What the f*ck is wrong with everyone right now?

The world is going insane (as usual)

If you're anything like me, you're scrolling social media and can't help but think:

What the f*ck is wrong with everyone?

It seems like everyone became radicalized overnight on both sides.

So, I want to expose the psychology of what's happening here, and help you take control of your ability to think clearly during crazy times.

In short, this is the result of regression and ideology.

When you go through a stressful event, and if you haven't practiced the skill of stress mitigation for multiple years, you regress to a lower level of consciousness. You become reactive and animalistic. The worst parts of yourself come out and you may throw away various opportunities you could have had in your life.

You resort to black and white thinking, attaching to a preferred set of beliefs, joining echo chamber tribes that prescribe "one right way" to do or think about things, and if you fall for this trap, your life slowly gets worse for obvious reasons.

This can happen on a mass scale and often occurs in cycles.

When tax season comes around, everyone feels some form of stress.

When political elections happen, those who are sufficiently indoctrinated turn into a completely different person.

When something catastrophic and gruesome is plastered all over social media... you get the point.

And with the internet allowing the spread of information faster than ever, it's easy to get trapped in this lower level of thinking.

I'm not here to talk about what is right or wrong. I have my views and you have yours. You can find any opinion you want somewhere else. Instead, I want to dissect the mind behind lower levels of human development.

If you understand this, you'll be able to navigate this emotional wasteland without becoming animalistic and making decisions that could ruin your life.

How highly unintelligent people think

In HUMAN 3.0, I mapped human development across four fundamental dimensions (mind, body, spirit, vocation).

My goal with HUMAN 3.0 was to provide a model for becoming the most developed version of yourself. Multidimensionally jacked, let's say, rather than becoming overexposed to one domain leading to unconscious problems in others (like a businessman who lacks meaning or a mystic with a frail body).

The result of creating this model has also allowed me to think through complex situations and figure out what I can do about it.

Within each quadrant, there are three macro levels of development. Within each level, there are traits that must be acquired (knowledge, skill, and experience) that move you through the 3 phases (dissonance, uncertainty, discovery) that lead to the next level. For this letter, we are going to focus on the main levels.

These levels represent a person's level of consciousness, thinking, or development – we will use these interchangeably. They can help you identify where you are in each quadrant, or where you are as a whole.

• Human 1.0 (The Conformist, Low-consciousness) – Values established authority and traditions. Characterized by narrow-mindedness, black and white thinking, and believing there is only "one right way," which often stems from childhood conditioning.

• Human 2.0 (The Individualist, Mid-consciousness) – Rejects the norm and pursues their own goals. Has the desire to acquire status and be perceived as valuable. They are less narrow-minded, but now believe that their way is the one right way.

• Human 3.0 (The Synthesist, High-consciousness) – Able to adopt multiple perspectives, connect various patterns of reality, and strategize new paths. They understand that all perspectives hold truths that can be synthesized for more holistic and mutually beneficial results. They can display what some may perceive as level 1 traits, such as narrow-mindedness, but it is an intentional choice to tune out noise.

To get these levels, I pulled patterns from various models in developmental psychology such as Ken Wilber's AQAL model, Susanne Cooke Greuter's stages of ego development, and Don Beck's Spiral Dynamics. All of which have shown that the human mind (our values, beliefs, and worldview that influence how we think and make decisions) evolves through predictable stages over time.

Over the next few letters, I want to dive deep on the topics that very few people talk about. I want to dig into the deep reasons behind why people get trapped in lower levels, leading to a poor quality of life and untapped potential. In other words, I want to help you avoid waking up 40 years from now, wondering why you wasted your life.

The massive problem in today's world is that many people are genuinely at lower levels of development, and they get stuck there.

Even worse, many more people regress to lower levels of development whenever they come across information that sparks a reaction in them, which is dangerously frequent thanks to the internet.

One thing that we have not talked about yet is that there is a Level 0 characterized by pure survival. Very few people reside at this stage in today's world because threats are minimal, but if a knife were stuck in your neck, you would instantly tap into this survival instinct and fight, flight, or freeze. This helps us realize that levels of development fluctuate and should be seen as tools or perspectives rather than a hard definition for how a human being thinks and acts. In general, you have an average level that you reside in, and we want to improve that baseline.

