The Art of Manliness - Why Are We Restless？

00:00:00.000 Brett McKay here, and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.

00:00:10.540 Now, most everyone has experienced restlessness from time to time.

00:00:13.320 It's a feeling of wanting more, but being unsure of how to find it,

00:00:16.040 of struggling with distraction, but being unsure of what to focus on,

00:00:18.880 of striking out in various directions, but not feeling any more fulfilled.

00:00:22.280 While we tend to think of restlessness as a very modern phenomenon,

00:00:25.340 a French diplomat and philosopher named Alexis de Tocqueville

00:00:28.080 observed the very same problems in America two centuries ago,

00:00:31.040 and the roots of our restlessness go back even further still.

00:00:33.960 My guests today will trace some of these genealogical branches for us.

00:00:37.180 Their names are Benjamin and Jenna Story, they're a married couple,

00:00:39.920 professors of political philosophy, and the authors of the book,

00:00:42.460 Why We Are Restless, on the modern quest for contentment.

00:00:45.520 We begin our conversation with how the story's inquiry into restlessness

00:00:48.260 began from observing existential meltdowns in their students

00:00:51.060 and a constant but unfulfilling busyness in their friends.

00:00:54.020 The story then explains how Tocqueville observed a similar phenomenon

00:00:56.860 at the start of the 19th century, before digging into two of the philosophers

00:01:00.020 Tocqueville's observations were shaped by,

00:01:01.940 Michel de Montaigne and Blaise Pascal.

00:01:04.120 They first unpack Montaigne's ideal of living a life of cool,

00:01:07.460 nonchalant, existential indifference, which sought contentment in the here and now,

00:01:11.420 and then discuss Pascal's critique of that philosophy,

00:01:13.980 in which he argued that seeking diversion and distraction for its own sake

00:01:16.920 only makes us miserable, and that humans must engage in an anguished search

00:01:20.380 for something beyond ourselves.

00:01:21.720 We then explore what happened in the West,

00:01:23.280 when Montaigne's approach to life was adopted by the masses,

00:01:25.740 and how it's led to feelings of existential failure,

00:01:28.260 an impossible search for constant happiness, envy, loneliness,

00:01:31.440 and acrimonious political debates.

00:01:33.060 At the end of our conversation, the stories argue that while restlessness

00:01:35.660 can never be entirely extinguished, it can be tamed,

00:01:38.280 and suggest a few ways on how.

00:01:39.800 After the show's over, check out our show notes at awim.is

00:01:42.260 Benjamin Story, Jenna Story, welcome to the show.

00:01:57.740 Thanks, Brett, for having us on.

00:01:59.660 So you are the co-authors of a book called

00:02:02.060 Why We Are Restless on the Modern Quest for Contentment,

00:02:05.340 and this is, I would describe it, as a philosophical genealogy

00:02:09.660 to figure out why Americans in particular feel so angsty, restless,

00:02:15.120 like you don't, like, just life is, you don't have it quite figured out,

00:02:18.560 you don't feel situated.

00:02:20.020 I'm curious, what led you to explore this history of American restlessness?

00:02:26.020 Yeah, thanks, Brett, for the question.

00:02:28.280 Initially, the problem of restlessness was, for us,

00:02:31.420 a kind of pedagogical problem.

00:02:33.560 So we both teach at a liberal arts university,

00:02:36.840 Furman University, and we advise a lot of students,

00:02:40.780 and we were finding that they were having kind of inexplicable meltdowns

00:02:45.540 often in the fall of their senior year.

00:02:48.800 And this was happening, puzzlingly, among those,

00:02:51.940 especially among those students who had done everything

00:02:54.060 that the college had asked them to do.

00:02:56.520 So they had taken a vast array of courses,

00:02:59.020 they had done very well in all of those courses,

00:03:02.320 they had explored things outside of the curriculum,

00:03:05.300 they'd been on study abroad, sometimes two or three,

00:03:07.860 they had done staged internships their whole time throughout college,

00:03:11.380 and all of a sudden, you know,

00:03:13.640 they should have been prepared to launch,

00:03:15.900 but they were just kind of fizzling out on the pad,

00:03:19.040 and they would come to us

00:03:21.000 just not knowing what to do with their lives.

00:03:23.880 And we started to think there must be something wrong

00:03:28.360 with the standards we're setting for these young people.

00:03:31.440 There must be something wrong about what we're telling them to do

00:03:34.940 that would make them happy.

00:03:37.160 Because what we found is that they were kind of,

00:03:39.280 at the end of, in their senior year,

00:03:40.440 they just were kind of restless,

00:03:42.680 turned in on themselves,

00:03:44.300 running around in circles,

00:03:45.700 full of activities,

00:03:47.020 but devoid of purpose.

00:03:48.180 And have you two, besides your students,

00:03:50.340 have you seen this manifest itself in the broader culture,

00:03:53.000 or even amongst your circle of friends

00:03:54.560 that are about the same age?

00:03:56.520 Well, sure, Brett.

00:03:57.860 We are middle-aged, middle-class Americans with kids,

00:04:02.860 and people like us spend a great deal of their time running around,

00:04:08.240 schlepping the kids from Aikido to dance to piano lessons,

00:04:13.840 going to our own professional meetings,

00:04:15.980 and taking care of the house,

00:04:18.040 and so on and so forth.

00:04:19.680 And so we see this circuit of frenetic activity

00:04:24.560 very much alive in our own lives,

00:04:27.400 as well as in the lives of our students.

00:04:30.220 And so we don't think this is merely a problem

00:04:33.980 of young people who are in kind of late-stage,

00:04:38.860 angsty, teenager-nish.

00:04:40.640 This is a problem that pervades American life up and down. 0.84

00:04:44.760 And it's something that we see in ourselves.

00:04:47.120 Now, a lot of people, I'm sure, are listening,

00:04:49.380 and they say, yeah, I experienced that.

00:04:51.000 I know what you're talking about.

00:04:51.920 And they think, well, this must be just like a modern,

00:04:54.320 you know, late 20th century, early 21st century problem.

00:04:58.320 But as you guys explore in your book,

00:05:00.760 that this is something that's been going on in America

00:05:03.140 way back to the 19th century.

00:05:06.620 And in fact, there was this French aristocrat,

00:05:08.880 came over to America, did a tour,

00:05:10.940 and ended up writing a, you know, one of the foundational works

00:05:15.320 of sociology that we go to.

00:05:17.280 His name is Alexis de Tocqueville.

00:05:19.000 It's Democracy in America.

00:05:20.460 And when he was going around looking at America

00:05:23.660 in the early 19th century,

00:05:25.360 he noticed, too, that even back then,

00:05:27.580 Americans were really restless.

00:05:29.840 So how did restlessness manifest itself

00:05:32.100 in the early 1800s?

00:05:33.460 Yeah, so Tocqueville was here for 18 months

00:05:37.400 in 1831 to 1832.

00:05:40.260 And coming from the old world, 0.99

00:05:42.300 he was absolutely astonished by the kind of energy

00:05:45.100 he saw here in the new world.

00:05:47.880 Americans have been for a very long time 0.98

00:05:49.520 an amazingly energetic people.

00:05:51.560 We have what we call land of opportunity, right?

00:05:54.060 And it's very hard for us to resist chasing every lead.

00:05:58.020 And Tocqueville saw that back then.

00:05:59.360 We can see it now.

00:06:01.140 We're also a technological people.

00:06:02.960 We like, and we're good at innovating.

00:06:05.980 That makes us think that our problems

00:06:07.760 will be solved tomorrow,

00:06:09.380 probably by something that we can do and manage.

00:06:11.940 So that makes us restless, too.

00:06:14.060 We're always eager to get on to the next thing.

00:06:17.180 We have also a remarkable mobility,

00:06:20.040 geographic and social.

00:06:21.220 Of course, when Tocqueville was here,

00:06:22.300 people were moving out west.

00:06:24.420 There was just a lot of opportunity out there.

00:06:27.360 And that made people restless,

00:06:28.700 just looking to find the perfect spot.

00:06:31.160 And if I could share a kind of passage from Tocqueville,

00:06:35.000 that really gets me because he's writing about things

00:06:37.140 he saw back then in the 1830s,

00:06:38.720 but that I find myself and I find ourselves still doing today.

00:06:42.500 He's remarking on the fact that Americans,

00:06:44.580 you know, buy a new house,

00:06:46.180 maybe a fixer upper,

00:06:47.460 and they spend many years polishing it up

00:06:50.420 and putting in all sorts of new systems

00:06:52.320 and tricking it out.

00:06:53.800 And just as they're putting on the finishing touches,

00:06:57.060 they decide to sell it.

00:06:58.900 Now, we had read this passage.

00:07:00.040 We'd been reading this passage for like 15 years

00:07:01.860 before we did the exact same thing.

00:07:03.840 And, you know, we just felt like,

00:07:05.660 oh, he called it and we're doing it. 0.95

00:07:07.440 And we know this is somewhat ridiculous.

00:07:09.760 But nonetheless, we have a kind of internal mechanism

00:07:12.620 that pushes us to do those kinds of things.

00:07:14.920 And the consequence of us kind of moving around like that,

00:07:19.300 always looking for the next best thing is,

00:07:21.780 as Tocqueville says,

00:07:23.140 nothing is less suitable for meditation

00:07:25.860 than the interior of a democratic society.

00:07:28.900 Because we're moving around so much,

00:07:31.600 everything is attracting our notice, our attention,

00:07:34.600 but that makes us distracted.

00:07:36.580 And we're not able to meditate or observe anything very deeply.

00:07:41.060 No, I thought that was interesting.

00:07:41.820 Yeah, I thought it was interesting you noted that,

00:07:43.200 yeah, Americans were distracted

00:07:44.760 people and was like, man, nothing's changed.

00:07:47.180 Nothing's changed at all.

00:07:49.080 That's, you know, there's lots of wonderful books

00:07:52.180 being written now on, you know,

00:07:54.560 the problem of attention and the digital society.

00:07:57.560 But amazingly, Tocqueville wrote in the 1830s

00:08:00.900 that the problem of inattention

00:08:03.340 is the greatest vice of the democratic mind.

00:08:05.920 So he saw this all the way back then.

00:08:08.400 Surely our digital world accelerates

00:08:10.840 the difficulties we have with this,

00:08:12.740 but it's something deeper.

00:08:14.280 More than merely a technological phenomenon.

00:08:17.700 So we're going to come back to Tocqueville,

00:08:19.700 but I think in order to understand, you know,

00:08:22.080 why Tocqueville saw what he did in the American people

00:08:25.620 way back in, you know, in the 19th century,

00:08:27.540 you have to understand,

00:08:29.340 this is what the case you all make,

00:08:30.800 you have to understand the observations he made

00:08:33.100 were shaped by thinking about human happiness

00:08:36.660 and flourishing that other philosophers had made,

00:08:39.780 you know, centuries before him.

