The Toxicity of Systems: False Idols and Alienation

Systems distort reality, demanding loyalty while alienating individuals from their true selves.

### The Illusion of Systems: The Toxicity of Adapting to False Idols
* 🔍 Systems are often discussed without a true understanding of their implications, leading to a **superficial grasp of what they represent in our lives**.
* 👥 Human systems, ranging from society to small social groups, operate on **implicit rules that dictate behavior and conformity**, creating a structure that can feel **unquestionable**.
* 🏢 In corporate environments, employees are expected to show **unwavering loyalty to the system**, often at the expense of their true selves, leading to a culture where **dissent is viewed as a betrayal**.
* ⚖ The obsession with fitting into these systems can result in a distorted view of life, where the organization becomes a **"false idol,"** overshadowing the broader, more meaningful aspects of existence.
* 😷 This adaptation to artificial structures breeds toxicity, as individuals **suppress their true feelings and beliefs to conform**, leading to a **judgmental and unhealthy culture**.
* 💔 The more one identifies with a system, whether it be a corporation, social circle, or belief system, the more **alienated they become from their true nature and potential**.
* 🌌 Ultimately, the challenge lies in recognizing these systems for what they are and **reclaiming a natural way of living**, free from the constraints of **artificial identities and expectations**.
* 🧠 The pursuit of mental health becomes complicated when individuals are entrenched in these systems, as they often seek **artificial solutions** to heal what is fundamentally a **disconnection from their authentic selves**.

Today, I'd like to talk very briefly about systems. Systems is a thing that, well, we all know what systems are, and the word gets used an awful lot, so it's kind of like we know about systems and we'll use the word quite unreflectively, but do we know about systems? Do we really have an insight into all the connotations, what it really means when we talk about systems? So, obviously, if I'm asking that question, my feeling is that we absolutely don't. We know nothing, as is the case with just about everything, I suppose, really. So, systems, it's a kind of generic term. We can have all sorts of systems. Society is a system. I'm talking about human systems here in particular, and if you're a member of a social group, that's a system. If you're a member of a religion, that's a system. So, there's all these levels of system coming down from society right down to a small group of friends. If you've got a small group of friends and you kind of, you know, you to

constitute an actual group, as in, there's kind of unspoken rules about what it means to be in the group and not in the group, and what's what the rules are that are implicit in the group that everyone knows and everyone obeys. So, there's a kind of a thing where everyone fits together and conforms to these rules. That's what makes a system. So, even like a few people, a family, or even just a few people who could be friends, constitute a system. And the idea, the best way to illustrate the idea, I think, is to think of a system, um, such as a kind of corporation that you're working in, a company. Lots of people work in companies, or even some other sort of organization. It could be anything, a healthcare provider, a Health Service. All of these assist systems, Coca-Cola, another system, but I'm not going to go into Coca-Cola particularly; they might sue me. So, the thing about systems is that from the point of view of the system and from our point of view when

we're adapted to the system. The system is unquestionable, all important, all um, all significant. It's like God. If I'm a member, if I'm an employee of a company, and I want to stay in that company and fit in in that company and maybe have a career in it, I always have to take the attitude that everything I'm doing is for the system. And more than just an attitude, I have to show that. I have to dedicate my loyalty to the system. I can't go around saying that the system is [ __ ] or that the system is crap and all of these things that we might quite possibly think and we might actually very commonly say to each other on our off time. But officially, if you want to get ahead in the system, you have to say good stuff about the system. And if you're not just a kind of rank-and-file um member of the company, but if you're aiming to get higher up, you want to be an executive, you want to

be in the higher levels. You, as is well known, have to live the system. You have to eat it and breathe it, and it has to be coming out of every pore. You have to be a system person, a company person, company man or company woman or whatever the hell, and from this point of view, anyone that bucks their system or isn't working for the efficiency to help the efficiency of the system is like, it's like you're a terrorist. And I've heard people that deliberately, employees that deliberately go against the company, referred to as not just disgruntled employees, which they're referred of as that as well, but terrorists. There's no understanding of how they could possibly be so wrongheaded as to not pull along with everyone else. It's like a big boat, and we're all rowing it, and you got some [ __ ] Egypt jamming his ore in the water and spinning everything, right? He's not rowing like everyone else. He's not pulling his weight. He's not

