Hi. I’m Joseph Murphy and welcome to Alien Brain Fog, a science-focused podcast on memory, identity and the systems of oppression that effect both. How do you know who you really are?
In the last episode, I gave you my hypothesis. The reason everyone in the world is a little big crazy right now is we are all undergoing an ontological crisis. So the heck is an Ontological Crisis and how do we get out of it?
Opening
I’m a word nerd. I love etymology, which is the study of how words evolve over time. Whenever you see this part (ology) it means “study of.” Sociology is the study of how societies work. Psychology is the study of how the mind works. And so on.
Ont comes from the Greek “on” or “ont”, and means “being” or “existence.” So ontology is the study of what it means to exist. The Wikipedia page says this:
An Ontological Crisis occurs when the nature of reality is very different than you thought it was. You’re shown evidence that is so fundamentally against the world you believed you lived in that you don’t know what to believe any more.
It’s a metaphysical crisis. Like Barbie leaving BarbieLand.
Or realizing that aliens are real.
In laymans’ terms, it’s a crisis of faith. We have faith we understand the world around us. We do not what is real.
My ontological crisis began when I systemic racism was real. I learned we don’t have a capitalist democracy. We live in not in a neo-feudalistic state ruled by a plutocracy. Slavery never ended. We just traded in chattel slavery wage slavery. We are not as free as we think we are.
Source: LessWrong.com
What does Ontological Stability Look Like?
This paper speaks specifically to the impact home ownership has on sense of self. Extrapolate. Does the world still feel like your home? Or do you no longer recognize the world you’re living in.
Dupuis and Thorns’ four traditional markers of ontological security. Those markers are to have a place:
- of social and material constancy;
- where daily routines can be enacted and carried out;
- “where people feel most in control in their lives because they are free from surveillance;”
- “around which identities are constructed” (Dupuis and Thorns, 1998: 29).
Source: Home, Home Ownership and the Search for Ontological Security (Ann Dupuis, David C. Thorns
So what could cause an Ontological Crisis?
- Home Ownership – do you have a place in this world? Is your home secure? Do you constantly worry you might lose your home and be unable to find another? Unprecedented inflation has eroded perceived wealth.
- Crisis of faith – your religion is not what you thought it was. Or elements of your religion are at odds with established science (otherwise known as reality).
- Robots and Artificial Intelligence – have you lost your job because of a robot or AI?
- Covid and the governments response to it – Misinformation spread faster than the government could control it. People expected to be safe. They no longer feel safe. Death rates were higher compounding the grief.
- Lockdown - Endless months of Lockdown forced us to re-examine our freedoms.
- Long Covid – increased physical and mental illness around the world. The World Health Organization estimates 771, 191, 203 infections. 700 million. What percentage will develop long term symptoms? Around 10-20. That is a lot of newly disabled people all at once. Covid can also lead to mental health problems like anxiety, depression, derealization and depersonalization. Cognitive disfunction.
- Me Too Movement - The movement clearly showed we are living in a patriarchy where large numbers of women do not feel safe.
- Gender Studies - the existence of trans men and woman, the existence of non-binary people does not fit into the established worldviews of many people. Rather than integrate new evidence they reject it and say it can’t be real. They truly believe trans people can’t exist so they must be mentally ill. Or demons.
- Aliens – the existence of UFOS, or UAPs and If non-humans are real and there there goes all of our specialness. How are we any different than squirrels?
- War between Russia and the Ukraine have shown us the world is not as safe as we thought.
- Donald Trump showed us any idiot with a following can get in power. And we started looking at all our leaders.
- Climate Change and the idea that human race could go extinct within a century
All combined, the world we live in is not the world we thought we lived in.
And now we have to integrate the fact we’re not alone? It’s too much for the brain and the mind to take. So we disassociate. Get a little crazy
HOW TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM.
How do you solve an ontological crisis? The answer is simple to explain but hard to do. All you have to do is change your mind. Changing your mind is not easy. That’s where all your programming is. Everything you believe to be real. The hardest part is realizing our brain may be lying to you.
Here are four steps to solve any problem.
- Admit Reality – Acknowledge the Problem
- Evaluate and Consider Solutions
- Choose the Best & Implement Option
- Evaluate the Outcome
The first step to overcoming an ontological crisis is to acknowledge it. If it seems like the world is not what you thought it was, it’s time to act like Bo Burnham and go inside. That’s where all the work has to take place.
See in an ontological crisis, the main problem is the way your brain processes information. It is not equiped the world no longer functions. Our brains run on algorithm. The old algorithms can’t process the new data. Which is why we need new ones.
Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KLaJjNdENsHhKhG5m/ontological-crisis-in-humans
Since the first step to solving any problem is acknowledging it, it’s time to break through all the lies. Deal with reality as it is instead of how we wish it was.
CLOSING
Join me next time on Alien Brain Fog as we take a closer look at reality. What is the Rule of Law? And do we currently live under the rule of law? Or are we fooling ourselves.
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