SECTOR 9:00 — Government & Politics
Government and Politics
Grasping at a general concept like governance, across all levels of social development will require some general discussion, so this first bit has to be a bit vague. But identifying the most general parameters may set a framework for the ensuing, and potentially important discussion. Most people's experience of governance is limited to what they directly experience in their lives. Many would like to live in a 'better' system of governance, but critical to that quest is some understanding of the implications and tradeoffs. We could say that the governance question is a central research and development project of the human race. In this process of inquiry and exploration, the Spiral Matrix model really shines. Not only are the implications of different world views and their interactions displayed with astonishing clarity, but the implications relating to the various sectors are also revealed. One reason why Sector Nine carries such significance is that it is a 'cardinal point' on the sector wheel, meaning that it is one of the primary four points, along with sectors twelve, three and six, that define a 'cross' in metaphysical terms. More about that later.
When it comes to a sense of security and empowerment, a key consideration is that nature of relationship with others on a broader social scale. In modern societies, the collective action accomplished by pooling resources to accomplish broader objectives becomes both a remarkable accomplishment and also a matter of great concern. Taxation is required in some form to accomplish the collection of resources, and then some decisionmaking process is required to determine how to allocate those resources, including some management process to progress through the accomplishment of applying the resources to complete projects, obtain results etc. Collectively, we can refer to the decisionmaking processes that include discussion of resource collection and allocation, as well as selection/installation of management teams, as Politics. The operation of the machinery of the management teams and their processes we can refer to as government, which includes the actual technologies and systems relating to the decisionmaking processes.
Government & Politics: Individual
The relationship of individual to governance is quite particular. The individual experiences politics and governance not as a whole system, but as one discrete element of a system - there is only the condition of 'relationship to other' at this level of scale. Nevertheless, it is the quality of governanance within the society in which the individual lives that has as much of a profound effect on quality of life as does the quality of and access to healthcare and support for wellness. Of course, to some degree all of these aspects are related, e.g. the relationship of legal reality to implications for healthcare delivery, a very important topic in the USA today, an in terms of consideration of aging generations and supporting them as their healthcare needs, the discussions about the implications for budget, taxes, debt and so forth are raging in halls of government throughout the modern world. If an individual likes the state of governance in which she finds herself, then it is likely there will be some sense of wellness in general, and it is likely that there will also be at least some measure of support for that individual's basic needs in terms of economics, religious /ethical practices, and healthcare. With these Cardinal Points supported, the implication is that other sectors are also addressed - for instance, there will be support for access to food (primarily through economics) and there will be as sense of social justice (primarily through governance).
Government & Politics: Family or Group
In a very real sense, it is the family scale group, especially when there is some sense of extended family, that the human experience we call politics emerges. There is leadership, tradition, various social hierarchies, and particular ways of making decisions. The nature of leadership, hierarchies and decisionmaking processes will largely be structured based upon social conventions, belief structures, and possibly, underlying power dynamics, which may or may not relate to pre-existing social norms and belief systems. However, in general, it may be safe to propose that the dominant social norms and primary belief systems surrounding that particular family group are quite likely to have profound impact on the kinds of polital relationships within that group. Likewise, typical governance structure will probably relate to leadership models and learned decisionmaking processes - many will probably behave much like their parents did. In fact, if the parents of the primary actors are part of the group, there may well be investment and expectations of the parents that directly influence various outcomes.
