"In this compelling Dailymotion video, we explore the recent intellectual contributions and personal journey of Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. We dive deep into his highly anticipated new book, 'We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine,' examining its core themes of mythology, psychology, and the ancient stories that shape Western thought. Discover how Peterson analyzes concepts like rebellion, sacrifice, suffering, and redemption, offering a unique perspective on human consciousness and the pursuit of meaning. We also provide an update on his recent health, discussing his recovery progress and the enduring impact of his work. This video is essential viewing for anyone interested in personal development, philosophy, and the profound ideas of one of the most influential thinkers of our time."
#JordanPeterson #WeWhoWrestleWithGod #Psychology #Philosophy #MeaningOfLife #PersonalDevelopment #BiblicalSeries #Consciousness #HealthUpdate #Dailymotion #NewBook #SelfHelp #Culture #Truth #Meaning
#JordanPeterson #WeWhoWrestleWithGod #Psychology #Philosophy #MeaningOfLife #PersonalDevelopment #BiblicalSeries #Consciousness #HealthUpdate #Dailymotion #NewBook #SelfHelp #Culture #Truth #Meaning
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CreativityTranscript
00:00هذا اليوم what is called virtue as a necessity
00:05and the reason i gave it that title is because
00:10virtue, ethics, morality isn't a field of study
00:15it's a mode of being upon which all field of study rest
00:20it's also a mode of being on which everything you do in your life rests
00:25the way you understand yourself or fail to
00:28تجتم الوثمات الوثمات الأمثال
00:29وفعلت وضع مدينة
00:32وفهمت بجميع أن يجعب أن تغيب
00:35في في تلك الحياة
00:37بمع الأمثال
00:38ومع الأمثال أنه محيدة
00:39انتعادة من المباشرة
00:41سوف أدريباً حينما يساعداء القيامات
00:45هي أن تجتم المعالة
00:48تجتم المعالة تجتم العالم
00:49وأم لأنني أقول أني مخالص أحب
00:52أصبحت أنهم منهم ونعمت
00:56but to the degree that they're embedded in a network of relationships
00:58where virtue is fundamentally absent
01:02they're tortured and tormented
01:04and they're unable to find firm ground
01:06and that's not a biological problem
01:09even though biologically fragile people might be hurt more by a lack of virtue
01:13a lot of what you do in a real relationship with people
01:16and at least to some degree a clinical relationship is supposed to be real
01:20is provide a forum where people tell the truth
01:22and that's hard because people don't like to tell the truth in particular
01:27the truth is difficult
01:29it's difficult for a variety of reasons
01:31so when I first thought about this lecture
01:34I had a slightly different title
01:36the title was Virtue as an Existential Necessity
01:39and that's a bit philosophical
01:42so I modified it
01:44but there was a reason for that
01:45because the concept of virtue means to be virtuous
01:50and Existentialism is the study of being
01:52and I think that you can't really understand
01:56what makes up virtue
01:58until you modulate or modify
02:00your notion of what constitutes being
02:03this is a hard thing to do
02:06modern people are fundamentally materialistic
02:09and there's some utility in that
02:11we're masters of material transformation
02:13and the fact that we're materialist in our scientific philosophies
02:17has made us extremely powerful
02:20maybe too powerful for our morality
02:22extremely powerful from a technological perspective
02:25but it's blinded us to certain things
02:26and I think one of the things that it's really blinded us to
02:29is the nature of our own being
02:32because we make the assumption that the fundamental constituent elements of reality are material
02:38we fail to notice that the fundamental constituent elements of our own reality are not material
02:44they're emotional, they're motivational, they're dreams, they're visions, they're relationships with other people
02:50they're conscious, they're dependent on consciousness
02:52and self-consciousness
02:54and we have absolutely no materialist explanation whatsoever
02:58either for consciousness or self-consciousness
03:00and we don't deal well from a materialistic perspective
03:03with the qualities of being
03:05and everyone knows those qualities exist
03:08I mean for most people there's nothing more real than their own pain
03:12right, pain transcends rational argument
03:14in that you can't argue yourself out of it
03:16it's just there
03:18and materialist or not
03:20there's very few people that are willing to allow their
03:22the claim that their pain is merely
03:25an epiphenomen
03:27epiphenomena of some
03:28more fundamental material process
03:30pain is fundamental
03:31consciousness is fundamental
03:34and I think that unless you understand that
03:36you can't think properly about virtue
03:39so I might start the discussion of virtue with the discussion of being
03:43well what does human being look like
03:47well the buddhists say life is suffering
03:50that's the first fundamental buddhist dictum
03:53and I suppose a modern person would tend to think of that as a very pessimistic claim
03:59but I've found when I've shared that information with my students
04:02once they understand what it means
04:04it's actually a relief because people run around
04:07madly
04:08suffering away
04:09and all of them inside their little shell think
04:12well there must be something wrong with me
04:14because here I am suffering
04:15and you know I mean
04:16that isn't how things are supposed to be
04:20well then you might say
04:21who says that's not the way things are supposed to be
04:24the buddhists say life is suffering
04:27so what that means is
04:28if you're not suffering
04:29that's a good thing
04:30that's lucky that's fortunate
04:32that's not the way of the world
04:34that may be something to be grateful for
04:37ecstatic about even
04:38and of course in christianity the central symbol of christianity is a crucifix
04:42which is not a positive symbol in any way
04:45it's a symbol of betrayal by friends
04:49opposition from the state
04:51and mortal vulnerability
04:53it's about as powerful a symbolic representation of the idea that life is suffering
04:59as you can put together
05:00which is of course why
05:01the power of that symbol extends across several thousand years
05:07judaism
05:08well
05:09i don't think it's going to come as a shock to anybody in the audience
05:12that
05:13jews are acutely aware of the suffering that's involved in life
05:18so
05:18it's useful to know
05:20to understand
05:22what it means that life is suffering
05:24it's a fundamental
05:26ontological truth
05:27it's a fundamental statement about the nature of a being
05:30and there's a reason for that
05:32it's not incomprehensible
05:33it's perfectly comprehensible
05:36we're finite
05:38right
05:39we have a life span that's bounded temporally
05:41you're going to live
05:42maybe a hundred years
05:43and that'll pretty much be it
05:44and then
05:45there's other
05:47forms of extreme limitation that are imposed on you
05:50that have very little to do with you
05:52they're arbitrary facts of being
05:54you're a certain height
05:55you're a certain weight
05:56you're a certain amount of attractive
05:58you're a certain amount of intelligent
06:00you're a certain amount of athletic
06:01you're a certain amount of mentally ill
06:04you're a certain amount of predisposition to cancer
06:08and
06:10it's frequently the case that people like to attribute those vulnerabilities
06:14to some
06:16flaw in their own nature
06:18but what they are instead are conditions of existence
06:22human being is
06:23is predicated on a kind of fundamental limitation
06:27in that we are what we are and we're not other things
06:31and so that means
06:33inevitably
06:33that
06:34the awareness of human being
06:36comes along with
06:37suffering
06:38and
06:39life poses the question
06:42how to conduct yourself in the face of suffering
06:46not only yours but everyone else's
06:47and it's an inescapable question
06:49except that maybe you're fortunate
06:51and you'll have periods of time
06:52where
06:54something absolutely horrible isn't happening to you
06:57now
06:58you think about this
06:59because you might think this is pessimistic
07:01but it's not pessimistic
07:02it's
07:03it's actually one of the most freeing things that you can realize
07:07maybe there's nothing particularly wrong with you at the moment
07:09but
07:10there's a high probability that you have a family member that has something seriously wrong with them
07:16and
07:16there's a very high probability that if you don't you will soon
07:19or maybe you'll have a partner that has something serious wrong with them
07:23and
07:24and to know this
07:25frees you
07:26from the false illusion
07:27that life can be conducted without suffering
07:32suffering is an integral part of being
07:35now why is that?
