The Next Copernican rEvolution - Chapter 7 - Evolution on the Inside (Perspectives)
Seeing Through Our Worldviews
“We are an adolescent culture in search of our future humanity, our maturation into the next era of human civilization will occur through an initiatory process that is at once both personal and collective. The future of our world depends on the maturity of human consciousness matching or exceeding our technological power. May we all be personally guided as we in turn guide our civilization through this collective rite of passage: from the love of power to the power of love.” Anodea Judith, The Global Heart Awakens
Speaking of growing up, in her book Anodea Judith correlates the eras of evolution or worldviews to the stages of growing up, or our maturation to a global species. Her holistic perspective goes beyond studying how our empathy and hearts have expanded; she explores how our entire worldviews have evolved. Her work dovetails off of a more comprehensive model of human development based on the pioneering work of the aforementioned psychology professor Clare Graves1 who recognized that individuals and cultures grow through various stages, or waves, of development. Don Edward Beck2, an American psychological theorist, was a student and colleague of Graves who went on to develop a model called Spiral Dynamics3 that suggests that there are eight “waves” through which cultures have grown, not only throughout history but still are today.
So I will be exploring the history of these various waves of emerging consciousness, based on the work of others, but putting my own spin on it. There are many models of human evolution by many different philosophers, psychologists, and social scientists.4 They all have different naming conventions and color labels for the various stages or waves, but they all generally suggest the same differentiation. So I’ve combined some of my own ideas and language with bits and pieces of other’s work to create my own slightly different model using alternative stage names. Keep in mind that right now we are only looking at the internal realms of values and worldviews that cultures have evolved through over time. It’s also important to note that we have not developed through these stages in discrete time periods with all cultures moving through them together at the same pace and to the same degree. In reality, we have different cultures at all different stages still today. But overall, we can generally see where humanity has been and where we’re going.
(Note: We will be referencing variations of the diagram below throughout this book to show the evolution of humanity on the inside, with our consciousness, and evolution on the outside, with our socioeconomic systems, like money and ownership and technology.)
As the above diagram shows, there has been a pattern throughout human history whereby waves of cultural evolution, which I will describe shortly, oscillate between individual themes and community themes. For the individual themes, it’s about individuation and self-expression and satisfying the needs and desires for oneself, over the needs of others. For the community themes, it’s about sacrificing the self for the desires of others, or sacrificing the individual self for the group. It seems reasonable that both are needed, and that we need a healthy balance between individualism and a community orientation. But as we look back through history what we see are great swings from one extreme to the other. The vertical arrow on the left suggests the spectrum whereby we can roughly map the degree to which an era falls into either the individual theme or community theme. This gives us an almost circular pattern, whereby the degree of either individual theme or community theme has grown to greater extremes throughout time. It’s important to note that most of the world’s people and cultures of today have a “center of gravity” somewhere between the traditional and modern waves. All of these worldviews have made significant contributions to the advancement of humanity but have also led to the global crisis point that humanity finds itself in. Each of the cultural waves gets to a point where it is unable to effectively address the challenges from its same level of consciousness that created the problems, so then a new consciousness gets called forth. So alas, we will see that the new worldviews that have emerged within the last 150 years are bringing about lesser extremes of both the individual and community themes, hopefully culminating in an emerging new era that brings a healthy combined and balanced perspective, what we might call “Community Individualism” which will allow us to overcome our challenges and usher in a thriving new era for humanity.
So let’s take a brief tour through the eight waves of cultural evolution. The characteristics of each of these are based on the original research by Professor Graves dating back to the 1950’s. He saw these various stages as part of an “unfolding, emergent, oscillating, spiraling process” which was an adaptive response to our changing life conditions. He also discovered that the same change process and the same general stages of development we can see in the evolution of our species can also be seen in the development of an individual from infant to adulthood. Here’s a summary of the eight waves of cultural consciousness throughout history as described by the model called Spiral Dynamics:
Archaic worldview — The first stage of human development began with the emergence of the species Homo Sapiens about 1,000,000 years ago, and continued with the first anatomically modern species Homo Sapiens Sapiens about 200,000 years ago. This was where archaic man was impulsive, egocentric, reflexive, automatic, and used instincts and habits just to survive. At this stage, it’s all about satisfying individual needs and urges, physiologically and biologically. Food, water, warmth, sex, and safety have priority. They formed survival clans to perpetuate life. Identity was egocentric.
