Escaping Flatland

Stuart Davis

With eleven full-length albums to his credit, Stuart Davis has carved out a unique wavelength in the musical spectrum. Taking the topics of God, sex and death, and crafting them into inimitable pop songs with lyrical flair and unforgettable hooks, Stuart continues to be one of the great undiscovered singer/songwriters around.

 

 

Turning the table on our usual format, Ken is interviewed by Stuart, and—after touching in about some very exciting developments in Stu's career, including a song in the Owen Wilson movie Drillbit Taylor, directed by our good friend Steve Brill—Stu uses this opportunity to ask about how an Integral approach can understand and respond to the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. Why did the killer do this? What could have been done to prevent this? Who is responsible? What can we do to prevent future acts of such wanton violence? As Ken points out, all of these questions can be, and in fact must be, answered by applying an integral or AQAL framework, consisting of at least quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types. These five elements compose the very fabric of moment-to-moment existence, and to leave out any is to marginalize and tear at some aspect of reality (which leaves you squarely in what Ken and Stu call "flatland"—a world deprived of one or more of its essential dimensions.)

"A common liberal response to something like this is 'take away the guns.'A common conservative response to something like this is 'take away the liberals.' Each has a part of the truth; neither is integral."

Referencing his work on Integral Politics from his as-yet-unpublished trilogy The Many Faces of Terrorism, Ken explains that the only definition of Left and Right, or Democrat and Republican, that truly "sticks" is the following: the Left believes primarily in exterior causes of human suffering (guns kill people, so take away the guns), and the Right believes primarily in interior causes of human suffering (people kill people, so teach individuals not to do that).

In the aftermath of an event as horrific and shocking as the shootings at Virginia Tech, one is naturally moved to respond, to react, to reach out, to try and make a difference, to try and prevent this from ever happening again. We all want to do something, and do something we must. But one of the first things we must do is try and understand the world we live in as comprehensively as possible. If we don't understand all the pieces in play, or even know that they are there, our efforts at compassionate and effective change will be sorely lacking, and we will likely hurt those whom we most desperately seek to help.

Here are some of the core concepts covered in the discussion:

Integral Politics: Regarding the Virginia Tech tragedy, voices from the political Left will claim that the cause of this tragedy was our "gun culture" and the ease of procuring these weapons (e.g. societal and legislative failure regarding gun control; entirely exterior concerns), whereas voices from the political Right will claim that the cause of this tragedy was a lack of proper upbringing, lack of spiritual and family values, and cultural deterioration (e.g. relational and cultural failure to raise individuals who wouldn't use a gun improperly; entirely interior concerns). They are both right, and they are both wrong; only with an Integral Politics can the truths of each be freed from the partiality of both.

Psychograph: Ken comments on the shared psychograph of terrorists in modern times, pointing out the fact that whether it's Southern Baptists blowing up abortion clinics, sarin gas attacks on Tokyo subways, or the 9/11 attacks by al Qaeda, the predominant psychograph of the terrorists is of an amber self-sense with a red sub-personality. In other words, ethnocentric-absolutistic beliefs with the egocentric-power motivations to implement that agenda by any means necessary (e.g. "The modern world makes no room for my religious beliefs, so I'm going to blow it up."). In other cases, an individual may be acting on purely egocentric impulses—with little reference to anything larger than their own concerns—and it's possible that the Virginia Tech shooter may have fallen into this category, though that remains to be seen based on further evidence and investigation.

Postmodernism: Ken points out how extreme postmodernism (boomeritis, mean-green-meme) has contributed to an atmosphere in which pathological egocentric and ethnocentric orientations—the two developmental waves responsible for most terrorist acts—are allowed and even encouraged to flourish. What's needed is to move from a flatland deconstructive postmodernism to a "post-postmodern" and Integral view, in which depth is honored, and where one has a full-spectrum AQAL toolbox with which to be able to prevent, recognize, and effectively address malevolent and terrorist activities. Of particular interest to scholars will be Ken's discussion of the difference between a merely deconstructive postmodernism a la Derrida, and a genealogical/developmental postmodernism a la Foucault, which paves the way to an Integral view, rather than blowing up the road.

This dialogue is not the final statement on how to look at tragedies like Virginia Tech, but the opening statement in an ongoing conversation. It is with deep humility, and deep conviction, that we offer our sincerest efforts toward a more integral embrace. We would be honored if you joined us in this exploration of how to shape the future we will most certainly share...and in memory of those who cannot share that future with us.