- Moving from Orange to Green: Green stage of development emerges as a response to the limitations of Orange stage, especially dissatisfaction with materialism and a lack of fulfillment. People at this stage realize that material success doesn't equate to happiness, and they shift their focus towards building meaningful relationships and a sense of community.
- Characteristics of Green Stage: The Green stage prioritizes values such as equality, peace, and justice for all, recognizing the validity of different cultures, races, and species. They also emphasize environmental values demonstrating their concern for the ecological impact caused by activities in the Orange stage. This stage encourages a shift from competition to cooperation and from a pure focus on self to inclusiveness and serving the collective.
- Cultural Shift towards Green: Green stage individuals typically hail from educated, middle-class backgrounds, often residing in urban or suburban areas and usually possessing higher education degrees. This accounts for a large percentage of the population in developed countries.
- Emergence of Green Values: Green values emerge when Orange stage individuals become disillusioned with the self-centered quest for material success. They start to value human connection and love, oppose oppressive systems, and notice the environmental impact of unchecked capitalism.
- Focus on Global Community: Unlike the Blue Stage, which focuses on the community of one's own civilization or country, Green stage individuals consider the entire world as their community. They look beyond boundaries of race, culture, and nationality, seeking peace, justice, and equality for all humanity.
- Reaction against Materialism: Green stage individuals reject the shallow materialism of the Orange stage, embracing humanity and a non-dogmatic form of spirituality instead. They start valuing the interconnectedness of all life and are often disturbed by the socio-economic inequalities and environmental issues caused by previous stages.
- Sustainability and Environment Consciousness: The Green stage individuals realize that the consumerist lifestyles of the Orange stage are not sustainable. They develop an acute awareness of environmental issues and promote eco-friendly practices and sustainable living.
- Work-Life Balance in Green stage: Workaholics from the Orange stage often transition into Green stage due to burnout. They start prioritizing their personal lives and relationships over relentless pursuit of career success. There's a clear shift from a focus on the destination (material success) to enjoying the journey (human relationships and love).
- Values Associated with the Green Stage: Green stage values include empathy, compassion, equality, social progress, and activism. With a shift from left-brain thinking in the Orange stage to right-brain thinking, they also emphasize 'heart-centered' qualities such as love, community, and cooperation.
- Understanding Stage Green: Stage Green in Spiral Dynamics is a shift in focus towards collective values and principles, superseding the self-oriented and materialistic perspective of Stage Orange.
- - Key Values of Green: Core values include love, empathy, kindness, compassion, mercy, humanism, equality (gender, racial, and social), social conscience, and a focus on humanitarian causes. They are anti-materialistic, anti-consumerist, and against greed. They are inclined towards activism and protests, and favour living harmoniously with people and the environment.
- - Interpersonal Connections in Green: Individuals at this stage value relationships, bonding, pacifism, peace, diversity, multiculturalism, and cosmopolitanism. They also embrace a less hierarchical society and cultural relativism, acknowledging the validity of all cultures without seeing their own as superior. They strive for consensus building and mutual understanding.
- - Femininity and Intimacy in Green: Green stage promotes femininity and interpersonal skills, contrasting with the patriarchal tendencies of the previous stages. Sex is considered to be an intimate experience rather than purely physical pleasure. More value is placed on shared feelings and experiences, promoting a more humanized connection.
- - Spiritual and Social Consciousness in Green: There is an increased focus on spirituality, environmental protection, human-centered communities, protecting the vulnerable, and assisting the downtrodden. They advocate for resource redistribution and level playing fields to ensure equal opportunities. Open-mindedness, free love, creativity, and art for art's sake are also valued.
- - Green's Emphasize on Teamwork and Altered States Exploration: Green promotes teamwork, dialogue, and sharing ideas and feelings. They show a propensity toward mind-altering substances to explore altered states of consciousness, which were taboo for previous stages.
- - Prioritizing Health and Exercise in Green: Green values health food and exercise more than the previous stages.
- - Green's Against Cold Rationality: Feelings and care supersede cold, rational decisions in green, goals and objectives are defined in human terms, such as happiness or love, instead of quantitative metrics.
- - Personal Growth and Introspection in Green: Green promotes introspection and personal growth towards self-awareness, emotional health, and compassionate behavior, showing signs of openness to new-age concepts.
- - Tolerance and Acceptance in Green: Green individuals are more accepting and tolerant of different views, focusing on communication and feelings.
- Characteristics of the Green stage in entrepreneurship: Green values start to shape entrepreneurship, with focus on responsible business practices that promote human and environmental sustainability. Figures like Elon Musk illustrate this approach, targeting advancements that are beneficial for humanity and the planet.
