I need to tell you about something that’s been breaking my heart.
Last summer, I took my kids, Hayden and Eve, on a two-week road trip across the heart of America. From South Dakota to Wyoming to Montana.
We fired guns at a range outside Cody. We camped in Yellowstone under stars so bright it felt like the sky was showing off. We sat at the famous Cody Rodeo while families around us waved American flags with a pride that made my chest tight with emotion.
The people we met were extraordinary.
At a local diner, the waitress gave us the warmest service and the best pie I’ve had in years. At the hotels we stayed in, we were treated with overwhelming kindness and sincerity.
I am not an American citizen. I was born in Malaysia. I run Mindvalley, an American company. But I’ve spent nearly three decades traveling across your country—from my college years in Michigan to speaking events in Florida; from tech conferences in San Francisco to quiet conversations in Ohio diners.
And here is what I know to be true:
The American people are not the problem.
The warmth I felt in Wyoming, I have felt in every corner of this nation. In so-called “red” America and so-called “blue” America. Among people who voted for Trump and people who voted for Biden. Among ranchers and professors, veterans and artists, churchgoers and skeptics.
Goodness is everywhere.
So why does it feel like you are at war with each other?
The rodeo speech that changed something in me
At the Cody Rodeo, the announcer stepped into the ring and gave a speech called “Why We Stand.”
He spoke of soldiers who never came home from Vietnam. From Iraq. From the beaches of Normandy. He spoke of sacrifice, of freedom, of a flag that represents something men and women were willing to die for.
The crowd went silent. Hats came off. Hands covered hearts.
And I thought: This is real. This love of country is real. This reverence is real.
These people are not hateful. These people are not ignorant. These people are not my enemies.
Then a second thought hit me hard:
Who the hell convinced Americans that they are enemies of each other?
I was manipulated too
I need to confess something.
For years, I consumed media that painted a certain picture of Trump supporters. I read the tweets. I watched the clips. I saw the worst moments replayed on loop until they seemed like the whole story.
I absorbed a caricature.
Then I went to Wyoming. And I met human beings.
They didn’t match the cartoon I’d been sold. Not even close. These were people worried about the same things everyone worries about:
Can I afford to get sick?
Will my children have a better life than I?
Why does it feel like the whole system is rigged against regular folks?
These aren’t Republican questions or Democratic questions. These are human questions. These are kitchen-table questions.
I realized I had allowed myself to see my fellow human beings as enemies—because it’s easier to hate a cartoon than to sit with complexity.
If I were manipulated, I suspect I’m not the only one.
The inclusion paradox
There is a hard question I had to ask myself—a question raised by philosopher Ken Wilber, whose course “Integral Life” is part of the Mindvalley curriculum.
He describes a strange paradox in our modern culture. We have a “leading edge” of society that prides itself on love, diversity, and inclusion. We fight for the environment. We fight for minorities. We fight for the oppressed.
But there is one group we often feel comfortable excluding.
Wilber calls this a “performative contradiction.” How can we claim to be the movement of diversity if we look down on half the country as “deplorables”?
We cannot claim to stand for “inclusion” if we hold contempt for diversity of thought.
If our tolerance stops the moment someone wears a red hat, it isn’t tolerance. It is just another form of tribalism wearing a nicer outfit.
We have to be better than that. True inclusivity means holding space even for those we vehemently disagree with, understanding that their pain is just as real as ours.
The machine that profits from your division
Here’s what I’ve come to believe.
There are forces that profit when Americans hate each other.
The equation is simple:
When you’re angry, you click. When you click, someone makes money.
When you’re afraid, you watch. When you watch, someone sells ads.
And when you are divided, you don’t notice that your wages haven’t kept pace with inflation while CEO pay has soared. You don’t notice that healthcare bankrupts half a million families a year. You don’t notice that the same corporations often fund both parties, ensuring they win no matter who is in the White House.
The platform owners know exactly what they’re doing.
