The new issue of Kosmos Journal is out:

Table of Content


Editorial | Spring/Summer 2009

By Nancy Roof


The moment everything changed... was it really just one moment when everything changed? Or was it a silent, invisible struggle-questioning, reflecting, enduring, shifting to try to make everything work-that finally led to the critical moment when the changes became visible and our lives were transformed forever? Many of us have experienced the uncertainty and turbulence that precede transformative shifts of consciousness in our personal lives.

Now we are collectively experiencing an extraordinary moment of history, when the natural cycles of transformation are enveloping the collective consciousness of the whole world, creating a momentous global shift.

The evolutionary process-generator of all cultures, worlds and life forms-has produced extraordinary reorganizations of life from the beginning of time. Scientists have explored the rise and fall of civilizations as they reached the tipping point of their own demise or exploded into flourishing new eras. Explorers of interior worlds have long anticipated the transformation of civilization as a natural part of evolution and human progress as we move toward harmony, cooperation and wholeness.

The global financial crisis is but a symptom, heralding an evolutionary change as big as the transition from the agricultural era to the industrial era; as mind-changing as the transition from scientific materialism, where wholes are reduced to parts, to a search for integral wholeness. It is the upcoming collapse that will lead to new values, mindsets and skillful ways to govern, create economic value and come together as a world community.

These critical times offer unprecedented opportunities to make the aspirations of billions a reality-where the quality of life matters, where there is human solidarity, reverence for nature and moral leadership-and a world of hope for each and every living being. If ever there was a time for searching deep within to generate new ideas and to be flexible and resilient, it is now.

The paradox is that just when old ways of doing things no longer work, we are discovering even greater capacities and genuine hope and creativity are bursting forth to bring in the new.

But birthing planetary civilization will not be easy. For some it will engender rage and despair. On a global level it will mean failed states increasing the potential for violence. In an era of seamless global commerce, communication and culture, we must seize the moment and offer a new way of life that is so attractive that people will find it more desirable and compelling than the old and familiar.

In this issue of Kosmos we invited contributions from thoughtful leaders on the three levels in which this transitional period impacts our lives: personal, cultural and global. We also invited pioneers to inform and engage our readers in innovative changes in education, business, economics, media, religion and culture. Iraqi and Aboriginal artists joined us to bring  their stories and aesthetic beauty. The beauty they have offered softens human consciousness and evokes the receptiveness needed for transformation.

James Quilligan is continuing a series of articles introducing the global commons with a groundbreaking article on the commons and integral capital. And Don Beck offers the last piece of a completed series of three articles published in Kosmos on global change from an integral spiral dynamics perspective.

We present the new, hopeful, emergent designs that are crafting planetary civilization, fulfilling the aspirations of every world citizen towards human security, economic prosperity, social justice, peace and solidarity.

The good news is that millions are awakening and are already engaged in the effort. Where corporate states are not working, global commons organizations are rising to claim their power to build a sustainable future for all humanity, to preserve our ecological web, and return to basic values. We, the people, are designing new institutions that reflect the aspirations of each and every world citizen.

You will find these forerunners of the new civilization in every issue of Kosmos.

Table of Content

Shiftinaction.com offers this transscript of a 2006 interview with Don Beck:

Don Beck on Essential Shifts


  You can download this audio program here.

Shift in Action: I want to welcome everyone to the program today. We are very fortunate to have Don Beck with us today. He’s been described as a philosopher-activist for the 21st century. He’s behind the book called Spiral Dynamics, which is probably the single most comprehensive and useful mapping of consciousness onto larger processes, organizations, countries, and collective dynamics. I’m personally very excited by the work that he has done everywhere from the Middle East to South Africa and corporations in the US. So, welcome to the program, Don.

Don Beck: Well, thank you, Steve, very much.

SIA: Great. So what we are doing here is getting the angle of a lot of different folks on the biggest shifts of our time, and since Spiral Dynamics is one of the most comprehensive mappings, maybe you could talk a little bit about how you see the state of the world from the Spiral Dynamics angle.

DB: Well, there are always two points of view about that. What one point of view says is that we are simply setting up the conditions for a major shift, so rather than doom and gloom, Chicken Little thinking, one could say these are simply symptoms of deeper problems, tectonic-like shifts, and we’d best understand that.

The other point of view, of course, is quite negative: that we have more fragmentation today than ever before. Ironically we are more interconnected, but the complexity of our world has outstripped the complexity of our solutions. So we are in that cusp, we’re in that gap—and since I live on the positive side of life, I think that we will ultimately sort it out.

SIA: Great. So maybe you could give a little background on the Spiral Dynamic terminology as we go through the interview. What’s your three-minute pitch on Spiral Dynamics as a map?