07:36well
07:36who knows
07:37it's a metaphysical question
07:39but I have some ideas about that that have helped me
07:41and they're things that I've read
07:43I read for example an old Jewish commentary about the reason for creation
07:49it's like a zen cone this idea
07:51you take a
07:54a being with the classical attributes of God
07:59omnipotence
08:00omnipresence
08:02and omniscience
08:04totality
08:05and the question is
08:06well
08:07what is a being with those attributes lack?
08:10and the answer is limitation
08:14and then you think
08:15well
08:16what's so important about limitation?
08:18well
08:18if you can be anything or do anything
08:20at any time whatsoever
08:21there's no being
08:23because everything is one thing
08:24there's no differentiation between things
08:26so something that's absolute and total has no being
08:29it has to be parceled out into limited being
08:32just
08:33and you know this because you'll all play games
08:35you play video games
08:36you play games with other people
08:38you may play games you don't even know you're playing
08:40and when you play those games
08:41you put
08:42you put
08:43limits on yourself
08:44you play by a set of rules
08:46and the reason you do that is
08:47when you limit yourself
08:49arbitrarily in some ways
08:50whole new worlds of possibility emerge
08:53and so there's a powerful metaphysical idea
08:56that being is not possible without limitation
09:01so that's an interesting question
09:02that's an interesting idea
09:03so you say well what's the price you pay for being?
09:06the price you pay for being is limitation
09:08and the price you pay for limitation is suffering
09:10so the price you pay for being is suffering
09:15so what's the problem with that?
09:20well
09:24suffering
09:25makes people question the validity of life
09:28right
09:29everyone does that
09:30if something terrible is happening to you
09:33you're going to wonder why you
09:34that's for sure
09:35why not you might be a better question
09:38because it's inevitable
09:40but you will wonder that why you
09:41and you'll wonder well is it worth it?
09:44especially if what's happening to you is
09:46terrible and prolonged
09:47is it worth it?
09:49does the cost that you have to pay for being
09:52justify itself?
09:55and therefore is being justifiable
09:58and everybody asks and answers these questions
10:02in fact
10:04the process of asking and answering those questions
10:06underlies everything you do all the time
10:08because you're answering when you act
10:11one answer which is yes
10:13being justifies itself
10:15and you're answering a different way
10:17sometimes when you act which is no
10:19being does not justify itself
10:22and the question then might be
10:25what happens when you answer
10:27one of those two ways?
10:29well
10:31to untangle this
10:32the first thing I want to do
10:33is to talk to you about
10:34the antithesis of virtue
10:37because it's always struck me that
10:39when you're talking about something
10:40that could conceivably be regarded as optimistic
10:44it's difficult for people to fundamentally believe you
10:47you know
10:48if I stood on stage and said
10:50well
10:50the purpose of life is to be happy
10:52you might find that
10:55vaguely comforting
10:56but there's not a chance in the world
10:57that you'd believe it
10:58if you have an ounce of sense
10:59because
10:59if you've lived
11:02you know that
11:04there will be periods of time
11:05where happiness is not your state
11:08and so there has to be more to life
11:10than happiness
11:10because there will be a lot of your life
11:12that isn't happy
11:14Solzhenitsyn
11:15Alexander Solzhenitsyn
11:17who wrote the book
11:19The Gulag Archipelago
11:20that was one of the axes
11:22that brought down the
11:24the thick tree of
11:26communist utopianism
11:27said
11:29of the idea that human beings are made for happiness
11:32he said
11:32that's a philosophy that's
11:35undermined by the first
11:37blow of the work assigners cudgel
11:39and what he meant by that was
11:41if you find yourself in a particularly terrible situation
11:44if you're enslaved for example by
11:48malevolent utopians
11:51and
11:51they're pushing you into a form of slavery
11:54and they're beating you to attain their ends
11:56the idea that you're made for happiness is not going to be of much comfort under those circumstances
12:01and so Solzhenitsyn's point was
12:04you're weakened by your belief that life is for happiness
12:07because that philosophy cannot sustain any sustained challenge
12:10and you will for sure
12:13encounter such a sustained challenge
12:19I don't think that modern people can believe in virtue
12:22but not easily
12:23because virtue sounds religious in a sense
12:26and we have real trouble
12:28whether we're religious or not
12:30with religious preconceptions
12:31because
12:32our scientific forms of knowledge
12:34and our fundamental materialism
12:38has really radically undermined our
12:39ability to believe in any
12:42transcendent being
12:45but one thing that modern people can believe in
12:47I think without much difficulty at all
12:49is evil
12:52Solzhenitsyn said for example that
12:54the most important event of the 20th century
12:58as far as he was concerned
13:00was the Nuremberg judgment
13:02and
13:05you may know
13:06you should know
13:07that after World War II
13:10a group of national socialists from Germany
13:13who were deemed particularly responsible for the absolute horrors of the final solution
13:21and the mass factory genocide that accompanied it
13:25were put on trial
13:27and
13:28a standard defense for their actions was
13:31well I was ordered to do it
13:34and the Nuremberg decision
13:38denied
13:39human beings regardless of their ethnicity
13:42or national background
13:44or beliefs
13:46the legal right to use that as a defense
