Based Camp - Pragmaxxing

00:00:00.000 one person in a comment, he goes, why are you trying to make the future a better place

00:00:03.560 if you won't experience that future? And it's, bro, you are so missing the plot. So what,

00:00:09.700 as Simone said, we have a different iteration of how we see ourselves.

00:00:12.740 If I lived for, let's say 100,000 years, right? I would be such a radically different person at

00:00:20.320 the end of that period that there is no way I would have any meaningful connection to who I

00:00:24.520 am today. Yeah, it's pointless. It's pointless. The person you're going to be in even 10 years

00:00:28.100 is not going to be you. So why are you trying to preserve it? Yeah. And if I did try to preserve

00:00:32.540 it, if I did successfully preserve it, if in a hundred thousand years, I was meaningfully the

00:00:35.740 same person I am today, well, then I didn't improve. I didn't better myself and I shouldn't

00:00:41.260 still be around. I am a pointless, wretched thing. If I improved so little over a hundred thousand 0.99

00:00:47.300 years that I am still recognizable as a Malcolm, that is sad and sickening. And so why do I care

00:00:54.200 that I can't see the better world that I'm trying to create? It is a world not meant for me. It is a

00:01:00.240 world that I would sully with my very presence. Moses on the mountain, you are not meant to live

00:01:08.680 in the promised land because you are wretched. You are trying to lead the way for the people who 0.90

00:01:17.460 will get to experience the promised land because they deserve it in a way that not a single person

00:01:23.400 alive today does. Would you like to know more? Welcome to base camp where one person has a

00:01:28.560 conversation with themselves two times over once as themselves and once in drag. I'm Malcolm Collins

00:01:35.260 dressed as a woman. And this with me here today is also Malcolm Collins, but this time dressed as a

00:01:40.420 man. Yes. I would love it if we pretended that's what our show was. Like we convinced people that it

00:01:45.180 really is just one person with a synthesizer talking to themselves. Yeah. So we wanted to talk

00:01:50.720 about maxing because this has really become a thing recently, you know, whether it's looks maxing or

00:01:55.880 trans maxing or we see it across society. And when I want to talk about the allure of it and if we

00:02:03.100 could create an iteration of it that is healthy because a lot of it is just almost intrinsically

00:02:09.820 unhealthy. Yeah. Whenever you are. So I understand why it's emotionally appealing, right? This idea of

00:02:17.860 I'm just going to go a hundred percent whole hog into whatever thing it is I'm doing. I'm just going

00:02:23.840 to say, okay, at every level, how do I optimize the outcome, right? That I'm trying to achieve. And

00:02:32.100 that can create this sort of Zen state. Yeah. It's a sort of forced hedonistic stoicism where it's

00:02:40.020 hedonistic in that you're maxing a thing, but it's stoic in that you are as intelligently as possible

00:02:48.140 trying to think through how do I actually maximize this thing and as disinterestedly and soberly as

00:02:56.780 possible. And that can create you to view things in a very different way. And it's much easier to

00:03:04.900 apply that to a specific modality than it is to say, well, what if I took this maxing mindset

00:03:10.960 and applied it to my entire life? So that's one thing that we wanted to talk about with this,

00:03:17.340 but then we wanted to say all of this within the context of if we're creating healthy maxing,

00:03:24.860 well, then we need to think about maxing as a cultural group. Like how do you max our cultural

00:03:30.080 group? And this comes to defining our cultural group outside of just our religion or whatever,

00:03:35.780 right? I mean like the wider group, the type of people who watch our videos, the type of people

00:03:39.700 who are part of this sort of new conservative movement in America. And I think a really good

00:03:44.600 acronym for engaging with this group is not one that applies to it, but one that applies to another

00:03:50.920 group, which is tessacralism. Have you heard of this?

00:03:55.140 No. I'm picturing weird hats. Is this okay?

