Human 42: Helen Pluckrose

Writer

“I am a 47-year-old Englishwoman who has worked mostly as a care assistant before having a stroke and using the time I was disabled to do undergraduate and post-graduate study in English literature. I have a house full of animals including a boa constrictor named Erebus. Also, a husband and a child. I am a writer and I study critical theories rooted in postmodernism and the activism that springs from them mostly in order to argue against them in favour of liberal humanism. I love to sew and read psychological thrillers.”

Helen is a human mammal. Here are her thoughts:

What brings you the most joy in life?

Writing arguments for things that really matter and doing it well. Getting into the flow of a piece of writing where everything is just pouring out perfectly and a whole tangle of ideas are straightening themselves in my mind as I write. The sheer exhilaration of having an argument come together and just flow out in the perfect formation. The joy of entering into this state makes the other 90% of writing which is frustration and the attempt to untangle and clarify and order all my ideas worth it.

What does success mean to you?

I mostly feel a sense of success when someone Counterweight has endeavoured to help oppose an authoritarian Critical Social Justice in their workplace and it’s been a long and hard battle but we have got there. When someone writes to us and tells us they have got their organisation to stay open to viewpoint diversity, this is when we, as a team, feel a great sense of achievement and celebration. When I can tell them “X just emailed me. She’s done it” and we all share in that sense of purpose and feel we are having a positive impact on the world. 

What do you see as your greatest achievement so far?

I made a person in my body and raised her into a smart, thoughtful, humorous and loving young woman who is strong and resilient and can make really good arguments herself and can cut through irrationalism and illiberalism like a knife. My husband helped, obviously, but with the actual creation of the most perfect human being to ever have existed (I might be biased), he only did the fun bit.

What are you most grateful for?

Having a weird brain that develops all-consuming passions for getting into culture, belief systems, ethics and discourses and studying how they all work internally even if they don’t bear much resemblance to reality. I studied religion and Critical Social Justice theories for these reasons. The way humans make meaning and systems is fascinating to me as is picking them apart and showing the flaws in them. I am grateful that I am able to spend my life doing this because there are people who actually want to read me doing this.

What is something most people don’t know about you?

I have several tattoos and a tongue piercing.

Who or what has had the biggest influence on your life?

My life is defined by many influences. Being born into a wealthy family in a liberal society as a girl with a passion for arguing in the late 20th century makes me more fortunate and given me more opportunity to fulfil my potential than 99.9% of humans who have ever lived, I estimate. I value the work of so many thinkers from Mary Wollstonecraft to Jonathan Rauch – way too many to list. My father is a big influence on me because he showed me it’s OK to be an introverted weirdo with all-consuming passions.

What do you regret?

I treated an ex-boyfriend badly when I was 22. He was a really good man and deserved better from me.

Has there been a defining moment in your life? Can you tell us about it?

Believing I was going to die when I’d just had a baby because there was a tumour on my brain and then learning it was benign and not growing. Before this, I suffered anxiety a lot. Afterwards, I did not. It put things in perspective.

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Free.

If you could pick one thing to be the best in the world at instantly, what would you choose?

I would hate to be the best at anything in the world. I’d then have a duty to do that thing and not be able to do what I wanted which is a variety of things.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Amphetamines are bad.

What is the most important thing we can teach kids in school?

I don’t know. It depends very much on the kid. My schooling prepared me to fight authoritarianism. My daughter probably benefited most from learning to code.

If you could have a conversation with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose and why?

I’d like to speak to an early human – maybe Cro-Magnon - and see how we differ in our thought patterns, superstitions, cognitive biases, sense of community, love and family.

What do you doubt most?

Whether we as a species will be able to make liberalism last. It’s so counterintuitive to us.

When did you last have a significant change of mind?

I tend to have lots of little changes of mind that add up to significant changes of mind. At the moment, I am questioning my confidence that a regulated capitalism is the best system for human wellbeing because I am learning more about how corporatism works and has negative impacts on democracy.

What is the role of luck in our lives?

I don’t believe in luck. I believe that sometimes things happen to work out fortuitously.

Do you have a favourite quote? What is it? Why do you like it?

No.

What would you do with your life if you had unlimited financial resources?

I’d have to dedicate my life to addressing poverty. That would be the only ethical thing to do in such a situation. This would tie up the rest of my life with board meetings and practical planning which I would hate and make me unable to spend my time reading things I am actually interested in.

If you could have the definitive answer to a single question, what would you ask?

Is there intelligent life anywhere else in the universe?

What concept/fact/idea should every human on the planet understand?

I can’t answer that because it’s almost certainly something I don’t myself understand.

Do human beings have free will?

Probably not. Not when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it. I cannot choose to be who I am with the abilities and desires I have so the things I do are not ultimately my choice.

Do you believe in God?

No.

Could we be living in a simulated universe?

Yes?  

Will the continual development of technology have a net positive or negative influence on humanity?

I have no idea.

What is the single greatest achievement of humanity?

Probably medicine. This is the thing that has reduced death in childbirth and childhood mortality, enabled us to choose how many children we have, remedy pain and cure disease.

What do you see as the biggest existential threat to humanity?

Humanity. We are apes with brains big enough to be really stupid in dangerously complex ways.

What does it mean to live a good life?

To be compassionate, kind and empathetic towards others and to participate in producing systems that enable thriving for as many people as possible.

What is a good death?

To have just enough time to put your affairs in order and say the things you need to say and then choose to die with dignity and before great pain begins.

What question should I have asked you?

What is the correct way to make tea?

Thanks for your time, Helen!

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