I notice myself becoming more and more interested in global geopolitics of late. Particularly of the posturing and manoeuvring of Donald Trump. He is a master manipulator of the media and is very good at attracting attention and staying in the news cycle when he wants to and getting away from it when the topic is less savoury (Epstein). And I am fascinated by him as a case study of how the human mind operates when completely entrenched in a modernity-based approach to life. An approach, when excessive and out of balance in a person, that is primarily interested in power and status.
If you’re interested, there are two books on the subject of Trump himself that I found intriguing. One written by Ken Wilber, here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Trump-Post-Truth-World-Ken-Wilber/dp/1611805619, and another written by Trump’s niece Mary Trump, here: https://www.amazon.com.au/Too-Much-Never-Enough-Dangerous/dp/1982141468.
I wrote a blog post on the subject of the culture war just over 12 months ago now, you can find it here: https://presencingthedepths.substack.com/p/where-to-from-here.
In that previous article, I spoke about looking at the culture war through the lens of some current events at the time and framed it all within a cultural developmental perspective developed by Claire Graves called Spiral Dynamics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Dynamics. I see that development playing out in our, now largely global, society as a slow, but inevitable march forward towards more complexity but higher integration and existentially respectful human values. That may be hard for some readers to understand or even see any evidence for, given how fucked up the world seems to be in this moment and for the last 10 years or so at least. But I do believe it and I believe we will see this bear out over the long term.
That post was written just prior to the previous US federal election between Kamala Harris and Trump in which Harris was comprehensively beaten. Trump won the election comfortably and has done a lot more to further stir up the hornet’s nest of the culture war since taking office in January. His global tariff war, his appointment of Elon Musk to a newly created Department of Government Efficiency to strip hundreds of millions out of the federal budget, his mass deportation of migrants through the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency , his use of the national guard against protesting citizens, his personal enrichment and that of his family through his cryptocurrency policy and promotion of several meme coins, his posturing around taking over Greenland and Canada and many others. And stir up the hornet’s nest he has. The hatred and vitriol that is directed towards Trump on social media is incredible to witness. It’s like he’s the perfect lightning rod for the cultural shadow.
The reason that I bring all this up is because I want to make the argument in this blog post that the slow, inevitable march forward towards progress that I spoke about earlier is still happening, but that it often happens in the form of three steps forward and two steps back and that the rocking and lurching around can make it seem like the world is going to shit and that we are approaching the end times (https://www.thenewdaily.com.au/life/2025/09/23/is-the-rapture-really-coming?ahe=ed2fbaade0e148bf0701012438784f5770ad3f88dabf05196a9b5b067238deeb&acid=435443&utm_campaign=Morning%20News%20-%2020250924_WA&utm_medium=tnd_email&utm_source=tnd_email&lr_hash=), but that really, Trump may just be serving a really useful purpose in highlighting our collective cultural shadow and holding a mirror up to us and asking whether we are actually serving the disaffected and downtrodden in our society well or if we are just attempting to use clever marketing gimmicks and slogans to make it seem that way.
For all his flaws, Trump’s messaging around one of the biggest problems in our society right now, wealth inequality, is very clear and cuts through: America first. He wants to bring jobs back to America and help the working class. That seems attractive to many and it clearly wins him votes.
How are the left in the US performing in terms of the issue of wealth inequality? In my mind poorly. The left are now being effectively painted as the elite establishment party, despite their progressive values on things like opposing tax cuts for the rich and making healthcare more affordable for poorer Americans. The Democratic party had an opportunity in 2016, during their primary process, to put Bernie Sanders in the presidential race and see how he performed. I think that was a missed opportunity as Bernie supports taking meaningful action on wealth inequality, but he was deemed to be too radical and the DNC even took deliberate measures to make it difficult for him to defeat Hillary Clinton. It’s a shame in my view.
Another lesson which can be learnt is the overreach of the woke movement. Cancel culture is a good example of this. Whenever anyone says anything that might offend someone or result in hurt feelings, the internet is set ablaze with calls to “cancel” that person. De-platform them, never invite them to speak about on a university campus or left-wing TV show, essentially erase them from existence. Cancel culture is antithetical to free speech and it’s so easy to push back against it and appeal to the middle ground of common sense on this issue, but many caught up in woke ideology don’t see it. It’s silly and it’s doing far more harm to their cause than good. Rather than follow Ken Wilber’s maxim of “transcend and include” woke culture attempts to “transcend and eradicate” anything that doesn’t fit within its tightly controlled worldview. One example of this is how Canada has decided to legislate mandatory speech in relation to the use of pronouns that became a hot topic in the culture war as a result of transgender rights becoming thrust into the foreground over recent years. Legislating the use of certain words with threat of punishment is never a good idea. It’s against free speech and it makes someone’s experience of being offended more important than the speaker’s intention or objective reality.
