 May 40 here So I'm just thinking a lot about how important stories are to us We really want stories to understand the world and I think that's the reason why we're so united on the war Against Ukraine, right? We're generally surprised by how united the West has become in standing up to Vladimir Putin And I think the number one reason is that we share a common story at Russia bad by invading the sovereign country The first time since World War two with the exception of that little bit of bother in the Balkans in the 1990s We have one nation invading another nation And so there's a universally shared story about this around the first world But Russia is bad for invading Ukraine and the Ukrainians are lucky in fighting back. And so we've got this United way of understanding what's happening in Ukraine as opposed to COVID So in 2019 prior to the onset of the COVID pandemic You thought about which country is the best prepared for dealing with a pandemic You'd say the United States on paper by all objective means the United States seemed better prepared for a for a pneumonia influenza type pandemic such as COVID than any other nation on earth in the results turned out that we were about average for European type nations And we're still an incredibly divided country with regard to COVID because we don't have a Commonly shared story with regard to COVID. We do have this commonly shared story with regard to the war in Ukraine So when we share a story we're able to unite think about the 1980 American hockey team gold medal victory. All right, I Remember how thrilling that was I was I was 13 years of age 14 years of age when 13 But when that was happening and I just remember the the collective energy and the thrill and the excitement This was good versus evil like like our brains are programmed to prefer stories of good versus evil We can objectively deny the existence of good and evil But there's no way we can operate without without belief in objective good and evil. It's it's just how our brains are wired All right, we can try to intellectualize we can operate and we can try to say that oh It's all subjective it all depends on taking leap of faith There's some kind of you know transcendent value system But the way we're wired is something's wrong and certain things are right, right? This is this is like hard-wired in us that if someone steps on our toes that we revolt if there's disorder around us if there's trash if there's you know dog poop on the sidewalk if We feel like the community around us is spiraling into crime We have certain you know hard-wired Impulses that this is bad. This is terrible that the forces of disorder and evil are taking over and so biologically speaking according to like biological political science one of the things that unites people on the right is That we have a much stronger fear reflex. We have a much stronger reflex against threat Right, we we sense threats much more acutely and keenly Then do people who are centrist or on the left and so to be on the right means to Put extra preparation for things going bad for the world spiraling into chaos for the potential to defend ourselves Against aggression and conflict and disorder. That's something that characterizes people on the right We don't have this positive view of human nature. We don't believe that people are basically good So what unites people on the left is they believe people are basically good what unites people on the right is that we have a skeptical view of human nature and So we we have this instinctive fairly strong fear that the world is Constantly poised to descend into chaos that we'd never completely conquer chaos that chaos can overtake us at any time and so CS Lewis one of his arguments for God was that we all have this incoate Desire for God for the North for the trend Eastern Europe Of course, the most urgent question is what precedents are being set now for the future as Western leaders considered how to react they repeatedly stated how surprised they were and Suggested that Putin must not know that we are after all in the 21st century. He was acting in ways more fitting of past centuries Such repeated observations are troubling because they suggest the comforting but false notion that ages or Centuries have their own logic and spirit that must move toward peace on the contrary Leaders and people set the agenda for an age and there's no automatic default mode of peace to rely on in the absence of leadership No natural law commands that the 21st century should usher in harmony The European Union and the United States condemned the Putin regime's advances and Imposed sanctions on trade with Russia in some cases quite reluctantly in spite of Ukrainian request They did not deliver arms to help in defense NATO was now on the front line of the confrontation and Poland and the Baltic states in particular urged vigilance and action NATO's concept of collective security is written into article 5 of its charter Which states that an attack on one member would be considered an attack on all in all of NATO's life to date? That promise has been invoked only once after the 9-11 attacks on the United States Would that promise hold in the future? How would so-called hybrid warfare that is infiltration? Okay, that's an excellent academic lecture history of Eastern Europe in particular the Ukraine Russia crisis looking at the chat So it's look we are united at all on Ukraine most the liberal left in the US Western Europe support the Ukrainian state Along with the neocon so-called right now pretty much everybody on the political spectrum any major Personality in American politics supports Ukraine and opposes what Vladimir Putin does who are Western political leaders who support Vladimir Putin right now? There aren't any there's universal among everyone who matters in the West Siding with Ukraine is the aggrieved party and condemning Vladimir Putin and Russia now on Distant right. Yeah, there are still a lot of people who have contempt for Ukraine and support Vladimir Putin But they don't matter they don't count for anything They don't have any power and they don't have any influence so as far as the Overton window There's really only one one permissible Perspective on the Ukraine crisis Russia is doing evil and Ukraine is the aggrieved party and is a plucky Country fighting for its survival against big bad Russia. That's that's universal perspective now as opposed to our divided understanding of COVID and There's a terrific article here in the Atlantic our brains What the story the pandemic to be something that it isn't after two years of living with the coronavirus? We're suffering from narrative fatigue and so I become increasingly Aware of my own need for story and my own desire to slot things into good versus evil and Accordingly become much more skeptical of some of my basic impulses. So I have basic free market right-wing impulses those my impulses but Running into the reality of the COVID pandemic. It's forced me to To perspectives that are not congenial to me such as there is Tremendous need for government public policy for public health policy for government intervention and at times for even for government coercion such as the closing off of borders and the denial of Travel that these seem and shut down to lockdowns that these seemed to have been legitimate Uses of government power to deal with something as Confounding as COVID pandemic. So those are ways that I've shifted out of my normal free market small government instincts and I Have been fairly cautious on COVID from the beginning I haven't taken a lot of strong stance because it just seems so confounding first of all, I read that poor Barry book on the 1918-1919 Spanish flu when about 40 million people around the world died from this influenza so fairly early on in March of 2020 at a sense that this was something that was a real public health threat and that extraordinary public health measures May be called for in dealing with it A half Galician says Angela Merkel's legacy is rightfully in the trash right now. So yeah, there's a lot of Talk about how Angela Merkel left Germany unprepared for for dealing with with Russia so So where did where did she go wrong? So up to the final hours before Russia began its invasion of Ukraine formula former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been touted as the person favored by Germans to try to talk President Vladimir Putin out of the conflict But as Russian bombs fell on Ukrainian cities a shadow has fallen on Merkel 16 years in office The observers questioning if her detente policies with Putin had left Germany and Europe vulnerable So once hailed as the leader of the free world veterans center right leaders been accused of increasing Europe's reliance on Russian energy and Neglecting Germany's defense in what appeared to be a devastating miscalculation of Putin's ambitions so Over the last decade Germany's energy reliance on Russia's risen from 36% to 55% So yeah, that that seems to have been a miscalculation seems to be a pretty big miscalculation also Germany's and Europe in general is increasing Preference to move on from fossil fuel, but the the renewable energy sources just aren't there yet and so shutting down a nuclear power in in Germany and In around the world in Japan also seems to have been a major mistake So Angela Merkel's policies have left Germany helpless to follow allies like the United States and to impose an oil and gas embargo against Russia Also, Germany's defense profile has been blunted by successive years of under-investment Which is drawing the eye of the United States and other allies. Yeah, so I think those are two Two strong criticisms of Angela Merkel's policies So she took power in 2005 and she just stepped down a few months ago Rodney Martin says nothing Germany could do in terms of defense can protect them well if Germany doesn't do more for its defense the United States will be less inclined to invest in defending Germany so What what Germany does has a big influence on how much the United States is likely to want to invest Opposing the degenerate West should be the logical position for the distant right or whatever one wants to call it Okay, so if you oppose the degenerate West then who do you support? Right, which nation states which political ideologies that are in power Do you support? So it's not just you know having a fantasy that you've got is ideology that's not in power anywhere in the world But it'll be much much better. That doesn't really count for much You have a fantasy of about a political social cultural order, which is in nowhere in power throughout the world Right, that doesn't count for much So if you think the the West is so degenerate and bad Then where do you think it's better in Nigeria in North Korea in China? Okay, I certainly think the West has its problems, but it's still still the most powerful part of the world and For all its degeneracy that that's kind of the the downside of its protection of personal freedom Afglation says Germany just outsourced everything while