Daily Archives: February 8, 2021

Whenever Jordan Peterson speaks, controversy seems to follow.

Fallout from a Jan. 30 Sunday Times article on the Toronto author and academic has led to the indefinite postponement of at least some interviews, including with the Star, for his upcoming book Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life, which is set to release on March 2.

The book is the followup to his wildly popular 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos, which was published in 2018.

His publisher, Penguin Random House, cancelled the interview with the Star on Tuesday, after Peterson posted reaction to the Times piece on his website. The publisher did not respond to a request for further comment.

The move comes after a lengthy piece written by journalist Decca Aitkenhead, following a three-hour interview with Peterson and his daughter, Mikhaila, that delved into, among other things, Petersons health issues, issues his daughter describes as like a horror movie.

Following the publication of the piece titled Jordan Peterson on his depression, drug dependency and Russian rehab hell Peterson wrote on his blog that he originally agreed to the interview because he was motivated by a desire not so much to publicize the book as to clear the stage so that the book might be made the central topic of any other interviews I might give around its launch time (instead of issues such as my health).

He has mostly been out of the public eye for the past 18 months or so as hes dealt with his health problems, with Mikhaila posting updates about him and Peterson posting the occasional video on his YouTube channel. More recently, he has begun to venture into the public eye again, including speaking with actor and now author Matthew McConaughey on his podcast.

Aitkenhead begins the piece by saying, I thought this was going to be a normal interview with Jordan Peterson. After speaking with him at length, and with his daughter for even longer, I no longer have any idea what it is. I dont know if this is a story about drug dependency, or doctors, or Peterson family dynamics or a parable about toxic masculinity. Whatever else it is, its very strange.

After the piece came out, Peterson posted on his blog a letter he sent to Sunday Times acquisitions editor Megan Agnew saying: I am frankly stunned by the degree of sheer cruelty and spite manifested by your journalist, Decca Aitkenhead. He also posted an audio recording of the interview, which ran to almost three hours long.

I would have fared no worse had I discussed my affairs with an avowed enemy, Peterson added.

Peterson originally rocketed to public notice over his objection to transgender human rights legislation and his refusal to use preferred pronouns for trans students. He garnered a massive YouTube following and, after the publication of the multinational bestselling 12 Rules For Life, did speaking engagements around the world.

Talking about the health strain Peterson had been under, Aitkenhead asked him what he thinks about the prospect of his upcoming book and all the demands (and opportunities) that entails. He said, Im ambivalent about it. I cant judge the book properly. I didnt write it under optimal circumstances, to say the least. And so Im unsure, I cant tell, I cant make an adequate judgement (sic) of its quality. I know, I believe that my capacity for editing wasnt what it could be. But that was offset to some degree by the fact that I was able to filter what I was writing through the lens of my illness and to eradicate everything that wasnt sustaining for me while I was in such trouble.

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While official interviews set up through his publisher seem to have been cancelled, Peterson did reach out to at least one podcaster who had been friendly to him in the past, The Rubin Report host Dave Rubin, whom he asked via Twitter time to talk again? Your show?

In November 2020, when Penguin Random House Canada first announced it was publishing this second Peterson book, a number of employees went public with their anger, with one employee saying, My company just claims he has conservative views but that he doesnt necessarily agree with these alt-right groups. No matter what his intention is with this book, his supporters still have these beliefs. By publishing this book, youre supporting this and fuelling the fire by giving him a platform.

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Jordan Peterson media interviews are pulled after a piece he calls 'cruel' was published in the Sunday Times - Toronto Star

Jordan Peterson has made countless controversial and confusing statements about gender politics, but perhaps his most bewildering public persona of all is as a friend to Matthew McConaughey.

McConaughey has long been Hollywoods resident cool guy with a laid-back attitude that would make anyone assume he was reasonably progressive, as far as politics were concerned.

But dont let the surfer style and zen drawl fool youMcConaughey has been making friends in far-right circles for some time now.

RELATED:10 Matthew McConaughey Quotes Prove That Hes TOTALLY Crushworthy

His book tour for the 2020 release of his memoir, Greenlights, made pit stops at The Joe Rogan Experience and at male rights activist Jordan Petersons podcast.

And while this was all in the name of promo, McConaughey seems to be making a very deliberate attempt to pitch his book to the audiences of these controversial figures who are vanguards of the so-called intellectual dark-web.

McConaugheys Joe Rogan appearance is less surprising, as the podcast host has spoken to everyone from Miley Cyrus to Milo Yiannopoulos.

But McConaugheys friendship with Jordan Peterson reveals some not-so-liberal truths about the Oscar-winning actor.

Peterson is a champion of male rights and many debunked anti-trans theories.

Peterson has taken a stab at many progressive social and political issues, but his main enemy is political correctness in general. Most of his podcast and public speaking is spent critiquing liberal snowflakes who want basic human rights.

In 2016, he zeroed in on Canadian legislation that prohibited discrimination based on gender-pronouns. Peterson promoted the false idea that this legislation would allow people to be arrested for misgendering trans and non-binary people.

Since then, he has become something of a self-help guru for those clinging to their masculinity. Most recently,he has been making headlines for his drug addiction and a possible schizophrenia diagnosis.

McConaugheys memoir was inspired by Petersons controversial career.

Thus, it is interesting albeit concerning that McConaughey made a point of thanking Peterson not only in their conversation together, but in a dedicated section at the back of Greenlights.

McConaughey told Peterson that his work gave him the motivation to write his memoir.

Many of the things you said I had been thinking about, but I heard you putting them into words and contexts, I was like, Wow, thats what Im talking about, thats what Im trying to get to, he told the podcast host. And a lot of it goes back to self-determination, which weve talked a lot about. Self-authoring.

McConaughey does specify that it is Petersons vulnerability and humility in his more recent self-help work that inspired him.

