A Letter to David Brooks

A Letter to Conservative Columnist David Brooks from Syd Gris In response to the Darkness at Dawn Op-Ed piece, 11-10-08

Hi David,

I'm one of those San Francsico progressives considered crazy and fringe by the Hannity-Limbaugh continuum. I'm also a member of what I imagine is a growing number of fans of your writings who don't agree with you on many an issue, but respect you for clearly thinking things through in a way that demonstrates at least your thinking, and not blindly allied with ideology.

I sometimes find it helpful to look at what's happening in America's conservative world through the lens of Don Beck and Chris Cowan's work on Spiral Dynamics, and Ken Wilber's work on integral theory. Have you had time to read any of their work? You'd appreciate it.

They both look at consciousness as coalescing in distinct 'waves' or 'layers' or 'values memes' that have particular world views, properties, etc. I see a large part of conservatism's current problems as a refusal of the old guard (traditionalists) to evolve out of their current lens of seeing self and world. At it's most rigid, it is conformist, absolutist, with unvarying principles of right and wrong. The Blue meme in Spiral Dynamics. It's frankly outdated by more evolved, integral ways of seeing the world; the gray, the networks of relationships you reference at times in your work.

It's inevitable the younger, more educated conservative class will evenutally win the war of ideas on that side of the aisle, but it will also, inevitably (to the dismay of the traditionalists) look more liberal, because, in a way - it is! I can feel the resistance based on ego to move in this direction, even though regardless of political affiliation, the truth should be apolitical. (Though I like to joke that truth has a liberal bias.)

These main players in the traditionalist world, I wonder what they do to evolve their consciousness and world view. Do they go to therapy? Have a truly introspective spiritual practice? Read things they don't already agree with? Open their hearts to others they deem as 'other'? Are they doing anything to grow up?

Holding on to some of the ideas they do, I can't help but wonder. I see a lot of the development of consciousness happening of it's own unfolding from childhood to adolescence to adulthood. But there's also a point, in some domains, that to keep growing it now takes a more concerted effort rather than letting the momentum of the unfolding of consciousness do much of the heavy lifting. Are these guys doing anything to continue to develop, or do they implicitly think they're perfect, and everything they think is right?

Obviously this dynamic is at work on both sides of the aisle, but luckily for people like me, who have lived as shamed American through the Bush years, the Right is way farther behind. And when they catch up, it will be OK, because truth inherently leans towards freedom, not constriction. And though the right will evolve in it's own fashion, it will inherently evolve. If you guys just wait around for the old guard to die, which is often how ideas finally evolve, (the outdated 'authorities on truth' people still listen to even though their now static world view are incorrect finally die off); if you wait that long, it will be a long wait. It would be better for the country if you Reformists didn't wait around, if you really asserted yourselves now while this conversation is fresh.

This article by Ken Wilber on the Iraq War is a variation of what I'm talking about. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/misc/iraq.cfm

Thanks for listening,

~Syd Gris,
San Francisco

I am Voting for Obama, but here's some thoughts on why there is still plenty of reason for pause.

I am Voting for Obama, but here's some thoughts on why there is still plenty of reason for pause.

A friend, artist, musician and respected member of the communiyt sent me this, and I thought it was worth sharing. Despite it's title, which is the author's, not mine, I am voting for Obama.

I post this as a reminder that if he wins, the work for truth and justice will be FAR from over, and the left can not be mulled to sleep that now everything will be OK because the Bush-Cheny gangsters have left the White House. There are much larger forces at work to be over come to save our asses from wide spread calamity.

Written by Chris Sia:

WHY I CAN'T SUPPORT BARACK OBAMA

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
–Thomas Jefferson

As we head into the home stretch of Election Day, I remember what the late great Bill Hicks had to say of American politics. He compared it to one puppeteer with puppets on both hands. And, essentially, this is true. The same forces control the nominations of the two parties, who work for the same man. Either we get the stern, patriarchal, protective Republican puppet or we get the kinder, gentler, matriarchal Democratic puppet. Whatever puppet ends up in the White House, it has already been groomed and spoonfed the agenda of the plutocracy–the ruling elite. The absurdity of the system has become surreal, in the face of what is purported to be democracy. The public is lied to on a daily basis, in the headlines of the newspapers, on the television, from the smiling plasticized faces of the anchorpersons. Proffered are myriad reasons to be afraid: religious extremists, Islamic terrorists, a crashing economy, global warming, text-messaging train drivers, crack-addicted carjackers, killer bees. More reasons to have Big Brother looking out for you, protecting you from yourself, and the xenophobic culture we have become. It's a system where a woman like Sarah Palin has a good shot at becoming the next president of the United States. It's a system where we ridicule other nations for human rights abuses and yet we legalize our own form of torture. We sing of the land of the free and the home of the brave, yet we are legislating our freedoms away, the very ones the Founding Fathers fought hard for, the rights given to U.S. citizens by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, that those serving this nation are sworn into office to protect, and yet slowly and incrementally we have been giving them up in the name of security. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, Those who sacrifice liberty for security, deserve neither.

"I am Voting for Obama, but here's some thoughts on why there is still plenty of reason for pause." perma-link , or continue reading...

November 4, 2008 11:11 PM, by Syd Gris

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