I'm Dr. Orion Taban and this is Psychax

better living through psychology and the

topic of today's short talk is the

democratic lie. So this is going to be a

spicy one as today I will be

slaughtering one of our society's most

sacred cows. There is a profound and

ubiquitous lie that pervades our

society. It is a cherished lie and one

protected by much fear and

righteousness, but it is a lie

nonetheless. And as a lie, it is

exerting a delletterious effect on

society at large. You are already

familiar with this lie. And as soon as I

tell you what it is, you will imagine

that you've been aware of it the entire

time. In my opinion, this lie is not so

much an active intentional deceit, but

more the unintended consequence of a

profound failure to adequately

understand the human condition. And in

order to prime you for its recognition,

allow me to briefly talk about one of my

all-time favorite books, Brave New World

by Aldis Huxley.

Brave New World is set in a dystopian

future in which society is governed by a

global totalitarian state that among

other things genetically engineers its

citizens for their intended roles in

society. People are conceived in

state-owned reproductive facilities,

gestated in bottles, artificial wombs,

and decanted at 9 months. People don't

have parents or families or monogous

relationships. What they do have are

casts, and the individuals in each cast

are genetically and socially engineered

to fit perfectly within their positions

in society. Unlike most dystopian

novels, which are very grim and bleak,

Brave New World presents a very

different sort of society. In this

world, there is no want. Every desire

individuals are capable of experiencing

is immediately satisfied. There is no

crime or poverty or unemployment or even

the conscious sensation of being

controlled. There are community origins

and safe euphoric drugs and a near

complete absence of any kind of negative

emotion. The global society it depicts

is safe, comfortable, pleasurable, and

stable. What a world. Now, many of us

experience a kind of shiver when we read

this book because we recognize how

spiritually bankrupt this society is. We

sympathize with John, the young

protagonist who is exposed to this

civilization for the first time and who

experiences confusion, revulsion, and

outrage at its customs. However, we have

to remember that the vast majority of

people in that society are happy at

least as far as they are capable of

conceiving happiness. The problem of

spiritual bankruptcy of having every

desire satisfied without effort or

sacrifice is only felt let alone

recognized by the few alpha double

pluses of the world. That is the few

highly intelligent and sophisticated

individuals who were genetically and

socially engineered to occupy executive

roles in that society. The folks in the

other casts, the betas, the gamas, the

deltas, and the lowly epsilons,

literally could not conceive that such a

problem might exist, let alone feel its

consequences. Just like an alpha would

suffer if he were made to perform a

social function meant for a delta, a

delta, and this is the important part,

would suffer if he was made to perform a

social role meant for an alpha. An alpha

role would literally be beyond the

delta's capacity to discharge, which

would only inspire in him a sense of

frustration, confusion, and

hopelessness. It's a phenomenal book and

I would highly recommend you give it a

read if you haven't done so already.

And this is where we come to the

Democratic lie. It should go without

saying, but I have to say it for the

sake of the argument here. The

democratic lie is no less than the

belief that all men are created equal.

There it is. This phrase is even

enshrined in the American Declaration of

Independence, the template for modern

democracy. the world over. The lie is

that there are no essential differences

between people. And this belief, while

potentially beautiful in its idealism,

is simply not true. Introducing my

innovative first novel, Starry [music]

Night. Step into the world of painter

Vincent Van Gogh, genius, sinner,

prophet, [music] madman. Relive the

final 10 weeks of his life in this

breathtaking tale of art, love, loss,

[music] and meaning, and challenge what

you think you know about life and

relationships. [music] Once you see

through Vincent's eyes, the world will

never look the same again. Starry Night,

now available in ebook, audiobook, and

paperback formats. [music] The links are

in the description.

