Digital Communion #38 – ‘Admiration and Intoxication’

Question: ‘Who do you admire most these days?’

This is an episode about admiration and its limits. What are the things we can or ‘should’ admire in others? Is it possible to admire ‘bad’ people in some way? Nic and Thomas then dig deeper and talk about the nature of success, the influence of technology on our opportunities, and how people can rationalize doing great harm to others and still manage to sleep at night.

NOTES:

The strange phenomenon that when you don’t want to know the answer, usually the first thing that comes to mind is the truth

Nic explains why he admires Barack Obama

Being remembered not for how you start things, but how you finish them

The art of feeling people’s vibe and making snap judgements

Why evil is so intoxicating, even when it seems so against our nature

Making sense of Vladimir Putin

Rick Doblin and using psychedelics for self-development

Thomas explains why he admires Elon Musk

Does success beget success?

What technology has done for our quality of life

Is Big Pharma poisoning people on purpose to keep them hooked?

Cigarette companies and conspiracies

How people can rationalize doing great harm to others