Dialectic
Oct 18th, 2004, 02:54 PM
If you read my "Team America" post under 44 Eyes Watchin', you'll know that I thought the movie was insightful, brilliant, and even espoused a healthy and intelligent morality. I would like to tell you why.
The focus and driving theme of this movie is the "Dick-Pussy-Asshole" rationale, and I am going to use it to illustrate what I mean.
To summarize/ paraphrase the model:
The world is made up of three types of people: Dicks, Pussies, and Assholes. Dicks only want to fuck, and they want to fuck everything in sight. What do Dicks fuck? Dicks fuck Pussies, and they also fuck Assholes. Pussies aren't really interested in fucking, and they don't want Dicks to go around fucking everything in sight either. And Assholes, well, Assholes just shit all over everything they can, including Dicks and Pussies.
Sometimes, Dicks go too far and fuck too much. Pussies can prevent this from happening. But Dicks should be permitted to fuck when it's appropriate, because if they don't, Assholes get to do what they please, and everyone ends up covered in shit.
That's the gist of the argument. I'm going to re-phrase this now in the language of ITP/ Spiral Dynamics.
The world is mostly made up of three types of people: Dicks (Blue-Orange/ mythic members/ ethnocentric), Pussies (Green/ postmodern/ worldcentric), and Assholes (Pathological Red and Blue-Orange).
Blue-Orange knows their Way is the One True Way and will do everything they can within their ethnocentric moral bounds to spread it and benefit themselves. They like to fuck everything in sight. Green knows there are multiple Ways that should all be allowed to fluorish without judgment or interference, and is dead-set against fucking everything in sight. Pathological Red/ Blue-Orange is narcissistic, extremely egocentric, and wouldn't mind taking over the world.
Green checks Blue-Orange when Blue-Orange starts going too far, but since Green can't make a decisive move of aggression (or come to any strong conclusions in general, except that everyone else sucks), Blue-Orange is necessary to do what Green would consider the "dirty-work" of taking out extremely pathological tribal and nationalistic powers.
Stone/ Parker simplify one thing in their argument (and I'm not implying their argument was fully inclusive or meant to be taken fully seriously): they say everyone is either a Dick, a Pussy, or an Asshole. That's actually not true, and the argument itself shows that, because a true Dick, Pussy, or Asshole COULDN'T MAKE THAT ARGUMENT. This requires someone who understands the tendencies and dynamics of ALL THREE groups: someone who knows what makes them happy, what makes them mad, and what makes them move, someone who can objectify all their stances because s/he is not stuck subjectively "inside" them.
A lot of people think that Stone/ Parker are making the argument that you logically should be a "Dick-in-check," and they're not saying that at all. They're saying you should understand the argument itself (or the theme/ morality of the entire movie) and thus not buy into any of the three groups.
I'm going to go so far as to say this resembles "Second Tier" integrated thinking. Remember, over 99% of the world is in First Tier: Red, Blue, Orange, or Green, so a lot of the time, it looks like that's all there is (Stone/ Parker simple argument). But there is a small fraction of the world that sees this developmental pattern, sees the strengths and weaknesses of the First Tier memes, and understands how they move together and how to best serve the whole Spiral of Development (Stone/ Parker subtle implication).
So don't be a Dick, a Pussy, or an Asshole. Be a Geek Puppetmaster.
The focus and driving theme of this movie is the "Dick-Pussy-Asshole" rationale, and I am going to use it to illustrate what I mean.
To summarize/ paraphrase the model:
The world is made up of three types of people: Dicks, Pussies, and Assholes. Dicks only want to fuck, and they want to fuck everything in sight. What do Dicks fuck? Dicks fuck Pussies, and they also fuck Assholes. Pussies aren't really interested in fucking, and they don't want Dicks to go around fucking everything in sight either. And Assholes, well, Assholes just shit all over everything they can, including Dicks and Pussies.
Sometimes, Dicks go too far and fuck too much. Pussies can prevent this from happening. But Dicks should be permitted to fuck when it's appropriate, because if they don't, Assholes get to do what they please, and everyone ends up covered in shit.
That's the gist of the argument. I'm going to re-phrase this now in the language of ITP/ Spiral Dynamics.
The world is mostly made up of three types of people: Dicks (Blue-Orange/ mythic members/ ethnocentric), Pussies (Green/ postmodern/ worldcentric), and Assholes (Pathological Red and Blue-Orange).
Blue-Orange knows their Way is the One True Way and will do everything they can within their ethnocentric moral bounds to spread it and benefit themselves. They like to fuck everything in sight. Green knows there are multiple Ways that should all be allowed to fluorish without judgment or interference, and is dead-set against fucking everything in sight. Pathological Red/ Blue-Orange is narcissistic, extremely egocentric, and wouldn't mind taking over the world.
Green checks Blue-Orange when Blue-Orange starts going too far, but since Green can't make a decisive move of aggression (or come to any strong conclusions in general, except that everyone else sucks), Blue-Orange is necessary to do what Green would consider the "dirty-work" of taking out extremely pathological tribal and nationalistic powers.
Stone/ Parker simplify one thing in their argument (and I'm not implying their argument was fully inclusive or meant to be taken fully seriously): they say everyone is either a Dick, a Pussy, or an Asshole. That's actually not true, and the argument itself shows that, because a true Dick, Pussy, or Asshole COULDN'T MAKE THAT ARGUMENT. This requires someone who understands the tendencies and dynamics of ALL THREE groups: someone who knows what makes them happy, what makes them mad, and what makes them move, someone who can objectify all their stances because s/he is not stuck subjectively "inside" them.
A lot of people think that Stone/ Parker are making the argument that you logically should be a "Dick-in-check," and they're not saying that at all. They're saying you should understand the argument itself (or the theme/ morality of the entire movie) and thus not buy into any of the three groups.
I'm going to go so far as to say this resembles "Second Tier" integrated thinking. Remember, over 99% of the world is in First Tier: Red, Blue, Orange, or Green, so a lot of the time, it looks like that's all there is (Stone/ Parker simple argument). But there is a small fraction of the world that sees this developmental pattern, sees the strengths and weaknesses of the First Tier memes, and understands how they move together and how to best serve the whole Spiral of Development (Stone/ Parker subtle implication).
So don't be a Dick, a Pussy, or an Asshole. Be a Geek Puppetmaster.