0:00 - The Origins of Communism
9:16 - The Feeling of Specialness
16:07 - Bob and Doug's Approach to Specialness
25:59 - Fulfilling Dreams with Reciprocal Investments
30:33 - Putting Theories to the Empirical Test
32:56 - Importance of Likability in Leadership
36:57 - Implementing Ideals and Proving Success
40:03 - The Impact of Unprocessed Rejection
42:00 - Communist Specialness and Rejection Handling
In this episode, we embark on a profound exploration with Stefan Molyneux as he unravels the origins of communism, intricately linking it with the essence of human nature. Stefan's deep contemplation over weeks has led him to assert that the roots of communism are intertwined with fundamental aspects of human behavior. Through introspection and thoughtful analysis, he extends an invitation to the audience to join him on a journey of discovery into the depths of this ideology.
Stefan delves into the significance of individual uniqueness, emphasizing the intrinsic value of self-worth and the distinctive roles we all embody in our personal narratives. He acknowledges the universal craving for validation and appreciation, juxtaposed with the challenges of feeling special in a world that may not always acknowledge one's distinctiveness. Drawing from personal anecdotes, Stefan candidly shares moments of rejection and indifference he has encountered while endeavoring to express his talents and perspectives to the world, showcasing his unwavering resilience in the face of societal complexities.
Throughout the podcast, Stefan passionately advocates for embracing individuality and talents, even amidst skepticism and opposition. By sharing his own triumphs and trials, he inspires listeners to appreciate the inherent struggles of pursuing greatness and recognition in a world that may not readily affirm one's sense of uniqueness. Stefan's stirring reflections provoke contemplation on the delicate balance of self-worth, societal acceptance, and the ceaseless pursuit of acknowledgment in a world that might not always align with one's perception of their exceptionalism.
In a thought-provoking conversational segment, we contrast the perspectives of Bob and Doug, illuminating the contrasting approaches they embody towards self-development and validation. Bob embodies the ethos of relentless self-improvement and dedication to his craft, cognizant of the uncertainties of success yet driven to enhance his skills continuously. On the other hand, Doug personifies an expectation for recognition without investing the necessary effort to showcase his abilities, sparking discourse on the dynamics of seeking acknowledgment versus fostering reciprocal relationships in social interactions.
The exploration further delves into the concept of entitlement, where some individuals anticipate attention, success, or resources without reciprocating the same towards others—a notion parallel to the essence of communism. Drawing on personal narratives, the host sheds light on instances where support extended to others revealed a lack of reciprocity, evoking contemplation on the balance between seeking validation and actively nurturing relationships based on mutual investment.
The overarching theme of the podcast echoes the premise of earning one's place in the world through genuine effort, authentic interactions, and tangible contributions. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their approaches to seeking recognition and success, underscoring the importance of sincere endeavor and mutual support as foundations for meaningful connections and personal fulfillment. This illuminative dialogue challenges conventional notions of entitlement and highlights the profound impact of investing in oneself and others as a pathway to genuine accomplishment and enriched relationships.
[0:00] Hey there, it's Stefan Molyneux. Hope you're doing well. We are going to dive into the origins of communism today. I've been thinking about this for weeks until my brain doth melt like forged swords down the side of my neck. And I think we've got some really useful stuff. I think I'm going to have some really useful stuff about this. It's such a universal phenomenon that it simply must be associated with something essentially human. And I think I've cracked a nut, so to speak. And it's been a while since we've had a wee stroll together. other. So enjoy the nature sounds. I guess I'm one of nature sounds, but the bird calls and other things, distant drone of planes, you name it, but we are going to sort this out. We are going to solve this one together. Of course, look forward to your feedback. Everyone is a hero in his own story. You're a hero in your life. And by hero, I don't necessarily mean that you're a caped Crusader Fighting Evil, but you are the protagonist in your own story. And we are all, of course, infinitely important to ourselves, and we have shades of influence and importance going away from our own egos. And it certainly is true that we gain a lot of beautiful value in life out of putting aside our own ego and working to help those around us who we care about, who care about us, and create a web of interconnected interdependence.
[1:21] But, you know, we're born alone in the sense we die alone. And we all feel very special. The guy who is shuffling down the street, aqualung style, is very special to himself, although he may merit barely a glance from you. But in his own mind, you merit barely a glance from him.
[1:41] Now, the feeling of our own specialness is really seductive.
