Why Is Any Of This Important ... Values|Part 4:

Good evening all, Well if you've been reading along I salute you! I never really intend for a blog posting to go as long as some of mine tend to go, and then again I have been known to write short articles disgused as blog postings frequently enough that I can't say they are the exceptions. When I began writing this series, Why Is Any Of This Important I knew from the get go that I'd have to divide up what I wanted to say into more than one posting. Here I am at number four and I don't know quite know yet where this will take us exactly. So far I've introduced the idea of Dr. Graves' "Emergent, Cyclical, Double-Helix Model Of The Adult Human Biopsychosocial Systems ... hahaha ... now you know why I just refer to it as the Graves Model. Although Dr. Graves descirbed eight of the value sets he outlined in his model, I began at Four, presented a bit about Five and intend to present a little about Six before we're done here. The reason I've chosen to focus on these three levels (Four, Five and Six) are because they are the most numerous and frequent value sets influencing the experience of folks living in or at the edges of the modern, industrialized world. Obviously if this would be taken as a given that would also mean that these three value sets represent the value sets the majority of people most frequently access who are likey to be reading this ... and in addition these value sets will also be the ones that most frequently influence the experience of this group. Generally speaking, if you have some sense of the Graves Model Levels Four, Five and Six you'll have a pretty good sense of what aspects of the model make it important in terms of understanding and influencing social impact ... especially in the larger scheme of things.

Once again, what makes this so important has to do with getting the impact of our values sets on our perception of reality, shaping what we perceive and what we don't perceive ... as well as what others perceive and what they don't perceive.

Simply, if we can't/dont perceive something for all intents and purposes it doesn't exist for/to us. Essentially this means ... if we are perceiving the world/reality through different filters based on different value sets we are operating from we live in different worlds/realities.

Level Four in the model represents a level of values that emerged to bring greater order to the system through the establishment of rules and laws by which to govern and manage a more intergrated and larger system ... a system from which emerged the great civilizations. Level Five swung back from a primary focus on the group to a greater focus on the individual. Where Level Four allowed for the emergence of the great civilzations, Level Five allowed for the emergence of individuals as great men and women ... of art, science, commerce ... all the sundry and various fields of human endeavor. This allowed for the creation of new forms of organization to come into being under the direct guidance of these individuals and their ilk. The opportunistic orientation of Fives created unprecedented progress, development and wealth in the system.Yet with these new opportunities for the individual to emerge as outstanding within the larger context came a renewed sense of self-interest unknow in the history of the species. Along with this self-interest came a disparity of wealth ... groups of haves and have-nots ... equal to or greater than any seen during the reign of the predominance of the Four value set and the separation between the nobility and the commoners. Level Six in classic dialetic form responsed to the peaking of the Five value set and the predominance of the individual with a swing towards valuing the collective ... the group. This led to the emergence of a Level Six value set where the predominant value became plurality ... the values of diversity and equality. This value set puts the emphasis on creating community, consensus and a larger pie to divide, rather than possessing a larger slice of a limited pie for ones self. The Six value set brings a higher level of creativity into being ... a particular creativity aimed at expanding the known vs. the Five orientation to expanding what we know about the known. Next leap ... an exploration into the unique creativity of the Graves Six value set. Joseph Riggio, Social Ontologist Princeton, NJ