The Imperative of Beauty [Requested Video]
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
102.59619
Summary
This is part 1 of a 2 part response to the documentary Why Beauty Matters by Roger Scruton. In this episode, I respond to a key quote from the film, "If you'd asked anybody before the 17th century, what is the point of beauty? They would have looked at you and said, what's the point? They don't have points. They just are."
Transcript
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So this is part one of a two-part video request where I'm going to be responding to the documentary Why Beauty Matters by Roger Scruton.
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And I strongly recommend that you watch this for yourself, the documentary.
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There's apparently some issues with the image rights in it, but if you look around online, you will be able to find it.
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Now, the subject matter of the documentary is the philosophy of beauty and the importance of beauty.
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And I think the best way that I can review the film is simply to respond to it in my own way.
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And so this video, The Imperative of Beauty, is about one aspect that really stood out to me in this film.
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So Professor Scruton, early on in the film, he says,
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if you'd asked anybody before the 17th century, what is the point of beauty?
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They would have looked at you and said, what's the point of truth, of goodness?
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And I thought that was a very interesting breakdown.
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Because for a lot of us, certainly for myself at least, the reason I got into the alternative media,
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into alternative politics, the reason I've been so passionate about,
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the things I've been passionate about for so many years now, is truth.
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It became evident to me at a very young age that most people out there just weren't concerned with the truth of their beliefs or their statements.
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They were trying to say what was convenient or what they'd been told to say or what was politically correct.
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They had never actually examined their beliefs and see, you know, to see if these actually fit together.
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Do my stated values and my actions, do these things line up with one another?
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Because it should go without saying that if you don't have an understanding of what you're doing,
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if there isn't an appreciation of truth informing your motivations, then you are doomed to failure.
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You know, if you don't know how you're fixing your car, you're not going to fix the car.
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You're not just going to serendipitously fall into success if you don't know what you're doing.
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You know, maybe because they don't have time to examine all their beliefs.
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Maybe because they don't want to risk the social cost of examining their beliefs.
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But most people seem to have very confused beliefs.
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Because one thing you start finding if you pursue the truth,
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well, as my one philosopher friend likes to say,
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Often the most vicious barbs are true, but very uncharitable.
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Science can build a new system of agriculture or can build an atomic bomb.
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You need to be looking upwards and pursuing that which is worth pursuing.
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It's not enough to just be true to yourself and true about what you're doing and what your motivations are.
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You need to be embodying goodness as best you can.
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Because so many people, whether they're operating by pretty lies or even if they're operating by stark truths,
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they wind up falling into evil, into very vicious forms of hatred, very self-destructive forms of hatred.
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I mean, if you take any of these school shooters and talk to them,
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chances are there's going to be quite a bit of truth coming out of those mouths.
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You take these various people that have subscribed, that have been writing black pill blogs,
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or, you know, you take somebody like Elliot Rodgers with the PUA hate crowd,
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and you look at them and they say a lot of things that are very, very true.
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But it's just so dark and evil how they interpret that truth.
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well, you end up with the endless autistic fighting
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A lot of circular, angry, destructive fighting.
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if you try and pull people back from the brink of destruction,
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And you get to the point where you can know what the good thing is,
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but you just don't have the energy for it anymore.
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Because beauty is that which nourishes the soul.
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Beauty is that which fills you when you're empty.
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that you've heard on every single song on the radio
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didn't have the amount of luxury and prettiness
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And while he didn't have great material wealth,