WEBVTT 1 00:00:24.719 --> 00:00:28.440 In this episode, we continue on the character of the 2 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:33.079 cult and first points to make Cults are always hierarchical, 3 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:35.320 but I don't want you to think of like a 4 00:00:35.439 --> 00:00:39.280 ladder with a top and a bottom. The hierarchy here 5 00:00:39.399 --> 00:00:44.520 is concentric. So there is a profit not at the center, 6 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:48.920 but closest to the center, and your value within the 7 00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:52.880 cult is then determined by your proximity to the center. 8 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:56.799 And what is at the center itself, well, that's a secret, 9 00:00:56.840 --> 00:00:59.600 and we'll get to that. But the closest person too, 10 00:01:00.159 --> 00:01:04.000 the secret is the profit. And whether or not the 11 00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:09.599 prophet wants the belief of his disciples or not, that's 12 00:01:09.640 --> 00:01:13.359 just how it shakes out. So to recap what I've 13 00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:17.000 been saying, religion and everything that constitutes religion is a 14 00:01:17.040 --> 00:01:21.319 metaphor for society. So to be religious is just then 15 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:26.079 to have faith in society, and it doesn't necessarily mean 16 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:29.079 that you have faith in society as it is. In fact, 17 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:33.280 most religious movements all the time say society as it 18 00:01:33.359 --> 00:01:35.439 is is not working in one respect or another, so 19 00:01:35.480 --> 00:01:37.319 we have to change it, we have to reform it. 20 00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:41.680 But in principle, the promise of a future for society 21 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:45.439 is the thing that draws the belief from people and 22 00:01:45.480 --> 00:01:48.519 transforms it. Even if we have to clean some stuff up, 23 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:52.760 even if we have to purge some aspects of the 24 00:01:52.799 --> 00:01:56.000 status quo that are causing problems. Still, to be religious 25 00:01:56.120 --> 00:02:00.439 is to believe in society in some way ritually, and 26 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:04.920 usually some reformation is required. You don't want to you 27 00:02:04.959 --> 00:02:09.159 don't want to destroy society itself. That's basically impossible to 28 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:13.759 believe to destroy society itself. But purgations this is a 29 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:17.039 common way to fix societies, to get rid of the 30 00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:21.639 bad stuff and return to the past that was good, 31 00:02:22.159 --> 00:02:24.879 or move to the future where the Golden Age is 32 00:02:25.319 --> 00:02:28.639 waiting for us. So in a sense, we are all 33 00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:34.520 cultists too. Knowledge itself is cultic in structure, I'll argue, 34 00:02:34.840 --> 00:02:38.240 and that'll be a future musing, not this one. But 35 00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:41.680 they are also anti cults. They are still cults, but they, 36 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:45.199 like I said, want to reform the cult in some way. 37 00:02:45.840 --> 00:02:49.520 And every prophet too, is against religion in some way. 38 00:02:49.919 --> 00:02:53.879 They speak on behalf of God usually or the truth, 39 00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:57.680 against what is, against what the world looks like right now, 40 00:02:57.800 --> 00:03:01.759 the world as is, because the world is corrupt, and 41 00:03:01.840 --> 00:03:06.759 the prophet has a knowledge or a revelation of the 42 00:03:06.879 --> 00:03:10.639 secret and the method for how to return the world 43 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:14.800 to justice for those who follow him. And if we 44 00:03:14.840 --> 00:03:17.960 analyze the prophet, the teacher of the New Wisdom, we 45 00:03:18.039 --> 00:03:22.520 can basically see that they use metaphor, that is their language, 46 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:27.599 and they rely on like archetypes or tropes to especially 47 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:32.199 and I mean tropes, not as in like medieval philosophy, 48 00:03:32.280 --> 00:03:35.319 and not tropes as in just figurative language, but trope 49 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:40.039 as in the cliche as a meme, the way Dawkins 50 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:44.479 used to talk about memes as a meaning unit. This 51 00:03:44.680 --> 00:03:49.120 is how prophets speak, and even