Guidelines For Baha’is Serving on Institutions

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If you’ve ever served on an LSA or other Baha’i institution, these guidelines may be familiar to you:

(1) Insist on doing everything through “channels.” Never permit short-cuts to be taken in order to expedite decisions.

(2) Make “speeches.” Talk as frequently as possible and at great length. Illustrate your “points” by long anecdotes and accounts of per­sonal experiences. Never hesitate to make a few appropriate “patriotic” comments.

(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for “further study and considera­tion.” Attempt to make the committees as large as possible — never less than five.

(4) Bring up irrelevant issues as frequently as possible.

(5) Haggle over precise wordings of com­munications, minutes, resolutions.

(6) Refer back to matters decided upon at the last meeting and attempt to re-open the question of the advisability of that decision.

(7) Advocate “caution.” Be “reasonable” and urge your fellow-conferees to be “reason­able” and avoid haste which might result in embarrassments or difficulties later on.

(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision — raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the juris­diction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon.

Even though you may not have seen them spelled out exactly as above, you probably have seen most of these guidelines implemented if you’ve ever served on an assembly, council or other institution. Heck, you may have even done exactly one or two or more of them yourself.

Guess what?

They come from a 1944 CIA manual on how to sabotage an organization from within.

red-tape

You can view and download the whole declassified document: Simple Sabotage Field Manual (see page 28 for the excerpt above).

Related posts:

  1. How to Get Elected to Baha’i Institutions

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  • ep

    re: “If religion becomes a cause of enmity and hatred … abolition of religion is preferable”

    “Among the teachings of Bahá’u'lláh is His declaration that religion must be the cause of love and fellowship, must be the source of unity in the hearts of men. If religion becomes a cause of enmity and hatred, it is evident that the abolition of religion is preferable to its promulgation; for religion is a remedy for human ills. If a remedy should be productive of disease, it is certainly advisable to abandon it. ”

    —

    Farhan,

    Bahai does not put the church in the middle of the village. Baha’is that have tried to move toward a “Mashriq” form of bahai culture (mysticism/service) are viciously attacked by bureaucratic apparatchiks and fundamentalists. The spirits of these blessed seekers of spiritually-centric bahai life are broken, and their hope for a life of sacred harmony ground under the boot of viciously fascist bahai conformism to worship of “organization”.

    Please note that german philosopher Jurgen Habermas, one of the most advanced thinkers on the planet, has as a central premise that institutions universally suffer a “crisis of legitimization” because of the prevailing conditions of culture. They become victim to their own public relations campaigns and attempts to manipulate public opinion via mass media.

    Baha’i has clearly absorbed exactly the problems that Habermas describes in its (BAD) “adaptation to culture”.

    In the midst of crisis, Baha’is naturally turn backward, as do all reactionary belief systems that have to vision of a “legitimate” future paradigm.

    If bahai believed in KOSMIC EVOLUTION, instead of backward “revelation”, a way forward, an escape from metaphysical quicksand, would be possible.

    But, alas, the bahai leadership elites, and their dunce followers, are doomed to march off a cliff of error and waywardness, rejecting the very evolutionary characteristics that could assure a slim chance of survival.

    I fully believe that the “sacred” (transcendence, mysticism) is wired into the human brain, by evolution. Not by bogus Prophetic/Progressive Revelation. We are all made of Kosmic dust from the Big Bang, and can directly access transcendence as a populist community of voluntary reciprocity and mutal interest, not via some corrupt, backward quasi-priesthood that uses spirituality as a weapon of control, a tool for accumulating wealth, and a means of perpetuating dysfunctional “systems” that work against harmony, responsibility and self-sufficiency.

    Modernity (science, rationalism, democracy, industry, capitalism) is premised on the overthrow of the same corrupt forms of traditional authority that the founders of babai/bahai belief themselves fiercely denounced over and over and over.

    As Sen McGlinn and many others have said, the problem with modernity, in its state of “paradigm regression”, is that it attempts to “colonize lifeworld” (Habermas), thus it tries to impose a monolithic (“universal”) structure of consciousness on other paradigms. Postmodernism (pluralism, deconstruction) developed as a critique of the monolithic aspect of modernity. However, Sen does not state the further problem, which is that postmodernism itself has many nasty “paradigm regressive” forms of expression. Ken Wilber and other Integral thinkers have called those nasty forms of postmodernism the “mean green meme” (MGM). Once common version of the MGM is “political correctness” (thought policing).

