On this episode of Level to Power, we’re joined by author and intellectual Jim Luisi. The concept of levels explained in his book Sensitive by Nature: Understanding Intelligence and the Mind was a major foundation for building the Level to Power framework. We discuss the level system in depth, and explain how mastering perspective and changing your level will help you navigate intrapersonal conflicts in the workplace. Apex Level To Power is a podcast that examines the inner workings of human interactions and teaches you how to succeed within your own interpersonal relationships. Change your level, change your life, change the world. Episode Highlights:
- Developing and understanding the level system
- Benefits of being a Level One or Level Two
- Level Zero: The Lizard Brain
- Using Level to Power to succeed in the workplace
- Personal examples of the level system
- Dealing with an “Evil Level Two”
- Using your skillset to help yourself and others
- Fallacies and strawman arguments
Resources:
- Sensitive by Nature by Jim Luisi
- Apex Fallacies Poster
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| Mark Gleason: | Welcome to the Apex Level To Power Podcast, the podcast completely dedicated to your self-empowerment. The title of this episode is, The Herd and Why Your Trusted Tribe Is Not Vested In Individual Empowerment. Some of the highlights of what we’re going to be discussing, are the nature of the Herd, the nature of the Tribe, and the relationship an individual has to their Herd, or Tribe, when it comes to the social power dynamic, and how the individual can reclaim back some of the power that they automatically give up to their chosen Tribe. We’re also going to talk about why the Herd, or Tribe, doesn’t care about your individual, or personal, empowerment. Even your trusted Tribe, it is actually against their interest to make you the most empowered individual possible. I’m looking forward to walking through some of these difficult questions. Welcome to Apex Level To Power.
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| Escape the Herd. Rise above the Pack. This is the Apex Level To Power Podcast, the only place in the web that teaches you to identify, and control, the invisible strings that dominate all human interaction. We teach sheep to become wolves. A challenge to be sure, but one that we answer, and answer with vigor. I am your faithful host, Mark Gleason. I welcome you to the program. I invite you to visit our little corner of the web at LevelToPower.com for more information, and to support the broadcast.
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| The episode today, is going to talk about the Herd, the Level One Herd. For the new listeners, let’s review quickly the Apex Level To Power levels: Level Zero, Level One, Level Two, Level Three. Level Zero, is the Hive. It is when people have lost all sense of self. They are operating on a purely perceptual level. They are panicked. Their Lizard Brain has taken over. They are on drugs. They are in a hundred percent reactive mode, that is Level Zero.
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| People at Level One have one way of viewing the world, and it is the only way they see. They’re unaware that any other valid way of viewing the world even exists. We crash to Level One, when we are emotional. When we have high emotional energy on the issue, we tend to crash to Level One, and we only see our point of view. We only acknowledge that our point of view may even be valid. That is when we are most vulnerable, and open, to persuasion, influence, and manipulation, is when we’re at Level One Herd. Level Two, is the Pack. Level Two, is able to see their own perspective, and other perspectives. Their cognitive empathy. Their ability to see other people’s perspectives is quite high. Level Two, is the Pack.
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| Level Three, is Apex. Which, can see all paradigms, and weave them into an overall tapestry, to determine what’s going on. This episode, however, is focused on the Herd, Level One Herd. It is meant to spell out why you are so vulnerable, when you are Level One. Why are you vulnerable to your leaders, when you are Level One? Well, first, let’s talk about the nature of the Herd. What is the power of the Herd? Why, in nature, do creatures gather together into a large group, versus just run around as individuals? What is it about the cattle, that makes it much better to run around in ten thousand head herds, than to just roam as individuals, across the plains?
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| Well, the answer is the stampede. The stampede is the power of the herd, the ability of all the herd to run at the same time, in the same direction, in a frenzied flurry of hooves, and meat, and bone, and teeth. This is very dangerous. This is very dangerous, for a predator. Imagine a pack of wolves who had dispersed individuals of cattle, spread throughout a valley. One by one, they could simply take down the herd. One by one. Well, the pack would be able to do this with very little risk to themselves. The problem for the pack, is once the cows are all now in a herd together, any attack on an individual will lead to a frantic, angry, chaotic flurry of hooves, and motion. Even if they wound a cow, that one can make it back into the center of the herd, where they can be relatively safe.
