Liminoid Permanence
Liminoid Permanence is the condition of constant change and disorienting experiences as a result of The Storm of Complexity and other phenomenon encountered in the emergence of the Systems VS and Universe VS worldviews. For example, the “De-mainstreaming” of Gen X in the 1990s during Systems VS emergence lead to the disintegration of a central narrative for society. This led to experiences of coming-of-age that were permanently disorienting so that Gen-X did not achieve the usual sense of “normality” in adulthood. Rather, they felt permanently “weird” and marginal and developed the “whatever” reaction to all structures and interactions because of this fundamental disassociation. Liminoid experiences, by definition, are an unmooring of stable individual identity as referenced by the group and a period of fluid identity where new possibilities emerge. The Trans-human Revolution and “a they” identity complex of Universe VS is a maximal version of this fluid identity.
Liminal vs Liminoid
The term “liminality” was coined by folklorist Arnold van Gennep to describe the middle stage of disorientation and ambiguity in tribal rites of passage where the identity of the inductee becomes fluid and their orientation to society changes. Anthropologist Victor Turner coined the term “liminoid experience” to distinguish the phenomenon in modernity from tribal, pre-modern liminality.1 The key difference between “liminoid” and “liminality” is the fragmentation of society and tradition. For example, “play” has been relegated to a primarily private individual space in modern society whereas it was integrated seamlessly with work and all of life in tribal societies. Since the liminal is closely related to play, this means that the society no longer serves as “book ends” to safely contain the individuals liminal experience. As such, individuals still encounter the ambiguity and disorientation of events related to identity (even often entering such events voluntarily), but not as structured rites of passage with secure attachment to predictable social ritual. These experiences are “liminoid” in that they are similar in shape for the individual, but lack the supporting social structures of earlier value systems.