The Pre/Trans Fallacy

Originally published at: https://integrallife.com/pre-trans-fallacy/

In this clip from Volume 1 of the Ken Wilber Life Footnotes collection, Ken offers a brief explanation of the pre/trans fallacy: the confusion of pre-rational and trans-rational, pre-personal and trans-personal, pre-conventional and post-conventional, etc.

I was just talking to someone about this today with regard to how Burning Man has changed from originally a celebration of community, counterculture and free expression where nothing was sold and everything was given freely - into now a kind of New Age Spring Break where the wealthy can pay for exclusive camps to stay comfortable and separated from the rabble.
The individual wanted to know if Burning Man was still worth attending, and consensus seemed to be: do you want a premodern or postmodern experience (but we didn’t use the Integral jargon).

I think also much of the confusion is in perspective. A person living in a premodern world view looks at postmodern practices and only sees premodern.

I don’t think there’s any way to really “detangle” from misunderstandings. People will only be able to see what they are able to see. If we go literal, a person cannot see into the Ultraviolet spectrum unless they have the tools to do so, and cannot see Teal if they have Red or Orange tinted glasses on. It’s just not possible. The only way is to remove the tinted glasses and then at least they will be able to see Teal for what it is, but no amount of explaining will do it.

This is even more difficult and the glasses are held on even more securely when there is fear involved, and the individual, group or culture is afraid to see what is actually there.
In the United States we by and large have a difficult time coming to terms with what we ACTUALLY are and have actually done historically and also continue to do.

Another example of this I was talking about yesterday is the chain grocery store chain Whole Foods, which I judge to be about 20% what it tries to appear to be, but 80% exploitative, manipulative and unhealthy, not just the products they sell but their business model. People go shopping there because they want to believe they are doing something for their health and also for the planet as a whole with free trade yoga blocks - or whatever. As a consequence of wanting to believe they are contributing to a worthy cause, they don’t look too carefully at the totality of all the products and all the business model.

I think there are thousands of similar examples.