Spiral Dynamics

[Forkbender]

Interesting model to describe our human evolution.



Dutch Version

English version

 

[GOD]

WOW !!!! Did the self transforming machine elves move this thread and fullfill my wishes and translate it into English !!!!!!!

I`ll take a look at the link tomorow .

 

[Nomada]

could not finish it all. Got bored.

Does seem like a nice dose of crap. Not because of the "history of ideas", "evolutionary/dialectic attempt to introduce" or even the "seen colors" thing the writing does seem to linger on--I myself enjoy the process of projecting my own subconscious into cognitive material to hasten operative velocities--: this is fine although by no means clearly discussed. But because the author of the articles' way to pronounce it with a titanic dose of epistemological rigidity, if not mental brainwash successful.

 

[GOD]

Welcome to "The circus" .

 

[Nomada]

The most sensational act in the circus is the bruised and hectic jumping and acrobatic ideologies of those who, by some insanely strange reason, don't know they are in a circus. [not talking specifically on the article posted above, although that would be impossible]

It's..well, colorful.

 

[greenwizard]

what?

 

[Nomada]

the helpless rebound from my pissing zen moments lived with blue Kakaroto!

...nothing. Invoking mista Wilson or something like that.

 

[ophiuchus]

hahahahahahahaha

 

[Nomada]

seriously, understanding how to take a piss like Goku is one of the first things any psychonaut must learn.

 

[robhR]

The universe is a big 5 dimensional spiral!

 

[st.bot.32]

i'm just angry i didn't think of this first. i want to make mone*cough* *cough* start a reality/belief system. hmm... now having browsed their site, they're into sex, drugs, rock and roll.. doesn't sound so bad.

 

[Crimzen]

seriously, understanding how to take a piss like Goku is one of the first things any psychonaut must learn.

lmfao!

in all honesty though this is true, i believe i'm halfway there
all i need to do is drink alot of Corona beers and then go to a dark alleyway its like BAM kamehameha

 

[Forkbender]

@Nomada's Epistemological Rigidity comment.

I think you are right in pointing that out, but I also think that all systems and models do that. Add to that the fact that this system most likely differs from the system most people have and a confrontation between the two could actually be liberating us from both.

I like the way they look at things: they join history, science, religion and mass-psychology in a grand effort to explain our own development.

@GOD:

The machine elves certainly did a good job...

 

[grifter7]

I think it's a load of crap if youre going to give certain parts of a character a colour indicator then we are all just rainbows. And as for the idea of our ever evolving selves I believe its more about maturing selves. The only way to evolve would be to teach children how to learn how to take stuff in. A school that does this effectively would be say cyan and at the edge of the doctors precious spyrographs but i never saw a spyrograph that said anything useful. once youve seen one part of it you seen all of it.

Also taking in the fact that the Aztecs probably thought that they were on the verge of some global evolutionary edge and as far as i can see we haven't even changed slightly

am i right in thinking the machine elves are the people that are you know power mad

 

[Forkbender]

I think it's a load of crap if youre going to give certain parts of a character a colour indicator then we are all just rainbows.

Don't you divide people by character traits as well? Isn't everybody doing this? This model just gives both positive and negative aspects of different character types, it doesn't judge one as better or worse than another, only fitting within a certain environment or situation.

 

[grifter7]

i just went out and met two new people i didn't really categorize them hmm must be my odd way of interacting with people. I certainly dint give them colours by how they acted i just noted that they like barstools and space

 

[restin]

The main question now is, if it is human that give traits to colors or colors that make humans react in a certain way. I was never really into color psychology - or however you call it. I remember though hearing that some colors calm us down and really do have a reaction onto the brain. At least in Europe/Western society, the color symbology is more or less the same as well... But what about the East? I think it is very different there, just like with the numbers...

 

[Forkbender]

i just went out and met two new people i didn't really categorize them hmm must be my odd way of interacting with people. I certainly dint give them colours by how they acted i just noted that they like barstools and space

Even you meeting them is an act of categorization. These were people you were willing to talk to instead of people you generally avoid. People differ in the ways they act and I think it doesn't harm anyone to acknowledge that basic fact.

@restin:
I didn't read this as color psychology, just colors representing in a systematic way forms of behaviour. But maybe what you say is the intention of this system, in which case your question is a valid one.

 

[restin]

aha. Hmm. So the colors are rather a metaphor? That sounds rather possible, I see. But if we draw this metaphor further - aren't there as good as infinitly many colors? If you play a little with photoshop you can make colors you can't really say if they are blue or green, yellow or red etc.

I wrote my graduation essay also about human behavior and I worked in a behavioristic way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviorism. It was very interesting but I knew in advance - and this was "proven" afterwards" - that this way of thinking leads to a dead end. Categorizing human beings is a veeeery risky thing to do.

 

[Forkbender]

I think they don't categorize people, but represent the dominant/prominent traits in them by colors. It is not fixed (you are not blue or orange permanently) and you can exhibit multiple traits/colors in different parts of your life. There are infinitely many colors, I agree, and infinitely many combinations of colors in different people, but I think what they try to show is that there is some form of development within the grander scheme of things, they look at for example the way people behaved through the ages in general lines and try to show the differences that stick out. We could probably find many more colors on a global schale as well, but in order for this metaphore to work, its scope must be limited.

From the wikipedia article on Spiral Dynamics:

Spiral Dynamics argues that human nature is not fixed: humans are able, when forced by life conditions, to adapt to their environment by constructing new, more complex, conceptual models of the world that allow them to handle the new problems. Each new model includes and transcends all previous models. According to Beck and Cowan, these conceptual models are organized around so-called vMemes: systems of core values or collective intelligences, applicable to both individuals and entire cultures.

In spiral dynamics, the term vMeme refers to a core value system, acting as an organizing principle, which expresses itself through memes (self-propagating ideas, habits, or cultural practices). The prepended and superscripted letter v indicates these are not basic memes but value systems which include them.

According to supporters, applications of this model allow the experienced user to analyze both micro- and macro- systems of human and cultural behavior. Christopher Cowan and especially Don E. Beck committed several years to applying the theory of Spiral Dynamics in an extended experience in South Africa to bring an end to Apartheid. The racial tension was so severe that in order to avoid a simplification of the deep-rooted cultural tensions into merely 'black and white' issues, they developed a color scheme to aid in his communication of the theory. The colors act as reminders for the Life Conditions and Mind Capacities of each system and alternate between cool and warm colors as a part of the model.

Within the model, individuals and cultures do not fall clearly in any single category (color). Each person/culture embodies a mixture of the value patterns, with varying degrees of intensity in each. Philosopher Ken Wilber used the term 'Holon' to describe the state of not only representing the highest level of emergence obtained, but simultaneously inhabiting (at least a part of) each of the previous levels as well. Wilber references the notion of 'transcend but include' when speaking of the process of advancing to higher levels of development.

Spiral Dynamics claims not to be a linear or hierarchical model, although this assertion has been contested. According to Spiral Dynamics, there are infinite stages of progress and regression over time dependent upon the life circumstances of the person/culture, which are constantly in-flux. Attaining higher stages of development is not synonymous with attaining a 'better' or 'more correct' values system. Each stage can (co)-exist in both healthy and unhealthy states, whereby any stage of development can lead to undesirable outcomes with respect to the health of the human and social environment.