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March 8, 2007 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
35:25
674 You Cannot Be Free Because...
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Good afternoon, everybody.
Hope you're doing well. It's Steph.
It is 20-ish to 6 on the 8th of March, 2007.
And it's time for a new feature, a new approach.
Yay! A new layer in the Free Domain Radio flan.
And this layer is going to be called You Can't Be Free Because.
You can't be free because.
It's a very sad tale and it's something that we're told endlessly, often, repeatedly, inevitably.
You can't be free because.
So shut the fuck up and go back and sit down in your little stool.
And one of them came up on the board today, and it sort of ties in with the theme of this afternoon, which we're going to talk about.
And this is somebody who posted it, and it's a little tongue-in-cheek, but really, I mean, I've heard this argument before.
You can't be free because there are killer asteroids.
You can't be free because God's going to throw a rock at your head.
And we hear this stuff all the time.
And these... Reasons are constantly changing.
These reasons are constantly changing.
It's like the spokes around the wheel.
The hub remains the same.
The spokes are whirring and blurring and going in different speeds and rotating and so on.
And they've got those little colored balls in that we all had on our banana-shaped bikes when we rode in the 80s.
And the club which is used to beat us back into submission, the hammer which is used to pound us down, the sword which cuts off our aspirations, it changes names and it changes approaches and it changes justifications, but fundamentally the answer is always the same.
The question is always the same, but the words will change slightly.
So there's lots of reasons why human beings are told That you can't be free.
Lots of becauses around you can't be free because.
So, you can't be free because you're black.
Sorry about the whole slavery thing, but you can't be free because you're black.
Oh, you can't be free because you're a woman.
You can't be free because you're a child.
You can't be free because you don't have a certain amount of property.
So sorry, you can't be free because of X, Y, and Z. And throughout the 20th century, there's been tons and tons of justifications.
You can't be free because we have to fight the Hun.
You can't be free because we have to control the stock market.
You can't be free because we have to control the money supply, because otherwise things will just be a real mess.
You can't be free, my friends, because we're in the middle of a depression, for God's sakes.
And we need the government to have power so that the government can solve the problems of the Depression.
That's what? Caused by the Depression?
Caused by government? Never!
Never! You must be mad. Oh, I'm so sorry.
You can't be free. Because we now have to go and fight the Axis powers.
Oh, and now you can't be free, you see, because there's a Cold War.
Oh, oh, now, gosh, you can't be free.
Sorry, your lottery number might come up and we're going to have to ship you off to Vietnam because of some absurd domino theory.
You can't be free because of that.
Sorry. Oh, no, you can't be free because of the poor.
See, the poor exist, and the poor are around, and the poor need to be fed and clothed and housed and schooled and so on, and so you can't be free.
Sorry, we'd love to have you be free, but you can't be free because, you see, there are poor people in this country, and you can't be free so that we can help them.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
You can't be free because we need to give money to foreign people so that they will join the world community and they will not be upset and angry at us and they will like us and we won't face any problems from there.
Oh, God, I'm so sorry.
That didn't seem to work out as well.
In fact, by giving money to all these dictators, by giving hundreds of millions of dollars of aid and billions of dollars of military, direct military aid, And agricultural subsidies, I think close to half a billion dollars to Saddam Hussein.
It turns out he doesn't actually like us that much.
Actually, he's kind of indifferent, but we've turned out not to like him that much.
So I'm sorry you can't be free now because there is terrorists out there who would do us harm.
And so sorry you can't be free because we have to fight the war on terror.
And on, and on, and on, and on, and on it goes.
And of course, it's not...
It's hard to see for anybody with eyes that are open, even a crack, that the problems are all caused by the government.
Why are there poor people?
Other than people who want to be poor by choice.
Why are there poor people?
Because it's the government. Minimum wage.
Taxation and welfare and paying teenagers to have children.
It's not that hard to figure out where that leads, right?
So why are there poor people? Because there's government.
Why is there a war on terror?
Because there is government which has spent tens of billions of dollars, if not hundreds of billions of dollars, arming bloodthirsty dictatorships the world over.
And it doesn't take long for the people who've grown under these dictatorships to figure out where the money and the weapons are coming from.
