Based Camp - Should Music Be A Sin？

00:00:00.000 Speech is a very effective person-to-person communication device.

00:00:06.240 It allows one person to communicate with one other person.

00:00:10.860 Or one person to communicate with a large group of people.

00:00:15.100 Music is different.

00:00:16.200 Music is a mini-to-mini cultural communication device.

00:00:21.840 That's where music gets really interesting.

00:00:23.820 Would you like to know more?

00:00:25.080 Hello, Simone. 0.69

00:00:26.440 Hello, Simone. 0.69

00:00:27.460 I am excited for today's topic.

00:00:29.300 It's actually based on a user comment because they were asking about music and culture and how cultures can use music to intergenerationally retain people, to augment people's brains and the way people relate to their environment.

00:00:44.080 Especially in the context of hearing that we are so anti-art, anti-music, right?

00:00:48.900 So this is one of those interesting things where I can say our culture does not do something.

00:00:59.300 And may have led to perhaps even a genetic connection or something.

00:01:06.680 But more broadly, I think cultures should do that thing.

00:01:11.400 And here's why.

00:01:13.660 So first, a little background here.

00:01:16.280 Calvinist culture traditionally is very antagonistic to music.

00:01:20.380 Or art.

00:01:22.000 Or any sort of frivolous pleasure that was either not evocationist or not very focused.

00:01:29.180 A great example is Geneva banned music for almost a century when they were predominantly Calvinist.

00:01:34.660 So it wasn't all music.

00:01:36.860 It was any music that was either not, that used words.

00:01:41.120 Or was that like explicitly spiritual, I think.

00:01:43.840 But it was mostly any music that used words.

00:01:45.640 And I can understand that sentiment, actually.

00:01:48.440 When I was a kid, I felt the same way.

00:01:50.380 I remember when I was very young telling my parents that any music was words wasn't real music.

00:01:55.840 What?

00:01:57.000 Yeah.

00:01:57.720 I'm trying to remember why I felt this instinctually so strong.

00:02:01.320 I think it was because I thought that music that utilized anything other than sound to manipulate an individual's emotional state was like cheating or relying on an externality that it shouldn't rely on as a vanity.

00:02:20.340 It was very interesting.

00:02:21.460 But what I would say is so historically, we've come from a cultural group that as one of its core motivations is this idea that positive and negative emotional states.

00:02:35.100 Now, most cultures, it's only positive emotional states you would go after that are pursued for their own sake.

00:02:42.320 Whether it's from emotion, it comes from music or sexuality or anything like that, are always evil.

00:02:50.920 That actions should always be dedicated to what's efficacious.

00:02:54.760 And so I understand why my culture did this.

00:02:56.260 And one of the things we'll talk about in a different culture is cultures can go evolve with a person's genetics.

00:03:00.840 By that, what I mean is individuals with a sociological profile that were like really into music would have left this cultural system much faster than those who didn't.

00:03:12.320 And people living adjacent to these sort of cultural groups who naturally were uninterested in music would have been much more likely to join these cultural groups.

00:03:23.880 Also, the extent to which our cultural groups feel this.

00:03:26.240 I remember I did not get my first CD with music on it until I was 12.

00:03:31.680 And I went to a store and what I bought was a single because it was the cheapest thing in the store.

00:03:37.780 I remember that it was this weird, like I put it on a thing to see what it was like, okay, why do people listen to this?

00:03:44.100 Why do they spend money on this?

00:03:45.160 I did not understand.

00:03:46.560 Now, but let's talk about why groups use music and the value of music.

00:03:51.640 So...

00:03:52.100 No, I mean, I feel, you know, you're missing the big thing.

00:03:55.380 I mean, aside from the fact that music can really give you this almost transcendent experience, right?

00:04:00.080 When you're doing it, it really helps to create this group of cohesion, this shared moment.

00:04:04.800 But that, interestingly, secular music, to me, is a really interesting form of worship that is practiced even when people lose their religion.

00:04:14.520 And it's like a worship to their culture.

