Is the “New Earth” for everybody ?
Most of us have realized that the world is changing drastically. Most of us also would like “something else”. But what, how, when, with whom, … Our experiences with hundreds of “wannabe” changemakers taught us a lot, on what works, who makes it, who does not. The results are startling…
To make a long story short, I categorized clusters of people into the 9 levels of “Spiral Dynamics” — and I will go through the different typologies, levels of maturity, and explain which are the hurdles they meet towards transition to the next economy and society. Of course, this is not an exact science, but let’s call it an exercise. Capacity of truly participating in drastic change, manifests itself when things get tough. When the sh.t hits the fan. Now, I lost all my naivety this summer 2021, because I witnessed mostly — suprizing — immature reactions to rising challenges. From politics, business leazders, but also from “normal citizens”. What can we do with this society and humanity with such an immature leadership ? Not much, in my opinion. But even if we can find 0,3% of “mature” leadership, let’s nurture it, get inspired by it, and multiply and mimic it like a ripple-effect. And transition should be fine, for those who have enough guts to put their as..es in gear.
1. BEIGE : I cannot change because I am afraid of losing…
Those who are afraid to lose the few things they still can hold on, are “freezing” when facing shocks. They will not change or evolve until a shock big enough will oblige them to get to the next step of their life (life threatening accident, violent illness, heartbreaking divorce,…).
2. PURPLE: I cannot, they have to…
They rely on their boss, their politics, … to pull them out of their problems, and thus “give away” their power of action to somebody else. In the best case, they will follow as sheeps. But when the sh.t hits the fan, when its really tough (and it does), they will run away or back off.
3. RED: Me… myself… and I
Totally ego-driven, nevrotically egocentric, will only move if it offers a feeling of “being the boss”, but without true leadership. When things get difficult, or deep action is needed, will try to find someone else to be guilty, or dance around responsibility. Typical “petit chefs” or middle management profiles. They lose ground very quickly when agility is needed.
4. BLUE: I would like more purpose, but…
They will talk a lot about the “why”, positive purpose, new meaning, and whine about lack of it in their current lives. They will, in the best case, work quite hard, and finally burnout or become exhausted. They still have a partial scope on personal and world reality. These “wounded” profiles need time, healing and introspection. When they emerge, they can be beautiful change partners.
5. ORANGE: I’m convincing myself I am able to… but…
Still very much ego-driven. The “power of intention” is their thing. As they dealt very little with their own cleanup of their lives, they still look for an externally manifested success. Appearances. The ego of “intellect”, success, … and dogma, square ideas. Convinced they have “it”. When its getting tough, they don’t understand why. They only stick to tangible appearances. The wakeup call can be very hard. Lots of narcissistic “influencers”, manipulators and “golden boys” are gone when its high tide, but also lots of wannabe’s. When correctly focused and well supervised, can be great achievers. But regularly need to humble and anchor into the here and now, with mindfulness.
6. GREEN: Let’s gather with groups, I wanna find my tribe…
They realized they are not going to make it alone. Good. They look for a sense of community to share their feelings, emotions and hopes. They kind of rely on that community to move forward. >90% of those communities fail because of lack of personal power and depth (like in coaching groups, co-habitat, ecovillages, hippies, peer coaching groups, …). Endless discussions on governance, rules, purpose, end up with exhaustion. These groups are typical for activists, ecolo-bobo (bourgeois bohème), but also for late wake-ups who “have seen the light” in some chamanic group, ayahuasca session or spiritual retreat. Those groups need a strong leader and action-driven energy. Otherwise it can lead to lots of frustration and waste of time. But well-channelled and led, these groups can be strong and inspiring.
