The Absurdity of Socialism | Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin #CLIP — Transcript

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1. 0:00you made the point
2. 0:01that for a very long time
3. 0:04we understood how dangerous that sort of
4. 0:07drift towards totalitarianism is
5. 0:10it seems to have washed out of the
6. 0:12system now
7. 0:13it seems as though
8. 0:14we don't teach history we don't respect
9. 0:16it we don't understand that it can teach
10. 0:18us valuable lessons
11. 0:20and what worries me about that is
12. 0:22the old saying if you don't understand
13. 0:24history you may very well repeat it
14. 0:28why do we walk away
15. 0:31from people we can trust
16. 0:33warning us of the consequences
17. 0:37well i think there's an interesting
18. 0:38reason for that that sort of brings this
19. 0:40alternating story into 2019 which is
20. 0:43that he
21. 0:44was truly oppressed
22. 0:46this was a life of actual oppression
23. 0:49right
24. 0:50now we have people that are walking
25. 0:52around everyone in this room has this in
26. 0:54their pocket and if you have this in
27. 0:56your pocket turned off i hope yeah
28. 0:58hopefully turned off but if you have
29. 0:59this thing in your pocket and you think
30. 1:01you're repressed
31. 1:02you're very confused we we live in a
32. 1:05time with such absurd freedoms in the
33. 1:07west that are so
34. 1:09uh beyond imagination of what people
35. 1:12could only dream of
36. 1:14two generations ago even one generation
37. 1:16ago especially with this that people now
38. 1:18are have a perceived depression instead
39. 1:20of a real oppression so one of the
40. 1:21things that i find when i go to uh when
41. 1:23i go to college campuses is that you
42. 1:25know these kids will protest and they'll
43. 1:27scream and that you know that everyone's
44. 1:29alright and everyone's a neo-nazi and
45. 1:31the rest of this and i i always find all
46. 1:34right well how do you how do you break
47. 1:35through to somebody like that how do you
48. 1:37actually when they have you know you've
49. 1:38talked about this when they have that
50. 1:39look in their eye truly a possessed look
51. 1:42and and they're you know it's this this
52. 1:45post-modern monster has become sort of a
53. 1:47secular religion uh and i think that's
54. 1:49also one of the reasons why what
55. 1:51jordan's doing is resonating because
56. 1:52they've they've removed religion from
57. 1:55the equation and now they have no
58. 1:56meaning and they put it all into this
59. 1:58really competing set of ideas uh
60. 2:01what we call the the oppression olympics
61. 2:04where they're constantly competing for
62. 2:05oppression because they believe that
63. 2:07victimhood is virtue and victimhood of
64. 2:09course is not virtue what's virtuous is
65. 2:11getting your life in order and going out
66. 2:12and doing something so i'm always
67. 2:13looking for a little trick to get
68. 2:16through to these kids and it's really
69. 2:17hard because when they have that sort of
70. 2:18glossed over zombie look it's it's tough
71. 2:21and i found one trick that actually kind
72. 2:23of works if you can get it to them in in
73. 2:26the most simple personal way and this
74. 2:28particularly works in the united states
75. 2:30and i have no doubt that it would work
76. 2:31here in australia as well i'll say to
77. 2:33them anyone in this room does anyone in
78. 2:36this room
79. 2:37have it worse than their grandparents
80. 2:39now i've done this i don't know 100
81. 2:41times probably nobody has ever raised
82. 2:43their hand nobody ever if you live in
83. 2:45the united states you basically short i
84. 2:48mean the only outsider case would be if
85. 2:50your grandparents were oil barons or
86. 2:51something like that and then they lost
87. 2:53all the money in which case in which
88. 2:54case the leftists would actually love
89. 2:56that too because it would show that well
90. 2:58it would show that that accumulated
91. 2:59wealth doesn't stay beyond generation so
92. 3:01they're all about that right so but if
93. 3:03you can do something like that i mean if
94. 3:05you say i mean everyone in this room can
95. 3:06do it like can everyone picture their
96. 3:08grandparents do you have it better or
97. 3:09worse i mean does anyone in here have it
98. 3:11worse than their grandparents and that
99. 3:13shows you that
