Developmental Politics:  How America Can Grow into a Better Version of Itself
Channel: Front and Center with Steve and Michael
Date: 2022-02-28

Conversation with Integral Philosopher Steve McIntosh

“Instead of the familiar political tug-of-war pulling us apart, we need a tug of peace where we all pull together in the same direction.”
                                             -- Swami Beyondananda

Here is the political paradox of our times.

At a time when the body politic seems more polarized than ever, there seems to be a parallel impulse to come together at a coherent and cohesive center.  However, as author and integral thinker Steve McIntosh tells us, “Centrism” has failed us, and is no longer workable.  That means, instead of coming together in the muddled middle ready to compromise so that no one is satisfied, we need a “transcendent” and “inclusive” new context that includes not just a variety of races and genders, but a variety of viewpoints as well.  Writes McIntosh: 

“Hyper polarization is not a problem that can be solved under America’s current cultural conditions. The only way to ameliorate this wicked problem is to effectively grow out of it by pointing to achievable next steps for America’s cultural evolution. Integral philosophy accordingly offers a realistic remedy for America’s political dysfunction.”

Steve McIntosh, author of Developmental Politics:  How America Can Grow into a Better Version of Itself, has been a leader in the integral philosophy movement for decades. He is president and co-founder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution think tank, which focuses on the cultural roots of America's political problems. He is also co-author with John Mackey and Carter Phipps of the book, Conscious Leadership: Elevating Humanity through Business. He has authored three previous books on Integral philosophy … The Presence of the Infinite, Evolution’s Purpose, and Integral Consciousness and the Future of Evolution. 

So, how do we “overgrow” our current “bi-polar insanity” and “go sane” together?  We do it by cultivating what McIntosh calls “cultural intelligence” and a “new vision of the common good.”  We do it by recognizing that each worldview has a blind spot, and integrating the best aspects of the worldviews from the past, into a new vision for the future.  Imagine using the two natural human impulses of growth and protection, progressivism and conservatism, to address two functional questions:

How do we want to progress?
What do we want to conserve?

I know, I know.  We are proposing a sane world.  We must be crazy!

Seriously, join us for this deep conversation on how we can use our differences to find our sane and sacred center.

Full Otter transcript: https://otter.ai/u/q3i-qu84txEbtmKv8lniesEGG_M

Article referenced:  "Why Centrism Fails”:
http://integralleadershipreview.com/17747-12-21-why-centrism-fails-and-how-to-overcome-hyperpolarization/

The Institute for Cultural Evolution’s online magazine:
https://post-progressive.org/

The Institute for Cultural Evolution’s existing headquarters website
https://www.culturalevolution.org/