About this episode

Luke Burgis discusses the challenges of finding community and the pressures to conform, exploring the impact on individual identity and life commitments.

Finding community can be difficult. But author Luke Burgis thinks the real challenge begins once we've found it and we're subject to social pressures to conform. Listen as Burgis and EconTalk's Russ Roberts trace the tension between individuals and their tribes through the foundational frameworks, such as family and school, that help forge our identities. Burgis argues that the disappearance of traditional rites of passage bodes ill for major life commitments such as marriage, and recounts his personal journey from Wall Street through the Great Books in search of a strong, differentiated self. He also draws lessons for today's communities from Saint Benedict's 1,500-year-old guide for monastic life and describes the moving ritual he practiced with his father before he died.

People in this episode

Host: Russ Roberts

Guest: Luke Burgis

Topics covered

• community
• social pressures
• identity
• rites of passage
• monastic life

Keywords

• community
• social contagion
• identity
• rites of passage
• monastic life
• social pressures
• Luke Burgis

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Great Books

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