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For the past 30 years, Care Heating and Cooling

1:01

put you first. You are the reason why. Who

1:04

Wrestle With God Tour. All

1:38

these great bands, and here you are

1:40

tonight. Well,

1:43

thank you very much for coming. Let me tell you

1:45

what's going to happen tonight. I'm going to share

1:48

my thoughts with you for 70 minutes,

1:51

thereabouts. Then

1:54

I have a special guest here, Konstantin

1:57

Kizin, who runs a podcast.

2:02

Good, well you should know about

2:04

him, definitely. Crazy Russian from the

2:07

UK. A real voice of reason

2:11

for our fellow

2:16

Westerners in the UK. Constantine

2:18

is going to come out on stage and

2:22

torture me about what I said, I hope.

2:25

Well what I'm hoping, Constantine is

2:27

a very

2:29

clear thinker, very witty man, he's got a

2:31

very sharp mind, he's critically oriented

2:33

in the best possible way. A good

2:36

critical mind separates the wheat from the chaff,

2:38

right? Because to be

2:40

property critical isn't to hurt

2:42

or destroy with criticism, it's to

2:44

separate what's truly valuable from what

2:46

isn't valuable so that you have

2:48

solid ground to stand on. And

2:51

you know one of the things that I've strived to

2:53

do in my whole academic career is to move

2:56

closer and closer to believing

2:59

and stating and writing things

3:01

that I can't

3:04

move. And you

3:10

do that yourself by subjecting

3:12

your own presumptions to critical

3:16

analysis. You do that

3:18

so that you think through what you're doing, so

3:21

that you don't act out your stupid

3:23

ideas in the world and die. And that's

3:26

the purpose of thinking, right? Seriously, the

3:28

purpose of thinking is to have

3:32

your stupid ideas die instead of you. And

3:35

that's part of the reason why your enemy

3:37

can be your best friend because if someone

3:40

can take out something you think because they

3:42

can show you how it's

3:44

erroneous and counterproductive and then you don't

3:46

have to go through all the trouble

3:48

of learning that stupidly in the world,

3:50

that's a fine gift. And

3:52

so I'm hoping that Constantine

3:55

can stand in for

3:57

the audience, for the critical and

3:59

the skeptical audience, we're talking

4:01

about very difficult issues, it's

4:04

highly likely that I

4:08

could formulate what I'm stating more clearly

4:11

and precisely and so Constantine

4:13

will come out and we'll

4:17

discuss what was presented tonight and

4:19

then we'll turn to the questions that you

4:22

kindly delivered and discuss those

4:26

and then we'll reintroduce the band and that

4:29

should do for the evening and so

4:31

that's the plan and

4:33

so away we go. I'm

4:36

very much looking forward to this. So

4:45

the first thing we're going to talk about

4:47

is we're going to talk about stories and

4:50

set the stage. I

4:53

think we're at a crucial inflection

4:56

point in

4:59

the world, culturally

5:01

and philosophically. I

5:04

think we're on the dawn of a new

5:06

set of realizations, a

5:09

new set of realizations that will return

5:11

us to our fundamentals. I

5:14

think the reason that we have a

5:16

culture war raging in the West, why

5:18

there's so much instability is

5:20

because something new is struggling

5:22

to be born or

5:24

reborn and I want

5:27

to explain the reason for that first and

5:34

the reason is that the

5:36

enlightenment view of the world

5:38

which has guided our technological

5:41

and scientific endeavor, our conceptual

5:43

endeavor, our philosophical endeavor for

5:47

a few hundred years is

5:50

there's something about it that's wrong, like deeply

5:52

wrong and that

5:55

error is

5:58

making itself manifest in the science. community

6:00

because I would say now that scientists

6:04

themselves from a multitude of

6:06

different disciplines understand that the

6:09

idea that we see the world as a

6:12

place of facts or

6:14

that we see the world as

6:16

rational creatures or that you can

6:18

even see the world that way

6:20

is wrong. Wrong

6:23

and I believe that it's it's

6:25

been demonstrated to be wrong. It's

6:27

this isn't a matter of mere

6:29

philosophical opinion anymore although it's also

6:31

that. One example

6:34

for example is that the

6:36

newest artificial intelligence systems

6:38

that we've designed the large language models

6:40

that have burst onto the stage in

6:43

the last year or thereabouts,

6:45

chat GPT, the catastrophic

6:48

Gemini that Google so foolishly

6:50

launched, Elon

6:52

Musk's, Grog. These

6:55

systems are trained

6:58

like human beings are trained. They have

7:00

a name, they have a purpose, they

7:02

were trained with reward and

7:05

punishment so to speak, their approximations

7:07

to a target. They see the

7:09

world through a

7:12

structure of value that they have

7:14

absorbed from human beings. To

7:17

make the world's smartest linguistic

7:20

machines we had

7:22

to inculcate in them a structure of value.

7:26

Okay and so and and we

7:28

produced machines now that can

7:30

engage in discourse that can

7:32

use language in a way that's virtually indistinguishable from

7:34

the human and it's going to become radically

7:37

indistinguishable from the human very

7:40

very rapidly and

7:42

they're not programmed like lists

7:45

of rules, they're not programmed like

7:48

ordinary thinking

7:50

machines. They're programmed the same

7:52

way that human beings learn, they're programmed with aim,

7:55

they have an ethos and an ethic. We

8:01

can't orient ourselves in

8:03

the world with

8:06

the facts. We

8:09

can't follow the science because

8:12

science isn't a leader. Science doesn't

8:15

establish our aims. Our

8:17

aims are established using mechanisms

8:20

of perception and emotion

8:22

and thought that aren't

8:24

in themselves scientific. We're

8:26

aiming at something. Why

8:30

can't we orient ourselves in

8:33

the world with the facts? Well,

8:36

the simplest explanation

8:39

for that is that there

8:41

are too many facts. There's

8:44

as many facts as there are phenomena.

8:49

More, actually. There's as many facts as

8:51

there are possible

8:53

combinations of phenomena. You

8:55

drown in the facts. When

8:58

you're confused in your own life and

9:00

things are chaotic and you're anxious, it's

9:03

because a plethora of possibilities

9:05

is making itself manifest in front of you

9:07

and you don't know which way to turn.

9:09

You don't have a clear direction. You don't

9:11

have a clear aim. There's

9:13

no way of simplifying the world so that

9:15

you can act in it.

9:18

We know, for example, that to perceive

9:20

the world, you have to obliterate

9:22

from your consciousness almost

9:24

everything that you could see because

9:28

otherwise you're overwhelmed. We

9:31

know even that the hallucinogens who are

9:34

being studied with increasing intensity

9:37

in recent years interfere

9:40

with your normal perception such

9:43

that they bring to consciousness

9:46

a plethora of things that, under

9:49

normal circumstances, you ignore. And the

9:51

consequence of that is influx

9:54

of a sense of overwhelming

9:56

significance and meaning, but

9:58

at the same time a kind of... of paralysis

10:01

of action because when

10:03

everything becomes infinitely

10:05

meaningful, there's no straightforward

10:08

way of moving forward. When

10:11

you're in a restaurant with someone

10:13

on a first date and you're

10:15

focusing on the conversation and actions

10:17

of your date in a sea

10:21

of competing conversations,

10:23

you zero out everything that

10:27

you could be attending to in every

10:29

other table, all the competing

10:31

thoughts in your imagination, all the

10:33

things you could be bringing to

10:36

mind to zero in with like

10:38

laser pinpoint accuracy on what it

10:40

is that your partner in conversation

10:42

is doing. And you do

10:44

that in the world all the time. You make

10:47

one thing at a time of

10:49

pinnacle importance and you arrange

10:52

everything else in the world at

10:55

every moment that you perceive around

10:57

that thing that you've made of

10:59

pinnacle importance. That's

11:01

how you see the world. And I don't

11:04

mean think about the world. This is underthought.

