Why Understanding Spiral Dynamics Matters Right Now

Spiral Dynamics is worth investigating, because understanding the color-coded memes can place the recent political mess in the United States into a context that makes a little more sense.

The media describes a political spectrum that has Republicans and conservatives on one end Democrats and liberals on the other. An individual’s placement on that spectrum can often be predicted by a variety of factors, such as race, sex, income, religious identity (and devotion to that religion), education, sexual/gender identity and many others. As we identify with these factors, we end up dividing into tribes. This has always been the case, but it seems that we are losing the ability to compromise and find ways of working together. Why this is so, is worth exploring all by itself (but not right now).

As we are unlikely to find and implement a solution to the growing partisan divide in America any time soon, it might be worth looking at the problem from a higher level. Spiral Dynamics is not another way to slice and dice the electorate into ever smaller bits. It is a way to get a higher-level view of the big picture and maybe see a path forward over the long term.

There are six Tier-1 color-coded memes in Spiral Dynamics. The first two memes (beige and purple) are not seen at the group level in the United States. The overwhelming majority of adults in the US fall into one of these memes:

Red: Those in this meme see everyone in two categories; us and them. They are looking to follow a strong leader who will protect “us” against “them”. The mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 was operating from the red meme.

Blue: Those in the Blue meme believe that everyone is subordinate to a higher power or principle. This includes the leaders all the way down to the poorest of the poor. They are concerned with order and stability. Limiting your individual impulses now will lead to rewards later; both for the individual and the group. Evangelical Christians operate from Blue.

Orange: These folks are less concerned with adhering to the rules set by others. They are concerned more with achieving individual success. They seek autonomy and independence. They embrace change, innovation, and progress. The internet and everything that came with it arise from the Orange meme.

Green: The Green meme is concerned with a sense of community, harmony, and consensus. They seek liberation from greed and dogma. They believe that the world’s resources should be shared equally with all.

One thing that is true for all the Tier-1 memes is that each is convinced that they are right and the other three are wrong. No one person fits neatly into a single color, but wherever they are, they are absolutely convinced of their rightness. This is the defining characteristic of all Tier-1 memes.

Societies and individuals progress through these memes over time. If you are personally at Green, it is easy to assume that Green is better than Orange and Orange is better than Blue which is better than Red. That is not true. All of these memes are necessary to both the group and the individual. And none of them are better than the others. You can say that a two-story house is better than a one-story house, but you cannot have a two-story house without the first story. And both parts of that house need a foundation upon which to rest.

Green would not be possible without the wealth and societal infrastructure created by Orange. And Orange could not have built that wealth and infrastructure without the rule of law and the stability created by our belief in our democratic system of government. Those are Blue concepts.

Over the last twenty to forty years, we have seen a political realignment in America. It started when non-college-educated white men left the Democratic party and voted for Ronald Reagan. Soon after, college educated voters and entrepreneurs began to drift from their old home in the Republican Party to their new home with the Democrats.

We now see American politics divided into two camps. On one side is an alignment of the Red meme (high school educated whites) allied with the Blue meme (evangelical Christians). This alliance is pitted against an alliance between Orange (internet/tech sector, business, wealth) and Green (social justice, environmentalists). Obviously, this is a very simplistic summary, and does not completely describe the reality.

Still, from a 50,000-foot level, I think that this is an accurate description. In addition to each meme being completely convinced of their own rightness, the Red and Blue memes feel threatened as their influence in society seems to be shrinking. They are correct in this assessment. Then they are insulted, because they perceive that Orange and Green are looking down on them as backwards and ignorant. For their part, Orange and Green are looking down on Red and Blue as backwards and ignorant.

This illustrates the limits of Tier-1 thinking. The first meme in Tier-2 is Yellow. At this stage, we begin to see that there are no good colors/meme or bad colors/memes. Each is a necessary step in human growth, just as Yellow is a necessary step to what comes after.

So the path forward for American politics may be to just keep looking forward, both as individuals and as a society. The violent criminal finds Jesus in prison and moves from Red to Blue. The Blue fundamentalist Christian moves to Orange when they open their mind to the idea that faith does not require rejection of science. Orange moves to Green when they realize that accumulation of wealth is pointless as an end unto itself. Green moves to Yellow when they learn tolerance of all people, even the people that they hate.

Ultimately, it is all connected. Ultimately, it all belongs.