But just as pre-industrial people probably rarely made it past stage 3 because they didn’t live in a sufficiently cosmopolitan world to need stage 4, modern people increasingly make it to stage 5 earlier because the world forces it on them
Partially that, partially also because many modern people grow up being explicitly taught the new morality.
My grandmother kept repeating to me that the family is always at the first place. I do not tell this to my children. I tell them to be nice to each other, but not that being nice to each other is fundamentally more important than being nice to other people.
It is easier to grow out of level 3 if you have never been too deep in it, in first place.
Even my grandmother’s words already didn’t have much of an impact on me, because I learned most of my life wisdom somewhere else. But they still had impact on my mother; she never dared openly contradict her parents, no matter what. My kids don’t hesitate to disagree with me.
Now of course my kids still have to grow up, make their own choices, and see their consequences, so that they can internalize or reject or transform whatever advice they got from me. But it seems doable before 40.
Partially that, partially also because many modern people grow up being explicitly taught the new morality.
My grandmother kept repeating to me that the family is always at the first place. I do not tell this to my children. I tell them to be nice to each other, but not that being nice to each other is fundamentally more important than being nice to other people.
It is easier to grow out of level 3 if you have never been too deep in it, in first place.
Even my grandmother’s words already didn’t have much of an impact on me, because I learned most of my life wisdom somewhere else. But they still had impact on my mother; she never dared openly contradict her parents, no matter what. My kids don’t hesitate to disagree with me.
Now of course my kids still have to grow up, make their own choices, and see their consequences, so that they can internalize or reject or transform whatever advice they got from me. But it seems doable before 40.