Ch. 11: Metasophism and the Individual
Some readers may be reasonably inclined to doubt the potential of Metasophism. We see so little change these days in the West, they might say: surely it is impossibly optimistic to think that we could reform so much, so quickly. Another argument could claim that the entire venture is too cerebral, and would have no appeal to the common individual. This chapter — perhaps the most important in the book — will try to show exactly how Metasophism could avoid falling victim to these predictions. At the same time, we will lay the intellectual foundations for what what could a moral innovation be necessary to overthrow false idols and failing ideologies.
Traits of Successful Mass Movements
Metasophism would not be the first ideology criticised as being too intellectual. For example, Hegel considered rationalism as ‘colourless, empty’, while Cardinal Newman thought liberalism ‘too cold a principle to prevail with the multitude’.[165] In contrast, Terry Eagleton noted in his book Culture and and the Death of God that Christianity enjoyed a dual appeal: theology drew in the intellectuals, while devotional practice engaged the common people.[166]
The other ideology which, like Christianity, excited both the passion of the masses and the enthusiasm of the intellectuals was nationalism. And how did it achieve this? According to Eagleton, nationalism joined together ancient myth and modern progress, popular customs and military strategy, so that the past, present and future formed an organic unity — a grand narrative comparable to that of the great religions. All of this served to make it “the most poetic form of politics in the modern age.”[167] The weakness that rendered its rare power temporary was the limited nature of its goal: once independence was achieved, the great energies it inspired dissipated.
How can Metasophism, as a movement, summon an energy of similar power? For this, we can rely on the thoughts of Eric Hoffer. In The True Believer, he described how religious, revolutionary, and nationalist movements have usually been the only way of effecting radical reforms. For Hoffer, such movements are mainly composed of fanatics: people perceive their lives as irredeemably spoiled and are looking for a holy cause with which to identify, for which they are willing to sacrifice their self-interest.[168]
By merging their identity with that of the larger movement, they attain a sort of rebirth, giving meaning to an otherwise meaningless life. But a mass movement must attract many others: the poor, the outcast, the young, the ambitious, and even the bored, are all potential members.[169] What conditions must hold so that Metasophism can attract such people?
First, it must promise spectacular change.[170] The scope and depth of the Metasophist mission is thus a positive and necessary feature: incremental change cannot inspire the enthusiasm necessary to transform society. Moreover, such changes must encapsulate an extravagant hope. This too Metasophism offers. Consider the following: a renewed media and education sector, faster health services, a new commercial and political elite, the end of massive extraction in finance — all these together could initiate a new age of creativity.
However, in order for radical change to be attractive, there must be some level of discontent. Judging by the growth of left and right populism, this condition seems to be already satisfied. Hoffer also said that there must be something to create a sense of power for the movement.[171] Teetering structures, and the possibility for change they evoke, is one such way a sense of power can be ignited. And the world today is replete with decay: the political centre is haemorrhaging support, universities beg the wealthy and foreign countries for money, and traditional Christianity seems to be about to draw its last breaths. Desire for a new alternative is widespread, but unmet. Metasophism could fill the vacuum.
But a sense of power can also come from a new doctrine or technique. Metasophism is a new doctrine, satisfying this criterium at a superficial level. However, much of what has been described so far in the book is what a Metasophist political system would look like. What techniques or theory come before that can then assure this moment comes?
Confidence in ultimate victory is one possibility. Marxists obtained this from the idea that the history was bound to give them their turn. Perhaps Metasophism is the only system that can actually work over the long-run seeing as it is designed to avoid the traps identified by Spengler, Toynbee, and Pareto. But confidence is also a fickle beast, tentatively arriving only to flee at the slightest setback. It is also worth remembering that, despite all the Marxist theorising, communism wasn’t raised to victory by the hand of history – rather, it was tossed into the bin.
Maybe the secret sauce can be found elsewhere. As discussed earlier, the only movements which had a wide appeal to the masses were those of a religious or quasi-religious nature. Could Metasophism develop this appeal?
This quasi-religious aspect can be understood as a system of meaning and values, offering people a story to understand their place in the cosmos, and a set of values to help them navigate it. But the breakdown of the old religions created an existential crisis whereby some people no longer grasp the meaning of their lives. To escape this uncertainty, they immerse themselves in quasi-religions or conspicuous consumption. But as discussed in Chapter Three, the quasi-religions often introduce more problems than they solve, so the demand for individual meaning has not yet found a comprehensive and sustainable solution.