pretending to be virtuous They outsourced energy to Russia defense to America and handed over civil society to immigrant hordes from Syria That's a pretty sharp critique there Yeah, the country should now in a sober moment reappraise all of Angela Merkel's policies including the own goal of allowing into million refugees from the Middle East and V who says I can't stop playing my video games. So yeah, I was watching a good video the other day by this bloke on Why why he no longer plays video games? that he was devoting so much time to achieving things in video games that it it diminished his Excitement or interest in achieving things in in the real world So let me find that way no longer play video games so I Think certainly for many people video games are you know, just just fine They're not a big big problem, but For many people they do become a waste of time just like I'm sure there there are some people who can can use you know a Small amount or a moderate amount of marijuana and it doesn't doesn't really hurt them But yeah, I was kind of impressed by by this video here I'm not when you're about to be a car a level up in a video game Doesn't mean anything when you have no idea where your dogs are gonna live when you get kicked out Are you gonna put them back in the shelter a new item in game? That gives you more power doesn't mean anything when you're just wondering how you're gonna buy food next week None of what I did in the video games mattered at that point all the confidence and all of that I'm a different person online. Everyone enjoys me here. I couldn't take that into real life now I have to snap back into me. I'm this great player online, but in person. I'm just I Gotta snap back to not being whatever I I want it to be It's not like I could take my in-game gold and trade that in for a mortgage payment. Yes I know technically you can sell gold. Okay, I get it people in the comments. I could have tried to put out the fire and just get back into my routine of Playing video games working working out spending time with a girlfriend going to sleep rinse repeat all that over and over and over Just put the fires out. Just get back right into that Traditional routine that I was in but instead I Chose to pour gasoline on the fire and Take it as an opportunity to try and create within myself all those traits that I had in my characters in the video games that I knew that I didn't have in real life Talking to the camera being one of them keeping my charisma up filming in public Not caring what people think so much building consistency of creating things in real life Then building the consistency of logging into a video game from that point on I chose to make life the video game if it didn't happen I'd probably still be playing video games trying to level up or With my friends trying to figure out. Yeah, I think that's a pretty sharp analysis. Let's go to the chat Rodney Martin says Putin is called George HW Bush's New World Order, which is a good thing. Well, I think that New World Order ended Approximately 15 years ago with the rise of China So you only had this New World Order when we lived in the unipolar moment where the United States was the only powerful nation on earth Affegliction says everyone today pretends to know about John Mirzheimer 40 was early on that. Yeah so John Mirzheimer is getting millions of views his videos on the Western Ukraine and He's getting though. He says a thousand emails a day so I've been I've been interested in Mirzheimer for approximately 15 years Rodney Martin says you Pete neocons are frothing at the mouth to fight Russia There's not much political energy for a no-fly zone or for direct military conflict with Russia So anyone calling for that's very much on the political friend fringe Interlocutor says most of the Nationalists right with the exception of Colin Liddell and Richard Spencer support Russia Yeah, but none of them count for anything Democrats want to fight Russia because they still believe Russia installed Trump now I think there's a universal revulsion against Russia Around the Western world. It's not just Trump Sid says Putin is winning. Well, is he winning just because you're pushing forward and taking territory doesn't mean you're winning if the cost of those military Advances are prohibitive right there are such things as Pyrrhic victories where it seems On the face of things that you have won but the cost of winning has been so enormous that you're actually losing So it didn't really matter in Operation Barbarossa and the battle for Moscow. How close Germany's Armies got to Russia what mattered was what was their capability of not knocking the Soviet Union out of the war and Their capability of knocking the Soviet Union out of the war was not increased the closer They were getting to Moscow because they were stretching their supply lines while Soviet supply lines were getting shorter and so the Soviets were stockpiling troops and weapons in Moscow and Essentially allowing the Germans to come right up to the edge of Moscow. So at one point German Motorcycle units were about 25 miles from from Moscow But that doesn't mean that they were much closer to defeating the Soviet Union than when they were say 500 miles from from Moscow Germany lost Operation Barbarossa in the first three weeks because they were taking such enormous losses that after the first three weeks of the war they could no longer Operate Blitzkrieg they could no longer operate a broadly Movement-based Panzer-based tank-based attack force that they lost so many tanks and Officers and equipment and their supply lines weren't working out that. Yeah, they threw You know great effort we were able to keep extending into the Soviet Union, but the more they extended the more vulnerable they became Rodney Mount says China matters and India matters. I don't think they actually matter that much anymore Notice that over the past year or two you don't hear nearly as much talk about how China's is great ascendant power that's going to take over World domination from the United States. India doesn't matter that much either They're both both China and India have per capita GMP like lower than Costa Rica Putin's got China Brazil the Indians Putin is winning. I don't think Putin is winning and Just because you've got China Brazil and the Indians not joining in on embargoes against Russia Does it mean that you're winning? Israel's not sanctioning Russia also not a big deal One good thing about the Ukraine war is that the anti-Semites always saying no war for Israel can shut up now Western Europe are US vassals. Well Yeah, that's that's the deal that much of the world made during the Cold War that in exchange for protection from the United States They would agree not to oppose US foreign policy So everything comes with a price including American nuclear protection Rodney doesn't want any Ukrainian refugees US. I don't think it's a bad thing that We feel much more connection to Ukrainians than we do from people from the Middle East or from Africa Because Ukrainians share a similar European and Christian heritage to most people in the United States We have soldiers in Poland. We have soldiers in Korea. We had them in Vietnam We died defending those countries, but then they say no more wars to protect Israel Yeah, we spend far more money and lives almost anywhere, but Israel Yeah, the amount of money spent on NATO and defending Taiwan and Korea is far more than spent on Israel US has not fought once for Israel Merkel was a willing USA bitch She relied on Big Daddy to protect Germany at the same time she was highly pragmatic getting increasing amounts of energy from Russia So if Merkel's Russia defense energy policy was trash and self-injurious. What about her immigration policy? Good point so I asked interlocutor who Right supposing the degenerate where should be the logical position for the distant, right? So what regimes what political systems that have power in the world now would you want to emulate? Germany just outsourced everything while pretending to be virtuous They outsourced energy to Russia defense to America and handed over civil society to immigrant hordes from the Middle East Germany is not a sovereign nation. Well, Germany has some pretty big problems. They need American military protection So Germany's in a demographics downward spiral They simply not reproducing Interlocutor says I support whatever opposes or contributes to the destruction of Western capitalism and liberalism. Okay, so what are better systems? So have you named any better systems that are currently in power? As opposed to Western capitalism and liberalism Rodney Martin says Russia is not putting Harry men in little girls bathrooms Okay, but is that the be all and end all of the public policy like I think we've gone insane with our Transgender rights and transgender activism in the West, but that's not the only matter that decides the Virtuousness or integrity or power of a society. So we have these these these ads right for for China and Russia and and for the U.S. and and the like China and Russia they look really tough, right, but Does that really matter? Is that the most important thing about a non-forces that puts out ads that are really tough So the U.S. has put out some ridiculous ads for his military forces saying how the transgender friendly gay friendly they are and These ads may not necessarily inspire much confidence in United States military being tough, but yeah The the China and the Russia ads for their militaries make these countries seem a lot tougher But is that what's most important? I mean our ads really The best way to assess how powerful a military force is so judging by all of Russia's problems evading Ukraine, right? You wouldn't how many people Would you have found that the thought that Russia would be in as much trouble as it's in those made as little progress hasn't even taken Kiev yet, right? It was pretty much unanimously Predicted by military experts that you know Russia would just trash the Ukrainian military very quickly now people pointed out the Russia would not be able to occupy the Ukraine and That's not really a goal. I would expect for Vladimir Putin. He just wants a a friendly friendly power that Friendly regime that has power in Ukraine, but Russia does not want to occupy this country They simply don't have the military resources Let's get a little bit from Michael Beckley I mean that obviously is going to take a short-term hit on the Chinese economy But I don't think that's necessarily problematic in the long term my sense is also that Xi Jinping is keeping that in place for now in part because he has this big party Congress coming up in October where he's going to Exceed for the first time his unofficial sort of term limits, you know There have been this kind of norm established that Chinese leaders step down after 10 years or so and no one expects Xi Jinping to step down But I think it's I think he understands that it's it's it's significant that he will be actually staying on Beyond that after October