But please note that purportedly “progressive” systems of norms can easily collapse and revert to “regressive” norms if they are not supported by corresponding value memes in the population—as well as by higher freedom and deeper equality. Again, Soviet communism comes to mind; the USSR had a partly progressive ideology but lacked in all the other regards (see Appendix B). All of these factors taken together determine the nature of a society’s cultural—and psychological—development. As we have seen, it is this cultural-psychological development that must be consciously spurred, so as to match
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