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| The advantages of being in the herd are many. As a herd member, you can share the dangers of being exposed to predators, by being on the edges, and rotating into the center. You also could benefit from the alarm system that other herd members might pass to you, so you don’t need to see the wolves, or the threat, in order to be able to know when to stampede. Rather, you just wait until you get the proper social signal to run. This is what rabbits do. This is what sheep do. This is what cattle do. Any group, which gathers into a herd for protection, when they see their herd mates all running, and panicking, and taking off in a certain direction, then this is when the herd stampedes.
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| Well, let’s take this back, to the leader of any organization to which you belong. Because, it is always easy to see how other people are being manipulated, but today is about introspection. It’s about empowering you, in your life. Though, it is going to be painful, let’s think about the groups that you belong to. The leaders that you follow. Let’s say that you belong to a religion, and there is a religious group. Think about that group, or you can belong to a social grouping. Maybe, you are an environmentalist, dedicated to the cause. Maybe, you belong to Black Lives Matter. Maybe, you’re part of the Tea Party. Maybe, you’re a political activist that’s Republican, or Democrat. Either way, there’s a group that you belong to. There’s a Tribe to which you subscribe.
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| You say, “These people represent me. These leaders represent me. I’m going to believe them, when they give me facts. I will accept them, and I’m going to take their advice, when it comes to how I’m going to move forward.” This is very, very difficult. Do you have in your mind, the group to which you belong? The religious organization, the political organization, the social organization? Do you have in mind, the good people whom you know, whom you work with, the leaders that you trust, and follow, definitely are good people? Keep those in mind.
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| Now, let’s talk about the nature of the Herd, and the nature of the stampede, and you’ll begin to understand why your trusted Herd is not vested in your self-empowerment. They have no interest in your self-empowerment. As a matter of fact, they have an interest in you being disempowered, in this particular context. Now, let me explain why. Think about the Herd for a second. How must a Herd function, in order to be most effective? Let’s say the leader of the Herd sees a threat, and immediately signals all the surrounding Herd members, “Now, is the time to stampede.” This ripple of communication moves through the Herd.
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| What’s expected then, of an individual Herd member? What is expected is, the Herd member is supposed to receive the vibrations of communication that say, “We are turning left. We are turning right. We are stopping. We are running, now. We are stampeding.” This is what the Herd member is supposed to receive, and the Herd member that has to pass that on, to the other Herd members. This ripple of communication is flowing back, and forth, across the Herd. This system works perfectly, as long as every single Herd member views the Herd opinion over their own.
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| For instance, imagine a herd of cows. Some of the cows see a pack of wolves. Those cows send the ripples of communication, with their body language, with their motion, with their sound, that says, “We need to run in this direction, right now.” Well, every single other cow, who has not seen the herd, has a choice. Do I side with the herd opinion, over my own? I haven’t seen a wolf, so I have no idea why we’re running. Now, my personal experience, therefore, is we don’t run. We should just wait. The herd is telling me, “No, it’s time to run.”
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| The nature of the Herd is such, that our power is in our ability to move together. Everybody’s expectation is that, not only am I going to run when told, I am going to propagate. I am going to duplicate. I am going to send out this message, from when I receive it, to other members of the Herd. If everybody follows that game, then when cows see wolves, these ripples of communication go back, and forth, across the Herd. The Herd is able to stampede together. That’s a good thing.
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| What happens if you have a few mavericks in that Herd, who prize individual judgment over group think? They haven’t seen a wolf. The ripples of communication come in. We are all running now. We are all running now. We are all running now. One of the cows says, “Wait a minute. I’m not going to pass on this message until I understand what’s actually going on. Why are we running? How many wolves are there? Who saw them? Which direction? Why are we running?” Anybody who challenges the message will, necessarily, start to diminish the reach, and power, of that message. That is why any group that relies on a Herd stampede, does not want individualists. They want people who are emotionally triggered on the issue.
