These are some Higlights from Google 2008 Zeitgeist Conference in UK.

And a short summary from a participant:

Google Zeitgeist Europe 2008 Summary

"I have just returned from one of the most impressive conferences I've ever attended. Google Zeitgeist Europe (not to be confused with Google's search trends service) is an annual 2-day conference, which began in 2006, and is by invitation only for around 400 of Google's strategic partners in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region. This year's Zeitgeist was held at The Grove in Hertfordshire, an impressive English estate about 40 km's North-West of Central London.

Thankfully, it wasn't a trade conference and Google products weren't pushed down your throat as you might've expected, although there was some obvious tie-ins with certain products like YouTube and of course very strong branding throughout the event. The agenda was somewhat TED-like with a diverse mix of technologists, politicians, scientists and entrepreneurs as speakers."

Opening Speech was held by Gordon Brown, British PM . Other well lnown figtures like Queen Rania, Joi Ito, Salman Rushdie, Chad Hurley, Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, Sergei Brin etc etc were at the stage too.

My distinct feeling and perception is that once again- this memetic pattern seems to be on steroids- orange/green/green co-creation wheels are moved. With yellow sparkling points , yes, but terribly starving in pre-orange maps, momentum, insights and foundations. Even with black wholes...

Its good that the conference was held near London. In one of the European connectivity zones which are so vital in many ways. As soon as I am only thinking about what is going on in Eastern Europe, Russia, the Eurasian region and not to mention Middle East, Africa and Broader Asia, I must say and call out:

Help ending poverty and starving of memetic pre-orange in 70 Percent of World Population. More than 4 Billion people! Tell European and American Top Leaders -especially next US President -what kind of Manhattan Project (Steve mcIntosh and Tom Friedman were labeling it this way)is needed. and begin to understand that ZEITGEIST isnt merely creativity and technology in real time and democratised.

Iits about deep transformations -emergence and convergence - on various levels and orbits of complexity in the codes and structures of human consciousness.

I am crosposting an entry from Aug 1 which originally was placed at "Integral Action in the World" Pod. The whole threas -with voices from Jikishin, Don Beck and Steve McIntosh can be followed:

here

As soon Steve has posted his follow-up entry from the meeting of evolutionaries -July 2008 -- in Deepak Chopras Center in Carlsbad California, to recount his experiences there, I will come back to this theme.

The last years made it increasingly clear for me to take into acount for true global integral action ALL memetic layers. looking alone to China/Tibet and Russia/Georgia last time leaves no doubt for me that Integral is called for uping the downside.too.

 

"I am crossposting this from the Sdi Yahoo Group. The newsletter is in bold.
Why do I mirror it here, in the section of how to introduce SDi to developing nations?

Because I see the necessity to adress crucial questions for the Cultural Creative Movement in the context of global developments.


This is from the newsletter of Barbara Marx Hubbard www.evolvingnow.com

Again the cultural creatives are mentioned. And the 2009 Networking
event in Washington D.C.:

Networking Creativity to Solve Global Challenges  http://www.worldforum.org/state-2009.htm

While I agree in many ways about the advents and events of the
converging and emerging realties there seems to be too much emphasis
again on the "rich green" movement. Again I am remembering the
reminder of Alan Tonkin:

"The basic split in the world is that around 70% of the world
population cover the spectrum Purple/Red/Blue with the other 30%
covering Blue Order, Orange Enterprise and Green Environmental
issues. If the UN was based on a Security Council based on one man
one vote it would become a Red/Blue organisation. Until there is a
fundamental shift in values the developed world is going to battle to
get Western style democracy to work however much they might like to
think it will work. In terms of our findings with the Global Values
Monitor (GVM) there are minimal percentages in Yellow Integral with
almost no Turquoise to speak of"

So I see too much bombastic tenor in this "Wheel of Cocreation" with
Ray, Garrison, Gore et al as masterminds. In exactly the sense that
the foundational layers for global breakthroughs are not put into the
spotlight.

Am I roughly wrong?

Isnt the memetic foundation work to be done in the nations themselves?

Once again aligning properly in healthy doses this growing momentum
of such approaches with the basic values of human consciousness seems
to be the more appropriate perspective.

I do not see any SINGLE convergence zone as B.Marx Hubbard describes.
But lots of them in the diverse confluences of the human spiral.

Heres to the Newsletter of Barbara Marx Hubbard:

"...

We have passed the tipping point. We have entered the convergence
zone. Everything that is arising is converging and connecting.
Everything that is breaking down is accelerating.

