Fluidity

We pick up where we left off in the Nihilism chapter of the book "Meaningness", with additional pages written by the author during the narration of "Meaningness And Time".   No objective meaning: While the meaning of "objective" is nebulous, learning to relate to meaningness more objectively is possible and worthwhile.   https://meaningness.com/no-objective-meaning   Some other varieties of object...

We return to the book "Meaningness" for the conclusion of the Eternalism chapter. I delayed this episode until now in case David Chapman wrote more, or revised them, and no longer considered them unfinished. It's worthwhile just as it is, and I have formatted all these short pages as if they were sections in one page.   Eternalist Ploys: Ploys—ways of thinking, feeling, talking, and acting—which s...

The epilogue of "The Cofounders", discussing metarationality in organizational management. https://meaningness.com/cofounders-in-relationship This concludes "Meaningness And Time". The next episodes will return to "Meaningness" to narrate material David Chapman has written in the interim. You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/...

This episode contains the second and final part of my most recent interview with David Chapman. This one is one hour long.   In part 1, we discussed a phrase he has used several times in "Meaningness And Time": secretly pretending to believe.   In this part, we apply the approach from his books to controversial issues, including how different factions process the concept of gender transition. We a...

The path from professionalism to a deliberately-developmental relationship: a tale of startup cofounders. https://meaningness.com/cofounders-in-relationship Be prepared before you begin: this episode is an hour and twenty minutes long. Thanks to Jasmine Ren for performing the part of Prithi.   You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:   https://www.patre...

In this episode, I interview David Chapman about a phrase he has used several times in "Meaningness And Time": secretly pretending to believe. This is part 1.   You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:   https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks   If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee:   https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold   Original...

Fluidity addresses the atomization of culture, society, and self with ships that sail the sea of meaning: collaborative, improvised, intimate, and playful. https://meaningness.com/fluidity-preview   Desiderata for any future mode of meaningness - A positive and realistic vision for the future of society, culture, and self, drawing lessons from recent history. https://meaningness.com/fluidity-desid...

The global internet atomizes cultures, societies, and selves into tiny brilliant shards. Meaning has lost context and coherence. Now what? https://meaningness.com/atomized-mode   Cultural atomization—the widespread loss of conceptual coherence—has made serious intellectual work much more difficult in the twenty-teens. https://meaningness.com/thinking-after-atomization   If you like the show, consi...

"Archipelago" is a political model in which everyone can choose what social system to live in. It's impractical, but points to better solutions. https://meaningness.com/archipelago-politics In this episode, I narrate the blog post "Archipelago and Atomic Communitarianism" by Scott Alexander, with his permission. https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/06/07/archipelago-and-atomic-communitarianism/ If you...

Subcultures: the diversity of meaning - The subcultural era (1975-2000) recognized the diversity of meanings, and provided a new type of supportive, voluntary social group.   https://meaningness.com/subcultures   Subcultures: meanings at play - With no responsibility to justify universal norms, or for solving social problems, subcultures were freed to play with meanings. https://meaningness.com/su...

At root, the culture war is not about abortion, gay marriage, or marijuana. It is about shared misunderstandings of the nature of meaning. https://meaningness.com/completing-countercultures You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com...

The culture war, political polarization, Baby Boomer bafflement: the unending zombie slugfest pairing the two countercultures of the 1960s-80s.   https://meaningness.com/counterculture-war   "Five Case Studies In Politicization", by Scott Alexander.   https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/10/16/five-case-studies-on-politicization/   "The Toxoplasma of Rage", also by Scott Alexander.   https://slatestarc...

The hippie and Moral Majority movements both developed broad, deep cultures, with innovative approaches to every aspect of life, from music to dentistry.   https://meaningness.com/countercultural-culture   Failure to find new foundations for meaning, to recognize diversity, to provide community, and to transcend opposition: all doomed counterculturalism.   https://meaningness.com/countercultures-f...

The Religious Right and New Age Left both promoted time-distorting meta-myths—imaginary past golden ages and implausible future utopias—to hide their defects.   https://meaningness.com/counterculture-history-myths   Fundamentalism is not traditional; it is a modern, countercultural movement, opposed to tradition and to post-modernity.   https://meaningness.com/fundamentalism-countercultural-modern...

In the 1960s-80s, American politics shifted from economic to sacredness issues. This damaged public discourse, but created a new two-track class system.   https://meaningness.com/political-left-right-rotated   You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon:   https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks   If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: http...

The 1960s-80s countercultures dissolved the boundaries between self and society, ethical and political—setting us up for decades of culture war. You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod....

The 1960s-80s countercultures abandoned rationality because they believed it negated all meaning. They were wrong. Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

How—and why!—countercultures sought to reform psychologies and polities: to counteract alienation, anxiety, and anomie. Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

The hippie counterculture was structurally and functionally similar to the Moral Majority Christian Right counterculture a decade later.   https://meaningness.com/monism-dualism-countercultures   Original music by Kevin MacLeod.   This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

Taking a break from narrating "Meaningness And Time" to give you a standalone essay by the author, David Chapman, which I call the Bridge essay. It will be helpful in our next few episodes, in which "Meaningness And Time" describes the counter-cultures' renegotiation of the relationship between self and society.   The Bridge essay provides the urgency behind this entire audiobook podcast, and the...

The hippies and the Moral Majority both tried to rescue systematic eternalism—and failed. We live amongst their wreckage.   https://meaningness.com/countercultures   Countercultures defined as new, alternative, universalist, eternalist, anti-rational systems: there were two in the late 20th century.   https://meaningness.com/counterculture-definition   If you want to support this podcast, consider...

Modernity was built on certainty in science and mathematics. That was revealed as delusional during the early 20th century. An hour-long episode! For many of my acquaintance, this is an important entry point into Chapman's work, tying together Meaningness And Time with his other book In The Cells Of The Eggplant . It's also the most recent page he's written. https://meaningness.com/collapse-of-rat...

How and why modernity failed. All systems of meaning—religious, political, artistic, psychological—began to fall apart. Nihilism seemed the only alternative. https://meaningness.com/systems-crisis-breakdown If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial I...

Ideological time-distortion strategies are highly effective in propaganda. The Victorian age and the twentieth century gave us many new things that were supposedly ancient. These include:   - British royal coronation ceremonies. - kilts and almost the entire Scottish national identity. - almost all of the history of Buddhism. - and don't get us started on Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is a fun...

Systems of society, culture, and the self were the foundation of the modern world. Their glories have passed.   https://meaningness.com/systematic-mode   You can support the podcast and get episodes a week early, by supporting the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/m/fluidityaudiobooks If you like the show, consider buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin...