WEBVTT 1 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:14.560 Hello, and welcome to Mythic Mind, where we pursue wisdom 2 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:17.760 in the past between primary and secondary worlds. Andrew Snyder 3 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.800 and I'm glad that you're here. Since recording the last episode, 4 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:24.399 I'm glad to say that we've welcomed another boy into 5 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:26.719 the world. This is a great time, but it also 6 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:28.519 means that I've not been able to put out some 7 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:31.760 fresh content for this episode. However, I have been posting 8 00:00:31.760 --> 00:00:34.920 some short videos to YouTube lately based on various thoughts 9 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:37.039 that have come to me. Things that I'm working on, 10 00:00:37.079 --> 00:00:39.759 things I'm thinking about, things that I'm reading about, and 11 00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:41.840 so I've been posting these short videos and I'm going 12 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:44.399 to provide those for you today. That is, I'm going 13 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:46.600 to be dropping the audio from the last four short 14 00:00:46.679 --> 00:00:48.719 videos that I put up on YouTube, which gives us 15 00:00:48.759 --> 00:00:51.719 something like a normal podcast length episode. And you can 16 00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:53.880 see all these videos and be sure to sub to 17 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:57.039 my YouTube channel by clicking the link in the show notes. 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In one of my on campus classes 55 00:02:44.319 --> 00:02:47.639 right now, we're studying Plato's dialogue called the Fata, which 56 00:02:47.680 --> 00:02:52.719 is it's about Socrates's account of why he's willing to 57 00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:56.080 die because see, Socrates was previously accused by the court 58 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:58.960 of Athens for a number of charges, but principally for 59 00:02:59.039 --> 00:03:01.199 corrupting the youth as well as denying the gods of 60 00:03:01.240 --> 00:03:05.120 the city. Well, Socrates is found guilty and he's sentenced 61 00:03:05.120 --> 00:03:08.759 to execution. Well, as this sentencing starts to become clear 62 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:12.000 during the trial in the apology, Socrates looks down the 63 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.879 court of Athens and he tells them that even if 64 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:18.000 you kill me, you cannot do harm to a good man, 65 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:22.039 because he's identifying the value of his life with more 66 00:03:22.080 --> 00:03:25.439 than mere self preservation. He's identifying it with the good. 67 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:28.319 He's identifying it with wisdom. And this is something that 68 00:03:28.400 --> 00:03:32.919 cannot be taken away through any external means whatsoever. Socrates's 69 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:37.000 relationship with wisdom, the good, the life that he ought 70 00:03:37.039 --> 00:03:39.960 to be living. This can only be severed if he 71 00:03:40.120 --> 00:03:43.759 severs it by choosing the path of cowardice. Well, fast 72 00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:46.840 forward a little bit, and now he is awaiting his execution. 73 00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:49.840 There's a bit of a delay due to i mean, 74 00:03:49.879 --> 00:03:52.919 some ritual things going on. That's beside the point. There's 75 00:03:52.919 --> 00:03:56.199 some delay. He's able to spend some time with his 76 00:03:56.240 --> 00:03:59.439 friends and they come together and they tell him that 77 00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:02.680 pulled our money together, We've made the right connections that 78 00:04:02.759 --> 00:04:04.560 we can get you out of here. You don't have 79 00:04:04.639 --> 00:04:08.800 to die, however, you have to go into exile, but 80 00:04:09.000 --> 00:04:11.960 you'll live. You'll live in exile and soccrate says, no, 81 00:04:12.280 --> 00:04:15.400 I can't do that, because there are some fates that 82 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:18.639 are worse than death, such as the fate of the coward. 83 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:21.920 It would be cowardly for me to run away that 84 00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:26.360 the true path of wisdom is to stand firm, to 85 00:04:26.519 --> 00:04:28.879 accept the sentencing that was given to me, because I mean, 86 00:04:28.879 --> 00:04:31.279 who am I without the city of Athens? I would 87 00:04:31.279 --> 00:04:33.360 not be the person I am without the city of Athens. 