[MD] The Trouble With Wilber

[pholden at davtv.com]

Quoting Krimel <Krimel at Krimel.com>:

> [Krimel]
> > All this while virtually ignoring the emergence of real expanded awareness
> > and consciousness that is booming around us in the form of cell phones,
> > instant messaging, e-mail, Google Earth, GPS, webcams, Alternative
> > Intelligences, the expansion of identical shared memory in the form of 
> > film and voice recording and the sum total of human knowledge instantly 
> > available at the touch of a button. All of this higher level consciousness
> 
> > emerges specifically from the direction of rational thinking suggested by 
> > Piaget...
> 
> [Platt]
> ... I couldn't help but point out in your description above of "expanded
> awareness" that you cited only the means by which awareness has spread
> horizontally but nothing about the meanings or depth of understanding of
> this broader dispersion of data brought about by technology. There is
> precious little evidence that the new gimmicks of communication have made us
> any wiser or brought us to a "higher level of consciousness." Expansion in
> breadth doesn't promise penetration in depth. Flatland is not conducive to
> insight.
> 
> [Krimel]
> How would you measure depth? Most of the scientists, philosophers,
> theologians who ever lived are working today. There are most doctors,
> teachers and students. Would you say the shear number of them and their
> proportions in the population at large are factors? How able the percentage
> of people operating at the various levels of Maslow's hierarchy of need? Or
> the percentage who or literate or the average number of hours per week
> available to pursue depth?
> 
> Are these just gimmicks? 
> 
> Cell phones? Can anyone forget the recorded calls of victims saying their
> goodbyes from the World Trade Center or those hijacked planes? We and anyone
> living henceforth can share identical memories of those voices. Doesn't
> something in that count for depth?
> 
> Wiki? How many times has Wiki been cited on this forum? Most of us rely on
> it instantly to provide information about everything from global warming to
> the Ramones. Don't you think that your use of it has increased the depth of
> your understanding and expanded your consciousness?
> 
> Mp3 and video compression allow you listen to or watch everything from the
> BBC's In Our Time to the programming on Wilber's Integral Naked site. Surely
> this is only further evidence that I do not understand the problem but even
> if you factor in pay-per-view webcams and off shore virtual casinos the
> range of options represented is more than simply horizontal.
> 
> There has never been the promise of increased depth either from spiritual
> practice or academic discipline or shear hedonism. But writing, printing and
> now all of these "gimmicks" have made the acquisition of depth easier and
> therefore more probable.
> 
> But I could be wrong. How would you measure depth; even enough to say it
> isn't there?

Try this:

"PRINCETON, NJ -- 18 December 2002 -- Contemporary college seniors scored on average
little or no higher than the high-school graduates of a half-century ago on a
battery of 15 questions assessing general cultural knowledge. The questions, drawn
from a survey originally done by the Gallup Organization in 1955, covered
literature, music, science, geography, and history. They were asked again of a
random sample of American college and university students by Zogby International
in April 2002. The Zogby survey was commissioned by the National Association of
scholars."

See complete report at: 

http://www.nas.org/print/pressreleases/hqnas/releas_18dec02.htm









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