Towards A New Art of Integration
Everlastingly chained to a single little fragment of the Whole, man himself develops into nothing but the little fragment; everlastingly in his ear the monotonous sound of the wheel he turns, he never develops harmony of his being, and instead of putting the stamp of humanity upon his own nature, he becomes nothing more than the imprint of his occupation or of his specialized knowledge. But even that meager, fragmentary participation, by which individual members of the State are still linked to the Whole, does not depend upon forms which they spontaneously prescribe for themselves [...] it is dictated to them with meticulous exactitude by means of a formulary which inhibits all freedom of thought. The dead letter takes the place of living understanding [...]
Friedrich Schiller. An Essay on the Aesthetic Education of Man (1982, p. 43)
Integration is an important calling of life, self, culture, society and the world. But its significance is rarely realized especially in our present day world as we live a fragmentary existence and valorize differences. Social and discursive movements in the last half a century have rightly challenged us to cultivate differences but cultivation of difference is different from valorization. Differences also have threads of connections among them—they also seek to be part of a respectful and dignified emergent wholeness. Differences are also part of an emergent journey of integration, an integration which does not suppress differences but which build upon their flourishing. This calls for a new art of cultivation of identity and differences and making both co-travelers and co-painters in a new art of integration which may be called differential integration. It is a new art of integration which is not totalitarian and oppressive but rather seeks to help us realize our connectedness and potentiality.
This new art of integration which invites us now is different from the earlier discourses and practices of integration which were imprisoned in a logic and machinery of strong integration. It is an art of weak and gentle integration compared to the telos of strong integration in modern self, society and polity. The discourse of integration in social sciences as well as in the wider public discourse in modernity, for example, in the discourse of nationalism and self, has been imprisoned in a logic of strong integration which has been source of much violence, suffering and annihilation of potentiality. It has been imprisoned in a logic of assertive and exclusionary sovereignty. In this place we need to cultivate an art of weak and gentle integration where integration begins with realization of weakness and vulnerability and where this acknowledged vulnerability becomes the lubricant and binding thread for integration as an unfolding, evolving and emergent journey of realization of connectedness and wholeness. This is facilitated by transformation of sovereignty to shared sovereignties and realizing non-sovereignty (cf. Dallmayr 2005). If sovereignty propounds the cult of mastery, non-sovereignty urges us to serve and share which help us in our art of gentle and weak integration. This involves artistic processes of creativity and nurturance and is facilitated by the work of creative art in politics, society and spirituality.
This new art of integration helps us in learning across boundaries in new ways and realize emergent communication and wholeness. In my paper I explore new pathways of learning across boundaries nurtured by a new art of integration and striving for wholeness.