88 00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:36.600 I owe myself to the city. So even if it's 89 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:40.879 acting against the demands of wisdom in this moment, I 90 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:44.160 still have a civil obligation to fulfill the demands that 91 00:04:44.199 --> 00:04:46.560 are placed upon me by the city, and I also 92 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:50.160 have an obligation to maintain fidelity to wisdom, regardless of 93 00:04:50.160 --> 00:04:53.519 what those consequences are. And so, through fidelity to his 94 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:57.959 civil duty as well as to his existential duty to wisdom, 95 00:04:58.240 --> 00:05:00.879 he decides to stay and says, no, I'm going to 96 00:05:00.920 --> 00:05:04.000 go through with death because that is not the worst thing. 97 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:06.399 And not only it's not the worst thing. Not only 98 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:09.759 do we have reason to endure death, but maybe we 99 00:05:09.839 --> 00:05:14.560 actually have reason as philosophers to long for death, to 100 00:05:14.680 --> 00:05:17.519 look forward to death. Maybe death is actually the best 101 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:21.120 thing that could happen to you. Now, to break that 102 00:05:21.199 --> 00:05:25.600 down a little bit to understand that full argument, Well, 103 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:28.439 I recommend that you read the Phato and or take 104 00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:33.360 my upcoming course on Platonism Stoicism until we have faces, 105 00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:38.279 and in that course our Plato text will be the Fato. Well, 106 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:41.680 I actually I'm not going to get into this main argument. 107 00:05:41.680 --> 00:05:43.079 I just want to give you some context here for 108 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:45.759 what this dialogue is about. But what I want to 109 00:05:45.879 --> 00:05:48.519 highlight here is a statement made by one of his 110 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:52.600 conversation partners here that is a really good job of 111 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:58.199 demonstrating the sharp distinctions between pre modern philosophy and modern 112 00:05:58.279 --> 00:06:01.120 or postmodern philosophy in which we know outlive. And so 113 00:06:01.240 --> 00:06:04.279 let me just read this here. It's said that, for surely, 114 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:07.480 no wise man thinks that, when set at liberty, he 115 00:06:07.519 --> 00:06:09.800 can take better care of himself than the gods take 116 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:13.279 care of him. A fool may perhaps think this. He 117 00:06:13.399 --> 00:06:15.680 may argue that he had better run away from his master, 118 00:06:16.399 --> 00:06:19.160 not considering that his duty is to remain to the 119 00:06:19.319 --> 00:06:22.079 end and not to run away from the good, and 120 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:24.839 that there is no sense in his running away. What's 121 00:06:24.879 --> 00:06:28.480 being said here is that we are part of a 122 00:06:28.519 --> 00:06:31.600 story that our life is not our own. Life itself 123 00:06:31.720 --> 00:06:34.439 is a gift. And if we're given a gift, that 124 00:06:34.480 --> 00:06:37.680 presupposes that there is a giver. There is that which 125 00:06:37.720 --> 00:06:40.839 is above us, that which has authority to give life. 126 00:06:41.240 --> 00:06:44.959 And if there is authority over the life that we have, well, 127 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.199 then we would do well to pay attention to that authority, 128 00:06:47.240 --> 00:06:49.639 to listen to that authority, to listen to that wisdom, 129 00:06:49.959 --> 00:06:52.279 to look for that which stands above and beyond us, 130 00:06:52.279 --> 00:06:55.279 and which has authority to designate how we ought to 131 00:06:55.319 --> 00:06:58.360 be living our lives. And so for the pre modern world, 132 00:06:58.360 --> 00:07:01.600 whether we're talking about the Ancients, whether talking about the Medievals, 133 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:06.160 there's a prevailing idea that we are born into a 134 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:10.920 particular context, a context of what reality is, a context 135 00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:13.879 for what humanity is, a context for how we ought 136 00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:16.759 to be living our lives and the past to real 137 00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:20.879 freedom is found not in creating reality out of nothing, 138 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:24.240 because well, reality has already been created. It doesn't need 139 00:07:24.360 --> 00:07:26.839 us to do that again. What we need to do 140 00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.399 is not to create reality, but to find our place 141 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:32.480 within the story of reality. We need to