A few people have posted about Spiral Dynamics by now. This is a 1990s theory that has continued to circulate through the world of ideas, and our friends Rags and Chas and others have posted about it on 4T sites. Even Bob Butler, who doesn't want to look at it, actually proposes and argues for it, although in somewhat different terms.



Mr. Beck and Mr. Cowans wrote the book in 1996 that has spread the theory around, based on earlier work by psychologist Dr. Clare Graves, and with a background that includes many traditions going back to late Roman times at least.

Other authors have updated the work, including Steve MacIntosh in his great book:
http://www.stevemcintosh.com/books/integ...ciousness/

And this is a wonderful site that explains the theory:
http://spiraldynamicsintegral.nl/en/

In brief, it proposes that history unfolded in developmental stages, also called successive values memes, which some people today still occupy even if others have moved on and "transcended and included" them in a more-advanced stage. Each phase has a color as well as an alpha-numeric label. The colors are more recognizable:

Beige = the phase when the instinct for survival was still uppermost, and people associated in families. Circa the times from when we became homo sapiens sapiens until about 40,000 or 30,000 years ago.

Purple = the phase when we organized into tribes and told stories around the campire, worshipped and feared spirits and ancestors and relied on magical thinking. Circa the time of cave paintings up until about 4,000 years ago.

Red = the phase when war lords and emperors conquered territory, when people worked with metals also used for weapons, sought personal fame and glory, and worshipped male power gods; up until about 300 AD.

Blue = the phase of authoritarian mono-theist tradition when righteous morals were imposed to control behavior and enlist loyalty to the group. Up to about 1650 AD.

Orange = the "Enlightenment" phase of individualism and rational science enlisted to achieve material progress, and of secular humanism, the free market and the advance of democratic republican government. Up to the 1960s, or about the 1890s-1900s, depending on the author.

Green = the phase when feelings and respect for diversity are valued more highly, greater community is sought, and peace and environmental movements are happening. Since the 1960s, at least.

Yellow = a new phase, now emerging since the 1990s among a minority of people, who are interested in theories like Beck and Cowan proposed; called "integral," in which a hierarchy of values and excellence is recognized again, in an adaptable way in which all the value traditions are recognized as valid on their own level in a systemic order. "The world is a complex, self-organizing, natural system that requires integral solutions." People develop "Authenticity, systemic thinking and skills to become an instrument for the greater whole and access to a free (holistic) consciousness." 
http://spiraldynamicsintegral.nl/en/

Turquoise = a proposed future phase in which dedication to the whole and spirituality will predominate over individual quest for excellence in systemic thinking. Perhaps an updated version of blue.

From MacIntoch's book:

Apparently FoX News Channel has chosen to extend Bill O'Reilly's vacation... permanently.



There is no conservative defense of sexual harassment.

Wow, ain't seen it yet.  It's time for a green technology thread!   As an avid lover of organic chemistry, [hey man], I did an "A" in organic chemistry I.  Of course I've messed up on some "experiments" in my youth., Like that rush to the hood beaker of somehin' going wrong  with making "poppers".  No, Rags, don't use nitric acid mixed with amyl alcohol.  Oops, wrong acid, I think it shoulda have been nitrous acid, not, no, uht uht no, nitric acid.  Bad experiment resulted in stinky, stinky, NOx fumes.  Here's an awesome, if I may say so, turning trash [assorted plastics], into treasure, into essentially, "light oil". 

https://web.anl.gov/PCS/acsfuel/preprint...5_0004.pdf

And...  How about diesel typed fuel. May the circle now complete. Stop the natural resource deplete.

https://www.scribd.com/document/23600246...ation-CLPD

Gotta keep Amtrak on schedule, right?

The following article is an example of how certain US Muslims invite things like the Muslim travel ban and various other "Alt-Right" outrages.

I am not "blaming the victim" but if Muslims want to be treated well, this type of shit needs to be squelched:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post...857ba97b71

'A Detroit emergency room doctor has been charged with performing genital mutilation on young girls in what is believed to be the first criminal case of its kind brought by U.S. prosecutors.'

