Concerted Cultivation & Positive Change

0:00 Talking about how I would love to live up to that if that were actually true, and so on. Typically, in general, when I do put time into things, yeah, I try to at that time be well spent. Right. Results. Right. In the case of this hardwood floor, didn't matter. I put it all the time. It sucks. I mean, in fact, it's.

0:23 I'm not inclined towards those things. I know my results would be terrible. I'm sure your results are just fine. Yeah. You know, beauty's in the eye. Yeah. And the thing is, when you do something, you see all the flaws first. And so I mean, I bet if I come in there, I'm going to be like, looks fucking great.

0:43 It won't matter. Because the way that the place will never be decorated and set up. Yeah. The floor will be a minor detail and yeah, it's it's not a big deal. So, today's like our second part we're talking about beyond LJ and like and how we can, how we can afford to be canceled before we even get started.

1:06 And, I really, really like the summary of that is the same as the summary from the conversation last night, to be honest, is that we need to develop this new cultural ideology towards our you, our, our system right here in the United States. And, we need to make a human in nature a complex for humanity district complex.

1:27 That's where they're humanist industrial complex. I like humanist industrial complex. Yes. Yeah. Well, we we use the tenets of, like, the health and welfare of people as the industrial complex. That's the measurement of success. Not what kind of stranglehold we can have on the world. Right. I mean, it's the same way, like if H.R. was actually about taking care of human resources, that's what they would do.

1:51 They'd worry about the health and wellness of their people, as well as take care of their training and their understanding of the context of the job they're in. And all of those things, their engagement. You know. Yeah. Could you imagine? Right. And that this does mean, like put in ping pong tables and have free vending machines? No. No.

2:13 You know, actually think about the psyche and the physical. You know. You know, some of your, your family wellness, like, you know. Yeah. Bring in. That's it. Bring their family even into it. You know, maybe do things similar to, like, filled day in, like, we had an elementary school. Yeah. It's funny. You know, if I think about my own family, like, you know.

2:39 So let's say that I'm on, on my own little HR department, or I wouldn't call that person out. And there we go. So. So, you know, being the patriarch of the family and believing I'm working pretty synergistically with the matriarch of the family. You know, we have a concerted, kind of cultivated approach to raising our kids.

3:00 Want to make sure they have an enriching experience, but. And safe and get all the needs there. Yeah. But at the same time, you've got a kid in, in a language immersion school that speaks a lot about what you do in you. I don't even know how to say true in Chinese. I was thinking about that. Yeah.

3:16 So, you know, we're putting in place we're trying to have this concerted, cultivated approach to raising our kids, having them enriching experiences as they grow up. Go on vacation, see different cultures, better countries, and possibly things like that. You know, we try to we try to model for behavior. Try. Yeah. You know, so I think about all those different fronts on how I can do better.

3:38 I can do a lot better. Yeah. And, yeah, that's what it's all about. There's this feedback loop of improvement. And I mean, just like we both do with, you know, I think some of it's a little bonk, but the whole idea that I'm sure both of us are doing continuous improvement with our jobs, you know, same with other aspects of your life, you know, if we can figure it out somehow, like to, you know, how to how to augment the culture or how to.

4:10 Yeah, that's how to change the culture to where, you know, that kind of ideology is pervasive rather than what seems to be the case now, which is, if you're a true patriot, you think everything's just peachy and fine and doesn't need to change. And if you think our world is okay. Yeah. And it's like, you know, true patriotism is acceptance, which is wrong.

4:34 You want things to be better if you actually cared about it, wouldn't you? Yeah. We get attacked on 911 and it's, you know, jump up on the smoldering mound tower, but you go shopping. Yeah. Really, though, because that's what keeps the economy going, right? Right. And then we're going to we're going to go stomp out the bad guys, you know, not ever thinking about what might motivate some other country or some other group of individuals to do something like this.

4:58 If you, if you put yourself in a plane and you fly into a building knowing you're pretty committed, you're going with it. Yeah. You have some high, ethics. Yeah. I mean like if we say the ethics is how, how much you adhere to your morals. You know, it's like I'm not saying. I'm not saying your morals are good.

