near here now how do I know that I'm
actually live hey guys can you hear me
hi everyone good to see you
so I'm a little on that tired side
tonight so I'm going to start with a a
relatively straightforward question
somebody asked what's up with all the
Lennon pictures in your house and then
how is it to look at them every day well
about in 2001 in a fit of manic
collective insanity I decided to start
seeing if I could find soviet-era
artifacts online mostly through eBay I
had read a paper by James Pennebaker who
claimed that past events start to become
historically significant about 15 years
after the after the relevant event and
so 2001 was 15 years after their fault
essentially after the fall of the Berlin
Wall are close enough and so I started
looking on ebay to see what sort of
Soviet artifacts I might be able to find
first of all I was kind of curious about
what would be available for purchase and
I also thought it was deeply ironic that
the most free market of platforms ever
devised which would be eBay could now be
used to scavenge communist-era artifacts
from Russia you know it just seemed like
to be someone who was raised during the
Cold War
the fact that that that I could buy
things like heads of Lenin on eBay was
just too competent to not to pass up you
know and so I started buying things that
I had some familiarity with because of
what I've read historically and the
first thing I bought was about a three
by five silk flag that was awarded to a
factory for meeting its five-year
production quota and I don't know what
you know about those infamous quotas but
what would happen is that there were
dicta sent down on HIGH about how much
factories were supposed to produce and
the implied what the implication was
produce or else by any means necessary
and so two things happened three things
happened the goods were often shoddy
because they were rushed there was a
deception about how much was actually
produced and then people
they overworked and under supply so it
was a bad about system but it was very
interesting to actually have one of
these flags and see what they were like
and then I bought a clock a stainless
steel clock a wind-up clock that was a
submarine clock and it was bomb-proof so
I thought that would be handy if someone
ever bombed my house and I needed to
know what time it was so I bought that
and then I found this painting that's
actually off to my left here it's five
Russian revolutionaries all young and
stalwart looking standing on the edge of
a cliff with her a red soldier or a
white soldier off to the side they're
all shackled together and he's preparing
to execute them that was uh that was a
fairly common Soviet motif and on my
right side I have a decorated Soviet war
hero who's who's worked me in a steel
foundry and like a lot of the Soviet art
glorified I suppose though the
working-class and I suppose there's
nothing wrong with that depending on the
degree of propagandistic intent and
falsification but they're kind of like
Norman Rockwell paintings except they
don't have the same degree of
sentimentality which is quite
interesting what's it like to have them
around well pretty much every square
inch of my house is covered with
paintings and a fair number of them are
I don't suppose the sorts of paintings
that people would usually have in their
house there are some of them are of the
Second World War some of the mers
strongly political and but it's it's
well sometimes people say well I
wouldn't want to live in a museum
I guess that isn't how I feel I like
I like having this historical artifacts
all around him I really like watching
the propaganda and the art war in the
paintings because many of these
paintings were produced by very talented
impressionist artists who were trained
in the classical European tradition they
spent months making these paintings and
yet they're subordinate in some sense to
a political ideology but what's
interesting is that as if the political
ideologies eves into the past the more
purely artistic elements of the
paintings seem to remain and so it's
cool to kind of watch it's very slow
process but it's very interesting to
watch the art itself emerged triumphant
over the propaganda and then you know
these things also remind me of what what
I'm interested in and that's the study
of ideology and they remind me how
powerful ideology can be and how many
different pathways it can take to to to
control I suppose and and it also
reminds me of the reality of the 20th
century because it was a terrible
reality if we forget it then we're
likely to repeat it now my kids grew up
in this house and you know I asked them
about it because I suppose the paintings
are fairly heavy and and maybe even
somewhat frightening but they really
liked it and the people that I had gives
me a reason to invite people into my
house and gives me something to play
with and I guess I need things to play
with by all appearances so that's the
story of the of the Soviet paintings so
please tell us about your ideas of the
problem of gender integrated combat
units and how it affects morale please
talk about the role trans people should
or should not serve in combat units huh
well you know I wouldn't say that I'm
exactly an expert in that regard I don't
know how gender how multiple gendered
combat units are going to work but
because I'm fundamentally a
traditionalist in most ways mostly
because I'm afraid of the unintended
consequences of radical change I would
say that it's dangerous to adjust a
system that's working and it's very hard
for me to imagine a situation especially
a combat situation where the women and
men can actually be treated equally I
don't think that the broader society
would even want to see that I mean I
suppose there are exceptions to that
sort of thing like like the situation
perhaps in Israel although I suspect
even in Israel that the women take the
more the less combat heavy jobs now I
don't know that but and maybe I'm just
being prejudiced in that answer but
it just doesn't seem to me to be a very
wise idea what will trans people should
serve I really can't say I don't have
anything any advice about that I'm just
not informed enough to to make a
completion vote down I think it's very
strange however I've talked to some
people in the Canadian Armed Forces in
recent months and I do think it's very
strange that this is the sort of problem
that our military is actually trying to
solve you you think that there would be
more important things to concentrate on
then rapid gender equalization in the
military I just don't see why that's
such a priority but maybe that's just my
old-fashioned conservatism speaking it
Derick fake asks how do you see love
eros in your general worldview where
does love come from well you guys ask
impossibly hard questions well I think
the truth has to be embodied inside love
or in embedded inside love you know it's
not easy to figure out hierarchy of
values of ultimate values there's great
the great traditional values of the good
and the beautiful and the true then
let's say the courageous and that sort
of thing it's not easy to figure out how
you arrange those hierarchically but it
seems to me that truth is likely
something that serves a master of one
form or another
at least ethical truth and love is
something like the decision that being
is fundamentally good or it's the
decision to act as if being is
fundamentally good that might be the
right way of thinking about it so you
know I thought about this in
relationship to my son when he was
little three years old and what
unbearably cute and you know
little three-year-olds there they're
fairly easily hurt I mean they're quite
robust in some ways but they're fairly
easily hurt they can run probably into
traffic and you know they skin their
knees and they bang their heads on
tables you know they're prone to
emotional breakdown and they have all
these extreme fragilities that make you
nervous I would say that also expose you
directly to them to the fact of the
potential tragedy of life which is I
think one of the reasons why having
children matures you in a way that
nothing else can and you know I imagined
I've written about this in my new book
12 rules for life imagined that I can
remove his father abilities one bite
once living he couldn't be hurt and so
you know I thought well I could make him
into a robot it was 15 feet tall and
made out of metal and that would remove
his physical vulnerability need to have
tremendous strength and you know you
could turn him into something like a
superhero with all these with all these
strengths instead of these exceptional
vulnerabilities but what I realized very
rapidly was that every time you removed
a vulnerability he removed an essential
part of the person right a part that you
really loved because with a little
three-year-old boy kid for example mean
it's there it's there it's there
fragility in some sense that's a huge
part of their charm and appeal it's not
like you'd wish it on them but it's it's
part of their it's part of their value
as beings and I think that reflects
something like the is paradoxical
situation that the Daoists referred to
when
in the Dell teaching they talk about the
what makes a plot valuable is the empty
space inside it is it's what it's not as
much as what it is that makes it well
actual first of all real but also useful
and there's something really profound
about that in the limitations I would
say limitation is the precondition for
being and it's really I'd like to get
this right so that you can follow it
because it's it's one of the most useful
thoughts I think that has ever occurred
to me the first is that limits are a
precondition for being just like rules
are a precondition for a game like you
can't play a game where you can make any
move at any time you have to narrow the
playing field substantially you have to
put restrictions on what can be done in
order for anything to be done and so
maybe being is this paradoxical state
where there's there's just enough
limitation to maximize possibility
something like that and that seems right
to me why that would be I have no idea
but maybe that's something like an
answer to why why there is anything what
why anything was created or I know I'm
speaking metaphysically but but I still
think it's worthwhile doing so and then
well if if if limitation is the
precondition for being then then that
introduces suffering into the world and
tragedy because of course suffering and
tragedy are consequence of limitation
and so then the situation is that if you
want to have the being where possibility
is maximized you have to accept the
limitations that produce tragedy and so
that's maybe the justification for
tragedy assuming that such a thing needs
to be justified and then the final
thought in that three-part series is
well maybe there's a way to live so that
the tragedy that's an intrinsic part of
limit
becomes bearable or becomes even
something like celebrate able and I
guess that would be akin to Nietzsche's
