Ep 32 - Where's It All Going?

The pressing issues and conflicts of our day should drive us to gain a clear understanding of what a human is and should be. Some of these same issues also may reveal how we are being challenged and undermined--and to what end. It's worth the effort to think and consider deeply, for as much clarity as possible.  The shape of the future depends on it.

Transcript

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Welcome to The Willing Fool. I'm your host and lead fool, Paul Tremble. This is the final episode of season four, and in this season we've walked through several different topics, uh, looking at them through the lens of what is it that we see in these different elements of the public sphere, things that are going on in the world around us.

And what does it reveal about how we think as a people? Like, what is our shared narrative as a culture and how do we see that manifesting in these different areas? We talked about the conflict between Israel and Hamas. It's been in the news of late. We've talked about transgender issues, sexual identity and expression.

That is a hot topic these days. Uh, we've talked about male female inequality and the different lenses that we might use to look at that. Uh, we've talked about the so called male crisis and how that relates to even different ways that males and females are spoken of and treated, uh, publicly. And I did my best to sort of paint a picture that I think a lot of what you see.

It makes more sense when you think about what is the lens through which, generally speaking, as a culture, we are looking at life, we are looking at reality. And, just to repeat one more time, I think some of it can be explained fairly well. If you understand that really, our narrative has been eroded over the last few hundred years From one in which there was a lot of inbuilt meaning to life There was a lot of inbuilt meaning to what it means to be a human the purpose of being a human um to one where We are really I think starting to see the full blossoming of believing that there is no meaning in life and um all that we see from humanity Art beauty justice love all these things are simply The accidental byproduct of physical processes, the laws of physics, you know, the unthinking development, a beginning and development of the universe.

Well, if all that way of thinking, that sort of atheistic materialism is true, then of course, what it means to be human is a completely blank slate. You come up with your own meaning, your own definitions. There's your own direction. There's, it's literally just 360 degree openness. And I think that's a very difficult way for people to live.

I don't think it has worked or is working very well, but it does explain how we might come up with, Hey, the only values then are equality. There should be no inequality. And freedom, I should have just full freedom to do anything with zero restrictions or, or hindrances whatsoever. That makes sense, those, the values are cohesive with that world view, um, and then of course the only sins are inequality and oppression.

So, it becomes very easy to simply see those things in every aspect and manifestation of life. And so I can simply layer that very simple explanation over anything. And come up with what my view should be and how I should act it out. So if males have been the vehicle of oppression, um, then I can look at that and say, Okay, then the right thing is to be, uh, against that and against them.

Uh, same with complicated conflicts like the one between Israel and Hamas. And, um, we could find ourselves doing things as, as insane and corrupt as celebrating, um, torture and execution of babies, rapes, beheadings, that sort of thing that we have. We have seen not only in other countries, but here in the United States and in the West in general, uh, in ways that I think are shocking, have been shocking for me and, and maybe for other people as well, it, it, there's these things, they, they fit together in a certain sense.

Um, so we, we've talked about that and I, as promised, uh, in this episode, I said, I would, I would mention where I think. Some of this is going and I think it's going in some very interesting and dangerous, bad directions. Uh, but if you start to just think like what has happened, what has accelerated over the last 5 years, 10, 20 years in our culture.

Well, you know, some things have shifted a lot. I think many people would say for the better. Uh, other people would question that and wonder if it's for the better. But certainly we've had a, a shift with how we perceive biological differences between men and women. So, uh, you know, as it comes to mate selection, uh, we, we no longer as a culture hold a view that biological differences matter.

And that, uh, complementary, um, the complementary nature of males and females is a relevant consideration in, in building families or building society. Uh, and from there we've moved on to Um, embracing that biological differences don't have any bearing on your identity, how you conceive of yourself, what you are, um, and from there we've moved on I think a bit further to biological differences, uh, don't really exist as categories and, um, and Um, there are no meaningful categories or binary nature to those categories, uh, in a way that has been accepted, I would say most times in most places as real and meaningful.

So all of those, uh, markers and categories have been erased or the lines very, very, very blurred. And so you could think this is. Most likely this is going somewhere, um, but if you take that and then you add in things that are also happening in parallel where, uh, marriage, the institution of marriage is being undercut, uh, and I don't mean in a programmatic way or legal way necessarily, but just in terms of the public thinking, the range of views that you'll see espoused, uh, as people talk about how they feel.

