• last year
"Disclaimer: I'm not at all suicidal, and if any discourse herein convinces you suicide's a good option for you, you probably went wrong somewhere.

"Community challenge!

"Sorry if this reads like a paralysis question; it's relevant to how I might live out the faith to which I'm in the process of converting: Would suicide violate UPB so long as anyone in creation loved or depended upon the person committing it? I should think that would definitely constitute forcing a win/lose situation. What if we're given that, and also, literally no other party would be immediately affected? The suicide would, I guess, "only" be depriving the world of some potential utility they could provide. There are people like this today (from a secular perspective). Is it just then kind of a lame and ugly thing to do (i.e, not aesthetically preferable) and far from being really wrong?"

"How can a smart writer write dumb characters? Can a professional gifted painter paint something similar to what a 5-year-old would paint or similar to an inexperienced adult's painting? Can Freddy sing badly? Can Gilmour play guitar like he never held one in his hands before?"

"Funding your enemies:

"I pay for a YouTube Premium subscription. The main benefit is no ads, which saves time. And YT also has the widest range of video content on a range of subjects.

"However - I also view YT as a corrupt organization that has censored and defamed good people including the one and only Stefan Molyneux

"Am I not supporting my enemy?

"I could cancel my premium subscription, but then end up paying with my time by watching ads (and driving CPM ad revenue for YT at the same time).

"More broadly, how should I think about 'funding my enemies'? When (if ever) is this moral or just?

"Thanks Stef 🙏"

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Category

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Learning
Transcript
00:00Yes, yes. Good morning, everybody.
00:02Stefan Molyneux from Freedom, Maine.
00:06And it's a tough subject this morning,
00:09but I aim to bring philosophy to every nook and cranny known to man.
00:13Beast, God, and Devil.
00:15And this is from a listener.
00:16Disclaimer, he writes, I'm not at all suicidal,
00:19and if my discourse herein convinces you
00:23suicide is a good option for you,
00:25you probably went wrong somewhere.
00:26Community charge.
00:27Sorry if this reads like a paralysis question.
00:30It's relevant to how I might live out the faith
00:34to which I'm in the process of converting.
00:36Would suicide violate UPP
00:39so long as anyone in creation loved or depended upon the person committing it?
00:44I should think that it would definitely constitute
00:47forcing a win-lose situation.
00:50What if we're given that,
00:52and also literally no other party would be immediately affected?
00:57The suicide would, I guess, quote, only, end quote,
01:01be depriving the world of some potential utility they could provide.
01:05There are people like this today from a secular perspective.
01:10Is it just then kind of a lame and ugly thing to do,
01:13i.e. not aesthetically preferable and far from being really wrong?
01:18So as far as suicide goes,
01:21it is obviously a highly emotional topic for people,
01:24which I completely sympathize with and understand.
01:27I've talked to a lot of listeners over the years
01:29who've had direct family members kill themselves,
01:33and of course you can just listen to the agony in Christopher Hitchens
01:37when he talks about his mother.
01:39So with regards to suicide,
01:43the moral principle is
01:46I own myself,
01:50and do you have the right to destroy your own property?
01:58Obviously you can't go to a coffee shop,
02:00grab someone's laptop, and smash it on the ground,
02:03but can you take your own laptop and smash it on the ground?
02:08Foolish, immature, petty, ridiculous, moody.
02:15But do you have the right to take your own property and destroy it?
02:19Well, yes and no, or yes and no.
02:24So for instance, if you are fully in ownership of the property,
02:30you destroy it yourself, it doesn't harm anyone else, right?
02:33I mean, you can't even, in a coffee shop,
02:36you can't smash your own computer on the ground
02:38because that's distressing to the business,
02:40there's a mess to clean up, there's problems,
02:42it might be off-putting to others, it harms the business to some degree.
02:45So you can't do that.
02:47But, you know, sort of in the privacy of your own home,
02:50if you do all the cleanup, can you smash your own,
02:52can you destroy your own property?
02:53Well, of course you can.
02:55Of course you can.
02:56So the only reason you can't, though,
02:59and this is really, really important,
03:01the only reason you can't is
03:04if you have a lien or a demand on that property from someone else.
03:12So even though you might be in ownership of the property
03:15or you might be a custodian of the property
03:17or have sold use of that property,
03:21you do not have the right to destroy or transfer property
03:26if there's a lien on it from someone else.
03:28So for instance, if you go and rent a car,
03:31you can't then go and sell that car.
03:33Can you sell your own car?
03:34Absolutely.
03:35If you completely own the car, you've got the pink slip,
03:37you can sell the car.
03:38But you cannot sell the car if it's someone else's.
03:41You can't borrow someone's car and then sell it.
03:44You can't rent a car and then sell it
03:45because you simply have the use of the property for the time being,
03:49not true permanent ownership.
03:52You can't sell outright a house and keep all the proceeds
03:59if there remains a mortgage on the house.
04:02Now, you can transfer the mortgage to somebody else
04:04or you can transfer the ownership
04:06and then pay off the mortgage with part of the proceeds.
04:09But if you have a house for half a million dollars,
04:11you still have a $400,000 mortgage on it,
04:14you can't sell the house for half a million dollars
04:16and run off giggling into the sunset with the half a million dollars
04:19because you still owe $400,000 to the bank.
