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The Reason Communism & Marxism Always Fail Is Brutally Simple | Jordan B Peterson Clips | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: The Reason Communism & Marxism Always Fail Is Brutally Simple
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Summary
Core Theme
The discussion critiques the Enlightenment's overestimation of pure reason, arguing that a healthy human existence and Western greatness stem from the tension and interplay between reason (Athens) and religious/biblical tradition (Jerusalem), emphasizing the foundational role of narrative and properly aligned aims in perception and understanding.
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Let me make another suggestion here. Um,
so you mentioned Markx and what we see
in Markx is a um an an overestimation a
serious overestimation of the power of reason.
reason. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And now reason understood as a
productive and political principle. Um,
and I mean obviously there's a religious
background because it's a secularization
of the Christian story, but
>> I think there there are several elements
here. And and by the way, this goes back
to Plato's Republic as well. We can talk
about that. But >> okay,
>> okay,
>> the idea is that, okay, we're going to
have a heaven on earth. We're going to
have a paradiseical society where all
men are brothers and so on
>> and everyone's needs are met, right?
>> Whatever the hell that means.
>> But here's the problem. It is going to
be realized by human political
productive action. And the difficulty
there is so so so first of all it's not
emerging organically. Okay. It's a it's
a political constructivism. So the the
best society will not emerge
organically. Uh but it's to be brought
into being by man. Now it's to be
brought into being by men in a
particular time and in a particular place
place
>> by particular men,
>> right? By particular men. And when you
put those constraints on it, you
drastically limit the possibilities
within that society because it's got to
be producible. It's got to be
sustainable. It's got to fit the
particular parameters. All these kinds
of things. Add on to that the delusion
>> that um human beings are not in fact
>> let's say radically local beings who
form the most meaningful bonds
>> in particular ways
>> marriage family
but we're universal right and finally
you have this kind of divization of man
because after all you know um well if we
I mean we're going to realize heaven on
earth so
>> well and as you said we can produce a
centralized authority which falls out of
the presumptions you just described
that's going to have the computational
power necessary to pull off the task
which is well that just just that claim
is preposterous right but but I like I
like the way you formulate that because
>> what what you're pointing out is that
>> for the system that's proposed to make
itself manifest it has to meet a series
of increasingly likely constraints
>> yes exactly
>> increasingly sorry increasingly unlikely
constraints, right? It has to do this.
That's already hard. Well, you add four
more impossibilities to that. It's like, well,
well,
>> right. And um where I want to go with
this is that that kind of hubris about reason
reason
>> uh is I think well first of all it's a
characteristic of the modern era because
you know you have deart saying we're
going to be masters and possessors of nature
nature
>> and if you read the discourse on method
>> teach you we're going to do form our own values
values
>> right right
>> but that's sort of the end of the whole
kind of decay but if but if we go back
to the early moderns Um he even suggests
in the discourse on method that maybe
medicine will will make all the
infirmities of old age sort of disappear
which means we're not going to die in
which case by the way the religious
question uh is gone like from the I mean
Deart's writing he doesn't want his
books to be placed on the index which
they were nonetheless you know um and so
they're read and they have to be you
know the Roman Catholic Church has to
has to has to look at them um but the
fact is that Roman Catholicism is
irrelevant if you've got if we're not
going to die, right? I mean, in some
fundamental sense, but okay.
>> Well, and whatever a human being is is
something completely different than
whatever it is now.
>> But now I want to go back to Leo Strauss
who talks about the permanent questions.
And what I've come to understand is the
following. That the permanence of the
questions arises from the necessity that
Athens so to speak and now let's just
take that to mean reason like unaded
reason okay
can't be separated from the biblical
alternative which is the fear of God is
the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the
Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
>> How did you figure that out?
>> Well Strauss writes about this stuff. He
writes about, this is not my idea. He
writes about assets in Jerusalem. But
what I'm claiming is this. In order for
reason to function in a healthy way,
>> it must conduct itself in the light of >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> the alternative of religion, which is
>> okay. So, so you know,
>> like you can't understand everything on
your own. There are massive mysteries,
right? Um, and there's this entire
alternative way of thinking about
things. So if you if you simply separate
reason from that, you're going to get
totalitarianism and kind of you know the
lunacy that we see
>> luciferian hubris.