100. 3:14it's a perceived depression not a real
101. 3:17oppression that that the thing that
102. 3:19they're fighting this patriarchal
103. 3:22postmodern capitalistic
104. 3:25thing that they're fighting i mean they
105. 3:26can't define it so it's hard to define
106. 3:28it for them
107. 3:29that it actually has bent toward justice
108. 3:32always
109. 3:33always and one when you get if you can
110. 3:36plant that seed in them i think it's a
111. 3:38little bit of something but it's very
112. 3:40hard to break them out of that but i
113. 3:41think the key here is understanding that
114. 3:42it's a perceived depression
115. 3:44if you live in a free society in the
116. 3:47west in 2019 you're not oppressed you
117. 3:50you may be you maybe don't happen as
118. 3:52well as your neighbor does and maybe you
119. 3:54came from more and they came from less
120. 3:56or maybe you're sick and they're not or
121. 3:58a series of other things
122. 4:00but you've got a chance
123. 4:02and that's all you're supposed to have
124. 4:03in life and i think getting that through
125. 4:05to them as opposed to oh the system is
126. 4:07horrible and i have to now destroy the
127. 4:09system as if they could magically
128. 4:11reconstitute a system that really would
129. 4:14just be in effect throwing away
130. 4:15thousands of years of human history that
131. 4:17they're so wise they're so wise at 24
132. 4:20years old as they're shouting down
133. 4:21speakers that they could they could
134. 4:23build up what nobody before them could
135. 4:26and that's the danger there so i think
136. 4:27getting them to to think about their own
137. 4:29lives where they come from i think is a
138. 4:31pretty effective way of getting through
139. 4:33to people well we could also say like
140. 4:36look
141. 4:38there's a claim that the west is an
142. 4:40oppressive patriarchy
143. 4:43and so
144. 4:44that's actually true
145. 4:46the the problem with the claim is that
146. 4:48it's not
147. 4:49just an oppressive patriarchy and
148. 4:53there's a big difference between
149. 4:54something being completely something and
150. 4:56something being partly something because
151. 4:59one of the things you might point out is
152. 5:01that
153. 5:02you can look at human history anywhere
154. 5:05and what you see is a complete bloody
155. 5:07nightmare right it's it's it's death and
156. 5:10struggle and privation and war and
157. 5:13horror
158. 5:14everywhere with
159. 5:17some progress you know some ability of
160. 5:20us to pull ourselves out of the mire
161. 5:23you know and the west is the same
162. 5:26is there's plenty of catastrophe in our
163. 5:28past and of all sorts and and i think
164. 5:31it's it's necessary to know that but
165. 5:33then it's necessary to separate the
166. 5:36wheat from the chaff you know one of the
167. 5:38things i see with readers who are
168. 5:42unsophisticated and intellectually
169. 5:44arrogant is they'll read someone great
170. 5:47maybe they'll read nietzsche for example
171. 5:49and they'll find the odd thing that
172. 5:51nietzsche said that greats against their
173. 5:55current moral sensibilities
174. 5:57whether they
175. 5:58do that in context or out and then
176. 6:00they'll throw away the whole book
177. 6:02it's like
178. 6:04you don't throw away the whole book it
179. 6:06was nietzsche you don't throw away the
180. 6:09book he's like one in a billion you read
181. 6:12it carefully and you think well
182. 6:14okay
183. 6:16no
184. 6:16to that but yes to this and you do the
185. 6:19same thing with dostoyevsky and you do
186. 6:21the same thing with tolstoy you do the
187. 6:23same thing with the great writers of the
188. 6:25past that have been passed down to us
189. 6:27you you read intelligently you separate
190. 6:30the wheat from the chaff right and you
191. 6:32gain wisdom that way well you do the
192. 6:35same when you look at your own history
193. 6:37it's like well of course it's a bloody
194. 6:38nightmare what what do you expect
195. 6:41it's like what's your point
196. 6:44we're going to we're going to burn it
197. 6:45down and then we're going to have
198. 6:47something better as a consequence well
199. 6:49not so easily not so quickly maybe we
200. 6:52read our history carefully and we think
201. 6:54okay well what did we get right well
202. 6:56what did we get right well the
203. 6:58sovereignty of the individual that's
204. 6:59pretty good
