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Nov. 17, 2010 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
18:30
1789 Stefan Molyneux on the Ernie Hancock Radio Show, 17 November 2010

nuff said!

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Time Text
I stand here without fear because I remember.
I remember that I am here not because of the path that lies before me, but because of the path that lies behind me.
I remember that for 100 years we have fought these machines.
And after a century of war, I remember that which matters most.
We are still here!
Let us make them remember, we are not afraid!
We are not afraid!
Oh yeah, we're getting Stephen Molyneux rock and roll and whatnot.
I just wanted you to see that.
Yeah, there we go. Okay, we'll go back to me.
I'm just having fun. Yeah, we got to know all the buttons and everything.
You know, the one thing that we're doing, you know, we're just getting all techie here.
We got him Skyped from...
Where are you at, Stephen? I am just outside of Toronto, Canada.
Stephen Molyneux from Toronto.
You know, the one thing that I want to make sure that we do...
Let's go ahead and give a proper introduction to Stephen Molyneux.
And my first...
I guess a person-to-person experience with Stephan was at the Porcupine Festival in Northern New Hampshire.
And it was interesting for me to see how popular you were with the young people up there.
And you have grown in your influence throughout this voluntarist movement that is just, they're going, yeah, what Stephan said.
You know what Stephan said. What is it that Stephan Molyneux is saying that's got you so popular, man?
Well, I think that one of the things that I've really tried to focus on is to help people to do what they can do in their own lives.
I mean, so often in the freedom movement, we look at things that we can't solve, that we can't fix, at least not personally, right?
End the Fed. Hey, it would be great to add the counterfeit ring of the Federal Reserve.
Not a whole lot that you and I as individuals can do to bring that about.
I would love to get rid of taxation.
Not a lot that I can do about it other than get thrown in jail, which is not exactly going to add to my sum total of liberty.
So what I've really tried to focus on is to empower people as individuals to bring the message of freedom in a way that they can actually achieve something.
And that's starting with the personal and moving out to the political.
Most people want to leap over the personal, go straight to the political and try and solve everything from there.
I really try when I'm thinking of a solution to a problem, and I've got a great speech coming up, I think, at the Freedom Summit.
Really trying to focus on what can you achieve in your life to spread the message of freedom that is not going to be dependent upon what the mainstream media says or on what everybody else does with their voting tick box.
So I think empowering people to act in their own lives to become more free, I think has given me the status of a medium sized fish in a fairly small pond and that I think I'm grateful for.
Oh, we're going to try and get you as big a pun as we can here, you know, here at the Freedom Summit, freedomsummit.com.
You know, I am really looking forward to you participating.
If you look at the names of the people that are there, we just had Lawrence Reed on and Butler Schaefer today.
So, I mean, you're a good crowd.
So what I want to make sure is that all the audience knows is that they're going to get a heavy dose of what's to come.
Now, Lawrence Reed with Fee, he's a little bit more.
We can use the system to bring about some change and so on.
Butler's kind of, yeah, we're past that, you know.
So we're going to have a really good mix.
What you bring to it at the Freedom Summit, freedomsummit.com.
Gotta keep doing that because I want people to know that there is a party and it's going to be at the Freedom Summit.
It's the first weekend of December.
And all the listeners, you know, all the people here on LRN, Pick student, okay?
You get the student discount.
Because we're doing a lot of advertising in the Clear Channel talk station here, so we're going to get a lot of the conservatives.
They're going to be coming over, and I'm like, I want to make sure we're outnumbering them, man.
It's more fun.
So we're going to have a lot of people that are supportive of your message.
Now, what you're talking about Is this cultural sea change?
It's by individuals that have an impact on the political stuff and voting and all that.
That's a side effect.
That's a side effect of something else.
What is it that we are looking for as individuals to be able to accomplish?
We want to change ourselves.
What's the foundation that you're looking to alter us?
