The Flip, Formation and the Fun - A Metamodern Framework for Human Futures

A call for three cultural shifts: a metaphysical “flip” that treats consciousness and value as fundamental. Next, a moral “formation” that moves from utilitarianism to virtue ethics and education for character. Finally, a political “fun” that redirects society from growth for its own sake toward creative, intrinsic ends.

• We understand that crises are connected, but then we attempt to treat it like every other crisis
• Metacrisis encourages us to look within and look beyond
• It identifies ‘the problem’ as a multifaceted, deep delusion writ large - one that manifests in terms of economy, war, extraction, human relationships etc.
• An underlying story of the human being and the meaning and purpose of life that permeates everything
• Dissonance - “I want life to carry on as it is in some ways, but also feel that everything needs to change”
• It’s difficult to see a way through - what would a metanoia / a transformative/transcendence in overall worldview - what does it look like?
• Seeing people as first and foremost human, before considering politics - like you, they fell into the world with a certain set of circumstances and then through that formation they developed the views they have - this understanding can help build tenderness eg shell ceo is constrained by certain things [justification of work to change the constraints!]
• ‘Modern’ means ‘new’ - an orientation towards the future. It is considered to have begun around 400-600 years ago and we’re still in it now.
• We’re also still premodern too - sites of the premodern eg taliban, orthodox religion
• Post-modern (modernity on stilts) - critiques modernity, by saying that there isn’t one single story - the story of science, reason and progress works better for some than it does others - the story has a shadow eg colonialism, extraction, slavery etc
• Metamodern - reconciliation of the modern and post modern mindset - the modern mindset has a lot going for it (eg anaesthesia at the dentist), but it has a shadow - but you don’t want to get lost in the critique - you have to provide a positive world vision, a set of ideas to believe in - they will have the drive and progress of modernity, but also flesh ideas out by saying think of it from feminist points of view etc
• Cosmo- local - aware of planetary sensibility, but action is local
• Metamodern encapsulates mixed emotions - times are horrendous and yet it’s beautiful
• A new sensibility is arising - people are reckoning with the fact that we can’t go on like this, but there is also reckoning that there is no operative agency at the global level to support this reckoning
• We have a tendency to step back and see the whole and then want to fix the problem at that scale, but it’s a category error - we can’t fix the problem at that scale, we have to fix it at the local level in a coordinated manner
• Responsive lives to the historical, cultural and ecological context were in - who am I called upon to be? What is my unique role here? [rites of passage idea]
• The pre-tragic, the tragic and the post-tragic - an existential analysis of an individuals disposition towards life - you’re not trying to get to post-tragic - one is not better than the others
• Times in live cause tragedy, but most of the time were post-tragic - the energy of the pre-tragic (the love life), is informed by the darkness and reality of the tragic - it’s a statement that life matters, that there is meaning and purpose here - the post-tragic is darker, but you’re still glad to live
• Events/disasters mean we yo-yo between the tragic and the post tragic most of the time
• Techno-optimist has a pre-tragic vibe - civilisation is doing really well, AI will save us and make us all rich etc
• Speaking to everyday people about this work is hard. Rowson thinks most people working on the liminal/metacrisis have their hearts in the third horizon - their concerns are different to day to day concerns
• Zach Stein - we’re in a time between worlds, modernity is giving way to something else, either through collapse or transformation
• Viable and desirable futures rely on a fundamental shift in our relationship with reality - we can’t survive and thrive with our current mindset - we have to reorient to what we are, what we’re living for, what purpose do we have, what is of value
• ⬆️These questions need to shape the culture
• The work at Perspectiva
  • the flip: a paradigmatic shift in our relationship to reality - consciousness is a ontological primary, a fundamental feature of reality - this realisation changes our perspective on everything - we have a new attitude/culture
  • The formation: bildung - transformative civic, aesthetic, moral education planning out across the world / enough critical mass - it changes the purpose of the economy to be about education
  • The fun: the way to solve the problem is to throw a better party - bring those living in horizon 1 and growth-addictive governments - show alternatives by community experiments, which shows an economy with different sensibilities