Gift of authentic power: Integral masculinity for 21st century

The gift of authentic power: Towards an Integral masculinity for the 21^st century

What we need going forward as men is neither a myth of male power nor of male powerlessness, but a living context in which men recognize and enact authentic power. 

Mythic consciousness was patriarchal.  Empowered by the sky god myth, men enjoyed (but also suffered under) instrumental power over others - over other men, women and children in the economic and political spheres.  Men's dominance in the socio-political sphere (but also vulnerability to other men higher in the hierarchy), was balanced by being tasked with the role of protector and provider for women and children.  Yes, men had primary economic power, and, yes, they were expected to use that power for the benefit of the women and children under their care. 

Modern consciousness, first and foremost, is about objectivity.  And therefore, a free-functioning market economy will basically reward people with their market value, whether they are male or female.  Warren Farrell has done much work to dispel the notion that men are paid more for the same work as women.  As he points out, no corporation in its right mind would hire men should that corporation have to pay those men more for the same amount of work.  Put another way, corporations would be smart and would hire all women to work for them, since they would have to pay them less for the same work.  We don't see this happen.  What we do see is corporations abroad hiring men and women from marginalized ethnic groups at low wages.  Again, modern feminists do the legitimate victims a profound disservice when they propose that the modern North American woman is somehow being treated in a manner analogous to those men, women and children from 3^rd world countries.

In the relational sphere of couples and families, modern consciousness also introduced the notion of equality.  Thus, modern consciousness sows the seeds of freedom for men from domination by their role of protector and provider role.  Likewise, women are at least partly freed from being dominated by their roles of nurturer of the young and keeper of the home.

However, to the degree that it fosters an extreme objectivity, a dissociated objectivity, we could make a case that modern consciousness as it has developed in the West has injured feminine ways of knowing, which might be characterized as interior: both subjective and intersubjective.  Radical corporatism injures both men and women in terms of their interior and relational lives.

Postmodern consciousness, at least as it has developed in North America, is about subjectivity - the individual's perspective is highly valued -- and intersubjectivity: relationship is highly valued.  Objectivity is often denounced, or at least is seen as highly relative in importance in comparison to subjectivity and particularly intersubjectivity.  In terms of gender relations, in the postmodern world we see a swing towards the predominance of feminine ways of knowing and being in the world.  On the positive side, we see an increased honoring of intuition and other interior modes of knowing such as contemplation and meditation.  Likewise, an honoring of connection and relationship.  On the negative side, with extreme postmodernism, instrumental modes of being come to be seen as inherently problematic.  Since many men's biology orients them towards an instrumental mode of being (we might say "power over objects" or I-It relationships), many men have suffered greatly from the influence of postmodern feminism.  Since postmodern feminism has been particularly dominant in academia, we see the exiting and disappearance of  men from that sphere. 

The birth of integral consciousness allows us to actually see the pattern just described.  Prior to integral consciousness, evolutionary patterns are not really perceived.  It's as if they don't exist.  But with integral consciousness, the prior evolutionary pattern comes to be perceived, and then in active mode, integral consciousness seeks to weave together the various threads, mythic, modern and postmodern; masculine and feminine. 

In her excellent article, "Beauty and the expansion of women's identity", Vanessa Fisher unpacks a developmental history of beauty and looks to help build a path to the future for women.  Inspired by her work, and Ken Wilber's insights, I believe we need likewise for men a developmental history of power, that in addition to providing such a history, provide suggestions for the way forward for men and boys, beyond postmodernism.