What changes culture?

Continuing from the last few posts, it seems that the political and social revolution arises from the external socio-economic system, the mode of production. This agrees with at least that part of the Lingam that spoke to this as the predominant way most people move into a new level overall. Where it differs with kennilingus is that the latter thinks it's more developed individuals that create the new systems from the inside out. It seems it's more individuals being affected by the emerging tech and modes of production that then instills the value logic.

It's similar to the point I made here about successful trans-partisanship being accomplished not by having a 'higher' model to which one must conform, but by the actual practice of operating within the socio-cultural practice of democracy. This is what transforms individual operators to have a value logic supporting the notion of the public good in distinction from the dysfunctional notion of individuality espoused tireless by the regressive capitalists that prefer oligarchy. Again, it's the social practice that inculcates a working trans-partisanship for democracy against oligarchy, where the kennilingus inside-out model has yet to have even a miniscule effect on this stated goal.

Bauwens on Rifkin's Commons

From Michel Bauwens' review of the book here. On the transition from capitalism to the commons:

"Political and social revolution is preceded by the emergence, within the old system, of the new productive system and its value logic. Not the other way around, as the socialist and marxist tradition has claimed. Today, in the very womb of capitalism, the new mode of production, the new way of value creation and distribution, is already emerging and growing, but under the domination of the old system still, but, as its logic is fundamentally different of the logic of capital, it cannot possibly be subsumed forever, and prepares the ground for a structural transformation. This structural transformation, or 'phase transition', will make the emergent subsystem into the new dominant logic."

Thom Hartmann on Supreme Court authority

On his radio show today he discussed the Court's ruling in the Hobby Lobby case. The Court said that closely-held private companies like Hobby Lobby can refuse to provide certain forms of birth control on its health insurance plan if it is against their religious beliefs. While there are a number of issues on this case, the one Hartmann focused upon is the Supreme Court's Constitutional authority based on Article 3, Section 2, which reads in part:

"In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make."

On trans-partisanship

There has been much talk in integral circles about trans-partisanship, on how we work together to implement a better political system. Unfortunately this usually revolves around selling the AQAL model, that to achieve this end we must use this particular model not only to understand the problem but to implement its solution. That is, we have to teach this model to government officials which will thereby elevate their personal level of understanding so that they can then use the model for coordinating such trans-partisanship.

On the other hand we have the likes of Ralph Nader, who it seems has never heard of such a model and is making inroads into just the sort of trans-partisanship necessary to overcome what has become a fascist oligarchy in the US.

Japanese line dance

This is apparently the latest J-pop line dance craze. Meaning it's still on the top 20 list for this week.

The pitchforks are coming

This article discusses a piece by multi-millionaire Nick Hanaue, who said:

"And what do I see in our future now? I see pitchforks. At the same time that people like you and me are thriving beyond the dreams of any plutocrats in history, the rest of the country—the 99.99 percent—is lagging far behind. The divide between the haves and have-nots is getting worse really, really fast. In 1980, the top 1 percent controlled about 8 percent of U.S. national income. The bottom 50 percent shared about 18 percent. Today the top 1 percent share about 20 percent; the bottom 50 percent, just 12 percent.

The President skewers Congressional climate change deniers

And boy howdy does he (starting at 11:55). He makes them a laughingstock, which is exactly what they are.

Petition FCC to hold public hearings

See and sign the petition from Daily Kos here if you're so inclined.

In the past few weeks, an overwhelming number of comments have been filed at the FCC in favor of protecting an open internet and real net neutrality. Despite this, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has not scheduled large, public field hearings. Before Chairman Wheeler considers passing rules which could end net neutrality and open the door for pay-to-play lanes, he should face the American public by holding large, open public meetings across the country.

Sanders reminds us how wrong they were on Iraq

Senator Sanders quotes the regressives on the first time around in Iraq. And we're going to even give them the time of day again?

Dick Cheney

• "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency." June 20, 2005 (Source) 
• "I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly, . . . (in) weeks rather than months." March 16, 2003 (Source)
• “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us.” (Source)
• "If we had to do it over again we would do exactly the same thing.” September 13, 2006 (Source)
• “What we did in Iraq was exactly the right thing to do. If I had it to recommend all over again, I would recommend exactly the same course of action.” October 5, 2004 (Source)

Bill Kristol

Fire

You've been living like a little girl
In the middle of your little world
And your mind, your tiny mind
You know you've really been so blind
Now's your time to burn your mind
You're falling far too far behind

And Johnny Cash doing Nine Inch Nails

Acoustic Alchemy

Speaking of jazz fusion, here's another golden oldie by Acoustic Alchemy. They too infused various cultural riffs in their hybrids. This one has a middle eastern flair. And the virtuosity is impeccable.

Hiroshima

I as reminded of this old-school Japanese-American jazz fusion hybrid.

I miss the misery

And here's Lzzy's band.

Warfare Queens

Jon Stewart on the regressive culture of defendency. The chicken hawks have no problem protecting every other country from oppression except our own, at every turn cutting or blocking domestic spending for our needy because "we don't have the money," yet frothing rabidly to spend, spend, spend on military intervention at every turn.

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Gotta be you

Lindsey and Lzzy

Now that's talent

Somethin' Bad

Developmental pros and cons

Continuing on a theme in recent posts, let's explore Otto Laske’s article in the Aug/Nov ’13 issue of ILR. It is pertinent given that it supports and espouses a developmental framework. But it also cautions about its uses and misuses, something to which we must be attentive, especially when such frameworks unconsciously maintain the very sort of societal obstructions which they claim to overcome.

