into several other crisis and dynamics:

-> spiritual/psychological -> mental health, meaning, existential, intimacy crisis, etc...
-> ecological -> health, climate, energy crisis, etc...
-> political -> legitimacy crisis, coordination failure, geopolitical risks, etc...
-> economic -> financial collapse, technological risk, capability crisis, perverse incentives, etc...
-> educational -> sensemaking, wisdom crisis, trust crisis, etc...

they loosely map into the four quadrants/5 elements framework, which helps to navigate/coordinate around it. they are crises of different inter-relating dimensions (inner, outer, individual, collective).