[1:47] I did not feel particularly special until I really began to discover philosophy and understand philosophy, and it helped reveal my own talents with regards to philosophy. And that was a great battle for me. I mean, I'm no mathematician, but I understand basic statistics, and I understand that the odds of me having something profound and universal to contribute to the development of philosophy, the odds of that were absolutely tiny. The priests I knew when I was growing up, who were trained in abstract concepts such as theology, they did not contribute to philosophy or even much to theology, as far as I could tell. The teachers that I had were almost uniformly dismal and boring and did not contribute much to the development of knowledge in me, let alone within society, the world, or the history of philosophy as a whole. All my professors in university, bland bureaucrats, more interested in disseminating propaganda than they were in exploring any kind of true knowledge. The intellectual leaders that I had met or have met in my life, almost all of them, all of them really, until I got older, were, although experts and trained in the field.
[3:12] Absolutely terrible at going deep and going wide, taking on challenges.
[3:18] And speaking truth to power, speaking facts to evil, and speaking morality to sophists. So what were the arts? These were people often born into far more wealth and potential than I was. These were people who had studied and trained in the abstract arts for decades, and I thought their contributions were paltry at best. So even the guy who graded my master's thesis basically said, well, I'm not really sure I get it. I don't really understand it, but it seems impressive or something like this while I was working on it. He ended up giving me an A, but...
[3:59] Just not very impressive. Not people who could get you excited, not people who could lead, who could motivate, who could inspire. And think deeply, which I think are kind of one and the same. If you can't think deeply, you don't have anything in particular to aspire to. And I remember in graduate school, there was one of my fellow students. I think we were all relatively or reasonably close in this area. But one of my fellow students was so in despair with regards to her graduate thesis that she was trying to figure out the growth or loss of the distribution of sheep in a small county in medieval France, and was just consumed by a vast, and I think entirely legitimate, if not downright rational feeling of complete pointlessness with what she she was doing. But of course, her thesis advisor was like, sure, you can become master of an inconsequential domain and call it academia.
[5:00] And I remember during a time of significant moral crisis, looking at, you know, there'd be conferences in philosophy and they'd publish what they were going to talk about. And all the topics were just abstruse, obtuse, abstract, unimportant, and impenetrable to the outside. It's like a coven or a cult of inner language with no desire to even recruit. So I felt that I had something great and special and wonderful to offer the world.
[5:30] And I can't honestly say that the world bent over backwards, accommodating my feelings of specialness, right? I can't really say that that's what happened. I remember when I was writing novels in my teens, I would keep every little scrap and bit of what I was writing if I cut something, because I just felt it was going to be important at some point. I felt it was going to matter at some point that people would be interested. And so, yeah, that sense of specialness, that sense of importance. I was recognized as a good scholar in undergraduate. I was recognized as a good scholar in graduate, but not like, you know, when Marlon Brando was first discovered, people were like, oh, my God, a force of nature when it comes to acting.
[6:20] And even people like Ayn Rand, who had her, oh gosh, what was it, early 40s to mid-50s? Yeah, close to 14 or 15 years of productivity, and then after that didn't seem to do much of anything. Certainly nothing with regards to fiction, and it's hard to follow. Atlas shrugged, of course, but did not seem to be happy, had an affair with one of her acolytes who was much younger, wrecked her marriage. It just, you know, and I remember seeing her being interviewed as this hard, suspicious, hostile face. And it was not, I remember feeling particularly desolate reading, oh gosh, Barbara Brandon's book Judgment Day, just about what was going on. It was not good.
[7:07] But nonetheless, a true intellectual force of nature and someone who did a lot to wake me up to the power and value of philosophy. And of course, paid the price that all philosophers do. When they interfere with the profits of sophists.
[7:19] Now, I'm saying this not because you're rapidly fascinated about my development, but because I'm sure you feel you have some gift or something great to offer the world, something wonderful. And even if the world is simply the world like a family that you can grow, kids, a wife, friends, little league team, I'm sure that you feel that you have something special and something wonderful. And I'm sure you do, too. I have no doubt about that. Now, when we have the belief of specialness, which I think is pretty much endemic to all people, because we all inhabit our own minds and nobody else does. I mean, I sort of try and invite you in and all that, but we all inhabit our own minds and nobody else does. And that's pretty important, right? That's pretty important. And our own sensations are extraordinarily vivid to us. I can feel, I've been doing leg work recently at a little home gym, and I can feel the columns of muscles on my quads as I walk. I can feel myself reminding myself to have good posture, though I'm holding a microphone and a computer. I can listen to the birds, see the beautiful trees, feel the breeze. And I'm experiencing all that directly and vividly, and you're not. You're listening to this later in a completely different environment, to a large degree. So everything about me is vivid. Everything about you is vivid to you. And our feeling of specialness is foundational.
[8:48] I mean, think of the number of dreams that you have that you don't tell anyone about. They've shaped you. They're part of you. They inform you. They might change you. But you don't tell most people about them. Or you don't tell anyone about most of your dreams. You simply can't. You don't have time, right? In the day, you've got to get things done. Man, it's like Attack of the Killer Crows up here. Hopefully I don't come across a body. Oh, it's a little tricky to explain. Well, here I was.