00:08:41.220 And you make the case that a lot of our restlessness

00:08:46.200 that we experience today in America,

00:08:48.120 but also I'd say in the West too,

00:08:50.320 goes back to the 16th century,

00:08:52.840 another French guy,

00:08:54.060 another French philosopher named Montaigne.

00:08:56.060 So for those who aren't familiar with Montaigne,

00:08:58.420 what's his story?

00:08:59.440 And how did he end up writing a series of essays

00:09:02.520 that changed the way we think about human happiness?

00:09:04.800 Yeah, so Michel de Montaigne stands as the fountainhead

00:09:09.300 of this tradition that we're tracing in this book,

00:09:11.640 this tradition of the moraliste.

00:09:13.480 And the word moraliste in French,

00:09:15.860 it's not actually best translated as moralist in English,

00:09:18.940 it's best translated as observers of men.

00:09:21.340 So these are writers of this,

00:09:23.460 who cultivate this art of very acute psychological penetration.

00:09:27.640 They're excellent observers of what's going,

00:09:30.180 of the hidden movements of the human soul.

00:09:31.700 And the first of these is Michel de Montaigne,

00:09:35.040 who is a 16th century French nobleman

00:09:38.220 who lived during the wars of religion.

00:09:41.540 That is, France had 30 years of religious war

00:09:44.120 during Montaigne's adulthood.

00:09:46.140 So roughly the second half of the 16th century.

00:09:49.680 These were particularly nasty three-way conflicts

00:09:52.620 between a sort of ultra Catholic party,

00:09:55.060 a Huguenot party,

00:09:56.180 and then the monarchy that sort of caught

00:09:57.940 in the middle between these two forces.

00:09:59.480 Montaigne had friends and family

00:10:01.740 on all sides of these conflicts,

00:10:03.560 and it touched him very directly.

00:10:06.820 So at one point,

00:10:09.320 a war party invaded the chateau,

00:10:11.780 invaded Montaigne's home.

00:10:13.680 They were in the courtyard of his chateau.

00:10:15.840 Another point, he was out riding along the highway

00:10:17.800 and was taken hostage and robbed,

00:10:20.540 and he thought he was on the verge of being executed.

00:10:23.660 And so the war was something that he knew firsthand.

00:10:28.060 And through it all,

00:10:29.480 as he tells us the story

00:10:30.820 in his semi-autobiographical essays,

00:10:33.980 through it all, he maintained his signature cool.

00:10:37.540 And keeping one's cool

00:10:39.360 is the center of Montaigne's moral philosophy.

00:10:43.360 And I think there are two elements of this

00:10:45.380 that one needs to understand

00:10:47.300 to really grasp what he's up to.

00:10:49.200 The first is intellectual,

00:10:50.740 and the second is moral.

00:10:51.980 On the intellectual front,

00:10:54.420 Montaigne makes an extraordinarily powerful case

00:10:56.860 for skepticism.

00:10:58.720 So in the classical and Christian tradition

00:11:01.560 leading up to Montaigne,

00:11:02.900 philosophers were constantly arguing

00:11:04.600 about the summum bonum,

00:11:06.040 about the highest good,

00:11:07.660 about the definition of human happiness.

00:11:11.600 And Montaigne looks at this tradition of argument,

00:11:13.620 and he says,

00:11:14.420 they've come up with at least 288 different answers

00:11:17.080 to this question.

00:11:18.380 There's no consensus whatsoever

00:11:20.120 about what makes human beings happy.

00:11:23.260 Moreover, these people

00:11:24.680 who do all this arguing about this,

00:11:26.160 who take themselves so seriously,

00:11:27.800 are often figures who don't really deserve

00:11:29.980 to be taken seriously by the rest of us.

00:11:31.920 And so he tells the story

00:11:33.020 of Thales, the astronomer,

00:11:35.320 who stumbles into a well

00:11:37.080 while he's stargazing,

00:11:38.500 and Diogenes, the cynic,

00:11:39.860 who makes his home in a barrel.

00:11:41.500 He says, 1.00

00:11:41.760 these people are kind of ridiculous, 1.00

00:11:43.100 and maybe we shouldn't worry so much 1.00

00:11:44.600 about the kinds of arguments they make

00:11:46.760 and the kinds of questions that they ask.

00:11:48.800 So Montaigne launches this critique of philosophers

00:11:51.060 who are interested in the question

00:11:52.340 of the highest good,

00:11:53.220 of what makes human beings happy,

00:11:54.880 and he clearly means that critique

00:11:56.740 to apply at least as pertinently

00:11:59.020 to theologians,

00:12:00.480 although he doesn't name them as much

00:12:02.500 as he does the philosophers.

00:12:04.400 And so the first point

00:12:05.440 that Montaigne wants to make

00:12:06.720 is this case for skepticism.

00:12:10.320 Now, the moral dimension of this

00:12:12.020 is what it looks like

00:12:14.180 when one makes skepticism the backdrop

00:12:16.280 and nonchalance the central virtue

00:12:18.340 of one's way of life.

00:12:20.180 And we can see this very powerfully

00:12:22.240 in Montaigne in a meditation

00:12:23.920 that he offers us on death.

00:12:26.220 Montaigne says,

00:12:27.300 I want death to find me 0.81

00:12:28.820 planting my cabbages, 0.95

00:12:30.300 but nonchalant about it

00:12:31.840 and still more about my unfinished garden.

00:12:35.340 So Montaigne says,

00:12:36.720 look, you know,

00:12:37.320 the ancient philosophers thought

00:12:38.440 you had to learn to die.

00:12:39.860 He says, learning to die,

00:12:40.880 it's not that hard.

00:12:41.500 Death isn't that big a deal.

00:12:43.260 In fact, nothing is all that big a deal.

00:12:45.640 So Montaigne paints a portrait for us

00:12:47.860 of a life of kind of satisfying

00:12:50.100 existential indifference.

00:12:51.660 He doesn't think anything

00:12:52.640 is all that important.

00:12:54.280 So Montaigne reads,

00:12:55.580 but he does so without the ambition

00:12:57.040 of the scholar.

00:12:58.080 He travels,

00:12:59.100 but without the pride of the explorer

00:13:00.640 or the hopes of the pilgrim.

00:13:02.720 He has love affairs

00:13:04.560 and eventually a family,

00:13:06.100 but he doesn't really hope

00:13:07.320 for too much from either.

00:13:09.140 He has a garden,

00:13:10.360 but he doesn't really care

00:13:11.760 if there's a little fungus

00:13:12.740 on the plants

00:13:13.440 or some weeds

00:13:14.960 growing next to the tomatoes.

00:13:16.900 He glides lightly

00:13:19.380 over the surface of life

00:13:21.180 as he puts it to us.

00:13:22.700 And that's the center

00:13:23.540 of his art of living.

00:13:25.240 Okay.

00:13:25.440 So just to recap there.

00:13:26.520 So before Montaigne,

00:13:27.620 you would say that

00:13:28.340 the way humans

00:13:30.040 ordered their lives

00:13:31.520 was around some,

00:13:32.980 there's like a telos.

00:13:33.900 So Aristotle had this idea

00:13:35.200 that, you know,

00:13:35.600 human beings,

00:13:36.740 their telos is

00:13:37.520 to be rational animals.

00:13:39.660 So you're supposed to be

00:13:40.180 as rational as possible,

00:13:41.180 et cetera.

00:13:41.940 Plato had his forms

00:13:43.200 and then you bring in religion.

00:13:45.140 Augustine said,

00:13:45.800 you're supposed to order your life

00:13:47.360 according to God's,

00:13:49.440 you know,

00:13:49.920 will or whatever.

00:13:51.140 Montaigne said,

00:13:51.780 yeah,

00:13:52.220 no one really knows.

00:13:53.240 I'll just,

00:13:54.000 I'll paint and plant my garden

00:13:56.160 and read books

00:13:57.000 and that's life.

00:13:58.900 Exactly.

00:13:59.940 So if we,

00:14:00.800 I think a nice comparison

00:14:02.120 can be made

00:14:03.740 to the classical

00:14:04.700 and Christian tradition

00:14:06.240 by remembering

00:14:08.020 the famous line

00:14:09.220 of Socrates

00:14:09.820 from his speech

00:14:11.840 to the Athenian jury

00:14:12.820 when he's on trial

00:14:14.040 for his life

00:14:14.660 in which he says,

00:14:16.040 the unexamined life

00:14:16.980 is not worth living

00:14:17.840 for a human being.

00:14:19.420 And I think

00:14:20.280 we often read that

00:14:21.400 as a kind of

00:14:22.060 hyperbolic statement

00:14:23.240 about how important

00:14:25.440 philosophy is

00:14:26.500 to Socrates.

00:14:27.360 I don't think

00:14:28.140 it's hyperbolic.

00:14:29.340 I think Socrates

00:14:29.980 means that literally.

00:14:31.300 Life is not worth living

00:14:33.360 without the crown

00:14:34.760 of philosophy.

00:14:35.700 Philosophy is what

00:14:36.720 makes life worth it.

00:14:38.940 We can see the same thing

00:14:40.240 in the Gospels

00:14:41.160 where Jesus tells us

00:14:42.920 that we should seek

00:14:44.160 the pearl of great price.

00:14:46.540 And without

00:14:47.360 that saving faith,

00:14:50.080 life is hell on earth

00:14:51.360 and damnation hereafter

00:14:52.500 from that point of view.

00:14:54.860 And so Montaigne

00:14:55.780 inherits a tradition

00:14:56.940 of people

00:14:57.520 who are really serious

00:14:58.920 about whatever version

00:15:01.200 of the summum bonum

00:15:02.140 it is that they adhere to.

00:15:04.560 What the philosopher

00:15:05.680 Pierre Manon

00:15:06.440 has written about Montaigne,

00:15:08.060 he remarks that

00:15:09.300 Montaigne offers something

00:15:11.000 to all those human beings

00:15:12.800 who don't care

00:15:13.920 either about the salvation

00:15:15.500 of their cities

00:15:16.220 or the salvation

00:15:17.040 of their souls.

00:15:18.260 It's a life

00:15:18.960 of splendid,

00:15:20.920 seeming,

00:15:21.560 existential indifference.

00:15:23.700 And you call this

00:15:25.300 sort of philosophy,

00:15:26.280 this philosophy of Montaigne

00:15:27.220 imminent contentment.

00:15:28.500 So you're just trying

00:15:28.920 to find contentment

00:15:29.840 in the here and now.

00:15:30.960 You're not worried about,

00:15:32.260 you know,

00:15:32.860 some platonic form

00:15:34.800 or some hereafter.