prophets today they speak 52 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:52.879 in terms of war and battle and light and darkness 53 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:57.280 and hero against the mob. So as tropes, these are 54 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:03.919 extremely simplified metaphors. They're just associations between two things. They're 55 00:04:03.919 --> 00:04:08.639 extremely simple. They're understood immediately, which is why profits in 56 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:12.719 search of crowds to follow them deploy language this way. 57 00:04:13.319 --> 00:04:18.759 Like h. Trump. Trump is a prophet for many, and 58 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:24.160 he speaks in memes basically exclusively. It's superlatives. This is 59 00:04:24.199 --> 00:04:27.040 the best, that is the worst. These people love me, 60 00:04:27.639 --> 00:04:30.319 these people hate me. And then all the epic words 61 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:34.399 like destroy we will destroy them. They are destroying us. 62 00:04:34.800 --> 00:04:38.279 They are invading us. I will usher in the golden age. 63 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:42.480 There's nothing here to be misunderstood because there's no nuance, 64 00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:48.600 because it's dualities and associations that are immediately understood. And 65 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:52.839 I'm not gonna say anything like, well, society is at 66 00:04:52.839 --> 00:04:57.240 bottom real and metaphors are illusion. And there's a good 67 00:04:57.600 --> 00:05:01.959 reason that I cannot say that, And it's because the 68 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:06.480 language that I would use to say it is itself metaphoric. 69 00:05:07.000 --> 00:05:10.600 Like the only way we arrived at this point where 70 00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:13.519 what I'm saying makes sense to you, where we can 71 00:05:13.600 --> 00:05:17.079 think the thoughts that we think, is through a long 72 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:22.759 history of abstraction and language exactly like religion is a 73 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:25.920 process of abstraction. One of my favorite things that nietzscha 74 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:30.319 Ever said was we are not yet rid of God 75 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:36.399 because we still have faith in grammar. Now, the coherence 76 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:41.959 of God as that being that knows, still expresses itself 77 00:05:42.759 --> 00:05:46.600 psychologically as our faith in language. This is a faith 78 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:50.560 that even if you criticize language, even if you're a specialist, 79 00:05:51.319 --> 00:05:56.360 like when linguists and philosophers go home and they just 80 00:05:56.439 --> 00:06:00.000 like anyone else, educated non educated, who's thought about life, 81 00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:02.920 which who hasn't thought about language, just like anyone else, 82 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:06.639 they say to their spouse, how is your day? Now? 83 00:06:06.839 --> 00:06:12.160 Even asking that question belies their faith in what language is. 84 00:06:12.319 --> 00:06:18.959 For here, the question itself presumes faith in what the 85 00:06:19.079 --> 00:06:23.240 question is doing. And I phrase it that way because 86 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:27.720 the question how was your day? It's not really seeking 87 00:06:27.759 --> 00:06:33.360 out information that you don't know. It's more establishing communication 88 00:06:33.560 --> 00:06:38.319 or re establishing communication after an absence. But like everyone else, 89 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:43.879 even specialists of language who might criticize it professionally or 90 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:47.199 have some special theories about it professionally, but they go 91 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:51.040 home and continue to act just like they have faith 92 00:06:51.079 --> 00:06:54.519 in it. And basically, I'd say that is what faith 93 00:06:54.839 --> 00:07:00.800 really is. It's your actions that demonstrate your belief ritually, repeatedly. Now, 94 00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:05.399 this is exactly how religion works too. Just like you 95 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:09.160 can study language critically and I can still guarantee that 96 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:12.920 you believe in it, you can criticize society and claim 97 00:07:12.920 --> 00:07:15.600 all sorts of things. You can claim it's fundamentally unjust, 98 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:20.439 or claim that the apparent world is a lie, or 