Globally, there is an unknown percentage of individuals craving for knowledge. People who are not into the black and white conclusions of reality and believe there is more to the story then what it appears to be.
Individuals who want to have a civil discussion about religion, politics, science, philosophy, the arts without having this need to appear overly educated and condescending. They’re passionately curious about the collective domain they reside in and in this search to quench their thirst for wisdom, the individualization of their existence makes them feel purposeful in this vast, chaotic universe.
I will explain how you can take part in it.
YouTube University
Here is a fun statistic about YouTube:
- “The total number of people who use YouTube – 1,300,000,000.
- 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute!
- Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube every single day.
- YouTube gets over 30 million visitors per day
- In an average month, 8 out of 10 18-49-year-olds watch YouTube.
- By 2025, half of the viewers under 32 will not subscribe to a pay-tv service.
- 6 out of 10 people prefer online video platforms to live TV
- The total number of hours of video watched on YouTube each month – 3.25 billion.
- 10,113 YouTube videos generate over 1 billion views.”
The impression that we need to go to an expensive, ivy-league university to study things like philosophy is outdated. I self-taught myself the subject using the platform. The first book I purchased falling under philosophy was Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and with the help of dictionaries, lots of booze and YouTube, I was eased into the discipline which has grown into an impetuous passion of mine. A passion without the expensive price tag.
There’s a beginner’s guide to practically everything: make-up, cooking, writing, starting up a business, how to set up your first blog, audiobooks and there are even videos on how to talk to your cat!
What’s beautiful and magnificent is that hyper-intellectuals can be exposed to unlimited hours of mind-blowing information and people are taking advantage of that like the Intellectual Dark Web.
People are a lot smarter than what the media portrays humanity as and the IDW are feeding the malnourished society delicious ideas that makes people want more. This in turns leads to people thinking critically.
Modern-day Agora
In ancient Rome and Greece, the Agora was a place where people “assembled” and it was an open market-place where traders met to exchange goods and also a place where people exchanged ideas.
Socrates roamed around these open places to challenge people to question their own set of beliefs and have a dialogue that made Athenians think.
American commentator Dave Rubin and host of The Rubin Report saw this opportunity and said:
“While the mainstream media continues to spoon feed the masses soundbite click bait, we’re here doing some real proof of concept work that proves you’re a lot smarter than they think. While mainstream media focus on Trump’s diet Coke habit, we’re here talking Marxist roots of postmodernism and the secular and religious arguments over where rights come from.”
He continues, “While you’re learning through these conversations, just know that I’m learning right there along with you.”
According Statista, “On-the-go listening remains the most popular way of enjoying podcasts. In 2017, 65 percent of podcast listeners used a smartphone, tablet, or portable audio player to listen to a podcast, in comparison to 33 percent who tuned in via a computer. Indeed, the flexibility of listening to podcasts is one of the main factors that draw podcast listeners to the medium. The ability to listen to podcasts wherever and whenever ranked highly in the reasons given by podcast listeners for listening to podcasts in the United States in 2016.”
Dr. Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins just to name of a few intellectuals, are taking their ideas out of universities and out to the public in theaters to be discussed and shared among non-students. It’s amazing to see this happening. Their shows are selling out.
Ideas need to be out on the table
The Joe Rogan Experience is a great example of people getting together and throwing ideas out in the open and the guests all range from evolutionary biologists, political figures, comedians, university professors, MMA fighters, journalists and YouTube sensations.
Rogan did not realize that he is one of the many who has caused a massive impact on the way that people are starting to think. Sure, it’s appealing to have people with difference of opinions shouting over each other and calling each other names but what is that going to solve? Rogan said:
“I think there’s this problem that human beings have where they have an idea and that idea becomes part of their identity and then they start arguing for that idea and any argument against that idea is an argument against them as a person. They are trying to win and not necessarily looking at things in an objective way where they are detached from the idea and studying as the thing instead they are arguing to try to win. I think that’s a giant problem with ideas.”
He nailed it.
Turn on CNN, turn on Fox News, turn on any news channel and you will see a pro and con side to every issue. We’re not going to solve environmental problems if we’re so wrapped up in identity politics. This means you’re either a believer of climate change or you’re not. And if you disagree, you’re the problem.
It’s an unproductive cycle of discourse that needs to be removed and you need to detach yourself away from it and start thinking in terms of objectivity.
Where to begin?
It’s healthy to defend your position, in fact, I encourage you to do so. Still, are you defending the position because you think the position is worth defending or are you defending it due to the fact someone that you admire intellectually said you should defend his/her ideas?
Our brain contains 100 billion neurons and here we are wasting it on dogmatic information that has crippled us from fulfilling our full potential.
Break that cycle.
It sounds easy yet it’s extremely difficult. You probably were standing behind an idea that has been with you for decades.
It’s never too late to start asking why.
You can read more of my work at faroutwisdom.com.
