SD and CD
One of my friends here in Manila has appreciated Spiral Dynamics very much. Also he is one of the most appreciators of my web site. That makes me of course very happy. And not only that, he has also been telling many of his friends how this theoretical framework is good and helpful in understanding and sorting out the chaos of so-called paradigmatic or value-conflict interactions in this world.
The reason for his appreciation is probably that he is a student of community development. Although I do not have much expertise on this field, it is easy to imagine that the conflicts of diverse values must be one of the obstacles or problems even in the field of community development (the definition of "development" may be differed depending on each value).
And despite my lack of such expertise, I still wonder if how they, the students of CD, define the concept of "development" or else if they are aware of the diversity of such definition. In SD, if the development means achieving material prosperity, then its definition is clearly under the orange meme. If it means the expansion of a particular religious, ideological, institutional entity, then it is under the blue meme. If it means that one specific individual gains his or her extreme power, then it is under the red meme. Still, if it means preserving the native, indigenous, socio-cultural ethnicity and religiosity and getting along with others and maintaining a small scale community life, then it is obviously under the green meme.
I am not sure if CD has been discussing such diverse definition of "development." And if they are aware of such diversity, then what kind of "development" they really seek for. Of course it is also not realistic to focus on one single development among them. Needless to say, what SD has been suggesting is the way to integrate these diverse memes in the second tier. For, in the first tier each meme is antagonistic one another, and only in the second tier one can achieve a kind of integral perspective to balance each meme.
As my friend witnessed, among his co-students, some appreciate SD and the others are not really and still the other are indifferent. Why did such different reactions happen? I do not know. But in my understanding, in order to appreciate SD, one also has to be aware of the following things:
1) We mankind have been developing and getting matured throughout the entire history every time when we faced and overcame the problem that is called Life Conditions. In other words, though it should be stated modestly, we are wiser than the people in the past and the people in the future will be probably wiser than we are now unless we fail to overcome Life Conditions.
2) Together with such macro scale development, in the micro scale we individuals have been also getting wiser and matured as we grow. In other words, old men are supposed to be wiser than adults and adults are supposed to be wiser than children unless again we fail to overcome our Life Conditions that we encounter in our life time and that transforms us.
3) Knowing such concept of development, we should have overcome what is called pre/trans-fallacy. We often say that children are pure and authentic due to their selfless spontaneity. It is true that children are not as selfish as we adults and they have not been contaminated by evil things. However, the important thing is only that they are NOT YET contaminated; hence we cannot say that they could overcome all the evil things. Indeed, as we know, there are lots of sufferings, fears, disappointments, angers and worries in this word. As we grown-ups are much aware of them.
Then some are beginning to be cynically selfish as if everything is evil or else naïvely compassionate as if pretending there is no such things as evil. But both are wrong. For, both are far from so-called authentic transcendental spontaneity. Only if and when we have overcome all the problems and troubles in our lives (which means embracing them), then we can achieve such true maturity. That is the spontaneity of wise old man, not that of a small infant. To realize such difference is overcoming what is called pre/trans-fallacy. When we are just personal, then kids are pre-personal and wise old men are trans-personal.
But of course we should also notice that such transpersonal dimension is not as easy as New Age followers are claiming. Their claims are also called Mean Green Meme. We will find some other time to talk about. The point is that in understanding such fallacy, we can avoid the unnecessary romanticism that blindly appreciates the native cultures and child-mentalities. The bottom line is that we are wiser than people in the past (macro) and when we were children (micro). And then we still need to get wiser so as to find the more integral community (macro) and our personal maturity (micro), that looks probably like traditional and naïve at glance. But this is only at glance.
The reason for his appreciation is probably that he is a student of community development. Although I do not have much expertise on this field, it is easy to imagine that the conflicts of diverse values must be one of the obstacles or problems even in the field of community development (the definition of "development" may be differed depending on each value).
And despite my lack of such expertise, I still wonder if how they, the students of CD, define the concept of "development" or else if they are aware of the diversity of such definition. In SD, if the development means achieving material prosperity, then its definition is clearly under the orange meme. If it means the expansion of a particular religious, ideological, institutional entity, then it is under the blue meme. If it means that one specific individual gains his or her extreme power, then it is under the red meme. Still, if it means preserving the native, indigenous, socio-cultural ethnicity and religiosity and getting along with others and maintaining a small scale community life, then it is obviously under the green meme.
I am not sure if CD has been discussing such diverse definition of "development." And if they are aware of such diversity, then what kind of "development" they really seek for. Of course it is also not realistic to focus on one single development among them. Needless to say, what SD has been suggesting is the way to integrate these diverse memes in the second tier. For, in the first tier each meme is antagonistic one another, and only in the second tier one can achieve a kind of integral perspective to balance each meme.
As my friend witnessed, among his co-students, some appreciate SD and the others are not really and still the other are indifferent. Why did such different reactions happen? I do not know. But in my understanding, in order to appreciate SD, one also has to be aware of the following things:
1) We mankind have been developing and getting matured throughout the entire history every time when we faced and overcame the problem that is called Life Conditions. In other words, though it should be stated modestly, we are wiser than the people in the past and the people in the future will be probably wiser than we are now unless we fail to overcome Life Conditions.
2) Together with such macro scale development, in the micro scale we individuals have been also getting wiser and matured as we grow. In other words, old men are supposed to be wiser than adults and adults are supposed to be wiser than children unless again we fail to overcome our Life Conditions that we encounter in our life time and that transforms us.
3) Knowing such concept of development, we should have overcome what is called pre/trans-fallacy. We often say that children are pure and authentic due to their selfless spontaneity. It is true that children are not as selfish as we adults and they have not been contaminated by evil things. However, the important thing is only that they are NOT YET contaminated; hence we cannot say that they could overcome all the evil things. Indeed, as we know, there are lots of sufferings, fears, disappointments, angers and worries in this word. As we grown-ups are much aware of them.
Then some are beginning to be cynically selfish as if everything is evil or else naïvely compassionate as if pretending there is no such things as evil. But both are wrong. For, both are far from so-called authentic transcendental spontaneity. Only if and when we have overcome all the problems and troubles in our lives (which means embracing them), then we can achieve such true maturity. That is the spontaneity of wise old man, not that of a small infant. To realize such difference is overcoming what is called pre/trans-fallacy. When we are just personal, then kids are pre-personal and wise old men are trans-personal.
But of course we should also notice that such transpersonal dimension is not as easy as New Age followers are claiming. Their claims are also called Mean Green Meme. We will find some other time to talk about. The point is that in understanding such fallacy, we can avoid the unnecessary romanticism that blindly appreciates the native cultures and child-mentalities. The bottom line is that we are wiser than people in the past (macro) and when we were children (micro). And then we still need to get wiser so as to find the more integral community (macro) and our personal maturity (micro), that looks probably like traditional and naïve at glance. But this is only at glance.
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