WEBVTT

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Sea Realm Vault Podcast, episode number 335.

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Thursday, September 5th, 2019. The light of consciousness

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shines on everyone, but not everyone gains access

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to the vault. Hey, Sea Realm Vault subscribers,

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KMO here. And the first thing that I want to

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share with you is the audio from a video call

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that I recorded with Doug Lane. Maybe you know,

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maybe you don't. Some of you watch my YouTube

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videos, others not. But I've been doing, you

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know, for 2019, my resolution was to upload something

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to YouTube every day. And just over a month ago,

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I put Andrew Yang's name in the title of a video

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and got about 10 times as many views as I normally

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would. So I thought. Today's YouTube video is

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called The Big Number is a Lie. And when more

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people than usual come in, they don't come in

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with any appreciation of, you know, the general

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context of my videos. And so, you know, the video

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that got all these views was a 13 -minute video,

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almost 14 minutes actually, and the average view

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time was just over four minutes. And I can tell,

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I mean, if you go to YouTube and you're watching

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videos, Google knows how old you are. And they

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report that information, you know, among many

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other things, to the creators of the videos whose

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content you're watching. So I know that for the

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most part, people who watch my videos on YouTube

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are Gen X. But I also know, looking at the analytics

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for my videos, that when I get a big bump and

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a lot more people than usual come in, they're

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mostly millennials. And they don't watch the

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whole video. So that's why today's video is called

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The Big Number is a Lie. You know, the big number

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is the total number of views. But most of the

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people represented in that big number didn't

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actually watch the whole video. And if they did,

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they were just, you know, as soon as they realized

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I wasn't a straightforward, hooray, Andrew Yang,

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you know, uncritical, just total supporter for

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him, they turn ugly. So today I announced that

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I'm abandoning this, you know, Andrew Yang themed

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video a day project. I'm just going back to talking

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about whatever I want to talk about. But during

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the month when I was doing an Andrew Yang -themed

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video every single day, I had some regular CROM

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guests on video calls to talk about Andrew Yang.

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And some of these you've heard, like the James

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Howard Kunstler interview. Most of it was just

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for the podcast, but the first 10 minutes or

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so was for a video. But I had... Doug Lane on.

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And videos, particularly videos that I have to

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edit on my laptop, they can end up taking many,

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many, many hours to render and upload. So I have

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to make them short. Shortish. So the one with

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Doug, I played 20 minutes of it. And as you'll

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hear, it comes to a hard stop because... I had

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another call scheduled at the top of the next

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hour. But the interview that I recorded with

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Doug, you know, the conversation we recorded

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was longer than 20 minutes. So I'm going to play

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you a longer cut of that conversation. There

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is some overlap with the video. So if you've

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seen the video, you're going to recognize parts

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of this. And the whole conversation isn't here

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because in parts of the conversation, we were

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talking about things that I imagine Doug didn't

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really want to share with any audience. And I

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know when I say it like that, I'm sparking your

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curiosity. Really, it's just, it's nothing juicy,

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nothing salacious, nothing personal about anybody

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you know, just stuff that I imagine he didn't

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want shared. So again, what you're about to hear

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is a video call. I can see Doug, he can see me.

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And the first thing that I point out to him is

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that I had a pimple on my forehead. So that's

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what I'm referencing at the very beginning of

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this conversation. Look at this. I'm 51 years

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old. Nice. If you told my 18 -year -old self

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that at 51 I'd still be getting zits, I might

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have ended it. No, you know what? Look, it's

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the least of your problems and mine. A zit is

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good. It means you've still got pores that are

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operating. Or not quite, but you're still a human

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being. Yep. I shot a video in a professional

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studio on Tuesday, and I was in – You know what?

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I'm going to shut the door so the toilet isn't

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in the shot. Okay. But on Tuesday, I was in full

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on -camera makeup. Oh, yeah? Yeah, I'll send

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you a picture. Hold on. One second. Yeah. This

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isn't live, is it? No, no. This isn't live, is

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it? It is not live. We are recording it. Okay.

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Good, good, good. I've never dipped a toe into

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the YouTube thing. Okay, and do you edit the

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video a little bit? Yeah, we're not into the

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video. We're just talking. Okay, good, good.

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Okay, so let's see. I'm going to send you a picture

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of me in my full on -camera makeup. Okay. It

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took like 20 minutes to apply. I was shocked.

