Sunday 28 May 2006

Pic of the day: Time to transition to a higher level of neurological activity! Does Yellow sound about right?

vMemes

I am not actually going to read about this until Thursday, but I'll write about it already because it fits so nicely with yesterday's entry. You may have noticed that yesterday I came to a similar conclusion as Sharon Kinsella whom I linked to in my May 14th entry. And yet the lesson learned from it is almost exactly the opposite, if I understand her correctly: She sees the "cute revolution" as a personal protest, a helpless gesture of imaginary defiance most similar to sulking, of young people trying to cling to a carefree childhood as long as possible before being necessarily sucked into the adult world of responsibilities.

In contrast, I see it as a new generation imposing a new worldview, or a new paradigm as people say these days. Their answer is not the same as our generation (I'm the parent generation, even though I am not a parent). Our answers were not the same as our parents', either. Because change is now a constant, it makes sense that each new generation thinks anew. In the more distant past, change was slow, and the same values probably lasted for centuries unless some great disaster befell, like the fall of Rome or the rise of Islam. In the future, if any, change may accelerate to the point where we have to "surpass multiple destinies during one lifetime", to once again translate The End of the World by Atsuko. I wrote about that song in an entry I still consider one of my best, and later it inspired me to the series of essays on the next big leap in human cultural evolution, a series that began here.

In the past, the generational divides may have been rare, happening only after great upheavals. Now it seems very common for each generation to not understand the next, and even within each generation, there seem to be many who don't understand each other. Little did I know that there existed a theory that may actually explain this. There is also an unusual reason why I think the theory may be at least partially true: I don't understand all of it either, something the theory correctly predicts...

***

Surprisingly, I may not be the only partially rational human to have thought about these topics. I thought the last before me was Maslow, but there turns out to be others who have gone further without going all the way into wild-eyed New Age speculations. One of these schools may or may not be SD, Spiral Dynamics. Despite the New Age like name, there seems to be some substance to it. It introduces the concept "vmeme", which may be remembered as "value meme". I am not sure how much I have written about memes before, but they are kinda like ideas or packets of information (not necessarily true information) that can be transferred as a unit from one person to another. The cultural equivalent of gene, except it does not just go downward the generations, but is contagious like a virus. Memes can be small and insignificant, in fact most of them surely are. But some of them are life-altering.

vMmemes are not actually memes, but levels on which the culture can stabilize. There are further states of transitions between them, and sometimes the balance between needs and thinking simply isn't there. But when it is, it attracts certain groups of memes which prevail at that level of thinking. The founders are somewhat indignant that people confuse vMemes and memes. I think they can thank themselves for choosing a "cool" yuppie-oriented name.

vMemes are, to further increase confusion, named with colors. Arbitrarily, it looks to me, but at least colors are fairly value neutral. This is very important in spiral dynamics, because there is a tendency for each of us to think that our values are superior. (Why would we hold them if we thought not?) So we want the nice names for our values, and disparaging names for others. By giving them color codes instead, this effect is much reduced and it becomes easy to talk about them coldly and clinically.

Despite this objectivity, vMemes are ranked, by the order in which they appeared in history. Since most of us today like progress and think highly of it, this already imposes a value on the values, as it were. Perhaps somewhat forcedly, the even numbers represent individuality and the odd numbers commonality.

1)Beige: The primitive, near instinctual human, and the modern humans who either have not yet acquired culture or have lost it due to illness or extreme circumstances. Bare survival.

2)Purple: Animism and primitive culture, seeing the world as filled with magic which can be exploited through ritual. Primitive groupthink, like football fans and isolated tribes. Pre-civilized / "primitive" cultures.

3)Red: Individual thinking but in the terms of raw ego. The primitive hero and the villain, doing whatever it takes to get out on top. Enslaving others. Conquest and the seeds of empire.

4)Blue: The age of the law. Belief in eternal gods giving eternal laws, static structures that are seen as valid for all people at all times. Authority is absolute and indisputable. From ancient civilizations to the Middle Ages.

5)Orange: Outsmarting the system, making progress, intelligent opportunism, the self-made man, pulling ahead, the rational mind. The modern, individualist society, the American Dream.

6)Green: Seeking peace and harmony, rejecting material wealth as status indicator. The value of cooperation and preservation. Idealist / Utopian subcultures and groups. This is the last of the Tier 1 vMemes. Not sure what that means.

