discussion notes
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Trying to understand Sam Harris
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Care vs Liberty may be Big 5 Agreeableness
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Peterson says Sam doesn’t take God seriously enough
- Not as serious as Dostoyevsky, Solzhenitsyn, and Nietzsche, which are the other players Sam is contending with
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What is Sam’s god and atheism?
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God: Supernatural entity
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Atheism, not believing in the supernatural
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Claim: we don’t need to inherit our morality from the stories we grew up with
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Problem with it
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One can move away from the supernatural stories, but they can only replace their God
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Religion -> Ideology -> Uberman
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Leaving religion
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Became more acceptable
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But they swapped out supernatural god (God) for manmade god (Satan)
- Nihilism (cognitive dissonance) or Ideology (evil is good)
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God is an ideal, where all the rules/spirits converge
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Satan is anything that doesn’t lead to the ideal
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Still need value judgement; Ought vs Is
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Once you have judgement, you have the ideal
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Whim/impulse is your god - Hedonism
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Gods as men - Hitler, Stalin, Obama
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Faceless gods - ideologies - feminism, marxism, communism
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Well what is the ideal?
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Rand
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Spirit
- Reason - always check your suppositions
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Idols
- Prime movers vs second handers
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God, what is worshipped
- Man’s creative spirit - the unique characteristic of men
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Selfishness and Cynicism
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Have to be cooperative to get what you want
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No ability for abuse
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If others live for you, you can tyrannise them
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If you live for others, you can tyrannise yourself and others can
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Well what about meaning
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Prepare yourself for the calling
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Leverage your past with the strength of today to protect your vulnerable future self
- Compounded interest - Law of increasing returns
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Meaning often comes in hindsight
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Entrepreneurship
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Personal development as important career developer
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Can’t have a career if you can’t get out of bed
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Meaning is localised, but who wouldn’t benefit from pursuing creativity over stagnation???
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