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I am more than delighted to inform about Elza Maaloufs new blog. Elza is doing outstanding pioneering work in the Middle East. And Time Magazine should have a look at the work for next years TIME 100.

http://elzamaalouf-ipolitics.blogspot.com/

It seems that talent and genius and other themes of brain plasticity and behavior modelling are co-buzzing in diverse authors.

Dan Coyle is writing about the Talent Code. See his interview at tompeters.com here.

Dan Coyle: Cool Friends Interview

David brooks from NYT is picking it up in this way:

Genius, The Modern View

And of course Malcolm Gladwell already last year in his book:

Outliers

For all those who are pissed off with so much rational and reasonable takes:):)I recommend some dosis of conspiracy:):)

Try the sequel film of THE DA VINCI CODE:

Angels and Demons

The German title will be ILLUMINATI. Even scientologists wil look pale when taken to this big historic context.

I discovered the blog of Kelly Sosan Bearer:

 Black Plum

And I liked this article very much and therefore reposting it here:

The Teal Shadow: Integral expert, First Tier Allergy



We all  have shadows, or disowned, repressed, dissociated parts of ourselves, and as we grow and develop from one stage to the next, and even as we grow into higher stages of development, a simple fact remains - the shadow does not go away, but rather follows us as we ascend into the higher reaches of self. Is it possible that certain types of shadow qualities are more probable to arise at certain levels of development? When we apply this question to the integral or teal level of development, what types of shadow material will we generally encounter in both ourselves and others? When we have the courage to take an honest view of ourselves, and as we learn more about and live an integral life, what shadow tendencies do we see? Let's explore, with a light heart and hand, the general flavors of shadow material that we may be grappling with specifically once we acquire an Integral awareness. See Figure 1. Two specific shadow manifestations that can potentially arise with Integral awareness, at the teal level of development, can be called the "integral expert" and the "1st tier allergy."

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President Obama gave humorous remarks about current events and the political climate in Washington. Thats what I like in Obama. i saw it first 3 years ago when I was convinced he would become next president of USA. Humor in times of crisis is a strong sign of vitality and personal power for me. Similar the potlach of Indians in North America:):)

Here is David Brooks new article about a longitudinal study from Harvard University. Very impressing.

When I studied medicine and did research for an epidemiologist for 6 month 25 years ago He teached me lots about the relvance of such studies. Simply documenting as exactly and comprehensivly as possible what is going on.

My wish for a long time is to conduct such studies within an integral framework of any kind. At least for 10 years. Lots of theory talk from today would dissolve like ice in the sunshine:)Vice versa every   mapping and field testing which works could be correlated to a timeline.

Thanks David Brooks for showcasing such a relevant point!

They Had It Made

By DAVID BROOKS
In the late 1930s, a group of 268 promising young men, including John F. Kennedy and Ben Bradlee, entered Harvard College. By any normal measure, they had it made. They tended to be bright, polished, affluent and ambitious. They had the benefit of the world’s most prestigious university. They had been selected even from among Harvard students as the most well adjusted.

And yet the categories of journalism and the stereotypes of normal conversation are paltry when it comes to predicting a life course. Their lives played out in ways that would defy any imagination save Dostoyevsky’s. A third of the men would suffer at least one bout of mental illness. Alcoholism would be a running plague. The most mundane personalities often produced the most solid success. One man couldn’t admit to himself that he was gay until he was in his late 70s.

The men were the subject of one of the century’s most fascinating longitudinal studies. They were selected when they were sophomores, and they have been probed, poked and measured ever since. Researchers visited their homes and investigated everything from early bed-wetting episodes to their body dimensions.

The results from the study, known as the Grant Study, have surfaced periodically in the years since. But they’ve never been so brilliantly captured as they are in an essay called “What Makes Us Happy?” by Joshua Wolf Shenk in the forthcoming issue of The Atlantic. (The essay is available online today.)

read more.

Its very interesting sychronicity that only few hours after David Brooks article about this Harvard Longitudinal Study I found these new statements from Andrew Cohen.

Development too.

Not answered up to now:

What exactly changed in how many people? Hopefully Andrews promised book will document some points. From Erhard Seminar Training to Esalen Encounters, secret Tibetan Meditation Retreats to bold statments of Scientology Tetans, from Top Mangement Curricula in Tokyo Mountains, from bombastic Vision Core groups to Miracle Evangelists in all continents.etc.etc. Continue with your own earth shaking revelations:):)

What exactly changed? In a sustainable way. How? And where can we read the reports? I like Andrews blog. Now has happened in this core group the rest of the world does not know about right now?

This beeing said, here I am happy to present Andrews blog:

Inexpressable Joy

I really am living in a new world. And it’s one I’ve been striving extremely hard to give birth to . . .
I really am living in a new world. And it’s one I’ve been striving extremely hard to give birth to for over twenty years. I became a teacher of enlightenment at the ripe old age of thirty. Ever since then, it seemed obvious to me that unless the uncontainable positivity and inexpressible glory revealed when one experiences higher states of consciousness actually becomes manifest in and through one’s own life and actions, then spiritual experience doesn’t really mean anything in the end. But I soon found this was not as obvious to others as it was to me.