[9:16] So, specialness. We are all special to ourselves. Now, the big question arises, what happens, as is almost always the case, what happens when the world disagrees with our specialness? Aren't we all special and precious and vivid to ourselves and not particularly important to everyone else in the world? As I've said before, nobody cared that I wanted to have a philosophy show. Nobody cared that I thought I had something wonderful to offer the world in the realm of literature, playwriting, acting, art, nonfiction, you name it. Nobody cared. Nobody cared. Which is why I spent like 80% of my time early on in the show just marketing, marketing, marketing, right? Posting, getting interest, inviting people, setting up websites, posting shows on forums that I thought would be interested in it, just trying to generate interest because I was special to myself. Myself, I strongly believed, and believe even more now, 16 years later, that I have an enormous amount to offer the world, but nobody cared. I mean, my wife cared, right? I mean, some friends cared. My friends at the time didn't really care that much. I mean, obviously they had their own things going on, and if you try to become great, everybody wants the fruits of greatness, but nobody wants the cost, right? Everybody wants to be Spider-Man, nobody wants to get bitten by a spider.
[10:41] And the superpower called thought and success will alienate you from most of the people that you know. It will distance you from them and it will challenge, if not shatter, your relationships. I mean, there's a whole, I had to do a whole show at some point about everything that changes when you become successful. It's a challenge. It's a challenge for everyone around you. Now, we all feel special. What do we do when the world disagrees with us? And the world did disagree with my, quote, specialness for most of my life. Again, I wouldn't say I had a particularly vivid sense of specialness when I was a kid. Of course, you know, brain is still developing. It's got a long way to go. I don't think it really kicked in until I hit full brain maturation in my mid-twenties. But I always felt I had something interesting to offer. And because I'm good at a variety of things, business, art world, philosophy, public speaking, and so on, I mean, I knew that there was going to be a bunch of different avenues that I could use.
[11:45] Or take to get my message out. I also knew that my message was not about me. It was not about, I've always said, don't be interested in me, don't care about me. I've got people in my life who care about me. I want you to care about philosophy, not me. I mean, it's tempting to care about me and to think that I'm important in the equation, but the more you focus on me, the more you're going to kill philosophy as I talk about it after I'm dead, right? So when I'm dead, I guess people could still be interested in me after I'm dead. But listen to the music don't obsess about the singer anyway so you probably have this in your life you you feel special you feel like you have something rare and precious and unique and you do and you do you may not have my talents i don't have your talents or potential so i feel special and precious, but the world doesn't care. That's tough, man. Now, of course, if you were raised in a family where you are loved and feel precious and special from your parents, that's great. Then you have that feeling and you can, that's a lot of fuel to bring onto the ride of life, right? There's a lot of fuel that has a lot of power in maintaining your feeling of specialness. It's a really beautiful thing to see, but that's not the case for most And of course, when we go into schools, we're just another brick in the wall, another face in the crowd, another kid to be silenced, drugged, indoctrinated.
[13:13] We're an annoyance. And the purpose of the school system is to enrich and underwork bored and entitled teachers. And in return for a lot of pay for not a lot of work, all you have to do is indoctrinate or drug the kids. so we don't get that sense of specialness from our schools.
[13:35] And maybe there was someone in your life when you were younger who got a sense or a whiff of your potential, of your specialness, of your preciousness, and you should be grateful to that person. I can think of one or two. I'm going to talk about that another time. But you should be really grateful to that person, I think. They've really changed your life. You're special and precious, and you are. Unique, one of a kind. Often imitated, never duplicated. You know, the whole marketing spiel by heart, I'm sure. And everybody feels that way. Special and precious. Does the world agree? Does the world agree? I mean, I faced, when I was trying to publish my writing, I write some damn fine novels, I'll tell you that. Freedomain.com forward slash almost.
[14:21] FDRURL.com forward slash TGOA for the God of Atheists. I write some damn fine novels. and I meant not just indifference but.
[14:30] Deep, significant hostility. Now, I understand, in hindsight, the communists have largely taken over the publishing industry, and my work is anti-communist, not just in any kind of specific, but in a generalized way, in a sense-of-life way. Because I didn't really feel that the world owed me any affirmation of my sense of specialness. I mean, I'd get frustrated because I would see it it so clearly myself, other people would only not see it, but would be outwardly hostile. I mean, I was in theater school. They absolutely loved me there for the first three or four months. I got rave reviews and they said I should drop writing and just stick to acting because I was so good at it. And then I guess they got a whiff of my politics and my philosophy and, oh man, they just hated me. They just slammed me. And anyway, I didn't last past the second year. I didn't want to. So I never felt that the world owed me. I think I knew that I had to earn it. And the more special and unique I was, the more I would have to earn it. I thought I would have to earn it simply by rising above the noise and static of people in the world generally clamoring for attention, as we all generally do.
