What are good techniques to introduce such philosophy to people who have gone astray?
I grew up in and live in a pretty leftist area, but there are also a lot of people on the far right who could use philosophy, virtually everyone I know is a statist that doesn't even know the definition of anarchy, much less the underlying principles. The problem I tend to encounter is that people on both sides tend to think that logic and reason that doesn't fit their programming must be on the opposite extreme relative to where they're at.
It seems like anything rational is often opposed strongly by at least one "side", and often both sides.
I was fortunate to be going through some stuff that required me to open my mind to new ideas in order to survive and\or thrive, some would call it the gift of desperation. How does one approach people who aren't even willing to have an open mind?
Hi Stefan, #1 during your life of philosophical inquiry, what were the top, say, 6 insights that were there most meaningful to you that "teleported" you ahead in life and you're willing to share? (Gems of knowledge do have this power…) #2 The future's SO uncertain, there are intelligent, motivated, organized folk with top (evil) work ethic fabricating danger, famine, floods, g#n@c1d3, etc. ahead. Most good/non-evil people are either morons and/or spineless inoffensive cowards who will just let whatever happen happen maybe without ever having a clue. Even ppl who are (somewhat??) aware don't feel ready or don't want to deal with the situation with 10% of the absolute seriousness it demands (AFAIC, it's the ONLY important topic on the whole planet for humanity rn). What's the best way you've found to behave towards/with those? What's the best strategy? Not sure it's an entirely philosophical Q, but, the heck, I'd love to get your POV on it anyways.
0:00 - Introduction to Philosophy
6:01 - Philosophy as Extension
9:04 - The Simplicity of Moral Rules
10:04 - The Nature of Government Schools
11:14 - Universal Laws of Physics and Morality
12:38 - Utopia and Personal Ethics
22:10 - Confronting the Manipulative Will
31:39 - Taming the Beast Within
In this lecture, Stefan Molyneux engages deeply with the concept of introducing philosophy to individuals who may hold divergent or extreme viewpoints, particularly within a socio-political context. He reflects on the challenge of communicating philosophical ideas to people who adhere strictly to leftist or rightist paradigms, often rebutting logic that contradicts their predetermined beliefs. Molyneux elucidates the difficulties faced when one attempts to discuss reason with those who have entrenched biases, emphasizing the need for individuals to embrace a singular realm of reason devoid of metaphysical contradictions. He discusses how this singular realm denies any potential "common good" or moral reversal where evil can somehow manifest as good through coercive means.
Molyneux presents the notion that those who seek power exploit the greatest desires of individuals—such as the safety of children or the protection of property—to justify their demands for control. He illustrates how those in power frame their coercive actions as necessary for achieving virtuous ends, revealing the manipulative nature of such claims and the consequent need to maintain personal autonomy. This metaphor of bait and trap helps to explain the manipulative tactics employed by rulers who claim to act in the interests of society while essentially seeking control.
He moves on to propose that ethical conduct does not require complex philosophical inventions. Instead, Molyneux argues for the extension of foundational childhood morals—like honesty, respect for others, and personal responsibility—as the basis for societal functioning. He asserts that these simple morals provide the grounding for a just society and further defines terms such as voluntarism. This grounding leads to the powerful realization that the moral constraints accepted individually should logically extend to a broader social context, thereby making the principles of ethics both universal and simple.
Molyneux also reflects on the emotional barriers people encounter when confronted with the realization that the moral teachings of childhood could universally apply, which often leads to a collective rejection of simple truths in favor of complex justifications for corruption and manipulation. He likens the struggle for recognizing universal moral truths to a battle against the internal beast of temptation—representing the seductive yet destructive use of language that can mislead and manipulate.
Throughout the lecture, Molyneux shares insights from his philosophical journey, emphasizing the internal battle against using language for exploitation rather than enlightenment. He relates how the confrontation with one’s innate inclinations toward manipulation can serve as a catalyst for profound personal transformation and moral clarity. This further culminates in the understanding that philosophy’s true purpose is not creation but clarification—helping individuals recognize their inherent moral compass and apply these principles universally.
He concludes by underscoring the importance of using language responsibly and ethically, advocating for clarity and truth in discussions to empower individuals toward genuine choice and autonomy rather than coercion. Molyneux’s lecture serves as both a philosophical treatise and a call to action for individuals to harness their understanding of morality, resist exploitation, and foster authentic dialogue that honors the foundational ethics learned in childhood.
