Good Business_ Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi [157]
Culture as defense against chaos. See, for instance, Nelson’s (1965) summary on this point. Interesting treatments of the positive integrative effects of culture are Ruth Benedict’s concept of “synergy” (Maslow & Honigmann 1970), and Laszlo’s (1970) general systems perspective. (See also Redfield 1942; von Bertalanffy 1960, 1968; and Polanyi 1968, 1969.) For an example of how meaning is created by individuals in a cultural context, see Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton (1981).
Cultures believe themselves to be at the center of the universe. Ethnocentrism tends to be one of the basic tenets of every culture; see for instance LeVine & Campbell (1972), Csikszentmihalyi (1973).
Ontological anxiety. The experts on ontological (or existential) anxiety have been, at least in the past few centuries, the poets, the painters, the playwrights, and other sundry artists. Among philosophers one must mention Kierkegaard (1944, 1954), Heidegger (1962), Sartre (1956), and Jaspers (1923, 1955); among psychiatrists, Sullivan (1953) and Laing (1960, 1961).
Meaning. An experience is meaningful when it is related positively to a person’s goals. Life has meaning when we have a purpose that justifies our strivings, and when experience is ordered. To achieve this order in experience it is often necessary to posit some supernatural force, or providential plan, without which life might make no sense. See also Csikszentmihalyi & Rochberg-Halton (1981). The problem of meaning will be discussed in more depth in chapter 10.
Religion and the loss of meaning. That religion still helps as a shield against chaos is shown by several studies that report higher satisfaction with life among adults who report themselves as being religious (Bee 1987, p. 373). But there have been several claims made recently to the effect that the cultural values which sustained our society are no longer as effective as they once were; for example, see Daniel Bell (1976) on the decline of capitalistic values, and Robert Bellah (1975) on the decline of religion. At the same time, it is clear that even the so-called “Age of Faith” in Europe, during the entire Middle Ages, was beset by doubt and confusion. For the spiritual turmoil of those times see the excellent accounts of Johann Huizinga (1954) and Le Roy Ladurie (1979).
Trends in social pathology. For the statistics on energy use, see Statistical Abstracts of the U.S. (U.S. Dept. of Commerce 1985, p. 199); for those on poverty, see ibid., p. 457. Violent crime trends are drawn from the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s Uniform Crime Reports (July 25, 1987, p. 41), the Statistical Abstracts (1985, p. 166), and the Commerce Department’s U.S. Social Indicators (1980, pp. 235, 241). Venereal disease statistics are from the Statistical Abstracts of the U.S. (1985, p. 115); for divorce see ibid., p. 88.
Mental health figures are from the U.S. Social Indicators, p. 93. The budget figures are from the U.S. Statistical Abstracts (1985, p. 332).
For information on the number of adolescents living in two-parent families see Brandwein (1977), Cooper (1970), Glick (1979), and Weitzman (1978). For crime statistics, see U.S. Statistical Abstracts (1985, p. 189).
Adolescent pathology. For suicide and homicide among teenagers, see Vital Statistics of the United States, 1985 (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 1988), table 8.5. Changes in SAT scores are reported in the U.S. Statistical Abstracts (1985, p. 147). According to reliable estimates, teenage suicide increased by about 300 percent between 1950 and 1980, with the heaviest losses among the privileged