I was writing a similar comment when I read this one. Hard agree. The collapse of religion and its close-knit communities has created a vacuum that gets filled

I was writing a similar comment when I read this one. Hard agree. The collapse of religion and its close-knit communities has created a vacuum that gets filled with (checks notes) -- vapid corporate culture BS, identity politics (actually, politics of all kinds), consumerism, and much more. You don't have to believe that religion is good or right (how can they all be right?) to believe that humanity in the West is in the throes of a profound crisis of meaning despite significantly better quality of life than ever before. I can't help but picture our grandparent's generation. Imagine your grandad -- a WW2 vet, provider for his family, guy who tried his best to build his community -- coming home in the 50's from his job at the factory fawning over some pseudo-inspirational new take on management that the plant manager is promoting. One gets the sense that we're unmoored as a people, and will cling to almost anything that provides a meta-narrative and set of values... because we no longer get one from a close-knit community of people joined together with a set of values.