What is it that you want us to become?
We have to become how the future is going to look in our own time.
We have to become as free as humanly possible so that people see in a way through us a gateway into the world of the future that they want to join, that they want to come.
You know, if you spend your time fighting with people about politics and fighting with people about currency policy and fighting with people about foreign policy and war and taxes and so on, you look a lot less free because you're swimming against the current.
You look a lot less free Than you would if you simply lived like a beacon, like a lighthouse, like a flare, like a solar flare.
If you simply lived a free life yourself so that you could evoke in other people some kind of envy.
I know that sounds kind of petty in marketing, but hey, sue me.
I was a software entrepreneur. I like marketing.
You put the thin guy on the diet book.
You want the most free life that you can possibly have, the happiest life.
And that does not mean beating your head against the cheese grater of political indifference.
That means becoming a beacon of freedom in your own life so that people can say, hey, whatever that man has, whatever that woman has, I got to get me some of that.
And I think that's how this thing spreads.
Well, I tell you, that's one way to start.
I mean, are there any other option?
I mean, I want to give deference to the people that say, you know, Ron Paul is going to run again in 2012, and gosh darn it, we're going to support his, what, his political campaign, his speaking tour?
I mean, is it another batch of freed minds we're going to get from that?
And a lot of the people, and we saw this at Porkfest, there were a lot of people that were brought into the movement with his message of freedom.
But once they started getting access to the information, they went a little bit further and they started to realize from up close that, yeah, maybe this political thing is not the way to go.
Well, you know, I'm not for, I don't tell people what to do.
Vote, don't vote.
You know, that's not the point.
My point is, is that you free your own mind.
You have the information.
You wanna make the right decisions.
It's just where do you get the information And that's why I'm so supportive of your videos and, oh, we've got to give out your website and stuff so they can go watch your videos because they're great.
These are awesome.
And the idea that, look, man, we're just livestock.
You know, the end of free range is not freedom.
It's a Chicken McNugget box.
You know, that's my favorite video.
Statism Part 13, or the end of statism.
That's great. So go ahead and give out some information where people can get some more stuff on your videos and things that you provide for them.
Sure. You can go to freedomainradio.com, F-R-E-E-D-O-M-A-I-N radio, or you can go to youtube.com forward slash freedomainradio for videos, podcasts, and everything under the sun is just about free.
No obligation. Don't have to give me any information.
Just download and enjoy 1700 podcasts.
Five books, 400-plus videos.
I have been a busy Canadian beaver.
So I really, really encourage people to come and try out Philosophy and to get to the website and start bringing reason, evidence, and the good old Socratic method to you as the crowbar that takes the chains off your very limbs and allows you to fly like a Pegasus.
So I hope that people will come by the website.
And yes, Freedom Summit. You have to come to Freedom Summit.
This is the chance.
And I said this about... This is the chance to see the Beatles in Hamburg.
This is the chance to see the Beatles in 1962 when they were in Germany.
This is the chance to get in on the ground floor so that when freedom comes and your grandchildren say to you, what were you doing?
Where were you? What was your participation in the greatest battle for the free minds and souls of men?
You can say, I was there.
I supported. I cheered on.
I helped out. I donated.
I spread the word. I made debates.
I was in the front line Of the new wave to freedom.
That is a great thing to be proud of.
Don't miss out on seeing this kind of stuff live.
There's an energy in live stuff that you simply can't get reproduced through the web.
And I really, really encourage people to come out to get electrified, to get that good old plus Borg One feeling of being around like-minded people and getting that energy that only a larger group can provide.
You know, what we did is we planned on Sunday being kind of this anarchist day.
You know, we got Butler Schaefer and you and a lot of the other more kind of, you know, we try this political thing.
We're going to We're going to learn the truth.
So Sunday, we're going to have a special program for a lot of the ASU students for them to be able to come.
They can't even afford the student package.
We want to make sure they get the lunch program on Sunday.