5:15 You know, your morals are just your beliefs. Like the things that you think are right. It's your own personal moral code. Right. And then your ethics, you can look at how how strongly you adhere to those things. Right. So you got to have a pretty high level of ethics to adhere to your moral values. If you're flying a plane into a building 100% yourself or 100%, you know, total and,

5:39 There is, like you said, I mean, it is incumbent upon us to as part of prevention of having that happen. What did we do to provoke it? Right. Right. What's the geopolitical situation? What's the level? You know. Is it unbridled capitalism and all the ugly effects of that? Part of it contrasting against radical religious ideology. Yeah. You know, so part of it seems like one brick wall slamming into another to me.

6:07 Yeah. Well, maybe radical, Islam ideology is is dangerous. But also maybe was a. Yes. There we go, there we go. So maybe unbridled capitalism is dangerous. And because that's the part we can control, we can't necessarily control unbridled Islamic ideology, but we can control unbridled capitalism. Or at least start transitioning. Yeah. Yeah. But it's. But if you take the model that like geopolitics and brinksmanship and all this kind of stuff, even take the short history the last 120 years or something more or less 150 or something like that.

6:46 Take the short history. You can make this case that like it's following natural law, survival of the fittest, the strongest, most powerful nations consume the consuming command the most resources. But that is just a facile approach to anything. I agree. But what I'm saying is, if you take that ideological disposition towards it, right? If you say, you know, I'm the leader of this country, let's say I'm king, king, we'll go back to that scenario and I say, okay, the United States commands the most money in the world.

7:15 It commands the most resources. Like per capita, our people use the most, if not close to the most resources. You know, there's probably some small Qatar's I mean, Dubai with. Sure. You know, where they're consuming because they're like air conditioning a desert ship, you know, but I'm talking about like a practical large populations, you know, per capita, Americans consume incredible amounts of resources, natural resources and energy and stuff.

7:36 I mean, I can't disagree. And so you say, okay, if we're not doing this, some other power is going to rise up and take our take the throne. And then our people will be deprived of resources like their people are now. Right? So for America to consume so much, everybody else has to consume a little less, you know?

7:53 Yeah. Especially a second and third world nations. Right. So we have this like if you were to, if you were to be the one to make the decision, would you keep it that way and say business as usual or even double down and say oh we need a bigger military to keep this stranglehold on the world because the world's getting more complex, you know, or do you say, no?

8:11 It's time to relent and change our ways. I'd say it's time to really change our ways, and also maybe even change the way we're looking at the division of the pie, because I strongly suspect that we're looking at it like there's a finite amount, there are finite amount of resources currently available now, but a finite amount of wealth there is not.

8:34 We can create. Well, we can create, you know, and we it's incumbent upon us to take the to help the nations that aren't creating as much wealth do so. And, you know, even if there are competitors. Yes. Because in general that makes more wealth available globally. Yeah. More wealth, more ideas, more, you know, hey, and all of these things generally contribute to the pull of, you know, if we can move ideas, people and information faster all around the globe, it's better.

9:12 That's the theory, you know? But what it what about when just having information is like information on how to make bombs and how to make, you know, that comes with it. It does, it does. And so do we do really want someone that has a, let's say, a radical Islamic ideology or a radical Christian ideology, radical insert thing here.

9:29 Ideology, you know, do we want anything to or do we want to starve those kind of groups out? We want to do we want to pinch those kind of groups off, but they already or do we want to because those people aren't just that. Right? The radical Christians are also members of our communities that are also this or that.

9:46 So maybe we try to erode the tendency by strengthening the other thing. Does that does that work though? I don't know. I don't know, it's interesting if it did work. And so I will. That's what we should do. But I mean, I would think don't feed it. Maybe if you fix the things that drove them to the extremism, they'll back off.

10:07 But I don't I don't that's got to be really complex to figure that one out. It does. You know, because you got Invisible Man involved. And you do have that moral, ethical connection that I talked about earlier. It's like you have these people that really believe what they think, what in what they, you know, they really believe in what they believe.

10:26 Yeah, they have strong beliefs put that way. And then, you know, their ethics follow. You know, that where they conduct their lives, you know, in a radical way when they've got to the point where they're, you know, to that point, you know, you get these guys out there driving jeeps in the woods, you know, like talking about these groups, these radical, you know, religious groups.

10:46 Government's gone corrupt and we've lost our Christian way. But I'll do all these things for like, I don't want to cut off the flow of information because, my, my personal experience, I'm not smart because I went to UMC Charlotte. I did that as an adult. You know, I'm smart because of the internet. Okay? You know, and, I could probably make the same claim and then, you know, but but then in my internet smart.

