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July 18, 2006 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
39:08
336 Fines versus Families
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Good afternoon, everybody.
Hope you're doing well. It's Steph.
Yes, it is 5.30 on July the 18th, 2006, heading off to the gym as Christina heals yet another troubled soul in our living room.
And, yes, it is also time, it is that time, to reestablish my reputation as possibly the meanest podcaster in the known universe.
And I'll tell you how I'm going to go about doing that.
We have a vital and productive member of our board who I am going to use as an example today of what it is that I'm trying to talk about.
When I talk about the family and personal freedom, and I hope that he won't mind, I won't use his name, we'll just call him Bob, something nice and palindromic.
And Bob put in a comment, a ferocious and I think somewhat appropriate comment today, or a post, about how his girlfriend has been hit with a, not exactly a fine, but like a licensing requirement for her car, I think it is, or something like that.
To the tune of almost $500.
And if she doesn't pay it, she can be arrested, right?
And so obviously she's being mugged and bullied into paying up this money for the provision of very little value on the part of the state, right?
I'll give you a sticker. You give me $500.
I have a little trouble getting the IRS to do that.
When they come to my house, I'll say, look, not only am I not going to pay my taxes, but I'll give you a sticker and you give me 500 bucks.
The days of Manhattan Island for a neck full of beads seems to have gone by the wayside, but the government hangs on to it itself, which of course is perfectly logical given what the government is.
Now, on side-related issues, and this is sort of what I'm going to try and do to re-establish my reputation as the meanest podcaster in the known universe, is that this gentleman and his girlfriend, so Bob and his girlfriend, we'll call her Sue, and that's interestingly enough what she's going to do if her name is in fact Sue, but... She, her family is poor and corrupt and his family, I can't remember if they're poor or not, but definitely not nice people.
Not people who did a great job of raising him or who have done a great job of helping him to get done what he needs to get done as far as becoming an adult and being a happy guy goes.
So I think it's fairly safe for us to understand that this is not a very good family situation for either Bob or Sue.
And here he's posting a very angry and expletive-laden post about how bad it is that the government has levied a $474 fine on his girlfriend for a license that she needs for her car, I think it is. Now...
I sympathize, of course, with being hit with unjust, as all state fines are, or state license fees are, being hit with those.
But I absolutely oppose the ferocity with which this gentleman attacks the government.
And I'll tell you why.
And this is why I'm mean.
I'm going to tell you why I think that it is false self stuff to get this outraged about the government.
I have no problem whatsoever with people getting angry about the government.
I get angry about the government too.
But, brothers and sisters, let's look at the magnitude of harm that has been inflicted upon us by our family relative to the government.
Please, let's just take a mosey along and have a look.
Now, let's just say that we're taking the average dysfunctional family, and the average is a little more than dysfunctional, but we'll try not to stack the deck in terms of proof.
Let's just take the average family.
Yeah, a little bit Christian, a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll.
A little bit Christian, a little bit nationalistic, a little bit culty, a little bit groupy, a little bit false arguments for morality raining down on the children, a little spanking, a little slapping, a little sending to bed without dinner, a little brutalizing, a little emotional control, a little withdrawing, a little bullying, a little non-supporting independence, and particularly, particularly for those people.
We face an enormous amount of condemnation from our families, either in an aggressive or passive-aggressive manner.
So I can tell you for sure that those people who have gone through this with their families are facing much more dysfunctional families than the average because something within those families have given them a strong sense of corruption and the desire to undermine or oppose unjust authority But even if that's not the case, the very fact that they have accidentally given birth to a philosopher in their midst is like a cancer.
Actually giving, accidentally giving birth to healthy cells, it's going to attack it, right?
I mean, that's the nature of the beast when it comes to where we are as a culture and as a society.
So, everyone who's on free domain radio boards has faced this kind of problem, either with friends or with family, that you're interested in the truth and your reasoning from first principles, and they're just going to hate you.
Because they know where it's not going to lead you to praise of them.
They're all aware of that.
I mean, everybody else understands philosophy, except we philosophers, right?
Who try to be overly nice.
So Bob, in his exposure to and his upbringing with or by his family, has been exposed to an enormous amount of emotional manipulation, of control, of rejection of his essence, of bullying, of meanness, of mean-spiritedness, of hostility, of rejection, of withdrawal, all of which have been inflicted upon him by his parents and possibly his siblings.
His parents and his extended family and so on.
All while he was helpless and dependent for many, many years.
