well you shouldn't be listening to it
turned off the speakers well then I
can't hear you No okay well make sure
you turn off your speaker's when it
starts yeah okay
okay so now what so it is working so now
you want to make sure you're in focus
which you're not yeah
and you want to make sure you're like
centered on the screen and all that easy
stuff
okay but for now I focus yeah that looks
pretty good to me yeah let's see yeah
not bad
okay but I'm the ISO speed is way to
hell out but it won't let me adjust it
well hang on a second
let me turn on this light I think it
looks fine yeah because it's going to
get dark
yeah that's not too bad now do we have
the same jerkiness problem now doesn't
look to the future
he's a little jerky but okay it's the
sound quality is far more important than
the video boys yeah so now should I open
YouTube no clear them up engine for ID
instead 720
I don't even remember how to do that
it's a it's a wiretap okay so let's get
into YouTube here now I have to open
that thing that you told me about so
that was pigeonhole
okay QA yeah so maybe bad for let's go
to the web s per second or first
actually as you're open the moderator
panel go down a little bit
moderator panel open that up and then go
in there
okay cool so you're in there so go back
to Wirecast okay go back to where cast
yep yep get a blank shot quick blank
shot yeah and make that live for a bit
so that so that when we go live it's not
just going to be us talking but I want
to get us live before so it's purple
arrow ribbon Alero
better
you
[Music]
hello
so a couple of you who are out there
maybe you can just send me a quick text
and tell me if this is working yes
excellent can you hear me Matt Matt I
work at Mars in Toronto can you share
your thoughts and why it hasn't worked
wow that's a complicated question let's
get to that a little bit later you guys
can hear me excellent let's go so this
is what I'm going to do I want to talk
to you first about patreon and then I'm
going to take some questions that people
have said I've got this new thing called
pigeon hole and that's enabled people to
vote up questions and then I'm also
going to take some of the questions that
are on you know that are streaming in so
so hopefully that'll all work see if I'm
in focus not too bad
all right there we go
consider the overwhelming success of the
patreon account the money raised by
rebel what will you be doing with the
contributions well that's great
all right so I've got a couple of things
to say about that so the first one is
you know I would say a number of people
have been attempted and not an
overwhelming number but a number of
people have been attempting to take me
to task for the fact that my patreon
support has been let's call it
overwhelmingly successful and and so
I'll tell you how I formulate my
response to that the first is I'm
generating almost all of my content and
making it completely publicly accessible
so it's free right and and so that way
I'm bringing I think awareness of
psychological issues to a very large
number of people and so far at the
moment my view count on YouTube is up to
13 million and I did a little bit of
calculations last week to try to figure
out what the total view count was for
the cuts of my lectures that have been
appearing on YouTube and then the
political material as well and I think
it's upward of 50 million and so I'm
making psychological and political
content available to 50 million people
and so you know that's
like a reasonable thing to do now people
who don't agree with what I'm saying
might differ but I think that could be
separated from the educational content
as well so and then with regards to the
patreon subscribers every single person
who's doing that is doing it entirely
voluntarily and I also set up that
patreon account long before any of this
political material emerged so and my
sense with the patreon viewers and you
guys can clue me in if I'm wrong about
this is that there's two things
happening as one is it enables people
who are not very happy about the current
political situation in the West to to to
contribute to something that might be at
least to some degree attempting to stem
the tide of such things as toxic
political correctness and second that it
enables people to support my endeavors
to bring general education to a wider
audience and that seems like a good deal
for everyone and you know you might say
well it's a particularly good deal for
me and I'm certainly not complaining
about what's happening but I would also
point out that it hasn't exactly been a
straightforward thing and so so I guess
if anyone else wants to try it they're
more than welcome to now having said
that I would also say that the real
issue here and I think this is the fact
that this isn't self-evident is also a
commentary on the toxicity of our
culture at the moment is that it
actually isn't the issue the issue isn't
really how much money you have I think
that that's a resentful and and
relatively vicious way of judging
someone else I think the issue is what
you do with the money when you have it
and you know I'm not a particularly
hedonistic person and I'm not
twenty-five years old you know I'm 55
years old and I'm going to be a
grandfather in a couple of months you
know thank God for that and what I want
to do with that money is to do the best
things I can possibly think of to do
with it and one of the things I'm
thinking about I started this biblical
series and a lot of that's help thankful
thanks to you guys on patreon because
that enabled me to generate the capital
that was necessary to rent
Theatre because for 12 lectures that was
a $60,000 investment about that
something like that and then another
$8,000 for that for the camerawork and
that had to be basically dealt with
upfront so it was a reasonable financial
risk now I've been crazily fortunate in
that theater tickets have also sold out
so it looks like the biblical series
will pay for itself with some extra left
over and so you know I'm pretty happy
about that because that gives me some
more working capital and then you might
say well what am I going to do with the
capital well I'm going to continue doing
the sorts of things that I'm already
doing I want to do a series on the
hundred greatest books of the Western
canon for example I want to move genuine
humanities education out of the
universities where it isn't being taught
anyways as far as I can tell online
where people can access it freely I'm
talking to a wide variety of people
right now about trying to do that in a
more formal sense so that the
possibility for widespread university
education can be universally accessible
and one of the things we're trying to
crack is the problem of how to teach
people to write because that's a real
troublesome thing and by the way you
know you guys if you go onto my website
Jordan Peterson comm and you go into
courses and you go into psychology for
30 if you look carefully there you'll
see that there's an essay rubric the tip
that tells people how to write and
actually that's become quite popular and
so if you're interested in how to learn
to write I've written something about
that already and we're going to make a
piece of software that's going to help
people learn to write and so I've got
plans for how to make writing education
broadly accessible to people so I would
like to make humanities education of the
highest order broadly accessible to
people and I also want to teach them how
to write and I'm going to try to crack
the online university accreditation
problem and so part of the money that or
a substantial proportion of the money
that is being donated to me let's say or
is being offered to me by my monthly
supporters so that's all of you people
is going to be going to projects exactly
like that and the reason for that is is
that what the hell else would I do with
the money you know I mean to me money is
a tool it's not
not the means whereby you develop a
luxurious lifestyle and spend your time
burning yourself half to death in the
Sun and the Caribbean snorting cocaine
and chasing hookers you know it's just
that's just not in the cards for me
and and so I want to devote it towards
the sorts of things that have already
been pursuing except on a broader scale
and so you know and I think of people
like Elon Musk too not that I'm
comparing myself to Elon Musk but I mean
he has plenty of money and I mean you
really somebody's got to have the damn
money it might as well be people who
have the kind of vision that people like
he does have because maybe they'll do
something good for the world I mean I
hope is Giga factories produce batteries
like mad so that we can start to make
alternative energy sources economically
viable and maybe reduce our dependence
on oil and maybe get ourselves out from
underneath the thumb of the Saudi Arabs
that would be a good thing
so the monetary issue it's quite
interesting it's like it is not that you
have the money it's what you do with it
so anyways those are some of my plans
and that isn't all of them because I'm
going to come up with a bunch more plans
and I'm going to try to implement them
as rapidly as I possibly can I've put my
clinical practice on hiatus for the next
three months so that I have a chance to
think and I've requested that the
University advance my sabbatical by one
year so I should have about a year to
think about what I should be doing with
YouTube and how I can be promoting
broad-scale public education of the
highest quality and that's a really fun
problem to solve and the fact that I'm
being supported by all of you people on
patreon makes the probability that avail
to that I'll be able to devote my time
to that much higher so so that's what
I'm going to do with it I'm going to do
the best things I can possibly think of
to do with it and hopefully that'll work
and so far it seems to be going well so
yeah I mean I've been taken aback quite
a bit by the I mean it's not surprising
that you know the people who've been
trying to take me down let's say or
squawking and bitching because I happen
to be generating a fairly reasonable
income from this although I don't think
about it as an income as I already said
I think about
as a toolkit for pursuing more
interesting things it's like if that's
the best they can do with regards to
continuing to tarnish my name well then
let them let them go right ahead about
that and I think the proof is in the
outcome and like the biblical series and
that's a direct consequence of the
patreon support that seems to be going
like mad I think you know about 500,000
people have watched the video so far
with another who knows tens of thousands
of people listening to the podcasts and
that's just a bloody miracle that that
many people would be interested in what
I consider the fundamental foundation
for any true humanities education so
great we'll build from there and so
that's that's what I'm going to do with
the money so and if people don't like
that then they don't have to donate or
they don't have to subscribe it's hardly
like it's mandatory so anyways I'll stop
with that and I'll get to Tom another
question or a question another question
um here's one that got two hundred and
sixty four votes so far is the belief in
something more than experienced reality
unreasonable okay so I want to address
that question technically to begin to
begin with because one of the things
that you want to do when someone asks
you a question is that you want to take
a look at the question because the
question boxes you in in a certain way
and if you're going to answer the
question you make you have to make sure
that you've properly processed the
structure of the question so let's look
at this one is the belief in something
more than experienced reality
unreasonable and so then I'm going to go
Socratic on this and say well it depends
on what you mean by belief experienced
reality something more and unreasonable
and and this see the problem is you
can't really answer a question like that
unless you delve into the definitions so
let's say well what do you mean by
experienced reality do you mean that
which is directly Grip abide isense --is
well then I would say well do you
believe in numbers because numbers
aren't directly experienceable but
obviously they're real if you define
reality as the use of concepts that give
you grip and power in the world and I
think because I'm a pragmatist
I mean part of the way that I define
something as real is whether or not it
has functional operative status in the
world and so the belief in something
more than experience reality is
obviously clearly reasonable if you
regard abstractions as something more
than experienced reality and that brings
up another issue and the issue is
whether or not abstractions are even
more real than experienced reality and I
would say often they are because
otherwise abstraction wouldn't work so
it's definitely not unreasonable and
then you do you mean merely subjectively
experience reality or do you mean the
kind of reality that can be experienced
by multiple people at the same time
because that's also different that the
latter is more in the domain of
scientific inquiry and I think the
problem with belief in subjectively
experienced reality is not so much that
what you experience subjectively isn't
real is that you can get the categories
wrong you know dreams are real but
they're not the same kind of real as
things in the outside world that other
people can experience and to conflate
the tort of failure failed to
distinguish between them is a form of
insanity but that doesn't mean that both
of them aren't real so so the simple
answer to the question is the belief is
the belief in something more than
experienced reality unreasonable is no
but it depends on it depends on your
specific definitions of all those terms
and those sorts of things really matter
okay bet Bob Asbury says I'm a 58 year
old American redneck who never went to
college a day in his life but I feel
like I'm getting a world-class education
every day thank you dr. Petersen
you are very cool well thank you I don't
know how cool I am exactly but I am I
tell you man and this is the dead truth
I am absolutely thrilled that I have the
opportunity to provide educational
resources to people all over the world
it's a dream you know really I mean it's
an absolute privilege so when I get
letters from people like you very very
frequently from all over the world you
know when the fact that now we have the
technology to allow people in principle
to have a world class universe
the education is mind-boggling and
here's something I think is absolutely
comical and I've been pursuing this with
a group of people that I've been
discussing I've been having intense
discussions with some in Silicon Valley
and some in Montreal in some in Toronto
you know here's the university situation
in many ways number one they're putting
students in debt in a tremendous way in
the United States over because of
overpriced education they don't let the
students um declare bankruptcy because
of the debt and so it's basically
indentured servitude and so then
students come out of university and
death--it heavily at the time of their
life when they should be relatively free
of financial burdens so that they can be
creative and entrepreneurial because
you're going to do that when you're
young generally speaking then the
universities have become administrative
Lea top-heavy and stultified because of
that then they've abandoned their
commitment to the humanities right then
they're not utilizing modern technology
to extend the reach as broadly as they
possibly could then they've they in some
sense abandoned their responsibility to
do accrediting properly and devalued the
value of the degree because they treat
their students like consumers
and-and-and inflate the grade currency
so to me that's a perfect storm of error
and so I see an opportunity emerging
right now where the intellectual
property that's related to the true
humanities and that would be at least in
part the Western cultural Canon could
just be taken out of the University's
grip and provided to people in
high-quality form online and if I can
crack how to teach people to write and
then also to figure out the
accreditation problem which I don't
think is a it's not an overwhelmingly
complex problem it's complex but not
overwhelmingly then there's no reason
that the university can't moved to can't
