I have different hypotheses / framings. I will offer them. If you wish to discuss any of them in more detail, please reach out to me via email or PM. Happy to converse. !
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Mythical/Archetypal take:
There are large-scale, old, and powerful egregores fighting over the minds of individuals and collectives. They are not always very friendly to human interests or values. In some cases, they are downright evil. (I’d claim the Marxist egregore is a pretty destructive one.)
The damage done by these egregores is multigenerational. It didn’t start with just THIS generation. Shit started before any of us was born.
It’s kind of like the Iliad. Petty, powerful gods fighting over some nonsense; humans get caught in the hurricane-sized effects; chaos ensues. Sometimes humans become willing to sacrifice their souls to these egregores in exchange for the promise of power, wealth, security, sex, etc.
It’s not just unusual people like Ziz who might do this. Pretty normal-seeming, happy-seeming people have sacrificed their souls to certain egregores (e.g. progressivism, humanism, etc) and become mouthpieces for the egregores’ values and agendas. When you try to have conversations with these people, it’s like they’re not speaking from their true beliefs or actual internal experience. They’ve become living propaganda.
The rationalist / EA community attracts plenty of ‘egregore activity’ because of their concentration of intelligent, resourceful, good-hearted people. They are valuable to control. They’re also near the center of the actual narrative, the fight for humanity’s soul and evolutionary direction. They are particularly vulnerable to egregore activity because of high rates of trauma and disembodiment and strong ideological bent, making them relatively easy to manipulate.
OK, but how does one properly defend against these huge forces, tossing humans around like rag dolls?
The main trick is embodiment. Being totally in the body, basically all the time. An integrated person, integration between heart, mind, body, and soul. Resolving and overcoming any addictions to anything, including seemingly innocuous ones. Resolving and healing trauma as much as possible (which is an ongoing journey). Finding a deeper, more fundamental happiness and peace that can’t be disturbed by any external circumstance (thus, no longer being subject to temptations for power, wealth, security, relationship, or sense pleasure).
//
Main other story:
Some people made some really bad choices.
Integrity isn’t something that happens to you. You have to choose it and choose it again. If you fail to choose it, and then fail to recognize and reconcile the error… and keep failing to choose it… that path leads to more slippage and things can spiral out of control.
Ziz made certain choices, and that had consequences. Ziz didn’t reform. Ziz didn’t apologize. Ziz kept digging that hole. That negative-spiral path erodes one’s ability to see what’s happening and can lead to deep insanity.
A person’s moral system does not thrive under a guilty conscience. It gets unbearable. And you just have to keep hurting more people to justify it to yourself, and to temporarily escape the pain. This is what happens when one isn’t willing to feel remorse, grieve, and acknowledge the damage they’ve caused. It becomes hell on earth for you, and you create hell on earth for others.
Whatever hypothesis you come up with, don’t absolve the individuals of their moral responsibility to avoid evil actions. It gets this bad when people fuck up that badly. Not due merely to external circumstances or internal drives like ‘wanting to belong’. Regardless of any of that, they made choices, and they didn’t have to make those choices.
//
I could probably find more hypotheses, but I will stop there! :0 Thanks for reading.
I have different hypotheses / framings. I will offer them. If you wish to discuss any of them in more detail, please reach out to me via email or PM. Happy to converse. !
//
Mythical/Archetypal take:
There are large-scale, old, and powerful egregores fighting over the minds of individuals and collectives. They are not always very friendly to human interests or values. In some cases, they are downright evil. (I’d claim the Marxist egregore is a pretty destructive one.)
The damage done by these egregores is multigenerational. It didn’t start with just THIS generation. Shit started before any of us was born.
It’s kind of like the Iliad. Petty, powerful gods fighting over some nonsense; humans get caught in the hurricane-sized effects; chaos ensues. Sometimes humans become willing to sacrifice their souls to these egregores in exchange for the promise of power, wealth, security, sex, etc.
It’s not just unusual people like Ziz who might do this. Pretty normal-seeming, happy-seeming people have sacrificed their souls to certain egregores (e.g. progressivism, humanism, etc) and become mouthpieces for the egregores’ values and agendas. When you try to have conversations with these people, it’s like they’re not speaking from their true beliefs or actual internal experience. They’ve become living propaganda.
The rationalist / EA community attracts plenty of ‘egregore activity’ because of their concentration of intelligent, resourceful, good-hearted people. They are valuable to control. They’re also near the center of the actual narrative, the fight for humanity’s soul and evolutionary direction. They are particularly vulnerable to egregore activity because of high rates of trauma and disembodiment and strong ideological bent, making them relatively easy to manipulate.
OK, but how does one properly defend against these huge forces, tossing humans around like rag dolls?
The main trick is embodiment. Being totally in the body, basically all the time. An integrated person, integration between heart, mind, body, and soul. Resolving and overcoming any addictions to anything, including seemingly innocuous ones. Resolving and healing trauma as much as possible (which is an ongoing journey). Finding a deeper, more fundamental happiness and peace that can’t be disturbed by any external circumstance (thus, no longer being subject to temptations for power, wealth, security, relationship, or sense pleasure).
//
Main other story:
Some people made some really bad choices.
Integrity isn’t something that happens to you. You have to choose it and choose it again. If you fail to choose it, and then fail to recognize and reconcile the error… and keep failing to choose it… that path leads to more slippage and things can spiral out of control.
Ziz made certain choices, and that had consequences. Ziz didn’t reform. Ziz didn’t apologize. Ziz kept digging that hole. That negative-spiral path erodes one’s ability to see what’s happening and can lead to deep insanity.
A person’s moral system does not thrive under a guilty conscience. It gets unbearable. And you just have to keep hurting more people to justify it to yourself, and to temporarily escape the pain. This is what happens when one isn’t willing to feel remorse, grieve, and acknowledge the damage they’ve caused. It becomes hell on earth for you, and you create hell on earth for others.
Whatever hypothesis you come up with, don’t absolve the individuals of their moral responsibility to avoid evil actions. It gets this bad when people fuck up that badly. Not due merely to external circumstances or internal drives like ‘wanting to belong’. Regardless of any of that, they made choices, and they didn’t have to make those choices.
//
I could probably find more hypotheses, but I will stop there! :0 Thanks for reading.