04:23So you don't get to sell that property free and clear
04:25because other people have a lien on it.
04:26You've got to pay that off.
04:28The same thing with if you lease a car.
04:30You understand.
04:31Sorry, don't mean to be overly repetitive.
04:34It's more for me to gather my next thoughts
04:35than any insult to your intelligence.
04:38So if you are in a divorce
04:42and half of your property is going to go to your wife,
04:46then you can't sell your property and keep all the proceeds
04:50because there's a lien on it.
04:51There's a legal or property rights demand on it from someone else.
04:57So can you destroy your own property? Yes.
05:01Is your life your own property? Yes.
05:03Can you destroy yourself? Yes.
05:05Unless somebody else has a right to your body, right?
05:21So if you are a father of young children,
05:26let's just make this easy,
05:27your children have a lien on your life.
05:33They have a demand on your life.
05:36To put it another way,
05:38would your wife or girlfriend have had children with you?
05:42Talk about men here.
05:43Men are much more likely to commit suicide.
05:45Men are much more likely to threaten or fake it
05:47or do in ways that someone can call and they can be rescued.
05:51Like they take a bunch of pills.
05:52They say, I've taken a bunch of pills.
05:53They're going to get their stomach plumbed.
05:55For women, it's more often to cry to help.
05:56For men, often it's a direct end.
05:59So would your wife or partner have had children with you
06:01if she knew you weren't going to be around?
06:05So the answer to that is, well, no, in the vows, right?
06:08It's till death do us part, right?
06:09Death, not suicide, right? Till death do us part.
06:14Would your wife have married you and had children with you
06:19if she knew that you could or would consider
06:22or would kill yourself?
06:23Well, the answer is no.
06:24So you have a wife and you have children
06:28predicated on the belief that you won't kill yourself, right?
06:32Not that you won't have difficulties,
06:33not that you might not be unhappy,
06:34not that you might be very sick, but you won't kill yourself.
06:37So that is founded into the vows.
06:40You've made a solemn vow before God, community, nature,
06:43conscience, virtue, whatever, to not kill yourself
06:46because that is in the marriage vows, right?
06:48And that is something that is a lien or a demand on your life,
06:55that you will not end it of your own accord.
06:59And that's why you got married and that's why you have children.
07:01And your children have a demand for your time and money
07:07and resources and attention, right?
07:09By creating children that are heavily dependent, of course,
07:12upon parents, by creating children,
07:14you have created a lien, an obligation,
07:17a moral responsibility to be there for them, right?
07:21So you can't.
07:24In a sense, you owe your life to your children
07:28and therefore you can't end it in the same way that you...
07:30I mean, I know it's a ridiculous example,
07:32but if you borrow something, you owe it back to the person.
07:35It's not yours.
07:36And so you owe your life to your children,
07:38which is the price of having children, right?
07:41It's why when my daughter was young, for like 10 years,
07:43I really didn't write any books or anything like that
07:46or do documentaries or anything like that
07:48because my daughter had a lien on my time and I was very happy.
07:52It wasn't like some negative obligation.
07:53I was very happy to do it.
07:55So the question is, and let's just say it's a friendship, right?
08:02Let's just say it's a friendship.
08:05So would someone become friends with you
08:10if they knew that you were going to kill yourself?
08:14Well, the answer to that is no.
08:15We generally become friends with people
08:17knowing that they're going to have difficulties and challenges,
08:19but we generally become friends with people
08:21predicated on the idea that they're not just going to do something
08:25so appalling and negative and harmful to others, right?
08:31So if you are in relationships,
08:39then you owe them self-preservation
08:44because self-preservation is the reason why you're in a relationship, right?
08:50Nobody wants to become friends with someone.
08:52Like if someone called you up and said,
08:54I really want you to be my best buddy.
08:55I'm thinking of killing myself over the next six months.
08:58I'm going to kill myself. I want it, whatever, right?
09:01Would you become friends like that with someone?
09:05No, I mean, unless you're very, very codependent and whatever, right?
09:11I know some people do kind of try and pull people back from the cliff edge and so on,
09:15but that's highly dysfunctional and messed up.
09:21A reasonably healthy person would not want to become friends with someone
09:24who's like, I'm going to kill myself.
09:26I'm constantly thinking of this, that, the other, right?
09:29Just wouldn't do it.
09:30So your relationships are predicated on the basic principle of self-preservation.
09:37Now, the other thing too, of course, is that if you have signed,
09:42and I know this is important though.
09:44I know it sounds a little odd, but it is really important.
09:46So if you signed a mortgage, if you've got a cell phone, if you've got a car lease,
09:51if you have an obligation to pay,
09:55then they've lent you all of this money on the basis that you're not going to kill yourself, right?
10:02Because most debts are erased through death, right?
10:06So people won't lend you money.
10:08They won't give you a mortgage.
10:11They won't have you sign a multi-year car loan or whatever it is.
10:14You wouldn't even get a credit card, right?
10:16So people have a lien on your time because you've borrowed money.
10:21Now, of course, I know it sounds kind of, you must keep living to pay off your debts,
10:24but you have an obligation now.
10:27You could say, well, no, but in my will all the debts should be paid.
10:31I get all of that, but that's still a lot of paperwork for people
10:35because they have to wait for the will.
10:37They have to follow it up.
