In the last two issues I have introduced a developmental model of values which applies to both individuals and social groups. This model is called Spiral Dynamics, and was also the subject of my November 2004 talk at the United Nations.

Last time we looked at the first four of the values levels, Beige, Purple, Red, and Blue. In this issue, we'll look at Level 5 (Orange), Level 6 (Green), Level 7 (Yellow), and Level 8 (Turquoise).

The fifth level, Orange, is called Strive Drive. Orange appears when conditions change in such a way that Blue methods of dealing with existential conditions no longer work as effectively, and when the idea of group sacrifice for the Truth Force loses its luster. At this point the stronger and more enterprising members of the group begin to realize that they are being held back by adhering to the rules and procedures of the group, and that they could create better results through individual action.

Orange believes in "better living through technology," and in the West at least, "what's good for General Motors is good for the USA." Though the most common manifestation of Orange in the world today is the capitalist system, Orange can manifest in other ways. China, for instance, is moving into Orange, though without a true capitalist system.

Orange is based on possibility thinking and individual initiative, and capitalism is only one way this can be expressed. The Orange motto is "express self now in a calculated way"—the idea being to "boldly go where no man has gone before." Actually, Star Trek is a great metaphor for Orange thinking, with Captain Kirk, the entrepreneurial and risk-taking captain at the helm, and Spock, representing science and technology, as his helpful sidekick. Dr. McCoy, a Green, is then thrown in to create some interesting conflict.

Orange seeks to create material abundance for everyone, and those who contribute the most garner the greatest share of the spoils. The basic rule is to act in your own self-interest by playing the game to win, to express self in a calculated way to get the result you want.

For Orange, progress is the natural order of things. The goal is to make constant progress by learning nature's secrets and seeking the best solutions to the problems of better living. Orange seeks to manipulate the world’s resources in the most efficient and effective manner in order to spread the good life. Orange is optimistic, risk-taking, and self-reliant, and believes that those with such qualities deserve their success. To Orange, a society prospers through science, technology, competitiveness, and execution of good strategies.

Orange began during the Enlightenment, along with the beginnings of capitalism. It can been easily seen on Wall Street and on Rodeo Drive, in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, in the seminars of Tony Robbins, in the opulence of the French Riviera, in the emerging middle classes and their desire to "keep up with the Jones’s, in the development of Chambers of Commerce, and in explorers such as Christopher Columbus and the colonialism that followed.

Orange decision-making is based on bottom-line results. Options are tested to see what works best. Achieving the desired outcome is of prime importance, sometimes at the expense of the people involved, or the environment. Experts are the most important people, especially those with scientific or entrepreneurial expertise. The successful receive the spoils in an Orange world.

The family is child-centered, with the expectation that each generation could and should do better than the last. Expectations are high, image is important, and upward mobility is encouraged and expected. The community caters to and admires the more prosperous, proudly displays its affluence, seeks material things as a measure of success, and honors competition.

Success is measured by material abundance. He who dies with the most toys wins. The right clothes, the right car, the right newspaper, and the right newspaper are all ways to gain status. Though Orange will work a long-range plan and delay gratification, there is also a strong desire for here-and-now results. To get them, Orange is willing to struggle, compete, and take risks.

Initial station in life does not prevent upward mobility. In fact, upward mobility is expected and admired to a greater degree than "old" money, which was more admired by Blue. Status comes not from being from the right family, but from success in this life. While Blue often looks to the past, Orange looks to the now and to the future.

Orange believes there is a job to be done, money to be made, products to be created and sold, and a world to be tamed. Don Beck cautions us to remember, however, that though Orange uses materialism to keep score, materialism is not its core principle. Instead, the critical element is change-ability, the idea that we can shape, influence, promote progress, and make things better through the use of the scientific method, quantification, trial and error, and the search for the best solutions.