11:06

It's more profound. It's

11:09

what you do when you actually see.

11:13

If I decide to do something

11:17

straightforward like walk

11:20

from here to the stairs

11:22

on the stage and

11:25

I set my aim, I don't

11:27

perceive any of you in consequence

11:31

because the fact of

11:33

your existence is irrelevant to my

11:35

purpose and you're gone. None

11:38

of the facts of the stage that

11:41

I could attend to are

11:43

relevant and perceptible anymore

11:46

except in so far as their

11:50

pathways or facilitators

11:53

or obstacles to my journey

11:56

forward. If I'm looking

11:58

to the stairs, I see the chairs

12:00

but not as places to sit. I

12:03

see them as obstacles

12:05

that I have to circumvent in order

12:07

to attain my aim. Everything

12:09

that you see in the world makes

12:12

itself manifest in accordance with

12:14

your aim. And that's

12:17

a radically, revolutionarily

12:20

different way of conceptualizing

12:22

the world than the

12:24

notion that you take the facts

12:27

and you sort them

12:29

despite their infinite number and

12:32

calculate your way with

12:34

the facts rationally forward. That's

12:37

not what you do. All

12:40

right. Here's

12:45

a proposition to contemplate.

12:49

It's another proposition that has revolutionary significance.

12:51

It'll explain all sorts of things that

12:53

you know to be true but don't

12:55

know why they're true. The

12:59

description of

13:03

the structure through

13:05

which you see the world is

13:08

a story. That's

13:11

what a story is. Okay, so now this explains

13:15

many things that are otherwise left as mysteries

13:18

or side

13:21

effects. I read a book by Steven

13:23

Pinker once. Pinker's an enlightenment rationalist

13:25

from Harvard. A good guy and very

13:27

smart and much of what he

13:30

says is extraordinarily useful but he

13:32

believes for example that our proclivity to

13:34

enjoy and tell stories is like a

13:37

side effect of something

13:39

more fundamental cognitively. It's the story

13:41

as entertainment theory. You go to

13:43

a movie because it's

13:45

fun. You read a book of fiction

13:48

to your child because it's fun. It's

13:50

not core to the what

13:54

would you say it's not a core element of

13:56

the way that you exist in the world. It's

14:00

mere entertainment. It

14:05

misses the point, that theory. Why

14:08

is it entertaining? Why

14:11

can you teach children with stories? If

14:14

you get the story right for a child, you

14:16

can capture the child's interest and you can integrate

14:20

almost any form of learning into the story

14:23

and the child will be captivated by that.

14:25

When children play, pretend play,

14:28

which they do spontaneously. They

14:30

spontaneously dramatize the world.

14:32

They spontaneously make

14:35

stories out of their roles

14:37

and their destinies. And

14:42

that captures them. That

14:44

forms the basis of their friendships.

14:47

That's why children wanna play so

14:49

frenetically is that they're practicing modeling

14:52

the world. When you go see a movie,

14:55

it's not that you wanna be entertained, although

14:57

it is interesting. That's not why you're

14:59

there. It's not for fun

15:01

either. That's easy to

15:03

understand and to see what's

15:06

fun about a horror movie. I'm

15:09

dead serious. It's like people

15:13

will be so afraid in a horror movie that they'll

15:15

cover their eyes. They'll

15:17

hide behind the chair in front of them. They'll

15:20

ask themselves afterwards why they even put

15:22

themselves through it. And yet they'll

15:24

line up and pay to do it. Why

15:28

would you line up and

15:30

pay to torture yourself?

15:34

Well, because

15:38

you wanna know how to deal with what's horrifying. And

15:43

you wanna practice that in a way, if you can, that

15:45

isn't in itself fatal. You

15:48

wanna expose yourself to the catastrophes of

15:50

existence so that you're prepared

15:52

when those catastrophes come along. You wanna

15:55

expose yourself to the predators that

15:58

lurk everywhere you want to. In

16:01

your yourself against was disgusting and

16:03

contaminating. Because you're gonna have to

16:05

deal with this. You want to

16:07

expose yourself to what's frightening so

16:09

that you can find the courage

16:11

within you to deal with what's

16:13

frightening. And that's part of the

16:15

instinct to develop and expands your

16:17

confidence. And it's in

16:20

that expansion. Of competence and

16:22

skill that occurs as a

16:24

consequence of the voluntary exposure

16:26

that the entertainment situated. The

16:29

reason that's entertaining is because.

16:32

It's. Part of the manner in which

16:34

you expand yourself. And

16:36

you can do that in the direction of

16:38

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16:40

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Com slash Gbp. What?

17:44

Do you do when you go to a

17:47

movie where you you you fasten on to

17:49

a character and you understand the character the

17:51

same way that you understand people that you're

17:53

in conversation with. Now you might say that

17:55

the way that you understand people is false.

17:57

You listen to what they say and you.

18:00

extract out the knowledge that they're delivering

18:02

to you in terms

18:04

of facts and you interpret the facts and

18:06

you derive your understanding of the person. Like

18:08

none of that's true. That

18:11

has absolutely nothing to do with how you

18:13

establish a relationship with someone. And

18:15

well here's some proof. Is that what

18:17

you do with a dog? Well

18:20

obviously not, but you can establish a

18:22

relationship with a dog. And

18:26

the relationship you have with a dog, it's not

18:28

the same as the relationship with a person, but

18:30

a dog's a pack animal. A dog can become

18:32

a member of the family. You

18:35

can understand a dog well enough

18:38

so the dog likes you. And

18:41

so whatever you're doing with the

18:43

dog, it isn't discourse about

18:46

propositions. Because most of the dogs

18:48

you own don't talk.

18:53

And it's the same with very young children. And

18:57

it's the same with an infant. You

19:00

establish a relationship using

19:02

mechanisms that aren't propositional.

19:04

They're not rules, they're not descriptions,

19:07

they're not facts. That's not

19:09

how you do it. How do you do it?

19:11

Where do you look when you talk to someone? You

19:14

look at their eyes. Why?

19:17

To see where they're pointing them. Why?

19:21

So you can see what they're looking at. Why?

19:25

So you can infer what's important to them. Because

19:27

we point our eyes at that

19:29

which is important to us. That's why

19:31

our eyes look the way they look.

19:35

Black in the middle, colored on the

19:37

ring around that against a white background.

19:40

That's an evolved mechanism. I can see your eyes.

19:43

All of our ancestors whose eyes

19:45

weren't visible either got

19:48

killed or didn't reproduce.

19:51

The one thing you want to know about someone right

19:53

away is where the hell their eyes are pointed.

19:56

And you can do that politely, which you

19:58

do by attending to someone with... without two

20:00

predatory stare. You

20:02

do that by attending politely to

20:05

their face, but not too intensely,

20:07

and not attending, let's say, inappropriately

20:09

to other parts of their body. And

20:13

they're going to be watching you to see what you do with your

20:15

eyes. Because the one thing you

20:17

want to know about someone above all else is what the

20:19

hell are they up to? Right?

20:21

What's their aim? And

20:24

so when you go to a movie, that's what you

20:26

do. When you watch a character in

20:29

a role, you see him in

20:32

a variety of different situations.

20:35

And you watch how he structures

20:37

his attention, what he pays attention

20:40

to. His attention is a

20:42

costly business. And so

20:44

people pay attention to what they value.

