The Great Turning

by David C Korten

  The Socialized Consciousness constructs its identity through its primary reference groups, as defined by gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality, class, political party, occupation, employer, and perhaps a favored sports team. It is commonly militantly protective of its own group and prone to take any criticism of it as a serious affront. It internalizes and adheres to the culturally defined moral codes of the groups with which it identifies in an effort to avoid a sense of guilt or shame, but lacks the ability to subject those codes to critical examination. Because it is highly responsive to prevailing cultural norms and expectations, the Socialized Consciousness might also be called the Acculturated Consciousness. It is the consciousness of the Good Citizens, who have a “Small World” view of reality defined by their immediate reference group, play by the existing rules, and expect a decent life in return for themselves, their families, and their communities. They represent the swing vote that tips the balance toward either Empire or Earth Community, depending on the cultural frame.

  46 Highly adaptive to the dominant cultural and institutional context, the Socialized Consciousness is the foundation of conventional good citizenship. On the downside, it is also susceptible to manipulation by advertisers, propagandists, and political demagogues, and it is prone to demand rights for the members of its own identity group that it is willing to deny others.

  Fourth Order: Cultural Consciousness

  Adulthood commonly brings encounters with people who have cultural perspectives and beliefs different from those of one’s own identity groups. The initial reaction to such encounters is commonly a chauvinistic sense of cultural superiority and possibly an embrace of cultural absolutism: “The way of my people is the only right way.”

  If the Socialized Consciousness is sufficiently secure in its identity, however, it may come to recognize that culture is itself a social construct, that each culture has its own logic, that different cultural “truths” lead to different outcomes for individuals and society, and that cultural norms and expectations are subject to choice. This represents a profound step in the development of a true moral consciousness based on examined moral principles, and the beginnings of a capacity for cultural innovation.

  The Cultural Consciousness recognizes the need for legal sanctions to secure the order and security of society from the predation of sociopaths who lack the moral maturity to avoid doing harm to others. Whereas the Imperial Consciousness is primarily concerned that the law protect and advance its own security and interests, the Cultural Consciousness is concerned with equal justice for all people, not just for oneself and those of one’s own kind, and it works to repeal or revise unjust laws.

  A Cultural Consciousness is rarely achieved before age thirty, and the majority of those who live in modern imperial societies never achieve it, partly because most corporations, political parties, churches, labor unions, and even educational institutions actively discourage it. Each of these institutions has its defining belief system to which it demands loyalty. Those who raise significant challenges are likely to be subjected to a loss of standing, if not outright rejection. But because those who achieve a Cultural Consciousness have the capacity to question the dysfunctional cultural premises of Empire, they are the essential 47engines of the cultural renewal and maturation that the Socialized Consciousness is inclined to suppress as threatening to the established social and moral order. Persons who have achieved a Cultural Consciousness have an “Inclusive World” view that sees the possibility of creating inclusive, life-affirming societies that work for all. As elaborated in chapter 4, such persons recognize culture as a social construct subject to change by conscious choice. Thus, we may call them Cultural Creatives, to use the terminology of Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson.4

  Fifth Order: Spiritual Consciousness

  The Spiritual Consciousness, the highest expression of what it means to be human, manifests the awakening to Creation as a complex, multidimensional, interconnected, continuously unfolding whole. It involves coming full circle back to the original sense of oneness of the womb experience, but with a richly nuanced appreciation for the complexity and grandeur of the whole of Creation as manifest in each person, animal, plant, and rock. The womb experience is wholly passive. Persons who have attained a Spiritual Consciousness have an evolving “Integral World” view and find meaning in serving as active partners or co-creators in Creation’s evolutionary quest to actualize its possibilities. Call them Spiritual Creatives.

  Spiritual Consciousness is the consciousness of the elder statesperson, teacher, tribal leader, or religious sage that supports an examined morality grounded in the universal principles of justice, love, and compassion common to the teachings of the most revered religious prophets. It approaches conflict, contradiction, and paradox not as problems to overcome, but as opportunities for deeper learning.

  Like each of the previous transitions to a higher order of consciousness, the transition from Cultural Consciousness to Spiritual Consciousness is acquired by relating to diverse people and situations in search of an ever deeper understanding of life’s possibilities. Each such encounter opens a window to a piece of reality previously hidden from the conscious mind. Eventually, what once appeared to be disconnected fragments of experience link together to awaken a profound sense of the spiritual unity of Creation.

  Far from marking the end of the developmental process, the step to Spiritual Consciousness opens the way to new learning opportunities. As observed by psychologists John and Linda Friel, “The depth and 48breadth of an aged person’s connectedness with creation is wondrous to behold, and it can only emerge if he is gradually willing to let go of his narcissism in stages all the way along life’s path.”5

  The Socialized Consciousness is prone to characterize persons who have achieved a Spiritual Consciousness as lone contemplators disaffiliated from society, because they disavow special loyalty to any group or identity. That, however, is a misinterpretation. The Spiritual Consciousness simply transcends the exclusiveness of conventional group loyalties to embrace an identity that is inclusive of the whole and all its many elements. Thus, it extends outward to encompass a larger whole: the sense of duty and loyalty once reserved for members of one’s immediate family, ethnic group, nationality, or religion now extends to the whole. To the Spiritual Consciousness, the satisfaction of living in creative service to the whole is its own reward.