and so is paving the way to make sure there there aren't sites of opposition and so locking down Through a zero COVID policy is is helpful for that and at the same time, you know, there's been a lot of reports That's just the Chinese vaccine has not been terribly Effective and so something you know that aha so interlocutor admits There are no preferable alternatives presently in power So what is my point? My point is that you live in fantasy land, right? You decry Western liberalism and Western capitalism, but there are no better alternatives right now You want to live in a fantasy world, which is fine But it's not part of a realistic discussion of what's going on in the world today. You're engaged in Massive masturbation Oh, this would be great if we were really strong and united and we had a really strong lead. Oh, yeah All right, that's what you're into you're into masturbation. I'm talking about reality. So I Can't condemn you for wanting to live in a masturbatory fantasy, but that's not what this shows all about There there are a lot of shows where you can talk about your masturbatory fantasies This isn't one of them Rodney Martin says USA couldn't pacify Afghanistan in 20 years. Well It didn't exactly put all of its resources into pacifying Afghanistan Afghanistan fairly quickly proved itself to be to be a loser and unworthy of US resources Ukraine has modern weapons and training Afghanistan did not Russia has done far better in Ukraine than the US could have I don't think that's realistic American military power is just so many leagues superior to what the Russians are able to assemble Interlocutor says my point is your system is destroying us. Okay, as opposed to which system you can't name any realistic systems So your only systems that you endure some masturbatory fantasies There are alternatives within our own political and cultural traditions in America There's a populist and anti-interventionist tradition. Yeah, and it's still there and it has considerable problems like The the populist position with regard to COVID was insane that we didn't need lockdowns. We didn't need vaccines right, so There are times when I side with populism versus the elite opinion But there are plenty of times when populism is just moronic in Beverly Hills in Manhattan Only wives are rich men or against against gorgeous blonde poor Ukrainian babes coming here Culture and morals determine the worth of a society. Well, what determines the worth of a society is just It's just purely subjective, but what determines the danger of a society is its ability to mount war and No, no other or the other countries in the world don't have the equivalent of the US armed forces Like all the other countries in the world put together don't spend as much money as the United States does on its armed forces Every man in America wants more beautiful Ukrainian women admitted to the country Right, we have a lot more in common with Ukrainians that we do with Syrians or Somalis Crime became unbearable the minute Luke landed in Sydney when he got back to LA the crime was merely sensationalism well it what There's one thing to know something in an abstract fashion. It's something else to experience it in real life So Sydney is one of the world's safest cities It's according to one survey the fourth safest big city in the world. And so experiencing how wonderful that was Was was a visceral existential Overwhelming experience Wow, it was just incredible and then and then to compare that with what was going on in Los Angeles You I've lived in Los Angeles since 1994 and I became desensitized to the rising crime rates now I still think that a lot of you know the Fox News and Conservative approach that that LA is a hellhole and California is a hellhole because of rising crime rates I think that is sensationalized and overdone, but there is a very real Rise in crime in California and other parts of the United States. It's a real problem. It is something short of a catastrophe So LA and San Francisco and the Bay Area not hell holes, but we're certainly facing Considerably decreased quality of life due to the rise in crime and Then when you go visit a place like Australia where there's comparatively virtually no crime It just makes it So much more viscerally compelling, you know, what what crime does to our quality of life in America? Lucas bashing America in Sydney now. He's back USA USA. Well, everywhere you go You you change. I've just been reading this terrific book. It's called the extended mind and It's about how important things outside of our brain are for our thinking. It was named a top 10 book by the New York Times and Just It makes the point how important the place we are at is For our thinking so walls, all right I'm speaking in a ward room right now that allows much more freedom of thought than if I was living in a situation Where everybody was able to observe my every act and deed You think different thoughts when you go for a walk than when you're just sitting down So Nietzsche said don't don't trust any any thought that you don't develop while walking and the power of gesture Gesture helps us to communicate more clearly and to think more clearly So the extended mind by I think any Murphy terrific terrific book and So the power of place. Yeah when I'm in Sydney that profoundly affects how I understand the world when I'm in Los Angeles Profoundly affects how I view the world when I when I'm out for a walk that that profoundly affects how I view the world When I'm sitting alone or when I'm with other people that get into the Michael Schirmer show I'm your host Michael Schirmer before I introduce today's guest the written version. So let's just start there. Why is that? Hmm. Hmm. Well, I have a question for you Michael Which is when you think about those quotes from those books that you've listened to do you remember where you were when you Oh, yeah, oh, yeah, this is the link to the extended mind idea I can even picture like I'm usually doing this on a bike ride or a hike with my dog Usually long bike rides. So I can remember like what Canyon Road. I was riding up when I heard this Story about some story you told in your book. Yeah, so I can actually picture it physically where I was Yeah Yeah, so there's a couple things going on there One is that as you mentioned you're moving when you're listening to these audiobooks it sounds like you're taking a walk you're taking a bike ride and Movement enhances our thinking processes in ways that remain dormant when we're just sitting still as we usually are when we're reading a print book and then we also have this Navigational built-in kind of navigational system that Marks where we are when we encounter important information and you can understand the evolutionary value of a system like that you When you encounter, you know, a source of food or a source of danger and threat It's good to remember where that was so that you know to go to that place again or avoid it and so It's so interesting to me how we limit the use of our own inbuilt sort of human Resources biological resources when we remain still When we do our thinking and yet remaining still while we think is kind of the way our culture thinks thinking should happen Yes, and in reading the books I can often Remember where on the page it was like I'm trying to remember where that quote was I wanted to use and oh It was on the bottom left of the page and so middle of the book You know, I kind of it could kind of a physical environment of the of the quotes And yeah, let's get back to the chat half Galician says wow too much of a hobby can be Malproductive who would have thought well some people it's a real problem It's not a problem that half Galician apparently has but there may be other parts of his life Where he's engaging too much in something that is a problem so that you don't personally have the problem with gaming doesn't mean it's not an important issue and spending a great deal of time in in fantasy and in in recreational activities when we should be concentrating on our real life is a real problem for tens of millions of people it's a real problem for tens of millions of Americans even if you half Galician don't have that problem and Sometimes we need to hear something from different people in different words to get through our layers of self-protection We all have stories for always the hero of our own story We don't want to feel like we have a problem We have an instinct that we want to blame our problems on someone else And so if we get fired from a job or we get fired from a relationship All right It's usually too painful for us to say that the problems with us instead We'll spend weeks saying the problems with the boss or with the the person who got rid of us from from the relationship And that's a normal self-protective device, but If we keep that up for months or years. That's obviously maladaptive. So a lot of things are adaptive To a certain extent in the short term, but then they become maladaptive And so living in a fantasy world playing video games blaming other people for our problems. That's a perfectly adaptive response for a limited amount of time But then if you extend it past a few weeks or a month or two months or depending on the length of the relationship Pass say three months, then it becomes maladaptive and So we all build up these stories that our problems are other people's fault And so we often need to hear from different people and different words and different perspectives to kind of break through our shell of Self-protection that you know, we're the heroes of our own stories and our problems are the fault of everyone else rather than our souls Buddy mountain says a counter-effect of Biden and the West Russian sanctions is destroying Western economies Well, it's not going to destroy the American economy. I'll have some negative effect with it rising gas prices But the US depends less on trade than any other major power US military is a joke now can't take any losses. US military is the best formidable fighting force on earth Luke playing TEDx tier nourish kite. Well, just because it's on Ted doesn't mean it's wrong or stupid So sometimes we need to hear banal truths But we get so distracted by everything else going on in our life. Sometimes we need to be reminded of banal truths U.S. imperialism only targets weak nations that can't defend themselves Says interlock you to the West fights Russian China covertly more than anything else US troops will not be in direct combat with Russians Well, the US fights for its actual interests. And so we've certainly targeted China we have applied considerable tariffs and regulations and We're squeezing squeezing China like a python I didn't expect that China will exist as a nation-state in its present form in 10 years Mainstream media has become a propaganda organ grinder for neocons and chicken hawks is Rodney Martin. Well, I Am surprised by how Universally the Russia-Ukraine war is being viewed all around the first world Luke is the greatest intellectual popularizer in America today. Kashmir