Just as a brilliant lightening bolt in a dark, misty, and dripping sky suddenly illuminates the hidden-from-view land forms and architectural structures, the shocking events on September 11 have revealed the deep divides and growing gaps in human rights, economic well being, and political stability.  We can see more clearly, now. But do we understand what we “see” or will we simply return to the “glorious days of yesteryear” once the danger appears to have passed?

Naïve notions of an extended post Cold War Golden Age crashed down as quickly as the doomed World Trade Center towers. Attempts to impose Western political and economic models on Islam-inspired, Arab cultures were weighed in the balance and found to be wanting. An entire generation that flourished in the 21st Century towers of  technology and  materialism was assaulted by an ill wind blowing from the  14th  Century if not the 7th Century.
What in the world happened during our idealistic pilgrimage to “the end of history?” How can humanity navigate the transition from rigid jihad beliefs to more pragmatic, secular perspectives?

The intent of the Global Values Network (and Monitor) is to provide new road maps for the human odyssey by describing “Stratified Democracy” – a powerful concept that profiles how deep value systems and memetic codes shape models of governance and cultural formation.  This approach rejects political “car washes” and describes why societies must ratchet through different expressions of “democracy” and forms of economic distribution. Stratified Democracy will highlight the impact of indigenous cultures and evolutionary belief systems in shaping surface level behaviors and actions. This series of columns within the “As the World Turns” framework will offer a spectrum analysis of “religion” to describe how the diverse views reflect these value system codes.

The Genome Project has identified the biological DNA scripts that have emerged and migrated over 17 different natural habitats. Stratified Democracy, based on the Spiral Dynamics concept and Integral view point, details how meme codes (units of cultural information) have, spread over the planet. The Global Values Network will focus on tribal orders, feudal empires, authoritarian democracy, multi-party democracy, social democracy, and integral democracy as we scan the planet for appropriate leadership systems for dealing with the growing complexity.

To illustrate, I made a major presentation at the World Bank in Washington DC on December 17 on The future of Afghanistan. This presentation along with the graphics will soon be made available on the World Bank’s B-SPAN web broadcasting network
and you will be able to access it from the GVN website.

In the presentation I suggested that the world community consider a “nation-building-by stealth” initiative since the available leadership structure in that war-torn and hapless “country” still functions within the Red/Third Level/Empire structure, much like one still finds over the African continent. While this is being done, it will be necessary to use forms of basic democracy and leadership development to increase the capacity of the local group and those in exile to fashion a form of governance that will be appropriate to the conditions in that part of the world. The intent will be to raise levels of sustainability
but do so over a ten year period of time.

Further, as we displayed cultural/tribal maps of that part of the world in the presentation, it became clear that since the human groupings straddled the more formal national boundaries, no solution WITHIN Afghanistan will be tenable until issues in Pakistan are
resolved. Otherwise, racial and ethnic conflict in both countries will destabilize events in each other as these forms of social and political virus bounce BETWEEN the two societies.

Finally, and this will set the GBN and Monitor apart from other world values studies, we will, over time, map out specific guidelines and strategies to deal with the value system gaps and asymmetries that continue to generate the hot zones that imperil world peace and justice. At this stage the Global Values Monitor morphs into the Global Values Strategy as we generate a knowledge of the structural designs, leadership styles, and
action steps necessary to deal with each of the evolutionary ratchets on the world’s
template.

No more prizes for forecasting the rain; only prizes for building the ark.