EVS Essential Guidelines
[EDITING NEEDED: This page was pasted from legacy content when EVS was called “WvS” and before it significant work on systems dynamics was integrated.]
There are a few essential points that must be kept in mind in order to fully understand and approach the Worldview Systems:
- It is absolutely essential not to see less complex systems as inferior. They are functional in their appropriate environment — even more functional than a more complex system. This mistake has been made by countless missionaries of the past who attempted to “civilize” their target cultures before they evangelized them. They attempted to move these cultures into a more complex worldview often before their environment demanded a transition. This had often disastrous results.
- A worldview is something that someone “uses” and not “is”. This is not like the zodiacs. You are not born a certain worldview and will maintain it for life like “Gemini” or “Scorpio”. People and societies change their worldview all the time. Since the universe is too complex for any individual to comprehend at one time, we develop metaphors or models to simplify and symbolize the universe. A worldview is simply a metaphor and a model. When the model no longer works or the metaphor no longer makes sense, they will be discarded for more functional models and metaphors. Also, each person and society keeps a “tool box” of behaviors and strategies from different worldviews that it may use to deal with problems. Although one worldview at a time is usually dominant, “tools” from other worldviews may be used at any time to work through situations the dominant mindset cannot handle well. Because there is such a variety of combinations, a person or group can be typed according to dominant behaviors but stereotyping should be avoided and room for constant transition should be made.
- Although WvS Theory presents the worldviews as concrete and segmented types, in real world scenarios the progression of worldviews is more continuous. Societies and persons are more likely to be found in different degrees of transition somewhere between one dominant system and the next. This is why we term the progression the “WvS Spectrum.” Just like in colors, very few real shades are green made from 50% yellow 50% blue. Most greens either have more yellow or more blue. In the same way, although an individual or society exhibits a dominant system, they may be well on their way to making the transition to the next system as their existential situation gradually changes.