I think there are more and more people. Yeah. who not only don't choose marriage for themselves, which is fine as an individual choice, but are really, uh, stridently critical of the concept of marriage. And certainly anything that smacks of traditionalism or what has gone before. There's even this new insulting prefix of a trad whatever.

A trad wife, trad husband, um, trad role, trad this. And it's, all it means is traditional. Um, but it's just a way of, as I see it, dismissing and insulting without really any content to the insult or the critique. Um, but that has been the undercut. It's the same with parenting. I was reading a post the other day of a woman who has decided not to have kids, which again is perfectly fine as an individual choice, but she really went on a rampage about how offended she is that, um, The, the dangers that go with childbirth and motherhood and the challenges that go with it have not been fixed by society.

They haven't been eliminated. They haven't been fixed. And so she was just, at least the way she came across was very angry, um, and saying that she feels like many others of her peers, this is a younger woman. And um, you know, that's just one more little data point of. Uh, it's, it's an interesting take, you know, how do I come to the conclusion that I expect these dangers and these challenges that probably have always existed and probably less now than they ever have been before is really the fault of other people of culture.

It's it's, it was hard for me to put my mind around, but again, I just took it as a little data point of here's an increasing, I think an increasing percentage of people who. Um, not simply making choices, but really kind of ideologically and, um, uh, theoretically opposed to parenthood as a, as a thing, as an institution, I guess, if you want to say it.

We've talked about the, uh, subconscious, I think, a program to alienate and disengage males. Uh, and, and that we see that effect as well, not just the, not just the, the causes, but the effect as well. We've seen and talked about the compartmentalization of sex from family, from relationships, and it's getting weirder and weirder.

I mean, I, I think, I hate to say this, but I think we're going to see in the next five years is going to just be worse. The proliferation of porn. Uh, the democratization of porn via OnlyFans and things like it and, and just AI in general. Uh, it's really getting just more and more disconnected from humans, from relationships, from family, from, you know, the, the normal context, uh, that you would think would surround sex.

It's just, it's just further and further compartmentalized in a way that many people will just. It's the same thing as, you know, poo poo and celebrate and say it's only a good thing. Uh, I think that's, that's very questionable. Anyway, there are many other ways that we see these same, same trends that are all going, I think, in the same very general direction.

And that is to, uh, for one, sort of cut against or undermine the distinctiveness of humans, and the distinctiveness of the human vocation. To, to fill the earth with goodness, as we've described it, and to, to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Um, and these trends, these, these things that we could look at as, uh, individual sectors, individual elements in what's happening around us and in our culture, they, they do, I think, in many ways, contribute to this overall, uh, um, Threat, this overall direction that is not necessarily a good one, where it's going to be very difficult to be fruitful and multiply.

It's going to be increasingly difficult to do that. It's certainly going to be increasingly difficult to fill the earth with goodness and to promote the goodness of God throughout the earth. Um, and I think as well as that, it's going to continue, uh, to erase and blur. The boundaries that have been meaningful and are meaningful for, for humans.

Um, I, I think we're gonna see weird things where there's going to be humans who exist really in a context that is more AI than real. And that might be some sort of hybrid with AI. I wouldn't be shocked if some people decide to start doing mate selection with robots or some sort of AI manifestation. Um.

I wouldn't be surprised if that's the direction that even sex goes in some weird way that is inconceivable at the moment, but it's getting closer and closer. Um, and, that's gonna be, that's gonna be a new boundary being crossed, and everybody's gonna decide. Of course, what they think about that and I mean, just put yourself in those, you know, in that future, if that's what happens in three years or 10 years or something, there's going to be people saying, well, that's everybody's choice.

That's, you know, it's just, it's just everybody's choice. Who are you to say that's not good or not healthy or not great. Um, but that's a big, that's a big, big boundary being crossed. And of course, other people are going to feel like. Hmm, something completely unwise and unhealthy is taking place that's different.

Um, of course, if people are doing sex and mate selection with AI or robots, then you gotta think about what is offspring going to be and look like and are there going to be creations, um, or conceptions that are somehow confused between whether they're fully human or not. I don't think that would be. Uh, too hard to project into the future at this point.

