Integral Republicans

[andrew]

Here is a link I found on I.L. :

http://integrallife.com/integral-post/republican-advantage

I started this thread as a repository for any movements in this direction as I think it could only be beneficial in any long run. Seeing as both spectrums are so toxic today it might behoove us to keep open the idea of a healthier conservatism/republicanism. If the right cannot ever switch to the left then all we have to hope for is a maturity within the right. I don't see the rights move of bringing toxic religious doctrines into the political field as being good for humanity in any long run. Wrong move folks! Christianity was never meant to be politicized in the way it is today. Keep the state separate from the church, period !

I noticed an article by Kenny on the same page. 

I am wondering about the monied Republicans, too, and was wondering how they could develop any further up any developmental ladders. How do you get these folks to go green? Investment in Green entrepreneurialism?

[andrew]

This might be helpful: 

http://www.integralworld.net/wilpert.html

[andrew]

I've been reading through the blogosphere and having a good chuckle on all the predictions from the last eight years. If Obama is synonymous with Integral then  Integral also gives free passes to some of the most corrupt financial high crimes in human history. Okay, pragmatism- there was nothing we could do. And the 2nd tier hubris was the funniest ( or comes across sounding the funniest). I have no doubt that there are a few highly developed people on the planet but I doubt anyone is going to find them in todays political spectrum. Please! Enough already! 

Imo, there is no super duper 22nd tiered society until we can get at least a large portion of the worlds population to green. Or at a minimum hi efficiency orange ( if we can't have a city with composting toilets then at a minimum we shouldn't be dumping raw sewage into the waterways). If your house is worth a million bucks in the modern world get your bloody chimney retrofitted with high efficiency inserts.  Don't ship raw bitumen by tanker--refine it first--then ship it. Do everything you can to get orange healthy. As for Amber Republicans? They have obviously become the most deluded religionists in human history so I don't have much suggestion there. I only hope their psychosis doesn't lead N.A. into outright fascism. Yes, that is how far gone these folks have gotten.  Calling them shameful is useless so I won't do it. Their conscience is seared! Their values distorted!

[andrew]

And this one is for you Edward: 

The Prophet speaking to God, " you know I can't find one good Republican left in the land!" 

God replies, " I know!" 

[Edward theurj Berge]

I offer the following not because I think this represents an 'integral' Republican, but that it shows how the progressive Dems might work with this Republican on a key issue.

See this article. House majority leader Cantor was defeated by Dave Brat not for the usual talking head reasons. He won because he called out big $ corruption, not just Cantor's but the entire corrupt fascist oligarchy. Great news because it shows that both Dems and the GOP can rally around the same issue, defeating crony capitalism and big $ in government. According to the article that is what defeated Cantor in the primary. And bankers who caused the meltdown should go to jail, wow. He can work with Senator Warren on that one. And support the proposed new Constitutional amendment reversing the Supreme Corp's decisions in Citizens United and McCutcheon. He supports old school 'free markets,' i.e., not the fascist corporate capitalism that has taken over. I'm encouraged.

[andrew]

It's a nice thought but I can't see any compromise anytime soon. I suspect this move in Virginia will just embolden the regressive neoconservatives more, although my own feeling is that what is sorely needed at this moment are some true progressive conservatives to balance out the toxic excess of 25 years of Chicago School neoliberal economic policy. Sadly, they probably don't exist in N.A. Also, i see what happened last night as a continuance of the global pushback to neoliberalism everywhere. The Chicago School, Obama, rockin' Rahm; they all conspired to give their buddies on Wall St. a free pass. That fact is that inadvertently or not-- with or without good intentions-- neoliberal globalism has transferred wealth from the 'commons' into the hands of individual corporate capitalists at an unprecedented rate; and the grassroots knows this to be true on some level, right and left. At the end of the day it will probably be true that both neoliberalism and neoconservatism have to go if we are to survive as a civilization. It be nice if they could be replaced by progressive strains of both memes but I'm not holding my breath. 

A link on progressive conservatism in Europe ( centre right): 

http://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2013/09/new-prog...

[andrew]

In the link above there was a map showing green movements spanning the circle. I would think getting this demographic together somehow is also something that is urgently needed.

[andrew]

Here is that demographic: 

"The green movement⁽³⁾ is currently very divided between libertarian greens, who support capitalism and individual liberty, anarcho-greens, who oppose capitalism as well as the state, eco-socialists, who oppose capitalism but support statist policies, and the eco-conservatives, who believe that a correct cultural value system is needed."

