Want: A Disease Based in Low Self-Esteem

I think there are two primary levels of awareness possible for modern
humans.

There are those who don’t think about why they want what they want, and
there are those that do. I am not speaking, of course, about why one prefers
Thai food over Korean food, or any other trivial preference, but rather why
we seek friendship, love, to be close to God, or to be a “good” person.

There are those who have realized that these innate desires are a product of
our genetics and our environment and are basically chemical illusions, and
there are those who literally don’t think about things because they
are so basic as to be invisible.

It reduces to meaning and purpose either being natural and external or being
illusory and self-created. If you do what you do because “that’s just what
you’re supposed to do…duh!”, then you’re at level one. If you have realized
that the world is simply a shitstorm of mathematical variables, and we are
the phenomenally unlikely output…then you’re a number two.

Perhaps we can name another type of person. This is someone who has left
level one and accepted that there is no intrinsic meaning in the world and
has seen the world for its cold molecular interactions, but has gone back to
embracing the illusion. He lives in that world because it is practical and
it allows him pleasure, but during times of intellectual exercise or clarity
he can return to that mechanical view.

Let’s call that level three. Remember, though, that if you forget the truths
revealed by level two because you went back too far when embracing the
illusion, you’re back to number one.

So what level are you on? And are there important levels that I’m missing?
::

[ Edit: I found
this post
of mine earlier which better describes the truths of level two. ]