Star Trek and Spiral Dynamics

 Warning: This is a rather lenghty post about a very broad subject. I tried to condense it as much as possible, but if you have a short attention span, I recommend passing on.

I finally understood why I DON'T like Discovery! I'm a ST fan of 40years, but with STD I couldn't quite put my finger on why I disliked it so much (especially after S1). As I was reading Don Beck's "Spiral Dynamics" (a model of the evolutionary development of individuals, organizations, and societies) it finally clicked. In short, there are levels of development and each level has healthy and unhealthy expressions. For example, "Blue" represents order and stability as seen in people who follow organized religions, who value and submit to law and order imposed from above. Unhealthy would be: rigidity, extreme bureaucracy, religious fundamentalism. (Cardassians, Romulans) Next is "Orange", which life's goal is to accumulate material abundance, individual freedom, and grab opportunities. Unhealthy: Calculating, opportunistic, exploitation of the living environment. (The Ferengi) Then is "Green". Welfare, love, find meaning in life, personal growth and to live in harmony with others and with the Earth. Unhealthy: Appeasing, avoiding conflicts, soft and patronizing. Conflicts are not addresses because harmony is more important and should not be compromised. When Green adopts her own wisdom as the only truth it becomes limiting and exclusive and it will exclude everyone who’s not Green. Conversations tend to take longer and results may not be achieved because of the continuous search for consensus and the need to include everyone in the process. (Rubicun lll ...remember? the people running around in underwear, trying to kill Wesley for smashing some flowers?) Finally, there is "Yellow". The world is a complex, self-organizing, natural system that requires integral solutions. Projects that integrate economical, sustainable human, spiritual and planetary dimensions of living, dwelling and working. (The Federation)

------------------------------------------------------ Yellow is the level of societal development we all envision for the future and has been the topic of our beloved ST since the beginning. "Green" is the level from where STD is trying to describe a Yellow society. The problem starts when a writing team at "unhealthy Green" tries to describe "healthy Yellow".... it ends up being a screwed up and distorted vision of a higher level they can't quite comprehend. Green says "Everyone's opinion is equal", but if you don't agree, suddenly your opinion is not that equal to theirs anymore. See the irony? Anyway, if you've made it this far and are interested in philosophy, value systems and worldviews, check out Spiral Dynamics. (y) ;-)