Summary: Listeners--this podcast is from March, 2014. -BW<br> <br> I started the show this week by responding to a couple listeners who think I've gone a little soft on modernity (Orange altitude). The first, David O'Conner from Australia, critiqued me by saying, "you believe a little too much in the evolutionary goodness of Orange without sufficiently taking into account what is not so good about Orange." Good point. So let me self-correct a bit.<br> <br> Every stage of development comes online bearing a dignity and a disaster. For instance, on the upside Red brings on the juice of individual power; on the downside it gives rise to plunder and patriarchy. Amber civilizes us, but into a conformity that ultimately becomes stultifying. Each stage experiences radical new powers that are used for both good and ill.<br> <br> The powers that emerge in Orange are jaw-dropping in all four quadrants: in the exterior quadrants, science and technology turn dirt into Chevys, create "the indoors" and triple life-spans. Orange becomes world-centric and modern people are able to mobilize resources from all corners of the planet. Money flows, as well as communication and travel.<br> <br> In the interior quadrants, humanity abandons millennia of dogma and superstition in favor of observation and reason. We wake up to our own individual sovereignty and ascribe equality of status to every citizen under the rule of law (not men). Astonishing!<br> <br> But the interiors and the exteriors do not always come online at the same time. People with modern exteriors often harbor pre-modern interiors that are quite provincial and even ethnocentric. This is a dangerous stage of the game: modern technology in the hands of a pre-modern mentality (think of a 12 year old with a chainsaw), and it is the source of much of the downside of Orange. Listen to the podcast for more analysis. <br> <br> I ended the call with a look at a major Pew study this week that seeks to reveal the soul of American Millennials, our youngest adult generation, ages 18 - 33. The upshot of the research? It turns out the youngsters are less supportive of institutions like religions, political parties, even marriage and career -- and more tuned into their own networks of people and organizations, networks which are much larger than those of previous generations.<br> <br> Send your questions and comments for the show to jeff@dailyevolver.com. Record a voice memo on your smartphone or use the Speakpipe button on DailyEvolver.com. <br>