That work does sway between far-right radicalization and more centristic views, but the general theme is that men and women the only genders that Peterson recognizes would be better off under traditional gender roles and monogamy should be enforced.

RELATED:The 10 Stages Of Finding Out Someone You Love Supports Donald Trump

McConaughey and Peterson also defended Louis C.K.

The two havebonded over another controversial figure, which gives us further insight into what has led McConaughey to strike up a friendship with Peterson.

In their conversation, they discuss the harms associated with cancel culture, aphenomenon that both the left and right can probably agree has its flaws.

But McConaughey and Petersonschoice of Louis C.K.as an example of someone wrongfully targetted by political correctness perhaps says more about these men than cancel culture itself.

There's plenty of people who do unseemly things but not but very few of them are as masterful acomedian as Louis C.K., Peterson argues while McConaughey nods along in agreement, So do we want to lose him because hes flawed?

The flaws and unseemly things includeaccusations of sexual misconductthat the comedian himself admitted to.

McConaughey agrees that people must be forgiven and permitted to change.

All noble and fair statements if we werent talking about someone who hascontinued to profit off jokesabout school shootings and sexually harassing women even after he was canceled.

Some of McConaugheys past comments have teetered towards the right.

The actor has become something of a public critic of whathe calls illiberals. In 2017,he urged Hollywoodto embrace Trumps presidency.

In hisconversation with Russel Brand above, he accused the left of trying to condescend, patronize or [be] arrogant towards that other 50 percent.

The comments are somewhat familiar for supporters of progressive politics, but McConaughey seems equally reluctant to side with the right entirely.

In the same conversation, he advocated for aggressive centrism as he sympathized with both the right and left.

And while its hard to critique a rare glimpse of egalitarianism in such divisive times, joining forces with figures like Jordan Peterson tells us more about Matthew McConaugheys politics than he may be willing to let on.

RELATED: Why I Cant And Wont Be Friends With Trump Supporters Ever Again

Alice Kelly is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York. She is a generalist with an interest in lifestyle, entertainment, and trending topics.

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Inside Matthew McConaughey's Friendship With Controversial Male Rights Activist Jordan Peterson - YourTango

Welcome to the weekend.

Settle down with a cuppa and catch up on some of the best content from our premium syndicators this week.

Happy reading.

Hours after the United States voted, President Trump declared the election a fraud a lie that unleashed a movement that would shatter democratic norms and upend the peaceful transfer of power.

A New York Times examination explores the 77 democracy-bending days between election and inauguration.

ALSO READ: Key takeaways from Trump's effort to overturn the election Trump's sleight of hand: Shouting fraud, pocketing donors' cash for future

I thought this was going to be a normal interview with Jordan Peterson. After speaking with him at length, and with his daughter for even longer, I no longer have any idea what it is. I don't know if this is a story about drug dependency, or doctors, or Peterson family dynamics or a parable about toxic masculinity. Whatever else it is, it's very strange.

Decca Aitkenhead of The Times talks to the superstar psychologist and his daughter about how he unravelled and their bizarre journey to find a cure.

Dave Grohl has done so much throughout his career drummed for Nirvana, arguably the biggest band of its generation; led Foo Fighters, one of the most successful acts of the past three decades; sold out Wembley Stadium, twice; played on the White House lawn; interviewed the sitting president of the United States; broke his leg during a show and finished the show with the broken leg; entered the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with another induction likely on the way; recorded with both living Beatles; appeared on The Muppets, also twice that when you ask him what's left, he takes a moment.

Jeremy Gordon of The New York Times talks to Grohl about the band's history and their latest album.

Guy Babcock vividly remembers the chilly Saturday evening when he discovered the stain on his family. It was September 2018. He, his wife and their young son had just returned to their home. Babcock still had his coat on when he got a frantic call from his father.

"I don't want to upset you, but there is some bad stuff on the internet," Babcock recalled his father saying. Someone, somewhere, had written terrible things online about Guy Babcock and his brother, and members of their 86-year-old father's social club had alerted him.

Babcock got off the phone and Googled himself. The results were full of posts on strange sites accusing him of being a thief, a fraudster and a paedophile.

Outrageous lies destroyed his online reputation.

But as The New York Times reports, when he went hunting for their source, what he discovered was worse than he could have imagined.

ALSO READ: Here's a way to learn if facial recognition systems used your photos

The Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was smiling as he made his way towards his country's consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on the afternoon of October 2, 2018. He was happy. He was in love. He was planning a wedding.

The smile would not have lingered long on Khashoggi's face when he saw who was there to meet him inside the consulate a 15-member hit squad of Saudi government agents. After the Saudis suffocated their victim, a government physician dismembered him with a bone saw in the consulate "media room". His remains have never been found.

Khashoggi's fiance, Hatice Cenzig, talks to Matthew Campbell of The Times about the assassination that shocked the world.

The online trading app Robinhood became a cultural phenomenon and a Silicon Valley darling with a promise to wrest the stock market away from Wall Street's traditional gatekeepers and "let the people trade" making it as easy to put millions of dollars at risk as it is to summon an Uber.

Last week, in the middle of a market frenzy pitting amateur traders against hedge fund bigwigs, that veneer began to chip. As it turned out, Robinhood was at the mercy of the very industry it had vowed to upend.

The New York Times looks at how the highflying startup suddenly became an overwhelmed, creaky company.

ALSO READ: 'Let them trade': Washington struggles with Robinhood politics Robinhood's CEO is in the hot seat Opinion: Can we please stop talking about stocks, please?

In 2015, Vanessa van Ewijk, a carpenter in the Netherlands, decided that she wanted to have a child. She was 34 and single, and so, like many women, she sought out a sperm donor.

She considered conceiving through a fertility clinic, but the cost was prohibitive for her. Instead, she found an ideal candidate through a website called Desire for a Child, his name was Jonathan Jacob Meijer.