20:46

You watch what they attend to. And

20:50

you watch how they prioritize

20:52

their actions. And from

20:54

that, you derive an understanding of what's

20:56

important to them. As soon as you

20:58

understand what's important to them, you've got

21:01

their aim. You figured that

21:03

character out. This is what you do when you learn

21:06

to know someone. What's their aim? As

21:10

soon as you know their aim,

21:15

you can see the world through their eyes. You

21:17

can see the same objects they see. And

21:21

the objects take on the same emotional

21:23

significance. And when you say, I come to

21:25

understand someone, what you really mean is, oh,

21:27

I understand their aim. And now I

21:29

can aim at the same thing, at

21:32

least in simulation, at least

21:34

fictionally. And I can come to inhabit

21:36

the same world of perception and

21:39

emotion that they inhabit. I

21:41

can even guess at how

21:44

they might act and to what they might attend in

21:46

situations I haven't seen because now I know their aim.

21:49

What's he up to? That's what you're thinking in a murder

21:51

mystery or in a thriller. What's he up to? What's

21:54

he up to? What's going to happen next? And so

21:57

the plot of the fiction is...

22:00

the aim of the character across time,

22:02

the aim is the character unfold. And

22:04

that might involve the transformation of his aims

22:06

as well. Right? And that would be

22:08

the transformation of a character in a

22:10

movie. He aims at one thing and he

22:13

learns that that aim is off in

22:15

some manner. Or he comes to a

22:17

bitter and dismal partial end

22:19

and has to switch course. And

22:21

you want to see people transform

22:23

their aims. That's character development. We

22:29

see the world through a story. The

22:34

world's objects reveal themselves in

22:36

relationship to our aim. The

22:41

landscape of emotion presents

22:43

itself as markers on

22:45

the pathway to our aim. The

22:47

world reveals itself in accordance with our aim. That's

22:50

how perception works. That's a hell of

22:52

a thing to learn. Because if

22:54

the world, for example, appears

22:56

to you only as thorn-bearing

22:59

obstacles, right?

23:01

If you feel that everything's arrayed against

23:03

you and there's no pathway forward. If

23:05

you feel that you're surrounded by foes

23:07

and obstacles instead of walking

23:10

the golden pathway, accompanied

23:12

by allies with the world on

23:14

your side, you

23:16

might ask yourself whether

23:19

or not your aim is wrong. And

23:23

so the

23:25

world lays itself out in accordance with

23:27

our aim. We

23:32

produce fiction. We generate

23:34

fiction. We live

23:36

in a fiction landscape because

23:39

we want to get our aim right. We

23:42

read stories. We watch movies.

23:44

We go to plays. We talk to each

23:46

other because we want to get our aim

23:48

right. We want to find the

23:50

place we should go and we want to learn how

23:52

to get there efficiently. And we're

23:55

compelled by

23:57

spirit and instinct to... Establish

24:00

the aim and follow the path. And

24:03

to transform ourselves so that our aim

24:06

becomes ever more precise

24:08

and efficient and

24:11

delivers us a world that's

24:14

ever more abundant and beautiful.

24:17

And that's all a function of aim. Okay,

24:21

so we live in a story. Well then, as

24:23

soon as you know that, this is what the

24:26

postmodernists figured out. By the way,

24:28

this is why the literary

24:30

critics have become a dominant force in

24:32

the culture war. The

24:35

postmodernists were literary critics. You think, well, there's

24:37

nothing more irrelevant than a literary critic. Like,

24:39

who the hell cares what an intellectual thinks

24:41

about a story? I mean, of all

24:43

the preposterous things to be concerned about, that might top

24:45

the list. Not if the story is the thing through

24:47

which you see the world. If

24:51

the story is the thing you see through which

24:53

you see the world, there's nothing more powerful than

24:55

a literary critic. Except perhaps

24:57

an author. And

24:59

we wouldn't have a culture war right now.

25:04

The literary critic wasn't far more powerful

25:06

than anybody had possibly imagined. Because

25:09

the French intellectual literary critics,

25:11

known as the postmodernists, have

25:14

criticized the central story of the

25:16

wealth to death. And

25:20

that's why we have a culture war. And it's

25:22

no joke. This is foundational. There's

25:24

no more serious conflict than that. And you

25:26

all can feel that. That's why you're here.

25:29

You know that the world is shaking

25:32

and uncertain in a way that's new.

25:35

And the reason for that is the story

25:37

itself is under assault. All

25:40

right, so let's wander through that a little bit.

25:44

You see the world through a story. The

25:47

rationalists or empiricists, even the biologists, they might have an

25:49

answer to that. They say, okay, fair enough. You see

25:51

the world through a story. But

25:54

the story is biologically

25:56

determined or socioculturally determined.

26:00

story of sex, that would be

26:02

Freud. Because for Freud and for

26:04

Charles Darwin, for that matter, for Richard Dawkins,

26:06

the famous atheist, to an equal

26:08

degree, the

26:10

story, the aim

26:13

is sex, reproduction, and

26:19

the story is predicated

26:21

on that aim. Freud,

26:24

Darwin, Dawkins. The

26:31

degenerate element of that is a descent into

26:33

a kind of hedonism. Because

26:36

if sex is the story, then

26:38

why not worship

26:40

sex? And

26:43

some dispute that and

26:46

say, no, the central story isn't sex. This

26:49

would be the Marxists. The central

26:51

story is power. That's

26:58

the story that the universities tell when they're not

27:00

telling the story about sex. It's

27:04

all about power. The

27:08

essential human aim

27:11

is domination, oppression,

27:13

victimization, exploitation.

27:16

The central theme of the family

27:21

is power dynamic. The central theme of

27:23

the relationship between men and women is

27:25

a power dynamic. Marriage itself

27:27

is a heteronormative,

27:30

patriarchal establishment

27:32

of oppression that goes back to the

27:34

dawn of time. The nuclear

27:37

family is the same thing. Economic

27:40

arrangements are nothing but power. Friendships

27:42

are nothing but power. The landscape

27:45

of human interaction is

27:48

a dynamic of power, or

27:50

sex, or both, or

27:53

both fighting against one another. Look,

27:57

these are powerful ideas. Why?

28:00

Well, it's obvious why. I mean, first

28:02

of all, without

28:05

sex there's no reproduction, and

28:07

without reproduction there's

28:09

no people. And so

28:12

the Darwinian, Freudian, Richard

28:14

Dawkins, selfish gene claim is that,

28:17

well, what could it possibly be other

28:20

than sex? And

28:22

that Marxists come running forward and say, how

28:26

about power? And

28:29

then the Marxists say, well, obviously it's power

28:31

because there's

28:34

radical inequality in the world. There's some who

28:36

have and some who have not. There's

28:39

no reason to assume that property in

28:41

the final analysis, let's say, isn't a

28:43

form of theft. And everyone

28:45

who has established themselves in some manner

28:47

has only done that by stealing

28:51

from those who are powerless and who have

28:53

less everything they have and accruing it to

28:55

themselves. And that's a credible claim

28:57

for a variety of reasons. The

29:00

first, most fundamental reason is that a

29:02

minority of people have all the success

29:05

on any possible dimension of comparison. It's

29:08

a very small number of people who are radically

29:10

attractive. It's a very small number of people who

29:12

are radically gifted in the visual arts, let's say.

29:15

It's a radically small percentage of people

29:17

who are musicians. A tiny percentage

29:20

of the people have most of the money. A

29:22

tiny percentage of the people gather most of

29:24

the attention. It's

29:27

a Pareto distribution, and that's what Marx pointed on

29:30

to the rich get richer and the poor get

29:32

poorer. And there's real truth in that.

29:34

And there's truth in the claim that people

29:41

structure their relationships with power. It

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that some people who obtain success

30:58

do it as a consequence of exploitation.

31:01

And it's equally true that when

31:04

any human relationship deteriorates,

31:07

it tends to deteriorate in the relationship of power.

