In today's cultural climate, it's becoming increasingly difficult to talk about complex things in the mainstream media without being reduced to a caricature or a talking point.  This is one of the things that makes The Daily Show so extraordinary—it walks the line between laughter and learning in a really fascinating way, often using irony, snark, and cynicism as a "trojan horse" for authenticity.

Warren Farrell was recently featured on a controversial segment of The Daily Show, in which he, the very notion of male inequality, and "men's work" as a whole were hilariously lampooned by Daily Show correspondent Samantha Bee (watch the full five-minute clip on the right).  This clip has caused a bit of a stir in many online communities, drawing fire from almost every conceivable angle, from "why does The Daily Show hate men?" all the way to "when will men just stop whining and learn how to man up?"

Warren was kind enough to share with us his own reaction to the sendup, the first public response he has offered since the clip aired nearly three weeks ago....

  

Come on, let's say it together: "Men are being oppressed." It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? It sort of sticks in the back of the throat, and we almost need to look around to make sure no one is listening before we say it out loud. In today's academic and cultural climate, it's not easy to make a point like this—the kindest reaction you might receive is a cynical eye-roll.

But really, why is it so difficult to admit that men could use a little help learning how to redefine themselves in today's world, and how to "man up" in a new way to meet the challenges of our modern lives? Maybe it's because our definitions for words like "oppression" and "power" are too limited, restricting our understanding of these dynamics to just a tiny shred of what's actually going on beneath the surface of male/female relations. Just as our notions of "oppression" have often led us to perceive women as perennial victims, robbing them of a dignity they had never really been without, so do our notions of "power" keep our attention diverted from the very real issues men are dealing with today....

  

Why Be a Buddhist, When You Can Be a Buddha?

With this simple question, Lama Surya Das cuts directly to the heart of the integral spiritual impulse, hinting at a secret that lies at the center of all the world's spiritual traditions.  It is a secret that has been hiding in plain sight for thousands of years; a secret that you yearn to discover for yourself.  You know that the world's religious legacies represent so much more than mere codes of conduct, moral platitudes, or anthologies of myth and superstition.  At the core of every major religion we can find a treasure trove of powerful technologies for awakening, transformative practices designed to invoke in us the very same experience of fullness, transcendence, and immeasurable love as the great religious founders themselves were able to have.

That's right—you can have the same experience that the Buddha had. You can have the same experience that Jesus Christ had.  Or that Muhammad had, or St. Teresa, or Rumi, or any other great mystic in history.  All this is abundantly available to you, at this very moment....

  

What Is Integral Art? Part 2: The "I" of the Beholder
with Ken Wilber and Elle Nicolai

Why is art so important? As Ken discusses in this clip, art and creativity represent an intrinsic dimension of human consciousness itself, and developing our aesthetic sensibilities is just as crucial as our moral maturity or expanding our scientific knowledge of the world. As such, artists play a very special role in our lives as interpreters of this present moment, preservers of our shared past, and arbiters of tomorrow's unfolding. Historically it has often been the artists who have pushed our cultural edge forward the most profoundly, simply because they have a certain freedom of experimentation that most people in other vocations simply do not have.  As the leading edge of the world's development is now Integral, we can begin to look to artists whose consciousness is integrally informed to offer us glimpses of a more sane and inclusive future, and help unearth the radical potentials that await us there....

  

A Slice of Silence
by Nathan Wirth

Avante garde—synonymous with "vanguard"—represents people at the cutting edge of any emergent cultural thought or expression. These individuals tend to function several steps ahead of the rest of the world, scouting the newly emerging territories of tomorrow and forging pathways toward the artistic, cultural, and intellectual possibilities that dwell there.

Integral Life is pleased to present a monthly showcase of truly avant garde artists—the most current embodiment of the Kosmic impulse to constantly go beyond what went before, adding brilliance and revelation to the dying forms of the previous moment.