In those early days, I was teaching publicly every night. Each and every evening was a profound and powerful adventure of direct awakening to consciousness itself. One after another, people who came to hear me speak were having the most amazing experiences. As a matter of fact, the atmosphere around me became so spiritually charged that for a while there, I’m embarrassed to say, I actually thought becoming an enlightened human being might be as easy as showing up to see me. At least that’s how it seemed. It really, really did. Alas, like so many other teachers, I soon discovered that for most people, these dramatic experiences were in fact nothing more than mere glimpses of their own higher spiritual potentials. They were ecstatic and bliss-fueled rides to the other side of the rainbow, where all things become possible and one has no doubt that heaven has indeed come to earth. Those were the days . . .

Well, actually, they weren’t. They were extremely exciting and deeply thrilling times. But in the end, they were nothing more than a really good Fourth of July with the best fireworks display you’ve ever seen. And that was because I found, with very few exceptions, that most of those who were around me didn’t want to pay the price to make that other world they were glimpsing a permanent place of occupation. I spent the first five years as a teacher blowing people’s minds and showing them where God lived. I spent the next ten years trying in every possible way to get them to pay the price to make the radical leap from higher-state experiences to genuine spiritual attainment. Ken Wilber puts it beautifully when he says that the task is to transform “higher states into permanent traits.”

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Neri just informed me about a new 6part video about work of Don Beck. So here it is again.

Dr. Don Beck, an international consultant to government and business leaders and author of Spiral Dynamics, describes how spiral dynamics can facilitate communication and foster change.





Dr. Don Beck on Spiral Dynamics [Part 5/6]

Dr. Don Beck on Spiral Dynamics [Part 6/6]

Dr. Don Beck on Spiral Dynamics [Part 4/6]

Dr. Don Beck on Spiral Dynamics [Part 3/6]

Dr. Don Beck on Spiral Dynamics [Part 2/6]

European Space Agency launched a highly exiting mission today:

ESA PR 10-2009 Two of the most ambitious missions ever attempted to unveil the secrets of the darkest, coldest and oldest parts of the Universe got off to a successful start this afternoon with the dual launch of ESA’s far infrared space telescope Herschel and cosmic background mapper Planck on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana.
 
Herschel, equipped with the largest mirror ever launched into space, will observe a mostly uncharted part of the electromagnetic spectrum so as to study the birth of stars and galaxies as well as dust clouds and planet-forming discs around stars. In addition, it will be the most effective tool ever devised to look for the presence of water in remote parts of the Universe.

read more..

Most imagination stirring is what Herschel will provide:

The Infrared Revolution

Basically making visible stars just born. Usually not perceivable by the human eye. Isnt this amazing? How much is sleeping and invisible in human consciousness too? Not detectable by any known modes of knowing and perception.

Hidden in the "darkness" of the unknown. And yet already existing.....

Stephen Dinan is blogging about:

The Spiritual Importance of Twitter


When something is wildly successful, as Twitter now is, I often ask myself about its higher purpose. In other words, what might be the deeper meaning of Twitter?

Although I was a Twitter naysayer at first, I’m now convinced that Twitter is part of the spiritual evolution of our species. Its growth corresponds to the accelerating spread of a global consciousness, one in which our sense of boundaries no longer end at national boundaries and we are increasingly in touch with our sense of “oneness” with others.

Twitter’s unique format contributes to our growth in a variety of ways:

read more..

This is from a press release of the WEF at Dead Sea in Jordan. It summarizes some insights for for me which adress key points how to deal with global recession. Not only in Mideast. its not about stimuli and rescue packages. its not about reacting but creating .

Though financial and then economic considerations are dominating discussions worldwide the urge to grow culturally in a comprehensive way is the challenge. No roadmaps without development maps as Don Beck once said.
A MeshWorks Approach and a natural design which adresses global issue in local and specific cultural circumstances would be the best in my eyes. The essential collective blind spot seems to be the missing understanding of verticality.

Again Don Beck. Rightly he re reminded in 2006 interview with shiftinaction.com the mantra
"Be the change you want to see." is incomplete. What if the others want to be something other? A culture with lots of lots of tribal structures -as in Mideast- and purple-red trouble spots needs a development towards healthy blue . In the cities, countries, families, cultures. Think Singapore f.e.

WEF with all its ressources, connections, infrastructure, shaping potential still isnt expressing this central AHA. its about the people. The women. Generation Y and X.
All the distinguished 1500 leaders plus the associated Young Global Leaders Forum ( members under 40) will increase sustainable impact as soon as this is finally realized.

May the day come asap for this tipping point!



