The Beige Value System of Spiral Dynamics

Spiral Dynamics is a model of the evolution of individuals and societies' value systems (memes). Each has its code and color with a unique set of value orientations and priorities that form its beliefs and values. People and societies dynamically move through these levels depending on the changing conditions of life, experience, and challenges that stand in their way.

Let us emphasize that BEIGE does not necessarily mean a stupid or deficient human being, only one for whom LC' problems are intense. It is the beginning point for all of us, and many exit through BEIGE at the end of life's journey. Tragically, a lack of stimulation or malnutrition can leave BEIGE disproportionately strong and may well limit access to more complex thinking for millions of youngsters. This entrapment may haunt the twenty-first century as much as global war influenced the twentieth.

When BEIGE is in control, people form bands (not yet organizations), just a step above the herd. The objectives, though unstated, are survival and procreation. Band members seem to have a holographic sense of place and each other, much like a herd of elephants, a flock of geese, or a pod of whales, and may well communicate on frequencies with which `civilized' people tuned out many moons ago. The endorphin release that so often eases the final hours of the terminally ill may be a residual BEIGE adaptation to grant the wounded individual peace and thereby release the group to move on, often a necessity under harsh LC.

Today, one can always find examples of BEIGE in cradles and kindergartens, among mentally ill street people, or in hospitals. Sometimes, BEIGE surges when a person is psychologically overloaded. Extremes of stress the nervous breakdown, profound grief, a catastrophe like Rwanda, or even trying to live in Sarajevo under attack will trigger regression toward BEIGE for some people.

With the exception of newborn infants who pass quickly through the BEIGE zone or those with brain damage who may be blocked there, the BEIGE we find today is more often a backwater, regressive "MEME. In fact, many of the seeming BEIGE manifestations - dysfunctional street people, victims of famine or warfare, extremes of poverty and deprivation - are fallout from more complex 'MEMEs at work in society as they draw energy and resources into their spheres, leaving others without.»