00:15:36.140 You're just thinking about

00:15:36.760 what makes me happy right now.

00:15:39.020 That's right.

00:15:39.760 So we're looking for

00:15:40.480 what makes us happy right now.

00:15:42.020 And the essential element,

00:15:43.800 the originality

00:15:44.580 of the Montaigne formula

00:15:45.780 is the emphasis

00:15:47.360 that he places

00:15:48.380 on variety.

00:15:49.700 So there's an ancient

00:15:51.540 adage of moderation,

00:15:53.400 nothing too much.

00:15:54.960 And Montaigne echoes

00:15:56.100 that adage,

00:15:57.320 nothing too much,

00:15:58.060 but he adds to it

00:15:59.240 a softening

00:16:00.540 modern corollary,

00:16:02.440 nothing too little.

00:16:03.640 So he achieves

00:16:04.960 an attitude

00:16:06.720 of nonchalance

00:16:07.640 toward every good

00:16:08.740 that he pursues

00:16:09.720 in his life

00:16:10.540 by leavening it

00:16:13.200 with the pursuit

00:16:14.380 of other goods.

00:16:16.220 And so

00:16:16.600 while Montaigne

00:16:17.980 likes books,

00:16:18.660 he doesn't like them

00:16:19.860 too much

00:16:20.460 and he takes breaks

00:16:21.560 from books

00:16:22.200 to go putter about

00:16:24.100 in his garden.

00:16:25.760 So moderation

00:16:26.440 through variation

00:16:27.640 is the Montaigne formula

00:16:29.640 for finding

00:16:30.500 imminent contentment.

00:16:32.300 I think we can

00:16:33.480 actually see

00:16:34.660 that formula,

00:16:35.980 moderation

00:16:36.260 through variation,

00:16:37.040 as my husband put it,

00:16:38.480 at work in our lives.

00:16:40.440 We say it a little bit differently.

00:16:41.740 We talk about

00:16:42.200 finding balance,

00:16:43.440 right?

00:16:43.920 And when we want

00:16:45.240 to find balance,

00:16:46.000 that's the kind of indication

00:16:46.960 that we really don't want

00:16:48.000 to do too much

00:16:49.000 of any one thing.

00:16:49.840 We're a little bit worried

00:16:50.600 about becoming

00:16:51.280 overly bookish

00:16:52.420 or, you know,

00:16:53.800 too buff

00:16:54.420 or something like that.

00:16:55.680 And so we try to do

00:16:56.760 a little bit of everything.

00:16:57.880 We kind of try to dabble

00:16:59.320 our way to happiness.

00:17:01.320 And we've come to think

00:17:02.780 that this idea

00:17:03.480 of finding balance

00:17:04.680 in your life

00:17:05.320 is actually

00:17:06.140 really mistaken.

00:17:08.160 We're going to take

00:17:08.680 a quick break

00:17:09.080 for your word

00:17:09.500 from our sponsors.

00:17:12.920 And now back

00:17:13.760 to the show.

00:17:14.700 All right.

00:17:14.840 So eminent contentment

00:17:15.980 is this idea,

00:17:17.300 you know,

00:17:17.620 you can't figure out

00:17:18.400 what the summa bonum

00:17:19.120 is in life,

00:17:19.720 so just enjoy yourself.

00:17:20.640 And it sounds awesome.

00:17:21.540 You know,

00:17:21.700 you just like read books,

00:17:23.140 you paint,

00:17:24.200 plant some cabbage,

00:17:25.580 talk to your friends.

00:17:26.680 But then another French 1.00

00:17:27.980 thinker comes along

00:17:28.660 and says,

00:17:29.060 actually,

00:17:30.320 Montaigne's idea

00:17:31.040 of happiness,

00:17:31.940 that's just

00:17:32.420 keeping people miserable.

00:17:34.280 And this guy's name

00:17:35.260 is Pascal.

00:17:35.960 I'm sure people

00:17:36.800 have heard of Pascal

00:17:37.400 with Pascal's Wager.

00:17:39.140 But for those

00:17:39.660 who aren't familiar

00:17:40.040 with him,

00:17:40.560 tell us about Pascal

00:17:41.380 and what did he contribute

00:17:43.220 to this idea

00:17:43.800 of human flourishing

00:17:44.800 and happiness?

00:17:46.200 So all the thinkers

00:17:47.880 that we treat

00:17:48.620 in this book

00:17:49.760 are extraordinary minds,

00:17:52.360 people who lived

00:17:53.200 extraordinary lives.

00:17:54.720 But there's none

00:17:55.960 more extraordinary

00:17:56.840 than Blaise Pascal,

00:17:59.260 whom a later French writer,

00:18:01.240 Chateaubriand,

00:18:02.220 called a frightening genius.

00:18:04.920 And this label

00:18:06.020 is truly fitting.

00:18:08.380 Pascal was a,

00:18:11.060 world historical figure

00:18:12.800 in mathematics

00:18:14.420 and geometry.

00:18:16.060 He discovered

00:18:16.880 what's the arithmetic sequence

00:18:18.900 known as Pascal's triangle.

00:18:21.520 He did important work

00:18:22.960 on the geometric

00:18:24.100 phenomena,

00:18:25.620 the conic section.

00:18:27.280 He was also

00:18:28.480 a world historical physicist

00:18:30.520 who did experiments

00:18:32.520 on,

00:18:33.480 designed to show

00:18:34.100 that air had weight

00:18:35.180 and also attempting

00:18:38.160 to abolish

00:18:39.300 the scholastic

00:18:40.960 commonplace

00:18:41.800 that nature

00:18:42.500 abhors a vacuum.

00:18:44.420 He was also

00:18:45.360 an inventor

00:18:46.320 and invented

00:18:48.040 the world's first

00:18:49.180 working calculator,

00:18:50.840 which could add,

00:18:52.000 subtract,

00:18:52.620 multiply,

00:18:53.280 and divide

00:18:54.020 numbers of up

00:18:54.860 to eight digits.

00:18:56.160 He presided

00:18:56.820 over the manufacture

00:18:57.700 of these things.

00:18:58.500 They're called

00:18:58.840 Pascadien,

00:18:59.820 and there are

00:19:01.100 still several examples

00:19:02.740 that exist now

00:19:04.240 and work,

00:19:04.940 which you should try

00:19:06.580 with your Texas instruments

00:19:07.920 in 400 years.

00:19:09.880 So he,

00:19:11.360 in addition to these

00:19:12.380 mathematical

00:19:13.020 and scientific

00:19:14.080 accomplishments,

00:19:15.660 he was a great

00:19:16.360 literary stylist

00:19:17.360 in his provincial letters.

00:19:19.620 He set some

00:19:20.840 of the forms

00:19:21.480 of French language

00:19:22.800 that would be used

00:19:23.580 for writers,

00:19:24.280 by writers

00:19:24.780 for generations

00:19:25.480 after him.

00:19:27.280 He was a philanthropist

00:19:29.160 who helped

00:19:30.100 give Paris

00:19:31.000 its first system

00:19:32.940 of public transportation

00:19:34.920 called the Five-Cent Carriages,

00:19:37.120 and he was a great

00:19:38.400 philosopher

00:19:39.440 and religious

00:19:40.560 apologist

00:19:41.340 in his final

00:19:43.320 and greatest work

00:19:44.600 called

00:19:45.360 The Pensée.

00:19:46.720 And Pascal

00:19:47.260 did all this

00:19:48.480 before 40 years

00:19:50.120 of age.

00:19:50.740 He died

00:19:51.220 at the age

00:19:51.740 of only 39,

00:19:53.240 having completed

00:19:54.040 all the accomplishments

00:19:54.760 that I just described.

00:19:56.400 So Pascal

00:19:57.240 was a genuinely

00:19:58.680 extraordinary figure

00:20:00.180 in many different

00:20:01.720 dimensions,

00:20:02.940 and he was raised

00:20:05.120 among a class

00:20:06.240 of people

00:20:06.820 who were deeply

00:20:07.980 influenced

00:20:08.780 by the Montaigne

00:20:10.660 vision

00:20:11.180 of the good life.

00:20:13.480 And Pascal

00:20:13.940 spent a lot of time

00:20:14.860 with these folks.

00:20:15.700 He hung around

00:20:16.800 in the salon

00:20:17.260 with them

00:20:17.760 when they were flirting.

00:20:19.160 He gambled

00:20:20.340 with them.

00:20:21.040 He went hunting

00:20:22.000 with them.

00:20:23.200 And he examined

00:20:24.400 the kinds of lives

00:20:25.500 they're living,

00:20:25.960 and he said,

00:20:26.340 this all looks

00:20:27.380 very charming,

00:20:28.860 these variegated

00:20:30.120 and artful lives

00:20:31.240 my friends

00:20:32.020 had built up

00:20:32.520 for themselves.

00:20:33.640 But secretly, 0.99

00:20:35.140 they're miserable. 0.96

00:20:36.520 And he thinks 0.98

00:20:37.340 he sees the key

00:20:38.560 to their misery.

00:20:41.080 He thinks he sees

00:20:41.860 the tell

00:20:42.420 in their taste

00:20:44.060 for diversion.

00:20:45.600 That is,

00:20:46.660 when he looks

00:20:47.500 at, say,

00:20:48.000 for example,

00:20:48.500 his friends

00:20:49.240 and their love

00:20:50.400 of gambling,

00:20:51.400 he asks himself,

00:20:53.100 what do people

00:20:53.840 actually experience

00:20:55.760 when they're gambling?

00:20:57.340 And he says,

00:20:57.880 when you're in the

00:20:58.360 middle of the game,

00:20:59.160 you're thinking

00:21:00.320 about the stakes.

00:21:01.280 You're thinking

00:21:01.600 about what you stand

00:21:02.420 to win.

00:21:03.540 And so,

00:21:03.820 your mind is actually

00:21:04.500 kind of elsewhere.

00:21:05.820 And he says,

00:21:06.460 when you've won,

00:21:07.720 you long for the game

00:21:08.880 to begin again.

00:21:10.500 And so,

00:21:11.020 whichever of these

00:21:11.740 states that you're in,

00:21:13.660 you're thinking

00:21:14.400 about the other state.

00:21:16.040 That is,

00:21:16.400 your mind is not present

00:21:17.760 in the place

00:21:18.900 and the time

00:21:19.740 where you are.

00:21:21.320 So,

00:21:21.720 what Pascal thinks

00:21:22.860 human beings

00:21:23.840 are often genuinely

00:21:24.760 seeking

00:21:25.220 is distraction.

00:21:27.120 We don't love things

00:21:28.200 and therefore get

00:21:28.800 distracted by them.

00:21:29.760 We love distraction

00:21:30.600 for its own sake.