99 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:23.439 that we live in some sort of cave, and whatever 100 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:26.920 you claim about it, it doesn't matter, because I know 101 00:07:27.560 --> 00:07:30.279 you're still going to act like you believe in it, 102 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:35.399 which is what I'm saying, believe it is, and sociologically, 103 00:07:35.560 --> 00:07:39.639 what I'm saying is that religion is a grand metaphor 104 00:07:40.279 --> 00:07:43.639 for society, and no matter the religion, it always seems 105 00:07:43.639 --> 00:07:47.600 to end up in tropes like good versus evil, what 106 00:07:47.639 --> 00:07:50.959 a good father is and a good son, and the 107 00:07:51.040 --> 00:07:55.120 corrupted world versus the true world, And then what you 108 00:07:55.160 --> 00:07:58.120 are owed as a member of society or as a 109 00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:00.519 member of a cult that should be benefit to you, 110 00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:03.240 because otherwise you wouldn't be in it. And that's why 111 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:06.680 in times of crisis, when the future looks worse than 112 00:08:06.720 --> 00:08:10.879 the past, the cult is not okay with the status quo. 113 00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:14.439 It has to be reformed in some way. And prior 114 00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:17.959 to having the cosmic categories of good and evil, or 115 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:21.480 the good in itself as it's sometimes called, what is 116 00:08:21.519 --> 00:08:26.360 good is pretty simply what accidentally but practically happened to 117 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:30.920 work out at some time in the past. Cleanliness is 118 00:08:31.000 --> 00:08:36.879 good for society because that society gets less sick than 119 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:40.279 the other society down the road who doesn't value cleanliness. 120 00:08:40.919 --> 00:08:44.399 By extension, dirtiness is bad for society because you get 121 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:47.039 sick more. And realizing this wasn't as a result of 122 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:52.039 science or germ theory. It's just the knowledge of experience 123 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:56.559 and then habit that was built upon that experience. But 124 00:08:56.600 --> 00:09:00.159 then we get immediately into the realm of metaphor and 125 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:04.159 the metaphors of cleanliness. So to say what a metaphor is, 126 00:09:04.200 --> 00:09:06.000 I'll say it briefly here and I'll probably have to 127 00:09:06.039 --> 00:09:08.240 talk about it a lot more. But what a metaphor 128 00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:13.679 is is a translation, and what it translates is often 129 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:20.080 a familiar relationship that is known to the listener and says, 130 00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:23.639 this other thing is like that thing that I described. 131 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:28.840 So you translate an existing and understood meaning to elucidate 132 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:32.320 the relationship between two other things. So you say this 133 00:09:33.159 --> 00:09:36.320 is like that, this is to this as that is 134 00:09:36.360 --> 00:09:41.919 to that. And why this matters is that certain metaphors 135 00:09:41.960 --> 00:09:46.200 work and certain metaphors don't. You can definitely have bad 136 00:09:46.279 --> 00:09:49.240 metaphors in the sense that they don't hit, they don't 137 00:09:49.320 --> 00:09:52.080 land on their object the way that you hope they would, 138 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:54.200 or the way that you expect them to, or the 139 00:09:54.279 --> 00:09:58.399 listener doesn't understand. But you also have metaphors that work. 140 00:09:58.879 --> 00:10:02.600 And prophecy in parts particular depends on the ones that work, 141 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:06.799 which means they have to be pretty universalizable and pretty simple. 142 00:10:07.279 --> 00:10:10.360 That's why I'm focusing on this health stuff because everybody 143 00:10:10.679 --> 00:10:13.639 understands it. So with that in mind, that something's being 144 00:10:13.679 --> 00:10:17.440 translated from one zone of experience to another zone of experience, 145 00:10:17.799 --> 00:10:22.440 let's get to some examples, examples of some that are 146 00:10:22.600 --> 00:10:27.639 downstream or the effects of these concerns for cleanliness, reasonable 147 00:10:27.879 --> 00:10:33.759 rational concerns for cleanliness, like sin is filthy until you 148 00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:38.240 are washed by the blood of the lamb, or America 149 00:10:38.519 --> 00:10:42.399 was clean until it was corrupted by the woke mind 150 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:47.759 virus and the parasitic immigrants, or communism is the future 151 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:55.000 cleansing of the earth from the parasitic landlords and greedy capitalists. 