00:04:16.260 And it's a worship to this is who I am.

00:04:18.860 And it reminds you.

00:04:19.940 So, and this is how music has been used for millennia, right?

00:04:22.300 Like music has usually been used for worship and for practice.

00:04:25.520 And it helps you, like...

00:04:27.200 Why it does that, right?

00:04:28.960 Right.

00:04:29.180 Well, I mean, one, it binds you to a group.

00:04:31.060 Two, it often includes lore or canon for your culture, right?

00:04:35.780 These are our characters.

00:04:36.960 These are our values.

00:04:38.100 These are our values.

00:04:39.060 This is what we're into.

00:04:40.540 And what to me is so interesting is the way that post-religion music still does that.

00:04:47.940 Look at country music.

00:04:49.300 And it's like keyword stuff with, this is what I value.

00:04:51.720 These are the people that matter to me.

00:04:53.760 So, it's like back roads, hard work.

00:04:57.540 I love my mom.

00:04:58.760 I love my dad.

00:04:59.880 I love my kids.

00:05:00.520 That's our favorite type of music.

00:05:01.560 We don't listen to much music, but we do prefer country music.

00:05:03.980 Yeah.

00:05:04.340 But it is very religious, like in nature, right?

00:05:07.100 It's like...

00:05:07.800 Yeah, even when it's secular.

00:05:09.180 But let's talk about why that's the case, okay?

00:05:11.380 So, if you talk about the evolutionary pressures that led to the development of speech versus the

00:05:16.860 development of music, it's really interesting.

00:05:19.280 Speech is a very effective person-to-person communication device.

00:05:25.320 It allows one person to communicate with one other person.

00:05:30.220 Or one person to communicate with a large group of people.

00:05:34.460 Music is different.

00:05:35.580 Music is a many-to-many cultural communication device.

00:05:40.680 And that's where music gets really interesting.

00:05:42.940 So, there's some great studies that have been done on this, which show, for example, people

00:05:48.360 who joined various clubs within a school, if it was a music club, they felt friendship

00:05:53.920 was that group and camaraderie was that group much faster than other clubs.

00:05:57.400 Oh, that makes sense.

00:05:58.740 What is interesting is that they did not have a higher ceiling to the camaraderie they felt.

00:06:04.880 They just felt camaraderie faster.

00:06:06.940 So, you know...

00:06:08.360 It's an accelerant.

00:06:09.700 It's an accelerant, right?

00:06:10.740 And there was another one that had two groups of students that would do running, and one

00:06:15.120 would do it to like a march step, like music, and the other group would do it without that.

00:06:20.620 And the group that was doing it to the music felt much more bonded to each other.

00:06:25.340 And this is why...

00:06:26.760 So, you can look at military traditions.

00:06:28.880 So, military traditions evolve to an extent, where the military traditions that out-compete

00:06:33.820 other military traditions on the battlefield end up being the military traditions that other

00:06:38.920 people try to copy, right?

00:06:40.700 So, there are evolutionary pressures within military traditions.

00:06:43.360 And this is how military traditions found out to do things like the, I don't know, but I've

00:06:48.600 been told...

00:06:49.260 You know, when they're like running, even though nobody ever told them to do this.

00:06:53.240 Like, they didn't understand psychologically what they were doing, but just the groups that

00:06:57.560 ran to music seemed to out-compete other groups.

00:07:00.800 And it was because of acting as a social accelerant.

00:07:03.200 Mm-hmm.

00:07:04.640 Well, then why...

00:07:05.580 Okay, why is music not used more in dating then, if that's how it works, and if it builds

00:07:09.740 cohesion faster?

00:07:10.980 What do you think nightclubs are?

00:07:13.100 Oh, it does.

00:07:13.900 So, to us, you and me, nightclubs are this perplexing, insane environment where we're like,

00:07:20.080 why would you go and look for a partner in an environment where you can't talk to somebody?

00:07:25.240 Because, you know, our cultural biases are so strong there that we see the idea of dancing

00:07:30.760 was a stranger to music is, like, really gross.