31:10

If your marriage starts to become shaky,

31:13

then you begin to exploit each other.

31:15

Use force. You try

31:18

to get your way. You try to dominate. It's

31:20

the same within any family that's

31:22

deteriorating into a state of pathology.

31:24

It's the same in any organization.

31:26

We've seen huge states deteriorate into

31:29

the tyrannical use of power. If

31:31

you had to identify a

31:34

cardinal attribute of mankind, powers

31:38

are reasonable. Hypothesis.

31:45

But let's think about that for a

31:47

minute. So imagine that, well

31:53

imagine that it's sex that is and should

31:55

be the complete

31:57

story of mankind. Well, what does that

31:59

mean exactly? What's a world organized on

32:01

that basis? What

32:03

is a world organized on that basis look like?

32:07

Well, there's nothing more important than sex. Well,

32:09

how about immediate sexual gratification whenever you want

32:12

it? How about

32:14

immediate sexual gratification as the archetype

32:16

of hedonism? How

32:18

about immediate sexual gratification whenever you want

32:21

it, regardless of what anyone else has

32:23

to say about it? Because

32:25

if it's the story, and it's the

32:27

fundamental story, then what stops

32:29

me from gaining access

32:31

to what I want right

32:34

now, regardless of the cost

32:36

to anyone else? If

32:38

there's nothing beyond that, if only

32:41

the naive believe that there's anything

32:43

noble about humanity beyond the immediate demand

32:45

of reproduction, then what have you got

32:47

to say that's moral about sex? And

32:49

why the hell shouldn't everybody just do

32:52

exactly what they want with whoever they

32:54

want whenever they want all the time?

33:01

And with power, you can make

33:03

exactly the same argument. And classical

33:06

societies, aristocratic societies, militaristic

33:08

and martial societies are predicated

33:10

on this idea. If

33:12

I can push you around, all

33:16

that indicates is that I should

33:18

push you around, because if you're so weak that I

33:20

can push you around, you have

33:23

absolutely no ground whatsoever to

33:26

stand on to oppose me. Because

33:29

if you were moral by the traditions of

33:31

power, I wouldn't be able to push

33:33

you around. And so

33:36

it's very difficult to argue out of that from

33:38

a rational perspective. Why does he might make right?

33:41

And why isn't it only the weak who claim

33:44

that that's wrong? And why isn't it only

33:46

that the weak claim that that's

33:48

wrong? Not because they're moral, but because they're

33:50

weak. That would certainly be a spin-off

33:53

on the Nietzschean notion that will

33:55

to power constitutes the

33:57

core of man. And I would

33:59

say... up until the dawn of

34:02

Judeo-Christian ethic, let's say,

34:06

power ruled, and then we

34:08

could imagine what sort of world it's like when power

34:10

rules. Well, we know what that world's like. It's like,

34:14

pay attention to the strongest or suffer

34:16

the consequences. Well,

34:20

is there something beyond that that's

34:24

not mere naivety? What's...

34:29

if it isn't power that's the story and

34:31

if it isn't sex that's the

34:33

story, what's

34:36

the story? For

34:39

the West, the answer

34:41

to that is the

34:43

library of the Bible. That's

34:46

the story. It's the story

34:50

upon which the West is founded. It's

34:53

the story that has

34:56

arisen over thousands of years, tens of thousands

34:58

of years for that matter, attempting

35:04

to address the core issue. What's

35:09

the fundamental story? It's

35:11

no mystery to make the

35:13

claim that the claim

35:16

of the biblical library of stories, because

35:18

it is a library, is

35:20

that it's the fundamental story.

35:24

All right, so we live

35:28

in a story, we've

35:30

identified the competitors, power and sex,

35:34

what is it that's being expressed in the biblical

35:36

story? Look, if you go to a movie or

35:38

read a complex book, you

35:41

go to a sophisticated movie, a sophisticated play,

35:43

a Shakespearean play, or you read

35:45

a sophisticated work of fiction, you

35:49

see a multi-dimensional characterization.

35:52

Right? A comic book has a

35:54

hero with one motive. A

35:57

sophisticated work of fiction has a... a

36:00

hero and

36:02

perhaps an anti-hero with

36:04

complex multi-dimensional motivations. Whatever

36:07

characterizes those more realistic

36:09

people isn't reducible

36:12

to any single attribute.

36:15

And in a complicated work of fiction, the

36:18

author walks you through a multi-dimensional

36:21

characterization. You see the same

36:23

person, the hero, aiming

36:26

upward, the anti-hero or villain

36:28

aiming downward. You see that

36:30

person portrayed in multiple different

36:32

situations and pursuing

36:34

partial reflections

36:39

of their ultimate aim. And

36:42

in consequence of that, you

36:45

learn to understand and embody

36:48

that complex of aims. When

36:53

you see a movie and you watch the hero, you're

36:56

watching the hero to learn how to act like

36:58

a hero. When

37:00

you're watching a movie and you watch

37:02

the anti-hero or the villain, you're watching

37:05

the movie to learn how not to

37:07

fail catastrophically and land in hell while

37:10

taking everyone else along with you. Is

37:14

it reducible to

37:17

something as simple as power

37:19

or sex? Not

37:22

if it's not a comic book. You

37:24

need a multi-dimensional characterization. All

37:27

right. The

37:29

biblical corpus provides a

37:31

multi-dimensional characterization of the

37:33

fundamental aim of man

37:36

and cosmos. That's

37:39

the claim of the book. So I'm going to walk you through

37:41

some of the stories and show

37:43

you what's being revealed. What's

37:47

being revealed is the proper object of

37:49

worship. Okay, so what does that mean?

37:52

The proper object of celebration. The

37:55

aim towards which all sacrifices and work

37:57

are to be directed. That

38:00

which should be held in the highest regard,

38:02

that which should be imitated in

38:05

ritual and admiration.

38:08

So that's the idea. Admiration

38:13

in the same way that a small child who hero

38:17

worships the

38:21

boy down the street who's the

38:24

baseball star, because

38:26

that boy portrays

38:29

a pattern of skill and attention

38:32

that is the next

38:35

appropriate developmental step for the hero-worshipping

38:37

child. That's

38:39

a recreation of the religious impulse.

38:42

The impulse to look up admire and

38:44

imitate. The question being,

38:47

to what should we address our

38:49

attention, upward looking, admire and imitate?

38:56

That highest possible object

38:58

of apprehension and

39:01

admiration is

39:03

by definition God. It's

39:07

a definition. It's

39:11

the highest aim that lurks behind

39:13

all proximal aims. That's a

39:15

good way of thinking about it. It's the upward aim

39:17

as such. All right,

39:19

how do you bring that down to earth? Well let's

39:21

start with Genesis 1, for the

39:24

characterization of God and man in Genesis

39:26

1. The

39:31

story opens out the dawn of time, at

39:34

the beginning of things. That's not

39:36

exactly the beginning of time. That's usually how

39:38

it's read, but it's more complex than that. It's

39:41

not only the beginning of time,

39:43

in the linear sense, but it's

39:45

the beginning of all things that

39:47

begin. This is what happens every

39:49

time something begins. This is what

39:51

happens every time something new makes

39:53

its entry into the world. It's

39:56

the continual beginning that

39:58

continually unfolds. that happened

40:01

and is happening now and it will

40:03

always happen. It's the

40:06

pattern of the

40:08

emergence of order out of chaos

40:11

that makes itself manifest

40:17

in the form of your life. How

40:21

is the stage set? The Spirit of

40:23

God hovers

40:27

over the water, over the deep. You

40:32

hear that in

40:34

the Judeo-Christian tradition, God

40:39

engenders the world ex nihilo out

40:41

of nothing. That's not how the story sets itself

40:43

up. It sets itself

40:46

up with the Spirit of God

40:48

hovering above the waters, but it's not

40:50

water. That's not the word. Water

40:52

is one of the symbolic images

40:57

attempting to make what's

40:59

being described clear using

41:02

a sequence of complex

41:04

metaphors. The word for

41:07

the water over which the Spirit

41:09

of God hovers is tohu vabohu

41:11

or tahom and it means

41:13

a lot of things. It

41:15

means the dragon

41:19

that lives at the bottom of the deepest

41:21

well. It means

41:23

the unplumable depths

41:25

of the most

41:27

abysmal ocean. It means

41:29

the water that brings forth life. It

41:33

means the

41:36

infinite well of possibility itself.