7)Yellow: The first Tier 2 vMeme. Sees the world as systems and connections. Able to change perspective at will and integrate conflicting viewpoints to a coherent whole. Knowledge for knowledge's sake, change as the natural state of being. Values the unique and the talented. No societies like this exist but a growing number of individuals and organizations.

8)Turquoise: Holistic, integrating science and spirituality, seeing the universe as energy streams and holographic links(?), tapping into collective intelligence while retaining individual self awareness. Sounds like a bunch of New Age stuff.

***

The reason why this seems vaguely realistic is that I am very much a Yellow person and I actually can see, understand and sympathize with the earlier levels, as predicted by the theory, while they can't understand me. Conversely, level 8 seems like superstitious gobbledygook and overly trendy babble to me, which is almost certainly how most people perceive my writing as well. -_-*

Remember, I have BEEN there. I spent some of my best years in the Blue world, where the law was immutable and rewards were reliable, where good was good and evil was pretty easy to spot. As an Orange software developer, I ran rings around the large rigid teams, creating change that spread like rings in water for years to come, affecting business after business long after I was gone from the scene. I passed this and rejected wealth and status, bonding with the new Green generation which today holds most of my friends. I wrote in this journal about my quest to regain my humanity, a quest I eventually failed and instead changed into who I am today. I think I also have said already that by understanding my humanity, I have lost it. But that is not quite right. I am still human, just not in the ordinary ways. I still have a human body, human instincts, human culture... but I no longer quite identify with it. I no longer regard it as the measure of all things.

Despite my own color coded entries, I don't actually experience the world and me as separate. My tiny life is just one of many instances of the world. When I write about the world economy, it is not an abstract thing for me, less personal than writing about the house I live in. The body and the house and the global economy are all different levels of the reality in which I live. The world economy is slower, less intimate, but has greater reach and longer lasting effects. I am a part of all of these systems and do not see them as entirely separate from me, although I have less direct control of the larger systems than of the small ones. I can control my body to a very high degree, and control the world economy to only a very tiny degree, barely noticeable. So of course there is a difference, but there is no dividing line where I can say: This is beyond my reach, this has nothing to do with me. The stars and galaxies are beyond my reach though, at least for now! And you don't see me writing much about them either, beautiful as they are.

Yes, I am pretty clearly a Yellow. Most people are mostly one vMeme and partly another, but presently I am almost completely Yellow. This may make no sense at first glance because my religion, Christianity, is widely associated with the Blue vMeme. I am indeed highly conversant with that aspect of it, and can happily discuss obscure details of biblical knowledge and dogma with whoever cares to talk and listen. But when my body and soul function normally, I am not under the law, and I interpret my religion in a very non-traditional way. As I often call myself, a heretic even among heretics. This does not mean I stop understanding those who are under the Law. But they have not even begun understanding me. I have been there, but they have not been here.

I am not convinced that this makes me superior, though. Isn't the superior person the one who functions optimally at the level where he or she is, making the best out of the situation in which they find themselves? Observing oneself and the world sharply but doing little to improve any of them is not exactly something I want on my tombstone. And yet if I die before I wake, it might be the most fitting description of me.

So how about you? If you are not a Yellow, I assume none of it makes any sense to you at all. I am pretty sure most of my friends are in the Green/Yellow interval. The "anime generation" where most of my young friends are tend toward green, valuing personal relationships and a harmonious society over the tooth and nail competition, and they abhor war and conquest as primitive and barbaric. Actually, they abhor George W. Bush as primitive and barbaric too. Come to think of it, they probably feel the same for organized religion. But many of them are individualistic, creative, vaguely spiritual in a non-conformist way, and insatiably curious, which pulls them at least partially into the Yellow domain.

But you, dear reader? Do you think law and order, God and country are the highest good? Or do you admire the smart and rich entrepreneur and try to get ahead in the world? Or do you think authorities are inherently suspect and we should all pull together to save the planet? Or do you view the human world as a beautiful kaleidoscope of diversity and possibility which you can't stop yourself studying and meddling with? Or is Past and Present, Matter and Spirit, Self and World to you simply aspects of a single coherent reality in which all divisions are illusions?

Your input is as always welcome, but even if you only answer to yourself, that's good too, I guess.

Oh, and here is a simple and cheerful introduction to Spiral Dynamics and vMemes, much easier to read and understand than my own, not to mention the Spiral Dynamics website. Incidentally, SD is a organizational tool, not a pseudo-religion. It is peddled to leaders and consultants and such. Huh.