REFORMS NOT RESCUE PACKAGES NEEDED FOR THE MIDDLE EAST


Continuing reform process is key for Middle East to weather economic crises and for its long-term growth
Fixing US financial institutions, consumer confidence and avoiding protectionism will help the region recover from the impact of the economic crisis
Follow the meeting on the website, blog, twitter, Facebook and live stream

Dead Sea, Jordan, 16 May 2009 - Business and government leaders from the Middle East identified at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East that pushing ahead with reforms is the key to weathering the global economic crisis. "This is not about a rescue package," said Rachid M. Rachid, Minister of Trade and Industry of Egypt. "The real big story is reform, change and managing the transition. What we have been doing in the past years is seriously driving a reform programme and making clear that, unless successful, we will not be able to meet the challenges of the world. If we would not have reformed, we would have been in a terrible situation today," he told leaders at the meeting.

Other panellists in the session, focused on the measures the region needs to introduce to render their economies more resilient and positioned for growth, agreed. "Our plans for education, job creation and the reform programme are the most important things that need rescuing," said Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Al Khalifa, Minister of Finance of Bahrain. "The challenge is not to address the immediate challenges like shortness of liquidity ... The challenge is to look at going forward in terms of job creation, economic growth and which models are sustainable."


Jordan is pursuing the same strategy, according to its Minister of Finance, Basem Al Salem. "We are concentrating on what's after the crisis - so on the reform process: new tax laws, a new custom tariff structure and investment strategy to make Jordan a more competitive place to invest in," he said.

Arif M. Naqvi, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Abraaj Capital, United Arab Emirates, stressed the need for educational reforms to continue, saying "the critical element of reform is education, and it might take us 10 years but it will make us competitive." Joe Saddi, Chairman of the Board, Booz & Company, Lebanon, agreed: "The big worry I have is that we get distracted from long-term reforms like diversification, liberalization and while building our regulatory and supervision capabilities, it's about modernizing government services, labour laws and having the right social safety nets; and then the toughest is to maintain the course on educational reforms."

The private sector representatives on the panel cautioned the policy-makers against using the crisis to "interfere in business". "My worry is we're going to get back to the norms where government says it knows better. We need to be clear that government doesn't take the opportunity and take over," said Khalid Abdulla-Janahi, Chairman, Ithmaar Bank, Bahrain.

Panellists addressed other challenges facing the region's economy. Despite the impact of the economic crisis, the fundamentals of the Middle East's economy are "generally solid" according to Naqvi, but consumers need to be talked back into being confident. Fixing the US financial institutions will help resolve market volatility, according to Minister Rachid, who also called on the private sector to work together with policy-makers to avoid protectionism.

SPIEGEL , the German magazine once again picked up Nazi past in its new issue. its well known in Germany that every title with "Hitler" in the headlines" still increases revenues with 10 percent. The new issue has "The Fuehrer" again there.

This musical is a good example how to deal in another fashion with the theme. It received standing ovations for its unusual look.

This could be a sign for further integration of this collective shadow. And a wake up call for bad Hollywood clichee producers.

For Germany the bright potential of its last 250 years is waiting to be released in the 21th century. I am working nonstop for the special issue of Integral Leadership Review about Germany. And I feel its not only about writing. its about evoking the desire for integral excellence and bringing Germany to full impaxct in postive sense for Europe and the world.

To create new grooves for Germany. To finally articualte and spearhead a new dynamics which isnt banned by Orpheus like looking back to the past but boldly creates future . Standing on the shoulders of its brightest and greatest people in all areas of life.

Celebrating our own genius after having beeing traped for such a long time by dealing with the demons.

'FRÜHLING FÜR HITLER UND VATERLAND'

'The Producers' Receives Standing Ovation in Berlin

By Christine Wahl

It took eight years for Mel Brooks' runaway Broadway musical success to come to Germany, but "The Producers" is finally opening in Berlin. It received standing ovations at the public preview on Friday night.

Fareed Zalaria, the well known author of The Post-American World wrote this 2006 article about India in 21st century. its very interesting and I want to say Thank You to my friend Sanmugan here. As our conversations about ancient works of wisdom and Indias transition within the BRIC countries to modern society for creating future are connected for me in challenging ways.

From Gandihiji and Vivekananda to Fareed Zakaria, Parag Khanna, Deepak Chopra and others:):)How can this riddle be solved?



India Rising


Messy, raucous, democratic India is growing fast, and now may partner up with the world's richest democracy—America.
By Fareed Zakaria

Every year at the World Economic Forum in Davos, there's a star. Not a person but a country. One country impresses the gathering of global leaders because of a particularly smart Finance minister or a compelling tale of reform or even a glamorous gala. This year there was no contest. In the decade that I've been going to Davos, no country has captured the imagination of the conference and dominated the conversation as India in 2006.