11:15 I just like smart within that bookended domain. Well, absolutely. I mean, I am in very limited domains. Am I intelligent, well read and able to spew shit, but we can't speak for everybody. But you know the idea. I guess what I'm saying is open access to information and innate curiosity are what allowed me to enjoy any sort of, you know, understanding of things.

11:47 I mean, like all the books that most of the books I read as a kid, I got for free from either libraries or from the internet itself, like the Gutenberg project, you know. Yeah. I may have mentioned this before, but books are unique because someone has taken, you know, put their name on it first of all, especially if it's nonfiction.

12:06 Right? Someone's put their name on it. And, you know, if you're if you're going to take all that can be all that time in some in your life, right, right in one's life, you can take all that time and committed to a book and put your name on it. You're going to want correctness, right? Right. It's it's going to be a little different than your blog on the internet or like, know, post on Facebook, right?

12:25 Yeah. So the internet being, judge agnostic as a source of information, it's a little sketchy, but it also contains the things I just mentioned. Yeah. So so you've had to parse and develop the skill to sort them out. Well, yeah. To sort out what's good. But like I said, the books that I've read from the internet are have that unique quality.

12:51 You've said, you know, I'm sure they might have been, you know, older books, but it was like, a book that had fallen out of copyright from 1960 on. What, you know, symbolic logic or something. Yeah. You know, something like that. You know, it's like it's correct. It's true. But it is available on this wildly chaotic, ridiculous medium called the internet, you know?

13:21 So so that's I, I like all that. It's it's how I see it too. The interesting thing is it's like you look back over some of the historic stuff when it comes to products and marketing and consumerism type of thing. Right. And really, like, you circuit this attitude, or at least I do get this attitude that it's like one gimmick on people rendered on people after the next.

13:42 After the next. Yeah. So in this consumer kind of pursuit domain that we have, you know, in our economy, you know, consumer driven economy, as you call it, you know, in this you're swirling around in a matrix of, you know, shit perception. Yeah. You know, like wild, exaggerated claims. It's like the Donald Trump of, you know, that's what that guy is.

14:05 He's he's a he's a consumer product, you know, entertainment from and from the entertainment him, you know, and, these consumer products just leave us, leave us wanting, leave us holding the bag, you know, talk to know more doctor smoke Winston. You know. Right. Right, right. You know, it's just now like looking at it, the gimmicks are just in the modern time, just more sophisticated, like by by magnitudes, you know, more sophisticated.

14:29 And, so that that I think in its totality creates, like this dystopian version of life, you know, that's, really, really hollow and really, I'm filled with a lot of despair and leaves everybody wanting because stuff, you know, the pendulum swung a little bit the other way, even though it's being heavily marketed. The whole movement of that, your crap that you've accumulated spark joy.

14:55 If it doesn't get rid of it, you know. Sure. How big is that movement? You know, I mean, it's big enough for my dumb ass to have heard of it, so it has to be. But Marie Kondo and all her shit, and she's had shows and books and, you know, they did it. So. Okay, so it's a trending idea, but, you know, it goes back to inevitably falls back to the, you know, consumer driven economy, consumer driven motivation people.

15:22 So, you know, third of your paycheck goes to the government to feed the poor pig mostly. Right? Yeah. So vomit brown people around the world and then, you know, but so, so like people, the majority of the people that are working for a wage or salary are contributing that first and then secondarily, their pursuit of consumer goods is like the second task.

15:45 So like the money that they have discretionary that they get to keep, it's not going to pay for their bills and keeping the lights on and heating home and all that shit put food on the table, is that the discretionary spending is being wasted on consumer products most. Right. And most of those consumer products are over indulgence things that then deteriorate someone's health.

16:02 And then there's another gimmick, another industry gimmick waiting for you in the health industry. And then there's another industry gimmick waiting for you in the mental health industry. And there's just all these gimmicks waiting for it. The problem bear traps in the past, right? And just like all these things on the floor waiting for you to step in because you're walking around, you know, you in, I kind of think of it.

16:23 And this is an old and trite thing, but I kind of think of it as being on a hamster wheel to be one, being on the hamster wheel, do you know? Right, right, right. It's like, yeah. And I love that metaphor because the, the hamster, when it's in the environment with the cage. Right. And the hamster keep jumping on the wheel.

16:43 I think I've said this before. Yeah. So worth saying. Repeating prisons. I, I came to that epiphany one day, like, wait a minute. If a hamster were to find a wheel, I wouldn't. It would just avoid it 100%. Yeah. Right. In its natural environment. Yeah. The hamster would be like, that thing might represent some danger of staying the hell away from it.