John Mirshiva, Mark Shapiro Yeah, what's it was exactly the prohibitive cost of the sanctions against Russia to the United States? Putin knew it would be a mess in the Ukraine and that there would be retaliatory sanctions by the US and the satellites Right so right now it doesn't appear as I put me the right move in invading Ukraine and I'm talking just purely in terms of Russian national interests Putin is not the great savior, but you guys underestimate him. Well, I don't know who underestimates him I think I pretty consistently said for years that Putin is the most effective great power leader In the world in the last 20 years I can't think of any other leader of a great power in the last 20 years who has been as effective promoting his Nation's best interest as much as Putin. Now. I think you may have blundered in the Ukraine Afglation as Blitzkrieg is built on quick first strike movements. It just doesn't work beyond the short term An industrial giant like the Soviet Union who can resupply with millions and millions of men China services trillions in US debt Archi not true, right? Japan services more US debt than China. I believe and Anyway, either way China and Japan are not terribly significant for servicing US debt US is finished as a superpower not true US is Over the overwhelming power in the world today and it will only go Become more powerful compared to other nations in the years ahead Look forward thinks the USA is winning pretty easily. Yes compared to other great power nations China and Russia The other two great powers are a mess Okay, let's put a little bit more. This is a terrific book the extended mind the power of thinking outside the brain It's just words. Yes Yes And I think that's why reading on the internet or even reading a Kindle can be a rather disorienting experience because we have none of those physical cues You know like oh was at the beginning of the book So most of the pages were still you know to the right or whatever that those kinds of embodied experiences We have when reading a print book are missing when we read online And I think that's why it all starts to blend together and seem like the sort of my asthma of information Yeah, I don't do ebooks. I just I mean there's nothing wrong with them I just can't just can't get into it. Also, I can't listen to a fiction like a novel And I'm you know out on a bike ride or whatever because my mind kind of You know just spaces out for a few seconds or a minute and with a non-fiction book You can kind of come back in because there are chunks of ideas being presented sequentially And I can kind of fill in the blanks that I spaced out on but with a novel I can't follow the thread of the plot line or the character development Yeah, I have pretty similar experiences there to Michael Schoemer Looking at the chat interlocutor says you couldn't be more wrong Luke Whatever the state of China Russia the US is rapidly falling apart will eventually become a squalid North American version of Brazil or Guatemala So one of us will be proven right. I've made Made my my argument that US will grow increasingly strong in the years ahead. I primarily read ebooks. I prefer ebooks to real-life paper books Elliot says is there any validity to the idea that China Russia will make common cause against America? Yeah, well China and Russia have have a common cause against America, but they're not a particularly powerful combo. I Didn't exactly know you know what what are the scary things that they can do together that they couldn't do separately The interests of our ruling elites and those of the average American are hardly synonymous. That's true And that is a problem in the United States Our ruling elites in the US don't fight for national interests But only if they're financial and corporate interests United States is a global empire not a normal nation state. I Would modify that to say our ruling elites sometimes don't fight for national interests so I don't think either our ruling elites or The regular folks the populace are More virtuous like sometimes I think one group is right and sometimes one group is wrong But yeah, I read most of my books as ebooks Reasters and financial analysts can't sustain a superpower. Well, the world's most powerful economy and The world's most powerful military. Yeah, they can sustain a Superpower when I space out like that, so I Thought that was always interesting as well Yeah, well, it is the case that moving our bodies that consumes some mental bandwidth You know, so I have a anecdotal an anecdote in the in the book about the psychologist Daniel Kahneman and how he worked out a precise speed at which he could walk and Think well at the end and found that that sort of moderate kind of Intensity of exercise did enhance this thinking but once he started to go faster than that all thoughts kind of led his mind He was really focusing so much on navigating the terrain and he could no longer Yeah, I think if you go over about I think for the average person five six seven eight miles an hour You'll no longer be able to think productively But if you can walk probably six miles an hour, I think most people can still think productively so Stimulated my stream today is this article in the Atlantic about Our frustration with COVID Our brains want the story of the pandemic to be something it isn't so I think Frequently our brains want reality be something that is not and true with Ukraine versus Russia Right good foreign policy should not be decided by our passions And so seems almost universally in the West our passions are on the side of Ukraine But that doesn't mean that we should be committing troops or committing a no-fly zone To to Ukraine right when it comes to foreign policy and public policy in general We can't be primarily directed by our emotions So if the COVID pandemic were a movie it would not make any sense Right. It was a great point We have brains that want to storify everything we want to put everything into stories Usually right wrong good and evil good guys and bad guys Right. So even if we put aside the suffering in the monotony that would make up the film's action the narrative structure of COVID Defined by its false endings exhausting duration in the screwtable villains a virus would be unwatchable So two years of living with the coronavirus has been spirit depleting But this weariness has been compounded by the fact the pandemic has defied our attempts to snap it into a Satisfying story framework. That's why I've been so milk toast on public responses to COVID generally speaking Because I don't think I've seen this particularly in in dramatic good guy versus bad guy terms So I think many of us are Suffering from narrative fatigue But we've got an exhaustion born not only out of the relentlessness the pandemic But the relentlessness of the ever-changing narratives that have Accompanied it so that the coronavirus's volatile arc has thwarted a basic human impulse to storify reality We instinctively try to make sense of events in the world and in our own lives by mapping them on to a narrative And when we struggled to do that, there are all these unpleasant consequences stress anxiety depression a sense of fatalism and just feeling kind of crummy so It often serves us to Storify our life and the world around us even if that story is false Right there are all sorts of false beliefs that have beneficial effects on us because when we can't make a Story about what's going on in our life or in the world around us and we feel experienced increased stress anxiety depression fatalism and just lousy So particularly deflating stretch of the pendent story came in 2021 after the vaccines were made widely available So they were initially pitched as a salvation and President Joe Biden celebrated Independence from the virus in a 4th of July speech and a hot back summer Something that people talked about white boys summer 2021 the Delta variant then came along and viscerated that optimism produced a feeling of narrative whiplash Wasn't a covert story supposed to be over at least in an intermission What's made the pandemic story even more exasperating is that Americans haven't been able to agree on this basic facts Many people have been asserting the pandemics are hoax the vaccines are harmful and our divergent beliefs about covert and public policy with regard to covert Destroy our ability to tell a collective story so during World War two a national narrative was easy to construct and With regard to Russia versus Ukraine we in the west of pretty much universally constructed a narrative Russia bad Ukraine good But with regard to covert we can't construct a narrative So the story will usually be more psychologically satisfying when it has a diabolical antagonist to root against Whether it's dr. Fauci or Donald Trump, but the pandemic has denied us that because the virus is not willful It does not have motors. So we're resorting to casting a different enemy such as Donald Trump Fauci China so We have a vacuum of villainy which is contributing to pandemic conspiracy theories Which are basically just convenient stories about whom to be mad at So we crave storylines We've got Disney cranking out so many iterations of storylines of battles between good and evil in which good tribes and evil Renounces its ways, but without a sentient enemy in covert We can't do the normal thing that we do when someone from another political party does something we dislike Which is to vilify them so our fight is to get them to recognize their evil and then to give it up So when you want reality to match a storyline that you are accustomed to but the reality doesn't comply That is stressful. We have this strong desire for redemptive narratives stories that go from bad to good I remember when I was watching the movie of the pianist I think it was Roman Plansky movie set during World War two one of my frustrations with the movie was that the protagonist didn't really change Yeah, this intense two-hour movie, but at the end. How was the Protagonist Adrian Brody. How is he any different? Then at the beginning of the film so in sermons and commencement speeches in national myths We constantly hear tales of trying thing over adversity, but the pandemic story has withheld that positive resolution and refused to end So this narrative rupture Hope explain why Delta's emergence particularly stung it punctured the happy ending that people have come to expect and that seemed For a moment to be within our grasp More problems in his head as he was trying to walk too fast Yes, and I remember that story because I was on a walk to the mailbox as I live up in the mountains about a mile walk to my Mailboxes with my dog. I remember thinking because it takes me like 20 minutes to get to the mailbox one mile It's mostly climbing and he was doing like what you say 15 minutes or 16 minutes for a mile I thought damn that guy's 88 years old and he's beating me So Yeah, so that's true because What I'm talking about here is only when I'm by myself if I when I meet the guys for a ride and we go