It was not a matter of chance. As you got off the plane in Zurich, there were large billboards extolling INCREDIBLE INDIA. Davos itself was plastered with signs. WORLD'S FASTEST GROWING FREE MARKET DEMOCRACY! proclaimed the town's buses. When you got to your room, you found an iPod Shuffle loaded with Bollywood songs, and a pashmina shawl, gifts from the Indian delegation. When you entered the meeting rooms, you were likely to hear an Indian voice, one of the dozens of CEOs of world-class Indian companies. And then there were the government officials, India's "Dream Team," all intelligent and articulate, and all selling their country.
...
At this point, anyone who has actually been to India will probably be puzzled. "India?" he or she will say. "With its dilapidated airports, crumbling roads, vast slums and impoverished villages? We're talking about that India?" Yes, that, too, is India. The country might have several Silicon Valleys, but it also has three Nigerias within it, more than 300 million people living on less than a dollar a day. India is home to 40 percent of the world's poor and has the world's second largest HIV population. But that is the familiar India, the India of poverty and disease. The India of the future contains all this but also something new. You can feel the change even in the midst of the slums......
....

Read more..

See also:

TED India 2009: The Future Beckons

Timothy Garton Ash did it again.

He adressed a new role for European foreign policy. And once again he is right.
The missing link however remains a design, a perspective and and evolutionary understanding of growth dynamics for collective holons.

As Europe consists as much of regions, cities, countries and diverse identities in the sense of vertical complexity . A defining purpose for 500 milion Europeans needs to be built.

And political intention to shape Europes future according to intelligent development maps.

So diagnosis of TGA is- as nearly always- correct. it simply needs an understanding of MeshWorks, of integral poltics and of the diverse layers of european spirals.

Now TGA has the word. The article was writen for the Guardian and republished in

www.ecfr.eu


We need a European foreign policy. Improbable? Yes. Impossible. No.

Critics consider us weak and divided. But with political will and public support, we could finally get our act together



Fly-over country. An old people's home. A continent choosing irrelevance. "An international actor in a state of strategic confusion." Weak, divided and hypocritical. Perhapsburg. That is what you hear about Europe from observers in Washington, Moscow and Beijing. And that is what we Europeans have to change.

Even if you are a European with no emotional, intellectual or idealistic attachment whatsoever to the European Union – even if, that is to say, you are Britain's likely next foreign secretary, William Hague – the rational case for the 27 member states of the EU to have a stronger, more co-ordinated foreign policy is overwhelming. In a world increasingly shaped by the rise of non-European great powers, especially China, the relative power of even the largest European state has diminished, is diminishing, and will continue to diminish. (This is not to be confused with national decline: a country can simultaneously be getting richer and becoming relatively less powerful in the world.)

If you think I am talking about some remote calculus of influence abroad, the diplomats' daily salmon and wine but of marginal interest to an ordinary joe, think again. As we have all discovered in the last six months, our own jobs, life savings, mortgages, health and personal safety are directly affected by global challenges such as the worldwide financial and economic crisis, mass migration, international organised crime, climate change and the threat of pandemics – none of which can by met by any state on its own. Even on the coolest Palmerstonian calculation of national self-interest, the case for a larger concentration of power among neighbouring, economically integrated states is irrefutable.

Here in Stockholm, a group of Europeans, including think-tankers, businesspeople, writers, diplomats, civil society activists, a brace of former presidents and a bevy of former foreign ministers, met earlier this week to pursue the necessary conclusion. The US has a long-established Council on Foreign Relations, one of whose purposes is to improve American foreign policy. The recently established European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), by contrast, has to work towards the creation of a European foreign policy before it can begin to improve it. As they say in the old cookbooks: first find your hare. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the ECFR and serve on its board.)

The obstacles in the way of creating something that deserves the name of European foreign policy are large. They are institutional, political and, in the broadest sense, cultural. Europe has spent far too much time already on its institutional arrangements. The patchwork Lisbon treaty, which is certainly not a European constitution, will enable us to improve some of them, provided the Irish vote yes to it (given a few added inducements, such as each country retaining a European commissioner) in a second referendum this autumn, and the Eurosceptic Polish and Czech presidents sign what their parliaments have already voted for.

read more...

See also:

Birth Hour of First Pan European Think Tank

I introduced work of German Philosopher Peter Sloterdijk  earlier here Here is a talk about his work "Spheres" which might be interesting for some:

Against Gravity- Bettina Funcke talks with Peter Sloterdijk

The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk achieved much acclaim (and a wide readership) in the United States during the heyday of critical theory with the translation of his Critique of Cynical Reason (University of Minnesota Press, 1988), in which he introduced a multifaceted style of writing, freely engaging with philosophy, history, anthropology, fiction, poetry, literary theory, and colloquial language. This unique discursive repertoire was widely perceived as constituting an altogether new take on the role of philosophy, one that continues to mark his work. If Sloterdijk's subsequently translated Thinker on Stage: Nietzsche's Materialism (University of Minnesota Press, 1989) also captured his performative philosophy (itself a continuation of the Nietzschean project that provides the book with its subject), the title was perhaps not the follow-up to Critique of Cynical Reason that American readers had expected. Due to the vicissitudes of critical-theory reception in the United States, Sloterdijk's work came to be viewed as an '80s period piece.