    In reality, bahai HAS CLEARLY (AND BADLY) “adapted to culture” by absorbing the worst aspects of “monolithic colonization” by modernism “systems” and “thought policing” by postmodernism (not to mention pre-modern conformism and archaic rule by violence).

    The escape from the cycle of meaninglessness and backwardness is to peer into the evolutionary future of the human race, and see “something better”, which is holism, or trans-rational thought (an integration of transcendence and rationalism).

    The UHJ itself mentioned in a message to Dr. Susan Maneck that the “solution” to the “liberal vs. conservative” conflicts in bahai culture is to adaopt “Integrative Paradigms” benig developed by non-bahai scholars!!!

    *******************
    *** PLEASE NOTE ***
    *******************

    THE UHJ ITSELF HAS CLEARLY TOLD BAHAIS TO “ADAPT TO CULTURE”.

    Bahais are defying the very authority structure that they worship (by NOT “contributing to Integrative Paradigms”).

    As Craig says, the incompetence of bahai is so vast and unending as to stupify anyone that attempts to fathom it.

    CLEARLY, you and Masud are backward, priest-like “Dunces” of the Highest Order and Magnitude Imaginable.

    Anyways, the version of mysticism/service that you have in mind (“church is the center of the village”) is forever enslaved to a failed model of social progress that is premised upon worship of organization (“systems”), not human decency or transcendence (much less “integrative paradigms”).

    —

    It is, in theory, simple to detach yourself from such false ideas and beliefs. Take a few moments during your days of mindless “happiness” while tending and tinkling on sprouts and shoots (that some evil bahai administrator will subsequently pour spiritual herbicides on if it dares to not conform to the enforcers of CORRECT GROWTH), and meditate on such detachment.

    Think about how glorious a contribution to a positive future you will make by stopping such foolishness. Think about how much better and more enlightened the lives of multitudes will be if the sources of bahai error, mischief and exploitation, such as yourself and masud, just mind your own business for once.

    Clearly bahai is increasingly tending toward incompetence, fundamentalism, conformism, backwardness, stupidity, intolerance, dysfunctional bureacuracy, injustice, elitism, racism and cultural imperialism. All of which are consistent with “enmity and hatred”.

    I am increasingly stunned at how many otherwise (at least moderately) intelligent people, like you and masud, simply believe in stupid things.

    As I’ve seen people that originally had some intellectual integrity rise up within the bahai system over the last couple of decades, they learn to give up much of their integrity in order to conform and “get along”. This is the same thing seen everywhere else in the world, people become cynical, and give up hope that any major social change can happen, and look for ways to establish an “emotional comfort zone” – and/or collect a paycheck.

    Since everything you belive is premised opn giving up “real” hope, you are the one that is unhappy, you just chose to cover it up with lies in order to “save face”.

    Your complete refusal to admit that bahais have failed to address the long and absurd internal history of social injustices and racism, and your adamant and inexplicable refusal to think that anything CONCRETE could or should be done to recognise or change it, is sufficient to prove my point.

    This is because your beliefs are empty, and the void has to be filled with “something”, and that “something” is worship of organization. It is emptiness upon emptiness.

    Ultimately what you believe in is destined for collapse. Which is why the bahai bureaucracy that you worhip has to constantly reinvent itself by crushing the spirits of people that come to the religion for a sense of belonging, real hope and change.

    You should be deeply and profoundly ashamed to be an apologist for such a morally bankrupt, corrupt, wretched, failed, mindless and heartless belief system.

    The fact that you encourage people to be “happy” and march off a cliff like a herd of mindless lemmings simply reinforces the absurd futility of anyone thinking that the bahai leadership elites have any clue about how to reform the religion so that it makes sense to the rest of the world.

    Thus, bahai can not be considered “the cause of love and fellowship”, and, according to bahai scripture itself, should be abolished.

    Your “unity” is really “false unity”.

    It is lies and cowardice.