41:40

It means the confusion that

41:42

rains when your world falls apart.

41:47

It means the unstructured

41:51

day that makes

41:54

itself manifest when you wake up.

41:58

It means all of that. It means the

42:01

dragon that the archaic God sliced

42:03

into pieces and made the world

42:05

from. It means

42:08

it's the Hydra that Hercules defeats

42:11

to form the world.

42:14

It's all of that. So

42:16

what does that mean? It

42:19

means that the spirit

42:21

of being and becoming generates the

42:24

world from possibility. What

42:27

does that mean? That's what your

42:29

consciousness does. That's

42:31

what you do. So you think you're

42:33

surrounded by a world of objects that

42:35

you manipulate in a robotic fashion, but

42:38

you're not concerned with the

42:40

objects that are static. You're

42:42

concerned with what you can dynamically

42:45

transform. When you wake up

42:47

in the morning, what presents itself to you is

42:51

a field of indeterminate opportunity.

42:55

That's why you're worried or

42:58

perhaps excited because you have something to

43:00

grapple with that hasn't yet come into

43:02

being. The possibilities of

43:04

the day and you might think, oh my God, I have

43:07

so many things to do. I'm overwhelmed.

43:10

It's too much. Well, that's the

43:12

Tohu Vabohu. That's the chaos and

43:14

confusion. That's a plethora of

43:16

possibility. You're thinking, oh my

43:18

God, how many ways are there for things

43:21

to go wrong? Well, that's

43:23

the multi-headed serpent that the hero

43:25

always confronts. And

43:28

what do you have to do with that? It's like, well, are

43:32

you going to establish the order that's good

43:35

in the course of the day? Because that's what

43:37

you're called upon to do. And it's

43:40

your re-creation of what God

43:42

himself does at the beginning

43:44

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43:46

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43:49

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have a microcosm

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45:14

in front of you at any moment that

45:17

you can wrestle into order if

45:20

your aim is right. The

45:23

process that

45:26

God relies on to extract

45:29

the cosmos, the order that's good,

45:32

from the well of

45:35

unformed possibility is the word.

45:39

It's the logos. Well, what does that mean?

45:46

How much hell can you bring into being by saying the

45:48

wrong words to your wife? Right,

45:53

now your wife is who she is, but she's

45:55

also who she can become, as you've

45:57

no doubt noticed many times. you

46:01

can extract out something

46:04

good or something terrible from

46:06

the possibility she represents with

46:09

the cautious and loving

46:11

application of your words or with

46:14

the careful and prideful and

46:16

dismissive application of your words. And the

46:18

world you live in will

46:21

be radically different depending

46:24

on which of those two approaches you apply.

46:26

And that will be exactly the same with

46:29

anyone else you talk to and how you

46:31

treat yourself and how you interact with the

46:33

world as such. Because there's

46:35

a provision

46:39

of possibility that

46:43

you're offered as a participant in

46:46

the process of creation that

46:48

you formulate in accordance with your aim. What's

46:52

the insistence in Genesis 1?

46:56

Aim up with love. So

46:59

if you want to establish the

47:02

paradise of your household in

47:05

relationship to your wife and your children, you

47:08

aim at what's

47:10

best for the best in them. You

47:14

offer them the security that

47:16

you can imagine. That's the walls

47:18

of the walled garden and

47:20

you present

47:22

to them the challenge that

47:26

allows them to unfold and

47:29

develop optimally. And

47:31

you do that appropriately if

47:34

you're aiming at what's best, what's

47:36

highest. And that's

47:39

the spirit of God that

47:41

makes itself manifest on

47:43

the waters of possibility that

47:46

the embodiment, the source,

47:50

the initial source and the spirit of

47:54

upward aiming ultimate love. You

47:59

can understand this. by understanding what sort

48:01

of walled

48:04

garden you produce in your own

48:07

household with your aim. God

48:15

wrestles with the possibility

48:18

that's not yet manifest and creates

48:21

the cosmic order as a consequence

48:23

in sequence, creating

48:26

the fundamental divisions to begin with, the

48:29

separation of light and darkness, that's

48:32

the phenomenology of day and night, the separation

48:34

of the land from the waters, the

48:36

establishment of the dome of the sky

48:38

over the disc of the earth, populates

48:42

the world with its

48:45

created beings and

48:49

on the sixth day produces

48:53

man and says in

48:56

his own image. So

49:00

now we have a characterization of God who's

49:03

the dynamic process that

49:05

gives rise to order from

49:09

possibility itself in

49:11

keeping with the highest possible aim and

49:14

we have a characterization of the human being

49:16

as a microcosm of that process.

49:20

The notion that each of

49:23

us has a worth

49:25

that's transcendental

49:29

and not given by the state,

49:31

not given by yourself, not given by

49:33

other individuals is predicated

49:36

on that image.

49:39

I mean that historically and I mean it conceptually.

49:42

The notion is that, one

49:46

of the notions is that the state itself

49:49

has to grant to you the

49:52

worth of someone

49:55

created in the image of the

49:58

creator himself in order to be able even

50:01

for the state to

50:03

exist, maintain itself and transform.

50:06

That the state itself cannot function

50:09

unless it establishes

50:13

a sacred boundary between its

50:15

operations and the operation of

50:18

the psyche, the human psyche, the

50:21

human spirit that's a manifestation of

50:23

the God who generates the order that's

50:25

good from possibility. And

50:28

you might ask, well

50:30

who believes that? And I would say,

50:32

try talking to

50:35

one person once without

50:38

believing that and see

50:40

how it goes. We call

50:42

to each other all the time, especially in our

50:44

intimate relationships, to be

50:47

treated as if we are

50:49

the locus of value. And

50:53

if you treat people that way, if you

50:56

regard them that way, if you perceive them

50:58

that way, if you encourage them in that

51:00

pathway of development, everything

51:06

in your

51:08

interactions with human beings will open itself

51:10

up to you and fill

51:12

your life with abundance. Everyone

51:15

wants to be treated that way. And

51:18

the reason for that is, it's in

51:21

keeping with our essential nature and and

51:24

that that hospitable,

51:26

welcoming, encouraging, upward

51:30

aiming, loving treatment

51:33

is the aim

51:37

and attitude upon which the

51:41

soul, the community and the

51:44

natural order

51:47

itself depends for its

51:50

integrity. Your

51:52

country is predicated on

51:54

that notion. The idea that each

51:56

of you is endowed with

51:59

an alienable rights and

52:02

their requisite responsibilities. Is it

52:04

direct reflection of that conceptualization?

52:07

And one of the things you might frequently

52:10

remind yourself of

52:12

is the fact that your country wouldn't

52:15

be what it is, which is

52:17

the closest approximation to a shining

52:20

city on the hill that's been

52:23

established so far in

52:25

the travail of mankind without

52:27

that fundamental conception. Right?

