Spiral Dynamics and the Houston flooding

I read a post by @luzcypher this morning about what level of conversation most people enjoy and it got me to thinking and researching about spiral dynamics and the theory of stages of consciousness. Seems to me that this theory sheds a lot of light on why some people have the world view that they have, and extrapolated to society also explains some of the evolving cultural memes that are competing for dominance in our society.

This way of thinking about societal development was first formalized by Dr. Clare Graves, a psychology professor. He called this an "Emergent, cyclical, double-helix model of the adult human biopsychosocial systems" in his 1981 paper.

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The general idea is that human existence is not marked by a finite scale of development and achievement, but rather by an endless expanding spiral of awareness and achievement, and the recognition of the pattern was achieved by thinking not about what we think but rather about why we think what we think.

The general idea is that existence presents itself as an endless series of problems or challenges. We are able to solve some problems, but solving those problems also changes how we think about the world. As we think differently about the world, we behave differently, and eventually the complex interplay between solutions and different behavior and different perceptions create a whole new set of problems. These problems in turn will eventually be solved, but only by learning to see more complicated patterns in the functioning of reality. Being able to see more complicated patterns allows us to imagine and implement more complicated solutions, which again changes the way we think and behave, and so forth and so on in an endless spiral. Thus it is similar to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, but pairs it with changes in perception and capability and is endless rather than being a scale with a finite end. Graves distilled the general pattern to this:

The psychology of the mature human being is an unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiraling process, marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order behavior systems to newer, higher-order systems as man’s existential problems change.

Note the "subordination" terminology and in your mind's eye see this as essentially the dialectic, spinning around and around, where no previous outcomes are discarded or abandoned but instead subsumed and incorporated into a larger awareness as perception increasingly unfolds in a spiral. So take the old concept of reality or existence being cyclical, and instead plug it into this idea of existence being more of a vortex or spiral: The video is worth watching -- it demonstrates how the dialectic works much more efficiently than I can with words.

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Graves saw this double helix spiral being the interaction between the first helix, which is the condition or state of external reality, and a second helix, which is the intellectual or neurobiological capacity of a person or group. He thus imagined this as an interaction between the two columns in the chart below, the left hand column representing external life conditions and the right hand column representing the coping or perception mechanism that humans or groups use to deal with these conditions.

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As Graves summarized:

At each stage of human existence the adult man is off on his quest of his holy grail, the way of life he seeks by which to live.
At his first level he is on a quest for automatic physiological satisfaction. At the second level he seeks a safe mode of living, and this is followed in turn, by a search for heroic status, for power and glory, by a search for ultimate peace; a search for material pleasure, a search for affectionate relations, a search for respect of self, and a search for peace in an incomprehensible world.
And, when he finds he will not find that peace, he will be off on his ninth level quest. As he sets off on each quest, he believes he will find the answer to his existence. Yet, much to his surprise and much to his dismay, he finds at every stage that the solution to existence is not the solution he has come to find.

Every stage he reaches leaves him disconcerted and perplexed. It is simply that as he solves one set of human problems he finds a new set in their place.

The quest, he finds, is never ending.

Note how the colors of the chart alternate (spiral) back and forth between "warm" (beige, red, orange, yellow) and "cold" (purple, blue, green, turquoise) colors. Warm colors indicate a stage of development in which the "locus of control" is centered within ME or in service of self, while cold colors indicate a stage of development in which the locus of control is centered outside of self, in or in service of US.

It is important to remember at this point that no stage and no locus of control is "better" than any other -- it is not a game, reaching a higher stage or choosing "us" versus "me" locus of control does not make you a better or more accomplished person. Having more people reach a more advanced stage of consciousness does not equal societal "progress" -- it has to do with the level of pattern recognition that resonates with your consciousness, and this cannot be faked because faking it hurts yourself and no one else. Pretending to resonate with something you don't resonate with in order to inflate your ego makes you unhappy and unhelpful. Shooting your own toes off does not make you a more accomplished gun slinger, just like pretending to be high cheats no one but yourself.

And remember also that people and society will always be a complicated mix -- one part of their thinking and problem solving will be at one stage while other parts will be at other stages.

And finally, remember that it is much different to consider HOW you think than it is to consider WHAT you think. People who have diametrically opposed conclusions (the WHAT) may still be in exactly the same "container" when it comes to HOW they think.

Authors Chris Cowan and Natasha Todorovic (who have turned Spiral Dynamics into a business consulting business) explained this difference in this way:

The Spiral helps us look at the differences among those people and the possibilities their differences create. Each level represents a way of thinking about things—a thema—that will tend to shape the schematic form taken by religion, the response to a guru, reaction to authoritarians, a spiritual path, or the conception of self. The Spiral model offers a way of looking at those schematic and thematic forces at work. The absolutely certain theist and the equally certain atheist share certitude; the share the absence of ambiguity; they judge their opponents harshly; and they might share a zealous need to promote their views. Thus diametrically opposed contents in very similar containers.
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I believe that we are seeing in our society today the cultural echoes of the long standing conflict between the 4th, 5th and 6th stages of consciousness which represent the upper levels of the first tier of consciousness, and the newly emergent 7th stage, which is the first stage of the second tier of consciousness.

