Have you ever wondered why there is such political deadlock between Republicans and Democrats in the United States today or such great disconnect between the Western and Developing Worlds?
The short one word answer is “worldviews”. In his book Evolutionaries, Carter Phipps says that a “worldview” is:
- a conglomeration of conclusions about the world
- an invisible scaffolding in our consciousness
- the way the world looks from a particular level of consciousness
- a core conviction or set of convictions about the nature of what is real, true, and important.
Our worldview, heavily influenced by our culture, determines the very way we make meaning.
Just as individuals evolve in consciousness, so too does human culture. Spiral Dynamics, a powerful theory by Clare Graves and Don Beck, calls the major cultural worldviews developed over the course of human evolution “Value memes”. There are currently 8 stages or “value systems” which have been identified and given both names and colours. Here’s a quick overview of the four largest ones operating in today’s world (adapted from http://dedroidify.blogspot.ca/2008/04/spiral-dynamics.html) :
RED - TRIBAL. Think: Terrible twos, Gangs, Tribal Warlords.
BLUE -TRADITIONAL. Think: Boy Scouts, Fundamentalist anything. Rules are paramount.
ORANGE - MODERN. Think: Wall Street, Academia, Science, Individual ambition.
GREEN – POST-MODERN. Think: Environmentalism, Pluralism, All are equal, Non-violence.
Although each of these worldviews is very different, the one thing they have in common is the inability to see the validity of the other perspectives. For instance: GREEN looks at ORANGE and says, “You greedy capitalists! You’re totally destroying our planet!” ORANGE looks at GREEN it says, “You tree-hugging, New Age hippies! Get a job and contribute to the economy!?” BLUE looks at everyone and says, “You’re all going to hell because you don’t believe in [insert favorite God here]!” RED looks at everyone and says, "I don’t like you so I’m blowing you up!”
To solve the complex and challenging crises facing our world today we need to consciously evolve as individuals and as a culture to a “second-tier” or “integral” level of consciousness. Here, for the first time, we can hold multiple perspectives.
What would that look like?
Well, we would be able to see the truth in the need to take care of our environment AND the need for a powerful economy AND the need for rules and regulations AND the need to take aggressive action when the situation demands it. This will be VERY powerful and VERY needed and you can be a part of it. See Ken Wilber’s comments @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0NhASbzFxo
Carter Phipps and Sue Wilson, csj will be addressing this very issue at our Summer Symposium: Becoming Agents of Evolutionary Change (follow the link to view the Symposium brochure). Please join us!
Ann Steadman, Associate