Level-3: Something's Wrong

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Something's Wrong

A baby has no memes at all, let alone memes about right and wrong. One day, though, as the baby blithely goes through life, learning names and labels, strategies and associations, suddenly comes the idea that Something’s Wrong. The idea that Something’s Wrong forms the cornerstone of the baby’s Level-2 worldview. For only when Something’s Wrong can there be a solution.

As the baby grows to become an adult, much progress is a result of identifying that Something’s Wrong and finding a solution. The baby falls in love with the idea that Something’s Wrong and forgets that it’s just a meme.

The adult, with hardened Level-2 worldview, finds that the world finally makes sense. Ideas that fit into this worldview are Right. Those that do not fit are Wrong. Things that do not fit into this worldview do not exist. This adult’s experience of life, no matter how good things are going, is always tempered by the deep, deep knowledge that Something’s Wrong.

When the baby realized that Something’s Wrong, that meme became an important facet of the baby’s lens of life. That particular way in which Something’s Wrong became a general pattern. The same kind of Something’s Wrong occurred over and over again throughout childhood and adulthood. No matter how many times Something’s Wrong was fixed, the same sort of Something became Wrong again and again and again.

The Level-2 adult often thinks that true fulfillment is on the other side of fixing Something’s Wrong. It never is. A Level-2 adult is at about the same level of happiness throughout life. Fixing Something’s Wrong never creates fulfillment because Something’s Wrong is a cornerstone of the Level-2 worldview. As soon as one Something’s Wrong is fixed, the lens of the Level-2 worldview finds some other situation that fits the pattern and once again Something's Wrong.

Because Something’s Wrong, though, the Level-2 adult becomes very good at compensating for this perceived failing in the world. Early in life, the child develops a strength that helps fix Something’s Wrong. This strength is an opportunity that serves the adult well throughout life, but still does not produce happiness by itself.

The fear of losing one’s worldview is the biggest barrier to attaining Level 3. Yet only by losing one’s Level-2 worldview can one make progress beyond Something’s Wrong. Only by clarifying one’s life purpose can one find something bigger and better than fixing Something’s Wrong. This meme, the cornerstone of the adult’s Level-2 worldview, will never go away. Only by attaining Level-3 can the adult break the cycle of fixing Something’s Wrong.

Richard Brodie
October 1999