11.1 Metasophism as a Source of Meaning
One person who has thoroughly discussed the meaning of life, and its importance to the individual, was Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. In his book Man’s Search for Meaning Frankl described how the main predictor for whether one survived the concentration camps was not how physically strong or weak one was, but whether one believed his or her life had a clear meaning, as foreshadowed by Nietzsche when he said “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”[172] He noted that a lack of meaning in life can lead to depression, aggression, and addiction; for example, Frankl saw the drug scene as an outgrowth of the crisis of meaninglessness.[173]
He thus created the psychoanalytical method called logotherapy, the goal of which is break the self-centredness of the individual by helping him to identify and focus on the meanings to be achieved in the future. For Frankl, this will to meaning is the primary motivational force of man, rather than the pleasure principle as Freudians or utilitarians believe. One could also consider the Metasophist Imperative itself as a will to meaning, but there are other reasons to take close note of Frankl’s observations.
In an existential vacuum, as man does not know what to do, he ends up conforming or submitting to others.[174] Both of these situations are inimical to Metasophism as the first implies groupthink, and the second, perhaps no thinking at all. Furthermore, if the will to meaning is not satisfied, it will be compensated by a will to power, pleasure, or money: all distractions from our true mission.[175]
For Metasophism to wean people off their idolatry of money and meaningless pleasure, the will to meaning must be encouraged and channeled. This we can do by giving each individual a distinct role in our mission to ensure the survival of humanity, expand our knowledge, and discover the meaning of life. The distinctness of one’s contribution is key as Frankl found that an effective meaning must be unique to the individual; only he or she can be capable of satisfying it. In this way, Metasophism aligns the meaning of the individual with the mission of society. This is in contrast to modern society which has no explicit goal, and largely sees the individual as a product to be produced by a homogenising education system, to serve as a cog in the GDP factory we call an economy.
How would the roles and stories be created? We can imagine at least two different types of objectives. First, there are those exceptional and time-limited missions to solve a problem facing society. For example, we outlined earlier plans regarding banking reforms and the solar shade. For such projects, there are a number of tasks: elaborating the plans, campaigning, finding support, and ultimately implementation. It is therefore possible for people to derive some meaning from furthering such ad-hoc missions.
Second, there are the types of activities which must be done on a continuous basis to ensure the survival of the society. A typical example here would be raising a family and educating the coming generation. But this may also concern mitigating existential risks, such as monitoring new viruses and asteroids.
There are thus a number of roles, temporary and permanent, through which one can contribute. This also provides us with a way to define, in a simple way, what is an ethical life. If one’s efforts further any of the designated sub-missions, then they can be said to have lived a good life, assuming they have not knowingly harmed the mission. For example, if they work for an industry that is non-productive or even extractive, then that could be grounds for exclusion from the movement. We also need to discourage meanings that are zero-sum. For example, someone should not have as their narrative the acquisition of a plot of land in order to make money at the expense of someone else in the community.
In the spirit of logotherapy, Metasophism will widen “the visual field… so that the whole spectrum of potential meaning becomes conscious and visible” by supplying missions for people to engage in. Of course, such meanings will be mostly created or permitted at the chapter level. Such variety is necessary as, unlike logotherapy, we are supplying a set of value judgements, and we cannot fall into the trap of becoming overly attached to a certain set of values. But if a chapter begins to support meanings that damage the mission, such as by encouraging people to work in non-productive industries, that entire chapter should be disbanded.
The individual must consent with the meaning granted: they cannot be coerced into contributing in a given manner. And if they rebel against the entire list and go off in search for another meaning, this is probably the most admirable situation of all. This could mark the beginning of a new chapter in the movement — literally and figuratively. Therefore, even in this case, the community should seek to help the person.
Simply giving someone a meaning does not go far enough however. It is important that the meaning not be static but should transform itself into a story, a way of life which resonates deeply not just with the individual but also with others, so that people respect and admire the life of the metasophist.
The community should thus seek to help the person with their contribution; for example, by supplying them with lodging, introductions, and a community if their mission leads them to different countries (assuming the community will come to possess such resources). However, before anyone should benefit from the network in this way, they should first prove their trustworthiness, which can only be evaluated by their peers in the context of the Youth Fellowship or other activities of the Community.
