2.12 Transcend and...Exclude?
[updated 2.20.24]
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Those words surprised me when I heard Jeff Saltzman discuss them in his podcast. Ken Wilber writes that a healthy transition to the next stage means we both transcend and include the worldview and behaviors of the stage we are leaving. Jeff was pointing out that often people from different stages do not get along because they Transcend the old stage, while excluding it by rejecting the people, values and norms that they are leaving. This is an important description of how the Tier 1 stages often treat each other.
In this landscape, Green cancels individuals for past behaviors or statements that no longer align with their new stage’s standards. Orange will fire you when your productivity is not meeting standards. Blue will excommunicate you or send you back for more training when you stray from the flock. Red resorts to intimidation and coercion to maintain conformity.
Why do you think these 1st Tier stages do this?
I think it has a lot to do with the “developmental tasks” that are necessary in 1st Tier Stages. Suzanne Cook-Greuter, the researcher behind Ego Development Theory, suggests that Red, Blue, and Orange stages are primarily characterized by the drive for independence central to these stages. Red seeks to break free from the family of origin, Blue seeks identity through group and organizational affiliations, and Orange is engrossed in building a career and leaving a legacy. People in these stages are intensely embedded in tasks and behaviors relevant to their respective stages. These stages are full of identity development to become independent adults. Green is different in that it is beginning to veer away from independence-seeking and toward interdependence. Sensitivity, pluralism, and inclusiveness move Greens toward interdependence.
In fact, it may be psychologically necessary to have an initial “bad reaction” to the stage we are leaving in order to successfully make the transition. As Rev. Paul Smith, an Integral minister, describes the passage to a new stage:
I learned that my anger at previous stages helped me move out of them, and then getting over my anger at a previous stage helped me grow up and value the partial truth in every stage. Of course, this could only happen if I added to the traditional values of stability, loyalty, and faithfulness, the integral value of continual evolutionary change that includes the best of the past and transcends the worst. ~ Paul Smith1
That Integral value Smith speaks of is a new worldview accessible at the next stage we will be talking about, Yellow, the first of the Tier 2 stages. Recognizing the concept of continual evolutionary change includes acknowledging that even though we can easily criticize an earlier stage from our more developed vantage point, it had an internal logic and reasonableness that we accepted when we inhabited that stage.
In our Tier 1 stages we might be prone to transcend and exclude, but as we approach and enter Tier 2, that evolves towards transcend and include. We might be wired to exclude, but as we mature, we take a deep breath, think about our reaction, and more and more often, take a more mature course of action. In effect, time slows down, and there is more space between stimulus and response.
Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom. ~ attributed to Victor Frankl.
“Six Varieties of Christians and Their Churches: From Tribal to Integral,” Paul Smith, 12-4-2012, https://integrallife.com/six-varieties-christians-and-their-churches/