Is Red the Most Difficult Stage?
Maybe for the rest of us!
"Everybody is right. More specifically, everybody — including me — has some important pieces of truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace." ~ Ken Wilber
The quote above is in my signature block on my regular emails. It reminds me that our imperative is to love everyone. Furthermore, it contains the truth that each of us has pieces of truth and that our worldview at all life stages is partial and incomplete.
Recently, I shared an article by David French, What Liberals Miss About the MAGA Movement, with friends, one of whom responded:
Interesting and very sad. What part of the truth do these people have? Seems they do not even care.
Yeah,…lots of truth there.
I woke up in the middle of the night with his question running through my mind. Thinking about it using the insights of Spiral Dynamics, I made enough sense of it that I could get back to sleep. I will say more about that shortly, but first, I will share and comment on some of French’s article.
“If you’re on the outside, your experience with MAGA is all of the anger projected outward. So you see MAGA as almost entirely an angry movement.
MAGA likes inflicting pain on its political enemies. It likes and enjoys creating these ridiculous and absurd memes. It loves to provoke people who are on the outside. It’s part of the joy of this MAGA movement that can include this extreme aggression online.”
Oh my…they enjoy it! But if I dig way back in my early memories, despite being “a good boy,” there were times when I was on the edge of a group of brutish boys enjoying our rebellious behavior. I was Red once, as restrained as I might have been.
Let’s get some perspective from Spiral Dynamics (SD):
We sputter about the “ridiculous and absurd memes,” but SD reminds us that logic does not become a core value or skill until the Orange/Modern stage. This is important. Developing critical thinking tools that constitute the elements of logical discourse takes time and effort. This is not a skill or value of the Red/rebel stage.
Red/rebel is critical of traditional values, including the value of civil discourse, especially coming from pompous Orange people.
Red/rebel expresses its needs through displays of power, which come through “extreme aggression online” and other modes.
These insights are essential to incorporate in your thinking about Red/rebel. Labeling them immoral, corrupt, crazy, or worse is extreme binary thinking, and while it might feel good temporarily, it perpetuates the culture war. More thoughtful responses should aim to avoid simple labels and contribute to bridging divides rather than deepening them.
After referring to the false claims about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, he continues:
I knew that MAGA was going to take this torch and carry it as far as it possibly could. And they did it in that particular way that MAGA interacts with the larger world, with this sense of gleeful transgression. They have fun being outrageous. They have fun being provocative. They like to “trigger the libs.” What MAGA is very good at doing is turning around back to its own people and saying, “See, we struck a nerve.” They’ll use words like, “If you’re taking flack, it means you’re over the target.” And so they use the backlash almost as proof that they’ve hit a nerve and all of this just creates an endless process of doubling down.
Embedded in this quote is the clue to a more skillful response to the outrageous, gleeful transgressions: Don’t take the bait. Stay on message and continue forward.
French explains this a little later in the following words: “Imagine a frat boy element where you’re talking about, ‘We just had a rager and sure, we overturned a police car and we trashed a neighbor’s house, but hey, that was a party!’ It’s kind of like a political version of that.”
I should point out that Liberals display their Red stage too, if less frequently and less profanely, as when they share online memes about couches and cats.
Howard Gardner, the developmental psychologist who first suggested the concept of “multiple intelligences,” expresses growth out of earlier stages thusly:
"The [Red/rebel] is totally egocentric, meaning not that they think selfishly about themself, but that they are incapable of thinking about themself. The egocentric cannot separate themselves from others; they feel others share their pain or pleasure; their complaining will be understood; their perspective will be shared. Growing out of this stage requires starting a ‘decline in egocentrism.’”1
SD describes the Red/rebel stage using various forms of impulsiveness, which, from the perspective of Red:
It is a sign of strength
Is a motivation for one’s actions
Validates the righteousness of one’s actions
French continues:
And one thing that I think that liberals tend to miss about the MAGA movement is they miss its underlying sense of community and its joy. So there is a strong sense of belonging within MAGA and they have a great time being MAGA. If you’re on the outside, you see MAGA as almost entirely an angry movement. And so this idea that it’s also a lot of fun and fellowship, that is something you don’t see at all. But if you’re on the inside of it, is one of its most dominant characteristics.
I think French and nearly all commentators miss the idea that development theory provides a better understanding of MAGA. Having that insight is half the battle. Using it constructively is the other half.
The Red/rebel stage is very egocentric and has yet to be at a stage where looking at oneself objectively is possible2. The “rebel” part of the label is telling. People in this stage are breaking away—from family, social expectations, authority, and institutions. In adolescence, it is teenage rebellion. In later life, it is the rebellion against authority figures like bosses or the police. “Why did you quit your job? My boss was an a**hole!” It’s usually no more informative than that.
I suspect MAGA followers see Trump as the archetypical Rebel. They finally see someone with power who says what they’ve been thinking! Trump gives them permission to act out previously unacceptable urges.
But why are people 40, 50, 60, or more years old and have not developed beyond the stage most of us left in our teens?
Here are some factors holding people back.
Life Conditions: if you live in an environment (circle of friends, job, geography, etc.) where most of your peers operate at Red or Blue, it becomes harder to transcend these stages because these groups reinforce those value systems.
Fear of Change: even if conditions create pressure for change, growth requires questioning one's beliefs or values, learning more complex skills, and taking risks.
Lack of Exposure to Higher Stages: people who don’t meet, live around, or work with people from Blue, Orange, and Green may not have the opportunity to see they aren’t horrible people. If they aren’t horrible, their ideas become more acceptable.
Physical and Psychological Barriers: People can develop mental or emotional blocks to development due to unresolved issues, traumas, or rigid thinking patterns that obstruct openness to new perspectives.
Being stuck can be frustrating, especially being stuck for a long time. No wonder their angry reactions can show up online—mostly anonymous—or in large rallies—also anonymous—as angry and irrational.
As my friend says, it is sad.
OK, but how do I coexist with these people?
Coexist is a good word because people at all levels must live together. Because development perspective thinking is not pervasive in our culture, we have not developed norms for dealing with “inter-stage” relations. Here’s a run-down of how a Green/pluralist might interact with or view a Red/rebel.
There are different worldviews. The Red views the world as dangerous and values power as a responsive stance. Green can understand Red's behavior in light of the conditions Red perceives3.
Being more developmentally aware, Green sees Red as the phase where we develop courage and strength. Green often disputes the ends Red pursues, but the means are signs of developmental growth.
Given the poor decisions Red often makes, Green needs to hold them accountable, but without undue scorn.
If Red behavior has led to enough negative consequences, it may be time to suggest involvement in Blue/traditional groups like a church, job training program, college, the military, or some other group that requires them to learn self-management skills, develop healthy relationships, and start caring for others.
Developmental awareness continues to be helpful here. When talking with Red, Green should avoid coming from an overtly Green stance. Using Blue's values of group coherence and finding good mentors, the person ready to “graduate” Red will more readily understand if we talk to them in a language closer to their level.
How come I have to do all the work?
Because you are more evolved. You’ve been there. You are learning developmental literacy. I know it’s hard. I stumble a lot myself.
Paraphrased from A Theory of Everything, Ken Wilber, p.18.
Think of it this way. When we are at later stages, we can be more objective about our behavior. If we “lose our cool,” we can usually see the error of our ways after taking some time out. This ability to be objective after cooling off is not in the skill set of Red/rebel stage.
This is a “healthy” Green response, utilizing its ability to be sensitive to the worldview and conditions of the people in question. An unhealthy Green response can be argumentative or combative Red, or dogmatic and domineering Blue.