For years I have been among those hailing Ken Wilber as the most original and comprehensive philosopher of our time. In book after book, this genius thinker has, with lucid and prolific creativity, familiarized us with the complex but unified universe of astonsihing terror and beauty we call consciousness--both human and Divine. In his monumental book Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, for example, he was able to show how consciousness, or Spirit, manifests Itself through the unfolding, never-ending evolutionary forms we term creation,life, culture, ecology, spirituality, society--the whole shebang of reality. More importantly, he brilliantly pointed out some of the radical implications a spiritual worldview may have when integrated into the dusty soil of reality. And, maybe best of all, he managed to do this with unparallelled logic and depth of scholarship, yet without loosing a sense of lightness--or humor--of being. In Marriage of sense and Soul, a popularized version of his integral thesis of the interrelationship of body, mind and soul--of all things material and spiritual--he also managed to be both profoundly sublime and simple at the same time. Moreover, he accomplished this without reading like another pop-guru a la Deepak Chopra or Marianne Williamson.
It is thus with great disappointment that his latest book, A Theory of Everything, is not living up to its cover's promise--an integral vision for business, politics, science and spirituality. Because, in this book, we no longer meet the erudite Wilber we have become accustomed to. Indeed, this book's premise is far more challenging (and important!) than his previous ones. Yet, it looks as if marketing interests, rather than deeper, integral interests, so to speak--as often is the case with popular writers these days-- lies behind the publication of this book. With a shallow, lukewarm section on business that is a mere one and a half pages long, and another, on politics, which is only a few pages longer, one gets the distinct feeling that Wilber has become a victim of the one-dimensional consumer culture he so fiercely has rallied against. He has succumbed to the lowest common denominator by promoting simplistic, half-cooked ideas in the name of spiritual transformation and philosophical authenticity and originality. In other words, he has--unwillingly or willingly-- become another promulgator of flatland ideas (his term), otherwise known as the New Age.
This book tells us little about how an integral business person or politician might operate, even less about the deeper, philosophical map he or she needs in expressing spiritual values in today's fierce political and economic reality. Nor does he paint a constructive, integral vision of how business might look like in a society based on spiritual values. When Wilber attempts to do this, he simply offers a short laundry list of people who are trying to "ïntegralize" corporate life, or he briefly explains how a liberal vs. a conservative worldview differ or complement each other. The deeper questions about an integral political platform or agenda are left unanswered, and so are questions about what kind of an economy we need to harmonize the human spirit, the workplace, or the environment. I know that Wilber is up to the task, but in this book, he has failed to answer some basic questions about the societal implications of a spiritual worldview, or, in effect, A Theory of Everything. Questions such as: Which aspects of capitalism are compatible with A Theory of Everything? Which aspects of socialism? Are new economic ideas--such as those of Sarkar, Korten, Schumacher, and others--more compatible with an integral worldview than classical capitalist and socialist ideas? Will the new, integral economy favor decentralization and cooperative enterprises? What is the integral visions answer to the growing inequity in the corporate world and in society in general? Since capitalism is based on the egoistic pursuit of self-interest, can it ever favor integral business practices? Which aspect of the socially responsible business movement would be part of an integral business agenda, and which would not?
All that said, this book may be interesting to someone who has never read Wilber before. Indeed, the sections on science and spirituality are, for the most part, well written and comprehensive. Just remember, as Wilber writes in the introduction: "...use [my]ideas...as simple suggestions; see if you can improve on them." Indeed, many of them are simple. Too simple. Thus, improve on them we must.
