Taking notes from this video:

Some of this is directly taken from the video, some of it is is paraphrased from the video, some of it is completely my own writing.

The number one rule for life, especially when it comes to knowledge: don't be ideological.

It is possible to overcome a psychological obstacles by repeating this maxim to oneself, and folowing through on it.

This rule may seem like common sense, but this is not common- it's tricky and subtle stuff. This is worth your time to explore deeply.

Ideology is the greatest obstacle to truth-seeking. Ideology corrupts both science, spirituality, politics, personal relationships, and other important aspects of our lives.

Ideology is a cohesive set of beliefs, a web of beliefs, about how reality works.

Ideology is a way of thinking.

Ideologies can be created about anything, including being immune to ideology. One can have a cohesive set of beliefs about reality which includes beliefs about ideology, as well as beliefs about beliefs about ideology (going deeper), and beliefs about those beliefs about those beliefs about ideology (going even deeper), and so on.

Nothing is truly immune to having a religion created around it, since anyone can be ideological about anything. Nonduality, for example, is something which the ability to create an ideology around was something I was skeptical of, until I saw ideology about nonduality in myself.

I doubt the following statement slightly, because I believe that the structure of ideology can vary slightly, but nevertheless: the content of ideology varies, but the structure of ideology does not. This is to say that each ideology is the same in the same way that each chair of a rainbow set of chairs are the same, but their content (colour) is different. Those who are unaware of the structure of ideology are thus lead to believe that different ideologies are actually fundamentally different, but if they were to pop out of their ideology and take a look around at others, they'd see the uniformity of the structure of ideologies, and, in the best case scenario, be inoculated to ideology.

One's life moves forward as one's worldview expands, and moves backwards as it shrinks.

The greatest ideology, if there is such a thing, would most probably be that of the ego, which, 99% of people, every waking moment is dedicated to the preservation of and service to, and all other ideologies are contained within it.

There's a stubborn intellectual attachment that comes with ideology. The set of beliefs usually says something about how reality should be, how people should behave. This component of ideology is called normativity, which means that 'I believe that it's true for everybody else as well, therefore everybody should subscribe to my belief system and behave according to it.'. That's how ideologues think. One of the main functions of ideology is to set the boundaries in which behaviour is to be confined. This has been very advantageous for humanity regarding its survival, and it will continue to be important until behaviour that negates the survival of humanity is eradicated, or until we no longer care enough about carrying on our species to confine human behaviour.

Ideology is an operation of the mind. The mind has certain dynamics, patterns, and tendencies. With ideology, we're talking about deep characteristics on the human mind. The human mind tends to get hung up on pet theories it has, the.n roboticallly defends those theories, often times unitl death, which leads to all sorts of problems.

Near-perfect synonyms for ideolgy:

Belief (you can have a belief but it doesnt necessarily constituet a ideology per se)

Dogma (pretty good synonym for ideology)

Paradigm (paradigm has its own quirks, not necessarily an ideology, although oftentimes they are)

Worldview

Perspective

.

Ideology is not exclusive to religion. People can be ideological about science, secularism, rationality, skepticism, academia, spirituality, pickup, veganism. If you say "I trust science, I'm with you! I'm totally against those religious people.", you're being ideological.

Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Bill Marr, Sam Harris, and Jordan Peterson are all examples of people who are ironically ideological, as they are ideological about fighting ideologies. It's really important to point out subtle ideologies.

Ideology comes in various degrees and flavours. It can be subtle- doesn't have to be over the top, raging lunatic like Alex Jones. Sam Harris is an ideologue in a much more subtle manner than Alex Jones. Study the works of the names mentioned, and how they're ideological in subtle ways. No black and white thinking- no labelling, no dismissing, no demonising- that would be being ideological. We must not become ideologues ourselves by calling other people ideological- that's an ideological trap. This work requires meta-awareness. These people may still have ideas that are helpful to you, and may be sophisticated thinkers at certain times. But, the good ideas can be mixed in with ideology, which makes it dangerous, because most people can look at Alex Jones and see that he's not someone worth taking seriously. With some of these others, you can easily be seduced into thinking that they're not ideological because oftentimes they're rational, and present studies and facts, etc. They may even talk about spirituality, which may give you a false sense that they know what they're really talking about and they're not an ideologue, when they in fact still have subtle ideology lurking within. This is being written not to shit on people, but to see how ideology works in others so you can apply the insights gained to yourself- to find your own subtle ideologies. This will be useful to you to isolate and pinpoint those hidden, unconscious, ideological positions you hold, which you maybe never thought were ideological.

