https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=iwQpBtkMqkE
Your brain can tell you when you’re optimally situated between chaos and order. And the way it tells you that is by producing the sense of engagement and meaning. So let’s say there’s a place in the environment you should be. Okay, what should that place be? Well, you don’t want to be terrified out of your skull, like what good is that? And, you know, you don’t want to be so comfortable that you might as well sleep. You want to be somewhere where, you know, you’re kind of on firm ground here. But over here, you’re kind of testing out new territory. And some of you who are exploratory and emotionally stable, you know, you’re going to go pretty far out into the unexplored territory without destabilizing yourself. And other people are going to just put a toe in the chaos. And, you know, that’s neuroticism, basically. That’s your sensitivity to threat. That’s calibrated differently in different people. And some people are more exploratory than others. That’s kind of extroversion and openness working together. And intelligence. So some people are going to tolerate a larger admixture of chaos in their order. Those are liberals, by the way. And I mean that technically. Liberals are more interested in novel chaos. And conservatives are more interested in the stabilization of the structures that already exist. And who’s right? Well, it depends on the situation. And that’s why conservatives and liberals have to talk to each other. Because one of them isn’t right and the other wrong. Sometimes the conservatives are right and sometimes the liberals are right. Because the environment’s going like this. You can’t predict the damn thing. So that’s why you have to communicate. And that’s what a democracy does. It allows people of different temperamental types to communicate and to calibrate the damn societies. So anyways, let’s say you’re optimally balanced between chaos and order. So what does that mean? Well, you’re stable enough, but you’re interested. Because a little novelty heightens your anxiety. That wakes you up a bit. That’s the adventure part of it. But it also focuses the part of your brain that does exploratory activity. And that’s actually associated with pleasure. That’s the dopamine circuit. And so if you’re optimally balanced and you know you’re there when you’re listening to an interesting conversation or you’re engaged in one. It’s a real conversation. You know, you’re saying some things you know and the other person is saying some things they know. But both of what you know is changing. It’s like, wow, that’s so interesting. You’ll have a conversation like that forever. Or maybe you’re reading a book like that. Or you’re listening to a piece of music that models that. Because what music does is provide you with predictable forms. Multi-level predictable forms that transform just the right amount. And so music is a very representational art form. It says this is what the universe is like. You know, there’s a dancing element to it. Repetitive and then cute little variations that sort of surprise and delight you. And you think, wow, that’s so cool. And it doesn’t matter how nihilistic you are. Music still infuses you with a sense of meaning. And that’s because it models meaning. That’s what it does. That’s why we love it. And you know, you can dance to it. And that sort of symbolizes you putting yourself in harmony with these multiple layers of reality. And positioning yourself properly. And you like that too. You know, you’ll pay for it. Oh boy, I get to go dancing. You know, oh boy, I get to listen to music. It’s like, what the hell are you doing listening to music? What good is that? Well, you think, that’s a stupid question. I don’t care about your dopey criticism. I’m going to listen to some music. Right? There’s no rational argument against music. It’s like, you just don’t even think about it. You just walk away from someone who’s stupid enough to ask that question. It’s like, some things are obvious.