Thanks very much. I've pursued a number of these themes in other articles. I have two others on Vervaeke, for example (links below).
I think Neoplatonism is Panglossian, compared to the existential cosmicist philosophy I explore. Vervaeke would say this alienation is the result of our meaning crisis, which is due to our forgetting of the cosmic, metaphysical harmonies. By contrast, I'd say the meaning crisis is due to secular enlightenment, to our seeing through the illusion of those harmonies and unities.
It's not all doom and gloom on my worldview, though, since I think certain existentially grounded, transhuman values emerge in aesthetic terms (see the third link). But the old view that we should content ourselves with being happy might be naive and unsustainable in light of the scientific and philosophical understanding of our position in the universe.
The debate goes on, of course.