  

Obama's First Year: The Good, the Bad, and the Partial
with Ken Wilber, Diane Musho Hamilton, Robb Smith, Aaliyah Haqq, and Bert Parlee

After last week's State of the Union Address, you may have been reflecting upon the past year of Obama's presidency and asking yourself a few questions:

• How did he do?
• Am I feeling inspired?
• Am I benefiting in any real way from Obama's policies and his leadership?
• Could Obama really be our first truly integral president, transcending and including the best of Democratic and Republican values?

We've been asking ourselves the same questions, and thought we would take a moment to offer our own integral assessment of President Obama's first national State of the Union Address. So we posed these questions (and a handful of others) to Ken and a few other smart and savvy minds, who were kind enough to share five uniquely enlightening perspectives on Obama's first year—the good, the bad, and the partial....

Link.

  

Integral Life: Best of 2009

Last year was a pretty incredible year for Integral Life. Since launching the website in late 2008, we've published a staggering amount of new content around almost every conceivable topic: spirituality, politics, art, business, sexuality, personal growth, etc. With such rich diversity of subject matter, it can be easy to feel lost in a sea of integral media—something we would like to help you with. So we decided to compile some data, crunch some numbers, and squeeze the results through our own patented perspectival algorithms, and are now happy to present you with your own selections for the Best Media of 2009. Enjoy!

Link.

  

Have you ever felt like you were long on vision, but short on actually making it happen? If so, Jeff Salzman's Integral Incubator is something you will want to dive into deeply. The first Incubator event hatched in November, attracting participants from seven different countries who all crowned it a wild success.
 

In this latest interview, Jeff explores the work/career themes that he noticed resonating in the first Integral Incubator pioneers, and how they will help shape the next Incubator event coming up in March 2010. Do any of these sound familiar to you? 

• How do you know that your great gift actually meets the world’s great need?
   
• When do the many perspectives the world offers become distracting?
   
• Can a task perseverance practice give you a shot at entering the creative flow?
   
• What if the project that brings meaning to your life is… you?

So, what are you waiting for? Are you doing what you love? Does your calling support you financially? Is your success; however you define it, all that you want it to be? If your answer currently is no or you don’t know, it’s time you begin incubating your genius instead of procrastinating about enacting your unique calling in the world.

  

INTEGRAL INCUBATOR: YOUR DREAM, ENACTED!
Featuring Jeff Salzman and Ken Wilber

Are you inspired by a great idea, project or personal calling? Are you frustrated by distractions and lower priorities that keep slowing you down? If so, consider attending a five-day boot camp at The Boulder Integral Center, designed to usher you into your next stage of effectiveness — using your own work as your object of practice!

"If you're ready to really dig into your project and manifest your potential, then the Integral Incubator offers the container in which perseverance, brilliance and love allow for real magic to happen. High five!"
-Diederich Janse, Amsterdam.

At the Integral Incubator you will join with a group of 20 high-achieving evolutionaries in an intentional container that will help you function at your new best. The Incubator is designed as a potent combination of:

Transformational practices to build your focus, creativity, energy and personal power.
Group experiences to help you get insight and support from others.
A variety of intensified work spaces and practices that help you achieve peak performance consistently and on-demand.

Register soon before early bird discounts end on January 31st, 2010. See more details here.

  

We are happy to announce a new Book by Christian Arnsperger:

 

Full-Spectrum Economics
Toward an Inclusive and Emancipatory Social Science
By Christian Arnsperger
Foreword by Ken Wilber

20% DISCOUNT AVAILABLE

Economics is essential in today’s world, and yet mainstream economists are increasingly under criticism for not taking into account sufficiently many dimensions of real life, such as political and moral values, human development, spirituality, and people’s widely shared aspiration to live more liberated lives. This book offers a critical assessment of contemporary mainstream economics by showing that the discipline has become much too narrow and misses out on the full spectrum of human existence....