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Sept. 11, 2014 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
17:46
2790 Manufactured Enemies

Stefan Molyneux discusses the all too frequent manufacturing of enemies within society.

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Hi everybody, Savannah Muller from Freedom Aid Radio.
Hope you're doing well.
So, I wanted to talk about the manufacturing of enemies, which is an ancient and, I think, fairly well-known necessity for the maintenance of an oligarchical hierarchy, of a brutal hierarchy.
Now, the tribe, way back in the dawn of the species, organized itself with...
Spears pointed, in general, outward because animals and human predators roamed the landscape looking to enslave and rape and pillage and all that kind of stuff.
And that was really the origin of the hierarchies that we have within us and upon us now.
Now, these aren't the best...
We're not necessarily the best approaches.
Who knows whether a violent hierarchy is the best way of keeping predators out or whatever, but the reality is that that's what we evolved from.
When we climbed out of the murky mists of pre-consciousness, we brought all that baggage with us.
We have the appendix and we have other things in the body that aren't particularly helpful.
And we also have monkey-based tribal structures.
Are they necessarily helpful?
But we don't get a clean slate in our consciousness or in our bodies, of course.
If we design the body, I don't know, does it really make a whole lot of sense to use the same organ for peeing and ejaculation?
I don't know.
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.
But that's kind of what we have evolved with.
And when people say, well, hierarchies exist for a reason, well, the appendix exists for a reason, which is at some point in the past it was useful, and now it's mostly useful for killing people and generating doctor's fees.
It's like saying students have summers off for a reason.
It's like, yeah, they have summers off for a reason, and the reason is that when the state took over the educational system, it froze everything in time.
And so when 80% of people used to be involved in farming, yeah, Somershoff made sense.
Now that 2% of people are involved in farming, Somershoff makes no sense whatsoever.
But things don't change because it has evolved to meet the needs of a particular set of people, unions, teachers, and so on, not the parents and the children who are ostensibly the customers.
So, What's interesting, I think, or what's interesting to me, hopefully it's interesting to you as well, is let's say that the sort of chief warlord, hierarchical, brutal style of indoctrination and tribalism that marked our ascent from our cousins the chimps, let's say that was fine.
Let's say that was the very best.
It's fine.
Okay, maybe it works.
I guess it worked for the best.
Well, a system which has developed out of legitimate threats has every incentive to make up threats when the original threats no longer manifest.
We can all understand that, right?
So, the statist system of tribalism, of hierarchy, of...
Obedience, of brutality, of child abuse, that has all arisen or evolved out of significant external threats.
And it is the external threats which prop up The flag, right?
Think of putting a giant flagpole on the ground.
Without struts, it's going to blow off, right?
You need to anchor it, to put struts in it, to sink it in concrete, to do something which keeps it from blowing over.
Otherwise, it's like you're going to put a toothpick in some bubble foam and blow it over, and over it goes.
So, what supports statism is threat, and specifically external threat.
And, I mean, I don't think this is anything new in particular.
I mean, it's all over 1984.
We are always at war with Eurasia.
We are always at war with East Asia.
There must always be a war, and the purpose of the war is not to be won.
It's not for victory.
The purpose of the war is to subjugate the citizens.
The purpose of the war on terror is not to win the war on terror.
You can't beat an adjective, but It is to keep the citizens in a constant state of anxiety and fear.
And so the invention of enemies is the business of the state.
Now, as external enemies begin to fall away, certainly as you move into cities, then you don't have to worry that much about bears in the bedroom, right?
Unless you're gay, in which case it's hopefully a choice.
So, people in cities don't fear the saber-toothed tiger prowling just beyond the light of the campfire, and so it's a little tougher to keep that hierarchy going.
People who are in the cities of governments which possess nuclear weapons are, in general, Fairly safe, right?
I mean, nuclear powers are, in general, not invaded, with the exception of the newly formed State of Israel in 1949, or attacked.
