Civilization might collapse at any moment | Sheldon Solomon and Lex Fridman 

Tony Hawk is looking great.

Starting at 5:15 books mentioned: John Gray - False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism - 2000 Hannah Arendt - The Origins of Totalitarianism - 1951 Edit: also mentioned… Max Weber - Charisma and Disenchantment: The Vocation Lectures - shortly after WWI Ernest Becker - The Denial of Death - 1973 Sheldon Solomon - The Worm at the Core: On the Role of Death in Life - 2015 Bonus on scapegoating… René Girard - The Scapegoat - 1989

I think it's pathetic to define oneself by their job, specially in a time where so many bullshit jobs exists and we are forced to do them just to put a roof over our heads and feed our family.

Death awareness. We live in a death denying culture. If we contemplated and meditated on the changing nature of life, including the inevitability of death then we individually and collectively as a world, may well benefit from that. Contemplating the teachings of Buddhism is a good place to start.

Humanity in its present state of global civilization do not have a clue for the most part just how close to the edge of collapse that it actually is according to Jared Diamond's long time in-depth work on the subject.

He speaks just like Ray Dalio but looks like old Tony Hawk

One of the stupidest things that humanity has done has been to get away from its agrarian Roots. The failure to maintain legacies of animal husbandry and regional control over food supply coupled with building megacities whose populations are unsustainable when Walmart cannot function is the most shortsighted stupid shit ever.

Where were his teaching when I was in school. AMAZING guest Lex. - You have done it again!

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

the future's uncertain and the end is always near

The Dude’s best friend at college

Sheldon's line:"The world has become a petri dish of psychopathology" made me think of Anthony Bourdain's line "Hollandaise is a veritable petri-dish of biohazards". Interesting talk, if not cheerful.

Your clips and podcasts are so underated you really are the best i love these body and universe ones the most

9:31-9:40 I never imagined I would hear someone say "people who are old enough to remember 9/11," like it was a long time ago.

Pinker never said we need to " keep making stuff and buying stuff" He's simply pointing out where we're at now comparatively. So many people that disagree with him probably haven't read a page of his books. That said, it's ok to disagree but at least know your source of disagreement.

Idk how but in Apr of 2018 I sent my bud a msg saying that the economy was going to fall soon but wasn't sure when. In Nov of 2019 I was talking to a friend and I was explaining to her how there were similarities in our modern day to the end of days in many collapsed societies

Defund the government

You have the greatest voice for public speaking. I listen to you every night. Your guest are wonderful. I am the age of your parents they have to be so happy about who you are. God Speed

love his singing, goosebumps at 8:48, it really touched me.

Lex Fridman continues to astound me with he huge understanding of widely varying topics such that he's able to have sensible in depth discussions with leaders in their fields.

you gotta do some crazy stuff to earn the title "Psycho Historian"

*Humility is facing the 'End of More'!*

He’s says “I hope I’m wrong”.But does he though? Don’t you feel proclaiming the world will end in your life time is like the insecure old guy move. Something along the lines of “I can’t die unless everything dies with me.” In my experience people with this kind of message are lying.

There would be almost no chance of societal collapse if it was made financially worthwhile for people to SHARE the jobs we NEED people to do and work LESS.....there would be absolutely no such thing as a shortage of jobs and it would massively reduce human inequality...it would no longer be about working primarily FOR money but doing the work we NEED to have done.

There's just so much more to life than we can even begin to imagine, and so very much we've ignored and completely misunderstood. The way the world has become is really no surprise - something needed to happen to slow things down and hopefully bring the world to its senses. In his teachings, Nichiren Daishonin states that, although the lion is the king of beasts that cannot be beaten, a tiny parasite can enter its body and easily destroy it - it's a perfect example of the world right now, methinks. Perhaps after this Nature will gain a whole new kind of respect and the world will become a far better place - humankind will rise to a whole new level and there will be at least some peace for all the other creatures as well, especially where humans are concerned - we have no right to kill and steal the flesh of our fellow sentient beings, be it bats or livestock etc, nor to make money from doing it. Instead of fame, power and wealth the main goals need to become compassion, and the protection and respect for all other living things, including each other - sincere gratitude for what we have and the chance we've all had to exist. I believe they are some of the main qualities that we all need to manifest in order to survive this dreadful predicament we've brought upon ourselves - and to avoid more of the same in the future, or even worse. We need to earn a chance to survive the effects from our past causes, by making new and far better causes now and in the future, and to stick to them. We humans will need to learn from all this to survive and carry on - we need to realise once and for all, that no matter what we choose to believe or not - Nature will always have the final say... Something else that Nichiren wrote regarding when a situation arises that points to the end of our life and we want to survive it = just prayer may not be enough - we need to present a good enough positive reason for overcoming our situation and living on to be worthy of such. This is such an important time and opportunity for us to awaken others to the Mystic Law Itself - it's such a vital opportunity and I hope my bio Saved By The Buddha Within, published last year, which contains a dream that I had back in 1976 while in London, predicting this virus and pretty well everything else that's happening right now - will also help towards awakening others to the Mystic Law at this extremely crucial time. ( In case you are thinking I have made this post to promote my book - that's as futile as thinking I caused the virus to promote my book. More than anything else, my bio is full of incredible and valuable lessons that I've been fortunate enough to learn during my turbulent life, and which can help others, just as the same lessons have helped me). For those who may think what I'm saying is BS etc, please think about how evil Japan was until it was brought to its knees in WW2 - it changed dramatically and became one of the most peaceful and respectful countries on Earth. No, it didn't become perfect, but it became so much better, mainly thanks to all the people who struggled in the aftermath to spread the Mystic Law, when freedom of religion was finally declared in Japan. Yes, today the Law has been taken advantage of, misused and twisted, I know, and many have been using It instead to manipulate others into adhering to self-idolisation and the idolisation of others etc, and now everything's becoming a mess again. It's so vitally important right now to go back to the originally written teachings Niochiren left and put things right. The fertilizer for growth and improvement is all around us right now, and it's another extraordinary opportunity to spread the awareness of the Mystic Law Myoho-Renge-Kyo Itself - not just in Japan, but throughout the whole world. As I'm sure people you would know about, such as Boy George, Tina Turner and Orlando Bloom, just to name just a few, would wholeheartedly agree that chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo can bring forth inner wisdom, strength and good fortune that can allow us to change any poison into medicine. Peace to you all and thank you for reading this. My prayers are with you all - let's come together like never before and win this war. PS: 'Saved by the Light of the Buddha Within' is an amazingly enlightening new bio that's available at Amazon books

One thought of solace. There were exponentially more predictions of the end of the world throughout the history than actual collapses of the civilizations.

Maybe the anger is raising, because we have killed too little of each other lately.

Social media made the anger to keep people watching and then watching the commercials .

Finally s guy who seems to have actually read and understood John N. Gray !

Sheldon Solomon is one of my favorite guests on this show for sure

Every time when governments get too big and the masses depend on the government societies fall. Self sufficient lifestyles is the path to freedom and prosperity.

Loved this dialogue.

Can't wait you to interview Prof. Kevin MacDonald on Evolutionary Psychology.

Believing in nation-state borders as a way of managing an extended kinship network does not mean one wants to hate or kill anyone. It doesn't go hand in hand with tyranny, but we are repeatedly forced by ideologists to spaghetti wire the pragmatism of nations (or in most parts of the world, ethnostates) with the spectre of Nazis and genocides.

Marxs comment “you are what you do” is a criticism on capitalism and the feeling in which the self is represented within the market

Great pod cast 👍🏼❤️ thank you 😎

My 2 newfavs! Liked before i even listen; i never do, this time ill try, excited!!

This is brilliant. These guys articulate what i am thinking. Thank you guys.

This dude shakes his head so much when he speaks I started getting dizzy

I am a Genral contractor. My wife is a Director of Nursing. together we make over 250,000 per year and have put 4 of our 5 children through college. we have a home, nice cars etc. All we have done is worked hard. The only people who want to do that in our country these days are from other countries. Americans have their heads hopelessly up their own asses. all we need is a reality check.

