Materialism in Crisis: When Progress Loses Its Meaning
How a Brilliant Worldview Reaches Its Limits — And Why That’s a Good Thing
We live in an age of abundance.
Never before has the West known so much certainty, comfort, and technological power. We can cure diseases, launch satellites, and turn thoughts into data. And yet, beneath the surface, a different kind of crisis is taking shape — one of emptiness, anxiety, and disconnection. Burnout, depression, and anxiety disorders are on the rise, especially among those who, on paper, have everything.
What are we missing when we’re no longer short on resources — but on meaning?
The cause runs deeper than workload or screen time. At stake is the worldview that has shaped our culture for centuries: a brilliant, mechanistic model that reduces humans to biochemical machines and consciousness to brain activity. That model took us far, but now it’s falling short. It explains almost everything — except why we feel so estranged.
A brilliant idea has reached its limit. And right there, something new is beginning.
✦ A gift with a shadow
We live in unprecedented comfort. The sharp edges of existence — hunger, cold, physical exhaustion — have largely been softened, at least in the Western world. Where our ancestors wore down their bodies to survive, we now live amid medical breakthroughs, material prosperity, and digital ease.
And yet: in this ocean of convenience, we often feel more restless, empty, and lost than ever. Antidepressant use continues to rise across the West. The WHO estimates that roughly 9% of the global population suffers from clinical depression or anxiety. Burnout costs the European and American economies billions each year.
How is that possible?
Modern science has given us much. Thanks to Descartes’ rationalism, Newton’s clockwork universe, and Bacon’s empirical method, we’ve built machines, conquered diseases, bridged continents, and extended life.
We learned how the world works — and that gave us power, control, and progress. But as we mastered the outer world, the inner one went unanswered. We gained control — and lost contact with ourselves.
The rise of materialism — the belief that only the tangible is real — meant that everything intangible was quietly pushed aside. Emotion became decoration. Meaning became secondary. Consciousness was reduced to chemistry.
It was never the intention to strip life of depth. But that’s what happened.
✦ The human machine
Under the old worldview, humans came to be seen as biological algorithms: bundles of impulses, genes, systems, and data. We learned to view ourselves as we view machines — from the outside, through models, measurements, and analysis. The assumption was: if you scan and predict enough, direction and peace will follow.
But they didn’t. People feel rushed, untethered, numbed. And so came the side effects: a spiritual vacuum. A society full of people who have everything — and no idea why.
People seek refuge in political extremes or rigid ideologies. In consumerism, performance, or distraction. They run marathons, buy things, reinvent themselves weekly, or cling to the next big goal that promises a sense of purpose. Not because they’re foolish — but because meaninglessness is unbearable.
Though society is clearly under strain, we rarely name spiritual emptiness as a possible cause. As the French philosopher Simone Weil wrote: “The danger is not lest the soul should doubt whether there is any bread, but lest, by a lie, it should persuade itself that it is not hungry.”
✦ The shape of a new paradigm
The paradox of our time is this: science — the very system built to explain everything — is now encountering what it can’t fully grasp.
Across quantum physics, systems theory, neuroscience, and consciousness research, new insights are emerging that directly challenge the old model:
That the observer and the observed are fundamentally linked
That consciousness may not emerge from matter, but precede it
That meaning isn’t a luxury, but a basic human need
In therapy, philosophy, and psychedelic research, we’re seeing the same pattern: people don’t heal simply through explanation, but through meaning, connection, and experience — without abandoning rationality.
✦ From knowing to understanding
What we need now is not a rejection of reason, but an expansion of it — a way of thinking that doesn’t reduce everything to cause and effect, but makes room for context, coherence, and meaning.
A science that doesn’t dismiss experience just because it’s hard to measure, but asks when it might still be worth listening to.
A culture that understands: progress without purpose is directionless.
We’ve forgotten that we’re not just thinking machines, but feeling, seeking, relational beings. The next step isn’t a return to the past — it’s a broadening of perspective. Not a retreat, but a move forward — beyond where we got stuck. A step toward wholeness.