LoneWonderer

@Leo Gura That is interesting. I'd say other factors play in as well such as historical development, culture, religion's hold on society, the countries geography (I remember you posted a video on the blog on how difficult it was for Africa to succeed geographically) on top of political and societal structures. Lastly I'd say humans all of us are corrupt wherever we are be it is USA, Scandinavia or Africa. As an example now the son of the queen of Norway is on trial for rape and Noreay is supposed to be the pinnacle of the developed world. What else am I missing?

Jiangs latest episode was pretty weak in my op. Yes, the one in which he recognizes Trump to be an idiot while at the same time being a "dumb genius". I've learned some good things from him overall about the Iran conflict so it ain't all bad. Another great show with interesting perspectives on the war for me has been the Ezra Klein show. I found this latest episode insightful.

The problems of corruption in third world countries is systemic. A minority elite control all the money and resources of the nation. The rest of the population has to fight and struggle to survive. This is by design btw. The only reason a cop is corrupt is because he doesn't make enough money for his family to survive. I've watched some YT videos of cops in third world nations that when interviewed on the subject they say it how it really is: Nobody likes being corrupt, it hurts their souls every day to extort money from their fellow human beings, but if they don't their children won't eat next month. And the worst part is there are systems in place that perpetuate this abuse of human beings and cycle of poverty for the majority with only the minority controlling all the resources. Leo has some great books on his updated booklist that go in depth into how these systems of societal abuse perpetuate and get left unchecked for decades and centuries in some cases. It's not a coincidence Africa, India, South America, South East Asia are underdeveloped in contrast to Western Nations such as Australia, EU and USA. How a country organises their systems of governance and political structures will make or break a nation in the long run. Stop blaming the corrupt cop and start asking high quality questions such as why is this cop in this situation? What systems perpetuate cop corruption? Who benefits?

😁👍

He's back!

You can always count on Alan Watts for the assist.

Here's an example mate. So I used to live in Mozambique. There the people feared the cops because they where corrupt to the bone. South Africa has a border with Mozambique. Ask any Afrikaner (white South African) who has ever holidayed in Mozambique and the first thing he'll mention is how much they hate the cops. Traffic cops would always stop any car they could get their hands on and attempt to extort money from you. They made up bogus claims that you were speeding at 80km in a 60km area even though you were going at 50km/h because the roads are shit. But here's the thing. They didn't even care. Both of you knew you where going at 50km but it's so corrupt, they just tell you were going 80km and pay the fine. If you refused you could have them keep you there waiting all day long because by law if you refuse to comply with "the law" they can even take you to jail. The trick was always to ask them for the speeding ticket and tell them you would go to the station to pay it. Then of course all their bogus claims couldn't work and they let you go. They had maaany such strategies and weird excuses to extract money from people. Another time they had a speed camera that showed a green car going over the speed limit, and they told us to pay the fine. That's all good mate but our car is Silver in color! 😅 Another time the cop stopped us and asked my mom if she had been to church that morning as it was Sunday. Anyways it was always one story or another with these guys and they always kept it interesting. Why do they do all this? Because their wage is 50$ a month. You can't survive on that. In India police rape, beat and extort street kids, beggars and low lifes of society.

@Ulax I'd say I agree with you here.

So I already knew these catacombs existed from the movie "As Above So Below" but this short documentary was very interesting to watch. Now do the following thought experiment: Imagine yourself being one of those people living down there in those tunnels 24h a day. Imagine the dark, damp, cold, scary conditions. No other humans around...just silence and dark mazes of tunnels all around you...your only friends rats and cockroaches. Now what kind of psychology does such a person have? Why are you down there all day long? What kind of mental ilness do you have? I mean some of them are on drugs, but what about the ones that are just down there by choice? It's pretty creepy if you ask me. When I did the thought experiment I got shivers down my spine.

Hey sorry, you're right hadn't thought about that 👍

The other day I was thinking of what would make a good alien movie and came up with the following: From start to finish of the movie the alien entity is something completely foreign to our human perspective. The cast spend the length of the movie trying to understand how it functions, what it's doing on our planet, and throughout the movie an eery sense of fear, paranoia and dread is ever present. You as the movie watcher also don't understand how these aliens operate or what their motives truly are. You observe the aliens doing weird things (completly foreign to the human experience) and yet the protagonists of the movie try their very hardest to make sense of this alien presence. The human story of will, determination, of courage and sacrifise keeps you hooked throughout the film even as you watch the main protagonists slowly but surely start to die off or lose their sanity in the presence of these unknown entities. Another version of this could be a movie of an abductee on an alien ship and the same concept of our protagonist trying to make sense and escape this alien vessel. Nothing on the ship or aliens makes sense and it's all very eery, uncomfortable and scary. Use of eery, dark music throughout and movie style from films such as "The ring", "Cube", "Stalker" as well as "Rabbits" this last one by David lynch.

