metacrisis

the "metacrisis" view points towards the perception that the set of interconnected - social, climatic, mental health, political crises of our time share a same root cause - same underlying generator functions.

it's a particular description of the human predicament that can help us better analyze/navigate the complexity of the times we're living and understand the uniquely challenging state of the world* (to add first principles stuff) in this particular moment in the history of human civilizations.

many philosophers, cognitive scientists, spiritual teachers, have been convening around this term to make sense of the situation we've found ourselves in.

one of the best introductions i found is this 11-minute video by ashley hodgson: What is the Metacrisis? Why is it Hopeful?. i highly recommend you watch it.

first principles and first values - forty-two propositions on cosmoerotic humanism, the meta-crisis and the world to come - the authors propose that at the root of the metacrisis, there's an intimacy crisis. 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).

andrea faria evidences the systems dynamics

liberatemankind's series explores

flow crisis, education crisis, (...)

definition i use: the metacrisis is, that seem to be leading us towards any or a mixture of these: a) impending systemic collapse as we approach planetary boundaries, b) authoritarian modes of damage control or c) transition into more regenerative, mature, resilient systems, civilizations and lifestyles.

main references

why learn about it

the concept of the metacrisis and the analyses of several people in the space help elucidate the underlying dynamics of our current dominant generator functions of existential risk

if we say we care about . we might not do anything in particular to address that, but broadening our horizon of care is a practice that many wisdom traditions

i strongly recommend checking out this playlist that i curated (30h of content).

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 above 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).

other great perspectives on the metacrisis

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

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

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

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

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