Integral Politics is Dead

[Christophe]

Interesting article on BeamsAndStruts about Third Way Politics and its successor, World Domination Politics. Check it out:

>>First of all, I should note the difference between the 'world domination'
theory and the kind of centrist/triangulation/third-way political
theory that was operative and popular in the 1990s. The triangulation
of politicians like Bill Clinton and the third-way approach of folks
like Tony Blair were an important -- nay, vital -- precursor to the
current world domination approach.

Under either variation, the political calculus looked something like: take the most liberal of liberal approaches to a particular issues, then
take the most conservative of conservative approaches to that same
issue, and what you should do is choose the course of action that most
accurately falls in center of those two approaches.

The idea being that by applying a sort of "golden mean" rule to political practice, you would not only come up with the most sensible -- or
"moderate" -- course of action, you would also capture the greatest
number of supporters for your course of action by incorporating some
liberal ideas and some conservative ideas.

This keeps adding up to some sort of "chameleon effect: appearing to back the goals of the Blue Dogs when
talking to Blue Dog Democrats, appearing to share the values of liberals
when talking to liberals, appearing to laud the ideas of progressives
when talking to progressives. There have been enough carrots dangled
from enough sticks to entice enough different factions into close enough
proximity to form a functional coalition."

Sounds exactly like what KW's Integral is doing. It is becoming increasingly obvious that Integral Third Way Politics is a Dead End, not up to the challenges of the 21st century.

So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. (Rev 3:16)

[rltruthseeker]

I hate politics. I don't care for the two party system where you're either labeled "this side of the street" versus "that side of the street," or your labeled either "Democratic" or "Republican" and you have to conform to a set sterotype or image or can't think for yourself about any issues (God forbid you should have any ideas outside of your party line), because of your over- identification with a party line. I don't think Democrats or Republicans have been able to come together in the first place in Obama's administration...and it's the American people who've suffered. I think it's important to have strong beliefs and stand up for what you really believe in...but I think that its also important to be open-minded about other approaches. I also think it's natural to copy a person's gestures or habits (the "chamelion" effect) when you really like a person or in trying to approach a person, to find the things that "resonate" with that person. ( I don't consider that "evil"). Also politicians naturally try to appeal to the most voters when running for election...or at least take their viewpoints into account. But your right...politicans tend to ignore a crucial set of contexts for their arguments...


We'll see if Integral politics is even able to run in this country... or what it (if anything) can bring.

[Christophe]

So you don't like Politics. Guess what - that's a political statement. It makes you one of those not-so-independent swing voters mentioned in the article. A song for you:


It's unfortunate how many spiritual guys think like that. The head all high in the clouds while the really important things happen here on earth, unnoticed. Easy prey for the spin doctors.

It's a sad, sad story.

:-(

[rltruthseeker]

You want to talk about "world domination" fine. I'll tell you the preludes to war...

"The preludes to war are highly visble, as can be seen in such pre-World War political ideologies as Marx and Engel's Das Kapital and Communist Manifesto, th political writings and speeches of Lenin, Hitler's Mein Kampf, and Chairman Mao's Little Red Bood. The Nazi occupation of Europe was justified by the political ideological concepts of lebensraum (living space), the political ideologies for which were provided by Professor Karl Haushoffer. These were later combined with the philosophy of eugenics to justify genocide.

Politcal distortions are usually those of context, class or displacement in time or conditions. For example, a society evolves, what was considered normal at one time is later considered to be detrimental or unacceptable and redress is then called for. Financial or military recompense is demanded of the current citizens to compensate for what is retroactively considered as victimization in a past era (e.g. Hitler's play on the 'unjust' Versailles treaty). Inasmuch as eveyone now can be conceived as suffering real consequences of some past condition, there can be constructed, therefore, a defensible view that all all persons currently living are entltled to recompense for the past ignorance and mistakes of a more primative civilization. Injustice can be cited anywhere in past times.

