INTEGRAL POLITICS
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From: Bruce S.
Date: Sunday, November 4, 2007, 4:10 PM
Subject: Integral Politics
Reply to: 261414
ID: 258881

Just to tie a few more things together....

Sitting on my dining room table, there for the past month or so, is the current issue of What is Enlightenment magazine -- a "green" issue devoted to "Envisioning the future of ecology, politics & consciousness". It's Sunday, I'm finally looking at a few of these things -- so, I unwrapped the magazine and took a look.

One of the feature articles -- "The Power of Integral Politics" -- is by Steve McIntosh. To me, this is interesting for a couple different reasons -- one of which is that I have known Steve McIntosh since the mid-1990's -- and I have built a couple of web projects for him. The first one we did was entitled "beautytruthgoodness.org" -- and was about what he called "The Beauty, Truth, and Goodness Agreement" -- which featured some elegant art work, concentrating on the Platonic solids. I don't think that site has been online for quite a while -- but I still have all the graphics. Maybe I will post a few here.

Another site we built for Steve McIntosh -- was called "spiritualspringtime.org" -- we put that site online right about the year 2000 -- I think it was millennium-inspired. The idea behind that project was to "add leaves to the tree" -- to "make the tree green" -- so, we got a thousand or more people to sign into the site, to offer a little prayer or good wish -- and when they did that, their prayer appeared on a leaf image. People could browse through all these prayer-leaves. It was a nice idea. Maybe I can dig up some of that, too.

Another link from this WIE article back to what is happening now -- is that a couple of months ago, we had an interesting conference here in Santa Barbara, on the theme of "Spirit and Nature" -- see http://www.spiritualpaths.net/sitepages/pid1773.php. The thing that excited me most about this conference -- was the very perceptive and sensitive -- and resonant -- speech, given by our local U.S. Congressional Representative, Lois Capps -- which I saw as a sign that we are indeed drawing closer towards a true resonant/integral politics.

I don't yet have a transcript of Lois Capps' remarks -- though I should. The way I see it today -- her comments about an emerging new politics based on "interspirituality" and resonant ideals -- is absolutely and very much where it is at. Her statement -- and these ideas that are coming together here -- are a powerful precursor and harbinger of an emerging new politics -- one representative of which, I think we can still say, is Barack Obama. His "Politics of Hope" -- still alive, after all this reality-testing -- very much points in this direction as well.

So -- is a "resonant politics" an "integral politics?"

Hmmm.

If you read the WIE/Ken Wilber/Steve McIntosh stuff -- and tend to assume that their vision is THE vision -- you might never suspect that "integral politics" might have something to do with personal relationships or anything as soft and mushy as resonance. In their work, as far as I can detect, there is really no mention or discussion of "The One" -- no reference to personal relationships -- no sense of collective spirituality -- no hint that "Namaste" is really the key to the emerging new politics of divine idealism.

Sometimes, I think the real answer to why this is true is -- roll your eyes and laugh now -- it's "a California thing".

Out here on the West Coast -- it's simply true that we have been hearing about this stuff for 40 years. It's not news. We've seen every guru, every teaching, every spiritual practice, every form of healing, magnetics, crystals, food, purification, breatharianism -- you name it. We who simply can't help ourselves have been soaking in this stuff for years and years. Barbara Marx Hubbard, who lives just a few blocks over, has been preaching these visions to an international audience for a long time. So -- what this means to me is -- some of these guys -- these East Coast or Central States people -- are just a leetle behind the wave. Not to sound too smart-alecky or pretentious -- I still think WIE is just about the best magazine out there for reviewing spiritual evolution -- but the simple truth is -- they have hardly begun to incorporate collective spirituality into their world view -- even though they published a wonderful issue on Collective Spirituality and "Coming Together" (yellow cover, featuring the Beatles) several years ago. I bought four copies....

Maybe it's not that it's "East Coast". Maybe it's an insular cult, where the guru speaks, and everybody jumps. I do have to credit Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber, though, for defending "hierarchy", when that precious and essential idea has been so demeaned in the popular culture. But -- they have been very slow to pick up on these core themes -- of oneness and the deep human commonality that bonds us all together -- through a "matrix" that is made stronger and more authentic by the very diversity of our union. Not sure why they take this approach -- maybe it's the male-dominated culture. It's the women who are bringing the "circle processes" into the world -- and it's the circle that is revealing the divine simplicity at the center of our global complexity...

In any case -- they are moving kinda slow to get these themes out front and center. So be it.

And this article in the current WIE, by Steve McIntosh -- in my quick scan -- I will read it more carefully later -- doesn't seem to even mention these major points.

Here is a scan of a very nicely-done graphic that is part of the article. You can view a larger version of this same graphic, here:

http://globalresonance.net/graphics/stevemcintosh1.jpg

Ok, so, my point here is -- that the vision of "Integral Politics" that is being presented through WIE, and Ken Wilber -- and this new book by Steve McIntosh -- does not really seem to evolve out of this concept of The One -- nor does it build on the basic ideas of this Global Resonance network -- which include "co-creativity", circle processes, the idea that "Namaste" really does bond the human community together in a divine way -- and the more ambitious and powerful notion that through this convocation we might reasonably expect the full divine power of the Christic Presence to make itself know to humanity...

This power, emerging out of the deep center, is the key to a transcendent society that can guide itself into the divine currents, without in any sense being a traditional theocracy. This is a vision of OM/Logos/Tao -- as a sacred guidance signal, radiating throughout society, and anchored in every person, conceivably converging every social process and affair into an optimal form of resonant harmony....

So, yes, maybe this is scary. Kinda shakes the icons up there on the altar. But this is what happens when we place "Oneness" at the center of the table, and all things take their place within its radiance....

***

As I was starting to post this message, I caught a glimpse of a quote and graphic at the top of my screen. A photo of my old buddy George Fox was shown with a profound quote from Jung, about the relationship of circle and matrix. I just have to show it it here -- it's just too succinct.

I don't mean to knock these WIE writers -- they are getting a lot of stuff out the door. It's helping a lot. But let's not forget the great voices -- the true founders and shapers of our culture, who spoke with the power and authority to build and transform nations. George Fox (founder of the Quakers) was certainly one of these -- and Jung's profound insights and instincts are still coming to fruition in the context of our liberal western intellectual culture...

Peace.