The Deafening Silence of Integral Politics

Who exactly is the "Integral Politics camp"?  Aren't you part of that camp as much as any paid employees of Integral Life/Integral Institute?  Not that we don't have anything at all up our sleeves (we totally do) but i really want to emphasize this point--YOU are the Integral politics camp.  YOU are the Integral ecology camp.  YOU are the Integral art camp.  As I see it, we are here to try to provide the Integral community (YOU!) the right tools to help self-organize, share perspectives, take positions, and bring this whole Integral thing to fruition.  We are simply here to help ensure a healthy signal/noise ratio, and to provide relevant content to help situate these matters, and to even try to provoke new questions in our weekly offerings.  But really i think this all comes down directly to you guys, in a lot of ways.  You are the sound and vision of the Integral culture, not these weekly audio and video offerings.  It is my deepest hope that this Integral community will be able to hit some sort of "tipping point," to empower ourselves and our own perspectives, to find our own voices and expertise, and truly coalesce into the potent cultural force i have no doubt we shall become.

None of this is to say that i don't think some of you aren't already out there doing this.  Now that may have been a really confusing triple-negative, but hopefully you know what i mean.  There are some real movers and shakers in this community, and i want to support you as much as possible.  And there are some very passionate discussions already taking place within the Integral Life community, among people who, at the end of the day, i consider as much a part of the "Integral Politics camp" as anyone officially related to IL/I-I. 

And i am not saying that Integral Life will not be focusing on content that directly pertains to issues such as these, because we will.  I guess what i am saying is that i think it is time we stop looking to Integral Life (or Integral Institute, or Ken himself) as the primary source of solutions for these severely complicated matters, but rather as providing a space within which the Integral community itself can find these solutions.  Until recently, the Integral movement has been largely top-down in many respects, and i am personally exhilirated by the possibility of adding a real bottom-up element as well.  As i see it, it is the only way we can find any traction at all in the world, to extend our reach beyond the insularity of jargon and theories and frameworks (as central as all these are to the movement), and to collectively find enough cohesion that we may be able to introduce a little more sanity and balance to a world which so obviously needs it.

As for a "deafening silence" on the side of IL/I-I, i don't think this is altogether true.  I personally have made a half-dozen attempts to comment upon the current political climate from an Integral perspective, in the form of talk summaries that accompany audio and video content of similar relevance.  They may not be exactly what you are looking for, but i don't think it qualifies as outright silence on the issue.

Flirting with Disaster
America as Empire
In Hot Water

Jefferson and Hamilton in the Modern World—And Why it Matters to You!
A Trans-Partisan Vision for America

Integral "Third Way" Politics

Plus, these community discussions:

Core Principals Behind the Election
Palin a Dreadful Choice
Sarah Palin...just another pawn.
An Integral Democrat: As a Democrat, I Must be a Republican?

it's awesome to see this free integral life offering when opened my Google Reader today :)

http://integrallife.com/node/15727

silence has been golden. it's good to know integral peeps taking on politics at this crucial juncture in American (and world) history.

kudos to all those who worked on the integral politics presentation.

will do my part on spreading the word....

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http://www.c4chaos.com