doing the thing he's supposed to. That is absolutely unacceptable. So we have this viewpoint, and the viewpoint is such that the advancement or the benefit of the well-being of the system is the ultimate good. What else matters if you're, you know, jockeying to be one of the higher-up executives in a company? The company has, I'm stating the obvious here, everyone knows this, it's not exactly news. But the curious thing about this is the system is misrepresenting life because life isn't actually about getting on well in the company. That's the company has substituted itself in the place of life, in the place of everything, and it's demanding the allegiance that we really shouldn't be giving to some, um, some mere thing. It's a false idol. We shouldn't be worshiping it. Sure, we can work on it, and we can do what we can to, um, do our bit, but this viewpoint where we see it

as the ultimate. The ultimate good is an inversion of the natural order. It's a perversion. The company has then become a false idol, and we know this because we know that people, when they're in the upper strata, they behave damn weird. They kind of stilted. Everything's artificial. Everything's stilted. There's a weird linger. There's a weird jaron. People behave weird. The whole sis, the whole thing is just kind of screwed up, really. And that's because instead of having their allegiance towards life, which is undefined, or towards every, the universe, which is undefined, it's been perverted. So our entire allegiance and loyalty is to this goddamn useless thing, which is so trivial and grubby. It's um, it's squalid, basically. It's not necessarily squalid if we see it in its right position, but it's squalid if we take it as being the be-all and end-all or the greatest good there could be. If we see it in the

right perspective. Maybe it's a good company, maybe it's a bad company, maybe it's an okay company if there is such a thing. But when we're actually in it and we're orientating ourselves as if the company is everything, the organization is everything, then the substitute, the substitution has taken place. And so we're behaving in a weird way. We won't necessarily, or probably we won't see this in each other because we're all thinking in the same way and we're all speaking the same lingo. And so we're all in the same group, we're all in the same club. So we won't think we're with unless we have a flash of insight or consciousness, which can happen to the best of us. We can suddenly get a flash of insight and think, What the [ __ ] am I doing? What is this [ __ ]? But you know, we'll disregard that because it's important to disregard stuff like that if you want to get ahead in the world. But from the outside, when you see people, these characters that are

adapted to their company, the corporation. Boy, do they seem weird. It's like they're made out of plastic or something. There's something false about it. [Music] Something distasteful, unwholesome. It ain't right, and we know that. You can see it. It's unhealthy. I remember in the early days when I was working in a healthcare provider, a big organization, and then the kind of thing, the kind of um, it's kind of thing that people would say, kind of [ __ ] talk, you know, when people just say stuff, and it's not at all meaningful or honest. And people will say, Are you busy? This would be the thing if I'd meet someone from work in a local town. Remember meeting someone in court once. Are you busy? In work, are you busy? And then the proper response is whatever, you know, something to show that you are super, super busy. And po boy, are you busy. This is a way of demonstrating allegiance and total loyalty to because to be busy, obviously, you're being busy, not as a terrorist, but

you're being busy in fulfilling the ends of the organization is the ultimate validation. If you're busy, nobody can say a thing against you. It's great to be busy, and it took me a time to kind of realize what's going on, kind of being naive or whatever. Remember one lady, I was waiting by a photocopy here, as you do, and she was busy. She was kind of a higher up. She was a kind of, you know, not just a staff grade or, you know, she was a manager grade. And so, she was making the conversation. She said, Are you busy? And not really thinking about it, just been kind of somewhat factious, I said, No, I'm just, to be honest, I'm just killing time till I can go home, really, you know, same as every day. And she was literally shocked. Well, don't know what other ways of being shocked they are, but she was shocked, totally shocked, and the look on her face. And she said, We never say that in the service or

whatever the hell word she is shocked as if I, as if um, I was attending mass and I suddenly um started worshiping being Satan or something, or you know, something equally, equ equally extremely shocking. Reflecting on this, and it was a long, long time ago, you can see that it is an elaborate Shard or act that everyone puts on because you can tell from the kind of rigidity and the kind of instant judgment, judgmentalism that comes out of it. It's not genuine, it's not coming from a true place. So, the weird thing about it is when we're in this situation, like this lady of being um manager up in the managerial Stratosphere, um, it's like um, we're putting on an act, we're enacting a Shad, but we don't know it. Maybe we do know it on some level, but that knowing is repressed. And because the knowing of it is the Consciousness, because there's always Consciousness there somehow, because the consciousness of our falseness is repressed. If anyone