wish for the eternal return like you
thought you should live so that if every
moment that you lived curd eternally
that that would be a good thing and so
it's a heroic mode of being it's
conceivable that a heroic mode of being
that requires the adoption of
responsibilities gives your life
sufficient gravitas and weight and
meaning so that the tragedy of being can
be withstood without becoming corrupt
and I would certainly hope that that
would be the case and I think there's
some reasons to assume that it might be
so can you talk more about the
resurrection this remains a stumbling
block for many of your more atheistic
followers who have otherwise embraced
your approach to understanding
Christianity well I can only talk about
it symbolically to begin with and that's
I think not sufficient but I hope as I
move through the biblical series that I
can zero in on that more and more
particularly but I mean the idea of the
dying and resurrecting God is a very old
idea and it's echoed in such things as
the imagery say of the Phoenix which
burns itself up and then mistura's
itself to us to its early form and I
think speaking purely psychologically
that idea of the dying and resurrecting
Savior is something like a reflection of
the fact that in order to progress
psychologically you have to let go
especially in the face of obstacles you
have to let go of those things that are
impeding your progress that might be
very dear to your heart you have to let
them go and let them die and then you
have
a new part of yourself be born so
because when you're wrong
you have to let the part of you that's
wrong die and then a new part spring to
life in some sense it's a new part
that's partly a union of your mind and a
union of the information that's
contained in the error that you
committed and it's like the birth in
some sense of a new spirit and so you
could say that there's this idea that
you have to have faith in Christ because
Christ is the way and the truth of the
life and no one comes to the Father but
through but through him what that means
symbolically as far as I can tell that
is that you have to embrace the process
of voluntary death and rebirth in order
to continue moving forward properly in
your life and it's also that process of
death and rebirth that rejuvenates the
father and it's also that process of
death and rebirth that produces the
father to begin with if you think about
the father is the symbol of of culture
so at minimum the idea of the
resurrected Christ is the idea that you
should identify not with that part of
yourself that's stagnant and dead and
that already knows but is prone to error
you should identify it with that part of
yourself that's always stretching beyond
what you currently know and has the
faith to let go of old certainties so
that new patterns of being can be
brought into place and so now that's a
purely psychological explanation and I
think I've made the case in my biblical
lectures that I'm striving for a
psychological interpretation at the
moment my experience with the biblical
stories is that there are layers of
depth in them that are sufficiently
profound perhaps because of that
staggering hyperlinking of the text and
its association with almost the entire
corpus of Western literature that as you
keep digging you find more and more and
so I don't know what to make of the more
metaphysical claims but I'm gonna leave
it at that because I do
no it's only speculation see I guess it
is that we don't I really don't believe
that we understand consciousness and we
don't understand its role in the cosmos
it could be that consciousness is just
an epithet nomina of materialist
processes but there's a couple of things
to me that seems to mitigate against
that explanation the first is that we
don't have a an account of consciousness
that's that's useful we have no idea how
the material substrate of the brain
produces this this awareness and
self-awareness that seems to be
crucially important in the existence of
the cosmos insofar as if there's nothing
to experience something it's very
difficult to say in what way that it
exists
you need a viewer and an observer
scientists sort of gerrymander that by
positing a hypothetical observer and
they talk about phenomena where there is
no actual observing and so consciousness
could be just an epithet nomina but it
could also be something central to the
nature of being and certainly
mythological stories presented that way
that there's there's nature that would
be nurture from a scientific perspective
and there's the social world that would
be the Great Father from the
mythological perspective and and that's
all there is from a scientific
perspective but from a mythological
perspective there's active consciousness
and that's associated with the idea of
the logos and the logos seems to be
something like if you think about it as
consciousness it seems to be this thing
that encounters the potential of future
being and then determines at least in
part how to shape it now obviously we're
constrained in many ways we can't shape
things in any old way but we can
certainly advance in the direction of
our imagination and quite a staggering
and
and then you might say well is that real
is is the idea that we have a
consciousness and that it's free and
some in incomprehensible sense and that
it plays a role in constructing the
cosmos is that real and then I would say
well it depends on what you mean by real
but I would also point out that you act
as if it's real and that our functional
legal systems like the legal systems of
the on the West are predicated on the
acceptance of its reality and it was an
idea that took many many thousands of
years to to emerge no first of all the
only sovereign was well was the king and
God and then the nobles became sovereign
and then men became Salford and then
with the Christian revolution every
individual soul became sovereign that
idea of individual sovereignty and Worth
is the core presupposition of our legal
system and our cultural systems and so
we all walk around acting as if every
one of us is a divine center of logos
because we give each other the respect
of of individual citizens who are
sovereign and that are equal before the
law and the funny thing is is if someone
doesn't treat you that way it treats you
as if your free will is an illusion or
refuses to regard you as someone who
plays a active part in choosing outcome
of their life then you get very very
annoyed and so if it's an illusion and
perhaps it is we don't understand an
alternative to it and it's unbelievably
it's unbelievably functional so okay so
back to love well
we will make the case that limitation is
necessary for being and then we can make
the case the tragedy is an inevitable
consequence of limitation and then we
might say well is being worth the
tragedy and I think the answer yes to
that is love and the answer no to that
is the opposite of love because when you
when you love someone you love them in
spite up or even because of their
vulnerability not that you don't want
them to transcend that because you do
but and I think that love is the
acceptance of the price of being it's
it's the way you manifest your
acceptance of the price of being because
if you love someone you know they have
their vulnerabilities like every human
being but your basic judgement is that
despite the fact that they have these
vulnerabilities that are even fatal and
that are certainly tragic that it's
better that they were them that they
weren't and that's and I think that's
the right attitude to have towards being
itself it's it's it's an optimistic
attitude and I think it has to be
predicated on faith because I don't
think that you can necessarily derive
that conclusion by by looking at the
available evidence the available
evidence is kind of 50/50 in many
situations but but I can tell you if you
talk the other attitude that being is
unjustifiable then that leads you down a
very very dark road and then you soon
start to work in a way that makes things
far more intolerable than they should be
so that's that's my answer to that any
tips on avoiding booze yeah that's a
real tough one well I would say a couple
of things um there is a drug with you're
a binge drinker there is a drug cult
naltrexone that you could consider and
you take naltrexone every day it doesn't
really have any
psychological effect on you but if
you're an ell Truxel responder what will
happen is that it will dampen your
positive response to alcohol so some
people who are alcoholic many of them
have a very pronounced opiate an opiate
effect from alcohol it looks like it's
mediated by beta endorphin and now trick
summons is an opiate blocker and so what
naltrexone seems to do is dampen the
positive response and the positive
response which would be opiate and then
dopaminergic is the same response that
makes you want to keep drinking when you
start drinking so if you're one of those
people that has a drink and then has to
have another one and then has to have
another one and you know soon all your
money's gone then the probability that
you have an opiate response is pretty
high and now trixl can help with that
generally when people take nel trixl and
they keep drinking they try to control
but they keep drinking and they learn
over time that the alcohol doesn't have
the same punch it's still pleasant but
doesn't have the same overwhelming punch
that it did it at one point so that
would be one suggestion and it's worth
trying the other is like make a plan I
would say do the future authoring
program you know because it isn't that
you're trying to avoid booze exactly
it's that you're trying to restructure
your whole life you know because if
you're a drinker then all your friends
are drinkers and and you're used to
drinking in every social situation and
the places that you go to socialize are
places that you drink and like it's
really built in as a whole set of habits
and so what you have to do is kind of
redesign your life and you have to think
of things you can't just stop drinking
you have to figure out what you're going
to start doing instead of drinking
there's a hole that you have to fill in
and you know the future authoring
program will also help you figure out
what your life could look like in the
absence of alcohol and what kind of hell
you could end up in if you keep drinking
and
causes all the problems that it can
cause and I think you really need to
like you need to think through the hell
that can occur and you have to think
through how your life could be valuable
without alcohol so that you can be
motivated enough to to try to to
regulate it and I would also say if you
fail and slip don't berate yourself and
beat yourself up just start quitting
again because you know if you could cut
your alcohol intake down 75% that's a
hell of a lot better than zero and often
people go all or nothing just like they
do when they're quitting cigarettes and
you know those quit for a month and then
have a cigarette and say oh my god now
I'm now I've broken the pact and then
