To beat Trump, we need to know why Americans keep voting for him. George Monbiot thinks that Psychologists may have the answer. And indeed, if you look at it from a developmental psychological perspective from Abraham Maslow to the Integral Psychology of Ken Wilber, it becomes clear that the political divide in American (and the rest of the Western world), is not economically or class driven, but is rooted in individual psychological development, or the lack of such development.
“Many explanations are proposed for the continued rise of Donald Trump and the steadfastness of his support, even as the outrages and criminal charges pile up,” says George Monbiot. “Some of these explanations are powerful. But there is one I have seen mentioned nowhere, which could, I believe, be the most important: Trump is king of the extrinsics.
“Some psychologists believe our values tend to cluster around certain poles, described as “intrinsic” and “extrinsic”. People with a strong set of intrinsic values are inclined towards empathy, intimacy and self-acceptance. They tend to be open to challenge and change, interested in universal rights and equality, and protective of other people and the living world.”
But intrinsic and extrinsic values are only points on a continuum of one of the developmental lines of developmental growth that all individuals grow through. Values arise through a series of interior, nested, hierarchical stages of growth, firstly motivated by external (extrinsic) forces such as the need for food, shelter, clothing, sex and other physical needs, then safety needs, love and belonging needs and then esteem (or ego) needs – all of them lower, deficiency needs.
Value needs motivated by internal (intrinsic) forces, only make their appearance at the next hierarchical stage of development when the drive for self-actualization kicks in, when we become spiritually, emotionally and intellectually mature.
There are many other lines of development like the intellectual growth line, moral developmental line, emotional growth line and artistic growth line. There are many more lines of development according to Wilber’s model of human development. To divide human behavior as intrinsically and extrinsically motivated is very simplistic and does not get us closer to an answer to the why and how of the Trump enigma.
According to Wilber: “Liberalism reflected many things at once: a move from ethnocentric to world centric perspectives; from monarchy/aristocracy to democracy; from slavery to equality; from a society informed by myth to one informed by science; from a role-identity to an ego-identity; from duty and honour to dignity and recognition; from ethnocentric values to universal values (especially freedom, equality, solidarity).” And that is what Trump and his followers hates with a passion about Democrats, especially their inclusiveness which they see as weakness and a denial of traditional values, ethnocentric values like nationalism, family values, militarism, patriotism, patriarchalism.
George Monbiot:
“People at the extrinsic end of the spectrum are more attracted to prestige, status, image, fame, power and wealth. They are strongly motivated by the prospect of individual reward and praise. They are more likely to objectify and exploit other people, to behave rudely and aggressively and to dismiss social and environmental impacts. They have little interest in cooperation or community. People with a strong set of extrinsic values are more likely to suffer from frustration, dissatisfaction, stress, anxiety, anger and compulsive behaviour.”
In other words, extrinsically motivated people are still in what Maslow called a deficiency need stage of development, and have not yet reached the higher self-actualization stage of development.
Ken Wilber:
“Mainstream Republicans or conservatives have very strong amber/traditional values. Hence, when they say that ‘character counts,’ or that they want to ‘instill values in people,’ or that they are ‘the party of values,’ they almost always mean amber values only, traditional values, ethnocentric values: nationalism, family values, militarism, patriotism, patriarchalism, good ole Biblical injunctions and command morality.” In other words, the old “us”, the good people versus “them”, the bad people.
Levels of development according to Wilber:
Level 1 (Infrared) Archaic – Physiological needs dominate.
Level 2 (Magenta) Magic Tribal – Egotistic narcissistic stage of development.
Level 3 (Red) Magic Mythic – Might is right stage. Survival of the strongest. Egotistic. Dictators like Hitler and Stalin’s operating level.
Level 4 (Amber) Mythic traditional. Concrete operational stage of development – Ethnocentric, Nationalistic (my God, my church, my nation, my language, my flag, my people, are the best). Fundamentalistic, conservative, racist, sexistic.
Level 5 (Orange) Modern. Formal operational stage – World centric, Cosmopolitical, self-esteem needs, materialistic, rational, democratic.
Level 6 (Green) Post Modern – Relativistic, sensitive, pro human and woman and animal rights, environmentally centered, inclusive mode of thinking.