152 00:10:55.399 --> 00:10:59.919 And of course Israel, irrespective of whether it's a country, 153 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:07.080 it's a religious object. Exterminating Palestinians is an autoimmune project, 154 00:11:07.159 --> 00:11:11.360 just like the Holocaust was an autoimmune project. The world 155 00:11:11.399 --> 00:11:14.879 is infected. And what's the source. Well, if you can 156 00:11:14.919 --> 00:11:18.639 get people to believe in a source, you can point 157 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:22.919 to basically anything you want. It depends upon the distinction 158 00:11:23.080 --> 00:11:30.799 of the pure body from the corrupting parasites, the corrupting germs, 159 00:11:31.559 --> 00:11:35.200 the negative influences that they may live in society, but 160 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:39.480 they do not have society's best interests at heart. They 161 00:11:39.519 --> 00:11:44.720 have secret, nefarious interests at heart. And anytime you hear 162 00:11:44.759 --> 00:11:47.759 about the corruption of children, or the corruption of the youth, 163 00:11:47.960 --> 00:11:53.720 or the corruption of the spirit of the nation sin purgation. 164 00:11:54.240 --> 00:11:58.039 There we are in the territory of religious metaphor. And 165 00:11:58.120 --> 00:12:01.879 all this religious metaphor goes back to the inarguable fact 166 00:12:02.200 --> 00:12:06.039 that a society with some basic rules for cleanliness gets 167 00:12:06.279 --> 00:12:12.600 sick less often. Now, COVID was a profoundly religious event, 168 00:12:12.759 --> 00:12:17.759 perhaps the religious event of my lifetime, or it's on 169 00:12:17.879 --> 00:12:21.919 par with maybe nine to eleven, another very religious event. 170 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:27.000 But in COVID we have religion displayed in its originary 171 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:31.399 sense here and then we also immediately see what happens 172 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:35.799 to religion in its original sense. So the first rule 173 00:12:36.080 --> 00:12:39.200 in the early days is people can die from this, 174 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:44.080 especially old people, especially your grandparents. So wash your hands, 175 00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:46.960 don't go out with friends. I know you want to, 176 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:49.759 but for the good of society, to keep them and 177 00:12:49.799 --> 00:12:54.879 everyone else safe, just stay at home. Then almost immediately 178 00:12:54.919 --> 00:12:58.639 you have sin emerge from that social rule, which is 179 00:12:58.679 --> 00:13:02.000 a pretty good rule, but it becomes if you go 180 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:05.480 out in public or you're not wearing a mask. Now 181 00:13:05.960 --> 00:13:11.200 you are sinful, and you'll be reprimanded or just socially 182 00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:15.799 punished for it. And then in the next stage you 183 00:13:15.960 --> 00:13:22.840 have anti vaccine or drinking bleach or using horse dwarmer stuff. Well, actually, 184 00:13:23.720 --> 00:13:26.679 let's separate those into their own categories. To be anti 185 00:13:26.759 --> 00:13:31.639 vax is rational from this perspective, because you don't trust 186 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:35.279 that the government is going to mandate good things for you, 187 00:13:35.720 --> 00:13:38.240 and why would you write it doesn't seem that they have. 188 00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:40.840 But the next step after that is to say, well, 189 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.840 the government is evil and it's full of evil people 190 00:13:44.279 --> 00:13:48.200 who are now demanding that you take a syringe of 191 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:52.639 the evil substance and put it through the sacred barrier 192 00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:56.399 that is the only thing that protects you from them. 193 00:13:56.840 --> 00:14:01.519 They want you to put evil inside your body. Now, 194 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:05.159 horse to wormer. Why does this make more sense than 195 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:09.000 a vaccine, because it's a de wormer. It's a thing 196 00:14:09.039 --> 00:14:14.360 that kills the bad thing. Like bleach. We have ingrained 197 00:14:14.600 --> 00:14:19.000 into our unconscious as people who have watched TV and 198 00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:24.519 seen commercials, we have ingrained the purifying effects of soaps 199 00:14:24.759 --> 00:14:28.879 and bleach and cleaner. If you ever saw a commercial 200 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:33.759 growing up, you see the evil germs being purged, and 201 00:14:33.799 --> 00:14:38.039 you get your towels and blankets and white shirts pure 202 00:14:38.440 --> 00:14:41.919 white again, white as snow, washed in the blood of 203 00:14:41.960 --> 00:14:45.679 the lamb. So this is the effect of a de wormer. 