205. 7:00the fact that you have right to property
206. 7:03that's pretty good you can argue about
207. 7:04the limits on that but you know you
208. 7:06don't want someone just taking your
209. 7:08purse you know it's it's it's helpful
210. 7:10that there are things that you can earn
211. 7:12and own
212. 7:13you know the dignity of the individual
213. 7:15that's another one um the innocence
214. 7:18before the law god that's that's a
215. 7:21miracle that we ever came up with that
216. 7:22idea i can't believe that that idea
217. 7:24exists because in most cultures it's
218. 7:26like well you might be guilty okay
219. 7:29you're dead
220. 7:30because well that's easier you might be
221. 7:32guilty you know why go through all the
222. 7:34trouble there's plenty of people where
223. 7:36you came from it's like the trouble of
224. 7:38presuming your innocence it's innocent
225. 7:40it's even hard for you to do that for
226. 7:42yourself and and and the idea that that
227. 7:44each person
228. 7:46has an intrinsic worth regardless of
229. 7:48their well externalities let's say
230. 7:51that's another idea that's a complete
231. 7:53miracle it's like what are you what are
232. 7:55we gonna do we're gonna throw all that
233. 7:56away with the statement that we live in
234. 7:58an oppressive patriarchy and then we're
235. 8:00going to be left with nothing
236. 8:02and and and what what good is that well
237. 8:04how about we look at our history and we
238. 8:06take responsibility for it we think okay
239. 8:08well here's some things that need to be
240. 8:09fixed there's plenty of them right
241. 8:12there's plenty of them for each of us to
242. 8:14fix and we'll go fix them and maybe then
243. 8:16we can atone for the bloodiness of our
244. 8:19history and for our so-called unearned
245. 8:21privilege you know
246. 8:23some of which all of us have and and
247. 8:26that would be good that would be part of
248. 8:27the adventure of your life too and
249. 8:29that's that's a far more sensible and
250. 8:32wise approach to the diagnosis of what's
251. 8:35wrong with the west than well it's an
252. 8:38oppressive patriarchy and it should be
253. 8:39overthrown or whatever that you know
254. 8:41current
255. 8:42uh low resolution
256. 8:44and resentful ideology happens to be
257. 8:47and and there's something to be said for
258. 8:49a bit of humility as well it's like
259. 8:53really you really think that you're
260. 8:54capable of making large-scale social
261. 8:57transformations and getting it right do
262. 8:59you
263. 9:00you really think that you're 25 you're
264. 9:0230 you're 40. i don't care you know
265. 9:05what makes you think you're smart enough
266. 9:07to pull off something like that
267. 9:09it's very very difficult very very very
268. 9:12difficult to take a system that works
269. 9:15not too badly and to do anything to it
270. 9:18that doesn't make it worse much less to
271. 9:21radically reconstitute it and make it
272. 9:23better that's really hard so you know if
273. 9:25you're upset about your culture well
274. 9:28maybe you could think of some small ways
275. 9:30that are local that you could go out and
276. 9:32improve it well i think you should start
277. 9:34with yourself
278. 9:35because
279. 9:37well then you're only harming yourself
280. 9:38and you're not a bad person to practice
281. 9:40on and then you could extend that to
282. 9:42your fat well at least you suffer for
283. 9:44the consequences of your own experiments
284. 9:47that way rather than having someone else
285. 9:49do it and then maybe you can work on
286. 9:51bringing a little more harmony into your
287. 9:52family and maybe you can get a job and
288. 9:54see if you're any good at that and then
289. 9:56if you manage those three things
290. 9:57halfways
291. 9:59respectably well then
292. 10:01you could dare to put a toehold out into
293. 10:05the broader community and think
294. 10:08maybe i have an idea here that we could
295. 10:10tentatively attempt that might make some
296. 10:13small things slightly better that we
297. 10:15could measure carefully and assess
298. 10:17and that would be your contribution and
299. 10:19maybe you get real good at that you know
300. 10:20so by the time you're 50 or 60 and you
301. 10:22have a solid life behind you you're
302. 10:24actually capable of generating
303. 10:26large-scale improvements
304. 10:28carefully
305. 10:36you