It's all Stephan Molyneux from Toronto.
We'll be right back here on Declare Your Independence with me, Ernest Hamcock, and the Freedom Summit speaker, one of our featured speakers, Stephan Molyneux.
We'll be right back in just a little bit here on LRN.FM.
You stay right there. - Freedom's the answer.
What's the question?
You're listening to Ernest Hancock.
Here, crank it up here on Declare!
You're in the tennis debate!
Ernest Hancock here from Phoenix, Arizona, Iowa!
We have the Freedom Summit.
FreedomSummit.com.
Make sure you guys go check that out.
And anybody that lives here in Arizona, man, it's a rip-roaring good time.
You really should make every effort to go and see great speakers like Stephen Molyneux from Toronto.
I love saying that.
You know, it's just because I can.
You know, I got your site up here.
We have Freedom...
You know, how do you say that?
I call it Free Domain Radio.
That's perfect. That's just great.
Because it's freedom is the main thing.
And you want to be free in your own domain.
That's sort of the idea behind the name of the show.
Oh, very cool.
Very cool. Very cool. Now you have a YouTube channel.
We're showing that. And then we got your free domain radio main website.
Tell us, when people go to your site here, they're able to get, what, your five gazillion podcasts, videos.
When did you start doing that?
You know, 1700? Were you kidding me?
You know, what have you been doing the rest of your life?
I started doing this in 2005.
I got some articles published on Lou Rockwell's great site and I started reading those off as podcasts and then I had a long commute.
So I set up a little recorder in my car and I recorded thoughts.
I mean, I've been studying philosophy and economics and so on for like 25 years.
So I just started to record some thoughts.
I thought I'd just put it out as a little gimme podcast, mostly for friends to listen to and so on.
And it seemed to sort of strike a chord.
I did that for a couple of years while I was doing my full-time career.
And then I took that great Evel Knievel leap across the Grand Canyon, propelled by very kind and generous listeners.
The show is entirely free.
It's donation-based. I went full-time.
I quit my whole career and threw myself into podcasting, full-time writing books.
Doing interviews, making speeches, and it's just been a fantastic and beautiful and wonderful ride.
And I've had the enormous privilege of being able to be home with my young daughter, which is just wonderful.
She's just about to turn two, and that's been fantastic.
So, you know, again, massive kudos to the Liberty community for their generosity and support of what I'm doing, of what you're doing, and hopefully that will translate into people coming out to the Freedom Summit, which should be a complete blast.
Yes! Come to the Freedom Summit!
If you're not coming to the Freedom Summit, slackivist!
You know that's what... One of the ASU students here, Ben Nichols, that's his favorite one.
He came up with, I don't know who came up with, that's where I got it from.
Will you guys do that? Who came up with Slacktivist?
Ben, I like that.
Slacktivist. Well, you know, the one thing is that they're not Slacktivist here in Arizona, and we have been really, really busy on a lot of fronts, and it has been an expression of them just wanting to You know, there are those that just want to be left alone.
There are those that just won't leave them alone.
Which one are you?
And we know what Stephan is.
Stephan is, I'm a leave me alonist.
You know, they always want to categorize you.
You know, they always want to put you, you're an anarchist, a volunteerist, a libertarian, a capital, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You know, I just want to be a leave me alonist.
How about that? You know, so how would you classify yourself, man?
I would say self-defense, pacifist, voluntarist.
You could say anarchist, but that's just a word that evokes so many negative images for people that you might as well just say, you know, I'm Antichrist with horns and spitting blood and so on.
So, I mean, what I basically like to call myself is a philosopher because it's really what I do.
Now, there are some conclusions that you come to through the sort of rigid and consistent...
Pursuit of philosophy, there are conclusions that you come to.
And the conclusion that you come to is that a voluntary society is the only moral society.
If the initiation of force is wrong, which almost every reasonable, sane human being in the world agrees with, particularly when you're in a kindergarten class, that's what you're told, right?
