Integral Naked 06.18.07 - Escaping Flatland. Part 2. Dual Civil Wars in the American Political Scene.

Escaping Flatland. Part 2. Dual Civil Wars in the American Political Scene. (29:00)
Stuart Davis and Ken Wilber

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Ken Wilber dialogues with Stuart Davis on the state of US politics, the presidential candidates, and how Integral Politics helps us understand the road to a more inclusive, worldcentric tomorrow.

Who: Ken Wilber, founder of Integral Naked and Integral Institute and pioneering author of two-dozen books on an AQAL-Integral framework, and Stuart Davis, long-time guest interviewer on IN and about-to-explode entertainment icon for all things integral.

Relevance: For the first time in history, a woman and an African American are the two most visible candidates for the American Presidency. Alongside this clearly progressive movement in modern politics is the almost-as-clearly regressive tilt to the past two presidential terms. As convenient as it might seem to simply divide these phenomena along party lines, an Integral analysis recognizes not only the dichotomy of Democrat and Republican, but also a hidden split in the heart of US politics, the effects of which will fundamentally determine the course of the world's most powerful nation in the coming years.

Summary: Everyone knows about the difference between Democrat and Republican, Left and Right, Liberal and Conservative. But as ubiquitous as this distinction is, no one has been able to give a theoretical explanation of what drives this split in a way that holds up to rigorous inspection—that is, until an Integral Approach was applied to politics. In his as-yet-unpublished trilogy The Many Faces of Terrorism, Ken reveals what appears to be the key to the entire puzzle: camps on the political Left attribute the fundamental cause of human suffering to external causes, whereas camps on the political Right attribute the fundamental cause of human suffering to internal causes. For example, why are people homeless? Left: because they are downtrodden, they lack opportunities, they are victims of the system (all external forces). Right: because they have no work ethic, they have no family/religious values, no internalized sense of shame (all internal forces).

Integral Politics takes this elegant, sturdy distinction as the basis for an even more revealing analysis—because you can be an internalist or externalist at different levels, waves, or altitude of development, and historically these have changed over time. At the time of the Enlightenment, to be on the conservative Right was to be at a fundamentalist-amber altitude (ethnocentric), and to be on the liberal Left was to be part of the flowering modernist-orange altitude (worldcentric). Fast forward to the late 20th century, and now the new Left is associated with postmodern-green altitude (furthering modernity's worldcentric impulse), and the new Right has moved into modernist-orange altitude (hence "Ayn Rand" or "Wall-Street" Republicans). No longer is there just Left and Right, but old Right (traditional) and new Right (modern), and old Left (modern) and new Left (postmodern), with new Right and old Left uneasily sharing the same general modernist territory. What hasn't changed throughout it all? You got it: Right is still internalist, and Left is still externalist.

Returning to our current situation, Stu and Ken discuss how the first "civil war" of American politics is indeed along the Democrat/Republican or Left/Right or External/Internal line just mentioned. But as Ken explains, the second, hidden, civil war is raging smack dab in the middle of the Democratic Party. Quite simply, the new postmodern Left and the old modern Left despise each other almost as much as they despise the Right, fracturing their ability to actually function as a unified party—a problem that the new/old Right has navigated with significantly more success. This, as much as anything, was responsible for the outcome of the past two elections, and will be a deciding factor in 2008.*

Stuart and Ken go on to talk about the fascinating relationship between climate and altitude, the astonishing degree of narcissism in the generation born of the baby boomers, and the exciting launch of AQAL Journal (where dozens of Integral scholars have written more than 2000 pages of original material in 19 separate disciplines, which is then discussed live with Ken on bi-weekly conference calls with members of Integral Institute.

Scholar's Notes (for Advanced Students and Curious Listeners):

*Integral Politics is itself without political affiliation, hoping instead to help all political endeavors become as integral as they can. That said, it's also true that historically Democrats have been operating roughly one full stage higher than Republicans (which isn't to say necessarily healthier in all ways, just developmentally higher). Former President Bill Clinton and former Vice-President Al Gore have both publicly endorsed Ken's work, most recently with Clinton's appearance at the World Economic Forum. With the leading edge of the Democratic Party at postmodern-green, the natural next step for pioneering individuals will be to push into an integral-turquoise altitude, which we can see is already beginning to happen—and could certainly happen with pioneering individuals coming out of Republican or Independent camps as well. Integral Politics, precisely because it endeavors to transcend and include all important perspectives won't be Democratic or Republican, Left or Right, because it will demand the integration and equal attention to both external and internal realities, promoting the greatest depth for the greatest span across all levels.

Integral Politics actually draws upon four major scales, and several minor scales, only two of which are discussed in this dialogue (internalist/externalist, and altitude). For a full introduction to Integral Politics, click here.

*****

As Stuart emphasizes, Integral is not merely a theoretical mind-game with no real relevance to making the world a better place. Integral is about helping make sure that Stu's daughters—Ken's goddaughters—will be living in a world where our children and grandchildren can thrive. You cannot change the world unless you understand it first, and we'd love to have you join us in this venture….

keywords: The Many Faces of Terrorism (forthcoming), Integral Politics – Part I, Integral Politics – Part II, Integral Politics: A Summary of Its Essential Ingredients (Part III), Democrats, Republicans, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Western Enlightenment, Renaissance, Internal-External axis, John Anderson, Independents, geopolitics, The Civil War, agrarian South, industrialist North, Venezuela, happiness index, Canada, Mexico, baby boomers, boomeritis (pluralism infected with narcissism, also called "pluralitis"), AQAL Journal, 9/11, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, World Economic Forum, Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, stages of consciousness (e.g., archaic, magic, mythic, rational, pluralistic, integral, super-integral), altitude of consciousness (magenta, red, amber, orange, green, teal, turquoise, indigo, violet, ultraviolet), Voltaire, Max Planck, "What Is Altitude?," "What Is Integral?," A Theory of Everything.

most memorable moment: "The simple rule that Democrats are going to have to learn, or they're never going to elect anybody, is: when green (postmodern) attacks orange (modern), ambe (traditional) wins.

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