At the recent 5-day Integral Institute seminar on Integral Business Leadership,
Ken Wilber was asked, by a senior Zen teacher, “What do you think of the Republican convention?”
Ken responded by giving an overview of what a truly integral politics might look like, and used that to compare and contrast with the Democratic and Republican conventions, both of which are less-than-integral. We think that this twenty-minute summary is brilliant, insightful, deadly serious, and wickedly funny, all at once. But by all accounts it is an extraordinary account of why all politics today are considerably less-than-integral, along with certain features that almost certainly would have to be included in the future in any truly integral politics.
In this synopsis, Ken focuses on three items that all political theories have attempted to address but none have managed to fully integrate. These are the tension between (1) the individual and the collective; (2) the source of the cause of human suffering: is the individual primarily to blame or is the society primarily to blame?; and (3) the different levels of development that the different political parties tend to represent: any truly integral politics would include and represent all of them, and yet how on earth do you do that?
Due to time considerations, Ken did not discuss two other equally important ingredients in any integral politics. One. In representational democracies, people have a right to be at whatever stage of development they are at, and generally speaking, within free speech, a right to express the values of whatever stage they are at. Traditional-fundamentalist (blue) has a right to be traditional, modernist (orange) has a right to be modernist, postmodernist (green) has a right to be postmodernist, and so on. This is generally modified in practice, to the extent that the center of gravity of a culture will tend to impose its values on others, especially if they are first-tier (or less-than-integral) values. Nonetheless, in democratic societies, there’s a general background understanding that people have a right to be, and a right to express, whatever stage they are or whatever belief system they possess.
Two. They do not, however, have a right to act on those beliefs. This is generally handled in representative democracies by a separation of public and private, and by a similar if more specific principle of the separation of church and state. This means that, for example, in the privacy of my blue-meme mind, I am free to believe that Jesus Christ is my personal savior and that nobody achieves salvation without a belief in Jesus. In public behavior, however, I am not allowed to burn at the stake somebody who disagrees with me. In terms of integral psychology, this means in the interior of an individual (i.e., the upper left), the person can believe whatever they like; but in their public behavior (i.e., the upper right), they must behave according to laws drawn from a worldcentric or higher level of development (lower left), or else they are charged with civil or criminal behavior and removed from society if necessary (lower right).
This separation of church and state, or more generally what Max Weber called the differentiation of the values spheres, is one of the great and enduring contributions of the Western enlightenment, a contribution almost entirely misunderstood by extreme postmodernists, who in fact are operating under its protection while bitterly condemning it.
(The most common version of this is the aggressive attempt to reduce “I” and “It” to “We,’ or the attempt to reduce art and science to a social construction, which can therefore be deconstructed. As it turns out, this reductionism presumes precisely what it denies, but then, deconstructive postmodernism has been little without its performative contradictions.)
A truly integral politics exists nowhere on the planet at this time, principally because not enough individuals have emerged at the integral levels of consciousness, and hence no governments anywhere have integral representatives as members (except rarely and by accident). Its principal challenge is to create some form of governance that allows each stage to be itself within the constraints of not harming others (i.e., to let red be red, and blue be blue, and orange be orange, and green be green, etc—precisely because, as we saw, this is a right in virtually all free societies), and yet to govern from the highest, widest, deepest, and most encompassing levels of development emerged to date (starting at yellow). Most representative democracies do this anyway, except their center of gravity is not yet fully integral, and they do it implicitly, not explicitly.
Duration : 0:17:45
[youtube tQRUu_4W2j8]
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
There is truth to …
There is truth to this, that there are elements to each ideology that are true, but he makes some dangerous omissions. First of all, Clinton’s “third way” did not actually provide opportunity. Upward mobility in this country decreased under his Clinton and under all presidents since 1980. “Opportunity” here is a slogan, nothing more. The other is that “orange” wall street republicans are not espousing enlightenment ideals. Jefferson and Adam Smith argued against a completely free market.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Ha, the Supreme …
Ha, the Supreme Court caught Kansas causing trouble.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Impatient …
Impatient old-timers David Rockefeller and Kissinger along with over zealous new-comer Obama are being widely accused of rushing in the New World Order (Global Governance) far too soon, thereby completely wrecking centuries of precise and careful preparation and planning.