We have been projecting the transformation in 2012. It is happening
now. It began for me when Jim Garrison and Paul Ray joined with
key "wheel-builders," (those connecting various systems within the
whole social body) at my Wisdom University Intensive on Social
Synergy and Evolutionary Politics in May.

Jim and Paul presented Paul's latest findings on the rise
of 'cultural creativity' or cultural creatives. Building on Paul' s
work in early 2008 Ray and Garrison surveyed thousands of people from
all over the world to determine how many are "waking up" to the
values of cultural creatives. They hope this information will provide
evidence to many of the world's political and social organizations,
as well as to the cultural creative's, that there is a new value
system active around the world that when organized can have a
significant impact and even win elections. "They have a bold plan to
organize and mobilize a post modern renaissance..." quoted from the
current issue (Aug-Oct 2008) of What Is Enlightenment? Magazine.
...

The Design Team of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution has been
invited to work with them on a major conference in the fall of 2009
in Washington, DC to mobilize this vital community of innovators and
creators. There we will assemble a WHEEL OF COCREATION filled with
major innovators in every sector of the Wheel.

Jim just sent me his powerful GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION. "The human race
must wake up to the fact that our days are numbered to 48 months or
less before the global climatic situation could spin out of control
and undermine human civilization itself." We should join with Jim in
this Call. To read this important document Click Here.

http://www.evolvingnow.com/images/JG-CallToAction.doc

Our crisis is a birth of a new humanity. We have been born and now
must take our first "coordinated breath" in order to survive. All the
forces for positive change are poised to be mobilized. During the
Apollo lunar landing there was one single goal that united the
greatest technological achievement of humanity: "Send a man to the
moon and bring him back alive." Now the goal is to "Bring Life on
Earth Forward Alive." This crisis is an evolutionary driver, perhaps
just what is required for synergistic convergence to work."

Whole thread -with statements of Steve McIntosh and Don Beck about the issue of convergence zones and cultural creatives - can be followed:

here

This is from the blog of Keith Rice

wwwi.integratedsociopsychology.net

its a good first analysis in spiral light about what is going on in the Caucasus, and not only there. This is how Keith summarizes it:


The latest Blog on www.integratedsociopsychology.net looks at the underlying
causes of the conflict and how natural PURPLE tensions are exploited by
RED-driven demagogues. 'Tribal'War in South Ossetia' compares the 'Velvet
Divorce' break-up of Czechoslavakia with the brutal wars of separation in the
former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia and suggests considerations for
the United States and other countries concerned to intervene.


SPIEGEL ONLINE







Tribal War in South Ossetsia



Random Thoughts of a SocioPsychologist -

Tribal War in South Ossetia

Posted by keith at 12:34 pm, August 15th 2008.

As the Russian-Georgian conflict in South Ossetia inches towards a volatile, dangerous and perhaps quite short-lived peace, it is a good time for those who would intervene - ‘soft cops' like France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and ‘hard cops' such as American Vice President Dick Cheney - to study the nature of such conflicts, how they arise, how they can be managed, hopefully resolved and, better still, prevented. Better informed, their interventions may have a chance of working.

With ethnic Russian breakaway forces in Abkhazia equally determined to resist Georgian attempts at reintegration and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pronouncing that Moscow cannot work with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, with both armies bloodied and ready to resume combat at the slightest provocation, with civilian dead estimated in the thousands and the two governments hurling accusations of ethnic cleansing and would-be genocide at each other, there is every potential for an awful lot more lives to be lost in the next few months.

At root South Ossetia is a conflict of PURPLE tribalism. The PURPLE vMEME seeks security in belonging; in belonging to some, it demarks itself from others - all too easily leading to prejudice and discrimination against those who are "not of our tribe". Thus, it marks the tribe of Lancashire as distinct from the tribe of Yorkshire and the clan of MacDonald from the clan of Campbell. But where supra-identities can be created, Lancastrians and Yorkshiremen are both ‘English' and MacDonald and Campbell are both ‘Scottish' and England can be marked as distinct from Scotland. English and Scottish can - and have been - ‘British'  when dealing with external ‘beyond' challenges - eg: building the British Empire and fighting the Germans in two World Wars. Now, of course, Britons and Germans are ‘Europeans'. Yet still there is prejudice between Lancastrians and Yorkshiremen and between MacDonalds and Campbells.