Level 7 (Turcoice) Integral – Holistic, Cosmo centric, realm of ideas. Self actualization stage of development.
Level 8 (White) Super Integral.
George Monbiot:
“Trump exemplifies extrinsic values (Wilber’s Amber stage values). From the tower bearing his name in gold letters to his gross overstatements of his wealth; from his endless ranting about “winners” and “losers” to his reported habit of cheating at golf; from his extreme objectification of women, including his own daughter, to his obsession with the size of his hands; from his rejection of public service, human rights and environmental protection to his extreme dissatisfaction and fury, undiminished even when he was president of the United States, Trump, perhaps more than any other public figure in recent history, is a walking, talking monument to extrinsic values.” (In other words, Integral Psychology’s Amber, bordering on, and even regressing to the Red stage of development).
George Monbiot is right when he says; “We are not born with our values. They are shaped by the cues and responses we receive from other people and the prevailing mores of our society.” But there is a limit to where an individual can develop in all the lines of development, and if Red or Orange is your limit of moral or intellectual or any of the lines of development, there is nothing that can do to get you past that limit. The tragedy is that when you reach your limit, you believe that that is the limit for everybody else. You do not believe that there is a higher level to grow into, and anybody who tells you so is a liar and a threat to society, and must be eradicated by any means, even if you have to kill him or her (remember the inquisition!).
“They are also moulded by the political environment we inhabit” says Monbiot. “If people live under a cruel and grasping political system, they tend to normalise and internalise it, absorbing its dominant claims and translating them into extrinsic values. This, in turn, permits an even crueller and more grasping political system to develop.”
We saw that in Nazi Germany where good, ordinary, jovial, and fun loving, civilized people were swept up and carried away and turned into Jew murdering hordes by Hitler and his fanatical commanders. But it was not “dominant claims” that were “translated into extrinsic values”, Those values were there all along, operating in that concrete operational stage of development where most of the German population found themselves in at that time. It only needed one man, Hitler, to fan it into a frenzy that eventually scorched the Earth. Currently Trump is doing exactly the same in America, because the majority of American people have not yet advanced into the Orange, Modern, Formal operational stage of development, which is World centric, Cosmopolitical, materialistic, rational, and democratic, or into the “green” postmodern stage of development which is characterized by a relativistic, sensitive, pro human and pro woman and pro animal rights, environmentally centered, inclusive mode of thinking.
Erich Fromm: “The person who has not freed himself from the ties of blood and soil is not yet fully born as a human being; his capacity for love and reason are crippled; he does not experience himself nor his fellow man in their – and his own – human reality.”
Monbiot: “If, by contrast, people live in a country in which no one becomes destitute, in which social norms are characterised by kindness, empathy, community and freedom from want and fear, their values are likely to shift towards the intrinsic end. This process is known as policy feedback, or the “values ratchet”. The values ratchet operates at the societal and the individual level: a strong set of extrinsic values often develops as a result of insecurity and unfulfilled needs. These extrinsic values then generate further insecurity and unfulfilled needs.”
‘From his endless ranting about ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ to his reported habit of cheating at golf, Donald Trump is a walking, talking monument to extrinsic values.’ (That is “Orange” values.)
Monbiot: “Ever since Ronald Reagan came to power, on a platform that ensured society became sharply divided into “winners” and “losers”, and ever more people, lacking public provision, were allowed to fall through the cracks, US politics has become fertile soil for extrinsic values. As Democratic presidents, following Reagan, embraced most of the principles of neoliberalism, the ratchet was scarcely reversed. The appeal to extrinsic values by the Democrats, Labour and other once-progressive parties is always self-defeating. Research shows that the further towards the extrinsic end of the spectrum people travel, the more likely they are to vote for a rightwing party.”
Wilber beautifully captures this failure of the Democratic party to counter the conservative gains in popularity by his postulation of the development of a “Toxic Green” faction in liberal politics, exemplified by Hillary Clinton (who called rightwing supporters “human thrash” and hillbillies and other derogatory names), who regards herself (like all her “Toxic Green” friends) as more intelligent, more moral, more ethical, in fact in all respects superior to the rest of humanity. No wonder Trump walked all over her and demolished her totally! And she deserved it. And of course, thinking people will distance themselves from such arrogance and not vote for the Democrats, or even go to vote for Trump.