So, how do you spot these lower levels of development?

Well, it's not hard to notice.

Like social media comments that state an absolute and often negative opinion without having studied, practiced, or experienced the topic.

After ideating with the HUMAN 3.0 Knowledge Base, I've curated a comprehensive list of examples. I'll share a few of the best ones here. Skim through it if it's too long.

Information Processing:

• "That's just how it is" without questioning why

• "My parents/teacher/boss said so, therefore it must be true"

• Rejecting evidence because it conflicts with inherited beliefs

• "We've always done it this way" as the ultimate justification

• Googling only to confirm existing beliefs, never to challenge them

• "Common sense" as the highest form of reasoning

Belief Rigidity:

• "There's only one right religion/political party/way to live"

• "People who disagree with me are stupid/evil/brainwashed"

• Unable to imagine why someone would choose differently

• Confusing correlation with causation constantly

• "If everyone just followed the rules, everything would be fine"

• Conspiracy theories that provide simple explanations for complex problems

Learning Patterns:

• Memorizing facts without understanding principles

• Quoting authorities verbatim without comprehension

• "I don't need to read about it, I already know"

• Avoiding books/content that challenge worldview

• Learning stops after formal education ends

• Expertise claimed after watching one YouTube video

Work/Money:

• "Get a stable job with benefits and stay until retirement"

• "Rich people are evil/lucky/different species"

• "Thank God it's Friday" - living only for weekends

• "Money is the root of all evil"

• "There's only so much pie to go around"

• Playing the lottery as retirement plan

Social Media Behaviors:

• "Did my own research" = found memes that confirm bias

• Arguing in comments without reading the article

• Sharing posts without fact-checking

• "If you don't repost this, you don't care about [cause]"

• Block/unfriend anyone who disagrees

• Virtue signaling without action

Cultural/Political:

• "My country/race/religion is superior"

• "Kids these days..." / "Back in my day..."

• "If you're not with us, you're against us"

• "All politicians/media/corporations are the same"

• Voting against own interests because of single issue

• "That's socialism/fascism!" without understanding either term

Technology/Modern World:

• "Technology is ruining everything"

• "Natural is always better" (appeal to nature fallacy)

• Forwarding chain messages about dangers without verification

• "I don't trust anything online" while believing everything on preferred platform

• "AI will destroy/save humanity" (binary thinking)

• Complete tech avoidance or uncritical adoption

Key Level 1.0 Indicators

• Quotes but doesn't think - uses slogans, clichés, and received wisdom

• Reacts but doesn't reflect - immediate emotional response without pause

• Judges but doesn't understand - condemns what they haven't examined

• Knows but doesn't question - certainty without investigation

• Suffers but doesn't change - repeats patterns expecting different results

I think you get the point.

Over the next few letters, I want to illustrate the key mechanisms of low consciousness thinking. That way, you can recognize it and move toward a higher perspective.

Let's move on to what we're really here to talk about.

The most dangerous trap to becoming the ultimate version of yourself

The first and foundational mechanism that traps people in lower levels of development is ideology.

Here's the definition we are going to run with:

An ideology is a cohesive set of beliefs about reality, often containing stubborn intellectual attachment to those beliefs and normative prescriptions for how others should behave.

A few obvious examples are religious, political, and scientific ideologies.

In Fundamentalist Christianity, the bible is the literal word of God, and everyone should accept Jesus as their personal savior.

In Progressive Socialism, capitalism inherently creates inequality and exploitation, and wealth should be redistributed through high progressive taxation.

In Scientific Materialism, consciousness emerges from brain activity and nothing more, and policy decisions should be based solely on scientific evidence.

But ideology goes far beyond that.

Those who don't think they are ideological are often the most ideological. Atheists, as an example, may not believe they are because they don't subscribe to common thought, but they can often be more closed-minded than the rest. Even Buddhism, whose core teaching is being non-ideological, is often interpreted as law by level 1 or 2 thinkers.