204 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:49.120 It goes in and kills the bad thing. A vaccine, 205 00:14:49.360 --> 00:14:52.320 on the other hand, it puts the bad thing inside you. 206 00:14:53.000 --> 00:14:56.320 And because you can't trust the government, the government is evil, 207 00:14:56.759 --> 00:15:02.080 it has in its mind to corrupt inside past the 208 00:15:02.120 --> 00:15:05.399 barrier of your skin, straight into your soul. That's what 209 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:09.720 they seek to do. Now. Another example came from a 210 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:12.080 comment that I thought was very apt, So thank you 211 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:16.039 will for this. But Trump proposing that we nuke a hurricane, 212 00:15:16.399 --> 00:15:21.480 Now this is funny. It's inarguably funny. It's in arguably 213 00:15:21.559 --> 00:15:27.039 stupid if you believe in what the scientists say about 214 00:15:27.080 --> 00:15:29.720 what would happen if you try to drop a nuclear 215 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:35.759 missile into a hurricane. However, it is perfectly logical if 216 00:15:35.799 --> 00:15:39.120 your mind is part of the cosmic war between good 217 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:43.480 and evil. Because hurricane is on the evil side, we 218 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:47.679 can use violence to purge it. Because the hurricane is evil, 219 00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:53.960 we can literally irradiate it. It is a perennial trope 220 00:15:54.320 --> 00:15:58.759 of religion in general that evil wants to get inside 221 00:15:59.120 --> 00:16:02.799 your body. And of course we need like sexual discipline 222 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:08.679 to protect society from corruption. And it's why sexuality is 223 00:16:08.720 --> 00:16:11.840 a top priority for the pious. And it's not like 224 00:16:11.879 --> 00:16:15.639 this is without reason. The institution of marriage as a 225 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:20.879 sacred bond obviously has nothing to do with love. That's ideology. 226 00:16:21.480 --> 00:16:24.000 That's a story that comes after the fact. But what 227 00:16:24.200 --> 00:16:27.879 but marriage has to do with what worked? Like society 228 00:16:28.600 --> 00:16:32.559 won't work very well if men get women pregnant and 229 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:36.879 then fuck off women in any culture of any time, 230 00:16:37.320 --> 00:16:39.200 unless they're rich, of course, but if they're not the 231 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:42.240 upper cross of society, they're gonna have a very hard 232 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:46.799 time both taking care of an infant and find some 233 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:50.320 way to provide for herself and for the infant. So 234 00:16:50.360 --> 00:16:53.759 who can we put this responsibility on? Well, what about 235 00:16:53.759 --> 00:16:57.080 the other? What about the guy? So we need someone 236 00:16:57.159 --> 00:17:01.559 to pin this responsibility on as a social responsibility so 237 00:17:01.639 --> 00:17:05.279 that we have a next generation, because fundamentally, that's what 238 00:17:05.519 --> 00:17:10.480 society really is about, creating the next generation. So every 239 00:17:10.519 --> 00:17:15.319 society basically independently invents marriage because that makes it so 240 00:17:15.720 --> 00:17:19.319 Dad has to stick around or face either social judgment 241 00:17:19.839 --> 00:17:25.440 or ostracization or legal punishment punitive measures. And it doesn't 242 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:28.559 need to be the case that all humans at some 243 00:17:28.680 --> 00:17:33.240 point in time universally recognized that this was a better 244 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:36.160 way to do things than the alternative. It just needs 245 00:17:36.240 --> 00:17:39.559 to be the case that for societies to reach higher 246 00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:43.839 levels of complexity, you need stability at this basic level. 247 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:47.079 So the societies that we observe, they all did this 248 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:50.160 because it happens to be the best way to organize 249 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:55.359 society in order that there can be at least stable population. 