17:02 Right? And it's not natural. It's clearly an unnatural thing. Right. But when it's in the confines of the cage, it learns that the the wheel is the most entertaining thing, is there? So the hamster wheel gravitates the wheel of runs and we all time. And then the human captors are going to call it that man. See the hamster and say, look, it loves it, it loves it.

17:22 You see what I'm saying. It's like really it's it's the only thing to do it, right. It's it's only stimulation, right? Its environment has been predetermined. And so of course, it's going to take the thing that's in that environment to live and to like, have some kind of like existence. Yeah. Well, same is true with us. You know, the environment that's been set up for us has these things available and we protecting them because it's what's available to us.

17:49 Like for example, you know, you can't go get on your private jet right now and go watch an opera in Sydney. But I would if I could. So your environmental constraints dictate what you know. So, like playing a video game or surfing the internet is like what's been made available to you. And so the by by limiting the choices right out of the gate, we have kind of direct control over the activities of what that person's doing.

18:15 So now you put that back into the context, what we're talking about with this religious extremism, right. Or kind of ideology. Well, if you put that person in an environment where that's not present a change, the environmental constraints, then the person will be on a different wheel, if you will. Right. And I think that's how you do it.

18:33 You have to get people to have more opportunity, not necessarily access to knowledge, which you believe is a premium and said, why not just that, but like opportunity to change that environmental circumstance. So to me, I don't think there's very many people that are really radical. Islam is a radical Islam, you know, people that didn't like go to college at Stanford and when they're done are still radical Islam.

18:57 No. You know, Islam because you are, in the context of entering the environment and the change that it requires to maintain it. If you graduate from an Ivy League university, you are a completely different person than when you came in. So I'm talking about and it's like a retooling and a retraining based on the environment or what.

19:18 But I mean, I feel like we're verging on saying we need to reprogram people, which is scary. Well, that's okay, not necessarily because of what you're saying. It's like, the reprograming thing has it has the negative connotation of the, you know, like brainwashing and all that stuff. Right? But, let's just start with addressing that, the notion that the feedback that people are getting programed by something in your heart anyway, absolutely.

19:48 And so what we're saying is like, given this programing, which is terrible, needing to hear about outcomes for people, even if it's just the standard default training of being an American citizen, flag waving patriot and, you know, consumer. All right. That's that's headed towards obesity and and the diseases they're eating diseases of consumption, diseases of overconsumption are just like waiting for them in their future.

20:11 Right. There's all these trappings, you know, by this look at this. You're, you know, the trappings of our society that we built, you know, and so they're being attenuated or trained in that environment. Anyway, and then we say, is, is the training in that environment healthy for the individual? And if the answer's no, then it seems, seems fair and appropriate.

20:30 So an alternative, going back to the idea of continuous improvement in our personal lives, I mean, in saying, just like we said earlier, we want to continuously improve society, stepwise refinement, this programing just makes sense. And I mean, it's something we should undertake. Absolutely. But it's like the, the leadership we have seemed to be calcified and stupid.

20:58 Maybe. So. So it's like you almost have to create your own pull yourself up from your bootstraps type thing. You know, that's radically different. That works, you know, without it being a cult or, you know, and that's if they do anything outside the norm is that, you know, people are creatures of habit. People tend to gravitate towards what they know, you know.

21:20 And so if you create this counterculture, this like community that's like very anti consumerism and, you know, it's trying to do things right and have lots of opportunity for people and good ideology. I think very quickly most people who see it as cultish. Are you well, you to take steps to avoid that now being called the cult of being a cult, you will be called a cult.

21:42 But you've got to be taking steps to say, this is not a cult of personality. I am not the center. This is not a cult. Ideology. This is we are building something together, you know, like, have a way to make it genuinely transparent to where you're showing it's obvious what you're trying to do and how you're trying to do it right.

22:05 It's got to be data driven, metrics driven, for sure. And I agree to that to 100%. Maybe what we can do is we can say, flip the script on that and say, what you're currently engaged in right now is a cult. So, you know, do you want to get out of the cult of capitalism? Yeah, yeah. No, you know, not me.

22:24 Not meaning go to socialism, you know, go to some kind of just create this new community with these measures. Yeah. What's it called? It doesn't matter what it is. We're not saying you don't participate in society at large. That's not at all what you're trying to say, right? You're saying the way you participate, society is going to be different.