In 2017, when she decided to conceive again, she reached out once more to Meijer.

Even before then, however, van Ewijk learned some unsettling news. Meijer had fathered at least 102 children in the Netherlands through numerous fertility clinics, a tally that did not include his private donations through websites.

One man, hundreds of children and a burning question: Why?

On May 4, a new cruise ship called the Spirit of Adventure is due to leave the English port of Dover on a maiden voyage like no other.

The vessel's owner, Britain's over-50s holiday and insurance group Saga, is one of the first large businesses to make Covid jabs mandatory for its customers. No one will be allowed on board unless they are fully vaccinated against coronavirus or rather, almost no one.

In a sign of the fraught situation employers around the world face, the shots will be compulsory for passengers but not the ship's crew.

A few companies have introduced 'no jab, no job' policies, but as the Financial Times reports it is unclear if such steps are lawful.

The nearly 426 metre tower at 432 Park Ave., briefly the tallest residential building in the world, was the pinnacle of New York's luxury condo boom half a decade ago, fuelled largely by foreign buyers seeking discretion and big returns.

Six years later, residents of the exclusive tower are now at odds with the developers, and each other, making clear that even multimillion-dollar price tags do not guarantee problem-free living.

The New York Times looks at some of the significant design problems facing the luxury high-rise industry.

The news that Jeff Bezos would step aside as Amazon's chief executive was a surprise, but there were signs it may have been on his mind for some time.

With little sign of a horse race, Andy Jassy, the current head of Amazon's cloud computing division, will step up to be the new chief executive.

Amazon insisted that Bezos, as executive chairman, would only be involved in what it described as "one-way door" decisions, from which there is no turning back.

The Financial Times looks at how investors are reassured by the succession plan.

Officials in Australia moved mountains to make the country's annual professional tennis swing happen.

That will be far more difficult after the tour leaves the isolated, island nation, The New York Times writes.

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77 days of Trump's lies and other premium stories you may have missed this week - New Zealand Herald

ReadingRoom

Steve Braunias interviews Danyl McLauchlan on philosophy, faith, Richard Dawkins, Plato, Moro bars, the search for meaning, and the parable of the Drowning Child

Wellington writer Danyl McLauchlan is the author of Tranquility and Ruin, a slim, brisk philosophical examination of big questions What is consciousness? What is Being? "Why don't I get hungry at the monastery?" which he approaches with zest and wit throughout his narrative of four essays. Two essays are set in Buddhist monasteries, where he meditates, finds relief from his mental health problems (depression, insomnia), and thinks about the nature and purpose of existence. A third essay is set at a retreat held by the New Zealand branch of Effective Altruists, a worldwide movement which sets out to provide meaningful data that can best answer another of life's big questions, "How do I make the world a better place?" McLauchlan thinks a great deal about why the human race thinks that in the first place. He thinks a great deal about many things and worries he eats too much and in the acknowledgements he thanks, of all people, Matthew Hooton (for introducing him to the ideas of philosopher Derek Parfit); I remember McLauchlan once wrote that Hooton ought not be referred to as a political commentator but as "a National Party operative", and I have faithfully used that description every time I have written about Matthew Hooton, who is a National Party operative. Tranquility and Ruin is a wonderful book of ideas. Its non-fiction narrative is immensely readable. I interviewed the author on a Thursday night, when I conducted a live email interview over three hours.

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Danyl, the first time I met you was at the McDonald's in Manners St. We couldn't shake hands. Your paws were wet with cheese and sauce. I want to mention in this because fast food specifically, Happy Meals figures prominently in Tranquility and Ruin, as a code for the terrible things we do to the world and our reluctance to do anything about it, and as a sign that that the Earth is in sticky, inevitable collapse, and also in its actual state as a food that you like to eat but wish it was otherwise. In fact you go to the ends of the New Zealand earth (a monastery in Stokes Valley, another monastery somewhere at the northern end of the Southern Alps) to get away from it and to think your way through it, not merely because Happy Meals make you fat and unhappy, but also because Happy Meals and much else in the material world are a prison, and perhaps the central quest of your book is the search for freedom and purpose without turning into a religious maniac. When did you last eat McDonald's, and what did it make you think?

I hate to start in a contrarian mode, but I think the first time we met was at a writer's festival in the Wairarapa. You had bought a gigantic box of mushrooms off someone, somehow and were at a loss with what to do with them. I sometimes wonder what happened to them. But yes, the next time we met I was eating a burger. It was actually one of those massive, unmanageable burgers from some gourmet burger place, which is why I had cheese and sauce in my beard and running down my arms. You never get that with the McDonald's burgers. Say what you like about their nutritional quality, but it's very manageable food. The last time I ate at one was Tuesday: the last day of the school holidays. Sadie and I went to Te Papa, with its exorbitant sausage rolls which I refused to buy, and then the central art gallery, where she made me very proud by working out herself that most of the art was terrible and the cafe which is nice but also rather pricey - and then McDonald's, because we were getting tired and cranky with each other and needed to eat. It was good! The right decision. I stand by it.

That giant box of mushrooms! I wonder what happened to them too. Anyway, but when you were at McDonalds, and Im not seeking to shame you for that - as the author of The Man Who Ate Lincoln Road, I look on all fast food as a communal banquet, as the peoples food, as a good thing but when you were chowing down, did you think, Here we go again. I was at peace at the monasteries, or certainly I had glimpses of peace, and progress. But now look. And its not the fact of the burger. Its the prison of the material world its the middle-class life, with our consumerism, as well as our political infatuations and our boring need to cancel people in this Age of Chastisement. Tranquility and Ruin looks to rise above that, doesnt it?

