Leo's Blog: Infinite Insights — Page 63
A great documentary which gives you an inside look at how American politics works:
It's available on Netflix. I highly recommend watching it if you're interested in Conscious Politics.
An eye-opening look into Venezuela's largest slum by an independent Youtuber:
Note: Venezuela is not an example of the evils of socialism. It's an example of a grossly underdeveloped country. This is a distinction folks commonly fail to make. Socialism cannot work in an underdeveloped country because survival needs are simply too pressing so selfishness and corruption run rampant. Stage Red/Blue countries are not developed enough to sustain socialist ideals. Which is why socialism failed in places like the Soviet Union and North Korea but aspects of it have succeeded in Northern Europe. A totalitarian state which adopts a socialist veneer is still structurally a totalitarian state. The content of the ideology is irrelevant because what runs the show is the structure, which in this case is totalitarian. The reason aspects of socialism have succeeded in Northern Europe is because those states evolved way beyond totalitarianism before they started toying around with socialism.
Not that I consider myself a socialist. Just pointing out a common mistake I see in politics. People routinely misunderstand the causes of Venezuela's situation. Their problem is developmental and infrastructural, not ideological. Corruption is a massive problem which has choked up their entire system.
It's the same problem as a criminal trying to act like a spiritual man of God. It doesn't work because it's just a veneer. Structurally he's still a selfish, egotistical criminal. No amount godly language or godly ideals will change that. To embody spirituality he'd have to first outgrow his criminality. Likewise, adopting a socialist ideology in a totalitarian state only serves as an Orwellian disguise. In theory the state is for the people, but in practice it's every man for himself, looting as much wealth under the table as possible while maintaining the facade of selflessness.
So the lesson of the 20th century is not that socialism is evil but that socialism should not be adopted by underdeveloped countries at Stage Blue or below because they cannot sustain it. Socialism would only be possible at Stage Green or above. But even then, I still have critiques of socialism and I don't support its blanket adoption. Aspects of it need to be cherrypicked and hybridized with capitalism.
We see in China that socialism has also not been sustainable because China has not yet evolved past Stage Orange capitalism. So even though China puts on a veneer of socialism, structurally it's very capitalistic and also totalitarian because it cannot help itself. You can't shortcut structural development with a flowery ideology. If only it were so easy. Moralistic ideology is not growth! It's a fake front designed to say that no growth is necessary because it has already been actualized. It's the same problem as saying that you are a devout follower of God, yet you have never actually become conscious of what God is. Talking about God without first being conscious of God is idol worship. It will not make you godly because the structure of your consciousness is still dualistic.
Here's some really interesting research on corruption:
Corruption is basically a measure of Collective Ego, or the consciousness level and the developmental level of a country. The less conscious a group of people are, the more corrupt their country is.
If you want to quantify which countries are the most evolved, don't measure their GDP, measure their corruption index. If you want to know whether a country is advancing forward or regressing backward, look to see if their corruption index is improving decade after decade.
You want to live in a country which has the least corruption. Unless you're a corrupt devil, in which case you want to exploit that corruption to benefit your survival.
A quick way to gauge whether a specific policy proposal is high consciousness or low consciousness is to ask the question: Does this reduce or increase corruption? You'd be amazed by how many laws, bills, and proposals actually increase corruption! This is by design. Corruption can't help but to spread itself.
If the corruption index of your country is below 50, then you're in a sketchy part of the world and development will be harder for you. Not impossible, just harder. Countries below 50 will have a lot of Spiral Dynamics Stage Blue and countries below 40 will have a lot of Stage Red & Purple. Don't create a victim mentality about it. Do the best you can with the cards you've been dealt. And if you were born in a country with a corruption index above 50, consider yourself very lucky. You don't even understand how bad life can get. You have been totally spoiled. Be grateful and use this gift to make something of your life and uplift the world. Countries below 50 badly need help from the countries above 50. Be careful not to demonize countries below 50. They need your help, not your scorn.
A substantive discussion of how to address climate change. An example of conscious politics happening in the real world.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an amazing conscious politician, uncorrupted by corporate money.
Here's a small look into the mind of God:
Contemplate: How is it possible to zoom into a thing forever? What does this mean about the nature of reality?
Just the fact that this fractal exists should already clue you in that consciousness must be infinite. Otherwise how could you be conscious of it? If an infinite object was loaded into a finite mind, the mind would crash. Hence the mind itself must be infinite.
Consider this: In a finite reality it would be impossible to count up from 1 to infinity. This is only possible because consciousness is actually infinite.
But how can the human mind be infinite? Because the human mind is a virtual machine running inside the infinite mind of God. God's mind is running an infinite number of virtual machines, all which are themselves infinite. That's what Georg Cantor called the Absolute Infinite set. It is the super-set of all possible sets. The mindblowing nature of infinity is that you can divide it into an infinite number of parts, and each of those parts will be its own infinity. Infinity within infinity within infinity — to infinity! In other words, infinity literally allows you to create something from nothing, because infinity is endless and bottomless.