10:38It's a lot of extra work and labor for people to try and collect,
10:40even if you do something like that, which most people who kill themselves don't.
10:44So you have obtained a large number of goods from society
10:51predicated on the basic notion that you're not going to kill yourself.
10:54Because if you go to a mortgage company and you say,
11:00well, I'm thinking of this, right?
11:02They won't lend you the money, right?
11:04What about life insurance, right?
11:06Life insurance generally doesn't pay out in terms of suicide.
11:09But it's a lot of paperwork.
11:10It's a lot of complicated stuff.
11:11It could get challenged, right?
11:13And, of course, you could fake your own death in a way that seemed credible,
11:16and then you get the insurance or your family would get the insurance.
11:19So if you go to a life insurance company and say,
11:21hey, I'm feeling totally self-destructive.
11:24Can I get a life insurance policy?
11:26They would say no.
11:28So you have gained an enormous amount of value in society
11:33predicated on the notion that you're not going to kill yourself, right?
11:39You get a wife, girlfriend, kids, love, friendship, affections,
11:44extended family members still want to hang out with you.
11:46You get money, loans, financial security, a place to live, mobility, a car.
11:51Like you get all of these things which you wouldn't get
11:55if you were honest about your desire or thought of self-destruction.
11:59Now, if you say, well, I'm so unhappy that this is on the radar for me,
12:05and then you start making all of these arrangements, right?
12:07You start detaching from people.
12:09You pay off your bills.
12:10You close out your cell phone contract.
12:11I mean, honestly, like a lot of people get new cell phones
12:14and they'll pay it off over two years and so on.
12:16Well, you're only getting that because you are hiding from people
12:20your desire for self-destruction or your consideration of this as an option.
12:24And if people start winding down all of this,
12:27then that's a big signal to other people that they may be in a self-destructive path
12:31and therefore intervention can happen, right?
12:37So other people have a lead.
12:42Now, I know that this guy is talking about somebody that has no obligations
12:47anywhere in any way, shape, or form, right?
12:50So I know that that's what he's saying, right?
12:52He's saying, well, this is someone who, how did he put it,
12:58no other party would be immediately affected.
13:01Well, okay, everyone's affected by a suicide.
13:05Everyone is affected by a suicide.
13:07Now, you could say, well, what if it's a guy?
13:10I don't know.
13:11I mean, it's just make up some ridiculous scenario.
13:13I don't particularly mind the edge cases.
13:15They're fine.
13:16So some guy, he, at the age of 18, he left his community.
13:21He went to go and live in the woods.
13:23And he has no obligations to anyone.
13:27And, well, I mean, but he's still paying property taxes.
13:33You know, he still has to have some connection with society.
13:37But let's just say, right, some guy is totally atomized.
13:40He's living on his own in the middle of nowhere, no property taxes.
13:43Well, then he has no social obligations, and he's not part of any social contract.
13:50So what would it really matter?
13:52You couldn't prevent him.
13:53You wouldn't know anything about it.
13:55That is, if it was completely invisible to society, some guy,
13:59everyone has forgotten about him.
14:00He's been living in the woods for 60 years.
14:03And maybe his body is discovered, and he killed himself 100 years from now.
14:07I mean, that's not really part of society.
14:09That's not part of anything that we can reason with or matter or whatever, right?
14:13So let's not worry about, you know, Bushman for half a century plus that nobody has any connection.
14:21It's so unusual.
14:22It is so out of the norm that it really doesn't make much sense to deal with that kind of stuff.
14:29You can't prevent it.
14:30Nobody knows about it.
14:32And it doesn't affect anyone.
14:33So really, it is the dog that didn't bark.
14:36It doesn't really make any sense to go into that, right?
14:39So he certainly doesn't have any obligations to anyone.
14:41We could say everyone's dead.
14:43Nobody knows about him.
14:44He lives in the middle of nowhere.
14:45Nobody ever comes across him.
14:46Nobody's even going to be traumatized by finding his body because it's going to be 100 years from now.
14:49Whatever, right?
14:50Well, then he falls into the category, if he owns his own life, can he destroy his own property?
14:54Yes, he can destroy his own property and so on, right?
14:56Now, again, that is like one in a million.
15:00Like there's one in a million, so it's irrelevant to what we're talking about because we're talking about how it affects others, right?
15:06An action that you take that has zero effect on other people cannot be considered a moral choice.
15:13So I, you know, scratch my ear a little here.
15:16Does that have any effect on anyone?
15:18Well, no.
15:19And so it has no particular moral content.
15:21Does anything have a moral content if it has zero effect on other people?
15:25Well, morality is when you interfere with universal moral principles and you harm other people's persons or property.
15:34So morality only comes into play when you negatively affect someone else, right?
15:42Otherwise, it is not part of morality.
15:47It's maybe aesthetically preferable actions to some degree, but there's this big moral category of morally neutral actions.
15:53I'm running for the bus.
15:54Is that morally good or morally bad?
15:56Well, it doesn't negatively affect anyone else, and so it's not part of morality, right?
16:01So it's like going to a nutritionist and saying,
16:07does playing the violin positively or negatively affect your nutritional choices?
16:11It's like, well, no, playing the violin doesn't have anything to do with what you put in your mouth, so it's not part of the category.
16:17So anything which has no effect on other people is not part of morality.
