Friday 29 December 2006

Pic of the day: Actually, under the Green vMeme, an apology is enough, or even more than enough. People are forgiven, because they don't know what they do. There is no need for a police state, just more and better education.

SD: Socialism, Red or Green?

"SD" in this case is of course Spiral Dynamics, an only moderately controversial theory in principle: It is hard to deny that culture has developed, though the choice of direction (generally upward over time) may be contrary to what some elderly people would believe. Perhaps it would be more neutral to make it spiral from left to right or something, but most of us really are this optimistic. This is based in no small part on the development of technology over the same time. Yes, there are far more horrible weapons today than before, but overall most of us would far prefer to live in the present time than in the middle ages, when city dwellers had to dodge the contents of chamber pots being emptied from the upper floors out the window. Whether you call this a progress in technology or a progress in thinking is a question of definition, I guess, but these days people just don't do that.

When it comes to details, though, things get more thorny. For instance, many people who subscribe to the Spiral Dynamics model claim that socialism is part of the Green value-meme, and as such inherently more evolved than the Orange capitalism. Most Americans and quite a few Europeans too think this just can't be right. After all, socialism traditionally has had its stronghold in the less educated (and frequently less intelligent) working classes, whereas the better-off have supported capitalism. Furthermore, any attempt to base society on socialism has ended with disaster, while capitalism has proved to be very flexible and supported an evolving culture where most people are better and better off as time passes.

Despite living in Norway, I have a lot of understanding for those who support capitalism. True, Norway is better off than the arch-capitalist USA by pretty much any measure you can come up, and far more so for common people, and we are politically to left of most of the Democratic Party in the USA. But this is partly because we had a rush of income from offshore oil that was discovered here in my childhood, then had an economic crash and learned to invest the money instead of party for it, and then had the income resume more than before. Neighboring countries with similar politics and similar culture but without the large oil resources have not fared as well. They are still very nice places to live for ordinary people, probably more so than the USA or UK, but they do have a lower average income. They are, as one reader of The Economist put it, "like the USA only without the super-rich". Most people probably don't miss those super-rich people much, but they do add some financial strength to the system. If someone has a good idea that is not fit for government funding, rich people are suddenly useful to have, for instance.

And in any case, Norway is hardly socialist. It is more social democratic, which is rather a newer and more humane ideology. I tend to think that it is this, rather than socialism itself, which is aligned with the Green vMeme. But let us take one more look at the history and socialism.

***

In ages past, culture evolved very slowly. At the dawn of history, the Purple vMeme was dominant. Most people lived in clans, tribes or villages where people thought as a group and usually were related to everyone in the group, directly or indirectly. Thinking for yourself was discouraged, in so far as people even tried. The Chief and the Shaman might do some individual thinking, but the sense of self as different from the group was likely very weak. Certainly this seems to be the case in all such societies that have survived long enough to be studied. Contrary to what you may think, the individual sense of identity is not a fundamental human trait. Well, it is in the most basic sense, in that you look out for your own body first and foremost, like any other animal. You vie for position in the pack like any ape. You are aware that you exist as a separate individual, but at the tribal level you don't think too much about it. And you are strongly encouraged by the rest of the tribe to continue to not think too much.

Civilization as we know it became possible because people broke out from the tribal mind and began seeking glory for themselves. Not just food and sex (though of course that was always part of the package) but honor and power. The need to be number one grew far beyond its apelike origins. In fact, there was no longer an upper limit on the glory and power a man (and sometimes woman) wanted. The Red vMeme was all about the growth of the independent ego, and the most successful people were so far ahead of the rest that they were worshiped as gods. With the unthinking masses as obedient tools in the hands of the rulers, mighty empires were forged, and history as we know it began.

As the gods, kings and heroes gave birth to ever more offspring, and inspired others by their example, a Red tide was rising. Everyone wanted to rule, which is of course not possible. Now that an independent ego became the standard, the benefits were quickly waning and the problems all too obvious. Bands of marauders harassed the populace, and the social cohesion of the village fell asunder. There was war and rumors of war, and brother would slay brother and a man's family rise against him. Something had to be done. And as usual, people came up with something. This was the great religions, which ushered in the so-called Axial Age. Law and order, nationhood and religion developed into cohesive systems, the beginning of today's world religions. This Blue vMeme promised rewards to those who were obedient. But it was not a return to the tribal mind: The obedience was now to the Law itself, or the Gods who gave it and judged everyone. Guilt replaced shame as the emotion to avoid. The conscience replaced the tribe in keeping watch over us.