13:48under certain limited circumstances
13:52and
13:53the argument was
13:54there are some things that are so self-evidently
13:56not
13:57good
13:58not virtuous
13:59that if you engage in them
14:01you're
14:02existentially guilty
14:03you're guilty outside the bounds of your culture
14:06there's a trans-national and trans-ethnic morality
14:10we don't know what it is
14:10but we know what it isn't
14:11it isn't
14:13pointless torture and genocide
14:16at minimum
14:18to be virtuous
14:20is to live your life in such a way
14:24that
14:26the probability that you would engage in such actions
14:29given the opportunity
14:31is minimized
14:33now people think
14:35well they're already doing that
14:36because if they were in Nazi Germany
14:38they would have been
14:40a rescuer
14:41not a perpetrator
14:42but that's wrong
14:45you could take this audience
14:46and put them back in 1939
14:47or thereabouts
14:48and 90% of you would
14:5195% of you
14:5299% of you
14:54would either be in the perpetrator class
14:56or the
14:57going along with the perpetrator class
15:00and
15:01you may sit and believe that you'd be in the 1%
15:04maybe you would
15:04because how do I know
15:05but
15:07that isn't how the historical facts sort themselves out
15:11and it turns out that it's not that difficult generally
15:14to put people in a situation
15:15normal people
15:16where they'll do something
15:18that really doesn't look very good
15:22those of you who are familiar with psychology
15:24know about the Milgram experiments for example
15:26know about the Zimbardo prison experiments
15:28take perfectly normal college students
15:30and
15:31put them into a situation that they know is a dramatic farce
15:35they know isn't real
15:36give some of them the power of prison guards
15:39and make some of them
15:40some others arbitrarily into prisoners
15:42and in three days
15:43you have to shut the whole experiment down
15:45because the prison guards have turned into the Nazis
15:47and they're enjoying torturing the prisoners
15:51even though they know
15:52whatever no means that they're innocent
15:55well that says something about
15:57the manner in which people conduct their existence
16:00they're very susceptible to malevolent action
16:04if you look at Genesis
16:06very old book
16:08very influential book
16:12there's a strange sequence of events
16:14that befalls Adam and Eve
16:16right
16:16it's in two sentences
16:20a snake
16:22gives them an apple
16:24and that wakes them up
16:25well there's a good book by a
16:29Southern California primatologist
16:31that was just
16:32published last year
16:33that suggests that the reason that
16:35humans have such great vision
16:36way better than most animals
16:38except for raptors
16:39birds
16:40is because our visual systems
16:42were designed to detect predatory snakes
16:45and the way she discovered that
16:47was by comparing the populations of predatory snakes
16:49around the world
16:50to the visual acuity
16:51of the primate groups
16:52that lived in those areas
16:53and what she found
16:54was essentially a one-to-one correspondence
16:56our visual system
16:57which is the ability to see
17:00and to be enlightened let's say
17:01because enlightenment for example
17:03is associated with vision
17:04the snake gave that to us
17:06because we had to pay attention
17:07to predatory things
17:08that were after us
17:09for tens of millions of years
17:10and fruit
17:11that's interesting
17:12we have color vision
17:13because we were fruit eaters
17:15our color vision is precisely evolved
17:18to detect ripe fruit
17:20so that part of the story is right
17:25there's a story that involves women too
17:27but I'm not going to tell that one today
17:31you have to be awake to outsmart women
17:34that's the story
17:35and so that's why they're tangled in there
17:37with the serpents and the fruit
17:41and what happens when Adam and Eve wake up
17:43well it's a series of strange things
17:45the first thing that happens
17:46is the scales fall from their eyes
17:47so they can see
17:48all of a sudden they're awake
17:49in a way they weren't before
17:50and the next thing that happens
17:51is they realize they're naked
17:54now one of the things that people
17:57have nightmares about
17:58is being naked on a stage
18:00which is often why
18:01when you see people on a stage
18:02they don't tell you anything they think
18:03because they don't only
18:05not want to be physically naked
18:06they don't want to be metaphysically naked either
18:08and they protect themselves
18:10from the inquiring eyes of the audience
18:13no one likes to be naked on stage
18:14why?
18:15well to be naked is to have
18:17your defenses stripped from you
18:18when the Soviets wanted to really torture
18:21the hell out of you
18:22at two o'clock in the morning
18:23they'd stave in your door
18:24and then they'd strip you
18:26and shave you
18:26when they got you to prison
18:27because once you were exposed
18:31in all your suffering catastrophe
18:33then you were much easier to torture
18:37to be naked
18:38to realize you're naked
18:39is to realize that
18:41you're vulnerable
18:43you're vulnerable
18:44that's why Adam and Eve
18:45immediately cover themselves up
18:46right?
18:46they realize they're naked
18:47they cover themselves up
18:48it's a story about culture
18:49once people woke up
18:51and realize their limitations
18:53their mortal limitations
18:54which is also their knowledge of death
18:56the first thing they do
18:56is cover themselves up
18:58and the second thing that happens
19:00is they know the difference
19:01between good and evil
19:02and that's a strange thing
19:04it's not good and bad
19:05it's good and evil specifically
19:06it's also something that animals don't know
19:08and I think
19:09I thought about this
19:10really for 20 years
19:12what does that mean?
