justing.net

Navigating the Weirdness

By Justin G. on 25JUL06SUN

I’ve never heard of Erik Davis before. I don’t know if he’s a nut or not. I watched these two videos and thought there were some good ideas in there, even if a lot of it sounds crazy at times.

These notes cover the material that starts at about 46:20 in the second video through to the end. They are random, scattershot notes.

If I was forced to connect this to my science background, I would say it’s observational skills, phenomenology and empirical. The key is to not discount reports of people believing things that you know to be wrong. The alternative stance is to use “maybe logic”¹ to accept the implications of the observations, even it doesn’t represent the factual truth. Those reports may still guide to some other insight.

To kick it off, here’s something unexpectedly weird that I ran into last week:

Principles of Navigation

Weird shit is happening. It has been for a while. Some examples: the global supply chain, self-driving cars, social media and the internet. A lot of stories are being told too. Examples of that too: disinformation campaigns, virality and algorithmic feeds, tech hype cycles.

Test it by tracking your own belief evolutions if you do the opposite of what you would normally for a set period of time, a few days. Maybe use UFOs as a laboratory to investigate your changing beliefs; they’re already weird af and polluted with lots of manipulation. For example, if you do believe in UFOs/IAP, go in a different direction: practice skepticism and corroboration of every thing you hear. If you don’t believe, do a deep dive down the rabbit hole. See how your beliefs change. Track them and follow what is different before and after. It can give you insight into influences on your beliefs in other, more mundane domains. Synchronistic connection: Matt Webb’s recently relayed a point that knowing that aliens exist is unlikely to change things much.

The tools below offer ballast to keep you upright in the stormy waters of the weirdening. The goal is to maintain your humanity and soul in as healthy of a state as can be.

1. Perpetuate Human Theater

Just keep doing normal everyday stuff no matter what else happens. Keep falling in love, arguing, solving the world’s problems, debating religion, being neurotic, all that stuff. This is living.

2. Attention Martial Arts

This is a marathon, a long game. Settle in, the weirdness will not likely be over in our lifetime. Attention is a martial art in hybrid warfare. The battlefield is not in the obvious places; the infosphere is one but there are others. Broadly speaking, our attention is the battleground. It’s not always obvious who the combatants are either. Evade the traps that diminish your power or your clarity.

3. Concretize and subtle-ize

The goal here is to keep our soul alive. Pay attention to the specific embodied experiences of your life; this is the concrete. Make an art practice of noticing your experience and responses to subtle nuanced things. Humans are good at this. This helps elude abstract narratives which attempt to distract us from our lived experiences.

4. Pick your battles

Sustain your effort; you can’t fight effectively every day for years and years. Keeping focus is a skill you can learn and develop. Go deeper, feel better.

5. Shouldn’t should

What does this mean? Reject the “capital E” expectations. Do what you do, don’t do what you think you should be doing. Find in yourself your authentic response. It’s not necessarily the trained or socially expected one. Examine of those impulses.

6. Keep your cool

Be able to calm down and be un-triggered. It’s a skill and a powerful gift.

7. Foxhole Humor

It’s all so weird and comedic. Maintain your freedom to laugh. Things can be both a bummer and humorous.

8. Emotional Mixing

Keep loving your dog and being happy, despite the awful stuff. Be aware that this stuff is triggering, is genuine, is intentionally manipulating. Develop some space and resilience around your emotion responses. I don’t mean to ignore the terrible, I do mean don’t neglect the good. Keep feelings real, but also play with them.

Grief is legit and contains the seeds of the future; anger and fear do not.

9. Join Posses

Getting together with people is important. Friendship networks, “Fellowship of the Ring”s type stuff. Keep your old friends, make new ones.

10. Curate your curators

Be intentional about who you follow. Remember why you followed them when it seems to not make sense anymore. Be willing to prune but also continue with them if they still make sense.

11. Values over frameworks

Go deep on values. It’s not about what you believe that people should be doing. Take advantage of the situation, figure out how to use it. It sucks, but what’s the alternative. Connect with core values; they provide coherence and guidance over rigid frameworks.

Conclusion

These are some ways to survive the continuing weirdness. Not all of them may make sense for all of us, it’s ok to be picky and choosey about your. The backstop objective is to maintain your soul and humanity.

To Reply: Email me the weird stuff.