Where would you place Robert Oppenheimer on the Spiral?

[DocWatts]

Not sure whether this would be more at home here or in the Society and Politics section, but alas...

I've been thinking back lately on a book a read earlier this year : 'Making of the Atomic Bomb' by Richard Rhodes. It's a fascinating and nuanced look at the creation of the atomic weapons program by the United States during World War II, and goes in to quite some detail about the lives and personalities of several of the key scientists involved in the creation of the Bomb including Einstein, Niels Bohr, Edward Teller, Leo Szilard, and John von Neumann just to name a few. 

But the most fascinating portrait to emerge of the was that of Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos laboratory where the world's first atomic explosion was made a terrifying reality. Robert Oppenheimer himself was a man full of contradictions; a brilliant lab director who was able to understand a multitude of scientific disciplines, he was also someone who was deeply interested in Eastern religions and spirituality (keep in mind this was the 1940s before this sort of thing was common in the West). A person who had the interpersonal skills to manage the titanic egos of the scientists involved in the project, he was also someone who was deeply depressed for much of his life.

But most importantly, this is someone arguably responsible for one the greatest crimes in the history of mankind by ushering in the age of nuclear weapons, who developed a deep sense of shame and regret after seeing the horrific consequences of their use on two cities full of civilians. And understanding the threat that he had helped unleash on the world, this is a man who had his life and career destroyed in his attempts to advocate for peace and make sure that these weapons were never used again.

I'd be curious as to where someone like this would map on to Spiral Dynamics, as he was far from a static person, and seems kind of hard to map.

Edited October 6, 2020 by DocWatts

[Thewritersunion]

It’s not wise to apply Spiral Dynamics to an engineer or scientist. But still, I’d probably guess green to yellow. 

[DocWatts]

7 minutes ago, Thewritersunion said:

It’s not wise to apply Spiral Dynamics to an engineer or scientist.

Any reason for this in particular? Being an engineer or a scientist encompasses a particular worldview, and for scientists in particular many of them have changed the world for good or ill in lasting and profound ways. Especially for some one like Oppenheimer whose life and work can't really be separated from the moral and ethical dimensions of the world changing discoveries he helped usher in. 

Edited October 6, 2020 by DocWatts

[Preety_India]

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