00:03:58.480 It's used to explain like the cluster of things that EAs are into. Transhumanism,

00:04:04.320 extrapanism, singulitarianism, cosmism, rationalism, effective altruism, and long-termism.

00:04:13.760 I mean, you definitely see some of these. Transhumanism, singulitarianism, rationalism,

00:04:19.360 effective altruism, and long-termism definitely like cluster together within this community.

00:04:24.980 Sure.

00:04:25.400 And one of the things that I've noted is that within our community, you get a separate area

00:04:31.900 of clustered interests, which are education reform or working on alternate education systems,

00:04:38.560 space travel, like interested in making us an interplanetary species, bioaccelerationism,

00:04:44.640 you know, so sort of like trying to do like our use of genetic technology with our kids,

00:04:51.240 or artificial wombs, or stuff like that. AI accelerationism, I'd actually argue with the

00:04:56.460 other community, anti-AISM or AI panic is a core aspect of their philosophy.

00:05:01.740 Yeah.

00:05:01.840 Anti-censorship, economic liberalism, so basically economic side of libertarianism,

00:05:07.500 like looser government controls and stuff like that. Often this is seen in like city-state

00:05:12.300 interests, like being interested in like creating outside city-states.

00:05:15.800 Sovereignty. Yeah.

00:05:16.900 Yeah. Pro-sexuality, but not engaged in sexuality hedonistically, but just interesting from like a

00:05:25.000 study perspective. Like they're not afraid to engage with it, but they don't engage with it to

00:05:30.760 hedonistically please themselves.

00:05:32.660 Yeah, it checks out.

00:05:33.300 And nerd culture. And maybe somebody can come up with some sort of acronym for this group. But I was

00:05:40.920 like, well, could you create through combining these different philosophies and why this group has

00:05:48.860 these different philosophies? So what's actually like driving this group to have all these different

00:05:52.280 philosophies that differentiate so much from the EA community? I think the EA community above all

00:05:57.700 things is driven by a terrified fear of death and not existing anymore. They're so afraid of AI killing

00:06:06.360 them all. They're so afraid of progress. They're so afraid of dying. You know, life extensionism is

00:06:12.820 critical for them. Like digitizing the human mind is critical for them. This focus on both maintaining

00:06:19.540 stasis and then within that stasis, making it as pleasant as possible. Whereas this other group,

00:06:28.020 they are much more interested in moving forwards as quickly as possible and in intergenerationally

00:06:35.700 improving as much as possible while seeing themselves as disposable. One of the, you know,

00:06:42.260 obviously I'd say one of the avatars. No, I would, so I would word that a little bit differently. I

00:06:46.040 would say, you know, by having a very different definition of what self is, that is more expansive

00:06:52.100 than the individual biological being or some kind of continuous consciousness. The point being is that

00:06:57.520 all of these ideologies are based on one specific outcome, which is building a sort of a pluralistic

00:07:07.680 intergenerationally improving and robust humanity. And robust means multi-planetary almost intrinsically

00:07:14.560 and expanding, right? Creating the seeds of what becomes the human empire, the great interplanetary

00:07:21.000 human empire. And that this is something that can be maxed. Dedicating your life to this philosophy

00:07:27.520 is something that can be maxed. And I guess I'll call it prag maxing. And I'll make a little thing

00:07:34.300 because it's something that I think a lot of people would feel is worth spending their lives

00:07:39.180 on. You know, as we've said, one of the books that is core to our ideology, probably the most

00:07:45.240 core other than the pragmatist guy to crafting religion is the martyrdom of man. This book,

00:07:52.740 all the parts that you would want to read from it are quoted in the pragmatist guy to crafting

00:07:56.020 religion. So you don't need to buy it separately. It was written a really long time ago. In fact,

00:08:00.420 it was canonically Sherlock Holmes' favorite book. And in the real world, it was the favorite book

00:08:06.280 of people like Cecil Rhodes, who created the Rhodes Scholarship, but also less, more ignominiously.