I feel that more acutely when I eat a chocolate bar, which is almost every day, at the moment: the awareness that I'm about to buy and eat something that is basically a low grade poison, that I'm doing so because it's been specifically designed to light up the pleasure centre in my brain, that the pleasure will fade very quickly and I'll feel slightly worse afterwards, and that even though I'm aware of all this I'll do it anyway because I'm just a prisoner of my biology. That does weigh on me. And the frustrating thing is that I do go through periods of life, sometimes six months or a year, when things are good I'm able to approximate the level of self-control and equanimity I get at the monastery, or on retreat. During those times I am legitimately less trapped: I don't eat crap all the time, I lose weight, feel happier. But it isn't sustainable. My natural equilibrium seems to be someone who is somewhat depressed and unhealthy, and who actually needs to work to keep from being very depressed. This is legitimately what runs through my head when I eat a Moro. So yes, the book does talk about how to rise above all that, but doesn't try to pretend that I have succeeded in doing so. There are characters in it who have, at least far more so than me, but they've made some pretty big sacrifices to do so.

I really appreciate that answer and your honesty. There are times in your book when you do the old self-deprecating dance a book falls on your head, that sort of thing, which lightens the mood and makes the reader think, What an adorable chump! All that stuff. But this is a serious book and you go way beyond mere self-deprecation to talking being depressed, being anxious, having insomnia. You alternate between medication, and meditation. Nothing seems to last. There are no easy solutions or answers in this book but thats the point of it, in a way: you write about the need to feel uncertain about things, to have self-doubt. But we live in an age where everyone seems sure of everything and will argue about it to the death. Buddha said, People with opinions just go around bothering each other. Can you expand on what you mean when you write about the need for uncertainty, that uncertainty is essential for progress?

Uncertainty is a major theme in the book and it means slightly different things in different essays. One of them explores this idea that a major function of the brain is to minimise statistical uncertainty about the world, and how it works, and it wonders if depression and anxiety are malfunctions in that process.

I'm not sure how genuine that Buddha quote is, but the Buddhist philosophy that gets referenced in the book argues that our default assumptions about reality just aren't true, and that if you practise Buddhist meditation techniques you'll experience insights that will cause you to update your models of how the mind works, what reality is, yadda yadda yadda. And I don't know if that's true, but my experience is that their techniques are doing SOMETHING very strange and interesting to the mind. So again, in this different way it's worth being uncertain about what we think we know.

The social psychologists tell us overconfidence bias causes a lot of our poor decisions in life, and that we're more also likely to believe overconfident people, and that the more intelligent and educated we are, the harder it is for us to change our minds when we're presented with evidence that we're wrong, because you have access to so many persuasive arguments that you're actually correct, despite the data. So uncertainty is something you need to go out of your way to cultivate.

Uncertainty is also a major theme with the Effective Altruists, who are the subjects of the longest essay. They want to figure out how to do the most good in the world, but they're also very aware that the world is complex, and the human brain is easy to fool, so actually doing good is hard. And they have all these devastating examples of charities or states or philanthropists that set out to do worthy things but didn't think things through, or triggered all these unforeseen consequences and ended up making things much worse for the very vulnerable people they were trying to help. So the Effective Altruists do things like fund deworming projects in the developing world, because they're FAIRLY sure that's a good thing to do. But they're not totally certain: there are some studies that suggest it might not be that effective, they could be doing other stuff like providing anti-malarial bed nets instead. And they debate this and try and figure out if they're wrong and whether they should change their minds and do something else.

And this was fascinating and inspiring to me because it's all so radically different from most contemporary debates about politics or economics or morality, in which participants are hilariously overconfident about very deep, hard, long-running unsolved problems that they can't possibly have the definitive answers to. So the default EA position is that if you're not wondering what you're wrong about, and checking your assumptions and changing your mind about things, you're probably mostly wrong about a lot of important issues.

Great youve introduced the Effective Altruists to our conversation, and I really want to ask you about them and their example. But first, do you remember a few years ago, I commissioned you to write about that total egg Jordan B Peterson? I headlined it, The subtle art of not giving a fuck about Jordan B Peterson. I mention this because the headline was an obvious play on that awful book by Mark Manson and it struck me reading Tranquility and Ruin that an alternate title could be, The Subtle Art of Truly and Effectively Giving a Fuck. The essay on the altruists doesnt come to mock them. It comes to look at their ideas about how to make the world a better place. Many or some of them tithe give 10% of their income to charities. Do you do that? Are you an effective altruist? Come to think of it, are you a Buddhist? Or are you merely a tourist, a wandering essayist with insomnia?

I think that Jordan Peterson review inspired me to delete my Twitter account, because my feed flooded with both Jordan Peterson fans outraged that I'd disparaged the master, and left-wing scolds furious that I hadn't disparaged him enough. And deleting twitter definitely improved my quality of life, so thanks!

I am definitely just a tourist. Like a lot of writers I get deeply obsessed with things, write about them, then move on, maybe picking up bits and pieces as I go. So I donate to Effective Altruism charities, but don't donate 10% of my income. I meditate, but don't think of myself as a Buddhist, although I probably follow all of their precepts against drinking etc, purely because I'm boring and middle-aged. But I don't have a teacher, or a community I practise with. Total tourist.

It's funny: I wrote these essays as part of my masters in creative writing, and some people in the class HATED the Effective Altruists, and wanted the essay to eviscerate them and felt frustrated that it didn't. That's not an uncommon reaction to the EAs, and it's not hard to see why. The movement is both confronting and weird. But I love the weirdness. I love the culture of that movement. I've spent a bit of time around our left-wing political parties, and I don't want to write the parties off, I support them, but the culture of left-wing politics is very toxic, famously so, and the EAs have built such a great culture. I think some people will read that essay and think, "Ugh. These people are weird", while others will read it and go "These EAs are my people and I must be with them," and even if just a handful of readers have that reaction it'll be worth it.

