Integral Culture and the Media

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Contemporary world culture is in deep crisis and is moving toward its decline. The crisis of culture is evidenced by the global problems of humanity, the crisis of morality and ethics, the deepening of social inequality, numerous ethnic conflicts and political contradictions. American Futurologist Э. Toffler has put us before the inevitability of the decline of industrial society, showed the disintegration of social relations, the crisis of the family, the aggravation of inter-ethnic relations.

Alas, we are becoming more and more convinced that science, technology, economics, and high technology are not leading us to a brighter future. Alas, the problems facing society cannot be solved by the achievements of scientific and technological progress.

The modern world puts man face to face with the existential problems of death, isolation, pain, and the absence of externally given meaning.

Accelerating change inevitably at one point or another breaks the usual way of life, forcing one to reflect. This is a decisive, pivotal moment. This is where the usual way of existence ends. Here begins either the path to spiritual desolation, nihilism, moral skepticism, moral decay, or another path – to the construction of a moral human life on a new, conscious basis. From this point on, the problem of a person’s responsibility for all that he or she has done and omitted comes up.

Today, at the beginning of the 21st century, we are living in a very difficult time for the human community, when a growing number of signs indicate that the crisis phenomena in the development of civilization have worsened to such an extent that it is no exaggeration to say that humanity has come close to the historical point, after passing which society will not have the slightest chance not only of development, but also of survival.

At all levels of the social and cultural organism we see the dominance of narrowly egoistic personal and group interests. Most of today’s political and economic elite understand the development of civilization as a rampant increase in the consumption of goods by the “chosen few” at the expense of the impoverishment of the majority. States and corporations see human beings and their potential as their own “capital,” which has only a value dimension. A good education is becoming less accessible. The level of physical and psychological health in all countries is declining: depression, neuroses and post-traumatic stress disorder are becoming the norm rather than an aberration; psychosomatic illnesses are becoming widespread. The institution of the family is in the deepest crisis in the history of the world, as evidenced by the decline in the birth rate to a level that leads in most developed countries to a decline in the population. Millions of children around the world become social orphans, left without the full care and support of parents who devote all their energy to the process of making money.

In doing so, humanity’s intellectual resources are used not to solve the critical problems listed above, but to develop and implement predatory policies regarding natural resources and to create a virtual reality that distorts the true picture of the world in the eyes of most people.

The peculiarity of the current crisis is the fact that it is primarily a crisis of culture. Culture as a “matrix” of social consciousness is the basis of the transmission of social experience between local cultures and generations, and in all its spiritual and material manifestations. It is through culture that ethical norms and patterns of behavior are transmitted from generation to generation, ensuring the sustainability of the development of civilization when the meta-idea of culture is the idea of altruism. Today we see that the meta-idea of culture is individual and group egoism, and it is this factor that predetermines the development of the crisis.

Culture as the sum of common behavior and ways of thinking is transmitted to society.

In accordance with our upbringing, we believe in technological progress and the exploitation of nature, we try to produce and accumulate more. We have been brought up in a consumer culture that cares little for those around us and the planet as a whole. Our entire civilization is dying out like an ancient lizard, and the reason for this lies on the surface; it lies in the outdated value system of our consciousness, which determines our attitude toward the world. This is especially noticeable in the so-called developed countries, because despite the material prosperity, even here people have not become happier. Depression has become almost the main global problem of mankind.

Image of the world

In a sense, all the surrounding reality that we are aware of is only the result of the work of the human imagination. It is not the world of reality itself as it really is, but the images of the world arising through the senses in our brains, and subsequently a “picture of the world,” synthesized by the work of thinking and recorded on the neural networks of the brain. If the senses cannot provide the necessary information to the imagination and thinking, then the person is unable to “see” anything, because the imagination and thinking have no objects to work with in creating an individual picture of the world.