says anything that the uncomfortableness that assoc is associated with the repressed Consciousness. Repressed Consciousness always turns toxic, comes out as judgmentalism, as if to say you're a very bad person. They're displacing that uncomfortable awareness onto someone else, saying you're a bad person. We do that the whole time when we're being false, and the more we believe something, like if I am a believer in a religion, boy oh boy would I judge other people. That's a famous... I mean everyone knows that the more religious you are, the more toxically judgmental and mean-minded you are. Odd, you might say, Well, H, how does that work? But the thing is, you can't believe without disbelieving. As Michelle deont says, What I believe, I disbelieve. What's happening? I'm in two minds, I'm split against myself, I'm conflicted. But we can't... to believe in something is an act. We force ourselves to believe it, we make ourselves believe.

it because it suits us. I mean, if you are in Christianity in a strongly Christian Society, damn right it suits you to be Christian. If you're not, you'll be burned or you'll be ostracized from the society. You have to be believing it to get on, so you have to make yourself believe because belief doesn't happen naturally. We have to buy into it deliberately. We have to say, Yeah, you have to agree to believe, but because we're agreeing and we're deliberately doing it, it's an artificial stance, a posture, an artificial posture. It carries with it the equal and opposite posture. The more I try and the more I throw myself into believing something, the more this is a lie, and the more that lie will come out, and I'll find myself that there'll be a shadow, and that shadow will come out in the form of toxicity. Because deep down, I know that I don't believe, and that's unacceptable to me, to have that awareness that I don't believe. So if anyone comes along and they're not a

Believer, just like secretly, I'm not a believer either, but I won't tell anyone. I will lash out with venom and venom against this person because they're reminding me of my own falseness, and that's just human nature. There's no point in getting excited about it. That's how we tick. That's human nature for you right there. So, there is this toxicity that comes and adapting to an artificial structure or system, no matter what it is, and the smallest, taking it right down from the society or the organization you have to be working for, whatever the hell. The ego itself is a system. The set of logically consistent ideas we have about ourselves is a system. It's an artificial posture, and it carries a shadow, as is well known to all students of Jung. We know all about the shadow. And so, the more I promote myself and appreciate myself in this kind of ego way, that yes, yes, I am this, I am that, I am important because whatever [__], the more we hate ourselves at the

same time, and that's not good. So, the ego is toxic, and it has to displace this kind of unconflicted emotion onto other people who insult me or aren't aligned with my ego values, my values. If they aligned with my values, they're great. If they're not, I'm very, very judgmental, and that's coming out of my conflicted because I'm living a lie and I'm not admitting it. So, it all comes down to this question of living a lie and not owning up to it, to oneself. You can do it; we all do it, but it creates toxicity, and that toxicity goes on to create more problems, and it creates a whole lot of [ __ ] and no good comes out of it at all. No good can ever come out of this business of adapting, seriously adapting, not just playfully adapting, saying H and knowing what you're doing, but seriously adapting to a system and believing it and making your whole life about this system and letting it define your whole being, your whole

identity creates toxicity, and out of that, it's a lie because you're more than that system, you're more than that company, you're broader than that, you're not so narrow. And when you think about it, what the hell does a corporation stand for? These corporations where, when we're part of it in the upper echelons, we speak so grandly of it and we're so affirming about what the hell is it, what's it about when you look at it really from the outside, it's a piece of [__] really, it's just little money, scarless little money-making kind of crappy little thing by sending some piece of shite to people that don't really need it. Basically, that's what it generally comes down to. It ain't that great, it ain't that fantastic, it's a piece of [__] really, it's nothing. You shouldn't be dedicating your life to it, it's [__] just Satan, do you know what I mean? I don't mean that

literally, but it's symbolically um of a satanic or of a demiurgic nature. Demiurgic means that some lowly kind of thing is substituting itself for the true reality or the true Divine principle, which isn't about selling Coca-Cola or aspirin or doing this. It's, you know, a little bit more Cosmic than that, but we are down on the ground, we're narrow-minded, and we all we care about is this [ __ ] selling crap and making money. Look, I like making money, and you know, if I had some [ __ ] to sell that could make some money, I'd sell it, but it's not the meaning of existence. It's not the B in the end all. It's just a thing you have to do. You have to do it, of course you do. You have to make some money, but it ain't God. So the whole point about systems is that from the inside, when we're adapted to them, we're worshiping a false god. We're worshiping the Demi urge.

