Sam Harris

to really wish people well, and to really wish strangers well, effortlessly wish them well.

I mean, to realize that there is no opposition between, at bottom, there's no real opposition between selfishness and selflessness because wise selfishness really takes into account other people's happiness.

I mean, do you wanna live in a society where you have everything, but most other people have nothing?

Or do you want to live in a society where you're surrounded by happy, creative, self-actualized people who are having their hopes and dreams realized?

I think it's obvious that the second society is much better, however much you can guard your good luck.

I agree with the first part.

So I haven't bought the myth that it's a truly representative democracy in the way that we might idealize.

And on some level, I mean, this is a different conversation, but on some level, I'm not even sure how much I think it should be.

I'm not sure we want, in the end, everyone's opinion given equal weight.

about just what we should do about anything.

And I include myself in that.

I mean, there are many topics around which

I don't deserve to have a strong opinion because I don't know what I'm talking about, right?

Or what I would be talking about if I had a strong opinion.

And I think we'll probably get to that, to some of those topics because I've declined to have certain conversations on my podcast just because I think I'm the wrong person to have that conversation, right?

And I think it's important to see those bright lines in one's life and in the moment politically and ethically.

Leave aside the viability of democracy, I'm under no illusions that all of our institutions are worth preserving precisely as they have been up until the moment this great orange wrecking ball came swinging through our lives.

It was a very bad bet to elect someone who is grossly incompetent and worse than incompetent, genuinely malevolent in his selfishness.

And this is something we know based on literally decades of him being in the public eye.

He's not a public servant in any normal sense of that term.