Orange ranges anywhere from the sleazy con artist who would scam his grandmother for a buck, to the bold and innovative entrepreneurs who built the modern technological society with it's medical miracles, world-wide transportation, labor-saving devices, instantaneous communication, and other material progress. On the healthy side, Orange will compete, but within the bounds of fair play—one of the ways Orange differs from Red—creating tremendous material rewards and progress based on the latest science and technology. Orange does not act rashly, but weights the various options to create the best possible outcome, using the minimum resources to get the maximum benefit.

On the unhealthy side, Orange can place too much emphasis on the end result at the expense of the people involved and the possible cost to the environment. Orange can rationalize exploitation in the service of goal achievement. This attitude created such brilliant ideas as planned obsolescence and the use of non-biodegradable materials. Orange is also apt to think that more money or more technology is the solution to every problem. (You’ll remember that Blue thinks the answer to every problem is more law and order and more rules, and Red thinks the solution to every problem is more power and aggression.)

The appearance of Orange, however, has been very good for humanity. Orange methods have dramatically lifted the overall world standard of living, created many new technologies that have made life considerably easier, and popularized the important idea that a human being can control his or her own destiny.

The Orange organizational structure is an active hierarchy, where authority or positional power can be delegated. Communication can be up, down, or horizontal. Power, while still related to position, as in Blue, can much more easily be attained through moving up the hierarchy by demonstrating the ability to successfully creating desired results.

At a certain point, some Orange members begin to ask, "Is this all there is to life?" They have attained significant material abundance and life is easier, but something is missing—the existential or spiritual element. Orange can transition to the next values level, Green, when there is a growing need for existential significance, contribution, and a desire for internal rather than merely external fulfillment. Orange transitions to Green because the world has been "conquered" through technology and competition, but this "good life" is somehow unfulfilling. To achieve all of this, a certain cost has been paid in terms of the human element, the consequences of a lack of concern for ecological needs have begun to come to light, and the lack of the spiritual element has become more apparent.

In the appearance of the Green values meme, the search for inner peace and human connection becomes more important. Green’s approach is communitarian, with the human bond becoming the highest value. The well-being of all the people, not just those that are willing to risk and compete, becomes the highest priority.

Green's motto is "sacrifice self now for the needs of the group." Green wants to sacrifice self, as with sacrificial levels that came before it, but this time to obtain now, which it learned from Orange. But unlike Orange, Green wants to obtain now for self and others." Green responds to the lack of internal fulfillment of Orange by seeking peace within the inner self and through exploring the more caring and spiritual dimensions of humanity.

To the Green meme feelings, sensitivity, and caring supercede results and will not be sacrificed for results. You can see this in activists who would like to get rid of all technology in a quest to save the environment and create more human bonding.

Green believes that resources should be shared equally and that decisions should be reached through consensus, rather than through the desires of the chief and elders, as in Purple, by the most powerful, as in Red, by strict rules of the Truth Force, as in Blue, or by experts and entrepreneurs, as in Orange.

The role of Green is to renew humanity's spirituality, to bring harmony, and to focus on the enrichment of human development. Green can be seen in the music of John Lennon, Rogerian counseling, Doctors Without Borders, Greenpeace, the Sierra Club, Canadian Health Care, the ACLU, sensitivity training, Jimmy Carter, animal rights, deep ecology, and Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream.

Green is organized around community and feelings. Important values include inner peace, equality and inclusiveness, the relativity of all moral positions, group harmony, the exploration of feelings, shared experience, and cooperation rather than competition. Green thinking is behind "political correctness", socially aware investing, victims’ rights, and social safety nets.

Green is a sacrificial system. Purple, the first sacrificial system, sacrificed self for the tribe, the sacred objects, and the tribal traditions. Blue sacrificed self now for a later reward and for the Truth Force around which the particular Blue society is organized. Green sacrifices self now, but for self and others.

In Green, attention turns away from material goods and greater productivity to the inner dimension of feelings. When outer-directed, the ideal Green social organization is the network, governed by consensus decision-making. Green often tries to tell Orange that if they focus more on human needs that the enterprise will be more productive, and sometimes they are right about this.

