Concept of Effective Value Meme

From: jimruttshow8596

The effective value meme is a core concept developed by Hanzi Freinacht in his book, The Listening Society [00:01:50]. It is described as a four-dimensional framework for understanding human adult development [00:01:53].

Background and Context

The concept builds upon existing ideas such as value memes from Spiral Dynamics and similar frameworks found throughout adult development psychology and anthropology [00:02:11]. Historically, observations across different societies and times show a pattern in the evolution of meaning and societal stages [00:02:46]:

• Early/Smaller Societies: Tend to believe more in magic, rituals, and rites [00:02:58].
• Larger Societies: Progress to universal stories, narratives, or belief in one or multiple gods, unifying perspectives around a “higher truth” [00:03:09].
• Modern Society: Recognizes many visions of truth and objective reality, which can lead to postmodern perspectives as the weight of perspectives breaks down singular objective reality [00:03:31].

This alignment across anthropology, history, psychology, and personality suggests recognizable developmental stages [00:03:57]. Individuals within any given society often display a distribution across these stages; some may resonate with earlier societal worldviews, a majority with the conventional contemporary view, and a minority may intuit future forms of human life or philosophies [00:04:06]. An example of someone intuiting future societal stages is Roger Bacon in the late 13th century, who foresaw wagons without horses, flying machines, and metal boats without sails, thinking according to a value meme that corresponded to a society after his own [00:05:08].

Traditional value memes are often categorized:

• Traditional: Authoritarian, belief in one god or truth [00:07:04].
• Modern: Achiever-oriented, focused on business, democracy, and a materialist-reductionist worldview [00:07:18].
• Postmodern: Relational, egalitarian views, seeking to soften the harsh and destructive aspects of modern life [00:07:32].

However, a one-dimensional developmental view falls short, as people don’t always fit neatly into these categories. For instance, some may be complex thinkers but spiritually “flat,” while others possess deep emotional and spiritual capacities but lack high intellectual complexity [00:07:49]. This led to the formulation of the “effective value meme” by identifying four distinct dimensions [00:08:33].

The Four Dimensions

The effective value meme comprises four dimensions that, when combined, create a discernible pattern of human development and societal alignment [00:08:33]:

1. Hierarchical Complexity: Refers to the cognitive complexity of an individual’s thinking, with 15 levels ranging from the simplest organisms (like bacteria) to higher levels [00:12:00]. While individuals pass through these stages, moving up as an adult is a slow and difficult process that requires inventing new patterns of thought [00:23:08]. This dimension has a significant innate component, representing mental horsepower, but also requires environmental factors and scaffolding to develop [00:19:53]. Brain studies indicate that thoughts can go up to 11 dimensions, mirroring how more parts of the brain work together for higher complexity [00:24:49].

2. Code (Culture/Worldview): This represents the cultural code or worldview that an individual has “downloaded” from their environment [00:12:11]. For example, a 14-year-old in Mexico City today would understand more about physics than Thomas Aquinas, not due to greater individual complexity, but because they inherited a more advanced cultural code [00:12:16]. This dimension is considered highly actionable and a major “lever point” for societal change, as changes in cultural code can influence the other dimensions [00:20:39]. The Nordic Ideology book itself is presented as a “code book” designed to affect the other three dimensions [00:21:32]. Changing societal code relatively easily involves “grokking” new ideas and putting them into practice [00:26:10].

3. State (Emotional Set Point): This is the normal emotional set point or subjective state a person experiences [00:12:30]. States are about the sense of simply “being alive,” which can feel profoundly different from time to time, ranging from high states of directness and openness (even sadness in a “heavenly” way) to low states of terror and nothingness (like a bad psychedelic trip) [00:13:34]. While states are relatively easy to modify (e.g., with psychedelics), the effects may be temporary and unpredictable [00:19:14].

4. Depth (Integrated States/Traits): This refers to the ability to integrate subjective states into one’s enduring traits and purpose [00:12:41]. It’s about remembering profound experiences (like life being a potential heaven or hell) and allowing them to become recurring drives and an embodied part of one’s being [00:16:04]. People with high depth often align with progressive ideas, complexity, non-judgmental development, and multicultural perspectives [00:16:51]. However, high depth without corresponding hierarchical complexity and good code can lead to “magical thinking” or reductionist views [00:17:44], as seen in figures like Eckhart Tolle [00:18:15].

Implications for Societal Development

Understanding these four dimensions highlights that simply possessing “good ideas” or “code” is insufficient without the corresponding cognitive capacity, emotional depth, and supportive states to utilize them [00:26:34]. Different groups tend to emphasize different dimensions as fundamental [00:26:50]:

• Some focus on state (e.g., through meditation or psychedelics) [00:27:09].
• Others prioritize depth (e.g., through group dynamics, trauma work, and emotional integration) [00:27:41].
• A third group emphasizes hierarchical complexity (encouraging more multi-dimensional and abstract thinking) [00:28:16].
• The “code people” focus on favorite ideas and philosophies (e.g., process philosophy, complexity theory) [00:28:53].

Freinacht argues that all four dimensions are equally important in the long run [00:29:22]. The challenge is to recognize this multi-dimensionality and use “code” as a primary leverage point to “up-regulate” the other three dimensions, and vice-versa [00:29:17].