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I think I'm going to maybe dye my beard, like

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shave it down and then dye it. I've been thinking

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about it. I actually bought some beard coloring

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stuff, and I just never have used it. Dye my

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beard. I'm going to get Botox and liposuction.

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And then I'm going to upload my consciousness

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into a better body. Well, good luck with that.

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Yeah, thanks. In the meantime, I recommend weightlifting.

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Weightlifting, yeah. It tightens you up, weightlifting.

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Yeah. And, you know, it just makes your chest

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and shoulders look bigger compared to your head.

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Bit of an optical illusion. You can carry more

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fat. It sits better. Nice. Oh, my filing system

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on my PC is just a mess. That's where I need

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the AI help. AI, organize my files. Yeah, I got

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to do something because I'm on camera a lot these

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days and I'm really noticing what's become of

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me. I saw you on, I think it was Sky News. Yeah.

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How did that come about? I've done that twice

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now. You know, Ashley Frawley, who's this nearly

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30 -year -old academic Canadian who lives in

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Greece and then in, I think she's in London now,

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is a favorite of Sky News. And, you know, even

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they started a pilot where she was involved in

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a pilot. I think it was on. It might have been

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on the BBC and not Sky News, but she's quite

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beautiful. She's super smart. And she listened

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to the podcast and then was a guest a few times

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and now is a reader at Zero Books. And when the

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producer at Sky News asked her who she suggested,

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might be another person to become on their list

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of we'll contact them in the morning and have

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them on in the afternoon types, she recommended

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me. And so I've done it twice. The way I found

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out that Trump had suggested that we'd like to

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buy Greenland was the producer asked me if I

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wanted to talk about it. So I spent a couple

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hours taking notes and thinking about what I

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was going to say when I got on. And I don't know

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how well I did, but there I was. Well, that's

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the segment that I saw. Yeah, yeah. And it was

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funny. You were in your kitchen, right? Yeah.

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I've stood in that kitchen. I recognize that

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wall. Yeah. Did I come off like I belonged on

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the news? The background was a little incongruous,

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I guess. You know, for TV. But, hey, check your

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email. I just sent you the picture of me in full

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makeup. Yeah? Yeah, well, the thing is, you know,

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I'm on a shitty webcam right now, so you can't

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see all the details, but when I'm on a soundstage

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with professional lighting and high -definition

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cameras, every little blemish and blotch and

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discoloration and whatnot just leaps forward.

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You've got to wear that. You look good in the

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picture. You don't look terrible now. I pointed

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out the pimple, but I wouldn't have noticed it.

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Good. Explain to me what this is for. Is it just

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for YouTube or are you doing something else as

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well that you're going to be talking about being

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on a stage and high definition and all of that?

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See my lovely t -shirt here. Yeah. You know what

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that is, right? No. Tell me. Okay. I do a weekly

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comic strip for a political. Right. I know. I

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do remember that. Yeah. Yeah. It's called Geb.

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The website is geb .io. So. John Michael Greer,

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the archdruid, published something a couple weeks

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back about how the media now is pushing the notion

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of eco -fascism. Basically, if you complain that

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celebrity ecological activists fly around in

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private jets and have enormous carbon footprints

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themselves while they scold everybody else for

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their profligacy, the way to discredit that now...

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is you can say well look we've had these mass

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shooters who are obviously these right -wing

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wackos and they have environmental platforms

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in their you know their manifestos so uh eco

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-fascism is on the rise and if you don't like

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the way that you know celebrities and high -profile

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powerful figures burn through carbon uh you must

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be some kind of right -wing crazy eco -fascist

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who's about to go on a shooting spree and that's

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been it's That's already an active narrative

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on certain aspects of the left -wing blogosphere,

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and John Michael Greer's prediction is that it's

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going to go mainstream. You're going to be seeing

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mainstream pundits trotting out this line. Well,

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you know, my problem with that is not so much

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the idea that people are going to be using the

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term eco -fascism against people, but who gives

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a fuck about the celebrities? Traveling around

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on jets, do you think that's any significant

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part of the carbon footprint that's causing damage

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to the Earth? It's not. Well, celebrities flying

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around on jets is not so offensive until you

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pair it with them having these high -profile

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environmental summits where they say, oh, it's

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so terrible, but they wouldn't dream of living

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like they want everybody else to live. Well,

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how are you – first of all, I don't know how

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they want other people to live, but how on earth

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are you supposed to organize any kind of massive

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change without using the tools and technology

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that we already have? I mean, it's just fucking

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ridiculous. This actually ticks me off because

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it's so dumb. It's so ridiculous to complain

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about leaders, whether they're celebrities or

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politicians, using jets to – go places to communicate

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for their hypocrisy. I mean, it's like the same

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thing as saying, oh, you shouldn't have a YouTube

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channel if you're against capitalism because

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you're using the tools of capitalism to do it.

