Are The Dynamics for Gillian Gibbons Spiralling Out Of Control?

Need we see or hear any more? It is quite clear that for Gillian Gibbons the belief system of a significant number of Sudanese people can in no way be described as 'forgiving'. To say that we are witnessing a clash of opinion is an obvious understatement. Whilst we may exist in on the same planet and in the same time we live in two entirely separate worlds.

The concept of Spiral Dynamics offers an explanation of why I feel bemused and despairing of this 'unforgiving mind-set'. If you check out the link you will see that people and groups have their world views explained as a value meme These vMEMEs are what we use to 'make sense' of our world and to 'select our our solutions to the social challenges we face'. As we grow we transcend and include the early developmental memes. In summary these are:

Lower
Beige - animalistic survival

Purple - myth and magic

Red - express myself at all costs

Blue - Ritual order and fundamental rules. Belief in the metaphysical

Orange - Exploit and manage resources. Rational & Scientific

Green - community matters, everyone has a right. Relativism.

Yellow - systems, ambiguity and complexity are normal.

Turquoise - holons and harmonics
Higher


With the Gillian Gibbons situation we are witnessing a dysfunctional variant of the Blue vMEME in Sudan. Simplistic fundamentalism which believes that there is 'right' which is 'our belief' and 'wrong ' which is 'your belief', is a strong blue meme and is tinged with the pre-ceeding red and purple vMEMES which explains the rampant hostility and simplistic association of religious conviction with a cuddly toy.

Thousands of people baying for the death of another human being whose aim in life was simply to help others is utterly reprehensible and hopefully the individuals concerned will live long to evolve to a higher state of consciousness.

They are, of course, welcome to their 'model' of the world - and so why don't they just stop the proselytising and making selective use of the social benefits of the western world they so obviously dislike?

They could simply hand in their medicines, educational advances, vehicles, guns, TVs, radios, mobile phones, entertainment systems and so on to their nearest warehouse and get on with enjoying the aggressive, bullying medieval world they want around themselves.

This post is certainly not a denegration of the Blue vMEME, as we all have this within us, and the other vMEMEs too. What concerns me is its extreme manifestation. This week, for example, I attended the funeral of a young friend of mine who died suddenly and tragically. I attended the service complete with its metaphsyical aspects and its ritual, and I drew upon these things to help me at the time. It's not Blue per se I am troubled by.

Does rigid/dark Blue bother me? Yes it does, because it seems to offer absolutely no glint of compassion, understanding, forgiveness, reconciliation, humanity, prospect for change, or acceptance of other views. If we were describing someone we knew of in these terms what single word would come to mind to describe them I wonder?