19:13and then earlier this year
19:14I think I figured it out
19:15I think what it means is
19:17you don't know how to torture people
19:19until you realize that you're vulnerable
19:21as soon as you're self-conscious
19:23of your own vulnerability
19:25then you can take
19:26what might only be a predatory act
19:28say on the part of a wolf
19:30because a wolf will bring down a moose
19:31or something like that
19:32and eat it
19:32and drag that out into
19:34three months of artistic torturing
19:39and so that means that your recognition
19:41of your own vulnerability
19:42immediately allows you to determine
19:45what's evil
19:49well so then you might ask yourself
19:51well under what conditions
19:53would you be likely to manifest that drive?
19:59well
20:00I think that's easy to figure out
20:02if you watch yourself
20:03you know
20:05if you watch yourself without presupposition
20:07which is
20:07which means to watch yourself honestly
20:09or to watch yourself
20:11as if you're someone you don't know
20:12because you don't know yourself
20:14because you're too complicated to know yourself anyway
20:16so you might as well
20:18just come right out
20:18and know that
20:20I mean one of the things that's kind of useful
20:22about recognizing your capacity for evil
20:24if you can do that without traumatizing yourself
20:26is that it's the pathway to recognizing your ability for good
20:29you don't get to one without the other
20:31because you have no idea
20:33what you're like
20:34before you know how terrible you can be
20:36and not only that
20:37you won't take yourself sufficiently serious
20:39seriously
20:40if you know you're a loaded weapon
20:43and an unstable loaded weapon
20:45then you're much more likely to pay attention to what you do
20:49but that means you're not particularly nice
20:51and it means that
20:53if you were given the opportunity
20:55maybe you would have been the Nazi prison guard
21:00now in Genesis the first thing that happens after Adam and Eve wake up
21:04is they have two sons
21:07Cain and Abel
21:09and Cain
21:11who's Abel's brother
21:13he doesn't get along very well with God
21:15now I don't really care if you believe in God
21:18because I don't know what people mean when they say they believe in God anyways
21:21but
21:23the story goes that Cain doesn't get along very well with God
21:27and the reason for that is Cain keeps doing things
21:29and they don't work
21:32everything Cain touches turns to ash
21:35whereas his brother Abel
21:36God likes him
21:37God only knows why
21:39and everything goes real well for Abel
21:40so Cain
21:42Cain is kind of a failure
21:45and Abel's a smashing success
21:46and not only is he successful with everything he does
21:49but he's a good guy too
21:50which is really rude
21:51because if you're really successful at things
21:53you should at least be wretched
21:56interpersonally so that people can forgive you
21:58so
22:01so Cain takes this for you know a decade or two
22:04and then he's just had it
22:05he's had it with God
22:06he thinks how can God make this sort of universe
22:09where I'm you know breaking myself in half here
22:11and getting nowhere
22:12and my brother's doors open for him left right and center
22:14so he goes and complains to God
22:16he says look what's going on here
22:18what sort of reality did you conjure up here
22:21Abel has it good
22:22I'm having a miserable time
22:24maybe you should do something about that
22:26and you think that's pretty interesting you know
22:28that Cain would think that
22:29because you have to ask yourself
22:31what sort of presumption does Cain have
22:35to assume that the dismal quality of his being
22:40is attributable to God
22:42because what Cain does in that
22:45instant is to make himself the judge of being
22:48and I would say that
22:49you should be cautious about making yourself the judge of being
22:53because there's always the possibility
22:54that there's a few things that you don't know
22:56so God sort of lets Cain in on the secret
22:59he says look
22:59the fact that you're suffering miserably away
23:02actually isn't my fault
23:03it's your fault
23:04he says to Cain
23:05sin crouches at the door
23:07like a predatory cat
23:09ready to jump on you
23:10but if you wanted to
23:11you could overcome it
23:15this is not what Cain wants to hear
23:17Cain wants to hear that
23:18he's an innocent character
23:20and he has nothing to do with his own misery
23:22and it's all God's fault
23:23and God says instead
23:25straighten the hell up
23:26you know you could do it
23:28and even though you know you could do it
23:30you won't
23:31and so that
23:33that's that for Cain
23:34like I mean he was upset when he first went into the discussion
23:37but after he got this little piece of news
23:38that his suffering was to be laid at his own doorstep
23:42then he's out of the realm of human
23:44and the story says his countenance falls
23:47which means he's angry and upset
23:49and the first thing he does is run off and kill Abel
23:52why?
23:54well it's revenge
23:56right Abel is God's favorite
23:58and Cain has already judged being
24:00and found it wanting
24:01and the best way that he can express
24:03his desire for revenge
24:04is to find someone
24:05who's having a pretty good time of it
24:07and to arbitrarily eliminate them
24:11and it might be of some interest to note
24:13that one of Cain's grandchildren
24:18is the first person who makes weapons of war
24:21so that brilliant little story
24:24so long ago associates
24:25the moral failings of the resentful individual
24:29who's unwilling to take responsibility for
24:31the nature of their own being
24:33directly with
24:36atrocious acts of social conflict
24:39and that's another thing to know
24:41because if you're going to be virtuous
24:43you have to take yourself seriously
24:44and if you start to understand that you're networked with other people
24:48you're not one little dot among seven billion
24:51you're networked with other people
24:53so you know a thousand people
24:54and they know a thousand people
24:55and so you're two people away from a million people
24:58and three people away from a billion people
25:00you're in a causal network
25:02and all of your actions matter
25:05Solzhenitsyn said
25:06there's many centers of the universe
25:07as there are individual consciousnesses
25:10and that's a very interesting way to think
25:12and why can't it be that way?
25:14we don't know anything about consciousness
25:16consciousness
25:16and it certainly seems to be how it feels
25:19if you're one of those conscious centers
25:21and so maybe it is that what you do matters
25:24I think that often people come to the conclusion
25:27that life is meaningless
25:28because that's a better conclusion to come to
25:31than the reverse
25:31because if life is meaningless
25:34well then who cares what you do
25:36but if life is meaningful
25:37if what you do matters
25:38then everything you do matters
25:41and that puts a terrible responsibility on the individual
25:44and I think that people are generally unwilling to bear that
25:53so life is suffering
25:54what does that do to people?