And to me, it's interesting that after the development of nuclear weapons, the Western countries took the lead in waging war on other things, war on poverty, war on illiteracy, war on patriarchy.
Because as people get more secure, their need or the feeling that they have for the need of protection diminishes as well.
It's the old protect me from what, which is why people don't have a lot of luck selling exorcism rituals to atheists.
Atheists don't believe in devils and demons and possession and so on, so protection from what?
I don't...
There's no clause in my house insurance, home insurance, which has...
In case of Ragnarok...
Oh, look it up.
Won't kill you.
So the great challenge of hierarchies that developed to protect people from danger is how to maintain the danger when it no longer exists.
Well, if you cannot convince people of their imminent victimhood, then you cannot sell them your protection.
So really, it's not so much the invention of enemies as it is the creation of victims that is the business of the state, particularly the modern leftist state.
So that is really important to understand.
It is convincing people...
Of imminent victimhood.
Now, when there are saber-toothed tigers and bears and lions and tigers, oh my, then you don't really need a whole lot of convincing.
It's like, hey, you remember a thag who got eaten by the lion?
We should probably band together and protect ourselves from lions, right?
That's pretty obvious and people don't need a whole lot of convincing when it comes to stuff like that.
So, when there are raiding parties...
Then, you know, hey, remember Thag who was hit on the head with the jawbone of an ass from that guy from Painted Blue Over the Hill?
Okay, yeah.
So, when there are genuine external threats, pretty easy to keep that structure going.
When external threats diminish, well, then you have a challenge, right?
You have a challenge.
Why do we need all this hierarchy again?
I don't really notice a lot of tigers and bears and raiding parties and so on, right?
Well, that's when you have to go from defense to crusade, right?
Now we don't need to defend ourselves against A, B, and C, or X, Y, and Z, so now we must have a moral crusade to eliminate sickness and poverty and you name it, kind of thing.
And all that stuff is easier.
People are so conditioned to seeing victims, and the moment you have...
Victims, then you have perpetrators.
And the moment you have perpetrators, you need protection, right?
Victim-perpetrator protection, the VPP of statist infrastructure.
When you start to have a wealthier society, in a democracy, flattery is the rule.
Now, flattery isn't always saying, you're great.
Flattery is also saying to people, it's not your fault.
It's not your fault.
It's not your fault.
Okay, you didn't buy any health insurance and you got sick.
Hey, it's not your fault.
We're going to eliminate restrictions on pre-existing conditions, right?
Oh, you didn't really go to school, didn't really get educated, and don't really work very hard, so you don't really have any money for your retirement.
Hey, it's not your fault.
You deserve money.
To grow old in dignity and plenty, so it's not your fault.
Let's help you out.
You are a victim, you see.
It's not that you're an idiot.
It's not that you made bad decisions.
It is that you are a victim, you see.
The bourgeoisie, the Wall Street, they victimized you.
You're poor through no fault of your own.
Those guys who are rich are rich because you are poor.
They stole from you.
You never had a chance.
So, the paralysis of potential is essential to the manufacturing of victims.
When you manufacture victims, you simultaneously, or actually just prior to that, you must manufacture perpetrators, and then you can offer protection.
Same thing happens with women and with feminism.
It's so unfair.
It's so unjust.
You're not paid as much as men.
You're oppressed.
It's the patriarchy.
Don't worry.
We can protect you from the patriarchy.
You spend more on health care.
Don't worry.
We can protect you from being exploited by those unscrupulous doctors who charge more for your inner plumbing than the outward plumbing of the men.
Yes, you're a victim.
You're being exploited.
We will protect you.
And this flattery is really essential to the democratic process.
When you point out to people...
That some of the poor are poor by choice.
Then you challenge the victim narrative.
And when you challenge the victim narrative, and the victim narrative is not that there are no poor people involuntarily or accidentally.
Of course there are.
You know, accidents happen.
Bernie Madoff makes off with your money.
Your house burns down when you're on your way to mail off the insurance.
I mean, things happen.
You get sick for something that's really rare that you just weren't covered for.