And so, naturally, they dislike the United States just as surely as you and I would dislike Saudi Arabia if Saudi Arabia armed and gave and trained all of the—some horrible— Theocracy under Pat Robertson that crushed all of our human rights and threw our women out of schools and so on.
And we would hate the Saudis for funding this.
And so all of this stuff.
As you can't be free because, you see, there are generally two categories, right?
There's fear and there's guilt.
And you can't be free. And this is...
If you really want to become free in this world and if you really want to blaze a trail to freedom, these are the two things that you must overcome.
Fear and guilt.
Fear and guilt, right?
So... You can't be free because there are these bad people in the world who will do us harm.
And that appeals to fear.
It's the war, war on terror, Al-Qaeda, whatever.
And then there's you can't be free because some people aren't doing well.
And that's why you can't be free.
There are poor people out there.
Sad-eyed youngsters starving to death on street corners and so on.
Old people with no money for medication.
And that's why you can't be free.
And these things are pounded into us so often and so over and over.
All of this wretched mess is pounded into our heads over and over and over again.
You can't be free because we're going to scare the shit out of you or we're just going to make you hang your head with heavy guilt.
This is why you can't be free.
And the fundamental freedom that, of course, we need, that is what I'm talking about, what I'm talking about and have been talking about from, like, podcast 1.01, is freedom from fear and freedom from guilt.
This is what is fundamentally required to be free as a human being.
And if human beings can get over this fear and guilt, which is the legacy of priests and politicians and parents, Then we can be truly free because we're not going to need a state.
People will say stuff and it really won't make any sense, right?
I mean, when an atheist is told that 9-11 happened because of lesbians living in Brooklyn, it's funny.
I mean, it's sad intellectually and it's creepy morally, but it's just funny.
You just sort of laugh at it, right? Because we just totally get that it's not the fault of lesbians living in Brooklyn that two planes went into the Twin Towers.
I think that much at least the conspiracy theorists will agree with.
So... If that is the case, then we can look at that kind of causality and laugh.
And laugh at it. It holds no power over an atheist.
It's something that just helps people to see just how ridiculous religious quote thinking is.
Or that AIDS in Africa is a punishment for the wanton lifestyles of the Africans or that AIDS is a punishment on the wanton lifestyles of homosexuals or whatever, right?
When you're an atheist or just sensible, even remotely, then you look at that causality and it has no hold over you.
It has no hold over you.
And in the same way, if somebody says to me, well, you can't be free because some old people can't afford their medication, it holds as much power over me as somebody saying to you, you can't be free because Zeus wants you to serve me.
It's like, yeah? What other fairy tales have you got that I'm supposed to laugh at?
You know, tell me some more.
This is a stand-up act, right?
You're kidding. I have to have guns pointed at me because some people didn't save for their medication?
What on earth kind of logic is that?
They can ask me for help, and maybe I'll be more than happy to donate, and maybe I'll be more than happy to help them.
But you get to stick a gun in my head because some other people are irresponsible?
You get to stick the jackboot of the state on my neck and jam it down?
Because some people didn't choose to go to college?
I have to be threatened with the dungeon enslavement of state rape rooms because some woman got banged up when she was 16?
It's ludicrous.
You look at the cause and effect. I can't be free because.
Because people make bad decisions, I now can't make decisions.
I have a gun pushed in my face because some people like to drink too much.
The causality is hilarious.
I mean, it's ridiculous when you get it sort of under your skin, just how ridiculous it is, right?
And so now, this is one floating of killer asteroids.
Well, you can't be free because there are killer asteroids.
Because who would fund research into how to get rid of killer asteroids if there is no state?
Well, the dinosaurs, clearly.
They would fund it. They've been there.
They know. They know.
And just think of all the money they got paid for those Jurassic Park movies.
They can fund it, no problem.
But, you know, for me the answer is, fuck, you care, you fund it.
If you care so much, then you can devote your life to it.
Yeah, I'd be willing to kick over 50 bucks a year to check out for killer asteroids.
Why not? But I'd be damn sure that people actually had some idea of the risk, right?
