The Hero Myth Is Not the Only Story We're Attracted To

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The hero myth is not the only story that we're attracted to, but it's the story that through these systemic evolutionary processes came to be the foundation for these great civilizations of the past. The anti-hero provides a central sacred narrative around which a civilization can focus in terms of our attraction to the anti-hero and things like that. People are attracted to these stories because they deep down really would love to do something like that.

Tom Morgan returns for his third appearance on Infinite Loops with Jim, Infinite Loops’ own Ed William and special guest Brett Andersen, an evolutionary psychology PhD student at the University of New Mexico. We discuss the implications of the ideas presented in Brett’s fantastic essay ‘Intimations of a New Worldview’, whether the rise of anti-heroes is a challenge to Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, the influence of conscious vs unconscious design, and much more. Important Links:

Show Notes:

Objective vs subjective morality
Complexity as a precondition
Biological complexification
Complexification and social selection
Relevance realisation
Jordan Peterson’s ‘Maps of Meaning’ and the metamyth
The optimal path and the process of creation
The cognitive purpose of supernatural beliefs
Mapping a response to the meaning crisis
Quantum entanglement and consciousness
Practical implications of Brett’s theory
Cultural evolution
Conscious vs unconscious design
There is an underlying flow of things
Breaking Bad and the Hero’s Journey
Slack vs tension
MUCH more!

Books Mentioned:

Meaning in Life and Why It Matters; by Susan Wolf
The Romance of Reality: How the Universe Organizes Itself to Create Life, Consciousness, and Cosmic Complexity; by Bobby Azarian
The Life of the Cosmos; by Lee Smolin
Evolution's Arrow: the direction of evolution and the future of humanity; by John Stewart
Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny; by Robert Wright
The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature; by Geoffrey Miller
Maps of Meaning: The Architecture of Belief; by Jordan Peterson
Zombies in Western Culture: A Twenty-First Century Crisis; by John Vervaeke
Principia Mathematica; by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell
The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World; by Iain McGilchrist
The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by
The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
Life Finds A Way: What Evolution Teaches Us About Creativity; by Andreas Wagner
Tao Te Ching; by Laozing