Racial, religious and political differences can all be used as tribal markers by PURPLE. In fact, anything that distinguishes your own tribe from another.

So ethnic Russians, as they see themselves, are not from the same tribe as ethnic Georgians, as they see themselves. The ‘other lot' are not from our tribe.

That, in itself, need not be a problem. Psychologists from Clare W Graves to William Samuel have reported that studies of tribes untainted by anything beyond their own tribal existence describe them as showing little aggression. When they do become aggressive, it is a defensive aggression to protect themselves and/or their resources - and one of the most important resources for a tribe is its land. So South Ossetia, like Bosnia and Kosovo before it, is a tribal conflict over land.

Unfortunately there seems to be little appreciation of PURPLE tribalism in the more sophisticated thinking of key Western policymakers. Some 12-years-plus after the start of the tribal wars which tore Yugoslavia apart, the United States' invasion of Iraq got bogged down in internecine tribal wars which the invaders had failed utterly to anticipate. Even now it can be argued that one of the single biggest obstacles to progress in Iraq is the US determination to impose one man/one (secret) vote democracy - a BLUE system beyond the understanding of many Iraqis whose PURPLE looks to their tribal leaders to be told what to do and how to think.

Read More..

This presentation was given by Don Beck in October 2000 at the State of the World Forum, New York. As conlicts in Tbet/China, Russia/Georgia, Kosovo in Europe, israel/Palestine, Zimbabwe and dozens and hundreds of other geopolitical tension zones show , and increasing amount of new global journalism from people like Fareed Zakaria, Roger Cohen, Parag Khanna, Mark Leonard, Gabor Steingart and others is dealing with broader  and deeper perspectives, its good to have this overview about the underlying dynamics which can liberate the dilemmas into growth and sustainable win-win.win situations.

For me, in the year 2008, this presentation has even multiplied its signifcance. European, North American and other leaders from developed worlds as much as those from the emerging regions are well advised to shape their agenda in the light of these perspectives.

And the article recommended by Don Beck in his presentation from the Atlantic Monthly written by Robert Kaplan  can be read here, for all NOn- subsribers of AM:

Was Democracy just a Moment?

Was written already in 1997!

Stages of Social Development

The Cultural Dynamics that Spark Violence,
Spread Prosperity, and Shape Globalization

THE TWELVE POSTULATES

Don Edward Beck, Ph. D.

Debates over globalization are but the surface-level collisions of the deeper
tectonic plate-like cultural fault lines that remain hidden from view. The
failure to both understand and deal with these evolutionary core value systems
result in needless clashes over worldviews, constant threats of "us" vs. "them"
or class-based violence, and expensive, politicized solutions that are both
inappropriate and ineffectual. The WTO debates and conflicts in Seattle exposed
these fault-lines. But where are the integral, cohesive principles and processes that
can bridge over the great, global divides? Who can untie the global knot?
How can the positive elements within both capitalistic thinking and socialistic goals
be meshed for the common good? Consider the Twelve Postulates, an integral
initiative based on an understanding of the complex dynamics that forge and
transform human cultures, communities, and countries.

Quo Vadis, Humanity?

In this post Cold War and postmodern age, we are asking serious questions regarding the preeminence of rigid ideologies, national boundaries, proprietary interests, technological utopias and naive, egalitarian demands in crafting the next global mesh. We hear all of these voices. We register all of the claims. We record all of the "truths." We see all of the demonstrations and displays of street theatre. But, we have a sense they all stream from the Tower of Babel. No wonder the realities are so diverse; the thoughts so confusing, the solutions so divisive. It is as if all six billion people have climbed on top of the Tower and are now shouting slogans at us. All seem to want a place in the sun, a position in the niche, and free tickets to Disney World.

If one were to do a content analysis of all the books and articles written on the global gaps, or arguments presented in academic or think tank settings, or even the political dialogue in national parliaments or international summits, we would see several clear and distinct patterns. Capitalism is great or greedy. Socialism is humane or harmful. Technology is a blessing or a curse. The rich are that way because they worked hard or simply won life's lottery. The poor are that way because they are undisciplined or oppressed by the rich. Economic redistribution will level the playing field or dumb down global intelligences. Which is it?

Most of the discussions center around competing economic models, open political access, mandated equality of opportunity and results, and a host of other external, top-down solutions. Arguments grow in emotional intensity around the size and distribution of budgets. Money becomes the magic elixir that will cure all ills. If we build attractive places for all to live the "losers" will be transformed into "winners" by simply changing street addresses. New rules and regulations will transform hearts and minds. Everybody will benefit from the rising tides of prosperity as the free market makes global waves. Everybody will benefit from the largess of big government, using taxes to fund social work schemes. And, of course, brilliant technological innovations will bring the Internet into each and every home, with or without electricity. Right.

