White Pride vs. White Guilt in the #MeToo Era

Terry Patten Cognitive, Conversations, Perspectives, Values, Video, World Affairs, Worldviews 2 Comments

There is a hidden subtext lurking behind the Trump reality show, US political gridlock, and the Kavanaugh confirmation showdown. Yes, it’s certainly a clash of worldviews. But it’s also about racial and cultural tribes. And it’s even about gender roles and identities.

A new unapologetic consciousness is rising among young white men. It’s been galvanized by many things — not just reactions to the decline of masculine privilege and the rise of women’s power, not just to “involuntary celibacy” and LGBTQ rights. It has a positive current, in which many young men are rediscovering self-respect and self-discipline, inspired by Jordan Peterson and others. They’re breaking addictions — to substances, habits, and even internet pornography. They’re getting inspired to co-create a new future based on blockchain and cryptocurrency, many negatively in the form of apocalyptic survivalist movements. A sizable contributor to the ugliness on display at Charlottesville in 2017 came from some of the least healthy of these rootless young white men.

Terry Patten is inspired by a whole new wave of feminine leadership, and he’s excited about the new possibilities for cross-gender partnership and co-leadership. But he thinks that white male heroism has an important necessary role in the time ahead. And he has some speculations about how that might express itself in our current fraught political moment.

Cultural and political fissures are beginning to open, following the lines dividing mature “wise” conservatives and those captive to “expert” action-logic and populism. And he has a specific vision for an alliance between members of the “aristocracy of wisdom” on the left and the right” to transform the current political stuckness in the USA into a rich productive evolutionary dialectic.

Watch as Terry Patten and Corey deVos explore all this and more.

 

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Terry Patten

About Terry Patten

An integral coach, consultant, teacher, and author of four books, Terry's work focuses on serving "the integral heart" by evolving the leading edge of leadership and practice. He was the senior writer and co-author, with Ken Wilber, of Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening.

Corey deVos

About Corey deVos

Corey W. deVos is Editor-in-Chief of Integral Life, as well as Managing Editor of KenWilber.com. He has worked for Integral Institute/Integal Life since Spring of 2003, and has been a student of integral theory and practice since 1996. Corey is also a professional woodworker, and many of his artworks can be found in his VisionLogix art gallery.

Notable Replies

  1. Reading material on white guilt after viewing this Integral Life segment, I came across the lyrics below which were cited in one of the articles. The lyrics are from a 1992 Leonard Cohen song called “The Future.” If ever there was an anthem for leftist-green views of white (man’s) guilt, this would have to be it, or at least near the top of the list, as it captures or suggests many of the “sins” historically and still attributed to white men, everything from authoritarianism to “stopping the wheels of heaven.” Wow, heavy stuff.

    While the lyrics are coarse, bleak, and brutal, I actually like the sound of the song, which you can listen to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKwr3DDvFpw if so inclined.

    Religiously, Cohen practiced Judaism throughout his life, was also an ordained Buddhist monk, and had an affinity for Christ, all without any inner conflict on his part. While that alone does not qualify him as even a borderline Integralist, it does give him some points in my book and off-sets some of the bleakness (and also might help explain some of the lyrics).

    The Future

    Give me back my broken night,
    My mirrored room, my secret life
    It’s lonely here,
    There’s no one left to torture.

    Give me absolute control
    Over every living soul
    And lie beside me, baby,
    That’s an order!

    Give me crack and anal sex,
    Take the only tree that’s left
    And stuff it up the hole
    In your culture

    Give me back the Berlin wall
    Give me Stalin and Saint Paul
    I’ve seen the future, brother:
    It is murder

    (Refrain)
    Things are going to slide
    Slide in all directions
    Won’t be nothing
    Nothing you can measure
    Anymore
    The blizzard,
    The blizzard of the world
    Has crossed the threshold
    And it has overturned
    The order of the soul
    When they said Repent Repent
    I wonder what they meant
    When they said Repent Repent
    I wonder what they meant
    When they said Repent Repent
    I wonder what they meant

    You don’t know me from the wind
    You never will, you never did
    I’m the little jew
    Who wrote the Bible

    I’ve seen the nations
    Rise and fall
    I’ve heard their stories
    Heard them all
    But love’s the only engine
    Of survival

    Your servant here
    He has been told
    To say it clear,
    To say it cold:
    It’s over, it ain’t going
    Any further

    And now the wheels
    Of heaven stop
    You can feel the devil’s riding crop
    Get ready for the future:
    It is murder

    (Refrain)

    There’ll be the breaking of
    The ancient Western code
    Your private life
    Will suddenly explode
    There’ll be phantoms,
    There’ll be fires on the road

    And a white man dancing

    You’ll see a woman
    hanging upside down
    Her features covered
    by her fallen gown
    And all the lousy little poets
    Come around
    Trying to sound like
    Charlie Manson

    And the white man dancing

    Give me back the Berlin wall
    Give me Stalin and Saint Paul
    Give me Christ or give me
    Hiroshima

    Destroy another foetus now
    We don’t like children anyhow
    I’ve seen the future, baby,
    It is murder

  2. Avatar for Coda Coda says:

    Here’s one that attempts to build bridges and specifically addresses white guilt with:

    “You gotta put down the weight, you gotta get out of your way.”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KOgVFaTFy8

    Dear brother
    When you gonna call back your mother?
    She thinks you’re sleeping in the gutter
    We both know you can do better
    When you gonna write your older brother?
    A letter
    Hey man I miss you, gettin my shit together
    And for the record
    I wrote this note as a reminder
    Hermano mio there’s a future
    We can believe in
    It’s gonna take more than songs of justice and freedom
    There’s a future, we can believe in
    Gonna take more than songs of justice and freedom
    Freedom! Yeah
    If you’re thinking, about leaving
    Hold my hand, understand this too can be a kingdom
    Blessed
    And when the rain comes
    Put your hands in the dirt, baba this is where you came from
    This is where you came from
    This is where you came from
    This is where you came from
    Systems broken no fucks given
    Wealthy people living off the backs of the broken
    Dreams of America
    Dreams of America
    Need a pipe carrier
    Let me smudge you off so the vision can get clearer
    Your mothers crying boy can you hear her?

    [Pre-Chorus]
    What I see, in you
    A young tree bearing fruit
    Place to start
    Don’t hide behind your heart

    [Chorus]
    You gotta put down the weight
    You gotta get out of your way
    You gotta put down the weight
    You gotta get out of your way

    [Verse 2]
    Dear lover
    You can find me on the front lines covered
    In the blood and tears of another
    Brother, sister, mother
    Revolutions being broadcast on Facebook and Twitter
    There’s a noise
    I can hear it when the megaphone roars
    Wipe the tears from this tear gas choice
    We have a choice
    Stand in front of your fear, baby, time to find your voice
    It’s a story
    A love story
    We can believe in
    Death, birth, your life’s worth is trending
    It’s a story
    A love story
    How vain are we to expect a happy ending?
    I got my hands up
    Follow directions still they shoot us
    I’m fucking sick and tired of no justice
    No peace
    Promise me I’ll never pick your body off the streets
    We’re all taking heat here
    The trust is broken I don’t get these police
    Disenfranchised step in to a new life
    Maybe if you listen to the wind there’s a war cry
    Peace in America
    Peace in America
    Be decent America
    I’m begging you

    [Pre-Chorus]
    What I see, in you
    A young tree bearing fruit
    Place to start
    Don’t hide behind your heart

    [Chorus]
    You gotta put down the weight
    You gotta get out of your way
    You gotta put down the weight
    You gotta get out of your way

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