Forum OpenACS Q&A: Re: Greenpeace.org nominated for Webby-Awards

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Posted by Brian Fenton on
Danielle,

That's one of my favourite songs! I also loved "Halfway down the Stairs" sung by Kermit's nephew, Robin. 😉

That's exactly the point of integral thinking: to remove fences. Taking a reactionary stance only builds fences. Why does seeing both sides of the argument make somebody apathetic? Maybe it's easier to label somebody we disagree with than sit with the uncomfortable notion there may be some truth in what they're saying and that maybe we don't have the full picture. Far easier to write them off as a 'proto-communist' or 'dope-smoking hippy' or 'gas-guzzling fatcat'. We have it here in my own country (Ireland) for more years than anyone cares to remember.

Again Ken Wilber puts it better than I can (he's referring to the Iraq war here):
"just remember: if you are green, you are against the war. but if you are against the war, you are not necessarily green. there are second-tier reasons not to go to war. but there are also second-tier reasons to go to war. green doesn't have a choice--it won't go. second tier has a choice, so weigh the evidence carefully. second tier might indeed recommend war, it might not. but you can check and see if you are "merely" green by asking under what conditions you would recommend war. if you can't think of any, ahem, welcome to green. still, the issue is enormously complicated, even through integral lens, so again, weigh the evidence carefully.

the problem with this discussion at large is that it is entirely first-tier. blue says bomb the hell out of the evil ones; orange says, okay, but hurry, because it's hurting the stock market; green says, no way, let's be loving. first tier has such a hard time seeing big pictures, so it moves around within the partial value structures that define it".