Anyway, I know this is super weird, but it's, it's sort of like the next frontier, I would say, uh, the next step in just continuing to blur the boundaries even further. And if that's scary to you, it's, it's scary and weird to me as well, but, uh, if you think, well I don't know what's wrong with that, or I, I, I can't, I have trouble articulating what's wrong with that.

I think that's where, we gotta bring back in, like, what is a human? Like, what are we supposed to be doing? What is our purpose? If it truly is a blank slate, tabula rasa, then it, it's very hard to say what isn't great about this, or to, to put any real objection on the board. If you have a, a, a vocation, a calling, a definition for humans that is, Quite distinctive where it is, there's a very high view of what it means to be a human, of what the calling of a human is.

That it's and it is something distinct. Then I think you have something to come back on. And so that's part of why we took the time to really sort of look at the alternatives. How different these two narratives are, how contrasted they are. Um,

and I know we talked in previous episode about. The narrative that we get from the scriptures and how it's it's very It's fuller than even most religious people or believers really understand. I think most of the time in that yes, humans play a important role a central role, but they're not the only figures and that while moral striving and striving to fulfill this vocation is a huge part of the story there's other characters in the story and Including these transhuman characters, these, um, these figures that are spiritual beings that also have agency.

They're not humans, but they do have agency. They do have influence and, and, um, a vested interest in what's going on with the humans. Um, because they, they actually stand opposed, some of them at least, stand opposed to what God's calling and vision for humanity is. And so In the view of the scriptures, those, those entities are at work trying to misguide.

They are, they are anti human, they are anti the vocation of humanity and the good flourishing and reaching that future state that God has in view for the humans. And so, uh, if that's the case, if you conceive that, if you think about that, whether you believe it, or you're just kind of putting on that lens to consider the possibility.

Uh, what would be the goal of those entities? What would be the goal of those beings? Well, again, it would be to cut against, to undermine the vocation, the calling of humans. What better way to do that than to erase their understanding of what it means to be a human, erase any sense of the distinctiveness of what humans are, um, and certainly the, the very high elevated view of what humans are capable of.

And are called to be and called to do and so anything that can be used in that direction is a win in the view of Somebody with that agenda and it could be more than one thing. I mean We've talked about Patriarchy and we've talked about this sort of weird anti male bias that's going on in our culture and and I think both of those could be true, you know, you could have Patriarchy, you could have this anti male thing, and it doesn't really matter, right?

As long as, as long as humanity is being curtailed, and confused, and misguided, it's a win. It could be both opposite things at the same time. You could have racism going on, and the, um, the reduction of flourishing that that causes, and then you could have people who are just So obsessed with the story of racism that that's all they see anywhere and are filled with resentment and hatred Well, you know you could have those two opposite things going on at the same time and they're both a win for the enemy You could have fat shaming going on on one hand and people that are obsessed with having the perfect body and just overly obsessed and then you can have Ramping obesity through your culture as well, and people who don't do anything to be healthier.

And again, both of those things would be a win. You can have so many different things where it, it doesn't have to be only one thing that would, uh, turn us aside, that would hinder us from going in the direction of where God is calling us to go. So it's something to think about. Uh, I encourage you, as weird as some of this conversation might be.

Um, just to consider it, you know, let it, let it marinate a little bit with you. Um, and if you're thinking, well, what do I need to do about this? I, I mean, I don't know, other than at this point, at least consider, consider things from, um, different angles. Maybe consider what you do consider the calling of humanity to be.

Whether you're a believer or not, you need some kind of answer for that. You need some kind of really good anthropology. That gives substance and sustenance to what am I called to do outside of just meaning and definitions that I myself create. That's not, that is not going to be enough to sustain you.

Uh, and I think the, the scriptural one is worthy of consideration, deep consideration. Um, and it, here's another kind of offshoot of this that you might give a little thought to. Uh, a little different, but when we think about Things that affect our direction and where we're going and what it means to be human.

It's really hard to have that conversation without talking about technology. Now, most of us have a, I would say, a fairly positive view of technology and self included. Obviously, technology has brought great help and intensification of power and ability to humanity. Protection in a lot of ways from the elements and the dangers of the world we live in and when I say technology I'm being very very broad like everything from clothing to cities and culture to economies to currency to Scaling up things so that they can work on bigger scales The use of work of metals metalworking weapons all of these things and You know, like I said, most of us have a positive view of that, and I'm grateful for advances in technology that, that help us communicate and that protect us, certainly for medical advances in general.

