Our guest in this episode is Joe Brewer, Executive Director at the Center for Applied Cultural Evolution. Joe is a complexity researcher, cognitive scientist, and evangelist for regenerative culture design. We invited him onto the show because we felt that our ideas about adult development, rites of passage, and overcoming the chasm of nihilism strongly resonated with his thinking and work on cultural evolution. This interview turned out to be very dense and we talked about complex subjects, so we divided the episode in two parts.
In Part 1 we talk about what kind of education we need in order to prepare for an evolutionary transition, why even intellectuals can’t wrap their heads around climate change, and the importance of the grieving process for psychological and spiritual growth.
In Part 2 we talk about modern versions of rites of passage that can be relevant for young people today and why they are important. We also discuss the ways to support cultural evolution and develop regenerative cultures that are capable of dealing with global problems and existential risks.
In This Episode Of Future Thinkers:
- How studying mathematics, physics and atmospheric sciences can lead to philosophical and esoteric inquiry
- Behaviour of clouds as a great starting point to learn about systems and complexity
- What is cultural evolution research and how it relates to complex systems theory
- The gap of perception that many people have in understanding climate change
- What is terror management theory and how we can be traumatized by our own thoughts about future
- The grieving process as a necessary path to managing planetary collapse
- Why finding something sacred to us plays a crucial role in crossing the chasm of nihilism
- The importance of going through rites of passage in order to prepare for uncertain future
- What are some new versions of rites of passage that would be relevant for young people today?
- Prototyping educational processes for global collapse – permaculture, restoration programs, train the trainers models
- How humanity can learn to lead itself through an evolutionary transition
Links and Resources:
- Center For Applied Cultural Evolution
- Regenerative Communities Network
- Joe Brewer’s Blog
- Regenerative Capitalism: How Universal Principles And Patterns Will Shape Our Economy by John Fullerton
- Transformations Forum
Recommended Books:
- The Disappearance of Childhood by Neil Postman
- The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom by Jonathan Haidt
- The Coddling Of The American Mind: How Good Intentions And Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt
- Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain by Antonio Damasio
- Kosmic Consciousness by Ken Wilber
- The Power of Myth: Programs 1-6 by Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers
- Books by George Lakeoff
- Books by E.O. Wilson
- Books by Paul Shepard
- Books by Elinor Ostrom
Each individual is a cosmos of organs, each organ is a cosmos of cells, each cell is a cosmos of infinitely small ones; and in this complex world, the well-being of the whole depends entirely on the sum of well-being enjoyed by each of the least microscopic particles of organized matter. – Pyotr Kropotkin
More From Future Thinkers:
- FTP088 – The Ancient Art of Adulting and Meta-Skills for the Future
- FTP081, 082 – Charles Eisenstein: The New Story of Climate and Humanity
- FTP 062, 063 – Jordan Greenhall: Deep Code – Learning How to Learn
- FTP 057, 058, 059 – Daniel Schmachtenberger: Solving The Generator Functions of Existential Risk
- FTP047 – Jordan Greenhall: Why we Need Collective Intelligence During Global Collapse