they'll smoke all pack into me smoking
again you don't have to do that you can
just decide that you slipped and that
you're gonna get back on the wagon again
and you know it can take a long time but
I do believe that you need a a better
vision of life right you have to find
something to do that's better than
alcohol and that might take some some
real consideration especially if alcohol
is a very potent drug for you and I
would also say don't hesitate to try the
knelt excellence it's got a pretty
decent clinical history and it's it's
basically harmless so
I've listened carefully to your Cain and
Abel lecture but waves of contempt for
existence itself keep coming there's a
part of me that revels in riding these
waves waves but can I harness them for
good God you guys you asked the hardest
questions waves of contempt of exists
for existence itself keep coming
well I guess what I would say is
it's probably time for a little bit of
individual psychoanalysis and I don't
necessarily mean that you have to go and
find a therapist I would say you're
generalizing you know you say waves of
contempt for existence itself keep
coming but I don't believe that that's
exactly right and I'm certainly not
accusing you of being deceitful it's
it's more like low resolution my
suspicions are is that there's a set of
experiences that you've had that are
characteristic to your own personal life
that have caused you to to cause you
some bitterness and some resentment and
that those haven't been thought through
and usually thinking through means at
least in some part trying to take as
much responsibility for those for
altering the conditions under which
those things happen going forward into
the future as possible like the purpose
of memory is to stop you from doing the
same stupid things in the future right
that that's the purpose and so if you've
had experiences that have made you
bitter and resentful or are still
engaged in experiences that are doing
that then you need to do a careful micro
analysis of what those are and see if
you can see if you can flip your
attitude in so matter you know I'm not
saying this is easy but the first thing
you can do is at least figure out what
those memories are and I might recommend
try them the past authoring program
because what the past authoring program
does is ask you to break your life up
into six epochs and then to identify the
emotionally significant occurrences
during each of those epochs and you can
kind of tell if something needs work
from a memory perspective if if it
occurred more than about 18 months ago
and when you remember it it still causes
like a wave of sadness or anger or
really any kind of negative emotion
because what that means is that your
brain is still targeting that experience
as threatening and unexplored and what
that means is that in some sense part of
you or a part of the movie that could
exist is still stuck in that memory
because you can go back and do a careful
causal analysis of the events that led
up to the unfortunate circumstance and
try to map out your role I mean even if
your role is minor
there's going to be things that you
could have done differently to avoid it
and that's what you need to figure out
for the future I would say you try to
shed all your personal resentment part
of that too is to not think not take
things too personally you know like one
of the advantages of developing what I
would regard as a mythologically
centered view of the cosmos is that you
understand that the reason there's
there's nothing personal about the fact
that terrible things happen to you I
mean unless you're directly causally
involved is as it says I believe in the
old testament rains on the just and the
unjust alike and know there are this is
an existentialist motif the tragedy and
difficulty and even the confrontation
with evil are built into the structure
of existence and it's not aimed at you
personally and it well as I said it may
be the price that we pay for existence
itself and you could say well that price
is too high to pay but well as I
mentioned if you start taking that way
then you make everything much much worse
it seems better to shoulder your cross
voluntarily and stumble forward towards
the light that's that's the best
strategy and I would say that that just
because it's the best strategy doesn't
even necessarily mean that it's always
going to work like this is no optimistic
scenario like a dragon fight is no
optimistic scenario confront the dragon
and get the goal to get the girl and
bring it back to cut to share with the
community the gold and you know that
sounds all well and good but after all
it is a dragon and many people
by them so but the myth basically says
well your best bet is to open your eyes
and speak the truth and look forward
forthrightly and confront the things
that are the hydras that are raising
their heads and their tentacles
constantly to frighten you and stop you
and to fight the tyranny of the social
structure when it's oppressing you
unduly and and that's and that's what
you have to do but I would say if if
that contempt is there man that's really
worth digging into because that that
would also be the source that would be
the place where you would discover the
Union shadow because you would discover
that contempt is an unbelievably
destructive force contempt as a
particularly destructive force and it
would be useful for you to try to think
about you can use fantasy to do this
it's like okay if you let that contempt
manifest itself fully in like a dream or
a daydream and you let it go on a
rampage like what what's the vision
exactly I mean is it the destruction of
the town isn't the destruction of the
country do you want the entire world to
blow up like or are there specific
people that you're angry at or maybe
you're angry at yourself like you need
to figure out those waves of contempt
are unarticulated elements of experience
and they're part of your shadow
so can you harness them for good well I
think the more you understand your dark
urges the more likely you are to be able
to regulate and control them and to use
them as part of your power I mean a
person or authority let's say a person
who has Authority is someone who's
integrated the dangerous parts of
themself and that's part
gives their words gravitas and weight
and so yes I think you could you could
harness them for goodness and I think
that's the right thing to do but it will
involve a fair bit of painful
soul-searching so
can you hazard a guess why Europe is
clamping down on speech critical of
Islam when Islam is causing lots of
problems with rape gangs terrorism and
generally being a menace why well I
suppose the first let's say if I was
going to oppose that statement I would
say well perhaps it's a propagandistic
what would you call it conspiracy to
blame what's happening in Europe on
Islamic immigrants I guess part of the
problem is is that at least as far as I
can tell the news has become
sufficiently unreliable because it's so
polarized that we can't really tell
what's going on I mean I think the
reason that Europe is dropping down on
speech critical of Islam is partly the
same reason that the entire Western
world is clamping down on speech that's
critical of anything that is associated
with group identity which is pretty much
any set of ideas that unites people and
it's it's a consequence of the
collective decision that we've made that
egalitarianism and conflict avoidance
constitute the two highest virtues and
they trump everything else including
free speech now why that's happened it's
very very difficult thing to say I mean
I suspect to some degree that it's a
consequence of women becoming involved
in the political system which is
something that we've never experienced
before and women are more agreeable by
nature than men and agreeable people are
are compassionate towards those they see
as suffering and that seems to include
any minority especially when you combine
that with the kind of neo-marxist
doctrine that claims that anyone who has
an advantage swiped it and I think in
the Islamic situation you get a real
conflict there because it's obviously
the case that many Islamic practices are
not commensurate with postmodern
neo-marxist feminism let's say but they
seem to get a free pass and I guess
because the idea that all cultures are
equal Trump's the requirement for human
rights for women and and maybe the other
thing that's even darker is that there's
a fair bit of revolutionary fervor in
the more radical end of the left
political spectrum and that radical
further is devoted towards tearing down
the patriarchy and of course that's
basically Western civilization and so if
because Islam isn't part of Western
civilization then it can be seen as an
ally in that in that attempt that's what
it looks like to me I also think you
know that ignorance and and all of that
contribute it isn't obvious that people
who are afraid of such things as
Islamophobia really understand anything
about Islam I wouldn't say I understand
anything about Islam even though I've
read a fair bit about it it's very
difficult to put yourself inside a
different belief system I'm somewhat
apprehensive about Islam because it
looks to me like it's a totalizing
system as well as a religion and it's a
totalizing system because everything has
to come under its purview including law
and and everything that goes along with
that there's no separation between
church and state and so I don't see how
that's commensurate with the Western
moment of existence and I don't think
people want to have that conversation
because they want to say well no
everyone diverse as they are and
important as the diversity is apparently
such that everyone has to be represented
equally the diversity is really of
anything about anything fundamental and
we can all get along without a problem
and I'm afraid that that's
extraordinarily naive and
then I suppose there's also an element
of something like Western guilt
I guess perhaps for what has been
described as our imperialist past me
there's been a very long term assault on
on the what would you call moral on the
morality of the West
we're often viewed as the rapers and
pillagers of the world and that sort of
goes along with the environmentalist
ethos and so I think we do have a fair
bit of guilt about that whether it's
warranted or not I mean history is a
bloody nightmare and it doesn't matter
where you look and I would say at least
the West has brought advantages along
with its disadvantages and I think that
our attitude towards individuality is
fundamentally correct and absolutely
vital and I would also say that the only
countries in the world that are
essentially worth living in in any real
sense are the ones that are predicated
on the judeo-christian tradition and
manifest in Western the Western body of
laws so but there's still plenty of
guilt and there's plenty of people who
well who are what contemptuous of being
as we discussed in the last question and
also angry with the political system
