The Limits of Knowledge

In this episode of the M3 BearCast, host Malcolm Travers delves into the concept of 'meta modern patriotism' inspired by a TikTok creator. He explores how liberals can reclaim patriotism from conservatives and discuss the roots of this idea in postmodernism. Travers also reflects on his personal experiences with patriotism during the Obama campaign. The episode shifts to topics on mental health and personal growth, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging the limits of one's knowledge and the paradox of choice. Travers highlights how having too many options can lead to less satisfaction and shares strategies for focusing on what truly matters.

00:00 Introduction to Meta-Modern Patriotism
00:57 Deconstructing Patriotism and Nihilism
03:26 Reclaiming Patriotism for Liberals
05:32 Personal Reflections on Patriotism
07:15 Transition to Mental Health and Personal Growth
07:58 Exploring Spirituality and Knowledge
14:10 The Paradox of Choice
21:11 Conclusion and Support

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Transcript

  📍  📍  Welcome to the M3 BearCast. My name is Malcolm Travers. In this episode, I'm going to be discussing the meta modern patriotism. This was a video brought up by one of my favorite creators on TikTok. And his entire thesis was that we need to stop seeding the ground of patriotism to conservatives, that the liberals that he knows love America just as much as conservatives do, but just in a different way.

So his idea of meta modern patriotism goes back to the idea of post modernism, which is a style of art and a movement within creative circles to deconstruct some of the more well worn conventions of modern art and literature. And it often includes things that are somewhat absurd, contrasting reality and fiction.

Um, fantasy and, um, stark realities of, uh, modern life. And so part of postmodernism is the process of deconstruction. Um, sometimes that deconstruction can lead to nihilism. So if you deconstruct patriotism and get down to its core, you may find out there's nothing there. You know, you might come to the conclusion that, you know, um, patriotism is simply a tool by elites to, uh, get those who are lacking power to feel some sort of loyalty to a system that they created.

I have to say that I have that sort of nihilism, right? Um, patriotism is something that has been used as a cudgel by conservatives against liberals, um, saying that if you're not this sort of patriotism, if you're not waving flags and saluting the military and Um, you know, just, um,  engaging in sort of 

audacious, somewhat meaningless, um, 

rituals or, um, 

performances of patriotism that you are, in some way, hating this country. Um, and so, I don't know. I guess there's a  There's a certain amount of trauma there, I don't even know if it's trauma, just like resentment towards conservatives who have used that argument against those who support the beliefs that I hold dear, right?

I think about the times around the Patriot Act, for instance, in response to 9 11 and conversations about the invasion of Iraq. Um, meaning that you were not supposed to question the president's, um,  plan for war. Um, as if you did, you were not being patriotic. And those sorts of things were obviously invalid.

Um, because there is a certain amount of patriotism that just comes from those who have sacrificed for our country. And often times that is Almost wholly, um, 

relegated to military service. But I think that also should include public service, civil service, those who work in government, jobs, teachers, firefighters, police officers. Um, those who come to the aid of their fellow citizens during emergencies. Um, I mean that was what we saw on 9 11, were individual citizens running into danger.

to help one another, help perfect strangers in a city New York that is often considered one of the least friendly places in America. We saw people getting thousands of boats to ferry people off the island of Manhattan to safety when transportation services weren't available. Or people within the building themselves who were helping the disabled get out of the building You At the risk of themselves not exiting the building.

So, um, to me, this idea of reclaiming patriotism for liberals is going to have to take a few major steps. One is not relegating criticisms of America to hating America. You know,  if you can both take into one hand the idea that  That America is based on a pile of bones, both indigenous people and enslaved Africans, and at the same time recognize that the future of America is bright because of the fact that we have built it on principles that, when actually acted upon, have the potential for growth, for freedom, for flourishing of people, diversity and inclusion when it is actually acted upon, right?

Um, a sort of patriotism that doesn't look back and say that, you know, America's greatness came from its past, but that it's coming from an application of principles from the past, taken into a more inclusive future. You know, I think for myself, you know, one of the few times that I felt a sense of patriotism was during the Obama campaign in 2008.