25:57makes them resentful
26:00these are pitfalls of being
26:02he said being has a structure
26:04one of its fundamental structural elements is suffering
26:07but suffering produces other characteristics of being
26:11resentment is a characteristic of being
26:14people feel resentful
26:15when they believe that they've been taken advantage of
26:20and maybe if you feel resentful
26:22it may be that you're being taken advantage of
26:24it may also be that you should screw your head on straight
26:27and look at things properly
26:28and it may also be that you should talk to somebody
26:30to find out if you're being taken advantage of
26:35or if your head just isn't screwed on straight
26:37but to talk to them then you have to tell them the truth
26:39and in order to tell them the truth
26:40you have to have practiced being honest
26:43because if you haven't practiced being honest
26:45then you're not going to have a friend you can talk to
26:47and even if you did you won't be able to tell them what the problem is
26:50and then they won't be able to help you sort out
26:52whether or not you're being taken advantage of
26:53or whether you're a little bit insane
27:00if you're resentful
27:01then maybe you have to tell the person who's taking advantage of you
27:04that they should stop doing that
27:05and maybe you have to tell them in a way that will make them stop
27:09which is no easy thing
27:10or maybe you're resentful because you're a nasty little bit of the world
27:15and you know you have a chip on your shoulder
27:17and no matter what people do with you
27:19you're resentful
27:20in which case you have some internal restructuring to do
27:25and you might ask well why should you do the restructuring
27:28and the answer to that is that
27:29well resentment along with hopelessness and nihilism
27:32and all sorts of other moral pitfalls
27:34puts you on the road to cruelty and atrocity
27:38misery loves company
27:40and if you feel that things are fundamentally unjust
27:43and that the slings and arrows of being are aimed specifically at you
27:47why should you treat anyone else with compassion or justice
27:50because things are fundamentally unfair
27:53and even more deeply
27:55why shouldn't you conclude that
27:56things should be eradicated
27:58because fundamentally they're unfair
28:02now I think that's what Hitler concluded
28:04I also think that's what Stalin concluded
28:06the evidence suggests that Stalin was gearing up for the third world war
28:10I mean he had hydrogen bombs
28:11he'd already killed 30 million people
28:14I mean he had his practice trials
28:18and you know there's an old psychoanalytic idea
28:20and the idea is if you can't understand the motivations for the behaviour
28:24you look at the outcome and infer the motivations
28:26and so Hitler killed 100 million people
28:31if you include the whole second world war
28:33and God only knows how many Stalin killed
28:36and Mao killed more than Stalin
28:37why?
28:38well their cover story was utopia
28:41and I guess people believed that
28:43well why?
28:44it didn't look very utopian
28:46when all those millions of people were dying
28:47I think all those people who participated in those processes
28:51used their rational utopianism as a cover story
28:54for their willingness to participate in the atrocity
28:58because what they wanted to do was participate in the atrocity
29:00they didn't give a damn about utopia
29:03then you ask yourself
29:04well you know how much
29:06do you try to force the world to behave according to your terms
29:09you know the Catholics
29:10have always had trouble with rationality
29:12and modern people
29:13especially the sort of hyper atheists
29:15that you hear from now and then
29:16really don't like that
29:17because they believe that rationality is the highest virtue
29:20and that's wrong
29:21I mean it's a terrible thing to say in a university
29:24except maybe the university isn't here to teach you to be rational
29:27maybe it's here to teach you to be virtuous
29:29and those aren't the same thing
29:31and the rational person says
29:32well I understand
29:34and having understood
29:35I impose an order
29:37and then I work to make that imposed order a reality
29:40that's what every ideologue does
29:42it's what every utopian does
29:45it's convincing
29:46and I think the reason that people do that
29:48is because they
29:48well it's complicated
29:49partly they want an explanation for their being
29:52but more importantly than that
29:53they want a mask
29:54that covers up their tendency to atrocity
29:57with the appearance of virtue
29:59and most utopian thinking is of that sort
30:02even though the mask can be very well argued
30:05and you ask me why I believe that
30:07and the reason I believe that
30:08is because we had a hundred years of it
30:10and that's how it turned out
30:12one of the things that was terrible about living in the Soviet Union
30:15was that you couldn't suffer
30:18because things were perfect
30:20so if you were suffering
30:22and you even admitted it
30:23then you were instantly an enemy of the state
30:26so if you're an ideologue
30:28your own suffering makes you a heretic
30:29right?
30:30you undermine your belief in your own bloody system by suffering
30:33well and that's fine
30:35if your belief has stopped you from suffering
30:37well more power to you
30:38but if you're still suffering a bit
30:40or a lot
30:41or a tremendous amount
30:43then you can ask yourself
30:45maybe there's something I don't know
30:48here's an existential exercise
30:51so when this is not rational
30:53you say let's assume that
30:54virtue is worth pursuing
30:56and I say it's worth pursuing
30:57because a virtuous path is the only path that
31:02justifies being to itself
31:03that's the definition of virtue
31:05a virtuous path
31:07justifies being to itself
31:08being is suffering
31:10so you need a justification for your suffering
31:13so then you might ask yourself
31:15are there times in my life
31:17when I feel that my suffering is justified
31:20and this is a good question
31:22and you can ask yourself the reverse question too
31:24which is
31:24are there times in my life
31:25when my suffering is clearly not justified
31:29and I could say
31:30well watch yourself for three weeks
31:32just watch
31:33like you don't know anything
31:34and see
31:37when you're somewhere
31:39that justifies itself
31:41now I might say
31:42you might say
31:43well how do I know
31:43and I'd say okay
31:44well here's some hints
31:45you're not self conscious
31:46you know it's not good to be self conscious
31:49right
31:49it loads on neuroticism
31:51it's a negative emotion
31:52I mean we think of it as a
31:53higher order cognitive function
31:55but people find it unpleasant
31:56you tend to be self conscious
31:58when you're false or shamed
32:00if you're deeply engaged in something
32:02your self consciousness disappears
32:03so engagement in something meaningful
32:06seems to make self consciousness vanish
32:08it also makes time vanish
32:09right
32:09because if you're doing something
32:11that is intrinsically meaningful
32:13then the sense of passing time disappears
32:16and so that temporal limitation
32:18that plagues you vanishes
32:19and I could say
32:20maybe you're having a miserable time of it
32:23and you only spend 2% of your waking hours
32:25in that condition
32:26and maybe you don't even know when that is
32:28but you could watch
32:30you could see
32:31and you could say
32:32hey look
32:32wow
32:33I spent 10 minutes there
32:35I hardly even noticed
32:37and I felt that the nature of my being justified itself
32:40well maybe you wouldn't say that to yourself
32:42but you could
32:43you could say
32:44that was worth it
32:47and then I could say
32:48well
32:49practice that
32:51above all else
32:53forget about everything else
32:54and then there's an alternative exercise
32:57pay attention and figure out
32:59when absolutely
33:00your being does not justify itself
33:02that's even easier
33:04you know
33:04because that'll happen
33:05whenever you do something
33:06that you immediately regret
33:08or are ashamed of
33:09or that even more
33:10precisely
33:11makes you feel disintegrated
33:13and devalued
33:14Nietzsche said
33:16people
33:17betray themselves
33:18for the sake of their good name
33:19all the time
33:20you can feel this
33:21it seems to center in your solar plexus
33:24when you say something
33:26or do something
33:27that is not virtuous
33:28then you'll disintegrate
33:30and then you're weak
33:31and you can feel that
33:32and then you'll cover it up
33:33with a bunch of rattling arguments
33:34trying to convince yourself
33:35and other people
33:36that what you were doing
33:36was actually okay
33:37but you know
33:38and it's your rational arrogance
33:41and authoritarianism
33:42that forces you
33:43not to drop your stupid presuppositions
33:45and just pay attention
33:46to what your being
33:47is revealing to you
33:49we don't think that way
33:50we don't think being
33:51reveals things
33:52it reveals things all the time
33:54we just don't pay any attention
33:56why?