But, why haven't these policies worked in the past? Look at Africa. Look at Haiti. Look at the Balkans. Look at Russia. Look at the Mississippi Delta. Look at Yorkshire's coal mining villages. Look at American Indian reservations. Look at the huddled masses everywhere yearning for a loaf of bread. Look at India's Calcutta kids. Look at border sweat shops and urban cesspools. Look at the number of "minority" teenagers in American prisons. In spite of all of the money spent, expectations raised, programs imposed, "good deeds" celebrated and "good works" performed, our problems persist. Why?

Read More

I found- inspired by the opening quote of German Foreign Minister
Frank Walter Steinmeier - at a symposium hold earlier this year in
Berlin - an important nexus of considerations about nations, cities
and global dimensions of cultural, societal, poltical and economic
entities. it may be valuable for some re-thinking in other countries
of the world too.

This is the quote from German author Kurt Tucholsky, which the
minister picked up and opened his speech with:

"Nothing makes the Germans loose their composure as much as when
trying to find themselves."

I can only agree to 100%. European countries like UK, Denmark, Netherlands, Scandinavian Region in general, show more rationale when it comes to questions of National identity. My friend George Por posted this:

People Power Will Become An Explosive Force in History

and unfortunately he did not mention Germany in his laudatio:):). Of course, right he is as far as structures, systems and innovative connectivity is the theme.

Spain is country George included too. This is a relevant example too. As this summer a whirlwind of Spanish success in Sports was celebrated. Barcelona and Madrid are cool cities. However the spirit of sports -related to National identity was best described by IHT Journalist Roger Cohen :

Ole! This Spanish Summer

Heres to the German:

Symposium: National Culture

As I am thinking about a bigger article about Germany , Europe and
the World, and dealing with the growth of big cities, metropolises
and connectivity in the Mideast too, it seems to me that this event
from German Goethe Instite picks up the lower quadrants of integral.
4Q/8L Model. And deserves to be seen in spiral view later...

One thing is for sure:

Without a profound liberation of the German soul, spirit , hearts, minds and emotions, to be experineced in the areas of film, music, sports, arts, literature and the oscillation between individual and collective forms of expression, without including the specific mythology and deep searching for the absolute -.not only in thinking -nothing ever will happen.
 
This latent collective power with incredible eruptive potentials is waiting to be shaped and designed with new superordinate goals and purpose. Including the best of the last 250 years, yet setting it free in context of 21st century.

Fully including. appreciating and empowering the inside of the German psyche is a condition sine qua non. This might be the most dangerous, important and fiery part of the job. However it has to be done now.

"Symposium: National Culture

...We are today in the grip of an apparently insoluble paradox: the
integration debate at home, the efforts to break down national
borders to promote a Europe which also defines itself in cultural
terms and the reality of worldwide globalisation have rendered
impossible a clear distinction between the internal and the external.
We are called upon to revise our conventional notions of
identification with nation states and to become receptive to a world-
wide flow of information and culture. At the same time a community of
values and a return to national cultural traditions are called for,
literary canons are published and debates are conducted on the
question of a dominant culture. But how can we simultaneously
cultivate our national cultural heritage and do justice to the
postulate of "going global"?

Eight forums approached the subject matter geographically,
historically and artistically. Forum I tackled the question of the
cultural constitutionality of the countries in Eastern Europe and the
causes of neonational politics. The need to find a national identity
also seems to be growing again in western countries - to what extent
does this run counter to the European idea, or is a commitment to
one's own "cultural nation" its imperative component? (Forum II.) The
Japan Foundation analysed in Forum III the status of the national
understanding of culture in Asia, for example in Japan, China and
Korea. Forum IV was dedicated to the way history is dealt with: How
have the historical perceptions of the different generations changed
over the past few decades and how does this change from the point of
view of "Germans with a migratory background"?