we can't see beyond that, and we're defining ourselves along totally false lines. And somehow we know that, and there is suffering in that. But no matter what system it is, if we were to be able to look on the outside, look at it from the outside, we'd see it's nothing. It's not the whole world. It's not the be-all and end-all. It's a piece of fly [__] on your windscreen or whatever, you know, on your spectacle, whatever. It's just a little piece of crap. It's not the be-all and end-all at all. And it's okay for things to be not the be-all and end-all if we know that. That's not a bad thing. It is what it is, and it has its place. But when we take that little thing and we make it everything, and we deny and denounce and repress everything else, then it becomes, then everything goes over to the dark side. That's the whole point. So that's the whole point of

the Gnostic kind of metaphor of the demiurge really. We are forsaking our entire potential because none of our potential can come out when we're worshiping the demiurge, when we're orientated towards this piece of crap that we're thinking is the ultimate, the be-all and the end-all. All we can ever be is what the system says. So if you do really, really well in the system, the system will say you're great or great to give us accolades, but in reality, we're actually alienated profoundly from what is real. So the more adapted we are to the system, whatever that system is, whether it's the ego or your friends, your social circle, your religion, company you work for, when we go all in, as we have to go all in because you're not allowed just to, you know, you have to go all in for that kind of thing, we alienated profoundly, profoundly alienated from the true nature of things, from the true nature of who we are, and from the true nature of life and the

thing is that at that point, the natural is actually a poison to us. We're living in an entirely artificial way, and the real cure for this is to see through it so that we can live in the natural way instead, where they won't be, we won't be living in the shadow. But that's a very big step, and to us, there's no way we can conceptualize it because there is nothing outside of the system. Therefore, whatever it is that can help us is actually going to be categorized as the ultimate Evil. So, we try and cure ourselves, and this is where mental health comes in. We try and cure ourselves with artificial means because we can't use natural means because when we are wholly artificial, anything natural is poison.

Negative Psychology 001

Nick Williams

Systems are a ubiquitous and often unreflective term, encompassing various levels from society to small social groups.

They are defined by unspoken rules and the conformity of members, creating a sense of belonging and loyalty.

In organizational settings, such as companies, the system is seen as all-important, and employees are expected to dedicate their loyalty and align their actions with the system's goals.

The system's focus on corporate advancement is misrepresenting the true meaning of life, demanding allegiance to a mere organization.

This inversion of the natural order leads to weird and artificial behavior among those in power.

The company's trivial and grubby nature becomes squalid when seen as the ultimate good, causing a perversion of loyalty and allegiance.

Corporate environments often feel artificial and unwholesome, with a focus on busyness as a measure of loyalty and validation.

The pressure to appear busy creates a rigid and judgmental atmosphere, where genuine interactions are rare.

This performative behavior can lead to a repressed awareness of the inauthenticity, creating a cycle of falsehood within the organization.

Repressed consciousness leads to discomfort and toxic judgmentalism, as individuals displace their uncomfortable awareness onto others.

Belief in something, especially in a strongly religious society, is often forced and artificial, creating internal conflict and a shadow of disbelief.

This struggle between belief and disbelief can result in toxic behavior towards others, as they unconsciously lash out at those who remind them of their own falseness.

The Toxicity of Ego and System Adaptation

The ego creates toxicity by displacing unconflicted emotions onto others, leading to judgment and conflict.

Adapting too seriously to a system or corporation can create a false identity and a toxic mindset.

Ultimately, dedicating one's life to these systems is misguided, as they often represent a narrow and superficial pursuit of money, rather than a true meaning or purpose in life.

The Illusion of Systems and True Potential

We often define ourselves by flawed systems, leading to suffering and alienation from our true nature.

When we make a small aspect of life the ultimate focus, we forsake our entire potential and become trapped in an artificial existence.

The real cure lies in seeing through these systems and embracing a natural way of living, but this shift is challenging and often perceived as the ultimate evil.