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| Imagine if Al Sharpton needs to lead, on demand, a march on Washington. Because, in his view, it is the best thing to do. Whether it is for him, whether it is for his own purposes, or for the movement’s purposes, we can talk about. Well, would he rather have one thousand people, all emotionally triggered, to unquestionably obey his command when he says, “Now is the time to march?” Would he rather have five hundred people who obey, and five hundred people who question him, and say, “Why are we going? What is the reason we are going to march, today? Is this the right issue? Is this the right time? Should we be doing this? Is this really advancing our agenda?” Which one would he prefer?
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| Not to pick on Al Sharpton. If Rush Limbaugh, on the political Right, wants to stage a boycott against a business, would he rather have one thousand listeners who say, “We agree?” They are emotionally primed to say, “We agree. Let’s boycott.” Would he rather have a debate with five hundred listeners onto whether, or not, this should happen? Clearly, whether you’re a religious leader, whether you’re a political leader, whether you’re a community organizer, any social group, when you issue a communication, you want to maximize the reach, and maximize the potency of that message.
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| Let’s talk about an innocuous example. Let’s talk about a phone tree. Now, some may not know what a phone tree is. In the old days before email, maybe they even still do this, anytime you had a large number of people to contact, let’s say you had the leader of a church, or a school, or some other organization. The event got cancelled, due to rain, or snow. Therefore, sixty people had to be called. Well, one person could call sixty people. Far more efficient, is to do what they call a phone tree. Where one person calls three people. Each of them, call three people. Each of them, call three people, and so on, until everybody has been called. That way, nobody in the group ever dials more than three people. That’s very efficient.
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| Well, let’s say that I get my call. They say, “You need to call your three people, and let everybody know that this event is cancelled. Make sure they know to continue the phone chain, and to call the three people they’re supposed to call.” I call you, and I say, “Hey, look. This event has been cancelled. I’m calling my people. Make sure you call the three people on your list, and let them know that the event has been cancelled.” You begin to question that. What do you mean it’s cancelled? Who says? Why was it cancelled? Are we sure? Has this been confirmed? Have you spoken to them, directly? Is there a number I should call? All I’m interested in, is making sure my message reach, and message potency, is maximized. The first two people I called accepted my message happily, and said, “This is great. No problem. Thank you for letting us know the event got cancelled.”
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| It is only this third difficult person, who has their own opinion on this. Who wants to question, and wants to understand what’s going on. They have deluded my message. They have slowed down the entire process of informing the entire tree, the entire Herd, the entire population of this message, that things have been cancelled. They slowed everything down. Therefore, how do I feel about that person? Well, I’m annoyed by them. Why are you questioning this? Why would I lie to you? Why would I be calling you up, and letting you know this event is cancelled, if it’s not? Why would somebody call me, and tell me that the event is cancelled, if it’s not true? It doesn’t make any sense, and you’re just being difficult.
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| Well, in that particular case, maybe you are being difficult. In that particular case, maybe it is unreasonable to question the honesty of the Herd. Maybe, it’s not. It really depends upon your individual judgment. In all cases, whether it’s Reverend Al Sharpton, wanting to do a march on Washington. Whether it’s Rush Limbaugh, wanting to do an email campaign on a senator. Whether it’s the environmentalist movement, trying to get donations, because they need to fund a political action committee. Whether it’s the NRA, who is seeking a letter writing campaign, to make sure your congressman votes a certain way. Every organization wants compliance.
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| They want you to, not only listen to their message, and accept it, they want you to pass it on, exactly like it is. If anything, they want you to amplify it. If they were hoping you were going to talk to three people, they are thrilled if, instead, you talk to ten. What they don’t want, is to be bogged down in questions. When Hillary Clinton wants to mobilize her followers, she does not want to be questioned. She just wants them to carry her message forward, whatever that message is. When Donald Trump, who is opposing Hillary Clinton, wants his followers do the same thing, he wants the same thing. He also wants them to carry his message forward, undeluded, amplified.