52:32

So then you might say,

52:34

well, is it true? And the answer is, it's not hell. I mean

52:42

that, because lots of countries

52:44

are hell. And they're

52:46

hell in a way that opens up

52:48

into an abyss and has

52:50

the possibility of a deeper abyss, rating

52:53

latent within it, which will open

52:55

up with the possibility of a deeper

52:58

abyss within that. And that's

53:00

what happens when that fundamental characterization

53:03

is overthrown

53:05

in a revolutionary manner or carelessly abandoned.

53:09

And we saw that for all of

53:11

us who are non-believers and no

53:14

longer conceptualize the metaphysical

53:18

hell as real, we saw the

53:20

metaphysical hell realized in the 20th

53:23

century many times. It was

53:25

so blind that only

53:28

an object lesson would suffice. Nazi

53:30

Germany, the Soviet Union under Stalin,

53:43

the Chinese Communist Party under

53:46

Mao, if

53:48

that isn't close enough to hell for you,

53:52

then I would say you should pray

53:54

that you aren't introduced

53:56

to something even worse for

53:58

the purpose of the world. of

54:00

convincing you about what's real. In

54:06

the second... God

54:12

announces two things once... three things, four things

54:14

once he creates man. He says,

54:18

man is to tend the garden. That's

54:20

his purpose. Why a

54:22

garden? It's a walled garden actually,

54:25

because that's what paradise means, walled garden. Why

54:27

a walled garden? Well, a garden

54:29

is a place of nature, obviously, and

54:32

walls are a place of culture, and a

54:34

walled garden is a place of nature, encapsulated

54:38

in a manageable manner by

54:41

the walls of culture. That's what your backyard is.

54:45

It's a yard, it's nature, it has

54:47

walls, the walls are culture. The

54:49

walls you could think of as physical... as

54:53

physical entities, as objects, but your

54:57

lawn has borders if you don't have a fence, and

55:00

your neighbors know where the borders are, and where

55:02

are the borders? Well, they're in the imagination of

55:04

your neighbors. I'm

55:06

dead serious about that. The walls... it's

55:09

so funny because you'll see people in the

55:12

border between Canada and the United States. They'll

55:14

get out and they'll step across the border.

55:16

It's like... as

55:19

if it's an object, as if

55:21

it's an entity that's there on the

55:23

ground, and people know that that's magic

55:25

in some sense because the

55:27

grass... in

55:30

Canada is only slightly less

55:32

healthy than the grass in the United States, let's

55:35

say. It's

55:40

easy to concretize that, but the

55:42

idea of a walled-off space in a communal society

55:45

is a social agreement. You

55:48

have your domain, your house, your

55:51

garden, your backyard. That's enough

55:53

cosmos for you to set right. And

55:55

perhaps if you're competent enough to do more, you'll

55:58

expand your... garden so

56:00

that you have more to tend. But

56:03

you start with a walled

56:06

garden of some size

56:09

and if you tend it properly then

56:11

the promise is that as

56:14

your competence grows so will your dominion.

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56:35

sent to tend the garden and

56:38

to name everything that's in it.

56:40

This is Adam. What does that mean? Well

56:42

it's the logos

56:44

again. It's a re-representation of

56:46

the creative spirit

56:49

of God that makes itself

56:51

manifest when time

56:53

begins and when new things come

56:55

into being. Our ability to name,

56:57

our ability to speak is

56:59

that in the microcosmic

57:02

manner. That's what

57:04

we're capable of doing. That's what

57:06

the patriarchal spirit does is name

57:08

and order the world and

57:12

God brings everything to Adam to see what he'll name

57:14

them and that's a reflection

57:16

of the idea that we

57:20

have a created order but man

57:22

has a place in it and the place is to

57:25

organize it and to put everything in

57:27

its proper place and to assign it

57:29

its identity. And

57:32

that's no different than the prioritization

57:35

of attention that's part of

57:37

the story. Name

57:39

things in relationship to their function.

57:41

Put things in place in relationship

57:44

to their significance

57:50

in the hierarchy of being. Orient

57:53

them. Orient all

57:55

named things upward. Sequence,

58:00

constrain organize

58:02

an order The

58:04

manifestation of the patriarchal spirit. What

58:07

does God decide? That's not good enough Man

58:11

lacks a helper man needs

58:13

a helper Woman's

58:16

created as a consequence because the

58:19

order that men produce

58:24

Because of their limitations

58:27

is insufficient and something

58:30

has to be introduced to Speak

58:33

for that which is not included That's

58:37

the role of woman That's

58:39

the biblical rule of the woman. It's

58:42

the biological role of the mother. You

58:44

know this in your own household Women

58:48

bring the concerns of the marginalized

58:51

to the center You

58:54

can think about that politically it's

58:57

useful to think about it politically all

59:00

established human orders exclude

59:04

The exclusion causes pain the pain

59:08

of exclusion requires a voice That's

59:11

the voice of the eternal mother That's

59:16

where Genesis 1 ends Genesis

59:19

2 begins contains

59:21

the story of Adam and Eve. It's

59:24

another creation story it's

59:28

Commensurate with the first one. It's

59:31

a variation on a theme God

59:35

creates Adam out of matter

59:40

earth and Breath

59:42

spirit why because that's what human

59:44

beings are where? material

59:47

creatures that are animated

59:51

anima means spirit we

59:56

What's the spirit Spirit

1:00:00

is the living

1:00:02

organizing principle of the material. And

1:00:06

human beings are an amalgam of the

1:00:08

living organizing principle and

1:00:10

the material. And

1:00:12

that's what's portrayed in the creation of

1:00:15

Adam. The

1:00:17

combination of matter and spirit, the combination

1:00:19

of material and conscious.

1:00:21

You could think about it that way

1:00:23

if you're more secular minded. We're

1:00:26

conscious matter. What's

1:00:29

up with that? No

1:00:32

one understands that. No materialist understands

1:00:34

that. We understand nothing

1:00:36

about consciousness. It's as

1:00:38

mysterious now as it's been throughout the entire

1:00:40

course of our existence. It's

1:00:43

never been reduced to material phenomenon. We

1:00:46

have no idea what that would even mean. And

1:00:48

if we did reduce it to the material,

1:00:50

all that would mean was that we inadvertently

1:00:52

elevated the material. We

1:00:55

treat each other like we're conscious. We

1:00:58

presume from first principles that

1:01:00

we're conscious. We can't even

1:01:02

distinguish between being itself and being

1:01:04

conscious. And

1:01:06

so that's a perfectly reasonable representation of

1:01:08

man. Woman

1:01:15

is taken from man, from

1:01:18

a rib, from the side, as an

1:01:20

equal. There's a

1:01:22

critique of patriarchal

1:01:25

Judeo-Christian narrative

1:01:28

from the resentful feminist side that

1:01:30

makes the claim that the biblical narrative is,

1:01:33

for example, radically patriarchal in

1:01:35

this orientation. Dooming

1:01:37

women to subjugation. That's

1:01:40

a preposterous claim, by the way.

1:01:44

It's not only false. It's

1:01:46

false in a very particular way. There

1:01:48

are falsehoods that are approximations of the

1:01:50

truth. There are

1:01:52

falsehoods so deep that they're the exact opposite

1:01:55

of the truth. And

1:01:57

the truth of the matter is that right...

1:02:00

from the first words, the

1:02:03

biblical library is miraculous in

1:02:06

its insistence that women

1:02:08

like men are made in the image of God.

