The World in Balance: Transformation and Translation

This paradox is clear: we desperately need to begin finding truly worldcentric solutions to global sustainability; otherwise we are certainly committing a slow collective suicide—yet 70% of humanity remains at ethnocentric or egocentric stages of development, incapable of even caring about such solutions.  The need for massive world-wide transformation has never been more urgent, and yet we still don't even understand what makes people transform in the first place!  So how, from an integral perspective, can we help people grow into these higher stages?  Ken makes it clear that the priority of the integral movement is really not to attempt to transform people, but instead to help them best translate the world from whatever level they are at.  This might be visualized as taking a horizontal approach, rather than a vertical one, in which the goal is to help balance all four quadrants, to the very best that they can be balanced at a particular level.  Integral consciousness, after all, allows for all levels of development, without forcing its values upon anyone else—and while we might hope for the most amount of vertical transformation possible within a given lifetime, we all have the right to remain at any stage for any amount of time.  How can we begin to establish "stations of life" that offer healthy translation for each stage of development, truly serving the most depth for the most span, and through which the natural transformation of humanity can move most fluidly?