Q&Z: Natural Hierarchies and the Zeitgeist Movement

A Q&A Discussion With a Young Girl Named Zena


Q. Let me get this straight. I’m 32. You’re a fourteen year old girl. And you’re going to tell me some stuff about natural hierarchies, culture wars, and how the Zeitgeist movement will save the world? Um, okay…nothing personal but I’m finding this a little hard to believe.

Z. So you won’t believe me because I’m fourteen? Or because I’m a girl?

Q. Uh, dunno…maybe both.

Z. Do you think it’s the message or the messenger that’s important?

Q. Well certainly the message, but it helps to have a messenger that’s believable.

Z. Oh really? Well, when supporters of the Zeitgeist movement try to talk to others about a Resource Based Economy, do the listeners find it believable? Do they think the idea of a world without money is totally unbelievable? That it’s just science fiction? Or do they think it’s the ZM’ers that are unbelievable? Maybe they think the movement is just a bunch of rebellious youth trying to sell some idealistic utopia.


Q. Well, I…

Z. Maybe it’s time we all need to question our beliefs, and what or whom we think is believable. That reminds me of a great philosophical novel called Ishmael¹, where one of the main characters is a talking gorilla. Man, that really challenged believability, but was quite effective.

Q. You read that? Okay, I’m impressed.

Z. Did you expect me to say I just finished reading the whole Twilight series?

Q. Uh, yeah, that would have been more believable. But okay, I think I’m opening up to this. Bring it on my young friend.

Z. So what I’m saying is that maybe we need to challenge the whole status quo. I think the youth has a lot to say and is going to break the mold. We know things, we see things, and we know what we will be inheriting. We see that our current ways of thinking and doing have gotten us into this mess. So yeah, we young ones can be viewed as radical, as naive, as silly, or maybe even dangerous. But we are what’s needed now. We are the future, we are the emergence, and we are the sanity in an insane world. I think it was Buckminster Fuller ² who said something like we can’t change things by fighting against the older people and older ways of our existing reality, we need to build a new model that makes the older one obsolete.

Q. Hallelujah.

Z. So, do you like models?

Q. Uh, do you mean like model airplanes?

Z. Actually, I was thinking of this cool model called the AQAL model, which stands for “All Quadrants, ALL Levels” ³.

Q. Never heard of it.

Z. The basic idea is that all human experience has four irreducible terrains, or quadrants. Imagine a box that’s divided into left and right sections and top and bottom sections, so you have four quadrants (see figure 1). Both of the left quadrants refer to interiors and both the right quadrants refer to exteriors. The upper boxes on both sides are the individual, the bottom boxes are the collective. So, the upper right box refers to the exterior of the individual, which is stuff like your body, your brain, your physiology, and your behaviors and actions. The upper left box refers to the interior of the individual, which is your inner thoughts, your feelings, your values, your fears, you get the idea. The lower left box is the interior of the collective, which covers our culture, our language, our worldviews and values that we collectively share, the morals we think are acceptable. Then there’s the lower right box, the exterior of the collective. This is the terrain of our collective behavior, as expressed in our systems. This includes our economic and legal systems, our political system, our transportation and civil systems, and our built environment, like our buildings and structures.

Figure 1 - AQAL Model

Q. Are you saying that everything falls into one of these four boxes, or quadrants? Everything?

Z. Yeah. And the point here is that we can use this model to account for everything, or at least make sense of all the different perspectives that exist in the world. If we ignore any of these four terrains or quadrants we leave out a really important part of the story. And with all the differing views on science, politics, economics, art, medicine, religion, and everything else, this model provides a basic framework to at least orient all of them. And we can see that everyone has a perspective, and that nobody can be wrong 100% of the time.

Q. Okay, sounds good, but I need an example of how to use these four quadrants?

Z. Sure. How about if I give you an example that will highlight a very important problem we are having today?

What if I said that almost all of the approaches we take today towards our global problems, whether it’s global warming, or the economy, or food shortages, etc., are based on the exteriors? So if we talk about food shortages, for example, people talk about things like our agricultural system, or the distribution system, or the result of collective behaviors like politics. You see all the approaches have to do with the exteriors. But nobody is talking about interiors. Yet that’s where most of our problems are coming from…our values, our worldviews, our consciousness, our religious beliefs, etc.

