Cutting the Epistemic Fat
Hey friends,
I hope you had a great weekend.
I finally got caught up on all administrative tasks at the Stoa. We now have 60+ videos on our YouTube channel. Check them out.
This week we got some fun events for you:
Time Tweak w/ Ivo Mensch. May 19th @ 11:00 AM ET. 60 mins. RSVP here.
Journalism During the Liminal W/ David Fuller. May 19th @ 1:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
The Side View Launch Party w/ Adam Robbert. May 20th @ 6:30 PM ET. 90 mins. RSVP here.
Trauma, Truth, and Technology w/ Joshua Fields. May 21st @ 2:30 PM ET. 60 mins. RSVP here.
Relational Exegesis w/ Freyja. May 21st @ 4:00 PM ET. 60-90 mins. RSVP here.
Ta Eis Heauton w/ Clyde Rathbone. May 21st @ 8:00 PM ET. 60 mins. RSVP here.
Askhole: Breaking Social Boundaries w/ Aella. May 22nd @ 6:00 PM ET. 60 mins. RSVP here.
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May 17, 2020
Something internally switched. I am here to work. There is a cold insensitivity about this state. It is mission-oriented, when I am in this state everything is instrumentalized towards getting shit done. I like the efficiency this state brings, but it has a lonely feel to it. I get irritated quickly with others while I am in this state.
I do not want this state to be my default, as I think I would become a Type A asshole quickly if I stayed here for too long. I imagine being a Type A asshole will support keeping the Game A world alive. I do sense this state is something to integrate though. I want to be in the right relationship with this state, and I imagine a sober focused hustle to win the metagame will emerge if I do.
I am finally getting caught up in a backlog of administrative duties for the Stoa. We have 60 recorded Stoa sessions now uploaded to the YouTube channel. Seven more, then I am fully caught up on the backlog. I’ve disabled all comments on the videos. The Stoa is about finding the others, not about asymmetrical communication via the shitshow of YouTube comments. The minimal viable spectacle strategy is in play. Let us use the spectacle, and not let it use us.
Along with this desire to work, my creative force has been unleashed. I want to create, create, and create some more. This tremendous libidinous energy needs to go somewhere, and it would not be prudent to be having sex all the time. I am texting both John Vervaeke and Lubomir Arsov at the same time right now, about the same subject. I am texting them about using the spectacle.
I notice I am gravitating to comic book aesthetics in these journals: epistemic cowboy, the liminal war, the Cancel God, philosophical rockstar, etc. When I say comic book aesthetics I do not mean superheroes per se, but that fun and cartoonish larger than life feel that comic books have. Maybe a marketing department will be needed to attract people to a religio that our metamodern world needs. If this is the case then maybe it will need to have comic book flair.
In one of her Psychotechnology Playground sessions at the Stoa, Bonnitta Roy, who I totally have a crush on, conveyed we need to remove the epistemic fat from a lot of these sensemaking discussions if we are going to reach a larger audience. I teased her that the phrase epistemic fat is epistemic fat for most.
I have a few philosophical lineages. The main one is the Stoics of course, and Pierre Hadot. But also Ken Wilber's Integral Theory, as well as the masters of suspicion. One that I do not talk about much though, is the philosophical lineage of self-help. I have read a lot of self-help, such as Napoleon Hill, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, and of course, Dale Carnegie.
As I mentioned before, I am a corporate trainer at Dale Carnegie Training, a company that has been around for over 100 years, and was founded by the man himself. Carnegie read a lot, and it was evident he was versed in Stoicism. His brilliance was his ability to speak in an accessible way to many people, and he had the ability to teach how to do it as well. He was treated as an absolute rockstar during his day.
While I have no doubt he had the capacity to hang with the galaxy brains of his time, and maybe he had the desire to, but his life was not defined by that. At least publicly, he did not play in the “look how smart I am” prestige economy. Not that I think it is a bad economy to play in, as I play in it to a degree, but I think the trick is not to be played by it.
In order to change the world, we need to be able to speak with many people, and not down at them. Like David Fuller said in our recent Rebel Wisdom chat: there is too much jargon in our sensemaking web, which excludes others. I do think that is good though, to a degree, because it is good to exclude, so we can find the others. There will be a point where we will need a different strategy however, one that can seduce the culture.
Maybe this is where comic books come in. As of today, four out of five of the most expensive film productions ever were inspired by comic books. As well, the highest grossing film of all time at the moment is Avengers: Endgame. So yeah, there is something here, and I strongly sense the spirit of these can be repurposed away from encouraging people to be passive consumers of fantasy and towards a story that will help all of us become embodied.
I sense it is time we become reality artists with our story, and why not author a story that is not only beautiful, but fun, adventurous, and sexy as fuck? I think if the galaxy brains drop their egoic attachment to their fancy memes, then we will have a chance to create a scintillating story. One that attracts everyone to create a more beautiful world. I feel confident that we can do this without compromising any intellectual integrity, or without needing any noble lies.
But what the fuck do I know? I am just an epistemic cowboy after all, who probably read way too many comic books when he was young.
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