move online and I would say the true
University exists where people are
pursuing education because they bloody
well want to get educated because they
know that being sharp and articulate and
historically informed and
philosophically wise and all of that
makes their lives better makes them
better citizens makes them more
responsible and so I want to follow
University where it goes and as far as
I'm concerned the university is where
people want to listen to wisdom and I'm
going to try to dispense wisdom to the
degree that I'm fortunate enough to have
access to it so anyways Bob like I'm
thrilled that I can be of service to you
and it's a real privilege and so and
we're going to do more of that so all
right so another question am I feeling
all right
how is my health well that's a good
question I've had I've had a history of
depression as some of you may know and
it's a plague in my family it goes back
many generations and also has afflicted
one of my children quite badly but we
are figuring this out and I'm actually
feeling pretty good right now for the
first time in about seven or eight
months I'm really looking forward to the
future again and I'm getting my energy
back and when I have energy I have a lot
of energy and so and because I put my
clinical practice on hiatus and because
I've applied for a sabbatical and I'm
going to have some time and because of
this massive construction project that
I've been engaged in in my house because
I put a basically a Native American
longhouse on that ceiling of my house
believe it or not
maybe one day I'll walk you through that
if you'd be interested I'm going to have
a lot of time and I'm finishing a book
it's due on June 5th
it's called twelve rules for life an
antidote for chaos and that's just about
done and it'll be out January ninth I
think 2018 then you know that's going to
clear up an awful lot of time for me and
so my health is good I've lost about 50
pounds because I've stopped eating
carbohydrates almost completely and so
that's bloody unbelievable I'm back down
to the weight I was when I was 30 and I
think that I'm going to get on top of my
health problems and my daughter who's
had extraordinarily serious health
problems including - hip hip replacement
when she was 16 and an ankle replacement
- when she was also 16 she walked around
on two broken legs for a whole year in
excruciating agony like she's figured a
lot of this out and she's off her ante
or her immune suppressant medication and
all sorts of other things so it's a
painstaking process and I've been eating
nothing literally nothing but beef
chicken and salad for a whole month
trying to figure out where my
dietary sensitivities are but so anyways
that's a long answer to your question
but I'm feeling pretty damn good and if
I can got a few more administrative
matters that are chasing me around but I
think I can get on top of them and then
man I'm going to be back at it and
that's going to be real fun so okay
let's see what else we got for live
questions here what would I say the male
to female ratio is in my classrooms
currently oh yeah there's no man man
it's like 80% women in my psychology
classes and in 10 years there won't be a
man left in the humanities unless they
go online in which case maybe it'll only
be men because huh you know I don't
think so but most of the people who are
watching my videos are men it's about 90
91 percent actually so yeah the men are
bailing out of the university like it's
just unbelievable and that's been
happening for about 30 years so um it
might if things don't change and if the
present linear trends continue then yeah
it'll be all women by by 2025 and that's
really not good not that it's good not
good because there's so many women it's
not good because there aren't any men
and obviously that's not good for the
women either because I don't know where
they're going to find their man so all
right what are your thoughts on the book
of Revelation in the Bible it freaked me
out when I was a kid yeah well I should
say so man if you're an adult and you
read it it should freak you out what are
my thoughts on it I think it's a I think
it's the account of a hallucinogenic
trip probably probably what would you
call caused by psilocybin mushrooms
maybe maybe Amanita muscaria which were
was identified by a guy named Wausau
about 25-30 years ago maybe even more as
the soma of the ancient Hindus so yeah I
think it's a hallucinating it's an
account of an extremely profound
hallucinogenic trip that that's what I
think I mean what it means that's a
whole different issue and I'm going to
try to address that when and if I get to
the Book of Revelations in my biblical
series but that's going to be probably a
couple of years in the future at the
rate I'm going because it's taken me
three weeks to get through Genesis
one so alright violet Irwin says I look
great well violet your avatar looks
great too and well thank you part of the
reason I look great I think to the
degree that I do is that I have a very
good camera that my son helped me
purchase and so it makes me look a hell
of a lot better than I actually do look
so anyways I appreciate the sentiment
alright do I see any downside to a child
being raised by its father in the first
three years while the mother is working
full-time
are there psychological consequences for
the child to be expected I think that
depends very much on the individual
situation in the family I'm not
convinced that the art of infant care is
something that a tremendous number of
males are highly specialized for I think
you have to have a feminine temperament
and that would mean to do it to do
infant care properly and that would mean
that you have to be at least very
agreeable and maybe you'll also be have
to be relatively high in neuroticism so
that you respond rapidly enough to the
distress crisis of the child and I also
think that in order to bond the way that
you have to bond when you're a mother
who's taking care of an infant let's say
under nine months I think some of the
biochemical transformations that
accompany pregnancy childbirth and
lactation probably set up the proper
biochemical underlying biochemical and
psychological milieu that makes the kind
of bonding that that increases the
probability of high level care possible
in those few months that doesn't mean
that men can't do it
but I would also say in my experience
that it's kind of hard on men you know
it's a complicated issue but like one of
the things I experienced and I really
like kids you know like I love kids
and they generally respond really well
to me babies they're a different matter
because I'm I don't really feel fully
qualified to give a baby what it needs
and I guess you know that's part because
you know breastfeeding at least so far
as is firmly in the domain of women in
fact it's one of the ways by which you
could define women if we were actually
into that sort of thing
um so I think that there are
circumstances under which that's a good
thing to do and actually I had a
business partner have a business
partners help me develop the self
authoring suite very smart guy named
Daniel Higgins who is a MIT engineer and
also has a PhD in psychology from
Harvard and he spent a lot of his time
taking care of his kids when they were
little his wife was going to medical
school and he's a pretty masculine guy
and it was hard on him man like it just
about killed him and I mean they didn't
have a lot of money and she was going
through Medical School and they had two
and then three little kids and so you
know that's a very busy time of life but
he did it and he did a great job and he
has wonderful kids and he paid a hell of
a lot of attention to them but he it was
not easy it was not easy for him and you
know my wife when I watched her with our
little kids when they were infants in
particular like she had a an affinity
and a proclivity for that sort of thing
and my wife is actually a pretty tough
cookie and I wouldn't say overwhelmingly
feminine by temperament she's kind of
disagreeable and quite emotionally
stable rather than being agreeable and
high in neuroticism which is a more
typical set of feminine traits she was
so damn good with infants it was just
unbelievable you know and I do think
that the biochemical transformations
that accompany pregnancy and so forth do
facilitate that I've also seen that with
my sister who is quite a masculine woman
and very adventurous man she she
smuggled Mercedes trucks across the
Sahara Desert in the 1980s from France
down through the whole Sahara into Niger
and babysat orphaned gorillas in the
Congo and and ran safaris through Africa
like she is she's a very adventurous
person and she took a lot after my
father who's quite a tough guy but you
know she had kids when she was 40
luckily for her and man she turned into
my mother overnight and I really like my
mother you know like that's no insult
believe me she's a really great person
very very caring very kind probably to
her own detriment but to see my sister
transform into this tough masculine
person who I respected a lot
for exactly those virtues into into mom
was really quite remarkable and to think
that there's nothing biochemical about
that is really I think quite naive and
and you know and and pointless because
of course there's something biochemical
about about birth and child care for
God's sake has been going on for like
ever since sexual dimorphism emerged on
the evolutionary landscape so that's
that do you think that boys in our
society are in need of a concrete
transition to manhood like a modern day
initiation ritual a product doesn't
matter whether they're in need of it
they're not going to get it because you
can't really just invent something like
that right it has to be it's something
that evolves over a very long period of
time I do think that what they need I've
really observed this interestingly
enough in the response that young men
have had to my public talks and probably
on YouTube as well with regards to what
I've been saying because you know young
people have been fed this pablum since
the 1960s that the pathway to happiness
and freedom in life first of all that
those are the things that you're really
supposed to be after especially
happiness and that they're to be found
in in like rites and untrammeled freedom
and that's complete that's completely
one-sided because for every right there
is a corresponding responsibility and
freedom can be chaos just as much as it
can be
you know blissful lack of responsibility
and the ability to make hedonic choices
one after another and I've been speaking
to young men in particular and they're
the ones who keep coming to my talks by
the way about truth in action and
responsibilities and like they're eating
that up it's there I can see their eyes
light up which is so cool I've been
talking to the people who ran for the
conservative leadership in Canada about
the fact that when I go talk to male
audiences especially young men that
they're unbelievably enthralled by any
discussion of genuine responsibility and
truth and so the Conservatives have
something to offer young man and I would
say that's roughly akin to an initiation
you know the idea is that at some point
you have to tell young men
look grow the hell up take on some
responsibility straighten yourself out
act honestly make yourself into an
admirable and powerful character not
because you're domesticated like a
bloody puppy or a sheep but because
that's the way to genuine Authority and
influence and and the capacity to do
great good in the world and that's like
an exciting call to adventure and I
think that that's a modern sophisticated
intellectual equivalent to something
like an initiation ritual and so I hope
to be like promoting that message more
and more I was speaking to member of one
of the leaders of the indigenous
communities in Canada today about maybe
getting the high school version of the
Future authoring program that Future
authoring program I've talked about that
a bit before on patreon you know it's a
program at self authoring calm that
enables people to generate a vision for
their lives and also to and to detail
out that vision and make a plan of it I
think most of you patreon subscribers
have got links to that already and
usernames and passwords and has a really
remarkably positive effect on young men
who are disenfranchised who tend to be
ethnic minorities and so initiating them
into the idea that they need to take
control of their own destiny and that
that's the proper pathway to authority
and stature and and not self esteem but
self-respect which is a completely
different thing I think is a reasonable
modern equivalent to initiation ritual
okay so let's take another live question
here
Brendon B says I'm halfway finished
cleaning my disaster of a room well I've
got something terrible to admit people
because at the moment I'm sitting in my
room and it isn't clean at the back
behind here where you can see is clean
but because the events of the last seven
months have been so overwhelming I would
say that there's a certain amount of
chaos that has invaded my immediate
environment but I have plans to get this
place sorted out in a serious way over
the next few months from talk from
bottom of the house to the top so
halfway Brendon that's a good deal and
there's real psychological consequences
to that you know because the if you're
interested in this
everyone here's a really sophisticated
book you could read you could take a
look at Carl use last book which was
called mysterium conjunction Asst so
that it's Latin now the first part of
that book is really kind of like of a
dictionary of symbolism he wrote it I
think in his 80s and I think he was
trying to get down as much as he could
of what he knew as fast as he could so
the first part is a dictionary of
symbolism and it's very difficult to
read unless you've read a lot of his
other writing but the second part of the
book which I think is an absolute work
of genius Jung makes a couple of
propositions about higher order moral
development and so I'm going to run
through them really quickly and describe
their symbolism so he said the first
thing that you want to do if you're
going to get your act together and this
is like an extension of the of the pH
Elliott notion of stages and moral
development he said you know you have an
intellect and you have a set of emotions
and motivations and you can
conceptualize the intellect symbolically
as masculine and the emotions and
motivations symbolically as feminine and
so the first conjunction which is the
bringing together of the masculine and
feminine to make a complete being would
be the union of the intellect with the
emotions and motivations so that you're
not fighting your deeper motivations
with your thought you know that they're
all moving in the same direction and so
that would be conjunction number one and
so then that makes you United in terms
of your capability for subjective
experience you're all pointing in all of
that's pointing in the same direction
and it's one of the things that can make
you unstoppable because you're not at
war with yourself that and so the next
conjunction as far as he was concerned
was also expressed symbolically so now
you have the masculine union of
intellect emotion and motivation and
then you have the body which you can now
conceptualize this feminine so then you
bring those together in a creative union
and so that means that you start to act
out what you think and feel so that
there's no paradoxical relationship or
or enacted lie they call that a
performative contradiction between what
you think and feel and what you do and
that's and so because part of being
honest is that you act out what you
believe
right and so that's great so that's the
next conjunction and so that makes you
integrated in mind and emotion and
motivation and in enacted enacted
routine and body great so that's another
way of bringing yourself together
but the third conjunction is the one
that's most interesting and it's also
the one that's most difficult to
understand and that conjunction occurs
when you take this unified mind-body
continuum let's say and you think oh
wait a second there's an there's an
element of that missing and that's my
experience my experience of the world
that's hypothetically outside of me or
that's hypothetically not me
now you know the your experience of the