Green assumes that each person's input has equal value. Though well-intentioned, this is often shown to be untrue, and much time can be wasted on hearing everyone out. The Green motto is "Egalitarianism and Humanitarianism." (Orange’s motto was "Science and Technology" and Blue’s was "Law and Order.")

Despite Green’s concern for the human element, Green can have a certain fascism to it. Once consensus is reached, everyone must comply, and there is no room for individual expression or individual action. In fact, Green leaders often do not care what the majority wants. Green leaders may manipulate the group to gain consensus for their idea and then disregard group wants after that. Or, they may decide the group just isn't "conscious enough" if they don't see the politically correct point of view.

When I was in college during the Vietnam War, I was a member of Students for a Democratic Society, a left-wing political group. One of our crusades was "ROTC off campus!" We agitated until the University of Oregon was pushed to vote up or down on this issue. When the vote went against us, did we accede to the desires of the majority, as our name would have assumed? Nope. We began to agitate again for our point of view, with the idea that the people were wrong, and needed "their consciousness raised."

One of the big problems of Green is its reliance on consensus decision-making. The main problem with this method is that the energy required to reach consensus takes much too much time. The process of coming to consensus often really amounts to wearing down those who disagree rather than actually changing their minds. As a result, little if anything of substance is ever actually accomplished. The United Nations, for instance, uses such a decision-making format.

In terms of its ability to create results, Green turns Orange on its head. Where Orange was capable of sacrificing the human element to get a desired result, Green will sacrifice the desired result to preserve group consensus and the human element. This results in an emphasis on feelings and harmony, certainly a positive development-, but often at the expense of productivity and actually accomplishing something.

Green is well-known for being overly permissive, especially with Red, and has trouble effectively dealing with the harsher realities of life. In wanting Red to be "part of the circle," and looking at Red through the filter of their own values, Green believes that if we were only nicer to Red they would stop being so aggressive, selfish, and cruel. Red, of course, doesn’t want to be part of the circle, sees this attitude as insane, and is happy to take advantage of it.

If we all had lunch together, Purple would share lunch, because tomorrow someone will share with them if they have none. Blue has rigid rules about how lunch is to be shared. Orange says "let's all create a better lunch through technology" and divides the available lunch based on who contributed the most to creating it. Green wants to share lunch, and will even use force to take lunch away from those who contributed the most in order to share it with the less fortunate. Red sees Green's caring for the underdog as naive, idiotic, and something to be taken advantage of, which they do without guilt.

Graves believed that Green would be the shortest-lasting of the values systems, and also that it was one of the most dangerous. While Green preaches equality, it also strongly demonizes those who disagree with their point of view, and will use force to gain compliance with the group consensus—even if more sensible alternatives appear. On the positive side, Green has done the world a service by exposing Orange damage to the environment, and by bringing holistic and spiritual thinking and concern for the human element back onto the stage. Emphasizing humanistic rather than material goals, valuing inner peace and the spiritual dimension, and seeing humanity as a universal family are all positive contributions. But in seeing all experiences, all opinions, and all points of view as equal Green produces what Don Beck has referred to as "the new tower of babel."

Green transitions to Yellow when some Greens begin to realize that with all their work over several decades, not much has really changed. The warm, human aspirations of Green begin to wear thin as the realities of complex social problems and the limited ability of the Green approach to actually solve them becomes apparent. As a result, many Greens become frustrated and become alienated from the group approach. They decide that more could be accomplished if they worked on their own to create the necessary global changes. You may recall Don Beck’s example of the Park Ranger I cited in part one of this series as an example of a Yellow individualistic approach to world problems. The lack of solutions through group effort gives way to individual initiative (just as the limitations of individual initiative eventually give way to the need for cooperative efforts when an expressive meme transitions to a collective, sacrificial meme).

