@simsa04 generative and interesting discussion. my free associative question right now is: Why did the counterculture not counter culture? Amitav Ghosh (and others) propose that a kind of vitalism is needed to counter the notion that Nature (whatever that is) is inert and lifeless. I found this 1992 article: Gnosticism, Ancient and Modern: The Religion of the Future? by Christopher Lasch informing my current thinking: https://www.sfu.ca/~poitras/pc_gnosticism_92.pdf