As the corruption, failures, and willful blindness of our existing systems grows more obvious by the day, the prevailing myth of our time, insidious yet comforting, is that our current systems can be gradually reformed to meet the needs of humanity's future. This myth, however, is fundamentally flawed, for it does not account for the intrinsic limitations and deeply rooted corruptions that pervade these structures, nor for the highly constrained timeframe in which the fundamental transformation must be accomplished to avert catastrophe. It fails to recognize that our institutions—political, economic, social, and even religious—are trapped in an inescapable vortex of deceit and self-optimization that prevents them from evolving into agencies for the common good. The Meta Crisis we face is not merely a cluster of interconnected challenges; it is a revelatory moment that exposes the impotence of our systems to even begin to advance towards higher-order functional unity from within. This chapter offers a dissection of why neither victory over the Meta Crisis nor success in forging a better future is unattainable within the purview of existing systems.
As we weigh the Conditions of Acceptance for our proposed solution to the Meta Crisis, among the most obvious is the need for a Higher Order Functional Unity among Citizens of Goodwill that is actually and pragmatically capable of meeting the needs and solving the problems at hand. As soon as we dispense with the notion that any one political party, nation, or religious denomination, if we just backed them with enough resources, votes, and power, could prevail, we discover that the only solution is forge out of the Chaos, Separation, a Dysfunction a Divine Symphony of Goodwill. It is against this self-evident Standard that we must weigh our existing systems and institutions.
In systems theory, entropy denotes the tendency towards disorder and chaos. The more complex a system, the greater its susceptibility to entropy. Our institutional frameworks, whether they are governance structures, economic systems, or religious organizations, have reached a level of complexity where their internal entropy is beyond manageable levels. Designed centuries ago for fit and function in a different world, it is apparent that the vast majority are internally tending towards decay. In the chaos, each sub-system, division, or department starts optimizing for its own survival, usually at the expense of the larger system they are ensconced within, and certainly at the expense of the Whole.
Regulatory bodies, often lauded as the saviors of integrity, fall victim to the same self-optimizing tendencies. Industries they are meant to monitor often corrupt them, leading to a reality where the gatekeepers are controlled by the very entities they are meant to guard against. This illusion of control legitimates the corruption, making it systemic and, therefore, all the more dangerous. Further, when genuine Spiritual Unity, Integrity, and Self-Governance is required, legal and regulatory systems, rooted in the illusion of control and the letter of the law, are entirely insufficient to impel from within the type of heroic sacrifices called for under the New Covenant.
Political systems globally, regardless of their foundational principles, have spiraled into a state of dysfunctional hyper-partisanship which is inherently deceitful and propagandistic. The very nature of politics has mutated from Wise governance to a theatrical contest of power, where ideology trumps wise statesmanship, and the political process requires deceiving, separating, and corralling vulnerable humans into segmented bases of power. When power becomes an end in itself, the lofty goals of justice, equality, and the common good are sacrificed at the altar of expediency, Truth is sacrificed at the altar of victory, Wisdom is sacrificed at the altar of narrow mindedness, and Love is sacrificed at the altar of Fear. The more polarized and deceived the population becomes, the more deceitful and radical are the positions that must be adopted to prevail in the contest for power. This is a spiral towards Death.
Even religious institutions, which ought to be the moral compass guiding us toward the Divine, have succumbed to dogma, political alliances, sectarian conflicts, and corrupt leadership. The transformative power of faith has been reduced to a series of ritualistic practices and competing institutions and semantic statements that serve to deepen divisions rather than unify humanity under the banner of Divine Love.
The international order, symbolized by organizations like the United Nations, epitomizes inefficacy. Dominated by national and special interests, and crippled by corrupt, self-optimizing, veto-wielding super powers, they are paralyzed structures that serve as mere talking shops, unable to steer the global community toward Wisdom and Truth, and rightfully lacking the Trust of We The People.
The exponential growth in technology could, in theory, serve as a transformative force. But Technology is only a tool and accelerant to the programmatic logic of those who wield it. Even technology has been co-opted by these self-optimizing systems, becoming yet another mechanism for control, deceit, and inequality. Far from liberating us, it risks actively tightening the chains that bind us to an unsustainable trajectory, and the blinders that prevent us perceiving our impending destruction.
As systems grow in complexity, they also grow in fragility. Our financial systems, interconnected yet brittle, are a case in point. Permeated with greedy algorithms and high-frequency trading, they appear sophisticated but are poised for collapse at the slightest disturbance. Complexity without wisdom leads to fragility, not strength. Greed and self-optimization lead to destruction, not profit, for the Whole.
The overarching theme here is that each of these systems and a myriad of their siblings that we could name, in their quest for self-optimization, not only fails to contribute to the higher-order functional unity necessary for overcoming the Meta Crisis but actively works against it. This internal dynamic creates a cacophony rather than a symphony—a disordered state where each element maximizes its own utility at the collective's expense. It's an auto-cannibalistic process, and the resulting pathway does not lead to Heaven; it is a road to existential hell.
What got us here will not lead us onward to where we want to go.
It is evident that efforts to create a better future within the constraints of these systems are not just doomed to fail but destined to perpetuate and exacerbate the crisis. The higher-order functional unity required to genuinely address our challenges cannot emerge from a landscape dominated by self-optimizing, competitive, and fundamentally corrupt institutions. These systems are not containers that can hold the 'new wine' of transformative change; they are outdated wineskins that will burst under the pressure of genuine renewal. Worse than mere inefficacy, the myth of gradual reform from within creates Waste, distracting and diverting the precious Time, Energy, Resources, and Attention required to forge the requisite Higher Order Functional Unity among Citizens of Goodwill.
What emerges from this exposition is a dire need for a transcendent New system, grounded in timeless wisdom, and capable of unifying divergent elements into a harmonious whole, as they collaborate to transform their lives and their world. We must construct New Wineskins for the New Wine, lest we waste both and find ourselves suffering amidst the ruins of a squandered past, and a betrayed future.