This post won’t tell you the meaning of life

Original Medium Post HERE

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Three prongs for rediscovering collective magic and meaning

Can Americans find some shared understanding of what she stands for — and what that means for our future?

What is the purpose of government?

How do we balance the pursuit of justice with what is possible as we respond to climate change?

What are the responsibilities of government, corporations, and individuals if AI renders some work obsolete?

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These are just a few of the major questions confronting us. Unfortunately, we face these questions just as our connections with answers are fraying.

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Something to believe in

In recent years in the United States, belief in just about everything has been dropping. The fastest growing religious affiliation has been “none.” Belief in democracy is at or near an all-time low.

I won’t say what anyone should believe, but we need to believe in something. The lack of belief in something positive, prosocial, and unifying is harmful.

Democracy and liberal values begin to fray when belief in them frays. More people feel lost when a sense of a higher purpose in life is lost. We become more afraid to confront big questions when we lose our ability to answer them.

These trends are part of a mutually reinforcing loop, together with increasing loneliness and social isolation and increasing depression and anxiety.

We need a way out.

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Finding the way out together

These trends won’t reverse on their own.

We won’t fix the problem by being passive witnesses or complaining. Observing reasons for declining belief can help — but not if we stop there.

We have a collective responsibility to address this collective problem — because we only can address it together.

We cannot simply declare what we all should believe. We must forge or rediscover real, shared beliefs to anchor our nation.

We have to ask — and seek answers to — questions. We must look for macro answers (like the meaning of life) to anchor micro answers (like finding meaning if AI takes our job).

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Renewal and preparation

Humans have long looked to religion, philosophy, astrology, etc. to answer the big whys. We are more joyful when we see a greater purpose in our work, our lives, our existence.

In times of change, successful societies and individuals invent, and reinvent, belief systems. Ancient Greek and Chinese philosophical/ religious systems developed and flourished in times of turbulence and progress, when warring city-states and states sought (and required) new answers, as they pursued hegemony. Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam powered, and were spread by great empires. The Reformation and Enlightenment responded to, and powered, currents of intellectual progress and innovation.

These belief systems brought unity across diversity and difference. Can the United States, ““the only nation based on an idea,” (re)discover shared beliefs to reconnect us?

Technological change has become so rapid we can see its exponential nature in real time. People, our societies and our institutions will inevitably change. Will we allow that change to happen passively, or will we proactively examine our belief systems and organizing structures to build a better future?

We collectively have the financial resources to prepare. Do we have the imagination?

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Science can’t do it alone

In just a few centuries, the Scientific Revolution has unleashed transformative positive change. Since Sir Isaac Newton’s time, global life expectancy has doubled and global GDP per capita has grown more than 10x, all while human population grew more than 13x.

Science can answer many questions. However, we have asked it to answer too many and to fix too much.

Science answers the how of the why, but not the why of the why. If we ask “why are we alive?”, science defines life and says how life replicates and evolves. One day, science might discover how life arises from non-life.

But science doesn’t answer the deeper why of the meaning of human existence.

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Science provides essential technical and technological responses to climate change, but it can’t answer the philosophical questions of who should pay, or how gains and losses should be distributed.

Although some argue science shows there isn’t a deeper answer, it doesn’t. Science only tests hypotheses, one at a time. At most, an experiment can fail to show evidence for one hypothesized answer to the deeper why. There is no experimental way to prove there isn’t a deeper why.

Rather than stop us from asking the deeper why, with its demonstration that beliefs and belief systems help people flourish, science encourages us to keep asking.

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A three-pronged strategy to find shared beliefs again

1) Ask big questions

Have we been looking for answers to the big questions in all the wrong places? Have we even been looking at all?

We should source wisdom from those who preceded us and update belief systems for the present — just as theologians and saints have brought new understanding to Catholicism for millennia, and Civil Rights leaders brought new understanding to the founding principles of the United States.

· K-12 education should introduce and expand civics and philosophy education.

· Colleges and universities should ensure these studies are prioritized in core curricula.

· Television, movies, other media, and third places should foster conversation about big questions.

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2) Seek shared understanding while allowing difference

The wide product selection in the marketplace of ideas makes us all richer. At the same time, we can all benefit from a common currency to use when shopping there. The United States was founded on shared ideas about equality, justice, and freedom (however imperfectly we have strived for them). If we return to the philosophical underpinnings, and make some updates together, can we rediscover a shared commitment to those ideals?

· We should talk about agreements and disagreements with people “on the other side”. We might be surprised how much we share.

· We must interact with other humans, in real life, to overcome isolation and strengthen trust and understanding. Relationships bring meaning.

· Our leaders must promote a positive, shared vision and lead a more elevated discourse.

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3) Trust and forgive

Surveys show growing American distrust in just about everything. A healthy level of distrust can be . . . healthy, but only when the seesaw is balanced with a healthy level of trust.

Trust is a choice. We all need to make it.

Resilient, enduring trust recognizes that we humans and our institutions are imperfect. When failures aren’t egregious, we must forgive, and take shortfallings in context.

· Our media and social media algorithms must report more good news and provide evidence of reason for trust. We all must follow that good news so media will report it and social media will amplify it.

· (An economically inspired narrative has overstated — and perhaps catalyzed — human selfishness.) We must co-create and strengthen a shared cultural narrative that recognizes human goodness and decency.

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Let’s give America something to believe in. It’s time to rediscover some shared beliefs and apply shared meaning to improve our lives and our world.

Stay joyful, East Boston.

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Please share, subscribe, and join our movement by emailing me or supporting East Boston Social Centers. Look out each week for our posts about boosting joy the only way we can: in community. And join us in celebrating

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