The Daily Evolver

In this episode, I discuss a terrific essay I stumbled upon that brings an integral sensibility to a new cultural emergent: the differentiation of the political left into “woke” and “anti-woke” ideologies.. Cultural evolution proceeds through a process of 1) differentiating and 2) integrating. As we learn and grow we see that there are more dots to connect and more ways to connect them. New views arise which we disagree about, even with our friends. What had been a shared worldview morphs into multiple worldviews which often find themselves at odds. Thus it is with the current unfolding of the political left. Holly Muir and Spencer Greenberg, co-authors of the essay, Understanding the Divide Between Social Justice Advocates and the Left-Leaning “Anti-Woke” Community, describe their work: “We have been investigating the perspectives of two groups in contemporary U.S. society: 1) those who advocate for social justice, and 2) the newly emerging left-of-center “anti-woke” movement (i.e., l

On this podcast a couple weeks ago I explored “The Great Stage Theory Debate”, a controversy kicked off by a tweet from Nora Bateson that said that developmental theory is “BS, colonial as hell and has got to go.” Now, apparently, we have the whole book version! “The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity,” by anthropologist David Graeber and archaeologist David Wengrow makes a similar case, aiming, as the New York Times writes, “to upend the narrative of social evolution.” Several listeners have written for my opinions about the book. I have kept up with David Graeber, the self-described “anarchist economist,” since he arose as a philosophical leader of the Occupy Wall Street movement a few years ago. I’m looking forward to reading the book and may have more to say on it when I do. In the meantime (it is 706 pages after all!) I’ll get the ball rolling by examining several key ideas behind the book using clips from a video that the authors recorded before Graeber’s untimely death prior to the book’s pu

Is developmental theory valid? Is it even moral? This is the gauntlet laid down by author Nora Bateson in a cheeky tweet that launched a thousand comments: Stage theory… Is BS. Always was. And it is colonial as hell. Sorry, but that has got to go. — nora bateson (@NoraBateson) August 10, 2021 In a high-profile response to her social media posts, author Hanzi Freinacht shared a short essay defending stage theory as being both true and beneficial to society. The result has been an online controversy that has generated both heat and light in the Integral / Spiral Dynamics world. In this episode, I offer a shamelessly integral analysis of the ideas in contention, and how the conflict itself is contributing to the evolution of evolutionary thought. Let me know what you think at jeff@dailyevolver.com.  And here’s more about Nora Bateson and Hanzi Freinacht.

Jeff Salzman considers the question, what is it like to experience integral consciousness?  How does one feel, relate and function differently?  Also, letters from listeners.  

Race is seen differently at each developmental worldview. What might the integral version be?  Plus, a back-pocket thought experiment for race empathy.

Quick intro to the Daily Evolver • The three major worldviews fighting the culture war • How an integral approach gets the best of each.

How consciousness and cultural evolution help explain current events (and vice versa).

Is our secular meritocracy capable of knowing God?  In this excerpt from This Week in the New York Times, I consider Ross Douthat’s column: A Guide to Finding Faith.

How we regard animals is a marker of moral development.

Welcome to a new episode of Post Progressive Inquiries, where my co-host Steve McIntosh and I talk with people who are co-creating the next stage of human development. Our guest today is David Storey, a professor of philosophy from Boston College. David discovered integral thinking outside of academia, as did most of us, but is now bringing its principles to bear on his teaching. Whether the subject is history, religion or the emerging ethics of environmentalism, David’s focus is on helping his students to learn how to communicate across worldviews. David, Steve, and I cover a lot of territory in our conversation. In the first part, we talk about how academia is itself evolving, particularly in its warming to developmental theory and in its engagement with the culture at large. In the second half, we discuss how to bring more cultural intelligence to humanity’s climate challenge, and highlight David’s new essay in the Post-Progressive Post: Why We Will Grow Together or Grow Apart. I hope you enjoy the episode

I have studied, taught and practiced meditation for over 30 years. I consider meditation, arising in its endless variations, to be indispensable to spiritual development and I sing its praises regularly on this podcast. I have also occasionally spoken about my experience years ago when an intense period of mindfulness meditation triggered a multi-year siege of anxiety which began to heal only when, after much suffering, I cast off the instructions of my teachers to “just keep meditating” and got up from the cushion and fled a retreat. A few weeks ago I ran across an essay written by meditation teacher, Dan Lawton, called When Buddhism Goes Bad; How My Mindfulness Practice Led Me to Meltdown. A committed meditator for ten years and a full-time teacher in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction system, he described his similar (though perhaps more extreme) experience of anxiety and dissociation triggered by meditation. When I read his story, I felt an instant siblinghood. His essay validated my experience and br

The US withdraws from Afghanistan and the Taliban enters — and all so much faster than expected. In this episode, recorded 8/18, I take a look at what is happening in Afghanistan through the lens of evolutionary theory.

