INTEGRAL
WHEN THE PAST NO LONGER ILLUMINATES THE FUTURE, THE SPIRIT WALKS IN DARKNESS. Alexis de Tocqueville
TRADITION IS NOT THE WORSHIP OF ASHES BUT THE PRESERVATION OF FIRE. Gustav Mahler
WHEN THE PAST NO LONGER ILLUMINATES THE FUTURE, THE SPIRIT WALKS IN DARKNESS. Alexis de Tocqueville
THE INTUITIVE MIND IS A SACRED GIFT, AND THE RATIONAL MIND IS A FAITHFUL SERVANT. WE HAVE CREATED A SOCIETY THAT HONOURS THE SERVANT BUT HAS FORGOTTEN THE GIFT. Albert Einstein
INTEGRAL
Definition: Containing everything necessary for completeness.
This essay contains two sections:
1. The Future Is Built From The Past
2. The Left Hemisphere World
THE FUTURE IS BUILT FROM THE PAST
American thinker, Ken Wilber, developed a philosophical framework called ‘Integral Theory’ which sought to integrate all forms of human experience and wisdom into one coherent ‘theory of everything’.
From gestalt psychology to Christianity to Marxism, Integral Theory provides a ‘map’ showing how each unique theory or tradition can be assessed and understood in the context of its relationship to all others.
The theory is formed of a number of different frameworks and interconnected component parts, which we’ll explore in more detail elsewhere. The element I want to focus on in this essay relates to the varying 'Altitudes of Development' attained by humanity and human civilisations through the ages.
Wilber posits that humanity is on a collective journey, as individuals and societies, towards higher states of consciousness. From Archaic, to Post-Integral, and everything in between. As described in the diagram above, thanks to Shores of Infinity.
As we build our Future System, we must do so in the understanding that more recent developmental stages in culture and our collective and individual consciousness are inextricably layered upon and nested within those that came before.
They cannot be separated from each other.
I’ll repeat that, as it’s a crucial point:
They cannot be separated from each other.
Think of this like the rings of a tree. Each year of new growth creates a new ring, with its own story to tell. Although each ring is separate, they all form part of the same tree. The new growth embedded within and made from the same living material as the old. Impossible to separate, without killing the tree in the process.
So too with human civilisations.
Everything we have today is built on sedimentary layers of ideological, political, theological, architectural, musical, linguistic, economic and spiritual heritage laid down over millennia. It is literally impossible to build a future that disregards these roots. We have no idea what would be abandoned in the process.
TRADITION IS NOT THE WORSHIP OF ASHES BUT THE PRESERVATION OF FIRE. Gustav Mahler
Despite all this, the vandals of global modernity would have us believe that our ancient culture and wisdom is nothing more than old-fashioned, anachronistic mumbo jumbo. That tradition and heritage are inconvenient distractions to be casually discarded in the relentless pursuit of novelty. That quaint notions such as 'virtue', for example, bear no relation to human existence in the 21st Century. An idea that simply could not be further from the truth.
Let's be absolutely clear: this is barbarism.
Pure and simple.
We are witnessing wanton destruction of culture at an unprecedented rate.
And, in the process, the abandonment of... everything. The incalculable wealth of heritage, tradition and wisdom that made England one of the Great Nations of History. That allowed Europe to become a crucible of culture, industry and thought that defined a Millennia.
A legacy that none of us alive today have the right to simply abandon because it’s convenient to do so. Nor, quite clearly, that we are capable of replacing in pursuit of some poorly-defined notion of ‘progress’.
WHEN THE PAST NO LONGER ILLUMINATES THE FUTURE, THE SPIRIT WALKS IN DARKNESS. Alexis de Tocqueville
THE LEFT HEMISPHERE WORLD
I’m an admirer of Iain McGilchrist. He is one of the pre-eminent thinkers of our day. I hope to interview him at some point.
McGilchrist speaks in great depth about the division between Left- and Right-Brain thinking. As much as we need to take an 'integral' perspective regarding our history, we also need to take an integral perspective about our own psychology and physiology.
I was particularly inspired by this clip from McGilchrist's recent speech at CERN:
I'm sure you'll agree it's remarkable how familiar the attributes of the Left Hemisphere World McGilchrist describes sound when compared to our current reality.
Right down to the music we listen to, the art we create, the tone of public discourse...
THE INTUITIVE MIND IS A SACRED GIFT, AND THE RATIONAL MIND IS A FAITHFUL SERVANT. WE HAVE CREATED A SOCIETY THAT HONOURS THE SERVANT BUT HAS FORGOTTEN THE GIFT. Albert Einstein
What’s causing this? A non-exhaustive list:
The existence of the Corporation: literally the legal construct that is purely self-interested and focused on accruing power and wealth for itself at the expense of others, and maintaining a status quo position without room for genuine creativity or innovation.
An education system and broader cultural landscape set up primarily to benefit owners of Corporations. Where human ingenuity and creativity are deliberately stifled and suppressed by those in power. Where academic and technical disciplines are separated between the ‘left’ and ‘right’ brain from the earliest stages of our education.
A late-stage Civilisational cycle where super abundance has removed the necessity and drive to create new things. We have become soft, lazy, arrogant and dumb in extremis. Mere consumers of the legacy left by previous generations, with no understanding of what was required to build that legacy in the first place.
Governance through fear, which deliberately places us in a constant state of anxiety. Our ‘fight or flight’ mode engaged, with our reductive ‘left brain’ dominating our thinking as we desperately try to ‘control’ the increasingly chaotic and combative world we’re presented with by our ‘leaders’.
The deliberate destruction of the Church and any notion of spiritual life within most Western nations over the past several Centuries. Most notably in England (where PATTERN is based). A process which has almost completely separated us from any sense of awe, wonder or notion of Divine purpose and objective morality.
The ascendance of Science, a reductive ‘left brain’ discipline with its obsessive desire to quantify and separate reality into fundamental ‘knowable’ components while abandoning reverence for the whole.
I’m sure readers can provide their own examples.
How do we fix this? How do we reintegrate the ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ brain?
By pressing the reset button. Starting again. Going back to first principles.
By consciously and patiently remapping the intellectual and spiritual terrain that has been obscured from us.
And deliberately creating time and space for human ingenuity to flourish.
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E pluribus unum.
Ben Rubin
PATTERN