Even further, there are diet ideologies like carnivore, veganism, paleo, flexible dieting, or how seed oils are bad. There are training ideologies like CrossFit, bodybuilding, running, and yoga. There are Apple ecosystem fanboys who only buy iPhones and Macbooks, minimalists who downsize their lifestyle, homeschoolers, gamers (PC supremacists vs Xbox supremacists), and many more with gender ideology occupying plenty of mind share.

Obviously, some of these are more dangerous than others, but notice how each ideology:

• Claims universal truth without critical thought

• Prescribes behavior to everyone

• Demonizes opposing views

• Offers simple solutions to complex problems

• Creates tribes with moral superiority

• Demands conformity over independent thinking

As we'll learn, ideology is not always bad.

Level 1 thinkers attach to ideology for survival and fitting in, so they don't become an outcast. They have an external locus of control, placing responsibility on a God, authority, government, or anyone but themselves to make decisions and act to solve problems. They protest for change rather than going through the difficult series of steps to make the change.

Level 2 thinkers attach to ideology for power and success, so they can achieve more. They have an internal locus of control and hold personal responsibility as a value. They take it upon themselves to solve problems, often to their own detriment.

Level 3 thinkers use ideology to synthesize truths and make calculated decisions. Ideology becomes a tool. They understand systems and their place in it, acting on what they can control and advocating for systemic change.

When society regresses on a mass scale during periods of stress, the first thing they do is seek comfort in their preferred ideology and blame the problem on either an external authority or themselves.

And since comfort is addictive, ideology can be sold quite easily, leading to big consequences.

Why ideology can make your life substantially worse

It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they’ve been fooled.

Ideologies sell well because they provide simple answers, and most people aren't willing to bear the emotional and intellectual responsibility of nuance and truth.

At times this isn't that bad.

Jordan Peterson and Richard Dawkins are ideological in their own ways (as am I, and as are you), but they are often focused on education and encourage you to dig deeper into a domain of knowledge.

Ideology becomes harmful when pushed to the extreme, like religious extremism leading to terrorism or political extremism leading to genocide.

However, ideology of any form, when it becomes a non-negotiable part of your identity, can stunt your psychological growth, cause cognitive damage, and even lead to social or cultural harm.

As humans, our survival instinct has evolved to the conceptual level.

Meaning, when you identify with an ideology – like Christianity or even attaching to your favorite sports team – you quite literally feel threatened when the idea of those things are threatened.

If someone tells a Christian "God's not real," it emotionally feels like they've been slapped in the face, so they tend to lash out with the doctrine that has conditioned their mind because that's how they survive. They attack with concepts, not fists. (We’ll talk more about survival as a low-consciousness mechanism in a future letter. That one’s important.)

Seems like a normal part of life, because it is normal for a population that is low consciousness on average.

But this leads to closed-mindedness, emotional volatility, and mental addiction. You don't learn because you don't inquire further. You become defensive and fearful from a few words. And the quick and easy defense of regurgitating what an authority told you gives you a cheap dopamine hit, so you continue doing it.

Ultimately, this prevents self-reflection. You rarely notice or correct your mistakes. 10 years pass by and while you've physically aged, mentally you've stayed a prepubescent teen with turbulent hormones. You think in black and white and never step closer to truth.

By the way, I'm not against any ideology in particular that I'm criticizing here. In fact, I really enjoyed this tweet I saw yesterday and relate with it quite a bit:

As a Dawkins-era atheist I underestimated Christianity’s role as a civilisational operating system.

I took its moral foundations for granted, assuming they were so self-evident that all humans would reach them once basic needs were met.

– Andy @PositivFuturist

I'm not an atheist (anymore), but I'm not a Christian either (I was raised Mormon). That said, understanding those perspectives and more has given me a deeper look into God and reality that I'm grateful for.

Now, on the personal level, ideology clearly makes life substantially worse.

But individuals compose the collective, and when a society of ideological people collide, the outcome can be catastrophic.

First, it leads to polarization that fragments society into antagonistic groups. Most world violence stems from this. Most intolerance for others does as well. Very few people realize that different cultures are built on different values. Sure, it sounds nice to project your beliefs, but if you were born and raised in another culture across the world, you would have their values.

You can argue that you'd believe the same things you do now, but the reason you believe them is because you were conditioned to believe them. You weren't born with those beliefs. They were installed into you.

