Integral Classics: The Twilight Generation
Erik Davis and Ken Wilber

Writer, scholar, and critic Erik Davis comments on the unique character and situation of his generation: the thirty-somethings (or Gen-X, if you will). He talks with Ken about how his generation isn't willing to embrace the merely postmodern stance of the Boomers, and yet is struggling to find something to fill the void....

In this wide-ranging and articulate dialogue, Erik Davis, the author of TechGnosis, comments on the unique character and situation of his generation: the thirty-somethings (or Gen-X, if you will). Davis explains how his generation isn't willing to embrace the merely postmodern stance of the Boomers, and yet is struggling to find something to fill the void. As it soon becomes clear in this dialogue, the only thing that could adequately fill that vacuum is an increasingly integral approach to reality.

The Boomers were the first generation to have nearly unlimited access to the culture, religion, and history of societies from around the world. As such, they gave the first suggestions on how to navigate those pluralistic waters—they created the first global maps. But those maps ultimately showed a world of fragments, all of which were held to be equally valuable, and were, therefore, equally meaningless. Having been born in the shadow of the Boomers, Davis explains that his generation can see problems like this "from the outside."

And yet a fragmented pluralism isn't the only item that needs to be addressed within an integral vision. Davis goes onto speak about the "graying" of the spiritual traditions, the resurgence of fundamentalism after 9/11, and the sorry state of materialist ambition in today's culture. As he summarizes, many people are living in a kind of "bardo-realm," where the video games are more immersive than ever, the seat of consciousness is subject to the push and pull of chemical tides, and the endless waves of self-published internet pabulum tells you not what is right, just what is right for me.

So what might a more integral map look like? How would it inform the way we live? Will the thirty-somethings be the first generation to help usher in this kind of a comprehensive approach on a large scale? Please join us as two of the finest minds of their respective generations share notes and speculate on the contours of tomorrow….