Team America and Spiral Dynamics

Team America and Spiral Dynamics

The movie "Team America: World Police" is an irreverent political satire filled with crude, blatant, and lowbrow humor, including puppet sex, foul language, and graphic violence. With this introduction, it seems an unlikely place to find meaningful commentary on world situation. Unlikely as it might seem, this movie speaks cogently to many of the issues that our post-Cold War world faces.

In the movie, we have three sets of characters: 1) the terrorists and Kim Jong II; 2) the freedom-protecting good guys of Team America; and 3) the peace-loving celebrities of the Film Actors Guild (F.A.G.), also referred to as 1) Assholes; 2) Dicks; 3) Pussies.

In the closing scene, the "Hero" of the picture explains the relation of the three as follows.

Pussies hate Dicks because Dicks fuck Pussies. However Dicks also fuck Assholes. Assholes who just wanna shit on everything. Pussies may think that they can deal with assholes their way, but the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The challenge is the Dicks sometimes fuck too rough or inappropriately and need to be sensitive and listen to the feedback that Pussies give them. However, Pussies can get caught up in their own rhetoric and become Assholes themselves. They stop the Dicks from fucking Assholes and thereby lead to more of the world being covered in shit.

Again, this scatological description seems more humorous than serious, but its fundamental point is telling. To examine underneath the humor, we can use the developmental model of Spiral Dynamics to clarify the issues.

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Spiral Dynamics suggests that the values that people pursue change through time as each individual’s sense of self develops/evolves/matures. It describes 9 different levels of stages of development. It also suggests that groups tend to take on the characteristics of the average level of its members. For purposes of this article, we will discuss 5 increasing levels of development within the Spiral Dynamics model, each designated with a different color (Red being the least developed and Yellow being the most – of the 5 we will discuss. For more information on this model, see http://www.funjoyment.com/ml/docs/SpiralDynamics.htm )

Red: This level values power, both physical and political. The more power the better, and alliances shift based on power. The level sneers at and manipulates those who value things other than power. Group examples of this include the mafia, gangs, and warlords, dictators.
Blue: This level values obedience to a set of moral dictates, typically religious in nature. Those who follow the rules are “good” and one of “us,” while those who break the rules are “evil” and enemies. Group examples of this include religious fundamentalists, or dogmatists of all stripes.

Orange: This level values achievement, individuality, science, technology, and liberty. That which threatens these (power hungry dogmatists or Pollyanna peaceniks for example) is dangerous and the threat it represents must be neutralized. Group examples of this include the American Revolution, secular humanism, Wall Street.

Green: This level values inclusion, pluralism, and sensitivity. It seeks to honor the values of all participants and create harmony through dialog, mutual understanding, and consensus building. It is also tends to be anti-industrial and anti-dogmatic, be it power, religion, or individuality and rationality. Group examples include Greenpeace, ecological groups, postmodernists, peaceniks.

Yellow: This level recognizes the values of each previous level and seeks to honor them while encouraging them to develop to the next level. It integrates all the previous values into a coherent/integral whole. It values increasing depth of consciousness and conditions that promote development. Group examples are few and far between, with perhaps the Integral Institute as it main representative.

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With this simple schema of 5 levels, we can examine the message of Team America in greater depth.

First, the terrorists/Assholes are largely at the Red level of development. They seek and respect power/force and kill, laugh at, or manipulate anyone who gets in their way. To protect their sense of power, they lash out at everything that threatens it, especially industrial civilization and Team America.

Next, Team America/Dicks represents the Orange level of development. They value freedom and wealth and work to protect the world from terrorists that threaten that freedom. They ass-ume that everyone intelligent agrees with them, wants freedom as they understand it, and appreciates their role as World Police.

Last, the FAGs/peaceniks/Pussies represent the Green level of development gone awry. They are so caught up in their own press that they believe that they can use dialog and sensitivity with the Assholes to get them to stop shitting on the rest of the world. They also sympathize with the Assholes against the Dicks, whose arrogance and collateral damage violates their sensitivities.

In this sense, Team America: World Police does a pretty good job of describing the essential problems in dealing with the current international conflicts we are facing. First, the Red/terrorists deal in and understand only power. Attempts to reason with them or dialog for mutual understanding are virtual wastes of time. Negotiating compromises and agreements with them without force to back them up are worthless – they simply won’t comply when it no longer serves their power drives/desires.

Next, the Orange/American position as defender of world freedom is understood as just another move for power by the Red mentality – a move that must be answered with more force. The Green mentality also sees the American “police” actions as motivated by power, in this case corporate greed and the military-industrial complex, who want oil, war, and re-building contracts in Iraq.

Last, the Green/FAG/(Kerry?) attempt to achieve “international consensus” before acting, paralyzes Orange/USA (those who might stop Red terrorists from destroying freedom and industrial achievements). Also, the Green desire for understanding and inclusion can even lead them to justify and sanction terrorist actions such as 9/11 as a legitimate form of protest against “American Imperialism,” which explodes the question of morality/ethics out of the political dialog – inadvertently empowering the power drives and mentality of Red.

Assholes, Dicks, and Pussies. Red/Power, Orange/Freedom, and Green/peaceniks. Team America: World Police provides a comedic but penetrating look into the heart of international politics.

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Unfortunately for Team America: World Police as a teaching device, it failed to represent the Blue/dogmatic level of development. It addressed neither the religious rhetoric of Islamic jihad, nor the fundamentalist Christian response of conservative America “axis of evil,” both of which would have offered not only a more complete understanding of political reality, but a whole bunch of great jokes.

At the same time, I can understand why religion was left out of the movie. First, the point it makes about Assholes, Dicks, and Pussies is clear, succinct, and memorable. To add another set of motivations would not only have deeply complicated things, it would beg the question, “what body part would represent religious fanatics? I personally think a Finger would be appropriate, as religions like to point and poke into everyone’s business and end up finger fucking Pussies, Assholes, and Dicks…but who knows.

Second, the role of Blue/religion is more complex. Red Terrorists use Blue/religious rhetoric to justify their actions and Orange Americans (conservatives) use it to justify their acting as World Police. The truly unfortunate aspect of this is that since both sides use religion as justification, they both take on tinges of Blue. AND, since the use of religion to justify political action is asinine, 9/11 and the War On Terror can be equated as equal manifestations of collective Blue stupidity. This blurs the important distinction between Red terrorism and Orange policing.

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Last, Yellow/Integral is also absent from any characters in this movie. At the same time, the filmmakers themselves demonstrate some yellow sensitivity throughout the film. They point out both the positive and negative aspects of Red/Assholes, Orange/Dicks, and Green/Pussies (O.K., they are particularly harsh on Red, but not completely…the tear jerking scene about declaring a jihad on the infidels who destroyed the village was fair...). I wouldn’t push this point too far, but one comes away from the movie with a deeper appreciation of all the movie’s characters, which is a definite Yellow achievement.

Of course, when I estimate the value of the movie as a whole, it is not the scope or alacrity of the political commentary that stands out, but the side-splitting laughter in the sex and vomit scenes that truly make this film the work of art that it is. Thanks Trey and Matt (and Pam), you guys rock!

Mark Michael Lewis
http://MakingLoveEasy.com