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Well, I mean, any sensible way forward is not

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going to just toss aside everything that's been

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built up by society. to get to something new.

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So, you know, environment, anyway. There was

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recently a high -profile environmental summit

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on the island of Sicily. There were 300 high

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-profile guests who were invited, and they flew

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in on 119 private jets. So that's three people

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per jet that they brought in. Well, private jets.

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Lamborghinis. on site just in case any of the

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guests wanted to take a little tour of the island.

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And I've flown first class one time in my life.

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It's pretty cushy. It's pretty nice. These guys,

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they can't fly first class. To them, that would

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be the same as hitchhiking. They've got to have

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a private jet and be attended by an army, a coterie

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of attendants. So who are these people and what

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was their plan? That's the main thing. I mean,

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the jets, I think, if they're a symbol of something

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else, I get it. But, you know, and yeah, the

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inequality between the rich and the poor is pretty

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disgusting. But I don't know. It's not just disgusting.

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The rich are telling the poor that the poor need

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to downsize their carbon footprints, while the

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rich have no intention of doing likewise. You

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know, to them, they wouldn't even dream of coming

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down to, say, a middle class level. Yeah, you

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know, okay. How is that not offensive? No, it's

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offensive, but it's not, the hypocrisy is offensive.

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The stratification in society is obviously bad,

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but it's not, if they went down to a middle class

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level, the problem of the environment, the environmental

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problems that we have would remain. You know,

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it's not actually trying, it's diverting from

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the question. Because the question is not about,

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you know, a few rich people and their private

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jets. That's not what's causing. Suppose a rich

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person has a, you know, a motorcade. They're

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riding in maybe a Hummer or a stretch limo or

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something. And there's one in front and one behind.

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And they learn that you, Douglas Lane, take the

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bus. And they scold you for not walking. Why

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are you wasting carbon? Why are you polluting

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the atmosphere by taking the bus when you could

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walk? I would be shocked that they noticed me

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first. Secondly, if I'm in a position where they're

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talking to me directly, that's probably going

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to be great for my career. Yes, it would be.

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But what if you're just a member of the class

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of people that they're talking to? Oh, okay.

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So what you're really saying, but see, now we're

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talking about real policies. This is going to

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come off wrong, but my understanding is that

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someone tried to talk to John Michael Greer about

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me on a podcast a while back. You know who? A

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YouTube channel. Greg did. I forget his last

00:15:12.659 --> 00:15:16.299
name. But he has a small YouTube channel that

00:15:16.299 --> 00:15:18.259
sort of combines left -wing politics with an

00:15:18.259 --> 00:15:21.379
interest in the occult. Oh, interesting. What's

00:15:21.379 --> 00:15:24.399
the title? I'll look it up and send it to you

00:15:24.399 --> 00:15:28.200
later. But the point was when John Michael Greer

00:15:28.200 --> 00:15:30.440
heard, oh, Doug Lane, he's a Marxist. You might

00:15:30.440 --> 00:15:32.399
be interested in him. John Michael Greer was

00:15:32.399 --> 00:15:36.580
like, ah, a Marxist. Oh, they're the worst. I

00:15:36.580 --> 00:15:39.419
can't even abide them. They're the absolute worst.