1:02:10

That emerges in the first chapter. And

1:02:12

that Eve is the

1:02:14

equal of Adam in every

1:02:17

manner, although

1:02:20

complementary and not identical. And

1:02:23

our society is riven

1:02:26

by conflict so deep

1:02:28

that we now doubt

1:02:30

both of those propositions. There's

1:02:33

no form of confusion more profound

1:02:35

than that. Sexually

1:02:38

reproducing creatures without nervous systems can

1:02:40

tell the difference between male and

1:02:42

female. I'm dead serious

1:02:45

about that. If

1:02:51

you can get people to swallow the lie

1:02:53

that there's no difference between men and

1:02:55

women. There is no lie they won't

1:02:58

swallow. Right. So

1:03:04

God makes Adam and Eve, each

1:03:08

with their own role,

1:03:11

and he puts them in the garden to play

1:03:14

forever under the watchful

1:03:16

eye of their heavenly father. And

1:03:19

he tells them they have free reign in the garden

1:03:22

with everything delights of all that's

1:03:24

being created, that's been created, except

1:03:26

for one thing. They're

1:03:29

not to eat the fruit of the

1:03:31

tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So

1:03:38

what does that mean? Man,

1:03:41

that's a mystery. I

1:03:44

spent a long time trying

1:03:46

to crack the micro narratives in the story

1:03:48

of Adam and Eve. And it

1:03:51

wasn't until three or four

1:03:53

years ago that I think I

1:03:55

started to understand that

1:03:58

particular fragment of the story. A

1:04:01

friend of mine is here, Jonathan Pajo, some of

1:04:03

you might have been following him. Jonathan

1:04:07

and his brother Matthew really helped me

1:04:09

crack this. And so we're

1:04:12

here, I'm here

1:04:14

with Jonathan and a number of my other

1:04:16

colleagues and friends right now with The Daily

1:04:18

Wire recording another seminar. We

1:04:20

released an Exodus seminar, we're recording a

1:04:22

seminar on the Gospels right now. We're

1:04:25

about 60% of the way through that. And

1:04:29

so just so you know, that's also forthcoming.

1:04:34

God tells human beings, he makes one

1:04:36

fundamental rule. Do

1:04:39

not eat of the fruit of the tree of the

1:04:41

knowledge of good and evil. Okay, that's moral knowledge. That

1:04:45

should be self-evident, knowledge of good and evil, that's

1:04:47

moral knowledge. Moral

1:04:50

knowledge is predicated on the idea that there's an

1:04:53

upward path and a downward path, that there are

1:04:55

desirable things and that there are undesirable things and

1:04:57

that the pinnacle of what's desirable is

1:05:00

what's heavenly or paradisal and in

1:05:02

the abysmal depths of what's undesirable

1:05:04

is the diabolical and the hellish. And

1:05:07

that's the moral landscape, that's the landscape of

1:05:09

good and evil. That's the fictional landscape. Fictional

1:05:13

in the sense of characterization and

1:05:15

plot. Fictional

1:05:17

in the sense of distilled truth, not

1:05:20

falsehood. Fictional in the

1:05:22

sense that the fiction describes the structure

1:05:25

through which you see the world. Fiction

1:05:28

as the deepest form of truth. What

1:05:32

does it mean to eat of

1:05:34

the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil?

1:05:38

When Nietzsche announced the death of God

1:05:41

in the late 1800s, he said something that he

1:05:46

believed would constitute a

1:05:48

pathway forward. He said, we have

1:05:50

dispensed with God. We

1:05:53

are the greatest murderers who ever lived. We've

1:05:57

engaged in a murder so- profound

1:06:00

that we'll never wash

1:06:02

away the blood. How

1:06:04

could we possibly conduct

1:06:06

ourselves in the

1:06:09

aftermath of that murder? You

1:06:12

read of Nietzsche as a triumphant

1:06:14

anti-Christian. He was

1:06:16

a very

1:06:19

complicated person and he knew

1:06:21

perfectly well that the

1:06:23

dissolution of the Christian metaphysic would

1:06:25

produce a cataclysmic consequence. He predicted

1:06:27

in the late 1800s that

1:06:30

Europe would turn to a radically

1:06:34

resentful egalitarianism

1:06:37

that would kill tens of millions of

1:06:39

people, which is exactly what

1:06:41

happened. And he saw that coming just as

1:06:44

clearly as his Russian

1:06:46

counterpart, Theodore Dostoevsky, saw it.

1:06:49

He knew what would rise in the

1:06:51

aftermath of the death of God. He

1:06:53

knew that resentment and communitarianism would be

1:06:55

one temptation.

1:06:59

And he tried to formulate an

1:07:02

alternative path. He said, we're

1:07:04

going to have to create our own values.

1:07:06

We're going to have to take it upon

1:07:09

ourselves to create the moral landscape. I

1:07:13

read that and I

1:07:15

understood why he said that.

1:07:18

I could see its influence on

1:07:20

clinical psychology, for example,

1:07:22

the notion of the self-actualized person,

1:07:24

the notion that our soul should

1:07:26

unfold in the direction that's commensurate

1:07:28

with the

1:07:30

deepest understanding of our

1:07:33

subjective selves, the radical

1:07:35

unveiling of subjectivity, self-definition.

1:07:38

I am what I say I

1:07:40

am, which is a radical claim in

1:07:42

our society now, a claim

1:07:45

of omniscience. Not only am I who I

1:07:47

say I am, you better act

1:07:49

like I'm who I say I am. That's

1:07:52

the claim of the radical subjective.

1:07:54

Well, what's wrong with that claim? Well,

1:07:57

the psychoanalysts criticized Nietzsche. very

1:08:00

effectively they said look how are you going to create

1:08:02

your own values when you're not master in your own

1:08:04

house have you tried telling yourself

1:08:06

what to do how does

1:08:09

that work for you I know you're

1:08:11

just your own obedient servant right you're so

1:08:13

morally pure you just tell yourself at

1:08:16

New Year's that you're going to go

1:08:18

to the gym and you're gonna diet

1:08:20

and you're gonna be some stellar physique

1:08:23

lean mean fighting machine by March

1:08:25

and you go once and

1:08:27

then you tell yourself lies about why you don't

1:08:29

have to go again and that's the end of

1:08:31

that and if you were capable

1:08:34

of creating your own values you

1:08:36

wouldn't be the the

1:08:42

banner the tattered banner that blows in the

1:08:44

wind of its own whims the

1:08:48

psychoanalyst figured this out very quickly you're

1:08:50

a war of competing whims and

1:08:54

the creature like that's going to have a

1:08:56

very difficult time navigating the complex landscape of

1:08:58

the ultimate moral

1:09:02

pronouncement who

1:09:04

are you to make a decision about what constitutes

1:09:06

good and evil and that's what God

1:09:09

tells men and women it's like you

1:09:11

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to align yourself with the pre-existent moral

1:09:47

order you do not take to yourself

1:09:49

the right the

1:09:51

presumption to define

1:09:54

good and evil themselves you

1:09:57

bow your head

1:10:00

to good and you pray

1:10:03

for deliverance from evil and

1:10:07

if you violate that look

1:10:09

the hell out and

1:10:12

that's the pronouncement and

1:10:14

so what happens the

1:10:17

serpent offers Eve

1:10:21

the fruit why the

1:10:23

serpent well the serpent is camouflaged

1:10:27

the serpent is crafty

1:10:30

subtle the

1:10:33

serpent is marginalized

1:10:37

the serpent is the voice of pride

1:10:39

the serpent is Lucifer that's the metaphysical

1:10:43

surrounding of the story

1:10:45

that develops over centuries the notion that

1:10:47

the serpent in the Garden

1:10:49

of Paradise is Lucifer himself the

1:10:52

spirit of pride what does that mean

1:10:54

it's prideful presumption that makes you assume that

1:10:56

you can define the moral order what's

1:10:59

the provide what's the prideful presumption of

1:11:02

Eve at the beginning of time and

1:11:04

forever I can

1:11:06

even clasp the serpent to my breast it's

1:11:10

the careless welcoming in

1:11:12

of the monstrous and prideful

1:11:18

under the guise of

1:11:21

the pretension of maternal

1:11:23

compassion and if you can't see

1:11:25

that happening in our society your blood and

1:11:29

what's the sin of a

1:11:32

of Adam well what do men

1:11:34

care about women care about

1:11:37

properly about the helpless

1:11:41

infant it's

1:11:46

a powerful feminine virtue and it can be

1:11:48

inverted and made prideful and

1:11:50

trumpeted and presumptuous to

1:11:53

infantilize the world and to advertise

1:11:56

that compassion as a

1:11:58

badge of Worth

1:12:02

and honor as a mode of attaining

1:12:04

status. What's

1:12:06

Adam's sin? What

1:12:08

do men care about? Impressing women. Men

1:12:14

are ambitious fundamentally to impress women.