[15:45] But, you know, when I came across that base ugly hostility, you know, which of course has followed me as a philosopher, That was more of a surprise. That was more of a shock. If you think the world is benevolent, try telling it an uncomfortable truth, and you'll find out it's a pit of vipers. Snakes. Why does it always have to be snakes?
[16:08] So, let's do our regular Bob and Doug thing, right? So Bob and Doug both feel that they're special. And Bob says, Okay, well, if I'm really special and really cool cool and have a lot of great stuff to offer. Whatever, it doesn't really matter the field. Well, I've got a... Increase my, I've got to up my skills, I've got to up my abilities, I've got to up my talents, whatever I can do to become better at what it is that I do. And that's Bob. And he goes on auditions. If he's an actor, he learns different accents and studies monologues all the time and learns how to ride a horse and swordplay and, you know, whatever. So he can all add it to his resume and takes acting lessons and, you know, all these kinds of things. He works really, really hard to make sure that he has the best and most rounded skill set possible. He makes sure he keeps his hair through whatever Rogaine-like chemical process you can.
[17:05] And works out so he can rip off his top Magic Mike style and have the women faint. So, that's Bob. Now, does this guarantee he will succeed? No, of course, but it certainly gives him the best odds. Now, Doug, and the reasons for this difference in opinion are historical, they're childhood-based, but let's just forget that for a second and just say that Doug also feels that he is special and precious, as we all do, and then he faces the indifference and or hostility of the world, and what does he do? You say, well, you know, it is my responsibility to make the world see my greatness and the world is going to be indifferent. And this is the fundamental empathy thing. It's a fundamental empathy thing, right? I mean, if you think about, if you're any kind of prominent figure, or even just considered an expert in your social circle or your family circle, I mean, my inbox is full of people who are like, hey, what's it Scott Adams said about being famous? Being famous is an endless a series of people emailing you and says, hey, I think you're cool. Here's some poems I wrote about my cats when I was drunk. I think you'd get a kick out of them, to which you don't respond and usually rarely read. And I get endless missives from people and I sympathize and I respect. I really do. I will try to deal with a few, but time is limited. I have my own work to do.
[18:28] Parenting, time with my wife, friends. So people will send me, you know, I know this will be long, you know here's my 200 page argument uh do you mind just flipping through it and let me know what you think it's like uh i guess i don't mind because i'm not going to do it sorry so you know people are trying to get me to commit resources to figure out how wonderful they are on a regular basis and this happens to just about everyone i remember i remember when kenneth branagh came to town many years ago back in sort of the heyday of his fame post henry v he came to town and his, was it, Coriolanus, they did, it was him and Emma Thompson, who were doing these sort of plays that were touring. Actually, they were pretty bad, although Emma Thompson was very funny, but they were actually pretty, pretty bad. Phone didn't perform, I said, I don't feel like coming in to do the show, just put the phone on the stage, I'll just dial it in. And anyway, but of course, I was doing a lot of theater work at the time, so I created a big, I typed up a big, not too big, couple of page essay on you know, how theater would be a lot more interesting if you, cast against type you know, like the evil person always looks like Jafar.
[19:41] From Aladdin and you know, they dress the way all in black it'd be kind of interesting if you went against type to throw the audience off and keep things fresh I thought it was not the worst idea in the world, anyway, so I dropped it off at the theater, you know, attention to Kenneth Brown Because, of course, you have this fantasy, right? You have this fantasy, like, Kenneth Branagh is going to read this, and he's going to be like, going to get you on the phone, like, wow, that's a really interesting idea.
[20:06] I'd be interested in talking to you more about it. Maybe you could join us as a costume designer. Whatever, right? Pure nonsense, of course, right? Right. So I dropped it off. And I remember the guy at the theater I dropped it off at was like, yeah, I'll put it in the bags. And of course, there were these big giant sacks of letters that people were writing like me to Kenneth Brunnock that Kenneth Brunnock was absolutely never going to read. Neither should he. Right. Neither should he, because he should be doing his own work.
