What stood out to me here is the distinction between coherence and contact. A person can remain highly functional while becoming progressively less responsive to what is actually happening, and from the inside that often feels like clarity rather than misalignment. That’s what makes this so difficult to catch.
The shift usually isn’t dramatic. It’s the gradual replacement of reality by interpretations that are stable enough to live inside.
And by the time that starts to hurt, the system is often more invested in preserving continuity than allowing itself to be corrected. That’s why so much apparent change never reaches the level of structure.
Brilliant deconstruction of the human condition through the evolution of social order, narrative, and unconsciously directed survival architecture. The drift in consensus of the species in epistemic cohesion being derived from representations of reality as opposed to direct observation has led to personal narratives that persist without meaningful consequence. The failure of religious survival architecture is that it no longer has the capacity to confine reality to the tolerable, and therefore fails to show the individual who they are.
The insights generated in this profound and deep analysis of the “human condition ” create a lighting flash of hope for individuals like me struggling with the dystopian sense of our current politics.
The rise of MAGA and its adherents have few rational explanations beyond being just another cult movement being used for the benefits of a powerful network of elites.
As a root cause, Jim Palmer's magnificent treatise on the notion of "Survival Architecture" helps explain so much and, more importantly, offers a potential cure for this societal pathology.
Additionally, it ironically sets the conditions for helping non-religious but spiritual types like me engage with the challenge of loving ones enemy.
I would love to see respected historians and political scientists like Heather Cox Richardson for example, incorporate Jim's perspectives here in the body of their current work.
Thanks and heartfelt gratitude for helping me better witness my own narrative!
This is so clarifying. I am writing a series of novels set 6,000 years ago, in the midst of the time when the story we humans were telling ourselves began to shift — when hunter-gathers were becoming nomadic pastoralists on the steppes of western Eurasia. There was climate change, a shift in social organization (cattle could be stolen, necessitating herders become warriors…), and, no surprise, the emergence of a new story to explain and give meaning to experience — the story of separation we are still living within today. The novels foreground the role of the storyteller, among other themes. Your essay provides me with a welcome structure in which to situate my own storytelling — thank you!
What stood out to me here is the distinction between coherence and contact. A person can remain highly functional while becoming progressively less responsive to what is actually happening, and from the inside that often feels like clarity rather than misalignment. That’s what makes this so difficult to catch.
The shift usually isn’t dramatic. It’s the gradual replacement of reality by interpretations that are stable enough to live inside.
And by the time that starts to hurt, the system is often more invested in preserving continuity than allowing itself to be corrected. That’s why so much apparent change never reaches the level of structure.
Brilliant deconstruction of the human condition through the evolution of social order, narrative, and unconsciously directed survival architecture. The drift in consensus of the species in epistemic cohesion being derived from representations of reality as opposed to direct observation has led to personal narratives that persist without meaningful consequence. The failure of religious survival architecture is that it no longer has the capacity to confine reality to the tolerable, and therefore fails to show the individual who they are.
Spot on piece, depth , clarity wisdom alot to digest.
Love to be in a discussion with others who read your posts.
I might have missed it when reading this or you may cover it in a future essay but how might I assess my level of existential heath?
The insights generated in this profound and deep analysis of the “human condition ” create a lighting flash of hope for individuals like me struggling with the dystopian sense of our current politics.
The rise of MAGA and its adherents have few rational explanations beyond being just another cult movement being used for the benefits of a powerful network of elites.
As a root cause, Jim Palmer's magnificent treatise on the notion of "Survival Architecture" helps explain so much and, more importantly, offers a potential cure for this societal pathology.
Additionally, it ironically sets the conditions for helping non-religious but spiritual types like me engage with the challenge of loving ones enemy.
I would love to see respected historians and political scientists like Heather Cox Richardson for example, incorporate Jim's perspectives here in the body of their current work.
Thanks and heartfelt gratitude for helping me better witness my own narrative!
This is so clarifying. I am writing a series of novels set 6,000 years ago, in the midst of the time when the story we humans were telling ourselves began to shift — when hunter-gathers were becoming nomadic pastoralists on the steppes of western Eurasia. There was climate change, a shift in social organization (cattle could be stolen, necessitating herders become warriors…), and, no surprise, the emergence of a new story to explain and give meaning to experience — the story of separation we are still living within today. The novels foreground the role of the storyteller, among other themes. Your essay provides me with a welcome structure in which to situate my own storytelling — thank you!