00:07:33.240 Like, even when I was a kid, I'd go to nightclubs and we're like, I do not get what's going

00:07:37.040 on here.

00:07:37.780 Yeah.

00:07:38.180 But for cultures that have this strong musical predilection, that's what's going on there.

00:07:43.660 They're using music as a communication device within a dating ecosystem. 0.84

00:07:47.200 So, very good question with a very good answer.

00:07:49.740 Another interesting way that music can change people is music can activate, and things that

00:07:55.060 are done to music can activate many of the same systems that are activated with, like,

00:08:00.820 hallucinogens and other...

00:08:03.440 So, one of the things that we often talk about is humans did not evolve to feel profundity

00:08:08.320 tied to actual profundity.

00:08:11.560 So, by that, what I mean is nothing in our evolutionary environment caused people to accurately

00:08:16.060 gauge the profundity of a thing to survive more than people who didn't, right?

00:08:20.320 And to actually have an emotional set associated with that.

00:08:22.880 So, our emotional subset that feels profundity is actually most commonly hijacked with drugs,

00:08:30.420 typically hallucinogens.

00:08:32.380 However, it can be induced to feel this.

00:08:35.240 However, music, group chanting, and group stomping can also cause this effect.

00:08:42.080 And so, religions or cultural practices that are trying to force convert people, get new

00:08:47.860 members, can induce this state of profundity, which can lead to somebody who's going to be a

00:08:52.860 being more interested in joining a cultural group than they otherwise would have.

00:08:56.400 And then, conversion rituals.

00:09:01.020 Interesting.

00:09:02.420 I mean, what are your thoughts on music?

00:09:03.980 I've talked a little too much in this one, so I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on

00:09:06.880 this.

00:09:08.500 I mean, I'm more interested in the ways that secular music is being used intentionally and

00:09:16.520 not intentionally now, and how it's being left behind.

00:09:19.240 I mean, I even think about, like, campaign music and how people are so obsessed with how,

00:09:25.920 you know, like, which campaign songs they're using, what that communicates.

00:09:29.860 Maybe it's just really underrated how much music matters in terms of setting a tone about,

00:09:36.300 like, your values.

00:09:36.800 So, let's dig into what you were talking about there, okay?

00:09:40.560 What's going on with campaign music?

00:09:42.580 So, when I was younger, there was this thing called MySpace, right?

00:09:45.440 And you'd write a bunch of stuff about yourself on MySpace, but you'd also have a song that

00:09:48.720 played automatically when somebody went to the page, and you might be able to list your

00:09:51.900 favorite artists, you know?

00:09:52.780 And people do that on Facebook still, to an extent, and stuff like that.

00:09:55.740 What are you doing when you're listing those individuals?

00:09:58.960 You are telling people, this is who I am as an individual.

00:10:03.520 You, other people, you have something that you associate with these artists, whether it's

00:10:08.900 cultural things, or character, you know, when somebody says, I'm a Slipknot fan, or something

00:10:14.820 like that often, they're not saying, I actually like the music of Slipknot, like they might,

00:10:19.600 but usually when somebody's saying that, what they're actually saying is, here are character

00:10:24.880 traits that I want to communicate to the people around me.

00:10:28.100 When people are choosing campaign songs, or music to play at campaign rallies, that's what

00:10:33.620 they're doing.

00:10:34.240 They are conveying traits about them through bundled packages of beliefs about people who

00:10:42.080 like X or Y that we have as a society.

00:10:45.980 So why do you think that teenagers feel the need to do this more?

00:10:48.980 Is it just because they're much more socially, like?

00:10:52.180 I think it's because they're less aware of who they are, and so they're much more interested

00:10:56.820 because, so teenagers, what happens when you're a teenager?

00:10:59.620 You have just moved from the stage where your parents define who you are, to some extent,

00:11:03.780 to you get to define who you are. 0.99

00:11:06.680 And if you are dumb, sorry, I don't mean to say that about people who define themselves 0.99

00:11:10.980 by music. 0.99

00:11:11.760 If you are, you know, less sophisticated in terms of how you think about yourself, great

00:11:17.760 way to define yourself is from, especially in a really glorifying way, because music often

00:11:24.360 is glorifying to the individual that's listening to it, you could say.

