How to Live in a World That's Officially Broken.

Hi! How’s everyone? Welcome back old friends, welcome new ones, and here’s little Snowy saying a big grinning hi.

Today we’re going to discuss…

It’s been a pleasure to do sessions with a number of you over the last few days and weeks. Really, very meaningful and wonderful. The system’s live now, by the way, so for those who were asking, you can book one here if you like.

I want to take a second to discuss a theme that I’ve been thinking about as we've done them. Read this beautiful, wise sentence with me, not once, but a few times, just soak it all in.

“The suffering that comes from useful work and from victory over real difficulties brings with it those moments of peace and satis faction which give the human being the priceless feeling that he has really lived his life.”

That's from Jung. Who lived through times like these, agonized over them, and thought incredibly deeply about them. Let's begin there, and keep it with you, as we discuss all this, OK?

The World is Officially Broken. You're Not.

The world is going crazy. Our societies are going crazy. And weirdly, many of us have been made to feel like we’re the crazy ones.

Let me assure you. You're not. If you understand what I write, if you found your way here, you’re not the crazy one.

But as this process has gone on, and I’ll explain why in just a moment, it’s shaken our confidence, and much more than that, many of us, badly so. Be confident. Be brave. Be tough. That sounds easy, and it’s far easier said than done, which is why I’m talking to you about it. So let's get into it, this thing of Living in an Officially Broken World. Where do we even begin with something like that?

You see, being told over and over again that no, we were wrong, no, it wouldn’t turn out like this, no, no, no—it shook our confidence. It made us question ourselves, and worse, turn that questioning of ourselves into a habit. And so now many of us doubt ourselves, much more than we should, habitually, and then we panic, and feel guilty about it, because we didn't listen to our instincts, or worse, listened to those who told us not to listen to ourselves.

Stop all that right now. Give yourself some credit. Think of the Jung quote above. I don’t mean that in a trite way, but in a deep one, that will really give you agency. Give yourself some credit for being right when all our institutions were wrong. For seeing it all coming. For preparing in some way as best you could. Hell, for even just being here with me, thinking it all through.

You are all, and I know this, intelligent, thoughtful, resourceful, courageous, and good people.

Those are increasingly rare qualities in this world of ours.

For all you’ve accomplished and done. For this learned and talented person you are and have become. Give yourself credit for all that. I know the despair and panic and shock many of you feel right now, but right now you have to recognize that you aren't the broken one. The crazy one. The world is. Give yourself credit for that, because as we're about to discuss, it's really, really important: it's how you begin Living in a World That's Officially Broken.

This isn’t just a pep talk. We are talking about developing a mindset to weather times like these. An attitude. A practice. A way of being.

You know and I know what’s coming now. I don’t write about it endlessly because if we’re smart, we all know. Financial crashes. Stagnating economies, lurching into depression. Political meltdowns, as democracy goes on decaying, one great leap at a time. Social fractures. The breakdown of norms and values, as people lose their bearings and their marbles and everything they have.

We’re talking about developing a mindset to weather all that. Remember when we talked about letting the season, a season like this, weather us? That that’s where true wisdom and courage and strength come from? At the highest level?

This is what Jung’s talking about.

Times like these.

Not just what they take from us. But what they give us.

Of course they’ll take from us. I’ve discussed that with you here, and with many of you in sessions. We’re all going to lose something. We’re all going to get burned now. Our societies have made disastrous choices, and we’re all going to pay a price, whether it’s our savings, incomes, assets, possibilities, tomorrows. The question is how much.

That’s risk mitigation.

But the other way to see this is the way Jung puts it. As we get burned, and like I said, we’re all going to get burned to some degree, what do we gain from it? How do we emerge stronger, wiser, better than before? Even maybe in better financial positions, and I don’t mean that in a naive way, “richer,” but maybe just: more stable, secure, and grounded. Are we more at peace? How have we grown?

This is what Jung is asking us. This is what I’m asking you. All this is the true meaning of times like these.

You must always remember it.

So that you cultivate the right mindset and attitude now. Not one of panic and fear and bewilderment. But of gentle, deep understanding, which is wisdom. Of true strength, of the kind of the tree in the hurricane. Of courage of the noblest kind, which is moral, not just intellectual. And so on. These higher order qualities of the human being, as Jung says, is what we are after.

And if you become this kind of person, there is no question that you will emerge from even times like these…X…than before. What is the word we’re looking for? “Better”? Maybe not. Maybe not that simple. The X means, as you might have intimated, to have grown. To have matured. Into those highest qualities of the human being. To feel as if you have truly lived. Not just been here, battered by the tides of fate, a victim of destiny and misfortune.

Do we have a word for that? I don’t know. But deep down in you is this need, and that is the message of now.

So how do we get there?

That brings me to my second theme.

Your Broken Relationship With the World

One of the themes we’ve been discussing in sessions is listening to your instincts.

I know—I know—that you have good instincts. How? Because you found your way to me. Because you understand what I teach you. Those with poor instincts can’t get there. They’re out there, becoming victims of fate and misfortune, not expanding their agency, cultivating mindsets to let this season weather you and emerge better, stronger, wiser. And they’re panicked and bewildered by it.

Listen to your instincts.

That brings to the Broken Relationship Between You and the World. That one’s so important I capitalized it as a concept to keep with you.

How is it broken? We already discussed it, but let’s make it a little more formal now. Our institutions told us, over and over and over, that we were wrong. That none of this would happen. Doesn’t matter which institutions, they all did, more or less, from august newspapers, to their columnists, to cable news, to thinktanks, to intellectuals, to politicians, and on and on. And here it all is. The World is Officially Broken, and they're still sort of gaslighting us about it, when they're not the ones doing it.