And this is where we get into some

really tricky ground. Again, the

democratic lie is that all men are

created equal, which we have

collectively taken to understand that no

one is fundamentally better or worse

than anyone else in any regard. The

moral corollary of this belief is that

everyone should be capable of doing

everything equally. And if that is ever

evidently not the case, then it must be

due to undemocratic and unearned

privileges and/or socioeconomic

inequities and injustices and/or simply

a lack of information or opportunity.

That is, all human inequalities

ultimately stem from social causes. And

I'm here to tell you that this is just

not true.

Many human inequalities stem from

biological causes.

As a species, we may not have been

genetically engineered to occupy

distinct social casts as in Huxley's

Brave New World,

but we might as well have been. Like,

look around. People can and do exist

along a wide continuum of traits that

are well known to be heavily influenced

by genetics, including very notably

intelligence, athleticism, and

attractiveness.

And we would all very much prefer that

this wasn't the case. Genetic

differences make us very uncomfortable

because, well, there isn't much we can

do about them. A dumber person could

spend his whole life studying and fail

to exceed a smarter person's effortless

genius. That's not fair. An uglier

person could spend hundreds of thousands

of dollars on cosmetics and surgeries

and still pale in comparison to a more

attractive person's natural beauty.

That's not fair. It's infuriating even

among top performers. Like watch the

movie Amadeus for a vivid example of

this kind of envy in action. However, if

unearned privilege exists in the world,

it lies precisely here in our genetics.

And to make matters worse, these genetic

differences have long been associated

with moral judgments which have

rationalized many of history's most

horrific cruelties. And this of course

is why we are so loathed to concede that

maybe genetics might have something to

do with individual outcomes possibly

when we conflate specific genetic

advantages with moral judgments.

It's very easy to go from person or

group A is smarter than person or group

B to person or group A is morally

superior to person or group B.

And this sense of moral superiority

pervades most of humanity's most

terrible decisions. So rather than try

to separate the two with nuance and

discernment, we've kind of collectively

decided to just throw the baby out with

the bathwater by refusing to acknowledge

the influence of genetics at all. But

refusing to recognize this influence

will not cause that influence to

disappear.

Now, genetics are not the whole story,

but they certainly play a significant

part in that story, and they may play a

greater role in the accomplishments of

certain individuals than we collectively

would like to admit. However, this might

mean that the problems and solutions of

the extraordinary

may not be problems and solutions of the

ordinary.

Keep this in mind when listening to

podcasts in particular, which typically

showcase the extraordinary. These two

groups cannot take the same steps toward

the same goals. To use Huxley's

framework, this would be tantamount to

an alpha advising a group of deltas on

how best to accomplish an alpha goal.

It's not that the advice is incorrect,

per se. It's just that it will likely

fail to resonate with the intended

audience.

Now, this doesn't mean that people don't

possess the capacity to improve their

situation. They obviously do. But it

certainly doesn't imply that people

possess the same capacity to improve

their situation to the same extent. And

while this capacity is certainly

influenced by cultural programming and

soioeconomic circumstances, this is not

the whole story. People are simply not

created equal. And it could be that this

inequality or diversity is actually a

big part of what ultimately makes life

interesting and sustainable.

Food for thought. What do you think?

Does this fit with your own experience?

Let me know in the comments below. And

please send this episode to someone who

you think might benefit from its message

or who would disagree with me. Who

knows? Let's have a dialogue here. I

know you know somebody who might like to

hear this uh because it's word of mouth

referrals like this that really help to

make the channel grow. Other value

propositions anyone looking to join my

free weekly newsletter for which I write

original content no AI or book a paid

one-on-one consultation with yours truly

can find out more on my website. There's

also my books, The Value of Others, in

which I explore my economic model of

relationships and starry night, my first

novel, where I explore the final weeks

of painter Vincent Van Gogh, and my

private member community where, among

other things, I host bimonthly group

consultation calls with a wonderful

group of folks. It's called the

Captain's Quarters. Check it out if you

are so inclined. Links to everything are

in the description below. As always, I

appreciate your support and thank you

for listening.