SPIRALS OF COMPLEXITY: CULTURES AND CIVILIZATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Don Edward Beck, Ph. D.
SD-I series, contactspiwiz@iglobal.net
Don Edward Beck
Box 797, Denton, Texas 76202
[p] 940.383.1209
"Dr. Don Beck" <spiwiz@iglobal.net>
National Values Center
INTRODUCTION
In his book Flatland: A Romance in Multiple Dimensions, Edwin Abbott described a society that existed in only two dimensions. Flatlanders were either point people or line people. With Victorian Age tongue firmly in cheek, Abbott described the utter frustrations experienced by inhabitants of a third dimensional world when they attempted to explain their ìalienî realities to bi-polar thinkers. Visitors to Flatland would be sliced to a series of line slivers as they were watched by two-dimensional eyes lacking depth perception.
Alas, Flatlanders must have learned how to reincarnate themselves since they flourish even in the Information Age. You can spot them almost everywhere. They inhabit bi-polar realities, just as their Victorian counterparts. Their worlds are black or white, conservative or liberal, globalist or localist, winners or losers, people of color or people without color, and even patriots or traitors. And, they delight in CNN's Crossfire since everything must be either from "the left" or from ìthe right.î No wonder stereotypes inflame virtually every issue and reduce complex matters to crude bumper stickers and crass T-shirt slogans.
Few issues summon the Flatlanders to battle any more than such sensitive areas as race, multiculturalism, immigration, and the nature of nationhood, regardless of world orders. Flags, quotas, language, redistribution, land title and "who belongs" stir hearts and raise tempers as honest folks shout at each other from opposing redoubts entrenched in bi-polar camps.
The essential question raised in this Forum is whether the American nation, as constituted in the 20th Century, has any particular relevance in the 21st. If so, how can a new American society emerge amidst the pressures for open borders, the effects of cultural balkanization, and the reluctance on the part of many to "pledge allegiance" to anybody's national flag.
And, should a wealthy, First World "have a lotî"society be brought down to lower affluence levels so Third World "have notsî"or "have a littles' can be uplifted to healthier life-styles? Few took Wendell Wilkie seriously when he campaigned against FDR with the "one world" slogan. But, now, more of us sense that 747s, instant television coverage, e-mails, and ozone holes have made us more globally aware, if not full citizens of the blue ball that hangs in space without a string.
My basis thesis is that a deeper and unique sense of nationhood and cultural identity will be required to
(1) maintain some level of global stability and responsible citizenship, and
(2) to discover and implement large scale, systemic solutions to many of the problems that confront the entire planet.
Yet, bi-polar minds will be unable to wrap themselves around the conceptual framework Iím about to introduce. You may need to put on new perceptual glasses to "see" vertical levels of complexity deep within cultural cores. You will need to revisit the dynamic psychological corporate states. And, you will need a fresh approach to the assimilation of what appear to be racial/ethnic differences by replacing pigmentation categories with an understanding of universal value systems."Worlds of Difference" should now can morph themselves into "Spirals of Complexity" as we seek after the clarity of vision and strengh of common cause in an age of turbulence.
Part 1: VALUE SYSTEMS --
THE STUFF BY WHICH CULTURES AND COUNTRIES ARE MADE.
What is a Value System?
How do Value Systems form?
What Value Systems have formed thus far?
How do these Value Systems shape communities, cultures, and countries?
Part II: SPIRALS OF COMPLEXITY --
A NEW MODEL FOR RECASTING AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP WITHIN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
A Value Systems Perspective on....
*Facilitating evolutionary steps & stages. . .
*Reframing Race and Ethnicity...
*Making sense out of immigration. . .
*Dealing with First through Fourth World asymmetrics....(Humpty Dumpty).
*Conceptualizing a "New World Process...instead of Order!"
Conclusion
mythicalat: enchanting in the near term over the longer haul through, a pathway for renewal Cultures, as well as countries, are formed by a sequence and synergy of "awakened" Value Systems that emerge in the response to life conditions.
Cultures mixture codes
These human systems are the glue that bonds a group together, defines who we are as a people, reflects the place on the planet we inhabit, and contains all the mixtures, elements, dynamics and textures that add spice to our lives. Some cultures appear to be of the Flatlander type since they contain only a thin slice of reality. Others are cut from the cloth of many different Value System layers all woven together in unique human tapestries.
The detectable patterns within cultures are not Calvinistic scripts that lock us into choices against our will. Nor are they inevitable steps on a predetermined staircase, or magically appearing crop circles in our collective psyche. Rather, they are deep level, fractal-like thought structures that impact our surface-level views on patriotism, nationalism, and societal change.
Here is the technical position paper of my State of the World Forum presentation for a plenary session on October 5 ,2000 in San Francisco. Download PDF Document
The title: The Search for Cohesion in an Age of Fragmentation:
From the New World Order to the Next Global Mesh.
WTC Attack The Global Great Divide: An Integral Initiative
An article by Don Beck in response to the recent attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.
