Spirituality
The Solution
The Problem
We are committed to tackling affective polarisation and the commodification of degeneracy; two of the gravest problems ruining the ultimate wellbeing of the western.
Affective Polarisation
Studies show that affective polarisation has saturated the social fabric of the western world, and according to Frazer et al (2022) polarisation is not only detrimental to the socio-political wellbeing of society, but it has a direct link to mental and physical health of people. It is exacerbating depression, anxiety, obesity, self-harm and substance abuse in people because it incites repressive otherization i.e., violations of the “other” through bullying, discrimination, and violent extremism. The western society is not monolithic so the failure of policy makers, politicians, voices of activism, and various stake holders to nurture the benignity of the “us against them” ethos allows it to be appropriated to provoke in people the conviction that the ultimate wellbeing of society is perverted when choices, beliefs, opinions, lifestyles, and practices of others do not align with theirs. With this conviction, people assume the pious role and declare those who do not align with their position as the infidels whose perversions are the causes of disorderliness and deterioration of the wellbeing of the milieu. This pious-us against the infidels-them positioning triggers detestation, anger, and hostile aggression in people, and that cultivates repressive otherization; thus, escalating the violation of otherness through marginalisation, bullying, discrimination, and violent extremism. Social politically, this misappropriated ethos is the drive behind contestations between the reactionary and the progressive ideologies of the western society. The former pushes nationalism and fundamentalism agendas against the individualism and "liberating tolerance" (Marcuse, 1965) agenda of the latter. Both agendas create lack of community integration and cause disconnect between people; hence, fostering the tendency of minimizing the necessary mutual engagement that allows people to be more aware and empathic towards each other’s experience. As this disconnect i.e., fragmentation, is tribalized and politicized, the divergences escalate to levels that stoke animosity between people and that’s when AFFECTIVE POLARISATION is yielded. Unfortunately, the attempt to remedy this problem has failed. We live in an era where people believe that openness about their otherness and the liberty to function as such is necessary for their holistic health and wellbeing, hence the rise in involvement of causes that promote equality and diversity to secure such freedoms and liberties. Notwithstanding, our society’s hermeneutics on the concept of equality and diversity is disappointingly skewed. We perceive equality with a vision of sameness instead of wholeness, so we recklessly ignite the us against them ethos in our promotion of such expressions of liberties and freedoms. Therefore, the propagation of equality, diversity, and inclusivity by activists and policy makers rather incite repressive otherization; thus, provoking affective polarisation and harming the ultimate wellbeing of society. Sadly, the advent of artificial intelligence in the world of free market has also enabled grifters, lobbyist, politicians and various ideological proponents to curate algorithms of search engines and social media platforms (Noble, 2018) to incite repressive otherization and provoke AFFECTIVE POLARISATION.
Commodification of Degeneration
The second problem is the commodification of moral degeneration and its damaging effects on the mental health of people. We live in a milieu where wellbeing is at the forefront of the organismic welfare of society but the ambivalences surrounding wellbeing themes such as “self-love” and “self-care” inspires self-centeredness, self-absorption, and self-worship. This makes our approach to wellbeing very susceptible to traits of narcissism such as self-idolatry, excessive self-enhancement, over prioritization of extrinsic goals, conspicuous consumption and financial abuse. As stated earlier, there is the belief that the liberty to express our otherness is necessary for the ultimate wellbeing of society. However, in an environment of free market where the pursuit of extrinsic goals is considered as the ultimate, this liberty of expression is being commodified on digital media entertainment platforms to generate lucrative revenue through subscriptions, clicks and views. Over the years, society’s insatiable consumption of such contents has turned creatives into high earning talents and celebrities; thus, causing influx of creatives and talents in this niche. The outcome is a fierce competition in which creatives are pushed into unimaginable depths of degeneracy to come up with contents full of deplorable antics for viral moments. This has also caused proliferation of digital media platforms (especially streaming sites) with very compromised terms of service that accommodate these depraved contents that promote dangerous antisocial behaviours, misogyny and misandry ideologies, debauchery, bullying, hate speech, extreme violence, cults, and gang culture. The problem is that demographically, 69% of the world’s population have access to more than one of these digital media platforms that promotes these contents, and the younger generation (those between the ages of 16 and 34) account for the largest number of users. That is unsettling because these are the impressionable years where “susceptibility to attitudes” is very high (Krosnick & Alwin, 1989, pp. 416-25). This implies that the future of society is being cultivated with perversions that will bring utter ruins to its ultimate wellbeing. They are being empowered