Right, so that's the level of injustice that Bob has faced with his family.
Exhibit A, the family.
The absolute master of his destiny for 17 or so years.
Control and hostility and, yeah, love and, yeah, some good, maybe not love, but some good times and some days at the beach where everybody laughed.
Absolutely, I understand that.
You can have great dreams even in prison.
It doesn't make prison freedom.
But that's sort of Exhibit A. Now, Exhibit B is a $474 fine that his girlfriend got from the state.
Now I ask you, if you were floating in the ether with all the knowledge that you have now, prior to being born in some Buddhist platonic fantasy camp in the sky, waiting to drop off the great, slithering, many-tentacled, unbilical mothership over which particular womb, and I said to you, I put forward to you the proposition.
You, my friend, can experience one of two situations of injustice.
You can either have a good family and not get a $474 fine inflicted on your girlfriend, or you can have a bad, corrupt, nasty family and have a $474 fine inflicted on your girlfriend.
So, 17 to 20 years of living hell...
And a no $474 fine, or 17 to 20 years of pleasant times, followed by not having to withdraw from your family, followed by a lifetime of taking care of your family, and being with your family, followed by a couple of years of semi-dragginess at the end when your parents get ill.
So you get that good family, but on the downside you get the $474 fine, For your girlfriend.
Now, I've got to tell you, I don't claim to be psychic, but I'm leaning towards that the majority are not going to take the 17 to 20 year jail sentence when you're completely helpless, have no recourse to Amnesty International, and no lawyers to call, and no possibility of standing up for yourself or establishing any kind of prison-based hierarchy.
I bet you most people are going to say, well, you know what, I'm not going to take the 17 to 20 year completely helpless and dependent jail term.
I'm just going to take the $474 fine, and Bob Barker will call it even.
And I can't think a single soul is going to say, yeah, you know, 17 to 20 years of enslavement when I'm helpless, but hey, at the end of it, I'm up $474.
Or at least I'm not down $474.
Now, that having been established, that having been established...
It's very, very clear to recognize that the evil that has been inflicted upon Bob and his girlfriend by their families, by dear Mama and dear Papa, and associated siblings and extended family,
that the evil that has been inflicted upon Bob and his girlfriends by his family is many thousands of times worse than Than the fine he just got, or his girlfriend just got from the government.
What would you pay to avoid a 17 to 20 year jail term?
I would pay millions of dollars.
Millions of dollars. Billions of dollars if I had them.
What would you pay to avoid having had the family experiences that you had?
What would you pay for a good, kind, loving, curious, intellectually stimulating, loving, lovable, and noble family?
That you were overjoyed when their name came up on the call display and you couldn't wait to see them at Christmas and you didn't want to move away from them because you couldn't wait for them to be grandparents and for you all to share that joy.
That's possible. We all know that's possible.
Human relationships can be a beautiful thing.
How much would you pay for that kind of family?
Would you pay 10% of your income?
You know, somebody said to you, before you were born...
You're going to have to pay 10% taxation.
You'll have a great family. Or if you don't want to pay that 10% taxation, that's fine.
Your family is going to be crap and mean-spirited and manipulative and destructive in various manners.
How much would you pay for a happy childhood followed by a happy adulthood with a wonderful family?
What's that worth for you?
of you.
You see that on eBay.
What's your opening bid?
That's a very interesting question, I would say.
And it's not really that theoretical.
Not because I'm about to sell it on eBay, but because it's very important to help you understand the hierarchy of wrongs that you're facing in your life.
I'd pay 75% taxation...
Pretty much to have had a happy childhood.
Easy. Easy.
Right? Because with a happy childhood, I'd be able to make that much more, even more than I'm doing now, because I would have not had to spend my 20s getting myself sorted out.
I wouldn't have wasted money on relationships, time, energy, and money on relationships, both professional and friend-based and romantic, that didn't work out.
So I'd still be ahead.
My God, it'd be fantastic.
I mean, I might go as high as 80% or 85%.
Because it sure would suck if I had to make that decision before I was born.
It would sure suck if I said, no, only 50% and then I got hit by a bus when I was 22.
Well, that would kind of suck, right?
So there's all that stuff you have to take into account.
But whatever money...
If you would pay for a happy childhood, I bet you it's less than the government is charging you in licenses.
It may not be less than the entire summation of money that you're paying in taxes for your whole life.
I bet it would be, but I'm obviously not going to make that decision for you.
