Community is an Ethic
Albert Einstein defined ethic as “an enabling, unified understanding.” Without an ethic there is no community, so ethics become whatever is needed to have a community.
But wait, are there inadequate, or dysfunctional communities? Or again, communities that enable diversity and spontaneity of expression? Some have ‘low synergy’, others have ‘high synergy’. Where does synergy and the intimacy of community come from? (Do we even have a global ethic?)
An ethic happens among people, created by engaging each other in dialogue. Instead of an ethic being imposed, an ethic is composed out of each person’s destiny with others. Our shared destiny is to liberate wisdom and beauty (as a way to a higher humanity). Amor sui, amor dei, amor fati is the cry for community — love yourself, love God, love destiny!
ETHIC FOR AN INTEGRAL LEARNING COMMUNITY
Creating an Integral Learning Community depends on ego-transcending altruism, transcending competitive individualism, through shared vision of meaning, involving these concerns:
INTEGRAL
When we experience personal wholeness, we begin concerning ourselves with the whole-beyond-the-parts; and then, we begin creating community in which all are one-within-the-One
TRANSCULTURAL
Transcultural goes beyond ego-centric, ethno-centric, racial-centric, and nationalism, beyond the tolerance of multi-culturalism to the thrill of diverse people living to capacity and creativity within dynamic unity.
PARTICIPATION
As participatory democracy matures, sovereignty begins and ends with each and every person. Community has evolutionary responsibility to move beyond totalism and individualism to synergism and dialogue.
ENABLING
When we shift from coercive power to enabling power, life becomes open (i.e. Instead of making each other do what we would not do, we enable each other to do what we could not do).
SYSTEMIC
In ‘composing community’, constructive means are made available through a systemic process: art, communication, community, education, environment, health, justice, resources, science and spirituality.
SPIRITUAL
With freedom and responsibility, each goes beyond self-interest to passionate, self-transcending concern. (i.e. work is education in which a living culture brings people together in stimulating, meaningful, and challenging ways.
SUMMARY
An Integral Learning Community is created when solitary individuals dialogue with other solitary individuals about meaning. Committed to transforming consciousness beyond the mental to the spiritual, they produce a synergy to overcome subordination to mechanistic and dominating structures.