Characteristics/Examples: First human societies, survival bands, newborn infants, senile elderly, late-stage Alzheimer’s victims, mentally ill street people, starving masses, shell shock. Described in anthropological fiction like Jean Auel’s Clan of the Cave Bear.
Tribal worldview — Then came the communal tribal wave about 50,000 years ago where man sought safety in family bonds and tribal communities from the threatening world of mysterious and magical powers and spirits. They followed the ritualistic ways of the tribe. They showed allegiance to the chief, elders, ancestors, and the tribe. They observed rites of passage, seasonal cycles, and tribal customs. Identity is tribe- centric.
Characteristics/Examples: Belief in guardian angels and voodoo-like curses, blood oaths, chanting and trance dancing, good luck charms, mystical ethnic beliefs and superstitions, Keep the spirits happy and the tribe’s nest warm and safe, the world was a magical place alive with spirit beings and mystical signs, strong in third-world settings, indigenous peoples, native American Indians.
Warrior worldview — In the next individualistic wave that emerged 10,000 years ago mankind pushed away from the communal confines of the tribal era. It was a jungle out there, where the tough and strong prevailed, while the week served. It was all about asserting the self to dominate others. It was about egoic power and control and conquest and exploitation. This is the basis of strong rulers and feudal empires. Identity is egocentric.
Characteristics/Examples: Power, exploitive, express impulsively, break free, be strong, please self as self desires, expects attention, demands respect, calls the shots, enjoys to the fullest without guilt or remorse, dominates other aggressive characters, basis of strong rulers and feudal empires, the terrible twos, rebellious youth, frontier mentalities, feudal kingdoms, epic heroes, soldiers of fortune, wild rock stars, Attila the Hun, gang leaders, prison culture, raging dictators, religious extremists.
Traditional worldview — The communal traditional wave which emerged about 5,000 years ago brought about a more conformist, authoritarian worldview to bring stability and order to the violent and chaotic individualistic ways of the egocentric warrior era. Here it is about obedience and reverence to a higher power that punishes evil and promised later rewards for good works and right living. In this community-oriented worldview it’s about conformity and obedience, usually in absolutistic ways, to the rules of the higher authority, be it their god or their nationalistic leader. This is the basis for ancient nations. Identity is ethnocentric.
Characteristics/Examples: One sacrifices self to transcendent cause, truth, or righteous pathway; absolutist and unvarying principles of “right” and “wrong”; discipline, authority; meaning and purpose from higher power; order and stability; good versus evil; rigid social hierarchies; paternalistic; follow the given rules; God’s will (of any religion), righteousness, “tough cop”, “moral majority”, deep south of U.S., monks, rabbis, “value voters”, pro-life activists, fascism, fundamentalists of every stripe, extreme patriotism. Boy and girl scouts; George W. Bush, Jerry Falwell, John Wayne Archetype.
Modern worldview — Then an individualistic, enterprising and achievement oriented worldview emerged about 500 years ago to break free of the communal obedience and conformity of the traditional era. In this rational, pragmatic, and results- oriented wave the world was seen as full of resources and possibilities to make things better and bring prosperity. It’s about getting ahead and achieving. It strives to enhance living through science and technology and commerce. This is the basis for the corporate state. Identity is ethnocentric in some respects, but world-centric in others, such as with global markets.
Characteristics/Examples: Individuality, accomplishing, competitiveness, 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.
Postmodern worldview — To balance out the extreme individualism a communal and pluralistic wave emerged so that humanity can find love and purpose through affiliation, sharing and harmony with others. In this humanistic and relativistic worldview, it’s about joining together to take care of all humans and the planet. Egalitarianism and anti-hierarchy sentiment are strong. Here it is seen that the human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma, and divisiveness. Feelings, sensitivity, and caring supersede cold rationality. This worldview embraces diversity, multiculturalism, gender equity, children’s rights, environmentalism, and animal welfare. It wishes to do away with all hierarchies as it sees they are oppressive. This is the basis for value communities and affinity groups. Identity is world-centric.
Characteristics/Examples: 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; sometimes narcissistic — me generation. Doctors without Borders, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Company, ACLU, deep ecology, Jimmy Carter, Oprah, Michael Moore, John Lennon, warm group hugs, Jesus Christ (stereotypical portrayal), MLK’s “I have a dream”.
