Awakening Integral – part 2: Tearing down walls
On July 24th, 2008 Barak Obama gave a speech at Berlin’s “Siegessäule”, near the historic Brandenburg gate. Prior to Obama’s speech there was concern that he shouldn’t speak at the Brandenburg Gate. Some felt that such a symbolic land mark, with it’s history of the Berlin Wall’s physical and ideological division, is not the appropriate place for a partisan speech by a U.S. presidential candidate. Well, those concerns proved unfounded as there was nothing “partisan” about Barak Obama’s speech. It was far more than that. And because it was far more, it was the perfect place for his speech.
In the previous blog “Awakening Integral: Part 1″ I spoke about how integral theory shows development as an evolution of perspectives. From ego-centric, to ethno-centric, to world-centric, to kosmo-centric, growth is reflected by increasing circles of complexity, care and concern. When one awakens to the integral perspective (world-centric to kosmo-centric) there is recognition that many of our global problems have ethno-centric, or ego-centric causes. And where as these problems need to be addressed at their level, in this era of globalization it is essential that any solutions come from a world-centric to kosmo-centric perspective.
Barak Obama clearly holds such a perspective. His words, values, and indeed his perspective reflects a level of growth that transcends anything partisan, ethnic, cultural, national, religious, or ideological. He speaks from a perspective that transcends ethno-centric and he embodies the global values that includes all of humanity as a whole. Barak Obama is well grounded in the integral perspective and for anyone who shares such values the words of his speech will light up your being.
Before the Berlin speech Barak Obama had toured Afganistan, Iraq, Jordan and then he came here to Israel. By coincendence on the day of his arrival I was due to go to the West Bank to teach in Ramallah for Aikido Without Borders. Just before leaving Tel Aviv there was a “terrorist” attack in Jerusalem. Another bull dozer attack that was a copy cat from 2 weeks before. The standard opperating procedure when an attack occures is to close all check points out of the West Bank so, unfortunatly I had to cancle my visit. The following day Barak Obama was in the West Bank meeting with Abbas and other Palestinian leaders. One cannot make a trip to the West bank without passing through the wall (the so-called “security fence”) that surrounds the entire occupied terretories. It is very impressive. I find it courious that a day later, in Obama’s speech in Berlin, he used the metaphore of “walls” no less than 14 times.
Here is a short excerpt from his speech about the the obligation to build bridges and tear down walls:
For those who have awakened to the world-centric, or even integral perspective then the work must begin. It is the work of going beyond boundaries, it is the work of building bridges, it is the work of tearing down walls, of healing and integrating the fragmented and traumatized parts both in ourselves and in the world. This is the movement and the obligation of an awakened integral perspective. And if you are among the many who get what Barak Obama is saying, then you will understand what he means when he says “the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together”.
“The greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another….these now are the walls that we must tear down”.
We have our work cut out for us.
