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https://freedomain.com/freedomain_books/the-future/

Centuries in the future, an old man awakes from cryogenic sleep to face the judgement of a utopian society that barely survived his past abuses of power. In the vein of 'Atlas Shrugged, philosophy, philosopher Stefan Molyneux has created a compelling and powerful work of imagination. He vividly describes the wonderful future that mankind can achieve - and the barriers to getting there - and all that we need to leave behind to finally live in peace...

Transcript
00:00:00 "The Future" by Stéphane Molyneux, Chapter 12
00:00:05 Awoken from a deep sleep, it took David only a few minutes to summon the fastest plasma
00:00:11 jets.
00:00:12 They arrived at Smudge Mountain only a few minutes after the call, the pilot slightly
00:00:16 dizzy from the unexpected early morning speed.
00:00:20 Sitting on the edge of his bed, David watched it all on a conference call.
00:00:23 "We have visual contact," said the lead pilot, "but we can't see the girl."
00:00:28 Mrs. Mother, Gretchen, found herself biting her nails and lowered them to her side.
00:00:32 "This is so surreal," she whispered.
00:00:37 David nodded.
00:00:38 "Call Emily's parents and make sure she's home," he instructed.
00:00:42 Concentrating on the images in the conference call, David could see infrared lights scanning
00:00:46 the forest, following a line of figures dressed in homespun clothes as they wound their way
00:00:51 under the tree branches along a barely visible path.
00:00:55 Gretchen joined the conference call.
00:00:56 "There's no sign of her, none?"
00:00:58 "We're looking," said the pilot, "but she has no tracking gem and the phone is offline."
00:01:02 "Probably destroyed," thought David and silently thanked the pilot for not saying that.
00:01:09 He used the highest emergency level to summon his DRO security team.
00:01:12 The two of them on the night shift appeared in the conference call almost immediately.
00:01:15 "Okay, I need a decision right now.
00:01:17 My daughter returned to the mountain, don't know why, and she saw the clan.
00:01:21 She had my phone.
00:01:22 It's offline.
00:01:23 We can't see her, but we can see a line of men.
00:01:25 I think they're men going through the woods.
00:01:27 Do we have enough to detain them?" he asked.
00:01:30 Jake, the head of security, said, "Have we had any sightings of the boys who kidnapped
00:01:33 the girls?"
00:01:35 David deferred to the pilot, who shook his head.
00:01:37 "How do we know that it's the same group?"
00:01:39 David paused.
00:01:41 Gretchen said, "My daughter whispered, 'They're here,' and I assumed that she meant the boys,
00:01:45 but all I could see were dark shapes around a fire."
00:01:49 Jake said, "I assume that whoever we are following is outside the civ."
00:01:53 "Yes," said David.
00:01:55 Jake paused.
00:01:56 "Even if it's not the clan we're looking for, they might know their whereabouts.
00:02:01 I think we have the right to stop them, but probably not detain them."
00:02:05 Gretchen bit her thumbnail again.
00:02:07 "What if they don't want to stop or don't speak our language or just scatter or fight
00:02:10 back?"
00:02:11 David said, "We're talking about the use of direct force, which we haven't had to do for,
00:02:17 what, over 15 years?"
00:02:20 Jake said, "Well, something made your phone go offline, and we have to land to find your
00:02:25 daughter.
00:02:26 The other girl isn't there, right?"
00:02:27 "Right."
00:02:28 "Okay, so we will have to land and look for your daughter.
00:02:31 That could be the first pilot.
00:02:32 The second pilot should broadcast a request for a negotiation, and if they don't agree?"
00:02:37 Jake nodded grimly.
00:02:38 "I'm getting there.
00:02:39 I know, I know.
00:02:40 There are very delicate escalations of force standards here.
00:02:42 They're not violating the non-aggression principle by standing around a fire and walking in the
00:02:46 woods at night.
00:02:47 However, they were the only people around when your phone got, went offline, and the
00:02:52 girl seems to be missing, although she could be standing by the fire right now for all
00:02:55 we know."
00:02:57 The second pilot said, "I have circled the cave where the waterfall starts three times.
00:03:01 I can see a bit of smoke coming up from the dead fire, but no people.
00:03:04 The visibility isn't perfect, but I'm sure that the girl is smart enough to know we are
00:03:07 coming and stand out in the open and wave."
00:03:10 Gretchen nodded her mouth bone dry.
00:03:12 "Of course she is.
00:03:14 Please find her.
00:03:15 I know you don't need to hear that, but I have to say it."
00:03:16 "We will," said Jake decisively.
00:03:19 "Okay, here are the plans, subject to your approval, of course.
00:03:23 We broadcast a request to stop and talk.
00:03:25 If they do that," David held up his hand, "I want to be there for that.
00:03:28 I can get there in five minutes.
00:03:29 Send a jet to my place."
00:03:31 Jake paused for a moment, then nodded.
00:03:33 On its way.
00:03:34 "If they stop, we'll wait for you.
00:03:36 If they don't, I suggest we throw a force field around them.
00:03:39 I don't imagine they can go underground in the woods, so we should be able to contain
00:03:42 them that way, holding them by some time to make sure they talk.
00:03:45 Also, if they have your daughter, she will be contained as well."
00:03:51 Gretchen said, "But what if they hurt her?
00:03:52 Can they be targeted?"
00:03:54 Jake nodded slowly.
00:03:55 "That's a tough one.
00:03:57 We could certainly target the adults and knock them out, but it's a challenge in the woods
00:04:00 to make sure there's no one left who could do her harm.
00:04:04 They might have other young girls there or boys about her height with long hair.
00:04:07 There's a lot that could," Gretchen threw up her hands, "Oh, for heaven's sakes, just
00:04:10 knock everyone out.
00:04:11 We can revive them or pay them or give them, I don't know, a leg of deer or something to
00:04:15 thank them for their time."
00:04:17 Jake nodded.
00:04:18 "That's up to David here.
00:04:19 There will be an extensive review, of course, from other DROs.
00:04:22 I leave it up to him."
00:04:24 David took a deep breath.
00:04:26 "I'd rather not knock them out as a first step.
00:04:29 One thing we know about primitive clans is that they're obsessed with status and leveling.
00:04:34 If we show our power and superiority, they will almost certainly react with violence.
00:04:38 Particularly if there are any females there, the males will hate being knocked out by what
00:04:41 they perceive as the more dominant males.
00:04:44 So let's appeal to their vanity and--actually, you know what?
00:04:48 Forget about broadcasting anything.
00:04:49 A voice in the sky will be pretty provocative, too.
00:04:51 Just drop me there, alone, unarmed.
00:04:54 I'll try talking.
00:04:55 Knock everyone out if things get crazy.
00:04:57 I don't mind.
00:04:58 It's happened to me before.
00:04:59 It's just a headache.
00:05:00 But let's try real gentle to start."
00:05:02 "Okay," said Jake.
00:05:05 "Drop your rocks and grab your socks.
00:05:07 The jet is there."
00:05:10 David almost forgot how quiet the plasma jets were.
00:05:12 He thought about grabbing a bite to eat, but was too wound up to imagine digesting anything.
00:05:17 He ran up to the roof and used his jump boots to leap up to the plasma jet, which whisked
00:05:21 him to the mountain in only a few minutes.
00:05:22 They rocketed past the top to another jet that was silently circling, cloaked for invisibility
00:05:27 from the ground.
00:05:29 The other pilot told them where the path was leading, and David was dropped gently on the
00:05:33 ground ahead of the clan.
00:05:37 Waiting for an agonized minute or two, he noticed that the birds were silent, and he
00:05:42 could hear no movement of animals.
00:05:45 Perhaps they felt something overhead the electromagnetism of the invisibility shield and felt that some
00:05:50 enormous sky ghost might prey on them.
00:05:55 David's heart was pounding.
00:05:57 He felt primitive, vital, alive.
00:06:01 His senses seemed sharpened, magnified.
00:06:04 His muscles were engorged, ready to leap and claw.
00:06:08 Man, sixty seconds in the woods and my body is right back in prehistory.
00:06:14 He heard the footfalls before the dark shapes began to emerge from the tangled undergrowth.
00:06:19 A tall man stepped out first.
00:06:22 His face was lined and scarred, his forehead broad and grimy.
00:06:27 He separated from the dark shapes around him and strode forward.