find out 142 00:07:32.519 --> 00:07:34.879 what duties are placed upon us. And the way that 143 00:07:34.920 --> 00:07:38.399 you become an authentic human individual is by executing those 144 00:07:38.480 --> 00:07:42.560 human duties. Well, now, exactly what are those duties? I mean, Well, 145 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:46.560 for Plato, that principally comes down to, we have a 146 00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:50.240 duty to love the good, and out of that, well, 147 00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:52.879 all of our other duties they spring out of that 148 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:56.079 central duty to love what is good, that which is 149 00:07:56.160 --> 00:07:59.959 chiefly lovable. And again the details of that are getting 150 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:01.720 in the course, but for now, I really just want 151 00:08:01.720 --> 00:08:06.120 to highlight this distinction that what Plato here through cibis 152 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:10.600 this discussion partner with Socrates. What Plato says here is 153 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:13.560 that it is the fool who decides to set off 154 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:17.199 on his own, to divorce himself from transcendent wisdom and 155 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:19.920 to establish his own path in life, his own wisdom. 156 00:08:19.920 --> 00:08:22.720 It's the fool that does that. It's literally the idiot. 157 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:24.920 I don't just mean to be insulting when I say that, 158 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:28.759 but I mean I don't just mean to be insulting. 159 00:08:29.160 --> 00:08:31.000 But when you look at what the word idiot means, 160 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:33.720 it comes from the Greek idios, which means like your own, 161 00:08:33.840 --> 00:08:36.399 something you have of your own. And so imagine that 162 00:08:36.440 --> 00:08:40.279 you have a classroom of students and you're one of 163 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:43.440 the students. You're all working on a math problem. And 164 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:47.080 imagine everybody in the room concludes correctly that two plus 165 00:08:47.120 --> 00:08:50.399 two equals four, but you insists, no, two plus two 166 00:08:50.440 --> 00:08:53.720 does not equal four. Two plus two equals five. Well, 167 00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:57.840 in that conclusion, you have a private understanding of things 168 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:01.159 divorce from not only what everybody else believes, because sometimes 169 00:09:01.320 --> 00:09:05.080 a minority opinion can be correct, but most essentially you, 170 00:09:05.080 --> 00:09:08.039 your understanding of that topic, of that subject, of that problem, 171 00:09:08.360 --> 00:09:12.440 is divorced from reality, the reality that binds us together. 172 00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:16.879 And so in your private understanding, you are an idiot. 173 00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:20.279 Now jump forward to postmodernism, Jump forward to the likes 174 00:09:20.320 --> 00:09:23.159 of Jean Paul Sart, Look forward to Camu, look forward 175 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:26.440 to these philosophers who argue that there is no such 176 00:09:26.480 --> 00:09:28.879 thing as human essence, there is no such thing as 177 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:32.519 human nature. All you have is yourself, and you need 178 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:37.200 to stop relying on transcendent wisdom, supposedly transcendent wisdom. You 179 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:39.639 need to stop relying on the way that things should be, 180 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:42.120 and you need to recognize that all of reality is 181 00:09:42.240 --> 00:09:46.519 up to you. It all comes down to your radical subjectivity. 182 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:49.559 There is no meaning to reality, there's no part that 183 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:52.360 you are supposed to play. All you can do is 184 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:56.480 just create reality. You determine what is valuable, you determine 185 00:09:56.519 --> 00:09:58.600 what's right, You determine what it means to be human 186 00:09:58.960 --> 00:10:02.639 through the argely arbitrary decisions that you're making. And so 187 00:10:02.639 --> 00:10:06.240 this gets to the fundamentally different orientations of the ancient 188 00:10:06.320 --> 00:10:08.960 versus the postmodern world. That you go back to the 189 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:12.639 pre modern world, and there's this idea that we are 190 00:10:12.679 --> 00:10:15.720 part of a story, are obligation to fulfill the duties, 191 00:10:15.879 --> 00:10:18.679 to play the role that is appointed to us, and 192 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:21.960 so we