Why did some people in your class hate the EAs? I hate those classmates of yours. I found the EAs inspiring. After reading your book, I got in touch with the EAs and signed up for a free copy of their book Doing Good Better. Because I want to do better. Buddha said, "Give, even if you only have a little." I want to save the Drowning Child. Thats a kind of thought experiment in your book: its an idea by Peter Singer, and it goes something like this: You walk along the street and see a drowning child. Do you save them? Of course you do, but in reality youre not: the world is full of children whose lives depend on you, but instead of giving to charities, you squander your money on coffee, on the mortgage, a nice holiday etc. But for Drowning Child, you could also say, Climate Change. Were not doing enough. Were not doing anything. Your book isnt an exhortation to do something, but dont you honestly want to do all you can, Danyl? But instead, there you are, chanting in monasteries! What good does that do?

There is a great book by Larissa Macfarquhar called Strangers Drowning, and it's about Singer's thought experiment and people who try to live out the implications, which is that you give absolutely everything you possibly can to effective charities. The EAs refer to them as extreme altruists. And some people do live these very saintly lives, but man it looks hard. The EAs actually discourage people from trying to live like that because the risk of burnout is high. It's more effective to give moderately over time than it is to overdo it and then give up. And that seems like a happy compromise to make with the drowning child argument.

Why do people hate the EAs? I think part of it is that there's this popular idea that being a good person is having the right opinions, and consuming the right cultural and media products. Hating Trump and reading all the right books, and the Guardian, and so on. And you can be very invested in that but then the EAs come along and say 'Actually none of that has any moral value. You have to be giving your money away to people living in absolute poverty.' You can see why people find that annoying.

Climate change is hard. Two of the frameworks the EAs have for deciding which problems to work on are tractability and neglectedness. How easy is the problem, and how neglected is it? Climate is very hard, and lots of smart people are working on it, so it's difficult to make a big difference because it's not neglected. One of my oldest friends is James Shaw, who is currently the Minister of Climate Change, and once a year or so have lunch with him and pester him with questions about why hasn't X or Y happened, and where is the government on Z, and he's like: "Yep. Here are all the problems with X and here's how we're fixing them. Here's why Y is hard. Here's why we can't do Z so we're doing something else." It's not like he's unaware of the urgency or scale of the problem. So one of the EA charities I donate to buys up land in rainforests and places it in trust for the indigenous people of the region, preventing it from being chopped down, and that seems more effective than just about anything I could do in New Zealand.

And I just want to clarify that I don't spend a huge amount of time chanting in monasteries. They make you chant in that one place I stayed at, but it's not a regular hobby.

I don't spend a huge amount of time chanting in monasteries, fumes author. Now this segues very neatly to a discussion on the search for meaning in a secular world, for non-religious morality, as I think philosopher Derek Parfit puts it. Now this is difficult isnt it. You write about Platos concept of the noble lie, in which for a long, long time we fooled ourselves there is a God, so that society can better flourish. Tranquility and Ruin is suspicious of faith, but you talk about Heideggers idea that science only goes so far in explaining the world, and that there are things outside rationality. And yet the search for meaning in the 20th century was so often the road to ruin alternate faiths, like Scientology, or alternate societies, like Centrepoint. What do you think? Is there an intellectual case for religious faith?

That's quite the sprawling question. Let me try and answer it biographically. Back in my twenties when I was studying biology the 'new atheists' were a big thing: Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens. And I got really invested in that and read all their books and was convinced that religious people were gullible suckers, and that religion was the cause of most of the problems in the world, and that scientific rationalism was the one true way of knowing anything. And some of that just kind of fell away as I got older. I met people who were religious and realised they were smart, and that their faith was a very meaningful part of their lives. I found out that there was a long and fascinating philosophical debate about exactly these questions, which none of the new atheists seemed to know anything about, and I now mostly feel embarrassed for them. And I'm still an atheist, but one who is way less confident about issues like faith and the infallibility of science.

Derek Parfit's project as a philosopher is to figure out a non religious morality. Back in the 19th century Nietzsche pointed out that modern societies all had moral values based on the assumption that God, or some other supernatural entities existed and wanted us to be moral and would punish us if we weren't. Moderns don't believe in God anymore - at least most of us don't - but we all kept following religious moralities, so what exactly were we doing? Parfit, who only died a few years ago, tried to work out a rational reason to be good that doesn't involve God or an afterlife. And he never quite got there, but he made a lot of fascinating arguments along the way. And because he's interested in building a rational morality, the Effective Altruists are super interested in him and his ideas.

Martin Heidegger is almost the antithesis to Parfit. Parfit and the EAs believe that reality is complex and rationalism is the way you understand it objectively and make good decisions. Heidegger pushes against that. He argues that reason and scientific rationalism are very artificial, very constructed ways of seeing the world, and that they contain assumptions that cannot be proved, and cannot answer the most important questions we have about existence. Science and rationalism 'conceal as much as they reveal', and the world they reveal is too impoverished for us to live in. For him a life in which I'm degrading the natural world to run around joylessly consuming chocolate bars and happy meals to compulsively spark little serotonin bursts in my brain is the logical consequence of the scientific worldview. So his goal is to try and build an alternate way of being in the world and knowing about the world which leads to a more profound and meaningful existence. And the fact that he joined the national socialist party and became a massive Nazi is something of a problem for the credibility of his project.

But the Buddhists have 2,500 years of a contemplative tradition that teaches that you can't understand existence rationally, you can only undertake these practises that reveal the true nature of existence to you at an experiential level. Which seems like a Heideggerian project that doesn't lead directly to death camps, so I thought that was an interesting connection to make. The Buddhist stuff I tend to read is a modern, secular interpretation of Buddhism but the monastery I stayed at is very much a religious institution. And, contra Dawkins et al, the monks and laypeople are definitely not gullible suckers. They just don't like the secular world, think the way the rest of us live is absurd, and have found an alternative that they find far more meaningful. The faith functions as a way to bind the community together. It doesn't work if they don't have faith. So for them there's an incredibly compelling case for faith.