22:44 Yeah. And go through like the the list. You know, I love to talk about the ordinal list. The list of priorities go down. Create a generative list of priorities of what's important for this community. Right. So like first and foremost, the health and wellness of people is definitely key. Right. And then you drill into that like you know what makes that what makes that, what makes it up.

23:06 And just really simple things like, you know, the kids being going outside, kids going outside safely to play in their, in their, in their community is something that is like, should be a part of every community. Oh, absolutely. Because kids should have the ability to explore their space, their environment, to create in their environment, to understand it.

23:27 You know, I mean, what better way to learn about all sorts of things than to go out there and play? Yeah, play, play, play is the key to all juvenile animals. You know, all juvenile animals engage in play because it prepares you for for the future reality. You know, the animal kingdom. It's like you're being prepared for life and death, right?

23:46 You know, so you have to do that play fighting with your siblings because you need to get those muscle memories and those those moves and techniques. You know, you need to get those mastered before you're out in the wild and not protected by mom or dad. Yep. You know, by big badass mom or dad. Yeah, you know, that have made it to that stage and created you and protect you, right?

24:04 You know, the youth learns to play and fight and, you know, before they go on, have to do it on their own. And the same goes with the myriad of skills and abstractions that we build. You kids assimilate them by degrees, by playing right off their play. And it's really exciting to there's there's a kind of different adults as well, like adults benefit from play.

24:25 I was playing yesterday, which I think is why I fell asleep early. I was learning about, containers and creating them and playing with pod man. What a cool what a cool way to look at it too is like, see, it is not like working towards acquiring new skills. You're seeing it as being as playing around. And that makes it.

24:44 It brings a jovial miss to it. It brings the right kind of spirit to it. Yeah, yeah. To play and, you know, the games that the games that people play kind of signifying, you know, they're really telling. Yeah. About what their future might hold. Yeah. The games that we play type thing. Right. It speaks about your innate, predilections, your personality, you know, and and what energizes user individual.

25:14 But oh speaking. Right. You're talking about DMV. Yes. Yeah. We got to find a setting right that we can use and myself to. Yeah. Okay. We can start get a campaign on. I don't know if you know anybody, but I can, I can definitely ask around. Well, insight into some of the community. I'll, I'll ask Sam to ask.

25:35 And I know one person who might be interested. This guy, I really like any school. I've known him for years. It's due to Emerson. He's Peruvian and Spanish. Oh, man. He's he's an interesting guy. And very energetic. Oh. Well, I'm. I'm even willing to, like, you know, I have a cool space in my house now.

25:56 Cool. And, I'm even willing to, like, maybe DM something. Oh, you want to give it a shot? Nice. And say I'm studying up to, to DM eventually. Do right now. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, I will be a player or DM. Well, I'm just saying he's not ready yet. Yeah, you know, I'm not ready yet, but I know enough to to where I can make it fun.

26:15 I know for sure I could I mean he's like sitting down and just building the world. Right now. Like he's drawing the maps and hitting the lower right. Yeah. Super cool. Yeah. You know I have that space in my basement. Yeah. You know that like where I've dug out I haven't been out there. Had been down there a long time.

26:32 Dude, I could, I could like totally with some time and money investment. Turn that into like, the ultimate dead, space. I'm not sure if you, like, literally, like, walk down into the basement type thing right? Play the the the game and the whole thing is all set up. If I got into it, that's pretty cool. Right now, I mean, something like that.

26:52 It seems like really low priority for me, but if I really got into it, I can really make that a priority. You know, like turn that into something real, man. Like the real. Yeah. Like put a shader down there and everything. Translate. Not delete. There's already a free gym. I mean, do to any space is a good space.

27:08 You know, we bring snacks and we hang out literally a dungeon now. Yeah. True. And it's like this is your dungeon you're crawling through. Just need some dragons now, right? Practice. Yeah, man. That's that's great. Yeah, I know, I know it does. And people are saying yeah, that could probably point me in the right direction. How do you start it for our for our little ragtag group.

27:29 You know, of news of news. Yeah. I mean, I've only pointed a handful of times, but I really enjoy it. I used to play with, I did a couple of campaigns with what's his name, Joe, of Joe and Veronica. Yeah. Very cool. He was really fun to DM with or as a DM because, I mean, it was really like he didn't mind, you know, that whole interplay where you got to you, in a way, you're doing a friendly competition against the mind of the DM, right?

