The thing most refreshing about David is that, as far as I can tell, he never encourages or even permits people to subject themselves to the increasingly popular pressures to cut themselves down
Before speaking with David I don't think anyone had ever been so insistent that I do just what I want to do. When I admitted that I hadn't yet read very much of his book, he told me that I should only read it if and when that's what I felt like doing
I mention this because it's utterly overthrown my brain. IMO, the "duty" to make oneself an acceptably uniform component of the modern social system is one of the most powerful forces of destruction on the planet, and the sublimation of exceptional desires is part and parcel
There's something so insidious about the aesthetic of self-deprivation that's developing in the US and Europe — it bills itself as anti-selfishness, but the most selfish thing in the world is to insist that everyone else constrain themselves to wants that are acceptably meager
This isn't *only* personally destructive. Progress isn't... hard, exactly, but it requires a sort of nurtured obsession that we're currently discouraging in both kids and adults. It requires a lumpiness in both cognition and lifestyle that looks weird to the managerial hierarchy
A note on these "acceptably meager" wants — "billionaires shouldn't exist" is the motte. "You shouldn't have kids" is just one yield of the bailey. slatestarcodex.com/2014/11/03/all…