00:11:27.520 You define yourself with the music you listen to.

00:11:31.680 So it's kind of like being very lazy about how you define yourself and using someone who

00:11:36.560 is a whole lot more poetic and eloquent than you to make your life seem and your identity

00:11:41.640 seem more epic, thoughtful, and profound than it really is.

00:11:45.060 And cohesive than it really is.

00:11:48.020 This is who I am.

00:11:49.260 I'm somebody who likes, I mean, and this is why I think when I was dating, you know, if

00:11:53.800 somebody ever was like, oh, I really am into, you know, music, and it wasn't like their

00:11:57.640 own music, but other people's music, like if somebody was really into their own music,

00:12:00.940 I don't know, I would find that interesting, like music that they were making.

00:12:03.260 But if it was other people's music, I was immediately like, oh, so like, you don't have

00:12:06.360 an identity.

00:12:07.460 Well, okay.

00:12:08.620 What also, though, about the phenomenon of the hot guy who plays guitar in high school?

00:12:14.900 Yeah.

00:12:15.180 Is it just a social proof thing?

00:12:16.860 Is it the fact that he plays music that matters?

00:12:22.020 I mean, one thing is, it's not like the guy who plays the oboe who gets all the women.

00:12:26.600 It's the guy who plays the guitar.

00:12:28.060 Is this a cultural thing?

00:12:29.260 What's going on?

00:12:29.680 Well, I think that that answers the question for you.

00:12:32.060 It's not the music that is turning on the women. 1.00

00:12:35.140 It's that these are most often the guys in like a high school environment.

00:12:39.420 Like in high school, guys aren't making speeches that rooms of people are listening to often,

00:12:43.480 right?

00:12:43.660 Like that's not a thing that's happening, at least in a cool way.

00:12:47.020 Like they find us like a science and they're talking to old people, but not like peers 1.00

00:12:50.620 that a girl's going to respect, right?

00:12:53.420 But music, yeah, you can have a guy play music who's a teenager and a bunch of other cool

00:12:58.860 teenage people listening to that person playing music.

00:13:01.840 So what's happening there is a phenomenon you see.

00:13:04.800 We've talked about it in other videos, which is when women see other women or men interested

00:13:10.340 in a male, their attraction rating for that male dramatically increases.

00:13:15.300 So the social proof effect, essentially.

00:13:17.300 It's the social proof effect.

00:13:18.340 That's what you're seeing there.

00:13:19.760 And so that being the case, if I was a guy who found some other way to communicate to cool

00:13:26.440 people in mass within a high school context, I would probably get the same amount of people

00:13:33.040 interested in me.

00:13:34.920 And I did.

00:13:35.960 And I did.

00:13:36.820 So I know it works.

00:13:38.440 I mean, I was captain of my debate team, right?

00:13:40.740 And I, in many environments, would talk, you know, one to many was in a high school environment.

00:13:47.140 I also did a lot of speeches, like rank campaigns and stuff like that.

00:13:50.000 And I did really well in terms of the, the, now this was interesting.

00:13:55.020 My specialty was in high school.

00:13:56.160 It was not the people in my high school, but the people in, in the surrounding town.

00:13:59.280 I think you completely ignored your own local market, right?

00:14:02.480 When it came to.

00:14:03.000 Yeah, I just completely ignored my own local market because my own local market required,

00:14:07.180 and this is also really interesting about high school, playing the high school dominance

00:14:10.420 hierarchy, instead of just being the most attractive person of the people that this person

00:14:15.360 had, had, had engaged with, which meant that I was playing a very different game and a much

00:14:19.920 easier game to play in isolation.

00:14:22.520 Yeah.

00:14:23.880 Yeah.

00:14:24.300 Well, so what about, I don't know how to put this, but like weirder or more esoteric music.