Just because someone is ideological in some area, doesn't mean that everything they say is ideological. Nuance is king.

It's often very easy to see how others are ideological, but often more difficult to see how ourselves are ideological.

Ideology is addictive to the mind, so it sells, which is many public figures are ideologues. A very strong, juicy, cohesive set of beliefs can be very addictive because it provides support. Many people create careers around their ideologies. Ideologies can destroy relationships in the same way that any other addiction can. Imagine the bind that family members of Alex Jones-types are in who are unable to see eye-to-eye with them because they are perceived to be on the opposing side, and how the Alex Jones-type cannot let go of their ideology for fear of livelihood-loss. Those selling ideologies are usually genuine believers of the ideology, and the money feeds into their pre-existing passion about the ideas. It's difficult to sell an ideology if you are yourself a true believer.

Studying ideology reveals many deep functions, workings of the human mind, and subtle strategic manifestations of man's desire to survive and reproduce. It places a mirror before oneself, with which one can study the misuses of their own mind.

People / groups of people, who are good for studying ideology

• Nazis

• Neo-nazis

• Feminists

• Marxists

• Addicts

• Celebrities

• Comedians

• Billionaires

• Conspiracy theorists

• Arrogant scientists

• Cults

• Politicians

Look for how people misusing their minds to create various kinds of ideologies, and how all sorts of terrible shit is created from defending or pushing these ideologies, and how the ideologues rationalise it to themselves.

Eaxamples of ideologies

• Materialism

• Scientism

• Atheism -

• Libertarianism

• Ayrn Rand

• Capitalism -

• Socialism

• Catholicism

• Hinduism

• Buddhism

• Logical Positivism

• Rationalism

• Imperialism

• Behaviourism

• The Hare Krishnas

• Darwinism -

• Creationism

• Judaism

• Islam

• Flat-earthers

• Scientology

• Christianity

• Mormonism

• Nationalism

• Nazism

• Sports (many people get ideological about sports)

• Conservatism

• Communism

• Racism

• Nihilism

• Morality (largely rooted in ideology)

• MOGTOW

• Red Pill

• Pickup

• Skepticism (be very careful with this, because you might think that its the opposite of ideology but the way that most people practice it, its been turned into an ideology)

• Post-modernism

• Pacifism

• Veganism

• Vegetarianism

Don't take it personally if 'yours' is up there. We're not saying that everything about these ideologies is wrong.

Often times, ideologies can contain deep truth. Ideologies are often taken on with good intentions.

There is a distinction between the content of an ideology, and being ideological yourself. The real problem of ideology is not the content per se, it's how one attaches to it, and uses it as building material for their identity. This leads to closed-mindedness and stubbornness.

Each of the things listed above have helped, but can easily become an ideology. It's possible that you believe in many of the values of feminism without being an ideologue about it. Others can believe the same stuff but become ideologues about it. It's possible to enjoy sports without being an ideologue.

Ideology is not baked into the content of the beliefs. Ideology is a mode of holding the belief. Ideology is the meta-structure. We can believe in God in an ideological manner, as well as there being no God in a non-ideological manner.

Why does no-one get ideological about bananas? It's possible, but it doesn't meet the criteria for why people get ideological about stuff. If you're in a place where bananas are the region's sacred fruit (it's actually a seed), the people there may attack you for picking them, or accidentally stepping on them. Whatever is taken to be part of somebody's identity will be defended, whether it's inanimate like a car, or non-physical like a belief.