16:21And if we can conduct some scenario where some guy jumps off a cliff after living for 60 years in the woods and nobody knows about it,
16:27nobody's traumatized, doesn't land on anyone, he's not traumatizing anyone who finds his body because maybe the body's never found,
16:32he just wanders into a cave in the middle of nowhere, then it has no effect on anyone else,
16:37and therefore it's really not part of moral considerations.
16:40If he destroys his own property, his own life, it's not really part of anything, so it doesn't matter.
16:47So, if you owe yourself to other people and you destroy yourself,
16:56then you are destroying that which other people own, right?
16:59It's not self-ownership if you have moral, legal, financial obligations to others, right?
17:06And it's a form of fraud to gain a value and a resource by withholding information
17:12from people who wouldn't give you that resource if they knew that you had this information.
17:18So, for instance, if they knew the information that you have,
17:21so, for instance, would you get married to a woman who said,
17:24I'm perfectly happy to sleep with everyone else and I'm going to scream and yell at you,
17:31I'm going to hit you, and then what I really want to do is have you,
17:36I'm going to encourage you to make a lot of money and then I'm going to drag you through court,
17:39accuse you of terrible things with the children in order to get half your money.
17:43Like, if some real, you know, sociopath woman or whatever, right,
17:47would you marry someone like that? And the answer is no.
17:49So, what happens is people defraud. They pretend to be nice, they pretend to be loving,
17:53oh, I would never, never dream of it, marriage is forever.
17:57Well, you know, in the back of their mind they're keeping information from you,
18:00which is why you engage in the social contract or the legal contract these days of marriage.
18:06So, they're defrauding you by not telling you the truth about their thoughts, lives, intentions,
18:10lack of morality, and so on, right?
18:14So, if you withhold information from people and they get into a relationship with you,
18:18which they would not get into that relationship with you if they had that information,
18:22that's a form of fraud, right?
18:24So, I think Robin Williams got sued for this in that I think a woman got some STD from him.
18:31If that's not the case, I apologize, but this is what I sort of remember, whether it was true or not.
18:36Whether he did or did not give her the STD, she sued.
18:38So, if a woman has an STD and she doesn't tell you about it,
18:43and then you have sex and you get the STD, that is a form, I would view that as a form of assault, right?
18:50She's transferring things harmful to you, which she knows about and you don't,
18:53and she's withholding that information.
18:55Or, if you ask her, do you have any STDs, and she says no, and then she does,
18:59and it was pretty obvious, and she knew ahead of time that the tests had been done, right?
19:03That would be a form of assault.
19:05So, if you withhold information that gets you into a relationship, then that is a form of fraud,
19:12and other people have a right to demand of you a fulfillment of the contract that you entered into,
19:20not the secret information you withheld from them.
19:23So, once you're in economic, social, legal, moral, familial relationships with people,
19:28you owe them the continuation of your life, because that's the standard upon which the relationship exists.
19:36The relationship would not exist if that standard was not upheld, right?
19:42I mean, any sane woman, like some guy says, well, you know, I'm fine to live,
19:49but I'm telling you, if I have a couple of bad days in a row, I'm jumping off a cliff.
19:53Would she marry him? Would she give his heart to him? Would she wind her life together with him?
19:56Would she have children with him? And the answer is, of course not, right?
19:59I mean, if she was even remotely healthy and not some sort of sadist or masochist or something like that.
20:05So, you don't.
20:07Personally, this is a personal feeling, I have an almost bottomless contempt for urban suicides.
20:17It's just my feeling. I'm not trying to say there's some big moral thing here.
20:20I'm just, this is my particular, you know, I'm with the Catholics on this one.
20:24You will not bury them in hallowed ground. You bury them outside the graveyard, not in consecrated soil.
20:32They have done a mortal sin. They're going straight to hell because of the damage it does to everyone else.
20:39An open suicide, and by that, I don't mean somebody who goes driving in the rain
20:44and, quote, accidentally drives off a cliff in a way that people can say, well, that was a terrible accident.
20:49It's an act of soul-smashing rage against everyone who cares about you.
20:57It is an act of, you know, F-U, infinity to the people.
21:02It is a contemptible, horrifying, one of the most ungodly, abusive things that people can ever do.
21:11Now, again, there are people, I don't know, you have some terminal disease and you're in constant pain.
21:16Like, I don't know. I mean, that's a real personal choice and so on.
21:20And if people have released you from their obligations, you own yourself.
21:23And if people have released you from obligations, if everyone around you, you wind up your financial affairs,
21:27everyone around you says, I don't want to see you suffer like this, I'm with you.
21:31Like, if you then return to self-ownership by people releasing you from your obligations,
21:36then it would not be a violation of UPB, but that would be a pretty lengthy conversation to have,
21:42and there would need to be some pretty good reasons in place and so on, right?
21:47And since I don't live with chronic pain and I very rarely get sick,
21:55you know, I can't put myself in that mindset, but I can understand why people, if there's no cure,
22:00it's chronic pain, it can't be managed, life just gets worse and worse, you've had a good life.
22:05Like, I can understand the idea or the argument, but you would need to be released from all legal, moral,
22:10familial, economic obligations with everyone's agreement ahead of time.
22:15So that's sort of another question, but we're talking about people who just, you know, they hang themselves.