00:15:39.659 --> 00:15:43.059
I feel the same way about Druids. So that's all

00:15:43.059 --> 00:15:45.570
I'll say about them. You know, I spent the last

00:15:45.570 --> 00:15:47.370
couple of days with him and, you know, we're

00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:50.129
friends. Right. We got drunk together, but we

00:15:50.129 --> 00:15:54.429
also have some arguments. Right. I mean, but

00:15:54.429 --> 00:15:57.190
I feel like that's a really good, honest response

00:15:57.190 --> 00:16:00.370
to someone saying, hey, I like this guy, Doug

00:16:00.370 --> 00:16:02.850
Lane. He's a Marxist. I think he should say,

00:16:02.889 --> 00:16:05.529
yeah, no, he's a scumbag. That should be his

00:16:05.529 --> 00:16:08.340
response to me. I thought you said scumbag. That

00:16:08.340 --> 00:16:10.379
doesn't sound in character for him. I know, but,

00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:12.779
well, no, he didn't say I was a scumbag. But

00:16:12.779 --> 00:16:14.480
he said something like, oh, I can't abide them

00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:17.539
or something. But that's correct. That should

00:16:17.539 --> 00:16:20.519
be his line. That should be like, no, I have

00:16:20.519 --> 00:16:23.799
no time for Marxists. So you respect that, just

00:16:23.799 --> 00:16:26.980
categorical dismissal. Categorical dismissal

00:16:26.980 --> 00:16:29.919
of me, because it's reciprocal. So, you know,

00:16:29.980 --> 00:16:35.120
I can, you know. What category is he in that

00:16:35.120 --> 00:16:41.440
you categorically dismiss? The mystic, yeah,

00:16:41.580 --> 00:16:43.700
you know, the druid. He's a druid, for Christ's

00:16:43.700 --> 00:16:46.220
sake. He's an arch -druid, former. Yeah, right,

00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:49.259
right. I mean, yeah, I mean, the religious...

00:16:49.259 --> 00:16:51.200
Eco -Sophia, toward ecological spirituality.

00:16:51.700 --> 00:16:54.200
Yeah, the religious response to the ecological

00:16:54.200 --> 00:16:58.080
crisis, the deification of nature, the romantic

00:16:58.080 --> 00:17:01.059
impulse, all of that I reject. I just reject

00:17:01.059 --> 00:17:09.619
it all. So, I mean, I can appreciate it aesthetically

00:17:09.619 --> 00:17:13.960
and such, but I don't. And I think that this

00:17:13.960 --> 00:17:19.380
hyper -focus on elites is kind of part of the

00:17:19.380 --> 00:17:22.980
issue. There'll be no problem with the elites

00:17:22.980 --> 00:17:25.680
once we organize for the revolution. Hey, that's

00:17:25.680 --> 00:17:28.859
a good starting point. So, you said something

00:17:28.859 --> 00:17:31.859
about after the revolution. Okay, that's where

00:17:31.859 --> 00:17:33.809
we're going to start. So this is the video starting

00:17:33.809 --> 00:17:37.569
now. All right. All right. Hey, Yang Gang, KMO

00:17:37.569 --> 00:17:39.670
here with another out of my head video. And today

00:17:39.670 --> 00:17:42.609
I am joined by Douglas Lane, who's a filthy Marxist.

00:17:43.029 --> 00:17:45.329
Have I got that right? Yeah, yeah, that's fair.

00:17:45.630 --> 00:17:49.349
Okay. And you said that I was sharing a complaint

00:17:49.349 --> 00:17:52.769
that wealthy people fly around in private jets

00:17:52.769 --> 00:17:55.309
and private yachts to gather in luxurious resorts

00:17:55.309 --> 00:17:57.509
to talk about how the rest of us need to use

00:17:57.509 --> 00:18:00.029
less carbon. and you said elites are not the

00:18:00.029 --> 00:18:02.329
problem and in fact after the revolution the

00:18:02.329 --> 00:18:06.049
elites won't even be a thing yeah well i don't

00:18:06.049 --> 00:18:07.950
believe that the leaks aren't any kind of problem

00:18:07.950 --> 00:18:11.029
but i i do think that the hyper focus on elites

00:18:11.029 --> 00:18:15.190
as elites leads people astray we we should think

00:18:15.190 --> 00:18:17.930
about the total system and how we set it up that

00:18:17.930 --> 00:18:19.869
you know what what are the conditions that create

00:18:19.869 --> 00:18:24.599
these elites um rather than just Trying to address

00:18:24.599 --> 00:18:28.039
our demands and concerns to the elites and asking

00:18:28.039 --> 00:18:32.299
them to not act like elites, but still be elites

00:18:32.299 --> 00:18:36.920
is, you know, at the very best, what you'll have

00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:39.400
are kings that ride the bus or something. You

00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:41.299
know, you're not going to really have a change