    Have a wnoderful weekend!
    ep

    [quote comment=""]Eric,

    I fully agree with the point brought up by Masud, with which you disagree:

    “Again, I think that culture should adapt to the Baha’i Faith, not vice-versa.”

    This is the crux of all religious belief: the concept of the sacred, Mother Nature, the Great architect, the Revelation of God, etc, provides a nucleus to which people adhere with heart and soul, and around which a civilisation can be weaved. These are the warp and the woof of civilisation, if you prefer. The Swiss have an expression: put the church in the middle of the village”

    Jaques Monod, the French Nobel prize wrote a treatise in teh 1970s called “Le Hazard et la Necessité”, a cold and arid plea for objectivity, which is translated into English, in which he considers science as providing it’s own source of objective ethics, BUT he goes on to explain that it is the concept of the sacred that can attract people to these ethical laws to the point that they are ready to sacrifice their lives for it.

    Whatever the mistakes Baha’is like us might make, however pessimistic we might be, the Faith of God will march on in an exponential manner as it has done for the last century and a half. Not with the aim of success for itself, but with the aim of reforming human society. As the French say, we should not only look at the half empty part of the bottle, but also at the half full part. Otherwise we will suffer from depression.

    Shoots, branches and flowers are blooming everywhere. We should lift our eyes from the mire and dirt of the compost to look at the budding community.[/quote]

  • ep

    re: “If religion becomes a cause of enmity and hatred … abolition of religion is preferable”

    “Among the teachings of Bahá’u'lláh is His declaration that religion must be the cause of love and fellowship, must be the source of unity in the hearts of men. If religion becomes a cause of enmity and hatred, it is evident that the abolition of religion is preferable to its promulgation; for religion is a remedy for human ills. If a remedy should be productive of disease, it is certainly advisable to abandon it. ”

    —

    Farhan,

    Bahai does not put the church in the middle of the village. Baha’is that have tried to move toward a “Mashriq” form of bahai culture (mysticism/service) are viciously attacked by bureaucratic apparatchiks and fundamentalists. The spirits of these blessed seekers of spiritually-centric bahai life are broken, and their hope for a life of sacred harmony ground under the boot of viciously fascist bahai conformism to worship of “organization”.

    Please note that german philosopher Jurgen Habermas, one of the most advanced thinkers on the planet, has as a central premise that institutions universally suffer a “crisis of legitimization” because of the prevailing conditions of culture. They become victim to their own public relations campaigns and attempts to manipulate public opinion via mass media.

    Baha’i has clearly absorbed exactly the problems that Habermas describes in its (BAD) “adaptation to culture”.

    In the midst of crisis, Baha’is naturally turn backward, as do all reactionary belief systems that have to vision of a “legitimate” future paradigm.

    If bahai believed in KOSMIC EVOLUTION, instead of backward “revelation”, a way forward, an escape from metaphysical quicksand, would be possible.

    But, alas, the bahai leadership elites, and their dunce followers, are doomed to march off a cliff of error and waywardness, rejecting the very evolutionary characteristics that could assure a slim chance of survival.

    I fully believe that the “sacred” (transcendence, mysticism) is wired into the human brain, by evolution. Not by bogus Prophetic/Progressive Revelation. We are all made of Kosmic dust from the Big Bang, and can directly access transcendence as a populist community of voluntary reciprocity and mutal interest, not via some corrupt, backward quasi-priesthood that uses spirituality as a weapon of control, a tool for accumulating wealth, and a means of perpetuating dysfunctional “systems” that work against harmony, responsibility and self-sufficiency.

    Modernity (science, rationalism, democracy, industry, capitalism) is premised on the overthrow of the same corrupt forms of traditional authority that the founders of babai/bahai belief themselves fiercely denounced over and over and over.

    As Sen McGlinn and many others have said, the problem with modernity, in its state of “paradigm regression”, is that it attempts to “colonize lifeworld” (Habermas), thus it tries to impose a monolithic (“universal”) structure of consciousness on other paradigms. Postmodernism (pluralism, deconstruction) developed as a critique of the monolithic aspect of modernity. However, Sen does not state the further problem, which is that postmodernism itself has many nasty “paradigm regressive” forms of expression. Ken Wilber and other Integral thinkers have called those nasty forms of postmodernism the “mean green meme” (MGM). Once common version of the MGM is “political correctness” (thought policing).

