The Taboo That’s True

"I never discuss anything else except politics and religion. There is nothing else to discuss. – GK Chesterton"

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Always do the inverse of whatever is unjustly demanded of you.

In a recent interview with Jordan B. Peterson, famed investor-thinker Peter Thiel revealed that he works on draft shortcuts. I suspect Thiel’s shortcuts are something like a preference for the advantage of intuition. And a man with sufficient iterations and competency, like Thiel, should utilize intuition where he can.

The Billionaire investor studied under René Girard, a French-American historian and literary critic, whose mimetic theory at Stanford in the 1980s prevails upon Thiel still today. This idea is that humanity’s primary desires are formed, not by genetics, but by imitation.

In this specific interview, he stated a shocking shortcut:

"If you have ideas that are taboo, that you’re not allowed to discuss,
my shortcut is to suspect they are simply true. – Peter Thiel"

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For those of you who like to avoid the deep writing, let me just put this plainly for you. If someone emotionally demands that you not do something, then you must almost certainly do it. Your agency demands that you nearly always do the inverse of whatever is unjustly demanded of you.

(Now moving on for those who enjoy a little more context)

To test his shortcut, one would consider whether the most common taboos are true. If they are true, can they ever be communicated without the speaker facing cancellation? A truth that cannot be stated is a truth that ultimately cannot be defended.

"Always do the inverse of whatever is unjustly demanded of you."

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Let’s look at the cultural norms for fun. Men who want to rebuff the idea of taboo may choose instead to declare it is right to…

• eat beef in India,
• write in red in China,
• say forgiveness is overrated,
• believe hard work doesn’t guarantee anything,
• suspect freedom is just an illusion,
• point out that equity is a myth,
• burp in Korea (it is a compliment to the chef), and
• claim boys have a penis.

 

But I would ask you this instead: wasn’t truth always offensive? If you consider how offensive Christ was toward the religious class, you can directly see that Truth Himself is offensive. And all statements regarding facts, including taboos, are mere statements about Truth.

Taboo is the line that can never be crossed due to societal, moral, or religious norms. Therefore, speech is not entirely free. Yes, some norms apply to behaviors, but here, I would like to limit them to speech. (Thiel above has limited them to ideas.)

And if taboo is a line that cannot be crossed, we must assume that Truth will either be repelled from its jurisdiction or imprisoned by it. But thinking men know neither is true because Truth is more like a lion.

Now, let’s consider a few colloquial concerns I was brought up to believe.

• They say never to make a phone call after 9:00 p.m. But I suspect that if you want to sell something to a difficult-to-reach prospect, calling after 9:00 p.m. or before 6:00 a.m. is precisely what you should do.
• They say never to have a child outside of wedlock. But I suspect the honorable thing to do is for the man to take the pregnant woman into his lifelong protection to avoid the murderous result of “never having a child outside of wedlock.”
• And if girls never asked boys out, then men like me would never have encountered love.
• And a boy who never answers or calls after nine will never know love.

 

These taboos each self-implode, with a bit of thought.

And in some cases, it’s not enough for the haters of freedom that you don’t act on it. Not even enough not to speak about it. But it is offensive to the woke mob for you to even think about it. They claim your tongue and mind are both their domain. And of course, the mob’s formation mirrors that of the formation of all desires in a Girardian framework: A woke mob is formed by imitation. And what they see and copy is reckless, emotive hysterics.

Herein lies an important life lesson: emotions were made to be borne by one, not taken on by another. The only hope of salvation out of an ultra-emotional state is to be saved by someone who is not in that state themselves. So, taking on someone’s emotion becomes an anti-loving action. To empathize is not to adopt. Don’t jump into the sea to save a drowning friend when a rescue patrol is already a mile closer.

"emotions were made to be borne by one, not taken on by another."

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And from this wokeist mob, the emotional reactions pour forth. The mob claims their emotions are somehow the responsibility of the thinker of the taboo, not the one whose emotions are being allowed to manifest. Claiming such, they surrendered their agency long ago when they failed to accept responsibility.

And now, their disgust, shame, and outrage bring forth their calls for justice: Vigilante or court, punishments for speech, penalties for thought, courts of law displacing courts of public opinion. As recently shared at ARC in London, even the law was called to correct a man praying quietly in his own home in Britain.

Here, we see that the taboo becomes the mob’s restrictor of personal liberty. Of speech, and perhaps of thought. And that restrictor of mankind, to promise consequences to those who desire to live as freedmen, becomes our falsification if we obey. The existence of taboos renders our very existence—the Imago Dei—untrue. We act not as a master, but as a slave to the lower-aimed mob if we obey.

Therefore, if we obey the mob-claimed laws, we will eventually be restricted from reaching our true identity. And with our identity falsified, the core memetic theology of the Imago Dei is rendered shameful by those wokeists who commit the only sin.

Aiming low is that only sin. So we cannot play the game. We cannot obey.

"Aiming low is the only sin."

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Therefore, discuss your mental health with a stranger. Talk politics at Thanksgiving. Wear your shoes indoors. Enjoy barbecue pork for dinner tonight—not because you should, but because you must.

And with your newfound willingness to buck the death of your freedom, you will echo the wise words of Chesterton: “I never discuss anything else except politics and religion. There is nothing else to discuss.”

To obey the mob is anti-human. But to do, speak, and think what you rightly desire becomes what it means to truly identify as a human.

"To obey the mob is anti-human."

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Your agency demands that you nearly always do the inverse of whatever is unjustly demanded of you.

Rick