c-Integral | BLOG

I think Integral activism faces some of the same challenges that are endemic within the field of integral thinking more generally-that is how to think in more holistic and comprehensive ways when much of our experience is highly situated. One of the fascinating contributions that integral activism has to make to the larger field (and Raul has done some of this) is in considering how power and privilege play a role in what we call integral. Both in terms of who ‘speaks the language of integral’ as well as in relation to what is considered the most highly evolved or comprehensive forms of integral thinking. I also think that in the push toward non heirachal thinking or in attempting to integrate more categories are often horizontalized and the question of values comes up. I think Integral activism may sensitize people to the fact that when someone is suffering they are going to prioritize the immediacy and importance of that experience. In fact, the strength of character, the insights into oneness that emerge as a result of the struggle to effect change are I think are very strong pathways through which to access integral thinking. One potential concern I have is that we may see engaging with the ways that separation (all the isms) manifests in the world as a stumbling block to some higher consciousness and that we need to ‘deal with that’ to get to some more integral place and that it is in that higher place that the work really begins and so some more advanced beings are already doing that. I think somehow transforming separation, creating lived experiences of oneness or understanding and feeling multipositionality is the place where integral being often occurs. It is often ‘in the trenches on the front lines’ (can someone give me a nonwarlike descriptor) as a result of the challenge, resistance, creativity, and struggle to embody more inclusive values to come together across lines of difference and come to know something new. I think of the archetype of the Buddha as an integral thinker, it wasn’t only in his father’s castle that he came to his view and reflective processes were key but she/he also went out and engaged the world. I think integral activism can make a strong case for how engagement in social justice expands the limits of our situated identities. A series of stories and case studies would be fascinating in this regard. Anyone want to write it with me? Interested to hear your thoughts on this unfiltered post….