Same goes for other crap like honor killings, arranged marriages, human trafficking, and various anti-Western/anti-government violent conspiracies.

In the aftermath of the airstrike in Syria I read this from a poster at American Conservative who questions whether Assad was responsible for the recent chemical weapons use since last time we accused of doing this (in 2013) it turns out we were wrong. When questioned on this he responded with

I suggest you take a close look at Robert Parry’s discussion of the matter. As he points out, the NY Times recently dropped the alleged 2013 Syrian use of chemical weapons from its list of atrocities. Why? Because the factual basis for the allegation fell apart. Yet the allegation is still being made, including by people in the media who ought to know better.
See Parry’s article at https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/06/nyt-retreats-on-2013-syria-sarin-claims/ .
And then take a look at Ray McGovern’s piece at https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/11/the-syrian-sarin-false-flag-lesson/ .
Look also at the articles linked in both pieces, especially https://consortiumnews.com/2013/12/29/nyt-backs-off-its-syria-sarin-analysis/, discussing how the NY Times backed away from its earlier claims concerning the 2013 chemical attack, and especially at
Seymour Hersh’s article at https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line and the report both Seymour and, eventually but sotto voce, the NY Times cited:
https://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/possible-implications-of-bad-intelligence.pdf.

What do people think? Particularly Jordan and Warren.

Finally I can now start this list.

It took a while.

Thing #1 - responding to Syrian use of WMDs (in this case, banned chemical warfare).

To be continued ....

Someone as revolutionary, and, harboring such destructive urges, as the Alt-Right / Duginist faction adherent, is not a true Rightist. Their beliefs and operational plans are antithetical to the true Right notions of "King and Country." They have a wrecking ball mentality and want to conserve nothing. They are bomb throwers in the worst tradition of the Jacobins. Here is a brief history of how they become a creditable (albeit negative and deplorable) force in the US:

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2...ves-214518

'The hidden history of Trumpism suggests that the president-elect may be not simply an opportunistic showman but the leader of an at least semi-coherent ideology—a new iteration of the populist and nationalist paleoconservatism that has long lurked in the shadows of American politics. Now, for the first time since the isolationist 1930s, this ideology commands real influence, and for the first time in our history, it will enjoy favor from a sitting president. The prospects could not be more ominous. '

A new source of hydrocarbons from trashy used plastic:

https://phys.org/news/2017-04-oceans-pla...-fuel.html

Hmmm.... I like this. I'm sure there's enough tossed plastic to make lots of hydrocarbons by pyrolysis of waste plastics, from pretty much anywhere.  May the oceans, landfills, plastic recycling programs be another way to get ourselves off that damned Mid East oil. Here's yet another reason to impose an oil import fee. What would be really cool is to start mining landfills for stuff to pyrolyze into hydrocarbons.

Heh, Rags love pyrolysis. Burn, baby burn.

Evolution of popular music from Transcendental Awakening to current era: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1T9VvaKNW28

I watched Larry Summers on Charlie Rose; not that I agree with him on everything, but he made the good point that Trump's budget cuts for arts and science do the opposite of "make America great again." The greatness of a nation, what it's remembered for, is its culture, Summers reminded us. When I was growing up, I noticed that I live in a country that doesn't value the arts; that is focused on commerce and technology. For me, the psychedelics, the human potential movements, the new age spirituality of the Awakening period of the mid-sixties and seventies, represented the chance for the USA to develop sensitivity, to learn to appreciate beauty, to unleash creativity, for the USA culture to bloom. Now, as the people who lived through those years get older, I wonder if this breakthrough has borne fruit, or when it might happen again. This sensitivity, this new light, seemed to vanish through the 3T/Reagan-Bush era, and now our nation's priorities are consumed with either making money through unleashing commerce from government restraints again, or else the need to resist this and get political in our 4T. Good business skills and political decisions are not enough to "make America great." It must be our culture, and we remain the "nation of dollar trappers with no past or future," as Oswald Spengler once called us.