Friday, August 25, 2006

Wilber Parody

A few days ago I linked to one of Geoffrey Falk's blog postings, which was about a supposed transcript of a recent talk by Wilber to his II students. It turned out to be fake. Someone had parodied Wilber, so skillfully that, though I had some reservations, I had the feeling it was still something Wilber could have said, given his recent Wyatt Earp rants.

See Integral Tuna Casserole, and Integral Tuna, part II.

Some readers have taken offense of my linking to Falk, who is considered to be an enemy of integral, "though he may have his facts right". As readers of Integral World know, I host a whole Spectrum of Critics on that website. Falk is admittedly a "strong negative" critic in that list, but then, he is also one of the most active.

Having recently published a 196 page ebook "Norman Einstein" on the flaws and fallacies he found in Wilber's work, meticulously documented, often to source material that is available online, this is not something we can easily dismiss. Not to mention that it contains a long essay on Wilber's misrepresentation of David Bohm.

Quoting Wilber's confident closing comments of his analysis of Bohm's position: "Until this critique is even vaguely answered, I believe we must consider Bohm’s theory to be refuted [softened to "suspect" in later editions]", Falk retorts: "By parity of argument, then, until Wilber has even vaguely answered this critique...."

To be sure, Falk is not addressing Wilber's core psychological and spiritual theories, but concentrates on Wilber's statements regarding science, the paranormal, biology (and cults), and his mode of discourse when it comes to criticism.

Yesterday, the anonymous author of the spurious Wilber transcript, striked again. He has written a hilarious parody on Wilber being invited to a high school setting, where he tries to impress the students with his knowledge of evolutionary biology.

Seems like an new genre is born: Wilber parody. Good. Let's laugh a bit. Even if the issue itself -- how does integral theory fit into current scientific paradigms -- is dead serious.

3 Comments:

Blogger Paul S. said...

thanks for the clarification frank! and yes, i'll admit it, even i was fooled for a bit... ;)

6:34 AM  
Blogger m alan kazlev said...

It fooled me too!

3:51 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

How stupid can you get? You feed on Wilber.

5:55 AM  

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