[0:01] Good morning, everybody. Stefan Molyneux from Free Domain. Facebook questions, part two. You can, of course. And with great humility and gratitude, I offer up free domain dot com slash donate to help out the show. What are good techniques to introduce philosophy to people who've gone astray? I grew up and live in a pretty leftist area, but there are also a lot of people on the far right who could use philosophy. Virtually everyone I know is a statist that doesn't even know the definition. Of voluntarism, much less the underlying principles. The problem I tend to encounter is that people on both sides tend to think that logic and reason that doesn't fit their programming must be on the opposite extreme relative to where they're at. It seems like anything rational is often strongly opposed by at least one side and often both sides. I was fortunate to be going through some stuff that required me to open my mind to new ideas in order to survive and or thrive. Some would call it the gift of desperation how does one approach people who aren't even willing to have an open mind.
[1:07] So the answer is to recognize that there is but one realm of reason there is but one realm of reason, there aren't different layers of metaphysical reality, there isn't a higher realm where the reverse is true, there isn't a new aminal realm, there isn't a nirvana, there isn't a platonic realm of forms and ideas. There is no place where the opposite of reason is reason. Can you follow? There is no place in which the opposite of reason is reason. There is no common or collective good, wherein the opposite of morality is morality. There is no place where the opposite of the good is the good. There is no place where evil becomes virtue through metaphysical brainwashing tricks from From Plato to Kant to the Hegelian world spirit, everybody wants to invent a realm where evil becomes good.
[2:24] And they do that by appealing to fear and greed and tribalism, of course. So they say, well, without evil, good cannot survive.
[2:43] Without people coercively taking your property, your property cannot be protected. Without people brutally indoctrinating and destroying the souls and consciences of your children, children cannot be educated. The roads, whatever. People who want to rule over you will find what you want the most. Your greatest desire, which is to say your greatest vulnerability, your greatest desire is a beautiful thing in a loving relationship and it is a suicidal admission in a destructive relationship, in a sociopathic exploitive relationship. So people who want to rule over you will find your greatest desire, your greatest goal, your most morally sensitive area.
[3:40] And then they will say, if you don't give power to us, your greatest moral goal will never be achieved. In fact, the exact opposite will be achieved. If you don't want the world to burn and drown, sort of an interesting combo, right? If you don't want the world to burn and drown, you need to give hundreds of billions of dollars or trillions of dollars to us. If you want your property to be protected everything that you have gathered together through hard-won labor if you want your property to be protected then you need to surrender your rights to us, if you want children to be educated then you have to hand your children over to us, if you want people who are ill to get health care you need to hand over money and medical autonomy to us, and they just kind of paint you into a corner they fence you in they put you on a train track that leads only to subjugation to them, if you want poor people to be helped then you need to surrender your property to us now, the people in power do not care about the poor they do not care about the sick they do not care about the old They do not care about educating children. They certainly don't care about protecting your property as a whole.
[5:06] They care about power. Now, they know that you care about helping the sick, the old, the poor, the sad, the vulnerable, the unprotected. They know you care about that, so they'll dangle that in front of you in order to get your property and your obedience. I mean, you go and dig up some worms, you put them on a hook, and you...
[5:36] Put your fish hook in the water. And the fish thinks, mmm, free food. Yum, yum, yum. And that's the whole thing, right? You put your little piece of cheese in the mousetrap. And the mouse thinks, free cheese. So it's all just bait for control. As a whole.
[6:01] So if people sort of understand that there is no place where evil becomes good, it's just a logical contradiction violations of property cannot protect your property, the initiation of the use of force is immoral and cannot lead to virtue And all we do is bounce from one coercive solution to another, like mad blood-soaked pinballs in an infinite arcade from hell.
[6:43] So, philosophy is not so much invention as it is extension. Which sounds like a bit of a fortune cookie, but actually is pretty important and profound. out. So what were you told as a little, little kid? You were told, don't lie, don't hit, don't grab. Don't lie, don't hit, don't grab. Don't lie, don't hit, don't grab. That's what you were told over and over, repeatedly, objectively, universally. Not on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Not in the morning. Not when it's cloudy. Not at night. Not when you have a headache. Right don't lie don't hit don't steal okay don't lie is keep your contracts, don't hit is don't initiate the use of force don't steal is respect persons and property keep your contracts, is civil law, don't use force don't steal is criminal law, It's really not very complicated, is it? Complications are used to hide corruption.
[8:07] And so, it is a really bone-chilling thing for people to think and to realize and to understand, that the moral rules they were given as children are all that is needed to run society. Kindergarten morality is morality. Now, justifying it, explaining it, the history of it, I mean, these things can be more complicated, Although I will certainly say that at about two and a half, my daughter fully understood UPB because it's just logical and makes sense. It's my rational theory of secular ethics. It's a proof. It's more than a theory by now. So that can be a little bit more complicated. But we were told, keep your word.
