The Aftermath of Modernity: How Did We Get Here, Anyway? with Karen Voorhees

The Aftermath of Modernity: How Did We Get Here, Anyway? with Karen Voorhees

In only a few short centuries, a handful of small nation-states sailed forth across the oceans and colonized much of the rest of the world. Western Europe had gone very suddenly from barbarian backwater to global superpower and the “modern” era had begun. Some of the results face us today as our most intractable problems.

This presentation will be an Integral overview of Europe’s emergence into modernity. It’s more than just fascinating history — the better we understand how it happened, the better our odds of finding sustainable solutions to the problems of today.

Ken Wilber’s AQAL meta-model gives us (among so much else) a powerful tool with which to understand our collective history. But how can we apply a developmental model to the history of human societies while doing justice to pre-modern cultures, especially to those that have survived to the present? Faced with such urgent issues as de-colonization and racial justice along with climate change, we need some careful discernment. Can we preserve the positive aspects of modernity (such as greatly lengthened life spans) while finding solutions to the wicked problems that the dark side of modernity has bequeathed us?

The first hour will be a short presentation of Wilber’s developmental model as applied to the history of our human societies, followed by break-out discussion groups and then a group Q&A / discussion.

The second hour’s presentation will focus on the European Renaissance and the emergence of modernity. Why did this emergence happen? Why in Europe and not in China or the Islamic world? Again, the presentation will be followed by break-out discussion groups and then a group Q&A / discussion.

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In February, 2017 San Diego Integral began the Focused Integral Group Discussion (FIGD) which is a meta-structuring format where we briefly switch into an agreed upon process to optimally utilize the We-Space. The objective of FIGD is to collectively feel deeper into any topic and promote a causal state experience where we briefly switch from a collective I to a collective we. A Focused Integral Group process is "running in the background" until a salient moment rises that we want to explore. This may be derived from a presentation, a poignant comment by a member, a poem...whatever has resonance and can be horizontally expanded by the collective. This moment is identified by the "moderator" who helps maintain focus.

FIGD have three parts. It begins with a formal focus, followed by commentary on the process and then a discussion. Each segment lasts for 3-8 minutes. We have committed to a minimal of three FIGD per meeting. We have found that the intensity of these collective focused moments have increased with experience and skill and seem to delightfully persist throughout the three phases. This is very much an experimental process we have been Improving upon after each meeting.

As previously mentioned FIGD was initially described for the February, 2017. The sequential evolution of FIGD can be seen in the PAGES tab above. New or returning members are encouraged to read these brief papers in preparation for participation. Updates have followed each SDI meeting.

SDI is committed to the creative advance into novelty.

If you have a topic suggestion please let us know and we'll bring it to the conversation.