00:08:12.300 Costumously canceled.

00:08:13.780 So, you know, there's a lot of like big deal, like people throughout history have really taken

00:08:18.600 this book. And I think we've forgotten it because the author died so young. But he did contribute to

00:08:23.360 other books. Like he contributed to The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin's, you know, book on the

00:08:27.700 Evelation of Humanity, which is really interesting. I didn't know that until I was reading about this

00:08:30.900 recently.

00:08:31.480 Well, I didn't either. Wow.

00:08:32.780 So, but the core thesis of the book is that mankind is constantly martyring themselves for

00:08:39.800 future generations. And he has this whole passage in the book, which I absolutely love, basically

00:08:45.940 written exactly to you, the reader in the 21st century, saying, don't you dare question us for what

00:08:52.560 we're doing in our time in the same way that we wouldn't question our ancestors because we live

00:08:57.660 such privileged lives because of the sacrifices that they made for us. And that this intergenerational

00:09:05.020 process is something that we can all indulge in. Martyrdom is always something an individual can

00:09:10.900 indulge in, but it's very important. And this is something that you were making clear to me earlier

00:09:15.260 today, that indulging in martyrdom is not indulging in suffering. If you are truly pragmaxing,

00:09:21.880 you are both eschewing, indulging in suffering or indulging in happiness. Both emotional subsets

00:09:26.760 can lead to just as much inefficiency. Do you want to talk about this? Because you were really

00:09:29.980 passionate about that this morning. Yeah. We were talking, you and I were disagreeing about the fact,

00:09:37.160 I argued, for example, that suffering isn't important or doesn't matter in the same way that

00:09:43.620 pleasure doesn't matter. And that there are lots of people who totally miss Skip A Beat and they're

00:09:48.240 like, oh, pleasure is bad. It's sinful. Therefore, suffering is good. And I'm going to achieve

00:09:53.720 purity or somehow become morally better by suffering. And they become obsessed with suffering and showing

00:09:59.640 that they're suffering. And genuinely, I think you can become obsessed with suffering and sort of just

00:10:04.120 accidentally masochistic. So you become a suffering maxer. And there are lots of, I think, people

00:10:10.400 throughout history, especially in the Catholic Church, who kind of can be seen as doing this.

00:10:15.000 And I think that is just as sinful as maximizing pleasure, for sure. Because you're missing the

00:10:20.860 point. You've lost the plot. Yeah. And we should point out the Catholic 1.00

00:10:24.880 sects that engage, that many people would think engage in suffering actually don't that much in

00:10:29.720 the way that she's saying. So if you talk about the Opus Dei, they're the Catholic sect that's famous

00:10:32.720 for whipping themselves and stuff. They do that to have better emotional control. They are supposed to

00:10:38.320 always smile and always act happy around anyone that they're engaging with and to always feel happy

00:10:43.600 because that is something that they are supposed to be able to emotionally control. And that if you

00:10:47.140 actually around Opus Dei people, they are remarkably cheery people because they do have this emotional

00:10:52.300 control. So it's more just people who lose the plot. This isn't actually Catholic teaching that you

00:10:56.720 should do this, but sometimes people miss it. They see the aesthetics of suffering and they're like,

00:11:00.360 oh, I'm going to go all the way with that. And this is something that anyone can accidentally end up

00:11:06.520 doing. So what does it really mean to pragmex it? If we're framing it this way, like living for this

00:11:12.920 value set, the human empire, the pluralistic, thriving, multi-planetary humanity that has become

00:11:20.720 this outwardly expanding force in the universe and this force of good in the universe for a form of

00:11:27.940 humanity that is, as he calls it in the martyrdom of man, you radiant beings of which I cannot even

00:11:34.740 imagine, that it's become something that is perhaps even alien to us today. How do you dedicate

00:11:41.660 yourself to that? What does it look like to max around this? And I would say, this is what it looks

00:11:46.420 like. It's basically four simple steps. And we actually out like this in the Pragmatist Guide to

00:11:51.760 Life. First, you determine what has value. In this case, we sort of laid it out, but you could

00:11:56.520 determine slight iterations of this. This is the thing that has value in the universe. Then you say,

00:12:01.840 how do I maximize that thing in the universe? And this will involve different things at different

00:12:10.360 stages of your life. When you're young, it might be wife-finding maxing. It might be education maxing.

