An Integral Take on Power
These are my notes written following a meeting of my Integral mind group on June 10. Robb Smith, the author of the course we are studying, Build Your Integral Life, devoted a short lesson to the topic of power but, oddly, failed to place it in a proper Integral context. This is my attempt to remedy that, using the 4 Quadrants and Integral Stages of development.
· We agreed with the standard dictionary definitions of ‘power,’ which can be stated roughly as the capacity or ability of a person to cause something to happen in the world.
· The four types of power identified by Robb Smith – capital power, political power, cultural power, and platform power – are easily mapped in a 4-quadrant diagram. The first, second, and fourth types in the list belong in the LR quadrant. Cultural power goes to the lower left. What about the UL? Does power show up in the consciousness of the individual? You bet, as we will see.
· Re capital power, I note something of a bias in RS’s thinking: what about labor power? Capital/labor is a basic polarity in a modern social system. Power exists in both poles.
· How does power show up in the integral spectrum of development? We tried to answer this question by looking at power in the stages of development, beginning with Stage 0, Infrared-archaic, up through Stage 6, Turquoise-integral.
The operational question is, what kind of power does an individual have at each level of development?
With each higher level of development, an individual acquires greater complexity or capacity in numerous lines. Power increases from lower to higher in the usual transcend-and-include process, which means power at lower stages is not lost during development but carried forward into higher stages.
At Stage 0, Infrared, an infant has the power to influence the behavior of parents or other adults that may be in the vicinity by crying, screaming, and other behaviors.
At Stage 1, Magenta, a toddler has an increasing capacity to manipulate physical objects including its own body parts.
At Stage 2, Red, a person starts to acquire language as an instrument of power. They also have the power to act on their egocentric aggressive and sexual impulses, which can cause real trouble for the community and even lead to war.
At Stage 3, Amber, the individual has the power to control their impulses and conform to the rules and roles of the religious community, kingdom, or state.
At Stage 4, Orange, adults have the power to use freedom, reason, education, property, money, social connections, and industrial technology to achieve fulfillment of their secular life goals.
At Stage 5, Green, a person has the power to use advanced informational technology to work toward advancing the values of equality, social justice, multiculturalism, environmentalism, and global peace.
At Stage 6, Turquoise, a person has the power to use an Integral world view, combined with deep spiritual insight to promote a holistic, compassionate approach to problems that humans face in all four quadrants: mental health, cultural conflicts, medical problems, and system dysfunctions of all kinds: economic, political, environmental, etc.
Integral Theory holds that development from lower stages to higher produces an increase of complexity at each higher stage. My analysis shows that one element of complexity increase is power and that perhaps power should be considered as a multiple intelligence in its own right.