And it was to the point where I went to volunteer for the campaign and it felt amazing to see a black man being, um,  you know, celebrated and elected as the leader of our country. That sort of symbolism will never be lost upon me, that there is hope for the future, you know. And even though the Obama administration that came out of that was not necessarily a disappointment, but let's just say, realistically hampered by our very partisan politics, it still doesn't dampen the possibilities for future presidencies.

That, you know, once that ceiling is broken, once that possibility has been realized, that, um,  you can't go back. There's no going back to a time when people say that it is not possible. And so,  that's the sort of patriotism that I'm looking for. When I think about unifying the liberal coalition for, uh, a more productive politics, is to say that, you know, try to bottle that feeling of what is possible when we actually live up to the principles that, that we claim to, um,  profess, right?

I'm so cynical that I can't even say that we actually believe those things. You know, when I think about the constitution and we say, you know, we, the people in order to form a more perfect union, recognizing that my ancestors were not considered people, you know, and they weren't. Also, including women as people, sort of we, the white men, the landowners, the capitalists, whoever, um,  that being said, um, I think there is a certain amount of hope that is necessary to get through difficult political processes.

You know, like if we're going to truly the, um, build a coalition of differing people over time, there has to be an emotional connection to this country. And, um, I'm definitely going to bring this up with the panel, um, this week, uh, it is the Democratic National Convention. And from what I can tell, the Harris Walls campaign is fully leaning into this meta modern narrative of patriotism.

Of what's possible for the future. I think it is tapping into some of that same energy that occurred during the Obama administration. And by the time this podcast comes out, we'll know a lot more about what that vision for the future is and how that was expressed during the democratic national convention.

But I, I can see it happening again. Um,  I think everyone is. Hopeful again, and I'm looking forward to breaking that down with the panel. All right on to my next topic. 

   📍  📍 I'm starting to realize that one of the most beneficial things that I've realized in my journey in mental health and personal growth is the recognition that it's okay not to know something. And I think this is because I've always been the smart guy or the expectation has been that if you don't know something, why don't you ask Malcolm?

I mean, I, I've leaned into this. Don't get me wrong. I'm not fighting. the smart guy narrative. Um, and I do feel like I am a smart person, but part of being smart is also recognizing the limits of your knowledge. You know, I think of the Socratic argument that the wise man knows that he's not wise, right?

He's aware of the limits of knowledge itself, right? And I think that's where I've leaned into some ideas of spirituality has been on the limits of knowledge. Maybe thinking of things more holistically. I've been researching topics dealing with Zen Buddhism, for instance, and Confucianism and Hinduism and the data chain and just these ideas that certain knowledge is experiential rather than analytical.

And I don't know that the analytical mind is Is okay with that right? You know,  it's funny that, you know, the only way that we know that conscious awareness or conscious computational analysis is accurate is through computational analysis is sort of its own circular logic that logic itself is the most reasonable way to come to conclusions about reality.

Or about life, or about which ways to move. And so, I think the opposite, of course, is, um,  is destructive. The sort of religious fundamentalism, or even political fundamentalism, that says that this is the way that you should think about the world. This is the most accurate, the most peaceful, the we've got it all figured out, kind of, um, prescriptions.

For the way that public policy should be done or the way that you should think about the world. Um, I think, ultimately, at the center of all of this, I agreed with this content creator on ones. If you want to send your life on any Maxim or idea, the best one should be. I don't know. You know,  Understanding that to say, I don't know, is not a form of weakness, that it is a strength, it is a vulnerability, it's saying like, you cede some ground to someone who has false answers, lies most likely, or willful thinking in some other cases, by saying that you don't know something.

Um, but to say that you don't know something is not to say that you know absolutely nothing. It's saying that, I cannot be convinced with this evidence that this is true. That isn't to say that I distrust all evidence. You know, I've seen other people go in that direction and say that they can't know anything.

Um, and I, on some level, I feel that way. Like, I can't say that I know anything for certain. I'm certainly skeptical about just about everything. Um, and when I sell it, say that to people. They're very surprised. But, uh,  I guess that's something about having experienced altered states of mind, which is realizing that your reality is constructed by your mind.