A study from MIT found that falsehoods and outrage-driven content spread six times faster than the truth.
Internal Facebook files leaked in 2021 revealed that their algorithm privileged anger to such a degree that even Meta’s own engineers warned it was “ripping society apart.”
Ken Wilber calls this the “Culture of Post-Truth.”
It creates a state of “aperspectival madness”—where we lose our shared reality and retreat into warring tribes. When algorithms prioritize outrage over facts, truth vanishes. And when there is no truth, there is only power.
The division is not an accident. It is a business model.
And all of us—left and right, rural and urban, MAGA and progressive—we are the product being sold.
Then comes the second wave: The Bots.
A 2024 USC study analyzed online traffic during political flashpoints. What they found was chilling.
Nearly half of the most viral, toxic conversations weren’t coming from humans.
They were generated by bots. In some cases, bot activity spiked from 20% to 43% of the total conversation.
These weren’t Americans. These were automated scripts originating from Russia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Macedonia.
Think about that.
When you see a comment that makes your blood boil, when you rage at “the other side”—half the time, you aren’t fighting a fellow citizen. You are fighting a line of code from a server farm halfway across the world.
It is a foreign algorithm wearing the mask of your neighbor.
The bots are designed to make you hate each other. The actual Americans I’ve met just want the same things.
Something doesn’t add up
I’m not an economist. I’m not a policy expert.
But I’m someone who has built a life on questioning assumptions—what I call “brules,” the bullshit rules society programs into us without evidence.
In a “Post-Truth” world, b-rules thrive. They fill the void where facts used to be. So I decided to look at the actual data. And the reality I found didn’t match the stories I’d been told.
Here are four ideas worth reexamining.
1. On the economy
I always heard that one party was better for business, better for the stock market, better for jobs. It seemed obvious. Everyone repeated it.
Then I looked at the record.
Since 1933, the stock market has performed more than twice as well under Democratic presidents (NYU / Stock Market Historical Review).
Job creation has nearly doubled.
And 10 of the last 11 recessions began under Republican administrations.
I’m not sharing this to score political points. I’m saying: the story I was told was a “brule”. It didn’t match reality.
2. On immigration
I was told immigrants were driving crime and draining resources.
But study after study shows the opposite.
Texas—a state at the center of the immigration debate—found that native-born Americans commit violent crimes at nearly twice the rate of undocumented immigrants (Texas Dept. of Public Safety, 2024).
And in 2022 alone, undocumented immigrants paid $96.7 billion in taxes (ITEP, 2024).
They pay billions. They work in agriculture, construction, elder care, and childcare—industries that would collapse without them. Many can’t even claim refunds on the taxes they pay.
So if they’re not causing crime… and they’re not draining your taxes…
Why have we been taught to fear them?
Who benefits when we are afraid of the most vulnerable among us?
3. On healthcare: the freedom to fail
530,000.
That is the number of American families that go bankrupt every year due to medical bills.
In Canada: zero.
In Germany: zero.
In the U.K., France, Japan, Australia: virtually zero.
This isn’t because Americans are sicker. It’s because of policy choices made by people who benefit from the status quo.
But here is the brule we’ve been taught: safety nets make people lazy.
The data shows the exact opposite.
Countries with robust social safety nets—like Sweden, Norway, and Denmark—are hotbeds for entrepreneurship. Sweden produces more unicorn tech companies per capita than any region except Silicon Valley.
Why?
Because entrepreneurship requires risk. And risk requires security.
In America, “freedom” often means the freedom to fall through the cracks.
In social democracies, the government provides a trampoline.
When you don’t have to worry about losing your healthcare because you left your corporate job, you are free to be brave.
4. On the American dream: a personal warning
I was always told America has the highest upward mobility in the world—that this is the only place where anyone, from any background, can make it to the top.
It is a beautiful story. But I decided to look at the rankings.
The Global Social Mobility Index ranks countries on how easy it is for a person to start at zero and climb to the top.
