Peter Thiel, arguably the most successful tech investor of modern times, also reads widely and thinks deeply about philosophy and theology. In a fascinating follow-up to his previous interview about his mentor, Rene Girard, Thiel discusses how modern ideologies such as fascism and communism "up the dose" from murder to genocide as Christianity weakened the power of human sacrifice.  He also discusses how progressive ideologies are "stronger moves" than fascistic or reactionary ones because they weaponize Christianity's concern for victims. Thiel talks about how the state, with its origins in paganism, restrains violence by using violence and how Christians might navigate that dilemma by engaging politically but not becoming excessively entangled by it.  Finally, Thiel points out how those who promise to protect us from Apocalypse can actually accelerate its coming. 

Timestamps:

01:08    Girard, Scapegoating
04:00    Mimetic copies: Hitler and Stalin, Nazism and Communism, Fascism
05:30    Wokeism, Christianity, and Academia
10:40    Wokeism in cities, response to real estate costs. Structural Wokeism
14:27    Winning and losing postures towards wokeism
17:10    Wokeism is Christianity without the forgiveness
18:30    Acknowledging sin even when it enables critics
21:55    Holocaust as the ultimate test of forgiveness, destroying the concept of forgiveness
25:52    Ignorance and forgiveness
27:55    Gospels as deconstruction of philosophy
32:05    Getting tangled in politics. Government and violence
33:55    Can leaders behave like Christians?
35:37    The katechon and accelerationism. Preterism and futurism.
39:10    The Antichrist as a false katechon
41:14    The Precautionary Principle: technological Armageddon
45:15    Enabling Fascism to fight Communism
46:12    Reagan coalition
49:30    Christianity and mimetic entanglement, political atheism
54:30    How much can people change?

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In my upcoming interview with Peter Thiel, we will really hit the ground running, so you might benefit from re-listening to the one from last year to get you up to speed and ready for Peter's next set of insights, which are coming shortly. No discussion we've ever had has received as many requests by listeners for a follow-up.

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Peter Thiel, the highly successful tech entrepreneur and author, discusses his mentor Rene Girard; the Bible, how we read it, and how it reads us; Jesus’ death and resurrection; atheism and the limitless escalation of violence towards apocalypse.

Timestamps:

0:43 The Bible reads us
2:02 Cain and Abel vs. Romulus and Remus
6:05 Cross vs Resurrection
7:26 The Gospels are different from Death of Socrates
9:04 The Bible is discontinuous from pagan classics
11:30 "The idea that victims exist comes from Judeo-Christianity and nowhere else." 14:54 Was Nietzsche somehow extremely close to the truth of Christianity?
17:18 Pagan Pharmakoi, the ancient sacrificial medicine
19:48 Fascism and Communism
23:00 Girard on the Woes against the Pharisees
26:02 The cycle that leads to apocalypse
31:11 Steven Pinker and the story of progress
32:19 Is an apocalypse, such as a nuclear war, inevitable?
35:10 Being too sanguine about apocalypse makes it more likely
42:08 Is there an off-ramp? What would it look like? If we don't know, shouldn't we at least try to figure it out?

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No one has been more involved in fighting for the sanctity of life and marriage in corporate board rooms than Tom Strobhar. In his day job he works as a financial advisor http://www.strobharfinancial.org/, but since 1989 he has given of his own time, using his financial expertise and authority as a shareholder in major American companies to fight for the moral teachings of his Catholic faith. He has directly influenced scores of companies to drop funding to Planned Parenthood, including AT&T, Berkshire Hathaway and Chevron. He's filed well over a hundred resolutions on matters such as abortion, same sex marriage, pornography and discrimination in the name of diversity. As long ago as 2008, he was already recognized as a veteran "David" in corporate proxies https://wng.org/articles/david-versus-goliaths-1617305176. Tom joins Meeting of Minds to discuss how ordinary investors can actually do this, and why we should use the authority we have to witness to the truth in the darkness. 