And this is a good thing, right? It's not a bad thing that, uh, as we developed, we took in information and we constructed a world that helps us survive. And live with other people and to get our goals and needs met. But that doesn't mean that that's actually true. Um, if you've ever experienced a ultra sense of reality in that state, you believe those things to be true as well.

And there isn't anything about that other sense of reality that would make you think that is untrue, except for the fact that you left that state, right? So, like, if you're always in this state of reality, a stable, uh, comfortable existence, you have no reason to question it, except for the fact that, you know, it is, it's working, you know, that's the reason that we believe in it, and that isn't to say that it is, um,  useless, it's obviously very useful.

That doesn't mean that it's true. You know? And so I think at the bottom of it is like, it doesn't mean you have to, um,  go around in some sort of existential dread about, like, what is the true state of reality. It's actually the opposite. Becoming comfortable with the fact that we don't know. That you're not going to know what's really behind the veil, so to speak.

Um, you know, and I find myself Thinking, you know, in terms of religion and spirituality, what what my label be? I would probably say I'm some sort of agnostic theist, right? That I believe in a God, but I don't think I'll ever have enough evidence to know that that God is actually real. Let's just say that I have enough experiential evidence enough experience.

to suggest that I might as well think that this God is possible, right? And that I don't know if I will ever have enough evidence to know that to be true because it's beyond the realms of things that I can understand intellectually and probably experientially as well. So, um,  if those ideas about God or spirituality or higher, uh, levels of consciousness.

you know,  energy flows, vibrational attunements, whatever people, whatever language tends to resonate with me at that time. I'm going to use it like I'm going to use it to further improve my life to get me to take risks, to have hope and faith in my own abilities and to take steps that allow me to move forward even when I don't have all the pieces put together to understand them.

I think that's, to me, something essential about spirituality is the ability to move forward without enough evidence to say that it's going to work out, right? A different type of faith. Then what we've been sold when we were younger. Faith as I came to understand it when I was younger is the belief in certain principles or stories or ways of looking at the world believing things to be true when you don't have enough evidence to believe that they're true.

That's not the faith that I'm talking about. I'm talking about faith in yourself and faith in Positive outcomes and the ability to move forward when there isn't any evidence that forward action will actually benefit you other than to say, if I don't move forward, then I know nothing good can come of this, right?

And somewhat slightly delusional behavior and thinking. can actually be beneficial. There's evidences just as it is. And so, uh, that however, is different than saying that I know something will be true. Um,  because I don't know, I don't fucking know. And I'm okay with that. Most of the time, you know, other times, I eat lots of cookies, so, you know. 

That's how it goes, uh,  moving on to the next topic. 

  📍  📍 So my last topic in this episode is going to be on this idea of the paradox of choice, um, is something that I've come up to several different times before, and it's simply the idea that the more choices that we have, paradoxically, we feel less satisfied with, with whichever choice we make. And I think there's a deeper level, which comes from the idea that if you're given the option to change your decision.

You're going to be less satisfied with the decision you may, even if you have fewer choices. Like, let's say, uh, you were given only three choices, but, um, in this, uh, laboratory experiment, they allowed the participants to have the option to trade in whichever choice they made at a future date. And when they were analyzed to see how satisfied they were with the choice, the fact that they were given the option to trade it back in.

Made them less satisfied overall with whatever they chose versus if you cut it off and you just said, once you choose this, this is what it will be. People were happier and so we live in a time where we have an abundance of information and available choices at our fingertips. We live arguably in one of the freest societies.

Um, not necessarily for everyone, but certain people are privileged enough to have an abundance of choices when it comes to where they live, what jobs they have, choices they make in their social lives, the people they love, the places they go, the things they do. And with that comes an equal and opposite Right.

And that is the idea that you could be making the wrong choice. You know, if you are,  if you are actually aware of all the other things that you could be doing, Um, you are going to be aware that this choice might not be the right one. And I think, especially in a sort of goal driven sort of, um, You know, capital minded society that we do like we're success oriented, goal oriented.

And if we don't maximize our happiness, we feel dissatisfied in certain ways, right? Um, they call this in some of the psychological literature, uh, maximizers versus satisficers. Satisficers would be those who pick the, minimal viable option and can be happy with that. Not everyone is satisficers though. We tend to be maximizers.