[9:04] Don't hit. Don't take. and it is really kind of bone-chilling for people to think that everything after that in society is all about justifying the opposite.
[9:25] So, government schools are generally funded by property taxes. Property taxes are an infinite rent on your property that means you never own it. You simply rent it from the powers that be for 2% a year. So, the teachers who are telling you, don't use force, don't take other people's property, are violating it in the entirety of the educational system as it currently stands, at least under the aegis of the powers that be.
[10:04] There was, in the ancient world, a contradiction between the local and the remote. I mean, throughout most of cosmology up until the Copernican era, there was the local and then there was the remote. You take a ball, you drop it, it bounces. Here's a ping pong ball. You take a ball, you drop it, it bounces. And that physics is true for a ping-pong ball. It is true for you, although with, I guess, less bouncing, unless you're a gymnast. It is true for the Earth. It is true for the Moon. It is true for the solar system. It is true for the galaxy. It is true everywhere and forever and always. Amen. There's a reason why they can send a probe past Jupiter, past Pluto. It's because the physical rules of the bouncing ping-pong ball are the same all over the universe.
[11:15] Everything falls. The combination of gravity wells and centrifugal force creates stable orbits, if such orbits can be maintained. It's true everywhere, forever, and always. not in the morning, not at night, not on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, not when the moon is full, but always and forever. The speed of light is constant. The inverse square law is valid. Gases expand when heated, always and forever, no matter what. The atoms are the same all throughout the universe, and morals are the same all throughout society. I used to refer to this as, people want a utopia. A wonderful place, Thomas More wrote about it. A utopia, right? A perfect society. And I say, well, you have a utopia called Y-O-U. You-topia. I've never talked to anyone in the realm of philosophy, and if I say, if you're short on money, will you just go rob a convenience store? And they would say, nobody's ever said, well, yeah, totally. I don't move in those circles, right? People who are short on money, they say, well, I'll borrow, I'll beg, I'll work, I'll get it through some voluntary fashion.
[12:39] So, that's how people live. People do not shake guns in each other's faces, at least the people you're probably talking to. There's certainly the 1% of violent people in the world, maybe 1%, maybe 2%. But the people that I talk to, the people that you talk to, would never dream of using violence to get their way. Ah, you see? Utopia, Y-O-U. Utopia. You reject theft and force and fraud in your life. And that's it. The ball bounces for you. Gravity works everywhere.
[13:19] So it is simply extending the ethics that everyone takes for granted to universals. Now that freaks people out, but that's moral progress. Moral progress is the extension of personally viable ethics to more and more and more people. The end of slavery was the extension of the ethics of self-ownership to formally excluded sections of the population, sometimes very large sections of the population. The extension to women of the rights of contract, property, and protection. The process which I've been working on for 40 years of the extension of the moral rights of independence and protection, as much as is possible, to children. We can hit adults, we cannot hit adults, we cannot hit children.
[14:22] So morality does not need to be invented because we already accept it in our lives. We don't use force. We don't use fraud. We don't steal in our personal lives. And it is simply the basic and elemental recognition.
[14:42] That what is moral for you, what you accept as moral, the way you live as moral, is the moral. Keep your word, don't use violence, don't steal. We all accept it. And it is simply a matter of getting people to slowly, slowly undo all of the.
[15:13] Tortuous mental gymnastics that they have to go through to end up justifying that which is personally evil to them to be somehow moral for others. We are not telling people anything new. We are not inventing morality. We are justifying and extending it any more than Copernicus or Tycho Brahe or Galileo invented gravity. Did not invent gravity. Gravity. Simply identify it and extend it. Everybody accepts gravity. We're saying it goes on and on forever. It's valid everywhere. So the way that you talk to people is to say, well, what do you accept as the good? And forget about the justifications. What do you accept as the good? Well, if you sign a contract, should you keep it? Well, yes. Otherwise, it's kind of defraud. Okay, so you shouldn't defraud.
[16:11] Shouldn't lie to people for material gain. Okay, what about hitting? When you were a kid and some kid was annoying you, could you punch him in the face and break his glasses? Well, no. Okay, all right, accept that. Okay, let's say some other kid has a toy that you like. Can you just grab it and go home? Can you grab and steal that? No. Okay, so that's all the complicated justifications. Who cares, right? Those are the morals that we accept. Those are the morals you teach your children. Those are the morals you live by in your daily life. Okay. The ball bounces for you because of gravity. A kite stays up in the air because of the tension between the pull down from the string and the push up from the wind. We accept all of that. Planes fly because of the different surface areas, top and bottom of the wing. Okay? It's true everywhere.