    In reality, bahai HAS CLEARLY (AND BADLY) “adapted to culture” by absorbing the worst aspects of “monolithic colonization” by modernism “systems” and “thought policing” by postmodernism (not to mention pre-modern conformism and archaic rule by violence).

    The escape from the cycle of meaninglessness and backwardness is to peer into the evolutionary future of the human race, and see “something better”, which is holism, or trans-rational thought (an integration of transcendence and rationalism).

    The UHJ itself mentioned in a message to Dr. Susan Maneck that the “solution” to the “liberal vs. conservative” conflicts in bahai culture is to adaopt “Integrative Paradigms” benig developed by non-bahai scholars!!!

    *******************
    *** PLEASE NOTE ***
    *******************

    THE UHJ ITSELF HAS CLEARLY TOLD BAHAIS TO “ADAPT TO CULTURE”.

    Bahais are defying the very authority structure that they worship (by NOT “contributing to Integrative Paradigms”).

    As Craig says, the incompetence of bahai is so vast and unending as to stupify anyone that attempts to fathom it.

    CLEARLY, you and Masud are backward, priest-like “Dunces” of the Highest Order and Magnitude Imaginable.

    Anyways, the version of mysticism/service that you have in mind (“church is the center of the village”) is forever enslaved to a failed model of social progress that is premised upon worship of organization (“systems”), not human decency or transcendence (much less “integrative paradigms”).

    —

    It is, in theory, simple to detach yourself from such false ideas and beliefs. Take a few moments during your days of mindless “happiness” while tending and tinkling on sprouts and shoots (that some evil bahai administrator will subsequently pour spiritual herbicides on if it dares to not conform to the enforcers of CORRECT GROWTH), and meditate on such detachment.

    Think about how glorious a contribution to a positive future you will make by stopping such foolishness. Think about how much better and more enlightened the lives of multitudes will be if the sources of bahai error, mischief and exploitation, such as yourself and masud, just mind your own business for once.

    Clearly bahai is increasingly tending toward incompetence, fundamentalism, conformism, backwardness, stupidity, intolerance, dysfunctional bureacuracy, injustice, elitism, racism and cultural imperialism. All of which are consistent with “enmity and hatred”.

    I am increasingly stunned at how many otherwise (at least moderately) intelligent people, like you and masud, simply believe in stupid things.

    As I’ve seen people that originally had some intellectual integrity rise up within the bahai system over the last couple of decades, they learn to give up much of their integrity in order to conform and “get along”. This is the same thing seen everywhere else in the world, people become cynical, and give up hope that any major social change can happen, and look for ways to establish an “emotional comfort zone” – and/or collect a paycheck.

    Since everything you belive is premised opn giving up “real” hope, you are the one that is unhappy, you just chose to cover it up with lies in order to “save face”.

    Your complete refusal to admit that bahais have failed to address the long and absurd internal history of social injustices and racism, and your adamant and inexplicable refusal to think that anything CONCRETE could or should be done to recognise or change it, is sufficient to prove my point.

    This is because your beliefs are empty, and the void has to be filled with “something”, and that “something” is worship of organization. It is emptiness upon emptiness.

    Ultimately what you believe in is destined for collapse. Which is why the bahai bureaucracy that you worhip has to constantly reinvent itself by crushing the spirits of people that come to the religion for a sense of belonging, real hope and change.

    You should be deeply and profoundly ashamed to be an apologist for such a morally bankrupt, corrupt, wretched, failed, mindless and heartless belief system.

    The fact that you encourage people to be “happy” and march off a cliff like a herd of mindless lemmings simply reinforces the absurd futility of anyone thinking that the bahai leadership elites have any clue about how to reform the religion so that it makes sense to the rest of the world.

    Thus, bahai can not be considered “the cause of love and fellowship”, and, according to bahai scripture itself, should be abolished.

    Your “unity” is really “false unity”.

    It is lies and cowardice.

    Have a wnoderful weekend!
    ep

    [quote comment=""]Eric,

    I fully agree with the point brought up by Masud, with which you disagree:

    “Again, I think that culture should adapt to the Baha’i Faith, not vice-versa.”

