One viewpoint is no better than the next, just different. If you are a baby boomer, or now identify yourself as green, or a cultural creative, you probably grew up with a post-modern perspective that all viewpoints were equally valid.
You may not have given much thought to whether Voodoo or black magic is equally valid to Zen Buddhism. You may have not asked yourself whether the Taliban perspective of beheading an American reporter is equally valid to Pope Francis I addressing the U.N. to save the Planet, or even Mother Theresa in Calcutta helping dying mothers on the street.
You may be like Voltaire, who vowed, “I may not agree with a word you say, but I will defend to death your right to say it.” Nevertheless, you will find it impossible to equate certain viewpoints, one of which is extremely offensive to you. You may be the most tolerant person alive, but even you have your limits.
How Integral Forever Transformed Philosophy
For centuries, philosophers devised clever arguments to justify their own perspective on reality. Some philosophers, such as Hegel, Marx and even Freud, developed elaborate systems, based on extensive study, research and contemplation. If you get into any system, you can find it all-absorbing. Theology and metaphysics offer us truly compelling systems, such as those of Thomas Aquinas or Immanuel Kant, as long as you accept the premise.
What no one did before Ken Wilber was to create a system of systems. If you remember the ancient days before the Internet, you will remember that we had networks for this company or that. However, until the World Wide Web, we never recognized the possibility of a single network of all networks.
As the Internet changed networking forever, such that you can never again think of a network apart from the Internet, so Integral thought will change philosophy forever. Whenever you develop an elaborate philosophical position and create a system, you will be conscious of where it falls within the system of systems that Ken Wilber devised. Ken literally mapped the universe within his thought. One of his most popular books is called just that: A Brief History of Everything.
Post-Post-Modernism
For centuries, Western Europe and the United States dominated the global agenda with their modern assumption of inevitable progress. Progress was used to justify anything, even genocide. It was backed up by very superficial notions of evolution. It might be called noblesse oblige, white people know what is best for everyone else.
With Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, all that changed. The social and cultural revolution of the 1960’s kicked in. By the time that we landed a man on the moon in 1969, nobody much cared, as we were too embroiled in internal turmoil. It was straight people against the cool people. The alternative, counterculture grabbed the spotlight with long hair and tie-dye shirts. Just drop out and go to India, as did Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, Inc.
Ken Wilber introduced a new possibility following the late 20th century cultural revolution. Where pluralism dominated, every perspective was guaranteed equal expression. It was automatically assumed that everyone’s perspective, no matter how egocentric, was equally valid. As the baby boomers grew up and matured, it became apparent that they fell in the same trap of dogmatism as their parents. Only green people knew what was right for everyone else.
Suddenly, we were introduced to the idea that all viewpoints were part of a developmental hierarchy, a continuum. In addition, this hierarchy was continually developing. In 50 years or so, we moved from modern to post-modern, or multicultural, to post-post-modern, or integral. You can acknowledge every point-of-view, and recognize what level it falls within the growth hierarchy.
Where You Fit within the System of Systems
If you get into Ken Wilber’s thought, which might be best realized through YouTube videos, as well as the audio recordings he made through Sounds True, such as The 1-2-3 of God, or Kosmos, you will find you most likely fit into one of three levels: Traditional, Modern or Pluralistic.
If you are comfortable with traditional values, hold strong religious convictions, are uncomfortable with novelty and insist upon the tried-and-true in all matters, you might well be a traditionalist. You may have a tribal orientation, such as “America First,” or “My country right or wrong.”
If you love the idea of progress, equal opportunity and science as the only reliable source of truth, you probably fall into being a modernist. You have a global perspective, but feel that America got it right, and everyone else is playing catchup. They should learn from us. Shame on them if they think any different!
If you resonate to the 1960’s motto at Cal Berkeley, “Question authority,” and you feel that America is way too interventionist and should leave other countries alone to determine their own future, you may well be pluralistic. You prefer foreign dishes to American. You welcome immigrants for the cultural richness they inject into our culture. Think of all the Silicon Valley startups from South Asia.
Why Being Politically Correct No Longer Cuts It
When we look at the electoral defeat of Hillary Clinton, who introduced political correctness into the American dialogue during Bill Clinton’s Presidency, we may still wonder how Donald Trump pulled it all off. How could someone who violated every norm of political correctness pull together a critical mass of red states to lock out the more popular candidate?
A friend of mine called Hillary’s defeat a “white lash.” Alienated, disenfranchised white people who lost their jobs or were chronically underpaid due to automation voted their pocketbook. The last thing they wanted was another slick politician, such as Barack Obama, in the White House. They were ready to place their bets on a billionaire hotel magnate who had never spent a day in political office.
It might seem that we were going backward in the developmental scale, from post-modern to traditional. However, there was another factor playing in Hillary’s defeat. Political correctness is a posture which can be supremely phony. It is easy to be politically correct when you are on top. What about 20-somethings of any sex or race working at Starbucks as their first career job? Politically correct or not, the social contract was broken for their generation, and Hillary Clinton and the rest of the Democrats were no longer credible.
Transcend and Include
In high tech, smart platform manufacturers, such as Microsoft, Apple and Google, adopt an embrace and extend posture. They take the bright ideas of their competitors and improve upon them. They avoid getting all sucked into the “not invented here,” syndrome. If it is a good idea, run with it. Make it even better. Steve Jobs, when he came back to Apple in 1999, introduced the iMac as the first plug-and-play PC for the Internet. It worked, and put Apple, bordering on bankruptcy, back into the black.
So also we can acknowledge the wealth of divergent views in our culture, adapt the best and enhance them. For example, although reflexively Democratic, I have felt the educational ideas of the Republicans were promising and worthy of implementation.
The key is to realize that you can acknowledge a point-of-view without in any way agreeing upon it.
“You insist that all true Muslim males must wear beards. I see.” This might be seen as deep listening, or “getting” a perspective. Acknowledge the perspective. Don’t mess with it. Allow it to be. Then suggest other possibilities.
From Integral to Transpersonal
Ken Wilber’s Integral Stage is the first one to truly acknowledge the validity of every single stage for that level of development.
He insists that each of us goes through all the most rudimentary stages in growing up, from ego-centric and tribal to conformist to innovator to mystic.
Ken also insists the same thing is happening in the world in terms of cultural evolution. When Pluralists have the upper hand, we may experience faster growth, but eventually, Modernists or Traditionalists are going to temporarily regain power, as happened with Arab Spring. This is all part of the process.
Even more exciting is Ken’s realization that the Transpersonal lies just beyond the Integral State. The Transpersonal Stage is the first one to realize that consciousness is the bedrock of reality, as is suggested by cutting-edge quantum theory. This is a participatory Universe. No participants. No Universe. Even a cursory study of quantum physics will completely undermine your materialistic assumptions. The world is not at all what you take it to be.
This is a participatory Universe. No participants. No Universe.
The Transpersonal Stage opens up the ultimate spiritual realizations that we read about in the East. All is God. God is your only True Self. This is all the Play of God. The True, the Good and the Beautiful… Unity, Love and Perfection, will ultimately prevail.
Why not take the plunge into Integral? You, also, will never again see the world quite the same!
Integral Theory: Are All Viewpoints Equal? appeared first on http://consciousowl.com.
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