pretty fast I can't listen to anything You know because it's just you know, it's too too much concentrating on actually working working out something like that But I do find the the entire idea pretty pretty useful these days under the pandemic We're all consuming content digitally now often on you know online alone and But that has some trade-offs too as you point out that you know, but learning by yourself is not as good as in a classroom So I I'm guessing you would make the argument that we still need brick-and-mortar Buildings for universities and colleges particularly seminar type Classes that in other words the university is not dead. We're all going to zoom and and just consuming University courses, you know alone in our in our bedrooms Yeah, no, I hope I hope the pandemic killed off that idea because we all saw how very impoverished An experience that is to do all your learning on zoom. There's so much that's That gets missed for one thing terrific book the extended mind the power of thinking outside the brain by journalist any Murphy Paul so Here's a good thread on Twitter by Dimitri Alexander Simes So journalists who focuses on Russia and Asia so he says I Just read this New Yorker interview with Princeton historian Stephen Kotkin Kotkin makes some bizarre claims about Russian history which should be addressed so Stephen Kotkin tells the New Yorker I've any the greatest respect for the realist George Cannon and John Mirshimer, but I Respectfully disagree the problem with their argument is that it assumes that had NATO not expended Russia wouldn't be the same or very likely close to what it is today and Here's the key thing that that I've evolved to am I thinking of the past two years is no essential self Because who we are depends on the context in which we're operating it depends on who we're talking to so there's no essential Russia just like there's no essential America or no essential China or no essential Judaism or no essential Christianity Christianity Judaism America China they all depend upon context So there's no essential Russia that just hates the West This is Stephen Kotkin writing that what we have today in Russia is not a surprise It's not some kind of deviation from historical pattern way before NATO existed in the 19th century Russia looked like this. It had an autocrat. It had repression. It had militarism had suspicion of foreigners in the West This is a Russia that we know and it's not a Russia that arrived yesterday or in the 19th century It's not a response to the actions of the West. There are internal processes in Russia that account for where we are today Well internal processes in Russia or in me or in you or in Christianity or in Judaism Depend upon the context the situation what they're reacting to All right, so in some circumstances Russians will hate the West in other circumstances Russians will love the West in some circumstances people in the West will love Russia in other circumstances People in the West will hate Russia some circumstances Christians will have an instinctive loathing of Jews now the circumstances They'll have an instinctive love of Jews. It depends on the context. It's not any central Christianity There's not any central Judaism. There's not any central Russia that just hates the West Right, so to meet your eyes. Let's begin with the suspicion of Westerners part This claim doesn't hold up scrutiny for the Russian Empire Which was modeled by Peter the first on European absolute monarchy so post Peter the great Russian monarch spoke numerous European languages and had European relatives same applied to members of the Russian aristocracy Often taught by European teachers in their youth who later traveled across Europe 19th century educated Russians were fully plugged into European political and cultural trends Bring the Napoleonic Wars officers from all across Europe served in the imperial Russian army So Peter the first model of the Russian Empire after the West his success is maintained close familial and cultural ties to Europe The Russian Lee it was very much Westernized Westerners occupied high government military positions in the Russian Empire So Corkin's point is that Russia has always been paranoid about the West, but that doesn't withstand the least bit of scrutiny What about his claim that Russia has always been in militarized autocracy? Well in some circumstances it has been in other circumstances it does not be depends on the circumstance the situation plenty of European states were militarized Autocracies during the 17th and 18th century think of Prussia under Frederick the Great France under Louis the 14th or Sweden under Charles this 12 So with the exception the 1850s the percentage of Russians serving in the army was comparable to that of other European great powers So the argument that Russia was just uniquely militarized is not correct What about Stephen Corkin's idea that Russians have always been a personalist? Despotism and his argument that Russians have always been driven by a sense of exceptionalism So this is Stephen Corkin here speaking to the New Yorker The worst part of this dynamic in Russian history is a conflation of the Russian state with a personal ruler Instead of getting the strong state that they want to manage the Gulf of the West Russia force Russia up to the highest level they instead get a personalist regime They get a dictatorship which usually becomes a despotism They've been in this bind for a while because they cannot relinquish that sense of exceptionalism that aspiration to be the greatest power But they cannot match that in reality Eurasia is just much weaker than the Anglo-American model of power Iran Russia and China with similar models are trying to catch the West trying to manage the West So it's weird to condemn Russians for a sense of exceptionalism right every people in the world see themselves as exceptional And what about uniquely autocratic repressive claim? So Peter the first modeled the Russian Empire after fellow European absolute monarchy so politically Russia was pretty much in the norm at least in the 18th century. We start seeing some divergence in the 19th century Since whereas many European monarchies embrace some form of parliamentarianism Russia holds on to the absolute monarchy model, but there are many important nuances Even though Russia was an absolute monarchy It was also a society that had an aristocratic class with established legal and historical rights and privileges The Tsar could not just bulldoze and purge them the way Stalin did with his high-ranking officials So Tsarist Russia had much more freedom of expression than Soviet Union Although Russia was slow to embrace constitutional reform it adopted various other political social economic reforms throughout the 19th century The Tsar Alexander the second abolished serfdom introduced selected judges experimented with local self-government The son Alexander the third rolled back some of these political reforms while industrializing Russia's economy The full range of people's gestures get lost when you're when you're on zoom the sense of social prets What psychologists call social presence, you know that energizing alertness that we feel in the presence of another person those things just don't they don't Come across in the same way and in zoom Yeah, especially if you have a conversation I tried this when the when the university's Chapman University closed down in early March of 2020 and you know that was it we went to zoom and I was teaching a small seminar just 25 students and You know conversation kind of ricochet around the room Sort of randomly and you kind of look for social cues and on zoom You just have to you know you put the little bit your flag up like I put in my hand up And it's like this is just totally not even remotely as good No, no, so I'm really glad that University's ends, you know K-12 schools are largely returning to in-person instruction this year I think it's really important for people to Learn and think and work together in in-person in the same place at the same time Yeah, one other funny little anecdote. I thought reading your book was the first course I ever had in college was an astronomy course and This is what I'm interested in the sciences in the first place But I remember the in the professor Okay, let's go to Elliot Blatt. What's going on, bro? Yo, bro. How you doing? Good man. Blessings Glad you're streaming and took a long little hiatus. Yeah, I took a week off No, it just I just didn't have anything to say I was reading like I read probably four books in that time and I was reading the Newspapers every day, but I just never felt like I had anything that I wanted to tell anyone else So you just you just remain quiet I did just took a day's off. This is like some sort of progress No, neither way, I don't think it's inherently good or bad. It's just If I don't think I have something to contribute or add then then yeah, I think it's good to just take take a break I don't want to stream compulsively just like I don't want to do, you know, a lot of things compulsively So we can't we can't you know, the old days we could just predict That's your clock Luke will be yes, that's right for years for three years or so now it's going to be sort of like a Like a special treat to sentence from heaven It's all situational right it all depends on You know what's going on like it takes a lot of energy to do a live stream like this So in certain situations I'm gonna have more energy and more incentive to stream than others Yeah, okay, we'll have to adapt Just like just like Ukrainians To adapt to the new reality, I don't have much to say Luke. I've been you know Trying to you know, we my way through the information So what do you think is from your perspective and your life experience, what is a life that works a life that works yeah is Life that works is a simple life It's a life that is unencumbered by Meaningless annoyances it is a life that is Quiet calm and introspective and Am I actualizing this life now how often have you made that real? There's had a few good years Luke a long time ago And that's so much anymore So my definition of a life that works is that You look forward to tomorrow and that when you get up in the morning, you have a sense of Anticipation for the day that there there are things in your day that you're looking forward to I would say that's half true of me Yeah, it's a good definition. I like the definition. It's so simple, right? It's so simple. It's so crisp and simple It's crisp and clean. It's no no bullshit. No No ratty ends. No No No nonsense look. Yeah, I'm with you So like I'm usually excited when I wake up in the morning after I take that cold shower I mean that really wakes me up and it like I'm excited to oh, there are these you know YouTube videos that I want to listen to There's this book. I want to read There's this work assignment that I want to dive into there's this social engagement that I want to participate in There's this walk. I want to take there's this movie. I want to watch So I