Monday, June 12, 2006

Not Surprised but Still Disappointed


Ken Wilber says his previous post was a kind of verbal Rorschach test. We are what we see in it. Or, more accurately, the bad things we see in it actually reside in ourselves or our “shadows,” and the good things we see in it are actually in Ken Wilber. If we see bad things, we aren’t ready for Prime Time Integral and can continue wallowing in the “herd mentality” of those stiffly humorless and chokingly well-mannered souls who found the post, whatever its motivations, unacceptably ugly. If we see the good things, we can congratulate Wilber for his amazing cleverness and second or even third tier sagacity and pat ourselves on the back for having the right stuff to come “fly”with Wilber and the other special folks at Integral Institute who have the rarified ability to discriminate between the medium and the message and to know genuine compassion from the “idiot compassion” of those who dare not “ruffle” the “feathers” of even those who richly deserve and desperately need it.

I’m not surprised by Wilber’s explanation. In fact, I think the only thing that would have surprised me would have been no follow-up explanation of precisely the kind he gave us. I guess that, coupled with the fact that I wasn’t outraged or repulsed by his previous post but simply puzzled by it and disappointed with it, means that, by Wilberian Integral reckoning, there may still be a nanosecond’s hope for me after I’ve had a few more years to mature along several key “lines” of consciousness.

But I confess that I still feel disappointed in Wilber and in those, like Stuart Davis, who gleefully praise Wilber for sticking it to those “green shits” and “toxic, petty fuckers” for their low “altitude” and insanely “preposterous attacks” on integral ghosts. Wilber would no doubt say that I should actually be disappointed in myself and in those who, like myself, didn’t “get it.” Perhaps it’s the ultimate measure of my low altitude cluelessness that I continue to believe that HE and those who support his previous post are the ones who may truly not get it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're getting closer to the truth. Keep questioning.

Anonymous said...

Why would you waste any more time with Wilber-he's obviously a first tier idiot. The only cure for him is for his followers to give him a bronx cheer, turn about face and move on to more productive endeavors. From the little I know about him Mr. Wilber he obviously needs and feeds off weak minded people who are too afraid to stand for truth. Don't fall for his manipulation...

Anonymous said...

Oh yes, the hunger for spiritual charlatans is bottomless. Never confuse spiritualty with industry. Wilber's website looks like it was designed by MTV. Vulgar in the exteme, in keeping with his character.

Steve said...

"Petey," I WILL keep questioning.

For instance, I question just how different Wilber's "rant" was from what Bob does almost every day in his blog. Wilber says that people who took offense at his insults or found his points lacking in merit or explanation just didn't "get it" because they have "idiot compassion" for those who deserve or need to be insulted, or they're too underdeveloped or pathological cognitively, emotionally, or spiritually to appreciate the perfect truth of his message. How different is this from what Bob says about people who take offense at his insults or question or disagree with his arguments?

What's more, Wilber said some pretty unflattering things about the ineptitude of his critics but was short on specific examples. How different is this from Bob who frequently serves up disparaging remarks about people like Noam Chomsky or Deepak Chopra without explaining just what these individuals have said or done that makes them "insane leftist hacks and traitors" and "charlatans."

Yes, Wilber said "suck my dick" and "bite my ass," and I've never heard Bob be so "crude." But at least Wilber says his post was all some kind of verbal Rorschach test. What's Bob's excuse?

Namaste,
Steve

Steve said...

WHY would Bob like that, "Petey"?

Namaste,
Steve