00:14:30.240 I mean, do you think that like the, the more mature person who enjoys going to Baroque concerts

00:14:38.640 is being just as social signally about enjoying Baroque music as a teenager who goes to a

00:14:46.540 popular music concert or do you, you know, I feel this.

00:14:50.500 I often criticize people when I think they're listening into classical music to try and look

00:14:54.540 sophisticated.

00:14:55.440 Well, but what about me though?

00:14:56.460 Do you think, do you think I listened to, to Baroque music because I think it.

00:15:01.080 No, I think music is able to manipulate an individual's emotional state.

00:15:05.220 And I think that some people, and this is my approved use of music and music as a tool

00:15:10.440 for manipulating your emotional state, I think is very valuable.

00:15:14.440 Now, obviously I would view that tool as completely indulgent if you're using it to modify your

00:15:18.820 emotional state in a negative state so that you can feel extra sorry for yourself, which

00:15:22.420 some people do.

00:15:22.940 I find that pretty indulgent.

00:15:25.260 So essentially it doesn't look pretty sad breakup songs when someone dumps you.

00:15:28.360 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:15:29.180 But because they're just completely indulging in this negative emotional state, which is lowering

00:15:33.160 their overall efficiency and efficacy.

00:15:35.500 However, while we do not value like happiness, right?

00:15:40.180 I do believe that people are more efficient when they're happy.

00:15:43.720 And so I do see the value of listening to music that can augment your, your level of happiness

00:15:49.460 or create other emotional states.

00:15:51.500 So what I can say about that, just like really quick is in terms of at least music and focus,

00:15:56.360 the, the research is pretty mixed, but what I have from like the gist of it after reading

00:16:02.240 a bunch of them is if you like the music and you think that it will help you focus, it will

00:16:07.760 help you focus basically.

00:16:09.420 So there is no like type of music that is like necessarily proven to help you focus.

00:16:13.960 It's more like, if this is your focus music, it will help you.

00:16:17.760 So just to that point.

00:16:19.340 Yeah.

00:16:19.780 And this is where I think, you know, I was going to mention workout music, right?

00:16:22.480 Which I think is very similar, right?

00:16:24.460 Some music can be used to augment your mental state into an environment where you find something

00:16:32.100 more fun than you would otherwise find it.

00:16:33.960 So the point of workout music is for whatever reason, it modifies your mental experience of

00:16:41.500 working out to make that experience more enjoyable than it is when you are not listening to workout

00:16:46.920 music.

00:16:47.420 So, so on that front, I want to get what you do with music.

00:16:51.940 Cause actually you are for someone who doesn't, doesn't respect music that much, right?

00:16:57.340 You are whenever doing something on your own, doing a task that doesn't necessarily require

00:17:01.940 a lot of focus.

00:17:02.600 If you're unloading the car, you have an AMV playing and AMVs are anime music videos.

00:17:07.580 So this is not just music.

00:17:09.480 It is music set to like remixed clips of anime shows or movies.

00:17:14.300 So what are you doing there?

00:17:16.260 What are you doing with your state and how do you choose what songs and, you know, like

00:17:20.480 what does this mean?

00:17:21.380 I think that there are many tasks and environments where I'd benefit from some level of mental

00:17:26.780 dulling, you know, whether that's alcohol or having music or an AMV on in the background

00:17:31.880 or something like that.

00:17:33.240 So are you saying that music has the same effect as of like mentally dulling you?

00:17:37.160 Like it just distracts you a little?

00:17:38.780 Well, so you know that I get my most productive work done often at 2am to, you know, 6am.

00:17:44.260 Yeah.

00:17:44.420 When you're kind of half asleep, but also not interrupted.

00:17:47.380 Yeah.

00:17:47.600 I try to wake up and be in that sort of half asleep state.

00:17:50.080 I just am much more productive when my brain is not fully functioning and I'm much less

00:17:55.940 productive when my brain is on all cylinders.