Don't push, don't hit, don't steal, don't punch.
So if the non-aggression principle is valid, then it is valid for everyone.
It is not just valid for people who aren't wearing a blue costume.
But as soon as you put on that blue or green costume, by God, you are able to use violence at will in a moral way.
The extension of universality in the moral sphere is very challenging for society because we've inherited...
The state from thousands and thousands of years ago.
And it was not developed along rational lines.
It was not developed along philosophical lines.
It was not developed along moral lines.
It just kind of evolved like our appendix with the same amount of utility to us now.
It evolved based on need, based on desire, based on… No, it evolved based on theft, right?
It evolved like war.
It evolved because the most valuable resource to own is other human beings, and that's what we are.
I'm from the tax farm called Canada.
You're from the tax farm called the United States.
Owning people is much more valuable than owning livestock because people will milk themselves and give you the milk with a flag.
Because there's a huge class out there who just doesn't want to work for a living, but rather own people than do their own work.
You know, this is the conversation I'm having today with Butler and Lawrence and we had Judge Gray on yesterday and a lot of the speakers.
As I'm going, you know, how does this end?
I mean, you know, we have levels of government.
We have levels of ranchers.
We got many ranchers with their brand.
Our butt is so burned with brands, man, it's highly recognizable.
Okay, so everybody's going to want a piece of me.
Every shark's going to get their bite down to the bone.
I mean, that's it. And then at some point, you know, there's nothing left.
And then what happens?
We're nearing that point.
At least you can see it on the horizon.
And I'm going, you know, how does this play out?
I mean, as a philosopher, you must have studied history and seen that we've been through this before.
How does it play out?
Well, I tell you, Ernest, it plays out Specifically and exactly based upon the efforts of activists.
There is no inevitability in history.
History is not a rock rolling down a hill.
History is a series of forks and choices based upon will and courage and determination and strength and communication.
It is the choices of individuals that determine which way society goes.
Without a doubt, we're going to get better or we're going to get worse.
This mathematically cannot stay where it is.
Five years ago, I said 5 to 15 years.
So far, we're right on track.
I think it is the next five years, maybe even the next two years, that is absolutely crucial with where we're going to go.
Are we going to come out of this abyss and up again towards the light, towards the shining city on the hill that the Enlightenment promised us, but which the 19th century and 20th century stole from us?
Are we going to get up to that city on a hill where we live peacefully and voluntarily with each other?
Or are we going to continue down into a Stygian abyss Back towards 1984, towards totalitarianism, towards fascism.
It's going to go one way or the other.
And the only thing which is going to change it is the willpower and, in some cases, ferocity of individuals who are willing to take a stand, who are willing to put their values so deep into the ground That the world begins to revolve around the truth and reason and peace rather than the gun and manipulation and lies.
And that comes down to us.
That comes down to people getting together, making the case strongly, passionately, repeatedly, and not giving an inch To the dark forces that want to take us down.
You know, what we have now is a lot of great opportunities that we can demonstrate just how bad they're going to get.
And you're right, it takes a lot of courage.
And I remember a lot of my activist friends in the 90s, we've been doing this a while, and I remember whenever they would pass another draconian measure, I mean, they were getting into this, you know, hoarding baby formula in diapers during the Clinton administration.
That was like a bad thing, you know?
Every time they do something like this, gun control or more bailouts or whatever, we'd always just look at each other and go, eh, one day closer to freedom.
And the reason I say that is that we knew it was coming.
People will become aware.
Real quick, do you think we're going to have to go through the pain to reach for the Shining Hill?
No, it's going to be a lot easier than that.
Good. Optimism at the Freedom Summit.
FreedomSummit.com with Stephan Molyneux from Toronto.
Stay tuned. We'll be right back here on Declare Your Independence.
Thanks, Stephan. It was great spending time with you, man.
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