Things people really get ideological about

• Identity issues like gender, sex, race, ethnicity, culture, equality, civil rights

• Metaphysical issues like cosmology, what the truth is,

• Religion and God

• Morality. People tend to have very firm and stubborn positions about what they think is right or wrong, good or evil

• Issues of life and death. The more serious an issue is the more likely they're to be ideological about it

• Matters that relate to livelihood, ability to feed oneself and family

• Politics and power

Ideology can be found in unusual places. Video games? If you're into video games, you know ow ideological people and get about video games. Xbox vs Playstation. Non-ideological gamers don't care. Fanatics about Xbox won't get a game if it coms out on Playstation. A lot of this is down to youth, and gaming becomes part of their identity. Most people would think t's absolutely silly to get ideological about video games and games consoles.

We also find it in weightlifting, fitness, nutrition, diet. Some people get very ideological about all kinds of diets- vegan, carnivore, paleo, keto, etc. There are many camps in the fitness camp. Weightlifting, powerlifting, cardio, etc. All warring against each other. Authors writing books, shitting on other fitness systems. Why does this happen? People are building an identity out of their fitness routine and their diet.

People can become ideological about art. People get very ideological in the art critic world. Many argue subtly and not-so-subtly about what's the best kind of art. Historically, many have become closed minded to new forms of art, which they accept decades later.

A lot of content isn't worth building an identity around. A lot of it depends on our culture. Today, less people care about fine art, so less people build an identity around and get ideological about fine art, so they instead build one around weightlifting, spirituality, gaming, etc. What most people get ideological about depends on what's currently popular in culture.

Spiral Dynamics

Blue, Orange and Green are ideological in their own ways.

As humans develop up the spiral, they generally become more conscious and mature. Their sense of self and identity expands larger and larger. As that happens, their form of ideology becomes more subtle. It's easy to see ideology in Blue, which is densely ideological. The ideology of Orange is harder to see, because it has much less ideology than Blue, but it has it's own version of ideology which is rational, scientific, materialist, reductionist, atheist, analytical, skeptic, libertarian, individualist, capitalist, and often secular. Orange is less ideological than Blue, but it's still ideological. Because Orange can only see Blue, it usually can't see it's own ideology because it's so focused on the ideology of Blue, which is the case with Sam Harris, etc. So focused on the problems of Blue that they're ignoring the problems of Orange.

Green has its own form of ideology which is an egalitarian, social justice warrior form of ideology. THey fight for the rights of all of mankind, to put everyone on a level playing field. That's great, but again, it can become ideological. Post-modernism can become ideological, also environmentlism, socialm, collectivism. Green generally is not aware enough to understand t's own ideology.

Yellow is a quantum leap, Tier 2. IT's the first stage which is really starting ideology. It's starting to understand the metamechanics. Ideology is seen to be not particular to one type of belief- capitalism, religion, etc. It's seen to be a very general function of the mind, and that as the mind and culture and humanity develops, the content always changes but the ideology stays, and of course it also lessens as our consciousness rises but its still there. Yellow becomes aware of this.

What every ideology has in common

All ideologies are conceptual, belief-based, and dependant on language, concepts and thinking to operate and be maintained. If there was no language or conceptualising, there would be no ideologies whatsoever of any kind. Imagine how the world would look without any ideologies of any kind. Ideology is something the mind is doing, and reality is not limited to our conceptualisations. We can see what the world looks like without ideologies by stopping conceptualising. Ideologies can only occur when the mind is active. The mind can be quietened for any length of time. Verify all this in your direct experience.

Is ideology possible when the mind is not active? When we're not thinking?

Every ideology feels true, due to confirmation bias. The mind will cherry-pick evidence to support and justify the ideology. The evidence it resents will seem very convincing. Having an ideology will feel like having the truth, not like having an ideology. It's gonna feel like everybody else is deluded. One is relying on their own sense of truthfulness to judge whether one should believe oneself or not. How do we know that we can rely on that feeling? Especially when we know that there's confirmation bias? That the mind will cherrypick evidence make whatever we believe seem true?