00:17:57.900 So I generally try to do when I am, when I am doing something productive, but that is otherwise

00:18:05.000 like mentally grinding, like going through emails, which is the majority of work I'm doing

00:18:09.200 or, you know, writing something that isn't fully mentally stimulating, trying to distract

00:18:15.260 a part of my brain that might otherwise distract the rest of my brain with aberrant thoughts.

00:18:21.040 So why don't you go do this?

00:18:22.700 Why don't you go do that?

00:18:24.760 And when I was younger and I would take things like, you know, Ritalin or something like that

00:18:29.860 to focus, right.

00:18:31.100 I did not listen to music when I was working because it dulled my mind enough that I was

00:18:35.800 able to work.

00:18:37.680 So that's why I relate to music in that way.

00:18:42.400 Now we can talk a bit about the evolution of music, but I think it's very interesting.

00:18:47.080 In a previous video, I wanted to do on this where I was showing that like a, if you play

00:18:51.660 music for some birds that can speak, they'll start dancing very similar to the way that

00:18:56.280 we start dancing, right?

00:18:57.480 They clearly really enjoy it and jive with it.

00:19:00.420 And then I realized I couldn't put any of those videos in because they all had popular

00:19:03.220 songs playing.

00:19:04.260 So you just have to YouTube them yourself.

00:19:06.540 But what we can see is that in a pre-speech animal that has a lot of mental processing

00:19:14.300 dedicated to vocalizations, you are going to have the ability to essentially massage that

00:19:20.300 part of its brain in the same way you might massage somebody with like your fingertips in

00:19:24.160 your hands, where like you are subtly touching like a large portion of them in a way that creates

00:19:30.340 like a pleasant stimulation.

00:19:31.540 And then specific historic religious groups began to utilize this for many to many communication

00:19:39.800 and group bonding rituals, which are obviously a thing of utility.

00:19:44.280 And so evolution being a cheap programmer, as we always say, evolution is a cheap programmer

00:19:47.980 basically hijacked this system and said, okay, yeah, let's cause people to create these

00:19:53.000 quick emotional bonds through this system.

00:19:55.080 And that's how evolution, because the groups of humans that were able to create these faster

00:20:02.400 bonds when undergoing this many to many communication ceremony or types of ceremonies ended up out

00:20:08.440 competing likely, you know, martially and in other ways, other groups of humans.

00:20:13.960 And that checks out.

00:20:15.420 Yeah.

00:20:15.620 Well, so, okay, what about the future of music?

00:20:19.120 How do you think it could be used, weaponized?

00:20:21.600 I mean, there's also the weaponization of music, right?

00:20:23.940 Like music has been used in like Guantanamo Bay to quote unquote, like torture people, right?

00:20:28.740 So how do you think that for better or for good or for evil music should or can be used in the future?

00:20:35.420 Well, so I think the really sad thing is the way music is weaponized best can happen organically

00:20:42.900 within a cultural group and that music can be used to completely destroy the value system

00:20:50.640 of a cultural group.

00:20:51.560 So I'm not going to name names here, but, you know, we were talking about country music.

00:20:55.920 Country music, I think, is actually really reinforcing for the cultural groups that listen to it.

00:21:00.980 But if you look at the themes of country music, it's typically, you know, I really respect and

00:21:06.960 love my wife.

00:21:07.960 Well, yeah, hard work, family values, and appreciating what you have, which is not a lot.

00:21:13.860 Yeah.

00:21:14.080 And when it's negative, it's typically you cheated on me. 1.00

00:21:18.480 So I fucked up your car or killed you or, you know, you abused your wife. 1.00

00:21:24.960 And so your wife killed you. 1.00

00:21:26.060 You know, those are like the more negative country music themes. 1.00

00:21:29.240 However, they still at the end portray a positive value, which is don't, you know, fuck around 0.99

00:21:37.500 and find out, right? 0.82

00:21:38.720 However, when I look at other music clusters and the value systems that they portray to,

00:21:47.260 and this is a cross, I'm not like talking about just one group, right?

00:21:50.560 They often are really toxic.

00:21:53.440 Yeah, like either super materialistic, super focused on very unsustainable relationship formats.