because they're powerless or maybe
they've been hurt by male authority
figures that happens very frequently and
so they have absolutely no trust in
higher in hierarchical structures and
there you might add to that to certain
amount of laziness because the thing
about higher structures is that they
impose values on people and then in
order to progress in that value
structure you have to discipline
yourself and work hard and many of the
radical leftists happen to be very low
in conscientiousness and so they don't
believe in hard work and they don't
believe that people get to where they're
going by hard work and then well one
other thing there's a group of people I
think who are basically personality
disordered and those are the ones that
have never had a positive relationship
with anything that was masculine so
whenever they see anything masculine
that has motive power and that would
include authority and confidence not
just power they assume that that's
tyrannical and it's part of the
postmodern assumption that all power
higher all hierarchies are hierarchies
of power when the truth of the matter is
is that hierarchies in the West are
usually hierarchies of authority and
competence and they're like they're
oriented towards getting a certain task
done and they actually do get the task
done so but we're dubious about our own
ethical what would you say integrity and
I guess that's also why it's a
particular importance for people to try
to act honestly because if you don't
have to honestly and then you start to
doubt your own integrity and then when
people come after you you're gonna be
weak and that's a really bad idea so how
is the online personality test coming
along can't wait for it well it's coming
along pretty well we have all the
reports written and we have the the
underlying computer architecture
finished and at the moment we're just
polishing it up essentially and we're
hoping that you'll be able to get a very
detailed description of all five of the
big five traits right extraversion
that's a positive emotion dimension
that's that will break down into
enthusiasm and assertiveness and
neuroticism
that breaks down into withdrawal like if
you're in a state of withdrawal then
you're frozen with fear and and don't
want to do anything you're afraid to go
out you're you're afraid to engage in
any complex task because you might
doubt yourself intensely that's
withdrawal in neuroticism and then
volatility is that kind of impulsive
touchiness that people often develop
when they're in a bad mood you know
where if you reach your finger to touch
them they'll flinch and maybe slap you
and they're over sensitive to small
slights and they don't have much of a
sense of humor and agreeableness that
subdivides into compassion and
politeness and the liberal types are
more compassionate and the conservative
types are more polite and politeness
seems to be something like acting in
accordance with the social norms
governing interpersonal interaction
whereas compassion seems to be the
proclivity to side with the weakest
party something like that and I think
it's the primary maternal dimension
because the perhaps along with higher
levels of negative emotion because it's
obviously the case that when you're
dealing with children especially infants
that you should take the side of the
weaker party pretty much no matter what
the logical argument is right because an
infant who's crying is always right
especially if it's under a year old
there's no logic to it it's an a priori
fact that a crying infant is correct and
so we don't know how that translates
into the political sphere because the
most direct translation would be a
complaining person is always right and
you know I see that manifesting itself I
would say quite clearly in the
politically correct domain is that you
always side with the person who's
manifesting negative emotion and you
always assume that there's an external
reason that needs to be rectified in
order to to deal with that and you know
it isn't obvious to me that
agreeableness as an ethic is something
that's transformable into the political
or the adult landscape but well you know
we don't know these sorts of things and
we can't even talk about them because
people automatically assume that that's
sexist and misogynistic or even though
you know there are
man as well as engravable women because
men are quite maternal for the kind of
large apes and mammals that we are but
we need to take these sorts of things
seriously because it isn't obvious to me
that an an ethic of agreeableness can
govern a complex polity it looks to me
more like conscientiousness is something
that needs to govern arms length
transactions and that sort of thing
rather than treating everyone like kin
which you just can't do so you don't
have the energy anyways the test will
also associate conscientious art as
assess conscientiousness that's
orderliness which is seems to be
associated with disgust sensitivity and
is a good predictor of conservative
belief and industriousness which is
something like the well it's what it
says exactly it's the proclivity to
engage in effortful work towards a
defined goal in a reliable manner and
it's the second best predictor of
long-term life success after IQ and then
the final thing in limb said assess is
openness to experience which is more or
less have creativity and half interest
in ideas and so if you take the test
you'll get about a it's about a ten page
report and it's quite detailed and it
tells you where you fit on a percentile
basis and what your strengths and
weaknesses are going to be as a
consequence and we're gonna produce a
couple's version so that two of you can
take it and then you'll get a report
that tells you how you're similar and
different and where you're likely
different to have disagreements and
agreements where it's going to be
difficult to negotiate the consensus
that'd be where you're wyatt widely
different from one another one a trait
it's hard for an extrovert at an
introvert to come to an agreement about
how much socializing they're going to do
because the extrovert says well let's
socialize all the time in the introvert
says well you know once a year would be
plenty for me and those aren't opinions
right there there are built-in
preferences that are far beneath the
realm of opinion
if you're high and openness in your
partner was low and openness like your
going to be interested in the theater
and arts and literature and philosophy
and and talking about ideas and and
going to museums and that sort of thing
and your partners in some sense it'll be
like they're colorblind they just won't
find that sort of thing engaging and
interesting at all and you might be able
to shift someone a little bit to a
higher degree of openness but it's it's
it's not an easy thing to do so we think
and the literature seems to indicate
that you should be fairly well matched
on most of your treats with your partner
with the possible exception of
neuroticism because it isn't obvious
that two people highly neurotic can get
along
neuroticism is a pretty good predictor
of marital unhappiness just like it's a
good predictor of every other form of
unhappiness
Benjamin Wood says my room is a den of
iniquity
well congratulations that's not an easy
thing to pull off I guess you might be
asking yourself what's that's doing for
you
obviously you're being funny and that's
just fine so
what advice would you give to someone
looking to quit porn well I gave some
advice a little earlier about quitting
alcohol you know and I would say it
isn't that you're trying to quit porn
it's not the right way to think about it
the right way to think about it is that
you're trying to figure out how to have
a better life and so you have to figure
out well I would say do the Future
authoring program and keep your porn
addiction in mind and think so in the
first part of the future authoring
program it asks you a bunch of questions
about what your life could be like in
three to five years if you took care of
yourself like you or someone that you
cared for and then it asks you questions
about your friends and your family and
your career and your time outside of
work and your health and you know the
important dimensions of life and it it
asks you to spend 20 minutes writing
about how good your life can be in three
to five years if you got your act
together and did what was good for you
and then it asked you to write about the
hell you could be and if you didn't and
so I would say you really need to do
that because porn isn't the issue the
issue is that you're not living your
life the way you want to and so you need
a vision of life that's more compelling
than the porn and you need a counter
vision too that frightens you
you know because otherwise porn is
obviously extraordinarily gratifying in
the short term but but you seem to be
suffering from the medium to long term
consequences of its use and so you need
a story that you can tell yourself
that's really deeply thought through
about why this is not appropriate for
you what's what it's how it's hurting
you and and how it's minimizing you and
crafts making you embarrassed and
ashamed and more socially isolated and
all of that so I would say think about
it as cleaning up your psyche and and
your behavior rather than merely started
stopping stopping porn you'll also might
want to write down and you could do this
in negative vision part of
program you're gonna write down
everything bad that you think porn is
doing to because obviously you have some
suspicions that this is not good for you
right that it's that it's actually
harming you in some important way and so
you need to be fully cognizant of what
those ways are and then take them
seriously and decide if that's the
pathway through life on which you wish
to travel and so on then I would also
say good luck to you you know it's it's
a very good idea to identify one of your
weaknesses and work on it on you can you
can strengthen yourself substantially by
doing that is there a way to take any of
your classes online will you be
establishing an online university well
there's no way at the moment to take any
of my classes online for credit which i
presume is what you're asking you all
the lectures that I've done for the
classes are online on YouTube for many
of the classes so you can get the
information and you can do the reading
but you can't be accredited for it and
that's partly due to University of well
the University of Toronto hasn't set up
the university to make that a
straightforward thing yet and the
accreditation problem is a big one will
you be establishing an online university
well you know that depends it depends my
health has been uneven for a substantial
amount of time and when it's down as it
is right now I'm probably only 5% as
productive as I am when it's when I'm
functioning at full bore I seem to have
developed a series of or discovered a
series of food sensitivities that I
share with my daughter and it's very the
reaction to eating the wrong thing is