Lastly, ideology stalls progress (scientific, technological, environmental, political) because it prevents real solutions to complex problems. Everyone believes they already have the simple solution of "just joining their ideology."

How to avoid becoming a drooling bag of regurgitated beliefs

The key distinction between useful ideology and harmful ideology is treating it as a tool instead of law.

The problem isn't the content of the ideology. It's not about whether you believe in God, science, or feminism.

The problem is attachment. The mode of holding beliefs. The content becomes a static context by which your mind always operates. Once you can't see out of the set of beliefs, you are metaphorically dead, because you do not grow. A plant that isn't growing is dying.

The solution is to have firm beliefs held loosely.

To hold every idea in the realm of possibility so that you have a pool of truths to pull from when it comes time to make progress or solve a problem.

You can have strong opinions without being ideological about them. This alone removes a lot of pain and unnecessary negative emotion from your life because you're willing to be wrong.

Ideology as a tool is almost a necessary function of being human. Our mind craves order and structure, but it must also go through periods of uncertain growth to expand into a more complex structure. That's what psychological growth is. You need direction and purpose from structure, but even the strongest buildings rot away over time. You need to move and build.

Ideologies contain genuine insights and wisdom, i.e.

• Buddhism contains profound teachings about consciousness and suffering

• Christianity offers valuable moral insights and community building

• Environmentalism highlights crucial ecological concerns

• Veganism, as much as people don't want to admit it, shines a light on ethical truths about reducing harm

That said, when one of these becomes the only solution, you just end up looking and sounding like an idiot. You don't have to be a vegan to care about ethical truths. You don't have to be a buddhist to care about consciousness. So on and so forth.

The goal of becoming non-ideological is to also be non-ideological about being non-ideological. As much as your mind wants to latch onto a set of hard and true beliefs, because that's how our survival mind is wired, our current environment demands that more people advance to the third level of thinking.

How do you do this?

First, contemplate. Question all beliefs and assumptions deeply. It will be painful, but most people have never done this. Like or comment on this letter and I'll create a non-dogmatic AI prompt that will brutally deconstruct your beliefs.

Second, expose yourself to radically different perspectives and practice non-reaction. Hold those ideas in the realm of possibility. Research all sides of an issue and try to connect the dots.

Third, self-reflect. Notice times when you've regressed to a lower level of thinking after a stressful event and consider whether or not it was the end of the world like you thought it was. Most of the time, it wasn't, and time just went on.

Fourth, deconstruct. Study all perspectives and attempt to deconstruct them into independent parts. Remove the idea from the ideology and piece together new ones.

Fifth, synthesize paradoxes. Life is counterintuitive, and some of the greatest thinkers can hold two contradictory ideas in their mind until they collapse into truth.

Sixth, become a bridge. Instead of arguing which ideology is "right," translate between worldviews. One of my own greatest strengths, I think, is to articulate religious concepts and new age spirituality in a practical way. Most people don't even notice that 90% of my newsletters involve this because I talk about them in a clear way.

Seventh, create new contexts. The ultimate Level 3.0 move is generating entirely new frameworks that render old debates obsolete. Like how Bitcoin created a better solution rather than arguing and complaining about banking reform. You are a creator, act like one.

How do you know when you're starting to reach level 3?

1) You can steelman better than your opponents.

You can argue their position more persuasively than they can, because you genuinely understand it.

2) You create more than you consume.

Instead of endlessly debating existing ideas, you're generating new ones that make old arguments irrelevant. This takes years of doing.

3) Your former enemies become teachers.

You no longer hate a specific ideology and instead see what developmental levels it serves and which people need it at those levels. Like in business, "sleazy sales" is often just a bridge into building something truly valuable.

4) You play with perspectives.

You can shift between basic teachings and complex strategy when the situation demands it. You're probably not going to solve a business problem by demanding that everyone at your company study Buddhism.

5) Problems become fascinating instead of threatening.

At level 1, problems are threats to survival. At level 2, problems are challenges to conquer. At level 3, problems are the limits on potential. They are puzzles that, once solved, create new possibilities, and thus new problems, that keep humanity moving forward.

Thank you for reading this letter.

I'm having a lot of fun with these lately.

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