Steve McIntosh’s book, Developmental Politics, is a book about political philosophy based on a meta narrative about cultural evolution. McIntosh’s philosophy is based on the importance of values, what matters to people, and how people view the world through the lens that they have been socialized and conditioned to use for their perspective.
Most politics in the United States is based on scarcity and fear rather than abundance and love. This dichotomy contributes to the polarization of American society which is fueled by a desire for power and dominance. Rather than cooperating, collaborating, and working together toward common goals, the strategy is to demonize people who disagree and to subjugate, oppress, and disenfranchise them from participation in democratic processes. This has led increasingly to a resurgence of violence and domestic terrorism in addition to verbal, mental, and emotional abuse.
McIntosh writes that the resolution to this problem of political polarization is what he calls “values integration” and the facilitation of spiritual growth. The difficulty with the application of these strategies of values integration and spiritual growth is the lack of institutional support.
The current social institutions most likely to facilitate values integration and spiritual growth might be academia and religion but both of these social institutions have been co-opted by political parties and “think tanks.”
New organizations and institutions need to be created, nurtured, sustained, and well managed in order for values integration and spiritual growth to become a prominent part of American society.
Each of us can start wherever we find ourselves to find other like minded people to join together to work toward goals of developing emotional and spiritual intelligence.
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