https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=qG6kzH8Td58
Well, let me ask you a difficult question because As opposed to the easy ones that you’ve been asking so far. Well, Dostoevsky is always just the warmup. Um, so if death, if, if, if death every single day is the way to progress through life, you have become quite famous. Death and hell. Death and hell. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you don’t want to forget the hell part. Uh, do you worry that your fame traps you into the person that you wore before? Yeah. Well, Elvis became an Elvis impersonator by the time he died. Yeah. Do you fear that you have become a Jordan Peterson impersonator that do you fear of in some part becoming the famous suit wearing brilliant Jordan Peter, this the certainty in the pursuit of truth. Always right. I think I worry about it more than anything else. I hope. I hope I do. I better. Has fame to some degree when you look at yourself in the mirror and the quiet of your mind, has it corrupted you? No doubt in some regard. I mean, it’s very difficult thing to avoid, you know, because things change around you, people are much more likely to do what you ask for example. Right. And so that’s a danger because one of the things that keeps you dying properly is that people push back against you. Optimally. This is why so many celebrities spiral out of control, especially the tyrannical types that say run countries. Everyone around them stops saying, yeah, you’re, you’re, you’re deviating a little bit there. They laugh at all their jokes. They open all their doors. They, they always want something from them. The red carpet’s always rolled out. It’s like, well, you think wouldn’t that be lovely? It’s well, not if the red carpet is rolled out to you while you’re on your way to perdition, that’s not a good deal. You just get there more efficiently. And so one of the things that I’ve tried to learn to manage is to get, have people around me all the time who are critics who are saying, yeah, I could have done that better and you’re a little too harsh there and you’re alienating people. Unnecessarily there. And you should have done some more background work there. And, and I think the responsibility attendant upon that increases as your influence increases and that’s, that’s as your influence increases, then that becomes a lot of responsibility. So, you know, and then maybe have an off day and well, one, here’s an example. I’ve been writing some columns lately about things that perturbed me. Like the forthcoming famine, for example, and it’s hard to take those problems on. It’s difficult to take those problems on in a serious manner and it’s frightening. And it would be easier just to go up to the cottage with my wife and go out on the lake and watch the sunset. And so I’m tempted to draw on anger as a motivating energy to help me overcome the resistance to doing this. But then that makes me more harsh and judgmental in my tone when I’m reading such things, for example, on YouTube, then might be optimal. Now I’ve had debates about with people about that because I have friends who say, no, if you’re calling out the environmental, environmentalist globalists who are harassing the Dutch farmers, then a little anger is just the ticket. But then others say, well, you know, you don’t want to be too harsh because you alienate people who would otherwise listen to you. It’s like, that’s a hard balance to get right. But also maybe anger hardens your mind to where you don’t notice the subtle, quiet beauty of the world. The quiet love that’s always there, that permeates everything. Sometimes you can become deeply cynical about the world. If it’s the Nietzsche thing, battle not with monsters, lest you become a monster. And if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. But I would say, bring it on. Right. Cause I also say knowing that he’s absolutely right. But if you gaze into the abyss long enough, you see the light, not the darkness. Are you sure about that? I’m betting my life on it. Yeah, it’s a heck of a bet. Well, that’s because it might distort your mind to where all you see is abyss, is the evil in this world. Well, then I would say you haven’t looked long enough. You know, that’s back to the swords, the flaming swords. It’s like, so I said, the whole story of Christ was prefigured in that image. It’s like the story of Christ psychologically is radical acceptance of the worst possible tragedy. That’s what it means. That’s what the crucifix means psychologically. It’s like gaze upon that which you are most afraid of. But that story doesn’t end there because in the story, Christ goes through death into hell. So death isn’t enough. The abyss of innocent death is not sufficient to produce redemption. It has to be a voluntary journey to hell. And maybe that’s true for everyone. And that’s like, there is no more terrifying idea than that by definition. And so then, well, do you gaze upon that? Well, who knows? Who knows? How often do you gaze upon death, your own? How often do you remember, remind yourself that this right ends? Personally? Personally. All the time. Cause you as a, as a deep thinker and a philosopher, it’s easy to start philosophizing and forgetting that you’re, you might die today. The angel of death sits on every word. How’s that? How often do you actually consciously? All the time. Notice the angel. All the time. I think it’s one of the things that made me peculiar. When I was in graduate school, you know, I, I thought about, I was, I had the thought of death in my mind all the time. And I noticed that many of the people that I was with, these are people I admired fine. They, they, they, that wasn’t part of their character, but it was definitely part of mine. I’d wake up every morning. This happened for years. Think time short, get at it. Time short, get at it. There’s things to do. And so that was always, it’s still there and it’s still there with, I would say, and it’s unbearable in some sense. Are you afraid of it? Like what, what’s your relationship? Yeah. You know, I was ready to die a year ago. And not casually. I had people I loved, you know. So, no, I’m not very worried about me, but I’m very worried about making a mistake. Yeah. I heard Elon Musk talk about that a couple of months ago. It was really a striking moment. Someone asked him about death and he said, just offhand, eh? And then went on with the conversation. He said, ah, it’d be a relief. And then he went on with the conversation. And I thought, well, you know, he’s got a lot of weight on his shoulders. I’m sure that part of them thinks that’d be easier just if this wasn’t here at all. Now he said it offhand, but it was a telling moment in my estimation. So for him, that’s a why live question. The exhaustion of life. Yeah. If you call it life is suffering, but the hardship. I’m more afraid of it. I’m more afraid of it. You’re afraid of the thing that follows. I don’t know if it follows or if it’s always here. I think we’re going to find out. What’s the connection between death and hell? I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. Is there something that needs to be done before you arrive? You’re more likely to die terribly. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know. You’re more likely to die terribly if you live in a manner that brings you to hell. That’s one connection. And terribly is a very deep kind of concept. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.