22:20I mean, people who, like, hang themselves or shoot themselves in people's houses, it's such an act of rage,
22:25it's such an act of destruction, it's such an act of trauma, particularly if there are children involved,
22:30that the best way to prevent this kind of stuff from happening is for people to hold such rage-filled,
22:39self-destructive monsters in open and bottomless contempt, as used to be the case,
22:44and I think is validly the case. It is just such an act of unbelievable destruction against everyone in your life,
22:51whoever cares about you or cared about you, it is putting permanent trauma on other people,
22:57and it is such an act of destructive emotional and psychological damage that...
23:07I mean, I can't even tell you how much contempt I hold this kind of people in, how much destruction they're wreaking on others.
23:14Okay. Hopefully that helps.
23:17How can a smart writer write dumb characters?
23:20Can a professional gifted painter paint something similar to what a five-year-old would paint,
23:24or similar to an inexperienced adult painter? Can Freddie Mercury sing badly?
23:28Can Gilmore play guitar like he's never held one in his hands before?
23:32I'm not really sure why it's an interesting question.
23:36Well, yes, of course, right?
23:39I can write bad philosophy because I was a bad philosopher, right?
23:43When I first started thinking about the world and thinking about things,
23:46I mostly spouted back stuff I'd heard before, I didn't think things through from first principles,
23:50I hadn't been taught. Even the best painter in the world, at some point,
23:55drew skinny stick figures when he was four years old, and so on, right?
24:00And most singers sing badly until they get control of their voice.
24:06Freddie Mercury was famously, and you can listen to Wreckage, right?
24:09Freddie Mercury was not great with his voice at the beginning.
24:12I remember Bono from U2 saying that he didn't really know what he was doing at the beginning
24:16until he figured out how to do it. So, yeah, all singers start off singing badly,
24:21all painters start off painting badly, and David Gilmore could remember what it was like
24:26to first pick up the guitar because he actually experienced it.
24:29So, yeah, I would imagine that people can do that.
24:32And, of course, we are surrounded by people, if we're excellent at something,
24:37we're surrounded by people who are bad at that, right?
24:39I mean, Freddie Mercury, I'm sure, sang Happy Birthday with a bunch of people
24:43who weren't singers to someone, right? And so he's surrounded by bad singers.
24:47I'm sure, I don't know if he was, I guess, was karaoke around back then, I guess so.
24:50So, he would have heard bad singers, and so constantly being around people
24:55who are bad at stuff allows you to mimic being bad at stuff, right?
24:59Somebody says, I pay for a YouTube premium subscription.
25:02The main benefit is no ads, which saves time.
25:05And YouTube also has the widest range of video content on a range of subjects.
25:08However, I also view YouTube as a corrupt organization
25:12that has censored and defamed good people, including the one and only Sir Eggers Cheeseburger.
25:17That's a reference to me.
25:19Am I not supporting my enemy?
25:21I would cancel my premium subscription but then end up paying with my time
25:25by watching ads and driving CPM ad revenue for YouTube at the same time.
25:30More broadly, how should I think about finding my enemies
25:33when, if ever, is this moral or just? Thanks, Steph.
25:37Well, I mean, I hear what you're saying.
25:39So, if you pay for a YouTube subscription,
25:44and you use it to research freedom, liberty, reason, rationality, morality,
25:49and you find out about peaceful parenting, and you become a better parent,
25:53and your children grow up to be honest and direct and not corrupt, and so on and so forth,
25:57then you have invested in your own morality by paying people.
26:03You know, I also don't know the degree to which...
26:07I want to talk about YouTube in particular, and we know this from the Twitter files, right?
26:11So, I don't know the degree to which people are voluntarily censoring others, right?
26:19I don't know the degree to which people are under legal pressure or governmental pressure
26:24or audit pressure or other kinds of threats,
26:27and I don't know if there is some sort of revolt within the organization,
26:34and they say, we're going to file unfair practices lawsuits
26:37if you don't ban this, that, or the other person.
26:40I don't know how much free will genuinely is involved in censorship.
26:44Now, again, all moral choices, I get all of that,
26:47but people bring pressure to bear on others because it works, right?
26:52People bring pressure to bear.
26:54I mean, if suicidal people or people who committed suicide openly were held in genuine contempt,
27:01we would get far fewer suicides because what they're trying to do is hurt people,
27:04and if they knew that they were going to be held in contempt
27:06rather than people would be teary, and I wish I'd done more,
27:09and they're sentimental, blah, blah, blah, right?
27:12You know, like there's this scene in a movie, A Christmas Story,
27:15where the kid pretends to be blind so that his parents have sympathy for him, and so on,
27:20and they feel so wrong about him, and there's that sort of sick satisfaction of,
27:25well, I'm injured, but you're hurt even more.
27:27If it was just held in contempt, then there would be fewer suicides,
27:31and people would probably try and get actual help
27:33rather than inflicting this amount of damage on others,
27:36so it's all about reducing this kind of brutality and self-destruction.
27:42So, let's look at something like the Department of Government Efficiency,
27:51this hopefully not mythical beast that's been spotted in people's minds.
27:56So, if you have a bunch of government workers who may lose their jobs,
28:03and I'm talking about giving them two-year severance, and so on,
28:05a bunch of government workers might lose their jobs if the government is made more efficient.
