Because we believe that we are all co-creating our world, the Aussie Evolver aims to provoke positive and respectful conversation about Australian and Global issues from Integral Australian perspectives to help us co-create a more evolved world.
The Aussie Evolver is a series of conversations hosted by Keith Price, inspired by Jeff Salzman's The Daily Evolver series on Integral Life.
Episode 1
We want to see Australia evolve. Is that what we're doing, and if not, how do we respond?
Keith Price in conversation with Dr Ralf Muhlberger (35 minutes)
Episode 2
Keith Price in conversation with Don Adlam (53 minutes)
Thanks, good Aussie integral blokes, for this talk! I’ve been so desperate for some integral sanity and perspective on Tony Abbott before I get out the chainsaw and…no, just excise Victoria from his governmental control merely… I was on the point of begging Jeff Salzmann to do a bit about it when I joined despite the dead calm at Integral Australia, and found you! Joy! Not unmitigated. It was a good discussion, making some important points. I loved the clarity of statement about e.g. an increasingly polarised democracy inevitably being at the mercy of the undecided, the unaligned, the swinging voters and cross -benchers.And better still, the unflinching truth/fact that democracy by its nature empowers those who don’t have the capacity (yet) to make a reasoned decision/choice.
For mine, were you a bit too Green-Postmodern in your care of Abbott’s rights to his perspective? And though his arrangements for refugees can be understood through appreciating his pre-modern Rules, what about now after deaths, suicides, shattered psyches and lives, sending seekers back to almost certain death at the hands of the regimes they fled…His values only prevent him from changing course I suspect, because they are riddled with the great Red Underbelly egocentric opportunism and its bullying and quite brutal tactics. (See Tony Windsor’s speech on Abbott as consummate bully, at the Victorian Women’s Trust honouring of Julia Gillard, 10 Nov 2013: their website for replay).
I can’t see how else to explain his “We all have to make sacrifices”, when it seems clear he has always meant “YOU all have to make sacrifices”; meaning I’m cutting the social support net from under all you little people who can’t stop me , and handing back billions to the disgustingly rich, because they will ensure I stay in power.
It’s Scott Ludlam’s identification, as you noted, of Abbott making the choice, every time, bar…any?, of supporting predatory capitalism not merely over, but to the detriment of the welfare of the Australian people and society. The Church he admires and supports has wonderful principles too~but feels no necessity, practically or personally, to follow them; the lawmakers are above the law; it only applies to the ruled.
I’d love you to do a follow-up now, given all the damage done since (can it practically, be called anything else?) And to consider this: Does being integral or postmodern, mean forgiving or passing over, that damage because a) that’s just Tony’s Stage, and b) a majority of Australians LIKE WHAT HE’S DOING. (I THINK THEY DON’T ANY MORE…). Doesn’t integral need to see beyond Postmodernism’s ‘everyone’s right in their own narrative framework and we should live and let live’ to as Ken Wilber said over 9/11, integralists saying ‘this needs to be stopped before it destroys too much’:
yes, kids like playing with matches, but we need to take them away before they burn the house down??? (Susan Shore, not too long back from Budapest Integral Europe Conference, where I presented, and trying to connect with my integral community here at home).
Hi Susan
This is Keith – I have just seem yor comments on our dialog (you are right that things have, to say the least, not been moving very much at IIA – we are looking to fix that real soon now 🙂 ) It does indeed look like a good topic to pick up the pace on the AE talks, which have been in abeyance for reasons largely beyong my control. Lots of juice, and I can’t say that I disagree with you to speak of. Was I being too green and touchy feely? Let’s see!
Cheers
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