In Germany, however, Sloterdijk is one of the most prominent public intellectuals and has distinguished himself by pushing the boundaries of the traditional forum of the philosopherñand thus its very definitionñby turning not only to the traditional academic stage but also to that of the mass media. This was a risky move, for in doing so he courted marginality from both sectors. But his was an attempt, in the tradition of the Frankfurt School, to recover a greater relevance for critical thinking. In addition to professorships at academies in Vienna and Karlsruhe and his output of one or two books a year for the last two decades, Sloterdijk is a ubiquitous media presence in Germany. He reaches a wide audience through his talk show on German TV and maintains a public profile with philosophical provocations such as his widely publicized debate with JY®rgen Habermas over the ethics of genetic engineering.

In order to restore the relevance of leftist critical thought, Sloterdijk has specifically attacked contemporary issuesñissues different from those facing earlier thinkers such as those of the Frankfurt School. Last year, the Spheres trilogy, Sloterdijk's most ambitious project to date (and about 2,500 pages long), was completed after seven years of writing. Still, despite the singular impact of the book in Europe, Sloterdijk remains under-recognized in the States: Spheres has yet to be translated into English. ñBettina Funcke

Read More...

There is a new book from Peter Sloterdijk. Here is a short review from DEUTSCHE WELLE which was roughly translated by Google. Hopefully some poinst  come over.:


You must change your life

Why did I choose it? Intellectual life in German and Europe isnt really thriving at this moment. We have elections in Germany, UK; and EU this year.WE have 20 years fall of the wall. We have 60 years of Federal Republic of Germany. However a remarkably poor intellectual debate.

And when it comes to poltics often left postions are emerging. This is the case with Sloterdijk too. He is in love with left populists like Oskar Lafontaine. And criticizes chancellor Angela Merkel for her missing understanding of West Germany biografies.

However, in this book he describes some exercises for personal transforming and changing personal life. Which are funny and reveal nevertheless some real stuff. So far so good.

In many ways I compare him with intellectuals like Rabbi Michael Lerner, the founder of Tikkun Magazine. Who defines hinmself as left liberal and as a progressive.

When it comes to poltics he immediately goes to bashing. Last example was his polemic criticism of Benjamin Netanjahu ofI Israel.

So Sloterdijk is a most interesting example of poltical thinking and intellectuality in Germany. (Cannot discuss in this context the examples of third culture which John Brockman describes in edge.org. They exist here to a less significant degree than in Anglo-Saxon language sphere.)

He reveals a degree of internal complexity and intention to deal deeply with change. Nietzsche obviously one of his top role models.Iinnovation , emergence and transformation can be felt in all of his writings.

As soon, as it comes to poltical and cultural change he drifts away in populism and some angry bashing. Like Michael Lerner.

While he might have some more intellectual space than chancellor Angela Merkel he does not grasp her unique abiltiy to think in stratified realties. I saw her yesterday at 32nd German Protestant Kirchentag in Bremen/Germany.
Discussing with Timothy Garton Ash ( I repeatedly posted articles from him)about democracy and human rights. Yes, she knows what global realities in their rich and compley layers are all about. And TGA too.

Therefore she shows what leadership in Germany and Europe is about. As did Tony Blair in his time in UK. The furor of passionate and future oriented thinking however hasnt reached the public spheres in German speaking countries. So I will look out next months if any vital intellectual signs are emerging.

As i see it Peter Sloterdijk reached the Zenith of his thinking with his book "Spheres" These spheres are for me highly active stratfied realties which can be best described in terms of Spiral Dynamics integral. And the beauty of Natural Designs solutions are exactly the fusion of advanced perspectives, spirit-in-action and its laser-like conversion into action that transforms.

However, after having reached his zenith no fire is emerging any more. The magma of Sloterdjk thinking broke through the surface for 30 years and brought hot lava down to the cultural landscape of Germany.

Right now this lava is cold already. Movement is slowing down to a point near zero.

The worldwide global crisis since 2008 brings every mere intellectual approach and wishful thinkingto its end. And exactly THIS moment is the window of opportunity for powerful integral perspectives.

For change, transformation and cultural emergence which is ahead of any crisis and can deal with it not only in helicopter perspectives but with traction and momentum on the ground. In a sustainable way.

DEUTSCHE WELLE reports about this event. it was and is remarkable that celebration- as much in public as by the poltical leaders could not be felt so much. It seems that Germany still has to learn about celebration. Not in the enthusiasm and presence of an historic event like fall of the wall in 1989. But in celebrating success stories.