world outside that's not you is a very
strange experience because it isn't
self-evident for example to me that my
wife is not me we spend so much time
together she's in my experience so much
we have a joint past and a present and a
joint future the same with my kids and
the people who are close to me it isn't
obvious to me that my wife is less
valuable to me than I am to me she's
certainly more valuable to me than some
arbitrary body part like an arm or a leg
you know and people are perfectly
capable of making gestures of physical
self-sacrifice in order to rescue people
that they love and so just exactly who
you are and just exactly who the
external world is not clear at all and
so the last conjunction for Jung was the
eradication of the distinction between
your subjective experience as you and
your objective experience as you which
is to say for example that if I'm
walking down the street and I encounter
someone in trouble and that trouble
calls to me as something that I could
conceivably do something about the fact
that that trouble isn't set right in the
world is actually is actually because
it's part of my experience is actually
my problem now that doesn't mean that
it's my fault although it might be might
not be perhaps it isn't but it might be
but it's still my responsibility and
it's
reasonable to consider the disruption in
my experience afield than encountering
someone who is in trouble produces as an
actual disturbance in my in my being and
then to act as if it's my responsibility
to rectify that disturbance now the
problem of course comes in that you
don't know how so if you run across a
street alcoholic for example in the
middle of the day and they're stumbling
wrong blindly and maybe they're
schizophrenic to boat and mumbling
terrible things you know it's going to
disturb you and it would be good if you
could set it right but you don't know
how so you can't you have to avoid it
but that doesn't mean that that isn't
you because it's also you and I think
that's why in the story of the Buddha
for example like the Buddha was
basically offered when he became
enlightened the chance to remain in
nirvana right as a uniquely enlightened
singular individual and he actually
regret rejected that offer because it
was his deepest conviction that it was
it was not possible for one person to be
enlightened and to be in a state of
Nirvana if everyone wasn't in that state
at the same time and so he had to move
himself out of that utopian experience
of Nirvana and come back to the normal
world let's say and to try to raise the
consciousness of people around him
because he regarded that as unfinished
business that was his personally and so
now I don't remember who is oh yes
that's all about cleaning your room yes
exactly so well the thing is is that
your your room isn't not you it's
actually you and so there's no
difference between the chaos that's
outside of you in a place that you spend
as much time as you spend in your room
and the chaos that's internal
psychologically and you know one of the
things I often do when I'm first dealing
with my clients - as a simple exercise
in setting themselves right
psychologically is to have them start to
clean up their external environment
because in people know how to do that
and there's no difference between that
and putting yourself straight
psychologic
as you know when you do something as
serious is starting to clean up for you
um and so Brendon the other thing I
would say is like finish cleaning your
room and then see if you can make it
beautiful because that's also
unbelievably useful Matt because it
teaches you about beauty and so then you
can make one room in your house
beautiful and then it's organized and
together and beautiful and so once you
do that with one room like your way
wiser than you were before and you've
actually accomplished something concrete
that's solid and incontrovertible that
you can point to that strengthens your
character and then maybe you can do the
same thing with your whole house and
then maybe you can do that with the more
with the world around you and believe me
if you start doing that you're not going
to be sitting around wondering what the
meaning of life is because you're going
to find it in that so all right so let's
see Max and mark says thoughts on the
Jews huh well that's complicated most of
them most of my friends are Jews which
is pretty interesting you know and when
I grew up in northern Alberta and there
were no Jews up there at all so it
coming out to Eastern Canada especially
in much all there are lots of Jewish
people there and I made friends with
lots of them and then in in my in
Toronto like and I thought I think part
of the reason that so many of my friends
have been Jewish is because the Jews
have you know what I'm speaking in a
very general sense is they have a rich
intellectual life and tremendous respect
for for intellectual pursuits and so we
have a natural affinity and so you know
more power to them as far as I'm
concerned there's a fairer there's a
fair bit of evidence especially with
regards to the Ashkenazi Jews that they
they're they're average IQs are about 15
points higher than the general
population which accounts in part for
the radical over representation among
Nobel Prize winners for example and also
in positions of let's say authority and
responsibility in many different domains
and it's like man I'm not unhappy about
successful people it's like as I said
it's the same in relationship to money
as far as I'm concerned it's it's not
that you have a position of authority
and I'm not going to say power because
power and authority aren't the same
thing but if you have a position of a
authority what matters is what you do
with it and so if competent people
occupy positions of authority then more
power to them that's lucky for the rest
of us I'll tell you that so and I think
you know have often thought this about
the Jews too is that if you're going to
be a minority you should at least have
the decency to fail and I think that
part of the route because you know then
well you're around and you're annoying
because you're a minority and you know
because people are fundamentally
ethnocentric and all human beings are
like that
but if minority fails then why you can
say well at least they failed and you
know that maybe allows you not to hate
them quite as much but the Jews have
this annoying proclivity where they go
as a minority to become extremely
successful and of course nobody can
stand that and so that's a huge part of
what accounts for anti-semitism which
are regardless and absolutely
I know abysmal and and and what would
you call it reprehensible a priori
stance you know so that's some of my
thoughts about them anyways alright next
how did I meet my wife and why did you
marry her oh well haha I'll tell you one
of the earliest memories I have my wife
because it kind of tells me what she's
like gay so she lived across the street
from me in this little town that we grew
up in called Fairview Alberta and I
think I fell in love with her the moment
that I saw her and although I don't
think the feeling was necessarily mutual
and so I was about like seven I think
something like that so I've known her
for like forty eight years and here's
one memory because this is their two
memories don't tell you so one of them
was when I was in grade five I got
glasses and I was pretty proud of these
glasses they were horn-rimmed glasses
you know and I was pretty proud of them
and I went out and I she came out onto
the street she looked at my glasses I
said what do you think of those and she
says I think you look really funny in
those and then she pointed at me and ran
into her house it was like twenty years
later that she finally told me that she
had always wanted to have glasses and
she was jealous about it but you know
she decided she'd give me a good teasing
and a good poke and so that and then we
used to play croquet together and one of
the great delight she would take is I
don't know
you've ever laid croquet but you know
you're sometimes the one person's ball
that they're hitting and another
person's will come together and then you
can stand on your ball and you can nail
it with the croquet mallet and like
knock the other person's croquet ball
halfway down the block and she used to
think that was pretty damn amusing when
she did it to me so and let's see what
else can I remember about her that was
but yeah I mean I told my dad when I was
in grade five I was sitting with her on
this big armchair in our living room and
she was sitting beside me on the
armchair which I was pretty damn
thrilled about and she was being chased
around by all the boys in the school at
that point even though she that was in
the elementary school you know so she
was very hot property let's say among
the elementary school boys and so I was
pretty happy to have her sit by me and
so anyway she left and I told my dad
that I was going to marry her and I
remember that and he told that story at
her wedding which was quite cute and
then I'll tell you one more story which
I really think it's funny this is so
funny so we we were friends when we were
kids and then you know girls mature
faster than boys and she's a year older
than me because I skipped a grade in
school we were in the same grade in
school and so you know when she had
about thirteen or so we kind of went our
separate ways a little bit although we
still remained friends and she had a
paper route and I took her paper route
over when she hit thirteen or so and I
like quadrupled the damn thing I think
which i think is pretty funny but I also
delivered paper to her house and one day
she was there with another another of
her friends and who was a kind of a cute
chick too and I liked her quite a bit
and they were sitting around talking
about like talking about how they were
feminists roughly speaking and they were
talking when I walked in about the fact
that neither of them were going to take
their husband's last day when they got
married and uh Tammy my wife I think
said to her friend
well that really means I'm going to have
to find some wimp and marry him and she
turned around and looked at me and
smiled evilly and said hey Jordan do you
want to
get married and of course I'd heard the
whole conversation and you know she knew
I liked her obviously and so that was
nice little comical dick she has a very
vicious sense of humor and you know I
kind of laughed and I thought haha okay
yeah okay so find it so then when we
were I was like 28 and she had come to
see me in Montreal and we were talking
about getting married
and she said we were talking about what
that would mean and then we started
talking about what the name would be and
I said hey I've got a story for you um
remember when you were 13 and I was
delivering papers to your house and
because I suggested that she take my
last name and she wasn't so sure about
that and I said well you remember that
little story that that little episode
that we had when you were 13 and I came
over to your house and you told me that
you weren't going to take your husband's
name and that you're gonna have to marry
some wimp
said okay well you know Here I am but
you know if we're going to get married
you're going to take my name and that's
the end of that argument and so you know
she had the good graces to go along with
that but that was actually you know
Stern nearly comical and ridiculous so
so yeah so that's a good one
what's my advice to young men seeking a
woman for marriage and family yeah well
okay fine that's the same quest second
question that's that's pretty
straightforward man I mean you can't
eliminate the necessity of being
attracted to one another that's
important and that's mysterious you know
so for example here's a funny thing if
you one of the things we know that
attracts people to one another is
bilateral symmetry and so if you take
men and you rank them by the symmetry of
their faces and then you give the
asymmetrical men t-shirts to wear clean
t-shirts for a day and the symmetrical
men clean t-shirts to wear for a day and
then you give the t-shirts to women and
you have them rate the odor the women
rate the odor of the symmetrical men as
more attractive than the odor of the
asymmetrical men and then and there are
other factors that determine sexual
attractiveness that are based on
biological factors that are so deeply
embedded
terms of smell for example so women also
tend to not be sexually attracted to the
to the scent of men who's who have if I
remember correctly it's Rh factors that
would make for potential trouble in
childbirth and they're often the reason
that the women give for not preferring
the scent of those men is that they
smell too much like their brother
something like that
so there is weird mysterious things that
determine whether or not people are
sexually and physically attracted to
each other and I think it's very
important that that's part of a marital
relationship the next most important
thing is trust man it's like there
there's no marriage that's successful
without trust you guys you've got to
tell each other the truth and one of the
reasons that you'll believe that
marriage as a and the oath and a Carl
Jung as a bond was necessary it's really
wise it's like you know telling the
truth - someone is no simple thing
because there's a bunch of things about
all of us that are terrible and weak and
reprehensible and shameful and all of
those things and they kind of have to be
brought out into the open and dealt with
and you're not going to tell the truth
about yourself to someone who can run
away screaming when you reveal who you
are and so the marriage bond is
something like okay here's the deal I'm
going to handcuff myself to you and
you're going to handcuff yourself to me
and then we're going to tell each other
the truth and neither of us are going to
get to run away and so are once we know
the truth then we're either going to
live together in mutual torment or we're
going to try to deal with that truth and
straighten our selves out and straighten
ourselves out jointly and that's going
to make us more powerful and more
resilient and more and deeper and wiser
as we progress together through life and
and I think that's absolutely brilliant
because if you leave the back door open
man you're going to use it that's for
sure
and the oath is there and this was
Jung's commentary on the
spiritualization of the human parable
and by Christian marriage for example
which would emphasize the the what would
you call it the subordination of both
members of the marital Union to
higher-order personality that was
embodied in the figure of the logos so
the idea is that in in the Christian
marriage for example the man isn't the
boss and the woman isn't the boss the
boss is the mutual personality composed
by the seeking of truth in both of them
and that's conceptualized as there's
their joint subjugation to the logos and
that is absolutely dead on man it's like
the ruler of your marital life should be
your vow to tell each other the truth
because like in hard times during your
life when you've done something stupid
and idiotic that might take you down and
you don't have anybody that you can turn
to you know if you have a partner that
you can trust you can go say hey you
know I made a big financial mistake man
and it's really torturing me and I feel
like a complete idiot and it's really
dangerous and the person there it's
going to help you figure out what to do
about it and they're going to know that
when they make a stupid mistake and
they're bloody well going to that they
can come and talk to you and that you
guys are going to work your way through
it and that's a big deal and there's a
couple of things our culture gets really
wrong and one is a devalues marriage
that's really a very bad idea because
marriages
marriage is like a third of your life
and maybe more and kids are a third of
your life and your your your life
outside of marriage and kids is a third
of your life you know approximately
speaking and to miss any of that is a
massive massive mistake now having said
that I will also say that for some
people missing one or more of those is
necessary because they have a reason you
know maybe they're brilliantly creative
artists and they need to devote
themselves entirely to their career or
their outstanding in some way and so
they meet they can justify the sacrifice
