The Liminal Learning Portal

I have a younger relative who lives with schizophrenia (unfortunately not the first or only case in the family). If he doesn’t take heavy medications he can hear voices, hallucinate and easily get overwhelmed. His medica­tion makes him tired and leaves him with a short attention span, so it’s difficult for him to work within an ad­va­nced economy. Living in a welfare state, he gets all he needs in terms of food, shelter, medical attention; even a little money to go to punk con­certs twice a year and have a few beers now and then. Yet his life can only

I’m excited to announce the publication of my new book, coauthored with John Mackey and Carter Phipps: Conscious Leadership—Elevating Humanity Through Business. This popular business book (published by Penguin/Portfolio) explores the vision, virtues, and mindset needed for aspiring conscious leaders, providing a roadmap for innovative, value-based leadership in business and society. My coauthor John Mackey is CEO of Whole Foods Market and coauthor of the acclaimed 2013 book: Conscious Capitalism. And my coauthor Carter Phipps is cofounder of the Institute for Cultural Evolution and author of the 2012 book: Evolutionaries. It is a well-established truth that an organization’s potential is constrained

This first and most obvious form of inequality in our days revolves aro­und income, wealth and access to material resources; the ability to acquire goods and services from others. Because material wealth has long been the main focus of struggles for equality, it merits less discussion here. It is, of course, no less important. For instance, it is perhaps the single most wide­ly accepted finding within social science that greater eco­nomic inequ­ality (often measured by the so called “Gini coefficient”) has a solid corre­lation with violent crime, much more so than poverty in itself, and that lower economic inequality is

Unfor­tunately we live in a universe where equality is an even trickier and more complex goal than freedom. By its very nature, equality is rid­den with yet greater inherent contradictions, with yet more intricate para­­doxes. Negative rights (“freedom from”) are less com­­plicated than positive rights and entitlements (“freedom to”). It is eas­ier to draw consistent lines for what people may not do to one another (physical abuse, theft, imprisonment, enslavement, and so forth) than for what we are obliged to do for one another (help in times of need, secure basic subsistence, provide education, healthcare, and so forth). But we

In America’s current political climate, it seems as if there is no common ground left. So rather than searching for nonexistent common ground, we need to find authentically higher ground. In response to this challenge, a new “post-progressive” political perspective is  emerging. Post-progressivism seeks to include the best and transcend the worst of progressive politics and culture. This post-progressive perspective is described in a rational frame in my recent 1,200 word article in Areo Magazine. However, I also describe this post progressive perspective in a more emotional frame in the following “plea” to my fellow Americans: Staking Out Higher Ground

Announcing a new book by ICE principals John Mackey, Steve McIntosh, Carter Phipps: Conscious Leadership—Elevating Humanity Through Business. Mackey is CEO of Whole Foods Market, and McIntosh and Phipps are cofounders of the Institute for Cultural Evolution. Together they explore the vision, virtues, and mindset needed for aspiring conscious leaders, providing a roadmap for innovative, value-based leadership in business and society. It is a well-established truth that an organization’s potential is constrained by the capacities of its leader. One of the best ways to improve an organization is therefore to evolve the personal and professional capacities of those who lead

Introduction: A History without Time Chapter theme song: Time, Hans Zimmerman.   Q: What is history? HF: History is the past. But it can only be told in the present. Of an infinity of possible stories and interpretations of past events, we somehow conjure up specific histories. Our understanding of these past events propose meaningful sequences; we must guess at thin threads of cause and effect, or at the very least a kind of resonant melody; and we must weave this fabric of meaning through time. This holds true in the history of our personal lives, in the history of

Will Peoples’ Response to the Emergencies of the Coming Decades be Warm? Or Cold? Will Peoples’ Response to the Emergencies of the Coming Decades Be Warm? Or Cold? Find a Way. Photo: Nora Bateson13 min read Nora Bateson & Mamphela Ramphele The crises of the moment do not need further description here. Suffice to say that the complexity of the overlapping crises of inequality, health, justice, technology, ecology and culture are producing emergencies that the institutions of the last centuries cannot contend with. How will the next decades play out amidst these crises? More importantly, what is possible for societies

The Midwest Book Review has given Developmental Politics an “unreservedly recommended” review on their “political science shelf.” Other reviews of DP are also in the works, which I will repost here are they appear. The Political Science Shelf Developmental Politics Steve McIntosh www.stevemcintosh.com Paragon House 3600 Labore Road, Suite 1, St. Paul, MN 55110-4144 https://www.paragonhouse.com/wp 9781557789426, $19.95, PB, 248pp, www.amazon.com Synopsis: The Trump administration and the current congressional make-up clearly demonstrates and showcases that American politics are badly broken — that with such factors as voter suppression, ‘dark money contributions’, Russian social media driven electoral sabotage efforts, and out-of-control special

Here’s my latest podcast with Layman Pascal wherein we discuss the idea that value itself can be understood as a form of interior energy that influences consciousness and culture. As described in chapters 5, 6 and 7 of Developmental Politics, value serves as the motivating power that attracts human interest and generates political will. Also in the podcast, at 19:50, I comment on the recent unrest surrounding the murder of George Floyd: “I think in general that progressivism is the most evolved large-scale form of culture that has yet to appear in the timeline of human history. But like all