extremely vicious it basically flattens
me out for a month
I can't think properly and I can't
organize my actions and so I would
really very much like to pursue this
idea of an online university and I've
talked to many people
about it but it's a very complex project
and to a large degree it's going to be
dependent on the state of my health when
I'm healthy I can do a very large number
of things simultaneously and I'm very
enthusiastic about them and very
efficient but when I'm not it's it's I
really wonder if I'm even going to be
able to keep up the minimal
responsibilities necessary to keep my
life in order and that's actually very
terrifying thought so I'd love to do it
you know and I would also say I'm
starting it to some degree because I
believe these biblical lectures are
crucial to the establishment of
something like an online humanities
university because I believe that like
our culture is made up of strata of
stories that that might be a good way of
thinking about it like higher are the
levels of stories and the base story is
definitely the stories that are laid out
in the Bible for better or for worse and
in order to understand our culture I
think you have to have a grounding you
have to be grounded in an understanding
of the Bible and I'm trying to make that
as a religious in some sense as possible
not necessarily because I believe that
an a religious approach to the Bible is
the most appropriate but because I want
to investigate it with the least amount
of metaphysical baggage possible and I'm
hoping in that way to help people
stabilize their identities to illuminate
the idea of the development of the
divine individual which i think is
Western cultures glorious contribution
to human civilization and the thing that
lifted us all out of slavery and and and
penury and serfdom and all of those
subordinate roles into the society of
relatively free and autonomous
individuals that we are today and we
can't let that go and I think it will go
unless we have something very strong
metaphysically at the bottom I think
we're weak without it because we
fractionated everybody
believes a thousand different things and
it's it's sort of like you know you saw
what happened to that Wall Street
protest Occupy Wall Street right I mean
it's no wonder people were irritated
about what happened in 2008 although
periodic financial collapses are pretty
common and it isn't always obvious who
to blame a lot of that was innovation
driven as it turned out loss you know
some of it was corruption but some of it
was just unbridled innovation and
because like the mortgage tranches were
very brilliant in some sense but they
had unexpected consequences but in any
case you know there was a protest
against the fact that well the the bulk
of the catastrophe seemed to fall on the
poor which is of course always the case
but there was no organization whatsoever
on the side of the Wall Street Occupy
Wall Street protesters they they
believed such a wide variety of things
that they were unable to to organize
themselves in any effective manner and
basically as far as I can tell all they
did was go out and indicate that they
were displeased but that's not a very
effective strategy because if you're
displeased and even if you're displeased
for a reason and the valid reason you
still need to have some sense of what it
would be that would rectify that because
otherwise there's no there's no movement
forward so anyway so part of the reason
I'm doing the biblical lectures which I
think are perhaps the most important
thing I'm doing and I hope to continue
because of that is because I want to do
whatever I can to give those stories
their due credit and to investigate very
thoroughly the manner in which the
literary imagination of Western
civilization the judeo-christian
tradition manifested itself to produce
the idea of the autonomous and valuable
individual because that's our magic
be a man that's at the basis of
everything that we do so I guess I'm
going to be contributing to the online
university in that manner I'm going to
try the other but I can't promise
anything because for the reasons that I
already indicated we were thinking of
one tactic I don't know what you guys
think about this but I was thinking a
very interesting first course might be
like a five hour introduction to the
history of the cosmos and so I was
talking with my brother-in-law who would
be willing to fund some of this along
with me and maybe with some crowdfunding
we'd like to host a competition you know
so and the competition would be for the
best five hour summary of the history of
the cosmos from the Big Bang to the
present and we would lay it wide open
for people with regards to what sort of
technology they wanted to use whether it
was animation or lecture or readings or
whatever and to offer like a ten
thousand dollar first prize and a $5,000
second prize and you know a three
thousand dollar third prize something
like that and then maybe get people to
vote on which you know which production
was of the highest quality and because
what should happen with the online
university I think is that we should set
up a way of funding creative content
producers instead of maybe focusing on
the content itself because there's
thousands of people out there who are
very educated and who are perhaps even
underemployed who have very specific
expertise who could make courses and
there's just no reason not to harness
that and so anyways we've been thinking
about it a lot
but the bottom line is how functional I
am or become over the next while because
I'm certainly like I said I'm only
running
about 5% at the moment and it's uh it it
stops me from certainly stops me from
enthusiastically tackling
extraordinarily difficult problems like
starting an online university so I think
they this year has taken a reasonable
toll on me and also this dietary
sensitivity issue is complicated beyond
belief I can't really go out and eat and
it's very difficult to travel and if I
eat the wrong thing I'm basically in
some variant of Health for about a month
so anyhow we'll see we'll see how that
all goes
what do you make of the mana spheres
claim that women's liberation has led to
our weakened ability to pair-bond the
breakdown of the institution of marriage
and sexual inequity in favor of alpha
men
well you know I guess probably I would
say that to the degree that all of that
is true I wouldn't say that the women's
liberation movement is what's done it
because I don't believe that the women's
liberation movement is the primary
driver of women's liberation in fact I
think it's a a secondary consequence of
a far more radical biological revolution
now it's the invention of the birth
control pill right because the birth
control pill essentially allowed females
for the first time in evolutionary
history to gain voluntary control over
the reproductive function and a
tremendous amount of political upheaval
followed in the aftermath of that and
you know people who were engaged in that
political up people like to think about
it as causal because they like to think
that they're their efforts say on
agitating in favor of women's equal
rights it was actually the causal factor
that produced the sociological
transformation but I think the evidence
for that is extraordinarily weak given
the unbelievable magnitude of the birth
control pill so with the birth control
pill women become more like men much
more like men and also it seems to be
the case that women on the birth control
pill don't like masculine men as much
their studies showing that for example
if you show women the face of us are the
same man at different or the same men at
different phases of their ovulate or
e-cycle and all you do is widen the jar
narrow the jaw of the man that the women
at the peak of their ovulation where
they're maximally fertile like the wide
jaw of man better
but when they're infertile they like the
narrow job meant better and wider job
men have higher levels of testosterone
and and the pale mimics infertility and
so you know we don't know what these
radical biological hormonal
transformations have done to the
relationship between men and women and
and you know women too are trying to
experiment with their new mode of being
it's like well now they're not destined
at an early age to become to transform
themselves into mothers or to beat or to
allow themselves to be transformed by
nature into mothers even though it's
possible that they might be much happier
if that happened I'm not saying that
that's necessarily the case but there is
good evidence that women's general level
of unhappiness has increased since the
early 1960s so you know anyways what has
been the consequence of that well the
first consequence was wild sexual
experimentation and why not what would
you expect it's like all of a sudden
reproductions under control does that
mean that women can be as promiscuous as
men well maybe that's what it means we
don't know so that was part of the big
60s experiment and it isn't obviously
obvious that that went particularly well
it certainly led to the pornographer
keishon of our society which i think is
I really think is actually quite
dreadful maybe that's my innate
prudishness but I don't know it seems to
me that pornography demeans the
participants as well as the viewers
there's something second-rate and
furtive about it and I think that
everybody who engages and it knows that
it's it's it's it's an it's a substitute
for the real adventure of life and I do
think that it leads to a certain kind of
perhaps contempt it leads to contempt I
would say
and that can't be a good thing I mean I
don't ever think you guys can ask
yourself this question I mean have you
ever met anybody who can finished
masturbating and then was proud about it
and who stood up straighter because of
it if you felt that they really
conquered life as a consequence I mean I
just don't believe that that's the that
that's the the general post masturbation
feeling I don't believe I believe that
it's it's it's it's like it's it's
something you do when you when you don't
have the right thing to do and and it's
an admission that you're a second-rate
player essentially something like that
so the pornographer casian was a bad
thing the fact that I mean women's lives
have been complicated too I would say by
this by this transformation too because
it isn't easy now for women to decide
that they want to make being a mother a
primary focus of their life because
increasingly it's necessary for families
to have two incomes and I think the
reason for that there's two reasons for
that one is that when women started to
flood into the labor market was
approximately the same time that the
market started to open to places like
India and China and working wages
started to flatten but then you also
have the fact that if you double the
labor pool by introducing women into it
perhaps you have the value of labor and
that maybe you do even worse than that
if women are more agreeable and more
likely to work part-time and more
