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March 8, 2025 - Freedomain Radio - Stefan Molyneux
07:04
What Ethical Responsibility Does a Sibling Have to a Mentally Ill Brother?
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What ethical responsibility does a sibling have to a mentally ill brother who has treatment-resistant schizophrenia?
Well, parents have foundational ethical responsibilities for children because parents choose to create children and choose parents have foundational ethical responsibilities for children because parents choose to create children and choose to Thank you.
As a child, you do not have the same ethical responsibilities for your parents.
I know you're not talking about parents here, but just to sort of build the case.
As a child, you do not have the same ethical responsibilities for your parents because you did not create them or choose to have them in your life.
That which we create, we are responsible for, right?
Which is if some guy is an arsonist and he sets a fire, he's responsible for all the resulting damage.
If I push a rock off the top of a hill and it...
Rolls down and bounces and destroys your car.
I'm responsible for that because I created the rock going down the hill, right?
It didn't happen on its own.
It didn't happen by accident.
I created that.
So that which we create, we are responsible for.
Did you create your parents?
You did not.
Did you create your brother?
You did not.
The ethical responsibility lies with your parents.
They created your brother.
Now, I'm obviously no expert.
Far from it, obviously.
So none of this is any kind of medical or psychological advice.
But my understanding is that there are genetic predispositions to schizophrenia.
but schizophrenia is activated, at least to some degree, by childhood trauma.
So, if your brother has treatment-resistant schizophrenia, which I'm very sorry for, it's a very, very difficult situation to deal with, then the question is, did he, your brother, experience then the question is, did he, your brother, experience significant trauma as a child?
Now, as his brother, you have very little control over the trauma that, I mean, if you're an older brother or, you know, significantly older or somewhat older, Tormented or teased or abused him or whatever it is.
But you have very little control over the potential trauma that your brother had inflicted upon him by your parents.
So, if your brother's schizophrenia has something to do with, and again, I know the science is sort of up and down with this kind of stuff, so this is all very tentative and, you know, usual caveat.
But if your brother's schizophrenia has something to do with the trauma that your parents inflicted upon him, then they are very much responsible for that.
That makes a lot of sense.
Both parents are dead, though.
Lots of childhood trauma from the parents.
physical, emotional, sexual, 9 out of 10 ACE score.
Well, I'm, I mean, I'll just be frank with you guys.
I'm fairly cut and dried, maybe a sort of base Anglo-Saxon practicality, but I'm fairly cut and dried with this stuff.
And the way that I would look at it, if I were in your shoes, it's not a perfect moral answer.
I'm just telling you the way that I would look at it, is I would look at my brother and say, well, I did not create him.
I am not responsible for him.
I am not my brother's keeper, and I cannot fix him, and I did not inflict the trauma upon him that may have triggered some aspects of his schizophrenia.
I am not responsible for this.
Now, if you won the lottery, or if you, you know, came into some massive chunk of resources, would it be nice for you to Help your brother out a little, to find some home for him, to pay for some home for him.
Yeah, I would say that.
I personally have rejected money from inheritance in order to help a relatively close family member who has cognitive deficiencies.
I think it's nice, and there's nothing wrong with that.
However, however, I put everything at least...
I would recommend putting everything through this cold, hard, Darwinian lens.
I'm doing straight up with you guys.
Cold, hard, Darwinian lens, which is, does this help me get a quality woman or not?
Because your goal, your job, in a way, in a very real way, especially you guys, right?
Especially you guys.
Because you're in the top 1% of intelligence, which means you kind of have a responsibility to have kids.
Sorry, you just kind of do.
Right?
Because you inherited all of this amazing intelligence because smart people ahead of you, behind you in a sense, smart people behind you had children.
So you got all of these smart genes.
I'm not saying it's all genetic, right?
80-85% whatever by late teens, right?
So you got all these smart genes because intelligent people ahead of you had children.
Right.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So, you've got to pay it forward.
You've got to pass the intelligence forward.
You enjoy being intelligent, right?
Life is way better, for me at least.
Obviously, I don't have a comparison, but life is way better being smart, for me.
I couldn't really picture what it would be like to look at the world and not really have much of a clue what's going on and be sort of emotionally reactive and not really...
Grock the consequences of even remote, like, reasonably complex decisions and just be easily lied to and propagated.
Like, I just, to me, that's not, I couldn't, I can't imagine not functioning at that level at all.
I mean, this is no hate, no contempt, no negative or anything.
I just, I am so grateful for the gift of intelligence, and it is a gift.
I did not earn it.
I'm so grateful and humbled.
For the gift of intelligence that I feel a very deep and sincere obligation to pay it forward.
In the same way that if I inherited, I don't know, a hundred million dollars, it wouldn't be mine to blow.
Right?
On blow.
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