Monbiot : “But the shift goes deeper than politics. For well over a century, the US, more than most nations, has worshipped extrinsic values: the American dream is a dream of acquiring wealth, spending it conspicuously and escaping the constraints of other people’s needs and demands. It is accompanied, in politics and in popular culture, by toxic myths about failure and success: wealth is the goal, regardless of how it is acquired. The ubiquity of advertising, the commercialisation of society and the rise of consumerism, alongside the media’s obsession with fame and fashion, reinforce this story. The marketing of insecurity, especially about physical appearance, and the manufacture of unfulfilled wants, dig holes in our psyches that we might try to fill with money, fame or power. For decades, the dominant cultural themes in the US – and in many other nations – have functioned as an almost perfect incubator of extrinsic values.”
Because the majority of Americans (and the World population) are still in the “Orange” and “Red” stage of development and driven by deficiency needs, they tend to worship “strong” leaders like Hitler and Putin and Trump.
According to Wilber, the Western society today is made up of about 30 % amber, 50% orange, the rest is green with about 2% at turquoise.
Monbiot:
“A classic sign of this shift is the individuation of blame. On both sides of the Atlantic, it now takes extreme forms. Under the criminal justice bill now passing through parliament, people caught rough sleeping can be imprisoned or fined up to £2,500 if they are deemed to constitute a “nuisance” or cause “damage”. According to article 61 of the bill, “damage” includes smelling bad. It’s hard to know where to begin with this. If someone had £2,500 to spare, they wouldn’t be on the streets. The government is proposing to provide prison cells for rough sleepers, but not homes. Perhaps most importantly, people are being blamed and criminalised for their own destitution, which in many cases will have been caused by government policy.
“Yes, Trump is dominating the primaries. That doesn’t mean he’ll beat Biden.
“We talk about society’s rightward journey. We talk about polarisation and division. We talk about isolation and the mental health crisis. But what underlies these trends is a shift in values. This is the cause of many of our dysfunctions; the rest are symptoms.”
Or more accurately, a regression from Green (Post Modern stage of development) to Orange (Modern – Formal operational stage) or even to Amber (Mythic traditional – Concrete operational stage of development). In times of uncertainty and crisis people long for the good old times when there was law and order and stability, there was strong leadership, and white was white and black was black with no gray in between. And every time those lower stages do come into power today, the first thing they attack and attempt to eradicate is liberal freedoms.
To evolve is to reach for higher internal states of being, higher states of consciousness, then conditions outside sustains and do not impede internal growth, but when external conditions deteriorate and starts to threaten (or seems to threaten) the physical existence of individuals, regression and involution takes place … and enters Trump, the great savior, a messiah sent from Heaven.
Monbiot:
“When a society valorises status, money, power and dominance, it is bound to generate frustration. It is mathematically impossible for everyone to be number one. The more the economic elites grab, the more everyone else must lose. Someone must be blamed for the ensuing disappointment. In a culture that worships winners, it can’t be them. It must be those evil people pursuing a kinder world, in which wealth is distributed, no one is forgotten and communities and the living planet are protected. Those who have developed a strong set of extrinsic values will vote for the person who represents them, the person who has what they want. Trump. And where the US goes, the rest of us follow.
“Trump might well win again – God help us if he does. If so, his victory will be due not only to the racial resentment of ageing white men, or to his weaponisation of culture wars or to algorithms and echo chambers, important as these factors are. It will also be the result of values embedded so deeply that we forget they are there.”
This is a very good article by Monbiot about Trump and what underlies the shift to the Right in American politics and Trump’s growing popularity. Trump is indeed “king of extrinsics”, speaking the language of people stuck on Wilber’s Amber stage of development (Mythic traditional. Concrete operational stage of development) where physical and ego needs dominate.
Once you grow beyond the deficiency-need stage into growth needs (intrinsically motivated thinking and behavior), a new, exiting, and wider world opens up to you, a more inclusive, forgiving and accepting life unfolds in and around you. It has to do with what Wilber calls Growing up, Waking up, Cleaning up, and Showing up, something Trump is not able to do.
Trump is going to win this election, and the World will never be the same again. Sometimes you must go down before you can move up again. Evolution has for ever been for going up, from the time of the Gig Bang to this present moment, it is not going to quit now, despite the Trumps of this world.
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