willing to take lesser hours and lower
pay which seems to be the case then
maybe you flatten the labor market even
more so in terms of increasing sexual
iniquity in favor of alpha men well
anything that breaks down pair-bonding
matrimony is going to do that because
you know sexual access for males is a
freedom distributed phenomena where a
small proportion of the males get most
of the invitations let's say
the thing that is a bulwark against that
is is monogamy and part of the reason
that societies are set up to be
monogamous is so that that proclivity is
controlled because it's not good for
children let's say if if they don't have
access to a father and it's not good for
women if they're all competing for the
same men and then it's not good for the
men who aren't being chosen because
they're not being chosen and so that
just seems to be recipe for resentment
and and an aggression and I think the
evolutionary psychology doubt oh and
that's pretty clear so that's what I
would say I don't think it's the it's
the women's liberation it's the birth
control pill and you know don't
underestimate the significance of the
birth control pill it's like the
hydrogen bomb or that or the computer
chip it's a world revolutionary
technology and for all we know it might
do us in you know I mean in the West the
birth rate is far below replacement and
you know that's as a has a
multi-generational strategy that's just
that's an absolute dead end and of
course no one can talk about that
because well for for obvious the obvious
reasons of egalitarianism and diversity
and all of that but the declining birth
rate in the West is really I would say a
catastrophe I I don't happen to be one
of those people who think the planet has
too many people on it you know so
you have said that the humanity become
corrupt and for a person to avoid the
dangers of the postmodern neo-marxist
ideologies and nota droll would you
agree the same now applies to the
Institute of marriage with laws as they
are no I wouldn't say that I guess
partly because I don't understand what
the alternative is I mean first I would
say that to the degree that men are just
or unjust the upset about the way the
marriage laws are set up and I think
they have reason to be concerned
especially with regards to the custody
of children and the probability of
paying virtually endless
alimony with unbelievably severe
penalties for failure I think that it's
incumbent on men to organize themselves
politically and rectify that and so I
don't think that the answer is avoiding
marriage I think the answer is political
organization and pressure on the right
institutions to rectify this because it
needs to be rectified and I don't like
the idea of telling young men to avoid
permanent relationships with women
because as far as I'm concerned and this
is my traditional wisdom I suppose
manifesting itself there aren't that
many pathways to life you know you need
a career you need you need interesting
things to do with your with your time
outside of your career interesting and
meaningful things you need a family you
need an intimate relationship to twine
yourself together with someone else so
that well so that you're protected
during times of crisis and able to
celebrate during times of joy and and
and so that you set up a stable
structure so that you can have children
and and have them feel secure and unable
to play and like that's life men and if
you miss any of that then your life is
fragmented and fractured and you're
going to be hurt and like I'm not saying
that's absolutely true for every single
person there's always exceptions but I'm
concerned with the bulk of people and
the
and what the bulk of people have already
done and what your life just isn't in
some ways that complicated you need to
bear a social weight you need to have a
family and commit yourself to that and
and it's in those commitments that you
find the meaning in your life and so if
you don't have them then while you float
and you drift and and when people float
and drift they usually don't float
somewhere good and they usually drift
somewhere bad so I think that there are
problems with the way the marriage laws
are set up I think they're quite serious
I don't think I do think that they
persecute men often but I don't think
the answer to that is to tell young men
to avoid permanent relationships with
young women at all cost because that is
a very anti life doctrine and it's a
cure that's worse than the disease
that's that's what I would say
I'm beginning to assert myself vote
thanks to you well I'm very glad to hear
that I have a question about scheduling
your time trying to make a schedule in a
chaotic job with constantly changing
shifts and hours tips or should I find a
new job altogether well you know I don't
I can't answer that just because I don't
know enough about the details of your
life but what I would say and maybe you
tried this already is you know try to
make two plans okay because when you're
when you're trying to think something
like this through you need to think it
through in detail so one plan would be
how you would conduct your life
optimally and organize your time if you
kept your current job and you want to
make that as acceptable and positive as
possible and then make out another plan
where you shift jobs and you have you
know maybe a more stable working
arrangement and then think about what
your life would be like if you have that
and then because you've laid out a
detailed map of both you're in a much
better position to compare them and so
you know you might need to talk to
somebody about that too but that's what
I would recommend because it's just too
complicated a job like if you find that
your your sleep is chronically disrupted
and you can't organize your life the
fact that shift changes no trivial thing
and it can really throw your mood
regulation for a loop too and I don't
know if that's happening to you not but
that's also something else that's worth
taking into consideration but I would
say map out an alternative reality where
you don't have those problems and see
how much better that looks you know I
presume there's some advantages to your
current job so it also depends on what
your options are like how hard would it
be for you to find another job and could
you find a job like maybe the best thing
to do would be to try to find a job
that's better that doesn't have shifts
you know and maybe that'll take you a
year or two it's it that can be very
diff
but you know a year or two is a shorter
period of time often that it seems so
that's what I would recommend so
your idea of realer than real appears to
paralleled Plato's theory of the forms
is this the source of the idea or are
you Rican sieving ancient philosophy
well god only knows what the source of
an idea is you know my sense of Plato's
forms was was that they weren't exactly
narrative in structure although I think
that I think that there isn't at least
an analogous relationship between the
idea of archetype and the idea of formed
I think Plato was talking more about
forms of tangible objects in the world
you know where I'm talking more about
permanent patterns of behavior you know
because what our what our culture is
essentially is a dance of permanent
patterns of behavior I mean there's a
fair bit of variability in that in the
patterns like there is variability in
the basketball game or a soccer game or
something like that you know there's
obviously predictability and variability
but what's the predictable elements are
the are equivalent in some sense to the
Platonic forms which is the point that
you're making and it's the discovery of
those more permanent forms that emerges
as a consequence of the spinning of
stories you know because we're watching
each other constantly and we're
articulating what we see and then we're
imelda mating the articulations and
we're sifting them for four fundamental
patterns and like a good example of that
it's something I just recently
discovered when I did the biblical
lectures on Abraham you know I didn't
understand that Abraham was a late
bloomer you know he was like the guy who
stayed in his mother's basement for too
long I mean he's 75 when God calls him
on an adventure and God basically tells
him to leave his family and his
countrymen and his kinsmen and to go
into the land of the stranger and that's
see there's an archetypal pattern there
and the pattern is well it's the pattern
of the call and it's it's deeply it's
something that people experience you
know like an adolescent a healthy
adolescent wants to get away from his or
her stultifying dependent upbringing and
go out into the world of adventure and
you know in in the biblical stories
that's that's symbolically represented
as something akin to a divine call which
which i think is quite interesting
because you know we don't understand
these calls you know you have an impulse
to do something something captures your
interest something captures your
motivation it's it's not like it's self
generated exactly you know the the idea
that the call to adventure is produced
by something like a transcendent deity
is a really interesting idea that
depends on what you mean by deity know
you could think about it as an ancient
brain circuit I suppose although I don't
know if that really makes it things any
clearer but there is an impulse within
people that pulls them out into the
world to go away from their safe
circumstances and to make their fortune
out where there's famine and tyranny and
and threats to the integrity of the
family which are all things that Abraham
immediately encounters when he listens
to God and so that seems to be something
like something that's realer than real
because everyone experiences that to
some degree or everyone can relate to it
it's a deep deep theme and you know what
I'm looking for in the biblical stories
and other mythological representations
is these deep universal themes now is
that a reconceptualization of ancient
philosophy it's really hard to say
because you know I derived the idea of
the archetype at least in part from
reading young and young of course was
influenced because he had a great
classical education by the ancients and
so exactly where these ideas come from
isn't clear so
so I guess that's pretty much all I all
I have to say about that
nothing motivates me aside from eating
and sleeping I lied in my bed all day
not on my computer not on my phone not
doing anything I just lie there thinking
what's happening to me I would say that
you are this is not a diagnostic comment
and I don't know enough about you to
provide that sort of information but I
would recommend that you see a therapist
and be screened for depression because
that's what it looks like to me and I
would say that if it's depression you
should do something about it because
depression is very hard on people it
produces a lot of stress hormones like
cortisol and and that can hurt you and
maybe you know it's only been a couple
of days I wouldn't worry about it but if