On the second day the debate focused on the arts and the media. Forum
V was concerned with music and pursued, as an example, the discussion
of the "German sound": to what extent can music and its
interpretation still be localised in national terms, or has the
reception of music long overcome all national boundaries? How
strongly does music shape a feeling of national identity? In contrast
the theatre is certainly the art form that is most firmly bound to a
linguistic and cultural region. Forum VI therefore tackled the
significance of the performing arts in determining the national
character of culture alongside an increasingly internationalised
festival scene. The role of the media in the collective search for
identity was examined by Forum VII taking the example of television.
And in conclusion, representatives of the National Museums in Berlin
discussed with partners from the international museum scene the
functional transformation of the museum and the reception of culture
in a globalised world.

The debate was introduced by the American sociologist Saskia Sassen,
who will talk about "Das Paradox des Nationalen"."

The following interview was conducted in 2006 by THE GURADIAN. Its
with Saskia Sassen and adds proper insights about complexity in
regional, national and global dimensions.


John Sutherland meets a social scientist who argues that we need to
understand the full complexities and dangers of globalisation:

The Ideas Interview: Sakia Sassen

IN March 2008 Senator McCain hold a speech in Los Angeles which was merely forgotten by World Public. Its Fareed Zakarias merit to pick it up again and demonstate in his article how schizofphrenicc this approach is.

The article is a good example of respectful, honoring and appreciating poltical controversy. And making clear McCains perspectives are hopelessly besides new realities in world poltics.

Text of McCain`s speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council

And the comment of Fareed Zakaria:

Mccain Vs. Mccain

He seems to think he can magically unite the two main strands in the foreign-policy establishment. He can't.


Fareed Zakaria
NEWSWEEK
Updated: 2:03 PM ET Apr 26, 2008
Amid the din of the dueling democrats, people seem to have forgotten about that other guy in the presidential race-you know, John McCain. McCain is said to be benefiting from this politically because his rivals are tearing each other apart. In fact, few people are paying much attention to what the Republican nominee is saying, or subjecting it to any serious scrutiny.

On March 26, McCain gave a speech on foreign policy in Los Angeles that was billed as his most comprehensive statement on the subject. It contained within it the most radical idea put forward by a major candidate for the presidency in 25 years. Yet almost no one noticed.

In his speech McCain proposed that the United States expel Russia from the G8, the group of advanced industrial countries. Moscow was included in this body in the 1990s to recognize and reward it for peacefully ending the cold war on Western terms, dismantling the Soviet empire and withdrawing from large chunks of the old Russian Empire as well. McCain also proposed that the United States should expand the G8 by taking in India and Brazil-but pointedly excluded China from the councils of power.

Read More..

Whenever I see the Gaia Picture of the World in toto I ask myself: What do I/we really know about developments in all areas? China and India have grown signifcantly on the public radar screens of English speaking world. However other parts of the world - in the global shift from West to East and Noth and to South -are still not perceived sufficiently.

What is the highest mountain in Europe?

What is the fourth largest city of Europe ?

Whats the name of Russias Foreign Minister?

What is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization?

After the recent eruptive conflicts in Georgia once again the attention of World Public was drawn to The Caucasus Region and its relevance for big Eurasian developments.
While Winston Chruchil once described Russia as the riddle wrapped in the mystery inside an enigma. the even bigger geopolitcal area of Eurasia is topping this feeling of knowing less more than nothing.

I added a speech of Sergej Lavrow recently hold in Moscov. Simply to nake more visible how strong the self consciousness of Russia is again. Moving towards orange enterprises and having left the Cold War thinking for a long time. And the event saw global participation.

 Russia and the World in the 21st Century

Russia and the World in the 21st Century 09-08-2008 15:27 © "Russia in Global Affairs". ? 3, July - September 2008

Sergei Lavrov is Russia's Foreign Affairs Minister. This article was written on the basis of his June 20, 2008 speech at the international symposium "Russia in the 21st Century," organized in Moscow by the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy in partnership with the British think tank Policy Network, and the Alfred Herrhausen Society, within the framework of the latter's project "Foresight - Forging Common Futures in a Multi-Polar World."


In modern international relations it is difficult to find a more fundamental issue than the definition of the current stage in global development. This is important for any country in order to correlate a development strategy and a foreign policy with the vision of the world we live in. It seems that a consensus is already being formed on this score, albeit at the level of the expert community both in Russia and abroad. This is largely a consequence of debates, on which Russia insisted. Moreover, this emerging consensus largely reproduces the analysis which Russia offered as a starting position for discussion in Vladimir Putin's speech in Munich in February 2007.

It is already obvious that individual problems of world politics cannot be solved without understanding the "big issues" of global development and without reaching a common vision of them in the international community.

I will try to outline some of these issues, which are directly related to the building of Russia's foreign-policy strategy.