Therein Laske differentiates between culture and civilization. The 'soul' resides in the former whereas the latter is our everyday work life. In that sense it is akin to this thread, in that religion is the structuring force of a culture at large in its many domains. What has happened with developmental tech is that it has become a tool of its socio-historical capitalist civilization, in that its culture of the higher reaches of human potential (soul) has been instrumentalized to function as more efficient and productive workers within that context. Hence we get these spiritual evolutionaries running around thinking they're at the peak of human development, marketing and selling their wares at exorbitant rates, and sending their clients back into the same capitalist work world as if they can magically change it from within while not addressing the capitalist meme itself. And meanwhile continuing to consume everything at unsustainable rates thereby maintaining that status quo. Laske sees this as an unconscious bias of developmentalists that all the work is internal and individual, overlooking the external and social policies also necessary.

Russel Brand on Fox's terrorist propaganda

Does Picketty address the real problem?

This article claims that while Picketty is right in what he asserts, he doesn't address the real problem that we cannot sustain the kind of growth we used to, for it lives beyond the sustainable means of earth's carrying capacity. True, but Rifkin addresses this move from capitalist consumption to commons sharing, thereby aligning with a sustainable biospheric capacity.

Circle jerking conflicts of interest

Further commenting on the satires, recall what Laske said in this post:

"I am also concerned with effects of systems on human agents because systems are typically used to classify, constrain, and subdue individuals, often with the pretension of 'helping' them (as in 'developmental coaching')."

Compare with p. 6 of the satires:

“The number of people doing massage far outnumbers the number of people that actually exist! So we have to use our imagination in creating a market by telling people what they really need […] by judging them according to our 'programs' and telling them what they should do to be healthy.”

More on satire

Further commenting on this post, as is evident from these 30-year old satires, the same issues are pertinent today. While I've been all in on the human potential movement, and now the integral movement, they have the same problems in common. I'm not at all opposed to an elite vanguard exploring and developing our higher potentials in intensive and focused communities. But it's then on how we formulate such achievements, how we envision the next phases, how we implement it in the larger society, how we share it and induce a societal shift for the better. I see that happening in the emerging Commons which Rifkin merely documented. I don't see that happening with the kennilinguists, but do see hope in the broader integral movement as it includes Morin, (pre-metaphysical) Bhaskar, Rifkin and many others, including the extremely rich forum that is IPS.

Bi-partisan capitalist report: climate change is bad for business

See this article. It's not just climate scientists concerned about life overall. It's capitalists that know how to measure their bottom line and it is already, and will continue to be, drastically affected by climate change. Its effects included "dramatic declines in agricultural yields, loss of productivity due to intense heat and up to $35 billion spent dealing with coastal storms." "Paulson blamed a mindset of 'short-termism' in both the business community and in Washington for the fact that there isn't more emphasis on climate-related risks." Perhaps a better term is don't-give-a fuckism, as in anything other than a profit. The above capitalists can think beyond the bottom line while still keeping the latter in mind.

More on who decides what, when, where & why

Continuing from the last post, I'm in alignment with the general parameters of an MIP-civ. I just have questions about not only responsible management but in how we determine what is considered higher levels that do the managing. Just taking the example of the model of hierarchical complexity, the system most used by the kennilinguists. Let's look at how they've fared so far in judging people's level of complexity. There are many within their own ranks that have challenged its rampant capitalistic orientation, let alone reducing everyone who is not a kennilnguist to some lower level. Even the very nature of how the MHC formulates a higher level with Hegelian dialectic has been challenged by many in the movement, like Cook-Greuter, Torbert, Laske, Kallio and many more.*

What's a better 'higher' consciousness?

Continuing from this post, I just saw the season finale of Continuum, a sci-fi thriller created by Showcase out of Canada. While there are several sub-plots, its main plot line like others discussed above is how tech evolves to enable massive surveillance. And it's a battle for who controls that tech. Which of course is what's happening now with the battle over net neutrality. The corporations want the control for profit, same as in the series, while otherwise the Commons wants control to be distributed. If/when energy becomes distributed as in the TIR vision such political power can also be used wisely by the multitudes that attain to ecological consciousness.

Mara Justine on AGT

Last night this eleven year old stunned me and everyone else with her singing voice. The video below does the prelim and after interview but cuts off a lot of the song. This video has the first part of the song.

Elizabeth Warren schools Chris Matthews

See this story and the video below. Matthews tries to blame the Democrats for not getting its agenda done. Warren notes that the progressives (not to be confused with the Democrats) are fighting tooth and nail to implement their agenda but they are being continually blocked by the regressives. In the Senate the regressives filibuster just about everything that doesn't feed the already rich. In the House they won't even bring such issues to a vote. Although Matthews is right that most Democrats are not fighting like the progressive Warren or Sanders. Many of them are bought off too. But per Warren she and her ilk need us to speak up, to put pressure on both the Dems and the GOP to enact our populist agenda. We cannot give up the fight.


Elizabeth Warren by ewillies

Human potential satire

See this IPS thread for the referenced document.

I attended a massage therapy school in San Diego from the summer of '84 to summer of '85. It was called IPSB, which at the time stood for the Institute of Psycho-Structural Balancing. It later changed it's name to the International Professional School of Bodywork. Apparently it sold the earlier name to another school which still has that name in LA, but it's a different school. The link above is to the same school I attended, whose history is in this page.

Join Senators Sanders & Franken to preserve net neutrality

From Senator Sanders:

At a time of increased corporate control over the media and the flow of information, it is absolutely imperative that the Internet remain on a level playing field, open to all. Whether you are a major news corporation or a one-person blogging operation, whether you are Walmart or a family-owned small business, there should be net neutrality for all.

Right now the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is considering a rule that would allow large Internet providers like Verizon and Comcast to charge businesses for faster access to Internet users. This rule would give large corporations yet another advantage over small Internet companies and average citizens.  These types of pay-to-play agreements will end the democratic foundation of the Internet, and strike a major blow against the free flow of ideas.

