[The first in a series of interactive articles in the Mencinnatian]

The first subject I have chosen is Spiral Dynamics (SD), a different way of looking at and examining relationships.  In the words of its original protagonist, Clare Graves, SD is the “psychology of the mature human being as an unfolding, emergent, oscillating spiraling process marked by progressive subordination of older, lower-order behavior systems to newer, higher-order systems as an individual’s existential problems change.  Each successive stage, wave or level of existence is a state through which people pass on their way to other states of being.”  The principles of SD have been profitably used to reorganize businesses, revitalize governments, overhaul education systems and defuse inner-city tensions.

SD sees human development as proceeding through eight general “value memes” or deep levels, and that some people in different cultures or positions or places will be in lower memes, while others will be scattered throughout higher memes.  These are not rigid levels, but fluid waves, with much overlap and interweaving, resulting in a meshwork or dynamic spiral of consciousness unfolding.  It is important to note that these waves or levels are not just passing phases in the self’s unfolding; they are permanently available capacities and coping strategies that can, once they emerged, be activated under the appropriate life conditions (e.g., survival instincts can be activated in emergency situations; bonding capacities are activated in close human relationships, and so on).

The first six levels are “subsistence levels” marked by “first-tier thinking.”  Then there occurs a revolutionary shift in consciousness; the emergence of “being levels” and “second-tier thinking,” of which there are two waves.  Here is a brief description of the levels, the percentage of the world population at each level, and the percentage of social power held by each.

BEIGE:  Archaic-Instinctual.  The level of basic survival.  Food, water, warmth, sex and safety have priority.  Uses habits and instincts just to survive.  Distinct self is barely awakened or sustained.  Forms into survival bands to perpetuate life.  First human societies, infants, senile elderly, mentally ill, starving masses.  0.1% of the population; 0% power.

PURPLE:  Magical-Animistic.  Thinking is animistic:  magical spirits, good and bad, give blessings, curses and spells, which determine events.  Form into ethnic tribes. Kinship and lineage establish political links.  Belief in curses, blood oaths, charms, rituals and superstitions.  Goals are safety, security, protection from harm and family bonds.  Third-World settings, gangs, athletic teams and corporate “tribes.”  10% of the population, 1% of the power.

RED:  Power Gods.  Emergence of a self distinct from the tribe.  Powerful, impulsive, egocentric, heroic.  Feudal lords protect underlings in exchange for obedience and labor.  The basis of feudal empires – power and glory.  Enjoys self to the fullest without regret or remorse.  Egocentric.  Where seen:  “terrible twos,” frontier mentalities, feudal kingdoms, soldiers of fortune, wild rock stars, Attila the Hun.  20% of the population, 5% of the power.

BLUE:  Conformist Rule.  Life has meaning, direction and purpose, with outcomes determined by an all-powerful Higher Power.  This righteous Higher Power enforces a code of conduct based on absolutist and unvarying principles of “right” and “wrong.”  Violations have severe consequences.  Following the code is rewarded.  Basis of ancient nations.  Rigid social hierarchies, paternalistic, one right way and only one right way to think.  Absolutist and conforming.  Law and order.  Often religious.  Puritan America, Confucian China, Dickensian England, codes of chivalry and honor, Christian and Islamic fundamentalism, “Moral Majority.”  40% of the population, 30 % of the power.

ORANGE:  Scientific Achievement.  The “Self” escapes from the “Group.”  Seeks truth and meaning in individualistic terms. Objective, mechanistic, and scientific (in the “classical” sense).  The world is a well-oiled and rational machine with natural laws that can be learned, mastered and manipulated.  Pragmatic and achievement-oriented, especially toward materialistic gains.  The laws of science rule politics, the economy and human events. Basis of corporate states.  Marketplace alliances; manipulation of earth’s resources for one’s own gain.  Examples: Wall Street, emerging middle classes, the thesis of Atlas Shrugged, the Cold War.  30% of the population, 50% of the power.