250 00:17:55.920 --> 00:18:01.359 And every sexual purity, obligation and ritual come from the 251 00:18:01.480 --> 00:18:05.839 need to protect this institution. Marriage. Why, because it worked 252 00:18:05.960 --> 00:18:09.119 very well, and that's why every society that made it 253 00:18:09.160 --> 00:18:13.240 this far has some sort of marriage agreement, marriage ritual, 254 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:17.240 marriage contract. Anyway, Sorry, that's a little off topic. Evil 255 00:18:17.279 --> 00:18:21.160 wants to get inside your body. We know what religions 256 00:18:21.160 --> 00:18:23.200 say when they mean that, but it also means this 257 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:29.200 Bill Gates wants to chip you, or they the shadowy 258 00:18:29.279 --> 00:18:32.920 they are putting chemicals into the water trying to make 259 00:18:32.960 --> 00:18:37.680 you gay, or musicians in their music videos are trying 260 00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:41.880 to hypnotize children into worshiping Satan. That's another way to 261 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:45.119 get past the barrier of the skin is to the 262 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:50.400 mind using hypnosis, and of course evil doctors are doing 263 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:56.319 operations on children, they're cutting past the skin barrier. And 264 00:18:56.519 --> 00:19:00.400 all of this is sickness and health metaphors, and the 265 00:19:00.440 --> 00:19:04.119 surface of those metaphors is something we're all familiar with 266 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:08.720 the body, So immediately we go from healthy body equals 267 00:19:08.799 --> 00:19:13.279 purity to sick body equals corruption. And the reason I 268 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:16.240 think this makes so much sense and why it pops 269 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:22.640 up everywhere is that it's pre rational and it's absolutely logical. 270 00:19:22.720 --> 00:19:27.240 From a religious perspective, it is. It's logical. Logical, of course, 271 00:19:27.319 --> 00:19:32.039 does not mean correct from all perspectives. Like I'd say 272 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:36.839 that germ theory is a better explanation than measma theory 273 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:42.279 about what causes sicknesses. Similarly, I'd say that an economic 274 00:19:42.400 --> 00:19:47.400 account of inequality driving up the prices of assets explains 275 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:52.519 a declining standard of living better than parasitic immigrants who 276 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:57.279 are sent to destroy America by lizards or something. But 277 00:19:57.440 --> 00:20:03.400 from its own cult perspectives, these explanations are logical, and 278 00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:06.200 it has to have something to do with the fact 279 00:20:06.279 --> 00:20:11.839 of common experience that metaphors find purchase, that metaphors even 280 00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:15.599 get picked up. Only the ones really that work get 281 00:20:15.640 --> 00:20:19.720 picked up. Only the ones that are recognizable can be used. 282 00:20:20.359 --> 00:20:23.400 Like every human knows what it means to get a cut, 283 00:20:24.039 --> 00:20:28.720 every human knows that your skin breaking hurts. Every human 284 00:20:29.160 --> 00:20:33.240 knows what it means to eat something that's bad, like 285 00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:37.519 it's too hot or it stinks, or something that can 286 00:20:37.559 --> 00:20:42.039 make you sick from the inside. This pain, this bad 287 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:46.440 These stuff that's too hot, these stuff that stinks, the 288 00:20:46.440 --> 00:20:50.519 stuff that makes you sick and hurt. This is simple 289 00:20:50.640 --> 00:20:56.279 badness that becomes evil. And not just historically in the 290 00:20:56.319 --> 00:20:59.200 history of civilization or whatever, but even in your own life. 291 00:20:59.240 --> 00:21:02.400 When you're a child, hurt and pain are just hurt 292 00:21:02.440 --> 00:21:05.920 and pain, and as you grow up, these become abstracted 293 00:21:06.319 --> 00:21:10.640 and the causes of those pains and hurts are categorized 294 00:21:11.000 --> 00:21:17.839 along with evil, particularly as either individual people as evil 295 00:21:17.960 --> 00:21:20.920 or groups of people that take on the burden of 296 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:24.720 being evil. And so with this example on the previous one, 297 00:21:24.799 --> 00:21:28.519 we see something that systems theory would predict here, which 298 00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:33.720 is distinct realities that no longer affect each other directly. 