Read more..

Ressources about Russia:


http://www.russiatoday.com/

http://www.russiaprofile.org/

http://eng.globalaffairs.ru/

www.themoscowtimes.com


Shanghai Cooperation Organization

And, as Don Beck again is giving a seminar in St Petersburg this september, again  some very useful reflections of him I posted earlier here:

From Russia with Love

A new column of David Brooks in NYT is-once again- reflecting the felt uncertainty of many for the current shifts and changes.I followed -from time to time- the published work of David Brooks since his first book Bobos in Paradise  (2000)

Its the unease and frustration of postmodern intellectuals and Intellectual intendees of the new global and multi-perspectiivic world in 21st century. The melancholy and its substitutes of irony, cynism and deeply rooted skepticism. This is relevant for the whole approach of Cultural Creatives too. The Brooks Universe hs lots to do with them,.

This is even stronger in debates of European intellectuals of the last 20-30 years. I appreciate Davids approach of adding entertaining qualties and the questions of power, money and social status questions to it.

Another recent question of David Brooks was Where`s the Landslide?  Asking why Obama hasnt created more force in American election landscape. His basic answer is:

"Obama is a sojourner."

Hello? You are asking for a landslide and simultaneaously for a stable ground under the feet?

Will reply to this tenor in another post. it reflects the deeply rooted oscillation process  of Bobo-like orange/green/green -on-steroids in Brooks search for historic change. Would he have searched already he might have found the vmemetic codes, contexts, colors and nodes in Spiral Dynmaics Integral.

For the moment I recommend some KW  philosophy. As in foreword to American bio of Ken Wilber (writen by Frank Visser) KW says something which is closely related to Kierkegaard:

. "Philosophy, to have any meaning at all, must sizzle with passion, boil your brain, fry your eyeballs, or you're just not doing it right. And that applies to the other end of the spectrum of feelings as well. Real philosophy is as gentle as fog and as quiet as tears; it holds the world as if it were a delicate infant, raw and open and vulnerable. "


Lord of the Memes

By DAVID BROOKS

Dear Dr. Kierkegaard,

All my life I've been a successful pseudo-intellectual, sprinkling quotations from Kafka, Epictetus and Derrida into my conversations, impressing dates and making my friends feel mentally inferior. But over the last few years, it's stopped working. People just look at me blankly. My artificially inflated self-esteem is on the wane. What happened?

Existential in Exeter

Dear Existential,

It pains me to see so many people being pseudo-intellectual in the wrong way. It desecrates the memory of the great poseurs of the past. And it is all the more frustrating because your error is so simple and yet so fundamental.

You have failed to keep pace with the current code of intellectual one-upsmanship. You have failed to appreciate that over the past few years, there has been a tectonic shift in the basis of good taste.

You must remember that there have been three epochs of intellectual affectation. The first, lasting from approximately 1400 to 1965, was the great age of snobbery. Cultural artifacts existed in a hierarchy, with opera and fine art at the top, and stripping at the bottom. The social climbing pseud merely had to familiarize himself with the forms at the top of the hierarchy and febrile acolytes would perch at his feet.

In 1960, for example, he merely had to follow the code of high modernism. He would master some impenetrably difficult work of art from T.S. Eliot or Ezra Pound and then brood contemplatively at parties about Lionel Trilling's misinterpretation of it. A successful date might consist of going to a reading of "The Waste Land," contemplating the hollowness of the human condition and then going home to drink Russian vodka and suck on the gas pipe.

This code died sometime in the late 1960s and was replaced by the code of the Higher Eclectica. The old hierarchy of the arts was dismissed as hopelessly reactionary. Instead, any cultural artifact produced by a member of a colonially oppressed out-group was deemed artistically and intellectually superior.

During this period, status rewards went to the ostentatious cultural omnivores - those who could publicly savor an infinite range of historically hegemonized cultural products. It was necessary to have a record collection that contained "a little bit of everything" (except heavy metal): bluegrass, rap, world music, salsa and Gregorian chant. It was useful to decorate one's living room with African or Thai religious totems - any religion so long as it was one you could not conceivably believe in.

But on or about June 29, 2007, human character changed. That, of course, was the release date of the first iPhone.

On that date, media displaced culture. As commenters on The American Scene blog have pointed out, the means of transmission replaced the content of culture as the center of historical excitement and as the marker of social status.
...


