New Age Politics



As the 1970s began, the New Left faded away, and many movements arose in its wake – among them the feminist, spiritual, human potential, ecology, appropriate technology, intentional community, and holistic health movements. Mark Satin attempts to offer a systemic overview of the new post-liberal, post-Marxist, post-anarchist politics arising in the wake of the New Left. Some academics say it offers a new ideology.


At the heart of New Age Politics is a critique of the consciousness we all supposedly share, a "culture-complex” that has kept us all trapped in lower consciousness. The six sides of the "culture complex" are said to be: patriarchal attitudes, egocentricity, scientific single vision, the bureaucratic mentality, nationalism (xenophobia), and the "big city outlook" (fear of nature). 


Since consciousness, according to Satin, ultimately determines our institutions, “oppressive” consciousness is said to be ultimately responsible for "monolithic" institutions that offer us little in the way of freedom of choice or connection with others. Some representative monolithic institutions are: bureaucratic government, automobile-centered transportation systems, attorney-centered law, doctor-centered health care, and church-centered spirituality


To explain how to break free of the “culture complex” and its institutions, Satin develops a "psychocultural" class analysis that reveals the existence of "life-", "thing-", and "death-oriented" classes. According to Satin, life-oriented individuals constitute an emerging "third force" in post-industrial nations. The third force is generating a "liberation" consciousness consisting of androgynous attitudes, spirituality, multiple perspectives, a cooperative mentality, local-and-global identities, and an ecological outlook. 


To transform “domination” society, Satin argues, the third force is going to have to launch an "evolutionary movement" to replace – or at least supplement – monolithic institutions with life-affirming, "biolithic" ones. Some representative biolithic institutions are: deliberative democracy as an alternative to bureaucratic government, bicycles and mass transit as an alternative to the private automobile, and mediation as an alternative to attorney-centered law. According to Satin, the third force will not have to overthrow capitalism, since Western civilization – not capitalism – is said to be responsible for the “oppressive culture complex.” But the third force will want to foster a New Age system through intelligent regulation and decentralized governance. 


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