33:57I think we don't want the responsibility
33:59I really believe
34:00I've thought about this for a long time
34:02I really believe that that's the case
34:04here's a quote from the Tao Te Ching
34:06I have a great translation of this book
34:08it was written by Lao Tsi
34:11years and years ago
34:13it's one of the world's classics of literature
34:16the person who wrote this
34:19wasn't a philosopher
34:20the person who wrote this
34:21was a master of being
34:22that's a different thing
34:24because a philosopher thinks
34:25but a master of being doesn't think
34:26because thinking is a tool
34:28and being is something
34:29that supersedes any tool
34:32he said
34:33it is by sheathing intellect's bright light
34:36that the sage remains at one with his own self
34:39ceasing to be aware of it
34:41by placing it behind
34:43detached he is unified with his external world
34:46by being selfless he is fulfilled
34:48thus his selfhood is assured
34:54I show my students
34:56in my maps of meaning class Pinocchio
34:59Pinocchio is a very complicated story
35:02in the Disney version
35:03and the previous version
35:04it's got a deep mythological base
35:06and one of the things that happens in Pinocchio
35:08a lot of strange things happen
35:09that people just swallow right
35:10there's a puppet
35:11it turns into a human being
35:12there's talking cats
35:14there's blue fairies
35:15there's stars
35:16there's whales that eat people
35:17and everyone swallows that with no problem
35:19right
35:19you go to see Pinocchio
35:20you don't even notice
35:22that a puppet has just gone into a whale
35:24and you know
35:24what the hell is going on
35:26and the reason you don't notice that
35:28is because it means something
35:29and you don't know what it means
35:31but you know that it means something
35:32and you're willing to ride on it
35:34weirdly enough
35:35because it compromises your rational principles completely
35:39it does
35:40it does
35:41these are religious experiences
35:42that people have in movie theaters
35:43they suspend disbelief
35:44they go along with it
35:46it's not rational
35:47but they believe it
35:48and if someone says
35:49you know
35:50they elbow you and say
35:51that's not real
35:51you say to them
35:52maybe you could shut up
35:53so I could watch the movie
35:55alright
35:55you don't want their rationality
35:57because it's the wrong time for it
35:59it's the wrong place for it
36:00Geppetto wishes that his pep puppet
36:02could become real
36:04it's a very unlikely wish
36:06which is something he says
36:07very unlikely
36:08it's unlikely to happen
36:09I think actually
36:10Jiminy Cricket says that
36:11to have that happen
36:13Geppetto has to wish on a star
36:15it's a strange idea
36:17the star is something that's
36:19partakes of the divine
36:20you could say that
36:21if you look at the night sky
36:22where you can really see it
36:24you know that
36:25right
36:25you look at the night sky
36:26infinity opens itself up before you
36:28and there's nothing to say
36:30except
36:32there's nothing to say
36:33and to wish on a star
36:35is to put your eyes above the horizon
36:38and to pick a transcendent point
36:40and to wish for something
36:41to want for something
36:43that's beyond the concrete
36:44and immediate
36:47and to become virtuous
36:49and to not be a puppet
36:51is to aim at something transcendent
36:54I could say
36:54well at least it's the absence of evil
36:56that's something
36:57well maybe it's even more than that
36:59maybe it's virtue in and of itself
37:03there's a line in the
37:05sermon on the mount
37:06it's a very strange sermon
37:07and the line is
37:10it says
37:11take therefore no thought for the morrow
37:12for the morrow
37:13shall take thought
37:14for the things of itself
37:15sufficient unto the day
37:17is the evil thereof
37:21it's a very strange
37:25piece of advice
37:26it sounds completely impractical
37:28right
37:29limit the focus of your consciousness
37:31to the day
37:33and leave the worries alone
37:35well
37:36it means something meditative
37:38I think
37:40when I do therapy with people
37:42I try to do this
37:44I don't think
37:46because I don't know
37:47if I do sometimes
37:48but I shouldn't
37:52I don't necessarily know
37:53what their problem is
37:54or what they should do about it
37:56but I can listen
37:58and if I listen
37:59and maybe I learned this in part
38:00from Carl Rogers writings
38:02if I listen
38:03then thoughts will occur to me
38:06I'm not thinking them
38:07it's different
38:08I'm letting the thoughts come up
38:10and I tell my clients
38:11try to tell me the truth
38:12and I'll try to listen
38:13without being too much
38:14of a son of a bitch
38:15and maybe you know
38:16maybe we can work something out
38:18and then they'll say something to me
38:20and maybe I'll think
38:20well that thing you said
38:22now
38:22and the thing you said
38:23half an hour ago
38:24don't seem to be
38:24they don't seem to be coherent
38:27so maybe you can straighten that out
38:28or you know
38:29it seems more like I'm tracking
38:30what they're saying
38:31and when I'm listening to them
38:33I'm in the same place they are
38:35we know the neural mechanisms for that
38:37you are in the same place
38:37with someone
38:38when you really listen to them
38:39and then thoughts come up
38:40and I tell them what they are
38:41and it's impersonal
38:43it's impersonal
38:45because I'm not trying to get them
38:47to do anything particularly
38:49I'm just aiming maybe at
38:50helping them figure out
38:51what's going on
38:52and having a little bit less suffering
38:53and it's not the imposition
38:55of an ideological structure
38:56and the idea behind
38:57this particular piece of advice is
39:00you can try this too
39:01you wake up in the morning
39:02and you think
39:03okay
39:04this could be a good day
39:06whatever that means
39:07you don't know right
39:08what a good day is
39:09but maybe you've had a couple
39:10and they're not so bad
39:12and so
39:12maybe you think you could have
39:13another one
39:14but you don't know
39:14and you think okay
39:15you ask yourself
39:17and this is meditative
39:18what is it that I need to do today
39:20so that this would be a good day
39:22and your brain will tell you
39:23it'll say
39:24you know that bill
39:25that's hiding under five pieces of paper
39:26on your desk
39:27you should haul that sucker out