[Edward theurj Berge]

It's been a long time since I read Wilpert's article and after reading the green section I'll give the whole thing another read. I appreciate that he recognizes the greens "take a holistic view that integrates humanity and nature"* and "roughly corresponds with Wilber's centauric or vision-logic stage," not something the Lingam will admit.** And I find that not only I but the Commons as a whole is a mix of the various quadrant aspects he discusses (as well as 'levels').** For example while I detest fascist capitalism I can accept a small business oriented around conscious capitalism triple-bottom lines. I'd prefer though a cooperative business where all the workers own it. While I oppose State socialism I still want the government to be active in creating progressive labor and environmental laws. And I most certainly advocate for green cultural values, but I don't concede that by nature cultural values are 'conservative.' That's something Haidt does too and he's flat out wrong.

* I.e. integrates inside with outside and individual with social.

** On second thought, he does list green as early vision-logic if I recall. But his green level does not necessarily, or even accurately, define the entire green/eco or Commons movement. The latter is a mix of green, yellow and turquoise.

[Edward theurj Berge]

Shortly after Wilpert wrote that article in '99 Wilber responded with his own IW article on integral politics. Therein he called liberals flatland because they not only reduced everything to the exterior quadrants but also denied levels. If that ever was the case (debatable) with liberals it certainly isn't any more.

Also of note in that article is the prime directive:

"The prime directive of a genuine Third Way would be, not to try to get everybody to a particular level of consciousness (integral, pluralistic, liberal, or whatever), but to insure the health of the entire spiral of development at all of its levels and waves."

I'd qualify that with Wilber's sentiments from "The war in Iraq" (2003) on integral law:

"A yellow society, in short, would have laws that basically stem from that second-tier level of consciousness. And the basic defining characteristic of yellow is that it accepts all previous values without letting any of them repress or dominate others.

"A second-tier, integral, World Federation—in my Utopian view—would therefore prevent any first-tier memes from dominating, attacking, or exploiting any other populations. If necessary, a World Federation would do so by using police force, just as all democracies today have an internal police force to curtail murder, rape, robbery, extortion, and so on. Somebody whose center of gravity is green will not commit murder, rape, or robbery. However, somebody whose center of gravity is red will do any or all of those, sometimes happily. And because everybody is born at square one, and must progress through purple, red, blue, and so on, some sort of police will always be necessary to protect others from those who do not evolve to a worldcentric level of care and compassion.

"This police force is NOT allowed to tell people what level of consciousness they should be at; it is NOT allowed to govern what individuals do in the privacy of their own homes or dwellings; it is NOT allowed to coerce or intimidate people who are not at the average level of social development. It is, however, allowed to prevent (or punish) those whose public behavior stems from a less-than-worldcentric stance."

[Edward theurj Berge]

Note that Wilber is inconsistent here. Everyone is allowed to have their own individual-interior level but they just can't express it on the social-exterior level. He is proposing a purely social-exterior solution, something he criticizes in the liberals. Granted he says the liberals don't accept higher (or any) levels, whereas Wilber proposes that the yellow level expand on laws to curtail less than yellow behavior.

He's also said before that the exterior socio-economic system is the predominant factor in raising the general interior level of consciousness for most folks. If that is so then creating a better economic system more in line with the yellow consciousness of the elite is the best remedy. And it doesn't just accept people where they stop (blue, orange etc.) but wants to elevate them up to society's center of gravity at yellow. I.e., making people behave like yellows is going to get them to eventually think like yellows. Fake it till you make it.

[andrew]

He's also said before that the exterior socio-economic system is the predominant factor in raising the general interior level of consciousness for most folks.

I've heard that Kenny is an advocate for neoliberalism . I wonder if this is a part of his rational if that is the case? If it is the case he seems to put a lot of faith in the top 1%. FWIW- I too see healthy orange as the best place for people to experience any spiritual truth if there be such a thing. Guns and Jesus don't work for me! ( red and amber).

[Edward theurj Berge]

Regarding the article about an emerging progressive right in Europe competing with the left, we get the likes of Germany's Merkel working with Rifkin and implementing his TIR agenda. We have nothing like this in the US, where the Democrats are our progressive right! And don't even know who Rifkin is. Thankfully we have the progressive caucus, more like the holisitic (integral) green described above.