When helping an individual to find a meaning, a clue may be found in the degree of resonance with the stories of others. For this, the individual must be exposed to a wide cultural heritage, such as biographies, novels, movies, and works of philosophy. In these various works, real or fictional, they may find role models whose achievements or way of living they wish to emulate. Furthermore, the true stories of the individuals working on Metasophist sub-missions could be shared so that the young could be inspired .
By having their own story, everyone should understand their role in the grand scheme: they should understand the role their organisation plays in achieving the Imperative, and how their personal role contributes to the mission of their organisation. This is their story, and it will fit in to the broader story of society. Thus we provide a narrative order, long absent in the West.
Search for Immortality
But people want more than just meaning in their lives: they want a type of immortality. This was the view argued by Ernest Becker in his book The Denial of Death. For Becker, cultures are essentially symbolic systems which serve to assure its members that they have achieved something of lasting worth. This could involve success in business, battle, or even family.[176] Historically, religion provided a heroic system, but both it and the traditional culture it supported are now discredited.[177]
Becker went even further in saying that this drive for immortality was a key source of conflict. People would seize onto seemingly all-important causes or fulminate against apparently all-powerful enemies in an attempt to give their lives significance — transcendence through hate rather than love, and heroism through destruction rather than creation.[178, 179] Becker sees the urge to heroism as being natural, and indeed necessary to give people the courage to live life.[180] So how can we satisfy this need for heroism and immortality in a peaceful way?
First, by participating in the mission, people become part of something greater than themselves which persists after their death, thereby attaining a sort of theoretical immortality. But this contribution should not be anonymous. Concretely, the story of every Metasophist could be recorded in a Book of Lives. Given the immense size this book could come to occupy over time, all these records may ultimate require a physical building: a Hall of Lives, if you will. Thus theoretical immortality would have a literary and physical equivalent.
And so everyone will have their story, and each story will be part of a chapter, and each chapter will be part of the Community. But a critically important part of every story is character development. This is especially important in Metasophism, as it requires the individual to move beyond the sacralisation of one’s current worldview and to embrace the possibility that other worldviews may be valid in different circumstances. Few currently possess this capability, a state that must be remedied for Metasophism to work. Indeed, if other mass movements failed, it was perhaps because their ideology was based upon a theory of individual psychology which turned out to be invalid. For example, liberalism seems to assume that people just want to be prosperous, but even Jesus Christ knew that man does not live by bread alone. The consequent lack of meaning in a liberal society results in people going towards sometimes more atavistic movements such as religious fundamentalism and nationalism.
The type of psychological development we need has been outlined by Robert Kegan, a psychologist at the Harvard School of Education, as it explicitly discusses norms and identity. Development along the stages indicated by Kegan could be very useful for anyone wishing to become an accomplished Metasophist. But what are the stages, and how can development be facilitated?
11.2 A Model of Cognitive Development
According to Kegan there are five stages of psychological development, and adults can find themselves anywhere from the third to the fifth level.[181] Each level indicates a higher level of mental complexity, and results in the acquisition of new psychological abilities.
Stage Three is known as the socialised mind. According to studies cited by Kegan, around 14pc of the adult population have reached this stage. A Stage Three individual identifies strongly with the surrounding community, and will not question its norms and narratives. Groupthink and taboos result. At an interpersonal level, one feels claimed by external expectations, and is not able to put a boundary on relationships.
The prevalence of this mindset could be at the root of underdevelopment. For example, Paul Collier mentions that tax inspectors in developing countries sometimes extract bribes for the benefit of their families.[182] This behaviour could have its root in a Stage Three worldview in two ways. First, the inspector is unable to draw a boundary between work and family, eventually prioritising one over the other. Second, he may be unable to question the norm whereby bribes should be extracted to benefit one’s family.
In contrast, at Stage Four, known as the self-authoring mind, the individual develops an internal seat of judgement allowing him to evaluate, limit, and adjust any external expectations or relationships. The individual becomes more independent, and less reliant on receiving direction from the community as in Stage Three. However, as the individual identifies more with their own individual ideology or personal authority, they may come to sacralise that ideology, leading to a slowness to change, or an over-willingness to discard information discordant with the ideology. Around 40pc of the population has reached this stage.