have All these things that I'm looking forward to doing and so as long as I have that I feel like my life works on the other hand there there are times when I I'm just feeling dull Well, not quite that but I keep doing things and I don't last at any of them for like longer than 20 minutes So I'll try journaling and I'll give up on that after 15 minutes and then Say I'll pick up a 12-step book And and try to answer questions in that book and then give up on that after 15 minutes And then I'll start watching a movie and give up on that after 20 minutes So I do sometimes have those restless times where nothing sustains my attention Now Are you you find it more disciplined lately? Oh? I feel good. I feel good lately. So When when I take a if I like to lose a friend which hasn't happened for years But that's disparaging. Well, yeah, no, I lost I lost Godward. So What about two years now? I've had, you know, virtually no relationship with Casey So that that's a loss of a friend. That was that made that made me feel sad. I Haven't had much interaction with Dennis Dale over the past three years that that makes me sad But these are these are virtual relationships. I've never met either of them in real life. So I Can't think of losing any real life friends in the in the past few years But if I was to lose a real life friend that would be I'd be really painful or lose lose a gig or lose, you know, some You know opportunity that I was relying on for income And then then you know get snatched away that you know that that shakes me up You know, I just got off the phone with a friend. We had like a two hour chat Which is very rare for me to have a long conversation with anybody for that except you But having a long conversation with a friend I mean like multiple hour conversation with friend it's been a long time Yeah, and it was a very nice chat But then I looked at the clock, you know, I woke up with this this feeling of You know just crushed by the amount of work I had to accomplish today, you know, and Really, you know, I've had some sort of self-imposed goals for myself for today and this Call with a friend it was scheduled like a business meeting, you know scheduled so I said, oh, I have that to do and And So we had our little chat it was enjoyable and so forth and you started streaming in between it and So I'm sorry, oh my god, that was fun, but I really feeling the loss of this two hours now, I feel like I've Yeah a valuable resource that I had allocated for one thing is had been now allocated for something else and Like I just don't know how life became like this where I had to sort of Lament the loss of two hours As if they were, you know, a precious commodity take me on a Sunday. I assume you're talking about today. It is today Yeah, right. So because I've been falling behind and some work I sort of set set the day aside. Yeah for catching up and Now because I had a call, you know, I'm gonna be considered significantly less caught up And I hope to be which is gonna occasion a whole new week of stress, you know for me both trying to keep current and to catch up and This is the treadmill phenomena that invariably I always seem to find myself in and so I've been observing That phenomenon and wondering what it is that I've been doing that gets me into these situations because I do hate Right you you have less energy now and less enthusiasm than before that to our cause Well, right and bear my I did enjoy the call. I'm glad I had it but like Now I have to sort of And so I I was gonna dive back into work But then I saw you'd sent the link and then I'm like, maybe I can have like a transitional call Right Social motive to back to business I don't know just a sort of you know, I'm just ruminating Now I have that too because I my natural tendency is to have less social interaction than is good for me So I have to kind of push myself beyond what's comes naturally to me But then I often think after a social interaction or after a phone call You know, am I better for that? Like am I happier for that? Am I more energized for that and Sometimes yes, sometimes no, so I try to limit those social engagements and phone calls that don't don't add energy to my life so yeah, if the call had been really unpleasant and just sort of you know, Performer for concrete thing that I I did Just out of obligation. I would have been ranting and raving and raging right now because not only Did I not enjoy the time but I also lost the time so it'd be double negative But at least this had the redeeming feature of being a pleasant phone call But you know, I Found of the years that I just kept a sort of pair off just to snip off all of these frills these little time-wasting Indulgences that I used to have I used to know I can no longer do them I do feel like the world just is going faster than I wanted So what things in your life consistently give you energy inspiration enthusiasm Just being outside and fresh air. Yes Yeah, it's about all I need And even it just seems like more often that's being deprived being taken from Like I know I don't really want any external stuff. I just won Yes I'm reading this book the extended mind and it starts with a quote from Nietzsche who says don't trust any thought That doesn't come to you when you're walking That's a great quote and it quotes all sorts of philosophers talking about the importance of movement for thinking Oh, yeah, and you know, I was just I was talking about with this with the This previous call that the solution is always to simplify. It's always to simplify this was the conclusion we reached that You just need to take things out. You need to return to the basics. You need to turn turn turn around You need to be back on the ground Hahaha Yeah, you can pull that up. Yeah, yeah, I'll play some plays of that in the In the background, I love that So I heard I heard an allegation that There's no romantic way to fist somebody. Do you think that's really true? I After deep reflection which I have pondered this question So that's a bit of a left field Well, I just think you might need some more energy and enthusiasm and I find there's nothing like a little fisting That gets me going but on the other hand, I gotta admit it's not the most romantic thing Yeah, it's kind of on par with codging in the Dumbass. No, it's it's it's much better It's more it's better than codging in the Dumbass Yeah, how do you think the codging culture? I haven't haven't really thought about it, but how are you enjoying this war? Is it giving you some excitement and meaning and purpose to life? I It's definitely something to think about the joying is not us where I would use I I've been sort of observing Well, let me take a brief digression cotton that I saw one of his interviews and He seemed to be saying he seemed to have bought the whole Russian's happy election Which made me think less Yeah, I mean that is bizarre To think that was a significant part of the 1996 election. Yeah, and like I You know, you know other than that he seems to be Okay, I don't feel this intense loyalty to Ukraine the way a lot of people are feeling it and You know, I I'm just completely neutral on it. I I don't think about Ukraine I don't think about Canada like I just don't think about these places and then all of a sudden I don't I'm amazed at how easily Well, it's like we've all united around a story with regard to Ukraine and as opposed to COVID like in COVID We don't have any coherent story But with Ukraine it's like the Western world is united around the story that Russia is bad for invading and the Ukrainians are good for resisting Yeah, it just shows a bit. It just seems amazing to have trainable Like you could have just told me that the media could have just easily Said okay Chocolate cake is the most important thing in the world. We need to obsess about it constantly And they could just bring on the sustained campaign about this And suddenly people would have big banners of chocolate cake trust it, you know, direct over their uh, facebook profiles You know, nobody could how many people All wrapped up and concerned about Ukraine could have even pointed Ukraine on the map prior to this All right, no nobody 10% yeah almost no one No, it's just it's just I don't know. It just makes me I see crap like that. I just want to like hide from it I just it's maybe focus on work if anything if if um, it has done anything it just made me uh, take work more seriously and try that Get ahead on that dimension you were talking about a life that works and You mentioned it's one that's not being constantly sabotaged by Annoying occurrences annoying annoying people and and I'm wondering Given that that's almost, you know, impossible to to eliminate Maybe we need an attitude or a temperament with regard to to The annoying that that enables us to kind of surf that rather than be Taken down by it. Yeah, exactly. Like you ever heard of Shenzhen show its chinese philosopher Shenzhen. I'm not sure I mean, it's pretty out. It's it's typed. It's spelled out different ways. It's chang tz u kind of like latsu Okay, but the bottom line is he has a story or a parable about a butcher right and And the attitude of the butcher was Life is just chopping up meat and sometimes, you know The bones some are some joints are hard to separate We have to work extra hard here and there and but the grind continues, right? So you just sort of have to embrace the the the process of life and work through the hard bits and Kind of endlessly and just Take satisfaction and job well done rather than Think about this sort of state of completion That will where you'll never be annoyed annoyed again Right. I remember I had a girlfriend who Who told me something she'd learned from a previous boyfriend How important it was to take satisfaction after you've performed a task if you've mowed the lawn Take a minute and look at your good work And if you've done the vacuuming if you've done the cleaning now take take a minute and receive satisfaction from your good work Yes, and that is definitely the attitude I'm trying to take But it's still it's still you know, uh, you know, you have all these productivity tools Slack do you slack? Do what that is. