The trance of recognition seeking to give the inevitable meaning.

The fact he's describing it as cyberpunk, and the themes of cyberpunk (hi-tech dystopia) means that it's worth considering wider societal dysfunction. It's not for nothing that one of the predictors of the rise of cult activity is a loss of credibility of the prevailing social order and the myths that undergird it .

I'm with you 1000%, brother (or sister?). I'm way down into the eclipse of social constructivism and the Consensus Trance that is going on these days owing to "alternative explanations," only some of which are reality-grounded. You're barking upexactly the right trees on this.

There were problems in the '50s (to wit, "Rebel Without a Cause" and all that) and obviously in the '60s and early '70s). With the rise of further de-constructivism during the Internet age, the curious kids are finding their way to as much dangerous voodoo as they are to, say, "observant mindfulness." Sigh.

I'd say that the other big predictor for the rise of cult activity (people being secure in their needs and having money, coupled with a general dissatisfaction with their lives) explains the uptick from the 50s-80s (beginning with scientology) in America. and the same in the 80s and 90s in Japan.

People aren't secure or wealthy today, the problem is, if you are young and intelligent, it's painfully obvious that you have no future. Any cults emerging today are going to have more in common with the rise of cults in Europe during the black plague than with the cults of the 50s.

Hmm. Secular human potential gives way to religious pseudo-security. Interesting notions. Either way, though, observant empiricism takes a hit. (And we thought... Well. Yeah. We thought.)

I don't know if I'd characterise it as an offer of security, more a despair of security. More a kind of fatalism. The trance of recognition seeking to give the inevitable meaning.