Introduction

This period of history that could be said to start in 1945 brought about the following changes and challenges that have profoundly changed human life and have crippled traditional notions not just morality but reality itself:

1. The first atomic bomb explosion showed us that mankind could literally destroy itself and much of life on Earth. People started to realize that they belonged to one planet and, at least in some way, we were connected in the possibility of massive death.
2. The birth of the electronic computer and the beginning of the intuition that our world would be transformed through artificial intelligence (AI) with that change also came the linking science of cybernetics and systems theory. The idea here is that we could change the world through cataloguing information and arranging it through various means through databases and solve problems automatically through applied logic and reason, or so it appeared.
3. The development of television that eventually became a necessity throughout the world that, in theory at least, could link the world almost instantly (compressing time and space). It also worked to replace social life with watching spectacles.
4. Pax Americana--at the end of WWII the United States led in the creation of the UN and various other institutions that encouraged dialogue rather than war and international rule of law. While this situation has changed considerably the idea of an international order is still alive despite continuing minor wars we have avoided nuclear war and major war between major powers.
5. UFOs--while this seems to not belong here it does for a couple of reasons. First, it arose, conveniently, as science-fiction became popular so in the Jungian sense it expressed some important themes: a) we might be faced with a common enemy or friend that could bring us all together and perhaps be forced to live in peace; b) it brought a kind of secular link to the heavens and perhaps inspired interest in space flight, that is, that we could look to very powerful beings as existing outside our religious institutions. Second, the phenomena that included clear evidence that these craft had measurable affects on the real world was a deep challenge to political and academic authority. The odd nature of UFOs and the paradoxical evidence suggest something very weird going on that is beyond the phenomena--this is an issue we will take up. But UFOs offered a greater challenge to the hyper materialistic philosopy of Western culture than, for example, spiritism did in the previous decades.
6. The National Security Act of 1947 may have been one of the most imporatant pieces of legislation ever enacted in the history of the USA. It created, essentially, a bureaucracy of secrecy where these organizations could, using a technique that came out of systems theory/analysis, i.e., game-theory, would eventually dominate political power in Washington and in the world. The reason for this is secrecy allows a group greater flexibility than competing groups (all government departments and agencies must "fight" for budget) that must act in full view of the public.
7. The sudden eruption of psychedellic drugs like psilocybin, LSD, and DMT/Ayuhuasca. LSD, in particular had a huge effect on the culture since it was actively used and tested on unsuspecting subjects by the CIA and the military in the 50s as a weapon. Whether intentional or not these substances ended up in the artistic and literary communities and radically changed our culture in the 60s. While there was a draconian reaction to these drugs by the authorities the genie could never be put back in the bottle--this resulted in a very major change among a significant minority of people particularly in the U.S.
8. The sexual "revolution" had been in "the air" for some time since the sufragette movement and fully bloomed in the mid-seventies when increasing numbers of women chose work rather than early marriage.

All these innovations had a very powerful effect not only because these were big changes but because these factors tended to feed each other and whirl through society upsetting balances of all kinds. By 1980 the major changes had happened or where on their way. The world gradually became more and more structured by technology and technique/method/algorithm and the normal face-to-face interactions were replaced by smart-phones, texting, emails. Time moves faster.

We have confused ideas about right and wrong usually made up of a constellation of memes we only half-accept plus some solid foundations that may not be very solid though we want them to be. We certainly can put ourselves on cruise-control and become ruled by a series of algorithms we are unable to question or reprogram. And our confusion over morality, over meaning makes real relationships with other tentative particularly since pleasing oneself is usually our goal.

We need to find a notion of what a good society is because, at present, we don't have that vision even though we must have that vision in order to create it. It need not be exact--visions are, at best, vague in detail but sharp in intent. We need to agree on basics like we want a good society based on love, compassion, practicality and creativity. Many people don't want those things. Some want a harsh system where they win and others lose which I would call radical selfishness. This notion has the charm of being honest and clear. In fact, any vision or framework of meaning has something in it that is praiseworthy which doesn't mean we don't oppose something we know is wrong. Jesus said we should love our enemies but he never said anything about not having enemies.

The question of the good and what it is made of has to be based on an overall world-view that is a useful and agreeable conceptual framework. It must be based on something solid, something that gets to the heart of the matter. All this calls for some kind of metaphysics that grounds us into something we can sense as solid even if that "grounding" is to give up on solidity. We can ground ourselves in ephemera because we are not actually grounding ourselves physically but metaphysically. Some sense of what is so can keep us from constantly looking for something solid. Here we can come to paradox as a metaphysical construct. The interesting thing is that we are doing this anyway. Experience as well as study has shown me that we can ground ourselves in love, compassion, and humility which is the source of a kind of spirituality that actually reflects something real we can all understand.