Co-inciding with the lack of this spirit is the low level degree of public debates inside the republic and the moderating carefulness in foreign policy.

The new identities within EU Integration and global processes , the supraordinate goal for creating future and liberating national identity in a global context, the internal -and thus felt! - complexity within this emergence is still missing in public spheres.

And , as I know from conversations with friends and other colleagues, in personal perception too. Last outburst of a new cheerful we feeling was in 2006  during FIFA Worldcup in Germany. And may, once again, something can be learned from football.

PLaying a dynamic, offensive, creative and fast style instead of constant reflections about the past, is one key. Even exceptional dealing with collective past of 60 years and more -as Timothy Garton Ash confirmed in discussion with Angela Merkel last days in Germany -isnt enough.


Germany marks 60 years of postwar constitution


Germany's leaders have celebrated the 60th anniversary of the country's "Basic Law." President Horst Koehler lauded the post-World War II constitution for ensuring freedom and prosperity in a democratic system.
 

In an official state act at Berlin's Gendarmenmarkt Concert Hall on Friday, President Horst Koehler lauded 60 years of the German postwar constitution, saying it had turned Germany into a "mature democracy."

He said the founding fathers of the Federal Republic of Germany "had drawn lessons from the collapse of the Weimar Republic. They also learned from the Nazi dictatorship by creating a constitution that laid solid foundations for a free and just society," he added.

The Weimar Republic (1919-1933) was Germany's first attempt at creating a democratic system.

Kohler said the postwar transformation of Western Germany into a country based on democracy and a free-market economy had made the Federal Republic a prosperous and peace-loving nation.
Germany had regained "the status of a respected nation," Koehler said in his speech before political leaders. "Today we have friends all over the world. We are admired for our economic achievements and political reliability – for always being prepared to help others and fostering peace in the world."

Koehler also described the then West German state as a country deeply rooted in freedom and respect for human dignity. These commitments helped eastern Germans overcome four decades of communism in 1990, he said

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Also, from SPIEGEL ONLINE:

The Federal Republic of Germany Turns 60

In June 2009 there is one more event in the decades of European Integration. itsa bout the Biggest trans-national elections in history. As often in history when not in the form of war or crisis the event hasnt the degree of attention it would deserve.

However in the decades of evolution of EU formal events have often initiated and triggered national devlopments afterwards. So it will be very exciting how the next 3 decades of this great European experiment will look like and how it can be shaped in comprehensive way.

Its essential for me to strengthen the parliamant as a might bureucracy in the European Commission isnt strongly enough supervised by the legislative right now.

Elections to the European Parliament will be held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will be elected by proportional representation to represent some 500,000,000 Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history.

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See also:

EU Time Machine 1979 -2009

Why Europe`s parliament deserves a vote of confidence

Eurozine.com presents some reflections of Claus Leggewie.

He is director of Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen in Germany. His most recent publication is Ein Ort, an den man gerne geht. Das Holocaust-Mahnmal und die deutsche Geschichtspolitik nach 1989 [A place one wants to go. The Holocaust memorial and German politics of history after 1989], co-edited with Erik Meyer (Munich: Carl Hanser Verlag 2005). For further details and bibliography see

www.leggewie.de.

Leggewie elaborates 7 circles of disputed memories in Europe and rightly states that there is more than treatis, currency, open borders. While collective memory is essential and defining for any culture -the more for Europe as it has no defining bing bang as US - the core of the moment here and now is about shaping and designing future.

Via supraordinate goals and aligning the cultural, poltical and economic driving forces towards a purpose. Thats what science of culture needs to learn. To see with new lenses in a vmemetic way.

So, from memory to vmemetic views the ways should not be tooooo long:):)European Integration on the way to 2030 needs it desperately.Its about laying the railways while improving the maps and driving the engine and keep contact to back mirror without beeing paralyzed like Orpheus in the Hades:):)

Transnational Memory and European Identity

Europeans, the world's largest "people in spe", must develop a pan-European historical awareness if only to be able to deal better with common political problems, argues Claus Leggewie. Yet a definition of European memory cannot be reduced to the Holocaust and the Gulag alone, no matter how central these are. It must also include the experience of expulsion, Europe's colonial history and the Armenian question, for example, and be able to compare memories without offsetting each against the other.

My thesis, then, is that anyone who wishes to give a European society a political identity will rate the discussion and recognition of disputed memories just as highly as treaties, a common currency and open borders.[7]
....
At this point, it is perfectly justified to capitalize, both pedagogically and politically, on the success of western Europe after 1950, which in the Brussels exhibition receives equal emphasis. Since that date, Europe has taken a course of development that leads out of the cycle of totalitarianism and the ideological division of East and West. The eastern European view of this history, on the other hand, is marked by envy and sorrow, since during the Cold War the success and happiness of the West was relativized by the unhappiness and failure on the other side of the Iron Curtain. One can hardly claim that the eastern enlargement in 2004 has already mended this rift. Yet one need not also be afraid of building a European museum that addresses this success. "

There are three new entries from the blog of Dr. Dennis Roberts who works in Qatar,Education City, since November 2007.

http://pursuingleadership.blogspot.com


Highly interesting. As they reveal very concretely what deeper learning involves.. Especially in another culture like the Arab Culture. And here the Arab GCC region.