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| Well, this sounds fantastic, but how do they achieve this? Humans, under certain circumstances, can be notoriously independent minded. Therefore, how do we lay the ground? How do we prep the battle field? How do we prep the minds of our followers, to make sure that when, and if, we needed to take action, they do? The answer is, we want to keep them at Level One. Remember, at Level One, we trust the Herd over our own individual experience. It is only at Level Two that we begin to see multiple angles, and sometimes we may question the truthfulness, or accuracy, of the Herd. Your leaders, be they your pastor, your priest, your community organizer, Oprah, every leader wants to lay certain emotional triggers upon you, so when it’s time to act, they spring the emotional triggers. You crash to Level One, and you move into action.
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| Why is this critical? Why is this necessary? Because, the reason to spring into action, is very rarely a valid reason. For instance, the political time to march on Washington, or stage a letter writing campaign. There is very rarely an actual reason, at that exact moment, to do so. What happens when you just stampede the Herd? You manufacture your own reasons. You manufacture a reason for the Herd to stampede.
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| Talking about our leaders, the leaders of the Herd have their own interest at heart. That’s the difficult truth. The difficult truth, when it comes to leaders, is that leaders of our movements, our trusted leaders of our movements, are torn between their own interest, and the interest of our particular group goal. On one hand, they want our group goal to succeed. Of course, they do. On the other hand, cashing in early on this group goal, meaning accelerating this group goal, trumping it up, making it seem like more than it is, getting more followers to come in under false pretenses, injecting steroids into the movement, unfortunately, increases their prestige. It lets them cash in, in the short run. This is one of the ways that our leaders betray us. They don’t simply plot along, and fail to act. Sometimes, they act too much. Sometimes, they betray the movement itself, by their action.
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| One example that I often give, and this is nonpolitical. Al Gore, in 2008, if you were a member of the Environmental Movement, decided to make a very, very large push for environmentalism. He made some very concrete predictions, as to where the world would be in four years time, and dire predictions those were. They were apocalyptic predictions, that the poles would have no more snow, whatsoever, and that a bunch of other dire predictions would come true, unless we acted right away. Well, Al Gore, who headed up that moral panic, ended up making hundreds of millions of dollars for both himself, and his friends, and the companies that he invested in. Al Gore made hundreds of millions of dollars of personal wealth. That’s not even counting all the money that he made for his friends, and his partners, and his different business interests.
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| Well, four years later, his prediction passes. Guess what? None of it came true. Double that time, eight years later, his predictions passed, and guess what? None of it comes true. Does he care? Well, he’s already made his $200 million dollars. I don’t think he cares that much. However, if you care about that particular movement, if you care about the Environmental Movement, what are you left with?
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| Well, you are now left with a damaged movement. Because, any time you now raise, in the future, that we have a dire prediction that needs attention, the attention of the world will shrug. People of the world will shrug, and say, “We’ve heard this one before. Last time you guys came around, you gave some dire predictions. We listened to it, and guess what? It completely fell flat. You cried wolf one time. We’re not going to listen to you this time, even if your prediction is much more dire, and much more serious.” If you are a member of this movement, if you are a member of the Environmental Movement, your leaders did you a unbelievable disservice, by cashing in, and leaving your movement to pay the price.
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| Not to pick on Al Gore, even though what he did was fairly despicable, but every leader of every Herd tends to be put in the same position, that Al Gore was. Unfortunately, most, not all, but most choose that moment to personally cash in, rather than ensure the longevity of their movement, by making the right decision. Now, the reason I tell you this, is because it’s important that you know. Regardless of your political persuasion. Regardless of your group. Regardless of who it is you are listening to, for your guidance. Regardless of the Tribe, or Herd, to which you belong. Is it religious? Is it political? Is it social? Regardless. Listen carefully, to the language of your leaders. Question whether, or not, what they are doing is helping you, or not. Look at the history.
