Will values shift “in time?”

In a new paper, Shifting Values: Hope and Concern for “Waking Up,” I took up the challenge of exploring how changing values (as explored in ConsumerShift) might help – or hinder – the need for global society to wake up and respond to the significant global issues ahead aka global emergency – as laid out in Richard Slaughter’s “Biggest Wakeup Call in History, and explored in a special issue of “On the Horizon.”

Three key values-related questions emerged:

1. What can be done about the huge number of World 2 emerging market consumers moving to modern values and entering their high-growth and consumption phase, which is likely to create further pressure on the issues relating to the wakeup call?
2. Will affluent World 1 postmoderns be capable of driving effective action in addressing the global emergency?
3. Will there be enough Integrals “in time,” especially given the significant leap to 2nd-tier consciousness required?

In addressing these questions, I find reason for both hope and concern arising from values changes in terms of addressing the global emergency. The hope comes from the development and spread of postmodern and integral values. The rise of postmodern values should lead to greater awareness of the global emergency. The rise of integral values in particular could lead greater action in addressing it. The distinction between the postmodern awareness/integral action split is likely to be far more blurry in practice, but I think the primary orientation of each of the groups is a fair and useful distinction to make. The postmoderns are a far bigger cohort but will tend to be more inclined to awareness-raising than action compared to the much smaller integral cohort with a greater action orientation.

The major concern is that the modern values prevalent in the emerging markets are suggesting a massive rise in consumption, and the emerging markets make up the largest share of the global population. Developments here could potentially overwhelm efforts to address the global emergency in the affluent world. It truly suggests the need for a global approach!

RE: #1, specifically, it really requires a global approach in which affluent W1 helps emerging W2 (and W3) develop with a lighter footprint. Not a preachy, “you need to,” but a sharing of technologies and approaches that will lighten the load.

Re: #2, short answer is, “I don’t think so. Awareness raising is vital, but it takes time, and it doesn’t appear that global society is ready for action

Re: #3, maybe, with the chief variable, perhaps, being how long before the emergency becomes acute; can we muddle through for another decade, and thus give integrals a chance to build toward critical mass? Integral consciousness needs time to emerge.

Admittedly, it is frustrating to not have more definitive answers. There is simply not enough data. In particular, it is challenging to give a useful answer to the “in time” question. A key area for further research would be to develop an accurate measure of the prevalence of the types of values present in the world today. That would provide a basis to explore questions relating to the “global emergency” in a more satisfying way.  Andy Hines