And what it takes for teachers, entrpreneurs, consultants and other expats to really communicate things in these cultures and about these cultures. What it takes to build sustainable change. And what degrees of misunderstanding, ignorance and misinformation have to be overcome.

Effective teaching to counter misinformation

Indelible mark

Conviction and action

Here is a quick overview of my entries regarding Dennis work in Qatar and GCC Region:

 Consciousizing GCC Region and Broader Mideast

   Posted on Aug 22nd, 2007    by                  Albert            
  I jt received an email from Russ Volckman  -editor and publisher of The Integral leadership Review - which informed me about Qatar Foundation and its flagship project Education City. Qatar   is member of the... More »      

        Synaptic fire in GCC                

        Posted on Oct 24th, 2007    by                  Albert            
  Yesterday I was on the phone with a leading McKinsey Man from Germany who is working on a book about AQAL And SDi perspectives in business.it was a great talk and we discovered unexpected crossovers... More »   

             

  Pursuing Leadership in Qatar and GCC

        Posted on Nov 19th, 2007    by                  Albert            
  I already mentioned the work and newly launched Qatar project of Dr Dennis Roberts from Miami University here: Synaptic Fire in GCC Dennisis now on the ground in Doha/Qatar and continues his remarkable blog since... More »      


            Landing Strips for the Future in Qatar            

        Posted on Feb 5th, 2008    by                  Albert            
  This from the Blog of Dr. Dennis Roberts who is working in Doha for theQatar Foundation since November 2007. I introduced Dennis last year here.. and   here.. His work is really creating landing strips... More »   


                From Qatar: Vocatus atque non vocatus, Deus aderit

        Posted on Sep 16th, 2008    by                  Albert            
  This is a mirrored blog entry from Dr. Dennis Roberts . He has a most global and fascinating report of his professional and personal odysse on this blogspace: http://pursuingleadership.blogspot.com/  Since Nov 2007 Dr. Roberts lives and works... More »   

             

  From Qatar: Mumbai Terrorism, Obama, Arab Youth and Thanksgiving

        Posted on Nov 28th, 2008    by                  Albert            
  I sent my colleague Dr. Dennis Roberts, who works as American Professorfor the flagship project of  Qatar Foundation - Education City  -the Open Letter to President Obama, from Center for Human Emergence,Mideast.  This is his... More »

SPIEGEL ONLINE presents some funny facts about candidates for EU Parliament elections in June. This should not surprise. Something not fully felt, seen and realized in its potential alwways attracts first some colorful people.

The internal complexity of a new holonic level of a social entity- especially on the way from nation states to transnational emergence - can only be perceived and shaped by early adapters who have these qualities in their own lifes already and will spread and seed it in a long process of emergence, convergence and confluence of new consciousness.

Realizing , for each of the 27 member states and for them altogether what Steve McIntosh wrote in his blog Thursday, July 10th, 2008 :

"...

Question: How could this collective coming together of leaders be most instrumental in bringing public awareness to the great shift that is occurring?

Answer: First, we could demythologize the idea of “the great shift”, recognizing that there is not just one shift, there are actually many shifts in consciousness going on simultaneously in the world—a shift from pre-traditional to traditional in Africa, a shift from traditional to modern in Asia, and in America, and ongoing shift from modern to postmodern, as well as the beginning of a shift from postmodern to integral.

We could also be more discerning about the nature and behavior of cultural evolution, and recognize the fallaciousness of the wishful thinking that expects that the world is going to “wake up” and suddenly become “cultural creative” in a miraculous transformation. .."

The Rich, the Odd and the Beautyful


By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp in Brussels

Many have a hard time finding enthusiasm for the European Parliament elections. But they should pay more attention to the colorful array of candidates on offer. From millionaires to machos, blue bloods to bombshells, next week's vote has it all.


Silvio Berlusconi, the media mogul and Italy's prime minister, wanted to line up some "fresh faces" for the 2009 European parliamentary elections. More specifically, he was thinking of showcasing a host of attractive young women, including professional showgirls and a participant on the Italian version of "Big Brother" known throughout the country for her skimpy outfits. As he saw it, these individuals would bring youth and glamour to his center-right People of Freedom (PdL) party. But then Berlusconi's wife, Veronica Lario, got fed up with his flaunting of young femininity and publicly denounced both him and the "shamelessness of power." So, Berlusconi dropped the plan for running with a whole team of young women.

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Check also the complete:

SPIEGEL Special: European Union