Dialogos
My friends,
I hope everyone is doing well.
We had a good conversation with Richard Bartlett today at The Stoa. I felt he helped The Stoa come to better understand itself. I also had a good conversation with Jason Synder and Jared Janes of the Both/And podcast. We discussed memetic mediation and how to do it in the liminal war.
I am nervous to release both, mainly because I was at the edge of truthfulness for each. There is a very vulnerable feeling associated with this.
Three events for tomorrow:
The Consequential Gap w/ Peter Wang. April 9th @ 10:00 AM ET. Learn more. RSVP here.
Self Awareness in a Crisis w/ Yancey Strickler. April 9th @ 7:00 PM ET. Learn more. RSVP here.
Existential Dance Party w/ Collin Morris. April 9th @ 8:30 PM ET. Learn more. RSVP here.
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April 8, 2020
I felt weird last night. I feel weird now. Maybe it is the result of not sleeping, or taking the proper amount of self care. But I think it might have to do with what is happening at The Stoa, and what it is sensing into.
Yesterday, at last night's dialogos experiment with Guy Sengstock, I felt a distinct state shift. It felt as if a balloon was blowing up within me, and expanding beyond me. I was in a breakout session with Guy, John Vervaeke, and Christopher Mastropietro. Being in dialogos with those three is a very different experience from just watching.
I have a desire to push back, though. I want to be skeptical, and do not want to be taken up by the wave they are riding. Well, maybe it is more accurate to say that I do want to ride the wave, it is very fun and exciting, but I do not want to be drinking any Kool-Aid while riding it.
Sensing into the potential of these events, I can see them easily acquiring a churchy vibe. I am less concerned about being kidnapped by ego, but I do think that would be a risk if I loosened my grip on my Stoicism. I am more concerned about the things people project onto the space, or—worse—onto me. If people start consistently feeling spiritual tingles in this space, they might want something from it. Something that it cannot, or should not, deliver.
If we are indeed entering the Liminal War, which it seems as if we are, then, as my friend Ivo says, Doomsday Gurus might emerge and begin to capitalize on this savior-needing energy. Imagine a noosphere landscape with various memetic tribes led by messianic narcissists. Despite my long-standing hesitation about entering the culture war, I do feel response-able to do what I can to stop this from happening, both inside and outside The Stoa.
I am also concerned about being irresponsible with this space, if a mental health crisis is indeed amplifying with this meta-crisis. Tim Adalin, who was there last night, said that things got quite emotional in his breakout session. How responsible is it to throw potentially vulnerable people randomly into a room together and say: now go be vulnerable?
People need spaces to connect, but not everyone coming to this space is a Stoic. I am going to set better framing around these sorts of events, and possibly add a disclaimer. Yes, I do have a cowboy energy, and that is not going to go away, but philosophical cowboys should still ride with prudence.
Overall, I have no fucking clue what to do, or what I am doing, but I had a really lovely conversation with Collin Morris yesterday. I was not only at the edge of my thinking, but was radically committed to being truthful. I think being truthful, in a radical way, is exactly what I need to keep doing.
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