I came to integral about 20 years ago. When I first read Wilber, I fell in love. I thought I’d found the key to my own suffering and subsequent transcendence of it.
I started getting a big head after a few years. Thinking I was enlightened. Thinking I was a real scholar of Wilber.
I used to go to integralnaked and write inflammatory posts.
I haven’t been paying attention, at least, not enough attention.
I became attached to the concept of boomeritis. Very, very attached. To the point that on focusing on everything the mean green meme has done wrong, I forgot the original hippies. I’ve forgotten and am trying to remember what the green meme has done to push forward good things.
I’ve had so many dark periods these last few years. I’ve had to push my consciousness into new territory because the old framework became my cell.
But the miracle of evolution is such that all the previous memes, building on one another, must be reconciled with each other. And for me, that means remembering boomers. Remembering the good that has come from the hippies. Remembering all the first tier memes, if I am to call myself second tier, have something to teach me and each other.
I thought I could change the world by thinking. I have to realize now I must rise above thought in order to thrive. In my case, my mind may kill me. It has come close. It feels like a prison at times I must escape from.
I want to send praise and thanks to Mr. Wilber and to all of the integral community. I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me a framework to survive. But now I must rise above my attachment to “boomeritis” and start looking at the miracle of evolution through a different lens.
Hi @KelleyD83. Welcome back! I’m pretty new here, but enjoying the community. With respect to your post, if everything prior to green had been working just great, green would not have happened. For those here who are post-Boomer, you will need to study some history to recall the world before green …
Pretty sure the way the first tiers work, is they build on each other. Are you saying the first tiers weren’t successful and green was a reaction that unsuccessful? That would make no sense, Robert. The miracle of evolution is that green arose from the previous successes, not as a reaction to their problems.
I guess I’m confused. Are you trying to start and argument e.g. “debate”?
This is exactly what I’m trying to avoid. The idea that green is somehow this panacea to all problems. All the first tiers have something to offer. And they must stop fighting with one another or we’re all basically fucked
I agree, every altitude builds on the previous. But if any previous altitude were complete in and of itself, that would have been the end of evolution because everything there was to realize would have been fully realized. New altitudes start to appear through the cracks of previous altitudes when humanity starts to expand perspectives.
There was a large degree of social consensus in white, middle class, USA, in the 1950s which I was born into. Why are we all not still living within that same value system?
Ah, gotcha. Absolutely. The wonders of the internet. Have to over explain everything or everything gets lost in translation. Why wars are started over Facebook.
Yes, green came from orange. Evolution kept happening. Thank God
And yes, there were and are various problems with orange. Why evolution had to happen. Why we couldn’t stay stuck. But now, if we are to continue to evolve, we must stop fighting among first tier. Just seems like the world is in a horrible desperate fight. It’s tiring and sickening to me. But it could all just be my perspective.
Could say that our current invention, insight, and breakthrough (stage) will in time, if we are successful, become outgrown, dysfunctional, limiting? Each stage, right and necessary, provides the ground for a right and necessary next.
My personal take is that the future is open-ended. We all have agency to some extent and the choices we make influence outcomes. That being said, a basic evolutionary perspective is that when circumstances change, entities within those circumstances need to adapt. The tempo of global change has clearly accelerated in recent decades. A cursory examination of world history reveals many systems and practices no longer suitable for our current circumstances. So it’s not claiming any special foresight to imagine that additional changes and adaptations are in the wind.
Although I see the future as open-ended, I do maintain a rooting interest in both human and ecosystemic survival. I’m pretty sure both life in general and human life in particular are here for a reason. Let’s just say that “reason” is trans-rational and ineffable, so now might be a good time to contemplate in silence.
Yes, mhl. My take exactly. Rational becomes dysfunctional when reason seems like the only right way. Which gives rise to green. But things can go awry at any stage. Thanks for your contribution