Jordan Peterson, Stranger Things, & The Return of The Unknown

Materialism is dead.

What do the rise of Jordan Peterson, UFO’s, & Stranger Things have in common? this is the question i’m attempting to answer today. When I first saw Stranger Things it affected me on a deeper level than I knew how to put into words. Something about it brought relief. but; before we get into any of that, let’s discuss where we’ve been.

We live in a disenchanted time. According to Wikipedia, “disenchantment is the cultural rationalization and devaluation of religion apparent in modern society. The term was borrowed from Friedrich Schiller by Max Weber to describe the character of a modernized, bureaucratic, secularized Western society.[1] In Western society, according to Weber, scientific understanding is more highly valued than belief, and processes are oriented toward rational goals, as opposed to traditional society, in which "the world remains a great enchanted garden".[2]”

We’ve made our garden into a desert. we’re beyond excitement, beyond wonder, beyond hope. hope is for people who believe in something greater and well, we know better. 

We’ve outgrown those old stories of Good and Evil, we’re rational.

Except, we aren’t. only someone with very little knowledge of humanity would describe us that way. we aren’t mere hardware running software.

The death of religion hasn’t left us as flourishing and joyful souls finally liberated from the bonds that long held them back. but rather, it’s left us as self obsessed misanthropes who don’t know who they are, and are unable to care about anyone else.

Cathedrals haven’t been replaced with grand structures in every town of beauty and inspiration to maximize the common good of humanity but with cubicles, drop ceilings, and plastic fruit.   

“Folk-lore means that the soul is sane, but that the universe is wild and full of marvels. Realism means that the world is dull and full of routine, but that the soul is sick and screaming.“ -G. K. Chesterton

No matter how hard we try, we humans can’t shake the feeling that maybe there’s something more. more than comfort, more than self expression. maybe there’s truly something out there.

We begin to wonder, are we so sure there really is no upside down? are we so sure our place at the top of the food chain isn’t just a lie we tell ourselves? what if our inability to wonder isn’t the good sense of a modern man but rather, the broken heart of a homesick nomad? is the anxiety, emptiness, and nihilism really worth it? 

It may seem odd to say; but I believe the rise of both Stranger Things and Jordan Peterson demonstrate our culture’s slow acknowledgment that materialism is dead.

Both re-assert the central mysteries at the heart of human existence. Of the subconscious mind and that elusive place where the spiritual and the personal intertwine.

Both acknowledge the supremacy of the non-physical. both engage parts of us we were told didn’t exist. And if they did, were of no importance.

To undo our emptiness we must undo our facade of supremacy. To know who we are we must know who we aren’t. We must once again step into the unknown.

“God is being, Humans have being.” -Peter Kreeft