a shock is a sudden disturbance in equilibrium – naomi klein expands:

A state of shock is what happens to us – individually or as a society – when we experience a sudden and unprecedented event for which we do not yet have an adequate explanation. At its essence, a shock is the gap that opens up between event and existing narratives to explain that event. (pg. 7-8)

what we’re experiencing is the threatening or breakdown of our existing worldview; what’s happened is so drastically opposed to what we understand about our reality that it feels like the very image of our reality has distorted or collapsed.

this creates a meaning vacuum – see {10.2a} datavoids for how media manipulators exploit meaning vacuums for political and ideological gain online.

we might also think of this as a breakdown in our sense of {1.1a} continuity, or as an experience that is especially difficult to {1.1a1a} integrate.

see, too, boyd: “Nothing can radicalize someone more than feeling like you’re being lied to. Or when the world order you’ve adopted comes crumbling down.”

take, for example, a natural disaster. losing your home or community is a shock in the loss itself, but it’s also a shock to your established sense of safety, it creates shockwaves in your relationships, it fundamentally shifts how you exist in the world.

that experience needs to be “metabolized” – accepted as part of your life experience and integrated into your broader understanding of self.

this isn’t just true for individual shocks and traumas; we have to metabolize collective traumas collectively. shock disrupts our communal senses-of-self too. {1.3a} we have to un-self collectively.

[!trailhead]- trails ⬆️{1.1c1} a sense of continuity comes from the integration of experiences, evolving senses-of-self, and identity elements over time

⬅️ integration is facilitated by dialoguing with our past, present, and future selves ➡️ {1.1c3a} stability is connection to, while recovery is reorientation toward, one's location in time and space

⬇️ {1.1c2} liminal identity