    This is the crux of all religious belief: the concept of the sacred, Mother Nature, the Great architect, the Revelation of God, etc, provides a nucleus to which people adhere with heart and soul, and around which a civilisation can be weaved. These are the warp and the woof of civilisation, if you prefer. The Swiss have an expression: put the church in the middle of the village”

    Jaques Monod, the French Nobel prize wrote a treatise in teh 1970s called “Le Hazard et la Necessité”, a cold and arid plea for objectivity, which is translated into English, in which he considers science as providing it’s own source of objective ethics, BUT he goes on to explain that it is the concept of the sacred that can attract people to these ethical laws to the point that they are ready to sacrifice their lives for it.

    Whatever the mistakes Baha’is like us might make, however pessimistic we might be, the Faith of God will march on in an exponential manner as it has done for the last century and a half. Not with the aim of success for itself, but with the aim of reforming human society. As the French say, we should not only look at the half empty part of the bottle, but also at the half full part. Otherwise we will suffer from depression.

    Shoots, branches and flowers are blooming everywhere. We should lift our eyes from the mire and dirt of the compost to look at the budding community.[/quote]

  • Craig Parke

    Some of God’s “latest work”:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7548716.stm

    EP,

    Thanks for you very cogent analysis here lately. Spot on.

    What meme is this above footage?

  • Craig Parke

    Some of God’s “latest work”:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7548716.stm

    EP,

    Thanks for you very cogent analysis here lately. Spot on.

    What meme is this above footage?

  • ep

    RE: REAL WORLD PEACE POSSIBLE? (INTEGRAL THEORY EXCERPTS.)

    Craig,

    Thanks for the support, it means a lot. Resisting the convoluted, conformist thought policing that is prevalent in bahai culture is exhausting. I guess the process is cathartic in that unearthing repressed/hidden collective experiences can have a cleansing effect?

    re:
    | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7548716.stm
    | What meme is this above footage?

    Mostly blue meme (feudal/warlord). Russian empirialism. Probably with tribal elements.

    I have not studied the Russia/Georgia conflict in detail yet, watching such idiocy and pointless tragedy is painful, but I will eventually come to terms with this latest example of broken humanity, and try to understand the causes.

    In general, here is an integral perspective on war and the need for a world police force:

    (note to other readers: I’m including these longish excerpts because they contain very specific ideas about world peace efforts, not generalized “feel good” rhetoric such as most bahais spout off.)

    | Some of Graves’ students went on to work with Nelson Mandela to
    | organize the truth and reconcoliation process in post-apartheid
    | south afria. Again, no bahais were present, or apparently aware
    | of what happened, or why Graves theories about
    | developmental “stages” (”Spiral Dynamics”) are important to
    | peace work.

    Ken Wilber’s “take” on the Iraq war:

    http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/misc/iraq.cfm

    … I therefore suggested a few things about what a world governance system operating at yellow might look like. “Yellow” is the level of consciousness at which “second tier” or truly integral awareness begins to emerge. It is thus contrasted with the previous 6 levels or vMemes—which are called first tier, each of which believes that its value system is the only true, correct, or deeply worthwhile value system in existence. Those first-tier waves are, very briefly:

    beige: instinctual;

    purple: magical-animistic, tribal;

    red: egocentric, power, feudalistic;

    blue: mythic-membership, conformist, fundamentalist, ethnocentric, traditional;

    orange: excellence, achievement, progress, modern;

    green: postmodern, multicultural, sensitive, pluralistic.

    Those first-tier waves of development are followed by what Clare Graves called “the momentous leap of meaning” to second tier, which has, as of today, two major levels or waves of awareness:

    yellow: systemic, flexible, flowing;

    turquoise: cosmic unity, integrative, nested hierarchies of interrelationships, one-in-many holism.
    …

    The reason that Graves called second tier a “momentous leap” is that unlike all first-tier waves (which imagine their values are the only correct values), second tier has an understanding of the crucial if relative importance of all previous values—including red, blue, orange, and green. Orange thinks green is mindless; green despises orange; blue thinks both of them are going to burn in hell forever. Yellow, on the other hand, finds all of them necessary and acceptable, as long as none of them gets the upper hand and starts repressing the others. This, needless to say, would have a profound influence on any World Federation operating from yellow or second tier values (as we will see).

