1. The Devil's Advocate
Time Stamp: 8:43
* Is Meritocracy and Might is Right a Satanic Pipe Dream?* Merriam-Webster Dictionary Definition: a system, organization, or society in which people are chosen and moved into positions of success, power, and influence on the basis of their demonstrated abilities and merit* We live in a quid Pro Quo society. My time in the Military showed me that it was more important who you know than what you can do, and the corporate sector is no different.* Our president put his family in positions of authority, not because of their merit, but because of their relations. * If you suck up to your managers or leaders, you are more likely to be promoted. * Promotions do not always go to the most qualified, but rather the most noticed or connected* What happens if merit is granted to those we directly oppose? Islamic-Juedeo-Christians. Is that the form of meritocracy we claim to champion?* If not, then meritocracy is only based on the Satanic Good and Evil dichotomy. Meritocracy is only good if it works in my favor, regardless if I actually deserve it.* Where does lesser magic come into it? If you ‘game the system’ through Lesser Magic, do you truly merit the promotion or praise?* We traditionally speak of terms like meritocracy and might is right in a favorable light, until it’s the ‘other’ in a position of exercising that authority or privilege. (e.g. millennials, the far left, the far right, etc.)* Is might simply mass influence and/or cunning rather than physical dominance?* Does it all depend on the modern accepted norms in a society? If so, does it have any actual relevance if it’s so malleable?
2. Infernal Informant
Time Stamp: 27:34
* He may have found the key to the origins of life. So why have so few heard of him?* https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/he-may-have-found-the-key-to-origins-of-life-tibor-ganti-chemoton/* WHEN BIOLOGIST TIBOR Gánti died on April 15, 2009, at the age of 75, he was far from a household name. Much of his career had been spent behind the Iron Curtain that divided Europe for decades, hindering an exchange of ideas.* But if Gánti’s theories had been more widely known during the communist era, he might now be acclaimed as one of the most innovative biologists of the 20th century. That’s because he devised a model of the simplest possible living organism, which he called the chemoton, that points to an exciting explanation for how life on Earth began.* The origin of life is one of science’s most perplexing mysteries, partly because it is several mysteries in one. What was Earth like when it formed? What gases made up the air? Of the thousands of chemicals that living cells now use, which ones are essential—and when did those must-have substances arise?* Perhaps the hardest question is the simplest: What was the first organism?* For scientists attempting to re-create the spark of life, the chemoton offers an attractive target for experiments. If non-living chemicals can be made to self-assemble into a chemoton, that reveals a pathway by which life could have formed from scratch. Even now, some research groups are edging startlingly close to this model.* And for astrobiologists interested in life beyond our planet, the chemoton offers a universal definition of life, one not tied to specific chemicals like DNA,