4th stage is LAW AND ORDER: follow the recommendations of the experts, do it by the book. Discipline and rule following. Follow the law because it is the law. Rules and procedures are treated with religious deference. Religion appeals to this level of thinking, do what God tells you to. This thinking is reflected in the idea that "education leads to better standard of living", so people just unthinkingly presume this is so without stopping to consider what happens to this concept when EVERYONE is doing the same thing, and when education standards are dumbed down so that everyone can do the same thing. That's blue problem solving for society.

40% of population functions at the Blue level.

5th stage is AUTONOMY: Independent thinking, European enlightenment. Use your brain to solve your own problems, whether that is through science and technology or through the social mechanization of government. We see this in the chemical farming paradigm and its mirror image central banking paradigm -- we can all get richer and have a better standard of living if we use technology and sophisticated problem solving techniques to wrestle the vagaries of nature into submission. That this will likely produce an abundance of good looking but non-nutritious food that makes us sick and an abundance of zombie unproductive businesses that strangle an economy are unfathomable to those functioning in the orange level.

30% of population function at the Orange level.

6th stage is RELATIVISTIC: focused on equality, society, diversity, inclusiveness. Sacrifice now so that everyone can get what they want now. This is the Kumbaya stage -- happiness through welcoming contact with others that are different. Recognition of the spiritual alienation produced by the materialistic focus of the preceding autonomy stage, determined to stamp out the excesses and inequalities of the preceding hierarchy. As Graves said:

The individual is seen to benefit only through the elevation of the group as a whole.
Believes the human will work best when he or she feels secure and a part of what is happening.

Embraced by those who profited from the previous stage of consciousness but

who also sensed a widening gulf between the successful ones and those who have not shared the fruits of multiplistic living. The successful want to be liked and the passed-over want in. These problems activate the "S" neurologic system, the system for truly experiencing the inner, subjective feelings of humankind.

You didn't build that, it takes a village, etc. This is where much of the Left/Progressives function currently. The problem is that trying to eliminate self, or of trying to feel self in community, blinds individuals to their spiral down into arrogant narcissism. And thus:

Talks earnestly about community intimacy, shared experiences, but behaviorally shows inability to commit self to others beyond one's group.

10% of the population function at the Green level.

Again, memes are usually a mix of all of the levels that have been incorporated, because remember with the dialectic, nothing is ever lost but instead is just incorporated into a larger whole.

Consider Vaccines: 5th stage scientistic problem solving (hopelessly inadequate for a system as complicated as the human immunity) layered over 4th stage deference to authority (the experts say this is what we should do ), hawked with the zeal of those out to sacrifice in order to save the community (6th stage) who are incapable of committing themselves to others beyond their group (those who are scared of vaccine damage or who have experienced vaccine damage.)

And that finally takes us to the 7th level. It is at this point that we leave behind the First Tier, those first 6 levels that together comprise the "subsistence" levels, and enter the beginning level of the Second Tier, the next 6 levels which together comprise the "being"levels. Graves described this level as the level where individuals :

Express self for what self desires but never at the expense of others, and in a manner that all life, not just my life, will profit.
The world is seen kaliedoscopically with different views demanding different attention. A'N' thinking is in terms of the systemic whole and thought is about the different wholes in different ways. Thought strives to ascertain which way of thinking or which combination of ways fits the present set of conditions. Thinking is what is best for the survival of life, my life, their lives, and all life, but not compulsively; and what is best for me or thee does not have to be the best for she or them. My way does not have to be yours, nor your mine, yet I have very strong convictions about what is my way, but never such about yours.

This is where there is a conflict between the 6th green level and the 7th yellow level. The Green level tends to think of themselves as being a much more advanced consciousness than they are, and thus they keep confusing the yellow level Libertarians, who focus on self because that is what is best for society from a pragmatic standpoint, with the focus on self of the 5th orange level, which was focus on self for personal gain. Thus Green thinks themselves better or more advanced than anyone who focuses on self because they can't imagine that anyone can have moved beyond the focus on the group, because as far as they are concerned, focus on group represents the pinnacle of consciousness advancement. And they are incapable of recognizing that their focus on group has spiraled down into arrogant narcissism, and that they have conflated their virtue signaling self absorption with true altruism and are thus really functioning at the orange level although they try to pretend they are functioning at the green level because they believe it to be "better."

This "orange but thinking I'm green because I want to be seen as a better person" headspace is where the University of Tampa professor who opined that Hurricane Harvey was Karma for Texas is coming from. He cannot possibly imagine how venal and vindictive he appears to truly caring people because he has spiraled so deeply into arrogant, self absorbed narcissism that his only focus is on proving that his altruism is right.

Same goes for the Politico cartoonist who can't tell the difference between local control and no government and thus ends up mocking people who have just lost everything.

And meanwhile, both the Democrat and Republican, Red and Blue, Liberal and Conservative aspects of Houston are too busy helping each other to worry about continuing to play the politically divisive game that the media keeps trying hard to fan into a raging fire. And demonstrating with actions how a true healthy society functions, to the shame of those who see Harvey as just another opportunity to score political points and finally prove to everyone how right they really were.

But you can't force people to function at a stage of consciousness that they haven't yet reached. They don't understand it. All you can do is quietly ignore them and continue to move forward.