of one part of that try out of being to
another part but for but generally
speaking it's a very dangerous thing and
it shouldn't be done and also kids get
an absolutely terrible rap you know
because kids are delightful if they're
well-behaved one of the chapters in my
new book is called don't let your
children do anything that makes you
dislike them and you can do that
especially if you discuss it thoroughly
with your
spouts you're the person that's helping
you discipline the kids and children are
the best company because they're really
enthusiastic about everything they love
doing new things they really love you so
they're happy that you're around um all
you have to do is make sure they're not
too hot and they're not too cold and
they've had something to eat and they're
not too tired and you don't expect them
to stay engaged in something for longer
than they can manage because we used to
take our kids when they were little out
to restaurants for example and they
could sit there no problem and behave
really nicely when they were 2 and 3 but
they couldn't do it for more than about
45 minutes you can't push your luck but
I also noticed with little kids is that
they got antsy and unreasonable about 5
to 10 minutes before the adults did too
it's just the adults were too stupid to
notice the kids would notice right away
so um so back to marriage when you look
for someone that you're attracted to
that you love and then you look for
someone that you can bloody well trust
and then you tell them the truth and and
that way maybe you can get through life
and you can have someone to weave the
Rope of your being with and together to
make to make your joint rope stronger
and you can have some continuity in your
narrative and you can have children and
then you can have grandchildren and like
you can have a life man and there's
nothing you're so fortunate if you can
manage that and so ok so there's that
one so what's my advice to young men
seeking a woman for marriage and family
yeah well and also you know marry
someone you think would be a good mother
and that has enough sense generally
speaking to know that she wants children
now some women don't want children and
fair enough and some women perhaps
shouldn't have children that's also
possible but the general rule of thumb
is especially once a woman's you know in
her mid-20s if she doesn't know that she
wants children or won't admit it unless
she has a viciously important reason
then she's not oriented properly
psychologically she isn't she doesn't
know what's important in life
now that might also be the case with you
and it probably is but as a rule of
thumb that's a really good one so okay
another more spontaneous one here
right
on the other hand what's your advice to
high achieving females for finding a man
that's it that's a tough one do I want
to do I want to answer that question see
the problem that high achieving women
have and I've dealt with a lot of them
you know because one of the first of all
I've had a clinical practice as most of
you may know and I also had a consulting
practice and one of the things they were
kind of mixed but one of the things I
did for a long time was I served as a
consultant to two people who were
spectacularly successful in their
careers because I worked with an agency
whose sales pitch basically to the
companies or the law firms because it
was mostly law firms was give us your
really high achieving people and we'll
help them sort out their lives even more
and make them even more productive and
and valuable than they already are you
don't need much an increment in the
value of someone who's high achieving to
justify that from an economic
perspective so I work with a lot of high
achieving people for like 15 years and I
still do it to some degree and a lot of
them were women and a lot of them were
female lawyers and they were very
interesting to work with because most of
them were extremely attractive and they
were very very smart and they were tough
and you know they were very demanding
when it came to a mate because women do
tend to mate across and up dominance
hierarchies and if you're like very
attractive and you're very intelligent
you make a lot of money and you're very
competent it's like how there's not a
lot that's a cross and there's even less
that's up and so that's hard on women
and and it actually the way the way that
that actually works out is that
especially with regards to IQ for women
is that that the higher the IQ that a
woman has the less likely it is that
she's going to find a partner and the
effect is actually quite pronounced and
so that's pretty rough what's my advice
while the first piece of advice probably
would be don't pretend that it's not
important because it is important and
the next piece of advice I would say is
and you know this is practically
speaking is it's a lot easier now for
people to find at least a potential
partner than it was 20 years ago because
you have this tremendous technology
that's available with regards to opening
up the dating market and I would say
finding the right mate is like finding a
good career the next good career move I
know that's not a great analogy but a
huge part of that is just persistence
you have to kiss a lot of frogs before
you find a prince you know I suppose
that's one way of thinking about it and
then and then I guess I would also say
that's really about the best I can do
man it's it's a it's a really
complicated question look for someone
that loves you and that wants to take
care of you and that and that is
oriented to some degree towards the same
things that you are that's also helpful
but apart from the earlier things I said
about attractiveness and truth you know
that's about the best I can do it's a
very complicated question okay kenny
lauderdale yeah this is a good one how
do I get over my fear of driving I'm an
adult and have no driver's license and
it's crippling me ma'am that's a really
important question a lot of young adults
and I don't know if you're young or not
don't have their driver's license and I
think that's a catastrophe because it's
a real first of all it's it's
economically suicidal because it makes
it very difficult not if you live in New
York City or somewhere like that but you
know if you live anywhere else you
sacrifice your autonomy by not being
able to drive look Kenny I would say
take a driver's of course and do it
badly it's who cares if you have to do
it five times you know go sit in a car
for a while and pretend to drive like
you're a kid and then have them drive
you around the block and like take it
slow maybe it's something that'll take
you a whole year to learn but you're
you're actually in a really good
situation to advance yourself
psychologically because you know that
there's something you should do that's
learn to drive right that's challenging
and you know that it's interfering with
you so you have a great opportunity
right there to overcome that
and to improve your psychological
functioning and I would say this is
associated with tarot-card the fool if
you look up that card you'll see that
the fool is often a young man who's
about in a sunny day who's about to step
off a cliff you think well is that a
good card or a bad card it's like the
symbolic meaning of that card is that in
order to make progress you have to be a
fool and you know you've already
admitted you're a fool you're afraid and
you don't know how to drive like you
know how pathetic hahaha yeah okay the
thing is you accept that is you don't
know what you're doing and you're going
to be a fool while you're doing it and
but you're nowhere near as much of a
fool doing it as a fool than you are as
a fool avoiding it so I would say go
find someone professionally that can
teach you how to drive find someone
that's patient tell them that you're
nervous about it start in a parking lot
that's empty on a early Sunday more
sunny Sunday morning you know where
you're not going to kill anybody and get
your damn driver's license it'll do you
and unbelievably it'll do you it'll do a
tremendous amount of good so so great
you know you say there's this old
alchemical saying that Carl Jung was
very fond of which is instr Colinas
infinite or which means something like
in filth it will be found or it means
what you most want is where are you to
be found where you at least won't look
and you know where you least want look
man you don't want to look at your
ability as a driver so go fix that and
it'll really help you out man Tanner
spell any suggestions for someone about
to start University yeah um a if you can
find some professors they're going to be
often going to be older people and often
older guys who still know what the
classic scholars knew and stay away from
the bloody post modernists like you
might want to take a course just so you
know what that sort of thing is about
but see if you can find people who are
literate really literate and who can
teach you and so what you do is you shop
around go to classes more than more
classes than you can take at least in
the first couple of weeks of university
listen to the professors and find out
the ones that are telling you something
that you really need to know and then
follow them
stick with them so you have to search
out your own path to be educated in
university the other thing I would say
is make a schedule treat University like
it's a full-time job
make a schedule the first week of
classes put in your exams like in Google
Calendar put in your assignments make a
plan to to make this to get the
assignments done start early because
lots of kids end up by Thanksgiving
their first semester and they get so
damn far behind they can't believe it
because there's a lot of work in
university a lot of reading and then
they bail out don't make that mistake
man it's like it's a full-time job and
then you can go have fun at night you
know and more power to you go have fun
figure out what your responsibilities
are lay them out and make a plan and
then stay on top of them and then you
know you'll you'll do yourself a great
favor
so okay um with the majority of your
audience being men how would you
characterize the few women that are
generally interested in your videos
doesn't mean they're masculine side
might be preeminent I don't know the
answer to that I mean the thing it's
tough one because it turns out that my
primary audience is on YouTube and
YouTube seems to be a place that's where
men are hanging out more than women now
I don't know why that is it might be
because men are slightly more interested
in nonfiction and in ideas per se than
women who are more interested in
aesthetics and fiction that's how what
the personality data reveals and so it
might be that because YouTube is has a
kind of an emphasis on on ideas per se
and nonfiction ideas that men more
gravitate towards it although that is a
guess
believe me because I don't really
understand it are the women who are
watching me more masculine than their
orientation it's possible it's possible
I'm not so it's not self-evident to me
why that should be the case though
because I also spend a lot of time
talking about symbolic issues and and
aesthetics which you think would be
attractive to women so
actually don't know the answer to that
so um what should I do if every time I
voluntarily confront my problems I get
too overwhelmed with stress to make
progress solving them oh that's a good
one man okay so the first thing is take
your problems like let's say that let's
take the driving example I'm too afraid
to drive okay then you think well what
exactly does driving consist of well the
first thing is is that you have to
establish some kind of relationship with
a car so you might think well you're not
too afraid to go online and do a little
investigation into what cars are like
like what's a good car and how do they
work and you know familiarize yourself
with the car and then that makes you a
little less afraid and then you think
well maybe I'll just go sit out in a car
and put my hands on the steering wheel
and you know just kind of accustom
myself to the idea of being in the car
and I customized a custom myself in my
imagination drive around in the car
maybe I'll try some driving simulators
online and then then the next thing is
well maybe I can find someone I can
trust to train me and what we'll do is
as I mentioned earlier is we'll go out
to an empty parking lot on a Sunday
morning and I'll drive 15 feet and then
stop and that'll be good enough for the
day so what you want to do if you're
overwhelmed with your problems is you
want to break the problems down and you
you do this by thinking strategically
you want to break the problems down into
units that are small enough so that you
can confront them and master them with a
high degree of probability and you know
you can decompose almost every stressful
problem into so imagine that you have a
stack of paper on your desk and there's
a bunch of monsters inside it that you
don't want to face you know like
homework you haven't done or taxes that
you haven't finished her or you know
trouble you're having with a
bureaucratic enterprise that you'd
rather avoid it's like one of the things
you can do is just the first day you
might think okay Jesus I want to avoid
that
all right well would I be willing to
take the papers downstairs and put them
on the table and spend no more than 10
minutes just looking at them and
organizing them and you might add then
you ask yourself what would I do that
and if the answer is yes you think okay
that would be good enough for today and
then the thing is you've knocked on the
dragon's door you know and and you
you you you've you've you've eliminated
the first part of the avoidance and so
then you're on your way and the next day
you might think well you know could I
deal with the first page of that problem
and you think well I could at least look
at it and the trick is and this is what
behavioral psychologists do all the time
is identify the fear break it down into
its subcomponents layout is scheduled
for confronting the subcomponents and
don't burden yourself more than you can
tolerate and man you can make
unbelievable progress that way but you
know you have to be willing to give
yourself credit for small achievements
and that's fine because consistent small
achievements add up incrementally across
time into absolutely remarkable progress
because it's it starts to start to get
like compound interest in it on it so
yeah so that's what you should do and
look if that doesn't work and you're so
overwhelmed that you're just absolutely
in stasis then one of the things that
you should consider is that maybe you
have an anxiety disorder maybe you're
depressed like maybe things have just
really collapsed in on you and you have
terrible problems like you know maybe
you're sick and you're you have an ill
relative and you're in real financial
trouble and you're unemployed it's like
that's just too much and so at that
point maybe you need to go talk to
someone maybe you need to consider
something like temporary anti-anxiety
medication or antidepressant medication
and to sit down and strategize with
someone about how are you going to put
your life back on track and I would say
also if you're in a situation like that
and you can't find out you can't find a
therapist then try the self authoring
program because that's what we designed
it for so okay another live one let's
see here
I saw someone called the green bastard I
wanted to answer that question but it
flashed by real quick so is that a
reference to bubbles wrestling persona
just out of curiosity I'm wondering if
you're a fellow Trailer Park Boys fan
because I you know I love the Trailer
Park Boys and and because of my Western
Canadian upbringing I suppose and so but
I missed your question but I like your
your handle so okay let's see o Muhammad
a hadith says re Islam can I send you
names of us-canadian scholars who are
grounded Western culture and traditional
Islam you should reach out to them
before I and hers II do sure do it man
send it Jordan door Peterson at you
Toronto CA I already talked to I and her
Z Ally by the way and I'm going to post
my discussion with her very soon but I
am I'm interested in engaging in as
broad a series of dialogues as possible
and so if you've got some people you
think are good and articulate and
willing to talk man yeah send their
names okay Jordan don't Peterson at you
