[P2P-F] Fwd: Escaping the Left-Right Box-In Match

[Michel Bauwens]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Tom Atlee <cii at igc.org>
Date: Tue, Jul 30, 2013 at 2:24 PM
Subject: Escaping the Left-Right Box-In Match
To: michel at p2pfoundation.net


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Escaping the Left-Right Box-In
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The collaboration of "Left" and "Right"

I often say "Things are getting better and better and worse and worse
faster and faster simultaneously."

Well, it seems that even as polarization is increasing it is starting to
dissolve into a more productive reality. Those still firmly embedded in the
polarized worldview can't quite grasp this.

In a blog post entitled "The Perennially 'Unusual' Yet Somehow Ubiquitous
Left-Right Alliance: Towards Acknowledging an Anti-Establishment
Center"<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-f6c6d7b469b7836f00d4acf869d83b56-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>Sam
Husseini chronicles an alignment that shows up over and over between
some Left and Right camps on certain issues. He notes that this perennial
alignment is almost always viewed as "strange" by mainstream media and
pundits.

"Every time you have this convergence of progressives and conservatives
against the establishment," he writes, "it's regarded as 'unusual' 'odd' or
'bizarre' -- even though it keeps coming up on issue after issue: war,
military spending, trade, corporate power, Wall Street, fossil fuel
subsidies, as well as -- in the case of the NSA spying on the citizenry --
the central issue of Constitutional rights and civil liberties."

Husseini goes on to quote dozens of news stories from the last 30 years -
all of which describe each new example of this perennial phenomena in the
same startled language as if it had never occurred before.

We see this today as the most vibrant current ad hoc Left-Right alliance
protests NSA surveillance.<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-e401ea7634dcd63602a05e75e43f8de2-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>

This seemingly sporadic partnership is not only old news but has an ongoing
under-the-radar coherence that in the last decade has taken somewhat
permanent form as the "transpartisan" movement. Unfortunately, most of the
people in the "odd" alignment described by Husseini - and Husseini himself
- are not aware of this articulate movement that embodies their energy and
ideals, but I can assure you that it is very much alive.
SOME TRANSPARTISAN ACTORS, ACTIONS, AND IDEAS

The visionary narrative of transpartisanship is that Left and Right can not
only talk together, but also work together on many issues. Beyond that,
enlightened transpartisans have found that they are in a unique position to
articulate common-sense solutions that more than 80% of the rest of society
would agree with.

This has been a very rapidly evolving movement, with various groups and
actors moving front and center and others moving to the periphery. I think
the most active current group is probably the Transpartisan
Center<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-5f4ad5633abf37ed000a6121f545cfa7-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>which
has developed an intriguing track record of building relationships
across the political spectrum and hosting issue-based retreats, conferences
and salons. Noteworthy among their efforts are collaborations with 84
groups from across the political spectrum to form the Liberty
Coalition<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-388dd0a0f42edfc537a439a3bb942f25-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>to
promote civil liberty and basic human rights (including privacy) and
with about 60 diverse groups to create the Campaign for A New Policy with
Iran<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-d8efec493f8db2be09b0a95e25e6bbb3-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>
.

Another intriguing transpartisan initiative is Living Room Conversations
between liberal and conservative ordinary citizens. Some of these dialogues
have been covered by mainstream
media<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-d69a6245769da8f3358c26cdac4a7848-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>.
Living Room Conversations are a down-home version of dialogues among
liberal and conservative leaders that for almost a decade have been piloted
with surprising success - at least during the conversations. Once back in
the partisan battleground many partisan leaders have a hard time
maintaining their new transpartisan center of gravity. (To me this shows
the need for transpartisan support networks and changes in the larger
systems and cultures in which we are all embedded.) Ordinary liberals and
conservatives are not always under the same intense pressure to be
positional.

I participated in one of the first major transpartisan dialogues in 2004.
It changed my political life, as I reported in my article "A Personally
Transformational Encounter of Left and
Right"<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-189cec546a04c21a31bf359d908f6c4f-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>(which
became one of the most popular articles on the co-intelligence
website!). My big takeaway: I realized that my progressive worldview - no
more or less than the conservative worldview - was a mental and emotional
trap woven out of gross oversimplifications, which not only prevented me
from seeing a bigger picture but also kept me from recognizing people who
would join me in working for changes I really believe in.