If you had a good family and you're self-employed, obviously that's not a deal that's going to be of particular interest to you.
But for most of us who are getting hit with savage taxation and who didn't have great families, yeah, I can see that being a deal that would net a certain amount of cash.
But I bet you it's thousands upon thousands of times $474.00.
Right? People buy houses.
Wouldn't you buy a happy house for 20 years while you were growing up and your first impressions of the world?
Can you imagine who you would be if you didn't have to straighten yourself out?
But we're born and raised straight.
Well, you're born straight.
We're all born straight, but we're raised straight.
So what I'm trying to say with this analogy or this metaphor...
Is that Bob's girlfriend got hit with $474 and Bob is really angry.
And I understand that.
And I say, just pay the money.
And he's like, but I'm really angry.
And I say, sure you are, but you're angry at your parents.
And he's all, what do you mean I'm angry at my parents?
I'm angry at the fine.
And my particular opinion about that is, sure you're angry at the fine.
I understand that. But if you're going to get angry over being exploited and bullied, then, my friend, you need to look at the old family portrait a little bit more than you need to look at a $474 bill from the government.
And I don't say that to be mean.
I say that to be helpful.
Because right now, Bob and his girlfriend are still seeing their families, even though those families are corrupt and unpleasant to deal with.
They're still hanging out with it.
They're still hanging out with their accidental biological cages, their ABCs, their foos, or family of origins.
Yeah, let's go over for Thanksgiving.
Yeah, let's go over for Christmas.
Ooh, it's Mother's Day. Ooh, it's Father's Day.
Ooh, it's Third Cousin's Day.
So obviously the level of exploitation that these people experienced as children doesn't make them angry enough to do something, to stop seeing these people.
Right? That's important.
That's very important. If the level of exploitation that you experience at the hands of your family doesn't make you angry enough to goddamn well do something about it, Then don't talk to me about how angry you are at the government.
The government exploits you far less than your family.
Assuming you're not currently in jail for drugs, governmental exploitation of you as an adult is insignificant compared to familial exploitation of you as a child.
Insignificant! It doesn't even show up on the radar.
It's not even a blip in the audio.
Yeah, we've got to pay all these taxes, we've got to pay all these silly rules, and our real wages are declining, and blah blah blah.
Absolutely. I got it.
I got all of that. That's nothing compared to the amount of control that your parents had over you when you were a child.
And all the government wants is my money.
Right? The government doesn't come over and yell at me.
The government doesn't come over and beat me up.
The government doesn't come over and mock me and tease me.
The government doesn't come over and call me stupid for having any opinion that I have.
Just pay the fuckers off.
Pay them off. Pay them off and work at the ideas that give them strength.
That's the way to go.
But to imagine that the government is your primary source in your life of being exploited is absolute madness.
Absolute madness.
We just prefer to get angry at the government because it's easier, right?
We don't have to walk over to the White House and break up with the government.
We can get angry at the government all we want.
But that misses the real exploitation that we have experienced as human beings, which is at the hands of our parents when we were children.
It's a lot easier to get angry at the government than to stop seeing your own family.
I understand that. My God!
I spent 15 years being angry at the government before I stopped seeing my own family.
I'm just saying don't make it 15 years.
I'm just saying don't make it that length of time.
Do it sooner. Now, I'm not saying that you've got to stop seeing your family if they're corrupt.
I never have. But if you have decided to continue seeing your family, even though they're corrupt and give you no pleasure, or just give you no pleasure, or give you negative pleasure, we can never be neutral.
It's either positive or it's negative, right?
So, even though you are unhappy when you see your family...
If you continue to see them, then you're saying okay to exploitation.
You're saying, I value being exploited.
I want to be exploited.
I voluntarily go over to be exploited.
And harmed.
And dismissed.
And scorned. And ignored.
And ridiculed. And bored.
And maybe humiliated.
And all the other tasty treats that the family can spread on your buffet of dysfunction.
So if you go over and see families that hurt you, then don't get angry at the government.
It's ridiculous.
It's embarrassing to see.
And I know that that sounds harsh, but it's very, very true.
It's ridiculous to get angry at the government when you have already okayed and supported and agreed to and praise exploitation in your personal life.
Yeah, my family can humiliate me and humiliated me for 27 or 32 or 65 or 90 years.
Okay, maybe not 90. 65, let's stop at it.
My family can humiliate me and make me feel like crap and were able to do that for the first 15 to 17 to 20 years when I was helpless and dependent.
And I continue to go over and give them gifts and to see them and to support them.
