Viktor Frankl was an Austrian Psychotherapist, scholar, author and Holocaust survivor. He wrote Man’s Search For Meaning based on his experiences living in a Nazi Concentration Camp. This article isn’t an account of the man, but an exploration into some of his enduring ideas, namely: the Existential Vacuum & the Search for Meaning. In this article I lay out several leading indicators of the American crisis and explore Frankl’s three Paths to Meaning.

Note to reader: this week I tried to do a longer, more challenging piece. Am I very proud of this one? Not by a long shot. But I’m certainly happy I’ve ‘finished’ it as I now have a better understanding of how I might improve moving forward. Enjoy :)

The Existential Vacuum (EV) is an individual’s acceptance that life is meaningless. Those in the EV have a complete loss of interest in any meaningful pursuits & maintain zero initiative to fix the crisis of meaning in their lives. They are empty, apathetic, lazy, resentful and helpless. Truly, a horrid state of affairs.

One doesn’t have to stretch the limits of their perception to see that many people living in the United States (and the West) are firmly in an EV. If you’re diametrically opposed to this perspective, I won’t ask you to rethink your position. I’ll congratulate you on either: transcending this state of mind or being blissfully unaware of some of the glaring symptoms that I outline below.

The Data Tells a Powerful Story

Here are some macro phenomena - backed by data - that I believe are leading indicators that many Americans are actively in (or being pulled into) an Existential Vacuum.

1. We Have Record Low Confidence in Institutions - according to Gallup, American’s confidence in institutions is at an all-time record low

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   . This sentiment has been measured since the 1970’s. Institutions include: organized religion, military, Supreme Court, banks, newspapers, big business, government, the presidency, police, public schools, television/news media, the medical system and the criminal justice system. It’s long been known that working institutions are the bedrock of a well-functioning civil society. Americans are fed up. The data supports the notion that we are more fed up than we’ve been in decades.

2. Our Political Divide is Getting Wider - there are competing perspectives on this, but there is data to support this claim. The Unity Index by Vanderbilt University shows a continued downward trend in 'political unity' over the last few decades

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   . Vanderbilt created this index to include the following 5 measures available since 1981: Presidential Approval/Disapproval Ratings, Surveys of Ideological Extremism, Attitudes Measured in the General Social Survey, Congressional Polarization, Frequency of Polling on Civil Unrest & Protests. This data quantifies what many Americans are feeling: they are afraid or unable to talk to their own family/friends/neighbors about specific issues.

3. We are Bombarded w/ Dangerous and Subversive Ideological Bias - in one of the most granular and in-depth studies on media bias to date, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences concluded that each of the major networks (MSNBC, CNN, FOX) have quite dramatically ramped up their bias in the last decade

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   . This confirms what many of us have felt - the right (FOX) have moved further right, the left (CNN/MSNBC) have moved further left - with a very notable shift after the 2016 election. Media bias is not new, but there were contrarian opinions saying the media has remained static in its bias. This study has data that proves the opposite is true. Media bias is dynamic and it's become more biased in recent years. Both sides are as bad as each other. Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson are not neutral political commentators, despite the claims of their viewership.

4. Youth in America are Uninspired, Lazy & Celebrity Obsessed - YouTube/TikTok has certainly dominated the attention of Gen Z and a recent poll seems to confirm this perspective. A recent Harris Poll Survey asked 3000 children across US, UK and China, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

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   Children in the US and UK were 3x more likely to say YouTube Star/Vlogger while 56% of Chinese children said Astronaut. For some reason, this one bothered me the most. I am not a parent and would not dare tell someone how to raise their children. However, there's something particularly frightening about a generation of children obsessed with comfort and glamour vs one eager to solve humanity’s biggest challenges.

5. Mental Health is Becoming Increasingly Worse - there’s actually too much data to support this one. Our country is in the midst of some sort of national psychosis. Mental Health America, is a non-profit that specializes in reporting macro trends across different age groups, gender and race as it relates to mental health. Their 2022 findings report

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   includes some of the following alarming statistics:

   • Nearly 50 million Americans have reported experiencing a mental illness

   • Suicidal ideation continues to rise, especially in young adults w/ 2.5 million youth reporting severe depression

   • Half of mentally ill American adults are going untreated & over 60% of youth go untreated

   • Substance abuse rates continue to rise in both youth and adults

These data points are all significant and scary. I didn’t do a deeper dive on the points below, but they should certainly be included on the list:

• Chronic Social Media usage among youth & adults

• The continued breakdown of the American Family/values

• The obesity epidemic

• Decreasing efficacy of the American Public School System

Escaping the Existential Vacuum

I could sit here and type out a list of direct behaviors, beliefs or quasi-ideological platitudes that you could follow to combat each of the symptoms I outlined above. I’m not a self-help guru, nor am I a political commentator. Those data points were more to reflect that there are large scale phenomena we can point to that indicates a population in great distress.

