Hi TOK List,
For anyone that is interested in understanding the new Cultural world we find ourselves in, I strongly recommend Peter Limberg and Conor Barnes’ excellent article
The Memetic Tribes of Culture War 2.0. The basic gist of the article is that we are facing a number of interconnected crises, but the central one is the crisis of meaning. The crisis of meaning can be considered to be a product of the breaking down of the
old large-scale meaning making/justification systems.
Culture War 1.0 was the basic division between the religious right (think Falwell’s moral majority) and the secular left. However, things have changed. Rather than a “simple” war between two parties, we have now entered a multipolar,
postmoden Culture war, with many fronts and many “tribes” vying for attention and power in the virtual landscape.
If you prefer a podcast version of this,
here is Peter on Rebel Wisdom, talking about this paper and the various forces that are emerging, such as the Intellectual Dark Web and Intellectual Deep Web. I would like to think with our focus on moving from a fragmented pluralism to an integrated pluralism,
the Theory Of Knowledge Society is well positioned to rise above the specific memetic tribe positions and how they are currently defined against one another, but instead offer a more “Meta-Memetic” view (if there is a tribe we are similar to in spirit, it
is probably Wilber’s “Integral” tribe) that allows for the assimilation and integration of wisdom, both at the individual and societal level, and in a way that connects our scientific knowledge with a moral vision for the future.
Best,
Gregg
___________________________________________
Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)
Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.
Check out my Theory of Knowledge blog at Psychology Today at:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge
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