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What is Radical Inclusivity? Introducing a New Reality
Radical Inclusivity is a philosophical perspective and an awakening experience that opens a portal to a new reality. My passion for philosophy is fueled by my recognition that the reality we live in needs to – and is – shifting. The never-ending quest to understand the nature of reality has always been the heart of philosophy. We need to be engaged in that inquiry now as much, if not more, than ever.
A new reality is emerging in and between us and the most amazing philosophical pursuits are those aimed at discovering what the new reality is and how we can change the way we think to support its birth in the world. I call this noble intellectual endeavor Transformative Inquiry and my book Radical Inclusivity is a primer in it.
It is no secret that more and more of us believe that we are in the midst of a massive shift in consciousness. In the Western World I see evidence of this shift beginning with the Romantic movement at the end of the eighteenth century, but it is only now that it seems there might be enough momentum to complete the project.
The consciousness of the Western World has been dominated by a perception of reality that I call things-in-space for the past few hundred years This reality was born and developed during the European Enlightenment. As the Western world broke free from the church dominated reality of the Middle Ages it developed an exciting rationalistic and scientific picture of reality. The foundational metaphor of that worldview was an infinite expanse of three-dimensional space filled with things – things-in-space.
The powerful inquiry that the scientific method was preoccupied with is gaining an understanding of the movements and interactions of all the things in space. Science has been so successful in this endeavor that the things-in-space metaphor has become the universally accepted assumption underpinning all of reality for a vast and very influential number of people in the world.
It is important to note that in the metaphor of things-in-space human beings are also seen and experienced as things that exist in space. We are special things because we think and feel and communicate and so we are thinking-things. Still, we are still fundamentally objects limited and defined by time and space. The new reality is and will challenge many things, including whether we are truly limited by time and space.
When you live in a things-in-space universe the fundamental way you operate is to manipulate and control other things. You could say that manipulation and control is the operating system of things-in-space consciousness. Our world is giving us lots of evidence in the form of global ecological, economic and social challenges, that are indicating that we have hit the limits of this operating system.
We need an understanding of reality that is capable of embracing the tremendous complexity of our world – and we need an operating system that can address the challenges and opportunities of this moment.
I call this new reality continuity-unfolding and I see evidence that has been emerging in and between us for some time and is building momentum toward a major shift in consciousness for many people. This new reality brings with it a new operating system where manipulation and control is replaced by alignment and unification.
My interest in philosophy is rooted in my passion to explore the nature of continuity-unfolding and learn how to let go of manipulation and control and embrace alignment and unification.
Here, in short, is the new reality continuity-unfolding that I see:
Pure Form Nonsense
The Platonic theory continued revitalized by Kant, who repeated the idea that there is such a thing as “pure” form unconnected to the material world. The “ornamentation” of the material world, and even emotion, were therefore considered not holy enough to be included in great art.
Digging deeper, let me change Wittgenstein’s comment that “The human body is the best picture of the human soul.” It is the human mind emptied of all material desires that defines the real soul—this emptiness brings bliss, wrongly defined by mystics as God or the Father Within, or pure form. This is not God or Godhood, it is the Inward Path symbolic-experience of the real Godhood reached through material and supermaterial evolution in the Outward Path.
Modern theorists such as Clement Greenberg continued this intellectual game in our time, dazzling, ironically, with their own ornamentation, like trinket salesmen. Art as an extension of the displays of sexual selection seems pertinent here. Even if high caliber thinkers and philosophers affirmed material things as mere ornaments, this is nonsense. Art philosophy, politics, and yes, religion need to get back to reality.
We can now base high and low culture on the upgraded philosophical naturalism defined here as theological materialism. The sacred is reached through material and supermaterial evolution, with the inner activation of life to evolve to Godhood, shaped by outside evolution and selection. Art philosophy, politics, and religion need to affirm this real materal/supermaterial but still sacred path. All life will be the better for it.
http://civilizingthebeast.blogspot.com/
Thank you KLAMUSE for your thoughts. I will have to give them deeper consideration, but I find the term theological materialism very captivating. Your description of it in the last paragraph here is powerful and profound. ‘material and supermaterial’ great sentiment.