On being Blue

There have been a great many studies on colour and what they mean to us, collectively, from a scientific, physiological and psychological point of view. We are taught about Newton's theory of white and how it breaks up into a rainbow of colours when refracted through a prism. Newton's approach is scientific, clear.  I don't think I believed it much in science class at the time. There is more, there has to be. And of course, there is.

Colour has as much to do with perception as it has to do with science. Johann Wolfgang Goethe 1749-1832, the famous German poet, contributed a great deal to this idea. Colour is beyond what it is, in substance in science, it is ultimately simply what we see. Colour, like any 'thing' evokes an emotional response, we translate it into meaning and give it symbolic value. Goethe developed a system of his own, much of which is still in use today, but perhaps more importantly, he also suggests temperaments associated with the colours.

In the outer ring Goethe has four rational categories, with an inner circle of traits.

Rational (Vernunft) covers red (beautiful, attractive) and orange (noble)
Intellectual (Verstand) covers yellow (good) and green (useful)
Sensorial (Sinnlichkeit) green (useful) and blue (common, ordinary)
Imagination (Phantasie) covers purple/violet (unnecessary) and red (beautiful, attractive)

Goethe spent many years developing his theory, which he exposed in 1400 pages, so what he proposes is far more complex than anything I write here, but it's quite easy to see how colour psychology and the use of colour in personality theory may have evolved from this. And anyway, I want to talk about something else.

So, if I tell you I have a Blue preference, how do you respond.

 

I will tell you what it means to me.

I have been reading Peter Heather's The Fall of the Roman Empire (yes, I do that for fun). In his chapter on Attila the Hun, Professor Heather distinguishes between two types of peoples, those who breed horses and those who don't - those who don't breed horses cultivate the land. This is simply because to breed horses you have to be mobile, to move from pasture to pasture, covering a vast area in the space of a year. Those who cultivate the land have to stay in one place to tend to their crop, and pace their activities according to the seasons, knowing when to sow and when to reap. There are no vast plains, on the contrary, the space is carefully confined and protected. Sounds familiar?

The horse breeders attack, the farmers defend.

The horse breeders need food, the farmers need horses, and protection. So there is an exchange, it is to each other's advantage not to oppose the other despite the uncomfortable imbalance of power. After all, no army of horse breeders such as that of Attila the Hun can survive without food. Kill all the farmers and you will have nothing to eat. And so it was. Hunger (excuse the pun) ultimately defeated Attila's Huns.

There is a metaphor there. Think of Insights Discovery Blue and Red.

I belong to the farmer variety. I prepare the ground, I sow when I think the time is right (this is based on observation and experience, not gut feel), I water, I keep the weeds at bay, I reap, and, importantly, my vegetable patch is fenced off. What grows there is mine and I decide who I share it with.

I have a preference for Introverted Thinking with Intuition. This places me in the Blue quadrant of the Insights Discovery system, in the purple slice of the pie. Funnily enough that fits quite nicely with Goethe's imagination and uselessness. Even Jung suggested that Intuition was underdeveloped Sensing. Anyhoo, I quite like it there. At times the horse breeders have overwhelmed me, have tried to drag me away or persuade me to join them. I have stoically resisted (something else Blue is good at..), I simply don't have the equipment, the armour or the inclination.

Kill all the farmers and you will die of hunger. This applies also to science, research, healing, policing, teaching, information technology, environment, culinary arts, engineering and many other farmers who work in fields requiring accurate preparation, skilful observation, lifelong learning, careful maintenance with quantifiable outcomes and specific results.

Respect me in my Blue corner and leave me be what I am. I am not you, and have no ambition to be. And remember, my Blue is not another's Blue. All colour is a matter of perception, and no two shades are the same, there is overflow into the next. Just a touch more or less green usefulness (Sensing) or purple imagination (Intuition) will make you unique and irreplaceable. Cherish that thought.