1:12:18

For better or for worse. What's

1:12:21

the prideful pathway

1:12:24

and false pathway

1:12:26

to establishing

1:12:29

a relationship with the two demanding

1:12:31

feminine? I've

1:12:34

got it. Anything

1:12:37

you want, dear. Right,

1:12:39

and that's Adam's sin. He, Eve, hearkens

1:12:43

to the voice of the serpent and

1:12:45

clutches it to her breast. Despite

1:12:50

the clear injunction from the

1:12:52

divine, men never

1:12:54

to do that and Adam weakly

1:12:58

does exactly what the worst part of

1:13:00

his wife wants. And

1:13:03

so here we are, folks. So

1:13:09

what's the consequence of that? Well,

1:13:12

the scales fall from the rise and they notice

1:13:14

they're naked. And

1:13:17

they're deeply ashamed and they cover up. They

1:13:21

become self-conscious. Okay,

1:13:23

so when do people become self-conscious? When

1:13:27

they make prideful errors. When

1:13:30

you overreach and you reveal

1:13:32

your inadequacy as a consequence of the

1:13:34

mismatch between your pride and

1:13:36

your ability. You'll be

1:13:39

ashamed. You'll

1:13:41

recognize your insufficiency.

1:13:44

You'll be aware of

1:13:46

yourself as an isolated entity.

1:13:48

That's all to become self-conscious.

1:13:52

Psychologists have learned over the last 40 years

1:13:54

that there's no difference between being conscious of

1:13:56

yourself and being miserable. Those

1:13:59

are literally the same. same thing. If

1:14:01

you're living a life

1:14:03

of other-centered, communally-oriented,

1:14:06

hospitable calling,

1:14:09

you're not attending to

1:14:11

the miseries of your isolated self.

1:14:15

If you stay in your bailiwick and

1:14:17

you don't put forward your

1:14:20

hand presumptuously, you can

1:14:22

live in the absence of painful self-consciousness.

1:14:26

Pride goes before

1:14:28

a fall. We have a

1:14:30

month devoted to pride in our culture. Right.

1:14:35

Pride goes before a fall. You know this in your own

1:14:37

life. You can ask yourself, and

1:14:39

this has been a Christian conundrum

1:14:43

since the beginning of time, is your

1:14:45

life miserable because misery is baked into the

1:14:47

structure of the world, or is

1:14:49

your life miserable because you do stupid

1:14:51

things and refuse to learn and bring endless

1:14:53

misery on yourself in your presumption. And you

1:14:56

know, you might say a little call of

1:14:58

me and a little call of me, and

1:15:00

fair enough. But you certainly know that the

1:15:02

most painful episodes of your life come when

1:15:05

you claim

1:15:08

falsely to be more than you are. And

1:15:11

the core

1:15:14

narrative in the

1:15:17

Judeo-Christian ethos is that the

1:15:21

fall of man into the profane world is a

1:15:23

consequence of pride. And

1:15:25

that is really something worth thinking about. You know

1:15:28

Adam and Eve are called upon to work in

1:15:30

misery as a consequence of their pride. Well,

1:15:33

could you work joyfully? If you

1:15:37

didn't overreach yourself, if you were aiming upward

1:15:39

properly, if you were telling the truth, if

1:15:41

you were acting communally, if you were acting

1:15:43

in relationship to what was highest, would

1:15:45

it be possible that your work would be joyful

1:15:48

and bring abundance? Isn't

1:15:50

there times in your life when that's happened? Is

1:15:53

it the case that you move forward

1:15:55

in misery in precise proportion

1:15:57

to the pretension of your aim? It's

1:16:03

worth considering. It's

1:16:07

the suspicion that arises at the

1:16:09

end of the story that begins

1:16:11

history because it's with the

1:16:14

prideful fall of Adam

1:16:17

and Eve that history begins. Adam

1:16:22

and Eve discover they're naked and they hide.

1:16:25

And God comes along and says, Adam,

1:16:27

where are you? And

1:16:30

Adam says, I'm over here. I'm

1:16:32

hiding. And God

1:16:34

says, well, why are you hiding? It's a foolish

1:16:37

thing to do, right? Because Adam is perfectly aware

1:16:39

that God can see through bushes. Adam

1:16:41

is hiding from God. Is it your

1:16:44

pathetic self-consciousness that makes you hide

1:16:46

from God? That's

1:16:49

a good question. Are you not everything

1:16:51

you could be because you're

1:16:53

ashamed of who you are? That's

1:16:56

what that story indicates. And so

1:16:58

God calls Adam on. He says, who told you? Why

1:17:01

are you hiding? And Adam says, well, I'm naked.

1:17:03

And God says, well, how

1:17:06

did you find out that you were naked? How

1:17:09

did you find out that you were inadequate?

1:17:12

How did you find out that you are

1:17:14

shameful? And Adam says,

1:17:16

you know that woman you made me? It's

1:17:20

her fault. And that's

1:17:22

the second sin of Adam. And that's another

1:17:24

indication of the non-patriarchal nature of

1:17:26

the text. You know, Eve is

1:17:28

the first human being to

1:17:30

take a bite of the apple, but Adam

1:17:32

follows along. And it isn't obvious to me

1:17:35

that the follower of sin is in a

1:17:37

worse, better moral position than the initiator. And

1:17:40

then he compounds his sin, like men

1:17:42

do, by blaming the woman. Why

1:17:44

is your life so... Well, if you had

1:17:47

my wife, man, you'd know. It's like those

1:17:49

damn women. It's like it's a handy excuse

1:17:51

for men all the time to say that,

1:17:53

and it's not least because men can't tolerate

1:17:56

being rejected by women, and women reject them

1:17:58

all the time. And the reason women

1:18:00

reject them is because they're not all they should be. And

1:18:04

so of course that makes men painfully

1:18:06

self-conscious and makes them shake their fist

1:18:08

at God and makes them hide. And

1:18:11

so, what God says,

1:18:13

and so Adam reveals himself in this

1:18:15

pathetic manner. It's like he can't even take

1:18:18

responsibility for his own misstep. He has

1:18:20

to blame the thing

1:18:22

that's been granted to him as the highest form

1:18:24

of gift. And not

1:18:26

only her, but God. Whose

1:18:30

fault is it? Well, it's not mine.

1:18:32

It's probably women's fault. And if it's

1:18:34

not women, it's clearly God. It

1:18:36

can't be me. So

1:18:40

what happens? Well, both Adam and Eve are condemned to

1:18:42

suffer in their work. And

1:18:45

that's how history begins. And

1:18:48

that's the situation of fallen,

1:18:51

of the fallen world. And

1:18:53

that's the description of the

1:18:57

landscape of profound

1:19:02

fiction that we inhabit.

1:19:06

And that's only a tiny

1:19:09

fraction of the characterization of

1:19:11

God and man in the biblical

1:19:14

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