Because we have no idea what to be afraid of when there's the government and the media around.
We have no idea.
How to rationally stack fears.
Because we just kept bang from one side of the enclosure to the other.
We got random...
Water lobs of exploding substances just detonating all around us.
We're just running around from side to side of the enclosure.
Global warming! Oh, global cooling!
Acid rain! Oh, God!
Killer asteroids! The poor!
Al-Qaeda! Oh, God!
I mean, we're just basically leaving one big puddly stream of citizen urine all over the 40 acres that we're running in terror around.
So, I mean, we have no idea.
What are the rational risks of killer asteroids?
I have no idea. I do know that there are a number of scientists and bureaucrats who will get an enormous amount of money if they can scare the shit out of people, right?
I do know that.
Like the global warming.
I do know that there's, I don't know, $4 billion a year in funding going out to people who've made their entire lives work.
This whole global warming thing.
And there are other people who don't get this funding who are skeptical.
And lots of people who do get the funding aren't skeptical of global warming.
You wouldn't expect them to be, right?
We can praise the scientific method.
There's no reason to praise individual scientists who've come up with wonderful things like intelligent design and euthanasia and eugenics and phrenology and all of the other stuff that have come and gone as science throughout the years, throughout the ages.
And I think superstring theory still has to have a negative proof, right?
But it's funded, right? So who's going to say, oh, this is nonsense, I'm going to walk away from it?
I mean, nobody, right? So, for sure, there are some people who are going to get $100 million if they can scare the shit out of enough people about killer asteroids.
And so they're going to have a huge incentive.
No, you can say lie.
Who knows, right?
Who knows? Who cares? But I do know that anyone who's being paid $100 million to say something is probably not going to be that objective.
It's like saying that the advertisement company, the advert company that lands the Coca-Cola account is going to be completely objective about Coca-Cola when Coca-Cola is handing them $100 million a year.
Well, they might be objective about Coca-Cola and maybe they looked it over and said, well, we don't care about the money.
We don't care about the $100 million a year to be their PR firm or their ad firm or whatever.
But the real question is, do we believe in the product?
Maybe they did, but what conceivable reason would I have to believe that?
So the first thing, of course, to recognize is that we have no way of ranking the relative importance of things when people hanging off the government titties are just like a bunch of baying hounds snapping after our wallets.
Scientists are as susceptible to corruption as any other bureaucrat, and most of them work for the state.
Because the ones that don't work for the state, we don't hear from.
We don't hear from the guy in the Bayer labs working on an improved version of aspirin.
I mean, he's not doing interviews saying giant asteroids made of aspirin are going to crash into the earth, so give me $100 million.
He's not in the business of fear.
He's not in the state of fear.
A bureaucrat in the state of fear.
That we're just supposed to be terrified of everything all the time.
And anybody who professes a lack of terror is corrupt, is an idiot, is evil.
I mean, you should see the stuff I get about global warming.
I'm skeptical as hell about global warming.
After your 10th or 20th environmental catastrophe scare that pans out to complete nothing, yeah, excuse me for being a little skeptical.
Jesus Christ. But I won't live in fear.
I certainly won't live in fear because people who are paid with money extorted from me at gunpoint tell me that I need to give them more money.
Good Lord!
Good Lord!
I mean, who am I in danger from?
I forget killer asteroids.
How about the local tax man?
How about the justice system?
How about the cops? Those are the people who can really do me harm.
Big floating chunks of interstellar rock.
I'll take my chances.
Thank you very much. But I think that's great.
You can't be free because there are killer asteroids.
And that's the fear side. And you can look at these you can't be free statements.
And you can very easily see which category.
Fear or guilt? Fear, guilt, gear, filth.
Which one do you want? There's only two.
There's only two. I mean guilt is on obligations and all that kind of stuff.
But this is primarily to do with families.
But you can't be free.
Is this fear or guilt? It's because you're doing better than some people and that's why you can't be free.
You must be enslaved because you're doing slightly better than your neighbor.
It's the old thing they used to say in school when I first came to Canada.
I don't think I ever heard it in England, but I'm sure it's there now.
You stick a piece of gum in your mouth, right?
The teacher says, did you bring enough gum for everyone?
