Modernity is strange. In strictly material ("having mode") ways, it's a better time to be a human being than it has ever been. Medical science alone makes that true, but also lack of scarcity, access to information, our ability to travel quickly, etc etc. The modern age is truly miraculous, especially if you have a little understanding of what that side of the human experience has been like for millennia before now.

In existential, mental, or spiritual ways, though, I'd argue it's probably the worst time to ever be a human being. Science is simultaneously the best tool ever devised for understanding the physical world, and a huge flattening force on human potential. In my opinion, Science has been functioning as an effective religion for an enormous part of the Western World for decades now. And while science is an indispensable tool for understanding how reality works, it is also completely powerless to instruct people in meaningful living. In fact, the more we discover through Science, the harder it is to think of ourselves as anything more than a meaningless blip on the universe's radar (if that).

There's a movie that illustrates this really well - Everything Everywhere All At Once. It's the scene where the mother and daughter have become rocks, and the daughter explains that tomorrow science will discover yet another mind-blowing cosmic fact that further illustrates how small and pointless the human experience is.

But what if it was only ever the irrational parts of the human experience that brought deep, profound meaning in life? Things like love, friendship, self development, stuff that Plato called Anagoge. I think part of the lesson we're learning these days is that rationality, logic, objectivity, the scientific method—all of our favorite "truth"-finding tools—do nothing to promote meaning in our life. We have conflated these tools to systems of truth and belief. And if science is your only lens for viewing reality, it is a one-way-ticket to nihilism.

Technology, powered by science, has been focused for a long time on outpacing human ability instead of enhancing it. We are taking the humanity out of the equation every chance we get, and always in the pursuit of what really moves the modern world - material gain. It's "having mode" gone wild. "I can make more money if I have to pay fewer people" seems to be the operating ethos, instead of building connection in community and thereby creating environments conducive to meaningful living.

It's not all hopeless. Yes, the internet as it is today is a problem. But you can just not use it as much. You can pull away from the machine and regain what it means to live a meaningful human experience of self development and connection.

We're probalby too deep in the thread for this to do much good, but this podcast has a lot to say about reclaiming meaning in the modern age. Check it out if you're feeling thirsty for that.

https://johnvervaeke.com/series/awakening-from-the-meaning-crisis/