Join me and my colleague Senator Al Franken in protecting net neutrality so that big telecom can’t pick winners and losers online.

Our free and open Internet has made invaluable contributions to democracy here in the United States and around the world.  We must not allow the FCC to let big corporations to turn a profit by putting a fee on the free flow of ideas.

Please, join me to protect net neutrality. Add your name today!

Thank you for your support on this enormously important issue.

Sincerely,



U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders 

Ralph Nader on the left/right alliance

Nader's new book Unstoppable is about this topic. To discuss it his Center for the Study of Responsive Law held a day-long conference with members of both parties coming together on issues about which they agree: minimum wage, civil liberties, corporate welfare, the defense budget, trade, empire, Wall Street crime and the commercialization of childhood. See this link for videos of each segment. A video of Nader's opening remarks is below. Therein he talks about the 3 stages of such alignment, which starts with overwhelming public sentiment and action. Only then does it attract media and government attention, which then gets such issues on the legislative table. So it's on us to get the ball rolling.

But who profiles the profilers?

Continuing from this post, the above question is necessary. Who determines what 'integral' means? As if obvious from this forum, there is quite a bit of debate about what an integral level is, what it means, how it is conceived. It's far from settled so as to use it as some kind a profiling system.

I'm also reminded of Montouri's reflections on the last ITC conference.

"One of the historical criticisms of hierarchical theories of development is that the person developing or using the hierarchy almost inevitably finds himself at the top of said hierarchy. Whoops! There’s a not-so-subtle tendency to feel like a master of the universe when the whole map of creation from soup to nuts appears to be laid out before you."

So that's one trap. If we find ourselves at the top of any system we need to wonder about that system.

Big girls don't cry

I saw Jersey Boys on Friday and this one is rattling around my brain this morning.

We may need more than democracy

Continuing from this post, and bringing in a discussion of the conveyor belt from the FB IPS discussion, I've agreed with Wilber's comments that an integral government and law that would provide that upward attractor while allowing people to be where they are. He distinguishes between the freedom to think and believe whatever we want, but not to act on such beliefs if that behavior is not from the highest societal level. 

Maher: The US is the one in need of intervention

His special new rule last night was on how America is like the girl who thinks she can change the bad boy. The problem is with us (the regressives, actually) for thinking all those idiotic things, like if we just install an American style democracy everything would be ok, that it would change centuries of sectarian violence. Perhaps we're the ones that need a Dr. Phil style intervention.

Did Snowden's leaks harm anyone?

This was a debated question last night on Real Time. Maher quoted Richard Clark, who was part of a panel which received all of the intelligence data on the leaks. Clark said that Snowden's releases "helped the terrorists," a rather vague expression that doesn't at all answer the question. Greenwald makes the case that the government to date has provided no evidence that this is so. The government's response on such a charge is that to do so would further release classified information to terrorists. Really? They can't release any evidence without this concern? It doesn't sound right. Rieckhoff on the show asked if Snowden can be sure if what he release didn't harm anyone. Greenwald rightly countered that Snowden is being accused of a crime here, and the burden of proof is on the government to provide evidence to that effect.


rieckhoff by tommyxtopher

Climate change is THE Christian issue

Here's Jim Wallace, noting what is of ultimate concern in his religion today:

"I believe the most compelling narratives for dealing with climate change must be moral ones, theological ones, and biblical ones, especially if we are to reach and engage the faith community -- which every successful social movement must do. [...] Ultimately, as followers of Christ, climate change is about our faith, our theology, our moral identity, and our calling as God's children. Climate change is not another issue to move higher up the list of our concerns. Rather it is the concern central to all other issues."

Religion must develop beyond the tribal

Continuing from this post, Panikkar is quoted below, indicative of moving beyond enthocentrism, i.e, moving religion into at least rationality. The world can no longer tolerate a 'tribal' religion, for we see what it does, e.g., Iraq. And what it does in US government, rolling back decades of humanitarian and environmental progress in its name. We can no longer afford to "let them stop where they want to," for they very well could destroy life on this planet in the form of climate change denial and inaction to correct our complicity.
 
Panikkar: 

A sure fire way to get regressives to accept climate change

Jon Stewart goes over the myriad ways regressives deny climate change, despite science, facts and insurmountable evidence. And even when members of their own Party tell them so. But he has a sure fire solution to get them to admit to it.

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The unemployed don't exist if you can't see them

This article underlies the real reason the regressives cut unemployment insurance. They claimed that if we cut the benefits these lazy bastards living the cushy life on such extravagant income they would get off their lazy asses and take one of those superabundent jobs just lying around waiting for the taking. Turns out that the long-term unemployed, who in many cases have long employment histories and good skill sets, have just given up and quit trying to find work in a job market where few exist.

What the US wants from Iraq

See this story. Yes, the real and only reason for the US invasion: oil. The rest has been smoke and mirrors all along. And why the chicken hawks want to go back. Of course they'll say: "But your source is Aljazeera, a terrorist propaganda machine." Same bullshit rhetoric to misdirect from the truth of this obvious bottom line. And ironic about who is doing the propaganda here.

Sherry baby

I'm excited about the movie Jersey Boys opening this Friday. I grew up on these guys. Here's one of my favs.

Timothy Leary's dead

Recent reflections on Robert Anton Wilson, Crowley and the Golden Dawn made this one flashback from the past.

Color-coded developmental rape chart

While the creators of this chart didn't see it as a Spiral Dynamics color gradient for levels of rape, it seems to work out that way.

