Category: Media

Dear friends,

The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is a tragic and cowardly act of political violence that attempts to undermine the functioning of democracy at its heart, which is the peaceful transfer of power bestowed by the legitimacy of popular will.

Sadly, it is also the latest in a cascading sequence of predictable events as we continue to live through The Great Release, that large-scale breakdown in the United States’ power system that I first described in 2017, and since which has seen growing and acute political fractures in the US and around the world.

How did we get here?

Just hours before yesterday’s events, Josh Leonard and I discussed that exact question in great detail in “How America Got Here: A 50 Year Journey to Polarization” for IAM: The Institute of Applied Metatheory.

Based on a tweet thread I published a few months ago examining the wholesale transformation of American socioculture, we look at the deep structures—in the form of actual events, policies and decisions between 1970 and 2024—that radically shifted America from one form of system “regime” and associated equilibrium, that of relative national coherence in the early 1970s, into a new, radically- and qualitatively-different regime and equilibrium of extreme polarized decoherence of 2024.

Let me say this more directly: our current sociopolitical equilibrium is one of fracture, polarization and discord, so the very form and function of the system itself now is such that it will strongly resist moving away from producing more fracture, polarization and discord. Extreme events like January 6’s attempted insurrection, or the attempted assassination of a political leader, are both product and cause of the system naturally-generating the chaos it uses to reproduce itself.

The critical question is how did we generate a system whose equilibrium is extreme polarization? If we’re ever going to make choices that begin to shift our society toward the system reorganization that The Great Release predicts will be necessary, then we have to be able to see the mistakes, deformations, and integral violations that were committed on the way to getting here.

While I highly encourage you to watch our discussion to understand a fuller, more integral story of how we arrived here, I want to remind us that all division begins in the mind and can be ended by the heart.

Political differences are real, but they are nothing in the face of our infinite capacity for expanding our minds and hearts to accommodate new and different realities, lived realities our neighbors desperately want to show us, have us listen to, and have us affirm as real and valid. To reject this principle is to cauterize oneself from the full lifeworld, and what is a polarized society if not two groups who have retreated fully into their preferred barren demirealities?

But there’s another way. Cultivating an integral mind and heart is a path that takes us out of this hollow wasteland, and may indeed be the only one that can. We need integral leaders who can model the language, values, behavior and citizenship that the 21st century demands. Each of us can make that commitment, and renew it every day in the face of the widening gyre ahead.

Warm loving regards,
Robb Smith
Founder & CEO, Integral Life and the Institute of Applied Metatheory

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:05 Understanding the Socio-Cultural Shift
19:41 Economic Shifts
29:06 Media Fragmentation
37:28 Political Revolutions
40:57 The Role of Integral Leaders
41:27 The Repeal of Glass-Steagall and the Financial Crisis
44:11 China’s Entry into the World Trade Organization and Outsourcing
48:44 The Rise of Social Media and Identity-Fueled Tribalism
51:47 Donald Trump and the Erosion of Truth
57:52 The Importance of Integrative Leadership
01:04:06 Building a Healthier and More Resilient Society

Modern law enforcement faces complex and evolving challenges that demand innovative solutions. High-profile incidents, such as the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Eric Garner, have intensified public scrutiny, leading to significant swings in perception and policy. To navigate this turbulent environment, integrative frameworks offer the most promising path forward. By addressing deep-rooted issues and promoting sustainable change, these frameworks provide the necessary tools for transformative progress in policing.

In this wide-ranging roundtable discussion, the Institute of Applied Metatheory’s Josh Leonard hosts three leading experts in the field of integral policing to explore how applying big-picture, integrative frameworks could help address the complex challenges facing modern law enforcement.

The three panelists for this conversation are Chris Orrey, a retired police lieutenant from California, Gestur Palmason, a former police officer from Iceland, and Ryan Johansen, the current Chief of Police for San Bruno, California. Together, they explore the current landscape of policing from a big-picture perspective and demonstrate the potential for integral metatheory to drive transformative change in one of the most critical and challenging issue areas of our time.

The discussion delves into the powerful pendulum swings in public perception and policy that often follow high-profile incidents like the murder of George Floyd in 2020, and how an integral approach could help transcend these reactive cycles through a dialectical integration of opposing social pressures.