The first step toward true personal development and realization of one’s potential is the assessment of one’s current state, potential, and life situation. The tools for working on oneself can be found only at the point of perceiving oneself as an object of study, influence, and restructuring. In the state of self-contemplation and in the process of self-knowledge, a person is able to perceive his inner world, his picture of the world, and his “concept of self” as external objects on which one can and should work. In the work of self-knowledge and self-transformation, a person who has embraced the highest universal values is able to see the measure of his egoism and its impact on the picture of the world and the picture of the self.

The difference between people, between their levels of development, is determined by the measure of awareness of selfishness. Therefore, it is extremely important to work on increasing one’s level of self-awareness and reflection.

Whether or not one decides to undertake the most difficult task of self-transformation by eliminating egoism and embracing altruism depends solely on whether one is able to prefer the yet unknown pleasure of discovering the root cause and achieving the goal of creation to the already known pleasure of satisfying egoistic motives, which one can achieve today. Psychologically speaking, this is precisely the problem of recognizing selfishness as evil in the absence of a sense of merging with the root cause. A person who changes his egoistic qualities into altruistic ones through self-transformation immediately becomes like the root cause.

In creating an image of the world, humanity relates its existence less and less to the world and more and more to the image of the world that belongs to culture.

Let us note the key patterns of this process.

First, modern man should be guided more and more by the generalized experience accumulated by family, group, culture, civilization and stored in the form of texts, rather than by personal experience, when making decisions, making choices. It follows that the role of communication, communication at all levels, from the interpersonal to the intercultural, is increasing and will continue to increase. The effectiveness of this communication, mutual exchange will be related to the understanding by each subject (individual, group) of the purpose of acquiring knowledge, the limits of applicability of theories, the measure in which the acquired knowledge is applicable without prejudice to others.

Second, each linguistic culture, in the interest of self-preservation, interested in the success and growth of its speakers of individuals, becomes directly interested in maximizing the integration of the knowledge accumulated by others in other cultures.

The translation and interchange of knowledge accumulated by humankind in different cultures is therefore of great importance, since both adaptation and the possibility of choosing an attractive opportunity to actualize the future increasingly depend on how widely and completely the knowledge accumulated by humankind is represented in a given language.

The problem of mutual understanding and trust between cultures is of the utmost importance.

Third, the real success of both individuals and cultures requires that the integration and use of other knowledge accumulated by others does not take one’s own psychological integrity beyond a critical level and allow for practical results.

In the problem of building a positive image of the future and determining the path to it is the main challenge of our era. It is a challenge to the individual, to the family, to the group, to culture, to civilization, to human cognition.

Principles of Integral Culture

The cultures of nations are dissimilar in their histories, traditions, and religions. But they all have one unifying axis.

We propose an integral concept aimed at the development of world culture at this historical stage of civilization, when the whole world is an integral and interconnected organism, constantly faced with the need to transition to a new mechanism of interaction and growth. We are focused on creating a transcultural basis for the interaction of peoples. Such a foundation is the phenomenon of humanity’s spiritual growth, its transition to a new evolutionary stage of unity.

The future planetary culture must be based on the following principles:

– an ethic of non-violence and respect for one’s neighbor;

– solidarity, mutual assistance, and vouchsafety;

– respect for the religion and customs of another;

– equality, equity and partnership;

– altruism and spiritual growth as the highest common values.

The main function of culture is the formation of society as a system where each part does not exist by itself, but as an integral part of a single organism in which everyone will seek to receive from society only what is necessary for existence, and all his forces will turn to the benefit of society.

The world of integral culture is very close to us. There is really only a psychological problem. And when we overcome it, we will understand that relationships between people transfer us from one world to another. Humanity can survive by uniting around common values, by reviving the single spiritual core of culture.

MEDIA

The development of culture in modern society is inseparable from the media and communication. Thanks to the media or SMC we are all connected, so their role in today’s culture cannot be overestimated. From these media we draw a lot of different information, which in one way or another affects us.

For example, if we watch a video or advertisement, in addition to the colorful pictures and story on the screen, we receive other information, often implicit. This includes moral standards of values, ideals and manners, and much more.

For centuries, society has been designed in such a way that people are always passing information to each other, interacting, or, in other words, participating in the processes of communication. Without communication, it is impossible to build a society and a culture. And the nature of the culture depends on how we interact.

