metacrisis

my definition: the set of interconnected, interdependent crises of our time, leading us either towards impending systemic collapse as we approach planetary boundaries, authoritarian modes of damage control or transition into more regenerative, mature, antifragile civilizations and lifestyles.

main references

i strongly recommend checking out this playlist that i curated:

https://www.sloww.co/meta-crisis-101/ - the deepest / most multi-perspectival introduction to it, though quite dense, especially for first timers. i recommend checking out some of daniel schmachtenberger's videos above before, as a more palatable introduction.

https://metacrisis.org/ - a meta-resource - links to lots of other great content and resources.

https://wiki.metacrisis.xyz/ - a great and extensive index of perspectives for diagnosis, response patterns and projects addressing multiple parts of it.

https://metacrisis.xyz/ - a few particularly influential folks trying to curate, articulate and coordinate around the metacrisis.

https://www.gameb.wiki/ - a wiki with not a lot, but very relevant content, great for rabbit hole investigations/deep dives.

an incomplete yet useful way to break down the metacrisis

i found it useful to highlight 5 "core", interdependent crises:

the spiritual/psychological, economic, ecological, political, and educational crises.

which can then be broken down into several others:

-> spiritual/psychological -> meaning, existential crisis, etc...
-> economic -> capability crisis, technological risk, etc...
-> ecological -> health, climate crisis, intimacy crisis, etc...
-> political -> legitimacy crisis, coordination failure, etc...
-> educational -> sensemaking, wisdom crisis, etc...

they loosely map into the four quadrants/5 elements framework, which helps to memorize/communicate about it. they are crises of different dimensions (inner, outer, individual, collective).

other great perspectives on the metacrisis:

zak stein - education is the metacrisis - manifesto for the Transformative Education Alliance - one of the best breakdowns of the metacrisis + very powerful, clear, inspiring writing

jonathan rowson - tasting the pickle: ten flavours of meta-crisis and the appetite for a new civilisation - perspecteeva

josh field - flow crisis - a few less-known but very interesting/valuable perspectives on it

john vervaeke - meaning crisis - lots of good content from around it, more useful for understanding/navigating the (inner) psychological crises of our time

life itself ecosystem map - a pretty good map of the organizations/communities in the space