Part 2/20:
Over the past year, I’ve been engrossed in a transformative line of thought inspired by an intriguing conversation with my friend Jim Keller. After watching my video on mouse utopia—a model illustrating how overpopulation of mice leads to societal collapse—Jim challenged me with a provocative theory: much of modern culture functions as a form of mate suppression. His insights, crystallized over an hour-long explanation, suggest that society deliberately imposes costs on individuals—particularly in regard to reproduction—to suppress their natural instincts and competitive drives. This concept felt revolutionary, as it reframes many societal institutions and cultural shifts through the lens of mate suppression, revealing a dark underlying mechanism that shapes our entire civilization.