“Sweet Science:” A Proposal for Integral Macropolitics

• Main Author: Daniel Gustav Anderson
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: ARINA, Inc. 2010-03-01
• Series: Integral Review
• Subjects: Wilber; integral theory; Daniel Gustav Anderson; integral praxis; responsibility; Allende; Blake; Chile; democracy; micropolitics; mimesis; politics; power; public sphere; socialism; The Four Zoas; well being
• Online Access: http://integral-review.org/pdf-template-issue.php?pdfName=vol_6_no_1_anderson_sweet_science_proposal_for_integral_macropolitics.pdf

This treatise proposes the practice of becoming-responsible as a basis for integral micropolitics, defined as taking active responsibility for the well-being of the totality of living beings without exception, for the sake of that well-being alone. After reviewing two extant integral models for political action and interaction, demonstrating some of the limitations inherent in them, some ways are outlined in which the characteristic features of becoming-responsible—including critical clarity, compassion, competence, and consciousness—can be expressed in the realm of public concern; first, theoretically, drawing on a model proposed by poet and artist William Blake, and second, also historically, reflecting on an experiment in radical democracy in Chile (1970-1973), such that both examples critique and advance the claims and methods of mainstream integral theory as well as the alternative approach elaborated in this essay.