April 12, 2017 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
05:51
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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(upbeat music) | |
| Everyone seems to know everything about everything these days. | ||
| I don't mean that people just seem to have an opinion on any given topic, which of course is great, and that's what free speech is all about. | ||
| Instead, what I'm talking about here is the constant and endless stream of people pretending that they know exactly how to run the world if only everyone would listen to them. | ||
| The Iran nuclear deal? | ||
| Well, that anime Twitter fox who knows all about enriched uranium. | ||
| How to destroy ISIS? | ||
| Your unemployed cousin knows exactly how to demolish them. | ||
| The best way to administer health care? | ||
| Your mom's friend on Facebook who can't figure out how to unlock her iPad has finally figured out how to make single-payer work. | ||
| This constant expression of fake knowledge is partly a function of social media, which rewards us for quick hits and maximum snark, but it's also a function of something that's been built into us since our beginning, the human ego. | ||
| Ego is constantly rewarded in this crazy world we live in. | ||
| Do you think the rise of Trump might have had a little something to do with ego? | ||
| Clearly Trump understands the way we all connect to a powerful personality and he uses that | ||
| power in every interaction he has, be it via speech, meeting or on Twitter. | ||
| But beneath this connection seems to be the fragile ego of a child who must lash out any | ||
| time they hear anything not to their liking. | ||
| By the way, I don't think a politician using the persuasive power of personality is something | ||
| new as far as the presidency is concerned. | ||
| While Trump is a particularly interesting case of ego in the White House, let's not | ||
| pretend that Barack Obama with his promises of hope and change didn't have one as well. | ||
| Or Bill Clinton, who was a master at making every person in the room feel like they were the only person he cared about. | ||
| While there isn't a direct comparison to the charm of Obama and Clinton, to the alpha male tactics of Trump, there is an interesting through line to what types of people we respond to. | ||
| Interestingly, I'm not sure that you could say that George W. Bush falls into this strong ego bucket. | ||
| Like W or not, there was a humbleness, perhaps born of insecurity that he had, that I think the others lacked. | ||
| Of course, W had his own set of problems, but that's a whole other story. | ||
| Let me back up here for a second. | ||
| I don't think having an ego is bad. | ||
| After all, each of us has an ego in some way. | ||
| By definition, an ego is a person's sense of self esteem or self importance. | ||
| Of course, having a sense of self esteem and self importance is good overall. | ||
| Nobody wants to be walking around feeling worthless or irrelevant. | ||
| Feeling worthless isn't healthy for you, and it's not great for anyone around you either. | ||
| Of course, on the other hand, an inflated sense of importance can be dangerous too. | ||
| Here's where I have to be careful. | ||
| Many of the brightest minds in arts, sports, politics, science, and virtually every other field have an inflated sense of self-importance, and this trait is partly what helps them in achieving greatness. | ||
| I think it's fair to say that the astronomical success of people like Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan and Beyonce all have a little something to do with their sense of self importance, driven by an inflated self esteem. | ||
| The endless dedication, the hard work and the sacrifice that it takes to be a leader in your field can often be born out of ego. | ||
| To pretend this doesn't exist in the people we love and admire, or that is somehow exclusively a bad thing, would be to deny them something very human. | ||
| And by the way, I won't be presumptuous enough to think that I don't have an ego myself. | ||
| After all, I talk on camera for a living. | ||
| The ego that we all have, to various degrees, is partly what's causing such a disconnect in our conversations right now. | ||
| We judge too quickly, we jump to conclusions without evidence, and we condemn too fast, all somehow guised as a way of showing how smart and how correct we are. | ||
| I for one have no problem telling you I don't have all the answers. | ||
| I think you guys know most of my opinions on the big issues and I love sharing them with you as my opinions change, evolve or strengthen. | ||
| But on major complex issues like the Iran deal or healthcare or abortion or gun control, I don't pretend to have every answer. | ||
| Do you think that most of the so-called experts who pontificate on everything actually read the full text of the Iran deal? | ||
| I doubt that most of them did. | ||
| How many experts or even congressmen who wrote it actually fully read Obamacare or the Republican replacement? | ||
| I'm guessing some did, but it's probably a very small minority. | ||
| Instead of doing the rigorous work to figure out what's best, they instead pretend to know everything and make us feel as if only we would listen to them that we'd have a perfect society. | ||
| This is silly, lazy thinking. | ||
| Of course our mainstream news, which doles out supposed important conversations in 5 minute clips with 8 different guests all talking over each other at once, really isn't helping the situation. | ||
| And on the broader issues, like abortion or gun control, pretending that you know exactly how the law should be so that everything will work out just right for society is equally as nonsensical. | ||
| We live in a pluralistic society, and the human factor, the simple fact that we're all individuals, is proof that nothing will ever be perfect for all of us. | ||
| What we can do is limit the amount of control we have over each other, while at the same time respecting others' beliefs and the same right to property and happiness that we want others to afford to us. | ||
| Most of us want sensible answers, and being real with ourselves is the only way we're going to get there. | ||
| Saying I don't know, or I haven't decided, or I need more information shouldn't be seen as a weakness, it should be seen as a strength. | ||
| Oh and by the way, of course I'm guilty of sometimes jumping to conclusions and judging before I have the proper information. | ||
| And again, I have an ego too, one by the way which you often help me keep in check. |
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