Brian Johnson explains Spiral Dynamics, a model of human development through color-coded stages from Red to Green. Each stage has its own worldview and conflicts with others, but a second tier can integrate multiple perspectives at once. The framework comes from Don Beck and Chris Cowan's work on Clare W. Graves' research.
Hi, this is Brian with another mini chapter from A Philosopher's Notes. This one's called the Spiral Dynamics. Ever heard of Spiral Dynamics?
Here's the quick overview. People and cultures go through different stages of development. The spiral guys like to color code.
Them to make it easier to keep track.
It goes something like, Red, think terrible twos.
I'll blow you up if you piss me off. Yikes.
Blue, think Ten Commandments, Fundamentalist anything. Rules are paramount.
Literal interpretations of the Bible are absolutely correct.
Orange, think Wall Street.
Academia, science and ambition are key here.
Green, think environmentalism, pluralism.
All is one non violent.
So the idea is that we evolve through these stages of development. All of those stages above are part of what they call the first tier.
Here's the funny thing about those perspectives. They're all convinced they're 100% right.
It's a big food fight.
Green looks at Orange and says, you.
Greedy capitalists, you're good for nothing and.
Totally destroying our planet. And my non violent self hates you. Orange looks at Green and says, you tree hugging New Agey hippies, get a job and contribute to the economy, will ya? And quit gazing at those crystals. Blue looks at everyone and says, you're.
All going to help because you don't.
Believe in insert favorite God here. And Red looks at everyone and says, you don't agree with me, Fine, I'm blowing you up.
Everything is either or. No one can see the validity of the other perspectives.
Not so good.
The ideal. Let's consciously evolve as individuals and as a culture to a second tier level of consciousness.
Here for the first time, we can hold multiple perspectives.
We can see that in Ken Wilber's words, the no one is smart enough.
To be 100% wrong. What's that look like? Well, we can 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.
Every stage has a partial truth. To embrace the whole, we need to.
Transcend and include and start saying yes and a lot more than either or powerful stuff. So Spiral Dynamics is very cool stuff.
Integrated into Ken Wilber's work and developed.
By Don Beck and Chris Cohen from the work of Claire Graves. That's a mouthful. That's also the footnote. All right, hope you enjoyed this quick look at Spiral Dynamics. It's a really fun way to get a quick angle on how we develop as cultures and how we might show up in our lives and how other people might show up at different stages of development at different times.
So key here is we want to transcend and include as we evolve, we want to say yes and more than either or.
Hope you enjoyed. Look forward to sharing more with you soon. In the meantime, have an awesome day. See you.
