Wisdom Commons > Meta-Crisis

In my recent presentation at a conference hosted by

Cadell Last

, I discussed the “hyperobject” of the “meta-crisis,” arguing for “midwifing a wisdom commons” as a response.

A hyperobject is a term from philosopher-ecologist Timothy Morton to describe "objects" that are so massive they exist outside our ordinary understandings of "spatiotemporality," aka space and time. The Covid-19 pandemic is an example, as is the internet, capitalism, and the culture war. Almost anything can be considered a hyperobject, potentially rendering the word useless. The term is useful for me because objectifying the unseen makes it feel real, which puts me in my body, and I stop relating with unseen real things as mere conceptual abstractions.

For example, once I started to experience the culture war as a hyperobject, I started sensing it as a living entity, one I am in a relationship with. This sense gave me a greater choice; I could stay in an "enmeshed relationship" with the culture war, where personal boundaries are diffused, or I could not react to my unexamined triggers and respond to them through emotionally-attuned philosophical inquiry. This has allowed me to see the contours of this hyperobject in a way that moves beyond the hypnotic "left versus right" polarity spell.

In the presentation, I argue that the highest leverage hyperobject to sense into is the meta-crisis, sometimes called the poly-crisis, omni-crisis, mega-crisis, permacrisis, or simply “the crisis.” Daniel Thorson from the Emerge podcast defines the meta-crisis as “the multiple overlapping and interconnected global crises that our nascent planetary culture faces.”

Initially experiencing the meta-crisis as a hyperobject did two things to me: 

1. It highlighted the fear already in my body, finally giving the “free-floating anxiety” we all experience greater meaning.

2. The massive complexity of the meta-crisis disorientated my prioritization schema, leaving me confused about how to move forward.

These two things initially felt like a curse but eventually became a blessing. The first made me more intimate with my fear, leading to a “fear-floating courage.” The second made me humble, losing faith that rationality (mine or others) is the proper response to the meta-crisis. Wisdom is about having the courage to be guided by something post-rational.

I am betting on wisdom to answer the meta-crisis, with a new hyperobject needed: a “wisdom commons,” a place that makes wisdom more common.

Behind the paywall, I have provided paid subscribers with an unlisted playlist of past videos at The Stoa that will give a solid practical and theoretical foundation for understanding the meta-crisis.

The playlist includes 25 sessions from The Stoa’s archive. You will not find a playlist like this in any school or anywhere else on the Internet. It is truly a “transperspectival” approach to understanding the meta-crisis.