Our relationship with the world is broken in this elemental, fundamental way.

Some of us don’t know it yet. And in rage and despair, we turn to demagogues, who give us easy answers, by pointing the finger at scapegoats.

Think of the scapegoating cycle. It begins with “others,” and soon enough, becomes “one of us.” So yesterday it was immigrants, and it still is, but now, it’s people working for the government, doing the noble and respectable job of civil service. Think of how ugly and foolish it is to cross this line in scapegoating, from out group to in group, and how ill it bodes for a society, too. Really stop and think about it, what it means.

Our relationship with the world is broken, but now you must know it. Not in an intellectual sense, which many of you are beginning to, but in a deeper one, an emotional one, to really feel it, and let it go. No, these institutions will not save you. They aren’t up to the task. They aren’t interested. Did you see how the Washington Post—a bulwark of America—now under Bezos will only allow expression in support of “personal liberties” and “free markets”? Do you think an institution like that isn’t broken?

You can’t have a functioning relationship with broken institutions. Cannot. Don’t even try. It won’t end well, in the way that it never can with people. First, they have to heal. And then you can have a relationship with them.

So where does that leave you?

Now you must develop a new relationship with the world.

We’ve talked about that a little bit, but now I think many of you are grappling with what it means. What it is.

It means: not relating to the world the same way anymore. Letting it sort of make you the crazy one, the victim, the pawn, the fool, and so forth. Its institutions. People. Social groups. And that affects everything. Your career, your business, your finances, your relationships, maybe even your family. You have to really know that the World is Officially Broken Now, and live in it, and that doesn't mean just sort of die away or drown in it or deny it or sit around being passive and so forth.

Now you must forge a new relationship with the world. One based in confidence and maturity, but deepened with wisdom, and steeled by heartbreak.

The world has disappointed all of us recently. All of us. Doesn’t matter which side, really. But the question is which of us will develop a new relationship with the world. In which our broken hearts don’t curdle into spite, don’t regress into infantile narcissism, me-me-me tantrums of the Orange Man kind—but instead, open deeper with wisdom, courage, grace, and truth. That's what Jung's talking about, too.

That is hard, hard work.

And I know that’s abstract, so let me make it concrete by bringing up my third theme.

How You Begin Living in a World That's Officially Broken

Jung, in this quote I shared with you, is talking in that book, that way of thinking, about concepts he calls “life plans” and “life tasks.”

He’s not talking about doing the dishes, go ahead and chuckle.

He’s talking about the Big Stuff. The higher order qualities that make us feel as if our lives have truly been lived by us. Courage, grace, strength. Maturity. Individuation. Families. Finances. Creativity. Legacy. These are the Big Stuff of Life Tasks. It's about a life coming to fruition, not just "in" an age of collapse, like Jung lived through, but through it, precisely because...

Times like those are what really bring forth the highest qualities in us.

That is how you really being Living in a World That's Officially Broken. Not just feebly existing in it.

Please stop there and think about that for a second.

So Life Tasks, in this sense, means the deep stuff we are here to do in this brief life we have. We must mature, we must love, we must take care of ourselves and those we love, we must create, we must leave something of ourselves behind. And all of this is what is really being upset right now, in this age of turmoil.

We now need a new approach to our Life Tasks, the stuff of true maturity, and that means understanding this relationship, that times as difficult as these have a hidden...not upside...but...maybe just as difficult, rare, improbable reward. They are what bring forth the highest qualities in us, the stuff of true maturity. Easy times don't yield that. They're just...easy.

To get there, though, we'll need to rethink our Life Plans. Before, we could have simple life plans. I go to school, I get an education, I get a job, I buy a house, I start a family, I retire, etc. But now nothing is that simple, is it? What happens if the maniacs currently in charge what little safety net there is? Medical care? If they slash away at forms of security that millions depend on? What about young people whose lives are going nowhere? What about middle aged people staring into a dead job market with horror?

New approaches to Life Tasks need new approaches to Life Plans.

And all of that is what renegotiating your relationship with the world is. This sort of Big Thing I keep talking about. It’s a way to think about this Big Thing, your broken relationship with the world, and remaking it, in a more confident, adult, mature, sophisticated, powerful way—instead of Sinking With the Ship. We do it through Life Tasks and Life Plans that make more sense for a time like this, understanding that maturity in a much more significant, true, authentic way is called for now, whether it's finances, careers, relationships, or so on.

And we do that because it's how to Live in a World That's Officially Broken.

Our Life Tasks haven’t changed, but what’s happened is that fulfilling them has become a lot more complicated and difficult. To really attain maturity, security, stability, and to offer and give love, comfort, nourishment, care, to become the highest forms of the people we can be, or maybe even just to put food on the table. And so we need to rethink our Life Plans, sometimes maybe even radically, to get there, developing ourselves much more seriously, in ways we didn't before, even if we're all grown up, taking all these aspects of ourselves and our lives much, much more intently, which all begins with valuing ourselves, and then understanding how much more we need to develop and mature and grow, fast, hard, right now.

This is what I've called Being the Adult in the Room. Versus just Sinking With the Ship.

We’ll talk about all that a lot more. For now, I hope that helps. Many thanks again to those of you who’ve booked sessions with me—it’s been so amazing and powerful for me, I’m humbled and honored, and I mean that.

You are tougher and braver and wiser than you know. That is the heart of your broken relationship with the world, but that very world is now beginning to collapse around us, precisely because you cannot have relationships with broken things.

Remember who you are, and remember the purpose of a human being in a season like this. Begin there.

That's how you Live in a World That's Officially Broken.

Lots of love,

Umair (and Snowy!)

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