28:04 Yeah. And, he he didn't mind that. He didn't mind being challenged. And you trying to find the holes. Yeah. You know, in some people do. Right. Yeah. Some people, of course, like, if they feel like it was unfair or like something random happened that was hurt them badly, you know, or their character, beloved character dies. Well, well, I'm saying like him as the DM, he didn't mind you like, you know.

28:28 Oh, well, you didn't think of this. Let me do that. You know, and that's one, you know, and, you know, he was he was really good is a is a DM. He was dynamic and he would always he wasn't he wasn't like unswerving toward the storyline he came up with in his head. Totally. He was like, let's have fun.

28:48 And that's even in the DM guide. It says that's what it's all about. Adjust to the audience. Like adjust to the, you know if you're with a bunch of noobs give them a great visual in their mind. Right. Your adventure that only your imagination can produce things that like CGI games. That's the whole point of the tabletop game, right?

29:06 It's all in here. You know, and so much fun. It is. And I mean, I'm not into those. The little miniatures and all that stupid shit. Not necessary. Yeah, yeah, the miniatures aren't necessary. We can't have, you know, your mind puts up and puts it all into place. Yeah, for sure, but that's the way they always portray it in, like, a really geeky movies.

29:27 Like, if the kids are playing DNA, they've got all these hand-painted miniatures. You got this might happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. You're. We're going. We'll do it now. Yeah, it's gonna take it off together. Cool. It definitely could. That could be the space and night that could inspire me to, like, take that second space I was talking about, like, turn that into something.

29:48 Yeah, I like, I could do it. I can do it with my existing space. Now that this is down there as it is, I could already set something up there if I, you know, partition it off a little more. Yeah. Like kind of L-shaped down there. I can make it a great space that's made. It could be a fantastic space for the, like, torch light and shit, you know, like I am.

30:06 Yeah. I turned it into, like, a real dungeon. So you're going to have, like, sconces for your torches. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And then like a table with all your stuff for your dice and stuff, like set up specifically to where it's perfect table for. Yeah. The Sam's rolling dude. He's got, like, every conceivable set of dice you could have, but then he's got that little, like, dice rolling velvet lined container that you can roll stuff in.

30:35 Ooh, 50 that I was about when two and I and the kids when play daddy at that comic book shop. This guy had this skull. Thing that you put the dice in the head. They copied that. And the the the dice roll out the mouth. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I like that. You put it in, and it was like it wasn't just this direct tube.

30:56 It was like a a track in there where the die would really, you know, actually change it up a little roll and so completely random. You, you know. Yeah. So like, you, you'd pick your dice back up out of the mouth of the skull. That looks pretty dull. And then you're thinking like, this guy's got to carry the skull or whatever I'm talking, and, you know, you he love whenever people comment on the skull like he's carrying it around everywhere.

31:20 Of course he's introverted. And that is a that's like a safe conversation. People bring somebody into a conversation. Oh, yeah. You got it. Yeah, totally. And then, you know, he can use that as a signal. He's got more ways, more dice rollers and more stuff. You know, he's got the whole entourage for the ship. And so like based if he's had his meds or how he's feeling for that day, you know, he can decide if he wants to take the skull or something else.

31:44 I had a friend in elementary school that was looking at that. He was he was super geeky for our age. And so we're out and, you know, ten, 11, 12 years old. This kid was I mean, dude, he would bring like, Transformers into class and play with them in his desk, but he would carry stacks of books around, and invariably it'd be 1 or 2 D&D related books, you know?

32:10 And he was like, I don't know. Oh, man. I remember carrying books. Yeah, lots of them. No, but, you know, we had to carry a lot of books around anyway. But he had his stack and our our stack books was maybe like this in elementary school. His stack was like this. He had some of his own supplemental material.

32:29 Yes. Did you did you ever, like, make a book cover out of a brown paper bag for your. Yeah. Yep. And decorate that shit out of it. So I'm talking about. Right? Yeah. It is. Yeah. I'm sad for my children. They don't have, like, these dumb experiences like. Yeah. Because it was like you were customizing your craft. Yeah.

32:48 And do you remember, like, in the back of the book where you write your name and you'd see the name of the people that. Yeah. Were you. It was so neat. And it's like sometimes you'd be like, oh my. And sometimes I would date it, you know? Yeah, yeah. And I always like, I don't know, I really like going to the library and seeing the last time someone was checked out even.

