 guys we're in uncharted territory now most hype you know nonsense cliches you just constantly hear from commentators and journalists and the whole hype machine oh we're in uncharted territory yes we are always in uncharted territory because no one before I think today's date is what is today's date it is the 12th of January it is 526 p.m. and we we're in uncharted territory guys it's never before being 526 p.m. on January 12th in Manly Australia never before right yeah the world is constantly spinning and rotating and we are always in uncharted territory because we have never lived this exact moment before right no man can step into the same river twice because he's changed and the river's changed but here's Athenian stranger on Alex Gashuta's podcast talking about how we're in uncharted territory how scary is this yeah we're in uncharted territory because we've never been in this exact moment before right now there are things that we have in common with previous moments and things that are brand new and it's always like that right it's always uncharted territory you are you could walk this path every day for 10 years and you'd still be in uncharted territory because every day you change and every day the path changes it's uncharted territory guys Aristotle says and I think you simply correct and this is also thematic throughout Plato is that what Aristotle says is you can't even think without images the images that you create in your mind through the faculty of imagination right you can't even think well we don't really know how we think it seems like some people are primarily image thinkers other people are primarily verbal thinkers some people see images primarily in space we just barely know how we think so I wouldn't I wouldn't sound too assured in your commentary here mate Athenian stranger you can't help but do the recombinant work on your end and you have a choice about how many images you want to take in that some people don't watch TV some people don't go to movies some people aren't on social media all right most people's lies now like a thousand years ago at revolve around work family community it's not so radical and we did not evolve to be gullible so monks 800 years ago living in monasteries right they were distracted by images they had a hard time concentrating just part of being human because we evolved to be hyper aware for threats so we we did not evolve to optimize for happiness we evolve to optimize for passing on our genes which means that those who are hyper aware for threats who disproportionately attuned to fear and anxiety right more likely to spot threats coming that would snuff out their lives and so we're kind of optimized for fear and anxiety concern and distraction because that's proved to be evolutionarily adaptive only reason he picks out these particular people is for their greatness right Nietzsche picks up on this and says that if I oh you also picked them out because those are the people he knew those are the people he liked those are the people he resonated with those are the people who fit in with his hero system well guess what he couldn't soon as like ancient man began painting on a cave wall he was painting you know pornographic images all right so yeah there are some ways where this moment is uncharted territory different from all moments before it and there are some ways where it's continuous yeah well you just walk down the street you'll see images you don't want to see you'll see in a fat ugly frail deformed crippled damaged people and their pain and their incompetence and their deformity is painful it hurts you to look at it you don't have to go on the internet to see these things and that's exactly the problem is when you can't see some images because they're so extreme of what you don't want in your mind they pull down all the rest right they bring you back down right some people call it realism like well you know they didn't have to right you have some agency that way you want your attention to go you can do things to self-regulate to adjust your level of fear yeah true but also if you stay focused on just pictures of images right of great leaders great generals great heroes right really then you'll even be better off it's even really worse when you think about the youth because the youth today amazing at being able to blind themselves to what's really happening in their own house yeah if we just you know put up pictures of great men they're totally transform our lives well some people it would improve their lives the vast majority of people it would make very little if any difference parents will literally think that their kids have not seen corn or they wouldn't be looking at these kinds of the most outrageous form and I just ask them I say well does your son or your daughter have an iPhone and they'll say yes of course and I say well it's already in your home everything you never want them to see is already in your home and the thing about the youth is that and this is what makes them so great right this minute sort of a double-edged sword they have that willingness to their daring right to have that sort of that they want to push the envelope right and that's a great thing about them but it can be very dangerous when you combine it with a situation of something like pornography and then sort of like what you were saying is that they see everything they no longer create their own sort of images they and I guess what the world is very dangerous you know 500 years ago or a thousand years ago there are more wild animals there were more beasts and they were dangerous snakes right the woods always been a dangerous place it's not just some brand new phenomenon due to the internet they're just living out relationships right and so next thing you know we've got generations of young people now who are already that's already a reality for them and we don't know what's on the tail end of that right we're in America living under the kind of a gerontocracy right of old people you know we've got this 80 year old president 80 year old senators 90 year old senators well they're from a long time ago right we don't know what it's like to live under the rule of people like the youth today who have this newfound discovery of the most amazing human degeneracy possible so again completely uncharted territory yeah everything's uncharted territory there are some ways that this will be discontinuous with the past and there will be some ways it will be continuous but it won't be this radically different environment that you know only people as wise as Alex Kishuta and Athenian stranger can can detect what's happening yeah we have some new problems today and we have some new advantages today there are ways that life today is worse than it was yesterday five years ago 50 years ago 500 years ago there are other ways where life today is better than it was yesterday in 50 years ago and 500 years ago there definitely problems we have new emerging threats that we've not seen before and other threats have diminished but one thing is for sure we have optimized evolutionarily to be constantly alert for threats life is inherently fragile we don't know what's on the other end of a million things alright to be human is to be vulnerable to work with incomplete knowledge and to be constantly walking into uncharted territory because we are constantly changing and the territory is constantly changing yeah you're not gonna like it if you focus on what's bad about this new situation right not gonna like it if you focus on what's terrible about the new environment not gonna like it when you focus on how it's inferior to how it used to be not gonna like it if you don't have friends and community and family you're not gonna like it if you're not able to self-regulate right you're able to calm yourself down if you're able to meditate or pray or exercise or listen to classical music or whatever is your process of calming yourself down then unexpected changes we enter uncharted territory you're gonna throw you but we're able to self-regulate you're able to be a good friend to yourself you're able to treat yourself with kindness and care and compassion if you're able to you understand what drives and motivates you and troubles you then it's a really good chance that you're able to do the same for other people and that you'd be a good friend and that you can build up a support system in a community and you can play a valuable role in other people's lives and they can play a valuable role in your life and when these awful things happen like Gen X or Gen Z or Gen Y whatever takes political power that you'll be able to deal with it come on mate yeah he worries about that because he's wiser than you are and he's just worrying worrying about that because he sees all these threats that you don't see because he's morally superior he's cognitively sharper he has depth and wisdom because he studies the classics so he's like Eric Weinstein right he's worrying about this and he's worrying about that sure hope you're grateful he's like God's suffering servant he's suffering for our sins what a man's unless you're surrounded by good people and how you can increase your odds of being surrounded by good people you can be a good person yourself how can you be a good person you can get to know yourself be a good friend to yourself when you're in touch with yourself and what drives you and what frightens you right much more likely to be after a late and connect with other people and much more likely to have empathy as you let down your body arming armoring and when you let go your unnecessary bodily tension right take some Alexander technique lessons and let go of habitual reactions to stimuli that aren't serving you and replacing them with more adaptive reactions to stimuli and you let go of your body armoring become softer and gentler inside you'll open up your heart and your social life to connect with other people and your life will start working a whole lot better and sure great books great you can learn a lot from that you can learn a lot from a lot of different areas even podcasts and YouTube videos and friends and family can you open yourself up to learning where your family's been right and you've been wrong you open up to learning where your friends have been right you've been wrong you open up to learning from your own experience and you can you milk you know every defeat and every frustration and every wrong turn you've made now to get you know the full lesson so you don't just run from your mistakes but you kind of sit there and bathe in them and learn from them and grow and develop from them a lot of ways that you can become a more adaptive human