00:22:00.380 Like even when I think about, and not to like hate on Taylor Swift songs, but like when I hear a lot of her songs,

00:22:05.200 which I enjoy like listening to in a certain mood, like I'm like, oh man, this is encouraging a really toxic relationship.

00:22:13.160 What are you thinking of?

00:22:14.160 I can't model what you're thinking of here because I don't know the song.

00:22:16.680 I don't know the names of her songs.

00:22:18.900 I just hear the lyrics of just, you know, we're, we're dangerous or bad for each other, you know,

00:22:23.500 but we're going to do it anyway.

00:22:25.220 Or, and, you know, also just like other really fun, playful songs or like, I love Katy Perry songs.

00:22:30.740 A lot of them are just more about like partying and stuff, which, you know.

00:22:34.480 Yeah.

00:22:34.660 Okay.

00:22:34.880 So you don't say Katy Perry because that's, that's a music that's not going to get us in trouble.

00:22:38.220 Like a song, like what's the song where she's talking about being Japanese or whatever.

00:22:42.080 This is how we do.

00:22:43.020 Oh, that's my.

00:22:43.580 Yeah.

00:22:43.720 This is how we do.

00:22:44.380 This is how we do.

00:22:45.000 Right.

00:22:45.200 I mean, what's the, what's the song teaching people to value partying all day, being so

00:22:50.400 irresponsible.

00:22:50.720 Yeah.

00:22:50.820 This, this one goes to the kids out late at the club and it's Tuesday.

00:22:54.260 Yeah.

00:22:54.440 This is the ones who are playing for bottle service with your rent money.

00:22:57.660 I love that song, but yeah.

00:22:59.240 Like not the best.

00:23:00.380 It's a very engaging song in that I think it emotionally uplifts your mood.

00:23:04.640 But if you're like, it is, it is a cultural toxin in terms of the value system that is glorified

00:23:12.740 in that music.

00:23:13.460 And so these sort of musical, I don't know what you can call them, musical bombs or musical

00:23:21.560 toxins can be induced into a cultural group and used to keep that cultural group, you know,

00:23:28.600 mentally addled in an adversarial relationship with like police, for example, and all sorts

00:23:34.480 of negative things that, you know, just organically evolve.

00:23:39.440 So when we talk about where music is the most toxic, it's actually music that just organically

00:23:44.340 evolves.

00:23:44.880 And that the only thing you can really do to fight that is, is if you're within the cultural

00:23:50.680 group and you're just like, Hey, I put you, you, you know, you're not going to be able

00:23:55.000 to change society as a whole, but you can within your family say, we don't listen to music like

00:24:00.580 this, right.

00:24:02.360 There are many like conservative Christian cultures, which are like, Oh, we don't listen

00:24:06.100 to that.

00:24:06.560 That's the devil's music or see.

00:24:07.980 I don't mean that.

00:24:08.520 I'm just modeling a really bad character here.

00:24:10.960 But the devil's music, when people are like, Oh, that's the devil's music.

00:24:14.160 We might look at that as like backwards and a weird thing to say, but people say it because

00:24:18.220 it matters.

00:24:19.300 Yeah.

00:24:19.620 And as a final point on music, this was actually a chapter that we ended up deleting from our

00:24:25.020 book to an extent, but basically we say that, that groups that really know like conservative

00:24:31.980 groups that really seem to engage in fun parties seem to have higher fertility rates than their 0.99

00:24:38.120 neighbors, which don't seem to engage in fun parties.

00:24:41.880 And a great example here would be Jews, conservative Jewish groups seem to have some of the most

00:24:48.560 quote unquote fun parties.

00:24:50.660 We look at the cultural groups that I think I feel more instinctual kinship with the Anabaptist

00:24:57.360 cultural groups, you know, Amish and Mennonites.

00:24:59.200 You know, when I look at their parties, it's stuff like, let's build a house and all the

00:25:03.060 wives will go and make food for us that we'll get to eat. 1.00

00:25:06.020 And then we'll lift the barn and carry the barn.

