1/ As Nietzsche and others emphasized, man is fundamentally a meaning seeking and narrative seeking animal.

This fact is important in making sense of the contemporary crisis of culture, and how we might overcome it.

2/ The meaning and grand narratives, in times past, were given by orthodox religion.

Nowadays, in the West, and particularly among its educated classes, almost nobody follows orthodox religion.

But then that left a massive spiritual void.

3/ The Enlightenment folks, thought Reason and Science would fill that void -- or that there was no void to fill to begin with.

It seems they were wrong. There's absolutely nothing Rational and Scientific about the modern secular religion.

4/ You start asking the most basic questions and you get cancelled into oblivion.

It's the very same pattern you would observe in an orthodox religious context. "Well, if God is omnipotent, why...?" Or: "If the Prophet says this, why ...?" You can't ask such questions.

5/ Similarly, you absolutely cannot ask the most basic questions challenging today's secular religion except to a wrong thinking friend or two, in utter secrecy.

Note again, there's no functional difference here. The religious content is different, but the behavior is the same.

6/ And so perhaps the Enlightenment ideal is doomed to failure. Reason and Science cannot give you a narrative; it cannot provide life with meaning.

So then it seems the question is: what can fill the void left by religion in a *healthy* way?

7/ Is the current cultural situation the best we can do? (I hope not.)

This is the question that (the genuine) philosophers of today must grapple with.