Modern human experience is increasingly ‘atomized’. The bonds of family, community and belonging that once defined society have been deeply impacted. Late stage capitalism also seeks to break people down into individual purchasing units as that makes it easier to market to them. All of this means that our sense of duty and care for each other has never been under more pressure. That’s why, in today’s message I want to talk with you about the crucial importance of the lost art of duty and why it still matters.
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Transcript
Well, Hey everybody, Jonathan Doyle with you.
Speaker:Once again.
Speaker:Welcome my friends to the daily podcast.
Speaker:Really good to have you here.
Speaker:I'm excited to be with you again today.
Speaker:I love doing this.
Speaker:I just feel that no matter what's happening in the world with we're still
Speaker:coming out of COVID sort of restrictions.
Speaker:And I can't get on a plane as often as I once would have liked.
Speaker:Open those days are going to change, but it's still great to be here in the studio
Speaker:and reaching out to you wherever you are in the world, whatever you're doing.
Speaker:Whatever you're going through with the things that absolutely
Speaker:awesome for you at the moment.
Speaker:Whether you're asking yourself, did anybody get the number of the
Speaker:bus that just ran over your life?
Speaker:Wherever you are.
Speaker:It is better.
Speaker:To be alive dog than a deadline.
Speaker:That's deep, isn't it.
Speaker:But it's true.
Speaker:As long as you're breathing, there's options optionality, I spoke about
Speaker:optionality a couple of days ago.
Speaker:As long as we're breathing, we have options.
Speaker:We can always move forward.
Speaker:No matter what we've come from, we can always move ahead today.
Speaker:We're going to talk about the topic.
Speaker:Of GT.
Speaker:Why would I talk about that?
Speaker:We're going to get to that in just a moment, please.
Speaker:As always let's talk to ourselves.
Speaker:Is that even a word let's talk to ourselves about housekeeping.
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Speaker:And always go and check out those show notes because the links are there.
Speaker:You can get a free copy of my book, bridging the gap.
Speaker:And you can book me to speak and there's other bits and pieces there.
Speaker:You can find out how to link across to the YouTube channel.
Speaker:I'm going to be doing a bunch of videos later today.
Speaker:So, uh, if you like YouTube, go and check out that link to
Speaker:the YouTube channel as well.
Speaker:I think you can find it under the term.
Speaker:Jonathan Doyle speaks, Jonathan Doyle speaks on YouTube.
Speaker:Friends today.
Speaker:We're going to talk about duty.
Speaker:There's one of those things that's been rumbling around, rattling around in
Speaker:my mind over the last couple of weeks.
Speaker:For a whole bunch of reasons.
Speaker:One is that obviously my life and like yours, no doubt changed
Speaker:significantly with the government over response to the COVID issue.
Speaker:And what it meant for me among other things was of course, uh,
Speaker:Picking up a lot more with the kids, we've decided to homeschool and I'm
Speaker:looking after the homeschooling.
Speaker:Teaching a classical education, a great books program.
Speaker:Uh, pretty stoked my, uh, my 14 and a half year old.
Speaker:Uh, almost 15 year old daughter.
Speaker:Is a, was reading Shakespeare's Julius easiest today.
Speaker:It was just the coolest thing.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:Um, I'm sharing that because you know, my life has taken on.
Speaker:Uh, a deeper level of intensity because all of the stuff I was doing in terms of
Speaker:content, podcast, videos, business stuff.
Speaker:As well as now looking off to the education.
Speaker:Side at home.
Speaker:And it's utterly exhausting and incredibly beautiful to be able to do and really
Speaker:powerful in terms of seeing the results.
Speaker:But like any human.
Speaker:There are times when I, and of course you get tired and we
Speaker:question, what are we doing?
Speaker:And is that deep narrative of.
Speaker:The tension between self actualization, which is what I want from life.
Speaker:What's it?
Speaker:What what's.
Speaker:What's significant for me to have achieved B do.
Speaker:And what do I owe to others?
Speaker:I think there's tension always exists in human history, but I'm going to suggest
Speaker:it's a little like a pendulum and at different moments in history, it's swings.
Speaker:Two other D to various extremes.
Speaker:And I'm going to suggest that we are really in an extreme at the moment.
Speaker:And it's the extreme of radical.
Speaker:Self obsession.
Speaker:How can I prove this?
Speaker:Well, two words, social media.
Speaker:Of which I don't really have any.
Speaker:The only thing I have is that I publish on YouTube because I like it as a platform.
Speaker:And it's one of the least evil at the moment.
Speaker:But give them time.
Speaker:They'll catch up.
Speaker:Uh, you know, I think it's a culture that is.
Speaker:Embedded in the radical autonomy of self.
Speaker:Self promotion, self actualization, the filter through which many
Speaker:people, not all many people live their lives is the filter of.
Speaker:Self.
Speaker:What do I want?
Speaker:Why.
Speaker:Happy, how do I get happy?
Speaker:I, how can I get what I want?
Speaker:And then there's the whole self promotion side that the curation
Speaker:and construction of a life.
Speaker:Based on nothing other than the promotion of self and presenting to
Speaker:the world, this ideal of selfhood.
