Welcome to Exorcise, where parents and partners come to lift their curses and exorcise their demons. Hosted by Nathan & Erin Essex (Voodad & Waifu), this power couple applies their expertise in systems design and management to analyze and troubleshoot problems with partnerships and processes.
Summary
My afternoon got hijacked by a scammer who attempted to deploy scare tactics on me. Fresh off the phone with piss and vinegar, I came up with a hypothesis: people aren’t just less trusting now, they’re actually less trustworthy. I state my claims with receipts from Moses to classical music to an old Irish legend. And I talk about math and fear.
Episode Breakdown
0:00 - 5:00: IP hostage negotiation
5:00 - 9:00: Administrative robots
9:00 - 20:00: Exorcise math
20:00 - 28:00: Less trustworthy
28:00 - 37:00: Moral foundations
37:00 - 42:00: Levels of morality (again)
42:00 - 49:00: Mature feminine energy
49:00 - 53:00: The legend of Cú Chulainn
53:00 - 57:00: The Northman
57:00 - End: Belief
Key Takeaways
Less trusting is justified if we are less trustworthy. Everyone agrees trust is falling. But have we actually become worse or if are we just more paranoid? Unfortunately, I think it’s both.
Religions create is moral technology. Strip away the superstitions and you still have a 2,000-year-old operating system that stabilizes communities, and offers a comprehensive moral framework. Dismissing religion offhand is like forcing each successive generation to reinvent the wheel.
Most people live at K1 or K2. Kohlberg Level 1 is “I do it because it feels good.” Level 2 is “I do it because authority said so.” Level 3 is “I do it because it’s just.” Killing the Level 2 institutions doesn’t elevate everyone to Level 3, it drops them down to Level 1.
Mature feminine energy is infrastructure incarnate. Without somewhere safe to come home to, men do not see the village as places to rest. They see it as place to burn. Men want women they are eager to come home to.
Not all belief systems are created equal. The a la carte menu of morality might be cheaper, but it won’t stick to your ribs. A robust moral system should enable you to resolve conflicts with increasing moral complexity. If it can’t stand up to scrutiny, then your soul food is full of empty calories.
References
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Tribes by Seth Godin
Purple Cow by Seth Godin
Stages of Moral Development by Lawrence Kohlberg
The Matrix (1999)
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
The Northman (2022)
Man on Fire (2004)
Iron Man (2008)
The Fast and the Furious (2001)
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