Tertiary Culture
According to Kris Roose, the peer to peer relational dynamic is an expression of tertiary culture.
Kris Roose is a Belgian psychiatrist, creator of the Academy of Integrative Psychology, and is strongly inspired by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
Context and Definition
"Human culture could be defined as the general principles which govern human interaction, communication, organization, the values in decision making and the elaboration of one's own life project. It is the organizational paradigm. In the evolution of human culture, one can discern several phases, each governed by certain paradigms. Of course, it depends on the aspects one considers, but the way decisions are made seems to be a very central criterion, because it is linked to many other aspects, including the value one attributes to other persons, their needs and feelings.
In a primary culture there is practically no social organization. Each acts for oneself, taking only egotistic and short term consequences into account. The overall situation is chaotic, and many weaker individuals are the victims of the stronger and "fittest". The view of reality is rather superficial and simplistic. The own interpretations are projected as intentions of other people and things. Mythic and anthropomorphic explanations are devised to explain the greater mechanisms.
In a secondary culture, a kind of organization progressively is imposed, either by rulers expecting more profit from a kind of organization, or by victims, trying to reverse the abuse of force. Chaos gradually is replaced by a kind of order. Rulers and/or victims use their strengths, their strategic superiority. Several motives lead to this kind of organization, but probably the intention to make everyone happier is not one of these. Motives leading to transition generally are the insight of the powerful, that order finally better serves their egotistic goals than chaos: economic productivity is better, taxes yield more, stability is greater which leads to their own safety and feeling of grandiosity. The secondary evolution in itself is a succession of little steps and subphases, with a pendular movement between individuals or groups which are quicker in setting up rules that are beneficial for them, and the other, less lucky individuals and groups that eventually resist and, by their number or their productive indispensibility, impose some limits on exploitation and manipulation. It's the "eternal" law of action and reaction, kings and rebellious cities, laws and privileges, capitalism and socialism, left and right, oppressor and oppressed. It yields a gradual transition from despotism towards democracy, a socialization. But however important that organization might be, it always is imposed by external factors: moral, financial and juridical coercion, started in education and continued by social control. The view of reality is causal and scientific. Authority is progressively replaced by experimental evidence. The problem with experimental evidence is often that only one aspect, or short term effects, or measurable effects are taken into consideration. Decision making by individuals is gradually replaced by partcipation of larger groups and democracy, i.e. ruling by the majority. Rights protect individuals, minorities and vulnerable elements against abuse by the powerful. The right not to evolve as an individual is of paramount importance (the "right to be onself").
In a tertiary culture the organization comes from internal factors: consciousness, a motivation towards integration, communication and integration skills to elaborate the best ways of cooperation, and self-discipline to be able to perform one's part of the distributed tasks. The organization is driven by internal factors: consciousness, open communication, responsibility of individuals for the whole. The view of reality is integrative and evolutionary: everything evolves, everything is important, every suggestion is valuable, and conflicts ought to be resolved by constructive and creative solutions leading to a satisfaction of all concerned parties. Self-realization is a universal requirement without which integration most often is impossible. To be oneself means: to develop oneself.
Those three styles of social organization succeed each other: roughly speaking there is a slow evolution from primary to secondary and, eventually, to tertiary sociaization structures. However, this continuous trend should not be expected to be simplistic or linear. Although the general trend is from primary via secondary towards tertiary structures, in practice this evolution moves onwards along rather compliclated ways, the progressions being alternated with temporary regressions." (http://noosphere.cc/tertiary.html)
Psycho-analytical and Philosophical Interpretation of the 3 Cultures
Kris Roose on Chaos, Ethos, Eros
"a. the major stages. Each group or society passes through three major stages: Chaos, Ethos and Eros, also called the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary stages.
1. Chaos: in this stage there is no order or organization. The "laws" of the most powerful and of the first apply, and there is, as in animal societies, no consideration for the effects upon others, and even not for the effects on the long run upon self. This stage is analogous to the over-adaptation (no-resistance) stage of the Integrative model, or Freud's oral stage, at least form the standpoint of the subjects which undergo the actions of the others. It is the selection funtioning level, because subjects have only the choice to accept the superiority of stronger or quicker subjects.
2. Ethos: in this stage, some "more clever" or "less scrupulous" people start organizing, at an ever increasing scale, the behaviour and lives of other people, imposing some things, forbidding other. The unstructured group dissociates into a minority of rulers, and a majority of subalterns, the multitude (to use a term from Negri). Ethos (fr. Greek) means: custom, law. I comprehend in this word all the factors that regulate the multitude: hierarchies, governmental systems, laws, and, not to forget, myths and taboos, that regulate the group's thinking about the imposed regulation, enhancing the moral pressure and avoiding a too quick discovery of hidden agendas. This stage can be interpreted as the compromise (or partial integration) level of the model, as it uses as well anal as phallic methods, as we will describe below. It is the compromise stage of conflict solving, because the actual situations are always the result of a struggle between the rulers and the multitude.
3. Eros: in the most evolved stage, regulation is no longer imposed by external forces, but spontaneously emerges from the consciousness, the motivation, the selfdiscipline and the very effective communication of group members. There are no more hierarchies, but a peer to peer organization. Myths and taboos are replaced by an open discussion of the real aspects of the system. This stage, of course, coincides with the integrative level of the Functioning Model, Freud's genital phase. A more extensive discussion of tertiary functioning is presented in another article."?
Kris Roose also has a useful subdivision of the secondary stage of human civilization:
“a. Physical Ethos: in this stage, the group or society is regulated by physical coercion: brutality, military force, justice with painful and capital punishment. The Myths sustain the use and the rightfulness of force, the right of taking someone's life, the Divine origin of force, etc. It is the age of Kings and Emperors.
b. Material Ethos: in this stage, brutal physical ruling progressively is replaced by "material" ruling: the force of money, material restrictions or rewards, wages. It is the age of capitalists, bankers and businessmen, largely surpassing the possibilities of Kings and Emperors. It started with the Templars and the Italian Bankers, and continues in nowadays multinational societies, progressively loosed from the control of the political ruler. Laws more and more include restrictions to regulate the power of the Big Business.
c. Moral Ethos: in this stage the imposed regulation more and more uses mental, "moral" tools to organize, limit and stimulate the behaviour of group members. The notion of Minimal Right becomes important, the influence of press, media and pressure groups is essential. As democracy is installed, it becomes important for candidate rulers to preserve their immaterial name and fame, to be eligible and effectively elected." (http://noosphere.cc/funclevel.html)