- Green attitudes towards employees: Unlike the Orange stage, where employees are treated as cogs in a machine, Green employers nurture their employees, care about their feelings, and seek their input, creating a more inclusive workplace.
- Appearance and materialism in Green: Displays of affluence and outward appearances are less valued in the Green stage. Attention shifts to inner qualities and deeper forms of interaction. This can be seen in personal relationships where Green individuals prioritize deeper qualities over physical attractiveness.
- Individualism in Green: Green promotes individualism, although in a somewhat conformist way. This is evident in the diverse yet somewhat homogeneous fashion choices in Green communities.
- Burning Man as a symbol of Green: The Burning Man festival, with its emphasis on community, self-expression, environmental consciousness, and inclusivity, embodies the essence of the Green stage.
- Green in politics and media: Progressive political figures and parties like Bernie Sanders and the Democrats, and media outlets like The Young Turks YouTube channel and Democracy Now, display Green values.
- Other examples of Green culture and values: The Green stage also manifests in New Age movements, animal rights activism (veganism), social work, community organizing, and spiritual meetup groups.
- Universities and Jordan Peterson's perspective: Universities often lean more towards the liberal and progressive ideology, which fits into the green stage of Spiral Dynamics. Social justice movements, LGBTQ rights, gender pronoun usage, and post-modern feminism are some examples. Jordan Peterson broadly labels these movements as "neo-marxists" due to some negative experiences he had in universities. Peterson's audience, typically falling into the blue-orange spectrum of Spiral Dynamics, often interprets "neo-marxist" with Soviet-era Marxist stereotype connotations. This creates a strong bias and resistance against the more progressive ideologies, preventing them from growing into and beyond the green stage.
- Criticisms and limitations of green and Peterson's approach: The broader green stage does have excesses and dangers, and can be met with unhealthy manifestations. However, the same can be said for all stages in the Spiral Dynamics. Over-focusing on the negative aspects of the next stage can prevent personal growth. Peterson's personal bias and critique against "neo-marxists" creates an unnecessary barrier for himself and others to grow into and pass the green stage. The progression through stages is crucial for overall personal development and even connecting with deeper, spiritual aspects of life.
- The green stage and its misconceptions: Calling green stage individuals "neo-marxists" is a disservice, as green values are not about radical revolution but rather a softening of harsh capitalism. Attaching negative labels like "neo-marxists" or "social justice warriors" does not aid personal development but rather creates a roadblock.
- The misconception of green socialism: Green stage socialism is different from blue stage socialism, which most conservatives confuse. It is not about abolishing private property but having more liberal policies, government programs, and increased taxation for societal benefits. It is also not about an intense radical revolution, as seen in Soviet-era Marxism. Northern European countries provide examples of functional socialist societies with benefits like healthcare, equality, and maternity leave. Misrepresenting green stage socialism using the failures of blue stage socialism creates an unnecessary fear, preventing growth into and past the green stage.
- Moderation and Balance in Committee or Liberal Views: Regardless of one's political inclination, there is a need for balance, moderation, and harmony.
- Examples of Green-leaning Organizations and Movements: These include Doctors Without Borders, universal healthcare, sensitivity training, non-denominational churches and green health food stores like Whole Foods.
- Whole Foods as a Bastion of Green: Whole Foods has been identified as a blended Orange and Green entity because it combines responsible and environmental consumerism with a business mindset.
- The Rabbits Meat Incident at Whole Foods: illustrates green values as well as highlights some of its hypocrisy. Rabbits' meat was removed from Whole Foods due to protests from the customers, even though the store still sold beef and chicken.
- Green Practices and Beliefs: Western forms of yoga, reiki, Buddhism, massage therapy are some practices that embody green values.
- Pope Francis as a Green Figure: The Pope is seen as having one foot in Blue and another in Green. This is evident in his very liberal positions on global warming, environment, and child welfare.
- Successful Green Countries/Cities/States: Certain places like Germany, California, San Francisco, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Canada are spearheading Green efforts.
- Green Career Choices and Causes: Careers like life coaching, children's rights advocacy, and environmental causes align with the Green stage.
- The Corporate Culture at Google and Apple: Google and Apple are given as examples of corporations that are half Orange and half Green due to their blend of business mindset and staff welfare consciousness.
- Examples from Popular Culture: Pop culture examples that embody green values include movies such as Into The Wild and companies like personal development company Mind Valley.