And all these things are very sad and I have great sympathy and so on.
But the narrative is the poor are victims as a whole.
Women are victims as a whole.
Minorities are victims as a whole.
It's all the fault of we white men and our secret handshakes.
When you challenge that, when you challenge the victim narrative, then you challenge the basis of state power, which is why statists generally react very aggressively when you challenge the victim narrative.
It's really tough, you know, because the poor are the ones who benefit from the free market the most because it gives them the most opportunity.
It removes the most barriers for them to achieve wealth.
They really need the free market and they tend to benefit.
And the free market is great for the poor because they can charge less for labor than the rich do, which is great for them.
It's fantastic.
And this is one of the reasons why wealthy people really dislike the poor.
I mean, I was willing to work for next to nothing when I was first an entrepreneur, and that raised my value as a co-founding member of a company.
It was great.
So, when you challenge victimhood, then you prick the vanity of people.
And the robustness of a society is in many ways determined by It's willingness to blame failure on mistakes.
Not accidents, but mistakes.
And there's an old demotivational poster, which is a ship sinking.
And on the ship sinking, underneath is written...
It could be that the sole purpose of your life is to serve as a warning to others.
And I've always thought that's a really great phrase.
Serve as a warning to others.
Hey, remember that guy who didn't get house insurance and his house burnt down?
That was terrifying.
That was horrifying.
We'd better go and buy some house insurance, right?
Whereas if the government just rushes in and pays for stuff, then it's like, yeah, you know, I guess I could get house insurance, but who cares, right?
I mean, if the government's going to go and rebuild everyone's house if there's a problem, then forget it, right?
So, the scare stories of bad decisions is something that is essential for the writing of society.
Now, everyone who's made those bad decisions desperately wants to avoid the consequences of those decisions, right?
The guy who didn't buy house insurance and his house burnt down desperately wants some rescue from that, right?
The guy who didn't buy health insurance...
And who then got sick and is now facing huge bills, that person, you know, desperately, you know, once, you know, they gambled and they lost, right?
And it's more than money, right?
I guess it's not just money, but more than money is health, right?
Now, in a free society, I think we'd...
I mean, I certainly...
I tell you, my position would be I would really have sympathy for somebody who didn't take out house insurance and whose house burnt down.
But like, oh man, that's a bummer.
That's why I have house insurance.
Now, I recognize that this man not buying house insurance has cost me money, right?
Because the fewer people who buy insurance...
The more it costs for other people because the risk doesn't get spread as much.
I've already paid for him not having house insurance.
I would be happy to give him first and last month's rent if he desperately needed it in order to get a little place of his own.
Would I be willing to pay off his mortgage if his house burnt down the day after he bought it and he didn't have any fire insurance?
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
Because you make choices and take your consequences.
Would I want to pay off somebody's gambling debt if they lost their money?
No.
I'm sorry that you're broke.
Certainly, I don't want you to starve, but no, I don't feel that that's important.
Because that way, if you make people more comfortable with the results of their bad decisions, then you simply are going to encourage more bad decisions.
This is why charity is such a challenging thing.
And so, really, keep your eyes peeled for people who wish to turn you into a victim.
They really want to exercise primal power over you by reenacting this sort of Stone Age thing.
Their alliance is beyond the firelight.
It's like...
Dude, we're at a theme park.
I think it's okay.
Right?
Of course, religion does it with the devil, which is where the enemy is all around, is invisible, can get in your head, and there's no privacy, no secrecy, or always be watched.
And that's really the most horrifying and paranoid type of victimization, but...
It's really important to keep your eyes out for this kind of stuff.
The invention of a victim class, the invention of a helpless class, is very much a feature of late-stage democracy.
And when you sort of look for this pattern, you will, I think...
Begin to see it pretty much everywhere and see it as pretty much the basis for what goes on in politics.
So, as always, thank you so much for listening.
FDRURL.com slash donate.
I hope you have a great day and thank you so much for your support of the conversation.
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