So if were going to have a global change in human behavior (right-hand quadrants) to handle our crises, we’re going to have to address our interiors (left-hand quadrants). We’re going to have to change belief systems. And at the individual and collective levels. Of course, our exterior systems, like our monetary, political, educational, religious systems, certainly affect our cultural conditioning and our behaviors. But it works both ways. Our values and worldviews—our interiors—also affect our exteriors…our behaviors and the systems and structures that we build. I think we need to change both the interiors and the exteriors at the same time. This means that both sides, interior and exteriors, need to tetra-evolve ⁴—meaning they both affect each other and both evolve at the same time. Now, we already have maps and models of how these interior belief systems grow, but nobody is talking about that.

Q. Let me guess, we’re going to talk about that next, belief systems.

Z. Not quite yet, there’s another point I want to make. We know now that humans have multiple intelligences ⁵, like logical, linguistic, musical, interpersonal, etc., and that they all have developed, or evolved, over time. But something you’ll find interesting, and probably instantly recognize, is that one line of intelligence, our spiritual intelligence, has basically been stuck in time at the mythic, absolutistic level of development, which of course has caused huge problems ⁶ We can talk more about this later.

Q. Speaking of intelligence, are you sure you’re only fourteen?

Z. Oh shut up. Aren’t you going to ask me about the other part of AQAL?

Q. Uh, let’s see. We covered the “All Quadrants” part. So I think the other part was “All Levels”, right?

Z. Yes. So, this “All Levels” stuff isn’t rocket science or anything, but it’s based on real empirical social and psychological science. It’s based on the work of guys like Jean Gebser ⁷ and Claire Graves ⁸. Kinda funny how they both have girl’s names.

So here goes. People and cultures develop through different levels of consciousness…

Q. Oh, here we go, talking about consciousness and new agey stuff. And I suppose your going to categorize people into different levels too. I’m not a big fan of that, since we’re all humans, right?

Z. Hang on…geez. I know that a lot of people don’t like levels and hierarchies, and that’s cool. But I’m guessing people in this movement, since they tend to be systemic, holistic thinkers, should have no problem with this, since there are hierarchies in nature.

And it ain’t woowoo New Age stuff ⁹ It’s based on sound empirical science about human and cultural development. I think an intellectual understanding of this is going to be critical to the movement.

Q. Okay, okay relax. I’m good with it, go ahead.

Z. Well, let me start by saying there are two different types of hierarchies. There’s whats called dominator hierarchies which are based on oppression, and there’s natural hierarchies which are based on growth ⁹.

Q. This is going to get complicated, isn’t it?

Z. No dude. And believe me, once you get this, I think a lot of things will click for you. It will be liberating in a way. Light bulbs went off for me anyway. And I finally figured out why I didn’t see the world in the same way as others.

Anyway, here goes. Dominator (or pathological) hierarchies we are all too familiar with—those based on force and rigid social structures that are used for oppression. They’re found in governmental, military, corporate, and religious institutions, and they’re even found in cancerous cells and repressive egos that can rule the body. In individuals and cultures, according to this lady named Riane Eisler, they “inhibit personal creativity but also result in social systems in which the lowest (basest) human qualities are reinforced and humanity’s higher aspirations (traits such as compassion and empathy as well as the striving for truth and justice) are systematically suppressed “ ¹⁰. In other words, they suck.

Q. I’m with you there.

Z. Good. And then there’s natural hierarchies, which are found everywhere in nature—duh—and are built on progressions from lower to higher orderings of functioning; like the progression from atoms, to molecules, to cells, to organs, to living organisms, and stuff. They also call them actualization or growth hierarchies, because they are about growth, or development, which can be found in individual humans and cultures and social systems.