It's like, I don't know, does this mean I never have to bring my lunch again because other kids are going to bring me lunch?
Can we share marks as well?
How about clothing?
How about body fluids?
No! Absolutely not.
But that's guilt, right?
Suddenly you can't enjoy something because somebody else doesn't have something.
As if you enjoying something is the cause of them not having it.
I am not the cause of poverty in Africa.
And saying that I cannot be free because there is poverty in Africa...
It's not only a ridiculous statement of causality, but it is completely the reverse of truth.
It is because I am not free that there is poverty in Africa.
Ooh, I'm yelly today.
Right, this is the...
This is the basic reversal of cause and effect that if you can establish this with people with any kind of consistency or legitimacy or emphasis or force, you will win the argument hands down and save their souls.
You say, well, you can't be free because there are poor people.
No, no, no. There are poor people because I am not free.
You can't be free because old people can't afford their prescriptions.
No. They can't afford their prescriptions because I am not free.
And you are not free and they are not free.
That is why they cannot afford their prescriptions.
Let's look at the communist model, right?
Within like eight minutes after the collapse of the Soviet Empire...
People were selling Rolexes on the streets of Moscow and St.
Petersburg and, heaven forbid, Vladivostok.
And people had the money to buy them.
Within like nine minutes, every third person and his dog had a cell phone.
So were they not free because there were other people who were poor in Russia?
No. Everybody in Russia was poor because they weren't free.
And that's how you fight the guilt.
You just reverse the cause and effect.
The cause is not that people are poor and therefore I must have my freedom taken away.
No. I have my freedom taken away or I'm born into a society without freedom and lo and behold, people are poor.
Isn't that a shocker? $40 trillion poured into Africa in the past 40 years?
What's happened? Well, some dictators have bought a whole lot of guns and lots of people have retired to the Caribbean.
And lots of money has bounced back to political donors behind the people who run the foreign aid campaigns.
So people in Africa are poor because of foreign aid.
We don't have foreign aid because people in Africa are poor.
I mean, the very causality would be something that would be a clue there, right?
So, as foreign aid has continued to escalate, people have gotten poorer and poorer in Africa.
So they say, huh, well, as we do more of this, we get the opposite of the effect we intend.
Now, any sane human being would change their behavior, right?
Any sane human being.
We change their behavior. You got a GPS in your car, you want to drive east, the GPS says you go on west, what are you going to do?
Hit the gas? Of course not.
You're going to turn around and go east. Shit, I'm going the wrong way.
That's what happens in a sort of free situation.
In a coercive state-run situation where they say, well, we must give foreign aid because the Africans are poor.
Well, we give more foreign aid, the Africans get poorer, which is entirely predictable because the foreign aid is given to the governments, not the people.
The people won't return it.
The governments will. The governments won't buy...
People won't buy your weapons.
The governments will. So you give the money to the dictators and oddly enough the people seem to get poorer.
Or do they change their...
No, of course. They don't change their tactic.
they forgive the debts and start all over again.
So clearly...
Clearly it's not that people are poor and therefore there's foreign aid.
You just look at the statistics.
Clearly... People are poor because there is foreign aid.
So when anybody...
Any questions?
Whenever anybody says to you, you are not free, you cannot be free, you must not be free because of X. Whatever X is, I guarantee you that it exists because you are not free.
So let's say global warming is totally real.
Massive, terrifying, real phenomenon.
And we've got to save the planet before we all end up in a Kevin Costner movie.
God help us. Then you say, well, you must now not be free because of global warming.
You say, no, global warming exists because I am not free.
Global warming exists because I am not free.
Global warming, if it is a real phenomenon, is caused by man-made fossil fuels.
It exists because the government runs the electricity grid, and because the government taxes everyone to pay for the roads, and because the government runs the transit systems which universally suck, and because there are no bike paths on roads, and because there are these ridiculous emission standards And trading standards for emissions so you can pollute in one country if you under-pollute in another country.
And governments have done nothing to even slow down the increase in the use of fossil fuels.
And governments run all of the stuff where fossil fuels is involved.
They have total control over industry.
They can order anyone into jail they want.