To give my sanction.
To give my approval to what they did.
But I am so against the exploitation of the government I can't even speak about it.
Well, don't speak about it because it's nonsense.
It's really... I mean, I know it's harsh, but when you get it, you will laugh too, because it's funny.
It's funny. If you're against exploitation, start with your personal relationships.
Start with your family. Start with what you have control over with, if you don't like being harmed and exploited.
Then you can put what the government does in perspective.
With the government, it's not personal.
It's not personal. There's no sadism.
I mean, I guess on occasion, maybe.
But it's not personal.
When they take your taxes, it's not personal.
Like the local mafia doesn't come and take protection money from you because they don't like you and leave everyone else alone.
They just take protection money from everyone because they're the mafia, and that's what they do.
The government doesn't tax you because they're trying to humiliate you.
They just tax you because they're a brutal gang and that's what they do.
But with the family, it's personal.
With the family, it's personal destruction.
It's personal corruption. It's you that they act against.
And I know there's lots of reasons why you can make the case that it's not you psychologically, that they're projecting and so on.
But I'm just talking about relative to what goes on in the government or with the mafia.
You know, it's like someone is being charged 50 bucks a month by the mafia for sort of, quote, protection money.
And they have this abusive, drunken father...
Who they give $5,000 a month to.
Who comes into their store, knocks everything over, causes lots of damage, yells at them, screams at them, drives away their girlfriends.
And then they sit down the whole time getting really angry about the $50 a month that they pay to the mafia for protection.
That's their big concern about exploitation.
That's their big concern about injustice.
I mean, wouldn't you have a little bit of a tough time keeping a straight face in that situation?
Wouldn't you almost be, like, afraid to mention because it just seemed so obvious that if exploitation and corruption are your big issues, then maybe you should look at your drunken father rather than el-mustachioed mafioso.
Just maybe.
Maybe the guy who's costing you 100 times more.
Because your family is going to cost you.
I mean, when you stay by your family, if they've been corrupt, man, they're going to cost you over time.
It's not a cheap proposition to have aging parents around.
Maybe it works out if they're rich and you inherit, who knows?
But I don't think that's the case for these two, for Bob and his girlfriend.
And that's why I said get angry at your family and forget about this fine.
Go pay the fine and go yell at your family.
But if you're going to keep your family in your life, don't complain about the exploitation of the state.
You have no leg to stand on.
Logically. You have no leg to stand on.
If you are against exploitation, then start at home.
If you wish to oppose exploitation, why not pick up the phone and break with your family for some period of time, and then you get the medal called, I'm against exploitation and I've done something about it other than splutter with rage and do nothing.
If you don't like being exploited, if you don't like being bullied, If you don't like knuckling down to a power hierarchy, call your parents and have that conversation with them.
Do not rail about the state and then go and see your exploitive family.
It's ridiculous.
And you are then more enslaved than if you just went along with everything.
If you're going to get on your high moral horse, and I totally understand the desire to do that, I rarely get down from my high moral horse, I fully understand that, then do something effective and personal.
Do something effective and personal.
Don't rail against a state which you can't do smack about and claim to be so against Exploitation and bullying.
And then go and hang with your corrupt family.
It's madness.
Madness, I tell you.
If you're going to use the argument for morality, then use it.
If you want to say, I'm pissed off at the state because I don't want to pay this money.
Yeah, the state has a right to ask me, but I'm pissed off because I don't want to use this money.
I don't want to spend this money.
Well, that's fine. I don't think it's the best reason, but I don't care, right?
It's fine with me. It's neither fine nor not fine with me.
But if you're going to pull out the argument for morality and say that the state should not have the power to take this money from me because it's exploitive, the state should not have this unjust power over me, the state is abusing its authority, oh, then, my friend, you have pulled out the big sword of the argument for morality.
And then every human being in the world has the reason or quite the right to ask politely, oh, so you're against exploitation.
You're against being bullied by people in power.
Yes, I find it morally abhorrent that I should pay this $474 license fee from the government.
It is wretched beyond words.
I stand against it in thundering tones.
Well, I think that's fine.
But are you dealing with a principle here, or just an emotional reaction?
If you're dealing with an emotional reaction, just fine.
Just say, you know, I'm so angry I could spit.
That's fine. That's honest.
But once you start bringing in, I'm angry because of exploitation.
I'm angry because of bullying based on a power disparity.
I'm angry because, because, because.
Well, then you're using the argument for morality.
