The 1960s-80s countercultures dissolved the boundaries between self and society, ethical and political—setting us up for decades of culture war.

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Original music by Kevin MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

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 reason I titled the podcast "Fluidity". When I first read it in 2020, that was the moment I decided I wanted to narrate David Chapman's work on my podcast. https://metarationality.com/stem-fluidity-bridge The Bridge essay references Chapman's summary of Robert Kegan's framework of adult cognitive development, which I narrated on this episode: https://fluidity.libsyn.com/developing-ethical-social-and-cognitive-competence Original text of Chapman's summary of Kegan here: https://vividness.live/developing-ethical-social-and-cognitive-competence Yesterday I encouraged David Chapman to link from the Bridge essay to an enlightening recent article by John Nerst on his blog Everything Studies (later published in Aero Magazine) clarifying the difference between postmodernism and "pseudo-pomo": https://areomagazine.com/2018/06/30/postmodernism-vs-the-pomo-oid-cluster/ Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

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 buying me a coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mattarnold Original music by Kevin MacLeod. This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

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-rational-certainty 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 International 4.0 License.

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 International 4.0 License.

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 episode. https://meaningness.com/invented-traditions-and-timeworn-futures

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.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.

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 MacLeod.

This podcast is under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial International 4.0 License.