{"id":3695,"date":"2026-07-15T04:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3695"},"modified":"2026-07-15T04:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T04:11:09","slug":"social-contagion-and-a-solid-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanmovershub.com\/?p=3695","title":{"rendered":"Social contagion and a \u2018solid self\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This article was first published in the <\/i>State of Faith newsletter<\/i>. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each Monday night.<\/i><\/p>\n

Read more How Northrop Grumman is fortifying a legacy of Utah innovation \u2014 and protecting America<\/a><\/p>\n

Luke Burgis, an entrepreneur-in-residence at The Catholic University of America, spent years chasing startup success in Silicon Valley. By most measures, he achieved it. He started several companies and sold one. After the mortgage crisis of 2008, his latest venture was battered by the collapsing economy, and after a last-ditch deal to save the company fell through, Burgis found himself amid both a professional and spiritual crisis. <\/p>\n

The moment prompted Burgis, who had grown up Catholic but fell away from faith in college, to wrestle with his life\u2019s calling and why he wanted a particular kind of success in the first place.<\/p>\n

One night, he picked up a biography of St. Francis of Assisi from his grandmother\u2019s bookshelf and spent the entire night reading it. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then one night, I decided that I was going to take as much risk in my spiritual life as I had in my business life,\u201d Burgis said during his recent appearance in Utah. \u201cI\u2019d risked everything to start my companies, and I realized that I was tremendously courageous as an entrepreneur, but not in spirit.\u201d That night, he said \u201cthe most dangerous prayer\u201d a person can pray, asking to eliminate what stood in the way of closeness with God.<\/p>\n

Burgis went on to enter the seminary at the Diocese of Las Vegas and spent five years studying to be a Catholic priest. He also spent three years in Rome and immersed himself in Catholic teachings. Ultimately, he felt that God called him to a ministry in secular spaces where confusion around questions of purpose and identity grew more common. <\/p>\n

Burgis, who is also the founder of the Cluny Institute, made a career drawing on Christian wisdom and philosophy to help people better understand how to find their path to their true purpose and belonging. <\/p>\n

Burgis\u2019 first book explored human tendency to want what other people want, an impulse that French philosopher Ren\u00e9 Girard called \u201cmimetic desire.\u201d Girard argued that our desires are rarely entirely our own and that we unconsciously mistake borrowed desires and hopes for authentic ones. <\/p>\n

These ideas were influential for billionaire investor Peter Thiel, who studied under Girard at Stanford and praised Burgis\u2019 more practical version of these concepts. Last fall, Burgis taught an online class on the \u201cfoundation of agency\u201d to help people make decisions independent of social pressures. He also thinks a lot about AI, faith and ethics.<\/p>\n

One of Burgis\u2019 ideas that struck me as especially timely \u2014 and crucial to the life of religious communities in an age of fragmented attention and authority \u2014 is the concept of a \u201csolid self,\u201d a term he borrows from American psychiatrist Murray Bowen. <\/p>\n

\u201cA solid self can communicate what they believe and stand for, or what they will or will not do, without engaging in social calculus,\u201d Burgis writes in his latest book, \u201cThe One and the Ninety-Nine.\u201d Burgis contrasts a \u201csolid self\u201d with a \u201cpseudo-self,\u201d which is more likely to blend with the group, even at the expense of their own values and integrity. <\/p>\n

Without a solid self, Burgis argues, we risk creating communities where everyone conforms but no one really belongs. Ironically, this excessive sameness ultimately weakens a community rather than strengthens it. <\/p>\n

To illustrate this relationship between an individual and a group, Burgis turns to the parable of the Good Shepherd. The shepherd does not reject the 99 in order to rescue the one, nor does he abandon the one for the sake of the crowd. Burgis\u2019s point is that the shepherd allows for both at the same time: the unity of the flock and the freedom to differentiate from it. <\/p>\n