28:09So, they would have an incentive to censor, and to work against,
28:14to maybe undermine, attack, and so on.
28:17Is there free will involved in losing your career with the government?
28:24In other words, are you kind of bribed to censor?
28:28In other words, if you successfully censor and prevent the Department of Government Efficiency
28:32from manifesting its mission, the mission which the majority of American people desperately want,
28:37if through censorship you then get to make a million dollars, right?
28:41So, I don't know, you paid $100,000 a year, you've got 10 years to retirement.
28:46So, if you successfully censor, I guess it would be you get two-year severance,
28:50so you get $800,000, right?
28:53So, if you pay someone $800,000 to try and get someone else censored,
29:03is that a total free will decision?
29:07Well, no. Free will decisions, and again, I understand the morals,
29:11and you don't need to tell me, well, they still have a choice.
29:13I get, I get, but people respond to incentives, right?
29:17People respond to incentives.
29:18If somebody offered you a Bitcoin, a full Bitcoin, for a dollar,
29:23they said, here, give me a dollar, I'll give you a Bitcoin,
29:26you would take that deal, right?
29:28Apparently not Taylor Swift tickets, according to a video.
29:30I would rather have Taylor Swift tickets than a Bitcoin, but whatever, right?
29:33So, if somebody said, I'll give you a Bitcoin for a dollar,
29:36how many people would take that?
29:37Like, who understood Bitcoin, and here's the price of a Bitcoin,
29:41I'll send you one, sell you one for a dollar.
29:42What's it currently, like, I don't know, 93, $94,000 Canadian.
29:45Here's a Bitcoin for a dollar, and you'd say, well, people still have a choice
29:49as to whether they take the Bitcoin or not.
29:51Yes, they do.
29:53But people will take the Bitcoin, right?
29:56So, you can talk about people still having a choice,
29:58but when the incentives are so slanted, the choice becomes pretty predictable, right?
30:02So, I don't know how many people high up in various organizations,
30:10I don't know whether they are motivated by pure ideological intolerance
30:16and hatred for reasoned arguments and empirical evidence,
30:20I don't know the degree to which they are corrupt
30:22or the degree to which they're trying to survive in a business environment
30:26where there is a massive amount of pressure
30:30based upon the movement of trillions of dollars and massive amounts of power.
30:38I don't know how much this is a pure blank slate free will decision.
30:45Certainly, the Twitter files are pretty revealing,
30:47and you should do more research into those if you want to figure this out.
30:52So, I don't know.
30:54I don't know.
30:57I don't know.
31:01So, personally, I have sympathy for people who are under massive amounts of pressure
31:08and who are threatened.
31:09I really have sympathy for people like that.
31:12And, of course, most people don't have access to some big moral mission
31:16that allows them to overcome all of this sort of stuff, right?
31:23And so, they're just trying to survive in a cost-benefit analysis,
31:27which is why this kind of pressure tends to work,
31:29because the opposite of manipulation is principles, right?
31:33Manipulation happens when you respond to positive and negative stimuli
31:37and try to minimize negative stimuli and maximize positive stimuli,
31:41pain avoidance, pleasure pursuit, and so on.
31:44And then if people threaten to avoid, they threaten to inflict pain,
31:48then you will change your behavior for the most part, right?
31:51Universal principles, which have been notably absent from most of the public square
31:56since the decline of Christianity and prior to the rise of UPB.
32:00So, people don't have much access to universal principles,
32:04and so it's pleasure pain, right?
32:06And pleasure pain is to apply negative things.
32:09I apply negative stimuli, I threaten you, and I get you to do what I want.
32:13So, for people who don't have morals,
32:20they don't have moral principles, which is, honestly, this is most people.
32:23Most people do not have moral principles.
32:26And, yes, they are prone to manipulation, bullying, and threats from others.
32:32Absolutely. Absolutely.
32:38So, what I think of with regards to people like that
32:47is, I think, how much it costs them to not have moral principles.
32:55Oof, and ouch, and ahh.
32:59Because if you don't have moral principles, you can neither love nor be loved.
33:06I just tried to match those two together, and that's how entwined they are.
33:11If you don't have moral principles, you can't have self-respect.
33:16If you don't have moral principles, you can't fall in love,
33:21you can't maintain love, and you can't be loved.
33:25And what do people want in the absence of love?
33:30What do they thirst for in the absence of love?
33:34Well, in the absence of love, they thirst for power over others.
33:43And it's a vicious cycle.
33:47The fewer moral principles you have, the less you can be loved.
33:52The less you can be loved, the more you thirst for power.
33:55The more you thirst for power, the more moral compromises you have to make.
33:59Therefore, the less you can be loved, therefore, the more you thirst for power.
34:03Therefore, the less you can be moral, therefore, the less you can be loved,
34:06therefore, the more you thirst for power.
34:08Which is why the thirst for power has no end.
34:13Now, I've occasionally, well, no, it's more than occasionally,
34:17because I've talked to listeners about this stuff, but even in my own personal life,
34:20I've occasionally lifted the lid on amoral people's souls,
34:24and it is an absolute hellscape down there.
34:28It is an absolute hellscape down there.
34:31Avoid it though they desire.
34:35Pursue everything, every distraction, and every power-mongering mechanism,
34:39every manipulation and control over others that they may.