The US has the most expensive and least effective healthcare

According to the Commonwealth Fund, ranking 11 developed nations. The ACA may help out some due to providing insurance for more than before, cutting some costs and increasing effectiveness. But it's still based on the private insurance system, a large part of why we suck in the first place. But those who want a privatized system just will not face facts, insisting we're the best in the world when it just ain't so. The best is the UK, the least privatized and most socialized. Yes, socialized medicine has better results and saves money. But US regressives could really give a shit about either of those things, contrary to their bullshit spin.

The anti-party

Harvard Business Review on today's capitalist rapaciousness

"Capitalists seem uninterested in capitalism—in supporting the development of market-creating innovations"- Clayton M. Christensen and Derek van Bever,  The Capitalist’s Dilemma, Harvard Business Review, June, 2014


See this article. It used to be that 'innovation' meant investing in research and development (R&D) to create new markets and consumers. Now the capitalists mean by that term cutting costs, usually in the form of cutting jobs. How that relates to the meaning of 'innovation' is explored by the author, as there are different types. The cost cutting kind is for when capital is scarce and not readily available for the costly R&D type. Hence the regressives continual whining about cutting costs and R&D. But the fact is that capital is plentiful right now; according to Bain there is a "capital superabundance."

Democracy's jism

In this video Jon Stewart highlights all the regressive talking heads on Iraq, wrong the first time and still wrong about going in again. When the original reason for invasion was proven wrong, WMD's, they got on this spin about democracy being 'seeded' in Iraq. Wrong again.

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The good side of massive surveillance and profiling?

Layman Pascal has an interesting comment about what he calls massive internal profiling civilization (MIP-civ). It arose in a discussion of a pre-crime unit using precognition to predict crimes before they happened, like in the movie Minority Report. LP said: "We absolutely need to manage an intelligent transition into detailed typological profiling and flexible probability assessment." He elaborates with cautions.

I'm reminded of a tv series that grabbed me from the start, Person of Interest.

Insipid media consults the same wrong warhawks about Iraq

See this story. With the increasing sectarian violence in Iraq major media is once again inviting the same regressive talking heads who were dead wrong the first time around to give advice on the current situation. And said media is not even mentioning how wrong they were on the first Iraq war, further giving these so-called 'pundits' credibility again. The article points out this is likely because the media bought their bullshit the first time around and can't face up to the cognitive dissonance that they too were wrong. So we're hearing the same lines as before on why we should militarily intervene in Iraq. Lines that have definitively been proven wrong time and again.

In/difference

Continuing the post on the X factor, I was re-reading some of my prior IPS posts and will re-post some of them below on this infamous X. Again I warn: it's egghead stuff. From this post and following:

Quoting Keller on Faber: “When he collates differance with divinity […] this difference signifies a self-deconstructing otherness. Yet is does not destroy rationality, or even the categorical scheme. […] Faber in this way continues the Whiteheadian struggle to capture in language a difference between God and the world, or one and the other, without reinscribing the settled boundary between them—or erasing their difference. This differential nondualism [...] translates for him into 'God's in/difference.' One must not lose that inaudible slash, else 'in/difference' will be confused with the chilling apatheia. […] Thus 'this negative assertion paradoxically requires that because God is indeed nothing beyond all differences, God thus appears only in differences.' […] Faber's divine in/difference morphs into difference itself, the difference so radical as to be comprised by the 'essential relationality' of all differences” (190).

Sexy window washer

The X factor

I'll provide some guest posts in this one. Balder did a recent TSK (Time-Space-Knowledge) training retreat where he and his team had to contextualize and elaborate on a section of Tarthang Tulku's work on the unknown. Warning: This is for philosophical eggheads like me.

Balder said: The thrust of the passage, as I read it, is to trace a sort of dialectical transformation in the understanding of the relationship between not-knowing and knowledge (arriving at a version of integral asperspectivity).  In TSK, three levels of knowledge (and of time and space) are commonly discussed; this passage describes the transition from level one to level two.  He moves from dualistic framing of the terms, to two transitional perspectives in which a) the unknown is seen to manifest in the known (in a way that is inseparable from the structure and authenticity of knowledge, as the limits to knowledge), and b) knowing to manifest in not-knowing or the unknown (as the open "x" of withdrawn potential rather than the forbidding "x" of nothingness or absolute limitation).  He then shifts to a view in which the (strong or somewhat weaker) dichotomy of knowledge and not-knowing is seen to be a function of limited positioning itself; this is replaced by a more pervasive, aperspectival knowledgeability (where the self no longer confines itself to, or needs to be, 'knowing' or 'the knower'; and where not-knowing is understood, not just to surround or underlie knowledge, but to be inseparable from  or intrinsic to  it.)  You might relate this to your gal, Khora,* or to the future infinitive (which is generative in its always-never-arriving).

* Note: Meaning my various writings on the topic at the forum.

Layman Pascal said:

A study on male attractiveness

A study conducted by UCLA's Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle.  For example: if she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features.  However, if she is  menstruating or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and a knife lodged in his chest with a bat up his ass while he is on fire. No further studies are expected on this subject.

Hedges on Chomsky: take action or we all die

See this Hedges piece. Chomsky has always been a key mentor for me. In Hedges piece on him Chomsky accurately defines the transition away from self sufficiency to slave wage labor in the first industrial revolution, much like Rifkin. About how they fought back by forming workers unions and cooperatives. And how the capitalists crushed them by refining propaganda to create the narcissistic consumer constantly living in fear over the Other who wanted to destroy our way of living.

And how this insidious propaganda lies hidden in our highest institutions of learning, this consumerist self enclosure, the subtle worldview hiding behind our most noble endeavors and never recognized, off the radar. Even the likes of Integral Institute, a supposed evolutionary institution, promotes this form of economy which is not only antithetical to its stated goals but which is feeding the very beast it purports to want to transcend. Even our participation in Facebook, which has co-opted the Commons, where the money they make on us contributes to the very kind of labor practices and environmental degradation we claim to shun.

