This country is a mess and people with degrees from the finest Ivy League universities got us here.

  • How could people who are so intelligent be completely incompetent and duplicitous?
  • How could a nation with so many vast resources manage to squander its way into massive debt and crisis?

It boils down to the worldview and philosophical framework of the individual. Like a computer with a corrupted operating system, a flawed worldview and philosophical framework will cause systemic problems, errors and failures in how an individual thinks, behaves and engages reality. Therefore, we observe people in positions of power with degrees from places like Harvard and Yale making completely illogical, overtly selfish and stupid decisions. Look around and see the unintended consequences.

When your worldview and philosophical framework are flawed, all the education or money in the world is not going to fulfill you or save you. Your operating system is corrupted.

People want to feel secure, loved and relevant. No amount of education or money will accomplish security or significance.

Materialism:
I’ve seen many attempt to fulfill their needs and create their identity through materialism. They end up feeling empty because their pursuit of ‘stuff’ has been hitched to the shooting star of ‘happiness’. They become slaves to pleasure by pursuing the next material high, the next car, the next spouse, the next vacation, the next house, etc. It is an endless cycle of embracing the next new thing.

Eventually, the poor soul ends up choking himself by his own embrace because every new thing he embraces to achieve happiness eventually loses it’s newness, causing the cycle to start over. Sometimes we label these people as ‘greedy’. However, if we’re being honest, we have to admit that we’re all greedy to some extent. Instead of ‘greedy’, I see them in a self-induced bondage to materialism.

It’s easy to be greedy, observe an infant. The challenge is becoming sacrificially generous and it goes against human nature.

Academia:
I’ve also seen many people attempt to fill their heads with knowledge and create their identity through academia. Since their operating system is corrupted, they can’t properly engage reality or they live in ideological un-reality that does not correspond to reality. That is like trying to fight the law of gravity. Someone once said, “You can’t break the law of gravity. You can only break yourself and prove the law of gravity.” No amount of knowledge is going to make untruth, true. But, you’d be surprised by the amount of influential people believe just that.

Humans are Relational:
Neither material nor knowledge make good companions. Meaning, you can’t have have a relationship with them. Humans have a need for relationship and transcendent relevance (significance). Therefore, we must engage in how we relate to the transcendent and other humans.

Reality and Relationship:
The answers to our origin, meaning, morality and destiny make up your worldview. If what someone believes does not correspond to reality in any those four categories, then their worldview is flawed.

Your worldview / philosophy are the core beliefs that drive your thinking and behavior. If your philosophy is flawed, your understanding of your relationship to reality and the world around you is going to be problematic.

Obviously, we’ve just scratched the surface here. We must be vigilant in testing what we think, what we believe and what we experience against reality.

No Surprises:
Does what you see and experience in reality correspond with what you believe to be true about the world? Then, it should come to you as no surprise that this country is a mess and the reason ‘why’ it is a mess rests on the flawed worldview and philosophy of those in power.

Until we put our own worldview and philosophy on trial and test it for truth, we’ll continue to live in the mess.