Loss of Faith In Societal Institutions: A Necessary Chaos
Loss of Faith In Societal Institutions: A Necessary Chaos
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I've been reading The Atlantic for about a year now. I do so to expose myself to great writers who have totally different ideas and perspectives than me. I find this helps me have a handle on what others in my community and world are thinking, and how I might be able to communicate my ideas in a way that may get them to at least think - even if they don't agree with me in the end.
Our world is in a chaotic moment of sorts. In some way, all of us believe that things are 'falling apart.' As I read The Atlantic, I have to say that I can't help but feel these people are so stuck in ideological thinking that it's painful. Weekly, I read the sentence "a threat to our democracy" many times over, as if most Western countries aren't oligarchy's. "What world do they see?" I ask myself. "What facts do they operate from, and what facts do they avoid?"
I'm not going to suggest I'm bias free, but I feel The Atlantic is a prime example of people who have a naive level of faith in our institutions and are ignoring every bit of evidence that exposes the level of corruption within them.
Where We Are Now
We are arriving at a moment where the majority of people recognize something is wrong in our society and are starting to put some pieces together as to what it involves. I call this Breaking The Illusion.
The reality of what has come out around COVID, government irresponsibility, and cover-ups over the last few years has been immense. Many knew of this before, but millions more saw this during COVID.
For starters, when you combine what the Twitter Files have revealed thus far and what has been gleaned through investigation over the course of COVID you get: Government corruption, censorship, authoritarian mindsets, political corruption, propaganda involving Big Tech, and a collusion between government, Big Pharma and Big Tech to raise profits at the expense of people - these are all just a sliver of what is going on in apparent 'democratic countries.'
To be fair, millions were aware of these facts prior to COVID, but what happened during COVID brought in a huge portion of well credentialed and intelligent people into the mix. This not only boosted the numbers of people willing to talk about reality, but it improved the quality of conversation.
As people wake up to these facts they lose faith and trust in our institutions.
Billions of people witnessed the chaotic COVID moment largely manufactured by governments. These actions have sown a level of distrust so deep that latest Gallup polls indicate people's trust in media, both television and newspapers, in the United States is at an all-time low.
To be clear, the loss of trust in mainstream media equates to a loss of trust in government because legacy media has just parroted what government has said without questioning or holding it to account. And since many in the general public knew government was wrong, the lack of trust in mainstream media = lack of trust in government.
If you are seeing that graph correctly you are seeing that we are experiencing the lowest point in media trust that has ever existed on Gallup's record.
Around the world I imagine this trend would be somewhat similar. People are losing trust media, health organizations, and government at such a rate that one of the key goals of the 2021 World Economic Forum meeting in Davos was rebuilding public trust in institutions. It's no secret it's gone.
Oddly though, mainstream media, fact checkers, and politicians want people to believe this lack of trust is solely a result of fake news and misinformation online. To them, it's the people who spread conspiracy theories that are somehow changing people's minds about government using misinformation. The fact there are mounds of evidence proving government corruption, amongst other issues mentioned above, doesn't seem to matter to these people.
Sure, maybe fake news is in a small way responsible for a loss of trust in institutions, but the facts do very much support the idea that governments are not looking out for people's best interests, and people are tired of being lied to.
In this instance, governments, media and fact checkers are failing to take any responsibility for the role they play in the reality that people don't trust them - a typical habit in our current collective consciousness which states that we as people don't like taking responsibility for what we cause nor like to admit when we are wrong.
This is only furthering the loss of trust.
To be clear, I think we are seeing a loss of faith or trust in institutions everywhere, including in academia and science. Universities are clearly forgoing their core mission to educate and allow different opinions and ideas to be discussed and explored. Instead, they are bowing to the woke mob, putting their profits first, engaging in censorship, and taking part in the dumbing down of society.
Further, the recent move by the College of Psychologists of Ontario to suggest Jordan Peterson needs to be taken through re-education training for making a few ‘unacceptable’ Tweets doesn’t bring more faith to institutions, it further erodes it in an eerie 1984-esque way.
Given the multiple ways in which our societal institutions are being exposed as outdated, authoritarian, and destructive, I have been wondering where this will ultimately lead.
On one hand, I can sense the value of a loss of faith in our institutions. A strong enough look at how our societies are set up reveals they are in deep, deep need of a change. If a better world is what we want we have to face facts: our current systems are horrendous for creating this world. The more trust we lose in our institutions, the more opportunity we have to see the reality of them and ultimately create something new.
On the other hand, as we lose faith in our institutions we end up on this awkward uncomfortable space of "where are we headed? What can we believe? To what degree should we continue to play within our existing systems?" I put together a multiple part essay on these questions as I believe they are some of the most important of our time. But simply, I believe this uncomfortable space between worlds is a necessary evolutionary pressure and needs to be faced with presence and courage.
If this is indeed the necessary chaos needed for us to evolve our society, what are we being asked to change? Faith in the 'old world' is being lost. It is being revealed as a rigged game. The mindsets that are willing to rig the game are the same mindsets that created our current societal design. Are we at an opportune moment to learn from our current experiment and sow the seeds for a new one?
If I can have readers walk away with one thing from this piece it might be to consider: instead of seeing the loss of faith in our institutions and the chaos it brings as purely a scary thing, think of what opportunities we have. Embrace this moment of change and evolution, even with its frustrations.
Ask yourself BIG questions. Momentum is building towards the opening of deeper conversations around re-questioning our worldviews, what 'solutions' may birth from that, and how we could create a more thriving world. All of this is occurring because people are now seeing more clearly the true nature of the world we live in at the moment, and are realizing our existing systems no longer fit out needs.
How shall we move forward?
Check out my “You Defeat The Great Reset, Then What?” essay series to explore further.
The process is underway, buckle up!
A process well underway!! I feel peace thinking about 2023 and beyond after reading things like this. Makes the world feel less crazy and more purposeful.