Fundamental to who I am and what I write about is my belief in the inexorable (or perhaps even irresistible) development of human consciousness from what I would call a “less evolved” to a “more evolved” state. I understand that this is not a universally held position, even among the progressive community that I consider myself a part of. But I think it is the basis of my generally positive outlook for the future and my push to acknowledge individual liberty, self-direction in a context of a circle of equals rather than hierarchical structures of control.

In my writing I talk a lot about “evolution” in terms of the development of and individual human consciousness and of the human species as a whole. The word can be used in a neutral context of adaptive change that is not necessarily for the better, but I generally use it intending a positive connotation of a perhaps slow but profound and irreversible advancement and progress. (Maybe someone can share with me a better word for this concept since this one has such a range of meaning and baggage and does not quite have the precision of language that I would look for in my “day job” doing technical writing.)

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