The United States ranks 27th.
The top of the list? Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden.
The “American Dream” is now statistically more likely to happen in Scandinavia than in America.
So why do we resist the very policies that would fix this?
I believe it is because Americans have been manipulated into confusing “Social Democracy” with “Communism.”
And I need to make a distinction here that is deeply personal to me.
I am an entrepreneur. I love entrepreneurs. And I hate Communism with a fire that comes from my own blood.
The Estonian side of my family owned a farm on the Baltic island of Hiiumaa for hundreds of years. But when the Communists took control of Estonia in the 1940s, that legacy was shattered.
They sent a massive portion of the Estonian population to the gulags. My children’s great-grandparents were marched into a forest, lined up, and shot in the head. They were buried in unmarked graves.
Their sin? They were farmers who happened to own their own land.
This is a scar on my family’s history. That land was stolen, and it was only returned to us in the early 1990s when Estonia finally threw off the shackles of Communism and property ownership was legal again.
So you can imagine how I feel when I hear Americans screaming the word “Communism” at things that are clearly not Communism.
I know what Communism is. I know the smell of the graves it digs.
And I need you to know: A safety net is not Communism.
We need to understand the difference between three very different things:
- Communism: The government owns everything. They shoot you for owning a farm. (Think Soviet Estonia).
- Socialism: The government owns the means of production.
- Social Democracy: The government provides a floor so that capitalism can thrive. (Think modern Europe).
The tragedy is that by fearing the ghost of Communism, Americans have rejected the very systems that would make their capitalism stronger.
You can’t take big risks if the system is designed to crush you for stumbling.
When I look at my family’s history, I know that Communism destroys the human spirit. But I also know that unbridled capitalism, without a safety net, breaks the human body.
Real freedom requires a floor you can’t fall through.
The scripture I can’t stop thinking about
After Wyoming, I took Hayden to Ellis Island.
We stood at the base of the Statue of Liberty and read the famous inscription: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”
I thought about my own family—immigrants who came to Malaysia with nothing. I thought about the families at the rodeo, many of whose ancestors arrived the same way, chasing the same dream.
Then I remembered these words from Jesus:
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” (Matthew 25:35)
“Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
I’m not a theologian. But those verses haunted me on that island.
I started wondering: What would it mean to take them seriously—not as a political slogan, but as a genuine challenge to how we treat the desperate?
Christ didn’t say: Fear the foreigner. Blame the stranger. Build walls and turn the desperate into demons.
So how did so many good people of faith end up cheering for rhetoric that seems to contradict the teacher they follow?
I don’t ask this to judge. I ask because the contradiction breaks my heart.
The real enemies are not each other
If I could share one insight from an outsider looking in with love, it would be this:
The veteran in Wyoming and the activist in Oakland are not enemies. They are prisoners in the same cell, fighting over crumbs while the warden laughs.
The immigrant picking strawberries didn’t move your factory overseas.
The college student protesting injustice didn’t write the tax code that lets billionaires pay lower rates than nurses.
The single mother on food stamps didn’t create a healthcare system that charges $800 for insulin that costs $8 to make.
Your frustration is real.
But the target you’ve been given is wrong.
And while you are fighting your neighbor, the systems that squeeze you keep squeezing.
What I’m asking
I’m not asking you to change your vote.
I’m not asking you to abandon your values.
I’m not asking you to agree with me.
I’m asking something simpler:
Be suspicious of anyone who tells you to hate.
Be suspicious of the media that makes you angry every single day—because anger is profitable, and you are the product.
Be suspicious of leaders who need enemies more than they need solutions.
And ask yourself, honestly:
Is my life actually better under the policies I support?
Are my bills lower?
Is my healthcare more affordable?
Are my wages keeping up?
Do my children have more opportunity than I did?
If the answer is no, then maybe, just maybe, you’ve been convinced to fight the wrong battles.
I dream of an America that finally lives up to its own giant story.
