The Future of the Human Race Revealed
from: http://www.InfiniteBeing.com In the ground-breaking book, "Spiral Dynamics" by Don Beck and
Christopher Cowan, 'memes' are defined as the social equivalent of
genes. Memes are cultural units of information which self-replicate
from mind to mind on a vast scale, appearing within society as new
trends of thought.
The progression of memes reflects the development of society from its
primitive beginnings up to the present. So far, eight different memes
have been identified and analyzed. Their characteristics are:
Meme 1. Basic, personal survival. The most primitive motivation of
just staying alive.
Meme 2. Clan survival. Tribal and family bonding along with
superstition-filled attempts to understand the powers of nature which
threaten to overpower them.
Meme 3. Courage, survival of the fittest. Mastering the environment,
fighting to break free of constraints. Sensing many gods, all of
which are models of power. This is where individuals first find their
personal power but, seeing reality through a worldview of separation
and limited resources, compete against each other in attempts to gain
advantage. As a meme which is short on thought and long on passion,
societies in this stage quickly fragment into territorial, feudal-
type communities surrounded by competing, enemy communities.
Meme 4. Finding order and purpose in life. Obeying authority,
regulations and externally imposed rules of behavior and morality.
Sacrificing the self to a greater cause for a deferred reward.
Dedicating allegiance to one supreme God. This social meme started to
spread within civilization 5,000 years ago. Eventually, alliances
arose between large-scale feudal structures and those who wished to
develop extensive religious power.
Meme 5. Achievement, striving to succeed. Fighting to win, beating
the competition, achieving independence. This meme started to spread
significantly in the 1700s. It was made possible by the collapse of
feudalism and also a sense of increased personal empowerment, which
was a side-effect of the Protestant Reformation. It gained particular
strength with the founding of the United States, whose Constitution
and Bill of Rights intentionally empowered and protected individual
liberty.
Meme 6. Community and caring. Unconditional love, accepting others as
they are, seeing the value of service to others, the beginnings of
spiritual understanding. Freedom of the spirit from greed, dogma,
contention and other distractions from spiritual centeredness. This
meme started to spread in the mid-1800s.
Professor Clare Graves, the originator of this branch of social
science, saw the first set of six memes as a first tier of human
development. He called the transition of the human race into meme
number seven a momentous leap, an entry into an entirely new set of
memes, a new tier of consciousness. With this new tier comes freedom
from all of the fears of the prior memes, and, finally, the freedom
for human cognition to focus upon its possibilities in the world.
As more and more people shift into the second tier of memes, the
underpinnings of society become spiritual rather than materialistic.
The second tier is expansive rather than self-serving or merely
survival-oriented. Service to the world community, to the planet as a
whole, becomes the inspiration as people activate these higher memes
of consciousness.
"Love and light" is not just a greeting to wish someone well, it is
the byline of the emerging New Reality. The future of the human race
is a bright one. It is love and light.
Meme 7. Responsible freedom.
Flexible flow, adapting to a world full of change. Big-picture views,
the discovery of self-accountable, personal freedom. This meme
started to spread after the global defeat of fascism in World War II.
While most people started to look forward to the renewed chance to
create personal prosperity, the beat generation of the 1950s emerged
with its questioning of materialistic culture. This emerging movement
examined Eastern philosophy, such as Zen Buddhism, in a search for
answers to the mysteries of life.
In meme number seven, people act from an inner-directed core. Values
come from fundamental, natural law, meaning that human rights are
perceived as fundamental due to the fact that you exist.
By nature, seventh meme thinkers are self-accountable and independent
within reason. They are honest in their communications and do not
spend time on the rules of formality, unless they are important to
those present. Seventh meme thinkers like technology for what it can
do to improve life, and they value knowledge and competency above
rank or status.
They enjoy the pleasures of life, without being bound by any of them,
and pursue activities that express their inner joy. External fashions
and trends have no bearing upon these choices. They have emotional
control, meaning that they still express emotions, but these
expressions are appropriate, and not uncontrolled outbursts.
This is a powerful meme in promoting the exploration of the greater
possibilities of life. It creates information networks and networks
of people which easily adapt to changing needs.
Seventh meme thinkers are concerned with the endangered world
environment and want to restore viability and ecological order. Their
purpose of living includes being independent within reason,
knowledgeable as much as possible, and caring for others within
practical limits. They are accountable to themselves as responsible
individuals, yet embrace their community of associates. Rather than
striving to have things or to achieve things, they prefer to pursue
personal development along a pathway that is natural to them.
They can interact with people of the first six memes and speak their
psychological language. They respect others' world views and unique
habits, customs and cultures, even if they don't necessarily agree
with them.
This meme brings a high sense of self-esteem based upon information
as much as emotion. It brings an enlightened self-acceptance which
acknowledges and accepts their own shortcomings and faults as mere
stages along the way to acquiring more skills.
Meme 8. Holistic, global view.
Spiritual awareness, learning through simply being as well as doing.
Becoming conscious of the superconscious, trusting intuition. This
meme started to spread in the cultural and spiritual awakening of the
mid-1960s. Those seekers who found this pattern of thinking launched
a whole new movement of spiritual awareness. This spiritual
renaissance has the potential to develop the awareness to carry
humanity through the Shift and into the New Reality.
This meme has a global village outlook, and seeks projects and
solutions that will work well for the whole planet. It contains the
vision to bring order out of chaos.
Because of the incredible power of the second tier of memes, these
will accelerate the transformation of the world as they become more
and more widely adopted.
Meme 9. The mystery meme.
The authors of Spiral Dynamics have identified, as of the 1990s, meme
number nine. They call this the Coral meme, but they have not
observed it in large quantities of people, so they cannot yet
summarize its characteristics.
However, using basic metaphysical principles, you can predict exactly
what meme number nine will become.
Coming up next week:
The Awesome Power of the Mystery Meme.
For more articles, visit: www.InfiniteBeing.com
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I'm not sure if this is a very recent or an old article because I got it from an email discussion list I receive. It doesn't appear to be on the website and neither does the follow-up article, so it may have just been published this week. Anyway I've signed up for the Infinite Being mailing list so if the follow-up article gets published next week I'll post it here.
Andy
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