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April 19, 2014 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
20:51
2672 How They Are Winning. How We Are Losing.
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Hi everybody, Stefan Molyneux from Free Domain Radio.
I hope you're doing well.
So, some interesting facts about contributions in the political and religious sphere.
So, in 2008, political candidates vying for office spent $5.3 billion dollars Private individuals in the U.S. donated about $228 billion in 2012 to charities.
The American Catholic Church has annual expenditures of $170 billion, the Catholic Church.
Church is pretty much the wealthiest institution in the whole world.
In Utah, 10% of the income goes to religious organizations, I guess chiefly the Mormon Church and so on.
So, people who really believe in what they're up to, no matter how non-rational, if not anti-rational, it might appear to an atheist or a philosopher, they They put their money where their heart is, where their ideals are.
They understand that to gain traction among humankind, ideas need the rocket-sled Iditarod propulsion system known as money.
I would like to read to you something, a message that I got today.
I had my eyes rolling around so far in my head I could see backwards through time down my own spine and esophagus and then back out looking at you.
Someone wrote, Hi there!
I am a fourth year management major and a philosophy minor.
I played college hockey in the ACAC for three years.
I love your show and I respect what you do.
Keep up the good work.
What a lovely message.
The message I guess you could say slightly sullied by the fact that this fine young man sent me...one dollar.
One...one dollar.
And it is funny.
Look, I believe this philosophy show is the best and greatest the world has ever seen.
I mean, it has to do with my dashing good looks and roundhouse scattershot airstrike metaphors.
Oh, look, I just did one too.
But fundamentally, it's propelled by the technology.
So, you know, we just passed 30 million YouTube views.
We've done about 50 million podcast downloads.
So it's 80 million podcasts.
Philosophy, shower spots, landing on the tinderbox of human possibilities, and that's...
The greatest philosophy conversation the world has ever seen.
As you know, I work my fingers to the bone.
Even last year when I had cancer and was undergoing treatment for cancer, I did 280-odd shows and do six or seven hours of call-in shows a week and pay for researchers.
We have a full-time employee.
We're building a studio.
Lots of things going on in the realm of getting the good, bright word out to the masses, and I challenge anyone To have found a greater reach, spread, and engagement in philosophy the world has ever seen.
And I will include Mars.
I'll throw in Venus, acid planet that it is, in that equation as well.
Not the dark side of the moon, because that's where a lot of people start with their philosophy, because there is no dark side of the moon.
Matter of fact, it's all dark.
So it is instructive that people who are into reason, philosophy, and evidence Don't seem to understand the degree to which money drives things.
People who are into politics, they understand how money drives things.
In fact, if you're going to run for office, particularly if you're going to run for presidential office, which was, I think, $2.4 billion over the last presidential cycle was spent.
If you're going to run for office, you are measured by the amount of money that you can raise.
And I just read this book called The Politician.
It was written by Andrew Young, who was sort of chief of staff.
For John Edwards, and he basically said, look, you try and raise money, and if you're not in the top one or two, or maybe even three, nobody pays attention to you.
You might as well just be setting fire to the money itself.
So people who run for office, they understand this.
Congress people spend about a third of their time just raising money for their next campaign.
Money makes the world of ideas Go round.
It propels it.
It is the physics by which ideas can be built to reach the superstructure of the neofrontal cortex, which drives, hopefully, the future, rather than the reptile brain of greed, lust, and our currently under-functioning democracy system.
So, it is really interesting to me, because it's a measure of where the planet is, right?
Hundreds of billions of dollars for religion, A dollar for a philosophy.
I mean, just imagine.
Imagine if people were half as generous towards philosophy as they are towards superstitious sky ghosts that put ancient curses upon you, kill their own son, drown Russell Crowe, and, well, actually no, Russell Crowe is saved.
Drown just about everyone in the world, commanded to kill homosexuals and sorcerers and atheists and all other sorts of unbelievers.
If people were half as generous Towards philosophy as they are towards religion.
Even given the relatively smaller number of people who are into philosophy compared to, say, religion or patriotism or sports, for that matter, this show would basically be broadcasting from Alpha Centauri across the galaxy using some sort of Vulcan mind melt where we'd all be Siamese twins stampeding our way straight through the finish line of a peaceful and rational future.
But that is not the way things work.
The way things work is that people say, your show is the best, it's changed my life, here's a dollar.
Which is sort of the equivalent of weeping with joy.
As a violinist plays the most beautiful, haunting Eastern European tear-jerker, baby-died-in-the-crib melody, weeping with joy and richness and depth, leaning over and scooching a shiny penny into the Busker's violin case after you've listened for an hour and been moved beyond words, it is...
Strange to the point of insane.
Now, some people are very generous.
Don't get me wrong.