- The Values Espoused by Apple's CEO, Tim Cook: The way Apple's CEO Tim Cook treats their employees, the way he thinks about the future of the company, and believes in how Apple serves a role within society shows his green values.
- Green-Embodying Practices: Practices that embody green values include warning stickers, safety codes, talk therapy, men expressing their emotions openly, and the creation of utopian communes.
- Green Idealism and Tragic Excesses: In the green stage, the search for inner peace can lead to tragic endings. Examples include the story of Christopher McCandless, represented in the film "Into the Wild", where an idealistic journey into nature results in a tragic death due to lack of preparedness.
- Green Values and Stereotyping: Green embodies ideas like cultural diversity, mental health, equality, peace and consensus. While these values are seen as idealistic and unrealistic by other stages, they are crucial for personal and societal growth. However, ridiculing green values can hinder personal development and growth into the green stage. The danger of stereotyping green as bad often comes from misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
- Resistance Against Cultural Appropriation: Green values strongly resist cultural appropriation, advocating for the respect and appreciation of all cultures. This resistance can be seen as an extension of their quest for equality and justice.
- Entertainment Content Mocking Green Values: Content that makes fun of the excesses of Green stage, like the Ultra Spiritual Guy on YouTube, can stereotype and demean the stage. This can create a barrier that prevents individuals from growing into green values.
- Importance of Transcending Green: It's essential to recognize and laugh at the hilarious sides of Green, but it's equally important not to see Green as fundamentally flawed. Individuals need to see themselves becoming green and transcending it.
- Some Famous Green Examples: Examples of individuals and organizations that embody green values include Russell Brand, Sam Harris, the United Nations and the Osho Ashram.
- Danger of Green Consumerism: The expansion of Green stage has led to the fusion of green values with orange consumerism, effectively diluting some of the depth and breadth of green values like yoga and meditation.
- Green Triggers: Green is particularly sensitive to injustice, inequality, power hierarchies, oppression, human rights abuses, and unchecked capitalism. Other triggers include environmental destruction, animal cruelty, lack of empathy and cold-heartedness. Incidents like unchecked capitalism, exploitative business practices, school shootings or figures like Donald Trump can strongly trigger Green individuals.
- Petty Provocation Against Green: Provocation aimed at triggering Green individuals can lead to deeper entrenchment into blue and orange stages and hinder personal growth. However, everyone should aim to understand and integrate green values in their personal growth journey.
- Progressives' Frustration: This video section focuses on the tension and frustration among progressives, who envision a fairer, more democratic, and more egalitarian future for society. Many progressives feel that societal progress is slow and that more progress could be made if the population was more open-minded. The large majority of society tends to be traditionalist and conservative, leading to a tug-of-war between progress and maintaining the status quo.
- Unhealthy Manifestations of Green: When the progressive perspective (referred to as "Green" in the video), is taken to the extreme, it can lead to sensitivity, unrealistic idealism, and a lack of practical strategy. Green can prioritize dialogue and consensus but often lacks action.
- Green's Demonization of Materialism: People at the Green stage may criticize materialism and corporations, sometimes failing to recognize the necessity of these elements in society. Business and capitalism play important roles, and the focus should be on moderating and regulating them effectively, rather than opposing them completely.
- Green and Lower Stages: Green sometimes overlooks the importance of lower developmental stages, like Orange and Blue. The video emphasizes that Green does not replace these stages but includes and transcends them. Imposing Green ideals on underdeveloped countries may fail as these countries often lack the basic cultural and physical infrastructure to sustain such ideals.
- Green's Idealism and Misunderstanding of Cultural Differences: The Green stage's excessive idealism can lead to a misunderstanding or denial of the differences between individuals and cultures, emphasizing equality to the point of ignoring these differences. This can lead to unrealistic expectations, impractical solutions, and sometimes failed interventions.
- Green's Balance of Progression: A critical message emphasized in this context is the necessary balance between progression and the status quo. Societal evolution should not be too slow (risking extinction) or too rapid (triggering backlash). A system's survival depends on its ability to find this balance.
- Overzealousness within the Green Stage: Overzealousness can also emerge within the Green stage, leading to easily offended individuals, groupthink, and mob mentality. There is a tendency to demonize materialism and lack appreciation for the necessity of lower stages like Blue and Orange.
- Importance of Infrastructure: Trying to impose Green ideals on underdeveloped countries often fails to work because these countries lack the basic infrastructure to sustain such ideals. It's crucial to recognize the entirety of developmental stages and realize it's counterproductive to overly criticize or accelerate the process.