One of the early thinkers and actors in the transpartisan movement was
Lawrence Chickering, a former colleague of William F. Buckley at *The
National Review* who currently
promotes<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-7b3d83fd43a627a0ae2501e3df06d113-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>girls
education and empowers traditional communities around the world,
especially in India. His 1993 book *Beyond Left and Right: Breaking the
Political Stalemate*<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-f7923e9eaad9bb72ec8ad005ff810827-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>was
an early foray into this new paradigm. FIfteen years later he
developed
transpartisan ideas further with Jim Turner in *Voice of the People: The
Transpartisan Imperative in American
Life*<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-2b250b8911646693bc96e0032cd3808f-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>.
I met Lawrence in the mid-1990s when we were both colleagues of alternative
economist and master networker Robert Theobald. I never dreamed I'd find a
colleague of William F. Buckley a fascinating and open-minded thinker.
Lawrence offered an early lesson in seeing remarkable people beyond my
progressive box.

The transpartisan activist from the Right with whom I've had the closest
connection is former Republican Congressional candidate Joseph
McCormick<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-36f935f0279aea8df902b5925f05c25f-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>.

Joseph founded or co-founded a number of transpartisan groups including
Democracy in America, Reuniting America, and the Transpartisan Alliance.
Most significant for me personally, he organized the 2004 transpartisan
conference I wrote about in my article mentioned above. His most recent big
contribution to the field is the 2011 e-book *Reuniting America: A Toolkit
for Changing the Political
Game*<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-642f40f6f508d90013ea0514a95885b4-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>he
co-authored with Steve Bhaerman, available for free
download<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-bf96743479c6059e54036439339f6571-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>

To really get a flavor of who Joseph is - the remarkable vision he has, the
work he's done, and why I've been so inspired by him - I recommend a 10
minute Song of a Citizen video
interview<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-7d28f168165e32c21fb288a4b6f7ed57-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>with
him at last year's National
Coalition for Dialogue and
Deliberation<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-9132548132cf41de51c057fdd5605b4d-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>conference
(scroll down, right under the interview with me) and this
20 minute interview<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-1fe81491e2789b299be813b9c2516ea5-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>with
Jim Rough, innovator of Dynamic Facilitation and the Wisdom Council
(both of which were watersheds in Joseph's adventure into wise democracy,
as they were in mine)

Many people - though certainly not all - in the transpartisan movement have
been influenced by Ken Wilber's integral theory and the related Spiral
Dynamics Integral (SDi) work of Don Beck. Integral theory looks at human
development across four domains - the internal and external dimensions of
both individual and collective life. Wilber notes that liberals tend to
think in terms of external and collective causes and solutions and
conservatives in terms of personal and internal causes and solutions -
which suggests that "integral" solutions would combine the best of both
perspectives. Spiral Dynamics
Integral<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-bbd4314464643cd9f3f316191b7f4b6a-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>offers
a values-based developmental model that provides some useful
categories for thinking about applications of Wilber's framework and
political life in general.

I find SDi a powerful model that unfortunately lends itself to - and often
defends - elitist hierarchical thinking. If explored and applied with
appropriate caution, awareness, and humility, however, SDi can provide many
useful perspectives to enhance our lives and evolution together.*
A NEW POLITICAL MAP - AND BEYOND

One of the intriguing ideas to come out of the transpartisan movement is a
somewhat more complex depiction of US politics to replace the simple
Left/Right spectrum. It is a quadrant model with "order" at the top,
"freedom" at the bottom, "liberal" on the left, and "conservative" on the
right. The upper left quadrant contains the Democratic Party, the upper
right contains the Republican Party. In the lower left we can place the
Greens, most of the Occupy movement and the ACLU, while in the lower right
we find Libertarians and the Tea Party.