39:28and pay it
39:29or there's something you're avoiding
39:30that makes you anxious
39:32that your brain will pick on
39:33right away and say
39:34you have to do these
39:35whatever
39:36number of commitments today
39:38and if you do them
39:39then you've fulfilled
39:40your obligations
39:42and the idea behind this piece of advice
39:44is that if you fulfill your obligations
39:46every day
39:47then you don't have to worry about the future
39:49and that's a very interesting idea
39:51and it's predicated on the notion
39:52that there's a wisdom inside people
39:54that's deeper than mere rationality
39:56and I believe that to be the case
39:58because we're far older than mere rationality
40:01from an evolutionary perspective
40:03from any perspective you want
40:04we're deeper than rationality
40:06and we know
40:08psychologists have learned in the last 20 years
40:10that rationality is bounded ridiculously
40:12in all sorts of different ways
40:13it's not the master
40:15it's a servant
40:16and it's an unruly servant
40:17even though it can be a very powerful one
40:19the totality of you
40:21the wisdom that's embodied in the totality of you
40:23is far outstrips rationality
40:25and if you listen to yourself
40:27and do the difficult things that yourself tells you to do
40:30the idea is
40:32you don't have to compute the utopian future
40:34because following what it is that you tell yourself to do
40:37every moment
40:38is the best path to whatever the best outcome is
40:41it's a strange way of thinking
40:43because
40:43if you're a utopian and a rationalist
40:45you already know what the right outcome is
40:47then you have to run around pointing guns at people
40:50to make bloody sure that they do the right thing
40:52so that the outcome you've computed occurs
40:54and that doesn't seem to work very well
40:56and so
40:57you see this idea in Daoism too
40:59the idea is to give up the end
41:02because you don't know what it is
41:04and you don't
41:04it's an admission of ignorance
41:06where are you headed
41:06you don't know
41:07but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be headed somewhere
41:10follow your moral intuitions
41:13stop doing the things that make you feel weak
41:16I'm not talking about following a moral code
41:18although that can come into it
41:20if you really don't know what the hell you're doing
41:22at all
41:22then following a moral code is a good idea
41:25because it'll at least get the ball rolling
41:27it's a form of apprenticeship
41:29so you know
41:31not doing the obviously bad things
41:33is a form of discipline
41:34it isn't the notion that I'm talking about now
41:37this is a different thing
41:40this is
41:42pay attention to what's meaningful
41:44because you can see what that is
41:45you may find you're terrified of it
41:47because everybody's got this little secret wish
41:49I really love doing
41:51I don't know what it is
41:52it's different things for different people
41:54but they're afraid to do it
41:55to really do it
41:56because as soon as you do what you really love
41:58then you expose your nakedness
42:00right
42:00you say this is what I'm really like
42:02instead you just shove that under the bed
42:04you do something you don't care about at all
42:06and then if people judge you
42:07it doesn't matter
42:07but the problem with that is
42:09you
42:09there's no life there
42:10there's no force
42:12there's no you
42:13and without that
42:14the suffering will do you in
42:16and then you'll become a bad person
42:18and that's not a good thing
42:21so you have to see what it is that you find meaningful
42:24whatever that is
42:25and then you have to fight for it
42:26you have to fight against yourself
42:28you have to fight against other people
42:29because what do they know about it
42:31you have to fight against nature
42:32maybe even
42:33to stand up for what it is that sustains you
42:37and that takes courage
42:38it also takes honesty
42:40partly because
42:41because
42:41if you're not honest
42:42you can't trust your own intuition
42:43so this is an important thing
42:46you think about this
42:47and this is why virtue is a necessity
42:50if you lie
42:52to yourself or to other people
42:54then you
42:56you corrupt
42:59the structure that you use to interact with being
43:02you corrupt it
43:04and if you corrupt it
43:06then
43:06if you listen to it
43:07it will guide you
43:09the wrong way
43:09or maybe it will be so corrupted
43:11you can't listen to it at all
43:12then you have to listen to somebody else
43:14and that might not be a good thing
43:17especially if you're already corrupted
43:19because then you'll listen to the person
43:21who tells you
43:21to do what you really want to do
43:23but won't admit it to yourself
43:26and that explains how Hitler found all his followers
43:30they'd abandoned their own mode of being
43:31it made them bitter and resentful
43:33and empty
43:34and hollow
43:35and weak
43:36and cruel
43:39and then they trained their leader
43:41to tell them what they wanted to hear
43:45if you're honest
43:46which is painful
43:48you'll see that a lot of things you say aren't real
43:51you'll see a lot of things that you do make you weak
43:53you'll see that a lot of people you associate with
43:55are probably not good for you
43:57and then you have a lot of difficult choices to make
44:00you can stop with the obvious lying
44:03that'll clear things up for you a lot
44:05and you can start communicating with people
44:08one of the things I teach my clients is
44:10if you're resentful
44:12say something about it
44:13say something about it
44:14you tell the person
44:15look
44:17what you ask me to do is making me resentful
44:19now if they're your wife or husband
44:21or someone you love
44:21you should listen to them
44:22because they might say
44:23well
44:24grow up
44:25take your damn responsibility
44:26and leave me alone
44:28and maybe
44:29and maybe they're right
44:30or maybe they're a bit of a bully
44:32and you have to say
44:33quit pushing me around
44:34and then maybe you have to have an argument with them
44:35an honest argument
44:36where you say
44:37look this is what's happening to me
44:38and they say
44:39look this is what's happening to me
44:40and you battle it out
44:42until you reach some sort of settlement
44:44and then you don't have to be resentful anymore
44:45then you won't be mean