33:08 Yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. And how about when how about finding a scrap of paper in the book that someone else lives in there? I still have books that I got from goodwill or other places, like thrift stores that have scraps of paper in them. I leave the scraps in there so I can go back and look at them.

33:22 Dude, that's like a treasure. Finding a treasure? Yeah, finding someone else's, like, note or something in there. Yeah. Not not necessarily related to the top. No, it's just a piece of paper they haven't put in there or a receipt or anything. Yeah, yeah. The mystery of what that is. Yeah. Yeah, totally. That's a shared experience. Oh yeah. I mean it's so cool.

33:43 And then I mean, when you get a book sometimes, you know, from a thrift store or whatever, l have particular smell or whatever, you know, you're like. Yeah. So, when I was in Iraq, I did something really interesting, like, I, I thought it was interesting. It might many people might think it's stupid, but, literally, I ran out of paper.

34:02 Yeah, like writing paper to write. To write letters home. Oh, man. Did you make your own? No. I started, like, things that were fly by in the wind. I would grab shit and then use those to write letters. That's pretty cool. So I had it was like, found objects. And you sent them home? Yeah. So, like, literally trash.

34:21 Yeah. You know, like, so, like a label to some bottle or something was floating by and I'd grab it and put in my pocket and then use that to write my letter. That's pretty damn cool. And so I have in my stash still to this day, letters that I wrote with, you know, I'm back in the soda bottle label or you name it, you name it, I love that.

34:42 Yeah. There was like a you think, oh, well, you know, doesn't like the mirror. You know, the brown cardboard wasn't a good source to write on, right? So, like, a white label of anything like or, a piece of paper. Yeah. Someone like literally paper, that of the discarded. And one side of the paper, it was like all this Arabic writing, right?

35:03 But then the other side, the other side was blank, right? So I'm like, okay, write a letter on that. And then I also did it to where, like, the, the, the propaganda leaflets that we drop. How like that we airdrop those would be like floating in the wind. And you'd write a letter at home on that thing, and it's so cool.

35:21 And then, you know, later on, like, you know, people that got those names, it's like, what does it say? And I said, well, it basically says, if you oppose the United States when I die, I want to wrap your body in pigskin and you know, you're going to we're going to dominate your soul. You know, it's like so something terrifying to, you know, you know, to the enemy.

35:38 Yeah. Because because, you know, if you're if you're dropping paper leaflets on somebody, I think it's pretty clear that those could have been bombs instead. Yeah. So you're sending a pretty strong message like we own the sky. Well, I never really thought about it that way. Pretty powerful psychological operation. Yeah. That's true. Dropping leaflets on people. Right. It's pretty strong psychological.

35:56 I worked with a guy at peak ten who was in psyops in the Army, during, I'm not sure what conflict he was in. He was pretty young. He was younger than me. But he had gotten deployed, and, he was a twisted little. Do I tell you what it's like he was always trying to conduct psyops on us.

36:19 He was one of. He was even when he was just a regular support organization guy. And then they quickly promoted him due to the PSI upskilled.

36:29 You got to be wary of, like, I don't think there's any reason to just believe this person, but you have to be very wary of people talking about the military experience, because a like, stolen valor nonsense. Oh, I agree, I agree. There's a big culture of that that's really inappropriate. And, I feel like you shouldn't be bragging about it regardless of what you did.

36:49 And if you are, you're probably lying. Yeah, like they can do that. Probably. There's a good chance. Right. And but regardless, he was always trying to do similar acts of mass manipulation upon us. And it worked well enough that he got promoted.

37:08 It's funny. And he, he's like, I think he's like four rooms up the chain from where he was whenever I worked there in 2016, there's that. There's that like fine line between mind control and influence, like so, so literally if you take the whole idea of like this cloak and dagger, mind control, hypnosis nonsense, right. Take that to the side and say, really?

37:33 Like, really what it is, is a series of threats, like influential threats that work on someone's mind, shape their behavior. You know, it's it's not necessarily like, you know. Yeah. It's not like, really troll you like, my eyes are spinning and, you know, you're my zombie. It's not hypnosis. It's. Yeah. It's like it's it's this long series of, like, influencers.

37:53 Then that will sculpt someone's thinking and ideology, right? All the time. I mean, obviously there's some things that are known to be more potent than others, but in general, like, you know, we've said it before, you hang out with the top 3 or 5 people that you hang out with are sculpting influencers. You are, for more or less a composite of those people and your own innate personality and chosen and blunted.