Mass communication today is the medium through which enormous information flows to a large number of people. Traditionally, the media are considered to include radio, print, television, and the Internet.

The media has changed dramatically over the past 10-20 years. The key here was the emergence of the computer and the cell phone, capable of processing and transmitting information and information technology, and the programs that provide us with constant communication and mobility.

Contemporary creativity and the processes that are associated with it (learning to create, creating works of art, consuming cultural products, etc.) have taken on new characteristics with the participation of the Internet. The Internet provides wider and freer access to cultural goods – museum collections, books, theater, geographic and historical sites. One has gained wide access to the results of creative activity, to foundations, galleries, collections, etc. With the help of the Internet, man was able to quickly distribute creative products: texts, videos, etc.

The media is not just a mediator of information, it is becoming an important actor in many processes.

The media perform socially significant functions in modern society: a) they are a source of important information for people; b) they can connect, unite people into groups and communities, mobilize, disengage or coordinate, influence people’s behavior and emotional reactions by presenting information in a certain way.

The influence of the media on society occurs through the information regularly broadcast in the media, which influences people’s values and cultural norms. The media participate in shaping moral principles, norms of behavior, and political leanings.

People are involuntarily guided by those pictures, ideas, and phrases that are initially embedded as clues in the materials that are broadcast and are behind the scenes. Our opinions about certain events, assessments of new facts, attitudes toward processes, and ideas about something are closely linked to the ubiquitous flow of information. The media world is saturated with judgments, trends, images, comments and models. And people are unconsciously guided by them in their lives. This is how the media influence society and culture.

The media’s influence on society, on the individual, and on culture tends to be unconscious and spontaneous. We and our community are not aware of where these ideals have come from and why we feel that we should dress, travel, and treat work and family this way and not that way. In particular, this trajectory includes opinion leaders, as well as the many social and cultural filters that determine the significance of the information one receives.

The media form a secondary reality – an artificial, superimposed space with its own meanings, evaluations, and cultural codes. Whether we like it or not, we begin to give importance to, analyze, and discuss topics or issues that are constantly aired. By creating a secondary reality, the media exercise invisible power over people’s attitudes, ideals, trends and tendencies. They form certain cultural codes and meanings in society. By doing so, one interprets and evaluates a number of facts and processes in a certain way, attaching significance to some events instead of others.

The reality that is created in the media has certain tendencies. The media is dominated by information of the following nature:

• Entertainment (various shows, serials, humorous programs, amusing videos, etc.);
• Sensational (revelations, exclusive interviews, etc.);
• catastrophic (disasters, accidents, crashes, crises, accidents, etc.);
• Sports (mostly spectator sports);
• political (including discussions of political decisions and political leaders).

The Media Problem

It is the media that determines the overall social atmosphere; they create the discourse, raising the importance of one thing and leaving out the other. And today they reflect the political struggle, play into the hands of the tycoons and tear society to shreds. Of course, you can’t hide the truth, and it’s important to present the facts for sure. But why leave the imprint of bias in favor of a certain side or leave the tension of a grumpy argument?

Just as we protect our children and make sure they are not exposed to content that can harm them, we need to protect people from violent and negative examples. After all, only the creation of a positive environment can sustain us.

The problem of social media

Envy is a key motivating factor behind the urge to post on Facebook or other social media, which negatively affects users’ mental health.

By creating a vicious circle of jealousy and self-importance, social networks create a perception in users that their lives are failing in comparison to others, and encourage them to react by posting posts to show off their best side. Social media activity promotes envy-inducing behavior.

Media as a Mirror of Society

We can call the media a mirror of society’s development because all of society’s ills are reflected in the media. Today, all media are lobbied by government agencies or private individuals. Ideally, they should belong to a single, independent body. It should be a power-neutral higher academy of pure sources.

One of the practical actions of the media is to gather from various sources and present people with as independent, unadulterated, balanced, objective information as possible. The media should give information in its pure form – everything that happened, without any comments or evaluations.