A solid self, he writes, includes accepting the \u201climits and responsibilities\u201d of a community, but also staying true to one\u2019s own unique features and depth of character. This is how he describes this tension: \u201cEach of us is torn between belonging and differentiation, and a few ever learn to manage that tension. We might not even realize it exists. Once we become aware of the tension and learn to navigate it, we can live with far more freedom and far more integrity \u2014 than ever.\u201d <\/p>\n

The problem is that the internet often paints a distorted image of what belonging looks like. <\/p>\n

Read more War in Iran: The latest<\/a><\/p>\n

Social media clips and loud partisan rhetoric have made it easier to be swept up in tribal identities without deeply engaging with the complexities of beliefs and principles that are possible within those groups. <\/p>\n

And the independent thinking necessary to discern that nuance is evaporating. <\/p>\n

A recent Atlantic story described the decline in college students\u2019 ability to read or think, with one student even asking AI to break down novels in simpler language.<\/p>\n

This decline has profound implications for religious life and the individual faith that sustains it.<\/p>\n

How will young people discover what they believe if they\u2019re losing the ability to engage with complex and symbolic language of sacred texts and examine their own beliefs and convictions? As the authority of inherited traditions and institutions dwindles, cultivating solid convictions and the courage to bring them to public life becomes a harder task. <\/p>\n

Burgis closed his remarks by extending an invitation to Christians to be the defenders of the \u201creal\u201d in the age of artificiality \u2014 their faith, personal suffering and weakness, and honest language. \u201c\u200aI think the courage to be saints in the modern world is also, in some sense, the courage to become real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresh off the press<\/h3>\n

The Little Sisters of the Poor are back in court continuing a more than decade-long fight for a religious exemption from providing contraception in their health plans. I tuned into the hearing last week. Here\u2019s my report.<\/p>\n

Artist John Hafen struggled with poverty, but he\u2019s always seen art as a way to build faith and character.<\/p>\n

Why gay Latter-day Saint church members choose to stay in the church.<\/p>\n

What I\u2019m reading<\/h3>\n

One of Sen. Lindsey Graham\u2019s last speeches was at a Baptist church in South Carolina. \u201cThis is like the highlight of the year for me, to come to this service with my family to remind me what our country is about through Baptists, who can sing and dance,\u201d he said, according to Baptist News Global. \u201cAnd to those who say Baptists cannot sing and dance, come here; you will be proven wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is there such thing as too many books? Not for Jewish scholar Mendel Uminer. \u2014 The New York Times<\/i><\/p>\n

An 80-minute production of \u201cA General\u2019s Prayer\u201d at the Museum of the Bible explores the faith of George Washington. \u2014 The Christian Post<\/i><\/p>\n

How \u201cThe Chosen\u201d found their mega fans and sparked an era of faith-filmmaking. \u2014 The New Yorker<\/i><\/p>\n

A new AP-NORC poll found a generational divide in how American Jews understand their Jewish identity: Older Jewish adults are more likely to see support for Israel as central to being Jewish, but younger Jewish adults place more emphasis on cultural practices like celebrating Jewish holidays. \u2014 AP<\/i><\/p>\n

Authors Ross Douthat and Rod Dreher talked Christian re-enchantment, totalitarianism in America and Dreher\u2019s quest for belonging. You can check out profiles of both Ross and Rod. \u2014 The New York Times<\/i><\/p>\n

How a podcast by the Dominican nuns went viral. \u2014 National Catholic Register<\/i><\/p>\n

End note<\/h3>\n

Some Latter-day Saints wished that Taylor Swift would have asked them for help with the setup for her wedding at Madison Square Garden (thank you to the Believing newsletter for spotting this.) After all, who is better at turning a basketball gym into a wedding venue?<\/p>\n

Read more CDC warns of \u2018very big shift\u2019 as cyclospriasis cases surge<\/a><\/p>\n

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How do you find your authentic self in an age of social pressure and conformity? 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