8 ms·

It's actually much deeper and more insidious than this. These kinds of shows and movies that you grew up watching provide the character and narrative archetype

It's actually much deeper and more insidious than this. These kinds of shows and movies that you grew up watching provide the character and narrative archetypes that you act out in your own life. This affects every aspect of your life. You are basing your emotional responses and behaviors and making life choices based off whatever ideas and values had currency among a small group of animators/story writers/producers/etc that were active during your childhood. I remember coming to this realization many years ago (I'm 28 now). I would sometimes catch myself actively conceptualizing a particular movie/tv character in trying to understand how to behave or conceptualize a certain situation I was in. Since then I have done a deep dive into the Western canon including history, philosophy, psychology, and religion. From engaging with all of that I have basically purged these contemporary archetypes and narratives and replaced them with traditional, more grounded ones (e.g. from Fresh Prince of Bel Air to Julius Caesar, from the History Channel to Herodotus). It's akin to replacing a life long diet of gas station junk food with fresh organic fruits, vegetables, and meats. Since then I have gained an immeasurable sense of equanimity and inner calm. Now when I call upon these archetypes to understand the world and how I should feel and respond to it, I am engaging with things which have roots that go very deep.

weakfish 6y ago
Is this copypasta?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
vsareto 6y ago
That's definitely a human connection desert.
hnracer 6y ago
Do you have a suggested reading list I can look at?
- googthrowaway42 6y ago
  The book that fully crystalized this for me were the books by Nassim Taleb (his Incerto series). These books completely and utterly changed my life. If you read the descriptions it may not seem directly related to what I'm talking about but he gives you a complete and fully articulated intellectual framework for understanding the pitfalls of modernity and also as importantly in explaining his ideas he references ancient authors, bits of history and mythology. Those references will give you a good idea of the depth and breadth of what's there and you can choose from among those where you want to dive deeper.
  - mistermann 6y ago
    I'm curious your thoughts on this: In Praise of the Gods - What the Rationalistic World Forgot https://simonsarris.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-the-gods https://simonsarris.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-the-gods
    - googthrowaway42 6y ago
      Wow thank you for sharing. This is such beautiful prose and such a wonderful articulation of my beliefs. I fully identify with every word of this. I will be sharing this with a bunch of my like-minded friends.
      - mistermann 6y ago
        He has quite a few other articles, perhaps not quite as good as that one but the same style - I'd say this guy has a very special skill that you don't see too often. https://simonsarris.substack.com/archive https://simonsarris.substack.com/archive I'd go so far as to say that the ideas in that post, and the manner in which they're presented, is getting pretty deep into subversive propaganda territory, but in a good way.
        googthrowaway42 6y ago
        Absolutely, this is basically neo-reactionary kind of stuff but from a deep metaphysical perspective. Another author worth checking out is Curtis Yarvin who is much more focused on material/realpolitik concerns. This is a good one to start with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRQO3VbJsMw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRQO3VbJsMw He also has a substack but the focus is much more narrow than what you get in these interviews. It's intended to be a modern version of The Prince: https://graymirror.substack.com/ https://graymirror.substack.com/
watwut 6y ago
Yeah, being grounded in Cesar war as opposed to contemporary world totally makes sense.
- Balgair 6y ago
  To be fair, Cesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War is masterclass writing and well worth the read. The way that he writes to three audiences at once is superb and the lessons he tries to impart are solid gold. It's a very rare and very useful look into the mind of one of the most famous people in history. Try to search for a good translation though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentarii_de_Bello_Gallico https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentarii_de_Bello_Gallico

weakfish 6y ago

Is this copypasta?

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

vsareto 6y ago

That's definitely a human connection desert.

hnracer 6y ago

Do you have a suggested reading list I can look at?

googthrowaway42 6y ago
The book that fully crystalized this for me were the books by Nassim Taleb (his Incerto series). These books completely and utterly changed my life. If you read the descriptions it may not seem directly related to what I'm talking about but he gives you a complete and fully articulated intellectual framework for understanding the pitfalls of modernity and also as importantly in explaining his ideas he references ancient authors, bits of history and mythology. Those references will give you a good idea of the depth and breadth of what's there and you can choose from among those where you want to dive deeper.
- mistermann 6y ago
  I'm curious your thoughts on this: In Praise of the Gods - What the Rationalistic World Forgot https://simonsarris.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-the-gods https://simonsarris.substack.com/p/in-praise-of-the-gods
  - googthrowaway42 6y ago
    Wow thank you for sharing. This is such beautiful prose and such a wonderful articulation of my beliefs. I fully identify with every word of this. I will be sharing this with a bunch of my like-minded friends.
    - mistermann 6y ago
      He has quite a few other articles, perhaps not quite as good as that one but the same style - I'd say this guy has a very special skill that you don't see too often. https://simonsarris.substack.com/archive https://simonsarris.substack.com/archive I'd go so far as to say that the ideas in that post, and the manner in which they're presented, is getting pretty deep into subversive propaganda territory, but in a good way.
      - googthrowaway42 6y ago
        Absolutely, this is basically neo-reactionary kind of stuff but from a deep metaphysical perspective. Another author worth checking out is Curtis Yarvin who is much more focused on material/realpolitik concerns. This is a good one to start with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRQO3VbJsMw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRQO3VbJsMw He also has a substack but the focus is much more narrow than what you get in these interviews. It's intended to be a modern version of The Prince: https://graymirror.substack.com/ https://graymirror.substack.com/

watwut 6y ago

Yeah, being grounded in Cesar war as opposed to contemporary world totally makes sense.

Balgair 6y ago
To be fair, Cesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War is masterclass writing and well worth the read. The way that he writes to three audiences at once is superb and the lessons he tries to impart are solid gold. It's a very rare and very useful look into the mind of one of the most famous people in history. Try to search for a good translation though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentarii_de_Bello_Gallico https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentarii_de_Bello_Gallico