Ken Wilber has posted what he says is the last in his series of Wyatt Earp clean-ups. Calling it, What Would Wyatt Do?, he seems to be on board with the Cafe Press web site created in honor of his Earpy series.
Of much more import, however, than the seemingly interminable self-congratulation for the oh-so-brilliant original post, is the fact the he liked Jay's phrase, “a bodhisattva with the mouth of a gangsta rapper." It's nice to know that Ken (or his staff) appreciates the little blogs, too. Jay is feeling good about it: "Yeah, okay, so my head swelled a bit about being quoted by The Man. I'm workin' on it, okay??" Enjoy the buzz, my friend.
~C4 still has issues with KW calling him coolmel, which to him probably feels about the same as Wilber must feel when people talk about his entire body of work by referencing The Spectrum of Consciousness. KW needs to get with the program and see that ~C4 is at least on version 3.0 by now.
This ride with Wyatt has been a long, strange trip. In the end, I suspect that the integral community is more fractured now than it was before the original post. There were clear divisions among those who generally had held similiar and supportive positions regarding Wilber and I-I -- those who "got it" felt included and part of the club (more than a little ego swelling was detectable) and those who thought it missed the mark were put-off and disappointed (more than a little projection was detectable). I was in the later group on this one, and my projections are discussed here.
In the end, maybe Wilber's "test" did what it was supposed to do. Or maybe the seemingly endless series of follow-up posts and shadow work suggestions were the necessary clean-up for an error in judgement. Wilber argues for the first idea, but from a ground-level view it looks an awful lot like the second possibility is more true. The reality is probably something else entirely.
Technorati Tags: Ken Wilber, Wyatt Earp, The Rant, Shadow work, AQAL, Integral Institute
yeah i kept ken posted on some of the "little" blogs, and made the suggestion of adding "boddhisaatva w/ mouth of gangsta rapper" to his home page. funny shit dudes...
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteGlad you're looking out for us with the Big Guy.
ebuddha,
Sorry man, I get up early and blog early, otherwise it doesn't happen.
I saw your post -- we do have different takes, but that's cool. Jay and I do, too -- it's all good.
Peace,
Bill
Bill,
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is true: those who "got it" felt included and part of the club (more than a little ego swelling was detectable) and those who thought it missed the mark were put-off and disappointed (more than a little projection was detectable).
Of course, it depends on what you mean by "got it." If you mean people who expressed delight, ooooo'ed and ahhhhhhed after they were told by The Wilb that it was all a test that you passed if you oooooo'ed and ahhhhhed, then, yeah, those people quickly pushed their way past others, knocking over the women and children, got into the lifeboats and were brought onboard the Mother Ship.
But I don't know of anyone who "missed the mark", except -- perhaps -- in The Wilb's estimation, and there only as a measurement of not doing a saliva-dripping Ken butt smooch.
Nobody was upset by Ken's vulgarity, really. People were uncomfortable with Ken's meanness. So, let me get this straight: It is not OK for the Green Meme to be mean; It is OK for Ken to be mean back to them. It is OK for Ken to be mean to Vissar and his critics; it is not OK for anyone to get their feathers ruffled in response to Ken's meanness.
I think these are the kinds of conditions you see in a land of serfs kissing the pinkie rings of meglomaniacal czars wearing ruby-encrusted golden crowns. Or, maybe a place where the Queen of Hearts is yelling "off with their heads" during a game of croquet where the rules are determined by the queen as the game is being played.
There is something diabolically asymetrical about all of this. I suspect the bottomline here is that The Emperor wears no clothes.