But the man doesn’t want to know the truth. A person wants to hear information that confirms his own perceptions, his opinions, his perceptions. Selfishness doesn’t want to change. It turns out that the media are forced to lie, otherwise no one will buy information from them. What to do in this situation? How do you make a person wish for the bitter truth?

If we raised a man properly, there would be no bitter truth for him, it would be desirable. And then he would treat her right and admire her, enjoy her, whatever she was. Because it is the truth that gives him a view of the world, without which he cannot orient himself correctly in it. And the deception that goes on today is doing terrible harm to all mankind.

Man is created selfish, but he is given the tools to change his nature.

You don’t have to create anything for that! We need to tap into the positive power of goodness. How to treat? Clean up the media, as Hercules once did the stables. As society corrects itself, it will be able to decide for itself how it should be united: by the bonds of kindness, mutual assistance, and participation. And then launch an Internet that will be based on just that.

And the media will create a huge good field, and a person will only get what they need for the good next step forward.

Media as a management tool

The media is the fourth power that shapes opinion, dictates fashion and behavior. On the other hand, they cater to the masses. So who serves who? The media constantly lies to the masses, so the masses have no objective view of what is going on. And the media manipulate them as they wish, that is, they dominate the masses. The media belongs to someone: either this bloc in the government or that bloc. So it turns out that we never see the truth. And it seems to us that the media is doing what the people want it to do.

People have been brought up in such a way that they want what they are given. How do you get out of this vicious circle? We have driven ourselves into a dead end, a state in which our selfishness rules the world, divides it, dominates it, and there is virtually no way to get out of this “vicious circle. If it’s a dictatorial state, where the media is owned by the government or one person, or if it’s a democratic country, the rich keep the media, and they sort of run, run the governments and everything else. I.e. it is impossible to get out of this circle. Some kind of “Armageddon” has to happen, something has to collapse, and everything has to be rebuilt somehow. There has to be some kind of explosion in society that will break it all down. If it’s an explosion whereby we realize the viciousness of our selfish nature and put the upbringing of people first, then something will come out of it.

Media are never just carriers of information. Even though people know this, they still think that there is some degree of human freedom of choice. The media always puts its mark on the perception of this information.

The first task of the media is to select from the endless quantity of information the one that will be of interest to the majority. For example, if we now decide to be told about the coronavirus, it becomes our reality. If they suddenly stopped, in a week we would forget what it was all about. In this case, the individual preferences of the person in the choice of news topics, of course, are not taken into account. Information is selected through the prism of editorial policy and the personal perception of the correspondent. And, understandably, someone stands on top – of course, the one who pays.

According to the integral approach, it is supposed to use the media in the education of people, to develop in them the values of love and mutual vouchsafety.

If we study our lives, we can come to the conclusion that selfishness is the only harmful characteristic of each of us and all of us together as a whole. Therefore, we have an obligation to learn how to heal from this property.

It is necessary to take care to educate the person. To make it different-so that he just sees that he must necessarily reach a state of connection with others, a good connection among all. Fostering love for one’s neighbor, unification makes one free – free from his selfishness.

“Fake news” is the problem of our information age. Any healthy brain has a defense system against false information, as it is dangerous to the body. But evolved humanity has come up with workarounds to nature’s defense against lying. The basis of a fake is when truthful information contains some lies. That is, it is not a pure lie, but half of it, in part. Then one can really bypass self-control, because one does not understand where the lie and where the truth are. For example, we see this in the coronavirus situation. Some doctors say that it is necessary to wear masks, some say that it is not necessary. In general, people are confused and don’t know where the lies are and where they are not.

After bypassing the brain’s defense system, the embedded information fake begins to reconstruct the person’s internal cognitive picture of the world. In this case, the person begins to make a decision and acts according to the new program. How can you protect yourself from this? Experts advise to simply check the author, to develop critical thinking.

