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Most integralists are waist to neck deep in the postmodern world view, which we refer to as the Green altitude of development. Our emerging Integral sensibility chafes against the limits of Green, yet we remain deeply identified in ways that are worth carrying forward.
The upsides of Green are astonishing: after countless centuries of brutality, culminating in the horrors of World War II, a new leading edge of humanity emerges whose ethos is sensitivity and whose mission is to rehabilitate the victims of history: the slaves, the sinners and the losers, as well as to grant a new moral status to the domains of animals and nature.
The downside of the Green altitude is that it has lost faith in humanity. It is allergic to truth claims, it ridicules convention and is deeply suspicious of power. It’s role is deconstructive, which it often plays so thoroughly that there is nothing left for its adherents to hold on to.
Welcome to the cutting edge of human evolution in the 21st-century! In this episode Jeff is interviewed by Doshin Michael Nelson, founder of Integral Zen, about the nature of Green and the Integral way forward.
About Jeff Salzman
Jeff Salzman worked with Ken Wilber for several years in building the Integral Institute. He is a co-founder of Boulder Integral, the first bricks-and-mortar venue dedicated to the development of integral consciousness. These days Jeff provides integrally-inspired commentary on politics and culture on Integral Life and The Daily Evolver.
Comments
I loved this discussion! It definitely helped me to deepen my understanding of the Green and Integral perspectives.
I’d like to hear more about why “Green” is economically unsustainable.
I’d also like to hear more about “Amber.” Is it simply the transitional level between “Red” and “Orange”?
Many thanks!
Tada
Having just typed what I felt like I suddenly think I can afford the $15. Hey Tada I met you at the centre, unless you are someone else? I cover what you wanted in my post (incidentaly). But you said your name was Hamilton, the name of my city (incidentaly). In the moment you asked me of my experience, and I replied that I had just had a depth experience of turya, unlike anything I had ever experienced; but that it then collapsed, however, after having had it I now know I could easily get back there. Then you said: “get back where? it’s all right here”
I considered this for a moment until concluding that you had know idea what I had meant.
Anyway, I was hoping I could, in good faith and humour, add you to my friends list on this site (which I am about to pay for), except I need to make sure you are the person.
Are you the person?
If I had $15 dollars to pay for this I would love to learn about most integralists. I can just picture it – like a realist portrail of a landscape, or a winters full moon: because I myself am balls deep in a postructialist altitude of development which means the people whom inhabit it don’t even know about the moon, or pretend they don’t. Yet I honestly feel that what passes for green these days is actually blue. By that I mean amber, because at amber people know what green is (otherwise we could just say blue) and also know what teal is… And they always say they are the highest people, whilst co-ordinating themselves around their sacred document, and if you don’t understand their sacred document on their terms they tell you that you are beneath them, and say that people who have not discovered their holy charta are less than them. What I mean to say of course is that SDi is a better map (for absolutely no apparent reason whatsoever, miraculously) to help understand why it is seemingly the way of nature to get to green and see nobody anywhere at all at teal or beyond and feel lonely, and be an integralist knee deep in peoples “postmodern thoughts” and not be aware of anyone you could potentially meet who is on the level with you there. At amber. I mean green. Wait, Teal. Yes. Teal. At teal hanging out nearly exclusively with postmodernists – as one does at teal. But with SDi I can see a way forward that means people who show up together as an ethnocentered hub endorsing green values (ie amber), as opposed to teal values… Well I mean I could decide just not to be friends with them now that I know what colours actually mean (thanks Jeff) which is why I never get sick of talking about spiral dynamics with people and making sure that they comprehend that I am a person of good standing who has a map. A good one. But enough about metaphysics… Wait, did I say metaphysics? I meant to say pre-given absolutes that change over time, providing us solutions to problems or suchlike, and because of their providing; we should be thankful for the providence, and identify it in ourselves, so that we might get beyond ourselves. Which is why the chafing feeling of people with dreadlocks singing and dancing in a drum circle is an indicator that one should probably find a new sphere of culture where that is not the be all and end all of what you are all about (just a valued part)…. Rationally (I mean, come on… You have a map). You know – find people with Sidhis, who can tell you how you think before you have said anything.