01.02.08
Are All Liberals Stage Threes?
I got into a discussion with a friend about these stages. After a bit I came to realize we had both allowed ourselves to slip into a mindset where people with politically liberal leanings were considered to be Stage Threes. The next day it hit me what a mistake that assumption is.
In no way are we assuming that these stages correlate with political leanings (though I have heard Ken Wilber insinuate that some of his stages do! He has more or less equated our Stage Twos with the category of Republicans and the next stage up as Democrats!) I however, am trying to stay within the bounds of research done by people other than myself. As I don’t have Ken Wilber’s clout, I dare not say anything I cannot back up with someone else’s research.
I think the Religious Right is also responsible for predisposing us to this sort of confusion. They would very much like to equate what we are calling their Stage Two spiritual level with their extreme right politics. But I am trying very hard to stick to my one topic - which is level of spiritual development.
So my friend I was discussing this with said some of her liberal friends were disappointing in terms of personal integrity so she didn’t think my stage three was what I was saying it was. Well, it took me another day or so to realize the fallacy in that logic.
In the first place the “liberal” friends could be at any stage of morality and still not be stage Threes in terms of spiritual growth. For more about levels of morality, read Kohlberg. His moral levels are related to - but not at all the same as - our spiritual levels. Secondly, the fact that the friends were politically liberal also has no correlation with our spiritual stages.
The stages I am writing about apply only to level of spritual development. They have nothing to do with integrity, morality, political stance, and especially not intelligence. Ken Wilber makes clear that people can develop to different levels along all the various lines he writes about. So the only line I am writing about is that of spiritual development. In theory, one could be very advanced spiritually and not so advanced morally; one could be liberal or conservative while attaining any spiritual level - but I will leave that to the serious researchers to study and prove.
All I am saying is that in my writings, I want to be sure readers realize that at present, there is no connection I can prove between the stages I am talking about and political stance.