And they've known about this, as they claim, for like 15 years.
And the growth hasn't even slowed.
Individuals don't get any cost-benefit analysis for the things that they do.
Electricity is heavily subsidized, which increases people's use of it.
The government lands and industries are the worst polluting on the planet.
And then they have the nerve to say to me that I must give up more of my freedom because of global warming.
Global warming only exists because I'm not free to begin with, and neither are you.
Now, this is the fascinating thing.
It's an absolutely fascinating study in human psychology to have a debate with this.
To have a debate with this.
If people were really concerned about global warming, and they really believed it's man-made, it's this, it's that, right?
If people were really, really concerned with global warming, or poverty in Africa, or poverty in your country for that matter, Then they wouldn't, obviously they wouldn't continue to have the same pseudo-solutions.
You can't be free because there's somebody in Spokane who can't afford Huggies.
You can't be free because the poor children need to be educated.
No, no, no, no.
The poor children aren't being educated because I am not free.
The only way for poor children to become educated is for me to be free.
And you. And them.
Most importantly, their parents.
But it's absolutely fascinating.
Just try this. Try this on.
Try this reversal. Try this monkey-gets-fruit-jiu-jitsu reversal move.
Nanchuks up the nuts. Just give it a shot.
And just see. It's like...
Can't compute.
Can't compute.
I'm afraid I can't help you there, Dave.
Reboot. They just can't process it.
Because people don't give a shit about global warming.
I mean, frankly and fundamentally, because if they did, they would be exploring real solutions and not just paying at the government to tax and spend more, which obviously is doing nothing other than it's doing the reversal of what they want, right?
If they really cared about global warming, they would look and say, well, governments have done smack all, so obviously we need another solution, right?
The same way that if people were really concerned about the poor in Africa in the way that you and I actually are, Then they'd say, well, shit.
Government-to-government money transfers, taxation, and arms sales don't seem to be helping our old African brothers and sisters, so obviously we need a different solution, but that's not what people do.
It's so important to grasp the degree to which people will bullshit you about what they claim to care about.
It's just a manipulation. It's just a weapon.
It's the fear or it's the guilt.
They're picking up the hard club or the foggy club, but either way they're clubbing you down.
And they really convince you that they care about these things.
You can't be free because there are killer asteroids.
No, killer asteroids pose a risk because I'm not free.
Because sure as shit, there is no way that the government is going to solve the problem of killer asteroids.
Can't even freaking deliver mail on time, for God's sakes.
Can't even protect citizens from anything.
So, there's just no way, right?
If killer asteroids are a risk, then let's get rid of the government as quickly as possible.
The greater the risk, the more we need to get rid of the government.
But that's never what people mean.
What they mean is, submit.
Obey. And I'm going to give you an out.
I'm going to give you an excuse.
I'm going to give you this club, and you can club yourself and call it virtue.
But it's got nothing to do with what they're talking about.
This is so essential to understand.
The people say, oh, what about the poor?
What about the uneducated children in the public schools?
They go away, they won't get any money, they won't even get educated, an underclass.
But it's nonsense. They don't care about that stuff at all.
Because the government's been running education for like 130 years and it's shit.
If they really cared about education, they'd look at the declining test scores, they'd look at the hellhole, ass-rape, nightmare clown schools that pass for public education facilities, and they'd look for alternatives, if they really cared about the poor.
But it's not. It's a reflex, knee-jerk, guilt-or-fear piece of language that people just throw at you because it sticks and it makes people shut up and it makes them feel like they've won something, and it justifies the power that they submit to.
Because when people are really corrupt, they must come up with justifications as to why they're not free.
Why am I not free? Why do I submit to these clowns?
It can't be because I'm afraid of violence.
It's going to make me a coward, right?
People say, well, I'm not free because I care about the poor, you see.
I'm not free because I care about the planet.
Gaia is my big titty.
I'm not free.
I'm willing to surrender my freedoms out of patriotic love for the protection of the soil of my mother country.
I voluntarily relinquish my freedoms from virtue and...
Oh, virtue!
Yes! And that's what people are telling you over and over again.
I'm not a coward. I'm not a coward.