[20:35] Losing weight, and making a bad version of Frankenstein. So he didn't owe me any specialness. And if you look in your life, there's lots of people who want to get you interested in their, you know, varied projects and ideas and whatever, right? And those people, you know, how much time do you spend, right? The people on the internet, if you've got any prominence, they're people who'll post comments, oh, you should check out my website, or I've come up with this idea approach, or, you know, just this morning, got an email from a guy who's like, Like, I've got something wonderful for you that's really going to turn things around. Just give me a call. It's like, well, if you can't give me a hint now, I'm afraid I don't really have time to call. And there's lots of people, and I respect and admire. And what they do is they send me all of this stuff. My gosh. A couple of words, right? They send me all this stuff like, oh, I'm starting up this new social media platform. Great if you could join. Here's the advantages. Here's the benefits. Here's what you could do. And here's, you know, all that, right? And, you know, more power to them. I think it's fantastic. good for them. But I already have like a dozen social media accounts to manage and adding more is not particularly helpful. I just end up splitting focus too much and nothing really happens. So anyway, it's, you know, how much time do you spend with other people's dreams, trying to bring other people's dreams to fruition? And the answer is probably not a lot.
[21:54] And I mean, I don't do this as much anymore because of the deplatforming, but I would find people I thought were very talented or had real potential, and I'd bring them on to the show, and help propel them to the next level of prominence. And I've done that with a whole bunch of people, and I think it's great. It wasn't so much done with me, because I was kind of one of the biggest for a long time. But yeah, I mean, that's, you know, that's sort of paying it back a little and all that. So you don't spend that much time working to fulfill other people's dreams, right? I don't, at least as much anymore. And that's just the reality. So if you're expecting everyone to get interested in your dream and your specialness, well, you just have to look in the mirror and say, okay, well, how many people have I invested in their dreams and their specialness? And of course, if you're in a one-way street where you're expecting other people to invest in you, but you never really think about investing in them or others, then, well, that's your answer. that people are about as indifferent to your dreams as you are to their dreams. And it's rough. And I'm not saying this is a bad situation or a bad system at all. We can't indulge in everyone's dreams. Not everyone can be a famous actor. Not everyone can be a famous philosopher. So the fact that there's a lot of resistance to this kind of stuff, the fact that there's a lot of indifference has a lot to do with, okay, well, how much do you really want it?
[23:22] Know, if somebody sends me one email, I wouldn't mind being on a call and show I got a couple issues. And it's like, okay, like, that's not very urgent, right? And it's not very committed, right? If somebody emails me a bunch of times, okay, well, I get that they really care and they're willing to. So if I invest in them, it's not going to be like pushing string, like I put a lot of energy in, but they don't go anywhere after that, right? Because if somebody at least has the gumption to email me a bunch of times, I know at least one thing that they're pretty persistent, have a lot of strong will, and are willing to be, you know, intrusive or annoying, which they're not, right? I mean, that's generally what people say to themselves when they don't want to actualize themselves into somebody else's mind space. I don't want to intrude.
[23:59] So, and yet they'll buy an iPhone because of an ad where Apple is intruding, right? Understand the value. It's not intruding. So we got Bob who, you know, works hard, increases his skills, goes on lots of auditions and does his very best work. And if if Bob is not getting what he wants, then what Bob can do, like let's say he thinks he's a great actor, then he can write a play or work with a playwright to commission a play that really showcases his particular talents and skills. And then he can put that play on. I mean, when I left theater school, they didn't like me. I didn't like them. But what I did was I went and spent the summer working. And in the nights and weekends, I was producing a play. I directed a play, I hired the actress, hired the space, did the advertising, and it was a really great and positive experience to do that. So I was very glad to have done it.
[24:53] And once I was on the audio system, when nobody knew I was on the audio system and they were all discussing me, it was really quite fascinating. Nothing bad in particular, but anyway, so Bob's working hard and diligently and just recognizes the world doesn't owe him any attention, and he works to try and get it. Now, maybe he'll succeed, maybe he'll fail. If you're Matt Damon and you're not getting the roles you want, you just co-write Good Will Hunting and you go from there. And then that's the basis of your sign-up. Then you do trashy, forgettable films that bore an identity. And then you end up trashing Kavanaugh because you're owned by the lefties. And shame follows you like a black cloud wherever you go in the future. Forever. So Doug expects the world to come to him, expects the world to elevate him, expects the world to somehow see his greatness, though he himself is not out there seeing anyone else's greatness, that's what Doug is up to. Or not up to. So, how does this play out? Well, I think we all know, right?
[25:59] This is the essence of communism.
[26:02] Communism is I don't want to compete. Communism is the world owes me attention, the world owes me resources, the world owes me obedience. And if the world does not provide to me what I want, believe, accept that I truly deserve, then the world is not paying a debt that it damn well owes to me. The world is not paying a debt that it damn well owes to me. And you know, you can be all kinds of aggressive when it comes to collecting on a debt, right?
[26:33] If you're a company, a visa, whatever, and somebody owes you $10,000, I mean, you go hard, right? You garnish their wages, you might bring them to court, any number of things, right? You go pretty hard to get your money because they owe you. You don't have to go out and earn it.