    There are two basic points to keep in mind about any future world governance system. The first is that laws, to be laws, are enacted from the highest average expectable level of development in the governance system. In today’s world, for example, most of the laws in Western democracies stem from the orange level, which is worldcentric, postconventional, and modern (or, as our French friends first expressed the orange meme 300 years ago: equality, fraternity, liberty). Many countries continue to operate basically at a blue level: conformist, non-democratic (dictatorial or totalitarian), grounded not in evidence but in dogma (Marxist, Muslim, or otherwise), and ethnocentric (believe the Book or burn). Some terrorist cells (not to mention street gangs) remain at red: hierarchies of raw power and physical strength, implemented often by torture, rape, or any means necessary to keep a particular warlord in power. Although structures such as red and blue might sound rather brutal, and often are, they have to be seen in context: they are usually the best that can be arranged under the given circumstances and conditions.

    …even in an “integral society” (yellow or higher), there will still be pockets or subcultures of individuals at purple, red, blue, orange, and green. This is not only unavoidable, it is healthy, normal, desirable.

    [*] What is not desirable, however, is that any of those waves
    [*] dominate the governance system and therefore attempt to
    [*] force their values on others
    …

    A second-tier, integral, World Federation—in my Utopian view—would therefore prevent any first-tier memes from dominating, attacking, or exploiting any other populations. If necessary, a World Federation would do so by using force, just as all democracies today have an internal police force to curtail murder, rape, robbery, extortion, and so on. Somebody whose center of gravity is green will not commit murder, rape, or robbery. However, somebody whose center of gravity is red will do any or all of those, sometimes happily. And because everybody is born at square one, and must progress through purple, red, blue, and so on,

    [*] some sort of police will always be necessary to protect
    [*] others from those who do not evolve to a worldcentric
    [*] level of care and compassion.

    So any World Federation would have some sort of police force, of necessity. Call them the World Cops. Needless to say, the World Cops would be regulated by the World Federation, not by any country (and certainly not by America, Britain, France, Germany, etc.).

    This police force is

    [*] NOT allowed to tell people what level of consciousness they should be at; it is

    [*] NOT allowed to govern what individuals do in the privacy of their own homes or dwellings; it is

    [*] NOT allowed to coerce or intimidate people who are not at the average level of social development.

    It is, however, allowed to prevent (or punish) those whose public behavior stems from a less-than-worldcentric stance.

    …I personally believe that any protest movement that does not equally protest both America’s invasion and Saddam’s murder of 400,000 people is a protest movement that does not truly represent peace or non-aggression or worldcentric values.

    I am aware of no major protest movement that has protested both forms of violence equally, and that has insisted upon an immediate end to both aggressions, and offered a believable way that both aggressions could actually be halted immediately so that neither side can continue its homicidal actions.

    That is, I am aware of no integral protest movement anywhere in the world, unfortunately.

    …Unless there is a healthy blue infrastructure—whether in inner city ghettos or Mid-East tribes—there is no place for red youth to go, and thus they end up trapped in warlord city. Forcing “democracy” on such a culture simply results, as it consistently has elsewhere, in the free election of military dictators. This, needless to say, is a complex topic; readers are again referred to A Theory of Everything for an overview, as well as to integralinstitute.org.)

    What has struck me the most in the highly emotional debates about the war in Iraq is how deeply the entire discussion is sunk in first-tier value fights. Both the blue-to-orange Bush supporters, and the orange-to-green media (and protesters) give wildly skewed, biased, and prejudiced accounts of the events. I am constantly taken aback by how brutally narrow a given perspective is, even (and sometimes especially) those claiming to be caring and inclusive and compassionate. There is plenty of truth on each side of the debate, just not the whole truth, which both sides vociferously claim to possess.

    …
    I believe that the first World Federation will likely be orange-to-green. My hope is that it will be healthy green, but who knows? I believe that any such green World Federation will make substantial strides toward world harmony, but it will eventually face the inherent limitations and contradictions of all first-tier perspectives. The equivalent of worldwide, politically-correct thought-police will surface—a green Inquisition, if you will—whose subtle brutalities, accompanied by a series of extremely unpleasant economic events brought about by green’s hobbling of orange business, will force a second-tier, yellow, World Federation to move haltingly into place. (Orange business cripples ecology; ecological green cripples orange business; both are forms of first-tier violence, neither of which is countenanced by yellow, and thus the first World Federation will likely be characterized, among numerous other forms of wholeness in practice, by a reconciliation between capitalism and ecology.) But that, I believe, will be at least a century or so away.