Key leverage points for transformation that emerge from the conversation include:

1. Training police leadership in the Integral Four Quadrants model as a powerful sense-making tool for navigating complexity,
2. Emphasizing officer wellness and resilience programs to support the healthy interior development of individual officers,
3. Rethinking police metrics and KPIs to more holistically assess the success and health of police departments across all four quadrants,
4. Fostering a culture of ongoing learning and development that empowers officers to adapt and grow with the increasing complexity of their roles.

While the path to a more integral future for policing is far from clear, the remarkable results and breakthroughs shared by Chief Johansen offer an inspiring glimpse of what’s possible when these big-picture integrative frameworks are put into practice with tact and vision.

The roundtable also reflects on the critical role of developmental leadership in shepherding this transformation. As more mature leaders begin to recognize the power and potential of integrative frameworks to help them better navigate the complexities of modern policing, we could be on the cusp of an exciting new wave of innovation and evolution in the field.

Join us for this thought-provoking and timely discussion as we explore how integrative metatheory could hold the key to ushering in a new era of policing — one that fosters greater trust, effectiveness, and resilience for officers and communities alike.

Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
7:18 The Current Context of Policing
11:14 Recruitment and Retention Issues
16:04 Integral Approaches to Officer Wellness
19:28 Navigating Polarities in Policing
25:21 Challenges in Police Reform
33:32 Innovations in Policing
38:01 Community Engagement and Education
43:00 Legislative Pressures on Policing
49:35 Identifying Leverage Points
1:02:26 Practical Applications of Integral Metatheory
1:12:30 Measuring Success
1:24:57 Integrating Green in Policing

Have you ever wondered how big-picture philosophical frameworks could revolutionize social innovation and drive meaningful change in the world?

Are you curious about the integral movement’s journey over the last 20 years, and the social shifts that are now catalyzing the emergence of an entirely new era of integral leadership?

In this first episode of the IAM Insider Show, Josh Leonard and Robb Smith discuss the founding and evolution of the Institute of Applied Metatheory (IAM), an international applied philosophy network dedicated to the education and application of “big picture” philosophical systems and metatheories. The conversation also reflects on the integral movement’s various phases and challenges over the years, the social shifts necessitating IAM’s emergence, and the four foundational hypotheses underpinning IAM’s work.

In a world grappling with unprecedented crises, from climate change to social unrest, Robb and Josh investigate the critical necessity of an organization that unites and empowers scholar-practitioners to collaboratively develop and apply transformative, integrative metatheories — the cutting-edge frameworks we need to untangle complex and interconnected issues and forge paths towards a more resilient, equitable, and sustainable future for all.

“Problems cannot be solved from the same stage that created them”, as the adage goes — which is exactly why IAM is cohering an entirely new stage of problem-solving that can help us transform our global crises into opportunities for personal and social transformation, guided by integrative metatheory and applied philosophy. Watch to discover how applying integrative metatheory to the most pressing 21st-century challenges could be the key to unlocking transformative solutions for a world that so clearly needs them.

Josh and Robb go on to outline their plans to expand the IAM network through pilot initiatives and Applied Metatheory Initiative (AMI) Incubation Grants, empowering leaders to apply integrative metatheory across various issue areas. They also discuss the development of an applied Complex Integral Realism framework, the importance of educating the integral community about other integrative metatheories, and IAM’s aim to provide resources and support to maximize the impact of metatheory-driven solutions. The episode concludes with an announcement about the upcoming Request for Proposals (RFP) for AMI Incubation Grants.

It has never been a more exciting time to be an integralist. We invite you to join us on this new adventure — your chance to be part of a movement that has the potential to revolutionize social innovation as we know it, and to explore the powerful potentials of big-picture philosophical frameworks as a way to catalyze meaningful change in the world.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:13 The Three-Stage History of the Integral Movement
12:24 Societal Changes Driving IAM
31:40 The Need For Integrative Sensemaking Software
48:50 The Four Hypotheses
1:10:00 Context: AI Meets Metatheory
1:29:21 IAM’s Plans for 2024
1:49:00 Developing a Complex Integral Realism Protocol
1:58:51 What’s Next: AMI Incubation Grants