Ralph Nader on lessons learned in Cantor's loss

In this post Nader tells us what lessions progressives should learn from Cantor's recent loss. While Cantor's opponent, David Brat, is a mixed bag his campaign is instructive. Brat's message was strongly against crony capitalism and Wall Street malfeasance. He criticized the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable. And it is here that he thinks there can be an alliance with populist conservatives like Brat.

The religious conveyor belt

I'm looking over the section of Integral Spirituality on the conveyor belt. A few points of relevance for this IPS thread.

He notes that agnosticism and atheism via formop cognition are legitimate forms of orange spirituality (191). They just need to acknowledge the legitimacy of other levels of spirituality, both above and below it. Hence the need for the conveyor belt. I'd here disagree with the statement that seeing absolute reality in terms of finite matter and energy is a reduction, but that's an argument long rehashed in many other threads.

Amber religion though needs to open up to orange and above religion. So is that saying religion itself must go through an orange agnostic or atheist stage? Or are there other forms of theistic orange religion. I don't see that addressed here. While there are examples of orange and green religion they are apparently not openly discussed by religious hierarchies.

What regressives will do to win or stay in office

We all know they are spin masters. And that the spin is often just obfuscation and misdirection, usually not based in fact or what they really believe. So Bill Maher has a few ways they plan to spin their love of minorities to garner that vote. It's based an actual case that he applies to some of the others.

Network, a national catholic social justice lobby

I just heard about this on a radio show, their website here. Related to the last few posts, it's an example of spiritual practice that goes beyond the interior of an individual's state experiences into other domains of enaction, particularly a social justice lobby that engages with the political process. Alleluia sisters. And, by the way, their political agenda is akin to Warren's.

More on an integral postmetaphysical spirituality

Here's Wilber's essay on integral spirituality that predated the book on the topic. Much of the text in the essay is repeated in the book almost verbatim. In talking of spirituality he mentions meditative states like satori and locates them in the inside of interior individual consciousness (9). He also locates spiritual traditions in this zone, noting how they were deficient in the other quadrants (13-14). He thinks this can be remedied by integral methodological pluralism (IMP), which per above locates different paradigms in their respective zones and validity criteria (16). Within the zones there are different lines with their distinct levels of hierarchical complexity, and they cannot be directly compared with one another given the different enactive methods (27). Of note at this point is that the spiritual line is focused on ultimate concern with Fowler as an example (27). So is spirituality just about inside interior individual experiences?

What is integral postmetaphysical spirituality continued

For those not on Facebook, or a member of the IPS forum there, I will post some of my other responses below.

So what would constitute an appropriate social spiritual practice as a topic here? Engaged Buddhism? Insight dialogue? John Heron's relational spirituality? On the latter Heron says: "A more convincing account of spirituality is that it is about multi-line integral development explored by persons in relation. [...] spirituality is located in the interpersonal heart of the human condition where people co-operate to explore meaning, build relationship and manifest creativity through collaborative action inquiry into multi-line integration and consummation."

What is an integral postmetaphysical spirituality anyway?

Update: If you're a member of Facebook see the ongoing discussion at the FB IPS forum, which starts with the question about Clinton and Warren.

I also posted the Warren v. Clinton in the Facebook IPS forum. One commenter (Mark) asked if such a political question belonged in a forum on spirituality. Which opens a whole can of worms on what integral postmetaphysical spirituality implies.

I responded: What could be more spiritual than helping people earn a living wage to feed their families. Than addressing income inequality so that people have a fair shot at creating enough money to meet their basic needs and have some surplus time and energy to devote to needs higher on the hierarchy, like spiritual pursuits? And I don't mean just traditional religion but so-called integral postmetaphysical spirituality (IPS)? Seems most of us that are into such spiritual pursuits are already privileged with enough surplus in the lower levels like survival, membership, individual autonomy and transcendental awareness that we take for granted that most of the population is struggling to eat and pay the rent. If you are the latter you will not focus on much of anything else, let alone IPS.

Clinton v. Warren

This is Burnett's interesting article on the possible showdown for the Democrat nomination for President. One of the pundits observed that Clinton is "to the right of her Democratic base." To say the least. Warren, on the other hand, favors all of Robert Reich's list of progressive populist issues and Clinton opposed them all. Clinton has championed third way politics favored by Wall Street, while Warren wants to put them in jail.

There is an enlightening Pew Research study of the various factions in American politics. Democrats, Republicans and Independents are divided into 8 groups:

Shark video

Captivating video of this shark dancer. The story is here.

Integral politics

Related to this post, andrew started an IPS thread on integral Republicans. At first glance I found the expression an oxymoron. Ok, on subsequent glances as well. My last response was to Wilpert's Integral World article on integral politics, where andrew highlighted the green/eco movement.

It's been a long time since I read Wilpert's article and after reading the green section I'll give the whole thing another read. I appreciate that he recognizes the greens "take a holistic view that integrates humanity and nature"* and "roughly corresponds with Wilber's centauric or vision-logic stage," not something the Lingam will admit.** And I find that not only I but the Commons as a whole is a mix of the various quadrant aspects he discusses (as well as 'levels').** For example while I detest fascist capitalism I can accept a small business oriented around conscious capitalism triple-bottom lines. I'd prefer though a cooperative business where all the workers own it. While I oppose State socialism I still want the government to be active in creating progressive labor and environmental laws. And I most certainly advocate for green cultural values, but I don't concede that by nature cultural values are 'conservative.' That's something Haidt does too and he's flat out wrong.