Even the latest Lucifer channelings and other highly esteemed satanic occult oracles are suggesting appropriate retribution against these incompetents, now deemed His greatest enemies.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Hilarious.
Hilarious.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
The point is not …
The point is not what pragmatically done here with politics but we are more in the lower right quadrant and are talking more about the generalities of political sides here.
This part is a part of us as well, so it would be a mistake to isolate us from it.
You could mean that Republicans today are not really the Republicans Wilber is talking about but they are even more blue.
Recognize your inner Republican at any rate.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Perhaps it’s more a …
Perhaps it’s more a matter that we’re all susceptible to ego, regardless of first tier level. The more addictive egos tend to be the ones that pursue political office for (perceived) personal gain. The point is that self-actualized and transcended individuals should be the ones directing the movement of politics… not merely the first tier memes who vote like-minded people into office.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
For an otherwise …
For an otherwise extremely bright person Ken seems to be blind to how ugly and dirty politics really is.
Cloud thinks most politicians are sick egoes trying to pass themselves off as blue or orange. Until Ken gets this he will not be effective. It’s a shame this is where we need him most.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
I agree with your …
I agree with your accurate and big-picture sentiment, emptyhighways.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
No. May god whoever …
No. May god whoever you think he is bless all the universes ya noob.
Had to.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Great clarity…. …
Great clarity….great video
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
are you trolling or …
are you trolling or what lol
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Very intresting …
Very intresting video and text info. I live in Canada, a representative democracy that tries to embrace multiculturalism and plualism. However, the governing paradigm (or center of gravity) is very confined and non-inclusive. In other words, it is a political correctness that is very restrictive. Canadians like to think of themselves as free, yet they are free to follow strictly enforced laws which claim to provide freedom (which often they do, if freedom is seen as a respect for human rights).
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
i just wish the …
i just wish the muslim world would get its together, quit worshipping false idels, and embrace jesus and the american way of life, instead of hating and being jealous of it.
praise the lord, and god bless america.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
i am not joking …
i am not joking about anything. i did two tours of duty in iraq, and anyone with two bain cells to rub together can see that those people over there are not human, and don’t love their children. if they did, they’de be teaching them the good book instead of teaching them communism and how to grow up to be terrorists.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
What in the fuck, …
What in the fuck, excuse the language, are you talking about?
Your making a joke. OK, so yeah, Hussein **misunderstood** (heeeheee) we wuz gonna kick his ass! YEAH! USA! USA! USA!
Uhm, well like a said Wilber is a douche bag. His politics make me sick.
He can take his b.s. about me needing to evolve higher spiritually I need to sell-out my political views -which means embracing what I think is evil- and shove up his arrogant, charlatan, intellectual impostor, ass.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
of course saddam is …
of course saddam is misunderstood. he totally misunderstood how bad we were gonna kick his for what he did to the world trade centre. the will of jesus of nazareth transcends all ‘memes’, transcends the entire spectrum of consciousness, because it is the truth. god bless america!!!
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
I have NEVER heard …
I have NEVER heard ANYBODY say “Saddam Hussein is misunderstood”. Wilber makes strawmen of everybody (but seemingly left-leaning activists the most).
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
He uses Reasoning …
He uses Reasoning that is convenient for the USA, but not very many First world countries have only 2 parties. Russia for Example, Britain etc. has more than just 2 or 3 or 4.
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
If he had trouble …
If he had trouble with practicing compassion with 1st tier, he would do something worse…
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Wow Ken Wilber has …
Wow Ken Wilber has trouble practicing compassion with “1st tier.” I gota take it easy on myself…
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
This thought should …
This thought should be taught in schools..
thanks!
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Chelsea is too cool …
Chelsea is too cool for school!!:)
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Evan is Awesome as …
Evan is Awesome as Fuck!
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Chelsea is Epic as …
Chelsea is Epic as Fuck!
May 9th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Nanotherapy-toilet …
Nanotherapy-toilet paper from the unconscious.)
Monsters from the id…