The people who are very generous have shared with me their frustrations at the free ride nature of most of the people who listen to this philosophy show.
And it is.
People who are into free markets and paying value for value, reciprocity, generosity, and they say, ah, don't worry.
You see, we don't need the welfare state.
Because private charity will take care of the needy.
As someone who gave up a Very lucrative six-figure income to talk about philosophy to the world.
Well, I could be counted among that.
And I think religious people have much more of a right to say no to the welfare state than most people who listen to philosophy or libertarians or whatever because they're actually doing the kind of generosity that they say will replace the welfare state.
So a lot of people who are into capitalism, the free Marxists and so on aren't particularly generous towards those in need while saying that don't worry, private charity will take care of The needy.
Now, there's an interesting kind of intangibility which I am going to mention to you.
I mean, this may sound all kinds of self-serving, I'm aware of all that, but I'm really not.
I'm trying to serve philosophy, I'm trying to serve the world, and more resources allows me to do that better.
But there is a very powerful undertow to communication It's called certainty.
When you're certain of something, you are unstoppable as a communicator.
And if you say, like you say, get an argument about the welfare state or education, and you know, well, what about the poor kids who can't afford to go to school or the parents can't afford it?
Don't worry, they'll be taking care of a charity, this and that.
If you are not actively donating to people who are making a difference, In the arena you believe in, in philosophy or libertarianism, I mean making a difference, not making lawn signs and speeches as in politics, but actually making a difference, i.e., say, getting...
10 or 20,000 people a month to stop spanking their children, which would be a fairly testable legacy of this show, or getting people to leave abusive relationships, or whatever it is, right?
So, to actually reduce the prevalence of violence, to get 1,000 people a month to stop circumcising their children, say, or to breastfeed, or to stay home, to commit to their own children, making a difference in the world, rather than making speeches.
You know, teleprompters don't change the world, better child raising, peaceful child raising will.
So, if you are not actually donating to the people who make a difference, then when you say that charity will solve need, private charity can replace the welfare state, nobody will believe you.
Because you don't believe you.
You're acting from an ideological standpoint rather than an empirical standpoint.
Ideas which cannot be measured empirically are worse than masturbation in terms of creating new life in the world, so to speak.
At least masturbation clears out the old spunk and readies up new ones in fighter jets and helicopters.
It's been a long time since I took health ed, but if your ideas are not empirically measurable, then you will not be believed by anyone.
This is really, really important to understand.
You must act in accordance with your values.
Otherwise, nobody will accept you.
It's, you know, 90% of communication is nonverbal.
It doesn't matter how strongly you believe things intellectually.
Charity will replace the welfare state.
If you're not yourself being charitable, nobody will believe you because fundamentally you don't have any empirical evidence, even for yourself, for The ideas that you're putting forward.
I mean, if I said, you should raise your children peacefully, and I yelled at and hit my own daughter, nobody would believe me.
And there would be no clear way to know why they didn't believe me.
You wouldn't be able to point at something and he said, well, you see how he crosses his fingers and sticks his elbow up his nose every time he tells something which isn't really true?
There's an intangibility.
To integrity, which cannot be replicated by a dedication to abstractions.
If you want people to understand that you're committed to changing your diet, your body generally has to change in some way.
If you're 300 pounds and you want people to take your dieting seriously, you have to lose weight.
Start losing weight, at least.
There has to be some empirically measurable effect To your ideas, to your ideology, to your abstractions, to your virtues, particularly your moral virtues.
And that's really essential to understand when it comes to being charitable, being generous, giving.
You can't be frustrated fundamentally that reason is losing the war to nationalism and superstition and sports fever and irrationality and woo-woo New Age mysticism and the me-ism of vaguely karmic, do what I want and the universe will provide and all of this abstract nonsense that passes for thought in the world.
If those people are supporting those who are best able to communicate those ideas...
Those ideas will win.
It's a dollar game.
Now, it's not only a dollar game.
I mean, there's a number of people who say, this is the best speech ever.
This should go viral, baby.
And then, I do.
I'm curious, right?
People say, like, about my, just this recent rant on taxes.
This should go viral.
This was the best speech ever.
And I go and check their YouTube channel, and they haven't shared the video at all.
Oh, my God.
This should go viral is not a business plan.
It's not a plan.
It's not a work plan.
Other people, like, people, oh, you should make your videos shorter.
You should cut them down.
I'm like, yeah, go ahead.
Send it to me, act, music, do whatever you want, and we'll repost it.
It doesn't have to be money.
You can share videos, you can promote ideas, my ideas, ideas of whoever you like.
People go to church for like three hours a week.
Can you not spend an hour a week promoting ideas which you consider essential in the salvation of the world or the human species?
This is really important to understand.
If you don't act to promote the ideas that you consider essential to the moral progress of the world, You are betraying yourself.