00:12:16.940 How do I actually maximize myself to be the ultimate educated tool when I become an adult?

00:12:22.280 How do I maximize myself to find the perfect spouse before I become an adult? At our age,

00:12:28.180 it could be parent maxing. Okay. Freeze all the eggs during the year of the harvest. Go through

00:12:32.200 them. Genetically select them. You know, the output as many humans as possible. Give them the perfect

00:12:37.540 environment. Oh, the education system's not good. Let's create a new one. This is something that we

00:12:41.080 can all do together because when we create one of these resources, like the school that we're creating,

00:12:46.640 hopefully it's usable by all other people who are Pragmaxing. And the people who are Pragmaxing, 1.00

00:12:52.620 one of the key things that I think is important to the concept of Pragmaxing, which we've talked about

00:12:56.440 in other videos, is that not every individual is born the same. Some people are actually born smarter

00:13:07.240 than other people, taller than other people, with more resources than other people. And depending

00:13:11.660 on your circumstances, a different path may be the optimal path to Pragmax. Having kids isn't the way 0.61

00:13:21.840 that everybody Pragmax is. There could be other ways you could support the development of this human

00:13:27.400 empire and the forces that are arrayed against it in the world today. I mean, what's so great about

00:13:34.060 pronatalism in this larger movement is our enemies. Like, as I say, I actually think ethelism is logically

00:13:40.600 consistent. This is the negative utilitarian beliefs that we'll discuss in a video I'll link to. It's a

00:13:45.400 video on these academics want to kill all life in the universe. They basically believe that

00:13:50.020 suffering is the only thing that matters. And the goal of every human should be to end

00:13:54.420 any potential of suffering in the future. That means killing all life in the universe and any

00:13:59.460 potential for life coming to exist in the universe. And what's fun is we have these two diametrically

00:14:06.680 opposed movements, the one that's tied to the pronatalist movement and one that's tied to the

00:14:10.900 antinatalist movement. And it feels so nice to have an opposing force that I can be so assured is evil

00:14:19.820 that they have an authoritarian philosophy. It only works if everyone believes what they believe.

00:14:24.620 They would never say they're authoritarian. Let's be clear.

00:14:28.120 Yeah, but it's intrinsically authoritarian because they do say that it only works if everyone believes

00:14:32.260 this or they kill everyone who doesn't believe it. Whereas the pragmatist movement is totally happy

00:14:37.840 with their movement existing so long as they don't mess with us. It's an intrinsically pluralistic

00:14:42.620 movement that thrives on our differences. It's a movement that says, oh, we're okay with you guys.

00:14:48.220 It's a movement that wants to make humanity better, happier, even though happiness doesn't matter.

00:14:54.360 It's an intrinsic part of the things that we're doing, thriving more complicated in more places

00:15:02.240 and able to assist other species as we run across them in so far as they are not a threat to us.

00:15:10.180 And this divide between this open, optimistic, forward-thinking, pluralistic movement and this

00:15:18.800 movement that is authoritarian and wants to erase all life in the universe, it's fun that we're living

00:15:23.760 in an era, I think, of real heroes and villains and that you can choose to dedicate yourself to this.

00:15:31.560 The key and what makes it different from other types of maxing is that you want to understand

00:15:37.180 that there isn't one way to maximize for it. An individual who is born in a circumstance where

00:15:43.440 finding a partner isn't in the cards for them can still 100% participate in it, but in different ways.

00:15:50.860 An individual throughout your life, you're going to have different mini games that you're playing.