Now the global thought-leader is defined less by what culture he enjoys than by the smartphone, social bookmarking site, social network and e-mail provider he uses to store and transmit it. (In this era, MySpace is the new leisure suit and an AOL e-mail address is a scarlet letter of techno-shame.)

Today, Kindle can change the world, but nobody expects much from a mere novel. The brain overshadows the mind. Design overshadows art.

This transition has produced some new status rules. In the first place, prestige has shifted from the producer of art to the aggregator and the appraiser. Inventors, artists and writers come and go, but buzz is forever. Maximum status goes to the Gladwellian heroes who occupy the convergence points of the Internet infosystem
..."

Read more...

In the New Issue about Perspectives on Masculinity in the 21st Century of WIE there is a clear article of Andrew Cohen where he -like very few postmodern men dare to do - writes about:

A Call to Arms for the Postmodern Male

This is really seldom articulated in this way. it adresses the man as man. No matter if he is teaching or acting in other roles, professions, functions and contexts.

Indeed , in a spiritual context -confess this word sometimes provokes the question in me do we speak about bad or good news? -this is a very necessary , newly emerging topic.
As I trained martial arts in several ways for three decades too I can confirm what Andrew says about some experiences with his students. Thats the reasion why I left martial arts 15 years ago and focused on what Andrew is describing a Call to Arms for the Postmodern Male.

The world of counsellors, advisors, coaches and consultants, therapists and mediators, dialogue experts and diplomats, negotiators and crisis managers, trouble shooters and envoys, peace and conflict experts....etc.etc. is a big universe.

Very seldom, despite their often big honorars - this question is asked.

While a certain buzz in some media is already about strong, liberated and highly evolved women the theme Andrew Cohen adresses remains basically undercover at moment. Even in leadership discussions and practice,, some integral ones too, this point is rarely expressed openly and clearly.

Heres to the article:

A Call to Arms for the Postmodern Male

by Andrew Cohen



Until I was in my early twenties, I never even thought about what it meant to be a man. I grew up in an upper-middle-class secular Jewish family in Manhattan and went to liberal, progressive schools throughout my childhood. I never had a bar mitzvah, the Jewish boy's traditional rite of passage into manhood. My brother, who is five years older, used to beat me up on a regular basis from before I can remember, which turned me into a bit of a wuss. I was always one of the last picked when we engaged in competitive sports, and it goes without saying that I lacked confidence. Endeavoring to relieve my insecurities, my mother sent me to a therapist at the ripe old age of five.

My father, who was not an introspective man, loved me deeply. When I was eleven my parents separated, and shortly after my fifteenth birthday, my father died a slow and painful death. During those years and afterward, I spent a lot of time with my mother, who was at the time a passionate advocate of feminist values. My teachers in the three different high schools I attended in the United States and in Europe were generally decent, sophisticated, and well-meaning people. But when I think back on those days from the wisdom of my current fifty-two years, I'm stunned by the realization that no adult, including even my counselors at summer camp, ever counseled me about what it means to be a man. I now understand that I wasn't the only one in this strange predicament-in fact, it seems to be a cultural phenomenon. I don't think this subject was brought up in any situation I was ever in until I began to think about it myself in my early twenties.

When I was twenty-two, as a result of a profound spiritual experience that had occurred six years earlier, I seriously committed myself to becoming an enlightened human being. My first step was to take up a disciplined daily practice of martial arts because I wanted to become strong. I wanted to conquer my fear; I wanted to be tough-I wanted to be a man.

At the age of thirty, after much serious practice and dedicated searching, I found what I was looking for in Mother India. To my own astonishment, I ended up in the uncomfortable position of becoming a spiritual teacher virtually overnight! In this unusual profession where soft and sweet are generally considered to be the hallmarks of authenticity, I've been the very opposite. Almost from the start, I've had a reputation for being bold, strong, direct, and confident-for more than a few of my contemporaries, too confident.

Ever since my life turned upside down in this way, I've had the rare privilege of meeting and interacting with many different people from all over the world. I've gotten to know lots and lots of men. And I came to recognize that the majority seemed to share the same perplexing postmodern cultural predicament that I did: Very few seem to have ever considered the perennial question, What does it mean to be a man?

