Hello from gorgeous cow country in upstate NY!
Welcome to week 3 of our series on Resilience and Courage Through Story. If you've missed the first two issues of our series, you can find them here (finding your mentor) and here (the secret of solitude).
Today we're entering the danger zone. And none too soon, I can tell you. We all know what's happening next week, even if most of us probably are hoping that there might be some kind of time warp/Dr Who solution that might fix everything.
But that's the point. We're all going to have to encounter ideas and narratives we hate over the next week or year. And probably we already have. But this isn't just a necessity. To be able to engage critically and carefully with ideas you find abhorrent is actually an indispensable part of the deep life.
I talked about that, and other things, in this video:
Resources on How to Examine Dangerous Ideas
1. One of the ways we might consider approaching dangerous ideas is by starting out by checking our own assumptions and biases. It's better to know them in advance, instead of having them exposed by the ideas of someone else. A good way of doing that is to give yourself the Socratic treatment. Read about it in this article.
2. Do you want to see a powerful example of the transformative effects of examining ideas that you don't understand or even hate? In this wonderful interview, historian Tom Holland explains how this process caused him to lose his faith... in his own worldview.
3. Of course, all of this is interesting as an intellectual exercise, but no series dive into ideas can be possible unless we find time to read. But how to find time to read in today's harried reality? Here are some practical solutions to how to read more books.
4. Finally, Cal Newport and Ryan Holiday have a wide-ranging conversation about productivity and other things. But I especially call your attention to the later part of the conversation, where Ryan explains how his view of the Civil War changed over time, and how Cal explains his own deep dive into critical theory, and what it revealed about the pitfalls of a closed mindset.
Recommendations
1. An unexpected book that talks in a metaphorical way about tackling misconceptions and dangerous ideas is one of the most beautiful books I've read. It's called Underland by Robert MacFarlane. Although it's technically a "nature book" about what happens underground, it's so much more. An exploration of myth, nature, and what it means to be human, you don't want to miss it.
2. An excellent fantasy book whose theme is all about accepting the possibility that a dangerous idea is actually a good one is The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula Le Guin. It's the second book in her Earthsea series, but you can read it without having read the first one. It's one of my favorite stories of all time.
3. Of course, this idea of examining the heart of dangerous ideas (and your own worldview) is central to my own Raven Son series, but especially to book 3, The Heart of the World. You can get books 1-3 in the series in a single volume here.
Next week, we'll be looking into the importance of craft (both for the hands and for the mind) in cultivating a meaningful life during hard times.
Thanks again for joining me in my writerly adventures!
~Nicky
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