Consider this: If you have an infinite number of apples in a basket, you can pull out one apple, eat it, and you will still have an infinite number of apples left. You just created an apple from nothing! Ta-da! This is how God creates the universe. Its mind is not bound by any physical limitation or lack. It cannot lack anything because it is an unlimited fount of creativity. All it has to do to create a thing is subdivide itself. But it can subdivide itself infinitely many times, so it never loses anything in the process of creation. Even after God subdivides itself an infinite number of times to create all human minds, it still remains an infinite Unity. The Absolute Unity of all possible divisions. Absolute Unity turns out to be identical to division. Going full-circle.
If you're a student of history you've probably wondered, "How in the hell did Hitler get democratically elected? It doesn't make sense that people would willing support a guy like that."
Well, this is how:
Trumpism is a case study in demagoguery, collective self-deception, group think, cult psychology, ideology, egotism, devilry, ignorance, unconsciousness, selfishness, division, projection, scapegoating, demonization, judgment, denial, self-bias, confirmation bias, corruption, xenophobia, racism, and fear.
All the epistemic stuff we cover in-depth on Actualized.org all comes together in the real world like this.
A toxic brew of the most pathological aspects of Spiral Dynamics stage Red, Blue, and Orange.
You might wonder, But why do people eat it up? Because they are at those same levels of development/consciousness themselves. Birds of a feather flock together. Your politics directly correlates with your values, which correlates with your stage of ego development. You can only vote for a leader as high as your vision can see. So egotistical, ethnocentric people gladly vote for egotistical, ethnocentric leaders, especially when the leader pushes their fear buttons.
Watch out, the 2020 election is going to get very nasty. Trump's demagoguery will hit an all time high as his ego gets cornered by his own manipulations. One of the hallmarks of a giant ego is that it refuses to yield or admit wrong-doing or defeat. When Trump loses, he will have to deny it to himself and his supporters somehow. And there begins the heavy-duty devilry. There will likely be blood.
This is what happens when a dense ego is put into a position of power. It's not an issue of left vs right, the issue is density of ego.
Pasting this from my personal journal:
My highest purpose is to lead people to Infinite Consciousness, Infinite Love, Infinite Selflessness, and Infinite Understanding. I am to show people what the highest form of leadership looks like. My entire life is dedicated to this cause. I am to lead people to the realization of Infinite Love and Infinite Beauty by embodiment and demonstration of Infinite Love in my own life. I am a vehicle for God's highest Love for mankind. The function of my human existence is to demonstrate the Goodness and Magnitude of God to those who lack the vision to see it. I am to use the gift of my extraordinary human mind to communicate God's highest intentions. I am not to hold back my love out of fear or selfish need. I am to be fearless and selfless and endure any consequences and suffering which will arise from such a path. The endurance of these obstacles and pain is part of my purification process. The suffering I endure will only make me more loving and understanding of the suffering of others, who are none other than myself. I am to shed all ill-will, malice, and judgment towards others, for I cannot help but see them as myself. In the end, the love and selflessness I radiate will inspire and transform the world. My reward will be the love I radiate and Infinite Understanding of the universe. My understanding will reach superhuman levels beyond all human comprehension or and strain the human self to contain. There is no doubt that this my way. I will have many critics and naysayers, but none of them will deter me because all of them I will be overcome simply by radiating more love because I understand that their ignorance is their limited way of showing their love. I understand that all hatred, judgment, and violence is just a condensed form of love. Through total self-understanding I will become incapable of seeing wrong or evil, even in those who seek to harm me. By the end of my human life the highest potential of a human life will have been actualized. The details of how all of this unfolds will be unimportant, as it will simply unfold as it must. My body and mind is at the highest service of Universal Intelligence. The point of no return has already been reached so no further decision is necessary. All of this is self-evidently true. When I lose track of my highest purpose (and I will) I am to return here and re-read this statement, re-grounding myself in that which is undeniable.
Actualized 2.0 is coming. Brace yourself for a sledgehammer of Love.
This 97-page research paper by Susanne Cook-Greuter is one of the most important things you can read if you want to understand human development:
Nine Levels Of Increasing Embrace In Ego Development
I recommend you download it, print it out, and read it methodically with a highlighter. It's filled with insights and wisdom you won't find anywhere else.
Cook-Greuter is a Harvard educated yet independent developmental psychologist. So this research has some scientific weight behind it, based on empirical research.
This will take your understanding of developmental psychology & Spiral Dynamics to the next level.
It also dovetails with my discussion of Conscious Politics, since the quality of one's politics directly depends on the development of one's ego.
We will be talking a lot more about developmental psychology in the future. So this is required reading for that. Spiral Dynamics is only one part of the larger field of developmental psychology.