The Crisis of Values

​”We are not here to fit in, be well-balanced, or provide exempla for others. We are here to be eccentric, different, perhaps strange, perhaps merely to add our small piece, our little clunky, chunky selves, to the great mosaic of being. As the gods intended, we are here to become more and more ourselves.” – James Hollis, What Matters Most: Living a More Considered Life

What Are We Building Our Lives Upon?

There is something deeply revealing about this in our collective evolution.  Many people are quietly re-evaluating what matters while the collective conversation increasingly revolves around economics, technology, political instability, climate anxiety, and cultural fragmentation. Yet beneath all of these concerns lies a deeper issue: a crisis of values.

Not simply political values or moral opinions, but the very principles upon which modern life is organized.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney – before he became the Prime Minister – observed in his book,  “In Value(s): Building a Better World for All”, that market economies excel at assigning prices, but struggle to recognize what is genuinely meaningful: trust, care, ecological sustainability, community, dignity, and long-term stewardship. He has argued that modern society increasingly confuses price with value. 

But what is profitable is not always what is valuable.

This distinction has become psychologically and spiritually significant. Many of our institutions are increasingly organized around extraction, speed, efficiency, and monetization. Attention itself has become a commodity. Human worth is subtly measured through productivity, visibility, and performance. Even identity risks becoming branding.

And yet beneath the surface, many people feel exhausted, anxious, emotionally undernourished, and spiritually adrift.

From a Jungian perspective, this reflects a profound imbalance. Carl Jung warned that cultures disconnected from symbolic meaning become vulnerable to anxiety, addiction, projection, and collective fragmentation. When external systems become the sole source of orientation, individuals lose their relationship with inner authority and soul.

American psychoanalyst and author Dr. James Hollis explores this beautifully in his book,  “What Matters Most: How to Live a More Considered Life”. Hollis argues that many people live unconsciously according to inherited expectations, social conditioning, economic fear, and the need for approval rather than consciously chosen values.

One of his central questions is: “Who is living your life?”

That question cuts to the heart of the current cultural moment.

Are we living according to values we have consciously examined? Or are we unconsciously serving systems that reward distraction, accumulation, and endless productivity?

Dr. Hollis suggests that symptoms such as burnout, anxiety, depression, numbness, and chronic dissatisfaction may not simply be personal failures. Often, they are signals from the psyche that something essential has drifted out of alignment. 

The soul protests when life becomes overly mechanized.

The deeper issue may not simply be economic instability or political division. It may be that we no longer share a coherent understanding of what human life is for.

What do we protect?
What deserves our devotion?
What is enough?
What values are worthy of organizing a life around?

These are no longer abstract philosophical questions. They are becoming survival questions — psychologically, culturally, and spiritually.

Both our Prime Minister and Dr. James Hollis, though from very different disciplines, point toward the same truth: when value becomes severed from meaning, individuals and societies begin to fragment.

Values are not merely ideas. They become economies, institutions, habits, relationships, and ways of living. Eventually, cultures reflect what they truly worship.

Perhaps we are being asked to pause long enough to notice what we have been serving — consciously or unconsciously — and whether it can sustain the soul.

Have you found value here? Have you been inspired or moved?  Please consider sharing the post on your social media networks by using the buttons below.

I love to hear your comments and ideas. Use the comments below or send me an email.