Dr. Keith Witt, integral psychotherapist extraordinaire, joins me for another episode of The Shrink and the Pundit, where we explore the contours of emerging integral consciousness. Today’s topic is what Dr. Keith calls the “post-issue relationship”, and here’s how he describes it: In a post-issue relationship, each problem is an opportunity to grow and love. A post-issue relationship may still have problems, resentments, doubts, and selfish or thoughtless injuries, but there is always an adjustment to love in response to pain or distortion. Second-tier living really is more good, true and beautiful! Our conversation starts at 3:16; I hope you enjoy it!. You can find out more about Dr. Keith Witt here.

This week I review the new Nicholas Cage movie, Pig, about a truffle hunter in the wilds of Oregon who goes on a quest to find his kidnapped pig. It is the work of first-time filmmaker, Michael Sarnoski. I am very much an outlier on this movie, which has received rave reviews and a 97% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The rapturous response — The Guardian called a “masterpiece” — gave me pause and made me reconsider a movie that I would have otherwise written off as being shockingly bad. Upon reflection I realize that Pig is not a bad movie, it may even be a great movie if you like your nihilism served up as ugly as possible. There is a strain of postmodern (green altitude) identity that sees modern culture as hopelessly corrupt and exhausted, facing an existential meta-crisis. A significant sliver of them, self-described “doomers,” see a world so degenerated that withdrawal is the only moral choice. This view is defensible, of course, but inadequate. What’s missing is what integral th

Bill Maher kicked off a cultural meme a few weeks ago with a segment on his popular show Real Time where he skewered the cultural left for progressophobia, which he defined as “situational blindness, except what you can’t see is that your dorm room in 2021 is better than the South before the Civil War.” In this episode, I map the idea of progress in our culture. Maher’s comments were widely praised in the mainstream media, from Morning Joe Scarborough on MSNBC (center left) to Peggy Noonan at the Wall Street Journal (center right). Together these represent the modern worldview (orange altitude). Traditionalists (blue/amber altitude) see no progress in this wicked world, only the opportunity for redemption or transcendence. Progressives (green altitude), who also have a fallen-world narrative, see the idea of progress as an insult to all who continue to suffer. The arising integral stage has a chance to revalorize the message of progress. Not as a march to a triumphal future, but as the ever-widening circle of

The Post-Progressive project proceeds! In this episode, Steve McIntosh, president of the Institute for Cultural Evolution, joins me to introduce a major new web publication created to transcend and integrate our polarized politics: The Post-Progressive Post. Subtitled, “A Home for the Politically Homeless” the Post-Progressive Post seeks to be a meeting place for integral thinkers, folks who see value in many sectors of the political spectrum and want to join the effort to form an “omni-inclusive” worldview. In this podcast, Steve guides us on a tour through the site, including: Post-progressivism defined: the 100-word version, the 700-word version and the multi-page version An ever-growing array of news analysis, opinion columns, blogs and podcasts by leading integral thinkers Win-win-win positions on the issues of the day which honor traditional values, modern values and postmodern values Quizzes and exercises to help you explore your own integral consciousness Portals to the post-progressive Facebook and T

Today on Post-Progressive Inquiries I explore the contours of the next stage of human development with psychiatrist and futurist Charles M. Johnston. Charles has just released two new books exploring an emerging way of thinking that he calls the “integrative meta-perspective”. As Charles explains, “Our work today is to bring big-picture, long-term perspectives to the human condition. While these kinds of insights can initially stretch people’s understanding, with time, most people find them seeming like common sense. What is new is that this is a degree of common sense that before now we could not have fully grasped — or tolerated. It would have overwhelmed us. Today, it has become essential.” I hope you enjoy our conversation and check out his latest books: Creative Systems Theory—A Comprehensive Theory of Purpose,Change, and Interrelationship In Human Systems (With Particular Pertinence to Understanding the Times We Live In and the Tasks Ahead for the Species)  Perspective and Guidance for a Time of Deep Di

Part 1: I look at a front-page story in the New York Times about how psychedelic drugs, such as ecstasy and magic mushrooms, are poised to reshape psychiatry. I make the case that this is a significant move in the evolution of human consciousness. Part 2: I play excerpts from a fascinating conversation between John McWhorter and Bill Maher on race relations, and imagine how an understanding of developmental theory would have improved it. Here’s to another week in cultural evolution! ~ Jeff Salzman

In this episode, I look deeper into the Integral project of ”worldview diversity,” where we seek to befriend, appreciate, and be influenced by people and cultures who inhabit different world-spaces (altitudes of development). Topics I hit on: Alexei Navalny’s heroic, near-death fight for modern values in Russia. “Our people are not perfect, but our culture is superior to others.” Pew research on how Eastern and Western Europeans respond to that statement. How “mean modernity“ blinds us to the deep identity and fulfillment found in healthy traditionalism. Practicing to deepen multi-perspectivalism with individuals and cultures. Plus, I welcome Integral teacher and coach Lee Mason to tell us about his new program, The Essence of Integral Flourishing, now available at Integral Life. Enjoy! You can learn more about Lee on www.practicalintegral.com.