[17:10] No tennis player. It was a Matthew Perry. He was a pretty good tennis player in Canada. But Canada, in general, you don't get to play tennis, certainly not outdoors. You certainly don't get to play tennis all year. So he moved to L.A. and he tried to become a tennis player in the Sunshine State. And he flamed out because the other tennis players had had year-round outdoor tennis practice and he had not. But what he didn't do when he went to Los Angeles is he didn't say, what's the gravity like here? And do they have a different system of scoring? And are the tennis courts a different size? No. The man-made conventions were the same. The size of the tennis courts and the rules of tennis were the same. And the physics were the same.
[18:04] Right? Airline pilots, when crossing in the airspace from one country to another, do not need to adjust their instruments because the physics are different. Nope. Universal. Accepting that is progress. But it's incredibly painful for people to say the morals they were taught as children are the universal morals that apply to everyone. It's incredibly painful because they realize how much they've been lied to and exploited. The problem we have is not a rational one, it's an emotional one, which is why I talk so much about feelings and the unconscious and so on. The barrier to virtue is not rational. It is emotional. It is very hard. It's easier to fool someone than to convince him that he's been fooled.
[18:52] All right, let's see here. It's a theological question. I don't really have a good answer to that. I'm no theologian.
[19:03] Hi, Stefan. Number one, during your life of philosophical inquiry, what would the top, say, six insights that were most meaningful to you that teleported you ahead in life and that you're willing to share? Gems of knowledge, do you have this power? I wouldn't necessarily say six insights. So, for me, it was the confrontation, obviously, to give you the top one, which I think encompasses many of the others. But the top one was the confrontation with the angry, manipulative will that wishes to falsify and misrepresent for profit.
[19:38] The camouflage, shape-shifting, predatory manipulator within me confronting that. It is taking down a mythical beast of almost universal dimension and terror. That confrontation with the black beast of camouflage and falsehood that characterizes those of us who have great language skills, great communication skills, the dark side beckons. When you're good with language, your first temptation is to use language for profit, to use words, to lie, to misrepresent, to falsify, to defraud, to manipulate.
[20:39] Language was largely invented as a method of extracting resources for those rich in mind and weak in body. Somebody who was really good at telling stories would get tips for telling stories at the end of a long day, and then at some point figured out that if he invented various morals and gods and devils, that he could use his stories to make far more money through mythology. And I don't just mean theological mythology. I mean lying to people about the common good and the propping up of political and military leaders through pomp, circumstance, mythology, collectivism, and lies, that lies were more profitable than the truth. When someone does something funny on a hunting expedition and you tell that story, people will laugh and tip you. On the other hand, political leaders will give you a lot of money if you prop up the legitimacy of their rule.
[21:53] And people will pay to avoid hell. And so, language is far more profitable in falsehood than it is in truth. And my abilities with language are very strong.
[22:11] And realizing that I could talk people into and out of just about anything, had a black beast arise in my heart that wished to strike out and make my fortune through falsehood.
[22:30] And making the decision to face down this shape-shifting, brain-dissolving, will-eroding-in-others beast and not use language to extract subjugation and resources from others. While that was a black time in my life. Not wishing to go the route of so many that I had seen before me and most of whom I saw around me who used language to manipulate. Particularly, I happened to be raised among a group of linguistically very skilled people and very smart people. And their first use of language was to get women into bed, was to talk their way into jobs, was to make people afraid, FOMO, to generate fear of missing out, to get people to lower inhibitions with, you only live once, and these kinds of exhortations to salespeople and sophists and manipulators of every stripe, spot, and hue.
[23:53] And taming that beast with the whips and swords and mental airstrikes of reason and evidence. Tame that beast to the service of virtue. Tame that mofo to the service of virtue. Oh, man. Oh, that was brutal. Because the angry will wishes to hoover up resources sources through language skills, and to tame a beast invented for war to the cause of peace, to tame the beast of language intended for the cause of exploitation to the service of virtue. Oh, God, that was hard. That was hard because the temptation would make my hands shake.
[24:50] The temptation would make my hands shake. Imagine what I could do if I just let rip with my language powers and my charisma and my reasoning skills and my confidence. Imagine what I could do if I stepped fully into the, bladed, shiny, bloody armor of endless sophistry and used the whips of my words to herd a population always thirsty for a ruler. In my own small way, I really understood, the forty days and forty nights that Jesus spent in the desert when the devil came to him, laid before him all the kingdoms of the world, and said, All this can be yours. You just have to follow me. The devil is a sophist. The devil uses language, temptation, not force. Not force. The devil will offer you material benefits in return for your soul, which is, use sophistry to control people rather than.