44:46and cruel
44:47and vicious
44:49and you have to be honest in order to do that
44:53here's a way of thinking about error
44:55you don't exactly know what you're doing
44:57so how do you get to the point where you know what you're doing
45:00I think follow your internal intuitions
45:02be honest about it
45:03and what will happen is
45:05a star will appear
45:06and guide you
45:07and the star is whatever makes your life meaningful
45:10and maybe you'll take some tentative steps in that direction
45:14and you'll get a little ways and you'll think
45:15no that's wrong
45:17and then the thing that makes your life meaningful will appear over there
45:20and then you take a few tentative steps in that direction
45:23but as you step and walk towards these things you change
45:26and as you change you get wiser
45:28and what happens is
45:29if you keep following these things that make your life meaningful
45:31then you correct yourself across time
45:34you see the thing there and that's wrong
45:36and you see it there and that's wrong
45:37and you see it there and that's wrong
45:39but you keep chasing it
45:40and as you chase it you move forward
45:41and as you move forward and you do things
45:43and you learn from your mistakes
45:45because you're honest and you're watching
45:46you get wiser and wiser
45:48and the consequence of all those mistakes is
45:51you'll self-correct the mistakes in 20 years down the road
45:53maybe you won't be making so many mistakes
45:55they say it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert at something
45:59so you would need 10,000 hours of practice
46:02following what it is that you need to follow
46:08I'm going to close with two things
46:11I've come to the conclusion
46:13as a consequence of studying the things I've been telling you about
46:16that belief has a religious substructure
46:18if you go all the way down into someone's belief structure
46:20right to the bottom
46:21what you find are religious presuppositions
46:23the person might not agree
46:25but I don't think that matters
46:27I think generally people don't know
46:30here's an old religious presuppositions
46:32it's older than Christianity
46:34I suppose Christianity is the most powerful proponent of this viewpoint
46:39there's a heaven and there's a hell
46:42and you should live your life so that you end up in one of them
46:46what's happened to Christianity is that
46:48that's an afterlife thing
46:51I don't think it is an afterlife thing
46:53I think it's a now thing
46:56I see people who are in hell all the time
46:59you can see them if you walk down Bloor Street
47:02I'm not kidding, it's no joke
47:04if you walk by someone in hell you can't look at them
47:07you won't look at them
47:08you'll give them a wide berth
47:10and if you look at them
47:11and you really look at them
47:12they'll either become aggressive or ashamed
47:14because they do not want you to see where they are
47:16because they don't want to see where they are
47:19and by the same token
47:21heaven's a real place too
47:22and now and then you're in it
47:23but you don't notice because you don't believe in it
47:26there's an old gospel
47:28Gnostic gospel that was dug up in 1957
47:31the gospel of Thomas
47:32and in the gospel of Thomas Christ says
47:33the kingdom of heaven is spread out on the earth
47:36but men do not see it
47:39and I don't think that's a metaphor
47:41or maybe it is a metaphor
47:43it's a deep metaphor
47:44it means that
47:46life, human life is very expensive
47:48and we live in the middle
47:49it's kind of a mediocre middle often
47:51and at one extreme there's hell
47:53and the other extreme is heaven
47:54and we bounce back and forth between them
47:56without really noticing
47:58and I could say
47:59well here's something to consider
48:02if the things you're doing are landing you in hell
48:05stop
48:06unless you want to be there
48:09and you know if you think
48:10all you have to do is think about your life over the last year
48:13you can be certain that you can call to mind
48:15times when you would have rather that did not happen
48:19and so the lesson from that is clear
48:21don't set up those conditions anymore
48:23and by the same token if you watch yourself
48:25you can tell when you're where you want to be
48:27and I could say well if you're where you want to be
48:29and that's really the right place
48:31then all you should ever do is practice to be there
48:35the kingdom of heaven is spread out on the earth
48:37but men do not see it
48:39so this is what I would say about virtue
48:42virtue first is the attempt to see that heaven
48:45and it's a questioning thing
48:47and I'm not saying it's the same for everyone
48:49I don't believe that at all
48:50because people are individuals
48:51just to see it
48:53and the second thing is
48:55to attempt to live in it
48:58and I truly believe
48:59I truly believe
49:01that there is nothing that you can do
49:06that's better for being
49:09not only for yourself
49:11but for everyone that you interact with
49:13none of you know your potential
49:15people are amazing creatures
49:17you know that people can be abysmally awful
49:22but they can be as remarkably good
49:25as they are abysmally awful
49:27I think it's rare
49:27but it's not beyond the realm of possibility
49:33what's a human possibility?
49:36well no one knows
49:37maybe it's near infinite
49:40we know nothing about our own being
49:41or about our relationship
49:43with the totality of things
49:46we may occupy a more important place
49:49than we all think
49:51and the consequences of our actions
49:53our virtues or our lack thereof
49:56echo
49:56may echo
49:58far beyond what we want to believe
50:02so I would say
50:07try
50:08try to find out
50:10what's good for you
50:13just watch
50:13don't listen to anybody else
50:15or maybe you should
50:16maybe they'll give you some hints
50:17you know
50:17but you got to sort it out for yourself
50:20and when you find out what's good for you
50:22and what isn't
50:23do the things that are good for you
50:24until you like being alive
50:26until you're thrilled to be alive
50:30and see what happens
50:32and I would also suggest
50:34there's nothing
50:36you could possibly do
50:38that will be more
50:45profound
50:47and useful
50:48than that
50:54that's all
50:54thank you
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