To echo others, thank you for putting your time and effort into this, I found it coherent and valuable. As an international rat/EA who’s only context for Leverage was Zoe’s post, this fleshed out my understanding of what you were trying to do in a helpful way and gave me a lot to chew on regarding my own thoughts on ideological communities.
Regarding: “Why do people seem to hate us?”
After reading Zoe’s post I had a very negative view of Leverage and Geoff, after some introspection here is my best guess as to why.
Growing up religious, I’m very aware that my individuality can be radically subordinated by:
Potent ideas
Potent community
And when those two are mixed in the form of ideological communities it’s powerful and it’s intoxicating. And like most intoxicating and powerful things, there is a great potential for harm. Thus whenever I find myself moving in a group of people high on ideas and connection, there’s a voice in the back of my mind constantly asking.
Is this a cult yet? Is this a cult yet? Is this a cult yet?
This is a voice I know for a fact is speaking in the back of several EAs and rationalists I know personally. And I’d be shocked if anyone who’s had a brush with the failure modes of ideological community and finds themsevles in a reading group for The Precipice isn’t thinking that to themselves.
So when I read of an insular group in the memeplex I call home getting high on ideas and each-other, and then started talking about “magic” and “demons” my strong reaction was of fear. It’s happening, kill it with fire before it spreads and ruins everything.
I’m currently agnostic on whether leveraging the power of potent community and ideas is something that can be channeled safely, but I don’t blame you guys for trying; and I recognise that my initial reactions to the topic of Leverage and Geoff Anders were mixed up in with a non-trivial amount of counter productive fear.
To echo others, thank you for putting your time and effort into this, I found it coherent and valuable. As an international rat/EA who’s only context for Leverage was Zoe’s post, this fleshed out my understanding of what you were trying to do in a helpful way and gave me a lot to chew on regarding my own thoughts on ideological communities.
Regarding: “Why do people seem to hate us?”
After reading Zoe’s post I had a very negative view of Leverage and Geoff, after some introspection here is my best guess as to why.
Growing up religious, I’m very aware that my individuality can be radically subordinated by:
Potent ideas
Potent community
And when those two are mixed in the form of ideological communities it’s powerful and it’s intoxicating. And like most intoxicating and powerful things, there is a great potential for harm. Thus whenever I find myself moving in a group of people high on ideas and connection, there’s a voice in the back of my mind constantly asking.
Is this a cult yet?
Is this a cult yet?
Is this a cult yet?
This is a voice I know for a fact is speaking in the back of several EAs and rationalists I know personally. And I’d be shocked if anyone who’s had a brush with the failure modes of ideological community and finds themsevles in a reading group for The Precipice isn’t thinking that to themselves.
So when I read of an insular group in the memeplex I call home getting high on ideas and each-other, and then started talking about “magic” and “demons” my strong reaction was of fear. It’s happening, kill it with fire before it spreads and ruins everything.
I’m currently agnostic on whether leveraging the power of potent community and ideas is something that can be channeled safely, but I don’t blame you guys for trying; and I recognise that my initial reactions to the topic of Leverage and Geoff Anders were mixed up in with a non-trivial amount of counter productive fear.