find rest in the eternal reason that governs 193 00:10:21.960 --> 00:10:25.679 the cosmos. Go to the postmodern world, and there is 194 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:28.159 no reason that governs the cosmos. They're not even anything 195 00:10:28.279 --> 00:10:31.240 like right reason that governs you. All there is is 196 00:10:31.320 --> 00:10:36.000 you deciding things out of nothing. And so the Sartrean, 197 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:40.919 the postmodern radical subjectivist, would look back to the pre 198 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:43.639 modern and say that someone like Plato is living in 199 00:10:43.720 --> 00:10:48.000 bad faith. They're not taking responsibility for their responsibility to 200 00:10:48.159 --> 00:10:50.879 define what existence is like, what reality is like, what 201 00:10:50.960 --> 00:10:53.200 wisdom is. So he would say that Plato's acting in 202 00:10:53.279 --> 00:10:55.519 bad faith. Plato would then look at Sort and say, 203 00:10:55.519 --> 00:10:59.200 you're an idiot, that you are divorcing yourself from the 204 00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:02.639 wisdom that you are necessarily related to, but that you 205 00:11:02.679 --> 00:11:06.639 are intentionally rejecting. You're intentionally seeking to oppose, and so 206 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:10.039 you are ultimately running away from the good. And there's 207 00:11:10.080 --> 00:11:13.039 no sense in running away from the good because goodness 208 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:16.720 is tied to that which holds reality together. And so 209 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:20.039 there's no real specific point I'm trying to illustrate here 210 00:11:20.240 --> 00:11:22.039 other than just helping us to understand it's two very 211 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:24.559 different ways of approaching the world. And it's worth noting 212 00:11:24.600 --> 00:11:27.240 that as far as a prevailing viewpoint, the postmodern radically 213 00:11:27.320 --> 00:11:31.080 subjectivist approach is relatively new again as a prevailing viewpoint, 214 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:32.679 you can find these ideas in the ancient world. They 215 00:11:32.720 --> 00:11:35.159 just weren't widely accepted because people had a little bit 216 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:37.840 more well, maybe they had a little bit more authenticity 217 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:40.480 in their understanding of what it means to be human. 218 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:46.039 I'll talk to you next time. Today's philosophy class, we're 219 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:49.360 talking about what it means to live a meaningful life. 220 00:11:49.919 --> 00:11:53.039 How you go about doing meaningful things, doing meaningful work, 221 00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:57.200 engaging in meaningful relationships. You know, how do you, generally speaking, 222 00:11:57.480 --> 00:12:00.759 how do you live a meaningful life? One student really 223 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:04.240 thought that he was onto something when he brought up 224 00:12:04.279 --> 00:12:06.679 something that he had read about the twentieth century philosopher 225 00:12:06.759 --> 00:12:11.320 Albert Camu dealing with Sissyphis, the Greek myth of Sisyphis, 226 00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.919 and the student suggested that, well, maybe I should backtrack 227 00:12:14.919 --> 00:12:16.919 a little bit here. Well, in case you aren't familiar 228 00:12:16.960 --> 00:12:20.759 with this guy, back here behind me. Sisyphis is said 229 00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:24.120 to be an ancient Corinthian king who had cheated death 230 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:27.840 multiple times, and so as punishment for doing so, he 231 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:31.720 was forced for eternity to push this boulder uphill. But 232 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:33.720 he was never actually going to make any progress, and 233 00:12:33.759 --> 00:12:39.399 so it was this punishment, was this eternal act of futility. Well, 234 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:43.360 according to Kumu, and according to this student, maybe we 235 00:12:43.399 --> 00:12:46.120 can rework the way that we view Sisyphis. Maybe it's 236 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:49.960 not so much that he's living in a condemned existence 237 00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:53.480 of futility, but maybe he actually represents the highest that 238 00:12:53.519 --> 00:12:56.360 we can aspire to as humans, and that he had 239 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:59.840 something to devote his attention to. He had some work 240 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:03.399 he could apply his strength to apply his will to, 241 00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:06.399 and maybe that's all that we can actually hope for. 242 00:13:07.480 --> 00:13:13.159 And listening