  Able to take a holistic view of social relationships, the Spiritual Consciousness rejects retributive justice as neither just nor pragmatic, because it leads to an endless cycle of revenge that fails to advance the well-being of either the individual or the society. The Spiritual Consciousness is focused instead on restorative justice that, to the extent possible, makes the victim whole and rehabilitates the wrongdoer while deterring both past and potential future wrongdoers from committing harmful acts. The Imperial or Socialized Consciousness sees this as coddling, or even siding with, the wrongdoer, as it lacks an inclusive systems perspective that allows it to think and act in terms of a larger concept: the well-being of the whole.

  The Spiritual Consciousness joins the Cultural Consciousness in seeking to change unjust laws. It recognizes, however, that at times it must engage in acts of principled nonviolent civil disobedience both to avoid being complicit in the injustice and to call the injustice to public attention. It undertakes such acts with awareness of the potential legal consequences.

  PSYCHOLOGY OF EMPIRE

  In the work of the Great Turning, we face a paradox. One of the highest priorities of a mature society devoted to the partnership principles of Earth Community is to support every individual in negotiating the pathway to a fully mature consciousness. Creating a mature society, however, requires leadership by people of a mature consciousness.

  49 This creates a difficulty. Cultures and institutions afflicted with the addictions of Empire throw up active barriers to the acquisition of a mature consciousness and favor leaders who act from an Imperial Consciousness. The Imp
erial Consciousness is a normal and essential stage in the developmental processes of children. In adults, however, it is sociopathic.

  Adulthood and Magical Consciousness

  In adults, Magical Consciousness is expressed in a fuzzy grasp of elemental causal relationships, fantasies of possessing supernatural powers, and faith in magical protectors to set things right. The adult operating from a Magical Consciousness lives in an “Other World” in denial of its responsibilities in this world. Primary examples are those economists who fantasize a world in which markets magically turn greed into a public good and those religious believers who point the finger of responsibility for earthly ills to a distant God and thus absolve themselves of responsibility for their complicit actions. In adults, the Magical Consciousness is most likely to be experienced as a subtext of the Imperial Consciousness.

  Adulthood and Imperial Consciousness

  The self-referential morality of the Imperial Consciousness can be quite jarring when encountered in an adult. Kegan offers the example of Roxanne, an inmate in a women’s correctional institution who had a history of picking pockets, stealing welfare checks, and using other people’s credit cards. When interviewed, she expressed the view that stealing was wrong except when necessary to meet her needs. When asked whether it would be fair for another person with similar needs to steal her checks, she replied that it would not be fair because she herself needed the money.6 Members of the ruling class who think nothing of demanding millions in government subsidies, but excoriate the poor who accept government help exhibit this same self-referential double standard on a grand scale.

  When an Imperial Consciousness manifests in adults, the self-referential morality leads to a division of the world into friends and enemies: “Those who are not for me are against me.” Definitions of good and evil are similarly self-referential. Good is what serves my interests, and evil is what conflicts with my interests. The Imperial Consciousness 50has a “My World” view of most everything, assessing each situation with an eye to potential gains and losses for the self. These are the Power Seekers, who play up to those more powerful and exploit those less powerful—in colloquial language, they “kiss up and kick down.”

  Adult expressions of the Magical and Imperial orders of consciousness are generally far more complex than their childhood expressions. Although adults operating from these lower orders of consciousness may be incapable of ethical behavior based on empathic understanding, they may possess a highly developed intellect capable of formulating and executing complex political strategies. They are often accomplished liars skilled in crafting moral arguments attuned to the emotional and moral sensibilities of the persons whose loyalties they seek to manipulate. Unable to distinguish self-interest from collective interest, admit error, accept responsibility for the consequences of their actions, or feel guilt or remorse for harms caused, these individuals may be incapable of acknowledging even to themselves that they are engaged in deception. Truth becomes what they want it to be. Believing their own lies, they are able to lie with great sincerity.

  Combine a highly developed cognitive intellect with a morally and emotionally challenged Imperial Consciousness, and the result is likely to be a skillful practitioner of the Machiavellian art of political manipulation. Such individuals may possess highly advanced abilities to plan, make deals, manipulate others, and strategize to achieve their goals, and to use dominator power to personal advantage. Furthermore, they may be highly skilled in developing elaborate arguments to justify self-interested acts as acts of self-sacrifice in the interest of a larger good, and will respond with self-righteous indignation to any suggestion that such claims are less than sincere.

