Wise leadership and a critical mass of people sharing the same Mythos are necessary for a community to become Meaningful and for Mythos to become reality.

Readership: All
Theme: Awareness and Introspection; Problems with The Red Pill;
Length: 1,200 words
Reading Time: 6 minutes

Schrödinger’s Mythos

We often hear voices and see memes expressing the idea that the culture / society is disintegrating.  Part of what this means is that there is no central Mythos that ties everyone and every event together to form a congruent Meaning to it all.

The so-called Cultural War is over which Mythos should be predominant in society.  Psychologically, the battle is about how to perceive reality, what to believe, and how to respond in an ethical manner. If there is no shared Mythos to delineate a clear set of ethics, then people will not know how to act and respond.

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If ¡Sc!eNcE! were sufficient, then there would be no dissent, as anyone who disagreed with the plain facts would be branded as delusional or mad.  Instead, we see the factitious interpretations and laundering of the facts — a phenomenon fundamental to human nature because people prioritize Meaning over ¡Sc!eNcE!, as Michael Polanyi observed, even though Post Truth rides on Pathos.  As a result, we see schisms, silos, and splits.  This discord has erupted into violence within the past few years.

This multitude of Mythos, and the resultant warring factions has produced a Schrödinger’s Mythos in the West today, in that it is everywhere (in people’s minds), but yet nowhere (in reality) at the same time.

Atomized Mythos leads to Either Nihilism or Social Restructuring

Without a stable society held together by a widely accepted and truthful mythos, life lacks Meaning and Purpose.  This is exactly why younger generations are searching for Meaning (Thinking Ape’s perspective) and others are lost in Fantasy Land (Devon70’s perspective), while some are content to watch it all burn (Nihilists), as I explained about the Selection of Mythos.

In Modern Nihilism is the Vacuum of Meaning (2025/8/22), I posited that…

“To overcome Nihilism, we must reestablish an overarching Mythos that inspires the faith of constituents.  They must be able to find Meaning in the Mythos.”

One of the prime challenges of forming an overarching Mythos is overcoming the confusion and the lack of solidarity that is present when there is very little agreement or cooperation among leaders, hence, bickering and infighting can have no authoritative resolution.  I wrote about this problem before in my series, Problems with The Red Pill (2024/7/31).

What we have now is a leadership that is atomized, grass roots, ideological, and largely prophetic, and is mostly limited to blogs, literature, Mythos (e.g., memes), and philosophy.  These diverse ideologies have a polarizing effect on both individuals and society, as described above.

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Individuals who believe strongly enough, or who have a sufficiently motivating incentive, are currently self-sorting into communities, changing churches, and even changing countries.

It is only a matter of time before these communities and churches grow large enough to wield critical-mass influence within society.  I expect this will happen within the next 10 years.  Pray that we can reach that state of union before the Singularity.

The War of Mythos

Conflicts between modern prophets can be understood as warring voices, each professing two (or more) different Mythical realities, only separated by particular visages of idealism and how overarching values are to be effectively realized.  Although these differences may be merely a matter of opinion, or perspective, or two sides of the same coin, the effects on human social interaction are profound and lead to schisms and even violence, as we have seen in the news.

It is my uncouth opinion that the majority of people are too self-preserving and too stupid, TBH, to see the big picture, and realize that collectivity and cooperation have long-term advantages that competition and individualism do not.   No, I’m not referring to socialism; I mean Covenant communities (e.g. churches, men’s groups, etc.) bound together by a shared conviction and purpose.  (If you’re not already in one, then you need to find one ASAP.)  This is another reason why leadership is important.

I’ll cover two case studies to illustrate how leaders of warring factions are self-defeating.  Readers might think of other examples to share in the comments.

Case Study 1 — Jordan Peterson

The Christian Manosphere prophets Adam Piggott, Theodore Beale (Vox Day), and Lexet have identified Jordan Peterson as a false prophet. Ed Hurst has remained neutral, but has pointed out some problematic issues with Peterson’s approach.  (I invited readers to debate this issue, but the response was tepid.)

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This mixed opinion does not necessarily mean that Peterson is a liar or deceiver, although that may very well be the case in some instances.  It means that he is expressing the concepts and viewpoints of a mythical narrative that is separate from, and is incoherent with the mythical / metaphysical reality that is conveyed through Christianity. (IMO, his views align with the Red Pill rather closely, which may explain his popularity.)  Thus, it could be ascertained that the quality that makes him false is that the spiritual authority he serves is not of God, but rather the critical, inquisitive spirit of Enlightenment.

OTOH, I do believe God is using Peterson to invoke a greater awareness and critical thinking among the populace.

Peterson’s philosophy (or any topic, really) becomes problematic when it provokes brothers to argue about abstractions that are not within their domain of control.

Tomb Refugee said,

“If peace comes only from crushing dissent, I’d rather have chaos. However, that’s one of many false dichotomies I see in online discussions. We can have sufficient peace on a functional scale to fulfill the Scripture without that leverage.”

From this perspective, Peterson’s philosophies are best framed as little more than a source of inspiring entertainment and perhaps some topics for small talk.

Case Study 2 — Timothy Keller

The late Timothy Keller recognized the importance of single-minded solidarity in ecumenical leadership when he conspired to redraft the constitution of the church.  But he had to pay a heavy price to unify the splintering church, which was to redefine marriage as complementarianism.

I’m not sure whether Keller is entirely to blame for this, or if he was merely giving the people what they wanted, as Aaron did with the rebellious Israelites in Exodus 32.  But Keller saw this from a larger perspective, in which a compromise not only kept his flock together but could also attract more (worldly-minded) people to come under its domain, which enhances the church’s power and influence.

In this respect, Keller is truly a great visionary leader.

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However, it’s a power play that refuses to recognize the Ultimate Power of God.  In this move, we find that the church is willing to embrace feminism and liberal progressivism and even ‘adjust’ doctrine to do so, even while it turns up its nose at other Christian faith traditions.  But by siding with the World to appease its own congregants, it has deviated from traditional Christianity, just like many other churches and whole denominations have done over the past decade, except in a nice Tradcon churchian way.

The errancy of this concession is why I believe this arrangement will not extend beyond the Boomers and their younger acolytes’ lifetimes.  Until then, St. John’s message to the church in Pergamum (Revelation 2:12-17) remains in effect for those complementarian churches.  Like the church in Pergamum, they would need to repent from their flirtations with the World before they can ever start hammering out relations with other Christian Denominations.

Tomb Refugee stated,

“We need to expend a little more effort in cultivating desire and passion, which tend to rely more on what makes us tick than any kind of imaginary uniformity in human nature.”

…or human leadership, such as that within American Evangelical Protestantism.

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