Where's the anger going? Lol, just read through the comment sections on social media. The anger is right here, in America.

Lex! You're the man, hope you keep creating these masterpieces. Art has a new form, and you're on the forefront!

Everyone has inner riches and can connect to the entire universe form the Planck length to greater vistas beyond our visible universe - these riches can be experienced and be deeply satisfying no matter how little one has in the material sense.

great guest/conversation. thanks!

more or less what Asimov wrote in the Second Foundation trilogy

"A petrie dish of psychopathology" good one

Buy land grow your own food! Protect your family! It’s coming!

Charismatic Leader part was spot on. Wow.

he sings well 5:59 and at 6:19 Lmao!

For many of the people is this country there as always been suffering, and low value in society. There has been and still many people of different races are outsiders in this country. The very poor, the uneducated, the people that are disable. The people that went to war and come back with ptsd. The POWs. My father was a POW in World War 2v. He landed on Normandy as a member the US Army second infantry. Marched on foot, earned 5 Battle Stars, Presidential Unit Citation, Silver Stat, Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart. He was captured at the Battle of the Bulge. A mortar shell exploded close to a fox hole he was in, and firing a machine gun at the time. The man next to him was was dead, my dad was injured and was taken captive. In his remainder as a POW . He was put in train cars not knowing where he would end up. This experience had a profound negative hard rest of his life, without little help from the government that he fought for. My father was a farm boy from Southern Illinois. He had 5 brothers, they went to school as far as the fifth grade. He was needed on the very small farm. As a child I would wake up to my father's nightmares as he was screaming. He had a breakdown when I was 11 years old. I remember I was pulled from school and taken home that day. He was taken to a V.A. hospital where he stayed for a year. At the later stages of his hospital stay he could come home on the weekends. Upon his release my Mother was asked If she would feel safe if he was sent home of course she said yes. This is just the beginning of the story. I remember as a child keeping my bedroom door locked. I was afraid of him. He would act out in anger. Thought there was tow of me, thought we (my mom, my sister, and I) were were getting instructions form relatives and neighbors how to bother him. He thought my mother was having sex with another man at the same time the two of them were in bed. He would feel on the other side of her to discover the man not there he would he must be hiding in the closet. He called the men Snoopy. I will stop there with that. Later in life he realized that what he was thinking was not real. It is like the movie BEAUTIFUL MIND. As a child I did not understand all of this. In the last years of his life we became very close. He lived to see me married to a man. He loved Terry(the man I married) What I am saying is that with inner strength and the strength of his family My father at the end of his life was happy, grateful , and full of love for his family. The US government turned it's back on him. One of the many disposable Americans. My dad could have been placed to rest at Arlington National Cemetery put chose to be buried next to his wife Rose Cox out side a small town in a very hard to reach cemetery near Elkville , Illinois. I will be buried beside them.

I believe the reason we feel so content snuged up in our bed on a cold rainy evening is because we're subconsciously super grateful we're not outside in it like all the other animals. Which is obvious when I say it, but something easy to overlook.

Tony Hawk + LSD + Philosophy = this guy

Humans want to fight and suffer. It is in our Nature.

Talking about death anxiety as if becker was correct, when the title of the video is the antidote to the terror management theorists, in that death anxiety isn't what's managed, it's death itself, which completely transposes the implications of people like becker's though

We don't even understand life let alone meaning of it. When we can start from a right square one we might understand life and eventually arrive at the meaning of it. However, for the past 10k years of known history we have not find this Square one yet. We may not able to until the end of time if we still keep running away from true and fact of life.

Infinite growth on a finite planet is impossible.

Doesn't Sheldon realize all of the aggression is currently coming from the Left? Every last angry drop.

The cure for death anxiety: Have every child read, Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, three times.

Lex you are awesome

3:50 "If you have nothing you are nothing."

This is how the Indigenous peoples must have felt...

Great episode

When Tony Hawk became “The Dude”

1:00 of course. If it was already going real badly then there wouldn't be anything to measure the amount of destruction

So many great references. I have my reading to do!