00:18:41.299 --> 00:18:43.599
in your own conditions that way. I'd be happy

00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:45.880
to see some kings on the bus. I mean, I know

00:18:45.880 --> 00:18:48.259
a lot of people are really down on this Greta

00:18:48.259 --> 00:18:52.259
Thunberg. Is that her name? But, you know, she

00:18:52.259 --> 00:18:55.160
just took a yacht, not a yacht. She took a sailing

00:18:55.160 --> 00:18:59.160
vessel, you know, from Europe or from Scandinavia

00:18:59.160 --> 00:19:01.519
to New York City to attend a meeting at the UN

00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:03.380
because she didn't want to fly and, you know,

00:19:03.380 --> 00:19:06.920
add more carbon to the atmosphere. And, you know,

00:19:06.920 --> 00:19:09.940
flying is disproportionate in the damage that

00:19:09.940 --> 00:19:15.559
it does. What are the stats on that? I don't

00:19:15.559 --> 00:19:19.410
have them at the ready. I'm going to go to London

00:19:19.410 --> 00:19:24.250
in October. I fly about once a year. That's about

00:19:24.250 --> 00:19:26.890
how much I fly. I don't generally feel particularly

00:19:26.890 --> 00:19:31.910
guilty about it. So I have this YouTube channel,

00:19:31.950 --> 00:19:35.130
which has been simmering in obscurity for years

00:19:35.130 --> 00:19:37.730
now. And suddenly I discovered that if I put

00:19:37.730 --> 00:19:40.809
the name Andrew Yang in a video title or description,

00:19:41.230 --> 00:19:44.309
more people watch it. And with this discovery,

00:19:44.450 --> 00:19:46.619
I have decided that I... You know, I was already

00:19:46.619 --> 00:19:49.000
doing daily YouTube uploads this year as part

00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:50.900
of my New Year's resolution. Now I'm doing daily

00:19:50.900 --> 00:19:54.099
Andrew Yang themed, you know, daily uploads.

00:19:54.259 --> 00:19:58.839
Yeah. And I've just been asking all the people

00:19:58.839 --> 00:20:02.240
that I regularly talk to about Andrew Yang and

00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:07.140
universal basic income. And to a person, they

00:20:07.140 --> 00:20:10.690
have been. against universal basic income, and

00:20:10.690 --> 00:20:12.910
all but one of them have been generally negative

00:20:12.910 --> 00:20:16.710
on Andrew Yang. And here we go again, rolling

00:20:16.710 --> 00:20:19.569
the dice. Doug, what's your opinion of Andrew

00:20:19.569 --> 00:20:21.430
Yang and the idea of universal basic income?

00:20:21.710 --> 00:20:23.609
Well, I'm going to try to be a little bit different

00:20:23.609 --> 00:20:26.349
than the other guests. I'm obviously not going

00:20:26.349 --> 00:20:28.710
to be a straight -up advocate of universal basic

00:20:28.710 --> 00:20:33.809
income. Why is that obvious? Well, because as

00:20:33.809 --> 00:20:37.630
someone who's a dirty Marxist, I don't believe

00:20:37.630 --> 00:20:41.329
that the redistribution of the income is going

00:20:41.329 --> 00:20:46.089
to work. Camo, I have to do something about my

00:20:46.089 --> 00:20:47.890
cat. She's scratching at the door and she will

00:20:47.890 --> 00:20:49.849
distract me the entire time. Hold on. I'm really

00:20:49.849 --> 00:20:52.029
sorry. One second. I'm already editing. Okay.

00:20:52.089 --> 00:20:54.670
So why am I not going to be for universal basic

00:20:54.670 --> 00:20:57.849
income? Yes. Well, there's two reasons. One is

00:20:57.849 --> 00:21:03.109
that UBI might well, and it was originally sort

00:21:03.109 --> 00:21:05.859
of intended. when Milton Friedman and others

00:21:05.859 --> 00:21:12.160
devised a plan to undermine other forms of the

00:21:12.160 --> 00:21:16.059
social safety net, other parts of. With Andrew

00:21:16.059 --> 00:21:18.380
Yang's proposal, you have a choice. You can keep

00:21:18.380 --> 00:21:20.099
the assistance you're already getting, or you

00:21:20.099 --> 00:21:21.680
can take the thousand bucks a month, but not

00:21:21.680 --> 00:21:23.960
both. Right. Well, that's, I mean, I understand

00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:27.759
that the proposal is different, but what would

