https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=RKYE1ZIOY-E
Okay, so Jeremy McKimmy asked, at the retreat we were at, I asked you to define hierarchy and loved your answer. Perhaps you could discuss it here. How do you define hierarchy? What is its ecclesiastical and cosmological significance? How does it flesh out in healthy and unhealthy ways? [“Symphony No. 4 in F Major, Op. 60. No. 5 in C Major”. genom thesis.
<font Wonderful. focused on major scale.]</fonttxуй. Welcome to the Symbolic World. the way that the world lays itself out. There are different hierarchies, obviously, but hierarchy is the result of caring. It’s the result of value. It’s the result of mind. It’s inevitable that because we are conscious, intelligent beings, that the world will lay itself out in terms of hierarchy. And so there are different types, there are different hierarchies, there are hierarchies of value, let’s say moral hierarchies, there are hierarchies like Jordan Peterson talks about hierarchies of competence, there are hierarchies of ontological hierarchies. And so let’s say the spiritual hierarchy would be an ontological hierarchy that is you have principalities, and then you have God, and then you have creation, human beings. So that would be like the highest form of hierarchy. The hierarchy, when it’s done right, what it does is that it both separates and unifies. It both shows you what’s higher, shows you the distance between you and the highest thing, but it also gives you a path towards that highest thing. It gives you a path towards what’s above you. That’s the way that hierarchy is supposed to work. It’s supposed to do both at the same time. Now, let’s say the kind of postmodern vision of hierarchy is that it only separates. So hierarchies are evil because they create levels and then they separate values from one another. And so it’s like, if there’s something in a hierarchy, then there’s someone above you, and he has more power than you, and you have less. It doesn’t mean that that can’t happen that way. Definitely it can. There can be hierarchies which are based solely on power and let’s just say strength. But I would say that a functional hierarchy is really, really is something in which you recognize where you are in the hierarchy. So I’ll give you an example. You’re working for a company, and then you have a boss. Now, if a hierarchy is normal and you are participating in that hierarchy, you could see yourself. Let’s say you’re a busboy in a restaurant. In a normal hierarchy, you should be able to see that the boss is letting you participate in this hierarchy. It’s your way of participating in the hierarchy, but you couldn’t do what the boss does, at least not yet. You would need to work yourself up the hierarchy in order to come to a point where you could do what the boss wants. A dysfunctional vision of it would be, oh, that jerk, that the boss is a jerk, and the only reason why I’m here as a busboy is because he has more power or whatever. But in a normal hierarchy, it would be, okay, this is where I am, and this is actually where I should be because I don’t know how to run a restaurant. I have no idea. I can do this, I can do the dishes, I can fetch stuff, and then once I do that, then maybe I can go up the hierarchy, and then when I can do that, I can go up the hierarchy, and I can ascend the hierarchy. That’s a normal hierarchy. It’s the same with, let’s say, in a hierarchy of saints. I stand here and I look, let’s say, at saints, and I see the distance between myself and that saint. I can see that Saint Seraphim of Sarov or Saint Georgi of Nyssa, I read their lives, I see what they wrote, and I think, wow, whew, okay, I see the distance between myself and them, but at the same time, they’re also, let’s say, part of the ladder. I can see them as part of the ladder towards what’s high beyond them, which is Christ. So Christ is at the top of the hierarchy, and I can see Christ in them as being what I need to acquire in order to ascend the hierarchy. One of the problems with the absence of hierarchy, and we see this in certain churches, is that because there aren’t steps that show you what’s higher than you, let’s say, then it’s like, let’s say, in terms of spiritual, it’s me and God, right? It’s me and God. And so what happens is that maybe sometimes, like me and God, but then sometimes it’s like me and God, right, and you see God pretty low. You bring God down to your level because you don’t have that ladder which shows you just how lofty the infinite is, right? Just how lofty God is supposed to be. But if you have a hierarchy of saints and of angels that are loftier and loftier and loftier and are more free and are more pure and have more virtue, then I can see, oh, okay, yeah, I’m far. Like, I can still be in relationship with God, but I also have to bow down and know that God isn’t my buddy, right? God isn’t my, you know, I saw a horrible, one of the most frustrating things I saw in Montreal recently. And every, I think I might’ve told you guys this before, maybe not. Every year in Montreal, the Catholic Church, they organize the tithe. And so they have these posters where they advertise for tithing. And this year, I swear, I swear this is true. This year, the image was a, it was like just dark, and it had a wavy pattern on it like that. And on top it said, what was it like? Hello, Jesus, dot, dot, dot. And then at the bottom it says, your personal assistant is always available. I swear, I swear, if I could have caused an accident on the street when I saw that, I was like, oh my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like you, when you see that, you’re like, okay, maybe I should be an atheist, seriously, when I see something like that. It’s like, I have sympathy for Sam Harris. At those small moments, I have sympathy for Sam Harris. All right.