Meaning, Politics and Transformation

As we approach the year 2000 and we look back, what do we see? In the past century religious and cultural absolutes have crumbled. Vast and complex changes (future shocks) have occurred in every facet of our private and public lives. In our daily life, we are constantly bombarded by uncertainties, ambiguities, paradoxes and new possibilities that are confusing and frightening to some, yet exciting and liberating to others.

A growing number of Americans are sensing that we have awakened to the dawning of a New Age. Other popular labels for the emerging new epoch include post-modern, post-industrial, and information age. Some cultural historians have even suggested that Western civilization is experiencing the chaotic birth pangs of a new global order unprecedented in human history. Techno-futurist Alvin Toffler calls this The Third Wave.

Modern technology alone is creating a global village with instant communication along a rapidly expanding information superhighway. as well as cyberspace and virtual reality, the exploration of distant planets in our solar system and the unprecedented production on new life forms. We have indeed entered a "Brave New World" of Biotechnology (see Superpigs and Wondercorn by Michael Fox or The Human Body Shop by Andrew Kimbrell).

In the 1960's and 70's visionaries wee living and writing about the new "counterculture." In 1996 a new national survey of values subcultures reveals that 44 million, or 24% of the adult population, are Cultural Creatives or Transmodernists; 88 million, or 47% of adults are Modernists; and 56 million, or 29% of adults are Traditionalists or Heartlanders.

Traditonalists affirm positive values of family, work, community and morality. However, these traditional moral values can also be patriarchal, from the Christian Rights political agendas. Modernism embraces science, technology, commerce, economic growth, individual rights and freedoms and personal success.

Cultural Creatives are integrating the best features of traditionalism and modernism, as well as recognizing their limitations and dangers. Cultural Creatives are concerned with values focused on spiritual transformation, ecological Sustainability and the worth of the feminine. Other transmodernist values are self-actualization, alternative health care, high ethical ideals and social optimism, and xenophilism or foreigners, and the exotic.

The roots of today's Transmodernism "appear to be in part in the esoteric spiritual movements that grew out of the Renaissance and continue to today in the rise of new religions, and also in transcendental movement of the early to mid-19th Century with Emerson and Transcendentalists. They also found in various writings in the New Age movement, in the woman's movement, which all date from the 1960's on "(see Noetic Science Review, Spring 1996).

These vast cultural changes are also creating deep tensions and conflicts. Observers have noted "cultural wars" over burning issues such as abortion, gay rights, multiculturalism and the role of religion in society. Many wonder whether Americans with radically different values can ever co- exist in relative harmony.

In our nation, and on our planet, there are indeed shared values and a common ground on which we all stand. We all depend on a livable Earth-clean air and water, fertile soil and the sun-to sustain our bodies. Everyone has the same basic physical needs (food, shelter) as well as psychosocial needs for recognition, respect, caring, relationships, meaningful work and a safe environment in which to grow.

Many are also developing a spiritual awareness of the fundamental unity of all beings and of our connectedness to one another, to nature and to the universe. When our interconnectedness and essential unity are fully appreciated, isn't it likely that selfishness, greed, and conflict will dramatically diminish; creative synergies, peace, and harmony will begin to flourish?

All of us share another universal drive that may well be the real bottom line of human existence. Meaning shapes all of our needs. Consciously, or unconsciously, we give meaning to all our experiences and impulses. Meaning encompasses core existential demands for values, purpose, direction, and understanding. Without meaning that gives hope, there is no motivation, diminished personal growth, quality and productivity in our work and in our lives.

Meaning is also the foundation of our subjective, symbolic universes-language and myth, religion, art and science. These are the various creative symbolizing activities and constructions through which we all meaningfully express ourselves and give intelligible objective form to our experience.

Traditionalists, through family values and firm moral categories, modernist, through personal success and scientific certainties and transmodernists seeking authenticity and wholeness-all of us desire more meaning in our lives. Meaning that will relieve the pain, emptiness and alienation of daily living. Meaning that will connect us with those we care about. Meaning that will sustain a livable planet.

A new Campaign for a Politics of Meaning has emerged that has the potential of creating a common ground of shared values for the majority of Americans. The central goal of the campaign is "to build a society that encourages mutual recognition, caring, ethical and spiritual sensitivity and ecologically attuned social practices." Michael Lerner is the author of "The Politics of Meaning: Restoring Hope and Possibility in an Age of Cynicism and the editor of Tikkun journal, a critique of politics, culture, and society.

In April, Washington, D.C., 1800 people dialogued openly, honestly and respectfully at the first national Summit on Ethics and Meaning. Regional summits, including Ann Arbor, have taken place. In the months ahead I will write more about politics, ethics and spirituality for the 21st Century.