July 13, 2019 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
16:31
| 
| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| So, you chose the brother over the grandpa. | |
| I think that's wonderful. | |
| I think that the American electorate should be duly praised and honored and given all the respect in the world for making such a bold and different choice for the commander-in-chief. | |
| And I, as an anarchist, blow serious kisses in your direction. | |
| You chose a different generation. | |
| You chose a different race. | |
| You chose a different cultural background. | |
| A non-American cultural background in many ways. | |
| A different middle name. | |
| A different life experience. | |
| No military. | |
| An academic. | |
| Somebody who's more or less a humanist and does not appear to be a fundamentalist in Christian terms. | |
| So that's wonderful, because of course the democratic theory is that this should produce a staggering amount of change in your system. | |
| You could not make a bigger, conceivable choice than that between George Bush, John McCain, and Barack Obama. | |
| So, you know, fantastic. | |
| I know it was the older folks who worked so much with Mr. Mocchino, but the younger folks very much giving him respect, and yes we can, and change, and boy, you are just going to take the country in a new direction. | |
| According to the theory of participative democracy, This should be a big, honkin' stellar, nay, interstellar change in the direction of America. | |
| You did not vote for the continuation of everything that exists within the government plus A few extra layers to the shit sandwich you and your children will have to eat in terms of debt. | |
| You did not choose for all of the existing government programs to continue and then for a bunch of new socialist health care in particular ones to be added to it. | |
| You looked for significant change but not the continuation of government with the addition of new programs, new spending, new debts, new obligations. | |
| Clearly if we get socialized medicine or heavily subsidized Payments for health care insurance, then all we have is more government control. | |
| If stuff doesn't get shaved away, but new stuff gets added, clearly all we've had is an expansion in the size and power, and of course, coercive actions of the government. | |
| And, of course, we've heard all of this before. | |
| Radical reform. | |
| Reagan promised it, of course. | |
| The era of smaller government. | |
| And he increased the federal deficit and spending by two-thirds. | |
| Bill Clinton. | |
| The era of big government is over. | |
| We're going to end welfare as we know it. | |
| And, of course, within a few years, welfare spending was up 20-30%. | |
| We have George Bush, who is going to have a humble foreign policy without nation-building. | |
| And, of course, that all changes. | |
| So this change, and this is more directed to our young friends there, this change that has always been promised before and yet all that happens is the government continues to grow asymptotically. | |
| So, yeah, I'm just saying, you know, keep your eye on this one and test the thesis about real change within government based upon the widest possible divergence of potential candidates that has ever been seen and likely ever will be seen in any democratic sphere. | |
| Now I know a lot of people were interested in what is called defensive voting, right? | |
| So it's like, well, I don't want Iraq to go on and on, so I'm going to vote for Barack Obama. | |
| In other words, I'm not voting For Barack Obama, I'm voting against John McCain. | |
| Well, of course, Barack Obama has absolutely no way to know that. | |
| What he experiences, and not irrationally so, given that he can't know that, what he experiences is a resounding mandate for his programs. | |
| He's going to look upon this vote as, my God, they just love my programs, don't they? | |
| Let us To expand the spending and get everything going that was in my platform because he doesn't view it as well They didn't like John McCain or George Bush He views it as they really like me and that of course is what he is going to Take as part of his activism | |
| So, as an amazing mentalist, I'm going to roll forth a few predictions about what is going to happen with the gosh, so insurmountable mandate for change that American voters have handed to Barack Obama. | |
| Well, the first thing he's going to have to do, of course, is pass a flurry of legislation which is going to pay off the special interests who donated to his cause, right? | |
| So unions, public sector workers, the sick, the elderly, the minorities, all of those people who heavily invested in his cause. | |
| The young folks will get various grants and benefits for colleges or, you know, stuff like that. | |
| So the first thing that's going to happen is a massive expansion in state power and programs and spending. | |
| And there's a possibility that there will be some change in troop strengths or troop levels in Iraq. | |
| Though, of course, my guess is that now that the election has altered, the last thing that Al-Qaeda and the other Islamic extremist groups, the last thing they want is for the troops to be withdrawn, unless they're replaced by defense contractors. | |
| Because their goal, of course, is to bankrupt the United States, as the United States taught them to do in the 1980s with The Soviet Union and Afghanistan, so they're just taking the same tools that they were taught to defeat the last superpower to defeat this superpower, which is to collapse its spending potential, drive it to bankruptcy. | |
