Evolution, even in its Progressive sense, is a full spectrum mythology, with both agreeable and disagreeable aspects. “Full spectrum” here means archetypal, both connected to some history and sense experience to which a vast majority of human beings can relate and extending into any associated idea with which the imagination can make a connection and, thereby, meaning. Fully imagined, even Grief needs a progressive sense to be able to get over itself when the time is ripe. The task of Bluevolution is to say that too much emphasis on moving forward and up blinds the eye of consciousness to grief's necessity, a length of time determined by its own nature, and depth of understanding. We have too much of Progress' idea of evolution, and need a bluer point of view with a self-consciously mythological rather than a knee-jerk utopian ideal. Our flocks of ideas about progress need to evolve, to experience a massive die-off in such a way that the selected traits that emerge make our survival more rather than less likely. This is a death of deadly ideas so that literal people die less frequently at the hands of other people.

 

It is time to evolve, in the general sense, by applying a blues-based underworld sense in order to change how we believe and deal with difficult mythologies. Evolutionary belief, like all Big Ideas, may no longer masquerade for political advantage as either fact or fiction. It is a non-literal mixture of both, and must include an acceptance that personal and political choices are moved by partly conscious belief, adherence to persistent cultural narratives, wrapping in one inextricable knot reason, psyche/ology, and myth/ology. Especially in a crisis, forthcoming transitions and endings are better, more deeply understood in terms of archetypal narrative that speaks to the motivating imagination with which soul psychology is concerned. There we hear from what is dying, missing, failing, what makes one blue, as in soul music and soulful reflection, more than by way of the inflated and upward straining, progressive spirit.

 

Where, when, and how to intervene is an immediate concern which must be engaged by conscious participation in myth and culture-making. Whether or not to forgive, admit culpability, and seek forgiveness will be a retrospective project. Withal, it is clear from ongoing global collapses that elites no longer know what they are doing when it comes to making progress/improvements, or have become almost eager to sacrifice the many for the few and take refuge in consolidating even more desperate control, frequently thrusting the possibility of sustainable community into the altar fire of self-interest.

 

Grief is a black and blue alternative to mutually assured self-destruction that is archetypal in nature. It is beyond description to hold the dead infant of treasured hopes in one’s arms and truly give up on what seemed so bright, but anyone who has lost an imagined future to death can gain access to an otherwise unfamiliar watery edge. There, the turning of fate drop-twists the spirit into a hidden underside. This turning drives awareness to a center that has essential information about the depth and complexity of life and of human experience, such that denial of the consequences of living in myth simply cannot be sustained no matter the pressure to continue functioning as usual. The blue water swirling about the corpse of what we had hoped has the power to wash away our resistance to the changes that can eventually give new life in a new shape.