Hello, inspired humans! I hope you are doing well. Today’s Stuff turned itself into a full-length article. You can read it below or back at the main site. Before I get going, I want to mention a newsletter I’ve recently subscribed to called 1440. I first heard about 1440 on Coleman Hughes’ podcast. Hughes claimed it was the “closest thing he’d found to a truly objective news source.” Each morning they send a concise and impartial review of the day’s top new’s stories. They aren’t a sponsor, but I’ve enjoyed 1440 and thought
This a great post! Well thought out and articulated. Buddha also spoke of the need to desire change in order to reach the ultimate goal of enlightenment. He must have understood the paradox of needing desire to end desire. Educate, meditate and move...love it!
Great article, i loved how you finished with "there is no formula for happiness" and the title is just a contrary grab. I also found perfectly located your "feeding the right wolf" mention, connecting IHD concepts stimulates memory and connections, and of curse the Epictetus quote is really illustrative. If in ancient Greece they already highlighted that someone will influence you and place their thoughts on you, i can not imagine how much increased is it nowadays, Giovanni Sartori (i guess you probably heard about him) in 90's stressed out the "Homo Videns" and a remote-controlled society, social media just exponentially increased it.
That brings here a reflection that has been in my mind for a while, and that i would like to express here and look for your opinions. I hope to make myself clear.
During this crazy and maybe kind of unexpected year i think we have realized of the maximum expression of the current emotional-psychological-personal development status of most society, and how easily manipulable we are.
I consider, or at least i made a connection between how people have worked on themselves (personal development, curiosity, IHD stuff ;D) and how easily they believed something, especially when it is said by some "authority". I reckon that when you have been through a path of self-discovery and development as just Shane said with his anxiety you realize that not everything is in your control (and you have to focus on what actually is), try to "manage emotions" (rider-elephant-path), acquire a skeptical lenses when listen absolutes and a magnanimous solutions, or seek virtue, purpose and logos.
I understand that these trends have deeper reasons, moral relativism, deconstructionist theories, and how these speeches at the end are useless for meaning and at the end people like Jordan Peterson are getting relevant.
My point is that I in someway see a relation between people who has "worked on themselves" and how they approach reality, institutions, authority, authoritarian measures, seeking for truth; and those who didn't, that are always in TV, social media and are naive and deluded about how world/reality/politics/lobbies work for example. You see people believing that all measures that a government takes are for people's good (lock-downs, mandatory pills and vaccines, asymptomatic transmission, evolution and herd immunity refuse,...). I mean, these "mass-man" by Ortega-Gasset, Goebbels "stupid crowd" or Alinski "useful idiots", are as they are due to a lack of self development, and in order to enhance life and community (ie political levels) we must start in this emotional psychological level; because a person wihtout solid personal pillars will collapse or even ignore information that seeks to promote a deeper understanding of politics, medicine, health, power-relationships, ...
So, when we face someone who is fully inmersed in fear due to a virus (just to extrapolate in this current situation), that believes that all measures are for our good, that condemn you for not wearing mas everywhere,... i think that we should go deeper into that person, accepting is internal fears/crisis/contradictions/traumas and how his personal development status is, and try to improve/direct our attention to this, her/his internal struggles that at the end influence/are manifested on how he relates and behaves to "external reality".
I hope you got my point, and i would love to know what are your perspectives on that, Justin and Shane, and how could we help. Cheers from Spain.
*I recently finished reading Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, a book from R. Heuer, where he focuses on explainning mental processes and its "errors" and how to improve our thinking and analytical capabilities. I guess you would like it.
This a great post! Well thought out and articulated. Buddha also spoke of the need to desire change in order to reach the ultimate goal of enlightenment. He must have understood the paradox of needing desire to end desire. Educate, meditate and move...love it!
Hey Shane.
Great article, i loved how you finished with "there is no formula for happiness" and the title is just a contrary grab. I also found perfectly located your "feeding the right wolf" mention, connecting IHD concepts stimulates memory and connections, and of curse the Epictetus quote is really illustrative. If in ancient Greece they already highlighted that someone will influence you and place their thoughts on you, i can not imagine how much increased is it nowadays, Giovanni Sartori (i guess you probably heard about him) in 90's stressed out the "Homo Videns" and a remote-controlled society, social media just exponentially increased it.
That brings here a reflection that has been in my mind for a while, and that i would like to express here and look for your opinions. I hope to make myself clear.
During this crazy and maybe kind of unexpected year i think we have realized of the maximum expression of the current emotional-psychological-personal development status of most society, and how easily manipulable we are.
I consider, or at least i made a connection between how people have worked on themselves (personal development, curiosity, IHD stuff ;D) and how easily they believed something, especially when it is said by some "authority". I reckon that when you have been through a path of self-discovery and development as just Shane said with his anxiety you realize that not everything is in your control (and you have to focus on what actually is), try to "manage emotions" (rider-elephant-path), acquire a skeptical lenses when listen absolutes and a magnanimous solutions, or seek virtue, purpose and logos.
I understand that these trends have deeper reasons, moral relativism, deconstructionist theories, and how these speeches at the end are useless for meaning and at the end people like Jordan Peterson are getting relevant.
My point is that I in someway see a relation between people who has "worked on themselves" and how they approach reality, institutions, authority, authoritarian measures, seeking for truth; and those who didn't, that are always in TV, social media and are naive and deluded about how world/reality/politics/lobbies work for example. You see people believing that all measures that a government takes are for people's good (lock-downs, mandatory pills and vaccines, asymptomatic transmission, evolution and herd immunity refuse,...). I mean, these "mass-man" by Ortega-Gasset, Goebbels "stupid crowd" or Alinski "useful idiots", are as they are due to a lack of self development, and in order to enhance life and community (ie political levels) we must start in this emotional psychological level; because a person wihtout solid personal pillars will collapse or even ignore information that seeks to promote a deeper understanding of politics, medicine, health, power-relationships, ...
So, when we face someone who is fully inmersed in fear due to a virus (just to extrapolate in this current situation), that believes that all measures are for our good, that condemn you for not wearing mas everywhere,... i think that we should go deeper into that person, accepting is internal fears/crisis/contradictions/traumas and how his personal development status is, and try to improve/direct our attention to this, her/his internal struggles that at the end influence/are manifested on how he relates and behaves to "external reality".
I hope you got my point, and i would love to know what are your perspectives on that, Justin and Shane, and how could we help. Cheers from Spain.
*I recently finished reading Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, a book from R. Heuer, where he focuses on explainning mental processes and its "errors" and how to improve our thinking and analytical capabilities. I guess you would like it.
Bruno