We want to pick the optimal thing, you know, the best thing. One of the examples was giving, um,  not necessarily tied into the paradox of choice, but it has the sunk cost fallacy. And it was an example of a family. Vacation strategy that this one, uh, person's father had when they were kids. And that strategy was to get to the park, the theme park, as early as possible at 10 a.

m. And stay in the park until 8 p. m. And the kids, however, were pretty much done with the park around 3 or 4 in the afternoon, right? They were ready to go home. But the dad is like, I paid lots of money for these tickets. We're going to stay in this park until it closes. And so yeah, you got like three or four good hours of fun.

And then three or four hours of absolutely exhausted. Just like, can we leave? And you actually had a less enjoyable vacation because of this tendency to want to maximize, you know, your investment. Now this is something some people call the sunk cost fallacy because you've already paid for the ticket.

And whether or not you stay the entire day or not, you've already paid that money. You're not getting more out of it. What matters is the present experience that you're having. If you've gotten all that you can get, then you've reached the maximum value that you're going to get out of that ticket. And you know, trying to squeeze more and more makes you more miserable, right?

And so I can see that sort of maximizing tendencies when it comes to the choices that we have. We have this tendency to believe that if we cut off any of the choices that are available to us, that that will make us less happy, right? But I remember this story from one of the books that I've read. And it was, um, maybe it was Warren Buffett.

And he said one of the ways that he makes goals or, um,  you know,  making choices. If you have a lot of choices, say that you have 25 different choices of, uh, business, businesses to invest in, or, um,  you know,  investigations to go into like things to learn goals, uh, skills, whatever it may be to take those 25, uh,  Those 25 goals and list them in order from, uh,  from one to 25, right?

But instead of trying to pursue all 25 goals, he said, absolutely do the top five goals and whatever you can do, try not to think of the other 20, like cut them off from your life completely. They're only going to drain your energy from the top five on that list, right? Yeah. Um, try to as best you can to think you could never have done those, you know, because you, you are human.

You have a limited amount of time, limited amount of energy. If you spread yourself too thin, you're just gonna, uh, you're going to do worse at the things that matter most to you. And not only that, you're going to be less satisfied with the things that you get done because you, you will be thinking about all the things you didn't.

Um, and so.  Ironically, in this world of abundance that we find ourselves in. One of the ways that you can choose to be happy is to cut off some of the options that are available to you. People talk about this with social media breaks. You know, just because you can stay in touch with everyone doesn't mean that you should.

You should probably limit the number of people who are on your friends list. You should. You know, um,  turn off as many notifications as you possibly can. You know, you should, uh, take vacations from social media from time to time and recognize like, whatever you miss, you'll catch up on at some point. Um, I think the same thing when it comes to the news.

For me, even when news is good, I know that it can be bad. And as a person, I think I may be considered a news junkie. I listen to a lot of news. Um, taking a break from time to time is a good thing. Even when the news is going well. Uh, simply because it, I get invested in so many things that are outside of my control.

And my mind is is divided amongst all these different interests and um, you know, I need to sometimes keep my world a little bit small And stay focused on the things that I have most control over. Doesn't mean that they're the only things in the world that matters. All those other things that I cut off, I'm not saying that they don't matter.

I'm just saying that it doesn't help me to include them in my area of concern at this moment, right? Like, those things will still be there, you know? The war in Gaza will still be there. After I get my work done, right? So, um,  it is, it can be paralyzing. The amount of free flowing information that there is.

And, uh, and things to keep on top of. Uh, limit the input. And I think you will be more satisfied with what you have. Um,  freedom is not more choices. It's not more options. It is, it is, uh, committing to the things that matter most to you and feeling free to pursue them with your all your energy. So on that note, I would like to thank you for listening to the M3 BearCast.

This is the end of episode 57. Um, if you would like to support Male Media Mind, go to patreon. com slash male media mind, become a patron, you have some benefits for Our regular, uh, listeners, we have after shows of our live streams, as well as some social groups on Telegram, Discord, and whatever else happens to pop up in social media land, we will, um, consider adding more benefits to our patrons, uh, as a way of saying thank you for your support.

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