The Daily Evolver

Today, in a more theoretical turn, Jeff looks at key principles of Integral theory that illuminate the traditional stage of development (amber altitude) and how it arises both within human culture and in each individual human being.

The goal of traditionalism is to civilize the chaos of the previous warrior stage (red altitude). “Might is right” becomes “right is right,” as we enter a world of meaning and purpose oriented toward a transcendent God or Pureland.

One goal of integralism (teal and turquoise altitudes) is to reclaim what is good, true and beautiful from all previous stages. In this episode, Jeff looks at the deep structures of traditionalism and how we can nurture its most healthy expression in our culture, and in our own minds and hearts.

It was Super Bowl Sunday last week, America’s great secular holiday where the nation’s top two football teams go to battle to prove who is the ultimate champion. All the attention and hoopla do not, however, hide the fact that football’s popularity is waning in American culture. Attendance has been down steadily (yesterday’s Super Bowl continued an eight-year decline in viewership), as has participation in football programs in communities, schools and colleges across the country. .

The main reason? The awareness of the effects of head trauma caused by the violent contact that is central to the game. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that 110 of 111 brains of NFL players had chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Hundreds of personal stories are also being told, exemplified by a major article in yesterday’s New York Times describing the sad decline of 43 year old Rob Kelly, who left major league football 15 years ago and whose mind, as described by his wife, Emily, is now “destroyed.”

Sports represent healthy “red altitude” developmental energy in our culture, the progressive civilization of blood sports that seeks to express physical aggression and competition in ever more benign forms. Football is still with us, but its popularity is undermined with every new case of the tragic personal price paid by so many of our heroes who play it.

Today we look at President Trump’s State of the Union address, where he made opening moves toward a grand bargain to overhaul the U.S. immigration system and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. What are the policy and political ramifications? Can we trust the guy who brought us birtherism? Are Democrats willing to give Trump victories they themselves want (and Republicans would never give them)?

In this episode we deploy integral thinking to shed some new light on these two issues so crucial to America’s future.

Today Jeff continues his ongoing conversation with Greg Thomas, an integral thinker who is pioneering a new way forward in race relations in the U.S. Greg advocates transcending the postmodern emphasis on racial identity in favor or embracing what is a broader American cultural identity, of which all Americans are an inextricable part.

Greg advances a rich lineage of Black intellectual thought that includes Albert Murray and Ralph Ellison. Today Greg and Jeff discuss Ellison’s famous essay, “The Little Man at Chehaw Station: The American Artist and His Audience”. The title character, the “little man,” stands in for any person of any station who wholeheartedly participates in the American culture.

As Ellison writes, “[The Little Man] demands that the relationship between his own condition and that of the more highly placed be recognized. He senses that American experience is of a whole, and he wants the interconnections revealed. And not out of a penchant for protest, nor out of petulant vanity, but because he sees his own condition as an Inseparable part of a larger truth in which the high and the lowly, the known and the unrecognized, the comic and a tragic, are woven into the Americans skein.”

Star Wars is one of the most treasured film franchises in history, and one of the very few that is enjoyed by such a massive and cross-generational audience. The original trilogy is often collectively referred to as a pop culture masterpiece, and even the less-renowned prequel trilogy has earned its place in the hearts of fans around the world. Now we are in the midst of the third trilogy in the franchise, inspiring yet another generation of young padawans across the galaxy — well, across the planet at least.

Today Jeff is joined by Cindy Wigglesworth and Corey deVos, and together they dive deeply into the rich mythology and mysticism of the Star Wars universe — sharing their personal connection to Star Wars, their integral appreciation of its central themes and allegories, and their best guesses as to where the Force may be taking us next.

*SPOILER WARNING* Cindy, Corey, and Jeff get into some of the plot details of The Last Jedi, so enter at your own risk!