00:21:32.240 And he asks,

00:21:32.980 why is that?

00:21:34.180 He thinks we want

00:21:34.900 to get away

00:21:35.360 from ourselves

00:21:36.120 because we are

00:21:37.980 secretly miserable.

00:21:39.600 And what's the cause

00:21:40.600 of that misery

00:21:41.160 according to Pascal?

00:21:42.900 Yeah,

00:21:43.220 so Pascal thinks

00:21:44.720 human beings

00:21:45.840 are both greater 0.98

00:21:47.260 and more wretched 0.75

00:21:48.980 than Montaigne

00:21:50.740 made them out to be.

00:21:52.640 And so,

00:21:53.000 in one of the most

00:21:53.660 famous pensées,

00:21:55.320 and the pensées

00:21:55.880 are literary fragments,

00:21:57.280 so Pascal

00:21:58.360 made the notes

00:21:59.380 for a great book

00:22:00.740 and he gave

00:22:01.540 some lectures

00:22:02.140 on the basis

00:22:03.140 of what he was

00:22:03.640 working on,

00:22:04.060 but he never

00:22:04.420 got to compose

00:22:05.000 it into a book.

00:22:06.240 And so,

00:22:06.760 his heirs

00:22:07.920 went into his study

00:22:08.740 after he died

00:22:09.400 and they found

00:22:09.820 like piles

00:22:10.700 of paper everywhere

00:22:11.560 and they composed

00:22:13.380 this into this

00:22:14.560 work that's come

00:22:15.620 down to us

00:22:16.060 as the pensées.

00:22:17.060 So,

00:22:17.480 one of the most

00:22:17.840 famous pensées,

00:22:18.880 one of the most

00:22:19.240 famous of these thoughts,

00:22:20.340 that's what pensées

00:22:20.960 means in French,

00:22:22.260 is one called

00:22:23.620 the thinking read.

00:22:24.500 And so,

00:22:26.080 what Pascal

00:22:26.520 tells us

00:22:27.200 about ourselves

00:22:27.820 is that we are

00:22:29.600 as fragile

00:22:30.500 as a blade

00:22:31.900 of grass,

00:22:32.620 as a reed

00:22:33.400 that is a vapor

00:22:34.600 or a drop of water

00:22:36.020 can kill us. 0.79

00:22:38.220 On the other hand, 0.85

00:22:39.660 we have these minds

00:22:41.080 with absolutely

00:22:43.280 extraordinary powers.

00:22:45.560 So,

00:22:45.920 while the universe

00:22:46.560 will eventually

00:22:47.420 crush all of us,

00:22:49.340 through our minds, 0.93

00:22:50.240 we can think

00:22:51.220 the thought universe

00:22:52.300 and as far

00:22:54.000 as we know,

00:22:54.620 there's nothing else

00:22:55.500 in the universe

00:22:56.100 that does that.

00:22:57.780 And so,

00:22:58.280 the mind

00:22:58.840 is the first

00:23:00.280 locus of human

00:23:01.260 greatness

00:23:01.720 for Pascal

00:23:02.960 and

00:23:04.260 but our

00:23:05.840 very intellectual

00:23:06.960 capacities

00:23:07.660 are a part

00:23:09.560 of our misery.

00:23:10.820 So,

00:23:11.060 for example,

00:23:12.000 trees are

00:23:12.620 every bit as mortal

00:23:13.520 as we are

00:23:14.400 but they don't know it

00:23:15.540 and we do

00:23:16.260 and that makes us

00:23:17.660 profoundly unhappy.

00:23:18.700 Okay,

00:23:20.040 and so,

00:23:20.600 he would say,

00:23:22.160 Pascal would say,

00:23:22.780 well,

00:23:23.100 that misery,

00:23:24.640 what Montaigne is doing

00:23:25.360 is you're just

00:23:26.040 distracting from

00:23:26.840 that misery.

00:23:27.960 That's right.

00:23:28.500 So,

00:23:28.840 what would Pascal,

00:23:29.500 does Pascal offer a solution

00:23:30.780 or is he just like

00:23:31.520 a problem pointer outer?

00:23:33.480 Yeah.

00:23:34.940 Pascal

00:23:35.380 wishes to make us

00:23:38.340 into what he calls

00:23:40.300 seekers in anguish.

00:23:43.040 And so,

00:23:44.920 in another famous fragment,

00:23:47.220 Pascal says

00:23:48.080 about human beings,

00:23:49.800 he says about man,

00:23:50.620 he says,

00:23:51.540 if he humbles himself,

00:23:53.080 I exalt him.

00:23:54.300 If he exalts himself,

00:23:56.120 I humble him

00:23:56.920 and I continue

00:23:58.180 to contradict him

00:23:59.460 until he understands

00:24:00.700 that he is an 1.00

00:24:01.740 incomprehensible monster. 0.99

00:24:03.860 So,

00:24:04.260 Pascal

00:24:04.580 wishes

00:24:05.560 to

00:24:06.180 hold up the mirror

00:24:08.060 to the paradoxical

00:24:10.520 character

00:24:11.060 of

00:24:12.300 the human person.

00:24:14.660 He wishes

00:24:15.220 to make us

00:24:16.200 into mysteries

00:24:16.980 into mysteries

00:24:17.000 to ourselves.

00:24:18.740 And by making

00:24:19.620 us into mysteries

00:24:21.120 to ourselves,

00:24:22.660 Pascal incites us

00:24:24.120 to seek.

00:24:25.580 And he himself

00:24:27.280 follows this seeking motion

00:24:29.360 through philosophy

00:24:30.740 and ultimately

00:24:31.720 into religion,

00:24:33.460 where he thinks

00:24:35.720 we're most likely

00:24:37.000 to find

00:24:37.740 the answer

00:24:39.040 that constitutes

00:24:39.920 the human soul.

00:24:40.720 So,

00:24:41.500 that's what

00:24:41.900 Pascal wants

00:24:42.640 us to do,

00:24:43.260 where

00:24:44.220 Montaigne wants

00:24:45.240 to make us

00:24:45.720 come home

00:24:46.280 to ourselves

00:24:46.880 and be content

00:24:47.640 in the little circle

00:24:49.060 of imminent contentment.

00:24:51.640 Pascal wants

00:24:52.500 to kind of

00:24:52.840 crack us open

00:24:53.620 and set us

00:24:54.100 in motion.

00:24:55.300 And is he

00:24:55.620 wanting people

00:24:56.340 to,

00:24:56.820 I mean,

00:24:56.960 is it sort of

00:24:57.260 an Augustine

00:24:58.700 approach to life?

00:24:59.860 You know,

00:25:00.000 like,

00:25:00.180 you know,

00:25:00.340 Augustine said,

00:25:00.900 our hearts

00:25:01.200 are restless,

00:25:02.180 Lord,

00:25:02.360 until they rest

00:25:03.040 in you.

00:25:03.900 Are we supposed,

00:25:04.320 does Pascal think

00:25:05.040 we should like

00:25:05.500 seek God?

00:25:07.000 Is that how we

00:25:07.580 extinguish

00:25:08.240 this restlessness

00:25:08.800 or will we

00:25:09.340 always be

00:25:09.820 restless,

00:25:10.660 according to

00:25:11.080 Pascal?

00:25:12.560 Yeah,

00:25:13.020 Pascal was a,

00:25:14.020 he was close

00:25:15.540 with a group

00:25:16.420 of 17th century

00:25:17.640 thinkers

00:25:18.620 called the

00:25:19.480 Jansenists,

00:25:20.560 but the Jansenists

00:25:21.460 is a name

00:25:21.980 given to them

00:25:22.540 by their enemies.

00:25:23.580 What they thought

00:25:24.120 of themselves

00:25:24.620 as was

00:25:25.900 Augustinians.

00:25:27.080 So,

00:25:27.440 Pascal is a

00:25:28.400 very Augustinian

00:25:29.520 thinker.

00:25:30.520 And I think

00:25:31.140 that he

00:25:32.500 thinks,

00:25:33.440 as Augustine

00:25:34.360 does,

00:25:35.400 that there

00:25:36.340 is a certain

00:25:36.900 kind of

00:25:37.460 restlessness

00:25:37.920 that is

00:25:38.420 natural

00:25:38.900 to the

00:25:39.300 human soul

00:25:40.000 and that

00:25:41.040 that restlessness

00:25:41.840 ultimately

00:25:42.600 points us

00:25:43.420 beyond anything

00:25:44.380 that we can

00:25:45.180 find in the

00:25:45.960 world of

00:25:46.480 nature

00:25:46.880 or human

00:25:47.920 art.

00:25:49.340 But

00:25:49.860 Pascal does

00:25:51.400 not think,

00:25:52.020 and I don't

00:25:52.340 think Augustine

00:25:53.020 thinks either,

00:25:54.300 that we

00:25:55.460 ever find

00:25:56.520 complete

00:25:56.980 satisfaction,

00:25:57.820 we ever

00:25:58.140 become at

00:25:58.840 home

00:25:59.280 in the

00:26:00.500 here and

00:26:00.820 now.

00:26:01.160 And this

00:26:01.420 is the

00:26:01.680 way in

00:26:01.960 which Pascal

00:26:02.420 really reverses

00:26:03.540 the Montaigne

00:26:04.780 vision of

00:26:05.660 life.

00:26:06.480 And so

00:26:06.740 Pascal wants

00:26:07.580 to launch

00:26:08.200 us on

00:26:08.980 a search

00:26:09.440 that ultimately

00:26:09.980 his own

00:26:10.440 search ultimately

00:26:11.020 leads him

00:26:11.560 towards God,

00:26:12.460 but he

00:26:12.860 doesn't think

00:26:13.360 that he

00:26:13.600 can give

00:26:14.080 us God.

00:26:14.760 He doesn't

00:26:15.160 think that he

00:26:15.620 can give

00:26:15.940 us a

00:26:16.280 formula for

00:26:17.500 how we

00:26:17.820 ought to

00:26:18.040 live or

00:26:18.560 answer the

00:26:19.540 question of

00:26:20.460 the haunted

00:26:21.340 and seeking

00:26:21.960 human soul

00:26:22.740 that we are

00:26:23.920 on his

00:26:24.380 account.

00:26:25.180 He thinks

00:26:25.660 we have to

00:26:26.080 seek for

00:26:26.540 ourselves

00:26:27.100 and that

00:26:27.920 what we're

00:26:28.280 seeking for

00:26:29.080 is not

00:26:29.920 something that's

00:26:30.440 within human

00:26:31.260 control.

00:26:32.680 And so

00:26:32.960 the most

00:26:33.660 that Pascal

00:26:34.100 thinks he

00:26:34.860 can do

00:26:35.340 is get

00:26:35.840 us launched

00:26:36.540 on the

00:26:37.040 search.