00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:31.880
come out of it? might not be exactly what Yang

00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:33.539
proposes, right? There's a process. I'm sure

00:21:33.539 --> 00:21:36.299
it wouldn't be, but go ahead. What are the pitfalls

00:21:36.299 --> 00:21:37.740
you see? Because I've already done one video

00:21:37.740 --> 00:21:40.039
today about the pitfalls. I haven't posted it

00:21:40.039 --> 00:21:43.720
yet, but it's going on. The major pitfall is

00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:47.940
that it would undermine the redistribution that's

00:21:47.940 --> 00:21:55.539
based on need and that it would end up... I mean,

00:21:55.539 --> 00:21:58.160
the second thing is that the major dream of UBI

00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:01.579
is that... you would really liberate the working

00:22:01.579 --> 00:22:07.619
class from having the necessity to work. I wouldn't

00:22:07.619 --> 00:22:10.160
do that. It certainly wouldn't do that. It's

00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:13.180
not intended to. It's just the economic pressure

00:22:13.180 --> 00:22:16.539
that people are feeling right now. Yeah. And

00:22:16.539 --> 00:22:22.839
I think it could in the short term for some people.

00:22:24.640 --> 00:22:26.880
relieve some economic pressure. Certainly, I

00:22:26.880 --> 00:22:29.339
know everyone I know would love to get $1 ,000

00:22:29.339 --> 00:22:33.619
right now, an extra $1 ,000, an extra $12 ,000.

00:22:33.619 --> 00:22:34.920
There are some people I know who wouldn't care.

00:22:35.059 --> 00:22:36.900
It would make no difference in their lifestyle.

00:22:37.099 --> 00:22:40.599
But other people, yes, it would increase their

00:22:40.599 --> 00:22:43.180
lifestyle or their income by a third. Well, okay,

00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:46.099
yeah. But even people who wouldn't really care,

00:22:46.220 --> 00:22:48.279
if you said to them, would you like $1 ,000?

00:22:49.140 --> 00:22:51.460
They would probably, if there were no strangers

00:22:51.460 --> 00:22:54.230
attached, take it. Of course. The same way you

00:22:54.230 --> 00:22:57.349
and I might take $10 or $5 or whatever. I absolutely

00:22:57.349 --> 00:23:01.470
would take $5. Exactly. So, I mean, yeah, I mean,

00:23:01.490 --> 00:23:04.589
obviously people would love to get some extra

00:23:04.589 --> 00:23:07.650
cash. It's not a bad, it wouldn't be a terrible

00:23:07.650 --> 00:23:09.210
thing. I don't think it would cripple the economy

00:23:09.210 --> 00:23:10.890
or anything. I don't think it's completely unrealistic.

00:23:11.349 --> 00:23:14.509
I just don't think it would accomplish what it's

00:23:14.509 --> 00:23:18.529
wanting to accomplish. And I think what I like

00:23:18.529 --> 00:23:22.420
about Yang and the fact that Yang is so. I mean,

00:23:22.420 --> 00:23:25.380
he's not a leading candidate. He's not likely

00:23:25.380 --> 00:23:28.019
to get the nomination. But he came seemingly

00:23:28.019 --> 00:23:31.859
from nowhere and is, I think, like Tulsi Gabbard

00:23:31.859 --> 00:23:35.700
just got kicked out of the debate process. Yeah,

00:23:35.779 --> 00:23:38.660
she didn't qualify for the upcoming debate. But

00:23:38.660 --> 00:23:41.480
Yang does still qualify, right? That's really

00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:43.480
interesting because Tulsi Gabbard has much more

00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:46.960
of a political track record than Yang. But Yang

00:23:46.960 --> 00:23:49.900
is talking about something that is a serious...