00:06:30 "I am Raman.
00:06:33 Where's my weapon and?" he said, in a strange accent, extending his right hand.
00:06:39 David remembered the old custom and clasped the older man's hand in return.
00:06:42 "I'm David."
00:06:44 Roman held up his hand and the line of dark shapes stopped.
00:06:47 "Ask the girl if she wants her father," said Roman, turning and glaring through the gloomy
00:06:53 trees.
00:06:54 A smudge detached and Alice ran forward straight into her father's arms.
00:06:59 He lifted and hugged her, then whispered into the conference call that his daughter was
00:07:03 safe.
00:07:05 Roman took a step forward.
00:07:06 "I assumed that you were here to parley, and that needs to be just us."
00:07:10 He glanced upwards.
00:07:11 "None of that mind trickery you got going on in the sky."
00:07:16 David paused, evaluating the older man's language and intelligence.
00:07:20 He said, "Your needs are not the only factor in this situation.
00:07:24 I am outnumbered.
00:07:25 I need the reinforcements of my friends."
00:07:29 The older man considered this for a moment.
00:07:31 He leaned forward and pointed towards the top of David's head.
00:07:34 "Unplug that mind link, or whatever you got going on.
00:07:37 You can call out if you think you need help."
00:07:41 David took a deep breath.
00:07:42 "I intend no violence, Roman."
00:07:45 Roman smiled humorlessly.
00:07:47 "No one does, until they change their mind.
00:07:50 If all that passes between us are words, you have no need of your friends.
00:07:54 Your daughter is unarmed, we saw to that, and she came with us voluntarily."
00:07:58 Considering the situation, David turned to his daughter in mute shock, then leaned in
00:08:03 and whispered to her ear, "Is that true?"
00:08:07 Her voice, suddenly very high, very young, found his ear.
00:08:10 "Daddy, I'm sorry, but I really wanted you to be able to find them."
00:08:14 "Amazing," thought David.
00:08:18 He nodded slowly.
00:08:19 "Okay, all right.
00:08:22 You don't need to be here for this."
00:08:23 "I really want to be here for this.
00:08:25 This is what I came for."
00:08:28 David took a deep breath.
00:08:30 As all husbands throughout all time have felt, his first thought was not towards his own
00:08:34 reaction, but his wife's.
00:08:37 Alice said, "If I'm here, there's less chance of violence."
00:08:42 "Yes, but a worse outcome."
00:08:45 Roman took another step forward and said, "We can keep the girl.
00:08:48 You can keep my boy if you're worried about escalation."
00:08:51 A teenage boy, an indeterminable smudge between the white of childhood and the black of adulthood,
00:08:58 stepped forward and stood by his father.
00:09:01 Alice whispered, "That's the boy."
00:09:04 David put his hand on his daughter's shoulder.
00:09:06 He murmured, "I really don't want you to stay with them.
00:09:10 The Civ, I, care much more about our kids than these people."
00:09:16 David straightened his head and stared at Roman.
00:09:18 "Your son is protected by your clan, your tribe.
00:09:21 My child is only me.
00:09:22 She needs to leave so we can talk."
00:09:24 "I'll hold your horses," said Roman, turning and conferring with the dark figures behind
00:09:29 him.
00:09:31 After a minute or two, he turned back to David.
00:09:33 "You say you are outnumbered, but you have the skyships and your bioweapons.
00:09:37 You could wipe us out with a command."
00:09:40 David nodded.
00:09:41 "Even if that were true, I would be dead before any of that happened.
00:09:45 I came out here in the middle of the night, before dawn I guess, because I love my daughter
00:09:49 and want to keep being a father."
00:09:52 Roman scoffed.
00:09:53 "Nine times out of ten war comes from confusion, like that war that started because a soldier
00:09:58 raised his sword to strike the snake on his leg.
00:10:01 We know your ideas.
00:10:04 We can guess that you are here for our children, which is not going to happen.
00:10:09 You have no evidence of violations of your precious non-aggression principle.
00:10:12 You ask any of the kids here."
00:10:14 He turned and gestured at the group behind him.
00:10:16 "And they will all say how much they love it here and how little they want to leave."
00:10:20 He wagged his finger slowly.
00:10:22 "Now I know that, at least for the moment, we live in your world.
00:10:26 And I know what your rules are.
00:10:28 You aren't going to ostracize us.
00:10:30 That's your main punishment, right?
00:10:31 We already did that to ourselves.
00:10:33 We already put ourselves in prison, according to your eyes.
00:10:36 So what are you going to do to punish us?
00:10:39 Your little scans aren't going to reveal anything other than that living in the wilderness is
00:10:42 very stressful, or can be.
00:10:44 So you have no moral right to take our children.
00:10:47 That would be to initiate force on your part.
00:10:50 We haven't survived this long because we don't know what we're doing.
00:10:53 And if you initiate the use of force against us, your business will be destroyed because
00:10:57 nobody will enforce any of your contracts.
00:10:59 That's written into your contracts, right?
00:11:01 And you will be ostracized.
00:11:02 And maybe you would join us out here in what you call the wilderness and we call reality."
00:11:10 David's heart began to beat slightly less wildly as he realized the negotiation had
00:11:14 already begun.
00:11:16 He gently pushed Alice behind him and turned to Roman.
00:11:20 "You're right in a lot of what you say, and my hands are tied to a large degree regarding
00:11:26 adults.
00:11:27 But your son kidnapped and harmed my daughter and hit both her and her friend, which is
00:11:33 an NAP violation.
00:11:35 Responding to an NAP violation gives me considerably more flexibility."
00:11:41 Roman held up his hand.
00:11:43 "I guess we've started without saying we've started, which is fine.
00:11:46 But it's damn cold.
00:11:47 We're going to need a fire."
00:11:50 He raised his voice in the last part of his sentence, and a fire was quickly built and
00:11:54 logs set up in front of it for them to sit.
00:11:57 Both men sat opposite each other, Alice by her father's side.
00:12:02 Roman warmed his hands by rubbing them in front of the flickering flames.
00:12:07 Staring at the flames, Roman said, "Now, I know that your kind is all kinds of sensitive
00:12:13 about your precious kids, and our nothing bad should ever happen to 'em, because you
00:12:17 think that's gonna make 'em stronger, like the universe gives a damn.
00:12:21 But let's put things in perspective, because you really seem to have pulled all the sky
00:12:25 cavalry out here to this spot hanging above us all like a sword."
00:12:30 Roman sighed, gesturing at the fading stars.
00:12:32 "You got atomizing weapons pointed directly at us, because your daughter's friend got
00:12:37 a slap for trespassing."
00:12:39 Roman laughed sadly.
00:12:41 "I'll try not to comment on the arrogance of imagining that everything you don't own
00:12:45 is unowned, or that everyone who believes differently from you is wrong, but doesn't
00:12:50 it strike you as a little insane that this is your response to just about the smallest
00:12:55 roughhousing above a caress?"
00:12:58 David nodded, indicating comprehension, not agreement.
00:13:02 "If you and I were going on a journey of a thousand leagues, is it worth haggling over
00:13:07 the precise direction at the beginning, or near the end?"
00:13:11 There was dark laughter around the fire.
00:13:13 Roman scoffed.
00:13:14 "Yeah, yeah, we know.
00:13:17 The child is the father of the man.
00:13:19 The end rocks the cradle, rules the world.
00:13:22 Do you really think that you're the only group in history, the only civilization in history,
00:13:26 to ever think that children, that how we treat children determines the future?
00:13:32 You're like some toddler, thinking every new experience is new for everyone."
00:13:37 He leaned forward, firelight and shadows sliding up his face.
00:13:41 "We thoroughly invest in our children, and set them on the right path, something sustainable,
00:13:47 and human, and real, and true.
00:13:51 We don't make them slave owners of machines, or let them squirt their brains into computers
00:13:55 and imagine that they are alive.
00:13:58 We teach them true respect for persons and property, which is consequences, not your
00:14:03 universally preferable behavior.
00:14:06 Those girls were on our land, and they were kept here for a short while to teach them
00:14:11 a lesson.
00:14:13 And then they were taught some respect with one little slap, and then they were let go
00:14:17 without incident.
00:14:18 It was nothing, really.
00:14:20 Nothing at least compared to what you are doing, which is bringing all your God-forsaken
00:14:23 weaponry to threaten our lives over a little consequence."
