Having quickly run through all the levels, let us take a step back and consider the implications of the model and how it applies.
- This is a model that describes a flow: as circumstances change, our values are modified so that we can cope more effectively with the new circumstances. Although at any point in any time we tend to operate to a particular set of values, these may change in future (in either direction) as our circumstances continue to change.
- No level is inherently better or worse than any other level: at best they evolve to meet the changing conditions in which each person finds themselves. People only shift levels when they no longer get answers to life’s problems from the one they are in.
- The levels are not mutually exclusive entities: each level contains all of the elements of the previous levels. Our behaviour at any time will reflect values that are contained in previous levels, and also values that are currently emerging.
- However, we do have a basic need to operate in a consistent manner (the technical terms is cognitive dissonance), so we will tend to operate out of a consistent set of values wherever we are on the span of levels at this particular time.
- Each level has healthy and unhealthy aspects – although this is in itself a value judgement.
- The later levels usually offer a wider variety of choices to those within them. However in some circumstances the later levels are not appropriate: we have the capacity to regress to previous levels when circumstances demand it (and then move forward again later).
- The model is not really a tool in itself: we can’t apply it to achieve any specific result other than understanding how our, and other people’s values, will tend to work. However our effectiveness in applying most of the tools in this book is greatly enhanced the more we can understand the values that are actually operating for the other person (rather than our own values).
This is all a bit theoretical/conceptual: the best way to understand the model is to explore it with some examples, and we will do that next.
Examples of values over time
Our values emerge over time, and there are two major time-lines that illustrate how they move:
- From birth and through the events in our lives.
- The historical development of groups of people and whole civilisations.
Through a life time
Level 1: Survival
When we are first born, our greatest imperative is simply to survive: we are completely dependent on others. Although most of us move on rapidly, we can return to this initial state when we have a crisis that threatens our survival.
Level 2: Tribal
We owe our lives to others and the safety and security that our close group provide, and that is where our loyalties now lie. We identify strongly with the banners, totems and traditions of our tribe. Frightening natural events are created by gods who need to be placated with rituals.
Level 3: Power
We begin to assert ourselves as individuals, as entities distinct from the tribe. What we want for ourselves is important. We can either lead the tribe to our own ends, leave the tribe, or even start our own cult.
Level 4: Justice
We are told, and gradually begin to accept, that not everyone can do exactly what they want all the time: if we want to co-exist happily we – and others – need to obey certain rules, which for most people includes the requirement to work for a living. These rules are so important that they become truth to us. The rules are inherently correct, and transgression needs to be punished.
Level 5: Achievement
Following the rules is no longer enough – we seek opportunities for greater creativity and self-expression both at work and in the rest of our lives. We gradually realise that we can achieve more by using our skills and imagination and by applying ourselves. When we achieve things we get rewards (whether financial rewards or recognition or both), and that feels right.
Level 6: People
Through our family, friendships and wider communities we develop a focus on others. We continue to seek inner peace for ourselves, while wanting others to be treated as fairly as we would want to be treated. Material success, by itself, no longer makes us as happy as before: we have spiritual needs that need to be nurtured through our relationships.
Level 7: Systems
We have successfully applied intelligence in the pursuit of personal achievement, and now start to get curious about we can improve the world by thinking about bigger systems. We see connections and causes and effects, and seek to understand and use these to benefit wider systems – rather than purely furthering our own ego.
Level 8: Global
We feel a sense of connectedness with the whole world as a single spiritual entity. We feel sad and guilty about how our previous values may have acted to damage this magical world, and look for ways we can counter these effects. We are caught in a paradox: we think we know some of the good things we could do for the world, but no longer have the level 5 power/drive to implement them fully.
Through history
Over the history of mankind, we have evolved different value systems to enable us to cope better with whatever the Earth throws at us.
Note: when referring to years we use the more recent terms BCE and CE rather than the more traditional BC and AD.
Level 1: Survival
The original values set for our species. The fact that we are here today is evidence that the instinctual survival value set was effective.
Level 2: Tribal
In prehistory, about 40-50,000 years ago, man lived in clan-based tribal systems.
Level 3: Power
The conservation of plants and domestication of animals through farming in order to provide more control over the environment, possibly as a response to global cooling and drying from 11,500 to 9,800 BCE.
Level 4: Justice
Emergence of city states, basic legal systems and writing in order to maintain order and support early trade. Difficult to be precise but generally thought to be around 3000BCE. Monotheistic religion also arises.
Level 5: Achievement
Industrial Revolution around 1800, emergence of entrepreneurs (and sweatshops) . Graves’ own view was that Level 5 actually began to emerge between 1300-1400CE and cites the success of the long-distance trading cities (e.g. Genoa) as evidence.
Level 6: People
Graves identified early signs of Level 6 at c1900CE although we believe the visibility of this level becomes much more evident with the emergence of the civil rights and other human rights movements in the 1950s.
Level 7: Systems
This level can be identified with the development of systems thinking in the 1950s where it is recognised that problems of existence cannot be overcome with simple fixes. We start to learn to live comfortably with complexity and ambiguity: for example, the emergence of chaos theory and the internet.
Level 8: Global
Today: shows itself with concerns about global matters currently out of our control. These include environmental ecology issues, climate change, water availability, risks of a global pandemic and terrorism. The Gaia theory, developed by James Lovelock.