00:15:55.760 And the great thing is your biology is adapted to this, man. One of the saddest things I ever see

00:16:03.340 is that so many people, they're playing the games from earlier ages. They're in their 30s and they're

00:16:08.800 trying to maximize sexual partners. And it's like, bro, that's sad. Because you're still going to be

00:16:14.640 doing that when you're in your 80s. You get to play different games at different parts of our life.

00:16:21.180 And yeah, okay, you lost a game at one part of your life. And now that sort of changes the path

00:16:25.980 that you're on. For example, you didn't get into this until you were 50. That means, okay,

00:16:29.780 you don't have a spouse or something like that. Or you're never going to have kids that are

00:16:33.240 biologically yours or something like that because technology is not going to catch up. Whatever,

00:16:37.600 man, you got your own game you can make focused on the end goal. It was the question being,

00:16:42.420 what am I trying to maximize? What do I think is a good path for our species? And then what can I

00:16:47.240 personally do? And who can I personally become that best maximizes that outcome? While understanding

00:16:53.880 that it's important whenever you absolutely attempt to do something without a single flaw

00:17:00.900 in your plan, you end up destroying yourself. You know, I know that I do things that are

00:17:05.980 antithetical to my goals, like drink beer, for example. But I also know that I am a flawed human

00:17:12.900 being. You know, I am wretched. I am man. And that is part of our nature. We shouldn't expect 0.63

00:17:20.400 more than that. But we can try for more than that. Because future iterations of us won't be

00:17:27.500 the future radiant beings of which we can only dream, in the words of Woodward Reed, who wrote

00:17:32.500 The Martyrdom of Man. And I am excited for that. And people are like, one person in a comment, he goes,

00:17:38.780 why are you trying to make the future a better place? If you won't experience that future?

00:17:44.740 And it's, bro, you are so missing the plot. So what, as Simone said, we have a different iteration

00:17:48.900 of how we see ourselves. And that's cute. I don't think I'm meaningfully the same person I was 20

00:17:53.620 years ago. And I don't think I'm meaningfully going to be the same person I was in 20 years.

00:17:57.820 I think I am about as close to who I was at the age of four as I am to my kid, who's four.

00:18:06.320 Like, we intergenerationally travel through our cultural group, through our cultural clusters,

00:18:13.460 and through our genetic lines sometimes. And that's fine. You know, every human is to an extent,

00:18:19.860 a reflection of ourselves, insofar as they are like us. And that to try to stay the same,

00:18:28.000 to try to, if I lived for, let's say, 100,000 years, right? I would be such a radically different

00:18:34.900 person at the end of that period. There is no way I would have any meaningful connection to who I am

00:18:39.820 today. Yeah, it's pointless. It's pointless. The person you're going to be in even 10 years is not

00:18:43.620 going to be you. So why are you trying to preserve it? Yeah. And if I did try to preserve it, if I did

00:18:48.180 successfully preserve it, if in 100,000 years I was meaningfully the same person I am today,

00:18:51.980 well, then I didn't improve. I didn't better myself. And I shouldn't still be around. I am a

00:18:58.080 pointless, wretched thing if I improved so little over 100,000 years that I am still recognizable as 0.68

00:19:04.320 a Malcolm. That is sad and sickening. And so why do I care that I can't see the better world that 0.99

00:19:11.340 I'm trying to create? It is a world not meant for me. It is a world that I would sully with my very

00:19:17.620 presence. Moses on the mountain, you are not meant to live in the promised land because you are

00:19:26.900 wretched. You are trying to lead the way for the people who will get to experience the promised

00:19:34.380 land because they deserve it in a way that not a single person alive today does. Right. But it's

00:19:40.480 extremely hard for someone who grows up in today's society that speaks exactly the opposite

00:19:47.400 message to wrap their head around something like that. I think it might be hard to wrap their head

00:19:55.920 around it. But when you let go, when you say, look, what this world is presenting me with isn't

00:20:01.760 working. Like clearly it's not working. I see it in my friends. They're all depressed and seeing all

00:20:06.520 these psychologists and have all these mental health issues and society isn't working. The one

00:20:13.360 that I'm a member of. When you see that and you think, well, maybe I could just try a different way

00:20:17.560 of looking at the world. I can just try a mental framing for a while. Try pragmaxing for a while.