to express their otherness with the spirit of degeneracy. Secondly, the lucrative commodification of these behaviours as contents on digital media platforms has corrupted the younger generation to perceive the pursuit of tradesmanship and high-skilled labour as less ambitious and waste of time and money. They claim, if you really want to “get your money up,” then working “nine to five is bum status, you can’t get to the bag” with that. In their philosophy of wellbeing, they overprioritize the pursuit of extrinsic goals i.e., physical fitness, fame (especially, having huge followers on social media) and earning lots of money to afford extravagant lifestyle. Therefore, no matter how deplorable and degenerate the approach to earning money can be, if the individual can acquire loads of it to splurge on the nicest things in life, they must be accorded great deal of respect and the status of excellence in life. We must alter this perception and attitude of the younger generation whiles we can, else the future of our society will be left in the hands of an unskilled, extravagant, self-absorbed and entitled people whose degeneracy and perversions will cause society to spiral into deviance, dysfunction and utter disorderliness. In other words, the ultimate wellbeing of society will be in utter ruins in the nearest foreseeable future if we do not confront this issue. Policy makers and many charitable organisations have been working diligently to establish enticing apprenticeship programs and scholarship programs for high-skilled training but as long as the psychosocial impact is being overlooked as the crux of the problem, all these programs will not move the needle.
The Solution
The ultimate impact of both problems on society is psychosocial. Moreover, various projects and programs that seek to confront these problems are either politically influenced or ideologically programmed so they fail to offer the needed interconnectedness for the necessary holistic impact. Therefore, our objective is to design programs that cultivate this interconnectedness within the organismic character of society with no political or ideological attachments. According to Maslow (1971) a person at the state of self-transcendence, pursues life altruistically by looking beyond self to care for the ultimate wellbeing of others and the environment. Understanding life as a holistic experience that unfolds in an altruistic interplay, they cultivate an agency of interconnectedness (AoIn) that empowers them to interact proactively with others to secure the ultimate wellbeing and flourishment of all humanity and the environment. The AoIn exudes charisma full of altruism, pacificism, activism, communion, modesty and sanctity to encounter their daily worldly duties as agency of the civic values of equality, diversity, charitability, serviceability, responsibility, and accountability. The AoIn becomes a very necessary player in the advancement of ultimate wellbeing of society because they perceive their ultimate purpose as agency that fosters interconnectedness among people to confront affective polarisation and inspire scruples that convict people to object self-indulgent attitudes, over prioritisation of extrinsic goals, the commodification of illicit indulgences, financial abuse, and conspicuous consumption. In summary, the solution is to cultivate the charisma and virtues of the AoIn in people.
The AoIn therefore, is the most potent remedy for the ultimate wellbeing of society so our plan is to cultivate it in people. In this plan we amalgamate various disciplines in social sciences such as (social anthropology, psychology, education, and religious studies) with creative arts to,
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To interpret the charisma and virtues of the AoIn into schemas.
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To program the schemas into activities covering,
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Expressive Arts e.g., painting, music, drama, poetry, dancing, and storytelling.
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Seminars e.g., lectures, speeches, presentations, and group discussions.
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Innovative Pedagogy (Dialectical Learning) for schools, which involves analysing, criticizing, and synthesizing information i.e., maintaining an investigative, interactive, and expressive pedagogy.
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Multimedia Presentation e.g. podcast, blogs, reels, music videos, short movies and RP games.
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To launch these activities in schools, universities, faith groups, corporations and social media as our AoIn Events.
We believe that the ultimate path of spirituality is to apprehend supreme good (summum bonum) which is eudaimonia in the Aristotelian mind. But to apprehend eudaimonia i.e., beatitude or ultimate wellbeing, we must maintain a cosmological vision of wholeness, reconciliation and liberation. However, in pursuit of this vision, we yield self-transcendence which is a state of spiritual awareness within which a person functions with the charisma that exudes altruism, pacifism, activism, empathy, sanctity, modesty, and salvation. Moreover, this charisma transforms a person into the agency of interconnectedness because they become vessels yielding virtuousness, oneness, thankfulness, forgiveness, peacefulness, helpfulness, blessedness, and resourcefulness to promote values of equality, diversity, charitability, responsibility, serviceability, and accountability. Therefore, our mission, if it must be interpreted as a pursuit of spirituality, is a path that empowers humanity to pursue self-transcendence and apprehend eudaimonia i.e., ultimate wellbeing.
