"There is a tendency for us to eccentrify and island ourselves but in a way that is the precondition for creativity... What we give back to the society then are diverse insights, new understandings that can't arise in an environment of consensus."
He forsaw so much. But to get his full wisdom, one would have to listen to many hours of his work. It cant be don't in a soundbyte or a meme...even though he forsaw the latter as well. It is why many don't see how brilliant he was; it takes a journey down a very long rabbit hole. And most wont, or don't have the time, to go.
And the are just not able to do so, he was a genius, people don't even get it, how could you get the wisdom just by listening. He was tuned in by nature
I'm going to say it. It didn't play out at all the way Terence had in mind. Instead of diverse insights and tolerance brought to the wider community as a result of balkanization, we got echo chambers where people become less insightful, less tolerant and understanding, and less connected to the wider community. It's not that it couldn't have played out the way Terence wanted, it's just that individual ego/narcissism has skyrocketed. If ego had been kept suppressed (ooh, I wonder what does that), the internet would have been a very different and better place.
It's a twofold effect, with the internet creating balkanization, egos can and still inflate in their own ecosystems. The thing is, people can use the internet as a conduit to promote and heighten their own egos against others simply through conformation feedback loops or through the process of simply engaging. What I'm thinking of is similar to a 'wishing well'.
I think there are some positive communities like for example; JRE passively promoting mushrooms to their large group of listeners will improve people. Like how currency is being decentralized, lets remove government from education.
Terence McKenna describing the METAVERSE way back in the 20th century: "I can imagine a future where bodies are nodal points in a web, and you just settle where it's comfortable for a while and then move on and make room for someone else. And you don't have to own a body and you don't have to have one personality, one body; you can become context-dependent. "And as avatars flourish … you all know what I mean by Avatars; I mean these software constructs that are how you appear to other people on the internet … these will be your personalities. Well, eventually, we'll all have 50 or 60 avatars hanging in our virtual closet, and you will get up in the morning and decide. "It's all about boundary dissolution, plasticity, transformation and the replacing of solid and defined entities with more amorphous and self-transforming entities."
As it turns out, the diversity that comes out of the wreckage of culture very quickly dissolves into banality and the emphasis on the lowest common denominators of food, alcohol, violence and sex.
I think we were wrong to dump on culture as a whole. I think what Terence was trying to get at about his dumping on culture is that POPULAR culture, the entertainment we consume compulsively and the slogans we repeat mindlessly, must be dissolved. Not our base values, which are also a part of culture. That part of culture is necessary. Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
This is a fundamental issue with McKenna, and the hippy counter culture. It's fine to deconstruct nonsense, it needs to happen, but without an alternate wisdom we default to primitive survival patterns again.. we don't remain open hearted for long. We need to transcend, not regress.
I don’t know if we are seeing enormous diversity now. Seems like worldwide cultures and languages are disappearing rapidly and that a monoculture is on the horizon.
Seems this is alluding to the mass feedback era of the smartphone. In some ways we are fragmented and in other ways more connected. I’m not sure which is necessarily worse
Definitely! I think we could use Terrence's ideas to become a bit more grounded and opened eyed today's world's complexities. However, it's up to the strangest of us perhaps to do so.
The way he is speaking about avatars is exactly what's going on in dr Robert Monroe's third book. They fly above the earth and think of whatever they want to create and it becomes so in the material world. He asks " where are all the people" they respond "all over you didn't look hard enough." They pop in and out of bodies and leave a pretective sphere around them to keep them free of parasites and viruses. They said in there it takes a bout 30 mins to make a new body. It's a great book series and would suggest it to anyone listening to this. It's fun to not full except an idea and just plug it into different philosophical ideas and see if it all makes sense. R.I.P. Terrance McKenna 💖
If your name is David this comment is for you. I know you listen to these videos. I hope you read this comment so we can reconnect. Hope you're doing well!! Miss being able to talk about Life.
hearing terence mckenna speak about "gender preference" breaks my heart. there isn't a group of people whom i hate more then these types, i loved listening to terence mckenna because it took my mind off the issue but now he called me xenophobic for it
i was seriously scanning this talk for the words that seemed to have affected you but i couldn't distill them from it. Could you quote what he said and how that relates to what you feel?
@@engelbertus1406 3:30 he says "people with a different gender identity" as if he is implying gender is a choice just like how people nowadays think it is. to my mind there only are 2 identities male > female AKA man > woman
I don't think you've listened hard enough. He meant gay, straight, or bi. The word gender really did just mean man and woman during the time Terence was alive, so interpreting that in the way you have is reading modern ideas into what he was saying. Today's trans movement has redefined gender to basically mean fashion choices, which Terrence even covered in this speech. We learn to accept the fashion choices of others. Though he would probably reject the trend of forcing certain language upon people we see these days. I should add that today's illiberal Left is highly intolerant in comparison to Terence's kind of liberalism. Today's illiberal Left essentially wants a monoculture of values which is something that is in direct conflict with what Terence is advocating for.
