Revolution through Evolution

Joe Perez reviewed Wilber's "Integral Politics" and "Integral Vision". Excerpt:

... In "Integral Politics," Wilber describes the challenges facing liberal, progressive, and left-leaning politics today (among other topics). He traces the origins of liberalism to the French National Assembly of 1879, when those on the left side of the aisle espoused ideals of liberty, fraternity, and equality. Unfortunately for the history of liberalism, the ideals conflicted with each other. Therefore, Wilber says, the Left chose to emphasize an individualistic political conception of liberty married with collectivistic conceptions of fraternity and equality.

The modern Left inherits the tension between the individualistic and collective axes of politics, plus other tensions as well. According to Wilber's analysis, in the US political system, the old wing of the Democratic party inherited Enlightenment ideals, but the new wing has arisen with a higher, more pluralistic and postmodern altitude of consciousness. Both wings are Left, but they share divergent values owing to different altitudes. Wilber's analysis explains why the old Left of the Democratic Party shares many of the values with the new Right (they're actually comrades at the same altitude, but with different approaches to the translative/transformative axis), and why the old Right sometimes appears to share values with the new Left (e.g., both have a favorable view of spirituality in the public sphere).

Read more at Joe Perez' Until.