Richard Woodward in an article entitled “When Bad is Good,” says of contemporary art, “Artworks that mimic soft porn, showcase embalmed animals, mock the Pope, and otherwise offend propriety are filling auctions, museums, and galleries. Is there anything left to be upset about?”

Complaints about so-called art are increasingly common but ‘Spiral Dynamics’  (from Gebser, Graves, and Wilber) describes this and history well -  what began in art as a legitimate need for change and protest in the ‘traditional’ era (Gauguin, Picasso, Duchamp - at the end of the industrial era) cannot remain as protest.  ‘Modernism’ up to the 60’s introduced the corporate world and some confusion in the arts but ‘Post modern’ consciousness (see graphic) already presented new systems, new ecology, questions about personal ethics, and the call for economic justice, although mostly as a form of ethical protest. Now this level of awakening consciousness also needs to move to the integral level to create solutions for today. Protest cannot go on forever. That level of consciousness is already creatively and ethically bankrupt - solutions are now required instead. A new art based on Principles, social relevance, and personal integrity, has to emerge. 

In theology the emergence of the ‘traditional era’ describes monotheism emerging as an angelic influence based on law, hence the harshness of the era. It runs through to the era of the birth of Christ. Christianity then introduces the God-Son relationship and love. Integral theology eventually introduces God in relationship to the  couple and principles which seem to relate to the integral age. Therefore Christianity is also seriously challenged - process and progress like time and tide wait for no man.

National histories also contain issue and anomalies. If a people have been rigorously controlled by dictatorship and are then liberated they will not necessarily emerge into the integral modern age. They will emerge onto the level where their growth was arrested. This would suggest some of the Arab spring might emerge into tribal consciousness then have work to advance towards integral stages. If North Korea were to opened to democracy some evidence would suggest their emergence might open at the tribal or even shamanic levels, somewhere between tribal and archaic - wherever their history of freedom ended. Modernity would therefore require patience and growth. The idea of 'exporting' democracy is a seriously flawed operation, in part because of this.

Integral levels are used in educational theory at the moment and in cross curricular and interdisciplinary methods, as integral levels embrace more complexity as they advance and ask for more complex methodologies. The traditional intellectual European tradition including materialism and empiricism, for example, is therefore innadequate for the modern world as it does not address the complexities of the integral age. Integral education is required, as is the education of character and personal genius. Integral science and biology is actually evident from the 90’s onwards and has made older thinking somewhat redundant.

Integral also describes the personal growth stages in life - can you identify yourself in this system?