Actually, there’s this rocket scientist guy involved in the Venus Project named Douglas Mallett who did this YouTube video called “Awakening”. In it he talks about how history can be broken into levels of development, where humans have developed from nomadic, to hunter-gatherer, to agricultural, to industrial, and now to technological beings ¹¹. Human value systems and cultural worldviews…the interiors remember…have developed in the same way.

So with a better understanding of how different people think and act and see the world, we can not only relate to them better, we can communicate with them better. We can explain RBE to them better, without getting mired down in all the ideology. And at the same time it’s more compassionate. Instead of arguing with people who will never see things the way you do, you can relate to them, connect with them, on a human level. We also realize how everybody is partially right, and we see the good in everyone and leave behind the not-so-good. Most importantly, rather than creating separation, we create unity and harmony and oneness…with each other and with nature. Isn’t that what the Venus Project envisions?

Q. Wow, that’s a lot to promise…but, it sounds great. You’re right about arguing with people. I get so damn frustrated, arguing with these morons…sorry…people who just don’t get it. I get into these pissing matches with free-market capitalists or fundamentalist christians or libertarians or even some of the green sustainability people who just don’t get it. I just don’t know why they can’t see that their views are antiquated and that we’re screwed as a species unless they change them?

Z. Is a fish aware of the water in which it swims?

Q. Uh, what do you mean?

Z. Sorry, ancient buddhist parable ¹². The point is, we are immersed in our stages of development, and we think that our worldview is the only “right” or “true” one. But, when you get what I’m about to tell you, then hopefully you will see—like a fish above the water—that we are all partially right, part of the time. We can see the value in all worldviews, while at the same time help shift others towards more sustainability and life-affirming worldviews, like the Venus Project. But it wouldn’t be done in any type of coercive, manipulative way. That’s not what the movement is about, right?

Q. No, not at all.


The Natural Hierarchy of Human Development

Z. So this Gebser guy roughly figured that humans evolved through some basic levels that he called archaic, magic, mythic, mental, and integral stages. Then, Claire Graves built a model, that was later elaborated upon by his student , Dr. Don Beck, who called it Spiral Dynamics ¹³ and has used it to help bring an end to Apartheid in South Africa. Beck still uses it today to help create peaceful solutions in the middle east ¹⁴.

Hey, I wanna stop here and give a warning. Are you listening?

Q. I’m riveted. What?

Z. Okay, warning, warning. This is a hierarchical model. If you have an aversion to hierarchies, you better get over it. We will be talking about levels of development. But we are not going to be describing or judging people, only looking at ways of thinking. (By the way, I can go through several of these ways of thinking myself throughout the course of a day). And it’s not about one level being better or worse than another level. However, one level can be seen as being more developed then another. It’s similar to how an adult is more developed than a teen, or a teen is more developed than a toddler, but not better or worse. Present company excepted of course.

Q. Funny Zee. Okay note to self, “don’t use to judge people”.

Z. Anyway, so Graves saw in his research there were eight fundamentally different ways of making sense of the world. He color coded them and labeled them and described them to great extent. I’ll list them here the way I like to describe them. Keep in mind that individual humans and cultures grow through these stages in roughly the same way. So you can think of a child or a society developing through these levels. Are you ready? Drum role please:

Beige - Archaic / Instinctive - starting 100,000 BCE
Purple - Magical / Tribal - starting 50,000 BCE
Red - Warrior / Heroic - starting 5,000 BCE
Blue - Mythic / Absolutistic - starting 4000-2000 BCE
Orange - Achiever / Individualistic - starting 1300-1700 CE
Green - Humanistic / Pluralistic - starting 1900 CE
Yellow - Systemic / Integral - starting 1950 CE
Turquoise - Holistic - newly emerging

Much can be said in great depth about each of the eight levels, but for now I just want to discuss at a summary level the four main levels in existence today in America: Blue, Orange, Green, and Yellow. (Other countries can have a significantly different distribution of the levels.)

According to Graves, each thinking system emerged as an evolutionary adaption of consciousness in response to survival challenges of a specific era. Keep in mind that each level, as summarized below, has both “healthy” and “unhealthy” aspects, and each thinks it’s worldview is the only correct one, except when you get to the yellow level.