And I'm fine with that too.
But recognize that when you use the argument for morality, you're sort of expected to apply those principles to yourself in general.
And certainly a worse or wider or deeper power disparity and bullying based on that power disparity, certainly the greater the power disparity, in other words, the more helpless the victim, the worse the evil, And if you're going to fire off letters and go to Mark Stevens' website and find all of the ways to get out of it legally and do this, that, or the other, I think that's fine, but I would say, is this the top priority for you for dealing with exploitation?
I mean, if you're the doctor in the proverbial land of the plague, and you say, I am dealing with the top priority, the top priority!
I believe that we must do what we can to help keep people alive.
The top priority! And you're not binding the spewing veins of somebody whose leg's just been cut off, but instead you're checking someone for potential moles that could be cancerous at some point in the future.
I sort of might say that if you believe that it's important to deal with the most serious issues first and that health is your first priority and saving people is your first priority, I might ask you to justify, you know, to whatever degree you can, dealing with something so inconsequential in the moment relative to the guy bleeding to death of checking someone for moles that may be cancerous at some point in the future based on their sun exposure or something like that.
And if you say, no, I just prefer looking at moles.
I don't want to deal with that. It's fine.
Then at least you're making a preference that's based on, you know, you're not appealing to a value.
You're not saying your preference is supported by a value.
You're just saying, no, I prefer looking at moles.
Ew, it's bleed. It's blood.
I don't like blood, really. It makes me queasy.
Well, that's fine. But if you say, no, health is the highest principle and saving lives is the highest principle, then if you walk right past the guy or a couple of guys bleeding to death on the ground to go check someone who has no evidence of any kind of ailment for a couple of spots on their skin, then you do look a little foolish, right?
I hope that that's sort of relatively clear.
You look a little foolish, not because of what you're doing, but what you're doing relative to your values.
Relative to your outwardly and statedly values.
Your outwardly stated values.
There we go. Ah, we've made it.
We've made it through a sentence. Because if your stated values are bullying and exploitation is wrong, and you reserve all of your emotional anger for a small fine from the government rather than many, many years of exploitation at the hands of your family when you were helpless and had no choice...
Well, I gotta tell you, I think you might be missing it.
I think you might be missing it.
And why is this important? Why is this important?
Well, for me, at least, the argument that I'd make as to why it's important is because if you're spending your emotional energy on getting angry at the state, if you're spending your emotional energy getting angry at the state, what are you not getting angry at?
We are supposed to be about the true self here.
We're supposed to be about not succumbing to the false emotions of the false self.
So the false and exaggerated emotions of the false self.
Which are all designed to obscure us from the deep and genuine passions of the true self.
Well, if you're getting angry at the government for a small fine, rather than your family for decades of exploitation and hostility and destruction, or destructive tendencies...
Well, you're kind of letting your family off the hook and getting angry at the government.
It's easy to get angry at the government because the government doesn't talk back.
You don't sit down in a vulnerable manner with the government and talk about your feelings.
It's safer. It's a lot safer and, frankly, ineffectual and destructive to get angry at the government relative to getting angry at people who've actually done you direct and personal harm when you were helpless and vulnerable.
So it's very, very damaging and destructive to just get angry at the government rather than get angry at the true injustice of life, which is the family.
You know, you have to give up your story about why you're angry, right?
I mean, that's pretty important as well.
If you get this money, or so you get this fine attached to you, or you get this license fee that you have to pay, 474 bucks, that's fine.
You can say, I don't want to pay it.
But you can't say that I don't want to pay it because the government is evil and I don't like exploitation.
And exploitation is wrong and they're bullying me and they have all the power and they're forcing me to do things.
You can't say any of that and then go and see your family.
You have to give up your story.
Right? Because I'll tell you, I'll tell you, my brother, you are not angry at the government.
You are not, not, not, not, not angry at the government.
I mean, it certainly will be the case that once you work through your issues with your family, and I don't mean by spending time with your family, once you work through your issues with your family, that you will then be angry about the government.
But right now, you can't tell.
It's all undifferentiated.
And the anger that you're feeling, well, first of all, the anger that you're feeling is proportional to your girlfriend's projection of helplessness, right?
So your girlfriend is anguished by this fine because she doesn't feel like she can pay it.
And probably the reason that your girlfriend is anguished by this fine is because it's going to probably put her in a situation where she's going to be in thrall to her own parents again, right?
