Lack of meaningful personal and social paradigms

Nature

A lack of meaningful images prevents people from making decisions which are unrelated to the future of society. Most images do not portray the interrelatedness of people - the concepts of individualism and nationalism have become overruling forces. Social images and roles neglect to portray that each person has the possibility of creating his own future. Images that convey the escaping from situations have emerged.

Claim

Increasingly, people suffer from a "sleeping sickness of the soul", namely that there is a lack at some core level of both a meaning in our individual lives and of any sense of collective meaning whereby our lives are part of some greater effort through which we are connected to one another.

Modern man lives amid an immense, complex civilization that he did little to create. It is not surprising if he feels passive and acted upon rather than an actor. His inclination to act is poisoned at the root by a feeling that anything he does takes place in a vacuum of meaninglessness. The sense of universal purpose offered by religion is a lie. Man believes himself important and unique because he has to, but in fact he is neither.