The Four American Ways - Key Characteristics & Examples: ¹⁵

Okay, so I’m just going to quickly summarize the levels here. You’ll get the idea I’m sure, but you should look into this more on your own.

Blue - Discipline, authority, purpose; meaning and purpose from higher power; order and stability; good versus evil; follow the given rules; God’s will, righteousness, “tough cop”, “moral majority”, deep south of U.S., monks, rabbis, “value voters”, pro-life activists, fascism, fundamentalists of every stripe, extreme patriotism. George W. Bush, Jerry Falwell, John Wayne Archetype.

“Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.” George Patton (blue general)

Orange - Individuality, accomplishing, power, profit, progress; creativity, cleverness, science, rationality; achieve success, material affluence, physical beauty, worldly power; act in your own self-interest by playing the game to win, “doesn’t want authority telling it what to do…it wants to be that authority”; consumerism, ecological crisis, “trickle-down economics”, greed, workaholism. Karl Rove, Anthony Robbins, Donald Trump, Gordon Gecko, Enron, Ayn Rand Objectivism.

“A man fully in possession of his mind may rightly acquire anything else to which he is justly entitled.” Andrew Carnegie (orange tycoon)

Green - Equality, honesty, relatedness; humanism; mankind is a family; “explore your inner self”; 60’s civil rights, environmental movement, caring dimensions of community; dialogue and consensus; diversity, pluralism; spirituality returns as a nondenominational, nonsectarian ‘unity’; resistance to hierarchy and authority; excessive relativism; lack of discernment; narcissism—me generation. Jimmy Carter, Oprah, Michael Moore, John Lennon, warm group hugs, Jesus Christ (stereotypical portrayal), MLK’s “I have a dream”.

“When I look at the world I’m pessimistic, but when I look at people I am optimistic.” Carl Rogers (green psychotherapist)

Yellow - Integrity, competence, sustainability; restore vitality and balance to the world torn asunder; holistic, inclusive: “we need all the stages”; works to integrate and heal the larger community; big reduction in personal fear; commitment to life-serving goals; rises above ideology; unhealthy materialism; elitism; “cultural creatives”, Barack Obama, Ken Wilber, the sustainability movement, Clare Graves, David Bohm, the LOHAS movement, collaborative innovation, many readers of this article.

The yellow integral level is the first one to see the value of all previous levels and actually integrate them.

