This is not so much a critique of Integral as it is a pointing out of a new arena of needed exploration by integral.
There is little doubt that the ecological changes confronting humanity are fueling a lot of needed growth, especially moving larger numbers of conventional orange towards post- conventional green. The relatively rapid expansion of what was just the leading edge up until a few decades ago is amazing. But, why the urgency and almost simultaneous push for second tier, or integral, modes of i.d. and meaning making? After all, the slower pace of growth has served in the past for a solid integration of the once leading edge into the leading power structures. And this has served to leverage the smaller numbers. Indeed, we see the beginnings of the same with the influence of green in academicsand politics today. There is little doubt and a lot of evidence that the green vision is sufficient in breadth (understanding systems and extension of compassion towards living beings) to provide the tools and even leadership that could do a lot to alleviate the situation, probably buying humanity a century or two, plenty of time for integral to slowly evolve into being; except for one major glitch. What about the children?
Herein lies the single most dangerous shadow or blind spot for green consciousness, although orange has made its own contribution here as well. It was the orange rejection of blue values; values that put the stamp of the Divine on blue's laws as an appropriate means (and accurate description) for the era of blues rising to dominance, that opened the door to the wholesale condemnation of all things blue. With green this rejection turned to a total deconstruction. For green values, morals and ethics were rightfully revealed to be relativistic. Good so far, but and with this the emergence of the red shadow in action and the infection of boomeritis relative became individual with little or no regard for one's place in the whole. This has its own set of issues in how the individual entering green consciousness traverses this relatively new territory. But the biggest pitfall lies in how and with what tools green chooses to raise its children. Without the respect that is necessary for the very real and valuable contribution of blue (reverence and respect for social order through rule of law) the children of green stand a good chance of becoming stranded at red, strongly egocentric, but with the breadth of green technology at their disposal. Need I say more? Perhaps just two more words, integral parenting.
Jerry