Finally, at Stage Five, the individual possesses a self-transforming mind. This means that the person is able to reflect on the limits and incompleteness of their own ideology, and develops the capacity to evaluate it through multiple frames. Less than one percent of the population has reached this stage while around 6pc are between Stages Four and Five.
It is this Stage Five which the Metasophist must strive to reach, as then people will be better able to switch ideologies when one proves more effective than another. They will also be more at ease with a Community that seeks to incubate and support different sub-ideologies. This could help us avoid the path of decline identified by Toynbee all those years ago – a part of the key to civilisational immortality.
The key question now is how do we help people get from one stage to the next. Thankfully, a number of such mechanisms has already been identified by Kegan and Lahey in the context of what they call Deliberately Developmental Organisations: companies which have prioritised individual development.[183] They describe a number of methods used by companies which they claim can accelerate psychological development. They include highly structured ways of providing continuous feedback, resulting in people’s behaviour and mental processes being constantly probed. Some illustrative examples include 1) regular meetings where exceptional contributions to the organisation are presented and discussed 2) workshops where what a person learned about themselves from a problematic situation is analysed 3) a log where questions and evidence about mistakes and problems are recorded 4) a log where everyone records a continuous feedback about people’s behaviour. Such methods have three behavioural consequences.
First, people learn their character weaknesses; for example, whether one is too confident and thus prone to arrogance, or whether one is too humble and thus prone to paralysis. The prediction competitions described earlier have the same objective. The imbalance, once discovered, can be remedied. For example, the humble could coach more, speak first and more often, and be more courageous generally. Pair people with their opposite so they mentor and encourage each other. Constant practise, failing, and critical feedback which examines the mindset of the individual — all these are necessary, no matter the position of the person in question.
Second, people must learn to relentlessly search for the truth and develop the power to face uncomfortable facts. Making mistakes is acceptable, but ignoring them and their causes is not. For example, problems should be discussed in two ways: 1) what produces that outcome and 2) what changes to the culture could mitigate it. As part of this, it is one’s duty to constantly probe the people above and below you in the hierarchy.
Such are the methods, but how can these be incorporated across society? Initially these methods could be partly applied within the Community. But the DDO framework is probably too difficult to apply to a society as a whole without involving the corporate world. Therefore, workplaces must be involved. However, even in organisations with missions conducive to Metasophism, it would be very difficult to change an already settled culture. Therefore, we need to create new enterprises where the founding members and employees have already been introduced, exposed, and initiated into the culture. This is the role of the Youth Fellowship described earlier.
Thus far, we have outlined how Metasophism can win the devotion of the masses. To summarise briefly, each Metasophist chooses a contribution they wish to make to the the mission. As they contribute to this mission, the story of their lives and the development of their character could be recorded. Furthermore, the community should seek to actively help the person make their contribution; we could thereby create an interlinkage of stories, each story being a threat in the overall tapestry of the chapter and the Community.
This tapestry could be a potent competitor with the narrative offered by quasi-religions such as nationalism. But in order to make it truly effective, we would need these stories to be valorised by the culture. And in a world where cultural industries are dominated by either moneyed interests (think of Disney, who really only care about making money), or by left-wing liberalism, such valorisation may be difficult to achieve. We must therefore modify our schema to include culture.
11.3 Reinvigourating Culture
Is culture useful? In Civilisation and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud stated that “beauty has no obvious use, nor is it easy to see why it is necessary to civilisation; yet civilisation would be unthinkable without it.” Indeed, the inspirational power of music which can be both good and bad may have led some to undertake sacrifices in the name of the common good or to have persevered when faced with challenges. Such events are psychological, partly subjective, and often known only to the individual; that they cannot be counted, should not imply that they be discounted.
What is true for music, is also true for myth and narrative: both provide constellating images which help the society work towards a common goal.[184] This idea ties into the idea of myth as something beneficial to society. For example, the American existential psychologist Rollo May thought that the breakdown in myths resulted in excessive violence, as people could no longer find a way to relate to the world.[185] Building on this, Joseph Campbell argued that if society no longer has a set of rituals to induct people into a mythological narrative, people will invent their own, as seen in the case of gangs.
If myth is necessary, then it should not be too strictly modelled on the static myths of the past. Such rigid myths are perhaps not functional in a rapidly evolving society. As a result, the more flexible narrative of Metasophism may be a workable alternative. As each individual has their own role, they can then see how it fits into the broader story.