“How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress.” Niels Bohr (yellow physicist)

~~~

Z. Okay, what do you think?

Q. I think I get it. This is more than just right and left, or democrat and republican. There really are different ways, four different ways, of seeing the world.

Z. Yeah. So now you can probably see how our political system has two parties that struggle to try and satisfy four different worldviews. Although this is an oversimplification, blue thinkers tends to vote republican, half of the orange thinkers vote republican, the other half vote democratic, and green thinkers tend to vote democratic. No wonder we get gridlock.

Q. So is this the culture wars you mentioned?

Z. Absolutely, the clash of cultures is actually the conflict in these deeply held value structures and worldviews, with everybody fighting for what’s right in their own eyes. So, as angry as you may get at blue thinkers, or orange thinkers who just “don’t get it”, it doesn’t mean they are bad people. They just really see the world differently, because they are at different stages of development. You wouldn’t hate a five year old for being illogical because of his “magical thinking” or for his egocentrism, where he can only think of himself. You wouldn’t hate your child when she goes through the angry and rebellious “Red” stage of the teenage years. (I’m already beyond that stage, ha ha).

This reminds me of another point: as individuals—and cultures— develop through the stages, their perspectives move from egocentric, to ethnocentric, to worldcentric. In other words, from “me” to “us” to “all of us” where it’s first about ourselves and our tribe, then it’s about our state or nation state, then it’s about the whole world and all the beings on it. This is also explained in the really cool video called “The Empathic Civilization” ¹⁶. And when you see the extreme patriotism or nationalism that blue thinkers exhibit, that’s the ethnocentric level in action.

Q. I do see that. Cool.

Z. And that presents another challenge that the Zeitgeist movement is up against. The Venus Project is promoting worldcentric concepts. They’ve acknowledged that it’s going to take the participation of the whole world for a resource based economy to work. However, we are trying to communicate worldcentric ideas to people who can only think egocentrically or ethnocentrically. They just can’t wrap their heads around this worldly thinking.

Q. That does present a problem. But what do we do? We can’t wait until everybody develops up to green or yellow? Even if it’s possible to raise people’s consciousness, we just don’t have time for that?

Z. Exactly. But not all hope is lost. First we need to keep in mind that the lower levels are not all bad. Remember there are healthy aspects of each of the worldviews. Blue law and order and responsibility is good. Orange ingenuity and achievement and independence is good. Green care for humanity and the environment and equality is a good thing. So first we need to let go of the anger. Sure children can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but you gotta love ‘em. Instead we need to appreciate and integrate the healthy aspects of all the different levels of thinking.

The second thing we can do is develop our communication skills so that we can talk “with”, instead of “at” people who see the world differently. There are some very powerful ways to communicate the ideas of the Venus Project and inspire those with different worldviews. But we’ll save that for another day. For now, it’s really important to understand that….bear with me this is tricky…..if you understand these different levels of development and embrace them, then you are at the yellow or integral level. Not to sound like this is any type of elitist kind of thing, but the fact is, people that don’t find this stuff interesting or don’t grasp it, are at one of the other levels. And it’s just as important to understand this….this new way of looking at the world, the yellow or systemic or integral level of thinking, is an evolution unseen in the recorded history of mankind, and there’s only about 5-10% of the world’s population at this level. So we, of all people, should be able to embrace and include all the healthy aspects of the old ways, while tossing out the unhealthy parts, like our monetary system.

Q. I think the light bulb just turned on for me, awesome.

Z. I know it did, I can tell. The fact is there are two very powerful forces emerging on the planet right now: the Zeitgeist Movement and the Integral/systemic movement. I get very excited by the possibility of the two movements combining their strengths and insights to really save the world. There are some amazing synergies among the two which we can talk about at a later time. There are so many things I want to talk to you about, but I’m tired of talking now and wanna go play Mario Kart. After all, I’m still just a kid.


~~~

Footnotes

1. Ishmael
2. "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." Richard Buckminster Fuller
3. AQAL Model
4. “The whole point of a quadratic approach is that all four dimensions arise simultaneously: they tetra-enact each other and tetra-evolve together.” Ken Wilber
5. Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner
6. “Wilber says there are four different multiple intelligences: cognitive, aesthetic, spiritual, and moral. All were differentiated and advanced with the Enlightenment, except the spiritual intelligence/line/judgment, which was brutally repressed. With the repression of that line, there was no way for prepersonal mythic spirituality to evolve. Any movement beyond the rational was discredited as well, leaving everyone who made it to rational got stuck there in their development. "Modern liberal intellectuals no longer had religion, they only had art and morals."
7. Jean Gebser
8. Clare W. Graves
9. Integral Psychosis Blog
10. The Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler -- tells a fascinating new story of our past, present, and the possibilities for our future. Weaving together evidence from art, archeology, religion, social science, history, and many other fields of inquiry into new patterns that more accurately fit the best available data, it shows that war and the "war of the sexes" are neither divinely nor biologically ordained. It provides verification that a better future is possible…
11. Awakening by Douglas Mallett
12. Parable: The Fish and the Turtle
13. Spiral Dynamics
14. Center for Human Emergence
15. John Marshall Roberts, Worldview Science: The Cure for Non-Empathy and his book Igniting Inspiration.
16. RSA Animate - The Empathic Civilization. “How does consciousness change through history? If our empathy has developed through time from empathy based on blood ties (tribal) to empathy based on religious ties (jews empathize with other jews) to empathy based on national identification (nation states), is it a big stretch to imagine that, with our new technologies connecting us, we can connect our empathy to a single race writ large in a single biosphere?”