Yellow, the seventh values level, is called Flex Flow. This is an individualistic and expressive values level, taking many of the best parts of Green, Orange, Blue, and Purple and integrating them in to a more effective system. The hallmark of Yellow is flexible adaptation to change through connected, big-picture views. Yellow creates a systems approach to problem-solving, and has the ability to handle many different variables and to intuitively see how they work together (as opposed to Blue, which sees everything in two-dimensional right/wrong terms, or Green, which though it began to see the relativity and greater complexity of the world situation had no effective method of actually getting anything done).

In Yellow, there is an emphasis on information, competency, and knowledge. The person with the most knowledge leads and makes the decisions, and as the situation changes leadership changes. Good leadership is based on competency and the ability to handle complexity. While Green believed that all points of view had equal value, Yellow realizes that some opinions and points of view are more valuable and some are not valuable at all. Those with valuable and effective knowledge are respected and placed in leadership positions.

Yellow shares many of the holistic attitudes of Green, and develops many of them in a more practical manner. With Yellow there is a renewed emphasis on results, but this time while keeping the human element and the environmental consequences in mind. The holistic magnificence of existence—as opposed, for instance, to Orange emphasis on material possessions—is valued, but with a new practicality and functionality, and a new emphasis on flexibility and spontaneity in dealing with the complex problems that may involve a multi-dimensional interaction of many variables.

In the quest to create real solutions, knowledge and competency supercede rank, power, and status. At the same time, the need to hear all points of view gives way to a practical desire to listen to those with knowledge and expertise.

Yellow can be seen in Carl Sagan's astronomy, Steven Hawking's A Brief History of Time, the work of W. Edward Deming, chaos theory, and the use of appropriate technology. It can also be seen in Eco-industrial parks, where companies use each other's outflows as raw materials, in Deepak Chopra's Ageless Body, and in systems theory, cybernetics, NLP—and in the holistic approaches I teach.

Yellow is organized around systems and complexity, and the ability to see relationships between many different variables in a way that Blue, Orange, and Green could not. Yellow takes into account the both naturalness of chaos and the inevitability of change. Yellow decision-making is highly principled and is centered on knowledge and data, creating holistic and systems-oriented resolution of what were previously seen as insoluble paradoxes and problems.

In Yellow, the competent receive the spoils, and the competent are those who understand complexity, are self-directed, and have the flexibility to base their approach on existential conditions, taking each situation as it is and recognizing that those conditions are continually shifting and changing.

A Yellow community does more with less, and uses appropriate technologies to get the job done with less waste and fewer ecological problems. Where Green wanted society to do without where there technology created problems, Yellow sees a middle ground, weighing potential problems against potential benefits, and using more complex pattern recognition and problem solving methods to create new solutions.

Since power flows to the most competent in each situation, it is less concentrated. Different people are in charge in different situations, with the most competent in control of what they know best.

Yellow is an expressive system, where the motto is "express self, but not at the expense of others or the earth." Yellow has given up on Green's group-oriented approach, believing that more will be accomplished through individual effort. To Yellow, the long term viability of the planet depends on wise choices, competency, information, and the ability to deal with complexity and complex systems, much of which was absent in the Green consensus-oriented decision-making processes.

Yellow begins Graves' Second Tier, where First Tier problems are revisited, but this time on a global scale. Yellow revisits the question of survival, the main concern of Beige, but this time survival is addressed on a global level. Graves stressed that Second Tier memes have the ability and flexibility to adopt the methods of any of the six First Tier levels, as needed. This flexibility, along with the ability to deal with complexity with a much more robust toolbox, is one hallmark of the Yellow meme.

Purple attempts to deal with a complex world through superstition. Red deals with complexity with force. Blue tries to reduce complexity to black and white, right and wrong. Orange, in using science and technology, does a better job, but leaves out the human and spiritual elements. Green deals well with the human element, and has a budding ability to see human problems in a more holistic manner, but leaves out the importance of actually getting something done, and has no solution for the problems of Red or Blue. In contrast, Yellow taps into more complex abilities with a more complex vision to deal with more complex problems in a new way.