00:26:38.660 All right,

00:26:38.840 so now we

00:26:39.320 can come

00:26:39.560 back to

00:26:39.880 Tocqueville.

00:26:40.340 And Jenna,

00:26:40.880 this is your

00:26:41.440 area of

00:26:41.800 expertise.

00:26:42.860 Tocqueville,

00:26:43.420 he read

00:26:43.680 Montaigne,

00:26:44.340 he read

00:26:44.540 Pascal along

00:26:45.340 with some

00:26:45.580 other

00:26:45.760 philosophers,

00:26:46.220 and that

00:26:47.380 influences

00:26:47.840 observations

00:26:48.500 of Americans

00:26:49.280 and his

00:26:49.660 thoughts about

00:26:50.360 their

00:26:50.560 restlessness.

00:26:51.800 And one

00:26:52.140 of the

00:26:52.300 observations

00:26:52.740 that Tocqueville

00:26:53.300 makes,

00:26:53.820 and I think

00:26:54.200 this is the

00:26:54.660 case that you

00:26:55.280 two make

00:26:55.960 as well in

00:26:56.280 your book,

00:26:57.140 is the

00:26:57.520 reason why

00:26:57.960 Americans

00:26:58.700 tended to

00:26:59.360 be so

00:26:59.760 restless was

00:27:00.600 that Americans

00:27:01.220 democratized

00:27:02.360 Montaigne's

00:27:03.360 idea of

00:27:04.000 imminent

00:27:04.280 contentment.

00:27:05.480 What does

00:27:06.000 Tocqueville mean

00:27:06.700 by that?

00:27:07.500 Right,

00:27:07.680 so for

00:27:08.040 Montaigne,

00:27:08.660 this idea

00:27:09.280 of seeking

00:27:10.080 happiness in

00:27:10.780 the here and

00:27:11.160 now was

00:27:12.400 very inventive

00:27:13.780 at the time.

00:27:14.560 It was

00:27:14.720 countercultural.

00:27:16.080 It was a

00:27:16.420 kind of remedy,

00:27:17.320 as my husband

00:27:17.940 said,

00:27:18.540 for the

00:27:19.160 fanaticism that

00:27:20.300 he saw

00:27:21.020 swirling about

00:27:21.720 him.

00:27:22.760 For us,

00:27:23.460 it's become

00:27:23.900 a kind of

00:27:24.360 default.

00:27:25.760 So you

00:27:26.140 might think

00:27:26.460 about it

00:27:26.720 this way.

00:27:27.260 Some people

00:27:27.580 have said,

00:27:28.040 some scholars

00:27:28.440 have said

00:27:28.800 that

00:27:29.040 Montaigne

00:27:29.460 is a

00:27:29.740 kind of

00:27:30.000 proto-bourgeois,

00:27:31.240 or at

00:27:31.680 least he

00:27:31.960 gave inspiration

00:27:33.100 to the

00:27:33.580 rising

00:27:34.000 bourgeois

00:27:34.940 class.

00:27:36.020 Now,

00:27:36.220 that makes

00:27:36.580 sense,

00:27:36.920 I think,

00:27:37.400 if you

00:27:37.620 see

00:27:38.020 Montaigne

00:27:39.220 not as

00:27:39.940 a grim

00:27:41.740 capitalist,

00:27:42.540 because that

00:27:42.880 bears very

00:27:43.300 little resemblance

00:27:44.580 to Montaigne's

00:27:45.180 life,

00:27:45.740 but something

00:27:46.180 more like

00:27:46.780 what David

00:27:47.220 Brooks

00:27:47.500 describes as

00:27:48.340 the

00:27:48.680 bobo

00:27:48.980 lifestyle,

00:27:49.860 right?

00:27:50.100 The kind

00:27:50.320 of white

00:27:50.620 collar work

00:27:51.140 with a

00:27:51.440 creative

00:27:51.740 flair.

00:27:52.680 Lots

00:27:53.040 of time

00:27:53.900 for hobbies

00:27:54.900 and other

00:27:55.380 sort of

00:27:55.800 interesting

00:27:56.520 pursuits.

00:27:57.100 That's

00:27:57.680 more like

00:27:58.400 what

00:27:58.680 Montaigne

00:27:59.000 was doing,

00:27:59.500 if you were

00:28:00.320 to make an

00:28:00.720 analogy to

00:28:01.300 our time.

00:28:02.760 So,

00:28:03.160 you might

00:28:03.360 see America

00:28:03.820 as a

00:28:04.060 kind of

00:28:04.320 land of

00:28:05.180 bobos,

00:28:06.100 a land of

00:28:06.640 Montaigneans

00:28:07.120 in that

00:28:07.400 way.

00:28:08.180 To put it

00:28:08.600 a bit

00:28:08.860 differently,

00:28:09.460 J.S.

00:28:09.780 Mill,

00:28:10.180 when he was

00:28:11.080 talking about

00:28:11.680 America,

00:28:12.040 also in the

00:28:12.400 19th century,

00:28:13.380 said America

00:28:13.860 is a land

00:28:15.180 of all

00:28:15.800 middle-class

00:28:16.240 people.

00:28:16.740 It's all

00:28:17.340 middle-class.

00:28:18.940 That's

00:28:19.420 obviously a

00:28:20.180 bit of an

00:28:21.120 exaggeration.

00:28:21.860 We are

00:28:22.900 not all

00:28:23.280 middle-class,

00:28:24.400 but we

00:28:25.280 hold the

00:28:26.520 aspirations,

00:28:27.500 ideals,

00:28:27.840 and expectations

00:28:28.480 of middle-class

00:28:29.320 life as a

00:28:30.180 kind of

00:28:30.640 default.

00:28:31.920 Gotcha.

00:28:32.260 So,

00:28:32.840 there's no

00:28:33.220 longer,

00:28:34.000 I mean,

00:28:34.380 I think

00:28:34.720 Pascal would

00:28:35.380 say,

00:28:35.520 well,

00:28:35.600 there's no

00:28:35.860 longer,

00:28:36.420 people aren't

00:28:37.000 directed in

00:28:37.500 America by,

00:28:38.180 they're not

00:28:38.580 seeking something

00:28:39.560 beyond themselves.

00:28:41.460 They're just

00:28:42.180 trying to figure

00:28:43.080 out how to

00:28:43.880 find meaning

00:28:44.440 with their

00:28:45.380 CrossFit

00:28:46.040 classes or

00:28:46.860 their movies

00:28:47.560 or their

00:28:48.100 sports.

00:28:49.340 And Pascal

00:28:49.900 would say,

00:28:50.700 yeah,

00:28:50.840 good luck

00:28:51.200 with that.

00:28:51.500 You're

00:28:52.120 never going

00:28:52.380 to have

00:28:52.540 any luck

00:28:53.160 with that.

00:28:54.300 I think

00:28:54.560 we sometimes

00:28:55.000 fully reach

00:28:55.820 beyond that,

00:28:56.540 but it's

00:28:56.880 not really

00:28:57.900 necessarily

00:28:58.820 supported in

00:28:59.680 a consistent

00:29:00.160 way by

00:29:01.400 our society.

00:29:03.400 And because

00:29:04.280 we're supposed

00:29:05.300 to be happy

00:29:06.400 within our

00:29:06.960 kind of circles

00:29:07.780 of imminent

00:29:08.340 contentment,

00:29:09.600 that makes

00:29:10.700 us very

00:29:11.340 puzzled when

00:29:12.260 we're not

00:29:12.960 happy within

00:29:14.600 those circles,

00:29:15.400 right?

00:29:15.680 So,

00:29:16.100 if we tell

00:29:16.780 ourselves and

00:29:17.340 each other

00:29:17.780 that outfitting

00:29:19.420 those circles

00:29:20.080 of imminent

00:29:20.500 contentment is

00:29:21.240 what we need

00:29:21.920 to do to

00:29:22.560 achieve happiness,

00:29:23.780 when it

00:29:24.340 doesn't work,

00:29:25.180 we don't

00:29:25.560 know where

00:29:25.920 to go.

00:29:27.260 And there's

00:29:27.660 also a

00:29:28.080 kind of

00:29:28.640 particular

00:29:29.320 pressure,

00:29:30.180 maybe social

00:29:30.680 pressure,

00:29:31.420 put on

00:29:31.980 people to

00:29:33.240 be or

00:29:34.320 seem happy

00:29:35.160 in our

00:29:35.720 society.

00:29:36.580 And I

00:29:36.800 think that's

00:29:37.200 because the

00:29:38.940 pursuit of

00:29:39.420 imminent goods

00:29:40.140 seems more

00:29:40.820 or less

00:29:41.040 possible to

00:29:41.860 attain,

00:29:42.600 right?

00:29:43.400 The goal

00:29:44.740 here is not

00:29:45.260 as extraordinary

00:29:46.120 as something

00:29:47.200 like holiness

00:29:47.860 or heroism.

00:29:49.320 We should

00:29:49.720 be able to

00:29:50.440 outfit our

00:29:50.980 lives so

00:29:51.940 that they're

00:29:52.320 interesting and

00:29:53.060 comfortable.

00:29:54.020 And that makes

00:29:54.800 us assume that

00:29:55.600 happiness is a

00:29:56.300 kind of default

00:29:56.900 way to be,

00:29:57.940 rather than a

00:29:58.860 rare achievement

00:29:59.660 as someone like

00:30:00.980 Aristotle would 0.63

00:30:02.180 have pointed out.

00:30:03.680 And therefore,

00:30:04.540 we have a social

00:30:05.100 pressure, as I

00:30:05.780 was saying,

00:30:06.200 to either be

00:30:07.120 or seem happy.

00:30:08.560 And when we're

00:30:09.140 not happy,

00:30:10.040 when we're

00:30:10.340 unhappy,

00:30:10.980 our suffering

00:30:11.540 is kind of

00:30:12.200 compounded by

00:30:13.560 guilt,

00:30:14.400 the guilt of

00:30:14.920 feeling like

00:30:15.520 some kind of

00:30:16.040 inexplicable

00:30:16.720 moral failure.

00:30:18.580 Right.

00:30:19.040 And so this is

00:30:19.520 like a trope

00:30:20.540 in America

00:30:20.980 now, like in

00:30:21.600 literature, in

00:30:22.600 movies, like

00:30:23.080 American beauty,

00:30:23.940 right?

00:30:24.100 The guy who's

00:30:24.900 middle-aged,

00:30:26.340 got wife, kid,

00:30:27.720 nice house,

00:30:28.260 and he's like,

00:30:28.520 I just, the

00:30:29.400 midlife crisis,

00:30:30.280 I don't know

00:30:30.620 what's wrong

00:30:31.000 with me, I

00:30:31.320 should be happy,

00:30:32.100 but I'm not.