38:19 Yeah. So it's a mesh or an amalgamation of those, you know. Yeah. Those things. And so, you know, like I said, being a steward or a guardian of your own psychology and your own sense of it and and preparing yourself for success for the future, align yourself with the top 3 or 5 people that you think are really going to help you change.

38:36 You know, your brain, you know, over time in a positive way. I, you know, and that that's I think that's a, that's a really big thing is that, when I, you know, speak in these classes or, you know, and I'm around at Nova Scotia or anywhere where I have some influence, like for what we're doing here is I try to make sure that the, the undercurrent of things is hopeful and and energizing and positive.

39:00 All right. Because it's that's it has a sculpting influence. It is not only on, on the person who's receiving information, but the person that's repeating it. Because I kind of look at it like, yeah, stating your belief, even if someone doesn't take something from the content that you're giving them, they may take the general overall thrust of positivity.

39:21 Right? Right, right. You know, even if they're not ready for whatever you're saying, right? They are still going. You're still going to have a positive sculpting, uplifting opportunity here. Exactly. Yeah, I think it yeah. You know, and so the the net effect of that over a long period of time, especially like we had a really strong influence like on children and stuff.

39:41 It's, it's really like instrumental. It's like the core, you know, value that you bring to it, you know, after love and you know. Yeah, they're, you know, same thing right after that. You know, that those are the core, you know, right after that it's next layer just outside of that. Is this, this idea, you know, concerted cultivation for the for the actual positive disposition of the children, you know, like they have to see the world as hopeful and not just filled with burdens and problems.

40:07 Yeah. You know, to look forward to in their lives. And, you know, if they have that attitude, they're more likely to surmount the problems that are in front of them. They're more likely to solve them in creative and personal light. And that's what you want. Want someone to approach it with a personal set of skills and solve it their way and feel good about it.

40:28 Yeah, absolutely. And then those those being the foundational elements that in place would give them the opportunity if they're able to share power to like actually create positive change because, you know, they're, you know, almost like a it's almost like a Mexican standoff. You can imagine, like all things to where, you know, someone is like, recognizes the military industrial complex, for example.

40:52 Right. And like, you know, military is just enormous and enormously powerful. It has a command so many, you know, resources, you know, and money, and it's entrenched. You know, it's been there 100 plus years. You know, some district complex has been strengthening, you know, for at least 100 years, you know, the United States. And, so it's like kind of the thing if you were a very aware politician, let's say it would be like something that, you know, isn't just going to change overnight.

41:20 You know, if you try to just change it overnight, you're going to get squeezed out, right? Right. You're getting pushed out. And so like you're saying, okay, I'm here, I'm an agent for positive change. I want to I know what would be a better future for our country. Or I have a vision for at least. And that would be to, to, scale back the military and start to put more of those into the humanities.

41:39 Right? I mean, whatever we're doing is, you know, whatever positive change we want to make, we both agree it has to be incremental and it has to be concerted change over probably generations. Yes. Right, exactly. And so, you know how many parents are like sending up their, their, their children to have this hopefulness, core positive disposition? Probably not many.

42:05 But consciously doing that right, so that no matter what, what you know, half their lives take your hopeful message that they become like a beacon of light within that, within that domain. Right? And then they're going to do the same with their children and, and start to create these beacons of light. I think I want what I think I want to give my grandparents and my parents credit for getting helping me adopt a relatively positive disposition, regardless of whatever I did, you know, and that is, I'm with you.

42:38 I think that's the most important thing you want to impart to your kids, as well as keep trying, keep. Okay. You didn't fix it the first time. Go back and do it again. Yeah. Keep going. Yeah. And then, you know, for my children, too, I also try to, like, stay off the trauma, like, try to make it so that they don't have, like, some traumatic experiences which are, which can really uproot the whole thing right through like traumatic experiences, since it's so strongly in the mind that they cannot displace, like the dispositions of being really positive.

43:10 But I think you do somebody a disservice if you protect them, you know, all adversity. And so I was just going to say, but but with a balanced hand like, yeah, you know, calculated risks. Yeah. You know, teach them that calculated risks are where the spice of life is, you know. Right. And, you know, it's like so many times I've done something, I'm thinking, okay, well most likely it will come out okay.

43:34 And you know, thankfully it might be confirmation bias, but I've been I've been right enough times. I'm still here today. Amen, brother. Amen. And that's a good start. So are you ready to get out here? Yeah, man. Yeah. We kill this man.