The Daily Evolver

In this episode, I look at the tensions arising among conservative Christians about how fervently to support Trump.

I hope you enjoy the episode!

Announcement: 

The Institute for Cultural Evolution think tank, where I serve on the Board, is recruiting an Executive Director to help run our operations. The job description for this new position can be found here. If the possibility of working with ICE sounds intriguing, I encourage you to check out this opportunity.

– Jeff Salzman

In this episode, I welcome integral thinker Sue Brightman to talk about her new book, A Call to Further Becoming, The New Declaration From Women Over 50. 

Sue describes the cutting edge of consciousness being pioneered by women who are now entering – and thriving – in elderhood. Based on 100 interviews with women age 50 – 70+, Sue shares 10 themes that capture the emerging essence of this creative, exciting and spiritually-rich stage of life.

I hope you enjoy the episode! – Jeff Salzman

In this episode I share some clips from Newsmax, the cable news network that is the new home for Trump people who have left Fox News for not being supportive enough of the President.

Though inspired by the mendacity of his election fraud claims, the reporters hew closer to the truth than Trump does (The National Report), except when they opt for a good old-fashioned rant (Diamond and Silk). The result is a more differentiated mediaverse, required for the integration to come.

I end on a happy note, with uplifting evidence of the evolution of consciousness in the person of five-year-old Tianna.

This is intellectual champagne!!! – Alexander Husum

Welcome to Post-Progressive Inquiries, a new podcast series coproduced by the Daily Evolver and The Institute for Cultural Evolution (ICE). In each episode, ICE President Steve McIntosh and I explore new territories emerging in politics and culture.

We are happy to have as our inaugural guest Tomas Bjorkman, an “applied philosopher and social entrepreneur” who has founded and funded many initiatives dedicated to the co-creation of a more conscious society.

Steve and I talk with Tomas about his work, and particularly his association with the Metamodern movement that has emerged out of European developmental thought.

Tomas Bjorkman is the founder of the Ekskäret Foundation and Retreat Center on Ekskäret Island in the Swedish Archipelago. He is the author of several books, most recently The World We Create, From God to Market.

Integral philosopher Steve McIntosh is the author of several books on integral philosophy, including Developmental Politics, and Evolution’s Purpose.

Dr. Keith kicks off this episode with research showing that although virtually everybody lies, most people vastly prefer to tell the truth and believe other people are doing the same. But how do we as integralists make sense of competing truth claims, particularly from different sides in the culture war?

How do the facts and logic of modernity stack up against the allure of premodern myth and story? And what are the effects to the body politic of the long-term diet of lies served up by our newly-certified Loser-in-Chief?

“The Shrink and the Pundit” is my ongoing conversation with integral psychotherapist Dr. Keith Witt. 

As always, Jeff gives us an outstanding talk about the user of Integral Theory to understand and navigate our world. – Nils Montan

On last week’s edition of CNN’s Global Public Square, host Fareed Zakaria ardently condemned Donald Trump’s attack on the election, drawing dark parallels to the rise of Hitler and Nazism after World War 1.

His first guest, former National Security Advisor, General H. R. McMaster, chided Fareed for “misusing history”, arguing that the US has modern institutions specifically built to withstand the will of an autocrat.

There is an essential truth in both of these perspectives. Fareed is right that pre-rational tiers of human consciousness can be dangerous and violent. They hunger for great myths, and thrill to the warrior leader who has come to set the world right.

McMaster is correct that the US government is designed to check these non-rational impulses, and seems to be doing so effectively against the onslaught of Trump the Red.

In this episode, I argue that integral thinking provides a next possibility beyond trusting leaders and trusting institutions. It is to trust in development itself, which in modernity and postmodernity has installed reliable new structures of rationality and sensitivity that dilute and contain (but do not eliminate) the premodern ones.

Maybe the lesson of Germany in the ‘30’s is not that it could happen again in the US., but is found in the subsequent evolution of Germany into a world-leading nation less than a lifetime later. And that the odious Trump, if not Trumpism altogether, is headed to the ash heap of history.

Who better to process the election with than my integral political pals, Diane Musho Hamilton and Terry Patten? After all, it was just four years ago we gathered at my place to celebrate Hillary Clinton’s victory together (Ha ha!). The next day we recorded the podcast, The Trump Era, Day 1: Three integrally-informed friends attempt to face reality.

After four years of The Trump Show, we’re happy to be changing the channel. To what, we don’t exactly know, but we’re happy to share our musings with you! Share back at [email protected].

This is a co-production with Terry’s podcast “State of Emergence”. You can find out more about Diane here. 

Very good podcast Jeff. Puts a lot of calm into a very chaotic time. – Nils Montan

The day before this week’s US presidential election one of my favorite public intellectuals, Sam Harris, released a podcast where he announced a breakthrough in his understanding of what had heretofore been a mystery: the appeal of Donald Trump to his followers. His revelation:

Trump offers what no priest can credibly offer: a total expiation of shame. His personal shamelessness is a kind of spiritual balm. Trump is fat Jesus. He’s grab-them-by-the-pussy Jesus. He’s I’ll-eat- cheeseburgers-if-I-want-to Jesus. He’s punch-them-in-the-face Jesus. 

How painfully partial and depressing is Harris’s denigration of the 30% of the population who love Trump, and the 47% who voted for him. And we thought Trump was insulting (he is)!

Integral thinking offers so much more in the way of understanding – and appreciating – people with different worldviews. We see the dignities and disasters of all three developmental stages currently fighting the culture war and seek to integrate the best of each. Harris, in contrast, offers a “mean modernism” that marks all non-rational reality as deluded and dangerous.

Enjoy the podcast and let me know what you think at [email protected].

One of my biggest surprises in this campaign has been the growth in my estimation of Joe Biden as a person, candidate, and possible President of the United States. No longer just the compromise contender to defeat Donald Trump, Biden has inspired me with a vision for America that seeks to integrate the two competing stories of our history, those of gratitude and grievance. I endorse him enthusiastically!  

Watch full video of “The Love – @Black Eyed Peas and Jennifer Hudson | Joe Biden for President 2020″

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This week I welcome back my dear friend, Cindy Wigglesworth, a Teacher known and loved by many in the integral world.

Several years ago, Cindy turned her considerable insight to the issue of racial reckoning in America, particularly on the part of privileged white people, and has helped build a vanguard program of diversity training through her church, Unity of Houston.

As always with Sister Cindy, whether we’re talking about spiritual intelligence or Star Trek, I received a transmission of new consciousness in this conversation, and ended it with an enlarged view of what is happening and how to be helpful. I hope you do, too!

Cindy Wigglesworth is author of SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence, and you can find out more about her and her work here. Cindy is also an accomplished watercolorist and painted the illustration above.

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