- Integral Thinking: Integral thinking is emphasized, acknowledging the interconnectedness of all human and societal aspects and understanding the need to move beyond idealistic thinking, appreciating complexity, fostering financial independence, and creating our unique paths outside the structured system.
- Different Levels of Development: People and cultures exhibit different levels of development and consciousness which isn't a good or bad but rather an evolutionary distinction mirrored in natural ecology where animals occupy various niches due to their unique specializations.
- Naive Pacifism: Green risks adopting a naive viewpoint that peace and love can solve all problems, failing to realize the complexity and inherent necessity of conflict in certain scenarios.
- Hierarchy and Consensus Decision-Making: Greens desire to flatten hierarchies can lead to inefficient decision-making processes within organizations. Efforts to ensure universal consensus may delay necessary actions and hinder pragmatism.
- Lack of Integration of Previous Stages: Individuals embodying the green stage without fully integrating the lessons of the orange (pragmatism) and blue (structure and order) stages can become ineffective, like a "deadbeat hippie" who has high ideals but can't hold a job or manage finances.
- Extent of Compassion: While green highly values compassion, it is necessary to differentiate between feminine compassion (soothe and help) and masculine compassion (the delivery of harsh truths) and apply them appropriately.
- Risk of Burnout: Overzealousness about social causes and caring excessively can lead to emotional burnout and can even push certain green individuals to the rare extreme of committing violent acts.
- Green Guilt: Green guilt arises from failure to live up to the high ideals of the green stage, such as equality, justice, and environmental responsibility. However, guilt can be disempowering and less conducive to making effective change.
- Reactionary vs Proactive: Green individuals can be reactionary, responding to issues as they arise, rather than proactively pursuing their own agendas and goals.
- Limitation of Independence and Entrepreneurial Spirit: Excessive green values in a society can stifle entrepreneurial spirit and independence, as seen in some Scandinavian countries where those attempting to rise above the average are looked down upon.
- Green's restraint of individuality: Green tries to attain consensus and harmony so much that it may suppress individuality.
- Green's superficial spirituality: Green may talk about spirituality but fails to embody deep non-dual mystical states and unconditional love,
- Green's sense of entitlement: Those who are green often forget that their green stage is built on top of other stages and may feel entitled to certain life conditions.
- Green's denial of differences: Green can deny significant differences among individuals or cultures, focusing excessively on equality.
- Green's naive altruism: Green may be idealistic and too trusting, making them susceptible to exploitation.
- Green's financial shortcomings: Green individuals can struggle with financial management, potentially leading to over-regulation and over-taxation.
- Green's denial of boundaries: Green may advocate for the elimination of boundaries, like open borders, without considering the complexities of survival.
- Green's idealism misconceptions: Green can fall into misconceptions because of their high ideals, leading to unanticipated issues when they fail to address practical details.
- Green's vulnerability to manipulation: Green's empathy can be exploited and manipulated, making them susceptible to being treated unfairly.
- Green's need for boundaries: Green needs to understand that boundaries are necessary for survival, with the challenge being where to draw these boundaries.
- Green's misinterpretation of equality: Green can misinterpret notions of equality to mean literal sameness, rather than focusing on equal rights and opportunities.
- Green Stage Values and Potential Shortcomings: The Green stage values empathy and compassion and this motivates some people to take up caring professions like nursing, social work, life coaching, and psychiatry. However, there are limitations to empathy. For instance, it can't resolve materially grounded problems such as those faced by many homeless people who might need medication or employment more than empathy or handouts. Besides, Green values can sometimes prevent people from telling harsh truths to avoid hurting others' feelings. Additionally, getting engrossed in social and political causes such as saving endangered species could distract from the need to work on self-improvement.
- Green Stage Demonstrating the Lesser Jihad Principle: In Islam, the idea of 'lesser jihad' translates to fighting external injustices, while 'greater jihad' refers to the struggle against one's own flaws and vices. The Green stage tends to focus heavily on the 'lesser jihad', dedicating itself to social causes such as civil rights movements. However, this external focus can distract from the inner work necessary for self-improvement and spirituality.
- Statistics on Green Stage: Approximately 10% of the global adult population identifies with the Green stage, with up to 30% in Western Europe and specific areas in the U.S. falling under this category. The Green stage exerts 15% of the total cultural influence globally through media, politics, business, charities, and NGOs. The style of government under Green tends to be a human-centered social network with flat hierarchies, utilizing a mix of socialist and capitalist elements. It endorses globalism and cultural melting pots.
