The times we are living in
Do you remember when the topic on everyone's mind was the bushfires ravaging the country?
We didn't get a moments rest before COVID-19 made its debut.
A few months in the problems racism and police brutality entered the scene when the local bouncer George Floyd was murdered on camera by the police officer Derek Chauvin.
Peaceful protests and riots alike throughout the United States erupted in response.
And there's the upcoming US election on the horizon, will Trump be re-elected for another four years, will Joe Biden restore the status quo or will a Dark Horse rise up against both?
Many people on social media are expressing the desire for 2020 to end already. As if the changing of a number on a calendar was going to change anything.
It seems like everything is breaking down and the world is plunging into chaos - it is times like this when we realise that we are living in history (we are always living in history).
This conversation will be all about these times.
What's happening? Where is it heading? Where can we go from here? What can we do about it? What are the real problems? What are the real solutions? What is it that is wrong with our culture?
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Brett Weinstein believes that the divisions we have fallen into, in terms of our beliefs and our politics is at the root of the problems society - in particularly, American society - is facing at the moment.
He views Trump's re-election as a disaster, and Biden's election as a major disappointment - a massive opportunity cost to a more capable and courageous leader taking charge.
His plan to address this has been called the #darkhorseduo and now #unity2020. It involves taking a centre-left candidate and a centre-right candidate and having them run jointly. No important decision will be make by one of them without consulting the other. Unless there are reasonable conditions that mean a timely decision is required, consensus between the two will be required for each and every one.
The criteria he puts on the candidates are that they are:
1. Patriotic: their prime interest must by with the nation and its people not any organisation, commercial entity or ideology
2. Courageous: They act according to what they believe to be true, they do not pander to loud mobs or commercial interests to secure votes
3. Capable: They have to have demonstrated a capacity for high levels of competence in their fields as well as the ability to command leadership
He announced the plan on Joe Rogan's podcast. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsW_w-d8cQM
Or for the full 3 hour conversation, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRCzZp1J0v0
I highly recommend you read his plan here: https://medium.com/@ArticlesOfUnity/the-articles-of-unity-f544f930d336
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### Recommended Resources
* Can we pull back from the brink by Sam Harris (both audio and written copy available): https://samharris.org/podcasts/207-can-pull-back-brink/
* The Bigger Picture (written up by yours truly): https://sashinexists.com/letter/the-bigger-picture/
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### A request from me
I would love to be able to build a community from this group, I haven't looked deeply into the best ways of doing this but have created a Telegram chat to discuss the events. Please join it here: https://t.me/experiments_in_conversation
(You will also need to get the app Telegram)
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### Accessing the event
Zoom link (clicking this and opening it in zoom should be enough):https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83168836579?pwd=b0U0RmFRSFhjV1JmMmh4MW9iOWNLUT09
In case that doesn't work:
Meeting-ID:[masked]
Password:[masked]