Therefore, however long or substantive a list of “solutions” might be, it would ultimately fall short. We can agree on the problems our collective citizenry face, but any attempt to provide single solutions to such large scale problems is a futile exercise.

I strongly believe there is nothing we can do in this very moment to effect meaningful change in one of the circumstances outlined above. You can’t solve the mental health crisis of 50 million Americans. You can only implement behaviors in your life in accordance to your values. You can only change yourself.

The 3 Paths to Meaning

Viktor Frankl claimed it was the search for meaning that represents mankind’s highest and most powerful endeavor. And for the purposes of this article - the very thing to escape the negative outcome of our society’s ailments. The path to escape the Existential Vacuum.

So what constitutes the pursuit of meaning?

Frankl provides the following as an answer to this question:

"We can discover this meaning in life in three different ways: (1) by creating a work or doing a deed; (2) by experiencing something or encountering someone; and (3) by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.”

Work, Love and Suffering.

1. Work - Frankl describes this as most self-explanatory, but it’s worth explaining a bit. This can mean: starting a creative endeavor/artistic pursuit, doing a job/executing a profession to the very best of your ability, starting a business, doing some exercise, etc.

I read this simply as: doing something - anything - so long as the thing is of noble and honest intent (not for the purposes of manipulation, malicious harm, etc.) This will provide meaning in your life, as small and fleeting as some tasks might seem. This could be as simple as taking a walk around the block or choosing to sit quietly for 10 minutes.

When someone is at their very worst state of being, task 1 is simply getting that individual to do something. Telling that individual in an EV they have to go back to school, lose 50 pounds, find a job that fulfills them or meet the love of their life won’t do any good. The best thing is to start small and stay consistent.

2. Love - This isn’t isolated to romantic love. This can be the love you have in seeing someone close to you reach their potential. This love can be the energy you pour into a friend, colleague or teammate to support their success.

Investing time and energy into those we truly care about will help us avoid the trappings of selfish or hedonistic pursuits. Think about how well you take care of a loved one when they are sick. Now think about how you treat yourself. We can surprise ourselves by our own sense of care and charity towards others. It’s the connections that we make and the investment of time that provides us this meaning.

3. Suffering - the very nature of Frankl’s writing and teachings are made more meaningful because of the suffering he endured at the hands of the Nazis. He was able to find meaning through relentless & brutal struggle, the kind of struggle most of us could barely even imagine. Life is made clear on the other side of pain. There is growth on the other side of horror.

There is a choice one needs to make when confronted with adversity and the inevitability of suffering: become the embodiment of a victim or seek to understand what opportunities are available to you within the suffering. Frankl chose to dream of teaching his philosophy to students around the world as he shoveled shit in the middle of a Concentration Camp. You too can choose to rise above your pain and suffering.

I’m reminded of Stoic philosophy and something I wrote about in my previous Substack article: Amor Fati. This translates from Latin to “a love of fate.” What a concept, to love one’s fate, no matter what end. The birth of a child, the death of a friend, the diagnosis of an illness - to love one’s fate is to see opportunity and meaning in all things. As terrible as our American experience might be in this very moment, we all have the ability to control our next action. We all have control over ourselves. We might not all be blessed with the same access to resources or the same levels of economic or physical security. But it’s still within each of our ability to choose a pursuit towards meaning and pull ourselves out of the Existential Vacuum.

Conclusion

Frankl’s 3 Paths to Meaning are simple but powerful antidotes to the crisis many people find themselves in because they embody this notion of self-control or self-determination.

You can choose to let bigger, uncontrolled elements of our lived experience in this country defeat you (politics, civic unrest, industrial victimization, etc.) But you can also grab hold of the steering wheel and take back control of where your life is going.

The essence of Frankl’s teachings is you have this choice. What path will you choose?

See you next Sunday and thank you for reading. God bless you, friend!