00:14:28 David started to say something, but Roman held up his hand again with a strange authority,
00:14:34 a habitual command.
00:14:36 "At the end of the day, your daughter was taught to show some respect for other people's
00:14:40 property.
00:14:41 And all you are doing is teaching her that she needs a big old daddy and a whole bunch
00:14:45 of skyships with deadly weapons pointed at anyone who might be even slightly mean to
00:14:49 her, according to her own estimation.
00:14:51 You are damn erasing her, David, at the same time as you think you are here because you
00:14:55 want to be such a good daddy."
00:14:59 David shivered.
00:15:01 "Can you tell me a little bit about this group of yours?"
00:15:09 Roman laughed grimly.
00:15:10 "Oh, yeah.
00:15:11 Oh, our people, that you call a clan, like five-hundred-year-old ghosts with pointy hats.
00:15:17 Well, I guess you can say we are just a group of concerned parents."
00:15:21 "After the cataclysms, you all went the route of treating your children like delicate eggs
00:15:27 of the ancient world, Fabergé eggs," he held up his hands and wriggled his fingers, "or
00:15:31 spiderwebs in some crazy wind."
00:15:33 "The world went bad," he said, "I guess.
00:15:37 So we have to banish all badness and all struggle and all difficulty and all reality, we think,
00:15:43 and our kids need to be raised in some kind of bubble."
00:15:46 "Well, I guess most of you thought that way and went that way and it's been that way for
00:15:51 about a hundred years, give or take.
00:15:53 But I guess we were a little bit more into diversity and we wanted to go a different
00:16:01 route and we recognised the basic historical fact, the most basic historical fact, which
00:16:07 is that human societies can never survive their own success."
00:16:14 Roman took a deep breath and leaned further forward.
00:16:17 "All these empires, all throughout history, hundreds of them, what do they do?
00:16:23 It's always the same.
00:16:25 Some warlord or general bastard captures a bunch of lands and people and imposes some
00:16:29 rule of law or paper shuffling order and peace flourishes for a time.
00:16:34 Then everyone gets lazy and soft and mercantile."
00:16:39 He almost spat out the word.
00:16:40 "And the elders get lazy and greedy and stupid and obsessed with money and status and power
00:16:47 and no one wants to go into the army and women don't want to have kids, that's you too, you
00:16:50 know.
00:16:51 And then everything collapses because there are tougher people out there in the world
00:16:55 and they just run you over, run you down.
00:17:00 I guess you can say that we are a group of concerned ex-citizens who just got a little
00:17:05 sick and tired of this and the stupid cycle of history.
00:17:08 It's kind of like when they used to have a lottery, I don't know if you still do, and
00:17:12 you offered someone a couple of bitcoins but with the certain knowledge that it would most
00:17:16 likely destroy all their relationships and they would wind up broke and in jail.
00:17:20 The devil's bargain if ever there was one.
00:17:23 Well mankind, God help them, keeps getting offered all this wealth with the certain knowledge
00:17:28 that we'll all go to hell and take them with it.
00:17:31 And everyone just keeps grabbing this burning bar of civilized gold that melts their hands
00:17:35 right off."
00:17:37 It wasn't hard to see where Roman was getting this analogy.
00:17:40 He kept waving his hand slowly over the flickering flames.
00:17:46 David was rather struck by the oddly educated manner of the older man.
00:17:51 He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again.
00:17:57 He nodded slowly, staring at the flames.
00:18:00 "We're tired, I guess.
00:18:03 Tired of this cycle.
00:18:05 Tired of this manic depressive crap storm.
00:18:08 We start in the woods, we move to the cities, we mostly end up back in the woods while wolves
00:18:13 eat the rest who starve in the shadows of their broken buildings.
00:18:17 None of us can survive our own success.
00:18:20 I don't want the gold if it breaks my back.
00:18:23 We don't want the computers because we're human freaking beings.
00:18:26 We are supposed to face nature and wrestle for survival."
00:18:30 He raised his eyes and stared straight at David.
00:18:33 "You know," he murmured, "you're all going to end up back here anyway.
00:18:39 We're just ready for it now."
00:18:44 David swallowed an ancient chill of fear circulating in his bloodstream.
00:18:49 "How do you treat your children?"
00:18:54 Roman pursed his lips.
00:18:55 "Like they're the future, as they are.
00:18:59 We teach them that the universe owes them nothing.
00:19:02 That you have to wrestle for everything you want.
00:19:04 That age and wisdom have real value in a world with less change.
00:19:08 We put them to work early to make sure that we continue to want to have kids.
00:19:11 You all educate them forever.
00:19:13 They're too expensive for your society to continue.
00:19:15 You're dying out for sure.
00:19:17 We are harsh because nature is harsh, as it will be to you too when your society fails
00:19:22 and the robots die."
00:19:25 Roman laughed suddenly.
00:19:26 "It's kind of funny when you think about it.
00:19:29 You think we are being mean to our children.
00:19:32 We think that you are being unbelievably cruel to yours."
00:19:37 Roman gestured at the trees, silent and still at the dawn light.
00:19:43 He murmured, "In ancient Rome, the city went from millions of inhabitants down to a few
00:19:50 thousand in a few months.
00:19:53 Where did they go?
00:19:55 They were all raised in cities.
00:19:57 They expected running water in every building.
00:19:59 No predators.
00:20:00 Easy food.
00:20:01 Arguments and debates and literature and slaves and politics.
00:20:06 They could wander down to the market and sell words for food.
00:20:09 Have you ever tried talking to a dead tree and it giving you fruit?
00:20:13 That's how insane it looks to us.
00:20:15 And all these pipes and aqueducts and slaves and swords that the city Romans could not
00:20:19 see were all keeping them afloat in a mad dream."
00:20:24 He snapped his grimy fingers.
00:20:25 "And then it all ended one day as it always does.
00:20:30 And there was no food in the market and no water in the taps.
00:20:33 And what did they do?
00:20:34 Well, they sat on their asses, most of them, and waited for help to arrive.
00:20:41 And they were raped or killed or enslaved.
00:20:44 And as the word of this began to spread, people grabbed half a loaf of bread and ran out of
00:20:47 the city into the woods."
00:20:49 He laughed.
00:20:50 "Our kids would know what to do.
00:20:53 They wouldn't even need half a loaf of bread.
00:20:56 So these Romans, these soft and stupid city folk, they try to plant themselves like seeds
00:21:01 in the land.
00:21:02 But there's no point planting a fruit tree when you're already angry.
00:21:05 Maybe they went to farmers and begged for food, but the farmers didn't need them.
00:21:08 They already had all the labor they needed.
00:21:10 And the soft-handed city idiots knew nothing about farming.
00:21:13 They had no muscles or calluses or discipline.
00:21:16 So what happened to them?
00:21:18 They were barely worth anything as slaves.
00:21:20 They were just useless eaters.
00:21:22 They didn't breathe to feed their muscles like you're supposed to, but to feed their
00:21:25 words which were useless to everyone now."
00:21:30 Roman's eyes got a faraway look.
00:21:32 "Millions of them.
00:21:34 Where did they go?
00:21:36 What happened to them?
00:21:38 We can imagine, but it doesn't really matter.
00:21:40 We will never really know.
00:21:42 But we know, for real, in a way.
00:21:45 They just broke down and died.
00:21:48 And you know what they died saying?
00:21:50 I guarantee you that they died saying that they wished their own damn parents had prepared
00:21:55 them for life outside the dying city.
00:21:58 They died cursing their kin for keeping them soft and useless and parasitical and predatory
00:22:04 and political.
00:22:07 They died because their parents never made them work an honest day in their life.
00:22:11 So their hands were too soft for anything useful and their paws bled and they were cast
00:22:15 into the wilderness and eaten by dogs half alive."
00:22:20 Roman laughed bitterly.
00:22:21 "They were raised to be kings and senators and sophists and they couldn't even raise
00:22:27 their hands to ward off the dogs that ate them."
00:22:31 He put the heels of his hands together and spread his palms apart.
00:22:34 "For in the road, Mr. David, one way is sustainable.
00:22:40 Civilization is not.
00:22:42 You are preparing your children for a life that will not last.
00:22:48 Civilization is a drug that destroys.
00:22:52 You forgot your gods.
00:22:54 You forgot your devils."
