The Globalist and an Integral Approach to World Events

In a world dominated by scientific materialism and pluralistic postmodernism, where does one turn to get a more evolved view of the world and current events? Well, one possible source of in-depth world analysis is The Globalist. I’m not sure it makes a lot of sense to talk about an “integral” source of news and information, but The Globalist does seem to be a great place to go to get the kinds of information a person with an integral worldview needs.

Take last week for example (Nov. 19-23, see links to articles below), which is an excellent example of what The Globalist does typically. Each day last week, they published one in-depth article concerning the plight of the world’s poorest nations. The articles are contributed by experts from around the world, who look at the topic from a variety of angles, generally including both cultural and socio-economic aspects and viewpoints, as well as considering the viewpoints of both the political left and the political right. By looking at the topic at hand with a critical eye from such a variety of angles, they provide the integrally-informed reader with just about everything needed to understand global issues fairly well, or, in any event, much better than is possible by reading just about any other traditional news source. And armed with a better understanding of what’s happening globally, you’re able to more fully contextualize the daily news from whatever source.

Highly recommended reading!

Links to articles:

Monday, Nov. 19 – Where Bangladesh Leaves India in the Dust
Tuesday, Nov. 20 – Falling Behind and Falling Apart: The Bottom Billion
Wednesday, Nov. 21 – Trade and the Bottom Billion
Thursday, Nov. 22 – What The West Can Do for the Bottom Billion
Friday, Nov. 23 – Solving Africa's Public Health Crisis

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- Contributed by Grey

The Integral News and Views blog aims to explore accessible and practical integral perspectives for people who are interested in getting beyond fragmented worldviews, who desire intimacy with all that they are, and who wish to help the world, themselves, and others evolve and thrive in a mutually beneficial and sustainable manner.




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I get my information from newspapers, TV news and Internet. Lately I found this site: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/

It's news and comments from around the world. I feel it's well-informed, very quick and entertaining. Check it out, yo 

And don't forget to vote for the Top public intellectual of the year! I already went to the polls...

C.

And here is my own response to the question.

For me, i get most of my political news from DailyKOS and Huffington Post--despite the obvious liberal bias these sites maintain, they really come up with some rather exceptional political commentary, with a (for the most part) very active and intelligent community.

Also, Google News is a great source--if the journalists can no longer be objective, at least the compilation algorithms can be ^_^

For television, i tend to switch between CNN and MSNBC for the latest breaking punditry while watching the primaries. Though, when CNN's John King starts playing with that hypnotic "magic wall" (essentially a massive iPhone interface) it can be damned difficult to change the channel....

Other than that, i admit a special love for Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher--i think that, as comedians, they are allowed a certain removed sort of meta-media perspective which enables them some degree of space for some real insightful, off-the-cuff commentary--though the fact that they are able to perpetually keep their identities as "journalists" at arms length (due to the fact that they are indeed entertainers, and on stations like Comedy Central and HBO) means that their voices are easily marginalized as irrelevant political commentators.

For tech/geek culture, you can't beat BoingBoing.

For my hipster entertainment culture, i'm a fan of The Onion's AVclub.

And to keep in touch with the flotsam and jetsam of the collective stream of consciousness that is the internet, i am a huge fan of the social bookmarking browser add-on StumbleUpon, with every category of interest checked. But be careful--whatever precious free time you might have, will surely be sacrificed to the gaudy gods of web-based kitsch.

Washinton Post, New York Times, The New Republic, CNN, and a few others are my main sources.

Yahoo is a great place to get news videos. If you look on the right-hand margin you'll see links to a few dozen other video providers, as well as videos organized by category and topic.

Real Clear Politics offers a group of political articles each day from a variety of perspectives, both conservative and liberal. They are often very well chosen.

City Journal is an excellent place to get conservative, interior-causation perspectives.

The Wall Street Journal is also a place where we can get good conservative perspectives.

Of course it would be great to have an integral newspaper, but since such a thing doesn't exist I like to have a look at both liberal and conservatives papers and magazines. It's the next best thing.

mm