Speaker:That at it's, you know, at its extreme ends is designed to sow products
Speaker:into which you know, that that's.
Speaker:We have economies.
Speaker:We have people can reasonably make profit from presenting aspects of their lives.
Speaker:You know, heck I do this podcast that leads to speaking
Speaker:opportunities and engagements and coaching and other online stuff.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:But I think you understand what I'm saying, right?
Speaker:I hope that you don't sense in me some kind of radical self-promotion.
Speaker:Look at me, look at me.
Speaker:If I did, I'd be back on Instagram in a heartbeat and I'm not.
Speaker:So, what I'm getting at friends is there is an inherent danger in a culture
Speaker:that becomes radically self obsessed.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Because.
Speaker:Ontologically, which is, I guess, ontology is the essence
Speaker:of being of what it means to be.
Speaker:Ontologically.
Speaker:And also in terms of philosophical and for apology, we are an
Speaker:incredibly social species.
Speaker:We've, we've become the apex predator.
Speaker:If you will.
Speaker:The dominant species.
Speaker:Because of things like cooperation.
Speaker:And empathy and the ability to read facial expressions and understand
Speaker:emotions and intentions and moods.
Speaker:So we really are an extraordinary species.
Speaker:So today, what I wanted to focus a little bit on was this concept of duty.
Speaker:What do we owe to each other?
Speaker:What do we owe to the people close to us?
Speaker:And that's almost an obnoxious concept for some people.
Speaker:GT Judy sounds oppressive.
Speaker:Judy sounds.
Speaker:You know, very retrograde, very old world.
Speaker:We didn't, you know, have to do our duty Dewey.
Speaker:What does that mean?
Speaker:Isn't that something just for maybe people in the military maybe
Speaker:or people in political office.
Speaker:And don't get me started on what I think of the, of that kind of thing, because
Speaker:I'm sure there are good men and women in politics who have a deep sense of
Speaker:duty, but I think we can agree that.
Speaker:Uh, political class is.
Speaker:Not exactly covering themselves in glory in a, in a few ways at the moment.
Speaker:But, you know, they were a reflection of, they were a reflection of
Speaker:where we are as a wider culture.
Speaker:What is our duty?
Speaker:What do we owe to each other?
Speaker:So, what I've been experiencing recently is a kind of strange piece that comes.
Speaker:From self giving.
Speaker:Uh, kind of peace that comes from trying as often as possible to be.
Speaker:Solicitors and caring.
Speaker:Of the people in your orbit.
Speaker:Let me give you a quote here from Marie Curie.
Speaker:One of the great figures of history.
Speaker:She said this, you cannot hope to build a better world without
Speaker:improving the individuals.
Speaker:That's where she starts.
Speaker:And then a good point.
Speaker:It's just so obvious.
Speaker:See our culture at the moment I'm convinced is obsessed with programs,
Speaker:programs, programs, programs, you know, debt funded programs.
Speaker:You know, our GDP is shrinking.
Speaker:Our populations are aging.
Speaker:We're printing huge amounts of money, and we just run program.
Speaker:We just fund billions and billions and billions of dollars into various programs.
Speaker:So we believe we're acting as if we can improve the world through.
Speaker:Just nothing but structural reform and programs.
Speaker:It has a place.
Speaker:I don't think it's a very big one, but she says you cannot help to build a better
Speaker:world or that improving the individuals.
Speaker:Here she go.
Speaker:This is the rest of what she says to that end.
Speaker:Each of us must work for his own improvement.
Speaker:And at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity.
Speaker:Our particular GT being to aid those, to whom we think.
Speaker:We can be most useful here that again, a particular duty being to aid those,
Speaker:to whom we think we can be most useful.
Speaker:There's a lot in there.
Speaker:She's telling us that the way to change the world is through
Speaker:improving individual people.
Speaker:There's two ways to do it.
Speaker:One is we improve ourselves.
Speaker:That's what this whole thing is about.
Speaker:All of what I do is try to help people improve themselves.
Speaker:I try to move people, just move the needle fractionally each day, improve ourselves.
Speaker:And at the same time, taking responsibility to aid, those are duty.
Speaker:She says our duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
Speaker:When I get out of the studio today, my GT will be to, uh, doing homeschooling here.
Speaker:Giving the best that I can to aid the improvement.
Speaker:That that's coming through that home education here with the kids.
Speaker:To my duty is to be the best possible husband I can be to Karen.
Speaker:She's been really crook.
Speaker:She's been really unwell.
Speaker:So to support her, to care for her.
Speaker:My duty will be to.
Speaker:Positively impact.
Speaker:Any people that I encounter today and little things, just like in terms of
Speaker:being polite kind, um, thinking about other people's needs in the general
Speaker:public, in, you know, Shopping.
Speaker:I'm out somewhere, just having a basic sense of what is the appropriate thing
Speaker:to do for people in this context.
Speaker:The technical definition of the concept of justice.
Speaker:If you go back to the Aristotelian concepts of the Cardinal virtues, right?