Even still, the culture is developing and changing, even if at a glacial pace and even if it’s hard to be aware of it in the moment, in the small picture. To get a true feel for how the culture is evolving, we need to step back and take in a much bigger picture. Let’s look at conservative positions on some key issues over the last 50 years and see how they’ve changed. In the ‘70’s, many conservatives opposed interracial marriage, they opposed women in the workplace in many cases and even gay rights. Now these things are accepted as standard and are not debated by conservatives as issues they want to repeal. Conservatives once defended racial segregation, which is no longer a tenable position in modern politics. Nelson Mandela’s life, and the African National Congress (ANC) movement he was a part of, was dedicated to ending apartheid in South Africa and, in 1994, they were successful. In the 1970’s, divorce was taboo, women’s roles were seen primarily as domestic and premarital sex was broadly condemned, cultural views on these things are very different now. In foreign policy, conservatives have traditionally been very hawkish and sought out foreign war and domination, these days many conservatives support Trump in his desire to pull out of unnecessary conflict and focus more on domestic issues. When looking at the big picture, conservatism is less about a fixed set of values and more about preserving the current order against new change. It is like conservatives perform the function of serving as the brakes for cultural change and progressives perform the function of serving as the accelerator, but cultural change inevitably takes place over time.
I have found the recent rise in popularity of Gavin Newsom to be an interesting case study in how the left is now looking to play Donald Trump’s political games on his terms. Newsom is posting memes, selling merch, notably increasing his attack rhetoric against Trump and taking a more national view of the political landscape, despite still being the Governor of Californa. I’d be very surprised if he didn’t put his hat in the ring to run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2028. And while shitposting and profiting from the culture war might help in some ways, I think it’s policy that fundamentally addresses wealth inequality and other critical cut-through issues in meaningful ways from the progressive side that is actually going to shift the needle, if that happens.
There also seems to be a raising of the stakes in the culture war lately in terms of willingness to turn to violence as a solution. Trump had two attempts on his life in the second half of 2024 in the lead up to the election and Charlie Kirk, a young conservative commentator, was recently assassinated on the 10th of September, 2025. These are clearly mentally ill people that are carrying out these acts, but they are fuelled by a fervent and aggressive tone in the discourse. Trump is beginning to use the National Guard to crack down on Antifa protests within Democratically governed cities around the US. There are cracks starting to appear in the MAGA camp over the Epstein files and Trump’s decision to attack nuclear facilities in Iran (upsetting the America first, anti-war part of his base). Geopolitically things are shifting, recently Xi Jinping of China held a military demonstration to celebrate 80 years since the end of World War 2 and amongst the attendees were Vladamir Putin of Russia, Kim Jong Un of North Korea and Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran. Narendra Modi of India was also invited but declined. This demonstrates a growing cooperation and consolidation of power between economic and military powers in the East, something that should concern the US. So, more is at stake and things seem to be getting increasingly intense, where to from here?
Well, who the fuck knows. It’s ok, we’ll eventually be fine because Elon Musk will figure out how to colonise Mars. We’ll all move there and create a new government system from scratch and live our lives out peacefully under Elon’s deft and wise guiding hand.
Honestly, things are crazy right now and they don’t seem to be on the trajectory towards sanity anytime soon. At times like this, for me personally, I think grounding and spiritual practice and family become increasingly important. Like sanctuaries where we can take shelter and rest and feel safe and warm towards loved ones. But on the political front, again, I would encourage people to step back and look at the bigger, longer-term picture rather than getting lost in the little skirmishes going on all over the place. I believe there is good in the heart of every human being. I believe that when we are backed into a corner, we are resilient and creative and loving. I believe that we have it in us to get through this period of our history and come out better on the other side. I don’t believe the doomsdayers who say we’re all fucked and will blow each other up in a nuclear war soon. I think that getting through this will take patience and kindness and empathy and wisdom and a shift in consciousness on behalf of each individual on this planet, or at least enough of us to make a meaningful impact. But I think there are people out there that already embody these qualities as fantastic exemplars of the way forward and there are others out there doing the work to develop and grow these qualities within themselves. This the way out and through. Towards transcendence and inclusion. Each of us doing our work on our own shit and having that inform the shift that needs to take place in the collective. That takes bravery and courage, but again, you have those things inside you right now if you look hard enough.
Some may write this off as naivety or wishful thinking, but I would also point to data around homicide rates, wars around the world and social progress indicators that show we are moving forward if you zoom out far enough. It may be three steps forward and two steps back and it may be painful and lurching and awkward at times, but so is being a teenager. Growing pains suck sometimes.