GREEN:  The Sensitive Self.  Harmony, human bonding, ecological sensitivity, networking.  The human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma and divisiveness.  Feeling and caring supersede cold rationality.  Emphasis on dialogue and relationships.  Mutual growth and awareness.  Decisions through reconciliation and consensus.  Strongly egalitarian, anti-hierarchy, with a social basis of reality, multiculturalism and relativistic value systems.  Basis of collective communities.  Subjective non-linear thinking.  Examples:  Ecology, Canadian health care, humanistic psychology, Green Peace, animal rights, politically correctness, human rights issues.  10% of the population, 15% of the power.

With the completion of the sixth or “green” meme, human consciousness can make a quantum leap into “second-tier thinking.”  However, each of those first-tier memes thinks that its view of the world is the correct or best perspective.  It reacts negatively if challenged; it lashes out, using its own tools, whenever it is threatened.  Blue order is very uncomfortable with both red impulsiveness and orange individualism.  Green egalitarianism cannot easily abide excellence and value rankings, big pictures, or anything that appears authoritarian, and thus green reacts strongly to blue, orange, and anything post-green.

All of that begins to change with second-tier thinking.  Because second-tier consciousness is fully aware of the interior stages of development, it can step back and grasps the big picture, and thus second-tier thinking appreciates the necessary roles that all of the various memes play.  Second-tier awareness thinks in terms of the overall spiral of existence, and not merely in the terms of any one level.  There are two major levels to this second-tier consciousness.

YELLOW:  Integrative.  Huge variety of natural hierarchies (holarchies), systems and forms.  Flexibility, spontaneity and functionality have priority.  Change is the norm and uncertainty is a usual state of being.  Differences and pluralities can be integrated into interdependent, natural flows.  Egalitarianism is complemented with natural degrees of excellence.  Knowledge and competency supersede rank, power, status or group.  The prevailing world order is the result of the existence of different levels of memes and the inevitable patterns of movement up and down the dynamic spiral.  Existentialistic and systemic. 

TURQUOISE:  Holistic.  Universal holistic system.  Unites feeling with knowledge.  Multiple levels interwoven into one conscious system.  Universal order, but in a conscious manner, not based upon external rules (blue) or group bonds (green).  Goals are to create a global community or life force, survival of Earth and a unified world consciousness.  Holistic and transpersonal.  Turquoise thinking uses the entire spiral, sees multiple levels of interaction, and detects harmonics and the flow-states that exist in any organization.  Second-tier thinking:  0.1% of the population, 5% of the power.

With only 1 percent of the population at second-tier thinking (and only 0.1 percent at turquoise), second-tier consciousness is relatively rare because it is now the leading edge of collective human evolution.  However, without second-tier thinking, humanity may be destined to remain victims of a global “vicious circle,” where various levels turn on each other in an attempt to establish and/or maintain dominance or supremacy.

SD psychological studies show that “greens” have attempted to turn their “guns” on all pre-green stages and post-green levels, with unfortunate results.  In fighting the rigid social hierarchies of blue, green has condemned all second-tier holarchies—which has made it difficult if not impossible for greens to move forward into more holistic integrated approaches.  However, such studies also show that it is from the healthy green ranks that second-tier thinking emerges.

One final point in this discussion is that each meme is, in its healthy form, a necessary and desirable element of the overall spiral of consciousness.  Even if every society on earth were fully established at the turquoise meme, nevertheless every infant born in that society still has to start at the beige level, and then grow and evolve through the other levels.  All of those levels have important tasks and functions; all of them are taken up and included in subsequent waves; none of them can be bypassed; and none of them can be demeaned without consequences to self and society.

Try and apply Spiral Dynamics to your world, national, business and personal situations and see if any issues become more clearly outlined for you.  For example, it appears to me that the entire Middle East situation, from the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to Iraq, Saudi Arabia and terrorism in the region, is one case that is more easily understood using the concepts of Spiral Dynamics.

©2003, John Parnell, All rights reserved

Page last updated: 05/11/2005