it's a chronic pattern then you should
go talk to somebody even your family
doctor you know and there's always the
possibility that a low dose of an
antidepressant might be worth trying you
know in a month if it fixed you but I
would say don't don't stay in that
situation man go go find out do whatever
you have to to get out of it especially
the fact that you're not on your
computer not on your phone not doing
anything you know your your ruminating
that's just lying there thinking that's
loops of negative emotion you don't have
any positive emotion you know that's why
you're not on your computer or your
phone so one of the characteristics of
depression I suppose two of the
characteristics is a decrease in
positive motivation and so that means
that you're not interested in anything
and an increase in negative emotion and
that can manifest itself in doubt just
lying there thinking you know so go talk
to someone go talk to someone tell
someone that this is happening get to
your family doctor let them know what's
happening get them to give you a
depression screening and and see what
you can do about it because there are
effective treatments for depression and
sometimes antidepressants work like a
absolute charm
to tap into the dopaminergic system you
said you needed a valued goal is there
any way to tap into the opioid system I
want to be more connected to people but
part of me can't get myself to care okay
well one of the things that so maybe
you're a little bit on the disagreeable
side that's a possibility there's some
interesting clinical evidence that
suggests that one of the things that
disagreeable people can do in order to
facilitate their interactions with other
people is to do people favors and so
what you might say is that you could
start by acting like you care and then
maybe you could learn how to care
through doing that so maybe you could
say well I'm gonna do something nice for
someone once every two days for a month
and think about it a little bit and see
see if that changes you because you know
sometimes you think yourself into change
and sometimes you act yourself into
changing your thoughts and so that's
what I would start by doing and you know
you could also be more connected to
people regardless of whether you care
you know let's say that it would take
you six months of practice or even a
year of practice before you care but
that's not so long especially if you're
young so that's what I would say about
that
do we know if dr. Peterson has just been
overrun by his emails I thought he would
find mine meaningful but people are
telling me it's unlikely to leave and
see it so oh well I guess
yeah well I'm so overwhelmed by my email
that it's just unbelievable I mean I'd
probably have 10,000 emails that are
unanswered and you know at some point I
just I wouldn't say exactly that I gave
up but that's close enough you know I'm
trying to respond to the ones that will
destroy my life if I don't respond to
them but and it's really sad because
people are sending me really good
letters and I've been trying to think up
a method of having someone go through my
email to identify the letters that are
unbelievably help heartfelt and valuable
because it's a shame to miss them but I
just haven't had any choice you know I'm
basically except when I'm not feeling
well like no I'm basically working from
7:00 in the morning till 11:00 at night
trying to finish my book which I have
two page proofs for now so that's
getting close and to keep to keep up
with my obligations including making the
videos and preparing the biblical
lectures and trying to zip here and
there and talk so I'm very sorry that to
all of you I'm sure that many of you
have written me letters and that you've
put a lot of heart and soul into them
and thanking me or describing a problem
that you have or a solution that you've
generated or ideas and I really feel bad
that I can't answer them but I can't so
at some point you just think well that's
just how it goes you know you you can't
do what you can't do when there's no
sense being overwhelmingly tormented by
it so that's that's the situation so
please don't take it personally so
dr. Peterson I'm considering going into
the education stream /system do you have
any advice for me not to become a
mouthpiece for indoctrinating young
students well one thing I would
recommend is that you don't write essays
that you don't believe in I think that's
a sin I think it's a sin to use your
words falsely and the reason for that
like there's a good series of social
psychology experiments that show like
imagine that you bring someone into a
lab and you have them write an essay
about or fill out a questionnaire about
their political opinions so you get a
baseline measure of their political
stance and then you ask them to write a
thousand words maybe they identify as
right-wing and then you get them to
write a thousand word essay on why a
particular left-wing position is true
and then you have them come back in two
weeks and you give them the same
political belief questionnaire they'll
tell have shifted quite radically
towards the left and the reason for that
is that people don't think through their
positions in great detail and so if you
get them to think through a contrary
position in great detail than that
starts to become more convincing and so
if you go into a field like education
that's really pathologically overrun by
the postmodern neo-marxist types you're
going to experience a tremendous amount
of pressure to falsify your words you're
going to be afraid that if you don't do
that you're going to fail and maybe
sometimes you will be punished by a
professor but I would say in most
circumstances I'm still optimistic
enough to believe that if you write a
good essay that isn't ideologically
proper you'll still get a good grade and
I guess I would say if you write a good
essay that's not ideologically proper
and you don't get a good grade that's
probably a good time to fight
so because you either fight or
capitulate right that's that's the
that's the hard truth so I'm not saying
it would be easy and I would also say
don't make unnecessary enemies right you
know everything doesn't have to be about
now then you're gonna know that you know
you'll hate writing the essay because
you have to sacrifice your soul in order
to put the words down and then you you
you de menthe and warp your character
and you just don't recover easily from
that so I would say don't do that man
that's not good
have you ever addressed Professor Kevin
McDonald's work on an ethnic conflict
theory of Judaism as a group
evolutionary strategy these are the
Gentile societies it's very provocative
but I find much of it persuasive have
you read any of his work this is going
to be a very disappointing answer I'm
afraid because the answer is no I
haven't read any of this work so I'm
afraid I'm not going to be able to
answer that question
unfortunately apologies for that
I've definitely developed a nasty case
of hypno phobia and generally suffer
from anxiety surrounding sleep it's
become a significant negative force in
my life cause unknown I'm rather well
put together and successful across many
domains any advice yes go to bed later
so one of the things that happens to
people when they're having a hard time
going to sleep and their sleep is
disrupted is that they tend to go to bed
earlier to catch up on their sleep and
that actually has a counter that's cut
that works at counter purposes to what
they're trying to attempt what you want
to do is delay your sleep until you're
really quite tired so stay up much later
get up at the same time in the morning
game but move your sleep time later
maybe half an hour night till you
actually do fall asleep the other thing
that you could look into is that there
are relaxation exercises behavior
therapists offered those but I'm sure
you could find one online at breathing
exercises and so often what you do is
imagine you're laying in your bed and
you're nervous and so what you do is you
concentrate on your feet and you flex
your toes and then breathe in and out
and relax them and then you flex your
ankles or the soles of your feet and
breathe in and out and relax and do that
with every muscle group all the way up
to your body and remember to breathe
deeply and regularly and that can help
regulate your anxiety so I would say
stay up later
till you're clearly tired the other
thing you might try is sleeping in a
different room and then the the final
thing is there are pretty effective
sleep medications like zap Leblon for
example which is seems to be pretty
effective and if you're really having a
hard time sleeping maybe you could try
something like that and see if it and
see if it helps you don't have to try it
forever but so the simplest thing to do
though is to go to bed later and because
you'll be more tired and more likely to
fall asleep then and
it's really not going to cause you any
trouble so that's what I recommend
what do we do when once our ego has
helped us climb the dominance hierarchy
and secure a mate why then should we
keep looking for a mate and how to
curtail that instinct
well I think part of the way that you
curtail that ynx instinct is that you
have you have this sort of life that you
would have with a mate the question is
you know what's the purpose of pair
bonding and one of the fundamental
purposes of pair bonding well there's a
couple one is that it solves the sexual
access problem so that you don't have to
continue to obsess about who you're
going to be with them and where and how
and so you can get on with other
elements of your life but I mean with
with your mate you have to decide well
what does it mean that you're now
together you know there's companionship
obviously in friendship and their shared
interests you have to decide what they
are and I would say that you should
continue dating your your partner at
least once a week or perhaps twice a
week because otherwise the romance goes
out of your life but then also you have
to decide about children and eventually
about grandchildren because you know
you're gonna get old and you're gonna
get older and more mature children are a
huge part of life and they get a bad rap
which is really unfortunate because you
know maybe I'm I'm different in this
regard and perhaps I am to some degree
but I never regretted having kids for
even one second because they're so I
mean all of a sudden you have an
intimate relationship with new people
that is as close as any relationship
that you've ever had you have the
opportunity to make that relationship as
pristine as you possibly can
I mean there can be a lot of catastrophe
involved in it but it's a great
opportunity and there's just nothing
wrong with having some additional people
that love you you know and so what you
do is you turn your attention to the
issues of maturity and to your tune your
attention away from the issues of being
a juvenile and you do that partly by
knowing that it's actually better to do
so you know there's nothing more absurd