299 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:38.759 They are closed off. Original religion here was a metaphor 300 00:21:38.920 --> 00:21:44.920 that solved a material or physical social problem. So original 301 00:21:44.920 --> 00:21:51.480 religion institutes sexual purity rules, laws even to defend the 302 00:21:51.559 --> 00:21:58.240 marriage ritual, and people like prostitutes are ostracized and adulterers 303 00:21:58.920 --> 00:22:02.640 or sexual deviance are punished, and this is done for 304 00:22:02.759 --> 00:22:07.640 the good of society. But something else happens here, which 305 00:22:07.720 --> 00:22:11.279 is the metaphor or the abstraction of the original use 306 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:16.200 case now spins off and becomes a new reality, the 307 00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:21.039 reality of the law and morality with its symbols and 308 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:25.119 rituals that are completely disconnected from the circumstances that gave 309 00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:28.720 rise to those laws in the first place. Now we 310 00:22:28.839 --> 00:22:33.200 have a wholly distinct reality from the first one, where 311 00:22:33.720 --> 00:22:37.680 changes in the base no longer have any effect on 312 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:43.839 the superstructural reality, or at least not immediately. So, for example, 313 00:22:43.880 --> 00:22:46.920 you could invent a bit of rubber or a pill 314 00:22:47.559 --> 00:22:52.359 that prevents pregnancy as the effect of sex, and once 315 00:22:52.400 --> 00:22:55.039 that occurs, you know, if these two systems were connected, 316 00:22:55.240 --> 00:22:58.440 you could tone down the slutshaming a little bit, because 317 00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:02.079 the problem that sluts shame emerged to deal with in 318 00:23:02.119 --> 00:23:06.079 the first instance, it's no longer a problem. But that's 319 00:23:06.079 --> 00:23:09.480 not what happens, of course, And the reason that slut 320 00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:14.160 shaming continues to exist after birth control is that at 321 00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:18.359 a certain point, these become distinct realities that no longer interact. 322 00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:21.400 It is separate from the world that spawned it, and 323 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:25.359 now has its own signs and own symbols that continue 324 00:23:25.359 --> 00:23:28.759 to say, No, what is good is that your soul 325 00:23:29.160 --> 00:23:32.319 stays pure. This is the highest priority. And now this 326 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:37.359 symbolic universe gets mapped backwards onto the material reality that 327 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:41.519 spawned it in the first place, a reality wherein vaccines 328 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:45.640 produce immunity to contagions. No, fuck that, because it's not 329 00:23:45.720 --> 00:23:48.960 only our bodies that are on the line. Here, our souls, 330 00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:52.000 which are now at a certain point of complexity. Our 331 00:23:52.039 --> 00:23:55.079 souls are distinct from our body and it's those that 332 00:23:55.160 --> 00:23:57.519 are on the line. And you know what, that's the 333 00:23:57.559 --> 00:23:59.400 reality we're going to go with. So you can fuck 334 00:23:59.480 --> 00:24:03.920 off with your bas scenes. Now. This story about original 335 00:24:03.960 --> 00:24:09.519 religion and the metaphysical spinoff reality of say the Catholic Church, 336 00:24:10.480 --> 00:24:14.640 this is paralleled in the etymology of the word religion. 337 00:24:15.319 --> 00:24:19.359 What religion or religio meant the first time it was 338 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:22.920 used has nothing to do with what we now think 339 00:24:23.079 --> 00:24:29.640 it means. So religio the Latin I don't No one's 340 00:24:30.119 --> 00:24:32.920 really sure what the root is, but there are some 341 00:24:33.400 --> 00:24:36.839 candidates for what the root of religion means. The first 342 00:24:36.880 --> 00:24:40.599 is that the lidge in religion, which is lig in religio, 343 00:24:41.319 --> 00:24:46.920 is to care or to care for. This etymology is 344 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:51.640 probably the most commonly cited because the root of religio 345 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:56.920 if it's to care for and recare for, that's what 346 00:24:56.960 --> 00:25:00.839 the re means. Then it's easy to arise at something 347 00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:06.119 like to venerate. So the origin of religion in this 348 00:25:06.160 --> 00:25:11.359 etymology is to venerate something and venerate it repeatedly, and 349 00:25:11.400 --> 00:25:14.599 there you get ritual. Not too difficult now. Option two 350 00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:19.440 is that the lig in religio comes from the verb lego, 351 00:25:19.599 --> 00:25:25.319 which basically means to go over something again, to to 352 00:25:25.400 --> 00:25:29.240 recite it again or to reread it again, just to 353 00:25:29.319 --> 00:25:32.319 go over go over the thing that you already went over. 354 00:25:32.839 --> 00:25:36.839 This also makes sense as as an origin point because 355 00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:40.960 it would point to the recitation of you know, wisdom, 356 00:25:41.319 --> 00:25:45.640 chance or story or sacred sayings or whatever it is. 357 00:25:45.839 --> 00:25:51.839 If you religio, it is to go over that thing repeatedly. 