    —end excerpts—

    [quote comment="54452"]Some of God’s “latest work”:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7548716.stm

    EP,

    Thanks for you very cogent analysis here lately. Spot on.

    What meme is this above footage?[/quote]
    [quote comment=""]Some of God’s “latest work”:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7548716.stm

    EP,

    Thanks for you very cogent analysis here lately. Spot on.

    What meme is this above footage?[/quote]

  • ep

    RE: REAL WORLD PEACE POSSIBLE? (INTEGRAL THEORY EXCERPTS.)

    Craig,

    Thanks for the support, it means a lot. Resisting the convoluted, conformist thought policing that is prevalent in bahai culture is exhausting. I guess the process is cathartic in that unearthing repressed/hidden collective experiences can have a cleansing effect?

    re:
    | http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7548716.stm
    | What meme is this above footage?

    Mostly blue meme (feudal/warlord). Russian empirialism. Probably with tribal elements.

    I have not studied the Russia/Georgia conflict in detail yet, watching such idiocy and pointless tragedy is painful, but I will eventually come to terms with this latest example of broken humanity, and try to understand the causes.

    In general, here is an integral perspective on war and the need for a world police force:

    (note to other readers: I’m including these longish excerpts because they contain very specific ideas about world peace efforts, not generalized “feel good” rhetoric such as most bahais spout off.)

    | Some of Graves’ students went on to work with Nelson Mandela to
    | organize the truth and reconcoliation process in post-apartheid
    | south afria. Again, no bahais were present, or apparently aware
    | of what happened, or why Graves theories about
    | developmental “stages” (”Spiral Dynamics”) are important to
    | peace work.

    Ken Wilber’s “take” on the Iraq war:

    http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/misc/iraq.cfm

    … I therefore suggested a few things about what a world governance system operating at yellow might look like. “Yellow” is the level of consciousness at which “second tier” or truly integral awareness begins to emerge. It is thus contrasted with the previous 6 levels or vMemes—which are called first tier, each of which believes that its value system is the only true, correct, or deeply worthwhile value system in existence. Those first-tier waves are, very briefly:

    beige: instinctual;

    purple: magical-animistic, tribal;

    red: egocentric, power, feudalistic;

    blue: mythic-membership, conformist, fundamentalist, ethnocentric, traditional;

    orange: excellence, achievement, progress, modern;

    green: postmodern, multicultural, sensitive, pluralistic.

    Those first-tier waves of development are followed by what Clare Graves called “the momentous leap of meaning” to second tier, which has, as of today, two major levels or waves of awareness:

    yellow: systemic, flexible, flowing;

    turquoise: cosmic unity, integrative, nested hierarchies of interrelationships, one-in-many holism.
    …

    The reason that Graves called second tier a “momentous leap” is that unlike all first-tier waves (which imagine their values are the only correct values), second tier has an understanding of the crucial if relative importance of all previous values—including red, blue, orange, and green. Orange thinks green is mindless; green despises orange; blue thinks both of them are going to burn in hell forever. Yellow, on the other hand, finds all of them necessary and acceptable, as long as none of them gets the upper hand and starts repressing the others. This, needless to say, would have a profound influence on any World Federation operating from yellow or second tier values (as we will see).

    There are two basic points to keep in mind about any future world governance system. The first is that laws, to be laws, are enacted from the highest average expectable level of development in the governance system. In today’s world, for example, most of the laws in Western democracies stem from the orange level, which is worldcentric, postconventional, and modern (or, as our French friends first expressed the orange meme 300 years ago: equality, fraternity, liberty). Many countries continue to operate basically at a blue level: conformist, non-democratic (dictatorial or totalitarian), grounded not in evidence but in dogma (Marxist, Muslim, or otherwise), and ethnocentric (believe the Book or burn). Some terrorist cells (not to mention street gangs) remain at red: hierarchies of raw power and physical strength, implemented often by torture, rape, or any means necessary to keep a particular warlord in power. Although structures such as red and blue might sound rather brutal, and often are, they have to be seen in context: they are usually the best that can be arranged under the given circumstances and conditions.

