What's up everybody? My name is Demetri Cofinus and you're listening to Hidden Forces,

a podcast that inspires investors, entrepreneurs, and everyday citizens to challenge consensus

narratives and to learn how to think critically about the systems of power shaping our world.

Every now and then, I replay an appearance on Hidden Forces that I've made on someone

else's podcast because for whatever reason, I feel like something important about who

I am and what my views and feelings are is revealed.

And in this particular case, I've decided to share with all of you an appearance that

I made on the Realignment Podcast, a week before the invasion of Ukraine, where I had

the opportunity to speak to some of those things, to speak to the seriousness with which

I view the information problem and the information war that we're all combatants in today,

to move from unipolarity to a world of disorder and quite frankly, physical danger that comes

from great power conflict, and also something else that's been weighing on me for a long

time, which is the spiritual deadening that I feel we've been living through over many

years, and the need to overcome what is a deep cynicism around national purpose and

the absence of an expansive sense of self that is both inclusive and communal, and also

forgiving of our individual shortcomings, a sense of self and other that makes space

for the imperfections of a human life.

We have quite a journey ahead of us, you all know what I'm talking about.

The world that we're living in today is not the world that must have us grew up in,

and the next few years are going to be crucial in determining how we want to face the challenges

of this new world, and more importantly, who we want to be coming out the other side

of it.

...