Navigating the philosophical universe: toward a holistic future
Navigating the philosophical universe toward a holistic future.
Can our culture recover the spiritual, holistic revolution, spearheaded by boomers and inspired by their elders? And yet still avoid the pitfalls of the anti-science fantasies?
When the dot com boom happened, it seems to me that the zeitgeist changed, and since then the younger generations, the millies and Xers, and many compliant Boomers and Silents too, have succumbed again to the old idea that technology is all we need, that science is the means to discover truth, and that what's exciting about the future comes from the world of computers and engineering. We have returned to the old modernist mindset that was seemingly overturned in the sixties and seventies (the "consciousness revolution awakening" as the T4T authors dubbed it).
On the other hand, people like me are still out there, though perhaps now invisible on this forum, who have been inspired by the "new paradigm," and can see that beyond science there are ways of knowing and unleashing super-conscious mind-energy that go deeper than explaining the already-created and the externally-measurable. It was only a few years ago that boomers were still active, promoting and propagating human potential techniques and spiritual knowledge, bringing back shamanic and esoteric wisdom and combining it with the new psychology developed in the human potential movement and the new age. Even as recently as the last decade, movies like "What the Bleep Do We Know" were popularizing this new consciousness, and showing that within some quarters of science, the new paradigm continues to unfold that takes us beyond materialism, even though most younger people still believe that science can answer our questions and that technology can satisfy all of our human needs and aspirations. And Boomers and late Silents like Hancock and Sheldrake continue to find an audience for spiritual, human-potential and new-paradigm science, despite the censorship efforts of the skeptics and their power over wikipedia, TED and even PBS and other mainstream media.
On the other hand, among some boomers and presumably some younger folks as well, the notion that science can be questioned justifies increasingly irrational and often right-wing conspiracy theories and movements, ranging from the "9-11 truthers" to the "anti-vaxxers" and the chemtrail and geo-engineering protesters and those who want to stop smart meters and weather modification. From there, the trail of the irrational can go ever deeper, back to the Kennedy Assasination and even to anti-flouridation, as if General Ripper were still alive, and even beyond this to anti-one worlders afraid that the Bavarian Illuminati are still active within the Tri-lateral Commission and other secret government cabals and meetings who run the world. These types often hang around UFO investigations and are against GMOs, and there seems no way to tell for sure just what the truth is among these theories, because their adherents don't seem to believe in facts, yet are willing to accept whatever people tell them are alleged "facts," as if fantasies and facts can be woven together, and you can believe anything you want as long as it satisfies your need for the extraordinary, and affords you the chance to blame some nefarious conspiracy for what's going wrong in our lives.
Then there is the more-overtly anti-scientific trends from the official, predominant right wing in the red states and other Republican areas of the country, who live within their echo chamber of delusion. Among them, free-market fundamentalism requires that any government action to deal with society's problems be stopped on the grounds that this is socialism and elitist, big government intrusion into our lives (even though such government activism really only intrudes into the lives of the real elite, the 1% of the upper class). Therefore, climate science must be denied, and any other scientific findings that support real needs for social and economic change through government action must be denied. And this is coupled with the religious right, now somewhat in retreat but still influential in these "red state" and red county areas, whose believers are creationists and Bible believers rather than scientifically-oriented, and often culturally-fearful, authoritarian and prejudiced in various ways. And these two folks, often combined in the Tea Party and other reactionary Reaganoid groups, also find the spiritual, holistic revolution anathema to their beliefs. And so folks like Danilynn, Galen and Kinser, so diametrically opposed to each other politically, can agree on their disdain for folks like me.
So it's a whirlwind of ideas and beliefs out there, and it's up to people to find their way through the maelstrom toward a path that will be truly fulfilling to them. They can hang on to the old beliefs, if that meets their needs. Or, if they are more curious, or want and need something more, and feel the need to follow a spiritual path, they can seek out the holistic, spiritual revolution, the new paradigm and the new age, and would do well to avoid the irrational pitfalls that border this realm. Or they can find some avenues toward truth within the old traditions, but not succumb to their exaggerated fundamentalist versions, whether in science, religion or politics and economics. A balance, among science/tech and spirituality/eso-tech, and between free enterprise and freedom from corporate greed and tea party fanaticism, is needed. To respect all genuine paths to wisdom, and avoid the obvious nonsense, is the way to navigate our way into the future; or as we spiritual types say, into the eternal and unfolding present.
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Originally Posted by '58 Flat
