Bravery or Obedience? Well the integral elite had the counter narrative put in their face by 2007 by a few in the community. The few got labeled. And IC just kept ignoring it. It’s been awhile, it was intense around 2005-2008. Most of the few left.
This is my basic story around the Integral elite .
It’s easier to be awake in one Quadrant and then awaken in the LR social holon. Then take someone awake in three Quadrants and developed and have them awaken in the social. This human game, we are in, has us investing precious human energy into our patterns and orientations. If something contradicts strongly held orientations that has much investment of human energy. Most likely they aren’t able to pull out of the orientation. Making this IC in general a disaster in the LR awakening. Maybe the last to get it.
There are many that left , that are working with the social awakening.
My favorite is Zak Stein.
Joesph Dillard just hits home runs in this arena.
It’s right in our faces and still people don’t see. They get a question like” Now why would they do that Archie?, Jezzz “
Or Orthodoxy. I’ve assumed that the Elite cashed in during the Age of Seminars, and are now the Elders. I dropped several $K on Transformational Experiences back in the day and got a lot out of it.
Sadly I think there is much beneficial in Integral Theory but its not in a form currently to make much impact.
How are you using Integral Theory in your life and sphere of influence to “make an impact”?
This is going off-topic (which is about the World Economic Forum), but I don’t think you know how much impact IT is making. I see evidence of an integral consciousness, or a partial integral consciousness, in the world all the time, certainly not using the integral jargon, but there’s still evidence of it. Issues around guns and gun laws are a good current example. I think the media is doing a better job of presenting multiple perspectives, with the exception of people in the media who take the points of view of whichever political extreme they are serving. Closer to home, a local college here has used Wilber’s quadrants as a required framework for particular student projects going back at least 10 years ago.
Any stage of development/new consciousness that comes on line in the world usually starts with the work of intellectuals, spreads to other intellectuals, drifts into academia and the media, before it filters into the populace. I tend to think of the process of thought, word, and deed (actualization/activation). The thoughts, words, and deeds of each of us here at IL Discourse are either helping IT make an impact, or they’re not.
I think the recent article by David Brooks I shared was written from a Teal stage, regardless of whether he is familiar with Ken’s work in particular. And I see many other authors like him, who are clearly working in the Teal territory, regardless of the maps they may or may not be using.
Integral Life never claims to fully represent the integral territory itself. We represent one particular map of that territory — the very best map currently available, in my mind. But that does not mean that the territory is limited to that map, or that others aren’t also charting this same territory and forming their own maps.
To me, it’s clear that Teal is rapidly emerging in the world, due almost entirely to the emergence of global life conditions that can only be responded to by the Teal stage. Which, to me, is the “good news” of the dystopian era we seem to currently reside in today — everything is right on schedule, and we are creating all the right problems that can be — and already are, in many cases — a springboard for genuine integral consciousness.
Postmodernism is almost finished deconstructing the entire spiral of development, which creates the very life conditions Teal needs to emerge. Whereas previous stages emerge out of the excesses of the previous stage (e.g. Green emerges out of criticisms of Orange excesses), Teal is somewhat different — it isn’t just a reaction to Green, but rather to the growing gaps between all of these stages, and the full-spectrum flareup that causes. When Amber, Orange, and Green no longer know how to talk to each other, that’s when Teal starts to come in to respond to these sorts of growing meta-crises.
The only group I would add here, are the artists, who are often the only ones who are given a set of cultural permissions to go beyond that culture’s center of gravity and represent tomorrow’s emergence, today. Our artists often represent the vanguard of consciousness.
Postmodernism, in many ways, largely grew out of architecture, for example
One of the challenges, I think, is that a deconstructed postmodern media space, as we currently have, has different kinds of selection pressures that limit the capacity for next-stage artists to influence the rest of culture the way they were once able. Because there are aggressive new algorithmically-driven selection pressures that reward “span” far more than they reward “depth”. But this is itself yet another Teal life condition to be solved creatively!
Yes, the artists. And oddly enough, I think religion might play a role too. I’ve read numerous pieces from various religious groups around the abortion issue. There is much more push-back on the staunch “pro-life” positions than one might think within religious communities. They are presenting their different perspectives and posing the question of how their religious freedom would be limited with a ban, and asking that be taken into consideration. This seems a good step, a more inclusive voice from religion as a whole.
Wonder how Gen Z will influence art? I think they are being somewhat creative around cultural-political issues, environment, guns, etc. Green in multiple ways, but involved. Will be interesting to see what they bring forth.
It’s a great question! I’ve been seeing a big emphasis on returning to absurdity and surrealism in Gen Z art – which to me feels like an entirely reasonable response to the thoroughly deconstructed world they inherited, and almost a response from the Existential line of intelligence to the overall lack of development in the Spiritual line of intelligence. I’ll be curious to see what new kinds of meaning making can emerge from this sort of renewed surrealism, which I think is often an art style that helps surface the performative contradictions of a given dominant value set, and sort of “clears the road” for new kinds of expressions to begin coming through.