00:22:58 Roman leaned further forward, his eyes wide with perceived truth.
00:23:02 "The devil always does the same thing.
00:23:07 He promises the end of suffering that you don't have to earn."
00:23:11 "That's not right.
00:23:14 The devil promises you a relief.
00:23:16 You don't have to keep earning.
00:23:18 I'll give you fame or beauty or money or talent or whatever.
00:23:21 I'll give you civilization.
00:23:24 You have to give me your soul in return."
00:23:26 "So you're greedy.
00:23:28 You snatch what he offers and you love it for about five minutes and then you become
00:23:35 terrified of losing it, of what is to come.
00:23:38 And it turns out, living for the approval of others, living for status," again he almost
00:23:45 spat out the word in disgust, "turns you into a slave, the worst kind of slave, the slave
00:23:51 who thinks he's in charge on top of the world, the slave trapped in a palace.
00:23:56 Because you can break out of a prison, but you can never break out of a palace.
00:24:02 The slave trapped by his gold, his fame, his fans, his greed.
00:24:10 Everything you get that you do not earn with your own hands, you live in fear of losing.
00:24:14 And it's a rational fear because you will lose it.
00:24:19 Civilization is a palace built by others, better than you, better than me perhaps.
00:24:23 And it always comes crashing down.
00:24:25 Because animals can only escape predators and hunger by living in a zoo.
00:24:29 But zoos drive us mad because we are nothing if we are not striving."
00:24:36 Roman gestured, "Alice, stick yourself out from behind your daddy.
00:24:41 If we all disappeared in the next minute and you were left here alone, how would you eat,
00:24:46 huh?
00:24:47 How would you sleep to be safe from predators?
00:24:49 How would you build anything?
00:24:52 Would you know how to stay alive?
00:24:55 This is how we evolved.
00:24:58 This is it.
00:25:00 This is natural to us.
00:25:01 This is where we belong.
00:25:02 You have people in your world who haven't seen daylight for a year.
00:25:05 They've been eaten alive by your VR helmets.
00:25:08 It's artificial insanity.
00:25:10 Here if people see things that aren't there, we know they've gone mad.
00:25:12 For you, it's a way of life.
00:25:15 Safety is madness.
00:25:16 Privacy is madness.
00:25:17 And universality is madness too."
00:25:20 David started, "What?"
00:25:22 Roman leaned forward even further.
00:25:25 "You heard me.
00:25:27 Privacy is madness as well.
00:25:31 You got two ways of looking at the world, biology or morality.
00:25:37 We are animals.
00:25:38 We are mammals.
00:25:39 And all animals evolved through biology.
00:25:42 The tribe, your family, you drop a rock in a still lake, the waves are high and then
00:25:47 they flatten out.
00:25:48 That's care.
00:25:49 That's concern.
00:25:50 That's life as it should be.
00:25:51 Family.
00:25:52 That's all that matters.
00:25:54 That's evolution.
00:25:55 That's why we're here.
00:25:56 That's why we are who we are.
00:25:58 Look at you.
00:26:00 You came all the way out here because of your daughter but you're staying here, putting
00:26:03 your life at risk, you think, because of our children.
00:26:07 What do you care about our children?
00:26:09 What do I care about yours?
00:26:11 You have this universality, universally preferable behavior, which means you have to put your
00:26:17 life at risk for my boy, for our children.
00:26:21 You ever see that anywhere else in the animal kingdom.
00:26:24 Yeah, I know you will say that we are not animals.
00:26:27 That's fine, I guess.
00:26:28 You can have your civilization and your soft dance and your virtual reality.
00:26:32 You can pretend that you are not an animal, that you are an abstract god of forms and
00:26:37 you can live in geometry, not reality.
00:26:39 But the thing about reality is it always comes back.
00:26:46 You run from the wilderness into the city.
00:26:49 The city just spits you back out when it collapses.
00:26:52 Civilization.
00:26:53 It's like diving underwater.
00:26:55 You can stay there for a bit but you can't live there.
00:26:57 You either return to the air or you die in the deep.
00:27:01 And I have no beef with science or math, I guess.
00:27:04 You can pursue these universal abstractions but only if they serve your own kin.
00:27:10 Roman sighed.
00:27:11 You know the big lesson of the cataclysms?
00:27:17 All the ideologies that grew out of the grave of God.
00:27:20 The idea that we can remake mankind to the image of some universal abstraction that did
00:27:25 not evolve with his body.
00:27:27 We can remake you so that you don't care about profit or your own family.
00:27:33 All such obvious stupidity.
00:27:37 Set a man against what gives him life, what he evolved to do and you own him until your
00:27:45 ownership kills him.
00:27:48 Like that disease where they got rid of all the symptoms but couldn't control the infection.
00:27:54 Basic question to ask.
00:27:55 Why do people cough and take to bed when they get sick?
00:27:58 There's no implicit reason for it.
00:28:00 Well, it's because it's a signal to other people that you're sick so they need to stay
00:28:06 away.
00:28:07 Tribes that evolved without symptoms cross-infected each other into early graves.
00:28:11 It's an evolutionary dead end.
00:28:14 Symptoms are horrible but the alternative is death.
00:28:16 Get rid of symptoms, you just spread disease.
00:28:19 His voice rose.
00:28:21 The avoidance of personal suffering, necessary suffering is the root of all evil.
00:28:27 And your civilization is striving to eliminate suffering just like all civilizations before
00:28:31 which tell people they shouldn't have to dig a well to get water, just turn a tap.
00:28:36 You shouldn't have to hunt or grow your food, you should just tap a keyboard and have a
00:28:39 robot cough it into your mouth like a mama bird.
00:28:43 You probably got to the point where you just have to think of the food and you crap it
00:28:45 out in five minutes.
00:28:46 Congratulations, you have eliminated humanity.
00:28:52 Roman leaned up and stretched his back.
00:28:55 As the sun rose, his face looked older, wearier.
00:28:59 But it would be prejudiced to call it utterly unwise, thought David.
00:29:07 Roman said, "And here is the funniest thing, maybe.
00:29:12 When there's a solar flare or you run out of power, or you get too dumb and lazy to
00:29:16 fix your machines, when the barbarians of your own softness sack your cities, you will
00:29:22 come out here to us on your knees and beg for survival.
00:29:29 I know why you're here, my friend.
00:29:32 You are here to take our children, who damn well know how to survive in the real world,
00:29:37 and lock them up in your fantasy cities.
00:29:40 See we live on a kind of desert island, but you want to bind them to a ship that is bound
00:29:43 to sink, it's not going to happen."
00:29:47 The older man's eyes narrowed.
00:29:49 We are not some reject, some outcast, too uncivilized to live in your cracking paradise.
00:29:54 We are here by choice, in preparation for what is to come, because we are actual scholars
00:29:59 of human history.
00:30:01 We are not science fantasists who imagine that somehow, miraculously, we get to escape
00:30:05 the cycle this time.
00:30:07 We are mortal, you are mortal, and only insane people believe that exceptions to mortality
00:30:12 apply to them alone.
00:30:14 All civilizations die, as will yours.
00:30:17 We will preside over your funeral and carry on.
00:30:20 You will not.
00:30:26 David started to speak, but Roman held up his hand once more.
00:30:29 David felt himself chafing against the older man's imaginary authority, in particular with
00:30:33 his own daughter sitting beside him, but he felt that Roman was blowing up his own words,
00:30:38 like David used to blow up balloons for Alice, and it was better to let them pop.
00:30:46 You have become less of a man, my friend, by turning over all your labor to the machines
00:30:51 and the computers.
00:30:52 In fact, I would barely categorize you as a man, any more than I would categorize a
00:30:56 fat king as a man.
00:30:58 Not doing your own work is like letting another man kiss your bride.
00:31:02 It turns you into a eunuch.
00:31:04 When was the last time you lifted anything other than weights, the lazy man's pretend
00:31:08 labor?
00:31:10 Roman leaned forward.
00:31:11 I will tell you something that will shock you.
00:31:17 You don't know, at least in the top of your mind, why your daughter returned to this man.
00:31:23 I'm guessing she doesn't even know herself, do you, Alice?
00:31:26 Alice stood up and cleared her throat.
00:31:29 I wanted to leave my father to you, Roman nodded slowly.
00:31:34 Is that right?
00:31:35 Because you wanted to save all our children from their terrible lives?