Is it possible to protect yourself from fake news in general? Impossible, because we are working with the same selfishness, only slightly modified. That which is imposed on us. We work in an egoistic field. So there is no way we can be objective and catch this lie by the tail at all. You will not see and feel where it enters you, and where this worm, which penetrates you, begins to work in you – you will not be able to realize it. Only if we have a special system for receiving information will we be able to absorb the information that is truly true.

Truth is above lies, above the selfishness of our world. And in order to distinguish between truth and lies, you need a completely different organ of perception than in our world. With his help we will be able to make sense of the world, where things are headed, and the global picture will become clear. Of course, it is impossible to predict what will happen in the next moment, but in general, where the world is going, we can understand and perceive quite calmly its main currents and trends. We must learn to feel the laws of nature and – most importantly – the current of nature, which in our time is already set up to completely change man and his environment.

Can the modern man have his own opinion? Or is everything we think we represent a compilation of the viewpoints of everyone else around us? Opinion must be the result of a proper upbringing of the surrounding society. That’s what an individual’s opinion is.

That is, in principle, based on the upbringing a person received, we can understand what his opinion will be. We don’t even have to ask him about it. A man can have nothing new – everything is a product of his upbringing.

We play a life of lies, but we can educate ourselves in the media just by playing the truth. Intellectual role-playing games have become an alternative to holiday feasts. Clerks, managers, doctors, teachers are passionate about preventing explosions at a nuclear power plant, catching maniacs, chasing secret submarine blueprints…. In a word, they dive headlong into the quest.

As children, we read books and watched movies about heroes, dreaming of becoming one. But then it turned out that in life there is no place for screen heroism or even just adventure. So why not play the unfulfilled?

But there’s another side to it: a true hero has to be a role model, right? And an example not of jumping out of an airplane with an umbrella and other tricks. No, he must be close to us. And another thing: in addition to fighting his enemies, society’s problems, and misfortunes, he must overcome himself in some way – to help others.

Such a hero can be envied in a good way – because he brings people good. Moreover, that is how we would like to see every person. We all need a meaningful image of a hero who knows how to give of himself to others, even though it’s not easy. And let everyone put himself in his place, let everyone want to be like him. Then when I come out of a movie theater or a role-playing game and come back to life, I will do the same.

Media as a communicator of people and ideas

In the past, the media belonged to the state, and it is clear that they shaped the opinion of this society. Today it turns out that anyone-and there are millions of them-can become the center of this dissemination of information. Millions of people are being watched by millions more, hundreds of millions more! While previously all information was concentrated in the “hands” of the state, today millions of people have become “hubs” of information.

Once upon a time, everything depended on one person – let’s say the king. And today we are approaching a state where each person represents the source of nature’s correction. So we come to a state where millions, billions of people start influencing each other. In the end, there is no big or small, everyone is leveled, everyone is equal, and by expressing their opinions, they are mixed up. In the end, they are leading the world to a state where all together will create one unified platform. This tendency is necessary, it is natural. That’s why there is no good or bad.

That is, there used to be one opinion of some one dictator. There are a huge number of opinions today, and each has its own fans. All this leads to the fact that opinions are summed up, integrated. Eventually people discover that there is evil somewhere and good somewhere, and they must clearly define evil, separate it from good, and decide what will guide them. That is, we are already talking about freedom of choice.

Today, in the Internet that entangles everyone, most people do anything but what’s important – themselves! A man absorbed and mesmerized by a flickering screen does not aspire to something higher, to himself on the next step. It’s time to use the same system differently – for uplift, for the good of the people.

Even former Google and Facebook employees have teamed up to fight the detrimental effects of social media and the Internet on humans. The coalition, called the Center for Humane Technology, will deliver lectures on the dangers of modern IT and gadgets to 55,000 public schools in America. In principle, this is the right thing to do. After all, large virtual platforms act in the interests of those who pay. If you have enough money, you can put the Internet at your service and use it to implement any policy, any ideology. You can legitimize one and legitimize the other, you can pit one against the other.

The “public opinion” thus created makes it possible to vilify anyone, out of connection with laws, facts, and common sense. As a result, democracy, pluralism is replaced by some “universally accepted truths” that are actually prescribed by the customers. It is impossible to live and work in such a world. After all, there are no truly human reference points left in it – everything is dictated only by money.