00:20:22.760 You might find it works remarkably good and it fits remarkably snugly because I believe it is how we

00:20:31.120 were made to pursue life as humans, because we know that we are actually living as meaningful a life

00:20:37.700 as we can. I would say like as post-industrial or post-tech age humans. I mean, in the past,

00:20:44.740 really humans were just trying to survive. Let's be honest with ourselves.

00:20:47.600 I don't think that's true at all. Really?

00:20:51.280 You look at the Victorian period where this book comes from. Whenever somebody was able to escape

00:20:56.620 the grind was in these older periods. Yeah, whenever they were wealthy or privileged enough,

00:20:59.760 whenever they weren't trying to survive, but most people were just trying to survive.

00:21:02.680 Right. But those were the ones moving society forwards. We, the blessed ones who have inherited

00:21:09.140 all of their sacrifices and the benefits of all of their sacrifices, most of us live in a world where

00:21:15.320 we don't have to dedicate our lives to just trying to survive. That's true.

00:21:18.460 Most of us, most of the listeners of this podcast, yeah, you might have a grueling nine to five or

00:21:24.020 longer, let's be honest today, but almost everyone can do something to try to move society forward,

00:21:30.660 to try to move the world forwards in a way that historically people couldn't do. Because I think

00:21:36.220 one thing, if you haven't studied history, is we vastly underestimate how horrifying the lives were

00:21:41.140 of the average person. And as Wynwood Reed wrote in, this was like in the 1870s, 1860s,

00:21:48.580 he pointed out that even in his age, the average British person lived a life better than the kings

00:21:54.060 of the Anglo-Saxon period. And he was right about that. And I'd say today, the average person lives

00:21:59.300 a life better than the queen during that period. You know, this is the cycle that we are a part of.

00:22:06.480 And I am excited for that. And I understand you can be like, well, it can be hard to reframe

00:22:13.280 yourself around it. And I know not everyone is meant to, but some people will see this as a

00:22:18.780 potential message that they can optimize around. They get maxing, but they don't want to max

00:22:23.860 something pointless, like looks. Like why does looks matter?

00:22:26.760 I, I, I, I, okay. Yeah. He's saying why the looks matter. It's like saying, why does intelligence

00:22:32.980 matter? Why does height matter? Why does money matter? Why does intelligence matter?

00:22:38.720 Looks. Yeah. Maxing, educating yourself does matter because it can help you see the world better. It

00:22:43.920 can help you see the world more true. And through that, you can better choose what you're maxing for.

00:22:49.060 Maxing for looks gives you no additional real utility.

00:22:56.480 What?

00:22:58.420 Attractive people are treated differently.

00:23:00.940 So? Women are treated differently. This is why these two communities overlap so much. 1.00

00:23:06.760 The people who are like, well, I'll be treated better potentially. Yeah. No, come on, Simone.

00:23:12.060 Be, be realistic here. Yeah. They're treated better. You get an easier life. That's a hedonistic

00:23:17.080 objective function. Hedonistic objective functions always destroy. You know, what if, yeah. But if you

00:23:22.300 want to influence society in various ways, if you want to rally people around a cause that is

00:23:26.300 important, like all these things are easier when you're attractive. So that could be a form of

00:23:30.560 prag maxing. If you are looks maxing for the influence it is giving you. Yeah. But then you are

00:23:37.480 only looks maxing was in certain parameters. You are not infinitely looks maxing. Yeah. You are looks