I'm not just submitting to force and violence.
I'm not just obeying. I'm a good guy.
That's why I'm doing it. Because I care about the planet and the poor and the old and the sick and the needy.
And I'm a good guy and that's why I submit.
This kind of milk-a-toast posturing is just ridiculous.
And you can see it blindingly clearly when you do this jiu-jitsu reversal on people.
You cannot be free because of this problem.
No. This problem exists because I am not free.
And if you really cared about this problem, you would set me free.
And the people, they don't even want to ask.
They don't... They don't even want to ask.
They don't want to know. They don't want to ask.
I've yet to meet one person who claims to be interested in global warming, who when I say global warming, if it is a threat, is a threat because I am not free, who then says, wow, never thought about that.
Tell me more. I'm interested because God knows what we've been doing for the last 15 or 20 years has done nothing but make the problem worse.
So, if you've got an alternative that really turns things around and is a very different way of approaching it, let's look at that.
Because I'm so committed to global warming and solving that problem that once I, now that I totally recognize that none of this stuff is solving the problem, this state approach, none of it is solving the problem, I'm willing to take the opposite approach.
Certainly, if the approach you're taking keeps making the problem worse, taking the opposite approach is probably a good idea.
If driving this way is heading in the wrong direction, turning around is probably a decent start.
It might not get you exactly where you want to go, but sure, a sunrise, it's the right approach to take.
But people won't ever be curious about that.
You never see that. You never see that with people when you debate them.
Children must be educated, therefore you cannot be free.
No. When I am not free, children are not educated.
Wow, that's interesting, because public schools seem to keep getting worse, so maybe you're onto something there.
Tell me more! That would be the response of somebody who really cared about educating people, children, the poor, whoever.
You can't be free because people can't afford medical procedures.
No. People can't afford medical procedures because I am not free.
Because the government runs all this stuff.
Either explicitly in socialistic countries or implicitly in the United States.
That's why people say, wow, that's really interesting.
Government power has been growing in the medical field for the last 50 years, and so has the price of everything, even in constant dollars.
So maybe you're onto something there.
At least be curious about it, if you really cared about the poor.
I mean, picture this, right?
How would we view a doctor?
He keeps prescribing a certain pill for an infection.
And every time he prescribes that pill, people's infections get worse.
And he says, wow, I really want to cure these people, but they keep getting sicker.
I better double my dosage.
And you say, no, it's not because you don't have a high FNAF dose, it's because you have too high a dose of this.
This is what is making them sick.
The pill you're giving them kills their white blood cell count, kills their immune system, and that's why.
You're injecting them with AIDS because they have an infection.
So you don't need more AIDS to cure the problem.
You don't need to inject them with more AIDS viruses to cure the infection.
This is what's making them die.
It's what's killing them. And you've got lots of reasons behind what it is that you're saying, but the doctor says, no, fuck you, I'm doubling the dosage.
Because I really care about these patients.
Well, at what point do we say, you know, I don't think you really do care about these patients.
Because if you did, you'd be curious about why they kept dying.
If you really did care about education, then you'd look for alternatives to the existing system, which keeps making it worse.
And if you really did care about the poor, domestically or overseas, you would look at different programs and different ways of approaching it.
Because clearly the ones that we have aren't working, right?
So... So, clearly, obviously, and totally, these people don't care about the poor, they don't care about the sick, they don't care about education, they're just using a club to get you to shut up, obey, sit down, nod your head, and either guilt yourself into oblivion, or they frighten you into submission.
It's fundamentally about themselves, and of course fundamentally it's about their parents, or it's about their family.
Why do I obey my family?
Because it's good to obey my family, not because I'm frightened of them or they make me feel guilty, because that would actually give me some moral responsibility in the matter.
So, thank you so much for listening.
Just try and keep this one, really this important one, to just net it into your brain, right?
Not directly.
Use gloves. Net it into your brain.
Just try this reversal.
You cannot be free because of X. No.
X is because I am not free.
And it will give you a chilling but accurate insight into the enslavement, the true enslavement of your fellow man.
And it's a little stomach-turning, but it's well worth seeing so that you can stop wasting your time with people that corrupt.
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