Purple makes decisions based on superstition and what the Gods or the ancestors want. Red makes decisions based on impulse and power. Blue makes decisions based on rules. Orange makes decisions based on consequences, but ignores some of them in its quest to get the desired result. Green make decisions based on group feelings, and in doing so gets little done. Yellow make decisions based on consequences, based on a new ability to see the complexities of each situation and evaluate those consequences.

Yellow has many of the good qualities of Orange: a desire and ability to shape, influence, and promote progress, to make things better, to use the rationality of the scientific method, and to search for the best solutions to problems. At the same time, it includes many of the best qualities of Green: attention to the human element and the effects of human activity on the environment, less emphasis on status and materialism, and a greater emphasis on the spiritual element.

Yellow can also have an unhealthy aspect, however. In demanding functionality, Yellow can sometimes ignore important feelings. Yellow can also be impatient with incompetency or narrow thinking. They are also impatient with networking, which they see as ignorant people coming together to share their ignorance. Yellow does not like a lot of communication and Green-oriented group meetings, but instead wants to work outside of a group context. They prefer that you give them the problem and leave them alone to solve it.

Yellow can transition to Turquoise when there is an acceptance of the need for coordinated action to effectively deal with world problems. As conditions change, it becomes apparent that individual approaches to global problems are less effective, and at this point Yellow begins to transition to the more sacrificial, group-oriented outlook of Turquoise.

There is very little Turquoise in the world today, so information about this meme is largely conjecture. Turquoise is a sacrificial system in which the motto is "sacrifice self and others as needed for global survival." Turquoise shares Yellow’s global view and its ability to think systemically. Turquoise emerges as some Yellow individuals step forward as global leaders rather than continuing to work individually, as before.

In Turquoise, physics and metaphysics are used together to explore the problems of life and being by combining the physical with the metaphysical, the objective with the subjective. To Turquoise, the world is a single, dynamic organism with its own collective mind, and the self is at the same time distinct and also a blended part of a larger, compassionate whole. Everything connects to everything else, and holistic, intuitive thinking and cooperative actions are to be expected.

Turquoise can be seen in the theories of David Bohn, in McLuhan's "Global Village", in Gregory Stock's Metaman, in Rupert Sheldrake and morphic fields, in Ken Wilber's Spectrum of Consciousness and four quadrant approach, in James Lovelock's "Gaia hypotheses", and in Pierre Teilhard de Chardin"s "noosphere". (I suggest googling these for more information.)

Greens often think they are operating from the Turquoise meme, but there are some key differences. Turquoise realizes that there may be difficult choices, and that some may have to be sacrificed to ensure global survival. Green's inclusiveness and its belief that everything and everyone is of equal value keeps Green from making such difficult choices; Green does not want to sacrifice anyone, because everyone is equally valuable. Turquoise, however, is willing to make such choices, if necessary. Turquoise, like Yellow and Orange, is interested in results. Unlike Orange, however, Turquoise is able to keep in mind the synergy of all life, and to see the consequences of their actions in a way that (hopefully) creates a safe and orderly world.

Turquoise sees multiple planes of consciousness to deal with problems, in much the same way I have described in my Life Principles Integration Process Online courses. Turquoise deals complexity easily, see patterns and consequences not apparent to First Tier values levels. In this way, Turquoise can discover the connections and principles that underlie the entire living process.

On the unhealthy side, Turquoise can become lost in metaphysical issues and become disjointed from reality (what some people call being "a space cadet"). In some cases, they are unable to translate their vision and ideas into practical, here-and-now solutions. They can be capable of looking down on those who think more simply and cannot grasp the Turquoise approach. Like all sacrificial, group-oriented memes, they can be heavy-handed and arrogant when others won’t get with the program.