She can't pay this fine, so she's going to have to go to her parents, and she's then going to have to say, oh, I can't pay this, and so I'm going to have to go to my parents and borrow the money, and what does that do?
Well, that puts me in the power of my parents again.
That's what's going on psychologically.
I'll bet you a good chunk of change that that's what's going on psychologically.
And so she's experiencing a good deal of panic about this license fee from the government because it's going to put her into some sort of This subjugated relationship with her family again, which brings up all the childhood issues, all the control, all the bullying, all the contempt, all of the stuff that went on with her and her family when she was younger.
So, if you don't mind, I'm going to sort of take a swing and unravel this.
It might be useful for other people as well.
Your girlfriend gets this bill.
She can't pay it, so she freaks out.
And she can't pay it, and she can't go to her family and borrow the money.
I mean, she could, but that will be re-exposing or re-opening a whole bunch of childhood wounds, right?
So she gets really angry and upset and hostile and frustrated and all that.
And why is that? Because of her family, right?
Not only is she not able to go to her family to borrow the money or to whatever, right?
Get some help. Because they're mean and they'll control her or make her feel bad or something like that.
But also... She's the kind of person who's not been taught the kind of skills of preparation and foresightedness and so on to be able to anticipate these costs and to figure out that in life you always need extra money.
Being broke is being destitute.
You always need extra money because there's always expenses that you can't predict.
Oh, suddenly my brakes are gone on my car.
I spent $800. There's always stuff that you have.
It comes from the government. It comes from anywhere.
It doesn't matter. And she's working at a job that's 12 bucks an hour.
Why? Because she hasn't got emotional skills or she's missing certain kinds of professional skills or she's missing certain kinds of anger management skills or whatever, right?
But dysfunctional emotional behavior is very expensive in terms of your career, right?
I mean, you don't get ahead if you don't have at least some kind of emotional maturity.
At least you don't stay ahead even if you do.
So she's frustrated because she's in this situation.
She's young enough to still be able to blame her family for just about everything.
She's 19. So she's very angry because this is going to put her in the tender mercies of being subjugated to her parents again.
And the very fact that she has this pay-little job and can't get ahead and can't get any savings is also partly due to her family or largely due to her family and how they treated her.
So she's angry at her family.
Now, she can't express that because she's 19.
She's just not very good at predicting the consequences of her actions, but she can sure figure out.
I mean, not just because she's 19, but...
She can sure figure out that her family's going to take it rather amiss, and plus she doesn't want to piss them off because she might need to borrow some money from them, and so she can't get angry at her family, even though to a large degree she's in this mess because of her family.
So she gets really, really angry, and rather than listening to that and helping her understand all of these factors, you go off on a rant about the government.
Right? And there the anger grows and gets larger and larger because feelings always escalate if they're not directed at their proper object.
So, if you had a very distant mom and had an attachment disorder and you end up thinking that, I don't know, Melanie Griffith should be your mom and you start stalking her, those feelings will never diminish or be controllable because they're directed at the wrong object.
So, if you get angry at the government rather than getting angry at your family, you're going to set yourself up for a life of chronic irritation and futility.
I mean, I know I sound mean, but I'm trying to be helpful here.
In that sort of house slash Dr.
Cox kind of way. But I'm trying to be helpful here.
I don't want you to have this life of resentment, anger, and futility.
I want you to have a life of peace of mind, of productivity, of love and joy.
And that's not dependent upon the government.
It's frankly not dependent on anyone who's not directly got a gun pointed at your head.
But I don't want you to feel that.
And it's not true that the primary injustice that is occurring here is between the government and your girlfriend.
That's just not the case at all.
And if you think it is the case, then you're going to miss any kind of real solution.
You guys are both at a real crossroads here.
This is very important. This is a very important moment in your lives.
Like, a lot of life is filler, right?
I've got to fill my car, I've got to drive on a highway, whatever, I've got to go to a meeting.
A lot of life is filler, but it does come down to some really important things at times.
And this one right now, right here, is a very important thing.
You guys need to use this anger and this frustration to deal with the proper objects, which is family corruption, and not worry about the state until at least you've dealt with the family stuff.
And then you can begin focusing on larger injustices, right?
But you deal with your own issues first and your own personal life first, and then you start to work on to the universals.
So I hope that that's helpful. Thank you so much for listening.
I'm glad to be back on some slightly better audio.
I appreciate those who are sending in donations.
I think I'm going to have to spend quite a bit on upgrading the server.
But I will tell you a little bit more about that as we go forward.
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