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So you get these messages knocks you off your knocks me off my concentration Oh, yeah, so You know, I'm I'm being savage to the chat Yeah, when that thing comes in it comes into these odd times and odd places and Like today like, you know, I'm basically working today chatting with somebody on slack about work and I just find it's so irritating and enraging Uh, just to be disrupted in that way and suddenly there's no blurring between the lines between on and off Yes, I used to be able to like count on sustained period of off Now I'm just sort of on all the time at various degrees of intensity And this just feels really annoying and and unnatural and unhealthy Yeah, yeah, I identified that but I'm thinking there's something more important than What we're talking about and that is to have some kind of transcendent or overarching purpose to your life So let's say you're you're getting up in the morning and your primary task is to Look after, you know, a sick spouse or a sick child or you're participating in some cultural religious or political cause or It's got to be some something that that transcends the self That that's what enables you I think to better navigate the frustrations and annoyances of life I think we all need a cause beyond ourselves I think we think we need that. Yeah Um There's pitfalls in that There are pitfalls in everything. I just I just don't know how someone It gets up in in the morning If they're not If they're not basically a happy person, it's not just a philosophy or a war outlook that the transcends itself It's a practical thing. So for me, I've got sponsors So I've got various debilitating addictions That really strangled my life and held back my life for for decades And so I feel a sense of kinship with people who share these addictions And who shared various levels of recovery from these addictions is as though we've survived a plane crash together and so I have a bond with them and We we help help each other and so that's an important source of of meaning in my life and then Gathering with with people at synagogue. That's another important source of of meaning in my life And then I have a worldview that I articulate on live streams like this, which is also an important Part of meaning in my life. This is more usually political religious cultural but I think those are those are Some of the most important sources of meaning in my life beyond the self That that give me energy as I go through my day and help me to navigate the ups and downs of life with the the help of madaphanel and beef organ supplements Okay Do you think these external inputs really help you luker Oh, yeah, and I got a new one. I got bobbin brad's massage gun So I often go on youtube looking for you know physical therapy tips Like if I've got like I've got some pyroforma syndrome that I've been dealing with the past few months So I go on youtube and so I look at a lot of videos by bobbin brad these physical therapists and they recommend this Massage gun, which I was just able to buy on amazon. It's just like a hundred dollars. You can really dig in to your muscles with this massage gun And it's a lot better than just, you know, massaging yourself or you know paying someone else to massage you So I just got this massage gun And I'm pretty excited. Are you showing it or is it? I am. I am right now brad. I gotta I gotta zoom. I gotta take a look at this Okay, now I'm gonna put it on my pyroformis, but I'm not gonna show that Okay, uh How often do you I how often do you buy things on amazon? How often do I buy things on amazon? Yeah, you're constantly doing this Yeah, I because I I do almost no shopping outside of amazon So I buy Yeah, most everything you find that you're buying things you really need or you're just buying trinkets It varies so I probably tried a hundred different supplements for my chronic fatigue Until I finally landed on beef organ supplements And that's that that hit the spot that hit the spot and uh and like I got um like an elevated pillow to to elevate my head and so When I'm sleeping at night, I usually go through like three different Three different pillows. Yeah, let me turn this off. Okay. Let me grab my three different pillows so I've got I've got like an eight inch pillow so Off of my nose kind of clogs up if I'm just lying horizontally So if instead I lie back on this eight inch pillow Then then my nasal passages open up at night and then If I can't sleep on this eight inch pillow I get I think this is like uh five inches So I kind of will alternate back and forth between the eight inch and the the five inch pillow and then I've got a mattress that It's like four or five inches that it curves up And so I kind of alternate at night between like the eight inch pillow the the five inch pillow or just two pillows underneath my Two regular sized pillows underneath my head. So I guess, you know, some people look at that and go, oh, you know, that was a waste Probably spent, you know, 35 dollars on each of those pillows Yeah, the wedge pillow, but but I I often find my sinuses Block up if I'm lying horizontally. So throw throw a pillow in there wedge pillow and the sinuses open up and and You know, I get get some better quality sleep, but then I become uncomfortable with it and I'll Change it out the middle of the night. So I don't know if that's just pure neuroticism Or whatever it is, but I'm sure some people would think that that was a waste Eight inches with a curve. No worries, mate Well, you know, I have this I have I have no two people that seem to compulsively shop on amazon like to get an idea they'll You know some new activities a new thing or other They'll want to do it The buy a bunch of stuff on amazon to support this And then they won't actually do it. They'll be on to something else that's even better more effective than they'll sort of Buy all the equipment. It just kind of stacks up, you know and uh I don't know Yeah, I used to be I used to be compulsory. Go ahead. Well, I used to go to like, uh, you know antique shops and flea markets and things like that just buy crap, you know, and I just Finally just got rid of that habit like 10 years ago That was this this pack rat this this acquisitiveness that I used to have for things and thinking that things could actually Do anything or had any intrinsic power Well, I mean I mean the inclined pillow inclined mattress does open up my nostrils so I can breathe It's a very uncomfortable feeling to not be able to breathe through your nose at night And to just have A pillow or a mattress that you can add. I mean, that's that's real to be able to breathe at night Do you do the nitty pot bro? No, well, I do things like that. So do that twice twice a day. I use a nasal wash Yeah, twice a day. Yeah And you still have congestion at night Yes Well, you're probably uh, you're probably drinking too much milk Almond milk So you don't you don't eat dairy? Occasionally I'll have real milk, but most of the time I just have almond milk But I think we're I think we're digressing Well, I do think there are things that can have a dramatic difference to the quality of your life for example The beef organ supplements my life was hobbled prior to them And uh, I just feel so much stronger without them like I can I can do my push-ups. I'm I'm walking or riding my bike 10 miles a day like Feel so much stronger and the only variable the change was the with the beef organ supplements Yeah, I'm not saying there's no value. I I'm just saying this like, uh I don't know. I don't know why Amazon just just rose me the wrong way, but it does like, you know, I once I went back east and like, uh To visit my mother and she lives near this kind of this in Providence, Rhode Island. It's this kind of podunk city and You know to kill time I went into this this chinese restaurant Right and this chinese restaurant had like a little mini bar set up and By mini bar, it's like a bed is like a bar with like four stools And they were just just two huge women sitting at the bar And they were just both shopping on amazon on an ipad You know while drinking And just the whole scene was just so disgusting to me, you know It just saved it just sent like waves of nausea throughout my body And I just was never able to look at amazon the same way Yeah, I think I think we're all tend to be repelled by other people's addictions So if you're using food or shopping or alcohol or drugs to change your state to change your mood Then you you probably got an addiction going on and I think Yeah, we we usually tend to be repelled and nauseated by other people's addictions Yeah, yeah, I just wonder why Okay So, you know, and then I would tell like I would tell this story to my mother I think I'd explain to her my disgust or something And her attitude is like me. It's the problem is me and I'm just being judgmental, you know This is a this is the the moral failing of our age like one should not be judgmental and You know, what's the difference between judgmental and disgust? Right. You see something you're disgusted by it. You feel negative feelings, right? You're just going to outlaw the whole class of feelings because they're just other people find them unpleasant I right that that's a good point. So what is the difference between an instinctive reaction of disgust And being judgmental. So I guess an instinct of disgust is something that just happens to us spontaneously I think we refer to people as judgmental when they're pronouncing on things that start to get on our nerves So one's an instinct and one's An ongoing Conversational pattern that we find annoying Right. And if I were one of my friends and they thought differently, right, I would express this same sentiment And a where they laugh about it, but b they would have their own feelings about it And then we would just riff on it Right. And that whole experience could be really fun. Yeah Be sort of like a creative writing Exercise, you know, yeah, and so it's like That's how you need your friends are they're disgusted by the same things that you are Yes It's a friend enemy distinction I Anyway, so half Galician's going nuts in the chat and I don't know what he's talking. Should we engage with him? Well, we bring him on bro I've wanted to bring him on for years, but I've never been out to To bring him on so What personality flaws? Uh, you have to join the luke fort show as a As a Do you have to sort of Which defects Well, I was just listening to that Jimmy Carr interview with Jordan Peterson and and he was making the point that comedians Don't just create a performance that they they build an audience Right. So there's a particular type of person who's attracted to a comic like Jimmy Carr And I think the same is is true for live streamers that that this isn't some kind of abstract performance But we're talking to that group of friends that you were just referring to I think generally speaking I'm talking to people who generally speaking share my disgust reactions Yeah, so so half Galician I want screenshot this right he's making a pledge that he's going to appear on the show this year so we don't know when but We should take this as a binding contract Yeah, I think you two need to do some talking bro. Yes, we need to work some things through exactly All right, well, I didn't really have much Luke. I just felt Okay, blessings. I gotta I gotta wrap it up and start doing some big boy stuff Okay, take care earlier. Good to talk to you. All right. Bye. Bye. Blessings Okay, back to this terrific article in The Atlantic about why we can't develop a coherent story for covid Although the pandemic has lacked a coherent narrative people seem to have an easier time finding a place for it in the story of their own life So one of the nice things about the gap between individual stories and reality So people are going to wrestle it down to something more manageable over time So many people have