Ontological shock occurs when the assumptions that quietly organize meaning, value, and motivation are no longer reliable. It is not merely the introduction of new information, but the destabilization of the interpretive structures that once rendered life coherent and future-oriented. Human societies, particularly in the modern era, have been organized around an unspoken confidence that reality ultimately bends toward human centrality, human sovereignty, and human-defined flourishing. Even when hardship is acknowledged, there remains an implicit trust that meaning itself is aligned with us, that the universe is, in some ineffable way, rooting for our comfort.
