From: David Buchanan (DBuchanan@ClassicalRadio.org)
Date: Sun Jun 01 2003 - 20:21:32 BST
Platt said:
I thought so. Nothing in the MoQ says that individuals who identify with
communities uplift themselves to a higher evoluntionary level. In fact,
identifying with groups any sort--village, nation, global, whatever--is a
step backward on the evolutionary ladder to social level values. To escape
from the suffocating bonds of the Giant, collectivism and "social
construction of reality" was the value force behind the rise of the
intellectual level and the recognition in the U.S. of the sovereignty of
the individual. Wilber's "Sensitive Self" with it emphasis on community
and human bonding (hey comrade) sounds like it was lifted right out of the
Communist Manifesto.
dmb says:
I think its a mistake to think of any group as the Giant or as
"collectivism". In fact, Pirsig describes the intellectual half of Woodrow
Wilson as the advocate of the League of Nations, our first serious attempt
at a global organization. He describes FDR's New Deal as intellectual too,
but I'm sure you'd characterize that as "collectivism". In any case, your
response was no surprize. From the very same chapter and pages where Wilber
describes the levels, including the "Sentitive Self"....
"But what none of these levels can do, on its own, is fully appreciate the
existence of the other levels. Each one of the first-tier levels (1 thru 6)
thinks that its worldview is the correct or best perspective. It reacts
negatively if challenged; it lashes out, using its own tools, whenever it is
threatened. The CONFORMIST is very uncomfortable with both level three's
impulsiveness and level five's individualism. SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENT thinks
level four is for suckers and that the Sensitive Self is weak and woo-woo.
Senitive self egalitarianism... reacts strongly to levels four, five, and
anything post level six. All of that begins to change with 7 and 8 level
thinking because this level of consciousness is fully aware of the interior
stages of development - even if it cannot articulate them in a technical
fashion- it steps back and grasps the big picture and thus appreciates the
necessary role that all the various levels play. ... And yet without level 7
and 8 thinking, as graves and Beck and Cowan point out, humanity is destined
to remain victims of a global "auto-immune disease", where the various
levels turn on each other in attempt to establish supremacy."
dmb wraps:
I think this explains Platt's reaction and makes it obvious why he would
object to the Sensitive Self. And I think in Wilber's "auto-immune disease"
we can see what Pirsig describes as a clash between the 3rd and 4th levels,
as the hurricane of the 20th century, the chasm between ourselves and the
Victorians, etc.
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