The Postmodern Condition

Lyotard is famous for his "incredulity toward metanarratives", which is skepticism about a story of the universe. Or at least, skepticism toward ways of knowing that had been used up until then to come up with a legitimate story of the universe. But I think today we are coming up with new insights or at least a renewed ability to believe in a hypothetical future metanarrative.

Consider the following.

Here is a quote by Steve McIntosh, an "evolutionary" thinker:

"We are agents of evolution... we get to participate in the grand adventure of bringing the infinite into the finite."

This is a thought that neither contradicts science nor religion. But it does contradict some elements of postmodernism but it also affirms other elements of it such as its pluralism. The above thought can be seen as a synthesis a variety of ideas. According to McIntosh, evolution is the biggest fact that we can know of and it pervades every part of the universe. As such, it seems to me that it can provide the basis for a grand narrative that works for everyone...

"Evolution isn't just something that's happening in the universe. It's really more accurate to say that the universe is evolution happening... This unlocking of the essence of the evolutionary process can give us a power to build a higher form of civilization."

This somewhat echoes the Enlightenment ideal of progress, but when McIntosh proposes this he is doing something slightly different. He is grounding his approach in both recent scientific discovery as well as a pluralistic but critical approach to spirituality.

Evolution pervades every part of the universe. Both the physical and the cultural:

"When we come to understand the evolutionary impulse from this perspective we can see how it's not just arising within us, it's not just a drive but we're also being pulled, that human needs can never be satisfied because as soon as we satisfy one set of needs we awaken to a new set of problems and a new set of potential improvements. So we can begin to sense how in a sense the beautiful the true and the good are not only arising within us but they have a kind of gravity that we're being drawn by. Intrinsic quality is like a great attractor of evolution that's pulling it forward. And this value gravity in a sense is another example of Emerson's insight that every natural fact is a symbol of a larger, spiritual fact."

We are always coming up against a new set of potential improvements. And it seems that there is always a group of people who are ready to jump on it.

"According to Whitehead, evolution itself is an increase in our ability to recognize value."

This perspective says that when evolution happens within culture, or when culture itself evolves, it does so through individual and social development in the ability to recognize value. This is agency at its finest.

We can engage this kind of agency for a very promising set of results grounded in compassionate hope.

"A deeper understanding of evolution can lead directly to a more evolved world. We know from integral philosophy that the evolution of consciousness and culture is real evolution. Although it can't be conflated with biological evolution, it's nonetheless sort of the latest phase of the universe's thirteen-billion-year process of becoming. And when we know that it's real evolution, that we can see evolutionary patterns we can see that within the evolution of consciousness and culture there's an internal cultural ecosystem. And when we add to this the insight that intrinsic value, that beauty truth and goodness actually draw consciousness forward, that it causes evolution, we can see that if it was a physical-biological ecosystem we could nourish it by adding water or by adding energy. And we can begin to understand how we can nourish this internal cultural ecosystem through skillful applications of value tailored to the level of the people who we're trying to serve. It's like the promise of this new understanding of the spiritual nature of evolution can provide a kind of social medicine by which we can raise consciousness and heal the wounds of the world like never before."

This is a kind of sociological analysis of the sociological imagination itself. This perspective says that as people imagine the world different and it plays a role in the way the reproduce the human realm, the new realm sparks new imagining and so on. And the above quote is a suggested for how to apply this analysis. It is a perspective that says that there are patterns to the co-evolution betwean society and imagination, and through understanding these patterns, we can help other people get through them, just as we know the ecosystems require their own sets of conditions for growth and flourishing. It is about anticipating the cultural growth of a society and helping it get there and without detrimental interference.

"Just like during the Enlightenment with the rise of Modernist Consciousness allowed us to see the external world and grab hold of it and manipulate it with new powers and new clarity and that led to scientific medicine which improved the human condition tremendously. And now with the rise of the evolutionary worldview we can begin to see the internal universe with the same kind of new power and new clarity. And this is giving is the ability to apply value and to use it as a way to heal the wounds of the world... Our role here as agents of evolution is not only to feed and clothe the world with the material that we need, we also need to nourish the world with the value that they need. It's teachings of truth, expressions of beauty and services of goodness that really raise consciousness and make the world a better place.. It's as if by helping to actualize this evolutionary worldview through all the work that we're doing we actualize ourselves. We get to participate in an opportunity of fantastic emergence in this realm of consciousness and culture. And as we use value it uses us. We find that the gifts that we give to others provide the rungs of the ladder of our own ascent. We become more evolved and the world becomes more evolved as we experience and create the intrinsic values of the beautiful, the true and the good. I think it's literally true - we are agents of evolution. Our purposes are its purposes."

We also need to nourish each other with the values we need. This is an adventure. This is our epic journey.

To echo the idea that imagination influences the human realm, here is Charles Eisenstein:

"The ruin and violence of the present age do not typify an immutable “human condition”. They originate in a confusion about self and world, a confusion embodied in our fundamental scientific and religious principles and applied in every aspect of modern life, from politics and economics to medicine and education. Social and environmental destruction is an inevitable consequence of this worldview, just as rejuvenation and wholeness have been, and will be, the consequence of a different worldview, one that has roots in primitive culture and religion, and that is the inescapable yet heretofore generally unrealized implication of 20th century science."

Rejuvination and wholeness will be the consequence of a different worldview. I think this is a post-Lyotardian worldview that is gaining traction in the world, not just by virtue of the great ideas and supporting arguments, but by the numbers of people who are into it, for example, Cultural Creatives, which are people who have consciously or unconsciously integrated postmodern insights and who care about compassionate change in the world. Many people out there actually identify in this way. Because love is the answer.

-Jose