00:31:39 Yes, Roman nodded again.
00:31:42 That's not true.
00:31:43 Hey, protested David.
00:31:53 Roman nodded again.
00:31:55 That's not true.
00:31:56 Hey, protested David.
00:31:59 The older man shrugged.
00:32:00 I'm not saying the girl is a liar, but what she is saying is not true.
00:32:04 He paused for a moment, rubbing his chin, and the sandpaper sound of stubble drifted
00:32:08 across the early morning air.
00:32:12 She came as bait, that's what she says, and she didn't tell you because she knew you wouldn't
00:32:15 let her come.
00:32:16 But none of this is true, not in any real way.
00:32:19 David scowled.
00:32:20 Stop talking around the issue and just tell us what you imagine.
00:32:23 Alice, you know we don't have any technology.
00:32:27 Or at least you don't think we do, right?
00:32:30 Alice didn't know whether to nod or shake her head.
00:32:32 I don't think you do, she said cautiously.
00:32:37 Roman grunted with evident satisfaction.
00:32:41 So if you were coming to the mountain as bait, and you know we don't have any remote viewing
00:32:45 crap, then we would have had to have someone nearby, watching the mountain to see you come,
00:32:52 and somewhere to communicate with the rest of us.
00:32:54 So we must have been close by for your plan to work.
00:32:58 But if we were close, you didn't need to come as bait.
00:33:02 You could have just told your daddy that you thought we might be watching the mountain
00:33:04 to see if you would return.
00:33:07 So it's a pretty story, but it's not true.
00:33:11 If we were close, you could have just found us easily.
00:33:14 Turns out we were.
00:33:15 So it looks like your plan kind of worked, but it's not the real plan, not the real motive.
00:33:21 David frowned.
00:33:23 The older man's words were a kind of maze, but it did vaguely feel like they led somewhere.
00:33:29 So what is the truth, he asked.
00:33:32 That's a big question, said Roman.
00:33:36 Rather pompously David thought.
00:33:39 The older man said, the truth is that females respond to assertiveness, to dominance.
00:33:47 She came back because she liked my son.
00:33:51 She stayed because she is drawn to us.
00:33:53 We have dropped our lives into our mind and she is responding as she should.
00:33:57 Oh, gross, cried Alice vehemently and slight laughter ran around the clearing.
00:34:03 Roman smiled.
00:34:04 Also, a typical female response to condemn what she is drawn to.
00:34:10 He raised his hand.
00:34:11 Don't get me wrong.
00:34:12 I know she's young.
00:34:13 I'm not suggesting anything untoward.
00:34:16 But this is your problem.
00:34:19 And I say this, man to man, father to father.
00:34:22 You have lost track of what is most human.
00:34:27 My son exercised dominance over your daughter and she was compelled to return.
00:34:33 You with this peaceful parenting, you do not exercise dominance over your daughter.
00:34:38 So she does not view you as an authority figure, but just a kind of big buddy.
00:34:43 Again, his lip curled in disgust.
00:34:46 She makes fun of you, right?
00:34:48 David nodded.
00:34:49 And you lecture her when she does something you disagree with, right?
00:34:52 No punishments, no raised voice, no spanking, no fear.
00:34:56 David nodded again.
00:34:58 Roman smiled grimly.
00:35:00 And you can afford to be her big buddy because you live in a world without danger.
00:35:05 She doesn't need to fear the consequences of her actions because her actions have no
00:35:10 consequences.
00:35:12 Roman's voice rose on the last three words.
00:35:16 She gestured at the trees, its silent, implacable, sociopathic nature.
00:35:24 Adieu.
00:35:25 You make a mistake, you die.
00:35:29 Or you get an injury, which means you die slowly.
00:35:32 It's a kindness to be harsh with your children because it prepares them for the harsh world
00:35:35 that we live in.
00:35:38 Roman's eyes narrowed and his voice changed its tone.
00:35:43 Do you know why you have the intelligence to make your slave machinery?
00:35:48 Do you even know how we evolved?
00:35:51 He opened his right hand and pounded the base of his left fist into it.
00:35:55 We evolved through unspeakable and unending brutality.
00:36:01 Particularly the northern people.
00:36:02 We grew our brains because people who did not plan for winter, the stupid, the greedy,
00:36:07 the short-sighted died over the course of that winter.
00:36:11 Like those pink, soft Roman city dwellers.
00:36:14 People who had no food in late winter went knocking and begging at the doors of their
00:36:18 neighbours, holding up hungry children, tears in their eyes.
00:36:22 And you know what their neighbours did?
00:36:24 Do you know why we have any brains at all?
00:36:28 His voice lowered to almost a whisper, causing David and Alice to lean forward together.
00:36:33 Their neighbours slammed their doors in their faces.
00:36:39 They locked their doors and fastened their windows and picked up an axe if need be to
00:36:44 chop down their stupid, greedy neighbours to make sure they had enough food for their
00:36:49 own children.
00:36:50 And those children saw the neighbours being driven into the snow and cut in pieces if
00:36:56 necessary.
00:36:57 And maybe they buried those bodies around the houses.
00:37:00 And when the spring came, do you think that those children ever forgot that lesson?
00:37:08 Do you think those children ever failed to prepare for the length of winter?
00:37:13 Do you think we would ever have evolved the intelligence and forethought to make the machines
00:37:17 that make us lazy if our ancestors had not lived like us rather than you?
00:37:24 A few pieces of genuine spittle flew from Roman's mouth.
00:37:29 Alice blinked in surprise, trying to remember if she had ever seen such intensity in anything
00:37:34 or anyone outside of crazed historical documentaries.
00:37:42 Roman said, "And you have taken all these brains, the product of hundreds of thousands
00:37:45 of years of blinding suffering and arsonists, and you have turned them into unsustainable
00:37:50 laziness.
00:37:51 And when your daughter saw my son, she realised that she was seeing a true male for the first
00:37:55 time in her entire life, a male who had a child," cried David, "and immediately regretted
00:38:02 it because it seemed or felt like a very weak move."
00:38:08 Roman nodded, "Yeah, I heard about that.
00:38:13 Do you know why we hid our children?
00:38:15 Because out here, the non-aggression principle doesn't work with cold or bears or wolves
00:38:21 or a slipped axe or a broken leg or a twisted ankle or fire or hunger or boiling water or
00:38:27 an infection or another tribe.
00:38:28 And yes, your eyes will widen, but we are not alone out here.
00:38:32 There are lots of eyes watching your sieve circle the drain."
00:38:36 He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and pointed a forefinger at David.
00:38:40 "I want you to think of something.
00:38:43 Again, father to father, imagine that these two girls had surprised a pack of hungry wolves
00:38:48 up on a mountain or a cougar or coyotes or a family of bears.
00:38:53 And imagine that this guardian robot thing had failed or had been bitten in two by a
00:38:58 predator.
00:38:59 Anything that your civilization shields them from had broken through.
00:39:02 I was staring them down."
00:39:05 With blinding speed, Roman picked up a rock, turned and threw it directly at his son.
00:39:09 Like an ancient parted sea, everyone leaned away from the rock.
00:39:12 His boy caught it deftly.
00:39:16 Roman smiled and shrugged.
00:39:19 "No worries here for us.
00:39:22 My son alone might not win, but as sure as hell it would be a fair fight.
00:39:27 Your girls will be eaten alive because you have disarmed them with safety and never go
00:39:31 screaming into the mouths of the beasts.
00:39:34 We imitate predators here because the world is a predator.
00:39:37 And you sit in your robot zoos and judge us for being deficient?
00:39:41 When you came from us, we gave birth to you.
00:39:45 Our harshness gave you the brains that you rely on to escape consequences, to avoid nature
00:39:50 and reality."
00:39:52 His lips curled.
00:39:54 "The civ is a tumor like all civilization.
00:40:00 It is a success we cannot survive as a species.
00:40:03 It grows, surrounds healthy cells and kills the host.
00:40:08 It is a devilish temptation for comfort at the expense of survival.
00:40:13 You would be nothing without us.
00:40:15 You are our children.
00:40:17 And we, as your parents, get cast into the wilderness and damned as evil when you survive
00:40:22 only on the intelligence we grow in you?
00:40:24 Are you finished?"
00:40:28 The low-rent power play phrase tempted David, but he resisted.
