Happening Now in the SPACE

with more to come

There are voices in the metamodern SPACE that I have been yearning to hear from at this critical point in the human journey. Some remain strangely silent. However, today Emil Ejner Friis posted The Metamodern Community Has a Fascist Problem and this article will probably provoke both useful and useless discussion.

…today, we see a form of stupid man’s metamodernism advocated by what I call the neo-reactionaries. It’s a failed attempt to adopt metamodernism, the most cutting-edge progressive ideology of our time… by refusing to expand your circle of solidarity, falling for simple narratives, and allowing yourself to be guided by anger and belittlements.

We’ve all seen so many of our dear pomo (postmodernist) friends regressing back to animism when they fail to integrate modernity and Enlightenment values.

So, if you ever wondered: political metamodernism is per definition a progressive movement.

There is an aspect of metamodernism that has not been easy for me.

These are all pathological positions, all failing the developmental transition from pomo to metamodern. They are people who do understand the faults and pathologies of pomo, but who fail to integrate the pomo insights, ethics and critiques.

Until about 2016, before I discovered Hanzi, the postmodern criticism of modernity felt very wrong to me. But something felt very off with both the campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. That and more led me to re-examine my worldview. Realizing that more than a little of the postmodern criticism of modernity was valid was not easy for me to understand or accept. But thankfully, a retreat to more traditional values did not feel right either and I did not go down that road.

So I would define political metamodernism as the successful integration of postmodernism into a developmental pathway for people and society. It points us towards a real, concrete updating of our institutions: local, national, transnational and global.

Understanding and intergrating pomo is still largely aspirational for me and Emil’s article is very helpful.

If you want to pull them back, you need to reawaken their intellectual curiosity:

- Introduce them to progressive thinkers who don’t fit the standard mold. Show them the complexity of Cornel West, the brutal honesty of Adolph Reed, the depth of Donna Haraway.

Let me be self-congratulatory for a moment. I am on record as stating that had I been American, I would have voted for Cornel West in 2024. That felt like the best choice to me.

And it is time to name names and Emil names Jordan Peterson whose up and down and up and down again journey I have observed from a distance. I would like to name Russell Brand and Charles Eisenstein. For several years now it has seemed to me that they have been regressing from the path that they were once on.

There is more to come at Limicon 2025.

The Meaning Crisis has been Cancelled!

3/13/2025

Host Name(s)

Hanzi Freinacht (Emil Friis) with Claudia Dommaschk

About this Session

The meaning crisis has been cancelled. If you can’t find meaning in the midst of a fascist takeover, in a world on the brink of another world war, while an emerging techno feudal oligarchy stands ready to stamp on a human face for-ever, you’ll never find meaning in anything.

One question remains, however:

Is the liminal space, or whatever we should call it, just another toothless meditation club sprinkled with a little intellectual masturbation on top, or, is it a slumbering tiger with immense potential for societal transformation just waiting to be unleashed onto history. I’m curious to find out. Maybe the yoga bourgeoisie actually got some teeth after all.

There may be a difficult but necessary conversation and I hope to be there.