to this account of what the meaningful life 243 00:13:13.320 --> 00:13:16.320 might be, I mean I was, I was heartbroken, And 244 00:13:16.480 --> 00:13:19.840 I'm always heartbroken when I hear these kind of uh, 245 00:13:20.720 --> 00:13:23.759 these these assessments, these these philosophies that are set up 246 00:13:23.840 --> 00:13:27.159 as providing, you know, a pathway to meaning, set up 247 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:32.360 as being you know, authentically human. But it's it's heartbreaking 248 00:13:32.519 --> 00:13:35.919 because the very things that people tend to identify in 249 00:13:35.960 --> 00:13:40.960 this postmodern context as meaningful, it's exactly how the ancients 250 00:13:41.000 --> 00:13:44.480 portrayed Hell. References in the last video regarding C. S. 251 00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:48.000 Lewis that you know, the the inhabitants of Hell in 252 00:13:48.159 --> 00:13:51.960 his The Great Divorce don't really recognize that they are 253 00:13:52.039 --> 00:13:55.279 in Hell. They mistake it for freedom, They mistake it 254 00:13:55.360 --> 00:14:01.519 for unshackled horizons, for limitless potential, not realizing that even 255 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:04.840 the homes in which they live are nothing more than illusions, 256 00:14:04.919 --> 00:14:08.919 or even rather delusions that don't actually hold anything at bay. 257 00:14:09.440 --> 00:14:12.440 It all does is provide a sense of comfort amidst 258 00:14:12.440 --> 00:14:15.679 their own subjectivity. But it is only that it's a 259 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:19.080 sense of comfort. It's not real, it's artificial. Therefore it 260 00:14:19.159 --> 00:14:22.440 is inauthentic. But to really believe this, that the height 261 00:14:22.480 --> 00:14:25.879 of human potential is just running at a hamster wheel, 262 00:14:26.120 --> 00:14:28.200 You're not really making any progress. But at least you're 263 00:14:28.200 --> 00:14:31.879 doing something like that. That's so sad. It's like all 264 00:14:31.919 --> 00:14:34.320 you can hope for is just that you bide your 265 00:14:34.360 --> 00:14:37.240 time in your feudal existence until you fall into a 266 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:40.240 feudal death. But in the end it really means nothing. 267 00:14:40.519 --> 00:14:43.879 You can never make actual progress. And that is what 268 00:14:44.039 --> 00:14:47.200 makes this a Greek hell, because I mean the Greeks, 269 00:14:47.200 --> 00:14:50.159 I mean moving from strictly the mythology to the philosophy, 270 00:14:50.200 --> 00:14:53.440 not that they could be entirely disentangled, but there's this 271 00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:57.399 idea that we can move toward what is real, we 272 00:14:57.399 --> 00:14:59.759 can move toward what is good, that there is a 273 00:15:00.039 --> 00:15:03.799 better way to live, and if we're honest with ourselves, 274 00:15:03.879 --> 00:15:06.879 no matter what ideology you claim to profess, like, we 275 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:09.320 all believe that, we all believe that some things are 276 00:15:09.320 --> 00:15:12.559 better than other things. Otherwise you wouldn't be listening to 277 00:15:12.559 --> 00:15:16.480 this video right now, because what would matter about what 278 00:15:16.519 --> 00:15:20.399 I'm saying, Because what new information or what confirmation or 279 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:23.759 even what can you disagree with? You know, it's all meaningless, 280 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:26.919 it's all feutile unless we have something standard, some standard 281 00:15:26.960 --> 00:15:29.320 between us, something like the real against which you can 282 00:15:29.399 --> 00:15:33.240 weigh my thoughts, weigh my words, you know, I'll ask 283 00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:36.440 my students, how many of you want to be better people? 284 00:15:36.480 --> 00:15:38.960 They'll all raise their hand and then in the next 285 00:15:39.039 --> 00:15:41.720 breath tell me there's no such thing as better or worse. 286 00:15:42.399 --> 00:15:46.320 And that's because there's something so inauthentic about the abolition 287 00:15:46.519 --> 00:15:50.399 of the real. We all know some ways of life 288 00:15:50.440 --> 00:15:53.919 are better than others. We all know some forms of 289 00:15:53.960 --> 00:15:56.639 thinking are better than others. This is why education done 290 00:15:56.679 --> 00:15:59.600 in the right way, real education is a good thing, 291 00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:04.120 because some ideas are better than other ideas. Knowledge is real, 292 00:16:04.200 --> 00:16:08.320 Knowledge is better than ignorance. And this better or worse 293 00:16:08.399 --> 00:16:11.399 language only makes sense if we're weighing ourselves against the 294 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:15.279 norm of what is real, and we are striving to 295 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:19.120 conform our lives accordingly. To really get to this position 296 00:16:19.200 --> 00:16:21.720 where we're consistently going to say, there is no up 297 00:16:21.799 --> 00:16:23.679 or down, left