But there's also a different side of this. You think about sometimes where technology takes us, that is, we don't even know where it's going. You think about the, the examples been given before of Henry Ford developing the motor car. And, you know, it was just sort of a development from horses and horses and horses carriages.

It was called a horseless carriage at first, right, to have a motorized car. And so, sure, it's like the next thing after horses, but Henry Ford probably had no idea that the car, maybe he did, I don't know, but if I was him, I wouldn't have had any idea, that it would transform the physical landscape around us.

Now we have this, you know, our country, for example, and much of the world is crisscrossed by interstate highways. Everything is paved. Um, families live further apart. We commute miles and miles and miles. It's there's there's very little village life left that doesn't exist. And so in so many ways that simply changed many aspects to the way that we live in a way that wasn't necessarily pre planned and wasn't even necessarily seen ahead of time.

And so technology has a way of Getting its own momentum going in a way that is very hard to foresee, plan for, or peel back once it started, like, could you peel back the paving of America? I don't know that you could do that, realistically, uh, and in the same way, it happens in other ways as well, where, you know, there's talks now about, hey, we've got to reduce carbon emissions, what's that gonna look like for each country?

And there's countries like United States and the UK and others where we've had the benefits of industrialization for a long time, which obviously has contributed to pollution. And we've experienced the material benefits of that. We've reaped the, the monetary benefits of doing so. And as we're saying, well, we need to cut back.

It's, it's, it's plainly obvious that what happens in countries like China and India are going to dwarf what we do and don't do. And so that becomes the main question, is what they do and don't do, but it's very hard for us to make the argument that they shouldn't, they shouldn't achieve the same sorts of industrialization that we did and therefore reap the, the, um, economic benefits of doing so.

It's hard for us to do that because we already have reaped, in many ways, economic benefits of doing so. And we know that if, if we peel back and China pushes up, then that just creates a cultural economic advantage for them. And we don't want that to happen either. And so there's, again, there's just this, I'm just describing it very broad brush, but there's momentum that gets going.

That is very hard to, very hard to, to stop, to pause, to go backwards. And so as humans, we create technology, we create innovation. And then the technology and innovation sort of has a life of its own. It's sort of like the, the AI thing, you know, that we've had sci fi horror stories about for generations now.

And yet, here we go, just kind of playing out the plot that we've had in every horror show and book for, uh, 50 years. Um, it's something to give thought to. And it applies even to your personal life. You know, you think about Uh, you're supposed to have a million dollars by the time you retire. Everybody's supposed to be aiming for that, having a million dollars by the time you retire.

Well, one of the things it means is that as you, you save and save and save, it's, it's very hard to press the pause button on anything because the compounding returns means that if you press the pause button, you are, you are potentially, you know, throwing a wrench in your entire future. Well, it makes sense mathematically and logically, but again, once again, it means that there's this momentum that is very hard to cut against and go against.

And that means that we feel this pressure. We feel this pressure of what we can and can't do in the same way as we do with industrialization and pollution. Uh, it would be the same thing with, with weapons of war. You know, you think about the cold war and the stockpiling of nuclear weapons, and it's even though both sides know like it'd be better If there weren't enough weapons to destroy the earth a thousand times over it's very hard for either side To pause or to peel back because then you're at the disadvantage and the other guy might just keep going all these things It's the same theme right it's once you get it in motion.

It has its own It has its own momentum. It has its almost like it has its own agency and it's probably not agency, but it seems that way and that's the way it works. And so, that's something to give thought to as well. Um, How can I fulfill my vocation as a human? What I have been called to. Um, as it pertains to.

technology as it pertains to things that I have in play in my life that may call for discernment and wisdom and not just going along with what seems like progress, what seems like the natural next step in the flow of time. I don't have the answers to that, but I do think it's worthy of deep consideration.

I want to thank you for joining me this season. Uh, I know we've talked about a lot of things. We've talked about some things that might seem very strange or foreign. Uh, but I appreciate the chance to just talk it through, to voice these thoughts to you and, um, want to thank you for joining. So until then, see you next time.