7. YELLOW: Everything is connected…
Able to observe connexions between events, things, subjects, tangible and intangible, cross business areas and sciences, with an expanding agility, these changemakers are strong and humble. They doubt a lot, and often are swinged between multiple dimensions — going back and forth behind the mirror and in tangible life. Lots of personal work, meditation and mindful anchoring needed to be able to stay “standing” — or better “agile surfing”. They are behind the mirror — but never forget its a tough choice they have made, and they are regularly blown and shaken by life itself to test coherence, integrity and personal leadership and awareness. Often they “want to leave” (read: die) because life on this planet its too hard. But life and love keeps them going… they came here for a reason…
8. TURQUOISE: Life is a whole…
Full-blown “wise leaders”, they are inspiring, connected, integer and coherent people capable of bringing their truth & best essence to the world, and inspire the masses. Mandela, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, Soeur Emmanuelle,… They are humble and hard workers, and thus true changemakers by being themselves, manifesting their truth and change they want to see in the world.
9. CORAL: Transcendent wisdom
We’ll talk again when we met them. I didn’t, but I do look forward… :-) I think “they” are hiding, waiting for a maximum of people to wake up by themselves. I am convinced that if there is a Messiah, he (or she) is waiting… leaving free choice to everyone of us, to choose for personal truth and awakening. Otherwise it would be too easy, and unrewarding.
The very strange observation, is that more than ever, these different maturity levels cobabit. Second tier (7, 8 and 9) are those who truly are capable to bring our society to the next level. The others too, in a way, but there are still lots of pitfalls. It is a metamorphosis process. But we shall not be naive, and rely on immature leadership. 3% would be yellow, 0,3% turquoise, following the Don Beck & Chris Cowan estimate, and Thomas Q Johns extrapolation. It means 30.000 belgians would be yellow, and 3.000 turquoise. This should make it…
Where are you ? What are you up to ?
We will soon be cleared on who is who… this winter will be kind of a global “wake up call”. Post-covid plans, Green Deal, post cataclysm reconstruction. We shall see… who does what, and how. Time for truth. Small inspiring resilience islands led by great humble people. And, triple every 6 months. Change and mutate from the bottom-up.
“A scheme such as Spiral Dynamics is not meant to judge and hierarchize people but rather to help us to recognize where people are at in their value systems and to understand how they come at their opinions and decisions. Thus, enligthened leadership is to see how everyone can be contributing to the collective project of making our societies more resilient and apt to survive the coming turbulent waters. The people who can see the ‘system’ and its complexity, have a vital role and should be encouraged to take on leadership roles; many more find this kind of knowledge and practice aspirational and thus, such leaders function as beacons and mentors. This does not mean that the majority of the population, concerned with the wellbeing of their loved ones, are on their own. On the contrary, the task here is to embed infrastructures with a minimal wisdom, so that everyone can benefit from civilizational upgrades. We can take a simple example: do we leave the social media rules to companies that have a for-profit motivation and construct algorithms that enslave and manipulate us, or do we embed rules of engagement, that allow for more civil and constructive dialogue ?”
— Input thanks to Michel Bauwens — https://p2pfoundation.net/
So basically, it boils down to:
The OLD Earth : Go with inertia, don’t move, don’t change, hope for going back to “normal”, and buy whatever “they” will sell you — ideas, dogma, products. Hide your sufferings under the carpet. The New Earth is not for you. Sorry. Not now — maybe later, maybe not.
or,
The NEW Earth : Take the ‘red pill’, go for your truth, dive into the rabbit hole, develop and bring the best of your talents to contribute to progress. For yourself first, your family, your teams and communities, for humanity. Engage into local projects, collaborations, reflexions, move the lines, project yourself, your families, your teams, into a desirable future. Learn by doing, together. The whole idea is to “go back” to unity through pacifying yourself with your own story, past, and ancestors. But we have to help each other, to mirror what is there and what screams for healing and transformation around us. Put light and healing around it. Around the other, around the wound. We need each other for that, humbly. We learn all the time, but we need to hold hands. Talk about feelings, about oneself, in transparency, in weakness and vulnerability, so we can recognize and heal with love. But also, lets not be naive, it should be done with firmness, but without terrorizing. Otherwise the alliance does not hold. Its the way to wipe away all the dust from the shelves, to a clean situation, free from burdens, to open the way to transcendance.
But yes, lets face it, two worlds are emerging in front of our eyes. A vision for the future ? Easy. The old one will die out in a few generations. The new one will emerge little by little, with the most courageous and loving communities. Make your choice.
Michel de Kemmeter