00:30:33.280 Yeah, and this

00:30:33.920 is something that

00:30:35.100 I think we can

00:30:36.500 see in midlife

00:30:37.860 crises, but I'm

00:30:39.760 always struck by

00:30:41.380 how resonant

00:30:43.400 this Pascalian,

00:30:45.920 Tocquevillian

00:30:46.480 view of the

00:30:48.800 underlying

00:30:49.380 unhappiness of

00:30:50.960 most human

00:30:51.760 souls is with

00:30:53.060 students.

00:30:53.500 That is, when

00:30:54.760 Pascal comes

00:30:55.780 along and

00:30:56.920 tells them that

00:30:58.460 human beings are

00:30:59.560 naturally unhappy,

00:31:02.280 my students are

00:31:03.120 always absolutely

00:31:04.420 riveted.

00:31:05.440 They feel like

00:31:06.320 somebody has

00:31:07.080 finally said the

00:31:08.260 truth that no

00:31:09.100 one around them

00:31:10.040 will admit, and

00:31:11.900 it's immensely

00:31:12.820 liberating for them.

00:31:14.160 in this sense, I

00:31:15.600 think facing the

00:31:17.400 truth about the

00:31:18.800 commonness, the

00:31:19.840 normalness of

00:31:20.700 unhappiness as

00:31:21.680 opposed to

00:31:22.200 happiness, is

00:31:23.660 really one of the

00:31:24.360 things that's most

00:31:26.260 important for

00:31:27.100 Pascal to, that

00:31:29.060 Pascal has to

00:31:30.060 offer us, because

00:31:31.300 it can give us

00:31:32.180 some relief from

00:31:33.780 the guilt that my

00:31:35.240 wife was describing

00:31:35.900 a moment ago that

00:31:37.400 comes with

00:31:38.100 unhappiness in a

00:31:39.260 society that assumes 0.74

00:31:40.560 that happiness is

00:31:41.560 normal.

00:31:41.880 All right, so

00:31:43.220 Tocqueville, he

00:31:43.740 observed this in

00:31:44.840 the 19th century.

00:31:46.020 Americans, they

00:31:47.280 don't recognize that 1.00

00:31:48.820 they're miserable, and

00:31:50.100 so, but there's 0.99

00:31:51.140 something there, they

00:31:51.780 know something's

00:31:52.340 wrong, so he's

00:31:52.840 constantly looking for

00:31:53.920 diversions to ease

00:31:55.600 them of that

00:31:56.420 misery.

00:31:57.400 Also, he observed

00:31:58.420 too, Tocqueville, is

00:31:59.460 that this sort of

00:32:01.080 frenzy that Americans 0.86

00:32:02.100 have, it increases

00:32:03.880 misery because it

00:32:04.820 also makes us, one,

00:32:06.520 more lonely and

00:32:07.800 also cultivates envy.

00:32:09.460 So how does the

00:32:10.600 democratization of

00:32:11.500 imminent contentment

00:32:12.340 contribute to

00:32:13.120 loneliness and just

00:32:14.640 wishing the other

00:32:16.000 guy next to you

00:32:16.680 wasn't as successful

00:32:17.900 as you are?

00:32:19.700 Yeah, so I think

00:32:20.580 it's a kind of

00:32:21.340 default expectation

00:32:22.120 that we expect our

00:32:23.120 children to grow up

00:32:23.940 to be independent,

00:32:25.300 right?

00:32:25.620 By which we mean

00:32:26.600 maybe primarily or

00:32:27.760 at least significantly

00:32:29.180 materially independent,

00:32:30.800 right?

00:32:31.320 So our children are

00:32:33.060 pressured to go out

00:32:34.720 there and make

00:32:35.700 their own ways of

00:32:36.380 life, and that

00:32:37.380 often means chasing a

00:32:39.000 job somewhere other

00:32:40.440 than your hometown.

00:32:42.580 Dependence on your

00:32:43.760 family is thought of

00:32:44.900 as a kind of strange

00:32:45.960 and maybe even

00:32:46.960 shameful thing.

00:32:47.840 This is really

00:32:48.420 different than it is

00:32:49.460 in other cultures.

00:32:50.460 I have friends from

00:32:51.340 the Middle East, for

00:32:52.020 example, who cannot

00:32:52.720 imagine being asked

00:32:54.280 to make decisions on

00:32:55.280 their own, whereas

00:32:56.680 American parents are

00:32:57.720 pressuring their

00:32:58.340 children from, you

00:32:59.460 know, preschool age to

00:33:00.320 make decisions on

00:33:01.000 their own, which is

00:33:02.020 kind of strange.

00:33:03.240 So naturally, like,

00:33:04.640 this kind of pushing

00:33:05.220 the kids out of the

00:33:05.900 nest, even from an

00:33:06.760 early age, disconnects

00:33:08.820 them from what might

00:33:10.300 be their kind of

00:33:10.880 natural realm of

00:33:11.960 attachments, and people

00:33:13.940 become lonely.

00:33:15.860 And at the same time,

00:33:16.660 I think democratic

00:33:17.500 peoples, Tocqueville

00:33:18.740 observes, have a

00:33:20.240 particular facility for

00:33:21.600 identifying in some

00:33:22.900 way with all sorts of

00:33:24.220 other kinds of people.

00:33:25.820 He says that democratic

00:33:26.980 peoples easily see

00:33:28.500 resemblance in a wide

00:33:31.440 variety of people, and

00:33:32.940 that's because we have

00:33:34.280 the experience of

00:33:35.240 existing at sort of

00:33:36.360 various stages on the

00:33:38.240 social scale.

00:33:39.380 Many of us have

00:33:40.860 climbed a ladder, many

00:33:42.200 of us have fallen down

00:33:43.280 a ladder, we're not

00:33:44.500 exactly sure where we're

00:33:46.400 going to end up, and so

00:33:47.800 we can kind of imagine

00:33:48.800 ourselves in lots of

00:33:50.500 different situations.

00:33:51.900 So we have a sort of

00:33:53.100 fellow feeling with a

00:33:54.380 lot of people.

00:33:54.880 We even feel badly if we

00:33:56.080 hear somebody on the

00:33:56.860 other side of the world

00:33:57.600 is suffering.

00:33:58.240 We feel an immediate

00:33:59.600 connection with that.

00:34:02.000 But that doesn't really

00:34:03.320 help our loneliness

00:34:04.360 because we generally

00:34:06.460 don't have a lot of

00:34:07.640 time because of our

00:34:09.200 scramble for 0.82

00:34:10.100 independence.

00:34:10.680 We don't have a lot of

00:34:11.380 time to do anything

00:34:12.480 about that and to

00:34:13.820 make something out of

00:34:15.720 our acute sense of

00:34:17.340 connection that we

00:34:18.320 feel.

00:34:19.280 Yeah, I thought that was

00:34:19.900 an interesting observation

00:34:20.620 about how Americans,

00:34:22.440 they feel, they have

00:34:23.900 like a lot of fellow

00:34:24.520 feeling, compassion.

00:34:25.540 If there's like

00:34:25.900 something that, some

00:34:26.460 tragedy that happens on

00:34:28.220 the other side of the

00:34:28.840 world, they'll just

00:34:29.520 start donating money,

00:34:31.440 clothes, etc.

00:34:32.160 But then you can have

00:34:33.880 a neighbor who just

00:34:34.900 lives 100 feet from

00:34:35.720 you.

00:34:35.840 They're going to be

00:34:36.120 going through a really

00:34:36.680 hard time and you

00:34:38.260 have no clue and you

00:34:39.440 just, whatever, I don't

00:34:40.740 care.

00:34:41.220 I got to take my kids

00:34:42.380 to football practice.

00:34:44.500 Well, and sadly, I've

00:34:46.500 done some self-examination

00:34:48.180 on this one as well as

00:34:49.160 we were writing about

00:34:49.720 Tocqueville.

00:34:50.500 There's part of you that

00:34:51.460 doesn't want to have a

00:34:52.620 clue because you know if

00:34:53.540 you get involved in your

00:34:54.380 neighbor's life, that is 0.99

00:34:55.700 going to be very time

00:34:56.840 consuming and you're

00:34:58.300 going to have a lot less

00:34:58.980 time to write another

00:35:00.180 article or, you know,

00:35:01.740 attend to your promotion

00:35:03.280 at work or something

00:35:04.020 like this.

00:35:04.440 So, it's relatively

00:35:06.020 easier, obviously, to do

00:35:08.260 something that, in which

00:35:09.340 you don't establish an

00:35:10.300 intimate personal

00:35:10.920 connection and you can

00:35:11.920 still kind of help

00:35:13.300 somebody out because

00:35:14.640 they're not going to

00:35:15.400 really make any more

00:35:16.200 demands on your time.

00:35:17.820 So, the kind of

00:35:18.560 restless activity with

00:35:19.960 which we fill our lives

00:35:21.400 makes us want to meet a

00:35:23.000 lot of people, you know,

00:35:23.960 kind of, we get

00:35:24.940 interested in a lot of

00:35:25.760 other people, but it

00:35:26.840 also really prevents us

00:35:29.020 from establishing deep

00:35:30.760 connections.

00:35:32.420 And you asked also about

00:35:33.760 the question of envy,

00:35:35.520 about the prevalence of

00:35:36.600 envy in American life,

00:35:38.000 and I think that's really

00:35:39.540 interesting.

00:35:40.040 I find a lot of people

00:35:41.740 asking, am I as famous

00:35:44.440 as I should be?

00:35:45.840 I mean, shouldn't I be

00:35:46.600 rated a little higher?

00:35:48.080 And I think that's

00:35:49.280 because, for a similar

00:35:50.840 reason, as we find

00:35:52.300 ourselves kind of lonely,

00:35:53.860 we don't know where we

00:35:55.860 stand ever.

00:35:57.240 You know, there are no

00:35:58.500 fixed markers in American

00:35:59.700 life.

00:36:00.120 We're told from the

00:36:00.680 beginning that we could

00:36:01.260 be anything that we want

00:36:02.300 to be, and therefore

00:36:03.900 we're always questioning

00:36:04.900 ourselves whether we've

00:36:06.940 made enough of our lives.

00:36:08.600 And we kind of are

00:36:10.080 curious and also envious

00:36:11.200 about those who seem to

00:36:12.460 have made more of

00:36:13.440 themselves.

00:36:14.580 Yeah, so instead of

00:36:15.240 situating your sort of

00:36:16.660 social circle with

00:36:17.820 community, like we

00:36:19.200 situate ourselves, like,

00:36:20.760 I think in the social

00:36:22.140 media, like you're

00:36:22.920 trying to find a place

00:36:24.300 amongst 300 million

00:36:26.180 different people all

00:36:27.320 vying for attention.