[26:18] Use the power of reason and language to serve and enhance the conscience that you possess and to serve and enhance the conscience that others possess throughout the world. We all have the swords called words. words we all have the weapon called the tongue. We all have the power of language, which can create the greatest goods and the greatest hells in the world. So for me, when I came across.
[27:03] The return fire of philosophy because I was pinned down and being eaten alive by this beast, by this sophist. By the exploitation potential of language and my abilities. I was being eaten alive. I was being led astray. I was being dragged down into darkness. I was losing the fight in the desert. I was bowing down before the black beast of linguistic exploitation. Because it had been used on me and I saw no alternative, and so I was being consumed by that beast, and I almost had to fight from its gum line from its throat. And when I came across philosophy, ah, the great goddess, who hands you weapons to fight back the beast of exploitation, Oh, man.
[27:54] The sword came to my hand and glowed with the light of a thousand suns, and I stirred, and I flexed, and I fought. And the battle was not a quick one, and vestigial flickers of the battle still flame within my heart from time to time, though it has been forty years of relative victories. But taking on that beast, the witch-doctor, the magic-user, the sophist, the one ring, that binds others through persuasion and language, the ring in Lord of the Rings is sophistry. It has no direct power, but it uses emotions to convince.
[28:43] To stand tall against the devouring beast of sophistry is the job of a true philosopher. And when I tamed that beast within me, when I liberated the beast within me from its own worst instincts and was able to harness and serve it too.
[29:05] Not a wolf that devours children, but a sheep-dog that protects the livelihood of mankind. Ah, to tame the beast and turn it to virtue, the beast within, the beast we all have to face, the beast of lying, the beast of pettiness, the beast of using language, the beast justified at the expense of everyone else, the beast of using fear and people's desire for good and avoidance of the evil to turn them to the avoidance of good and the embrace of evil. Ah, that was an epic battle. That was an epic battle.
[29:57] Still some vague aftershocks, because the beast within me that that has been tamed to the pursuit of virtue, still hears the howl of the beasts all over the world, all calling to each other, Join us. We are winning. We have power. Reason must be fragmented for us to maintain power. And these beasts are constantly calling to each other across the world. The howls and yips of the coyotes and the wolves and the lions and the roars echo across the dim forests of our unconscious, and they're all reaching out for each other and they're all trying to gather together and they're all looking.
[30:39] To woodchipper the best hopes of mankind.
[30:45] Because those who are powerless in the face of their own beasts must end up inevitably thirsting for endless power over others. And the beast wants to kill, in many ways, spiritually, emotionally, all who fall for its siren song. All who nod and follow and bow and are consumed end up as arms on the beast, to rake and claw and strip down the independence, rational thought, and critical thinking skills of all those who stand against it. And the beast has come for me, and the beast is coming for you. And you have to tame the beast within yourself.
[31:39] When someone shows a flash of fear of what you do to comfort them rather than double down, when someone lies do you correct them though that correction brings other beasts, at your door clawing, biting, scratching tunneling, burrowing.
[32:09] So, the biggest insight I had was to tame language and its capacity to exploit and turn it to the pursuit of virtue, to clarify.
[32:21] To accept that that which is claimed to be universal is in fact universal. That that which is claimed to be the good for one is in fact the good for all. That that is the biggest insight that language, through sketchy definitions has the power to pick the pockets of the dead and to steal the souls of the unborn.
[32:52] I mean just look at the national debt the national debt is using language to hide the theft from the unborn. And this is where conservatives, to me, have so little credibility because they say we must protect the unborn from the abortionist's cudgel. And I understand that, and I appreciate that. But why would you want to protect the unborn only to have them born into debt slavery to foreign banksters. We must preserve the life of the unborn so we can have them born into debt slavery. It does not seem to me the final and most elevated conception of the rights of the unborn. The rights of the unborn should, without a doubt, be to be born without their lives stolen from them by prior sophistry in the covering up of crimes.
[34:00] One small example.
[34:09] And I do believe that we all have that beast within us, and I do believe that we all, especially if you're listening to this kind of show and have an appreciation, for the flourishes and gymnastics of scintillating language, well, you have that beast, and that beast is calling for you to use your power, to use your power of language for the covering up and justification of endless crimes. And I say, Use your language to turn the light on so that people can see. The bloody fists in the velvet gloves of social compulsion, so that the crimes are uncovered. The truth is seen, virtue is clear. And through using language to clarify rather than to cannibalize. We give people through clear definitions the possibility of actual choice and true free will for the first time in human history, and hopefully, hopefully, not for the last.
Support the show, using a variety of donation methods
Support the show