>> If you separate religion from the
alternative that well man has reason and
man is able to figure things out
>> and there are things that we can
understand about nature and the world
and science that aren't in the religious tradition,
tradition,
>> then you're going to end up with say
Islamic extremism or something. You see
what I'm saying? In other words, a
healthy human existence is to dwell in
the space of the permanent questions
which must be informed by these
alternatives. And Strauss is very good
on this. He says there's no
philosophical proof that the Bible is
wrong, right? Like there's like, you
know, you could like you're always
making assumptions
>> that that are simply going to sort of,
you know, prejudice the conclusions that
you're going to. Yeah.
>> So, so we have to live in this space.
And Strauss's claim which I really think
is great is that the tension between
Athens and Jerusalem is the coiled
spring of the greatness of the west that
we have to understand that but now what
I've come to understand this is a kind
of moderation right like don't because
if you say no reason reasons it anything
that's not rational you got some kind of
positivism or whatever
>> you're you're going to go straight to
that man god thing right you're going to
go straight to that totalitarian
>> you know the train's going to stop at at
the you know at the death
basically but if you also say well
there's no re which is one more thing I
just want to say about the my book on
plato the I've already suggested that
>> Socratic philosophizing begins with this
revelation of delelfy which talk
Socrates takes seriously
>> who is Socrates what is wisdom
>> but he's convinced that there must be an
answer because the god can't speak falsely
falsely
>> the rabbis there's a great book called
rational rabbis by a guy named manakim
fesh and believe it or not he talks
about the rabbis of the tal the first 40
pages is about Carl Pauper's theory of
falsification in science which is a
great humble theory right it's that we
can't prove laws like the law of gravity
we can only falsify them we can conduct
experiments that if they turn out a
certain way will falsify the you know
formulation of the law of gravity
>> look for new forms of our ignorance
>> right so then this guy argues that the
the rabbis are rational and they are in
a sense they're playing the Socratic
game of rationality within the horizon
of re of revelation so they Well, that's
okay. I believe I think we know enough
about both psychology and neuroscience now
now
>> to move that from the domain of
philosophical theory to the domain of
established fact because one of the
things that people who've studied
perception and emotion have come to
conclude is that well I asked Carl
Friston who's the world's most cited
neuroscientist by the way. I asked him
is every object perception a micro narrative?
narrative?
>> Oh that's very interesting. They said,
"Yes, for sure." He said, "Necessarily."
Right? Necessarily. That's quite the
claim because what we've come to
understand is that there's no object
perception independent of motivational
frame. And the description of a
motivational frame is a narrative. >> Mhm.
>> Mhm.
>> Okay. Now, you you made a comment
earlier that
>> well, you need to know where you've come
from and where you're going. Okay. So,
let's What is a narrative? Well, >> yeah.
>> yeah.
>> There's an aim. There's a starting
place. There's a voyage. And then you
might say, well, the world's made out of
objects. And you overlay a value laden
narrative on top of it. But then you
might say, well, where's the interface?
And so you might say, well, let's look
at how perception works. What do we see
as objects? Well, we do not see >> Mhm.
>> Mhm.
>> We do not see what the enlightenment
mind conceptualized as the object when
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What we see, so what it seems to be the
case, it's very cool. So once you
establish an aim and it and this is in
the most trivial of circumstances,
>> the world reveals itself to your
perception as a pathway to the aim.
>> Okay? As a set of obstacles
>> that's produces negative emotion, a set
of facilitators or tools that produces
positive emotion. And so and that's with
every glance you take because every
glance specifies an aim for action,
right? Because otherwise why look
>> okay so
>> aim pathway
>> right so that might be the straight
narrow pathway uphill for example
>> tools and obstacles okay positive
emotion negative on the social front
>> friends and foes same thing
>> almost everything is
defaults to the realm of the irrelevant
right because if I specify an aim most
things are now irrelevant so your aim
makes most of the world irrelevant Some
things stand out as phenomena that the
phenomena that stand out are tools and
obstacles or friends and foes. There's
also, and I just figured this out this
year, there's also agents of magical
transformation in narratives. They
change your aim.
>> So imagine
>> every aim brings a set of constraints
and rules. So that's like the
metaphysics of the aim, the rules. But
if you switch the aim, the metaphysics
change and that's a magical shift. And
if someone comes along whose aim is four
stages higher than yours, we'll say,
then they appear truly magical. But the
reason I'm making this case is like
>> and and and there is
>> I think we're are we're at the end of
the enlightenment. And I think it died
like Nietze claimed, Christianity died
at its own hand because it turns out that
that
>> there is no level at which what we see
are dead objects.