But one of the key strengths of myth was its ability to saturate the environment. For example, in societal life of medieval Europe was marked by religious Feast Days, times of fasting, and numerous holy places such as wells, many of which may have been take over from prior mythologies. The result was a continuous reinforcement of the dominant structure of meaning.
In contrast, modern society is saturated by culture and images spawned by commercial logic. Whereas in medieval society the dominant images were statues and stained-glass windows featuring saints and apostles, modern society is marked by advertising which often appeals to the basest sentiments. The ultimate intent is to maximise sales. Other valuable aims such as providing people with suitable frames of meaning, and educating the populace — these count for little. Of course, there are always exceptions, such as with certain movies which evoke societal themes – think of the 2019 films Parasite and Joker in which class structure and precarity was an ever-present theme. But one problem with the modern culture industry is the dominance of a certain world-view; for example, Hollywood which is notably left-wing. But a similar monopolisation is likely present in other creative domains: from the blandness and repetition of modern architecture, one could surmise that it also suffers from an intellectual monoculture.
Two key questions thus arise: How do we introduce competition into the cultural space? How do we ensure that this competition helped spread the various Metasophist narratives?
The key to answering these questions is to recognise, as Joseph Campbell did, that it is the role of art and artists is to keep myth alive by mythologising the environment and the world.[186] In other words, Metasophism must harness the power of beauty in all of its manifestations. Possibly the Catholic Church mastered the forms of beauty as they existed one thousand years ago but failed to master the new mediums. It’s mythology and message thereby lost both relevance and resonance.
It therefore follows that each chapter should seek to devote some portion of its budget to the production of art and culture. The stories of its own members could serve as raw material. The story is perhaps the master key of culture — the narrative being key to movies, opera, songs, and often some paintings. As this will be done at the chapter level, the motifs and interpretations of the narratives will vary.
But the other important aspect is that the environment should continuously communicate and reinforce the meaning which Metasophism is providing to the world. One could therefore imagine that it should manifest in architecture also: the imagery of a given chapter should be prevalent where such a chapter is preponderant, so that when one drives through a village or city the values of the people and the narrative the population is pursuing is evident and portrayed in such a way as to draw you in. How could this be done?
Campbell said that you could tell what is informing a society by what the tallest building is. In the 1800’s, the tallest building was usually a church or a cathedral; the manner in which a spire reached out to the sky was said to indicate a society reaching out to God. In modern capitals, a skyscraper often plays this role, and it usually hosts banks or other private corporations. This indicates that finance rules — an intolerable situation.
Facades, statues, and perhaps even digital imagery could commemorate those past and present who have contributed to the mission — people to emulate just like the saints of yore. One should have the impression that all activities are in some way working towards this end. And this should help to create a sort of cosmic harmony which is completely elusive in the modern world, where glass and concrete often combine to negate any sort of human meaning other than individual prosperity.
As a result, each chapter shall strive to attain the ideal of a complete cultural movement. Of course, this discussion remains somewhat theoretical for now, given that at the beginning there would only be one chapter. Yet it seems necessary to give an idea of what the community must aim for if it is to achieve its mission.
Endnotes
[165] Terry Eagleton. Culture and the Death of God. Yale University Press, 2014, P.29-30
[166] Ibid. P.82
[167] Ibid. P.87
[168] Eric Hoffer. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements. HarperCollins e-books, 1951, P.12
[169] Ibid. P.25
[170] Ibid. P.3
[171] Ibid. P.6
[172] Viktor E. Frankl. Man’s Search for Meaning: Revised and Updated. Washington Square Press, 1984, P.97
[173] Ibid. P.164
[174] Ibid. P.128
[175] Ibid. P.129
[176] Ernest Becker. The Denial of Death. Souvenir Press: Kindle Edition, 1973, Location 71
[177] Ibid. Location 3983
[178] Ibid. Location 2863
[179] Ibid. Location 3847
[180] Ibid. Location 311
[181] Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization. Harvard Business Review Press, 2016, P.57
[182] Paul Collier. “The cultural foundations of economic failure: A conceptual toolkit”. In: Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 126.PB (2016), pp. 5–24. URL: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:126:y:2016:i:pb:p:5-24
[183] Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization. Harvard Business Review Press, 2016
[184] Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers. The Power of Myth. First Anchor Books, 1988, P.163
[185] Ibid. P.9
[186] Ibid. P.107