021 - Nikos Sotirakopoulos: Life is Not Suffering, Culture Wars & Ayn Rand

Timothy Allen talks with Nikos Sotirakopoulos Nikos is an author, senior lecturer in social sciences at York St John Universtity and director of the European Ayn Rand Institute. Now, i have a problem with this conversation… namely that it is too short… Nikos is a busy man and I had a strict hour with him in Warsaw.  However we managed to get through a fair bit in that hour…. brutalist architecture , collectivism vs individualism, the culture wars, Ayn Rand's philosophy, martial arts, what Jordan Peterson gets wrong, Joe Rogan and the medium of podcasting, political correctness and anti capitalism.. to name but a few of the subjects covered. Nikos is an excellent orator…  this kind of conversation leaves me not only well informed but also rejuvenated and I hope that you get to have the same experience too. Enjoy the conversation. TIMESTAMPS: 00:10 Introduction to this episode. 05:40 Why I like Brutalist Architecture. 7:40 Does collectivism have a place at any scale? 13:37 Why is the public sphere so toxic?. 19:37 Why do political parties end up not standing for anything? 22:16 Is tribalism a political strategy or innate? 27:09 Socialism and the morality of sacrifice. 32:22 Ayn Rand's philosophy 101. 36:12 The difference between happiness and meaning. 41:34 What is enthusiam? 47:43 The power of discussion. 52:52 Why podcasting is a radical revolutionary way of passing ideas? 56:21 Lifestyle Activism vs. The New Left. 1:02:58 Let’s disagree on issues but agree on truth. TWITTER: Nikos Sotirakopoulos: ⁠https://twitter.com/Nikos_17 Timothy Allen: ⁠https://twitter.com/MrTimothyAllen⁠ Free Cities Foundation: ⁠https://twitter.com/freecitiesfound⁠ WEBSITES: Ayn Rand Institute: ⁠https://ari.aynrand.org/ Free Cities Foundation: ⁠https://free-cities.org/ LINKS: Nikos's books: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Nikos+Sotirakopoulos Brutalist monument in Bulgaria: https://humanplanet.com/timothyallen/2012/02/buzludzha-buzludja-bulgaria/