| So the only way that they will be happy is if the troops, which are relatively cheap, are replaced by private contractors who are even more expensive, thus harming the public purse even more. | |
| So there may be some realignment of troops in Iraq or Afghanistan but my strong suspicion is that the violence is going to erupt again because they don't want troops to be withdrawn because the whole point of getting them to attack an Islamic country was to bring the American troops in harm's way and drain the public purse. | |
| So, for sure, the violence which was diminishing, the violence was diminishing in Iraq, within Iraq, so that neither president would make a commitment to pull out. | |
| Now that they have not done so, made that firm commitment, they are going to, the Mujahideen are going to attack the Americans even more, thus driving up the public perception that we need to stay. | |
| There may be some withdrawals, but then they will be replaced by private contractors who fly sort of under the radar of the public, so that's not going to change very much. | |
| So, there will be a flurry of expanded legislation to pay off the special interests. | |
| Ah, sadly, but then the inevitable disasters will come up and will be duly reported by a sorrowful press, such as, well, we can't get out of Iraq or Afghanistan because of X, Y, and Z, the violence has erupted, we need to maintain, blah, blah, blah, it's not ready, we're going to lose. | |
| So that's going to continue, of course. | |
| Oh, we had no idea that the financial situation was this bad. | |
| By golly, it was even worse than we thought, and that's going to put the brakes on our spending, you see. | |
| For the time being, we will not be able to enact all of the goodies that we promised you. | |
| Gosh, we're so sorry, but the visa bill was just so much higher. | |
| There were so many more hidden costs that we thought that Damn, we're just not going to be able to give you all the goodies that you want. | |
| Unforeseen events have overtaken our prior plans. | |
| We have to be adaptive. | |
| We have to be flexible. | |
| We have to be loosey-goosey. | |
| We have to respond to changing situations. | |
| But don't worry. | |
| We're going to get back to that change thing real soon. | |
| It's going to happen now. | |
| No, wait, now. | |
| It's coming. | |
| Oh, wait. | |
| Oh, damn it. | |
| You know what? | |
| I need another term. | |
| You're going to need to vote for me again. | |
| But by God, when I get back in, I'm going to make all those changes happen. | |
| Oh, it is all so predictable. | |
| So, this is my suggestion. | |
| If my suggestion means anything to you, which it probably doesn't, but, you know, just play around with it as an idea. | |
| I say, get behind Barack Obama. | |
| Work day and night to pursue and enact this change. | |
| Right? | |
| Because this is what you want. | |
| Voted for change, now get behind him and make the change happen. | |
| Work night and day, donate time, energy, effort, sell kidneys, do whatever you need to get behind this change and make it happen. | |
| Throw everything into this. | |
| March into the future with him. | |
| Devote yourself to creating change. | |
| Put everything you have into this fantasy. | |
| Because that way you won't have any excuses when the change fails to occur. | |
| Right? | |
| Put yourself... I mean, this is how you get closure in dysfunctional relationships, is you work as hard as you can to make them better. | |
| Marriages, business... You work as hard as you can, make every sacrifice, every compromise you conceivably can, then when you've done everything you can and the relationship does not work out, you get... | |
| The closure, which of course is where you start to actually begin to look creatively and intelligently for alternate solutions to the use of coercion to achieve social goals, which is government and voting and so on. | |
| Because nothing will get better. | |
| I can guarantee you that. | |
| A few people, some people, some groups will get the blood money that's ripped off from the future or from others or through inflation, the printing of fiat money. | |
| Yeah, some people will do, make out like bandits. | |
| through the state. | |
| The mafia and their hitmen make out like bandits and their friends and the shops they frequent. | |
| But nothing will change. | |
| This is not anything that is shocking or surprising and if you understood that the government is forced you would understand why I say that. | |
| Expecting additional coercion to improve a moral situation is like saying my wife will love me more If I beat her more, right? | |
| She loves me less when I beat her more, but when I just beat her double, she will then turn the corner and love me. | |
| And of course, that will never happen. | |
| You cannot scream at your children and then assume that that screaming will make you love them. | |
| You cannot beat someone up and make him your friend. | |
| You cannot rape someone into loving you. | |
| Violence, coercion, deception, hypocrisy, fraud, and theft can never Produce virtue and a positive outcome. | |
| Simply can't. | |
| So, all that is going to happen with Barack Obama is he's going to expand the power and size and violence and coercion and brutality and control of the government. | |
| And he's not going to take on existing special interests and whittle them down because that's not what people paid him for. | |