discovered passions from their downtime during the pandemic The pandemic unexpectedly steered them toward a more purposeful life It's been a catalyst for some people leaving them to To make a move in a direction sooner than they expected There for other people they've experienced the pandemic as a pause as a reset or just a temporary digression in the story of their life The One one dominant narrative among individuals with regard to pandemic is that of interruption It's like watching a movie at a theater and someone in front of you gets up and starts having an argument with this partner on his cell phone And and the virus is that loud argumentative guy We're impatient and angry with it because it's disrupting what we think is our real story We've been deprived of the life story that we wanted to be living And this causes a stress because it implies a loss of authorship over our own personal narrative So those who treat the pandemic as an opportunity to grow tend to have lower levels of anxiety and depression So the more redemptive arcs you can notice in your life the happier you will be Okay, let's uh Tell a look what else we've got here Michael means the government has to resort towards more draconian measures on the behavior of chinese citizens Instead, um, there was there was one other question there that i'm sorry that um, I didn't catch so maybe you can remind me what it was I think I answered all of them. So there's zero policy the um, The tfp question is not gonna. I don't think it's gonna lead to a big word What you know the largest famine in history and a lot of that is just that things have gotten very expensive For average chinese in in cities chinese women also are increasingly choosing to prioritize their careers rather than You know lock themselves down in in a marriage and start having children and and simply the fact that things like housing Have gotten so expensive mean that chinese families just feel they can't afford To have as many children as maybe they otherwise would have so there's a whole bunch of different pressures that aren't necessarily unique to china But also just mean that Changing the policy and allowing people to have more children is not gonna I don't think it's going to lead to a big surge in the birth rate And we're already seeing that and even if it did it wouldn't really kick in until 18 years And by then it's just not going to make up for the avalanche of population decline that china has already set itself up for Perfect. So the next question from avishakar uh avi Of all of that just given its rapid economic growth over the last 40 years But what what the theory is anyway say is that but then when you get to this point where you need to transition From just labor intensive manufacturing and industrial output to a more ideas driven Economy more services driven economy there autocracies may have a disadvantage because when people when everyday citizens know that Are looking to the state for economic direction when they know that If they start a business it might just be expropriated by the state and bulldozed at any given point When they know that they're intellectual, so this is michael bekley He's got a new book coming out on china this year and he's talking about problems in china Property if they come up with some new invention might be taken away from them And and given back to the state or redistributed that that just dulls the incentives for things like entrepreneurship And innovation now. I think the new thing that we okay. I want to talk about books. I've been reading lately So this book I've read on college football It's called scoreboard baby by by ken armstrong So scoreboard baby a story of college football crime and complicity It's about the year 2000 Washington huskies football team which only had one loss ended up I think number two in the country but something like half the team Had had been been charged with a crime just Unbelievable rates of social dysfunction So whether we're talking about oklahoma in the 1970s And 80s under barry switza. Miami in the 1980s and early 90s under Oh, Miami in the 1980s under jimmy johnson early 90s under denis erickson The brass get in the mid 1990s under tom osborne all one championships on the field while players found trouble off it So at least two dozen players on washington's 2000 football team were arrested or charged with some crime while at university washington Now we all know that that the best college football teams have the highest, you know rate of criminals and rapists and thugs All right It's not a surprise but to just see the details of what these people do and get away with So the star linebacker Kenny farms on this team shots shot a drug dealer in the midst of a robbery But he was still allowed to play football the star receiver a tight end He raped a girl like a girl who was a virgin and he damaged her vaginally and aimly When you just see the damage that these these players do This this tight end He went on to play about seven years in the nfl But he had just countless duis just countless problems with the law just Recognize of all sorts of innocent people and getting away with it So you had two dozen players on washington's 2000 football team arrested or charged with a crime But rarely did they miss playing time This is the story of college football some players do serious damage Some players get used up a city looks away the game goes on Sometimes a score cracks down But when they have a coach or an athletic director who cracks down then they tend to lose a lot of games so Tom osborne his his teams just ran wild After he retired he was elected three times to congress As a republican congressman got more than 80 percent of the vote because he won three national championships Now there are people Were horrified about how his star players like laurence phillips dragged his ex-girlfriend down three flights of stairs by a hair And how osborne then reinstated phillips after a six game suspension Other members of nebraska's 1995 championship team played sight being convicted of sexual assault or after firing Two bullets into an occupied car Or while awaiting trial for attempted second-degree murder So the books called scoreboard baby So talks about a college football program that sacrifices its players long-term well-being And its community's dignity for the sake of winning looks the other way when stars are accused of violent crimes that skirts ethics off the field While pursuing perfection on it That sounds bad, but boring what investigative reporter ken armstrong Nick perry have done In this book scoreboard baby is layout in hard-boiled style and with the verve any real storytelling can supply Exactly whose lives were mangled in the course of the university of washington's historic 2000 season Their idiosyncratic characters and plots ultimately indict a vast impersonal system that has produced dozens of such teams Huskies didn't break new ground here, but in so comprehensively detailing them the authors did There's no more outrageous or typical figure than the head coach rick newheizel He refused to discipline or even substantially benched the linebacker jeremiah farms We knew was in trouble with the law or the superstar tydan jeremy stevens Who apparently raped a sorority girl who was a virgin? damaged her vaguely and aimly Who heizel's disciplinary boundaries were the faded yellow dashes that divide a country to lane the markers a suggestion More than anything else his staff lacked the ability to manage a bipolar player So they're individual victims in each story, but on a systemic level there are no innocence boosters demand wins A diverse city backs a successful team even a hyper educated latte liberal seattle academic authorities allow players to graduate with large chunks of credits and gut courses so A favorite course for university washington players with swahili some of them took 30 credits 30 unit credits Taking swahili courses because i guess swahili isn't a written language and they just learned a few phrases and the swahili instructor was happy to sign off on generous marks for football players who didn't show up to classes So that to maintain a 2.0 or above to stay eligible to play and many of them only managed to do this By going to all these swahili classes the athletic department published a profile Of farms who who it was evolved in a domestic dispute over his extramarital Affair and they entitled it putting family first We've got these sports sections run by absurd character buttressing portraits of anti-social men children Prosecutors go easy on stars because they know the jurors. Well as well What heroes the book has do not subvert the system. They merely carve some small consolation within it So this is the book scoreboard baby by ken armstrong and nick perry best book i've read on college football So when rick new highs will coach the university of colorado He caught a fake punt against oregon in the 1996 count ball and his team was ahead by 30 points Two years later after colorado beat the ducks in the aloha ball The oregon coach mike ballati said the better team lost new highs replied scoreboard baby That com comment and the insouciant way new highs all delivered it is a perfect two-word summation of big-time college sports All that matters is what's on the scoreboard nothing else counts So whether a college football team can win without recruiting Criminals is a question that goes largely unexplored in this book grew out of a 2008 series in the seattle times It doesn't matter to fans that the athletes they cheer for on saturday afternoons Committing rape and arm robbery beating their wives and girlfriends and driving drunk at high rates of speed during the rest of the week The answer clearly is it doesn't matter to most fans as long as the team is winning and tight end at jeremy stevens University of washington had no good receivers on the team aside from him So if they were going to win it depended on him staying eligible So yeah, he was out there raping people, but uh, he didn't lose any playing time Then when he was arrested on suspicion of rape before the season Questions asked by fans in the media about whether he would play or not and how the case would affect the team's chances And kudos williams play with a long history of violent behavior toward women and other crimes Was paralyzed from the neck down after a vicious head against danford. He was treated as a fallen hero The inspirational figure whose past was ignored So plenty of institutions deserve shame the university the legal system and the media University of washington routinely admitted athletes were educationally unfit to attend school his previous crimes make them a danger to other students Stevens was charged with felony assault after a senior year of high school And the washington coach and his top two assistants wrote letters to the judge on his behalf. We believe in jeremy The legal system routinely gave breaks to star athletes. So interesting college football check out this book scoreboard baby by ken armstrong And nick parry