- False Identity in Green Stage: The Green stage also carries false identities, just like other stages in the spiral. These false identities manifest as association with certain beliefs, ideologies, and cultural identification. The mark of true self-actualization and conscious development is to gradually let go of these false identities, which generally begins to resonate with individuals once they reach the Yellow stage and have some non-dual experiences.
- Transcending Green Stage: To transcend the Green stage, one must fully understand its limitations and begin learning about the Yellow stage, the next level. It's crucial that Green does not demonize lower stages but rather empathizes with different points of view. Simultaneously, Greens should also start thinking independently, seeing the world from the lower stages' perspectives, and acknowledging the essential role of stages like Orange and Blue. High attachment to social issues can hold back the deeper spiritual development that can push individuals towards transcending stages.
- Educational Privilege and Green Stage: People in the Green stage, usually born in developed countries and receiving good education, should understand that most of the world didn't have the same privilege. This acknowledgement can help relate to people in lower stages and understand that change takes time due to the rigid mindset instilled by certain types of restrictive education.
- Understanding bigotry and racism: Green stage individuals need to understand that bigots, racists, and even criminals operate out of ignorance. Requesting them to change their thoughts or behaviors through protests or violence often proves ineffective. A detached, meta understanding of these scenarios allows for a more effective approach based on love, understanding, and tolerance, including tolerance of intolerance.
- Need for deeper comprehension of conflict: Green stage individuals need to look beyond surface level triggers of war and violence like 'evil' politicians and corporations and understand the deeper, structural causes. Learning to see these conflicts as manifestations of reality can help to start deconstructing them and working towards solutions.
- Green Hypocrisy: There tends to be a disconnect between what Green stage individuals protest against and their actions. For example, demonizing big oil companies while driving gas cars, or lambasting corporations' influence on politics while working for large corporations. This demonstrates a lack of self-reflection and an inflated sense of righteousness that can hinder growth.
- Recommended Practices: Start practicing serious meditation and self-inquiry to break down identities, beliefs and resultant conflicts. It's essential to read about higher stages like Yellow and turquoise, along with studying non-duality and systems thinking, to gain a more nuanced understanding of these issues.
- Integration of Orange stage: Start a business to understand the pragmatic thinking required for successful business operations. By doing so, individuals at the Green stage can recognize the challenges involved in the corporate world and understand the reality of businesses' survival.
- Career Alignment: Create a career that aligns with Green values and doesn't feed off the exploitation of others or the environment. This responsibility towards creating a non-exploitative job aids in true embodiment of Green thinking. Practicing neutrality and mastering the lessons of each stage before moving onto the next plays a pivotal role in personal and societal growth. Avoid stereotyping people based on this model as it can hinder understanding and acceptance.
- Beyond Political Identities: Disassociate from rigid political identities and biases to understand the larger functional dynamics of societal systems. This disassociation can help individuals at the Green stage enter the transcendent stages of Yellow and Turquoise. Acknowledge the privilege of education and adopt love and understanding as means to address the complex dynamics of human conflicts. Lastly, resist rushing through or skipping over stages; it's crucial to fully understand each stage's lessons before moving forward in personal development.
- Designing Career Choices with Consciousness: Leo Gura emphasizes building a career or job that aligns with your values and does not exploit others or the environment. This could potentially present a conflict when working for some corporations that don't align with these values, but it's ultimately more rewarding to align one's values with their work.
- The Importance of Neutrality and Perspective: Neutrality, particularly at yellow stage, is more superior than being polarized. Real solutions should accommodate all the stages on the spiral rather than advocating for a specific stage, as each stage is part of the larger whole. This higher meta perspective is essential for spiralling from Green to Yellow.
- Protesting and Advocacy Limitations: Sometimes protests work, and sometimes they don't. Protesting alone often doesn't solve the more systemic problems, as they go beyond just protesting. Communicating, spreading love and peace often is also not enough; more depth and systemic understanding is necessary.
- Contemplation and Self-reflection are Key: To transcend any stage, one must carefully contemplate and self-reflect, noting down and thinking about the traps, limitations, and lessons of the stage one is in. It's crucial not to rush through or skip any stage; each stage must be fully mastered before moving to the next.
- Model and Stereotyping: Lastly, the model of consciousness developed by Leo Gura is complex and is not intended for stereotyping people or advancing anyone's political agenda. The intent is to enable viewers to see politics from a meta perspective and rise above political squabbles. Leo challenges viewers to see why chaos exists and why they might be getting sucked into it with an aim to align personal development with a clear understanding of ego. The main goal is not to quickly progress to turquoise (highest stage), but to thoroughly understand and master each stage before moving on.