34:43The furnace that endlessly consumes their melting hearts
34:48burns forever and ever, amen,
34:51and probably continues burning after they die.
34:57The lust for power that elbows, shoulders, and tackles aside
35:04the desire for love consumes the soul and turns the mind against itself,
35:12and everything has to become a lie.
35:16And here's the problem.
35:18When people become addicted to power due to a lack of love,
35:22due to a lack of morals,
35:24what happens is they will cling to that power,
35:27yea, even verily unto death, they will cling to that power,
35:31because if you take that power away from them,
35:37the power that they exercise in order to cover up the hatred they have for themselves,
35:43the power that they exercise when you take that away,
35:47the hatred for themselves becomes real,
35:51and reality, conscience, and morality are loosed from a cage
35:59and pursue them forever.
36:03Power is a jailer that keeps self-hatred in a cage.
36:11If you take away the power,
36:16the cage is opened, the self-hatred, the self-contempt, the conscience,
36:21then hunts that person forever.
36:24Which is why when you see these hysterical lies and this defamation,
36:28this lawfare and so on, you see all of this,
36:31this is just people terrified of the beast in the cage
36:34that will hunt them forever if they lose their power.
36:39That's ugly stuff, man.
36:42That's ugly, ugly stuff,
36:44and this is why these things tend to get so desperate and so wild.
36:50People don't fear or hate the virtuous man or woman.
36:56People hate and fear virtuous people because virtuous people unlock the cage
37:01that cages the beast that hunts them forever
37:04by denying them the legitimacy of the power they hold.
37:10And this is the step-by-step by which you lose your soul.
37:13You attempted to manipulate, you attempted to do wrong,
37:17you attempted to be dishonest, you attempted to bully,
37:20you attempted to play the victim to get resources unjustly.
37:27Women are tempted to have excessive sexual displays, excessive makeup.
37:32Men are tempted to excessive displays of wealth and status
37:37in order to be loved for something other than your virtue.
37:43That's what we are, I mean, that's the great temptation.
37:46Attach to me, find me a value for something other than my virtue.
37:49So you make these little compromises and step-by-step,
37:53as your manipulation and power lust grows,
37:59your capacity for morality decreases.
38:04Because morality, when you have to look in the mirror and say,
38:09I've done wrong and I've done bad, I've done evil,
38:12that's very hard, very hard.
38:14It is an absolute black midnight of the soul that can last for months or years.
38:20I mean, you can become a mourning person in three days if you want,
38:24but looking in your soul and saying, I've done evil,
38:29that is a brutal experience which very few people wish to go through
38:34because their life turns from a dopamine-laced addiction to power
38:41to a vulnerable and weak being hunted by the beast called their own conscience
38:45and having to make restitution to people they formerly lorded it over.
38:48Oof, I mean, I've not really seen many people at all go through that process at all.
39:00So bit by bit, you replace the happiness, intimacy, trust, and virtue of love
39:07with the arrogant, self-aggrandizing, hollow-hearted dopamine addiction of power.
39:14And love is a stable source of happiness,
39:18but all addictions have you pursue a happiness that diminishes over time
39:23and then you end up not chasing that happiness at all,
39:26but rather just avoiding the withdrawal.
39:28And this is the case with power-mongers, with hollowed-out people.
39:31They are no longer interested even in the joys of power.
39:34All they're doing is avoiding the rattling of the beast in the cage
39:37whose lock is picked only by the virtue of others,
39:40which is why the corrupt hate the virtuous.
39:44I mean, they don't hate the virtuous. Nobody hates me.
39:47I mean, I'm really such a nice guy, a friendly guy, a positive guy, a friendly guy.
39:50I'm fairly funny and warm-hearted.
39:53They don't. I mean, there's nothing really about me to hate.
39:55People don't hate me.
39:56They hate what my presence and choices have done or will do to their own conscience.
40:02They hate the fact that simply having me in the vicinity
40:07gives the beast of their conscience enough strength to bend the bars of the cage
40:11and get out and hunt them for what they feel is like forever.
40:13Now, if they surrender to the beast, they find that it will not destroy them,
40:16but rather save them.
40:18But people don't want to go through that process.
40:21They don't want to be vulnerable to morality
40:23because their vulnerability has been covered up
40:25by pompous and vainglorious lording it over others in terms of power.
40:31So, it's a very sad story.
40:38It's a very sad story.
40:39When I see people who are addicted to power,
40:41I just know that they've given up on the possibility of love.
40:47They have given up their principles.
40:49They've given up morality, honesty, virtue, courage, integrity.
40:54They've given up all of that for the sake of getting a little bit of height
40:59by stomping on the faces of others.
41:02It's really tragic.
41:03And there are people who seek power in order to diminish power.
41:06I get that, and that is a noble occupation.
41:13I seek influence in order to diminish corruption, right?
41:16So, I want people to listen to me so that they get philosophy,
41:19understand philosophy, internalize values.
41:22Of course, I seek, through Peaceful Parenting,
41:24PeacefulParenting.com, please share.
41:26I seek to diminish the power of parents over their own children,
41:31or rather, to have the power that parents have over their own children
41:34to be composed of love rather than brutality, right?
41:40I mean, you want to have influence in the people around you,
41:42but you want to have that influence based upon their love for you
41:45and your shared love for virtue,
41:47rather than their fear of you or desire for your resources.