than the 40 year old 20 year old it gets
ugly and there's something like there's
something like spoiled milk about it it
goes off and you have to gracefully
accept the challenges of each stage of
life
and things work a lot better when you do
that much much better and you also have
to I would say work on and perfect your
sex life with your partner and express
what you need and want and teach each
other what's necessary to keep things
exciting and and new it's not an easy
thing to do but it's very much
worthwhile because then you can combine
sexual excitement with intimacy and
there's no better combination than that
so and love that could all be nested up
inside love and inside you know what
destiny that's intertwined together
that's the best you've got man that
that's that's that's what life has to
offer and so that's what you do is you
accept the responsibility of the next
stage of life and you don't mourn the
past I suppose that also means that when
you're young you do what young people do
and so that you don't want to do it
again so
I need to ask a very serious question
pickles or green olives hmm that's a
tough one at the moment I can't eat
pickles so I'd have to go with green
olives I do really like green olives
especially if they're spicy so I'd
probably if I had to make a choice it
would be a tough one but I think I'd
probably go with green olives so
do you have any advice for someone who
may be asexual I want to have a husband
and children but I'm 27 and haven't felt
a connection with anyone
I've just seen everyone as friends so
far in life well you might want to see a
sex therapist that might help I guess
the other thing I would say is well you
know it might not be too bad an idea to
act out what you want
perhaps in the absence of any necessary
desire like you know you might be so
full have fallen so far inside yourself
that it's very difficult to get out what
a sex therapist would do would be you
know once you were in some kind of let's
say friendship that you wanted to move
forward would be to have you guys
practice interacting in an intimate
manner stage by stage so that you could
get accustomed to it you know so you
need to explore whether that's
asexuality as you say or if it's fear or
if it's you know might be fear of
rejection might be fear of sexuality
might be that you're slow to warm up and
introverted but I think seeing a sex
therapist might not be a bad idea I mean
you know I guess the other thing and I
say this with some hesitation is that if
you find someone you like that you could
be friends with I mean you could try
initiating a romantic relationship and
practice it for a couple of months and
see what happens because you know maybe
you'd warm up across time it certainly
it's certainly it's certainly a
possibility so
I have system at juvenile idiopathic
arthritis you mentioned your daughter
has something akin to it and the diet
helped her with her fatigue may I ask
what - she used Cheers from Calgary if
you go to if you look up Michaela
Peterson don't eat that
that's her blog don't eat that and she
has a lot of advice there about diets
that you could try and you know I would
say do it with some hesitation and
caution but that that that seemed to
help her a lot so do you plan your day
much or your time generally does this
lead to higher productivity yes I plan
my day obsessively my calendar is always
absolutely full and often weeks in
advance and I plan in the morning
especially when I'm on top of things and
I plan each hour and I probably plan
each minute and yes it leads to way
higher productivity you know you you
decide what your goals are going to be
you place them in the calendar use the
calendar as your friend day because what
you want to do with the calendar is
design a day that you want to have or a
day that would be good for you and a day
that would be good for you is one that
you're that you're you know when you end
the day you feel that you've moved moved
yourself ahead towards your valued goals
and that you've kept Kaos under control
and that enables you to sleep soundly
and with a good conscience and to know
that the next day is going to be at
least not worse than that day planning
is unbelievably useful and again you
know I don't want to sound like a broken
record with regards to the future
authoring program but it really is
useful you know you need to figure out
what it is that you're aiming at and why
and then you need to figure out how
you're going to break that down over the
months and the weeks and the days but I
would approach your calendar like it's
your best friend you think okay I'm
going to design a week man
that I really want to have and that
means you can schedule and leisure and
all the things that you want to do which
what you absolutely should do and it's
also quite fun to
give yourself minimal time to do
something complicated because it's quite
challenging to see if you could do far
more than you thought in far less time
and so that's a fun game and the other
thing you can do is like if you're
avoiding something you could schedule in
five minutes of it and say well like if
you're avoiding looking at some bills
because you're afraid of them you know
your first step might be to schedule in
five minutes where you just look at the
bill you don't do anything else and you
know you might be able to entice
yourself into doing that so but I would
say learning to plan is unbelievably
useful to schedule your time because
that's your life you know but schedule
the life you want that it means you have
to schedule your responsibilities off
because responsibilities are those
things that ruin your life if you don't
fulfill them so alright safety advisor
northern Alberta asking what's the best
personality test for my coworker ground
level and management any recommended
practices to promote mental health with
remote workers well answer the first
part of that use a Big Five personality
test what my camera just
sorry about that guys I'm back hopefully
everything is functioning again
question how is capitalism compatible
with your definition of good if it
requires ever-increasing uses of the
finite resources of the planet where
once depleted would mean our end well I
would say capitalism isn't compatible
with my definition of good if it
requires ever-increasing uses of the
finite resources of the planet but
that's by no means self-evident even
though the scuttlebutt let's say
especially among the environmentalist
oriented types who might have some
sympathy for by the way especially with
regards to ocean depletion there's a
huge argument and there has been for
many many years between the economists
and the biologists and this is a really
important thing to know and the
economists point out that human
ingenuity is such that were continually
able to make more with less and
certainly over the last well 500 years
especially in the last 150 years that's
just absolutely evident you know like
people say we're going to run out of
energy I think that's absolutely
preposterous it's like it's as crazy as
thinking we're gonna run out of matter I
mean we're we're going through a bit of
a bottleneck right now because you know
the population is going to increase to
about 9 billion and then it's been a
decrease that's that's the most reliable
projections and 9 billion isn't a lot
more than we have now and you know
there's gonna be some environmental
disruption as a consequence of that but
I don't think there's any reason to
assume at all that capitalism
necessarily requires ever-increasing
uses of the finite resources of the
planet it's also not obvious to what
degree the resources of the planet are
actually finite because we can
continually think up new uses for things
that nobody thought had any use at all
and so it depends to some degree on
whether or not you're willing to bet on
human imaginative nests or you're going
to be a Malthusian pessimist and I'm not
saying that there aren't reasons for
both I'm just saying that it is by no
means self-evident that things are
getting worse you know like I can give
you an example so you know in the last
in the last 15 years the Millennium goal
for the UN
to have world poverty like absolute
poverty so that's less than the door
50-day by 50% within 15 years that was
actually reached ahead of schedule and
we've lifted hundreds of millions of
people into the middle class over the
last 30 years and so there is an
increasing inequality in the West
because the working class has taken the
brunt of that say that redistribution to
third-world countries but by the same
token you know there's no starvation in
the world anymore except reading for
reasons of mis distribution and and and
political purpose and people are
becoming richer and more educated all
the time and you know when we are waking
up to our planetary responsibilities
once people stop starving to death and
having to burn like dirt and and eat you
know the substandard food that they've
scraped out of the ground they do start
to turn their attention to things that
might be more aesthetic and so look I
don't think there's any reason to be
pessimistic not fundamentally and I
guess the reason that capitalism is
compatible with my definition of good I
wouldn't say that exactly I would say
that I don't see an alternative that has
manifested itself that doesn't have far
more negative consequences you know it's
sort of a minimal pessimism issue it's
like well this is the best devil that we
have and I do believe it is because the
the successful societies by any stretch
of the imagination by virtually any
metric are the capitalist societies and
certainly the case for example that the
Soviet Union demolished far more of its
natural resources to far less productive
consequence than the West did there's
evidence there's suggestions that
between ten and fifteen percent of the
total area of the Soviet Union has been
rendered more or less permanently
uninhabitable so the question is
compared to what alright guys it's late
and I've answered lots of questions
since 1020
so Jordan hope you are doing well says I
am Who am glad to see you live I'm glad
to see me alive - that's that's a good
thing and hopefully that will continue
so anyways guys thank you very much for
attending to this once again I'm always
gratified by the response to these q and
A's it's fun to see what your questions
are man they're they've been really they
were really difficult tonight I'm very
impressed
I mean some of them are was afraid to
answer and so if you didn't get your
question answered and it was up near the
top of the vote list then part of the
reason I didn't answer it is because I
was actually afraid I wouldn't be able
to generate something intelligent enough
on the fly so anyways like I said thanks
very much and I'm going to start the
biblical lectures again in October and
I've got some other videos to release if
I can get myself organized - to edit
them and put them up and we'll see you
in a month
so thanks thanks very much good night
you