to right, There's no such thing as 298 00:16:23.720 --> 00:16:27.159 better or worse. There's nothing that's inherently meaningful. There's only 299 00:16:27.200 --> 00:16:29.120 whatever it is that we happen to be doing, like 300 00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:33.559 we have to so deconstruct our most basic experience as 301 00:16:33.639 --> 00:16:35.840 humans in this world. I mean, it's at this point 302 00:16:36.039 --> 00:16:39.600 I'm not getting dogmatic here, I'm just saying that it 303 00:16:39.720 --> 00:16:43.759 makes far more sense out of our most basic experience 304 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:46.559 as humans, to presuppose there is something like the real, 305 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:49.279 that there is something like the good that we ought 306 00:16:49.320 --> 00:16:52.120 to be orienting our lives toward, and we're honest with ourselves, 307 00:16:52.279 --> 00:16:56.200 we want to orient our lives toward. Despite our many failings, 308 00:16:56.200 --> 00:16:59.840 despite our often trading of the greater good for lesser goods, 309 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:01.919 we all know that there are things that we ought 310 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:04.160 to be doing, things we ought to be striving for. 311 00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:07.079 And to dismiss that, you have just so deconstruct your 312 00:17:07.079 --> 00:17:11.519 most basic human experience, and I just I don't know 313 00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:14.960 how we can meaningfully call that authentic. I'll talk to 314 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:19.920 you next time. As recently playing some Knights of the 315 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:23.200 Older Republic for some upcoming patron chats. If you've not 316 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:27.480 played these games, well you absolutely should. They are some 317 00:17:27.599 --> 00:17:31.000 of the best media of any kind that's come out 318 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:33.279 of the Star Wars universe. Now, if you're jumping in 319 00:17:33.319 --> 00:17:35.279 for the first time, and these are older games, some 320 00:17:35.319 --> 00:17:36.920 of the mechanics a little bit dated, a little bit 321 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:40.319 clunky if you've been there. If you're there at the 322 00:17:40.359 --> 00:17:42.599 beginning like I was, it's not a big deal. But 323 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:44.839 even if you're starting in fresh I mean, it's not 324 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:49.079 too hard to pick up, and you definitely should do that. Well, 325 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:52.119 Like I said, we're going to be discussing these games 326 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:55.480 for some upcoming patron chats for the Mythic Mind podcast, 327 00:17:55.559 --> 00:17:57.880 but for now, I want to provide some brief thoughts 328 00:17:57.920 --> 00:18:00.599 that I had recently. Now, in parton, I want to 329 00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:03.680 discuss one of these brief exchanges that takes place between 330 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:07.200 Basila and Candoris. Now, if you haven't played these games, 331 00:18:07.200 --> 00:18:10.119 you should know something about these characters. And so Basila 332 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:15.319 is this young but very accomplished, very significant, very powerful Jedi. 333 00:18:15.720 --> 00:18:18.440 So even though she has some accomplishments, she has the 334 00:18:18.519 --> 00:18:22.359 Jedi doctrine down, she does have some pride that really 335 00:18:22.359 --> 00:18:25.559 covers up some deep seated insecurities in her life. Which 336 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:28.200 I mean, that's not entirely new when it comes to 337 00:18:28.359 --> 00:18:31.839 Star Wars storytelling, but that's the gist of who Basila 338 00:18:31.880 --> 00:18:36.920 is now. Candoris is a Mandalorian mercenary. The Mandalorians recently 339 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:41.680 made famous or made popular again with the show The Mandalorian. Well, 340 00:18:41.880 --> 00:18:45.680 the Mandalorians are this warrior people. They were starting to 341 00:18:46.119 --> 00:18:49.440 gobble up some planets around them, and eventually they were 342 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:52.039 met with the Republic who tried to push back their 343 00:18:52.759 --> 00:18:56.160 war mongering that their rating and fighting with the Republic, 344 00:18:56.200 --> 00:18:58.440 and as the Old Republic to be clear, fighting with 345 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:01.000 the Republic who are the Jedi, of course, and of 346 00:19:01.079 --> 00:19:04.400 utmost importance in pushing back the Mandalorians and securing their 347 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:09.960 defeat was Revin, this great Jedi warrior later known as Darthrobin. Well, 348 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:13.799 