Toronto CA let's see the doctor Peterson
I was wondering if you have any advice
for figuring out whether vengeance is
ever a good thing or is it always bad oh
that's a good one man um look I have
clients very frequently who have been
seriously wronged by someone in their
life and maybe that wrong doing is
ongoing and so like they're often
possessed by the desire for revenge
sometimes to homicidal levels okay so
then you got to think about that really
carefully because you know you say well
you should forgive people it's like well
no you should forgive people that repent
and you should forgive people because
carrying the burden of the demand for
vengeance with you and being resentful
about that is really hard on you and it
can you and so it's not a great
move psychologically but having said
that like it's not easy to distinguish
the demand the desire for vengeance from
the desire for justice and part of the
reason that we have a justice system is
so that you can outsource
your desire for vengeance to a system
that alleviates your moral
responsibility for going head-to-head
with someone that's wrong to you so it's
a really complicated question and I
would say I can't answer it on a generic
level I'd have to say it depends on the
particulars of your situation but
vengeance the problem with vengeance
generally speaking is that it produces
feuds like it spirals out of control you
know I hit you you hit me twice I hit
you four times you stabbed me
you know I kill your brother you kill my
family you know and then soon the whole
world is at war and it's something I
think that the story of Cain and Abel
really warns against and I think part of
the reason that we have a justice system
is actually to stop people from taking
vengeance on each other so you know the
demand remember years ago Michael
macaque dukakis I think that was his
name he ran for president and one of the
things he did that was really wrong is
that when he was governor of
Massachusetts he released this guy I
think his name was Willie if I remember
correctly and once he was released he
went out raped someone if I've got the
story right and Dukakis was axe asked on
national TV you know how how he would
respond something like that if someone
had raped his wife like someone who was
released and raped his wife you know and
the right response to that question is
you know I'd like to rip the guys lungs
out and you know maybe I'd stalk his
house until I had the opportunity to do
that that's what I would want to do but
because I'm a civilized person and I
understand the danger of that I would
cooperate with the justice system and do
everything I could to ensure that the
person was brought to justice and then I
would do my best to reconcile myself
without outcome even though every cell
in my body would be crying out for
vengeance that's the right answer
but well so I'll leave that the answer
to that I'll leave I'll leave it at that
so yeah yeah okay let's see I'd like to
take good big-five test I've noticed
there are many online where can I find
the most accurate test to take well I
would say wait three weeks or a month
because we're going to release our
version of
big five aspect scale which is a scale
that a student of mine called into young
developed while he was working in my lab
and it was partly generated by an idea
that I had with another my business
partner I mentioned earlier Daniel
Higgins because we had talked for years
about the necessity of developing a more
differentiated higher resolution version
of the big five which had been attempted
by the people who developed the Neo PIR
which has which has what had they call
them facets but they weren't empirically
derived so if you wait a month you'll be
able to take the big five aspect scale
test and it'll give you ten dimensions
of personality output and I think it's a
it's a really good test we've used it a
lot and it's being used very widely in
the relevant scientific domains the
papers be very highly cited I think it's
been highly cited like six hundred times
or something like that so so keep an eye
out and that should be coming real soon
so if psychedelics increase openness and
openness is correlated with intelligence
can psychedelics increase intelligence
good question
I doubt it most things don't increase
fluid intelligence really hard to get an
increase in fluid intelligence um you
know those brain training games like
Lumosity even if you play a lot of those
games and they're very complex cognitive
games you don't tend to experience an
increase in general intelligence you get
better at each game domain specifically
but it doesn't seem to generalize across
intelligence per se so I doubt that
psychedelics increase intelligence and
openness the personality dimension see
it's a good question because it might be
that psychedelic use would increase
something like divergent thinking
associated with tests like the torrents
tests of creativity but I don't think
anybody has ever tested that and you
could consider that a form of
intelligence but I think the probability
that it would increase nonverbal
intelligence is low and that's partly
because there are elements to openness
that aren't reducible to psychometric
intelligence so I doubt it
it wonderful if we can find something
that would increase intelligence but
that's turned out to be something
unbelievably difficult okay to what
extent do you believe that discourse
with moderate Muslims can lead to reform
of ideology such that the gap between
Islamic and Western beliefs can be
bridged well I guess we're going to find
out about that because that's one of the
things I want to do over the next couple
of years it's you know I said this
before but I think it's worth saying
again as far as I can tell there's only
three states of being there is tyranny
there's slavery and there's negotiation
and you know tyranny tyranny and slavery
are forms of war so we either enter into
discourse and hopefully with the
moderate Muslims or we're the tyrants or
they're the tyrants and were the slaves
or they're the slaves and then there's
war and so we bloody well better have
discourse because war is what happens
when discourse fails and you know we
actually in some ways we can't really go
to war anymore because we're so armed
and increasingly that's also the case in
the Muslim world I mean look at Pakistan
it's it's developing a pretty decent
nuclear-armed armament a nuclear
deterrent let's say which is quite
terrifying because Pakistan is one
unstable and dangerous place but I mean
what are you going to do you're going to
go to war with people who have hydrogen
bombs it's like that's not going to work
out very well so we bloody well better
learn to talk and so I'm hoping you know
I'm doing this biblical series which
some of you maybe know about because
you're also helping to ensure that it
happened and again thank you very much
but in parallel with that I'm doing I
want to do a very long series of
discussions with moderate Muslims
theological philosophical political
practical to see if the gap between
Islamic and Western beliefs can be
bridged I'd better be able to be bridged
because we're on the same planet man and
there's lots of both of us so
capitulation on either side isn't going
to work and and like blind ignorance of
them of the dangers mutual dangers that
our societies pose to one another I mean
I mean by that I mean you know to the
degree that Islam
Islamic societies are functional
traditional societies they're threatened
in that functional traditionalism by
radical Western technological and
philosophical revolution just like Wirth
threatened as Westerners ourselves by
our own technological and philosophical
revolutionary nature discourse truthful
discourse man that's that's the hope for
the salvation of the world and so
hopefully we'll put it into practice
I've met a number of moderate Muslims
already in Canada who are extremely
interested in this sort of thing and
some in the u.s. as well and so I think
that well you know it's worth a try man
so okay another live one just tuned in
says logic bugs how many times should I
clean my room clean your room until when
you go in there you start doing things
that are good for you
so because cleaning it isn't just isn't
just organized it's not just making sure
that it's not messy man
it's organizing it so that it's a place
where your being can properly manifest
itself it's a place that should invite
you to do the things that are good for
you in the world and so you should be
thinking when you have a room if you're
fortunate I have to have a room you
think okay I want to organize this room
so that the probability that all do the
things that I know I should do is
maximally heightened you know get
yourself a good desk if you need a desk
get yourself a good bed that you like
like set the bloody place up so that
when you walk in there you think Jesus a
civilized human being could really live
in here and then every time you walk in
there your room will remind you that the
proper way to behave in there is to
behave as a civilized being responsible
intelligent forward-looking articulate
you know concerned about doing what's
good in in the most courageous and
responsible possible way you know not as
a two-bit do-gooder who's look trying to
look good in front of the world but as
someone who's toughened and and able and
and and caring and reliable and all of
that and that's what you really should
tell you so set the damn thing up until
that's what it screams at you when you
walk in there so
okay what is my IQ it's less than it
used to be because it declines as you
age you know quite a lot so you start
getting stupider from an IQ perspective
at about 22 or 23 so and the best way to
regulate that is to engage in physical
exercise just so you all know so on both
weight lifting and cardiovascular
exercise are really good for the
maintenance of intelligence I don't know
what my IQ is I had it tested at one
point it's in excess of a hundred and
fifty but I don't know exactly where it
lands now I should I should what qualify
that to some degree you know as your
intelligence increases the scatter
between the different subtypes of
intelligence such as there are increases
so you might say that there's only one
way to be stupid but there's many ways
to be intelligent and so I'm not
overwhelmingly intelligent from a
quantitative perspective you know I I
think my GRE scores for on the
quantitative end of things for about 70
75th percentile which isn't too bad
given that you know you're competing
against other people who are going into
graduate school but there's a big
difference between 75th percentile and
99th percentile and I think that's where
it was verbally something like that so I
can certainly see that I have gaps in my
intelligence when it when I'm discussing
things with people who have real who are
really quantitatively brilliant my
business partner Daniel Higgins is
quantitatively brilliant I've got an
edge on him verbally but but he's
definitely got an edge on me
quantitatively and I've had students
like that too who like could pick up
statistics I had one student who was
little on the autistic side and that
that she was a woman man not woman she
was so damn smart she she learned how to
write moved from you know credible
writer to an excellent writer in about
four months which was stellar and she
moved from not knowing a damn thing
about statistics to being able to teach
it to Harvard undergraduates at an
award-winning level within a year it's
like that just made my jaw drop now she
had a hell of a time presenting herself
properly in public when she was doing
public
patience so you know she had other gaps
in her ability but you know I can hold
my own verbally and I'm rarely in a
situation where I feel like I'm at a
disadvantage verbally but that's
certainly not the case quantitatively I
feel at a disadvantage very frequently
quantitatively so I would love to hear
you do a lecture series on raising
children properly is that something you
would consider yeah um
we'll see you know I'm really curious to
see what sort of response this book I'm
going to publish gets especially this
chapter on don't let your children do
anything that makes you dislike them
because in some sense I would say that
the propositions I put forth aren't
exactly what you would normally hear
surprise surprise in in the cultural
milieu that surrounds children right now
because everybody and their dog is
afraid of disciplining children and
that's really stupid because what yeah
stupid is right is the right word
because undisciplined children are
terrified and the reason they're
terrified is they sorry got to change
the battery
and hopefully we're back let's see okay
um mr. Cuban says why is it so important
to have kids if the world has an
overpopulation problem well who says the
world has an overpopulation problem I
don't buy that so it depends on whether
you think that human brains are the kind
of resource that figures out how to do
more with less and that is what I think
I mean there's been a huge argument for
years between the economists and the
biologists you know the biologists often
are pessimistic and they basically adopt
a Malthusian perspective and that is
that we'll continue to breed until we
exhaust the planet and do in our all of
our resources and The Economist's always
counter that by saying hey don't be
forgetting that we can constantly figure
out how to do more with less and that
we're pretty damn smart and I'm afraid
I'm on the side of the economist but
even more to the point you know the
projections right now indicate that
we'll probably peak somewhere around
nine or ten billion something sometimes
by the middle of the 21st century and
then our population will start to
decline pretty precipitously and I think
there's every reason to assume
especially at our current rate of
technological progress progression and
our increasing willingness to take
broader responsibilities for the for the
large-scale health of the planet that
we'll be able to manage that without too
much problem we can certainly grow
enough food to do it if we put a little
bit of effort into that we're going to
squeeze out a lot of other animals on
the way I'm afraid especially some of
the big predators and and mammals that
are of approximately our size and that's
you know there's a price to be paid so I
think there's more Tigers now in Texas
just in case you're wondering then there
is in the wild and the rest of the world
and so but you know Tigers tend to eat
children and so it's kind of rough
having them around but in any case I'm
not worried that we're going to over
populate the planet and
and and and destroy everything and I
think that that's thinking that
basically hasn't advanced since the
1960s because we are making tremendous
progress in in pulling people out of the
lower echelons of poverty and there's a
lot of terrible resource misuse at the
lower echelon of the poverty
distribution so for example when people
have to cook with wood you know that
produces a tremendous amount of
deforestation for example and that kind
of thing and I think we'll get Iraq
together if we're fortunate will peak
around nine billion that will we'll be
worrying about depopulation by the time
some of the young you younger people are
old and besides you have kids because
that's part of life
so and it's it's the two things aren't
related in some sense as far as I'm
concerned so the trick is to have kids
that are more good than harm you know
what I mean because maybe because people
aren't only consumers they're also
producers it's kind of appalling that we
regard ourselves as consumers so you
know if you're going to have kids have
good kids make them smart make them
tough help them be tough you don't
really make them help them be tough help
them be smart help them be responsible
and then you know maybe they'll do good
and and that would be good for the world
and people and like I'm pro people man
and so I'm not worried about that so so
you know I heard a university professor
once who I also thought was completely
reprehensible who was like lecturing to
a group of eighteen year old kids about
how he and his wife had only decided to
have one child because you know they
didn't want overpopulate the world and I
thought that if he had only managed to
reproduce one genetic copy of him that
was probably for the best but then he