Every ideology claims absolute truth for itself. Even ideologies that say they don't believe in absolute truth, such as relativism and post-modernism. It ironically holds that relativism is the absolute truth. The point of an ideology is to claim an absolute truth.

All ideologies are arrogant. Fundamental arrogance is involved to hold an ideology, because to hold an ideology means that we're certain that what we believe is correct. To hold an ideology we must convince ourselves that what we believe is the truth. We believe that we've figured out reality. If we didn't believe that, we wouldn't cling to the particular position we hold. If we were truly doubtful about something we believed, we wouldn't be ideological about it. We wouldn't get passionate, heated, or emotional about it because we're really not sure about it. Clinging to ideological positions requires a gross underestimation of reality. The arrogance is that we've believed that we've figured reality out the we haven't. We don't know yet how vast and complicated reality is, and how little we really understand about reality. We underestimate how wrong our current perspective is, which will be re-contexualised with a broadening of perspective. Ideologues have no idea about this. They think that reality is simple. That reality is this physical thing, it's a given, it can be easily explained with a few diagrams, formulas, religious texts- we got it! Reality is not that way.

All ideologies are fundamentally stubborn and closed-minded. The point of ideology is to close the mind down to further inquiry. All ideologies refuse to self-reflect. This is a very common feature, common to all ideologies. Ideologues are not interested in turning inwards and deeply questioning their assumptions about the ideology. They only want to defend it, because they think. it's already the truth. Why question. the truth when I've already got the truth? Makes no sense from the ideologues perspective. They forget that what we think is the truth may not be the truth.

All ideologies lack self-awareness. They don't see their own inner workings. They lack awareness of the dynamics of the mind. All ideologies refuse to explore new perspectives, and avoid radically new experiences, to open themselves up to new domains of experience. Almost all ideologies take themselves way too seriously because they think they're right, and what they think they're right about they think is very important so that take it seriously. They're not humorous or playful. The more ideological a person is the more serious that person tends to be. That's a really good way to spot an ideologue. They take their ideologies very seriously, especially when they're cornered and when you start to question them- they'll get all serious about it. That's an important clue about what that ideology is doing in their psyche.

All ideologies tend to be black and white thinkers. They tend to fail to make subtle distinctions, between different kidns of people and situations. They tend to lump stuff togetehr in a black and white way, hich becomes pronlematic. They tend to make rule swhich everyone has to follow- even people who don't subscrive to the ideology. When we think we have the truth, we're so convinced by it that we think everybody else is deluded and therefore we must force them to follow our truth. That's also a fuction of arrogance.

All aideologues are defensive. Theyre in denial about some aspect of reality, so when you corner an ideologue, they'll get defensive, sometimes very defensive, emotionally so.

All ideologies are actually emotional. They're not grounded in truth, logic, reasons, evidence, tehy're really grounded in emotion. Ironically, even people who think they'e atheists, rationalists, scientific, skeptical, that itsef is rooted in emotion. Its rooted in fear, attachment, perhaps hatred. Ideology is alwyas emotional because it's a matter of life and death fro the ideologue. Our very identity hinges on i, and thats why emotions come into play. Our deepest fears, anxieties, jealousies, hatreds, are the deepest and strongest human emotions, and all have to do with our survival. The reason ideology is emotional is because it has something to do with our survival. It seems our very life is in the line with ideology- it's not just ideas. The ideologies govern how we live. They our oppurtunites in life, who we have sex with, who we'll marry, who we're gonna support as the leader of our tribe, how we earn money- all of this is ife and death stuff for the ideologue.

Ideologies attack. They get defensive, but if you question them too much, they lash out and attack. Tehy judge, blame, demonsise, scapegoat, sometimes physically violient.

All ideologies use projection to defend themselevs. The ideology is disownoing some part of reality or ones own self, the psyche needs to project that out onto other people to do that, so ironicailly, if yore highly ideologica, youll think that other people are ideological. Someone might say something to us which destroys our ideology, and we'll think that they're the ideological one for telling us that. The persons own bullshit is being pointed out to them but we're the deluded one whos full of shit. IDeologues projects out unconsciously, and criticise otehrs.