Pets. They conformed and lost their wild heart nature 😢

A clockwork Orange & game of thrones Recently people loving that project hail mary movie but I found it silly and childish

You are the best 🙏🙏🙏

I'm hyped for the show but it will probably be a toxic relationship if it's anything like the "LOTR The Rings Of Power". 😢😢😢

Hi Leo, thank you for your series. I am about half way through this last episode. This series has helped me realized something very important about my psychology which is as follows: I'm in the pre-rational stage of development because I don't question deeply perspectives and just go with gut feeling. Also I just don't contemplate deeply anything I learn really. At the same time thanks to putting myself through world class education my entire life, in and outside of academic setting I have a good "gut feeling" when a perspective is correct and where it falls apart. Also I have a very solid epistemic foundation, but this is different from rationality put in practice. I believe I am advanced in my understanding in some ways and areas and completely not in others. Can such a thing be possible? Your series has made me realise I have to "stop, and think it through" with any content I consume and not just go with my gut feeling only. *It's funny because I can understand everything that was said in this series and in a way be operating from this level by default but have skipped the previous developmental stage which is rationality entirely! There is a big difference beetween understanding and knowing all these advanced concepts and ideas of Actualized.org and using your mind properly. They are two different things. As an example let's take Bryan Johnson. According to the latest science everything or most of what Bryan does is correct for longevity. I have spent years researching longevity and what Bryan does in his life is just what the experts say and in line with what I've spent years learning in this space. So before I would've just left it at that, ok, thank you sir you're doing a great job and helping lots of people. Now you got me thinking when looking at Bryan: What is science? Is science even real? Is taking a gene therapy safe? How do I know? Have I done the experiment? On and on and on...I mean yeah the gist of it is yes, he's probably doing the right stuff for the most part, but it's not a question of blindly believing Bryan or the science behind it, but of questioning the things he does independently for myself. Something along those lines anyways....

Area52 recently dropped an episode with David Ike. I skipped it.

@gettoeflHey man, thanks for your perspective, I hadn't considered this because I don't have kids who I love deeply. Good on ya!

Watching now, thanks

Thank you for sharing. Sounds like it's the right role for you and like you've found your purpose in it. 🙏

Was this something that you forced upon yourself or was growth forced upon you eventually (like all the hens came home to roost typa deal)? I ask because I see it very difficult for me to go at it alone unless change in this domain is literally forced upon me by the hand of god himself! (Jk about the god part, but yeah I see it very difficult to change by my own will). Also in regards to business, I know you have previously mentioned on this forum that it's a family business. If it had not been for a family and strong support network, would you say you'd have had the will to go at it in business alone? Would you still have been in the place of growth today had your circumstances not have been that you started the business with people you love and that support you?

Thank you for your perspective. Yes, I do wonder if it's something I'll outgrow with maturity and age...🙏

@Natasha Tori Maru I want your perspective in regards to this. So imagine I am extremely against this idea just for my personal life. Like I hate interacting with others apart from the bare minimum required in order to survive and thrive, none of my life plans revolve around other people mostly, I don't want to build anything by working with others or gaining the trust of others or manipulating other to get what I want. I see my near future in very social roles but this is just to grow myself as a person not to actually gain any survival advantages or benefits. In the long term I see myself in the social domain but mostly for spirituality (like in a spiritual community or something). Social domain will always only ever be just enough to help me realize god and never expennd time or energy into manipulating for some kind of advantage or looking for social leverage. I understand that if you're running a business this is a whole different story and as a business social relations is how you survive as a company. Do you see this as a failure on my part? I'm genuinely intrigued. Am I avoiding something? This feels like part of my core identity since I was a child yet sometimes I feel like I'm a bad person or something for not playing social games (even though I know that's completely ludicrous thing to think of).

In regards to the post on the Roma community in France, there is the one scene where you see father and son back home in Romania and He's building now his second home there for his son. The project will cost the father about 100,000€ he has saved up with his minimum wage job back in France. When asked about it he says something along the lines of "This is who we Roma people are, this is our culture to build homes for our children". The documentary narrator points out he has 3 kids and will have to build two more houses after this one. It is a this point I realize the intersection of survival, conformity and complete lack of self awareness. I realize this poor bloke is nothing more than an unconscious survival zombie carrying out an unconscious survival agenda passed down to him through his social circle community. He will spend his entire life paying off these houses for his kids. He's a slave but a happy one at that. He defends his chains (culture and indoctrination from his community) like the men in Plato's cave allegory. And then I begin to wonder...how am I like this poor bloke? In what ways am I like a fish swimming in water, unaware and ignorant, going about unconscious survival agendas...

Yo people am I the only one excited for this?? I am looking forward! Hope they don't disappoint. Apparently it will once again be the most expensive TV show in history. You bet we watchin'! 😀