00:36:28.940 And there's going to be 0.95

00:36:29.960 a lot of losers in that

00:36:30.900 game, and people are

00:36:31.880 going to feel sad and

00:36:32.880 more lonely and angsty.

00:36:35.160 That's right.

00:36:36.740 And something that I

00:36:37.800 observed, too, I don't

00:36:38.420 know if you observed this

00:36:39.360 as well, but as I read

00:36:40.920 the book, and it got me

00:36:41.860 thinking, too, one thing

00:36:42.580 I've noticed, and you

00:36:44.000 guys can push back on

00:36:45.040 this, but one thing I've

00:36:46.280 seen Americans do is 0.85

00:36:48.260 that, okay, they know

00:36:49.500 like diversions are just,

00:36:51.600 they're making them

00:36:52.220 miserable. 0.94

00:36:52.560 They're miserable. 0.99

00:36:53.080 They don't want to 0.98

00:36:54.840 follow, like, a

00:36:56.100 religion, but what

00:36:57.080 they'll do instead is

00:36:58.020 they'll make their

00:36:59.360 diversion, whether it's

00:37:00.700 exercise or diet or

00:37:02.840 what, like, could be

00:37:04.360 Harry Potter, you know,

00:37:05.840 fandom.

00:37:06.680 That becomes, like,

00:37:07.720 their new thing that,

00:37:08.640 like, they just really

00:37:09.640 invest into it and sort

00:37:10.960 of their sense of self.

00:37:11.900 So they're kind of

00:37:12.380 being, like, they're

00:37:13.400 taking their diversions

00:37:16.160 and making them

00:37:17.440 sessions.

00:37:17.880 Yeah, that's a really

00:37:20.200 good point.

00:37:21.720 I think that what sort

00:37:23.760 of lies behind all

00:37:24.800 this is a kind of

00:37:27.840 unconscious memory of

00:37:30.280 the rejection of

00:37:32.200 fanaticism that lies at

00:37:33.960 the beginning of the

00:37:35.200 modern era, and as

00:37:36.000 we've talked about,

00:37:37.980 that rejection of

00:37:38.800 fanaticism goes hand

00:37:40.920 in hand with a

00:37:42.700 setting aside of the

00:37:43.860 question of the highest

00:37:44.800 good, a setting aside

00:37:46.180 of the question of what

00:37:47.060 is really worth doing.

00:37:48.440 So, in other words,

00:37:49.040 we're putting sort of

00:37:49.980 all the goods on a

00:37:51.960 single plane.

00:37:53.380 Nothing is totally

00:37:54.480 hollow, but everything

00:37:55.340 is somewhat hollow,

00:37:56.920 is kind of the way

00:37:57.900 that we, so we can't

00:37:58.680 really distinguish

00:37:59.760 between that which is

00:38:01.180 really important and

00:38:02.340 that which is trivial.

00:38:03.880 And so people feel,

00:38:05.400 just as you've

00:38:06.060 described, that they're

00:38:07.240 divided, that they're

00:38:08.080 pursuing too many

00:38:09.100 things, they want to

00:38:09.820 plunk down on

00:38:10.400 something, but yeah,

00:38:11.480 it ends up being

00:38:12.160 something like Harry

00:38:12.840 Potter, which is kind 0.92

00:38:15.560 of obviously silly. 0.62

00:38:17.000 And this affects, you 0.95

00:38:18.240 know, politics, well,

00:38:19.620 civic life, because,

00:38:21.000 you know, everyone

00:38:21.700 doesn't, like, we're

00:38:22.560 bringing our sort of

00:38:24.120 imminent contentment

00:38:24.840 ideas of what it is to

00:38:26.500 be a good life.

00:38:26.900 There's no agreement on

00:38:27.720 what is the sumo bonum,

00:38:28.640 and so debates end up

00:38:31.180 just being sort of

00:38:32.100 yelling, like, my thing

00:38:34.060 is better than your

00:38:34.800 thing.

00:38:35.220 It's like debating, like,

00:38:36.900 you know, which ice

00:38:38.100 cream flavor is the

00:38:38.920 best, almost, like

00:38:40.080 chocolate or vanilla.

00:38:41.020 It's like, well, it's

00:38:42.060 subjective.

00:38:42.800 Like, how do you know?

00:38:43.580 And so the only thing

00:38:44.100 you can do is just yell

00:38:45.320 at each other, saying

00:38:47.100 chocolate's the best or

00:38:48.000 vanilla's the best, and

00:38:48.940 it makes civic life

00:38:50.460 really cantankerous.

00:38:53.240 Okay, that's really

00:38:54.220 interesting.

00:38:54.580 I think that you're

00:38:56.920 right, that if we

00:38:58.360 don't have the belief

00:39:00.460 that we can argue

00:39:01.340 meaningfully about

00:39:02.980 things, we are going to

00:39:03.960 end up just yelling at

00:39:04.760 each other, right?

00:39:05.620 So if we don't have the

00:39:06.880 belief that there is

00:39:07.600 some kind of

00:39:08.260 architecture of truth

00:39:10.040 and meaning, as, say,

00:39:11.180 Aristotle saw when he's

00:39:14.420 talking about the

00:39:14.920 possibility of political

00:39:15.940 life to kind of

00:39:17.480 transcend itself and

00:39:18.460 become philosophic,

00:39:19.820 conversely, for

00:39:20.780 philosophy to kind of

00:39:22.100 penetrate political

00:39:23.700 life.

00:39:24.080 If we don't have the

00:39:25.900 belief that we can

00:39:26.640 really talk meaningfully

00:39:27.760 about what goods are

00:39:28.940 worth pursuing and

00:39:29.760 which ones we should

00:39:30.460 let fall by the

00:39:31.080 wayside, we're just

00:39:32.340 going to shout about

00:39:33.900 imminent things.

00:39:34.880 I think it's also

00:39:35.540 interesting because

00:39:36.660 liberal politics is

00:39:38.980 supposed to be a

00:39:39.960 low-boil politics,

00:39:41.180 a politics where we

00:39:42.540 explicitly lowered the

00:39:43.820 temperature by not

00:39:44.740 concentrating on

00:39:45.840 questions of

00:39:46.420 transcendental meaning,

00:39:47.460 right?

00:39:47.680 So we separate out

00:39:50.060 religious concerns,

00:39:51.020 for example, from our

00:39:52.240 political debates in an

00:39:53.900 effort to concentrate on

00:39:55.400 kind of low but solid

00:39:56.380 goods.

00:39:57.360 And I think that that

00:39:58.680 worked for quite a long

00:40:00.640 time.

00:40:01.520 But as people lose

00:40:03.320 belief in anything other

00:40:05.380 than the imminent and as

00:40:06.820 they concentrate their

00:40:07.840 quest for happiness more

00:40:08.880 and more on the imminent

00:40:10.440 circle, that takes on the

00:40:12.520 same kind of existential

00:40:13.980 angstiness that the

00:40:15.920 transcendent quests had

00:40:17.180 once taken on.

00:40:18.180 So you see around us that

00:40:19.920 imminence can be as mad a

00:40:21.740 master as transcendence

00:40:23.120 once was.

00:40:24.300 Yeah, I think Alistair

00:40:25.360 McIntyre in After

00:40:27.100 Virtue sort of describes

00:40:28.260 that, what happens when

00:40:29.760 you lose a common

00:40:31.420 sunabonum or lose the

00:40:33.480 vocabulary to talk about

00:40:35.100 moral issues that it just

00:40:36.720 ends up to, he calls it

00:40:38.120 emotivism, you just yell

00:40:39.340 at each other.

00:40:40.140 And then even like Nietzsche

00:40:41.040 saw this as well, right?

00:40:42.560 When there's no longer a

00:40:43.420 unifying or underlying

00:40:45.540 thing to just, you know,

00:40:46.380 how you see the world,

00:40:48.140 well, it's just, all

00:40:49.160 right, everyone's up, it's

00:40:49.780 up to everyone else, it's

00:40:50.720 up to everyone to make

00:40:51.440 their own values.

00:40:52.580 And it's like, what do

00:40:53.320 you do when values

00:40:54.360 conflict?

00:40:55.020 It's like, well, I don't

00:40:55.780 know.

00:40:56.480 I think at that point

00:40:57.460 you had to be like, I

00:40:58.140 just become Montaigne,

00:40:59.020 build a tower and, you

00:41:01.000 know, read books and

00:41:01.640 plant cabbages.

00:41:02.200 That sounds like the

00:41:03.280 best solution.

00:41:03.840 But I imagine you all

00:41:05.340 don't think that's the

00:41:06.080 best solution.

00:41:06.540 Like, what do you think

00:41:07.200 is the solution to this

00:41:08.140 restlessness that we feel?

00:41:10.740 Well, I think, you know,

00:41:11.380 first of all, I think

00:41:11.980 we'd say there isn't a

00:41:13.080 solution.

00:41:14.160 And actually part of the

00:41:15.380 problem of the

00:41:17.060 Montanian life is to 1.00

00:41:18.220 believe in a solution,

00:41:19.820 to believe that we can

00:41:20.760 be perfectly content.

00:41:22.900 So there's not a

00:41:24.740 solution in our view

00:41:26.400 because we think

00:41:27.820 Pascal's critique of

00:41:29.160 Montaigne has hold

00:41:30.240 some water, that human

00:41:31.360 beings are not purely

00:41:33.100 imminent creatures.

00:41:33.760 We are beings that

00:41:34.460 naturally kind of

00:41:35.220 transcend the temporal

00:41:36.680 or straddle the

00:41:37.560 imminent and the

00:41:38.020 transcendent.

00:41:38.640 And that's going to

00:41:39.700 make us kind of uneasy,

00:41:40.880 restless, off-kilter in

00:41:42.480 the world, right?

00:41:44.880 But we do think there

00:41:46.660 are ways that you can

00:41:48.300 learn to manage this

00:41:51.600 restlessness, as it

00:41:52.460 were, to handle it

00:41:53.740 better and turn what we

00:41:56.960 see as a kind of

00:41:57.940 pointless busyness into

00:41:59.420 what we call a pointed

00:42:00.180 quest, right?

00:42:01.260 So to take yourself from

00:42:02.960 the sort of everyday

00:42:03.900 runaround and set

00:42:05.260 yourself on, turn your

00:42:06.600 restlessness into

00:42:07.280 something that is

00:42:07.980 actually productive and

00:42:09.400 purposeful.

00:42:09.900 And in our lives, we

00:42:12.140 spend most of our days

00:42:13.040 at the college, and so

00:42:14.820 we think a lot about

00:42:15.520 liberal education and

00:42:16.380 the place it could play

00:42:17.400 in helping us deal with

00:42:19.580 our restlessness.

