It’s not getting any better, is it?
To borrow a quip from the British comic cultural historian, Philomena Cunk, “The world stands at a fork in its crossroads”.1 It seems that everything is getting worse. Take your pick or see them together: climate, ecology, economy, all seeming on the brink of breakdown, with horrific wars in the background.
I am an optimist. I think that many of us who are using developmental models may be similar, seeing in the long-term trajectory of human existence the evidence that as a collective we become more and more civilized, increasingly capable of creating a better life. Likewise, for those following more spiritual or esoteric paths, the narrative since the 60s has been that we are entering “The Age of Aquarius”2.
Such optimism should not be blind. Zoom in on any developmental line and the sense of steady progress looks very bumpy. Biological evolution has extinctions as well as expansions. Human development has always been turbulent and often the birth of the new has been painful as the forces of an old order hold on and the next development fights to establish itself.
In its essence, the Spiral Dynamics framework of human emergence presents us with oscillations. It is too easy to look at the progression of the stages of our development and see them in a linear way, overlooking the depth of the dynamic tensions between the individualist “I” and communal “We” priorities and the turbulence of historical reality, where humans have fought to contain chaos, to establish a new order, and then to break its chains in order to progress. Monarchies are overthrown and despots always fall – eventually. The dollar is the world’s currency – until it isn’t.3 Biological evolution is no different. Species achieve dominance and then become a novel food source or bacterial/viral host. That is our lived experience. Ecologies develop through both collaboration and competition4 and an ecology that is out of balance either finds its way to restore some equilibrium, or it collapses.
Dr. Clare W. Graves, the originator of the research and theory that became Spiral Dynamics, described this bifurcation too. His seminal “Human Nature Prepares for a Momentous Leap” article foresaw how things would be now but did not describe an inevitable outcome. Far from it. The possibility of human self-destruction or collapse is explicitly present alongside the potential for us to progress. I believe that this is showing up in the way that people are responding. Even those who would rather put their heads in the sand are affected by the presence of conversations about issues like climate change. But it is also a human characteristic to seek short-term solutions and wish to maintain our comfort.
The fork that I see is between an increase in fear and an ability to step beyond it towards the future. The result of the first has been and continues to be the move towards populist politics, setting up others (e.g., migrants) as enemies, and the loss of the middle ground in political discourse. In Spiral terms, this is a shift to the negative forms of Purple, like tribalism, and greater acceptance of dysfunctional Red-driven power dynamics and authoritarian leaders. Beneath both of these is the felt sense of existential threat, often hard to name or even recognize consciously.
Those who choose to remain conscious retain a focus on both self-improvement and human betterment. We may strive to embrace the Yellow flexibility and solutions-focus that takes us towards Second Tier. Graves’s data and the theory inform us that this shift reduces our emotionality so that we are aware of the fears, etc., but not driven by them.
Nevertheless, whichever path is taken, I believe we are all aware of the pressure. In my coaching and organizational conversations as well as my Relational Being work the themes of overwhelm and overload show up repeatedly, hence the title of this post. Are you sensing this too? The life conditions are what they are, and while we have choices of how to respond, the extent of disruption and chaos is present all around.
My optimism notwithstanding, I see the nature of such transitions as indicating that the near future will not be magically better than now. Rather, I expect the chaos and pressure to increase. In fact, this is part of my optimism, because it is part of the way that the old gives way to the new and not necessarily comfortable. But the new outcome is not guaranteed, and I believe it depends on us and our fellow humans.
Which direction will we take, and more than that, in what manner? Perhaps I should be more personal – which way are you taking, and how?
What I am saying is that there is no inevitability and no place for passivity. Whatever your belief systems, your astrological readings or natural inclinations might be saying, the outcomes of this transition will depend on us. Spiral Dynamics is filled with indicators that might help us to navigate, to see ourselves more clearly, to make better choices or to understand what is happening in the world. And SD is not the only such model. But evolution, or emergence, or societal change are impacted by our choices. Indeed, when there is such strong evidence that our leaders have lost the plot, it is more than ever down to us.
And whatever my reality frame about the nature of consciousness, and however much I might support the power of prayer, creative visualization or other manifestation tools, they may not be not enough. I see a need for action at every level from the spiritual to the societal to the physical. Even if the cosmos is “with us” energetically as some people believe, we would have to take that energy and use it. The belief that change can or will come from the top, from governments or those in power, besides flying in the face of evidence,5 is like expecting our parents to sort it all out. But we are adults and must own the possibility that we know more. It is our time and our job to do. We may have children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews of our own.
So, what should we do? There is no roadmap, and I can’t answer for anyone else. The principle must be to do what you can, where you can, with whatever resources you have available, and in concert with whichever others you feel drawn to.
Of course, I encourage you to also build resilience, and to train, to learn about your inner development, and to dive deeper into my earlier Substack articles as well as explore my Relational Being website.
Relational Being offers a shift to the centre, a meeting point for the convergence of those whose attention has all been outwards onto politics, and those whose attention has all been on conscious creation. Both are needed. But my wish, irrespective of all that, is that more of us and more of those who care for the planet and its inhabitants, choose to do something in service of that wish.
"Medley: Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures)", commonly called "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In", "The Age of Aquarius" or "Let the Sunshine In", comprises two songs written for the 1967 musical Hair by James Rado and Gerome Ragni (lyrics), and Galt MacDermot (music).
Elizabet Sahtouris: “Earthdance: Living Systems in Evolution”.
The current UK government is both the most corrupt and the least competent of any in my lifetime and I fear that we are not untypical.