Q: Your book helped me see how we’re living in a world of undeveloped children including world leaders. Everywhere I look I see what Jed calls nasty little monkeys using the

world stage as their playground. What’s the point of outgrowing the false self if the children are still in charge?

A: Jed McKenna’s reference to ‘nasty little monkeys’ is a blunt shorthand for the immature ego structures driving much of human behavior. In the book I describe this as humanity’s arrested development. It’s what you get from a species with immense capacities for intelligence and technological power, that’s still operating from immature, under-developed psychological structures.

There’s no mystery here, but seeing humanity clearly can still be jarring when you first look around and see the presidents, CEOs, pundits, influencers, and gurus for what they are: frightened primates acting out status games on a planetary stage. The zoo has always been here, you’re just now seeing it.

But, careful where that judgement slides. When that recognition hardens into a stance like they’re the children, I’m the one who sees, the same psychological structure rebuilds itself in a new form. Now the mind says I’ve outgrown the false self. They haven’t. Why bother if the monkeys are still running the zoo?

That position feels justified, but it’s still organized around comparison and separation, which are exactly the mechanics the false self uses to stabilize identity. Seeing immaturity in the world is not the problem; turning that perception into a new identity position is. And it’s very common.

In early Deconstruction you start seeing the falseness, not just in yourself, but in the collective. There’s often anger and disillusionment and the temptation toward either cynicism (“It’s all hopeless”) or savior energy (“We need better adults in charge”). Both are dreamstate reflexes. You’re starting to see the species-level arrested development, but you’re still measuring maturity by external outcomes. That’s the lingering hook to watch for.

If the children are still in charge, what exactly are you hoping maturity will accomplish? Are you trying to win? Trying to fix? Trying to feel safer in a world that looks unstable? If you’re hoping Human Adulthood will lead to better management of the world, you’re still thinking like a child looking for competent parents. And, sorry, there are none.

Humanity’s arrested development means that most institutions and leadership structures are shaped by immature motivations. That observation isn’t particularly controversial when you look at history. But you don’t grow up because the world deserves it. You grow up because the alternative is continuing to live inside the same unconscious structures you now see operating everywhere else.

So the forward-moving question isn’t What’s the point if they’re still asleep?

It’s more like: Am I willing to stop participating in the same machinery I see running the playground?

Not because it improves the world, or grants leverage, or puts adults in charge. But because living as an under-developed child in an adult body is intolerable.

If your motivation depends on external reform, you’re still bargaining. If it comes from a refusal to live a lie, regardless of outcomes, you’re ready for the next door.

When you look at those “nasty little monkeys,” what bothers you more, their behavior, or the possibility that your own arrested development positions you as one of them?

It may be tough to sit with that, but radical honesty here can jettison a huge chunk of falseness with one clean thwak of the sword.