    …even in an “integral society” (yellow or higher), there will still be pockets or subcultures of individuals at purple, red, blue, orange, and green. This is not only unavoidable, it is healthy, normal, desirable.

    [*] What is not desirable, however, is that any of those waves
    [*] dominate the governance system and therefore attempt to
    [*] force their values on others
    …

    A second-tier, integral, World Federation—in my Utopian view—would therefore prevent any first-tier memes from dominating, attacking, or exploiting any other populations. If necessary, a World Federation would do so by using force, just as all democracies today have an internal police force to curtail murder, rape, robbery, extortion, and so on. Somebody whose center of gravity is green will not commit murder, rape, or robbery. However, somebody whose center of gravity is red will do any or all of those, sometimes happily. And because everybody is born at square one, and must progress through purple, red, blue, and so on,

    [*] some sort of police will always be necessary to protect
    [*] others from those who do not evolve to a worldcentric
    [*] level of care and compassion.

    So any World Federation would have some sort of police force, of necessity. Call them the World Cops. Needless to say, the World Cops would be regulated by the World Federation, not by any country (and certainly not by America, Britain, France, Germany, etc.).

    This police force is

    [*] NOT allowed to tell people what level of consciousness they should be at; it is

    [*] NOT allowed to govern what individuals do in the privacy of their own homes or dwellings; it is

    [*] NOT allowed to coerce or intimidate people who are not at the average level of social development.

    It is, however, allowed to prevent (or punish) those whose public behavior stems from a less-than-worldcentric stance.

    …I personally believe that any protest movement that does not equally protest both America’s invasion and Saddam’s murder of 400,000 people is a protest movement that does not truly represent peace or non-aggression or worldcentric values.

    I am aware of no major protest movement that has protested both forms of violence equally, and that has insisted upon an immediate end to both aggressions, and offered a believable way that both aggressions could actually be halted immediately so that neither side can continue its homicidal actions.

    That is, I am aware of no integral protest movement anywhere in the world, unfortunately.

    …Unless there is a healthy blue infrastructure—whether in inner city ghettos or Mid-East tribes—there is no place for red youth to go, and thus they end up trapped in warlord city. Forcing “democracy” on such a culture simply results, as it consistently has elsewhere, in the free election of military dictators. This, needless to say, is a complex topic; readers are again referred to A Theory of Everything for an overview, as well as to integralinstitute.org.)

    What has struck me the most in the highly emotional debates about the war in Iraq is how deeply the entire discussion is sunk in first-tier value fights. Both the blue-to-orange Bush supporters, and the orange-to-green media (and protesters) give wildly skewed, biased, and prejudiced accounts of the events. I am constantly taken aback by how brutally narrow a given perspective is, even (and sometimes especially) those claiming to be caring and inclusive and compassionate. There is plenty of truth on each side of the debate, just not the whole truth, which both sides vociferously claim to possess.

    …
    I believe that the first World Federation will likely be orange-to-green. My hope is that it will be healthy green, but who knows? I believe that any such green World Federation will make substantial strides toward world harmony, but it will eventually face the inherent limitations and contradictions of all first-tier perspectives. The equivalent of worldwide, politically-correct thought-police will surface—a green Inquisition, if you will—whose subtle brutalities, accompanied by a series of extremely unpleasant economic events brought about by green’s hobbling of orange business, will force a second-tier, yellow, World Federation to move haltingly into place. (Orange business cripples ecology; ecological green cripples orange business; both are forms of first-tier violence, neither of which is countenanced by yellow, and thus the first World Federation will likely be characterized, among numerous other forms of wholeness in practice, by a reconciliation between capitalism and ecology.) But that, I believe, will be at least a century or so away.

    —end excerpts—

    [quote comment="54452"]Some of God’s “latest work”:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7548716.stm

    EP,

    Thanks for you very cogent analysis here lately. Spot on.

    What meme is this above footage?[/quote]
    [quote comment=""]Some of God’s “latest work”:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7548716.stm

    EP,

    Thanks for you very cogent analysis here lately. Spot on.

    What meme is this above footage?[/quote]

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