Id like to end the interview with as much existential despair as possible. You write about the selfish gene theory of Richard Dawkins, how he posits that the human race are merely survival machinesrobot vehicles; we host genes, who drive us, and whose only function and purpose is to replicate each other. God, free will, fate and all of that are just illusions. Your book talks about readers who write to Dawkins in a state of great distress, wishing they could unread this, because its so profoundly upsetting. What do you think about it? Is life essentially pointless, Danyl?

It's fashionable to dunk on Richard Dawkins, so I do want to emphasise that I think he's a great science writer. And The Selfish Gene is a very good book. But . . . I mean he's exactly the sort of intellectual Nietzsche was making fun of all those years ago. He's supposed to be this super-rational super atheist, but the assumptions of his world view, that humans are exceptional, that we're exempt from all the implications of his book because we're rational and have agency are basically religious. It's what people believed when they thought humans had souls and were created by a divine being who endowed us with innate dignity and free will, but if you don't believe that, how does any of the rest of the worldview make sense?

If you don't believe in God and you do believe in scientific rationalism you are stuck with the implication that we're just survival vehicles for genes to keep copying themselves, and there's no actual point to our existence. You have a couple of strategies there: you can just not worry about it, which works unless suddenly it doesn't. You can adopt Parfit's approach of trying to figure out a rational way of living a meaningful life, and that can take you to some challenging and weird places, as the EAs show.

Or you can listen to Heidegger, who will point out that Dawkins, and scientists in general can't explain how consciousness evolved, or how material bodies constructed by genes possess it. They can't explain why the material world exists or has the properties that it does. Those are pretty big gaps in the worldview. So maybe there is some point to it all in there, somewhere, and even if we spend most of our lives drifting around in a state of oblivion, eating junk food and never thinking about any of this, there's still a space for it all to mean something.

Tranquility and Ruin by Danyl McLauchlan (Victoria University Press, $30) is available in bookstores nationwide.

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Danyl McLauchlan and the meaning of life - Newsroom

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

If the objectives of President Biden and his Democratic cohorts are to further divide our country, create an economic recession and enable Chinas world dominance, theyre off to a great start.

Come on, Democrats, if you want a chance at unity, call off the impeachment dogs. The man you all hate is out of office. Speak out against the assault on free speech by your Silicon Valley donors; stop the domestic-terrorist labeling of the 74 million people who voted for your opponent; and get the federal troops out of DC. (Maybe send them to Portland or Seattle, where there are still daily insurrections.)

While many of his supporters have no idea how perilous the energy crisis of the 1970s was to our economy and national security, Biden should know better. Since the industrial revolution, access to low-cost energy has been the engine of our economic growth, technical innovation and national security. Now, with our economy in a shambles because of COVID-19, is not the time to eliminate well-paying energy sector jobs.

With over 62% of our electricity generated via fossil fuels, (20% is from nuclear and less than 17% is from renewables), and more than 280 million cars reliant on gasoline, energy independence is vital to our economic recovery and national security. Lets innovate rather than dictate our way to cleaner energy.

Finally, President Joe, you may want to consider the negative effect that millions of government-dependent immigrants and higher taxes would have on our economic recovery.

MIKE FERREER

Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Biden off to predictably bad start - Washington Times

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

When President Biden issued his executive order halting the Keystone XL pipeline, he essentially made life harder for the middle class and he jeopardized national security. Our economy and peoples comfort and essential needs are based on oil, natural gas and coal, for manufacturing, farming and other industries. It is also essential for our land, sea and air protection, and it provides transport for people and products. That availability is necessary for responding effectively emergencies, including natural disasters such as fires and floods.

The projected 11,OOO job losses do not take into account the loss of other jobs in manufacturing, transportation and distribution, nor the effect on workers families, taxes and local businesses, which are sure to lose revenue.

We have a huge homeless problem that has not been seriously addressed. Not a few homeless people are drug addicts or alcoholics. Many of them have mental-health issues that have been long neglected. Why are Democrats so eager to reward illegal immigrants and allow the easy access into our nation when we have so many citizens suffering from the effects of longstanding problems, the violent political protests by the left and COVID-19?

By hamstringing the oil, natural-gas and coal industries without first securing an efficient, effectibe energy replacement, Mr. Bidens executive orders are simply wrong.

MARVIN L. HOOVIS

Centerville, Mass.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Kill domestic energy, kill life quality - Washington Times

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

I have warned repetedly about what the Democrats would do if they took back the White House. In the past few weeks, as executive orders destroying our country have flown off President Bidens desk, my concerns have been validated. The Democrats are now showing their true colors, turning the U.S. into a dictatorship while carrying out their plot to demonize everyone who supported Donald Trump.

Speaker Pelosi has accused the Republicans and all Trump supporters of being terrorists or White supremacists and a threat to Democrats. I recently watched news anchor Katie Couric and Democratic politicians say Trump supporters should be deprogrammed. A new congresswoman from Missouri, Cori Bush, has even moved her office away from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, saying Ms. Greene was a threat to her. A Georgia congresswoman wants Ms. Greene removed from office.

Ms. Greene has been portrayed as a crazy conspiracy theorist who wants to kill Democrats simply because she supported Mr. Trump and called out the guilty Democrats.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters told a crowd on T.V. to go after all Republicans. She wanted them terrorized and forced out of restaurants or any other place they frequented. Of course, that was fair play.

The Democrats plotted to manipulate the people and created the insurrection they accused Mr. Trump of inciting. They want one party to rule over the masses under the guise of enforcing the Constitution but they have forgotten that we dont work for them. They work for us.