Integral worldview — In recognition of the ever-present culture wars among all the various worldviews the more holistic integral worldview emerged about 50 years ago. It recognizes that people of all the various worldviews are convinced that their worldview is the only right one, and everyone else is wrong. The integral worldview is the first one to see the value of all the other worldviews and actually attempts to integrate and embrace the best of all of them while recognizing there are healthy and unhealthy expressions of each. The more systemic integral perspective recognizes natural hierarchies, where some values are simply more true, or more life-affirming than others. It seeks to integrate the head and the heart, the inner realms with external realms, and the best of art, science and spirituality. While this worldview moves closer to a healthy balance between individual and community themes, it has thus far kept with the pattern by expressing itself mostly on the individualistic side. It strives for independence and self-worth while building a functional niche to do what one chooses. It brings an existential and systemic perspective while recognizing that change is the norm and uncertainty is a usual state of being. Basis of the integral commons and conscious capitalism. Identity is world-centric.
Characteristics/Examples: Integrity, competence, sustainability; restore vitality and balance to the world torn asunder; holistic, accepting, inclusive: “we need all the worldviews”; works to integrate and heal the larger community; big reduction in personal fear; commitment to life- serving goals; rises above ideology; sometimes materialistic and elitist; “cultural creatives”, Barack Obama, Carl Sagan’s astronomy, Ken Wilber, the sustainability movement, Clare Graves, David Bohm, the LOHAS movement, collaborative innovation, chaos theory, Stephen Hawking’s Brief History of Time.
Geotribal (One Tribe) worldview — The geotribal worldview has come about within the last few decades (but in force since 2011) in recognition that what’s needed is a global empathy for all of humanity, as a global tribe. It is recognized in this worldview that each of the different worldviews seems to push away from the one that came before it, which is evolutionarily appropriate. It is with the urgency of our global crises on all fronts and recognition that the integral worldview plays a necessary but insufficient role, that the geotribal era has emerged. Geotribal sees that the integral worldview plays a vital, culminating, or “coming together” role, in that it attempts to recognize and respect all other worldviews while trying to bring an end to the harsh judgments associated with the culture wars. But the geotribal worldview pushes off of the integral stage’s attachment to old-paradigm reformist thinking when the current life conditions call for radical, quantum leap, new paradigm thinking and being. In this new paradigm, Community Individualism is the theme, where a global unity can be realized among great diversity. Non-separation and unity and oneness are all part of it. Collective consciousness emerges, with the help of the global brain and nervous system, the internet. Collaboration overtakes competition, synergistic interconnectedness overtakes separation. The world is a single dynamic organism with its own collective mind. Energy and information permeate the Earth’s total environment. Holistic, intuitive, being, thinking and cooperative actions are to be expected. Identity is world-centric and cosmocentric.
Characteristics/Examples: holistic, collective individualism, multi-dimensional, trans-rational and trans- national, restore harmony, interconnected, sensing, intuitive, global networks for global results, abundance over scarcity, Marshall McLuhan’s ‘global village’, Rupert Sheldrake and morphic fields, Gandhi’s ideas of pluralistic harmony, Charles Eisenstein’s Ascent of Humanity and Sacred Economics, James Lovelock’s ‘Gaia hypothesis’, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin’s ‘noosphere’. Nikola Tesla’s free energy, Michel Bauwens Peer- to-peer Cooperative Commons, Jacque Fresco and the Venus Project’s societal redesign, Peter Joseph and the Zeitgeist Movement’s ‘natural law resource based economy’. Basis of global commons, transcending capitalism and monetary exchange altogether.
Whereas all the pre-integral worldviews blame the other worldviews (or more precisely people with those worldviews), and the integral worldview blames consciousness itself (or lack thereof) for the culture wars, the geotribal worldview sees that it is our entire socio-economic paradigm that has now morphed into its current cancerous form that threatens our very existence. It sees that all of our institutions and systems are cultural constructs that can be changed or discarded as needed for our survival.
Where some progressives are harking back to the primitive hunter-gatherer lifestyles of the indigenous tribes, and some anti-civilization activists are suggesting that the whole “civilization experiment” was a colossal mistake, those with the geotribal worldview are wishing to call forth some of the values and ways of the tribal era, but at a higher level taking advantage of all the positive advancements and technologies we’ve created through all the eras, while jettisoning everything that’s outdated and counter-productive to our survival.