00:23:43.560 maxing with a specific goal while keeping in mind that there are types of looks maxing that may not

00:23:49.940 be attractiveness, which can achieve that in. If you look looks max to look like a certain stereotype

00:23:56.900 of a certain person within society that people listen to, you can achieve more reach. You can looks

00:24:03.840 max to be like Gorlock the destroyer. You know, everyone's familiar with that meme. I'll post a picture

00:24:09.900 of it. People will pay more attention to her than every other woman at that table. So long as she's 1.00

00:24:15.520 saying interesting things, because she looks maxed in an interesting way while combined with personality 0.83

00:24:21.580 maxing and everything like that. Yeah. Drag maxing is about understanding why you're doing this, not

00:24:26.660 just so that things can be easier for you, but so that you can achieve some greater goal in the world.

00:24:33.360 Yeah. That's, that's broadly fair. So, but while also understanding that what you are maxing for

00:24:38.740 is going to shift as you age to achieve this outcome and that again, you shouldn't try to

00:24:46.200 achieve what the, you know, everyone else in your community is doing, you play a specific role. We

00:24:52.360 all play a certain role in this plan design and you are best positioned to know what role you are most

00:25:01.360 likely to be able to maximize. And I'm excited for that. I'm excited that we live in an age, as you've

00:25:07.300 said, historically, yeah, there were people in the Victorian period who were able to move society

00:25:11.840 forward because they were born with wealth and privilege. We live in a world today where, you

00:25:17.360 know, 80% of Americans are functionally born with that level of wealth and privilege, that they

00:25:22.740 have the option to think on their own. I think we, that is part of why we're having this awakening

00:25:28.280 that, oh shit, the powers in our society are lying to us. The media is lying to us. These 0.99

00:25:33.140 organizations are lying to us because the average person can speak for themselves now and can help

00:25:40.180 defeat these organizations that had hoped to imprison humanity in an age of stagnation.

00:25:47.220 And that is fundamentally what I think the traditionalist EA movement was all about. That's

00:25:51.620 what they meant when they say, you know, I'm afraid of AI advancing. I am afraid of, I am afraid of dying,

00:25:59.020 you know, so I've got to do life extensionism. I am afraid of the world really changing. We talk

00:26:05.000 about this in our villain video, which is interesting that so much of our media today, the person who

00:26:09.640 wants to change the world is the villain. And then the person who is attempting to maintain the status

00:26:15.460 quo is the hero. I mean, this is constantly the theme of Kingsman. I'm not saying I agree with all the

00:26:21.860 villains of Kingsman. It's status quo versus change the world. They have tried to drill this into your

00:26:28.220 head. People with power in any system always benefit from the status quo. That is what allows them to

00:26:35.260 maintain their power. Thus, people with power in a culture will always frame anyone trying to make

00:26:42.000 things better, trying to change things as the villain. But, and I can tell you this with certainty,

00:26:50.460 the real heroes in this world are never the people fighting to maintain the status quo.

00:26:55.760 They are people with a vision for how they can make the world a better place and who act on that

00:27:00.700 vision. Now, it's possible to try to make the world a better place and still be a villain, but it is

00:27:05.400 impossible to be a hero and fight for the status quo. When we look through history, when we look at the

00:27:10.260 people who have really moved our society forward, these were people who were most often hated by

00:27:17.220 the people in positions of power within their lifetime and framed as villains by the people

00:27:22.740 with positions of power in their lifetimes. And as that one person said, Malcolm, how can you

00:27:26.740 do all of this when you won't receive any of the rewards for your actions, when you won't get to live

00:27:33.220 in that world that you are potentially creating or receive any accolades from the masses? I'm already

00:27:39.660 receiving all of the benefits any human actually fighting for good can hope for, which is to know

00:27:46.220 that if they succeed, that in the future people will be appreciative of what they've done or did

00:27:52.780 or sacrificed. And if they fail, then they are undeserving of any appreciation. So I should work

00:28:00.940 every day to be among the elect, those who do make the world a better place, those whose lives did have a

00:28:06.240 positive impact on human history and human flourishing. I don't choose whether or not my life

00:28:11.420 matters, but I do choose whether or not my life might matter. And my efforts control the probability

00:28:18.040 as to whether or not my life might matter. And that is a great thing because not every human in human

00:28:24.660 history had that potentiality when they were born, but almost everyone listening to this podcast does.