Impeaching Donald Trump and dividing the people is the icing on the cake of the destruction of democracy as we know it. Democrats talk about unity while they divide everyone. When you hear a Democrat say they want a better country, they mean they want to destroy the country.

GREGORY J. TOPLIFF

Warrenville, S.C.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Fears about left validated - Washington Times

The Long Island Nets tip off the G League season on Wednesday under first-year head coach Bret Brielmaier with a group that includes four players on the teams 10-man roster that have NBA experience.

We definitely looked at this G League bubble as an opportunity to take a look at some guys that we havent had in our system before, said Long Island General Manager Matt Riccardi. We have an incredible coaching staff, and obviously we wanted to make sure that we had players that had a chance to develop, that would be looked at as call-up targets for the NBA, that could put our program as competitive as possible. So youll see the make-up of that. I think our oldest player is 28, but we do have a younger group. Some veterans mixed in there with a few G League experience, some NBA experience as well.

In addition to its 10-man roster, Long Island will begin the season with three two-way players available Brooklyns Reggie Perry and Dallas Tyler Bey and Nate Hinton. Here, well take a look at the 10 players on the G League roster.

JORDAN BOWDEN6-5 GUARD

Bowden is one of three rookies on the roster, playing their first season of American pro ball (Paul Eboua played professionally in Europe). The 24-year-old guard played four seasons at Tennessee. As a senior last year, he started all 31 games and averaged 13.7 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.7 assists.

Good athlete. Good, quick first step, said Brielmaier. Really efficient in the mid-range, so helping him understand how to become more efficient and be comfortable at that 3-point line, and turn those mid-range shots into either rim attacks or three-balls. Lot of upside for that kid, and you can tell hes been really, really well-coached.

PAUL EBOUA6-8 FORWARD

Eboua is an international prospect who had plenty of mentions in mock drafts, typically toward the back half of the second round, but ultimately went undrafted. The 20-year-old hell turn 21 on Feb. 15 is from Cameroon and moved to Rome in his teens to pursue his basketball career, playing in the Jordan Brand Classic International Game at Barclays Center in 2016. Last season, Eboua played for VL Pesaro in Italys top-level Serie A league.

An incredible young prospect that our international scouts, Simone Casali, Jeff Peterson, BJ Johnson, have done an incredible job of identifying in the past, said Riccardi. Someone we followed closely, and someone our coaching staff targeted as being really excited to work with.

KAISER GATES6-7 FORWARD

The 24-year-old out of Xavier played in Summer League with the Bulls in 2018 and spent the 2018-19 season with their G League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls. Last year he started all 36 games he played for the Maine Red Claws, averaging 12.2 points.

Guy can really just stretch the floor, said Brielmaier. He can really shoot the basketball. Knows how to play the game. Surprising how much better his defensive ability to switch is. Hes got a great feel. Even though hes not the most athletic guy on the court, he just has a way of taking angles and knowing what a guy is going to do before he does it.

BJ JOHNSON6-7 FORWARD

Johnson played two years of college ball at Syracuse and then two at LaSalle before playing Summer League with the Hornets in 2018. During the 2018-19 season he played for the Lakeland Magic in the G League before getting a 10-day contract with Atlanta and then eventually signing with Sacramento at the end of the season.

Last year he was back with the Orlando organization on a two-way deal, playing 10 NBA games and averaging 22.8 points and 6.4 rebounds while shooting 41.4 percent from 3-point range in 28 games for Lakeland.

Weve seen BJ play a ton in the past, said Riccardi. We played against him in the playoffs two years ago when he was playing with Lakeland. Weve seen him in the NBA. We think hes a really good player, high-quality player that has a chance to continue to develop.

JEREMIAH MARTIN 6-2 GUARD

Martin is back with the Nets after joining the organization on a two-way deal last January. He played 16 games for Long Island, averaging 16.8 points, 4.0 assists and 2.2 steals. He saw a bigger role with Brooklyn on the NBA Campus in Orlando last summer, making six of his nine NBA game appearances last year during that stretch of the season. Martin had a 20-point game against the Celtics and a career-high 24 points against Orlando last summer. He started last season in the G League with Sioux Falls, averaging 18.5 points and 5.0 assists in 16 games before being signed by the Nets.

JMarts just a rock star. Hes a stud, said Brielmaier. The guy has been this defensive presence at every practice. Hes very motivated to prove how elite of a defender he is, and his offensive game has continued to improve. His shooting, his playmaking, his ability to get to the rim and finish.

CJ MASSINBURG6-5 GUARD

Massinburg, the Mid-American Conference Player of the Year at Buffalo in 2019 and a two-time All-MAC selection, is in his second season with Long Island, the only returning player from last seasons 10-man roster. He averaged 7.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 2.6 assists while playing in 23 games.

Its always better coming back the second time, said Massinburg. You know you have a lot more experience under your belt. You know how the pace of the game is. You basically know what to expect, so yeah, Im excited to be back again.

ELIE OKOBO6-3 GUARD

The 23-year-old from France is the highest-drafted player on the Long Island roster. The 31st overall pick in 2018, Okobo spent two seasons with the Phoenix Suns, appearing in 108 games and averaging 4.8 points and 2.2 assists. He previously played nine games in the G League with the Northern Arizona Suns in 2018-19, averaging 18.1 points, 7.4 assists, and 1.4 steals.

Elie is an amazing player, said Riccardi. Weve seen him from his draft time to being on the Phoenix Suns, to playing for the Northern Arizona Suns, so similar to BJ (Johnson) and similar to the other guys on our roster, were really excited to get a chance to work with Elie, someone weve seen from afar and weve liked all his intangibles and all his skills and his NBA size. Just looking forward to seeing how he mixes with our group and our coaching staff and vice versa.

