Not much news about the film. Which is why I haven't been adding to this blog on a regular basis the way I had intended. There's a producer's rep that is looking at the film. Hopefully he'll like it. If not, then we'll send to it off to another. We've been entering festivals. Entered Sundance, Slamdance, and Berlin so far. In the next few weeks we need to enter Tribeca, South By Southwest, Florida, and San Francisco. It's amazing how much money you can spend just trying to get the opportunity for people to see your film.

But, since there isn't much on the film front, I thought I'd use this space to comment on things related to the film. Like the election for instance. I've been having a lot of conversations about the election with friends the last few weeks and it reminds me of things from DSR and from The Chrysalis Age.

For instance, I was reading an article in The New York Times about the election by Ron Suskind. The opening paragraph is what interested me:

"Bruce Bartlett, a domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a treasury official for the first President Bush, told me recently that ''if Bush wins, there will be a civil war in the Republican Party starting on Nov. 3.'' The nature of that conflict, as Bartlett sees it? Essentially, the same as the one raging across much of the world: a battle between modernists and fundamentalists, pragmatists and true believers, reason and religion."

Actually, I see the same sort of struggle going on in the Democratic party as well. And it reminded me of something from one of Margaret's monologues from DSR that I eventually cut. Here it is:

MARGARET: Everybody has a worldview. It's the way you see the world. And we all pass through different stages of worldview growth from the time we're born until, well, usually about the time we leave school. Each stage, each successive worldview is just a bit wider and deeper than the one that preceded it. You notice worldviews a lot when you spend your time hoping from country to country around the planet. Even here in this country you find a nice swath of worldviews. If you look around among adults you'll easily see people with Traditional, Modern, and Postmodern worldviews. Each one is a little more inclusive of truth, in that order. Moderns will see more of the picture than Traditionals, and Postmoderns will see more than Moderns. Of course that doesn't mean that the Moderns won't deny valid truths of the Tradtionals, or that Postmoderns won't deny valid truths of Moderns and Traditionals. You can see this in the internal fights in the political parties. Republicans fighting between Traditional and Modern ideologies, while Democrats fight between Modern and Postmodern. I've been reading in a number of places that what we really need in order to cope with the problems of the world is a new, wider worldview, an Integral worldview. There's books and websites about it. There's even an Integral manifesto out there somewhere.

Which is how I see the political landscape right now. A two party system trying to contain, and constrain, three dominant worldviews. I think that regardless of who is elected, that within the next ten years there will be a very strong demand, from within the political establishment even, for a legitimate third party. I think it will be a fairly easy sell to the people and to politicians, because they are living it, but I doubt that big money contributors, especially the corporate PACs, will be excited by the idea. They already have to ply both sides of the aisle with money, and won't be interested in adding one more party to lobby and fund. But, I can't see how it will work any other way. The disadvantages of a two party system in a country with three primary worldviews is pretty clear.

The Green Party seems the best bet for a viable third party. It is clearly the party of the Postmodern perspective. The other third parties seem to be pale reflections of what they desire out of the major parties. The Libertarian Party has a strong Modern outlook and the Constitutional Party seems very Traditional. So, with a three party system, Traditionals would come to dominate the Republican Party, Moderns would dominate the Democratic Party, and Postmoderns would dominate the Green Party. Of course since Traditionals make up about 20-25% of the population, Moderns 50%, and Postmoderns around 20-25%, the Democrats would likely win most general, or presidential elections, and congress members would likely be voted in based on the worldview spread of their particular district or state. Unless we could pass some sort of instant runoff voting legislation, but I suspect that this would simply hand an advantage to the democrats as well; folks with Traditional worldviews being more likely to vote for someone with a Modern worldview than someone with a Postmodern worldview, and vise versa.

All of this is frustrating for those who are struggling to really get a grip on an Integral worldview, because it doesn't seem likely they will see their perspectives on the world represented in politics for a long time to come.

Maybe next time I'll address a few of the campaign issue from what I hope is an Integral viewpoint.

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