  Such persons are easily identified by their inability to acknowledge their mistakes, by their claims to righteous exemption from rules that apply to lesser mortals, and by their habitual scapegoating —projecting their own moral flaws onto perceived evil enemies to justify acting out their fear and anger as a righteous mission. The emotional drive for retribution may be so strong that questions of actual guilt or innocence are dismissed as irrelevant.

  Shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack I happened to be seated on an airplane next to a senior executive of a major U.S. corporation. The United States had just launched the invasion of Afghanistan, and I shared with him my reservations about the war and its cost 51in innocent Afghan lives. He responded that in his opinion, since “they” had killed five thousand of our people (an early estimate later revised downward to three thousand) we, the United States, would not be even until we killed at least five thousand of their people.

  I countered that most of the people we were killing in Afghanistan were innocent of any involvement in the attack. He replied that this was irrelevant, as the people killed in the attack on the World Trade Center were also innocents. I was stunned. This was an educated man in his fifties or sixties who held a position of considerable power and responsibility and yet lacked the moral maturity to recognize that retribution against innocents was as immoral as the original act of the terrorists and would lead to a pointless escalation of violence. It brought me face-to-face with a reality I had long denied.

  In my earlier writing and speaking, I had held to the argument that the failures of our ruling institutions were the result of bad systems, not bad people. Yet a wave of exposés in 2002 and 2003 of pervasive corruption at the highest levels of corporate and governmental power suggested that many of our most powerful institutions are in the hands of ethically challenged human beings.

  Moral Autism

  For all the efforts of the corporate media to portray the scandals as the work of a few bad apples, it became clear that the corruption was on a grand scale and carried out by profoundly ethically challenged individuals. The responsible individuals did not necessarily intend to harm others. Rather, they appear to have been acting from the purely self-referential perspective common to young children. Catholic theologian Daniel Maguire refers to this pattern as moral autism.7

  Like the young delinquent mentioned earlier, the adult operating from an Imperial Consciousness may have the social intelligence to recognize that it is easiest to steal from those who trust you, but lack the moral capacity to recognize that to do so constitutes a wrong in itself and destroys the fabric of trust essential to healthy social relationships. When such adults appear among the lower socioeconomic classes, the ruling establishment commonly identifies them as sociopaths and confines them to a prison or mental institution. By contrast, when they appear among the higher socioeconomic classes, the ruling establishment is prone to judge them especially suited for positions of leadership in 52the political and corporate institutions of imperial power. Persons of an Imperial Consciousness are also likely to be most highly motivated to endure the ruthless competition to achieve such positions of power. Products of the dominator cultures and institutions of Empire, the developmentally challenged become its servants.

  PSYCHOLOGY OF EARTH COMMUNITY

  In contrast to Imperial Consciousness, Cultural Consciousness and Spiritual Consciousness embody the human capacities for creative self-direction and choice within a framework of responsibility to and for the whole. These capacities are the foundation of positive cultural innovation, democracy, and the higher possibilities of our human nature. Potentially within the reach of each human, they are most likely to be achieved if intentionally cultivated by the individual and supported by the community. Chapter 4 points to evidence that the number of people operating from these higher orders of consciousness is growing rapidly in response to an intensification of cross-cultural communication, the great social movements of the twentieth century, and a growing awareness of the realities of an interdependent world.

  Those who lead an examined life grounded in a mature worldview understand complexity, identify with the well-being of the whole, have no interest in acquiring arbitrary power, and are unlikely to succumb to the manipulations of advertisers, propagandists, and demagogues. They encompass
the whole within a greatly enlarged circle of individual identity and see opportunities for the peaceful resolution of conflict and advancement of the common good that are invisible to those of a Magical or Imperial Consciousness. At their best, they are the visionaries and wisdom keepers of Earth Community and mature democratic citizenship.

  Persons acting from the different orders of consciousness understand the nature and meaning of democracy quite differently. The Imperial Consciousness views democratic participation as a contest for power to advance one’s personal interests and even as an opportunity to impose one’s own values and preferences on others. The Socialized Consciousness is likely to approach democratic participation rather like voting in a popularity contest or rooting for the home team at a sporting event. Neither provides a sound basis for mature self-governance. By 53contrast, the Cultural or Spiritual Consciousness approaches the practice of democracy as a process of collective problem solving aimed at enhancing the well-being and potential of all. These two orders of consciousness may be referred to jointly as the democratic orders of consciousness.

  CULTURAL POLITICS

  The simple model of the five orders of consciousness defines a range of possibilities that provide a framework for understanding the cultural politics of the Great Turning. Magical and Imperial Consciousness support the dominator cultures of Empire. Cultural and Spiritual Consciousness support the partnership cultures of Earth Community. Whichever prevails as the primary culture of the global society will determine what the future developmental direction of the human species will be and thereby whether future generations will look back on our time as the Great Unraveling or the Great Turning.