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The ideological capture of large American financial institutions is running into a barrier. State level offices such as Treasurer, Auditor General, and Comptroller are asserting their authority as financial watchdogs protecting the interests of their citizens. One of the leaders in this resurgence of federalism is Marlo Oaks, Treasurer of Utah (www.marlooaks.com) who wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal (S&P Hits U.S. States With Politicized Credit Scores - WSJ) about his efforts to protect his state from politically motivated scoring from rating agencies such as S&P. That battle over ideologically captured financial management has shifted to the states and to the shareholders themselves. Treasurer Oaks joins Jerry on this episode of Meeting of Minds to talk about how he got pulled into this battle and how we are going to win it.

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On this episode of Meeting of Minds, Tom Carter of the American Conservative Values Fund www.investconservative.com talks about his company’s fifth survey of conservatives’ attitude towards various companies, including unfavourability towards large well-known publicly traded corporations. He talks about the shifts in attitudes towards Facebook, Disney and Tesla, as well as problems with the ESG movement. In addition, he talks about practical conservative alternatives to companies such as Blackrock, which have become tainted brands for conservatives.

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On this episode of Meeting of Minds, Tom Carter of the American Conservative Values Fund www.investconservative.org talks about his company’s fifth survey of conservatives’ attitude towards various companies, including unfavourability towards large well-known publicly traded corporations. He talks about the shifts in attitudes towards Facebook, Disney and Tesla, as well as problems with the ESG movement. In addition, he talks about practical conservative alternatives to companies such as Blackrock, which have become tainted brands for conservatives.

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Rob West is CEO of Kingdom Advisors (www.kingdomadvisors.org) which is the world’s largest professional association for Christians in the financial industry. Rob also hosts the most widely-syndicated radio program for ordinary Christians (www.moneywise.org). On this episode of Meeting of Minds Podcast, Rob talks about the big topics he sees Christians, from the poor and middle class to the wealthy, needing to grapple with and what he’s learning by being in touch on a daily basis with Christian of all economic classes.

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At various times and places the major cultural battle lines have fallen in different spots. During WWII and the Cold War the conflict was centered in the military. At other times, our conflicts centered in politics or in the fight against biased media. Currently the zone of conflict has moved to the marketplace. The ideological capture of the boardrooms of many large publicly traded companies represents a threat, but also an opportunity for Christian entrepreneurs to speak up and promote the good of their employees. During a time of rapidly increasing volatility and confusion, the “load-bearing structure” class, the people whose decisions affect hundreds of people whom they know and care for, have the credibility to speak the truth with authority. Shannon Royce of The Christian Employers Alliance (Christian Employers Alliance) joins Jerry on Meeting of Minds Podcast to talk about this leadership group which is no longer willing to be silent about the crisis of our age.

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Andrew Olivastro, V.P. of Outreach for the Heritage Foundation, talks about how DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance), and CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) are ruining corporate America. Heritage believes people should not be made to feel bad when they buy or use products or invest in companies that deride their beliefs and take controversial stances against their values. ESG made the mistake of getting investors out of fossil fuels when energy is the foundation of civilization, and exposed investors to significant risk. Olivastro makes the case that the left agenda in corporate boardrooms has gotten overextended and is collapsing in the face of public backlash.

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The State Financial Officers Foundation (https://sfof.com/) is the public voice of state-level constitutional officers whose job is to safeguard the people’s money and who are committed to small government, free-markets and to fighting the politicization of the financial sector. This includes treasurers and auditors general, which each have oversight roles when it comes to whom a state does business with and how money, such as the pension assets of employees, is invested. It has fallen to this group to stand up to activists who are pushing to de-bank energy and other politically disfavored industries, and to stand up to pressure from giant financial institutions such as Blackrock who are imposing ideological requirements on companies and on states. Derek Kreifels, the founder and CEO, talks about how a new generation of officials is pushing back and winning this battle.\

Timestamps: N/A

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