Special: Interview with Sam Harris on Gurus, Tribalism & the Culture War

Decoding the Gurus

Sam Harris probably needs no introduction in our neck of the info-sphere as he is seemingly never far from the spotlight... or the occasional controversy.

We’ve had some nice things to say about Sam, but we’ve also made some harsh criticisms, particularly regarding a short episode he released which seemed to suggest it was necessary to practice introspective meditation in order to fully understand why his political and culture war views were correct.

Although we’ve never done a ‘proper’ episode on Sam, we have always stated that anyone we discuss is welcome to come on the show and discuss (or dispute) our charges – which is exactly what Sam is doing here!

This interview is split into two sections. In the first, we discuss Sam’s app and whether it might encourage guru dynamics and the role of meditation and (non) self-awareness in forming an accurate political outlook. We put some of our criticisms to Sam especially regarding guru dynamics, issues of introspective verification of truth claims, and the potential for abusive practices and manipulation by gurus.

In the second section, we turn to some of the more controversial topics that have sprung up around Sam over the years. Sam responds to proposals that he might be as tribal as the rest of us suckers, and he defends himself against accusations that he might have selective empathy and blind spots towards the rightish side of the political spectrum. We talk about tribalism and the potential distorting effects of personal relationships, as well as anthropologists, Islamism, wokism, right-wing extremism, and how political biases manifest themselves on the left and right.

Although the format is an interview, it does get quite ‘debate-y’ at times. And it’s probably true that we don’t come to a grand reconciliation of views at the end. However, nobody storms off, so what you get is a frank and friendly but robust exchange of views.

We hope you enjoy it.

Links

• Embrace the Void 170: State of the IDW with Chris Kavanagh
• Article by Stuart Hayashi on Stefan Molyneux's views about the Holocaust
• Stefan Molyneux profile on the Daily Beast
• Our episode on Douglas Murray
• Our episode on Gad Saad
• Polite Conversations with Eiynah 17: Sam Harris Episode
• Washington Post Article on Maajid's Promotion of 'Stop The Steal'
• Guardian article on Maajid's growing interest in Conspiracies
• Making Sense 243: A Few Points of Confusion (Sam's meditation episode)
• Making Sense AMA 17 (Sam's episode about debating conspiracy theorists)
• Making Sense 225: Republic of Lies (Sam's episode retiring from the IDW)
• Robert Wright's article on Sam's supposed tribal biases

This Week's Sponsor

• Check out the sponsor of this week's episode, Ground News, and get the app at ground.news/gurus.