Why we need the unique culture of DC
Robert
I can't imagine a better life than one dedicated to working together with others to cultivate in the most serious and inspiring way our collective capacity for creating a world beyond ego.
I have absolutely no doubt that this is possible, a testament to my daily life in which I and others are immersed in a living experiment to map the contours of such a world. This is the promise and goal of the teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment, and the vision and passion of teacher Andrew Cohen.
What we are discovering is that there is a leading edge to consciousness, a farthest point where we form our highest and deepest understanding of human purpose. That edge is where the future is forged, where we stand on a creative frontier and take this whole project of human life or, really, the entirety of the Life process, to the next level.
As my zaadz bio describes, 15 years ago I abandoned my post in tropical forest conservation to pursue a higher calling. The impetus to do so was, to no small degree, the result of my work with the conservation and international development institutions in DC. How power is wielded in a vacuum of authentic leadership...what a mess! It convinced me that a significant minority of human beings had to evolve beyond the only real obstacle, which is the ever-selfish and all-too-compelling belief that we have the right to live only for ourselves. When you step back and look objectively, the extent to which good intentions and good works are undermined by ego is nothing short of tragic.
As goes the saying, you don't know how bad it is until you see how good it can get.
So, years later, it was surprising to me to discover that one of the highest concentrations of What Is Enlightenment? magazine readers in the US is in the DC area. I had to ask myself why. Having led WIE Salons and Evolutionary Enlightenment Seminars in DC over the last several months, I'm formulating an answer to this question.
Every city possesses a unique collective set of agreements that create, in sum, its culture. In DC I've noticed:
1. People care about the future. Granted, imperfections abound, but clearly idealism has brought many tens of thousands who seek to influence the institutions of power that are concentrated here like no other city on earth.
2. Honest inquiry matters, consensus matters, intelligence and heart matter, and finding out what is true matters. It's a political culture: people articulate their positions clearly, and they listen to others. There are consequences to the use of power, and people know this.
3. And because there are consequences, there is a very well-honed BS detector. This creates capacities for discernment that are essential if we're to build a future on the foundation of the best part of our humanity.
4. DC is a culture of power, and there is a demand for leadership. Permeating the consciousness of the city is the awareness of a crying need for a new moral context - or philosophical premise - for human life in the 21st century. The old myths have been discarded, and new ones that measure up to the unprecedented challenges of our time are needed. People know this, if only barely, but they know it, and they feel the responsibility to find an entirely new approach.
Yes, there are countless exceptions, but when you think about it, these qualities are clearly part of the beam-and-girder structures of the culture that frame, in part, how life unfolds in DC. And how life unfolds in DC is important - this city exerts an enormous influence over much of our planet. Strengthening these fundamentally positive and life-affirming characteristics strengthens the best part of our humanity, and we can't underestimate the positive ripples from doing this.
I think this is why people turn to the magazine for its substantive moral, philosophical, and spiritual inquiry. They know that what they do matters, in ways small or large, and they know that an intimate relationship exists between the transformation of the individual (you and me) and the future of life on earth.
Just a reminder: Andrew Cohen is coming to DC in May.
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Access: Public
May 2008 
Thanks for your inspiring post, Robert. I definitely feel the urgency that is at the heart of life here in the capital–it is an urgency to make a difference, to change things for the better, to permanently wake up to the highest part of our selves. I'm looking forward to what we can create with everyone else who feels that same call. And there are lots of us here!
Steve
Thanks as well, Robert.
Let me add one other reason why DC is almost certainly the most important venue, and fulcrum point, for making a difference in the world.
With the possible exception of London, I don’t know of any other city that has as large a mix of nationalities, religions, and cultures living in close proximity to each other. The DC Metro area is a microcosm, a fractal, of the planet as a whole. Moreover, each individual that resides here, originating from points around the world, have through the very difficulty and expense that were a requirement for their having arrived here in the first place, qualified themselves as being more likely to have a greater degree of: intelligence, persistence, courage, resolve, and wealth, etc., than their peers whom remained at home. They are more likely to be examplars of their communities than not. In a way, there is an element of natural selection in their having the capacity to reside in DC. Of course, these postulated exemplars would also have to embody sufficient moral development to even be interested in Andrew’s Message; yet, it seems to me logical that such would be an attribute that would also likely be present at a higher proportion in those that were able to reach our shores and settle in the DC Area.
Therefore, if we can attract contingents from these varied and extensive communities to Andrew cause, they will in turn, by virtue of their natural connectivity back to their own homelands, geometrically increase the ‘vectors of transmission’ for this fundamental memetic, and spiritual, revolution which we endeavour to propagate throughout the world.
–Dragpa Gyaltsen