That dream doesn’t belong to the left or the right.
It belongs to anyone willing to fight for it.
Not fight each other.
Fight for each other.
PS: If this article stirred something in you—agreement, discomfort, clarity, anything—leave a comment below. Honest dialogue is how we start healing what’s been broken. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
334 Responses
Infinite gratitude to you, Vishen, for this beautiful, articulate, profound, and illuminating reflection. From your lips to this entire country’s and God’s ears.
Hello,
Thank you for this masterfully written piece. There is a line from an Armenian song that says, “the name of freedom is love.” And your article shows us, Americans, how shackled and imprisoned we are as we abandon love and embrace hatred. Also, as individuals and as a society, we lost the ability to take a bird’s-eye view and observe ourselves. We are in the eye of a hurricane and can not see far. We need someone like you to observe us and point out the obvious. And by doing so, you will save many of us by pulling us out of the hurricane.
Thank you.
You can twist the political narrative a thousand different ways yet nothing will change. You need to change the narrative. Follow your bliss and ignore those who say, suggest, or command contrary. Where we place our own attention is paramount 100% of the time. It does no one a good or service to indulge in the socially aberrant discourse of the ignorant masses. Allow your bliss to rise above the frivolities of the fear-full! Godsparks All! ✌️❤️✌️
This is a blog that needs to go viral. I have trying to say this for a long time and it is the present admistration in the US is workiing in a very big way to split the population to maintain power. Power is profit to these people and fighting each other we become thier income. We must move back to a society that stands for each other and do it with pride. Please share and start at all conversations with love. No hate is needed as predatores feed on hate.
Thanks Vishan and my people spread this conversation and understand how economies and lives must work hand in hand.
Dan
Coachbrainheart
While taking Aryia Lorenz quest she mentioned a scale of consciousness developed by David Hawkins, intrigued, I bought his book “The Map of Consciousness Explained “. What a mind shift this has been for me.
Vishen, I firmly believe that the work that you do in educating and raising this collective level of consciousness is exactly what is needed. All of us need to focus not on changing the world, but on changing ourselves.
While You and I agree on so many of the problems we see, we may radically disagree on their causes or solutions. By focusing on raising our individual level of consciousness we raise the collective level, not on a linear line, but by an exponential amount. As this collective worldwide level raises the problems we see will naturally be solved.
The powers who profit from our distraction know exactly how to keep us fragmented and unhappy. Our challenge is to take personal responsibility and control of our own individual lives, knowing that by so doing we are contributing to the raising of the average for all humanity and in so doing helping to solve the problems we are all confronted with.
Thank you for your part in this great endeavor.
This is a good chance to recommend the book The miracle of Mindfulness, by Thich Nhat Hanh.
A well-known man, Vietnamese monk that dedicated his life to this purpose: peace and union among people (against war and taking sides). These monks lived difficult times and were exiled: their experience, story and advice are truly valuable. Thanks.
I’m Italian, for generations. I studied classical studies… the ancient Latins said, “Divide and conquer…” Those who want to wield the levers of power often think it’s necessary to do this, forgetting that we are all a single entity, we are all “one.” And quantum physics can help us greatly, along with ethics and always verifying every fact and every experience, as skeptically as possible (in the epistemological sense). The truth for me might be different from yours…a little or a lot.
And I remember the phrase, “I don’t agree with your idea, but I would give my life for you to be able to express it” (a variation of the famous aphorism that, though often attributed to Voltaire, was actually written by Evelyn Beatrice Hall to describe Voltaire’s thinking).
Beautifully and heartfully written, Vishen. I am Canadian but similar things happen up here. It’s all a stage in the end, all a distraction.
After 2020, I learned to believe nothing.
Love is the only Truth.
