George Saunders

There's a great error in that from the very beginning.

That, of course, is Darwinian and we can't get around it.

But when you start from that point of view, all the problems...

Wait, but hold on.

I want to know what the error was.

The error is that, in fact, you know, when you go looking for what that I consists of, there's nothing there.

It's an illusion that we create with, I think, philosophers and Buddhists would say with thought.

You reify Ezra by thinking, I got to put a sweater on, you know, and I like this one and whatever.

I'm going to do my show.

You think that.

So it's totally natural and, you know, you can't...

get around it.

Um, but from the minute you, you have that construction, you're making a fundamental error because you're not, uh, you know, you're not centered, not permanent, but, but also the, the construction of the eye is a neurological thing that is very fraught with illusion.

It's, it tells us that we're perceiving correctly, but we're constructing in every instant.

So, I mean, it sounds very woo, but the truth is that that's where a lot of the, um,

the big problems come from because that central delusion gets multiplied.

So when we think about power, okay, what would power look like if we had the correct understanding of our sort of being?

Well, it would have a lot to do with cooperation first, because the idea that you and I are separate is actually demonstrably false.

If you look on a cellular level, it's just a

I think the big struggle of the human race is can we figure out a way to make an accommodation with the essential truth that actually this illusion of self isn't true?