00:42:21.180 And I think there's a

00:42:22.580 number of ways we could

00:42:23.280 think about liberal

00:42:23.920 education better that

00:42:25.140 would help us do that.

00:42:27.440 First of all, if you're

00:42:28.600 a student, just

00:42:29.260 understand how precious

00:42:30.640 these institutions are

00:42:33.160 in our cultural life.

00:42:35.900 The fact that we

00:42:37.140 routinely give a good

00:42:38.400 number of our

00:42:39.440 young people, four

00:42:41.320 years at the

00:42:42.440 threshold of adult

00:42:43.300 life, to think about

00:42:44.520 what they're going to

00:42:46.300 do and what part

00:42:47.740 they're going to play

00:42:48.440 in the world is

00:42:49.840 really extraordinary.

00:42:51.660 And people who are

00:42:52.900 fortunate enough to do

00:42:53.780 that should be prepared

00:42:54.960 to make the most of

00:42:55.920 it, by which we mean

00:42:58.380 at the very least

00:42:59.660 engage in a

00:43:01.440 systematic study of

00:43:03.620 investigations of

00:43:04.920 what people have said

00:43:05.860 in the past about

00:43:06.740 what might make you

00:43:07.800 happy, have some

00:43:09.300 tolerance and patience

00:43:10.260 for working through

00:43:11.680 these things and

00:43:12.400 developing the

00:43:13.020 discipline to really

00:43:14.640 understand them, and

00:43:16.240 then step back and

00:43:17.380 try to judge between

00:43:18.860 those different ways of

00:43:19.780 life because the fact

00:43:20.820 is you're going to

00:43:21.480 have to choose, and

00:43:22.520 it's best if your

00:43:23.300 choice is informed.

00:43:25.080 It's important because

00:43:26.320 you're going to be

00:43:26.740 faced with a number of

00:43:28.460 very attractive

00:43:29.080 competing goods.

00:43:29.960 It's important to

00:43:30.620 distinguish the

00:43:31.660 merely nice things from

00:43:33.140 the absolutely needful.

00:43:34.220 As we say in the

00:43:36.220 book, we think

00:43:37.140 liberal education

00:43:38.160 might best be

00:43:39.360 understood as an

00:43:40.780 education in the

00:43:41.720 art of choosing, and

00:43:43.640 if students approached

00:43:44.360 it that way, they

00:43:45.600 would probably emerge

00:43:46.260 from college a lot

00:43:47.160 more full of

00:43:48.080 direction and

00:43:48.520 satisfied.

00:43:50.020 And this also

00:43:50.460 applies to adults,

00:43:51.400 like it's not too

00:43:51.840 late for them as

00:43:52.360 well.

00:43:52.580 You can pick up

00:43:53.260 the Iliad or

00:43:54.460 Plato's Republic or

00:43:55.820 Kierkegaard and

00:43:57.560 start informing

00:43:58.300 yourself so you can

00:43:58.820 become a better

00:43:59.360 chooser in this

00:44:00.340 life filled with

00:44:01.760 restlessness.

00:44:02.200 Yeah, we think

00:44:03.580 that's right, and

00:44:05.360 another part of

00:44:06.080 this that we've

00:44:06.880 tried to learn

00:44:08.420 and incorporate

00:44:09.140 practically in our

00:44:11.260 adult lives is one

00:44:13.420 of the reasons

00:44:13.940 we're so restless

00:44:15.340 and frantic is

00:44:16.980 that we say yes

00:44:18.560 to do many

00:44:19.340 things.

00:44:20.580 And so we've

00:44:21.180 developed a kind

00:44:21.860 of private

00:44:22.660 household contest

00:44:23.800 in the art of

00:44:24.340 saying no.

00:44:25.640 You know, this

00:44:27.080 opportunity, you

00:44:28.140 know, that, you

00:44:29.400 know, some of

00:44:30.040 which are, you

00:44:30.600 know, prestigious

00:44:31.840 or lucrative or

00:44:32.940 whatever, we need

00:44:34.560 to be able to

00:44:35.760 set things aside

00:44:36.740 and preserve

00:44:38.020 time for the

00:44:39.300 things that

00:44:40.380 genuinely are

00:44:41.540 the locus of

00:44:43.200 meaning in our

00:44:43.800 lives.

00:44:45.020 And so the

00:44:45.940 art of saying

00:44:46.380 no is one

00:44:47.680 part of this

00:44:48.740 art of choosing.

00:44:50.100 I might add

00:44:50.940 one or two

00:44:51.620 things to what

00:44:52.160 Ben said.

00:44:54.140 Many of us

00:44:55.000 want to cut

00:44:55.840 back, right?

00:44:56.620 You hear that

00:44:57.040 refrain pretty

00:44:58.040 frequently.

00:44:58.740 Everybody wants

00:44:59.480 to say no,

00:45:00.060 but if we

00:45:00.900 don't really

00:45:01.360 understand what

00:45:02.000 we're cutting

00:45:02.420 back to, then

00:45:03.600 it's going to

00:45:03.880 be really hard

00:45:04.360 to cut back.

00:45:05.380 So the contest

00:45:06.220 to say no is

00:45:07.060 important, is

00:45:07.860 kind of an

00:45:08.120 important habit

00:45:08.740 to cultivate, to

00:45:10.100 just, you know,

00:45:11.260 turn down things

00:45:12.200 and feel good

00:45:12.920 about it, but you

00:45:13.900 also have to

00:45:14.600 think carefully

00:45:15.280 about what

00:45:15.840 you're cutting

00:45:16.260 back to or

00:45:16.780 you're really

00:45:17.180 not going to

00:45:17.600 keep up that

00:45:18.960 discipline.

00:45:20.180 And the last

00:45:20.880 thing I'd

00:45:21.200 mention is

00:45:21.900 something we

00:45:22.980 started doing

00:45:24.280 about eight

00:45:25.220 years ago,

00:45:25.740 which is keeping

00:45:26.860 a Sabbath,

00:45:27.780 keeping a day

00:45:28.420 aside where

00:45:29.200 we do not

00:45:30.280 do any

00:45:31.020 work, any

00:45:32.140 office work,

00:45:33.900 any school

00:45:34.400 work, any

00:45:35.180 studying, any

00:45:36.280 yard work, and

00:45:37.780 whether you're

00:45:38.440 religious or

00:45:38.980 not, it's a

00:45:39.780 wonderful, it's

00:45:41.040 a wonderful

00:45:41.340 institution that

00:45:42.860 you can, you

00:45:44.060 can, you can

00:45:44.620 create in your

00:45:45.000 own life.

00:45:45.620 We did this

00:45:46.160 after we read a

00:45:47.160 book called

00:45:47.520 The Sabbath by

00:45:48.220 the Jewish

00:45:48.980 theologian and

00:45:50.140 philosopher Abraham

00:45:50.880 Joshua Heschel,

00:45:52.760 and he basically

00:45:55.220 convinced us of

00:45:56.100 how important it

00:45:56.840 is to take

00:45:57.460 one day to

00:45:58.340 refrain from

00:45:59.720 working, to

00:46:00.280 refrain from

00:46:00.740 trying to make

00:46:01.220 an impact on

00:46:02.300 the world around

00:46:02.820 you, and to

00:46:03.940 let the world

00:46:04.400 make an impact

00:46:05.040 on you.

00:46:06.200 It forces you

00:46:07.120 to stop and

00:46:07.880 observe both

00:46:09.520 what you've done

00:46:11.220 during the week

00:46:11.780 and also what's

00:46:12.980 been done for

00:46:13.540 you.

00:46:14.640 Right, the

00:46:15.080 Sabbath was made

00:46:15.720 for man, not

00:46:17.140 man for the

00:46:17.600 Sabbath.

00:46:18.460 Well, Ben and

00:46:19.680 Jenna, this has

00:46:20.040 been a great

00:46:20.380 conversation.

00:46:20.960 Where can people

00:46:21.360 go to learn more

00:46:22.000 about the book

00:46:22.520 and your work?

00:46:23.920 They can learn

00:46:24.400 more about the

00:46:24.900 book at the

00:46:25.520 Princeton University

00:46:26.420 Press website or

00:46:27.660 on Amazon.com, and

00:46:29.720 they can learn

00:46:30.360 more about our

00:46:31.240 work by looking

00:46:32.640 up firman.edu

00:46:33.900 slash Tocqueville.

00:46:35.020 We run a

00:46:36.260 center at

00:46:37.100 firman called

00:46:37.740 the Tocqueville

00:46:38.200 Program, which

00:46:40.580 we have set up

00:46:42.300 to engage

00:46:43.300 students with the

00:46:44.140 moral and

00:46:44.540 philosophic questions

00:46:45.440 at the heart of

00:46:46.000 political life, and

00:46:46.820 so they can see

00:46:47.460 all the various

00:46:48.380 kinds of things

00:46:48.820 we're trying to

00:46:49.180 do for students

00:46:49.720 there.

00:46:50.720 Fantastic.

00:46:51.100 Well, Jenna and

00:46:51.720 Benjamin Story,

00:46:52.340 thanks for your

00:46:52.680 time.

00:46:52.860 It's been a

00:46:53.160 pleasure.

00:46:53.880 Okay, thanks so

00:46:54.380 much, Brett.

00:46:54.920 Thank you.

00:46:55.320 My guests

00:46:56.840 today were

00:46:57.280 Benjamin and

00:46:57.780 Jenna Story.

00:46:58.400 They're the

00:46:58.680 authors of the

00:46:59.380 book, Why We

00:47:00.100 Are Restless on

00:47:00.820 the Modern

00:47:01.260 Quest for

00:47:01.780 Contentment.

00:47:02.440 It's available on

00:47:02.820 Amazon.com, bookstores

00:47:04.000 everywhere.

00:47:04.640 Check out our

00:47:04.980 show notes at

00:47:05.400 aom.is slash

00:47:06.460 restlessness, where

00:47:07.260 you can find links

00:47:07.660 to resources, where

00:47:08.460 you can delve

00:47:08.640 deeper into this

00:47:09.260 topic.

00:47:16.840 Well, that wraps

00:47:17.640 up another edition of

00:47:18.560 the AOM Podcast.

00:47:19.560 Check out our

00:47:19.920 website at

00:47:20.340 artofmanliness.com,

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00:47:21.620 our podcast archives,

00:47:22.880 as well as thousands

00:47:23.340 of articles written

00:47:23.960 over the years, about

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00:47:48.440 As always, thank

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00:47:50.100 Until next time,

00:47:50.780 it's Brett McKay

00:47:51.380 reminding you not

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The Art of Manliness - April 19, 2021

Why Are We Restless？

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