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| If you’re part of a movement, that’s supposed to have been empowering you for the past 20 years, and you, and the people in your Tribe, have not benefited at all, in the past 20 years, this is what we call, in the trade, a warning sign. A red flag. If your leaders have somehow gained prestige, and wealth, and leverage, through advocacy for your issue which you support and, all of a sudden, they seem bigger than the movement. All of a sudden, the very movement that made them big, seems to be more of an annoyance to them, than the actual movement that they supposedly believe in. Because, all of a sudden, they have celebrity friends. They get invited to fancy parties. They’re getting paid huge amounts of money from corporations, or government, for them not to agitate, for them not to advocate for you, their chosen tribe.
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| Well, if this the case, we need to hold our leaders accountable. We have the leaders we deserve. If we demanded a lot from them, we get the leaders we deserve. If we run on autopilot, and never question a darn thing, guess what? We also get the leaders we deserve. It’s very important that you understand that any Tribe, any Herd, the leader of any Herd views his Herd, or her Herd, as a group of followers. They do not want individualists. They do not want leaders. They do not want people who stand up from the crowd. Now, if you choose to stand from the crowd anyway, despite the fact they don’t want you to do it, it is annoyance to them, that you will do it. If you stand up anyway, and question, and ask, and push, and prod, to understand what is happening, then, and only then, will they say, “Okay. This person cannot ever become a good Herd member. Maybe, I can promote them, and they can become a good lieutenant, or somebody else who can help manage the Herd.”
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| It’s important to note that they have no interest to empower you. They had an interest to keep you disempowered, regardless of the Herd. Any religion. Any political party. Does Hillary Clinton really wants you to question her policies, or does she want to use every single emotional trigger she can, just to get you to go to the polls, and tell your friends to go to the polls? Does Donald Trump really want you standing up in restaurants, and holiday parties, questioning his policies, or does he simply want you to say, “Yes, I’m voting for Donald Trump. You should, too.”
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| Where is their interest here? Their interest is not in personal empowerment. It’s not in developing your ability to make individual decisions. To reason, to logic, to understand, to question, to use critical analysis. These are the tools of somebody who is not a member of the Herd. These are the tools who is a member of the pack. A potential competitor, to leaders of the Herd. Therefore, they will deny you these tools. They will deny you the ability to reason. They will deny you the ability to think for yourself. They will deny you the ability to use critical analysis, to understand the law of identity, to understand the linguistic tricks, and logical fallacies, that are being used upon you, to twist perception, and to make you follow the ways they want you to follow. They will use all these tricks. Because, at the end of the day, they want you to be a follower. They want to disempower you, to empower themselves.
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| That is why self-empowerment is about reclaiming the power of the Tribe. You give them this power. You seed them your opinion. You seed them the primacy of Herd instinct, and Herd thought, when you accept it as fact. Stop it. Reclaim your power. Reclaim your mind. “Redeem your mind from the hockshops of authority,” as Ayn Rand used to say. Reclaim it. Start thinking for yourself. Start using critical analysis. Start questioning their language. Use critical analysis to examine the language that is being used to understand, when it is being twisted into a fallacy that is being used to change a context, change a word, that is only meant for one purpose, which is to control you. Again, this is regardless of your political persuasion. All of humanity is divided up into the Herd members, the Pack members, and Apex.
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| The Herd is Level One. What they perceive to be true, they assume to be the only truth. They keep their heads down, and they move forward. Level Two, they see the Herd mindset. They see their own mindset, and they are able to use their different perspectives to gain advantage in a social context, and they’re able to somehow leverage the Herd, to advance themselves in the Tribe. Then, there is Level Three, which is Apex. In the Apex Level, you are able to outmaneuver Level Ones, outmaneuver Level Two’s, and greatly empower yourself in the social context. It is a choice. Which do you choose? To be a member of the Herd, to be a member of the Pack, or to rise above it all, and to be a member of Apex? The birthright of critical analysis is there. Take it. It’s yours. Change your Level. You can change your life, and you can change the world. Welcome to the Apex Level To Power.
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| Male: | This has been the Apex Level To Power Podcast, with your host, Mark Gleason. The podcast where your opinion changes, but you still get to feel right. The one ability we cannot give ourselves is credibility. You have to give that to us. Please like, subscribe, or write a review. Change your level, change your life, and you can change the world. Welcome to Apex Level To Power.
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