<3
There are, and always will be people, who believe that anyone who has just enough somehow has too much. You don’t need any particular narrative to see this; you can hear it in the things people say out loud. “Don’t come back to the US” “Jews will not replace us” “We are being invaded” Variations of these sentiments have taken root not just in the US, but many times, in many places, and they have strangled entire populations. There is nothing wrong with calling out those who don a brown shirt or a red insignia.
Change has never come from “thoughts and prayers” alone. Many who fought for it prayed, yes – but change happened because they stood up, stood in the way, and said, “You’re wrong. no one deserves to be treated this way.” And too often, the people who should be standing aren’t.
This rhetoric spreads because it’s easy. It’s easier to think about doing something, or talk about doing something, than to actually do it. There is no hesitation in those who believe their country or home should belong only to those who look like them, live like them, or hold the same advantages. The “other” may exist, but only silently and invisibly. And when leaders refuse to challenge that conviction, the responsibility shifts to everyone else to pull those leaders from the front of the line. The system that sees everyone clothed, everyone fed, everyone with a means to provide for themselves, fails when those in leadership, those with great means, and those standing at the front, shirk their responsibility to show and provide for it to be better for everyone.
“This belongs to anyone willing to fight for it.”
But you do have to fight. And the fight begins with one question:
Would I want this done to me, and what ACTION will I take to change it?
Hi Vishen
I truly love your work and your insightful comments. I feel your sentiments are accurate.
30 years ago, I moved to Australia. My natural instinct was to disagree with the system of compulsory voting. Why should I be forced to vote? I soon realised how powerful this is, as it forces the silent majority to engage every 4 years or so.
I’m not expert in the American electoral system; the only thing I do know is that it is controlled by the extremes on the Left & the Right and this appears to be the primary source of conflict with huge, vested interests at play. Perhaps my view is too simplistic, but I have long maintained that with real compulsory voting where the silent majority can feel heard, things like gun violence, healthcare reforms, etc will become a thing of the past because it is the silent majority that it affects the most. If you want their vote, you need to start addressing their real issues.
There is no question that the power brokers of American democracy will never consider other electoral options. My view is that until that starts to happen the country will remain in decline.
Vishen, I enjoy your writing and this one in particular. Well said 👏
Love from Canada. ♥️
I agree that the powers that should not be on both sides are fueling divisiveness and hate to distract us from their ever increasing control and erosion of our sovereignty. In your email version of this post you suggested Googling four assumptions to see what the actual answer is. I would posit that since Google (which has nearly a lock on information on the internet whatever search engine one uses) is likely and in some cases provably an arm of that same lot of powers that should not be that it is not a reliable source of accurate information. Digital information can be and often is changed to suit those same bad actors to aid their nefarious agenda. A careful curation of source material and finding (one hopes) honorable sources of information is imperative. Name calling and repetitive slogans are a clue that the information is bogus and meant to divide. As an American who spent most of my adult life slightly left of center only to find that I am now slightly right ,it seems that your point is not centrist, impartial or libertarian but more left than I am comfortable with. As a previous commenter said, I think of Mindvalley as a spiritual inner truth space that appeals to the Taoist in me and a foray into a comparative political arena is not what I come to Mindvalley for. Also I question the veracity of your comment that Social Democracy is allowing capitalism to thrive in Europe. Maybe my source information is biased but the unelected officials who are pandering to the climate change extremists and ruining the farmers who feed the populations and who forced an unconscionable biologic experiment on the populations makes it seem like the atmosphere of the continent is not much improved. Also, uncontrolled and not supervised immigration has not done Europe and especially the UK any favors. Just saying. Still, these are topics we should all be able to discuss without going ballistic and arrive at an understanding that while specifically we may differ we are all here to have a human experience and find beauty and connection in this natural world. I spend most of my time in the woods and the trees agree; we are ONE!
Vishen, thank you for all the research to support all your questions which are mine as well!! This environment we are in right now has such vitriol I have to keep myself in check and off the daily news. It truly saddens me. I can agree there are things that need correction but there must be a better solution to these problems. Hatred is not who we are. Thank you again.