...Society which is the projection of the collective ego, is on a learning curve. It is vulnerable to constant disruptions as each new complaint is unearthed by some group that then besieges the media and the courts of law or public opion. Once the paradigm has been validated, the doors are opened for an infinite progression of demands from every segment of society. The inherent defect relies on the concept of "causality', that great 'open sesame' to the endless revolving saga of victim and perpetrator in which the protagonists serially reverse roles. The factors that drive the endless scheme are blame, greed, and the concept of causality and compensation(which impresses gullible judges, juries and public sentiment). As a consequence, we live in a litigious society where everyone is vulmerable to attack by mere accusation or by being the target of blame. One is no longer protected by reason, logic, or balance...

The basic defect of faulty political positionalities is that they distort content as well as ignore context. Ideologies affect the head by distorting context...and then they affect the 'heart' by unleashing primitive passions...The dangerious errors of political extremes and idealistic oversimplifications is that any supposed reality to their progress can be supported only by ignoring context, which is the overall social reality that would negate the practicality of the political positionality. This imbalance guarantees failure and human disaster, resulting in the 'unintended result.

One of the favorite weapons of a postmodernistic mindset, which has opened the gates for the culture of entitlement in our post-modern world (the green/red meme) is to set up a victim/perpetrator role for those high in authority (or authority figures) and starts to demonize others. People would rather start to blame others for what's already happened rather than taking responsibility or trying to change the system.

"Favorite catch phases heard are usually variations of proclaimed 'rights' or the righting of some perceived 'wrongs'. 'Victims' of these alleged 'wrongs' are paraded in order to arouse emotionalism and righteous indignation. The plight of the 'innocent victim' is then used to accuse, blame, and demonize alleged evil doers who then can be guiltlessly attacked and 'deservedly punished."

I'm not saying that the economic system of Wall street or BP's mishandling of the oil spill isn't worthy of noticing or deserving of our attention (nor that they shouldn't be held accountable). I'm just not going to play the culture of indignation and blame, or play the victimization role and try to convince others to play victims. I will take a stand...but against those nonintegrious aspects that are Red and below...they don't even make it up to the level of Orange reason, continually citing "facts" but ignoring context. Those who would continually fall back into hate and fear, instead of trying to understand an issue or take responsibilty for their own development and growth.

I'm neither politically or spiritually naive....nor am I easy prey for spin doctors. I don't care to talk about politics...but that doesn't mean I can't or won't.

The "death" of Integral politics sounds a lot like the continued laments of postmodern critics who continually cite the "death" of something, or usually end up labeling it as "a myth" (The "death" of the author, the "death" of God, the "death" of man (Foucault), the "death" of metaphysics, etc)


I don't want you to be your enemy Christophe...but neither am I going to sit back and let people act hateful towards me. Your video, which you tried to "guilt trip me" into feeling bad didn't work. Let me tell you why. I was a U.S. Marine. I have been to Iraq and Afghanistan. (Have you ever been in Iraq or Afghanistan...or seen combat? Have you ever seen your friends die?) I know what happens in war.

...

P.S. The Book of Revelations is false. It should have never been included in the New Testament. Neither should the Old Testament. Both rely on the image of God as "angry judge, jury and executioner" and continually leads to fear mongering and a god of fear and retribution...

"My Kingdom is not of this world[view]" - Jesus

[rltruthseeker]

Really... Korn? I thought you had better taste in music than that.

[Christophe]

Now you're starting to heat up and take a stand. I like that way better than this lukewarm "on the one hand - on the other hand".

So, you're a marine. Cool. Then you should know what the problems of the world look like from up close and how much suffering and loss inevitably follows from it. You should know about the urgency to make a real change to improve things. Good for you.

And No, I never went to War other than playing "Call of Duty" on my Playstation, but I am a psychologist and work with families and people who have suffered severely from Trauma, Anxiety and Depression. And Yes, one of my friends died from suicide two years ago.

I was not guilt-tripping you, but if you felt a bit ashamed for prefering meditation over watching the TV News (REAL TV News), then I feel okay with that. Your defense mechanisms against Pomo Views still stand strong, didn't kenny do a great job with that.

G2G