The Great Stage-Theory Debate - “Colonial BS” or “True and Humane”?

Is developmental theory valid? Is it even moral? This is the gauntlet laid down by author Nora Bateson in a cheeky tweet that launched a thousand comments:

Stage theory…
Is BS.
Always was.
And it is colonial as hell.

Sorry, but that has got to go.

— nora bateson (@NoraBateson) August 10, 2021

In a high-profile response to her social media posts, author Hanzi Freinacht shared a short essay defending stage theory as being both true and beneficial to society.

The result has been an online controversy that has generated both heat and light in the Integral / Spiral Dynamics world. In this episode, I offer a shamelessly integral analysis of the ideas in contention, and how the conflict itself is contributing to the evolution of evolutionary thought.

Let me know what you think at jeff@dailyevolver.com.  And here’s more about Nora Bateson and Hanzi Freinacht.