Spiral dynamics, also known as vMemes, or "colors", apply to individual people, groups, organizations, countries, and (here's a new one!) - cultures. Not what we usually think as different cultures (e.g. Easten, Westen, etc.), but the cultures as Ishmael and "B" talked about them - the Takers' culture, and the Leavers cultures.
Or, more precisely, the interaction between different cultures. In the Leavers cultures, not only the people in tribes are in "purple", but the way the cultures live together is also "purple" in many ways. The interaction of different cultures are very much the same everywhere (our way is the only way - and it's the only way we know and understand), and how the cultures evolve and co-exist is "magical" to the different tribes. I don't know if there was ever a "wise elder" among those cultures, but I suspect some cultures in the past might have served a purpose of an "elder" culture in promoting certian ways of being around them.
The Takers culture, on the other hand, has changed the equation about 10,000 years ago. Takers happened to discover a very strong source of power - a particular way of agriculture, and then technology, and on it went. Intoxicated by their power, they presumed that the World is theirs to rule. They kicked the gods out of the garden high into the Heaven and deep under the ground, took their place, and proceeded to conquer the world until there was no more place to go. The Takers' culture is clearly on top at the moment, the sole dictator of the World populated by many other (now very small, powerless, and therefore, rather insignificant by Takers' standards) "indigenous" cultures. The strongest takes the food, and kills anyone it considers a threat. In a way, countries, sub-cultures, even Takers' wars, are created as a way for the Takers culture as a whole to strengthen and spread itself as much as it can.
The Takers are burning red. In a world populated by many cultures with one of them being one big bully, it is as simple and obvious as it gets. This is what Hell is really about. It is a Hot Red World.
And now the Takers culture is in crisis. They don't quite believe it yet, although the rats are already leaving the ship, but as sure as hell we are going right there, and the temperature's rising. In fact, quite literally - the global warming is no joke.
Is there any hope at the end of the Red Tunnel? Am I seeing a Blue Light, or is it an oncoming train? Well, it was just a random thought.
Just a thought...
PS. If none of this makes any sense, read Ishmael and The Story of B by Daniel Quinn, and study Clare Graves work - e.g. "Spiral Dynamics" by Don Beck and Chris Cowen is a good intro.