I'll never forget my surprise when I discovered a hidden secret about some men who have seriously considered this question. I'm talking about men who are invested in being tough and who can project an air of confidence that is uniquely masculine-the kind of man that I at one time in my life had aspired to be. I'm talking about students of mine who were martial artists of high attainment. I was amazed when I discovered that whenever one of these tough guys was in a situation that required that they trust a little more and give up a bit of the control they were so invested in, they usually fell into an utter panic. Underneath their bravado, even though they weren't afraid of a street fight, they were terrified of real intimacy, especially spiritual intimacy. Ironically, this would come to the surface especially when they came together with other men-spiritual brothers who were committed to creating a new culture together, a culture based upon higher values, the evolution of consciousness, and the commitment to be strong, transparent, and authentic at all times.

I became a man when I found the courage and conviction to trust God more than I trusted the fears and desires and conditioned thinking of my puny ego. The first expression of authentic manhood was when I boldly declared from the therapist's couch, "I don't want to do this anymore; I want to be free!" and noticed no hint of fear in myself when the therapist responded strongly, "But Andrew, you're barely getting started!" The final moment of transition happened eight years later. My longing for liberation had become so all-consuming that I was ready to let go completely-to die to everything I had known and been up to that point. I was sitting in front of my last teacher, passionately telling him, with a hint of desperation, "I want to die, but I don't know how." I can visualize that moment as if it was yesterday, and I clearly remember that he remained silent. At first he looked shocked, and then tears welled up in his eyes.

What it means to be a man, of course, always relates directly to the cultural context within which the question is being asked. We are living in a very challenging time, when old values are crumbling and new ones are just barely beginning to emerge-including what it means to be a real man. My experience as a spiritual teacher in the midst of this upheaval has convinced me beyond any doubt that it will be impossible for the postmodern male to become a vibrant, powerful, and truly evolved expression of the masculine principle unless he pays the ultimate price by transcending his culturally conditioned, overly sensitive, highly narcissistic, and painfully arrogant self. A cultural revolution at the leading edge needs strong, liberated, and highly evolved men to be compelling examples of what is possible for us all. That's what spiritually enlightened men do.

Last week I met again Gabriela Ender from Openspace-online.com and it was great to hear about the progress in several remarkable places . So I want to foreward this worldwide invitation - its free of costs - for all who did not have the experience right now.

See also:

http://www.openspace-online.com/

Nomination for "Top 10 World Changer 2006"

Report on 2007 OpenSpace-Online Conference

Conference Data at a Glance

Invitation to the Worldwide OpenSpace-Online Real-time Conference on Open Space Technology (OST) 4 hours on September 20th, 2008 - free of charge Dear friends and colleagues, you are warmly invited! Please join Open Space Practitioners, Facilitators and Sponsors from around the world. Since 1985, when Harrison Owen discovered Open Space Technology (OST), approximately 100,000 + groups have participated in OST events in 132 countries around the world. In the meantime OST has become the most established and well-known method for large group face-to-face events, which is used both, in the non-profit area and the profit area. OST enables in an unique wonderful way to run productive meetings, for five to 2000 + people, to allow participatory process architectures and to lead any kind of organization, in everyday practice and ongoing change. OST is becoming main stream worldwide. NOT because OST is a trend or a fashion, rather because almost everywhere the time is right for passion, responsibility and sustainability and for a new awareness of conscious collaboration processes regionally, nationally and globally. What is OpenSpace-Online®? The general purpose of the OpenSpace-Online® Real-Time Meeting Methodology is to enable organizations to consciously act as "life long learning organizations", to empower interest and work groups as well as change facilitators to independently co-create the future for the greater good of society, and the whole planet by overcoming the limitations of time and space. Invented by Gabriela Ender in 1999, this completely self-contained Internet methodology is setting worldwide new innovation standards for real-time collaboration, empowerment and decision making by enabling holistic and highly participative architectures to link multifaceted ways of face-to-face and online activities in business, community, education, health-care, social and governmental settings. If the OpenSpace-Online® Methodology is new to you: >> Information at a glance, software presentation and e-Book Participants and conference theme This OpenSpace-Online® community conference is addressed to facilitators, organizations and colleagues from around the world who use the face-to-face method Open Space Technology. "What can we learn, share, teach, explore, discover with each other about our work in Open Space around the world?" That was the main theme of the face-to-face World OSonOS 2008 in San Francisco and that is also our question for the virtual global Open Space community conference on September, 20th. A wonderful opportunity for docking on the results and aha's from the face-to-face community gathering in July as well as for raising and discussing completely new topics. This OpenSpace-Online® community conference also provides opportunities for greeting old Open Space friends and for meeting new Open Space colleagues via the Internet in real-time. High learning and high play await us!   We look forward to your participation! Gabriela Ender and Co-Inviters