Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

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jacob
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Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by jacob »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0CG8PP30pw
or
https://hermitix.podiant.co/e/consumeri ... d45a22fda/

Here talking about the more overarching [meta] aspects of consumerism, its history, careerism, socioeconomic class issues, financialization, and how such things lock people in. Plato's cave stuff. Mental constraints.

Also check out the rest of the channel. It deals with interesting "fringe thinking" at a deep level, so stuff that hasn't made it into in academia [yet]. I think that's a fair description. For example, there's an episode with JMG, one with Ran Prieur, another one on Austrian economics, ...

PS: This was the last interview I did using the laptop microphone. I think it (I) sounded good though. Perhaps it was because the video feed was deliberately switched off while recording? Seemed like a good idea because it actually went transatlantic, similar to the madfientist interview, which did use video bandwidth. I do, however, forget whether either one was done on zoom or skype. (I think it was zoom?!)

Hristo Botev
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Re: Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by Hristo Botev »

Yes!!! I really enjoy this podcast and the host's particular way of interviewing guests, so I'm very much looking forward to listening to this one!

(So, when can we expect to see you on the Joe Rogan Experience?)

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Alphaville
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Re: Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by Alphaville »

have not listened beyond a sample yet, but good audio capture, gets through the compression

theanimal
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Re: Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by theanimal »

Great interview as always!

Your discussion of nomadic hunter gatherers waiting and preparing brought back memories of an anecdote I heard from my time in the Arctic. Each year dall sheep move to different mountains, often going to another area where there are better grasses for feeding. Sometimes this involves crossing valleys. Sheeps' main defense from predators is their ability to climb (quickly) on nearly vertical mountain faces. In the valleys, sheep lose this defense and any lingering wolf would make a quick meal of them. So prior to moving across valleys, sheep will sit, waiting and watching for days making sure that nothing is moving below until they make a mad dash across. There was a native Nunamuit who lived near the community I used to live in during the mid 20th century named Arctic Johnny, who was renowned among locals for his excellent hunting ability. While everyone else would be flying around and climbing all over the mountains looking for sheep, he would simply sit down low in the valley and observe. He learned the routes the sheep took between mountains and then would wait until they made their trip across the valley to make a kill. Unlike everyone else who was running around trying to be busy as can be in attempts to be "productive." Now if we're focused on productivity, who really is getting a better use of their time and resources?

On another note, sadly my dad's household is a consumer of this books by the foot idea. They have hundreds of books in their house with blue bindings so that it matches the walls and "ties in together". I think the one time I visited and perused through some of the books is/will be the only time the books have been read.

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Seppia
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Re: Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by Seppia »

I can't find it on either Apple pocasts nor Spotify.

guitarplayer
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Re: Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by guitarplayer »

Way to go! Thanks Jacob, and well done the moderator.

This one I listened to on loudspeaker with DW. A few more appearances and maybe DW will start posting here, I think she already has an account.

My key takeaway from it is going to be the Strauss-Howe generational theory, and this is what I will read about now.

Frita
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Re: Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by Frita »

Adventures in technology during severe weather: Hermitix is on Apple but the episode with Jacob hasn’t posted yet. The YouTube site kept stopping a few minutes in and going to the beginning. The Podiant link would pause every so often but could be restarted where I left off.

Anyway, this was your best interview to date in my opinion. I enjoyed the part about the four types of people and how the consumer indoctrination; urrr, educational; system isn’t a good fit for explorers. It is becoming clearer the longer I am away.

Perhaps Hermitix will do another, more in depth interview or two. He’s well-prepared, asks thoughtful questions, and lets you/Jacob answer and expand on his thoughts. Thank you to both!

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Re: Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by Hristo Botev »

If you haven't listened to them, Hermitix has done several interviews with JMG, which are pretty fantastic. As always, I appreciate the sort of political agnosticism that Jacob brings to interviews. Not sure if that's the right way to say it, but every time I listen to one of Jacob's interviews I'm struck by how far removed he is from Plato's Cave--the "holy shit we've got landfills larger than any other human-made structures!" realization happened so long ago, and he's moved on from the screaming at the top of his longs about how screwed up and stupid this all is (Peak Oil?), to actually figuring out a way to get others to come out of Plato's Cave ON THEIR OWN ACCORD, realizing it's not going to happen in any real, long-lasting way by simply "raising awareness" or whatever. It strikes me very much as similar to Paul Kingsnorth's progression, though of course by different paths and by making the most of their different talents/abilities. Personally, by nature I'm more drawn to the poetry of Kingnorth's literary way of thinking than the graphs and charts and equations (which I rarely really fully understand) of Jacob the astrophysicist. BUT, once someone like me has read Alexandria (or Butler's Parable of the Sower, e.g.), then what? And Jacob gives us a system (as opposed to JMG's checklist, e.g.) for answering that question on an individual, personalized, practical level, when just about everyone else in this space seems to still be screaming at us about the need for action in some abstract sense.

ETA: Maybe instead of political agnosticism it's more in line with the demeanor of the Stoic sage; which, funny enough, doesn't always make for as entertaining of listening as listening to someone screaming about the 100 different ways the world is screwed up and/or doomed or whatever. It's like every book I've EVER read by a political commentator--300 pages of all the different ways the world is wrong, followed by (perhaps) a final, very short chapter or epilogue that purports to tell us how to fix the wrong, but doesn't really say anything. Jacob's ERE book and system, however, is like a handful of pages of what's wrong, with everything else focused on what to do about it, in a systematic sense that can be adapted across countries, living situations, abilities, etc. etc.

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Re: Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by BWND »

This podcast is great - lots of interesting stuff to listen to!

Fringe philosophy - it's almost like it's been designed specifically for people that hang around here.

jacob
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Re: Hermitix interview: jacob on consumerism and personal freedom

Post by jacob »

James Ellis (the host) was recently on The Stoa talking about "Exiting Modernity" (his book with essays). It lines up well with the above. Also see ERE book chapter 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xm69NvrD-o

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