Wow—mic drop. Thank you for this truly inspiring article. I’m so glad you wrote it, and even more glad I took the time to read it. We do need to spread the truth and step away from the lies. As an American, I honestly feel trapped and powerless at times. This isn’t what we believed our country was supposed to be. It feels like we’ve digressed decades. Thank you for giving voice to what so many of us are feeling.
I agree wholeheartedly with your perspective. The analysis rings true.
We must rise above the frequency of division & ‘othering’.
We are all siblings sharing this beautiful planet-home.
I am Canadian with many American friends & colleagues.
Thank you for this insightful blog. I agree with your thoughts. Please keep sharing and teaching. We need your wisdom.
I am a big fan of Mindvalley. And I am all for spreading understanding and connection. Bravo!
There is deep ignorance here in the U.S. Just one example is the bots you mentioned, automated scripts originating from Russia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Macedonia. In addition, while many Americans are focused on “illegal” immigrants (and immigrants in general), they are missing the flood of another type of “immigrant”, not coming over the border, but being “created” here inside the country: A.I. agents and robots. Controlled by a few Billionaires. Basically, a handful of people are deciding our future, without our permission, and with most of us totally unaware. This is the real threat – It’s 10,000x the supposed threat of human immigrants, and it’s not “years away” – It’s here now, with perhaps a couple of years before the real impact is felt, and it is possibly too late to do anything about it.
I could not agree with you more. We are really not fighting one another but our media is created that way so those at the top ultimately win. I will always see another as human, even if we don’t agree, yet I cannot condone causing harm to others. I hope compassion is our way out of this mess. I too care for my country, yet what is occurring is so immoral and wrong in so many ways. May we find a path forward, together.
Hi I’m originally from Reunion Island a little island so so small that you can’t see on the map,at 15 years old move to Europe than in 2019 married an American in Germany and move to the Usa where I just received my citizenship so today I’m American. September 4, 2025 I registered to MindValley Certified Hypnotherapy with Paul McKenna and it was great but just 2 months after started November 4 this course, the program disappear just gone impossible to find it .I directly contact the Mind valley support than the premium mind valley support witch its for mindvalley student than to the WattsApp Mindvalley support ,today we are December 5, 2025 and the problem is not resolve even after talking to a Mindvalley support on live meeting .I ask for a refund and ask Mind Valley to stop charging me $ 1099,00 each month but they continue to take the money from my account. I’m very very disappointed because now if I do not have the refund I asking for I have to consult a lower and make a lot of noice in social media to let people know what happen to me .And alsoo to contact Paul McKenna and his team because they must know what its going on with Mindvalley student.
So Vishen Lakhiani you can try to post very nice writing about yourself and how to change the world for better I will suggest you to have more consideration and worries about MindValley student as me and a member of Mindvalley specially when Your support client and premium support or WattsApp support can’t resolve the technic problem that I steel in today after 1 month . That make me very disappointed is all your support know my issus even the one that I have a google meeting with but never contact me again after fail to resolve the mindvalley technic you continue to take the amount of $ 1099,00 USD this month december 3 I already send Mindvalley team support a message to stop that paiement but it seam that no one matter . Really disapointed of Minvalley program and waitting to be refund and never be part of ever
Thank you for writing this! I am an American entrepreneur with a small, growing company. I’ve rejected Brules and take risks by not having the greatest health insurance. When I was raising my 4 kids, I was a single mom, and I didn’t have health insurance for 10 years. However, I found loopholes where I was given free medical care when I had a bad kidney stone for example. I have learned to live by my own rules, without fear. I wake up every day with no anxiety. I don’t own a house, and I don’t buy the best furniture on the market. I prioritize my life in what works for me. I have a good car because I take several road trips a year for work and pleasure. I spend the bulk of my extra money on traveling. This is what is important to me. Knowing that long ago I was far from winning any competition from my neighbors it was easier to give up the illusion. I live by my own rules and I love it.