All ideologies cause suffering to various degrees- not all as much as others. SOme wil cause the suffering to millions of pwoplw, some will casue suffering within. Most ideologies do both. Widely adopted ideologies usually harm millions of people both physically and psychologically, with guilt, shame, self-hatred, negativity.

All ideologies are incapable of explaining all of reality. They are partial, which is why they not the absolute truth. Reality cant be explained with an ideology because all of reality is infinite and our explanations will always be finite. Infinity cannot be conceptualised or encapsulate it down into any belief system- symbolic or conceptual. All explanations will not be able to explain reality because all explanations will be part of infinity, soo all explanations will be incomplete. If we want to understand all of reality, which is possible, we must ignore ideology. Ideology closes th mind down to people accessing the true means to full comprehension.

Ideologies always create a bubble around themselves such that everything we see reinforces our ideology. We will surround ourselves with people and friends, watch media which reinforces our bubble of ideology. This will fulfil the purpose of ideology which is to create a bubble of reality.

This bubble is maintained by rarely doing anything new. Travel is said to broaden the mind- if we cling to many ideologies, we're unlikely to travel, because our bubble would not survive for very long. There may be a fear of talking to strangers, because doing so might pop our bubble. Clinging to ideology can lead to various degrees of fear and hatred for anything that seems to disobey the laws of our worldview. For example, if it was part of our ideology, our bubble, that black people are inferior to white people in every way, we would ignore the success of black people, and dislike it very much, because it would challenge the part of our worldview which says 'black people are inferior in every way.'

Outside of our bubble, we may feel unsafe and unprotected, since this bubble is essentially for safety and protection. Be Observe how you walk down the street. Observe your attention. Do you awkwardly walk past people while pretending they're not there? Many people do. Why? For many people, part of their worldview contains the belief that strangers are usually cold and uncaring. How do you feel while you're walking down the street? For many people, there is unconscious shame, perhaps about feeling ugly. Do you feel guilty for not acknowledging people, not saying hello?

Here is a forum past about mastering the art of walking down the street.

Many other beliefs can depend on one belief, which is why a self-labelled 'anxious' person may resist making new friends. The belief 'I'm weird', can be the source of many other beliefs, including 'strangers will reject me', which may produce the belief that says 'hanging out with strangers at the park on a sunny day is bad'. Beliefs are like jenga blocks. If you dislodge one, many others are at risk of being dislodged. This is why people can go crazy after taking psychedelics or learning about spirituality without good guidance- they're fundamental beliefs

Inside our bubble we also live with our unresolved, recurring problems. For example, some people have noisy neighbours but do nothing to solve it. Often it takes going outside of the bubble to solve them.

Dear Occupant(s) of Flat 2,

My job requires me to be well-rested, so I value sleep very much. Unfortunately, the floor / ceiling appears to be very thin, so I can hear bumps / footsteps while I'm trying to get to sleep- even while wearing earplugs and ear defenders! In the day it's fine, but please consider going to sleep before 11pm, as I was kept awake after midnight last night.

Thanks and good will,

David, occupant of Flat 1B (directly below)

No ideology understands the nature, and levels of consciousness. If the ideology did, we'd be way too conscious to hold an ideology.

All ideologies spread themselves like viruses.

Ideology confuses beliefs for reality. It fails to make a distinction between belief and experience. Concept and actuality. Actuality is this present moment right now. Distinguish reality from ideas about it. THis distinction is what the ideollgue fails to do. Relaity and ideas are purposefully blended because theyr etrying to concept a conceptual reality. Relity and fantsasy is

Wnat is the differnce between ideology and truth?

Things determinded by ideology

Since ideology is this section could have also been titled 'things determined by our culture and upbringing'.

what we find funny

Who we mate with

Our health

Function of Ideology

TBC

Opposite of Ideology

• Open-mindedness

• Not knowing

• Experience

• Consciousness

• Being

• Presence

• Actual truth (not conceptualused or believed in)

• An empty mind

• Wisdom

• Detachment

• Unconditional love

The best teachers try to steer us away from ideology, try not to tell us the answers.