Episode 251 - Aiming Up

Is Trying to be Better Enough?

Hello friends,

Over the past few months, I’ve been releasing episodes on self-improvement, showing up for yourself, and forming good habits, and they seem to be well-received. Of course, my thoughts on these topics are in constant evolution, and I’ve come to ponder the question: if we were to distill down to the essentials what’s important, what would we be left with? And I don’t mean in terms of values, though that’s important, I simply mean: what defines the spirit of individuals that allows it to transcend the evil and incompetence of our current insufficient condition?

BRJT

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Episode Transcript

It should go without saying, but you absolutely need to have some values. This is important to stress in today’s world because there are some who think that we can all simply accept each other’s philosophies and ways of life, or that one way of life can’t possibly be better than another’s.

I think this is a very naïve way of looking at the world. What if, for example, your philosophy was one of peace and mine was one of violence? There have, after all, been many groups in history that have lived with the imperialism ethos. World War 1 was all about conquest, and World War 2 was partially so. Prior to that, Genghis Khan raped and pillaged most of the world for conquest.

It's simply not the case that we should accept all ways of life as being equally as good. When people say that, what they mean is that we deem each other as having a fundamental value and respect each other’s ways of life. In other words, in order for us to accept and let each other live our lives we first must agree on that premise.

What you are essentially saying is that we all must have a similar, higher-level value of mutual respect, and that is included in our way of life. Certainly, as I mentioned, many groups in history have not held that view so let’s not take it for granted.