Value Memes
So now that we are aware of the eight general worldviews let’s think back to the chapter about “The People’s History of Monetary and Moneyless Cultures. We can see the completely different ways of thinking, or what can be called value systems. Let’s combine that with something else to expand our language. The word “Memes” 5 refers to self-propagating ideas, habits, or cultural practices. This term was coined by British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene 6. Memes can be regarded as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate, and respond to selective pressures. But now if we add the term “values” to the term “meme” we get “value memes”, which are systems of core values that go along with the eight worldviews we’ve been discussing. Again, we should try to avoid over-generalizing or judging people, but if we look at the “thinking” of the people in chapter three, rather than the people themselves, we can see unmistakable indicators that match some of the value memes, as described below:
Consciousness Quotes from Chapter 3:
Tribal Consciousness — “Arawaks lived in village communes”, “they offer to share with anyone“, “They lack all manner of commerce”,”our people and grandchildren shall remain in the circle in security, peace and happiness”, “The senior women in the village named the men who represented the clans at village and tribal councils”, “They were taught equality in status and the sharing of possessions”, “No laws and ordinances, sheriffs and constables, judges and juries, or courts or jails.”
Warrior Consciousness — “I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn”, “it led Columbus to take some of them aboard ship as prisoners”
Traditional Consciousness — “his indomitable will, his superb faith in God and in his own mission as the Christ- bearer to lands beyond the seas, his stubborn persistence despite neglect, poverty and discouragement”, “dominated as it was by the religion of popes, the government of kings”
Modern Consciousness — “the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold. . .There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals…” , “Behind the English invasion of North America, behind their massacre of Indians, their deception, their brutality, was that special powerful drive born in civilizations based on private property.”, “The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold?”
Postmodern Consciousness -The historian’s distortion is more than technical, it is ideological; it is released into a world of contending interests, where any chosen emphasis supports (whether the historian means to or not) some kind of interest, whether economic or political or racial or national or sexual.”
Integral Consciousness — the perspective that’s looking at all of this through the different value memes. It also recognizes that, to be fair, Howard Zinn’s book takes a one-sided (the people’s side), negatively focused perspective. From an integral perspective, we can recognize that there are healthy and unhealthy, negative and positive, aspects of each of the waves of consciousness, and each is important. We can recognize that all stages of development were necessary to get us to where we are today.
Geotribal Consciousness — the hopeful, new paradigm perspective that recognizes that we can include and transcend the ways of the tribal worldview of the distant past while embracing the use of science and technology for human betterment. Perhaps we can evolve to a world beyond money… to a world of true freedom, of true individuality, of true community, of true harmony with nature, of true civilization.
“Could we make [the native American spirit] our own, there would be an eternally inexhaustible earth and a forever lasting peace.”
Congratulations dear reader for making it this far through an uncommon historical account of human evolution on the inside…something you are probably unaccustomed to from your schooling. Perhaps now we will have a more complete and grounded perspective as we take a fresh look at the more typically studied external evolutionary history, or evolution on the outside. This can be quite exciting, for if we understand the evolution of our own consciousness (evolution on the inside) than we can begin to consciously affect our external evolution of things and systems (evolution on the outside), and vice versa. This will then allow us to consciously, or with intention, take our next great evolutionary leap — The Next Copernican rEvolution.
Next Chapter - Chapter 8: Q&A: Evolution on the outside — Seven External Phase- Changes
Chapter Index
Clare W. Graves - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_W._Graves
Don Edward Beck - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Edward_Beck
Spiral Dynamics - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Dynamics
Describing the levels of development, or consciousness, many different philosophers and researchers have used different from schemes and naming conventions:
- Jean Gebser - structures of human consciousness.
- Dr Clare W. Graves in an article entitled Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap - http://www.clarewgraves.com/articles_content/1974_Futurist/1974_Futurist.html
- Ken Wilber - AQAL Model
- Steve McIntosh in his book Integral Consciousness - http://www.stevemcintosh.com/books/integral-consciousness/
- Don Beck & Chris Cowen in their book Spiral Dynamics - http://www.spiraldynamics.com/book/SDreview_Dinan.htm
- John Marshall Roberts in his book Igniting Inspiration - http://worldviewthinking.com/
- Steve McDonald in his article, Human Evolution - Who are we Becoming? http://www.eman8.net/human-evolution-who-are-we-becoming/
The naming convention I use here is a conglomeration of all of the different people above, in a manner that I think best describes the levels or waves or eras.
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_Gene