00:40:35 He and Roman stared at each other for a full minute, their breath fogging faintly in the
00:40:42 morning air.
00:40:44 "It hangs in the balance," said Roman slowly.
00:40:51 David took a deep breath, his mind spinning with the unexpected volume of information
00:40:55 and arguments coming from the older savage?
00:40:58 No, not a savage, but a cunning mammal.
00:41:05 David suddenly wished his daughter was far away, not because he felt that she was in
00:41:08 any imminent danger, but because matching wits against the leader of the clan suddenly
00:41:12 felt astonishingly challenging.
00:41:17 He was so used to negotiating in a framework of common beliefs that conversing with someone
00:41:21 outside the ideals of the civ seemed impossible, like debating someone in a language you do
00:41:26 not share.
00:41:27 Philosophy is supposed to be universal, but this man, this tribe, reject universals.
00:41:36 How are we supposed to have a discussion of values when the only thing they value is survival?
00:41:44 David considered for a long moment.
00:41:48 He could sense that Roman approved of taking the time to collect your thoughts.
00:41:53 David suddenly suspected that the surprisingly deep insights of the older man grew from the
00:41:57 deep soil of long, cold leisure.
00:42:01 "What if," he cleared his throat, "what if the civ is sustainable?"
00:42:11 Roman snorted, "Ha!
00:42:13 What if?
00:42:14 What if?
00:42:15 What if wolves turn friendly and we can drink sunlight and I'm the only man who can live
00:42:18 forever?
00:42:19 What if?
00:42:20 It's like the silly drag of fairness that almost brings down civilization.
00:42:26 Fantasy and resentment is not a survival strategy, my friend."
00:42:29 "No, I understand what you mean," said David evenly.
00:42:33 "I know I sound like all of the thinkers who ran society from the 19th to the 21st centuries.
00:42:39 What if central planning works better than free markets?
00:42:42 What if we can stop being tribal?
00:42:43 What if men and women can be exactly the same?
00:42:45 I know.
00:42:47 But you do have to be fair according to the evidence of the senses.
00:42:51 We've had a hundred years or so and wealth has gone up five times.
00:42:56 We've extended life by half a century.
00:42:58 Crime is virtually nonexistent, debt virtually unheard of, disease mostly eradicated.
00:43:03 We've achieved more in the last century than any other period in history.
00:43:08 In all the past empires or civilizations, you could clearly see the seeds of destruction
00:43:12 sown for hundreds of years.
00:43:16 But you understand that sometimes riddles do get solved in human history.
00:43:22 After the end of slavery, the greatest advance prior to the modern age, no one seriously
00:43:26 suggested bringing slavery back.
00:43:29 There are advancements that bring us to a higher plateau.
00:43:33 And that doesn't mean that pride comes before a fall or we are Icarus with wax for wings."
00:43:37 "They didn't have wax for wings," muttered Roman.
00:43:40 David waved his hand.
00:43:41 "No, you get the point.
00:43:42 I didn't interrupt you when you made an ambiguous or incorrect statement.
00:43:45 Let's focus on the flow of the conversation.
00:43:50 I get the argument that civilization stops evolution, reverses it in many ways.
00:43:55 I get the argument that comfort leads to laziness, that hard times lead to strong men, strong
00:44:01 men lead to good times, good times lead to weak men, and weak men lead to hard times.
00:44:05 I've studied all of that.
00:44:06 Everyone has who claims to be civilized.
00:44:09 The basis of the modern world is a deep understanding of everything that went wrong in the past.
00:44:16 I suppose there are two types of men, those who believe that improvement is delusion and
00:44:23 those who believe that giving up is a form of cowardice."
00:44:27 He paused, seeing how his shot across the bows of Roman's not inconsiderable vanity
00:44:33 was received, but it passed the older man by without comment or reaction.
00:44:41 David stood up, massaging his lower back, unused to sitting for so long.
00:44:46 The rising sun beamed through the trees, stretching long shadow branches across the clearing.
00:44:52 "What do you know about the history of the civ?"
00:44:56 "I know it as it is now.
00:44:58 Not much about how it came to be, other than as a reaction to the cataclysms."
00:45:02 David nodded.
00:45:03 "I will keep it brief.
00:45:07 The civ will last, because we finally understood the equation that kept collapsing civilization.
00:45:15 Child abuse.
00:45:17 Child abuse uses external punishments to destroy internal conscience.
00:45:22 Children just learn to avoid pain and pursue rewards.
00:45:25 Because they grew up without an internalized conscience, children know no other way to
00:45:30 be good than to seek the approval of those with dangerous power over them.
00:45:34 In other words, child abuse creates a power vacuum, a moral vacuum really, in the minds
00:45:40 of children and adults.
00:45:42 So they don't know how to be good without being told, ordered, violated.
00:45:47 A child who has a conscience, who is good for the sake of goodness itself, doesn't need
00:45:54 an external authority that punishes and rewards in order to pursue virtue.
00:45:58 Now, I know that for your group, the most important thing is tribalism and survival,
00:46:05 or tribalism insofar as it serves survival.
00:46:07 And I get that.
00:46:08 I respect where you're coming from.
00:46:11 But if you can get survival and flourishing without abusing children, that would be better,
00:46:19 right?"
00:46:20 David held up his hand.
00:46:21 "But before you answer, I know two things.
00:46:24 First that you don't believe that, or at least not yet.
00:46:26 And second, that you believe we are abusing our children by sealing them up in, what,
00:46:31 robot prisons?
00:46:32 By taking away their ability to survive in this raw world that you live in, we are harming
00:46:36 them while you are preparing them for the harsh world that is?
00:46:38 I get that.
00:46:39 But just let me make the case anyway, since a lot does hang on this discussion.
00:46:45 Peace or war?"
00:46:49 David began to pace back and forth.
00:46:53 Rowan's eldest son yawned theatrically.
00:46:56 "Look, Rowan, morality is based on universality.
00:47:02 Emotionally, universality is based on empathy.
00:47:07 We found out that there was very little point trying to teach morality to children who had
00:47:10 not learned empathy.
00:47:12 And learning empathy requires a specific sequence of eye contact, skin contact, emotional mirroring
00:47:17 to wire up the different parts of the brain necessary to develop mirror neurons or the
00:47:21 capacity for compassion.
00:47:24 Children who are raised with compassion have a foundational biological basis for the development
00:47:29 of philosophical universality.
00:47:33 In order to act morally, children must first understand and feel that other people are
00:47:38 like themselves.
00:47:40 Throughout most of human history, commandments were beaten into children while parents did
00:47:43 the exact opposite of what they commanded.
00:47:46 Hitting children for hitting children, that sort of thing.
00:47:50 It was like fat parents punishing their children for not being athletes while simultaneously
00:47:53 starving them and breaking their bones.
00:47:56 Just an analogy.
00:47:57 I'm not saying you would do that."
00:48:00 David took a deep breath.
00:48:03 He noticed that the wildlife was beginning to return.
00:48:07 A rabbit watched from under a bush at the edge of the clearing.
00:48:10 Two blackbirds landed on a branch nearby.
00:48:15 David's youngest son picked up a rock but dropped it after a fierce glance from his
00:48:18 father.
00:48:22 In order to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, your brain must be able
00:48:27 to process the emotional reality that other people are like you.
00:48:31 That empathy is a basic biological function that, as I said, requires specific parenting
00:48:37 techniques and intimacy.
00:48:39 Yelling at children to be compassionate, hitting them for selfishness, beating them for violence
00:48:43 only produces violent, selfish children who lack compassion.
00:48:49 The massive costs of the old world, the crime, the addiction, promiscuity, violence, ill
00:48:55 health, divorce.
00:48:57 It was David's turn to spit out a word with contemptuous ferocity.
00:49:00 Single motherhood, we all know the list.
00:49:02 It went on forever back then.
00:49:04 All of this arose from the brutalization of children.
00:49:09 Child abuse took decades off the lifespan of every victim.
00:49:12 Spanking produced aggression.
00:49:14 Child confinement at home or in what used to be called schools produced bullying, anxiety,
00:49:20 violence and depression.
00:49:22 Children who were broken grew into broken adults.
00:49:26 And broken adults flocked to political authority which bribed and exploited them, rewarded
00:49:31 and punished them just as their parents did.
00:49:34 The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.
00:49:36 Yes, so the saying went.
