Why I Am a Radical Moderate

Introduction

Two weeks ago, I concluded my blog post with these words:

I feel called to add my voice and perspective based on decades of study and conversations with thoughtful people about race, culture, identity, and wisdom tools to unlock the gordian knot of race and racialist thinking. Such thinking becomes values and behavior inimical to not only black folk, but to the cultural, civic and civil advance of American civilization—period.

As a black American citizen, and as a writer-intellectual-entrepreneur, I embrace the ancestral imperative to envision a future where the better angels of our nature overcome the bedeviling human capacity for evil and sociopathic lack of empathy. Such a vision, and the attendant strategies to enact them, are my focus and intent.

I’ll keep you posted on the journey. Wish us the best, for the road is filled with potholes and the fields of battle with booby traps. Yet and still, the call of civic and cultural leadership beckons.

The above frames this week’s post, a personal declaration of political stance and civic intent.

Radical Moderate

I am a radical moderate.

As I pondered my temperament as well as my distaste for the extremes of political discourse, and reflected on horizons of aspiration for my nation, I landed on this term. Saying and leaning into it resonates with and for me. I’m neither an activist radical for the sake of performative radicalism nor a wobbly centrist who can’t make up his mind. The stakes are high: when authoritarianism rises from without and from within the body politic, I maintain an embrace of radical democracy as a goal and ideal. Yet radicality might be seen as a contradiction of moderation, with “radical moderate” a perplexing oxymoron.

Allow me to explain: the “moderate” portion of my self-description is like the Buddhist’s “middle way” and Aristotle’s “golden mean,” whereby one extreme is an excess and the other a deficiency. If generosity is a golden mean, then wastefulness is an excess, and stinginess a deficiency. If the virtue of courage is the generative feeling tone and heart frequency for wise and consistent action, then the excess would be recklessness and the deficiency cowardice.  

Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can practice any virtue erratically, but nothing consistently without courage.

—Maya Angelou  

I don’t know if anyone else does or should identify as a radical moderate; I’m defining a position and intention for myself. I see being a radical moderate as a dynamic equilibrium radiating someplace near a center of political gravity. So, on some issues I'm center-left, on others I'm center-right. For instance, I share the left’s vision of a broader, deeper expanse of the promises of the American social contract to wider circles of people. With the right, I advocate for the intrinsic value of entrepreneurship within a system of free enterprise.   

Context: Extreme Polarization, Complex Reality 

I call myself a "radical" moderate because in a socio-political environment of extreme polarization, fed by the bifurcation of the media and the political realm into left vs right, driven on social media by algorithms that lean into conflict for profit, explicitly identifying as a moderate is, paradoxically, a radical position. I actually think more folks reside in the center and middle than indicated by red state-blue state media coverage.  

Considering the ideological and rhetorical warfare waged in blue church and legacy media outlets as well as on social media and in the academy, it shouldn’t be a surprise that folks in the middle would let the extremes shoot it out while they take cover.  

I also embrace "radical moderate" because I strive, in my work as a facilitator of conversations and perspectives, to moderate with the radical intention of civic, civil, democratic discourse. 

I'm also an Integralist, which means I use Integral metatheory and philosophy as a heuristic to better frame and understand complex human reality. Here’s a four-quadrant Integral model that maps various dimensions of personal, cultural, and social reality:

Moreover, I strive to respect and honor the range of worldviews from, for instance, traditional to modern to post-modern, though that's certainly not easy considering the excesses and deficiencies of each of those centers of gravity, and how they go after each other, often viciously, comprising what many call the "culture wars."

An Invitation  

Whatever your political stripe or leaning, I invite you to check out my participation in a recent conversation on the most volatile issues of today, “Power, Privilege, and Fragility: Leveling Up Our Conversations about Race and Racism.” My intent in that conversation and others about the tensions, risks, and possibilities of our moment is to engage others with respect and depth grounded in cultural citizenship and civic leadership.  

In that discussion, and others to come, you’ll notice that as a radical moderate, I highlight views that include yet transcend a focus on structural, systemic, and institutional issues. I believe that recognition of: personal and family responsibility and concomitant support for individuals and families; cultural traditions and values; and the need for all traumatized by the racialization of our society to heal, grow, and become stronger, resilient, robust, anti-fragile, is as crucial as the political and social movements for structural and systemic change. 

Where I truly hope to make the most contribution is by bringing a more robust CULTURAL perspective to these issues. This intent will be evident this Wednesday, July 8 @ 7 pm EST, when I’ll bring this point of view to a conversation made possible by the Aligned Center in Westchester, “What’s Going On: Skillful Conversations on Race and Culture with Greg Thomas.” 

Outchorus 

No civilization or society is promised tomorrow, as is no individual. Without discourse and conversation, without a willingness to engage those we disagree with, without chords of empathy that connect us with others who experience loss and the blues, we are doomed.  

Let’s snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Let’s all do our part.  

If you feel moved by this post, please share your candid thoughts with us in the Comments section below. Thanks.