Speaking of domestic terrorists

Fox won't cover the Las Vegas cop killers

See this story. Fox had very little coverage of the two Tea Partiers that killed two cops in Las Vegas, and has since gone completely silent on the story. Usually they're all over any hint of terrorism, that is, when the alleged perpetrators are brown people. But these perps where not only white but espoused the very same sorts of things Fox has been programming into them for eons. Fox wants it to go away, to not face that their rancid rhetoric leads not only to ignorant obedience to regressive policies but incites the very actions that happened here. Note that these killers were part of the Bundy standoff, which Fox glorified story after story, day after day. See the story for the details.

Cantor loses to anti-fascist Republican

See this article. House majority leader Cantor was defeated by Dave Brat not for the usual talking head reasons. He won because he called out big $ corruption, not just Cantor's but the entire corrupt fascist oligarchy.

Great news because it shows that both Dems and the GOP can rally around the same issue, defeating crony capitalism and big $ in government. According to the article that is what defeated Cantor in the primary. And bankers who caused the meltdown should go to jail, wow. He can work with Senator Warren on that one. And support the proposed new Constitutional amendment reversing the Supreme Corp's decisions in Citizens United and McCutcheon. He supports old school 'free markets,' i.e., not the fascist corporate capitalism that has taken over. I'm encouraged.

“All of the investment banks, up in New York and D.C., they should have gone to jail.” - See more at: http://www.republicreport.org/2014/dave-brat-cantor/#sthash.fE7FlE1w.dpuf

“All of the investment banks, up in New York and D.C., they should have gone to jail.” - See more at: http://www.republicreport.org/2014/dave-brat-cantor/#sthash.fE7FlE1w.dpuf

“All of the investment banks, up in New York and D.C., they should have gone to jail.” - See more at: http://www.republicreport.org/2014/dave-brat-cantor/#sthash.fE7FlE1w.dpuf

“All of the investment banks, up in New York and D.C., they should have gone to jail.” - See more at: http://www.republicreport.org/2014/dave-brat-cantor/#sthash.fE7FlE1w.dpuf

Regressive hypocrisy on job losses

Regressives were in an uproar over the new EPA carbon policy because yes, it would eliminate coal 80,000 jobs in the next 15 years. They could give a shit about how the coal emissions were accelerating climate change, which would probably eliminate exponentially more jobs. But on a more immediate note, they could give a shit about the jobs we've lost due to our trade deficit from February to April, about 700,000. Yes, that 700,000 in 3 months compared to 80,000 over 3 years and nary a peep. And why are they completely silent on the trade deficit job losses?

Krugman and Mann on climate change denial

See this post. While he thinks that vested interests play a role in this he thinks ideology and anti-intellectualism are more significant. The ideology is Ayn Randian, with libertarian self interest the main driver. Climate change challenges that notion by providing evidence that unrestricted self interest is causing an environmental calamity. Combine that with their anti-intellectualism and the only response to scientific fact is that the latter must be involved in a vast left-wing conspiracy to destroy capitalism.

Michael Mann's post though thinks Krugman goes to easy on the vested interests, which are inextricably linked to the aforementioned ideology.

Overton's Relationism

In this IPS post and following I'm exploring a book chapter by W.F. Overton called "Relationism and Relational Developmental Systems: A Paradigm for Developmental Science in the Post-Cartesian Era." I've included the first few posts below but see the link for the ongoing discussion.

We see many agreements with the above article and this thread. It discusses the worldview shift from Cartesian split to relationism, broadly equivalent to the shift from a metaphysical to postmetaphysical worldview. The former accepts splitting, foundationalism (essentialism) and atomism, all indicative of the metaphysical. Splitting requires pure forms or elements in a strict either/or absolute law of noncontradiction based on a foundational, unchanging reality. It also requires linear causal sequences (38-9).

Relationism heals the split with forms that flow across fuzzy boundaries and relate to each other as indissociable compliments, hence relationism instead of foundationalism. Instead of linear causal sequences there is a holistic mereological relation of parts to wholes. He uses Luhmann as an example, to which I'll return later on his mereology. Of note are the 3 principles in this holism: the identity of opposites, the opposites of identity and the synthesis of wholes. The first is how parts relate to the whole with fuzzy boundaries. The second is how the parts retain their unique identities as distinct categories. The third is on how the other two relate in what I would translate into kennilingus as 1st, 2nd and 3rd person perspectives. Or as he terms it, how the personal, material and socio-cultural balance and interrelate. We see this in Bryant's 3 domains and in the kennilingus 4 quads (41-52).

Why Walmart sales are declining

According to this story, regular Walmart shoppers are frequenting the store less because of its low wages and poor labor treatment. Workers fighting back through strikes and demonstrations, progressive orgs highlighting the issue, and people like us spreading the work through P2P media as well as contacting our representatives through petitions and direct contact are making a difference in Walmart's bottom line. Keep up the good work Commoners. We can and will change this economy for the better.

Commons leadership

Continuing this post, in this video Thom Hartmann interviews Kshama Sawant, a socialist and member of the Seattle city council who was instrumental in getting the $15 minimum wage passed. At around 3:40 Hartmann discusses how he has always challenged the notion that it takes a great leader to effect social change. He then asks Sawant, a 'leader' of this movement, how that squares with her socialist frame. Her response starting at 5:10 is enlightening and representative of the emerging Commons notion of leadership.

What women prefer in a penis

According to this study. Women were allowed to handle penis models made from a 3-D printer for this determination. And there are different preferences depending on if it's a one-night stand or a long-term relationship. For the former a slightly bigger girth than average is more important than length. But for both the ideal length is 6.5". They did not give the girth measurement for either category, or what is average.

