NextMeta MetaView #24: WTF Is Metamodernism? w/ Hanzi Freinacht
After writing the latest MetaGame Newsletter Metagame & Metadornism, pt.1, peth sat down to talk with Hanzi Freinacht, political philosopher, historian and sociologist, author of ‘The Listening Society’ and ‘Nordic Ideology’ to dive deep into foundations, views and mindset of Metamodernism.
“Metamodernism comes from the heart of postmodern thinking, it thrives on that critique, on seeing the cracks in the modern project, but it wants to find a direction of development which is going deeper into who we are as human beings and develop our relationships and our worldviews”, says Freinacht.
In his words, the metamodern project is to again believe in growth and development, going beyond critique and beyond just increasing GDP, producing more science papers, inventing new gadgets and medicines. Rather, Freinacht explains, “it's about increasing the sense of meaning and the quality of relationships and the scaffolds for our own personal and psychological development”.
Sustainability, alienation, inequality and lack of meaning are some of the fundamental problems of modernism that the metamodern mindset addresses as a result of a “proto-synthesis” for the kinds of life we would want. “Metamodernism tries to fulfill all of the promises of postmodern critique, all of those values, all of those injustices, but it does so by building a program for the future for what you can do”, he explains.
This Metamodern mindset is self transforming and a result of the interaction of four dimensions: cognitive complexity, symbolic code, subjective states and depth. These layers move between two extremes: “The metamodernist mindset re-enchants the world but does so at the same time explaining everything that can be explained with the best possible explanatory models; and that sense of creating meaning in a secular or rational world is in a sense the core of the metamodernist quest”.
Some of the topics covered:
- Metamodernism
- Fundamental problems of modernism
- Metamodern mindset
- The four dimensions of human development
- Demographic of the metamodernist community
- Nordic ideology and different types of politics
- Green Social Liberalism
- MetaGame & Metamodernism
- Metamodern cryptosphere
Resources:
Jordan Peterson’s 12 rules for life
Hanzi Freinacht’s 12 Commandments: For Extraordinary People To Master Ordinary Life
Robert Kegan's Stages of Adult Development: Self-Transforming or Interindividual Knowers
Frances Fukoyama The End of History and the Last Man