358 00:25:52.440 --> 00:25:56.400 An option three for where religion the word religio comes 359 00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:00.519 from is the lig could mean to bind, as in 360 00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:04.240 to tie something or to tie two things together. So 361 00:26:04.279 --> 00:26:07.640 if you are tying yourself to something. I suppose that's 362 00:26:07.640 --> 00:26:12.559 what's being pictured here. The lig in obligation a different word, 363 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:17.480 but the lig in obligation means to tie yourself to something, 364 00:26:17.720 --> 00:26:21.279 and obligation is something you are bound to, and religion 365 00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:25.519 is to rebind yourself to something repeatedly. So we could 366 00:26:25.559 --> 00:26:28.039 pick one to go with. It doesn't matter which because 367 00:26:28.039 --> 00:26:30.920 they all do something cool. But whatever the lig is, 368 00:26:31.240 --> 00:26:37.839 it's the re that's most important. Religging religioning means the repetition, 369 00:26:38.599 --> 00:26:42.880 and that repetition might be caring for something, or going 370 00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:47.799 over something, or continually tying yourself to something. But ritual 371 00:26:48.039 --> 00:26:52.200 is the origin here. It's something that is repeated regardless 372 00:26:52.200 --> 00:26:55.799 of what the lig means. And rituals, of course, began 373 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:01.799 as pragmatic things to do, and they become increasingly metaphoric. Now, 374 00:27:01.839 --> 00:27:05.799 metaphorizing something isn't in itself bad. Our language is just 375 00:27:06.359 --> 00:27:08.799 layers of metaphor that we forgot our metaphors, so there's 376 00:27:08.839 --> 00:27:11.920 no good and bad. But you can see from our 377 00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:16.880 perspective that the metaphorization of sickness and health can lead 378 00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:21.640 us down some harmful trails to certain people that are 379 00:27:21.680 --> 00:27:25.720 singled out as the source of the corruption or parasites. Now, 380 00:27:25.960 --> 00:27:29.920 real estate religions, which are the big religions. They are 381 00:27:30.119 --> 00:27:38.240 religions that are old enough to own real estate. Christianity, Scientology, Islam, Mormons. 382 00:27:39.039 --> 00:27:44.799 Real estate religions are our stacks, mountains of metaphors erected 383 00:27:44.920 --> 00:27:49.440 on the original accident that happened to work. And today 384 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:53.799 I wanted to focus on the personas of religious belief, 385 00:27:54.200 --> 00:27:59.200 the prophets, the gurus, the wisdom teachers, and mostly focus 386 00:27:59.359 --> 00:28:03.720 on the similarities between them. And I'm also going to 387 00:28:03.799 --> 00:28:09.160 do something that's wholely well, it's not very academic, okay, 388 00:28:09.279 --> 00:28:11.559 but whatever, it's my podcast. You can deal with it 389 00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:14.079 or you can turn it off. I'm going to say 390 00:28:14.279 --> 00:28:19.599 that there are true prophets and false prophets. Most are false. 391 00:28:20.079 --> 00:28:21.759 And I'm sorry to tell you this because I know 392 00:28:21.799 --> 00:28:25.400 that we have a big overlap in audience. But Andrew 393 00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:30.119 Tate is a false prophet. Jordan Peterson is both a 394 00:28:30.200 --> 00:28:33.559 true and a false prophet, and Jesus Christ is mostly 395 00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:36.519 a true prophet but could be interpreted as a false prophet. 396 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:40.799 And of course Buddha is a true prophet. Now, every 397 00:28:40.920 --> 00:28:46.440 prophet is anti religious in some dimension. They arrive on 398 00:28:46.559 --> 00:28:49.960 the scene in their day and say, look, you guys 399 00:28:50.119 --> 00:28:52.839 fucked all this up, but there's a way to fix it. 400 00:28:53.640 --> 00:28:57.559 And true and false prophets are difficult to distinguish because 401 00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:01.880