told the whole roomful of 18-year olds
that they should really think seriously
about whether they have kids and if they
have any they should just have one and I
thought you son of a you know
you're such a you're so dedicated to to
the destruction of humanity and so rife
with hatred for the human race that you
dare to stand in front of kids who are
just beginning their lives and say well
you're such a you're a member of such a
reprehensible species that the last
thing you should do is multiply
it's like no sorry I don't see any
wisdom in that at all and I don't think
the world does have an overpopulation
problem and I don't think that there's
any evidence that it does now that
doesn't mean that we're managing
everything that we should manage
properly like we're really wreaking
havoc on the oceans but boy onslaught
who's definitely worth looking up boy
and I think it's Bo why a n and s laa T
Dutch kid has figured out he thinks how
to get rid of half the plastic in the
oceans in the next five years so you can
go support him that'd be a hell of a
thing to do he's a real genius and
there's lots of ways that the burden
that we're placing on the our planetary
resources is going to be lifted and the
trick is to get out there and do
something about it you know like Elon
Musk is a good example it's like okay
well maybe we're burning too many fossil
fuels and maybe not because I think the
dangers of carbon dioxide are actually
somewhat overstated I think there's some
decent evidence for that too but it's
hard to sort it out because so much of
the climate change argument is
predicated on an underlying philosophy
such that if you're anti-capitalist you
believe that we're going to burn up the
planet and that's just not helpful
because I can't tell if your science is
right or if you're just anti Western and
anti-capitalist
so and like I spent three years working
on a UN committee that secretary the
Secretary General's high-level panel on
economic sustainability I think it was
called and it produced a report in 2013
and I spent about three years reading
everything I could get my hands on on
economic development and environmental
sustainability and the state of the
planet is far less dismal than the dew
sayers would have you believe I do think
that the one thing that we're doing is
like we're fishing out the oceans like
idiotically it's really really awful and
trawling is a very damaging process and
and I think that like if we left the
damn oceans alone for about 15 years
they recover not the great but a huge
fish like tuna because they take a long
time to develop but oceans would come
back really quickly and you know but I
think we'll get smart enough to do that
sort of thing over the next 50 years
because you know human beings aren't
stupid and we've actually only been
worried about the planet let's say since
about 1960 it was only a hundred years
oh that it was more or less self-evident
that the the natural world was
inexhaustible in comparison to the puny
efforts of humanity and you know we only
figured out that there was enough of us
to cause trouble by about 1960 for
Christ's sake how long do you expect us
to how long do you expect it it to take
us to figure out how to take care of a
whole planet you know we're doing a
pretty good job for people who only
stumble on to the idea that there might
be a problem something like 60 years ago
so I think we'll get it right
especially if more and more people start
to act responsibly and truthfully and
all of that which and and start working
for the betterment of things instead of
trying to you know undermining and and
hurt and and you know engaging identity
politics and all that sort of
reprehensible reprehensible activity
okay let's see what are your thoughts on
using psychedelics to help people
overcome traumatic experiences hey be
careful because psychedelics can cause
traumatic experiences like those things
are no joke man
I don't think we know enough about them
yet to make useful generalizations about
their hypothetical clinical utility
there's some decent studies indicating
with psilocybin for example that it
might have utility in the treatment of
depression it looks like it's a really
effective smoking cessation medication
which is really cool
so but I think what happened was that
when the psychedelics burst onto the
scene in the 1960s they terrified us so
much that that like we all recoiled at
their very existence and then decided
not to exactly try to figure out what
they were and I can understand that man
because those things are seriously weird
like they're they're incomprehensible
strange I don't think we understand them
at all I don't think we understand them
any more than we understand
consciousness I think that they may have
great therapeutic utility but you know
there are viciously powerful medications
and weapons and so you use them at your
own peril something to that Carl Jung
said which I really like because he
talked about psychedelic use a little
bit although he was pretty old by the
time the psychedelics burst on the scene
you know he said beware of unearned
wisdom
and I really like that because even if
the psychedelics can open the gates of
perception and flood you momentarily
with you know with information of
genuine cosmic significance that doesn't
mean that you're the sort of character
you're not the sort of vessel that can
tolerate being filled with that kind of
divine fluid you know it might just
break and crack you so I would say you
know approach those things with
trepidation you should have the same
attitude toward psychedelics that the
ancient Israelites had towards the Ark
of the Covenant which was that you know
God was in there but if you touched it
accidentally you would die nuts that's
pretty good that's a pretty good general
attitude to have with regards to any
serious encounter with psychedelics
those things require respect they're not
toys they're not games they're not fun
what we don't understand what they are
but you know they're they're worth
treating with tremendous respect oh if
we have betrayed or let people down in
the past how does one move on without
guilt turning pathological oh well
that's that's actually fairly
straightforward the first thing I would
say is you can try using the past
authoring program in the self authoring
sequence because it's actually designed
to help people do that but here's the
issue man it's like you did something
wrong and it's hurting you
fair enough that hurts people and what
you have to do is you have to figure out
what it was that you did wrong you have
to figure out how it was that you got
there you have to figure out how to
change your life so that you won't go
there anymore you have to make amends
for what you've done not necessarily
precisely to the people that you did it
to because maybe you can't but you need
to start to live your life in a way that
makes amends for what you've done and
then you have to let it go because
people make mistakes and torturing
yourself to death because you did
something reprehensible and stupid isn't
as useful as using the experience to
transform yourself into someone moral
and useful so
now you know that's that's easier said
than done obviously and I'm not I'm not
in the least taking it lightly I know
that you know you can do things in your
life that are very bad and that are very
hard to get over but but adding your own
misery to the misery of the world when
you could be out there doing good is
probably not the best way to atone for
your for your past sins so you know and
and people make mistakes
the trick is once you've made it to
admit that you made it to learn why you
made it to transform yourself so you
don't make it anymore and then to go out
there and start acting like a proper
person and so one of the reasons I'm
also kind of attracted to some of the
more fundamental elements of the
Christian doctrine because there is a
doctrine of universal forgiveness that's
embedded in that system but in the idea
there basically is that well people are
fallible
in a profound way but if they atone they
can be redeemed and if they're penitent
I mean that's where the word
penitentiary come from comes from by the
way if they're penitent if they go over
their conscience if they confess to what
they've done to themselves to God in
society let's say and they attempt to
strike out on a better path and that's
all genuine it's like the idea as well
if you don't allow people who make
mistakes to move on then you just have
to dispense with everyone because
everyone's made mistakes
now having said that I know there's
difference between categories of
mistakes but you know forgiveness after
repentance is a good moral axiom as a
female I never had a great inclination
to start a family after watching your
material I'm struggling with how much of
that drive is my own brainwashing is my
own versus brainwashing versus third
wave feminists how do I parse that out
that's a good question
how would you parse that out well I
would I would start two things I would
start by watching your dreams and your
fantasies because they can tell you
things that you first of all might not
want to know but also that you that you
don't know but I would also say try
making a case for both sides
you know like a really intelligent case
so imagine that so you're trying to
figure this out so the first thing you
do is formulate an argument where the
proposition is that you've been
brainwashed by third wave feminists and
make the strongest possible argument you
can in support of that and then put that
aside and then do the reverse and make
the strongest argument you possibly can
in favor of the idea that you're that
this is your own idea and that for
whatever reason you're not inclined to
start a family you can even do the third
thing which is to do another argument
writing about why you should have a
family and really like that's thinking
right you got three arguments there you
want to make each one of them as strong
as you possibly can like really sweat
over it and then what having made the
arguments allow yourself to contemplate
them for for as much time as you need
and it'll start to become clear to you
so that's what I would recommend so I
follow your daughter's food blog where
she has recently talked about her
pregnancy what are your thoughts on
becoming a grandfather well lucky me man
I love kids and so and I get along
really well with my kids so that's so
great I just can't believe it and they
live near me in Toronto and now there'll
be another kid in and that'll be great
for my wife because she loves babies and
my daughter will like that too and you
know as I said already about babies you
know they're not exactly I don't regard
myself as a baby expert but once the kid
is like nine months old and older than
that especially between like 2 and 11
and teenagers too because I like
teenagers
it's like hooray I love kids and so it's
wonderful and I lived long enough to
become a big grandfather and you know
I'm not I'm not 3/4 dead yet or anything
like that and so hooray it's great and
hopefully it'll happen some more so ok
if dominance hierarchies select for
heroes and breed them why then is Christ
a celibate man isn't celibacy an excuse
for cowardice that's a good one well the
first thing that's kind of odd about
Christ as an archetypal figure and this
is something you'll commented on is he
died pretty young he was only 32 you
know so and young actually attributed
the obsession in our culture with youth
to the fact that our divine figure never
became mature although you know we have
the divine figure of God the Father
which I suppose would fill out the
archetype to some degree
why is Christ a celibate man well I
guess maybe you would say
if you're in a situation where you can
sacrifice yourself for the redemption of
all of mankind may be adding the
responsibility of an individual family
to that is just a bit too much I mean I
know that's a bit of a glib answer in
some sense but there's something about
it that's the case you know I mentioned
earlier that now and then people have a
calling of some sort that supersedes
other callings that they could follow
and I would say in the archetypal
representation of Christ that that's
something that could definitely be that
case could be made I don't think that's
a sufficient answer though and I hope
that when I get to the point in the
biblical series that I plan to run until
I get through the whole Bible if I can
manage it now to probably take a couple
of years that's the sort of question
I'll be able to address more fully okay
so let's go back to a live question here
oh Zoltan Zoltar FTW have a BA in
political science concentration
political theory I'm had any job offers
and anything other than retail or all
commissioned sales in over a year what
should I be applying for well what I
would say is take the best job you can
find that could be retail and I know
retail jobs can be pretty miserable but
they may be better than no job at all if
you have a job you're in a better
position to find your next job because
people would rather hire someone
employed that someone who isn't employed
and and then you're also employed you
have some structure in your life and
then I would also say don't
underestimate the possibility of moving
up in a retail job know you can if
you're smart and hard-working and you're
with a company that's smart enough to
bloody well recognize someone like that
the probability for advancement in that
kind of corporate structure can be
really great and so I would say if
you're going to take a retail job take
the damn thing seriously and don't feel
like it's beneath you because every
circumstance that you find yourself in
as a human being is rich enough so that
there's much that you can bring to it in
terms of of useful commitment you know
like in a retail job well you have the
opportunity to learn how to interact
with customers
you have the opportunity to sell you
these are big bloody skills if you can
get them right you know you have the
opportunity to learn how to be grateful
that you're not starving to death in a
ditch you know and and it's not such a
bad thing to start at the bottom because
then you learn what the bottom is like
and you learn how to move forward so I
would say take the best job you can find
and then continue to look for other jobs
but but do the job right do it properly
and one of the things and I've had lots
of what would you say I don't like to
call them low-end jobs but they're there
they're there working class jobs I've
had lots of working class jobs in my
life like a dozens of them really and
they're not trivial you can learn a lot
in a working class job and you know you
can learn how to get along with your
employer with your peers you can learn
how to get along with your supervisors
and be useful to them and maybe be drawn
to their attention if they have any
sense and I mean if you have a retail
job and it's they're treating you like a
miserable slave and if you're doing a
good job and you get no credit for it
it's like get the hell out of there as
fast as you can but you want to find
somewhere where if you work hard and
you're a reasonable person that people
are going to notice that and open up
doors of opportunity for you that's kind
of the definition of a healthy company
and you can find that virtually anywhere
so don't be thinking that the retail
jobs are necessarily you're not going to
be there forever you know and with a BA
you often have to start at the bottom
but that doesn't mean that that's where
you're going to end up so so don't don't
feel too dismal about that it it's a
start man and that's something and you
could go into the retail job and you
could think okay like if I was really
smart about this and I was really
regarding this as an opportunity how
could I knock this out of the park and
that's a good thing to think about and
it beats the hell out of you know
sitting there and I'm not saying that
you're necessarily doing this but
feeling sorry for yourself because you
know you've got a degree in the world
isn't opening itself up to you it's like
maybe it is maybe the retail job is
opening itself up to you so and then you
work hard on developing your career once
you've got a toehold in there and I know
that's maybe you might regard that as
naively optimist
but that beats naively pessimistic and I
but I also do believe and I've seen this