The ability to consciously change societal barriers and social-psychological landscapes is crucial for the future [00:29:52]. Just as modern society learned to change the natural world, a metamodern society must learn to see and change its own social and cultural code [00:30:52]. This involves making visible the underlying principles that run societies and taking them as objects of awareness and change [00:32:42]. This leads to a “strange loop” where society changes the code that modifies itself, which is then used to modify the code [00:33:38]. This shift is critical, especially with the advent of advanced AI and designed biology, as the potential for creating immense suffering is high if the cultural code itself does not become self-aware and improve [00:35:14].

The concept of “social engineering” is a frequent critique of conscious societal change [00:36:51]. However, Freinacht counters that if “social engineering” led to negative outcomes like Nazism, it also led to positive ones like the US Constitution and democratic systems [00:37:26]. The critical aspect is to engage in conscious social change, understanding the epistemological limits of complex systems and the unpredictable nature of emergence [00:42:26]. Instead of compelling people, the aim should be to “seduce” them into a better system by demonstrating its superiority and desirability [00:43:30].

A society striving for progress should also elevate emotional well-being to the same political importance as economic welfare, addressing issues like depression, stress, and alienation as core political concerns [00:45:40]. While qualitative, these aspects are central to what makes life worth living and provide meaning [00:49:03].

Attractor Points and Game Theory

Societies, like complex systems, tend to stabilize around “attractor points”—very likely outcomes that emerge over time given certain conditions [00:50:51]. Examples include the global emergence of chiefdoms with sufficient abundance, or the widespread adoption of electricity and the internet [00:51:22]. Recognizing these points helps guide societal development, moving beyond mere wishful thinking or dystopian scenarios [00:54:51].

Key attractor points for a meta-modern society might include:

• Proliferation of intelligent machines and designed biology, drastically changing labor markets, relationships, and human identity [00:56:55].
• Increased data gathering and predictive algorithms, leading to power struggles over control [00:57:46].
• Escalating environmental challenges [00:58:05].
• A shift towards “co-developmental politics” and deeper democracy, as industrial-era class structures dissolve [00:58:19].
• Globalization leading to a single global wealth distribution pyramid [00:59:08].

It is crucial to recognize that there are both “good” and “bad” attractor points. Bad attractors include societal fragmentation (leading to misery but freedom), or global digital autocracy (leading to order but no freedom) [01:01:13]. The goal is to steer towards a “good” basin of attraction that combines elements of both, fostering a deeper, ordered, and free democracy globally [01:05:07].

This leads to a discussion of three approaches to societal change:

1. Game Denial: An idealistic approach (often associated with the left) that seeks to abolish unfairness and competition, believing in a utopian state of universal kindness. This often results in policies that lead to societal collapse in practice due to a denial of inherent “games” or trade-offs in reality [01:06:15].
2. Game Acceptance: A conservative approach that accepts the status quo, believing life is inherently tough and injustices are unchangeable. This leads to defending arbitrary injustices that could be altered [01:09:56].
3. Game Change: The desired approach, which refuses to accept arbitrary injustices while acknowledging that “the game” (of relationships, power, and choices) always exists [01:11:00]. It advocates for understanding the rules of the current game, playing it lovingly, and working to consciously change its rules, as has happened throughout human history [01:11:46].

The Master Pattern: Six Kinds of Politics

To move towards a “relative utopia” (or “protopia”—a qualitatively preferable, yet still evolving, state of affairs that would seem utopian to past generations) [01:13:41], society needs a “master pattern” of six interoperative political forms:

1. Existential Politics: Focuses on the subjective experiences of meaning, purpose, freedom, and grappling with death and anxiety [01:21:49]. This includes exploring how education, healthcare, and preventive measures can foster a sense of living life to the fullest [01:22:18].
2. Gemeinschaft Politics (Mineshaft Politics): Addresses the quality of human relationships—ethnic, familial, local community, civic engagement, inter-group, inter-religious, and gender relations [01:23:14]. This includes developing social skills, perspective-taking, tolerance, and empathy to create harmonious togetherness rather than leaving it to chance [01:23:37].
3. Emancipation Politics: Acts as a counterbalance to the integrative tendencies of existential and Gemeinschaft politics [01:26:46]. It is a politics of freedom and conflict, pushing against “meddling with people’s lives” by protecting individual rights and autonomy [01:27:11].
4. Empirical Politics: Ensures that policies are scientifically formulated and have intended effects [01:27:25]. It pushes back with objective reality against subjective or inter-subjective claims, aiming to make society more scientific and base policy on stronger, validated knowledge [01:27:36].
5. Democratic Politics: Aims to deepen the legitimacy and participation in the democratic system [01:28:23]. By continually improving modes of governance, society can ensure decisions are more transparent, participatory, and perceived as legitimate by citizens [01:28:53].
6. Politics of Theory: Focuses on how society describes reality and “brainwashes itself” [01:29:50]. It seeks to consciously examine and improve the cultural interpretations and stories about reality that affect everyday life and agency [01:30:11]. This is the most complex dimension, relying on the development of the others, but it is crucial for humanity’s survival and evolution [01:31:49].

These six forms of politics are designed to work together, forming a coherent system that can triangulate and address the more complex and subtle issues of life, placing them at the heart of societal organization [01:21:24]. The strength of this master pattern lies in the synergistic balance of all six dimensions, rather than focusing on one or two in isolation [01:31:34].