We Are Not Saved

Transcript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2022/09/28/the-bifurcation-created-by-technology/ This episode started as a tweet: Technology bifurcates problems. 99% of problems go away, but the 1% that are left are awful. Case in point customer service: 99% of the time you don't even need customer service from Amazon, etc. but the 1% of the time you do you're suddenly in a story by Kafka. Which I followed up with: Additional thoughts/example: Self driving cars. Tech can take care of easiest 99%. Tosses most difficult 1% back to driver. Driver has no context, just suddenly in deep end, therefore much worse at hardest 1% than if they had just dealt with the full 100% from start. What causes this phenomenon and how worried should we be?

Transcript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2022/09/21/the-tails-of-the-cultural-bell-curve/ If we imagine that culture has historically taken the form of a bell curve. Does it still do so? Or have we gutted the middle in service of making sure that the tails don't feel neglected? This seems very likely to be the case, and if it is what are the consequences?

Transcript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2022/09/14/excerpt-book-review-the-ethics-of-beauty/ An excerpt from a book review I recently did for the new magazine American Hombre (available here: https://americanhombre.gumroad.com/)

The Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail by: Ray Dalio The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century by: Louise Perry The War on the West by: Douglas Murray The Dumbest Generation Grows Up: Woke, Entitled, and Drunk with Power by: Mark Bauerlein Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by: Luke Burgis The Giver by: Lois Lowry The End of Eternity by: Isaac Asimov Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by: Ross Douthat

Transcript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2022/08/31/eschatologist-20-the-antifragility-of-taboos/ We covered the fragility of systems and technology in the last newsletter. In this newsletter I’d like to move from the material to the ephemeral. In other words, let’s talk about culture. This is a huge topic for a short newsletter, so while much of what I say can be applied to traditional culture in general, I want to focus on traditional taboos. The older and stronger and more widespread the taboo, the better...

Transcript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2022/08/26/the-involution-of-everything/  Recently I came across a theory for the progression of subcultures, which seemed to have significant explanatory power for what's happening to Western culture in general. Among the many things this theory speaks to is why cultural fights have become so vicious, why young people are disengaging, and whether wokeism has peaked. 

To Save Everything Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism by: Evgeny Morozov Capitalist Realism: Is there no alternative? by: Mark Fisher How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe by: Thomas Cahill The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History by: Alexander Mikaberidze Kidnapped by: Robert Louis Stevenson Weird of Hali: Providence by: John Michael Greer Queer Mormon Theology: An Introduction by: Blaire Ostler ⌫ The Ethics of Beauty by: Timothy G. Patitsas

Transcript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2022/07/31/eschatologist-19-the-non-linearity-of-baggage-systems/ I use the baggage chaos I encountered on a trip to Ireland as an example of fragility.

Liberalism and Its Discontents by: Francis Fukuyama Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World by: Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross Creative Evolution by: Henri Bergson (didn’t finish) An Introduction to Metaphysics by: Henri Bergson The Great Hunger: Ireland: 1845-1849 by: Cecil Woodham-Smith  (didn’t finish) The Man Who Died Twice: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by: Richard Osman Rising From The Rubble: Buried for hours, changed for life, saved for something greater. By: Williamson Sintyl The Wind in the Willows by: Kenneth Grahame Breakaway: Expeditionary Force, Book 12 by: Craig Alanson Fallout: Expeditionary Force, Book 13 by: Craig Alanson Match Game: Expeditionary Force, Book 14 by: Craig Alanson Hidden Worldviews: Eight Cultural Stories That Shape Our Lives by: Steve Wilkens and Mark L. Sanford

Transcript: https://wearenotsaved.com/2022/06/30/eschatologist-18-famines-and-fragility/  I’m leaving for Ireland in just over a week. The trip is about half touristy stuff and half genealogical. I discuss my Irish ancestors, in particular Charles Conner who came to America during the Potato Famine. I then discuss some potential lessons that famine has for our own time.