| People paid him, they donated, they gave him the resources so that he would get them goodies. | |
| And that's why the government always gets bigger, right? | |
| Because each politician sells off the future and our children to a new special interest group, bribes them, and of course he gets mileage and donations out of that, and he only gets opposition if he actually says he's going to reduce spending. | |
| So everybody just adds more shit to the sandwich that the next generation has to eat. | |
| For instance, here's something that would represent real change. | |
| The Americans only need the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security and this massive spending on arms because 700 bases in more than 100 countries has pissed off the world. | |
| So if there was going to be real change in America, what would happen is these bases would all start to get closed down. | |
| You would dismantle the Department of Homeland Security. | |
| You would cut the national defense budget in half or three quarters. | |
| You would withdraw all the troops back home. | |
| And what would happen then? | |
| Well, of course, you would be able to rescind the Patriot Act and the Patriot Act II. | |
| You would be able to close down Guantanamo Bay. | |
| You would be able to do all of those things. | |
| See, that would be actual change. | |
| But that's not going to happen. | |
| Or, actual change would be the prosecution of George Bush for all crimes, which of course is perfectly legal and perfectly valid under existing U.S. | |
| law, that he's responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, therefore is a mass murderer. | |
| Well, that would be real change, to hold people accountable for the genocides they do. | |
| Well, that's not going to happen. | |
| He's going to get a pension and speaking tours and go and blather on at Christian knuckleheads until the end of times. | |
| So those would be examples of real change within the system. | |
| But it's not going to happen. | |
| It's not going to happen. | |
| We're going to get additional spending, we're going to get the expansion of coercion and violence, we're going to get an ever-acceleration towards the inevitable bankruptcy, and at some point, at some point, this is my invitation to you, and this is a tough one, I know, but seriously, people, maybe this is because I've got a kid in the way in a few weeks, but at some point, | |
| We have to grow up and we have to stop fantasizing that violence is going to bring us the beautiful world that we want and deserve and which we can achieve in a generation if we do the right things. | |
| The first virtue is honesty. | |
| The first step towards virtue and power is the discarding of illusion. | |
| That's what we have to do first. | |
| We have to step away from collective fantasies. | |
| Step away from the fantasies that the gun can bring beauty and love and truth and virtue. | |
| The gun, the bomb, the army, the prison, the police. | |
| Can't. | |
| Can't do it. | |
| It only destroys. | |
| At some point we have to grow up and we have to start taking responsibility for bringing a virtue, peace and progress to our own lives. | |
| Not this fantasy that violence and group delusions can improve the world. | |
| Not the fantasy that some well-spoken fellow is going to march in right over the hill and make our life and our world a beautiful place. | |
| It's not going to happen. | |
| This is the hook that you are exploited from. | |
| This fantasy that someone else is going to make your life better. | |
| Someone else is going to make you free. | |
| Someone else is going to deal with the problems of the world. | |
| Just hand over your money, hand over your power, hand over your freedom and everything will be better. | |
| The perpetual war for perpetual peace. | |
| Perpetual violence for perpetual progress which never occurs. | |
| The violence escalates and progress declines. | |
| And you have every right to cling to your fantasies if you want. | |
| You can go live in a cave and believe in Baal or Set, for all I care, or anyone cares. | |
| But this fantasy is different. | |
| This fantasy affects my child. | |
| This fantasy affects me. | |
| This fantasy affects hundreds of thousands of dead and fly-buzzed Muslim bodies. | |
| Your fantasy has got two million of your fellow countrymen in jail, the vast majority for completely non-violent, innocuous, quote, crimes. | |
| Your fantasy for political solutions is shredding the soul of the world. | |
| It is not your choice to make to use violence to solve problems because the violence affects others. | |
| The violence affects others. | |
| It affects people working peacefully in the Twin Towers in 2001. | |
| It affects half a million Iraqi children who die for want of medicine and food and water because of an embargo. | |
| It affects everyone in the world who glares balefully at the marching U.S. | |
| soldiers of the New Rome. | |
| You are shredding the soul of the world through your addiction to the fantasy that some white political knight is going to ride over the horizon and change the world and save the world and that all you have to do is stuff yourself into a fucking booth and check something? | |
| Stop being lazy. | |
| Stop being lazy. | |
| Stop wallowing in the fantasy that some distant soul waving a gun is going to make the world better. | |
| Get off your hiney. | |
| Get out of the booth. | |
| Turn off CNN. | |
| And work to bring reason and truth to the world you live in. |
Export Selection