[26:48] Will owe you. And that's entitlement, right? Entitlement is people owe me things that I neither provide to the world nor have earned directly, right? People owe me attention. People owe me success. People owe me a platform. People owe me money or acknowledgement or praise. And I'm not out there providing these things to other people, which could create some sense of reciprocal obligation, though not an enforceable obligation. If you go and help a bunch of people, it doesn't mean that they necessarily have to help you back it's not like a contract it should really create a sense of reciprocal obligation and if you've chosen wisely and the people that you help them and you're in need of help they will help you, you know in the dark days of the.
[27:30] Australia New Zealand tour you know people did really step up to help in a wide variety of ways, and it was not bad I'd helped a lot of people and when I asked for help they helped back which was great, and And so if you help the wrong sets of people, they'll just suck you dry like a vampire and toss you off a side, and when you're in need of help, they'll just tell you to pull yourself up by your own damn bootstraps and stop whining. Kind of inevitable, right? Like a woman I dated, I actually made a short film for her, wrote it, funded it, because she wanted to get into movies. And then I asked her to read a novel of mine, and she said, ah, I will soon. She never quite got around to it. I confronted her about it. But, you know, I'll make you a whole movie that you can't bother to read through a novel of mine, give me some feedback. And she's like, well, you know, I got to tell you, Steph, you're just not, you're not motivating me to do it.
[28:22] You know, people are refreshingly frank often when you confront them, which is why so many people avoid confrontation. They don't want the facts of the frankness to impact upon them. So communism occurs when you feel that the world owes you resources, attention, obedience, fame, glory, and you're not willing to earn it. You're not willing to earn it. If you think that worker-owned collectives are the best way of producing things, then of course what you should do is you should create a company and have it be a worker-owned collective and then show everyone through your empirical example exactly how wonderful this stuff is, how amazing, how great it is to have these worker-owned collectives with no boss. You can outperform everyone else. You can out-earn everyone else. You can out-satisfy your customers or every competitor, and that's your proof, right? But if you've got this idea that worker-owned collectives are the best way to organize things and you won't go out and empirically test it, you think, oh, you know, when you have women in charge, everything's so much more productive and better and women are kinder and nicer and take more care and concern and more sensitive and empathetic, all this sort of stuff, right?
[29:42] So you say, well, you know, companies that are run by women just do. So, okay, you should stop typing about it, stop whining about it, stop complaining about it. Companies aren't hiring enough women in their boards. Then just go out and create and hire, like create a company and hire women and show everyone, right? But the empirical test, right, the empirical test. Look, I thought I had a lot to offer the world in terms of philosophy. So I poured heart and soul into producing what to me is the greatest philosophy around. And let the world judge, right? But I didn't just sit there and say the world needs more philosophy and nag other people to do it. The world needs something and it's not being provided and you can provide it, or you think you can. Go out and provide it, right? Go do that thing, right?
[30:25] So, but the communists don't want the test, right? Workers owning the means of production is the only just, fair, and moral, and productive economic system.
[30:33] Okay, well, capitalism doesn't prevent any of that from happening, so go do it and show us, right? Show us. Because if I'd gone to someone and said, oh, yeah, no, I want to create the world's greatest philosophy show and all of that, and I hadn't done it, people would be like, okay, well, why you? How do we know you're going to go the distance? How do we know that you're going to be able to survive the pushback? How do we know that you're going to be committed? Whereas if you're already doing it, that's the way you get things done is you just start doing it and wait for people to catch up. That's what you do. That's how you get things done. You test it, right? I think I can contribute a lot to philosophy. So I don't sit down, sit around, wait for people to come and wait for them to love what I do. I just create it and push it like crazy, right? See where it goes. How far it goes.
[31:21] And that's how you get anything done, really, in this life or, I assume, any other. But Doug is not that kind of guy, right? Doug is not that kind of guy. He is like the Venus Project, right? Zeitgeist stuff. Well, you can build things that never break, and it's going to be so much more efficient. It's like, well, why are you talking about this? Go build something that never breaks, right? I say voluntarism can allow society to flourish, so I have a purely voluntary show. I say the free market is the way to go, so I operate right on the edges of where everything is as voluntary as humanly possible.
[31:58] Put the theories to the test. Why wouldn't you? If you believe in your theories, right? If you're a doctor who says this pill will cure a disease and you have that disease and you don't take it, oh, come on. It's ridiculous, right? So, and the question then becomes, well, why is Doug not going out and pushing his ideas? The work of controlling the means of production, that's the best way to do it, man. Okay, well, why aren't you out there doing it? Well, because of his torpor, his inaction, and his resentment, and his negativity, he simply has no capacity to lead anyone. All he has the capacity to do is get enraged and manipulative, right? Because if you were to say, look, if I say, look, I think philosophy is really important to the world, then it sort of does behoove me to work on the likability factor, right? I don't mean to manipulate, right? Because I think it's kind of important to be likable as a whole. It's your big shield against those who would do you harm. At least it's the cross-finger shield for it.