Just circling the drain, had to end sometime. And my favorite line "Eden's not burning it's BURNT"

This guy took way too much LSD in his day.

Lex Fridman would be a good supervillain name. Maybe add a middle word, Lex 'Singularity' Fridman.

This guy is a hippie mike rowe

6:17 toOoOoOoOoooo LOL This guy's brain keeps skipping

Memento Mori

I think people here would also be very interested in learning about Andrew Yang, UBI and the future of work. I recommend Yang’s book, “The War on Normal People”. Changed my entire perspective from hopelessness to being hopeful for the Future and the Future of my kids.

This literally lost me in the opening line. That’s a total misrepresentation of what Pinker has said. Who is this washed out hippie?

This is getting more true in America every day. And we’ll take the rest of the world with it.

They are describing the left but say the right?

Civilisation is not about to collapse. It's being reinforced as we speak.

My fear is that the United States will push further and further towards fighting the CCP - not because we necessarily want to, but because an external enemy is the only way to keep the country together. Moving to a quiet Mars outpost doesn't sound too bad. (Moving to China also doesn't seem too bad either)

Rule #1, distrust any person who tries to make you hate others

whether you think society is going to collapse or not really just depends on your individual emotional state

What you do for work is not what you are as a person. Don't let yourself be categorized because it holds you back from being so much more.

Good riddance to all the governments 🔥🔥🔥👍

Happy to see Becker’s ideas getting their day in the sun

Always hear about this right wing danger from the intelligencia while observing exclusively left wing fascism and racism on the news. Where is the disconnect with these folks and when can we expect them to catch up to the 21st century? Tony hawk comment is fire

Defining yourself by your job is sad and short sighted. Make your hobby your career and you'll be much happier and secure!

There's also left wing demagoguery going on, namely identity centered manias and moral panics, I.e., woke politics. Our existential angst is being harnessed and weaponized in various ways.

I would love a smaller clip between 5:00 and 7:22. This video is so dense, there are definite separate topics that are interrelated yet individually valuable as low-hanging fruit.

still voting trump

@12:00 it's like when a LOT of people got married after 9/11 because they were reminded that they could die at any time. Steve Job's speech to Stanford talked about death and it a great speech to watch.

"Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in bliss so that nothing but bubbles would dance on the surface of his bliss, as on a sea...and even then every man, out of sheer ingratitude, sheer libel, would play you some loathsome trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive rationality his fatal fantastic element...simply in order to prove to himself that men still are men and not piano keys." This quote from Notes from the Underground came to mind when Sheldon said society's collapse when everything seems like it's never been better.

Best podcast on the web!

Pinker never said everything will be fine, all we have to do is keeping making stuff and buying stuff. I wish Solomon would have thought about what he was saying before he opened his mouth. Pinker's book "Enlightenment Now" is a masterwork, if anyone is looking for a great and informative read on the progress the human race has made over the last few hundred years.

Fear equals compliance.

That is exactly what's happening in South Africa right now!

One thing is certain..grow you're own food..you dont want to be in a situation where you dont have any or if you cant leave you're house you will be ok..

Society has always existed on the knives edge. Any one large catastrophe can knock us off, and collapse it beyond repair.

This guy is Ray Dalio in a wig and tie dye shirt

I absolutely love your calm demeanor. Too cool for school. Keep searching for the answers. Peace and Love. Denny Solvie

To reinforce the point that Lex made, its worth mentioning Jordan Peterson said in one of his lectures that people only become bitter and resentful when they think that 'the game is rigged'

In all of these models that we consider for predicting societal collapse, I think two things (that are related) are extremely important in America's case. 1. America has vastly different groups of people with different cultural identities of blurry overlap between them. 2. The younger degeneration has been dealing with existential dread their whole lives with the advent of the internet and wide-spread free idea trading. I'm hesitant to say that existential dread would cause us (young people in particular) to cling to our cultural ideologies because generally we are pretty integrated in the globalist/humanist genre.

If society always collapses after it never looked better means nothing.If it never looked better today and it gets better over the next 10 years it still will be the best it ever looked.you don't know it was the best it ever looked till it ain't. You can't predict crap from that.