00:25:08.140 And I see that, I go, that looks like a good time.

00:25:10.500 But actually, and this is just like a personal thing.

00:25:13.740 Like I am not passing a societal judgment.

00:25:16.620 I am almost like instinctually repelled when I see some of these like Jewish parties where 1.00

00:25:23.340 I can tell everyone is having like a lot of fun, but I just noticed like the people touching

00:25:27.840 other people without asking their permission.

00:25:29.520 Yeah, it's sweaty and it's hot and there's a big crowd of people.

00:25:31.840 And it looks like everyone's sweaty and like, it probably smells bad and like, and they're

00:25:36.420 not talking, like they're not engaging with ideas.

00:25:38.940 Because they're, they're, they're having fun for fun's sake.

00:25:43.280 And I think that this is where something comes to where I can say, I think that those events

00:25:47.740 help their culture out-compete other cultures. 0.99

00:25:51.220 But this is also why, and this should be another video we should probably do, that people begin

00:25:57.100 to almost genetically specialize for their cultural group.

00:26:00.280 We get what we call like an evolutionary vortex where the group draws people in who would

00:26:06.120 thrive in a group like that and kicks people out who wouldn't thrive in a group like that.

00:26:10.100 And just me, this sort of music party environment is something that when I look at it, I'm just

00:26:17.580 like, oh my God, the floor is probably sticky and people are touching me without asking me

00:26:22.580 first.

00:26:23.460 Oh my God, what if somebody tried to kiss me?

00:26:25.400 Yeah, no, but you, you, I mean, Simone, would you say you feel the same way?

00:26:31.260 Like when you see these videos or?

00:26:33.280 Oh, totally.

00:26:34.000 Yeah.

00:26:34.240 Like the only way I would be remotely okay, like mentally with those situations in the moment

00:26:40.840 is if I'm so sloshed, I'm probably blackout drunk, if we're being totally honest.

00:26:47.060 Oh God.

00:26:47.760 And what if somebody tried to hug you?

00:26:50.500 No, it's a brotherly hug.

00:26:52.260 I don't care if it's a sexual hug or not. 0.53

00:26:55.580 Get your hands off me. 1.00

00:26:57.920 I want a five foot bubble of personal space and you can stay out of it.

00:27:03.880 Okay.

00:27:04.480 And I want silence.

00:27:05.780 I want to think.

00:27:06.960 I went to one concert in my entire life and the only, it was, it was BlizzCon.

00:27:12.260 So I went to BlizzCon and they had a Foo Fighters play.

00:27:15.080 So that's my conference.

00:27:16.000 It was actually a video game.

00:27:17.900 It was a video game conference and they had a band come, but I got to see the concert experience

00:27:23.300 and it was miserable.

00:27:26.080 It was loud. 0.69

00:27:27.480 It was painful.

00:27:28.600 My only takeaway is if I ever go to a conference again, I'm going to need earplugs.

00:27:32.900 I do not.

00:27:33.920 It did not look to me like people were like jumping up and down, but having fun in this

00:27:38.200 kind of totally mindless way that I just cannot mentally engage with.

00:27:44.040 Nope.

00:27:44.480 Nope.

00:27:45.040 Nope.

00:27:45.740 Just, just no.

00:27:47.120 But yeah.

00:27:47.880 Hey, I'm, I'm glad that I'm married to someone who does not drag me to concerts.

00:27:53.760 Thank you very much, Malcolm.

00:27:54.760 Well, I'm assortative meeting here, right?

00:27:56.800 This could even be seen as behavioral isolation.

00:27:59.860 People like you and me, we find each other in our weird and no music environments where

00:28:04.460 most people are not looking for partners.

00:28:06.960 And a, we can say our, our final point on music is it is probably the optimum cultural

00:28:14.380 group probably uses music.

00:28:16.580 That is not our cultural.

00:28:19.240 So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen.

00:28:21.300 Yes.

00:28:22.420 I love you, Malcolm.

00:28:24.760 I love you.

Based Camp - August 31, 2023

Should Music Be A Sin？

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