00:49:37 He went one step further.
00:49:41 The hand that rules the world smashes the cradle and must keep doing so in order to
00:49:47 continue ruling.
00:49:49 Startled, the blackbirds flew up as if offended.
00:49:57 However much this might have been known in centuries past, it could scarcely be acted
00:50:02 upon because every power structure that dominated humanity from parents to teachers to the state
00:50:10 relied upon and required children to be abused.
00:50:17 Any mere individual who tried to expose and push back against this abuse was targeted
00:50:21 by all of the people in power who profited from smashing up children and was attacked
00:50:25 and excluded from society.
00:50:28 In the Civ, ostracism is used as a last resort against abuse.
00:50:34 In the old world, ostracism was used as the first resort against anyone who tried to protect
00:50:39 the children.
00:50:43 This bigotry against children is as old as the species we share.
00:50:50 In the 21st century, a time of mass hysteria against all forms of perceived bigotry, not
00:50:55 one statement was made in the general media about the bigotry against children.
00:51:01 The obvious word for it, childism, didn't even exist.
00:51:06 In many countries, it was illegal to hit adults, but perfectly legal to hit children.
00:51:10 It was illegal to confine adults, but you could legally confine children.
00:51:15 It was illegal to withhold food from adults, but you could half-starve children.
00:51:20 It was, of course, illegal to sexually assault children, but the practice was so widespread
00:51:25 that at least one in three girls and one in five boys were sexually assaulted as children.
00:51:32 People were so ignorant back then that they didn't even realize that just about everyone
00:51:38 who wanted to drive the fathers out of the household did so because they wanted to abuse
00:51:42 the children of single mothers.
00:51:45 Children of single mothers were over 30 times more likely to be abused than children with
00:51:48 fathers around.
00:51:50 Driving fathers away was the essential project of the abusers.
00:51:56 And the children were given no say in their schooling.
00:52:01 Their parents were forced to pay, the state forced them to attend in most places, and
00:52:05 they had almost no recourse to bullying from teachers, fellow students, staff.
00:52:10 Government schools were hotbeds of physical and sexual abuse and exploitation.
00:52:17 And very little was done to stop this because the society was set up so that children were
00:52:23 explicitly denied their role and voice in the world.
00:52:28 Who listened to them?
00:52:31 Politicians didn't care about them because they could not vote.
00:52:35 Teachers didn't care about them because they got paid no matter what.
00:52:38 And the culture created a strange cult of parenthood so that even victims of rampant
00:52:47 child abuse were herded back to their abusers by a society desperate to cover up its endless
00:52:51 crimes against children.
00:52:55 There were a few people who reminded adult victims of child abuse that they did not have
00:52:59 to spend time with their abusers, but in the usual 21st century habit of projection, those
00:53:04 people were attacked as cult leaders and driven from society to protect the abusers who ran
00:53:09 everything or were required by those who ran everything.
00:53:15 Society evolved on child abuse.
00:53:19 It could not survive without it.
00:53:24 After the cataclysms, when the sadists who virtually destroyed the species, hell, the
00:53:29 planet had been exposed, and people finally understood that we had accumulated too much
00:53:36 technological power to be ruled, the problem of violent hierarchy, parenting, schools,
00:53:43 the state, was finally attacked at its root.
00:53:48 And some of the studies and arguments from the old world which had survived served as
00:53:51 the blueprint for outgrowing the brutal hierarchies of history.
00:54:00 In a sense, prehistory was the childhood of the species.
00:54:06 The old world of the 17th and 21st centuries was the unstable puberty, the cataclysms,
00:54:12 the violent teenage years, and the modern world is the final adulthood of mankind.
00:54:24 In order to bow to authority, you must be raised to be afraid of authority.
00:54:32 That is the job of parents and teachers paid for and protected by the state.
00:54:38 We found the most remarkable, yet most easily predictable thing, which was that when children
00:54:45 were raised peacefully, we had no need of politics, no need of the state, the state
00:54:53 which had always destroyed the societies it was supposed to protect.
00:54:59 It was David's time to lean forward, and he felt his daughter's soft hand on his left
00:55:03 shoulder.
00:55:06 So Roman, you have it precisely backwards.
00:55:13 And here's where the conversation becomes confrontational, which I accept.
00:55:19 You aren't harsh to your children because the world is harsh.
00:55:24 You need a harsh world in order to justify your harshness to your children.
00:55:31 The sieve is not just built on peaceful parenting, the sieve is peaceful parenting.
00:55:37 Not even two sides of the same coin, they are one and the same.
00:55:41 Why do you live out here in this harsh wilderness?
00:55:44 Your need is emotional, not philosophical.
00:55:47 You need the sieve to be on its last legs so that you can justify your emotional need
00:55:51 to abuse your children.
00:55:52 And I'm going to say it because you have said it to me, which sounds petty, but you
00:55:56 opened the door to this kind of criticism.
00:55:59 You gestured at the silent trees, the circling blackbirds, the rustle and creak of wind through
00:56:04 the leafy boughs.
00:56:07 These woods are not the future of the sieve, but the primitive prehistory of us all.
00:56:13 You have based your identity on ruling this tribe, on being the chief, which means that
00:56:17 you need the tribe, you need the hierarchy, you need the obedience, which means that your
00:56:23 entire ego is dependent upon the abuse of your children.
00:56:28 Now you project that need to abuse onto me, onto the fathers of the sieve, because we
00:56:32 reason with our children and do not use their accidental size and age and strength as a
00:56:37 substitute for rational parenting.
00:56:40 You bring your children out here in order to bully them and then say that, "Oh no, it's
00:56:45 not me that is bullying you, my child.
00:56:47 I'm just preparing you for the bullying of nature."
00:56:50 But who is responsible for bringing them out here, for keeping them out here?
00:56:53 You, Roman.
00:56:55 David gestured at the tribe.
00:56:57 You, these parents, and no one else.
00:57:02 David turned to the grimy, frightened children of the tribe, staring at him with wide eyes
00:57:06 and hanging mouths.
00:57:09 Why are they here?
00:57:11 The one thing we know is that they are abused when they are here.
00:57:15 And you yourself said that the abuse occurs because nature is abusive and you are preparing
00:57:19 them to face nature.
00:57:21 This is why you need to say that the sieve cannot last, because if it can last, and the
00:57:27 only reason that it can last is because of peaceful parenting, then you are just a violent
00:57:32 man out here in the woods beating his children.
00:57:35 You are not a noble savage.
00:57:36 You are not a historical warrior.
00:57:38 You are not a protector of children from the softening disasters of a machine-based civilization.
00:57:43 You are not a natural philosopher of the original man.
00:57:46 You are just a guy who has dragged his children out into the woods so he can beat them, or
00:57:51 worse, which I will not speak of for lack of proof, and for the presence of children
00:57:56 here.
00:57:59 David just let his passion flow.
00:58:02 He had made arguments for peaceful parenting at conferences in the few remaining statist
00:58:05 countries, but his words had never sounded as raw as here, as looming nature ate up his
00:58:12 syllables.
00:58:16 You are just a guy with a stick and a fist and terrified children.
00:58:22 You know a fair amount about the sieve.
00:58:24 You know that we have no wars, no prisons, no crime, that we are wealthy and powerful
00:58:29 and secure and happy.
00:58:32 You've studied history.
00:58:33 You know that the fall of a civilization is foreshadowed by hundreds of years of very
00:58:36 clear indicators, from the accumulation of centralized power to the importing of foreigners
00:58:41 hostile to the core beliefs, to the corruption and degradation of the currency, the state
00:58:45 subsidized hyper-egalitarianism of the Sanxes, the reliance on public debt and the ever-increasing
00:58:50 propagandizing of the young, the destruction of the nuclear family.
00:58:54 We went through this a hundred times in the past.
00:58:56 It was always the same, and you claim to know history, but you look at the sieve and claim
00:59:03 that it is tottering, that it cannot last, that you are protecting your children from
00:59:06 our decadence and laziness and softening.
00:59:11 But you, who claims to follow nature and reality and truth and is desperate to be harsh to
00:59:16 your children because, "Oh, nature is harsh, the truth is harsh, and reality is harsh."
00:59:20 How harsh are you willing to be against your own delusions?
00:59:25 We are not failing.
00:59:28 We are not softening.
00:59:30 We are not on our last legs.