[32:57] So if I want to be a leader in the realm of philosophy, then I would like people to see that I'm likable, I'm approachable, friendly, that I'm assertive, that I'm strong, but not self-destructive. I know when to hold them, when to fold them, and how to navigate these very tricky waters, and retain my good sense, my good humor, my positivity, my capacity for love that I'm willing to grow and learn from even people I castigated in the past, like Christians. I think that's fair. Now, it's not like I have to fake being nice so that people like philosophy, but, you know, you have to work on your positivity and you have to work on the good things that you can bring to the world so that people, you know, again, if you want to to sell a diet and lose your weight, right? If you want to sell a smoking cessation program, quit smoking yourself. Just basic things, right? You don't, oh, I'm going to lose weight to manipulate people into buying my diet book. It's like, well, no, I mean, you should test it on yourself first. And if it works, you should be enthusiastic.
[33:59] Share it with others. I tested philosophy on myself for, what, a quarter century before I brought it to the world. I was my own guinea pig, right? I mean, I got into philosophy in my mid-teens and I didn't become any kind of real public figure until my late 30s, right? You know, roughly 15 to 40, right? I got a quarter century of experimenting on myself before bringing this medicine to the public. And this is something that people don't understand. stand? You know, like, how is it that you were able to stand? It's like, no, I know this stuff works. Come on. I know it works.
[34:34] And when you've done it on your own for 25 years and you've reaped some enormous benefits, then when people say, well, I don't think this works, I don't think it's true. It's like, you know, it's just some person saying stuff. I got a quarter century before I ever became a public figure that says completely otherwise. So sorry, you just don't have any credibility with me. Nice try. Too bad. So sad. You fail. And you just can't, you just can't, you know, if you've spent a quarter century learning and practicing piano, and you're good, obviously, as a result, okay, well, somebody climbs along and says, I think you're terrible at piano, and they don't know how to play at all. It's like, okay, that's just Sonny Kruger, right? If you've done a quarter century, tens of thousands of hours, and you've reaped the rewards thereof, and then people come and say, you suck! It's just, you know, it's just ridiculous. ridiculous and and i mean i'm i'm very happy that the internet did not come along sooner because i had reaped the rewards i was post-therapy in a happy marriage and had gotten rid of destructive people in my life by the time uh the the fame such as it was came along and so if you want people to accept your ideas and you want to be responsible to those ideas you need to implement them yourself first because nothing but empiricism can give you that kind of certainty and when you have certainty, you don't need to be aggressive. It's really important, right? Because communism is very aggressive, which means it's not certain. If my daughter, I don't know, I mean, you think of some parent and some kid, right?
[36:02] And the parent doesn't need to be aggressive about gravity. The parent is certain of gravity, the kid's certain of gravity. You just need to negotiate how to deal with gravity and how high can you jump and how fast can you go and all that. How should you fall? Although that's mostly instinctive. But the parent's not sitting there saying, well, I got to yell at this kid and intimidate this kid until he accepts the reality of gravity. Once you know things in your bones and your heart, because like me, you practiced them for 25 years before going public with them, okay, well, sorry. I can't be talked out of a quarter century of experience and tens of thousands of hours of practice. I just can't be talked out of it. And this is why people get mad at UPB. I understand that. I mean, UPB is your conscience, and if you've got a bad conscience, UPB is going to provoke your conscience and all of that.
[36:50] But the reason why communists tend to be so aggressive is they're not certain at all. Now, the question is, what's the difference between Bob and Doug?
[36:58] Remember Bob, let's say he thinks workers' control of the means of production is the best, most moral, most productive way to organize society, or at least the economics in society. Then what he does is he goes out, starts the company that conforms to his ideals, documents it every step of the way, films it, has a camera crew, whatever, ever, shows how wonderful it is and, you know, becomes a billionaire and is willing to replicate his model. And, you know, he's responsible to his ideas. That if you have shocking or surprising ideas, you know, why was it that, you know, separating from a toxic family that can't be reformed or redeemed, you know, why was it that I never backed down from that? Because I did it, and it works. I mean, I couldn't have the life that I have now. I couldn't have the happiness that I have now. Couldn't have the love that I have now if I hadn't done that. So, you know, People can say, you're a cult leader. Okay, well, but I've done it, right?
