244 ■ NOTES
11 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 £k
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).
12 Ontological anxiety. The experts on ontological (or existential) anxi
ety 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.
14 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).
15 Trends in social pathology. For the statistics on energy use, see Statisti
cal 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.
