Boomeritis: Post modern Culture & a View of the Future

Boomeritis: a video montage of this post-modernism "disease", narrated by What Is Enlightenment? magazine's Tom Huston, from a retreat with Andrew Cohen

Boomeritis, a term coined by philosopher Ken Wilber, describes a curious condition afflicting the baby boom generation. In short, "high cognitive pluralism mixed with low emotional narcissism." AKA: a smart, progressive person with a big ego. :-) It's a disease that began infecting human beings during the sixties revolution, when millions of rebellious American and European teens, took full advantage of the rights and freedoms afforded them by Western society and explored the entire spectrum of their egoic autonomy. Busting through every limitation, subverting every authority, and ingesting every psychedelic drug they could get their hands on, they each tumbled out, squinting and dazed, into the bright sunny dawn of the Age of Aquarius.

And although that new age, obscured by the rose-colored glasses of hippiedom, wasn't all it was cracked up to be, it did mark the birth of an actual new stage of human consciousness and culture. Historians, sociologists, and philosophers call it postmodernity, and its defining characteristic was the capacity to allow a variety of differing viewpoints, cultures, and worldviews to peacefully coexist in an egalitarian embrace. Today this multicultural consciousness is also frequently called "pluralism" for its ability to honor and respect a multidimensional plurality of perspectives, and is recognized as being the singular fuel behind the revolutionary fire of the sixties—having ignited the flames of feminism, civil rights, animal rights, gay rights, ecological activism, Vietnam war protests, sexual liberation, and even rock 'n roll. The Beatles' song "All Together Now," for example, perfectly captures the fundamental sentiments and sensitivities of the pluralistic stage of development.

But every social revolution has its downsides, and postmodernity had, and continues to have, plenty of its own. Perhaps the most obvious and unfortunate side-effect of postmodernity's noble intentions to include and embrace all worldviews and cultures—leaving no individual or social group behind to be marginalized or oppressed—is that by idealistically championing "equal rights," it ends up flattening all value judgments into an ultra-egalitarian pancake. Wilber has dubbed this postmodern landscape "flatland"—a world in which no value distinctions, no judgments, and no hierarchies are allowed, and in which it's considered "politically incorrect" to judge another person, group, or even worldview as being fundamentally better or worse than any other.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• AndrewCohen
• KenWilber
• spirituality
• meditation
• retreat
• evolution
• enlightenment
• postmodernity
• boomeritis

[discronificator]

evolutionary enlightenment?????

evolutionary spirituality?????

i agree that total post modern pluralism is a cultural disease and i think boomeritus sounds like perfectly good thing to call it. however i think we should cure boomeritus with rational evidence based thought, not a new non-post modernist mysticism. when he says post modernism should be replaced with "THE collective purpose" the question should the be what evidence do you have for your "collective" purpose.

[St37One]

"When I was an alein, cultures weren't opinions" - Nirvana

Individualism + honesty and realism = no meaninful ego inflation

[LgndXCrunner]

meh.



[seanotube85]

Andrew sounds like he's trying to be a big fucking guru to these poor pluralistic bastards. So easily manipulated they all seem. Question: where exactly are you leading us Andrew? Wanna lay out your game plan? In other words, HOW do you plan on changing the world? What will it take? and don't just say "consciousness," cuz you can be "conscious" of the horrors in the world without doing anything about them.

[rahxun]

am I the only one who think that he is offering structuralism? 

[Sombomombo]

You people sound more high than any babyboomer could've gotten.

[71savages]

This itself sounds like just another new age motivational sales pitch.

Selling the boomers "anti-boomer". Nice

[emptyhighways]

Ok fine, i'll heal myself from this diagnosis you guys invented, and start going about ranting that you are all satanic junkie fagots that need to be locked up and that i follow the True and Right and Good path? No thanks.

[GOPsithlord]

Does anyone find it terribly depressing to have boomers use a philosopher as a group therapist? This is like Fight Club for aging baby boomers. It's not to say the man isn't wrong about 60's, it's when he starts talking about "collective evolution" things start to bother me.

[geek577]

I like it

[jobedied]

Is there a higher place to go? Boomeritis makes sense, this new out look has it's pitfalls also. What are they time will tell.

treating each other with respect does not mean no one is diminishing from the norm. Judging others behaviors are not wrong if you own motivation for seeing something is for understanding and concern with it's influence on your self and others.