In Europe, the Black Death was the beginning of the Orange vMeme. It weakened the Church, which had been the major stabilizing force. It seemed the Church had not had all the answers after all! The Celtic and Germanic tribes had had their own transition through a Red phase much later than the Middle East and the Mediterranean, in the time around the fall of Rome. And yet they seem to have been the first to take the next step, from Blue to Orange. A new individuality, based not on violence and intimidation* but what Adam Smith would call "enlightened self-interest". Being opportunistic, this new thinking would quietly ignore tradition and faith when the real world turned out to be different. This was the beginning of what we today call capitalism, a system that in practice favored liberty over equality and fraternity.

*(Violence is found at every stage, but not to the same degree or in the same form. Red violence was personal, up close and lethal. Blue was impersonal, supposedly in the service of a higher power. Orange violence was again impersonal, a necessity when reason was not enough. Green favors pacifism whenever possible, preferring non-lethal means of coercion and psychological warfare. There is not yet enough data to say what form, if any, violence will take at the Yellow level.)

Now we have to understand that the value memes alternate between collective and individual, although the overall culture influences how far each of them goes. (European culture is more individual than Japanese, for instance, on every stage.) Each vMeme is aware of those shortly before it, which they regard as their greatest threats (and thus enemies). So when people started thinking for themselves, the established society was not too happy, as Galileo among others found out. Society considered all such independent action to be of the Red vMeme (though they of course did not use that name)... they saw it as a return to the undisciplined barbarian past. And of course there were some similarities, thus the phrase "robber barons" about some capitalists, a phrase that had been more literally in the middle ages.

***

Socialism was at first a pure "ivory tower" thing, a philosophy of no interest for the common laborer. It followed after the first discovery that history seemed to move in waves from one extreme to the other, and still making progress. So Marx concluded that after the new wave of capitalism, there would be a new collective wave. And like most thinkers before him, he assumed that this was as far as history would go. With the new wave, paradise on earth would finally be established.

For a while, socialism remained restricted to the intellectuals, but those who did not take it seriously were wrong. For a long time, historians have pondered the irony that it would be Russia, a largely agrarian society at the time, that became the testing ground of communism, rather than the actual industrial societies of the West. But in light of Spiral Dynamics it makes perfect sense. The Russian revolution temporarily threw the nation back from Blue stability to Red chaos, where the strong vied for power through violence and intimidation. When order was restored, it was not on a culturally higher level: It was still Blue. Like Christianity before it, Communism had fallen down to the level where it was needed, even though it had aspired so much higher. Russia became a Blue industrial society instead of a Blue agrarian society as it had been. One rigid ideology was replaced with another, one emperor with another. Technological progress was mistaken for cultural progress. The truth is that in many ways, the Soviet Union was medieval, based on blind faith in authorities.

People who think of socialism often think of the murderous Bolsheviks, which was actually a pre-medieval Red phase, or the rigid dogmatism of the later Soviet union. In fact, during most of its brief history, the Soviet Union was in transition, with elements of both Red conquest / emperor worship and Blue stability / eternal law. It was certainly not Green, which is based on honesty on the personal level and voluntary cooperation on the dominant collective level.

Socialism as seen in practice, then, is not at all Green. But it seems clear that the social democracies of northern Europe have a higher percentage of Green in them. With the rapid change in culture these days, it is perfectly normal for a society to consist of a mix of different stages of development. In fact, each of us has different stages in our own life. So you won't find "Blue countries" and "Orange countries" and "Green countries". But some countries and states have more of one and less of another.

Some SD theorists on the SDi branch (around Ken Wilber) argue that the Green vMeme is not self-sustaining, but depends on the Orange capitalism to fuel it. Basically they say that the Greens redistribute the fruits of the Orange system, while criticizing it. This is a misunderstanding, probably based on the fact that Green is still most common among the highly educated, who tend to work with abstract ideas rather than in production. But in the IT sector, Green is fairly common and it works quite fine. Green professionals tend to cooperate more easily, they have a more relaxed attitude to material rewards and focus more on making everyone feel good at work. They are egalitarian and inclusive, and whenever possible also try to include both genders (and then some) in their workgroups. When these approaches tend to stall above a certain company size, it is probably less a fault of the approach than the fact that you get an influx of Orange and Blue workers who don't share the same goals.

My conclusion then is that the connection between socialism and the Green vMeme is pretty thin. They have some common ground in theory, but in practice the "socialist" nations and organizations have generally been less Green than some non-socialist ones. Also, I believe that the Green vMeme is still fairly weak in the world. Orange is still ascending, and Green is mostly a moderating influence on it, little more than an internal countercurrent. We have still to see a predominantly Green society on a large scale, like a nation or even a city. More about this soon, I hope.