TARIQ OWENS6-10 FORWARD

The 25-year-old big man finished up his college career making a run at the NCAA title with Texas Tech in 2019 after two seasons at St. Johns and one at Tennessee. He signed a two-way deal with the Phoenix Suns last January after beginning the season on their Northern Arizona Suns G League roster. He played three games for Phoenix, and in 40 G League games averaged 10.4 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting 49.1 percent.

Tariqs still learning the pro system, and what can make him special at this level, said Brielmaier. His athletic ability, his length, his timing, all put him in that category. Now its the little pieces that will propel him to that next step; when to get out of a screen, when to hold a screen. How to get positioning to get a better angle to rebound. Understanding how to sit down and guard these smaller guards when were in switching situations. Its more of a finer tune pieces with him. Hes got all the physical gifts, so now were just really trying to have him understand the importance of the little details, and feel the nuances that it takes at this level.

SHANNON SCOTT6-1 GUARD

Scott returns to the Long Island Nets for his sixth pro season after playing abroad last year. Over two seasons and 95 games with Long Island in 2017-18 and 2018-19, Scott averaged 8.4 points and 5.3 assists.

Such a stabilizing, calming force, said Riccardi. He knows what we are all about, and he helped set that foundation a few years ago. Having him part of this group is a huge benefit for us and for all the players and the staff itself. Hes been through it and he knows exactly what were looking for and Im truly excited to have him part of this group, just because of his institutional knowledge and his leadership.

NATE SESTINA6-9 FORWARD

Over the last three seasons, Sestina has gone from All-Patriot League Second Team at Bucknell to playing one season at Kentucky and now into professional hoops. At Kentucky last season, Sestina shot 40.7 percent from 3-point range, and he said Brielmaier has encouraged him to let it fly.

Hes messaged me, hes sent me clips, weve talked about it a lot, said Sestina. He said, youve got a flamethrower, youve got to let that thing go. He said if you leave the game with a full clip, thats on you. Theyre confident in me, and having a front office and a coaching staff thats confident in you should give you the ultimate confidence when you go out into the game and play and just knowing that your teammates are confident in you as well in your ability to do something.

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Long Island Nets Season Preview: Breaking Down the Roster | Brooklyn Nets - Brooklynnets.com

Published 8:57pm EST, Friday, February 5, 2021

Ferris State's men started off the weekend with a 68-65 win over Grand Valley

Ferris State's men started off the weekend with a 68-65 win over Grand Valley

Ferris State's men started off the weekend with a 68-65 win over Grand Valley

Ferris State's men started off the weekend with a 68-65 win over Grand Valley

Ferris men slip past Grand Valley to open series

BIG RAPIDS It went down to the wire, but Ferris States mens basketball team did enough to pull out a 68-65Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference win against Grand Valley State at Wink Arena on Friday.Walt Kelser had 20 points and four rebounds while Michael Peterson added 19 points and seven boards to lead Ferris (6-4. 7-6) to its third straight win.Ferris built a 37-27 halftime lead. The Bulldogs were 13-of-29 from the floor for 44.8 percent while Grand Valley was 12 of 26 for 46.2 percent.Michael Peterson was 5-of-8 from the floor and scored 14 points in the first half.Deng Reng hit a 3-pointer and a field goal for an early 11-6 Bulldog lead.Kelser scored for a 30-20 lead late in the half and sank a 3-pointer with 51 seconds to go for a 35-25 lead.Kelser scored a 3-pointer off the glass to beat the shot clock and open the second half. Petersons 3-pointer made it 47-33 with 14:50. Mason Plines dunk at 12:17 put Ferris up 49-38. He hit two free throws with 10:17 to play for a 51-41 lead. Jordan Harris connected for Grand Valley to make it 51-45.Petersons offensive rebound and putback at 6:55 made it 57-48. Jimmy Schollers 3-pointer made it 60-50.Kelser scored for a 63-54 lead with 4:30 to go.Harris 3-point play made it 63-59. Vejas Grazulis followed with a hoop for Ferris.The Lakers hung tight and narrowed it to 65-63 with a minute to go on Jake Van Tubbergens basket. Kelser hit a free throw with 33 seconds to go. Christian Negron scored for a 66-65 game, but Reng hit two free throws with 15 seconds to go to make it 68-65. Jordans 3-point try was blocked but the Lakers got the inbounds underneath the basket with 3.7 seconds to go. They called another time out when they couldnt make the inbounds pass. Jordans 3-point try failed with a second to play and Ferris secured the win.At the end they were a little more physical and getting to the free-throw line, FSU coach Andy Bronkema said. They were really pounding us on the glass. We hung on and made just enough free-throws. Kelser put up another 20 with all eyes on him. It was fun to see Grazulis battle. We have to do it again tomorrow. Well have to flip the page quick and see what we can learn.Van Tubbergen had 19 points and nine rebounds for Grand Valley (4-4, 4-4).We have figured out how to play hard and how to bring the energy, Bronkema said. Thats what we did again today for three wins in a row. We got beat up bad against Lake State as far as energy wise and hustle. Win or lose, you dont want to do that. Three games in a row, weve had it. I dont want to be outrebounded by 10 by anybody. Thats the game within the game.Also scoring for Ferris were Pline (6), Reng (6), Grazulis (6), Scholler (3), Jeremiah Washington (3) and Logan Ryan (2).Were used to packed gymnasiums for this rivalry, Bronkema said. Its unfortunate the guys dont get to experience that this year but yet its fortunate were playing. Were happy were playing.Grand Valley had a 35-25 rebounding advantage. Ferris was 23-of-55 from the floor and 10-of-26 in triples. GV was 25-of-50 from the floor and 2-of-17 in 3-pointers.There was a lot of energy on both sides, Bronkema said. That makes it fun.The two teams play Saturday at Wink Arena, with tipoff time at 3 p.m.

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Ferris men slip past Grand Valley to open series - The Pioneer