happen many times is that you can if if
your attitude is if you have yourself
put together properly let's say sorted
out properly you can make a hell of a
positive impact on the world in a
relatively low-level position you know
because you could make the person who
walks into the store your retail
operation you could make the next 10
minutes of their life a hell of a lot
more pleasant than they might be if you
were miserable and resentful and you
know maybe they'll come back again and
maybe the store will thrive that's
especially true if you start working for
a smaller businessman you can have a big
effect on a small business so don't be
thinking that there's no opportunity
there you know it might be your
inability to construe that as
opportunity that's the that's what's
interfering with it believe me I know
that especially chain retail jobs and
especially if you have a dismal
authoritarian manager that those jobs
can just be hell but so I wouldn't
recommend staying in a job that's hell
and that where there's no further
movement but don't necessarily think
that you're not being an offer offered
an opportunity if you can take any job
at all you got to start somewhere man
and and and the bottom like I said the
bottom is not a bad place to start
because you learn down there and someone
who gets really good at business across
time let's say knows whatever enterprise
they're in from the bottom up and that's
what makes them competent so and they
don't say oh well the things that the
bottom are too
they're not good enough for me because
the things at the bottom are really what
the business rests on and you need to
know how those things work and then you
also have some sympathy for the people
who are maybe stuck in those positions
forever which you wouldn't be you know
you won't be so okay um let's see here
what time is it
902 and we started at 7:30 let's go to
9:30 that's probably good enough so
that's about 20 more minutes um
fab fab you bollinger advice for a
breakup after four years it's been 1.5
years and I still believe she's the one
well I would say she's a 1 and look some
people really pair-bond hard you know to
put it in in crass biological terms but
if she's moved on and that's serious you
know then I would say start start going
out with other people you know really
and and start just because she's the one
doesn't necessarily mean she's the only
one you know and one and a half years
that's long enough so that you should be
starting to to act as if you're getting
over it and if you're having real
trouble with that then I think you
should probably find someone to talk to
and talk that out and figure out what
your strategy is but I would say get the
hell back into life man now if you know
maybe there's part of you that still
thinks that there's some possibility of
rekindling the relationship and for all
I know maybe that's possible it seems
unlikely because I don't think that you
would I don't think that you would be
asking that question if you thought that
was a possibility but I would say um go
and go find some other people man and
and and admit to the possibility that
there might be someone else out there
that will work with you and get on with
your life because you're going to be old
a lot faster than you think and you
don't want to be stuck in stasis any
longer than necessary because then
you've lost the woman and you've lost
your time and losing the woman is bad
enough but losing the woman and your
time that's really not good at all so
let's see how do you get over hiding
something because of the fear that
people will think of you differently or
treat you worse especially for family
members and others close to you
Quentin Goodwin you know Quentin I don't
know what's say about that because it
depends on what your it depends on what
you're hiding you know so
I'd like to answer that question but
it's not detailed enough the devil with
questions like that man the devil is
often really seriously in the details
and I just if you think that you're
hiding it because of cowardice that's
one thing but like you might have a real
problem you know and you're hiding
something that really would cause
serious repercussions in your social
circumstances and in your family in
which case you know it's a hell of a
tough thing to deal with them I would
say you need to find someone that you
can talk to that you trust that's wise
and maybe that would be a professional
but or I would say the same thing that I
mentioned earlier to to someone who had
a similar question about strategy is
like write down a strategy and then the
other thing you could do to that's
useful is imagine the worst okay imagine
you reveal whatever this is and the
worst happens
lay out the worst so you understand it
you know be be realistic about it and
then figure out how you'd handle it you
know like you could imagine well
everyone now hates me so much I have to
move to a new town well maybe you could
do that you know and once you know that
you could do that then maybe you
wouldn't be so afraid about it
so it's often the case that people are
terrified about the terrible things that
might happen is because they won't
really think through what the terrible
things are and what they would do and so
think it through think the catastrophe
through and think about how you would
cope with it if it happened and that
should encourage you to some degree so
Benjamin would question what's wrong
with Maslow's hierarchy
what's wrong with Maslow's hierarchy and
my I was just writing about that
yesterday day before and in my new book
by the way Maslow presumes that you have
to meet your material needs before you
can meet your spiritual needs and that's
wrong that's just not right it's not
wise and I would say the read Victor
Frankel's man's search for meaning
that's a good antidote to that and also
again I would say read social net since
Gulag Archipelago especially following
him too because Solzhenitsyn has done a
tremendous job of dispelling the idea
that material security and
and comfort is a prerequisite to
higher-order psychological and spiritual
being so so I think what's wrong with
Maslow's hierarchy the idea of Maslow's
hierarchy is that it's far too
materialistic in its fundamental
orientation now having said that you
know that doesn't mean that there's
nothing useful in Maslow's thinking I
think that his discussions of self
actualized persons are actually very
interesting and the idea that you know
there are higher levels of human human
psychological and spiritual development
I and he was thinking about more
secularly
I think is also extremely useful but I
think the idea of the manner in which
you progress through the hierarchy is
wrong I also think it's a socialist idea
in some sense because the an a utopian
idea because the idea is the way that
you bring about the perfect human
society is by making sure that
everyone's material well-being is is is
is is established and look I know people
need to eat and I know that they need
security and all of that I understand
that but assuming that that's a
prerequisite for spiritual development
is an error and assuming that it's a
necessary prerequisite is even a more
egregious error I would say so can you
further explain your disapproval of a
trend
I don't really disapprove a vain round I
liked reading her novels you know and I
think it's funny because I was given an
rants novels by a woman named Rachel
Notley who is the mother was the mother
of because unfortunately she's deceased
of the current socialist premier of
Alberta Rachel Notley who was a friend
of mine when I was kid and it was her
mother who was an avowed socialist of
the of the pro working class classical
type who gave me an R and as well as
George Orwell and and and Alexander
Solzhenitsyn and Aldous Huxley a whole
raft of really high quality literature
literary books and she wanted to be it
she wanted to expose me to that
philosophy and like I found in rands
books I really liked reading them
they're really romantic they're there
they're interesting adventure
stories I would say and you know ain't
Rand had a point I mean she had a hell
her family had a hell of a time with the
Communists in the Soviet Union like she
had reasons for doing what she was doing
but the problem with Ain Rand as a
literary figure is that all her heroes
are the same people and they're
completely heroic and all her villains
are the same people the same person just
in different bodies and they're all
almost completely reprehensible and so
you know one of the hallmarks of high
quality literature is that the battle
between good and evil isn't just fought
out between the good guys and the bad
guys like at a cultural level that would
be an identity politics issue safe and
that it's not the good guy as an
individual who's like the next Messiah
in a tram that would be the capitalist
Messiah and then the evil reprehensible
satanic figure and you know all of the
good traits are embodied in one and all
of the bad traits in the other in in
really sophisticated literature I would
say that even the villains have good
qualities like villains are way more
interesting when they're also
interestingly good and you know
Raskolnikov in in crime and punishment
is a good example of that in all of
Dostoyevsky's villains for that matter
because they have deeply admirable
qualities like Ivan for example it was
not exactly a villain but but he's
certainly atheistic which would put him
at odds with Dostoevsky in The Brothers
Karamazov I mean Ivan has everything
going for him he's good-looking he's
dashing he's young he's brave he's a
he's got military training like he's
he's uh he's he's clear-headed he's a
hell of a villain he's a great villain
man and Ian Rand it's just like it's
just too formulaic in my estimation and
so it starts to verge on the ideological
and she was primarily motivated by
making a political point rather than by
writing literature in my estimation so
that's all I mean and having said that I
would also say I got a great pleasure in
reading in Brad's book so I'm not I
don't precisely disapprove of her she
isn't she just isn't a top-rate
philosopher and she's also not
top-rate literary figure and those are
the reasons she's a little bit too
propagandistic and her characters are
too uni dimensional so yep that's why
okay let's see here fresh sweet says
Jordan is a mental
well I'm tall so at least I'm also I've
got some elements of me that aren't
entirely like so let's see so
what else do I say about that well it's
conceivable that fresh sweet is a mental
giant by comparison but I doubt if he or
she would have used that insult if that
happened to be the case so let's see
someone said please can I say their name
and the answer that is no because I've
lost your question so I read your
question but I'm not going to say your
name so well that's that's ironic I
suppose Oh sharp girl seeks are there
evil persons with no redeeming qualities
no that would be just too simple man
yeah it'd be nice if that was the case
you know you know what I mean not
exactly nice but know that it just isn't
how life works man it's it's as social
medicine said you know even in the best
person there's still some uprooted an
uprooted corner of evil and even in the
person who's gone as far down the rabbit
hole as you can possibly go there's some
still shining element of the divine
quality of humanity that could be
communicated with so at least that's how
it looks to me so Ari
how do you make time to read for leisure
right now I don't in fact I don't make
enough time to read period and but I
hope to rectify that soon mostly I'm
editing the things that I'm writing and
mostly I'm writing so but when I do read
mostly I've read before I go to bed I go
to bed and I read for
our an hour or something like that so
I'm 23 wheelchair-bound I can't afford
College and don't have the services to
get me through it and I'm glad I found
you online my favorite subject of
psychology I'm very intrigued by it
great that's Nate otherwise hey so good
man watch the lectures and then go take
a look at my reading list at Jordan meet
Peterson comm and get those books you
can get most of them used online for
next to nothing and even the ones you
have to buy man it's worth it or get
them from the library or something like
that so and and you know you can educate
yourself to a large degree you got if
I'm going to expand that reading list to
two maybe a hundred books or something
like that because jeans especially
what's really funny about books too is
the better the book the cheaper it is
it's so funny because you can buy
penguin classics for example literature
classics for like one cent
plus shipping what a deal you know so so
and some of them you can just get for
free now because the copyrights have
expired and you can download them on
your Kindle and they don't cost you a
cent so what do I do for fun hmm
what do I do for fun I build things in
the backyard I like doing that I play
ping pong with my son except I taught
him how to play ping pong and now he's
way better than me and just stomps me
and and that and he laughs a lot about
that so that's very annoying I spend
time with my wife although not enough
especially in the last 7 months because
I've been completely you know
overwhelmed by all of this um what else
do I do for fun snack on social justice
warriors that's kind of entertaining
spend time with my family that's
probably the biggest thing I talk with
my friends you know standard sorts of
things like that I find most of what I
do in my life extraordinarily engaging
and entertaining so except when I'm
overwhelmed by it and and that's been
that's happened to me partly because of
the mood issues I talked about
but also partly because like the last
seven or eight months is really being
both surreal and overwhelming I'm
usually so engaged in what I'm doing
that um I'm alright I wouldn't say I'm
not looking for fun exactly it's that I
have a bunch of it already
Kyle Mitchell says what should I do if
my girlfriend isn't satisfying me
sexually how do I get her to progress
with me oh well that's a place you can
usually use really use both discourse
and reward it's like okay well what do
you want that's the first question and
you know could you make your once known
and other ways that you can express the
fact that you're happy about that that
would be compatible with the person's
desires you know a lot of it's a lot of
that is off the lack of communication
but you know you could also do what
Skinner did when he was training rats
which is watch your partner you know
during sexual encounters and otherwise
and when they do something that you
really like and really want them to keep
doing like let them know you know that's
intelligent use of reward but a lot of
it is just discussion you know it's like
first of all figure out what you want
and discuss with the person what you
want and find out what why they're
objecting and you know do some
negotiation and if you can't talk here's
a good rule of thumb I think for
especially for young people who are
engaging in new relationships is it
don't do anything sexually with anyone
that you couldn't talk to them about
before you did it I think that's a funny
one so and I think it's true - okay
Jordan what are your thoughts on George
Orwell brilliant George Orwell mad more
power to him
he was he was really something like he
he was a major influence on me and you
know he was beating he was clanging the
warning bell about communism you know a
good 30 years before the corrupt French
intellectuals woke up and admitted that
they'd been worshipping a you know a
murderous tyrant for the last
almost century I really go George Orwell
man and and he's such a clear writer
great essayist like a real a real
example for anyone who wants to learn to
write that's Orwell like Hemingway you
know although I think that Orwell was a
greater finger than Hemingway all things
considered
Hemingway can really write a tight
sentence man and he could he could say a
lot with with very few words and that's
really something worth worth taking a
look at - okay tjf and very advice for
aspiring academic specifically
philosophy graduate students that read
every goddamn thing you can get your
hands on man read all the great
philosophers and and and make notes and
write about them as well till you
understand them till you have them under
your belt and so and do that at the same
