Obama, Gen Y, and the Next Revolution

Right-click to download audio version.
 

Eleanor Roosevelt once said that "poor minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, and great minds discuss ideas."  Integral minds, we might add, discuss all three. 

In the Integral Profiles series, host Jeff Salzman sits down with some of today's most notable thinkers, teachers, and leaders, discussing the many ways they are catalyzing the Integral vision in their lives, in their hearts, and in their work.  These men and women are collectively defining the leading edge of evolution in today's world, their thoughts and actions actively influencing the shape and scope of tomorrow's possibilities.
 

Recorded just six weeks into his presidency, Don shares some of his hopes and concerns about Barack Obama as the new Leader of the Free World. He discusses the need for a true "trans-partisan" move in American politics, as opposed to mere bi-partisan compromise. He then talks about the promise of the younger generations, noting several important differences between Generation Y and any other generation we've ever seen. All of this, Don believes, is culminating into a dramatic shift in human history, as we prepare for a critical mass of people moving from the fragmented and partial value systems of "first-tier" consciousness (comparable with Abraham Maslow's "deficiency needs") to the genuinely integrated values of wholeness and abundance found in "second-tier" consciousness (Maslow's "being needs").
 

"As many of us have been saying for some time, there's a major transformation happening. Clare Graves' article in The Futurist in 1974 [was titled] 'Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap'—well, here it is!" -Don Beck

Read Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap by Clare W. Graves.
 

Don Edward Beck, Ph.D., is Co-founder of The National Values Center in Denton, Texas, and President and CEO of The Spiral Dynamics Group, Inc.  Beck co-authored The Crucible: Forging South Africa's Future (with Graham Linscott, l991) and Spiral Dynamics: Mastering Values, Leadership & Change (with Christopher Cowan, l996). He also writes a "Sports Values" column for the Dallas Morning News and appears often in the media regarding issues related to values, sports, and racial divides.
 

Jeff Salzman is cofounder and lead teacher at Boulder Integral, a conference center dedicated to integral development. He worked with Ken Wilber for three years in building Integral Institute. Jeff is cofounder of CareerTrack, one the world's leading professional-development companies. A long-time spiritual practioner in many traditions, he has a Masters Degree in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism from Naropa University.