Dear Colleagues, Thought you might be interested in this paper on "polarity theory" and the absence of/difficulty with U.S. political discourse currently. His analysis of the relationship between the liberal modernists and the progressive post-modernists interested me. How do we relate as the "Trans-establishment" in this election year? It also started me thinking about the gift of the Social Process Triangles in avoiding duality. Or do the triangles even compare with or apply to his analysis? Blessings, Jann McGuire Dear Friends of The Institute for Cultural Evolution, New ICE Paper by Steve McIntosh Describes the Future of American Politics and How We Can Overcome Polarization Hyper-partisan polarization is crippling our democracy, preventing meaningful action on a wide range of urgent issues. And now polarization even threatens the functionality of the Supreme Court. It can, however, be difficult to focus on a problem that has no apparent solution. Yet while hyper-partisanship is indeed a ‘wicked problem’ with many causes and no straightforward fix, ICE’s integral perspective illuminates a new strategy that can realistically overcome our nation’s political dysfunction. As ICE president Steve McIntosh argues in this paper, Overcoming Polarization by Evolving Right and Left, we can effectively grow out of extreme polarization by sharpening our focus on the foundational values that form the bedrock of loyalty-identity underlying our national political landscape. Building on the analysis of ICE's acclaimed 2014 paper, Depolarizing the American Mind, this new paper describes a strategy to develop both the right and the left independently and according to their own distinct goals and values, as a prerequisite to greater cooperation overall. In furtherance of this strategy of developing each side independently, the paper describes a new kind of deliberative polar alliance that can better integrate the competing camps (opposing poles) that exist within both the right and the left. It then shows how the American right can evolve by forming such a deliberative alliance between its conservative and libertarian poles. This is followed by a similar analysis of the American left, where an opportunity now exists to evolve this side of the spectrum by forming a more functional alliance between the liberal and progressive poles of the left. Eventually, as both the right and the left evolve culturally, the inherent virtue of each side’s bedrock values will become more apparent, leading to greater sympathy and trust. It is thus through this kind of cultural evolution that we can effectively overcome our current political stagnation. Figure 5 from the paper Follow this link to read the paper. And if you feel so moved, please leave a comment on the ICE website. Thank you all very much for your continuing interest in our work. Sincerely, Fellows of The Institute for Cultural Evolution www.CulturalEvolution.org To unsubscribe from our list, please visit here. The Institute for Cultural Evolution | 743 Pine Street | Boulder, CO, 80302 USA info@CulturalEvolution.org | (303) 530-9028 | www.CulturalEvolution.org