Tell Walmart to go subsidize itself

Or more bluntly put, to go fuck itself. The following is from The Other 98%:

Walmart owes you money. Big time. They raked in $17 billion in profit last year, yet they pay their employees so little that folks who work full-time must turn to food stamps just to feed their kids. And guess who’s picking up the tab? Every year Walmart racks up $7.8 billion in government subsidies, and they force you and me to foot the bill. Their explosive growth and ridiculous profit margins aren’t the result of hard work and a little luck; they’re the result of Walmart’s scorched-Earth business model - poverty wages, tax dodging, and extensive use of the social safety net for private gain.

Oh hell no! Tell Walmart to go subsidize itself.

Conference call on net neutrality and mega-mergers

From freepress.net:

We have a lot of work ahead of us this summer. We need to stop the FCC from destroying the Internet, prevent Congress from passing bills that would kill Net Neutrality and block the latest wave of media mega-mergers. We'd love to talk with you about how all these developments are intertwined and what you can do to fight for your rights to connect and communicate.

Please Join Us on June 12 for a Conversation About Mega-Mergers and Net Neutrality.

Thanks for all that you do—

Mary Alice, Candace, Josh and the rest of the Free Press team freepress.net

P.S. Our member call is just a few days away. RSVP here!

Quacademics

I started a new thread at the IPS forum by the above name. The initial post follows. Follow the link for ongoing discussion.

A recent FB IPS discussion reiterated something that has long been happening which I'll call quacademics. You know, if it quacks like an aqal... The phenomenon arises because Wilber is often perceived by typical academia as a religious zealot and/or cult leader and thereby dismissed. The main goal then is to legitimize his work academically. Hence we have all kinds of folks pursuing and getting degrees from typical academic institutions while trying to insert their integral agenda into such programs through MA and/or PhD theses/dissertations. The hope is obviously to legitimize integral studies so that it is something more than just an isolated, sub-cultural phenomenon applicable only in its own bubble. Another hope is when so legitimized that it can change the world for the better, as adherents truly believe it is a breakthrough paradigm in the next stage of evolution that can indeed improve life conditions for all. I applaud and support such hopes.

But is this truly the most effective place to focus our energies? Is academia really the cultural leader when it comes to enacting a new and better paradigm? Take for example Rifkin's work. Yes, he's an academic but implementing his plan has moved from the ivory tower to the political towers of power in EU governments. Government is the key player to enacting such an agenda via laws that govern individual, social and most of all corporate behavior. Without such law our academic towers only grow ivy, moss and mold.

Reaching Christian voters

Progressive Christian Jim Wallis supports the new EPA carbon standards. I'm not crazy about the notion that we must be good environmental stewards because God gave us dominion over the earth, but it's a step in the right direction. And he makes a good point: "I believe the most compelling narratives for dealing with climate change must be moral ones, theological ones, and biblical ones, especially if we are to reach and engage the faith community." And this one on the relation of his spirituality to the environment: "Climate change is not another issue to move higher up the list of our concerns. Rather it is the concern central to all other issues."

Given that the US is 73% Christian, and 62% are members of a church, it makes sense that to influence them to vote progressively on climate change will require not just a moral but also a theological and/or biblical framing. I'm going to leave that up to the Christians like Wallis.

Ammosexuals

Maher's special new rule last night was on the open carry movement, where dillwads are carrying their assault rifles into restaurants and other public stores in order to "protect their second amendment rights." Maher makes mincemeat out of them and discerns what this is really all about: a romantic relationship.

Delete your Facebook

Preventing cable company fuckery

John Oliver hilariously parodies net neutrality while also hitting home on the seriousness of the issue. And what you can do about it. He provides the address for FCC comments, and in fact shortly after providing it their website crashed.

Crapulous

The word of the day is crapulous, which provides for many twisted variations.

adjective: 1. given to or characterized by gross excess in drinking or eating. 2. suffering from or due to such excess.

As is I like the root word crap, as in those who are excessive are full of crap. Apply that to these variations: mapulous, as is an obsession with map making and categorization; papulous, as in meaningless psychobabble; rapulous, as in that crappy musical form that talks instead of sings; sapulous, as in excessive sentimentality, especially in spiritual jargon; tapulous, as in a sex addict who has to 'tap' every piece within range; vapulous; as in those who excessively suck the life out of language by trying to be 'objective.' Any others?

A very grounded spiritual experience

I had a colonoscopy yesterday. In preparation one must do a liquid fast the day before, as well as drink chemical laxatives to completely clean the colon. I'd done the procedure before and it is quite unpleasant, not just the starvation but the incessant, frequent diarrhea This time as part of the prep I decided to turn it into a spirit quest, to use the fasting and cleansing to prepare for an experience of the numinous, to converse with god/dess. I told this to my roommate in a joking manner, but I was also serious.

I thought of American Indians, who do that ritual of piercing their chests an then hanging by its flesh. And sweat lodges, another ritual of extreme pain to induce visions. It's sort of like the crucifixion, going through such pain that one is forced to let go and let god. Give up the ghost, so to speak. I image childbirth is one such experience if done without pain meds. I decided to do the procedure without sedation, to be conscious throughout, so as to feel every moment of the pain.

Bruce Gibb reviews Rifkin's new book

Bruce Gibb, an organizational psychologist and SDi practitioner, reviews the new book. His premise: "[Rifkin's] analysis proceeds from a Yellow, Stage 7 (S:7) stance." He notes a couple of things I've been harping on since forever. One is that while foundations are built upon and not eliminated, nonetheless a "more adequate theory replaces a less adequate one." (My emphasis.) Another is that the socio-economic infrastructure is primarily what drives our evolution, agreeing with Rifkin "that life conditions—and in particular the sources of energy and the technology of communication—are the drivers of cultural evolution."