Government & Politics: Village
A village is a group unit large enough to enable presence and interaction of an assortment of philosophies around concepts of governance, leadership, and politics in general. Because of the rich tapestry of inter-familial interactions that are possible at the village scale, this unit of human society is perhaps of particular interest, in exploring the nature of politics and governance. A village often is called to make important decisions, and its members may be called to band together to further collective interests. As a result, there will be emergent leadership and some form of decisionmaking process will occur. Typically it may occur that the value systems of the leaders, those whom others trust, may inform the nature of the decisionmaking process. Are the leaders going to guide the group into a process that trusts in Gods and Kin Spirits, or will there be a more authoritarian and purely heirarchical approach? Perhaps there will be call to a higher moral authority, some source of an absolute truth. Or perhaps there will be an approach that draws on some democratic principles where the highest merit of ideas is elicited, the most qualified lead, and ambition is nevertheless likely to be rewarded, assuming those wishing to lead truly have something of value to offer to the group as a whole. Or maybe there is more of a felt sense that all people have something important to contribute, all should be included in any important process that affects them, and a real effort should be made to be as inclusive as possible. There is always a possibility that the leaders will want to work to include everyone while also allowing the best ideas and the best leadership to provide an appropriate role in the process. These different ideas about how to decide what to do are drawn precisely from the Spiral Dynamics model, in the sequence purple-red-blue-orange-green-yellow. True village dynamics, often hard to experience in the Modern world, are rather interesting affairs, if you are interested in studying the dynamics of human social interaction.
Government & Politics: Bioregion / Region
Regional scale politics are the true test of a human society. Not only are the issues often of challenging scale, but it is generally possible to see the collision of significantly different belief systems. Examples abound. For instance, in the GMO debates in Boulder, Colorado, we see clear divisions among those who are pro and against. There are those who simply want to make a living and believe the obvious choice lies with laboratory produced genetic modifications, which appear to improve pest resisitance and certainly seem to improve profit margins (A basically achievist-orange approach). On the other polarity are those who don't trust the idea of creating radical genetic changes to plants, in principal. These people are just uncomfortable with the idea of altering genetic stock, with the possibility of broad contamination not just of similar crops, thus damaging organic industries, but of creating unknown effects in other biological phyla (And this is essentially a Green perspective). There are also people who have sympathy for both the Green and the Orange ways of approaching this issue, and sometimes this is the way of statesmanship, a real-politik approach. Not necessarily of great comfort to either polarity, and possibly a sensible approach, as long as the law of unintended consequences does not rear its ugly head (jury is out on this particular issue). There is a reason why Monsanto Inc has pulled out of the UK, and to this author's knowledge, has never been allowed to successfully harvest a crop there. The UK on the whole, may be a lot more Green that Boulder County, despite general perception that Boulder is something like an island unto itself in terms of environmental awareness. Boulder has a lot of Orange, more than many would like to admit.
Government & Politics: World
Global Politics is the profound interaction of larger human societies. Each social group, typically organized at a national scale, is approaching the world stage from its unique composite of world views, religious ideologies, economic interests and so forth. Each group is looking to further its own interests, and hopefully address concerns of other groups, such as a population that is being oppressed or affected by drought, etc. While there are various associations and affiliations of these national groups, usually formed for economic benefits or collective security, the affiliations often tend to be highly charged grounds where political agendas meet and clash, with occasional clear alignment of interests. Thus, it becomes clear that at the World level, where governance looks more like political engagement, at least at this early juncture of the 21st century, the basic cross of sectors Nine, Twelve, Three and Six is like the scaffolding onto which various nationally organaized political interests, each with their own beliefs and agendas, compete and interact in order to promote their own welfare, economic interests, and spiritual values, and attempt to serve and address their own internal political and governmental dynamics.
Sector Nine, Twelve, Three and Six - Cardinal Points of the Seed Logos
While Sectors Twelve an Six form a Primary Axis in the Seed Logos, literally the polarity between the Matter and Spirit, the Divine and Mundane, it is the activation of a perpendicular axis that establishes an extra dimension of permutation - thus bringing a single dimension of reality or consideration into a a field of two or three dimensions. In a sense, once the cardinal points are established, the basic rubric of the Seed Logos presents itself; the other points are important in revealing nuance and detail but they are secondary.
Here note how the basic cross not only creates the two dimensional quality, but also can develop into the three dimensional tetrahedron. More about this in the full discussion of the Geometry of the Seed Logos.