Graves postulated the emergence of other values memes, and Ken Wilber has made a few stabs at describing what those memes might be like, but these are even more speculative than the information I’ve shared about Turquoise.

With all of this in mind, let's look at some of the problems in today's world. I want to be clear that I'm not claiming to have the solutions to all the chaos and conflict in the world. Most of you know my work regarding the role of chaos and reorganization in the universe, and know that I see the growing chaos as a sign that human society is preparing to reorganize in an entirely new way. As old ways of dealing with human and planetary problems fail to work, the structure of society will be forced to reorganize at a new, more complex, and more functional level. In my opinion, this new structure is going to include a much greater number of Yellow and Turquoise leaders and a new ability to see and work with the complexity of today's world.

The main point I want to make is something I said in the beginning: that the conflicts most people take as being based on religion, politics, gender, economic class, race, and other such classifications, are really values conflicts. This means that they have to be solved as values conflicts. Islamic fundamentalism and its Christian counterpart in the West, for instance, is a Blue versus Blue conflict between two contrasting Truth Forces. It is not a religious conflict, and to treat it as such just muddies the waters. The same can be said for what are commonly taken to be racial conflicts, class conflicts, political conflicts, or gender conflicts.

According to Graves and Beck, one of the biggest problems in the world today is Purple societies led by Red dictators, strongly influenced by Blue fundamentalists, with powerful and destructive Orange weapons. The Blue solution has generally been to crack down on Red, but this merely keeps Red in check to varying degrees, without allowing Red to naturally transition to Blue as conditions change.

The other response is the Green response, which is so permissive it makes it difficult for Red to experience the consequences of its position—a realization that might help Red transition to Blue -- just as a permissive parent could probably keep a child in its Red stage beyond its "natural" length of time by never allowing natural consequences to be brought to bear.

According to Don Beck, "the Red to Blue transition is the most difficult transition," and requires the construction of what he calls a change conduit which may include military force. Beck notes that if Blue is toxic, as it is in forms of extremism such as the Jihad, Zionism, or "Christian" crusades etc., then we have serious problems because these closed expressions have rigid boundaries and demonize others as heathen, and therefore less than human.

It is important to keep in mind that transitions from one values level to the next occur as conditions change. New memes are a response to changing existential conditions. This means that a group cannot be forced from one meme to the next. Perhaps the solution involves managing the conditions in some way, or at least making sure that Red experiences the new conditions, in stead of being protected from them, as sometimes happens with the Green approach.

Beck points out that Red is not all negative (all memes have their positive and negative aspects). Red can have a refreshing and heroic quality, and is the beginning of individual initiative and innovation. Beck suggests that finding ways to channel the best side of Red in a positive direction may provide a possible solution.

Another key, then, might be providing conditions in which each meme is more likely express its healthy aspects. Then, as conditions change, any change to the expression of the next meme in the spiral will be a response to natural forces, but hopefully with a minimum of problems.

My view is that solutions to current problems will come from Yellow and Turquoise thinking, not through Blue, Orange, or Green solutions, which have already proven to be wanting. First Tier thinking in inherently limited. Though each of these memes has brought its own positives to humanity, none of them are able to think and respond holistically or with the necessary understanding of the multi-dimensional quality of current world challenges.

Finally, as I’ve already said, the world's problems must be seen as conflicts between values memes rather than as racial, political, religious, or class conflicts. Seeing the world in terms of values conflicts, however, is difficult or even impossible for those viewing the world from the Red, Blue, Orange, and Geen memes—which further highlights the need for Yellow and Turquoise leaders.

Luckily, we know that as conditions change, human responses will change to meet them. From the current chaos, more enlightened leaders will eventually emerge. Don Beck is heavily involved in the process of creating such leaders, and you can read several of his essays on this and other related subjects by visiting http: www.coche.dk/essays.html

For further information, I urge you to consider getting involved in one of Don Beck's Spiral Dynamics seminars. I'm told that the new schedule will go up on the www.spiraldynamics.net website this week.

 

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