It’s too lucrative – the most powerful means of influencing the world. In fact, the social network is capable of installing new software in anyone, with or without their knowledge.

After all, man is a social creature, there are “buttons” and “springs” in him, acting unaccountably, but very effectively. So no matter what the media say, they still dominate us and decide for us how we should look at the world.

However, their influence, too, is already sharpened by the new trends. Capitalism, built on the idea of profit, can no longer provide profit to the general population. The system is killing itself, and even professional deception is losing its former power. As a consequence, modern social platforms on the Internet will eventually die out. They will simply stop being used. People will replace them with direct communication without intermediaries, a communication system in which they themselves will be the masters.

Imagine: no coercion, neither covert nor overt. No one is “molding” people into consumers, voters, etc. The new connection is really for the good of humanity’s future. And although today it is still perceived as an unattainable peak, the road to it is not as long as it seems.

The media in the society of the future

In the future, people will only want to communicate more purposefully: about what leads them to a happy life, to the right goal, to getting it right, to changing the world in a positive way. The future of the media is for it to become a means of communication. The connection between all – into one unified whole.

The media must be moral, spiritual, because they influence the masses. The ideal image of the media representative of the future is a person who has risen above his selfishness and understands, thinks only of the good of society, of humanity.

The Internet allows us to understand the true state of the world, of ourselves. Hopefully it will eventually lead to a world changing, as quickly as possible, back in our day.

Information, communication, and technology will ultimately lead to the following. We may not reach the socio-economic development of the world’s low-wage populations. But understand that we must change our approach to the world and the interrelationship between us from selfishness to altruism-so that as a result we are all equal.

We must not remain under the illusion that if we divide everything equally now, the world will change. Such a division will not lead to favorable changes in the world. We’ve already seen it happen. By doing so, we are only preventing people from working and developing.

We need to bring a new awareness that we all need to be treated as one family, altruistically. Through this we will make the world equal, joyful and perfect.

The new independent Internet should engage in educating people, raising them above their selfish nature. In the meantime, the Internet works to correct humanity by speeding up the discovery of our selfish nature and its vices–the awareness of evil.

The creators of the Internet are disappointed that the Internet has become a selfish monster. They want to create an alternative independent Internet. But, without correcting the selfish nature of man, in the new internet they will again get a display of selfish society, the same vices!

Children are already growing up in virtual space, they are no longer particularly interested in our world. The next generation will be in this space all the time. Shopping is through the virtual world, learning is through the virtual world, everything is through the virtual world. There will be a man and a screen. This action of nature is absolutely justified; we cannot criticize nature. We can only think about how to make good use of what is engendered in us at every period of existence.

In children, the possibility of building a world for themselves is born. Peace! My own! That is, man gradually passes from the world imposed on him by his animal body to the world that he will create for himself by his spiritual body, and in it exist. This world will include absolutely everything. We just have to watch how nature develops us. And it develops us in a very interesting way, gradually giving us the opportunity to create a new reality ourselves and to exist in it.

The child will subconsciously feel the urge for it, the movement to it, the impulse. And his movements toward the new reality will gradually force him to acquire new properties.

The next stage will be such that the child will wish to exist in this, not because of any program, but because he himself will change. So far we are only going through an intermediate stage.

But as nature leads us forward, causing us all these movements, impulses, impulses, the next stages will be such that through building a new virtual world, through the Internet, we will suddenly feel that we ourselves need to change in order to enter directly into this nature. Behind what we have drawn, what we have created, there is actually another world not drawn by us.

You don’t have to install new programs to do this. One must change oneself, and then one will truly live in a new world.

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This material is part of the Integral Psychology course being developed at the Integral World Research Institute(IWRI). Sci. course editor: prof. Eliab. General Course Editor: T. Asher. Selected material: V. Shaposhnikova, S. Lazarev, R. Kabat. Course Secretary: V. Shaposhnikova. Lit-editor: A. Aleksandrova.