The London School of Economics bulk uploaded some of the lectures previously heard on podcasts. This is the Gray’s Anatomy: Thoughts on Politics, Religion and the Meaning of life lecture delivered on April 30th, 2009. Moderated by Richard Reeves (could a moderator be more annoying?).
Further reading:
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Hi: Do you know if this is available as a podcast for download?
Mark, all the LSE podcasts are here (search the page for “John Gray”)
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/podcasts/publicLecturesAndEvents.htm
They also have a channel on iTunes.
I have a visceral agreement with John Gray about human nature and behavior. However, I do not agree with him that specific events are necessarily examples of said nature and behavior. Let’s say we live in a Kantian / quintessential Enlightenment-era world and are gradually moving toward world “peace”. Even in this world, there would be acts of “evil” performed by humans. Even in this world, there could be a collapse of certain institutions and societies. It’s just in that world, these events would become more scarce over time and society would converge towards a more just and moral state. So, merely pointing to acts like torture, slavery, Stalinism, etc does not tell us much.
Chad, I agree that part of his argument is weak. In general when he gets sidetracked by the current events I find him unconvincing. But as you say his point about human nature and the lack of progress is correct. I don’t understand why he can’t say simply that while we transfer scientific information we don’t transfer knowledge or experience of life every life and every generation starts over. This seems to be an observable fact.
And another part that pisses me off is when Gray, and even Taleb — both of whom I greatly respect — start making predictions. I think the common thread of their ideas is that the world is volatile, complex, and seemingly irrational — and that, as humans, we cannot even begin to make sense out of it. Furthermore, both explicitly state that nearly all predictions are futile.
Yet, it does not stop them from making bold predictions time and time again. For instance, in the Gray video, he goes on and on about deflation, environmental disasters etc. Taleb does the same thing sometimes. The instance that immediately comes to mind is his article in the Financial Times (I think) about how nation-states will become city-states, large corporations will become family-run businesses, etc. It’s just mind boggling they are making these predictions. The human ego knows no boundaries.
Chad, Taleb and Gray don’t speak with the same voice. For example Taleb explicitly discounts global warming for the him the nature is self healing. John Gray doesn’t discount predictions, but he preaches to expect the same patterns about the human nature, a sure bet and he gives it a gentle guess.
As far Taleb predictions published in the Economist, I later found the audio of that interview and you can hear that the published article gave it a completely different “this will happen” spin, it’s here:
http://benatlas.com/2010/11/nassim-taleb-outlines-the-anti-fragile-future/
I listened to the Taleb audio, and I still think he is making outrageous predictions. No Fed, non-governmental currencies, city-states, no corporations etc. He even mentioned that it is part of his “anti-fragile tableau.” What is this but Platonic thinking dressed in other garb? Just because it might be more well thought out compared to the average “Dow 100,000″ nimwit, does not mean its likely to have any predictive power. I think even Taleb would admit that. And to tie Gray in here, Taleb is falling trap to what Gray describes — projecting your Utopia onto the real world. Taleb’s Utopia is the anti-fragile world.
Chad, I think you on to something although I am personally not a purist. I expect inconsistencies. But take Gray’s description of Nietzsche, he points to his family religiosity despite him being the one who put god to rest. I don’t know if you noticed but Taleb often speaks about the old Levantine world as anti-fragile. And I say, wait a minute, you mean anti-fragile like Lebanon? So he definitely nurses a utopia but it is pointing backwards not frowards, even when he speaks about the future.