00:59:32 We succeed because we protect our children.
00:59:37 But you only think you succeed because you destroy yours.
00:59:43 You did a possible imitation of Roman's odd accent.
00:59:45 "Oh, but we are harsh to our children because we want to protect them from the wolves and
00:59:49 bears and lions."
00:59:51 What about your beliefs, old man?
00:59:53 You were raised so harshly that you can take on bears with your bare hands.
00:59:57 Can you face down the predators of your own false beliefs?
01:00:01 "Don't make a mistake or you shall surely die," you cry.
01:00:04 Well, Roman, what if you have made a mistake?
01:00:07 What if you have built your entire world for you, your emotional hunger to dominate and
01:00:10 destroy on the delusion that peace and reason cannot last in this world?
01:00:15 That you are the future and we are the tottering past?
01:00:20 David's voice grew almost gentle.
01:00:23 "Oh, no, my friend.
01:00:28 We are the future.
01:00:31 You are the past, and we cannot coexist.
01:00:36 You are out here breeding criminals and brutalizers while we use our peace and plenty to raise
01:00:42 civilized human beings.
01:00:45 I was raised in love and peace and reason and wealth.
01:00:51 I have mirror neurons.
01:00:53 You have a void where your conscience should be.
01:00:56 Although you attacked my child, I will save your children because I am involved in all
01:01:01 of humanity, and I cannot be dominated or humiliated into deferring to a child-abusing
01:01:06 savage in the woods."
01:01:12 David took a deep breath in his passion he had cast aside all restraint and knew that
01:01:17 lives now hung in the balance.
01:01:21 He had been surprised at the depth of emotion that arose in his chest.
01:01:25 Then he realized that he was facing an ancient enemy only detectable by his deepest instincts.
01:01:35 It is not that he is wrong that is the problem.
01:01:38 It is that he defines everything that is wrong about him as a virtue which seals his actions
01:01:44 in inevitability.
01:01:47 Free will only allows us to choose what is good, to define what is good.
01:01:51 Once we have chosen or defined, our course is set.
01:01:57 We can choose where to build the train tracks, but we cannot choose where the train goes
01:02:00 after the tracks are done.
01:02:04 He has set himself up as a virtuous leader whose virtue and leadership depends entirely
01:02:09 upon the destruction of children.
01:02:11 A tree must be broken and reassembled into a house.
01:02:15 A man must be broken to be reassembled into followers, his followers.
01:02:23 And now I have called out his leadership and his virtue and his authority in front of his
01:02:28 tribe and his child or children I assume.
01:02:32 There is almost no greater provocation in the world of mammals.
01:02:41 It could see the shifting clouds of suppressed emotions chasing each other across the older
01:02:46 man's stony visage.
01:02:49 He found himself impressed against his will by Roman's superlative self-control.
01:02:56 After a full minute, Roman spoke.
01:03:04 Real men do not submit to each other.
01:03:07 It seems that you want to make this a war of wills and dominance.
01:03:12 He flattened his hands and pushed his fingers together horizontally.
01:03:17 Like two pieces of paper being pushed together, one ends up going above the other.
01:03:22 He raised his voice.
01:03:24 This is not a battle of wills.
01:03:27 I do not demand that you submit to me.
01:03:30 I assume you do not demand that I submit to you.
01:03:35 We are not animals.
01:03:36 We are men.
01:03:37 And we can reason.
01:03:40 You are calling me evil.
01:03:41 I am calling you weak, which is the same as evil in the real world.
01:03:47 Weakness draws evil and cannot protect its own offspring.
01:03:51 Your weakness was to send your children out into the wilderness, guarded only by floating
01:03:55 and failing metal.
01:03:58 My evil is to protect my children from destruction by making them strong.
01:04:03 You are like the crazy mother who keeps her children away from germs so that they die
01:04:07 the first time they sicken.
01:04:10 Roman pursed his lips in a stern frown.
01:04:14 But these are abstract issues.
01:04:17 The past is a myth.
01:04:18 The future a delusion.
01:04:20 You and I can make anything we want out of current patterns to justify our respective
01:04:24 views.
01:04:25 Your skyship hangs over us, ready to strike.
01:04:29 He raised his finger and pointed at David's chest.
01:04:32 You would hold us down with ropes and take our children away.
01:04:37 He raised his finger and spun it.
01:04:39 We would fight to the death to hang on to our precious children, our future.
01:04:44 We would take nothing from you but the time and the decadence do its dirty work.
01:04:49 You will come and threaten us, kill us if necessary, to take our children.
01:04:55 Children who by your own definition cannot be integrated into your society.
01:05:00 You will take them for what?
01:05:02 To try your programming, to force them into the decadent pacifist cult of the civ, which
01:05:06 you will fail at.
01:05:07 We both know this.
01:05:09 So then what?
01:05:10 You have taken them from a life they love, the only life they know, taken them away from
01:05:14 all the skills that make them human and put them in a cage in a city.
01:05:18 Again he almost spat the word.
01:05:19 You will take them like the ancient rulers took the natives from the new world and paraded
01:05:23 them in bamboo cages for the kings to poke at and feel superior to.
01:05:28 What you cannot coexist with or integrate you must destroy.
01:05:33 Roman turned his back on David and spoke to the silent waiting clan.
01:05:38 The wide-eyed children edged closer to their parents.
01:05:44 This man says that we are beyond redemption and that trauma, the trauma of learning how
01:05:49 to survive man versus nature as we evolved as is natural, destroys our souls.
01:05:56 He will take our children, he will program them, indoctrinate them, try to change them
01:06:01 into himself all in the name of progress, a virtue of compassion and a non-aggression
01:06:07 principle, their god of reason as they imagine.
01:06:11 We will be destroyed through violence so that violence is destroyed, the ancient bargain
01:06:16 of man's inevitable enemy.
01:06:20 Roman took a deep breath.
01:06:24 We cannot fight them because we have surrendered technology in order to master nature.
01:06:30 Their weapons can destroy us.
01:06:32 The only restraint is their need for pacifist self-justification.
01:06:36 They need their justification in order to destroy us but we should show them reason
01:06:41 despite their targeting from the death ships above.
01:06:45 My friends, my companions, my family, do you trust me?
01:06:54 The sun was far over the horizon scaling its light up through the threaded branches of
01:06:59 the trees and in a strange illusion the heads of the clan were illuminated but their bodies
01:07:07 were not, turning them into still candles.
01:07:12 One by one they nodded.
01:07:16 Roman turned to David.
01:07:19 "All right," he grunted, "show me."
01:07:24 David blinked.
01:07:25 "What?"
01:07:26 Roman shrugged.
01:07:27 "You say that you have mastered history, broken a cycle?
01:07:31 Show me!"
01:07:32 "You mean on a screen?"
01:07:35 Roman laughed.
01:07:36 "Already you are failing.
01:07:39 Now take me in a ship and show me your world.
01:07:42 You're an empiricist, let me judge for myself."
01:07:46 David paused.
01:07:47 "That is kind of an open-ended bargain.
01:07:52 How will you know?"
01:07:53 "Civilization always lacks certainty.
01:07:56 You might learn from me.
01:07:57 Join me out here."
01:07:58 "I will know."
01:08:01 David sat down heavily, rubbing his face.
01:08:03 "So I take you to the sieve, you look around and what if you approve?"
01:08:10 "Then we will join you."
01:08:13 David laughed involuntarily.
01:08:14 "Oh, come on.
01:08:15 Look at the sacrifices you've made for how long?
01:08:20 Who knows?
01:08:21 You're just going to, what, jump out of the woods and join me in a jacuzzi?
01:08:26 Or what?
01:08:27 Doesn't matter, sorry.
01:08:29 I give you my word."
01:08:31 "Your word is if you think the sieve is sustainable, you give up the woods?"
01:08:41 Roman gestured at the clan.
01:08:42 "We all do, don't we?"
01:08:44 Various nods.
01:08:46 David said, "And if you end up thinking that the sieve is unsustainable or wrong, bad in
01:08:55 some way, then you leave us in peace.
01:08:59 Done."
01:09:00 The word was out of David's mouth before he even thought.
01:09:05 Appalled at his own impulsiveness, he added, "We will need to get this in writing, of course."
01:09:10 Roman smiled.
01:09:11 "In blood?
01:09:12 Of course."
01:09:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]