following their defeat, the Mandalorians were a broken people. Instead 349 00:19:13.799 --> 00:19:17.880 of being these great warriors, they really just became guns 350 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:20.599 for hire. There were still warriors, but not for great 351 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:23.960 causes necessarily. They were indeed just guns for hire. And 352 00:19:24.039 --> 00:19:26.720 Candas is one such Mandalorian. At the time that we 353 00:19:26.759 --> 00:19:29.880 meet him, he's working for Da Davic, who is this 354 00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:34.920 local exchange boss. With the Exchange being this interplanetary organized 355 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:38.039 crime syndicated it is essentially that the mob and Davic 356 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:40.880 is this local mob boss. Well, at this point in 357 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:43.440 the game, when we first start to really meaningful interact 358 00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:46.559 with this guy Candoris, he is actually working with the 359 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:49.720 player to steal one of davic ship's so that way 360 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:52.559 he can break through the fifth blockade and get out 361 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:55.240 of the planet. And so he is actively working against 362 00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:57.559 his boss and it's in the midst of this heist 363 00:19:57.839 --> 00:19:59.680 that we get this brief exchange I want to talk 364 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:02.680 about between Candoris and Basila, and so, making fun of 365 00:20:02.720 --> 00:20:06.319 the fact that Basila was previously captured by one of 366 00:20:06.319 --> 00:20:11.160 these under city gangs, Candoris says that, well, the Mandalorians 367 00:20:11.200 --> 00:20:13.119 likely would have won the war if they had Jedi 368 00:20:13.240 --> 00:20:16.160 like Basila fighting against them. So then Basila fires back 369 00:20:16.200 --> 00:20:19.599 by saying, bold talk from a broken down mercenary who 370 00:20:19.640 --> 00:20:22.960 was serving at Davic's heel, I'd call you as pet cathound. 371 00:20:23.240 --> 00:20:26.240 But they have enough loyalty not to turn on their masters. 372 00:20:26.839 --> 00:20:30.359 So this is where Basila strikes. She says that Candoras 373 00:20:30.440 --> 00:20:34.480 is disloyal. Now, this disloyalty might actually seem like a 374 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:38.359 good thing, given that his boss is this wicked crime lord. 375 00:20:38.559 --> 00:20:42.440 But this actually reminds me of a line from Tolkien's Tomarillion, 376 00:20:42.799 --> 00:20:45.519 in what she says, in all the deeds of Melchor 377 00:20:45.599 --> 00:20:48.519 the morgoth upon Ardam, in his vast works, and in 378 00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:51.920 the deceits of his cunning Sauron had a part and 379 00:20:52.079 --> 00:20:54.599 was only less evil than his master, and that for 380 00:20:54.799 --> 00:20:58.640 long he served another and not himself. So the one 381 00:20:58.680 --> 00:21:01.599 good thing that Tolkien has to say about Suron is 382 00:21:01.599 --> 00:21:04.920 that for a time he served somebody else. I mean, yeah, 383 00:21:04.960 --> 00:21:08.279 it was the great dark Lord, this devil like Morgoth. 384 00:21:08.680 --> 00:21:11.599 But nonetheless he at least serves somebody beyond himself, and 385 00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:14.599 that is a good thing. Now, why exactly is this 386 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:17.839 a good thing? In this contact with Saluron, Well, he 387 00:21:17.880 --> 00:21:20.839 may have been serving the wrong lord, but in serving 388 00:21:20.880 --> 00:21:26.000 someone beyond himself, he recognized something like reality, a broader reality. 389 00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:30.079 He had a perceived good, a target, a goal. He 390 00:21:30.200 --> 00:21:33.079 recognized that he needed to not only produce meaning, but 391 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:36.480 he needed to receive meaning. And even though he was 392 00:21:36.519 --> 00:21:39.759 receiving it from the wrong place, he nonetheless recognized the 393 00:21:39.759 --> 00:21:43.359 importance of doing that, of receiving meaning, discovering meaning, aspiring 394 00:21:43.480 --> 00:21:47.880 for some ideal beyond himself. Even a misperceived good means 395 00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:51.200 that there's some kind of hope of freedom, of escape 396 00:21:51.480 --> 00:21:56.559 from the living hell of radical isolation, isolation from reality, 397 00:21:56.599 --> 00:21:58.960 isolation from the world. You know, it's just like the 398 00:21:59.319 --> 00:22:01.160 dwarfs that the end of Narnie, at the end of 399 00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:03.920 the last battle, who just can't see the world around 400 00:22:03.960 --> 00:22:05.720 them because they're not gonna be taken in by anything, 401 00:22:05.960 --> 00:22:08.000