00:28:30.940 So the question is, do you take that burden? Do you bear that responsibility or do you shirk

00:28:37.320 it in the pursuit of vanity and hedonism? But enough people are waking up now that if just

00:28:45.400 the competent people who are free from the system work together and decide for themselves how to best

00:28:52.760 impact this change that we could see in the world, we can do it. We can do it. We can really do it.

00:28:57.640 It's a winnable battle. If the channel had a motto, it would be, thank God our enemies are not as

00:29:04.100 competent as they are malevolent. There you go. Yeah. I mean, I agree with you. Max for a purpose.

00:29:13.440 And I'm sorry for your coughing. That looked really painful. I am dying again.

00:29:19.820 But you see, you are showing happiness to our audience because they don't need to suffer for

00:29:23.940 your suffering. I do not. I don't need to suffer for your suffering.

00:29:27.620 No, you don't. Thanks, Malcolm.

00:29:30.660 I know you go through a lot to create this constant heaven that I live in.

00:29:37.260 As do you. And it's 100% worth it. I love it. Very satisfying.

00:29:43.000 And I want you to answer the question that the person asked. I think it's an important question.

00:29:46.640 Why are you trying to create a better world, even if you won't be able to live in it?

00:29:54.780 It's such a bizarre question. I mean, right? Because that's the game. You leave the campsite

00:30:01.620 better off than when you came. You want to create a better world for your children. Everything is

00:30:05.800 iterative. You're trying to get better. This is a relay race where you're trying to, you know,

00:30:11.400 end up with someone a little bit further ahead. Move us along.

00:30:14.240 I think it shows how when you have framed the world from this ultra-progressive, you know,

00:30:20.560 urban monoculture, virus, the cult, whatever you want to call it, mindset,

00:30:24.260 things that we would think are just obvious can seem like insane. Why would I want to improve

00:30:31.260 things for anyone that's not me? Yeah. Why would I?

00:30:34.660 We see in the inverse when we look at antinatalists or elephists. They couldn't understand a world in 0.76

00:30:41.620 which a complete obsession with suffering and or pleasure is not paramount. It's just cultural

00:30:48.260 differences. That's all. You know, we don't see ourselves the same way that other groups see

00:30:53.040 ourselves. We don't see pleasure or pain the same way other people see themselves. And we have

00:30:56.660 extremely clear values that are not what you would call normative. So...

00:31:01.940 I think you're wrong. I think everyone who thinks about it comes to our value set.

00:31:05.360 I think this is why we see it bumbling up. Well, I think, you know, most people who have kids,

00:31:10.920 especially if they have kids not as props or pets to make them happy, hold this view. Definitely,

00:31:18.080 they, you know, everything becomes about giving them a better shot. 100%. But I also know that a lot

00:31:24.060 of people have kids as Hidomnic pets or props as part of a... Oh, absolutely. You're right. Yeah. And this is 0.98

00:31:30.100 what he says in The Martyrdom of Man. He says that regardless of whether or not, and I'm paraphrasing

00:31:35.000 here, regardless of whether or not you're in a position where you can engage with philanthropy

00:31:38.120 or advanced science, that doesn't matter. You have lived a good life insofar as you have tried

00:31:44.960 to make the next generation better than the last. Yeah. That's our thing. I love you, Simone.

00:31:52.200 I love you too.

00:31:54.000 I love you too.

00:31:55.000 I love you too.

00:31:56.000 All right.

Based Camp - October 26, 2023

Pragmaxxing

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