41:51Well, I'm nice to my dad because he's going to die and give me money,
41:54or whatever, right? It's really sad stuff.
41:57So, when you see the powermongers,
41:59I see a sad spectacle of self-aggrandizement,
42:02which is a child-scrawled tombstone over the grave of former virtues.
42:10It is animated by an unholy avoidance of their own self-hatred,
42:16and it is really, really a tragic spectacle.
42:18So, people who are driven to censor others,
42:23I mean, it's far better to be wrong than do wrong.
42:25Far better.
42:26You can be wronged and be virtuous.
42:27You can't do wrong and be virtuous.
42:29You can be wronged and have love,
42:31which is the greatest prize of all.
42:33Greatest prize of all, I'm telling you.
42:35If you have love and you can give love,
42:39it is the greatest prize of all.
42:41There's nothing else that comes even remotely close.
42:44Nothing else that comes even remotely close, right?
42:48Offer me money, offer me power, offer me control.
42:52I don't want it. I say no.
42:57Once you have love, everything else is absolutely unappealing.
43:03And especially when you know that all other power that is offered to you
43:07comes at the expense of love.
43:11No.
43:14I mean, it's so not tempting.
43:16So, the people who fall in prey to that temptation
43:19and have censored others for their virtues,
43:25the punishment that exists in their heart
43:28is far greater than anything that could be devised by mortal means.
43:33I do feel genuine sorrow and sadness
43:37for people who've chosen corruption and power over virtue and love.
43:43Now, I'm a human being, and in particular for a man,
43:47so if they suffer in some practical material way,
43:50I shed no tears.
43:52And so,
43:57if you focus on how people with power are, quote, winning,
44:02then you are turning your capacity for love
44:05into a resentment of those who hate themselves.
44:08And that doesn't seem like a very good trade, if that makes any sense.
44:12Yes, the people who have corrupted themselves
44:14gain a lot of material advantage.
44:16Yeah.
44:17I mean, it's mysterious how politicians
44:19who are on a salary of $100,000 or $200,000 or $300,000 a year
44:22become multi-decade millionaires.
44:24Oh, it's an odd thing.
44:26It's a very strange thing.
44:27Yes, they have all this money.
44:30Yes, they have all this money.
44:35They have all this money.
44:40And they have the opposite of love.
44:42They have the opposite of a good conscience.
44:43They have the opposite of integrity.
44:45They have the opposite of self-respect.
44:49No, it's a wretched, wretched deal.
44:52Don't envy anybody for that.
44:54Don't envy anybody for that.
44:56It is just absolutely appalling and horrible.
45:03And they do get a sense of what they've given up,
45:05which is why there's this enmity with virtuous people, right?
45:09Everybody who's corrupt wants to think that corruption was inevitable
45:12or it's being street smart or wise of the ways of the world,
45:15and they want to view all of the moral people as foolish.
45:19And when a moral person succeeds, it renders their choice a choice
45:25rather than an inevitable adaptation to the ways of the world that is, right?
45:38Corrupt people are always surrounded by corrupt people,
45:40and that makes corruption seem like physics, inevitable.
45:43It's not corruption, it's just adaptation to gravity, right?
45:47Or the facts of nature or the reality.
45:49And so good people have to be portrayed as foolish and naive.
45:52And when a good person is strong and successful,
45:55it reminds the corrupt people that you can be virtuous and succeed.
46:00So then they try to inflict a lack of success or a punishment
46:03or a disaster on the virtuous, and then they get to say,
46:06oh, look at that virtuous guy.
46:09It was disastrous for him.
46:11He ended badly, and therefore I'm wise and practical in my pursuit
46:15of adapting to a corrupt world.
46:18It's just common sense, right?
46:20Like I'm running away from a lion called integrity.
46:22Look at the guy who didn't run away from the lion called integrity.
46:25He just got killed and eaten, right?
46:27So they try to inflict all this negative stuff,
46:29and they need to erase the success of a virtuous person from society,
46:32which is really what censorship is all about.
46:36I mean, to use the resources of corrupt people and organizations
46:43to skyhook or judo-move your way to a higher virtue,
46:46nothing wrong with that, nothing wrong with that.
46:49So one last question.
46:53I won't get into it. It's fairly lengthy.
46:55It was, Steph, you say that you shouldn't change people,
46:58shouldn't try to change people foundationally,
47:00like if you marry a woman, you don't try and change her into someone else.
47:03But is it considered changing people if you're asking people to, say,
47:06stick to their marriage vows, right?
47:08Don't cheat on people, like don't cheat on me, and so on, right?
47:11No, it is not trying to change people to keep them to their vows, right?
47:16So if a woman says and a man say to each other on their wedding day,
47:20we're going to not cheat on each other,
47:23and then the woman or the man starts to drift towards cheating,
47:27bringing them back in line, it's not trying to change them.
47:29It's actually trying to keep them the same, as I was sort of talking about earlier.
47:32So no, it is not trying to change someone to get them to stick to their vows.
47:37Now, again, you can renegotiate anything,
47:39but it has to be mutual and open and aboveboard.
47:41So I hope that helps.
47:43If you find what I say to be of value,
47:45I would really, really appreciate your support.
47:47Freedomain.com slash donate to help out the show.
47:51Lots of love from up here.
47:53Thanks, guys. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
47:59Freedomain.com