time while you're going through getting
your degree you know because a lot of
the education that you get in university
at graduate level isn't going to be very
good the courses are generally not very
good in my experience but man read
there's great people to read so start at
the beginning you know go back to
Socrates and and and read everything you
can get your hands on and and do the
work necessary so that you understand
the philosophers and you can start like
I found real useful way to start
introducing yourself to philosophers is
pick up and this is good for everyone
else who's out there to pick up like a
Plato for dummies or Nietzsche for
dummies or you know one of those
Illustrated introductions Christ it's a
good start you start slow and and start
building up your expertise and move
towards the actual you know the actual
difficult writings themselves so how do
you motivate yourself to do something
that you do not enjoy but you deem
important like studying for exams good
question
ask yourself what would motivate you you
know first of all don't be studying
eight hours a day because that isn't
going to learn you're not going to do it
anyways you know would you start
studying five minutes a day
seriously would you could you bring it
up to ten minutes a day what would you
have to do for yourself to get yourself
to sit
for half an hour a day and and study
intently like maybe you'd have to I
don't know what you'd have to do like
have a beer at six o'clock at night or
something or maybe you'd have to go for
a walk in the park or go out for coffee
it's like imagine that you're sitting
down with a stupid undisciplined child
who and you're trying to get that child
to do something useful you say okay look
I want you to do X it's necessary but
you can pick how much of it you're going
to do and I'll give you what you want if
you do it but I'll ask yourself that and
see what happens
so don't try to tyrannize yourself you
know try to negotiate with yourself and
use some reward and see how that works
and start slowly though maybe maybe
you're not very disciplined and the best
you can do is half an hour of studying
it a day well start with half an hour
increase that five minutes a week you
know if you do that that's a lot if you
if you do that for a year then you'll by
the end of the year you'll be studying
four hours a day so you can eat that's
that's just with five that's just with
five minutes a week right because that's
250 minutes in a year so start
ridiculously pathetically study for five
minutes a day for a week and then move
it to ten you have to do that and don't
cheat you know because one of the things
people do is they make a deal with
themselves like that I'm all I'm going
to study for 10 minutes a day each day
and then they get into it they think wow
this is going really good so they study
for two hours and then they've broken
the contract with themselves and they
don't trust themselves anymore and then
they don't study for a whole year or
well maybe not for a month so but set
your contract ask yourself you know what
could I do to move myself forward to my
goal that I would do and then how could
I improve that incrementally so that's
the right way of going about that so
okay what do you think about the line
that's often fed to young people to do
what you love and follow your dreams
well you know
there's something to be said for doing
what grips you but you know you have to
ally that with discipline that's the
thing and you have to ally it with
responsibility and so and and I would
also say that that advice say which
which I think has been most popularly
associated with Joseph Campbell was
actually to some degree something that
was at least initiated by young but one
of the things you said was more like
follow what grips and compels you and it
will take you into the underworld where
you will encounter your shadow and the
dragon and and when you put it that way
it's a lot more realistic it it it's
just too naive and and and and too good
to be true to be a good doctrine
although I think there's some there's an
element of truth in it you do want to
follow your dreams but not if your dream
changes every 30 seconds you know like
with the Future authoring program one of
the things we get people to do is to
detail out a vision for the future if
you could have the future that you
dreamed of having what would what would
that dream be that's really useful but
then the next part of the exercise is
okay how are you going to do the hard
discipline multi-year work necessarily
necessary to bring that dream into
reality and how are you going to make
that realistic and implementable on a
day to day on a day to day on a day to
day level so you got to bring your dream
down to earth man and and and act it out
and you have to be disciplined to do
that and so that's that's the part
that's missing there is do what you love
and discipline yourself that's a good
combination that's a good combination
what are your thoughts on sleep
paralysis that happens to me all the
time so it exists I mean it I often have
it happened to me this weekend for
example it's quite it's quite comical so
if I go to sleep on my back sometimes I
will dream that I'm trying to wake up
but I can't and so I am trying to wake
up but I'm asleep and I'm
still paralyzed because you get
paralyzed when your REM sleep so you
don't run around and act out your dreams
and smash your nose into a wall like
cats do if you take that part of their
brain out and so I often dream that I'm
kind of semi comatose and I know I can't
wake up and I'm like grabbing out my
daughter's sleeve too and saying throw
cold water on me or shake me or
something or push me out of bed because
I can't wake up and then she'll ignore
me and then I'll try to get my wife to
do it in my dream and it like it seems
like it lasts an hour and then finally
I'll shake myself awake and I often end
up haha when I wake up like that I'm
often annoyed because I've been telling
my family members as far as I'm
concerned for like half an hour
desperately to wake me up and they've
been ignoring me of course it's probably
only taken five minutes and they don't
have any idea what's going on but it
often I think it has something to do
with serotonergic malfunction and it's
that might be related to this mood
disorder that I described but but it's
also much more likely to occur if you
lay on your back and sleep on your back
and also if you do it in the afternoon
so and people can have quite horrifying
experiences with sleep paralysis there's
a good book called the the terror that
comes in the night about sleep paralysis
and nightmares and it's quite an
interesting investigation into that
phenomena so oh your essay writing
guidance has proven invaluable well
thank you that refers to that thing that
that writing exercise that you can find
on my cycle psychology 430 website I'm
trying to find a better place to put it
maybe I'll tweet about it again I'm glad
it's invaluable it's taken a long time
to figure out how to write it do you
have any guidance around taking notes
from books and lectures yeah yeah no
problem
like don't be taking notes during the
lecture exactly because then you're not
listening to the lecture it's like
listen to the lecture and then take
notes afterwards now that doesn't work
for every discipline but but it
certainly works for disciplines like
students in my lectures I always tell
them don't take notes during the lecture
listen to the damn lecture you can take
notes afterwards because what that does
is force you to practice remembering
and then with regards to books is like
read don't highlight don't underline
like that I think that that's just
rubbish I think it's pseudo work read a
couple of paragraphs or maybe an essay
something like that depending on the
density of the book close the book think
about it
write down what you're thinking write
down what you remember but but but in
the context of what you're thinking
about because that instantiates it into
your memory and give and puts it at hand
like people ask me for example how it is
that I can remember all the things that
I talk about extemporaneously when I'm
lecturing and the reason for that is
because I've thought them through you
know I read them and I think oh okay
well that's an interesting idea how does
it relate to all these other ideas that
I know like what is it significance for
this idea and what's its significance
for this idea and do I believe it and
how might I criticize it so it's kind of
like I'm I'm attaching little memory
hooks to it in in five different ways
and then I've got it it's it's part of
me and that seems to be part of recall
rather than so rather than recognition
and recall is the spontaneous act of
remembering something complex and when
you recall something you're actually
practicing remembering it and that's
what you need to do if you want that to
be part of you so I would say separate
out the function of reading and
note-taking so read think write or read
write think look because the last two
things are quite similar but don't like
read the book and then read a sentence
and then write down that sentence that's
not helpful you could read the sentence
close the book and then reformulate the
sentence so that now it's your sentence
man then you'll remember it then you'll
understand that that works really well
what a post modernists have right there
is an infinite number of ways to
perceive the world that's what they have
right and that's bloody major discovery
it was the same discovery that blew the
slats out of artificial intelligence in
its early instantiation in the 1960s so
the idea that the world is so complex
that there is in principle an infinite
number of ways to perceive it is correct
but the idea that there's no
order of rank difference between those
modes of perception that's just that's
that's where the postmodernist went
completely off the rails so they just
they they got the problem right but they
didn't take their thinking about it
nearly far enough so okay let's say you
mentioned switching to a paleo diet some
time ago and from the way your physical
appearance seems to improved I would say
it's working quite well could we have
more details into your diet yeah you
could for a year and a half I basically
haven't eaten any carbohydrates so I
wouldn't recommend it though because
it's really not it it's hard and it also
makes you unpopular I can't really go to
restaurants it's very difficult for me
to go to other people's places to eat it
makes traveling a real pain but I'll
tell you if you want to lose weight man
and that is really why I did this by the
way but if you want to lose weight if
you cut carbohydrates out of your diet
and go on a paleo light diet heavy
protein and greens and that sort of
thing and you can eat a lot of that so
you don't have to be hungry my
experience has been and you know it's
not the same with everyone but I also
know other people who've tried this on
my brother-in-law who's actually quite a
great genius has he's 60 now and he's in
better shape than he was when he was in
45 45 he's a bloody monster that guy
really tough really physically put
together super smart and he's followed a
paleo diet for about 15 years and like
he doesn't have an ounce of fat on him
so if you want to lose weight drop the
carbs and you'll lose weight so fast you
won't believe it and you don't have to
be hungry so I don't want to go into it
more depth because it's Jesus Christ I
spent so much time talking about my
bloody diet over the last year that it's
just bored me to death that's so funny
because it's so funny because just
before last September when I made those
first videos I was sitting around with
my family and we'd been talking about
diet god non-stop because partly because
of my daughter's health problems and
also like it's like everyday discussion
about diet it was just paralyzing me and
I thought god I hope I wish that we can
find something else to talk about it's
like well that sure happened
so what is your advice for people that
aren't very social and have a hard time
making friends get the hell out there in
practice man I had a client very
introverted very introverted person very
badly served by her parents
not very well socialized extremely
socially anxious awkward in her social
interactions as well so not skilled she
did and also alone she didn't have an
intimate relationship or really any
family so quite quite isolated person
and terrified of social interactions
like she couldn't even go out and have a
coffee with me as her therapist as a
practice exercise when we first met and
man she's made progress like you
wouldn't believe
Terry unbelievable progress you know
doing public doing public appearances on
stage even go go take go to Toastmasters
do some public speaking
join meetup.com ask people questions you
know that's a really good thing if
you're not very social and and you get
self-conscious you start thinking about
yourself and how stupid you are that's a
really bad idea you should be paying
attention to the other person so if you
get nervous it isn't that you have to
stop being nervous because that isn't
going to work what you have to do is
start paying more attention to the other
person you have to force your attention
outward and you know you can ask people
questions listen to them and when they
say something interesting or they say
something you don't understand ask them
a question and people love that man
because they know you're listening to
them and people love being listened to
so if you're nervous learn to listen
better and learn to ask questions and
and there's no stupid questions if
you're paying attention right and so you
don't have to worry about that if you
don't know something if you don't know
something and you ask an honest question
and someone treats you badly because of
it then you should just go away from
that person because they don't have a
clue so get out there um forget about
trying to not be nervous because you're
going to be nervous but when you're
nervous pay more attention to other
people
listen to them carefully watch them
because then your
natural social abilities will kick in
and ask them questions and you know
you'll assume it'll take you three or
four years to get decently good at it
and that you really have to work at it
but it's worth it man so so just go out
there and and do it and you'll you'll
figure it out
you'll figure it out so alright guys and
girls and and assorted others it's 9:30
and well that was fun
I hope it was fun for you and I would
like to say in closing two things number
one thank you very much for the not just
for the monetary support you know
although I hope to put that to good use
I that is definitely my plan but also
the public support I've received has
been extremely practically and
psychologically useful to me you know
because there was a lot of stress in the
last year and and my job was definitely
in danger at the University of Toronto
and certainly my autonomy as a professor
was and the fact that I received all
this public support was extraordinarily
useful for me to buttress my sense that
I was pursuing the right course of
action even though I wasn't doing it
perfectly and it was it was very it
helped me protect myself to a great
degree practically I mean part of the
reason the University had the let's call
it the opportunity to back off in in the
face of all the objections that were
raised by the social justice warrior
types is because there was a counter
protest from the general public and so
thank you very much for that it's much
appreciated and with regards to the
money man like my plan is to while aid
to remain very grateful for it and not
to take it for granted but be man I'm
going to try to do some viciously good
things with that so and I freed up my
time for the next like year and I want
to capitalize on this I want to
capitalize on this opportunity and I
want to bring classical humanities
education to millions of people and
Jesus that's such a good deal so so
thanks very much it's for
much appreciated so we'll talk to you
again soon and I hope you enjoyed the QA
and good night oh and I'd like to thank
my son Julian because he's helped me set
up all this technology and that's been
really good of him and and and it worked
so great for that bye bye
now I have to figure how to shut this
off
first blank shot then done
bye-bye