The Great “Meaning” Trend
One of the primary arguments of Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope, is that there are aspects of modern life that make finding meaning more difficult. In the book I called this “The Paradox of Progress.”
You can read the excerpt above, but real quick: despite the fact that the modern world is more prosperous, educated, safer, diverse, and connected than ever before, we are seeing alarming rates of anxiety, depression, drug overdoses, and so on. (For references, see the book.)
Some of this has to do with the nature of modern life itself—the constant attachment to screens, our hyper-awareness of absolutely anything bad happening anywhere in the world, the infinite number of ways in which we can now feel inadequate or insecure. These things all make the search for meaning more of a struggle. But at the same time, previous places where people found meaning are eroding. Traditional religions are seeing their numbers dwindle. People are having smaller families and living further from those families. People relocate more often so they have fewer steady friendships.
I really feel this struggle for meaning is the defining trend of our generation, and there is a lot …
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