Institute for Cultural Evolution
Focusing on the Cultural Roots of America's Challenges
Political Polarization Test Results
Socially Conservative Traditionalist
Your value priorities point to this political position, described below:
Socially Conservative Traditionalist, you tend to highly value loyalty to country and faith, laws that protect heritage and traditions, a strong military, and a culture of “equity” in America where rewards are proportional to effort and talent.
Depolarize Your Thinking, Please Consider the Following Questions:
- How can we integrate the values of patriotism and piety with the value of being critical and dissatisfied with the status quo?
- What is the downside of excluding or negatively judging those who are different from us and do not hold our values?
- Despite the upside, what is the downside of America having the world’s largest military by far?
- How can we integrate the value of meritocracy (a society that rewards our most talented or productive) with the value of equality (a society that provides for the needy)?
Suggested Exercises to Help Depolarize Your Thinking:
About the Four Major Political Positions:
Most knowledgeable commentators agree that the simple bipolar continuum of Left and Right no longer adequately captures the complexity of America’s political milieu. The existential polarity of “liberal and conservative” expresses itself in multiple ways and on multiple levels within the overall electorate. Our model accordingly identifies the four distinct political positions that comprise America’s contemporary political landscape.
Click on a title to see the results page for each of the four basic political positions:
- Progressive Postmodernist
- Liberal Modernist
- Fiscally Conservative Modernist
- Socially Conservative Traditionalist
About the Test
The Institute for Cultural Evolution’s Political Polarization Test is based on “post-progressive political philosophy,” which is outlined in our president’s 2020 book: Developmental Politics—How America Can Grow into a Better Version of Itself. As discussed in Developmental Politics, a key principle for ameliorating political polarization is that each pole needs the values of its opposing pole for its own further and fuller development. Applied to politics, this principle shows how conservative values can serve to improve liberal positions by challenging and moderating such positions in a way that makes them stronger. The same can be said about the role of liberal values in strengthening conservative positions. See the results pages for specific examples. This test is not social science research, it is simply an interactive method for demonstrating some of the ideas behind ICE’s polarization campaign. For more on post-progressive politics see:
Video: Developmental Politics Simplified in 5-Minutes
Video: How to Overcome Political Polarization in 5-Minutes
Article: Towards a Post-Progressive Political Perspective
Polarization Test © 2021, Institute for Cultural Evolution
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