Follow up to progressive Christianity

Continuing from the last post:

Progressive Christianity on the rise

See this story on the resurgence of progressive Christianity. By progressive they mean valuing women's reproductive rights, LGBT rights, social welfare programs, anti-war, climate change activism, gun control, immigration reform, net neutrality. You know, what the populist progressive majority value. Consequently they are gaining an upper hand over their regressive counterparts in redefining Christianity as a whole. As an atheist I say a hearty Alleluia to that. And mean it.

Leonid Afremov

I've posted one of his works in the blog before but didn't know his name at the time. Here is his website and following is a video of some of his works.

No evidence Snowden leaks caused any harm

That's right, no evidence has been provided to that effect. Repeat, none. There's plenty of accusations and hypothetical scenarios, but to date there is no evidence. The government hides behind the specious rationalization that they cannot reveal such evidence for it would further endanger lives. That is not evidence but a smokescreen. In another case of purported leaks causing damage, nothing presented in open court during Chelsea Manning's trial supported that allegation. Again nothing, no evidence. Such claims should be investigated by Congress, the GAO, the IG and determine what harm if any has happened. And that should be weighed by the good such whistle blowing brings.

Support the post office offering basic banking services

From Credo Mobilize:

Predatory check-cashing and payday-lending companies have been exploiting working-class Americans for decades by charging outrageous fees and triple-digit interest rates. But now we have a chance to give the millions of Americans without access to affordable basic financial services a fair, publicly owned alternative to payday lenders and big banks. Senator Elizabeth Warren has an exciting new proposal that would allow post offices around the country to offer basic financial services like check cashing and bill paying.

As a student organizer in Chicago, I've seen the devastating effects of economic injustice firsthand -- and I want to be part of the solution. That's why I started my own campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, which allows activists to start their own petitions. My petition, which is to Congress, says the following:

Millions of Americans lack access to affordable financial services like check cashing, bill paying and small loans. Please support Senator Warren’s postal banking proposal, which would allow the United States Postal Service to offer financial services at local post offices around the country.

Sign the petition: Allow post offices to offer basic banking services.

Redefining spirituality and religion for the Commons

Layman Pascal started an IPS thread on an integral religion and my latest comments follow from this post, responding to the inclusion of economic systems in religious considerations. See the discussion for further context.

The various aspects you list could be considered 'lines' in the kennilingus sense, lines in the various quadrants/zones. While religion per se could be considered its own line, they way you're doing it could be viewed as how the other lines intersect/overlap with the religion line. Which of course is how I see the integral level, as integrating the various lines rather than merely keeping them in their strict quadrant/zone sets. I.e., 1) the lines can still be autonomous paradigms with their own validity criteria, yet there are both interactions between them through their somewhat porous boundaries, and 2) there are some universal principles that govern such interactions as well as how each internal mereological structure is organized: aka differance. See e.g. the nature of endo- and exo-relations via intension and extension for different kinds of mereology in this thread. All of which is a long-winded preamble to including economic systems in your religious categories.

Recall our discussion in the anti-capitalism thread where I agreed with the Lingam that the economic paradigm is likely the most significant for how most of us shape our consciousness and daily lives.

Compare Walmart and Costco

Crowdfunding a Super PAC to reform campaign finance

This is interesting. Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig wants to reform campaign finance laws so he's crowdfunding a Super PAC with that intention. The PAC will contribute to candidates who support campaign finance reform. The initial crowdfunding of $1 million from donors of less than $10,000 was reached so it was matched by wealthy donors. The latter included the usual wealthy Democrats but also included a high profile libertarian donor to GOP campaigns. That is Lessig's hope, to encourage a mix from the political spectrum around the issue of money in politics. He might consider approaching the Patriotic Millionaires that financed the recent MoveOn discussion on inequality with Picketty and Warren for his next round of crowdfunding.

The commons regime of attraction

Rereading parts of TDOO I came upon the following relevant to recent posts on the commons:

"Where critique focuses on content and modes of representation, composition focuses on regimes of attraction. If regimes of attraction tend to lock people into particular social systems or modes of life, the question of composition would be that of how we might build new collectives that expand the field of possibility and change within the social sphere. Here we cannot focus on discourse alone, but must also focus on the role that nonhuman actors such as resources and technologies play in human collectives. For example, activists might set about trying to create alternative forms of economy that make it possible for people to support families, live, get to work, and so on without being dependent on ecologically destructive forms of transportation, food production, and food distribution. Through the creation of collectives that evade some of the constraints that structure hegemonic regimes of attraction, people might find much more freedom to contest other aspects of the dominant order" (section 5.2).

How's your vagina?

There will always be mass murder, always (huh?)

Jon Stewart makes fun of the regressives that refuse to accept that guns have anything to do with mass shootings. The subject title is what Bill'O the clown O'Reilly said. So Stewart provides those propaganda outlets with a one-size-fits-all response to the continual and ongoing mass shootings in the US so they can get back to the real news. In that parody one of the anchors quips: "Of course there's nothing we can do to stop this from happening, even though pretty much every other developed country has somehow stopped this from happening."

The Daily Show
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Chamber of Commerce cost projections inflated

Recall several recent posts on the new EPA CO2 standards. Krugman gave the US Chamber of Commerce study the benefit of the doubt and showed how even if those costs were true it would only be 0.2% of GDP, a bargain. Another post showed how a regional US area has already implement CO2 reductions at lower than projected costs. A post of Rikin's response to the new regulations showed that the IoT will generate over $14 trillion in savings compared with the Chamber's estimated $400 billion in in the same period. So now what?

Warren and Picketty on inequality

They appeared together last night on HuffPost Live, video below. The Patriotic Millionaires provided funding for the program, their motto being: Because our country is more important than our money. Quite refreshing given the usual regressive hoarding and oligarchic fascism. (Btw, Krugman explains Picketty's response to the Financial Times over the latter's claim that Picketty got some data wrong.)