>> Yes. Not at any level of perception
whatsoever. Every object is actually
>> you cannot dissociate value from object
in perception. It's not possible. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> In fact, if anything, it's tilted
towards value and not object. And it
there's another
>> terrible plague for the enlightenment
types as well who think the world is a
place of objects. Is that
>> well there's an infinite number of
objects because >> Yes.
>> Yes.
>> Well, so then which objects?
>> Right. Right?
>> Which objects? That's a terrible
question because as soon as you say
that, you have to prioritize. Well,
there's no difference between priority
and value.
>> So, the another way of thinking about a
narrative when you go to a movie, you
watch the protagonist.
>> What you are
>> embodying is your observation of the
protagonist's structure of value. You're
incorporating that that you you match
his emotions because you match his aims.
M and so when we're storytelling what
we're doing is we're exchanging
information about the substrata within r
within which rationality has no choice
but to operate. See because so the
metaphysics of the enlightenment were wrong.
wrong. >> Rationality
>> Rationality
>> is at the base
>> because the world's made out of objects
and you can calculate we are way forward
with valuefree objective knowledge like
none of that's right. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> So so the story is the thing. Now, you
said, "Well, we need a story. We need to
know where we've been."
>> Now, that has to have something to do
with why you got interested in the
Telmmet, I would presume. So, you said
you saw a similarity with the dialogues.
So, but what else caught your attention?
You've obviously developed extreme
familiarity, for example, with the story
of Exodus. Why do you think as a
philosopher you started to presume or
understand that these ancient stories
shed light on the world in a way that
philosophical theories abstracted away
from narrative don't.
>> Well, look, what you just said is very
rich and I think uh very very attractive
and interesting. Um so let me start with
a question I guess. Um, doesn't this all
mean then that uh
uh
we have to find the proper aim and if we
find the proper aim then our questions
are going to be helpful and productive
to us as human beings.
>> So let's go back to the very first
commandment. I am
>> this is why Christ in the sermon on the
mount for example which is a guide book
for revelation says okay
>> how do you pray? How do you orient
yourself in the world? Same question.
Aim at the highest thing you can
conceptualize. That's number one.
Presume that other people are made in
the image of that highest thing. Okay.
So now you've set the frame.
>> Got it. Exactly. Exactly.
>> Now pay attention. >> Right.
>> Right.
>> Having done that, pay attention to the
moment because what'll happen is if you
specify your aim properly, the path, the
proper pathway will appear. The proper
tools will make themselves manifest to
you. The proper revelations will come to
you. Well, that is how perception and
thought work. So, in the the Tower of
Babel is a story of misaligned aim, you
know, and it's the engineers who build
the tower.
>> Yeah. Right.
>> It's I mean, well, that's a great story,
too, because if you read it carefully,
they say, "Let's bake bricks." So, they
bake the bricks, and that's fascinating
because they break it out of adam, which
is the the soil that man has made out of
Adam, etc., >> right?
>> right?
>> And then they say, "Let's make a tower."
Now if you this may be over interpreting
but first we'll develop the bricks
>> and then we'll figure out what to do
with them like the technological thing comes
comes
>> it actually reminds me of like the CIA
discovers LSD and they don't discover it
but they they're like we got LSD. So
there now their question is what can we
do with it?
>> There's a book about this and so there's
they say well is it a truth serum? So
they give LSD to this CIA guy. No it's
not you know well maybe it's an
anti-truth serum. give it to our agents
if they're caught and stuff like that.
No, it's not. But this kind of
reasoning, right? Like this is potent stuff.
stuff.
>> This is super potent stuff.
>> What can we do with it? Right. But but
anyway, you're absolutely right about
the the misaligned aim. Uh but
>> well, you know, people end up unable to
communicate because the aim gets so
misaligned. Words themselves lose their
meaning. And that's a reference to
exactly what we're describing is that if you
you
>> if you mess up the underlying narrative
substrate enough,
>> rationality becomes impossible partly
because words don't mean the same thing
to this to different people.
>> Well, that's true.
>> Well, we can see that now.
>> Yeah. I mean, and so what you said about
the sermon on the mount is anticipated
by God in the very first commandment. I
am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no
other gods beside me.
>> Right. Exactly.
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