Speaker:So the classical Greek philosophers, and then into the Scholastic tradition
Speaker:of the late medieval period, you look at this idea of virtues.
Speaker:And the classical virtue of justice.
Speaker:Is defined as this to give to another person.
Speaker:What is due to them?
Speaker:Because of what they are.
Speaker:To give to another person, what is due to them?
Speaker:Because of what they are.
Speaker:So our duty to people is based not just on a sense of, we think we should do X.
Speaker:You know, cause if you look at a purely humanist utilitarian vision
Speaker:of what I'm saying, it's basically this, we need to be vaguely nice
Speaker:to each other, because if we don't.
Speaker:We're going to kill each other.
Speaker:That's kind of a purely humanist utilitarian approach.
Speaker:I'm going to a level deeper, which is.
Speaker:Every individual human person.
Speaker:It's created in the image of God.
Speaker:They have incredible dignity value and worth, just because of that fact,
Speaker:therefore, we should treat people in a particular way because of what they are.
Speaker:So duty is about doing the right thing because it's the right thing for the
Speaker:right reason and the right time at the right place for the right people.
Speaker:And who are the right people whoever's in front of you.
Speaker:What is your duty to the right people?
Speaker:It's the duty to whoever's in front of you.
Speaker:It's about showing up and doing self sacrificial things.
Speaker:When you don't feel like it.
Speaker:It's about doing self-sacrificial things when you don't feel like it.
Speaker:That's important.
Speaker:It's significant.
Speaker:So duty is to improve ourselves.
Speaker:And improve the life and experiences of those around us.
Speaker:Can you imagine one of the ways to think about this is imagine a world.
Speaker:With this was happening consistently.
Speaker:And there's been times in history where it wasn't too far off that.
Speaker:You know, you look at, here's an example.
Speaker:You look at say the Amish community, right?
Speaker:The, the Amish or the Amish community.
Speaker:Now I've never been to their communities.
Speaker:I'd.
Speaker:I'm sure they're full of humans and.
Speaker:There's all sorts of tensions and challenges that go on, but let's not deny.
Speaker:That one thing they have mastered is the art of profound GT towards each other.
Speaker:Of always showing up and doing the GT to the community and to each other.
Speaker:Often I talk about elite sporting teams or elite special forces units.
Speaker:One of the things that makes them so.
Speaker:Successful and impactful.
Speaker:It's not just the level of training, but the sense of duty to the higher
Speaker:ideal, the sense of duty to each other, to the man or woman next to them.
Speaker:And to the higher ideal.
Speaker:So I think we've lost a bit of this.
Speaker:I think we've lost a sense of doing hard things that are uncomfortable for us.
Speaker:When we don't feel like it because it's just the right thing to do.
Speaker:It sounds like incredible common sense.
Speaker:But as we often say of common sense, it's just not that common.
Speaker:So my friends let's go about our duty today and also on this don't complain.
Speaker:Stop complaining.
Speaker:Stop complaining.
Speaker:You know, Change things that need to be changed.
Speaker:But when you are doing your duty to the people you love or to strangers do not
Speaker:complain about it, do it graciously.
Speaker:And if it costs you something and if it makes you tired or it's.
Speaker:Inconvenient.
Speaker:Don't tell anyone.
Speaker:I do not tell anyone.
Speaker:I'm not saying you can't at some point talk to a spouse or a close friend and
Speaker:say, you're exhausted by doing something.
Speaker:And maybe you might want to change your approach or your strategy or something.
Speaker:But I think we really need to be people who do the right thing in
Speaker:the right place at the right time.
Speaker:And that we do it without complaining.
Speaker:We improve ourselves and we improve others.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Friends are going to stop there.
Speaker:Uh, get out there, do your duty today.
Speaker:Do it.
Speaker:Just let's do it.
Speaker:I'm going to do it.
Speaker:You're going to do it.
Speaker:I've got to do school runs when I get out of the studio.
Speaker:Um, I've got to do, Karen's been sick as I said, so I'm going to be cooking meals.
Speaker:I'm going to be cleaning the house.
Speaker:I'm going to be doing stuff cause it's a right thing to do.
Speaker:And cause it's what I signed up for and it's what I promised
Speaker:to do as a husband and father.
Speaker:So I'm going to keep doing it.
Speaker:Please make sure you've subscribed.
Speaker:Please leave a comment or some feedback and, um, reach out to me if you'd like
Speaker:me to do a podcast on a particular topic, just email me jonathan@jonathandoyle.co
Speaker:jonathan@jonathandoyle.co.
Speaker:But for now subscribe, check out the show notes.
Speaker:Book me to speak, find out more in the show notes, but my friends
Speaker:tune in tomorrow, tomorrow.
Speaker:Let me look at my notes here tomorrow.
Speaker:We're talking about.
Speaker:Resilience and hardship.
Speaker:We're gonna talk about resilience and hardship.
Speaker:I wanted to just, um, really talk about a few things on that.
Speaker:So let's do that tomorrow.
Speaker:God bless everybody.
Speaker:My name's Jonathan Doyle.
Speaker:This has been the daily podcast.
Speaker:You and I are going to talk again tomorrow.