[37:53] It works. It's not a necessity, but it certainly works. So what's the difference between Bob and Doug? So the difference between Bob and Doug is that Bob either was not rejected by his parents or has processed it, has come to terms with it, has dealt with it. Doug, on the other hand, because if you've been rejected by your parents and you've dealt with it, or you weren't rejected by your parents, but rather accepted and loved by your parents, then you have a pretty good time of it, right? Because you can handle rejection, the inevitable rejection that happens in life. And the more extraordinary and unusual and powerful thing you want to do, the more you will be rejected. And fussing about with the basics of morality is about as volatile a thing as any human being can do. It's more volatile than a political revolution by far. And so why was it that the endless rejection and hatred and hostility, I wasn't saying it never bothered me. me, but, you know, certainly didn't stop me. Well, because I processed my mother's rejection, my father's rejection, rejection from other family members. I just, I processed it. I had dealt with it. I had said, no, I'm right and they're wrong. Sorry. I mean, according to objective moral universal standards that even they accept, I'm right and they're wrong.
[39:09] So that really was not the most complicated place to start from. And, and of course, you know, Most of my heroes had been hated by their societies too, right? I mean, Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, to a smaller degree in terms of his writing ability. Oh, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Ayn Rand, just endless castigations of good and decent people is the way the society works. When evil is the immune system, virtue is the virus, right? And you've got a fight on your hands, for sure.
[39:45] So, Doug has not processed rejection by his family. And because Doug has not processed rejection by his family, then he's absolutely, completely, and totally terrified of rejection. And this is why he can't try.
[40:04] This is why he doesn't implement his own ideas and then try and sell them to the world, because fundamentally he believes that he's worthless, that he will forever be rejected, and he's acting out in a repetition compulsion the rejection of his parents by attacking the world for its imagined rejection of the ideas he's barely willing to, he won't implement and prove empirically. If you're abused by your parents and you don't deal with it, then later in life you simply become your parents, and the world or others become your child. Like I talked about this with the troll conversation I had not too long ago with the guy where I said, if you haven't dealt with being abused as a child, the way it works is I talk about objective morals and truth and keeping abusive people out of your life if they won't change. That triggers the parental alter egos in people's minds, and they attack me just as their parents attack them. I become the child, they become the parent, and they act out the same abuse that they haven't processed.
[41:04] That's what happens when you haven't got a moral line between evildoers and you, is that possession by evildoers and acting out their unholy whims is pretty much going to happen no matter what you say, no matter what you think, no matter what you imagine.
[41:20] So Bob understands that rejection is the norm, that it's usually not personal, And even people's hatred and hostility towards me is not personal. Like I saw some comment, I would say this morning I saw some comment, I think it was on BitChute, where somebody was saying like, oh, is this still the biggest philosophy conversation in the world? Give it up, Steph, you've lost, it's over, you've, right? Okay, well, why would he care? Why would he care the view count on my videos? Why would he care? Well, because I'm triggering his inner parents and his inner parents are doing to me what they did to him. And the only way to break that power is to remain unfazed by it, right?
[42:00] So the communist has a sense of specialness but can't handle rejection because they are still completely under the sway of abusive parents. So because...
[42:13] Special as we all do but they can't handle rejection they get enraged because the way that you handle being rejected the way that you handle that if you if you're immature or you pretend to handle it the way that you pretend to handle being rejected if you're immature is you simply, become abusive in turn by pretending that acceptance and support is you're just you it's owed to you and then destroying people who fail to give you what is justly yours yours. Fail to give you what is justly yours. And then it becomes like, you know, you're in the desert, you lend your friend some water to drink, and then he won't give it back, even though you're desperately thirsty. Well, you're going to get pretty aggressive, if not downright violent, getting back something that he owes you that's going to keep you alive.
[42:56] And so you haven't dealt with the abuse. You feel entitled to other people's support and acceptance and approval and worship and all that kind of stuff, right? And then what happens? Well, it doesn't come, as it inevitably won't come because the world doesn't owe you love, support, respect, attention. I mean, your parents did, but if they didn't pay, they don't want their debt to become known to you because then you might separate from them. And so you simply put the world in the place of your parents. And it's safer to get angry at the world than it is to get angry at your parents, right? Because getting angry at your parents when you're a kid can get you killed. Getting angry at the world will actually gain you a lot of like-minded adherence, a lot of other dugs out there who are are going to support you and fuel your rage, right? Because they're all angry at their parents or their teachers or priests or whatever. They can't process that because it's too scary. So they get angry at the world instead.
[43:48] And this anger can become a self-fueling psychotic rage spiral, right? To the point where they're willing to wipe out 100 million people for not giving them what they believe they're owed, which is worship and obedience and influence. And when you can't get influenced by your words, but you really feel that you owed it, like if you can't talk someone into paying you back your money, you might go to court and have them compelled to give you back your money. And if you can't talk people into accepting your ideas, but you're so immature, damaged and hate-filled that you believe people owe you acceptance of your ideas, well, what do you do? You turn to the state, and you damn well force them.
Support the show, using a variety of donation methods
Support the show
