10.31.2004
A Theory of Everything
From Ken Wilber's A Theory of Everything: An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science, and Spirituality
From his chapter on "Boomeritis" he discusses Growth Hierarchies versus Dominator Hierarchies...
Pluralism, egalitarianism, and multiculturalism, at their best, all stem from a very high developmental stance - the green meme (pluralistic worldview) - and from the stance of pluralistic fairness and concern, the green meme attempts to treat all other memes with equal care and compassion, a truly noble intent. But because it embraces an intense egalitarianism it fails to see that its own stance - which is the first stance that is even capable of egalitarianism - is a fairly rare, elite stance (somewhat around 10 percent of the world's population, as we saw). Worse, the green meme then aggressively denies the stages that produced the green meme in the first place, because it wishes to view all memes equally and not make any ranking judgments. But green egalitarianism is the product, we have seen, of at least six major stages of development, stages that it then turns around and aggressively denies in the name of egalitarianism!
…An aggressive antihierarchy stance is usually an unmistakable hallmark of the green meme.
But with the emergence of second tier, hierarchies again return, this time in a softer, nested fashion. These nested hierarchies are often called growth hierarchies, such as the hierarchy atoms to molecules to cells to organisms to ecosystems to biosphere to universe. Each of those units, no matter how “lowly,” is absolutely crucial for the entire sequence: destroy all atoms and you simultaneously destroy all molecules, cells, ecosystems and so on. At the same time, each senior wave enfolds or envelops its predecessors…And thus each wave becomes more inclusive, more embracing, more integral – and less marginalizing, less exclusionary, less oppressive. (Each successive wave “transcends and includes” – transcends its own narrowness to include others.)
…Thus, if we react negatively to all hierarchies, not only will we honorably fight the injustices of dominator hierarchies, we will very probably prevent ourselves from developing to the integral second tier.
…(The same thing happens with both “universals” and “metanarratives.” They are absent in the preconventional waves; exist in rigid and oppressive ways at blue; are attacked and deconstructed at green; then return in a softer, nested fashion at all second-tier integral waves. Whenever you hear an attack on metanarratives and universals, you are almost always in the presence of a green meme.)
and here’s my take, fwiw.
Without going into a big long explanation of his organizing framework, suffice to say that Wilber paints a nice picture of post-pomo that makes a lot of good sense. Instead of saying, “We’ve outgrown modernism” pomoxianity should say, “we’ve absorbed modernism, and we’ve also absorbed pomo and we’ve integrated them.” Both/and really does mean both/and to Wilber and, imo, to us.
It isn’t about reinventing the church or replacing an old model with a new one. It is about putting another ring of growth on the outside of the tree, embracing and encircling the trunk and the heart, without which our very existence wouldn’t be possible. Does new bark fault old bark for wearing out on a tree? Not that I know of. So why should those of us coming to the surface feel the need to remonstrate against the wood upon which we are built? Sort of biting the hand that feeds us.
I see the pomo-mo conflict one of unnecessary tension. And we can’t blame it all on the mo’s for not getting it. If we really got it, then we would know where they’re coming from, who they are, what they need and how to minister to them effectively. Let’s drop the us/them, stop complaining about how “they” do church, keep what works, leave what doesn’t behind, build a bridge and get over it.
From his chapter on "Boomeritis" he discusses Growth Hierarchies versus Dominator Hierarchies...
Pluralism, egalitarianism, and multiculturalism, at their best, all stem from a very high developmental stance - the green meme (pluralistic worldview) - and from the stance of pluralistic fairness and concern, the green meme attempts to treat all other memes with equal care and compassion, a truly noble intent. But because it embraces an intense egalitarianism it fails to see that its own stance - which is the first stance that is even capable of egalitarianism - is a fairly rare, elite stance (somewhat around 10 percent of the world's population, as we saw). Worse, the green meme then aggressively denies the stages that produced the green meme in the first place, because it wishes to view all memes equally and not make any ranking judgments. But green egalitarianism is the product, we have seen, of at least six major stages of development, stages that it then turns around and aggressively denies in the name of egalitarianism!
…An aggressive antihierarchy stance is usually an unmistakable hallmark of the green meme.
But with the emergence of second tier, hierarchies again return, this time in a softer, nested fashion. These nested hierarchies are often called growth hierarchies, such as the hierarchy atoms to molecules to cells to organisms to ecosystems to biosphere to universe. Each of those units, no matter how “lowly,” is absolutely crucial for the entire sequence: destroy all atoms and you simultaneously destroy all molecules, cells, ecosystems and so on. At the same time, each senior wave enfolds or envelops its predecessors…And thus each wave becomes more inclusive, more embracing, more integral – and less marginalizing, less exclusionary, less oppressive. (Each successive wave “transcends and includes” – transcends its own narrowness to include others.)
…Thus, if we react negatively to all hierarchies, not only will we honorably fight the injustices of dominator hierarchies, we will very probably prevent ourselves from developing to the integral second tier.
…(The same thing happens with both “universals” and “metanarratives.” They are absent in the preconventional waves; exist in rigid and oppressive ways at blue; are attacked and deconstructed at green; then return in a softer, nested fashion at all second-tier integral waves. Whenever you hear an attack on metanarratives and universals, you are almost always in the presence of a green meme.)
and here’s my take, fwiw.
Without going into a big long explanation of his organizing framework, suffice to say that Wilber paints a nice picture of post-pomo that makes a lot of good sense. Instead of saying, “We’ve outgrown modernism” pomoxianity should say, “we’ve absorbed modernism, and we’ve also absorbed pomo and we’ve integrated them.” Both/and really does mean both/and to Wilber and, imo, to us.
It isn’t about reinventing the church or replacing an old model with a new one. It is about putting another ring of growth on the outside of the tree, embracing and encircling the trunk and the heart, without which our very existence wouldn’t be possible. Does new bark fault old bark for wearing out on a tree? Not that I know of. So why should those of us coming to the surface feel the need to remonstrate against the wood upon which we are built? Sort of biting the hand that feeds us.
I see the pomo-mo conflict one of unnecessary tension. And we can’t blame it all on the mo’s for not getting it. If we really got it, then we would know where they’re coming from, who they are, what they need and how to minister to them effectively. Let’s drop the us/them, stop complaining about how “they” do church, keep what works, leave what doesn’t behind, build a bridge and get over it.