In this model the upper quadrants are controlled by mainstream powerholders
who form alliances whenever centralized government or corporate power is
challenged, such as in efforts to rein in Wall Street or the National
Security Agency. Each side of these top power quadrants also manipulate the
political system for their partisan purposes, as we see in the Citizens
United decision<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-fe0a1473eb8f4a2e3d9e1744ecfd2b88-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>that
opened the door to virtually unaccountable "super PAC" intervention in
elections and the rush we see in the two-thirds of American states whose
governments are totally controlled by one party to make sure voting rights
are tweaked<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-d71447e3e053f5889ac6178e8bb22b6c-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>to
maintain their partisan control. Getting, holding, and increasing
dominant power is the name of the game in the upper quadrants.

The lower quadrants, in contrast, are populist, opposed to exactly the kind
of centralized power we find in the upper quadrants. Down in the "Freedom"
quadrants, the Left tends to focus on corporate power while the Right
targets government power. However, in the last half-dozen years each of
these two sides has started realizing more of what the other is objecting
to. More people on the Left are questioning the rapidly expanding powers of
central government and more people on the Right are questioning the rapidly
expanding power of big corporations and
conglomerates.<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-8788812a419521cbafb3394a00f89deb-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>Both
sides are also noting the increasingly intimate marriage between
public and private power centers. (For a humorous New Age reflection on the
same dynamic, see
this<https://go.madmimi.com/redirects/1375212112-d2a9bf1032eb8be17bdb5914b3310b68-eeed5f6?pa=498434447526449843>
.)

It is these lower-quadrant folks who are the primary focus of Husseini's
article, for their combined power occasionally breaks through into
mainstream visibility to shake up what they sometimes call the
"Demoplicans" and "Republicrats" in the upper quadrants. Many on both sides
also believe that centralized power is (thankfully, in their eyes) about to
collapse, so they feel a need to focus on preparing themselves and their
communities to be more resilient and self-reliant in the face of that
collapse - and increasingly work together to do it right. So we see both
Greens and Tea Partiers active in the emerging networks of alternative
economics, health care, food, education, and governance - and we see them
starting to talk with each other, as they do in the Living Room
Conversations.

I view this quadrant model as a great escape hatch from the toxic
polarizing oversimplifications of the Left/Right worldview. It is worth
treasuring for that precious role.

However, there's a whole world outside of the escape hatch. We can realize
that that handy quadrant model is also a simplification of who we really
are. Ultimately, transpartisanship itself is best seen as a bridge to a
more real, complex, and auspicious realm where our individual uniqueness
and spirit generate a powerfully useful diversity through which, standing
on common ground in generative conversations, we can develop truly wise
insights and policies to guide our shared lives. The more able we become to
be and do THAT, the greater gifts we will bestow upon our children, our
communities, our economy, our security, our future generations, and our
world.

Coheartedly,
Tom

   - SDi proponents stress that each progressive ring of the spiral ideally
   includes and transcends the previous rings. However, the usual
   representation of Spiral Dynamics is an ascending spiral that leaves the
   previous rings behind and below it. Beck and Wilber and their followers
   defend this with the claim that, yes, each progressive ring is a higher
   state than the previous one, and that hierarchy is a natural pattern.

I agree that hierarchy is a natural pattern, but only one of hundreds of
natural patterns. And if "include-and-transcend" is the basic progression
of the SDi rings ("levels" in usual SDi terminology), then presenting the
spirals in two dimensions - flat like a rope of clay spiraling around
itself to form the bottom of a pot - would be a far more accurate
representation. In that representation, early/indigenous societies would
not be at the bottom of the model; they would be at the center. And each
ring would INCLUDE the rings before it.

This more accurate presentation seems to evoke negative responses from most
SDi advocates I've suggested it to. They call it "flatland" as if this
version is saying that everything is as important as everything else. Which
misses the point that it more ACCURATELY represents the ideas. This new
version also removes the implicit status-seeking of SDi advocates trying to
act as if they are at some high point in the developmental hierarchy -
often not really engaging with the challenge to "include" the "lower
levels".

The new representation helps us see all the "colors" of the spiral loops as
dimensions of our own complex diverse humanity that we can develop and
synergize, individually and collectively. Within THAT frame, SDi ceases to
be so useful for elite social control and becomes more a resource for the
deeper fulfillment and co-evolution of everyone.

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