An integral political-economic framework is developed first with a quadrant analysis of the economy. The analysis contains a novel separation by quadrant of the effects that either encourage or discourage economic development. It is then shown what quadrant aspects are recognized or emphasized by liberals and conservatives. A review of the Integral approach to capital then allows for the integration of the radical view. Political-economic understanding is then proposed as a learning line of development where conservative, liberal, or radical emphasis in agents is associated with their political-economic personality types. Distinctions are made between less and more mature versions of each type. Finally, an immature/mature fallacy is discovered where more mature views are often mistakenly reduced to less mature versions of that type by less mature views of another type.
Integral Finance
Integral LifeMoney is a human abstraction. Although not found in nature, it is pervasively used throughout human activities and undertakings. In so doing, it generates an array of personal and cultural responses in addition to its material manifestations. As such, it is ideally suited for an AQAL analysis. This paper constitutes the introductory theoretical overview for Integral Finance. It introduces the basic principles and presents fundamental applications of Integral principles to money, including money’s nature, its various roles in the world, and its applications to and impacts on other disciplines.
Integral Business and Leadership
Integral LifeThis introductory article is an early articulation of Integral approaches to business and leadership in which the authors use the clarifying and synthesizing perspectives of Integral Theory and methodology to update biases, make new connections, and illumine blind spots of the theorists who have gone before: Drucker, McGregor, Kaplan and Norton, Senge, Hammer, and Collins, et al.
The Transformation Age: America Burning
Robb SmithAmerica has been on fire these past few weeks. A nation struggling with its racist past, its contemporary racial shadow, its deep political and cultural polarization, and a divisive president who will never be capable of leading a nation, we continue to find ourselves in the heart of The Great Release (and this time, not from an economic depression or disease pandemic, but from our deep and terrible racist heritage). In this brief article, I want to use a few lenses of integral metatheory—concepts you’ll be familiar with, but applied in ways you’ve never seen before—to see if we can get a broader view of what’s happening.
Deeper Into the Great Release
Robb Smith and Corey deVosLadies and gentlemen, the Great Release is truly and fully underway. That earthquake has now begun. Nanoscopically small and quietly transmissible, Covid-19 would be almost laughable as a catalyst for the great release if it weren’t so deadly. But as it stands, it is in fact the perfect spark to alight the ample tinder of total system irresilience.
A New War for Power
Robb SmithBlack Lives Matter. MeToo. North Korea. Robert Mueller. Fake news. What do these and dozens of other headlines have in common? Join Robb as he explains how they all point to a new war for power that is currently underway: how power is being used and misused, how power is changing, and who will have power when the momentous leap into the transformation age is done.
Never Been Better, Never Felt Worse: Inside the Rise of an Integral Global Operating System for the 21st Century
Robb SmithIntegral Life CEO Robb Smith puts the tumult of 2016 into historical perspective and looks ahead at the “momentous leap into the transformation age” that he believes is underway right now. Taking a long view of history, evolutionary dynamics, culture and economics, Robb argues that we’re at the peak of a Green, pluralistic global operating system, with Orange modernism slipping into our rearview mirror, and Teal integralism just beginning to emerge, holding all the promise of overcoming the evolutionary contradictions that gave rise to populism and leaders like Donald Trump.
Cryptocurrency for Newbies: The Evolution of Money
Ryan Oelke, Jeff Salzman and Corey deVosIn this very special episode we take a close look at one of the most exciting and disruptive new technological forces in society: the rise of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.
The Debt Collective
Douglas RushkoffDoug Rushkoff interviews Astra Taylor and Thomas Gokey, co-founders of Strike Debt, Rolling Jubilee and most recently the Debt Collective. The Debt Collective is a direct action campaign that leverages the collective power of debtors, united together, against exploitative for-profit education and lending institutions in the US. Astra and Thomas give Team Human listeners a template for hacking real world systems and tapping into the power of solidarity.
WTF is CryptoMind?
Corey deVosWhat exactly is “cryptocurrency”, and why should you care? In this inaugural episode of the new CryptoMind podcast, our good friends Ryan Oelke (from PowerUp Productions) and Vincent Horn (from Buddhist Geeks) answer these questions, offer their own big-picture reflections, share their stories, and talk about the larger significance of the cryptospace as they see it.
Inside the Great Release
Robb SmithJoin Integral Life co-founder Robb Smith as he explains the current historical moment as a natural and predictable backlash against the twin dominance of the right-leaning Multinational Capital Holon in economics and the left-leaning Multicultural Culture Holon in culture since the 1970s.
The Great Release
Robb SmithRising populism and the election of President Trump are symptoms of massive irresilience that has been building in the U.S.-led world state since 1945, and may reflect the end of the fourth cycle of economic hegemony of the past 800 years. The Great Recession of 2008 was just a tremor. We wind toward a coming global breakdown, a great release that threatens regression across our lives.
The Rise of the Benefit Corporation: Bringing More Sanity, Sustainability, and Success to Big Business
John Montgomery and Robb SmithIn a world where corporations often act like psychopaths and seem steered by barely more than greed and avarice, is it possible to transcend their sociopathic pursuit of profit and bring more care and consciousness to our economic system? Listen as corporate lawyer and conscious business leader John Montgomery explains how we arrived at the corporate oligarchy in which we now find ourselves, and how we might be able to steer ourselves toward a more sane and sustainable future.
Capitalism: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity
Douglas Rushkoff and Robb SmithIn this Integral Life exclusive, renown media theorist and author Douglas Rushkoff argues that the central assumption of our economic lives — that further economic growth will create continually rising prosperity for all — is broken.
Right Bucks: Money and Spirituality
Ken WilberIn dealing with this issue of money and Dharma—or money and spirituality in general—there are at least two very different items that need to be teased apart and addressed separately. The first is the appropriate monetary value of any relational exchange (from medical care to education to goods and services in general); and the second is, should monetary exchange ever be linked to Dharma teaching?
The Great Divide
Robb SmithPopulism is on the rise. Too many people feel left out of the march of prosperity and more people than ever believe that the future will not see their kids better off than they are today. The rich get richer while the middle class remains stagnant. There is a growing and robust backlash to political correctness and immigration. And artificial intelligence threatens to make the coming jobs war even worse than previously anticipated…
The Economics of Being Integral
Ken WilberThe economics of being integral is a good news and bad news situation. Even possessing an interest in this work seems to correlate with development that’s moving toward increasingly integral waves awareness, resulting in the capacity to see more, feel more, care more, and love more — a capacity for an awareness that is simply greater and more encompassing.