And you are a traitor to those ideas because you're out there claiming that these ideas are super valuable, super important, super relevant, super helpful, super virtuous, super moral.
But because you haven't actually acted on them, your dedication appears to other people at a very deep level, at a subconscious level.
It comes across as empty and hollow and self-serving.
Pat yourself on the back, praise virtue, and play Xbox bullshit.
You must act in accordance to your values.
Doesn't mean promote my show.
Doesn't mean donate to my show.
Can mean any number of things.
It can mean start your own show.
It can mean challenge other people that you chat with.
It can mean write a book.
It can mean make videos.
It can mean you have the whole world as your audience if you are compelling enough to get people to listen.
You must act on that which you value.
Or what you are is an advertisement against what you value.
If you've written a really great book on dieting, you don't want really fat people waving it around saying, I'm following this diet.
Because everyone's going to say, well, if you're following this diet and you're still super obese, then it must be a bad diet book, right?
And that is so fundamental to the propagation and spread of ideas.
Why have 80 million people watched or listened to me or my listeners or the experts I have on this show?
Because I'm living it.
Because I gave up my career.
Because I am dedicated to doing whatever it takes to spread philosophy.
I will sing.
I will dance.
I will make jokes.
I will challenge people.
I will get the experts.
I will do the research.
I will read the books.
I will do whatever it takes to spread philosophy.
That's why people watch.
Because they get that I am dedicated and I have The momentum of authority that comes from empirical action in the realm of ideals.
And when you think of the great philosophers in history, you first know their stories and then you know their ideas.
You know that, if you know anything, you know that Socrates was condemned for not believing in the gods of the city and corrupting the young and met his death and drank his hemlock with...
With peace in his heart, with wisdom, with maturity and so on.
And that's what you know first and then you, right?
So he lived the philosophy and that's why people read his philosophy.
So my very strong invocation to you and exhortation to you Is that bad people and crazy people, they get it.
They pour resources into promoting their ideas and their ideals.
Nefarious and corrupt and divisive and dangerous and ultimately suicidal, those ideals are.
They put their efforts into it.
They take their children to church.
They give 10% of their income.
They donate.
Billions of dollars to political campaigns, they get it.
They write movies, they write books, they pour themselves into the spread of corrupt, dangerous, and negative and destructive ideas.
And we good people, and look, I say this, I spend a lot of time talking about things.
I've now spent eight years doing the living shit out of philosophy.
And maybe that's a good title, doing the living shit out of philosophy.
The difference is not even like night and day.
Because night and day are still on the same planet.
There is no greater difference between the belief in an ideal and the acting on that ideal.
There is no greater difference.
So many people take refuge in the belief in virtue, in the The mere contemplation of virtue, in the mere language of virtue, they don't actually act in the realm of virtue.
But all the most successful belief systems in the world, from patriotism to racism to Sports to religion and so on.
They spend, they promote.
Think of how much time and energy people spend into getting involved in their sports teams and putting their flags in their cars and cheering their sports teams and painting themselves blue and paying outlandish ticket prices for their sports teams and getting involved in fantasy sports leagues and all kinds of insane shit which cost them money and time And the friendship of any sane person around them.
Think of how much energy people put into their goddamn sports teams.
Imagine if we put that kind of time and energy into philosophy, into virtue, into the spread of reason and evidence and empiricism and TRUTH! Imagine what could be achieved if we just had a shavings of the sports fetishism that drives the multi $100 billion industry of sports around the world.
I mean, we would literally win the whole world.
Reason and evidence, reality, always wins over fantasy in the long run.
But it does take a little bit of gas, and it does take a little bit of real commitment.
So my suggestion, and it's more than a suggestion, if I could command, I would command this and only this.
That if you live your values, you don't actually need to talk about them.
Because people will ask you.
You don't have to wave a diet book out if you're dropping weight quickly like a melting mountain.
People will say, well, what are you doing?
You look great.
They will ask you if you're doing it.
If you're waving around the book and not changing your behavior and not, then all you're doing is discrediting the diet.
There are almost no greater enemies to virtue than those who proclaim it only and live it not.
So, my suggestion is, put down the diet book and the Cheesecake Act, whether it's to support this show, whether it's to spread this show, whether it's to support or spread some other conversation that you find valuable, or to start your own.
Put down the book, put down the Nook, put down even the podcast player, and go and live it.
And when you live it, you will bring more people to reason with footprints than you will with all the syllables in the known universe.
This is Stefan Molyneux from Freedom Main Radio.
If you want to support the show, I strongly urge you to do so.
I think it's the best chance for a virtuous future.
It's FDRURL.com forward slash donate.
And if not, drop philosophy, go to church, paint yourself blue, and go cheer yourself horse at some bullshit political rally.
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