00:00 Let me shift gears and address the fact that our society, we live in an era of
00:05 rampant projection. Imposing our belief that our worst sins are
00:13 present in other people, hating them for that. How do you break that habit, that
00:17 very addictive tendency to blame others for what you hate the most about yourself?
00:23 Well I think part of it is that you notice that your life isn't
00:27 everything it could be. You're suffering in stupid ways and so you're
00:33 ignorant, you don't know, and you already think what you think. And so since you
00:37 think what you think and you're suffering like that, you're probably
00:41 wrong in some profound ways. And that means that those who you don't agree
00:45 with are right in some ways and you better listen to them because maybe they
00:48 know something you don't. And that's worth mulling over. And it's
00:53 very interesting to me to talk to people who don't agree with me. I don't like
00:56 talking to ideologues that much because I already know what they think. But
00:59 people who are different than me, you know, honestly different, it's like great
01:03 man, great, you think some things that I haven't thought. I'd really like to hear
01:07 what you have to say because you know I could use some new thoughts and maybe
01:11 that would just help me some infinitesimal amount and thank God
01:16 for that. And so you have to understand that that difference is something
01:21 to be celebrated, to use a terrible cliche. And so that's part of humility is
01:26 that you don't have all the answers. You're humble to say that you're
01:30 curious of what others think and I earnestly believe you are. Desperate for it.
01:33 But you're the tip of the spear and you come from a tradition of big thinkers
01:38 who ask questions that many advise us not to ask. Yes. But the essence of
01:42 reality. I want to talk about some of those questions but I want to ask first
01:47 about you because it has been true in the case of other big thinkers before
01:52 you that it hasn't ended so well for them. Nietzsche comes to mind. But
01:56 certainly it doesn't end very well for anyone really in some sense. So you
02:00 know we don't know how many terrible ends there were for people who didn't
02:03 have that possession let's say by philosophical or religious ideas. So
02:09 there's a bit of a sample bias there. So the illness that you just survived, which
02:13 many wouldn't have, is in part I'd have to say is a friend. Worsened by the fact
02:21 that you ask these questions are troubled by them, tortured by them
02:24 actually, and it may have weakened you in some ways at the same time. Do you ever
02:29 fear that this burden that you've taken, granted it's perhaps better than
02:34 the alternatives, is too much to bear? Oh yes. Yes. Always. All the time. But I don't
02:42 know what to do about it exactly. You know what, our family tries to keep
02:47 itself in order so that there's some peace there, although we've been
02:50 so preoccupied with illness and social catastrophe that it's been difficult to
02:53 maintain order in the house. So yes, it's terrifying and always, and it isn't
02:59 obvious how to cope with it. And you know one of the things I've recommended to
03:03 people is that when the stress becomes overwhelming you shorten your temporal
03:06 horizon. You know, you concentrate on the week, not the month, not the year. If you
03:13 can't concentrate on the week and then it's the day. Lots of times in the last
03:16 couple of years I've been concentrating on the minute. And you know, I've just got
03:21 to the point recently that I can think past a day. And so that
03:26 narrowing helped. But yeah, fools leap in where angels fear to tread.
03:33 But the fool is also the precursor to the Savior. So that's a conundrum.
03:39 Why is the fool the precursor to the Savior? Because he'll ask the stupid
03:44 questions that no one else will ask. Plus he's also a comedian. You know, and the
03:50 comedian can, the fool can make fun of the king. So that means the only person
03:55 the king can listen to that will tell him the truth is the fool. And that's why
03:59 you know, when you see society start to clamp down on comedians you think, "Ah,
04:03 there's a king who can't take a joke. What kind of king can't take a joke?
04:07 Tyrant." So comedians, they're canaries in the coal mine. So there was a comedian and
04:15 you know, not everybody thought he was a comedian. I think it was Count
04:19 Dankula in Britain who got nailed for teaching his girlfriend's dog to do a
04:26 Nazi salute. Which, you know, maybe you don't like that joke, but it was a joke.
04:31 But he got prosecuted for it. It's like, that was a joke actually. So who's more to
04:37 fear him or the person who prosecuted him? Well, can you take a joke or not?
04:43 You know, and I'm hoping I can take a joke.
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