I came across Brent Cooper’s writing while looking for more cogent explanations of what’s happening in the global metacrisis. There were often pieces missing from the narrative in various spaces. When I came across Brent’s writing, something clicked. I began sending his article to other sensemakers, and they remarked that Brent’s perspectives expressed exactly what they were seeing.

My journey through epistemic spaces has been filled with many insights into the unconscious drivers that form people’s biases. Everyone’s different and we’re not here to have everyone think or act the same. However, the problem today is that people are hiding, in denial of larger realities because they’re afraid to transform and change into higher versions of themselves. That is our problem today.

If you’ve come across or even been hooked by various names in the online space of so-called public intellectuals (e.g., Jordan Peterson, Steven Pinker, Sam Harris, Joe Rogan, Ben Shapiro, Eric Weinstein) and if you’re looking to become more adept at being present to the complex challenges of our world today, this episode is for you. I don’t hate any of these people, but I have serious issues with their thinking. If they’re going to send out distorted frequencies and ideas to the not-self collective and make careers out of them, they should expect some pushback.

Key Topics

00:00 – Introduction

00:58 – Start of Conversation

02:19 – Being an “Anti-Professional”

03:17 – Sociology & Beyond Integral Theory

05:36 – Brent’s Content and Relationship to Integral

07:30 – Integral Theory’s Ceilings and Dead Ends

08:55 – New Paradigm Creation & Epistemic Tension

10:08 – We’re in the Darkest Timeline & Decolonization

12:16 – The Importance of Sociology in Epistemic Spaces

15:26 – The Lack of Sociological Consciousness in Society

19:02 – The Abs-Tract Organization + What Is Abstraction?

26:08 – The Intellectual Dark Web Is Leaving Things Out

28:44 – “Epistemic Humility” and Weaponized Incompetence

31:22 – Dealing With People’s Structures of Interpretation

31:58 – Optimizing Response Through Fierce Grace

35:00 – How the World Was Gaslit on Capitalism

37:00 – The Dearth of Aesthetics of Communism

39:26 – Whole Careers Are Built on Hatred

45:48 – Giving Everyday People Access to More Ideas

49:38 – The Race to the Bottom of the Brainstem

54:45 – Systems Thinking, Dogma, and Brent’s Books

57:26 – The Problem with Steven Pinker’s Work

1:02:40 – Brent’s Work, Patreon, and Links

1:06:36 – Good Abstraction Is Getting Real

Brent Cooper

Brent Cooper is Executive Director of The Abs-Tract Organization, a meta think tank and transmedia project committed to solving the world’s systemic problems through a process of complexity reduction known as abstraction. In this episode, Brent and I talk about the critical role of political sociology in 21st-century issues, the limitations of Wilber’s integral theory, the dynamics of modern discourse, and the true meaning of independent thinking as it pertains to complex topics. Brent brings a political and sociological perspective that grounds epistemic thinkers and philosophers in the realities of people’s lived experiences.

Resources & Affiliate Links

Vicious Abstract and Systemic Racism by Brent Cooper

Woman Warrior: A Training for 21st Century Systems Change by Rayner Jae Liu

Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a Future Without Workby Srnicek and Williams

The Power Elite by C. Wright Mills

The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills

White Collar: The American Middle Classes by C. Wright Mills

The Meaning of Truth by William James

Guest Links & Contact

The Abs-Tract Organization and Contact: abs-tract.org

Abs-Tract Medium: medium.com/the-abs-tract-organization

Abs-Tract Twitter: twitter.com/tato_tweets

Abs-Tract Facebook: tinyurl.com/abs-tract-fb-page

Abs-Tract YouTube: youtube.com/Abs-tractOrg

Abs-Tract Patreon: patreon.com/abs_tract

Contact me about being a guest or invite me on your show: raynerjaeliu.com

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