00:23:50.500 --> 00:23:54.900
And that's the impact that automation and digital

00:23:54.900 --> 00:23:58.079
technologies are having on our lives. That's

00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:00.420
why I like him. Yeah, that's what's important

00:24:00.420 --> 00:24:05.160
about him. What his actual prescription is, is

00:24:05.160 --> 00:24:09.500
probably less important than, yeah, than this,

00:24:09.559 --> 00:24:13.039
than this fact here. And what I would just say

00:24:13.039 --> 00:24:16.329
is that Before Andrew Yang, there was another

00:24:16.329 --> 00:24:19.029
guy who understood the impact of technology,

00:24:19.190 --> 00:24:22.609
and his name was Karl Marx. He's not on the ticket,

00:24:22.670 --> 00:24:26.529
though. He's not on the ticket. And his proposals

00:24:26.529 --> 00:24:31.470
are a little bit more difficult to swallow, although

00:24:31.470 --> 00:24:35.140
they probably would do more. And you can't really

00:24:35.140 --> 00:24:37.759
claim that Marx could anticipate the fourth industrial

00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:40.960
revolution. Did you listen to or read that article?

00:24:41.460 --> 00:24:43.599
I'll claim it. I'm going to claim he anticipated.

00:24:43.619 --> 00:24:45.480
I don't know if he would call it the fourth industrial

00:24:45.480 --> 00:24:50.579
revolution. He anticipated artificial intelligence

00:24:50.579 --> 00:24:54.920
and nanotechnology and biotechnology. Yeah, well,

00:24:55.059 --> 00:24:56.819
I don't know if he anticipated the specific forms

00:24:56.819 --> 00:24:59.059
that it would take, but he anticipated getting

00:24:59.059 --> 00:25:01.099
to a place technologically where we would have

00:25:01.099 --> 00:25:03.380
something called a general intelligence, a communal

00:25:03.380 --> 00:25:06.900
intelligence, that where our technological understanding

00:25:06.900 --> 00:25:11.339
would create conditions where there would have

00:25:11.339 --> 00:25:13.819
to be social change. Or not that there would

00:25:13.819 --> 00:25:17.680
have to be, but where there was a potential for

00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:21.160
massive social change. what that potential will

00:25:21.160 --> 00:25:25.480
be based on would be the free exchange, not the

00:25:25.480 --> 00:25:27.480
exchange based on market principles, but the

00:25:27.480 --> 00:25:30.099
free exchange of understanding and intelligence

00:25:30.099 --> 00:25:36.039
and access to technology amongst people, amongst

00:25:36.039 --> 00:25:38.519
the working class to start with. And then as

00:25:38.519 --> 00:25:41.400
the working class went away, basically amongst

00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:45.059
the free people and emancipated people. I think

00:25:45.059 --> 00:25:48.359
Marx's idea of general intelligence as the new

00:25:48.359 --> 00:25:53.759
form of the commons is in line with what people

00:25:53.759 --> 00:25:55.380
will talk about when they talk about the fourth

00:25:55.380 --> 00:25:59.339
revolution, the fourth industrial revolution.

00:26:00.420 --> 00:26:05.329
So Andrew Yang says that oil or that technology,

00:26:05.549 --> 00:26:07.630
and when he says technology, that's just a shorthand

00:26:07.630 --> 00:26:09.650
for information technology, machine learning,

00:26:09.769 --> 00:26:12.150
artificial intelligence, automation, that that

00:26:12.150 --> 00:26:15.210
is the oil of the 21st century. And that, you

00:26:15.210 --> 00:26:16.990
know, the one state that has instituted anything

00:26:16.990 --> 00:26:21.730
like a basic income is Alaska, a deep red state,

00:26:21.849 --> 00:26:24.950
but they have taken a portion of their oil revenues

00:26:24.950 --> 00:26:26.309
and said, we're going to give it to everybody.

00:26:26.509 --> 00:26:30.250
Every Alaskan gets a piece of this. And, you

00:26:30.250 --> 00:26:34.299
know, Alaskan, deep red state Republicans love

00:26:34.299 --> 00:26:38.700
it. So what would be your response to Andrew

00:26:38.700 --> 00:26:41.339
Yang's claim that, look, this is something that

00:26:41.339 --> 00:26:45.299
has broad, broad appeal, or it will once people

00:26:45.299 --> 00:26:46.920
understand the effects that it will have in their

00:26:46.920 --> 00:26:49.799
lives? Oh, I don't think he's wrong that this

00:26:49.799 --> 00:26:56.119
has broad appeal. In a democracy, doesn't broad

00:26:56.119 --> 00:26:59.079
appeal carry some weight? It does, absolutely.

00:27:00.730 --> 00:27:03.049
And again, I would say that he's pointing to

00:27:03.049 --> 00:27:05.690
a real issue. I think we should talk about the

00:27:05.690 --> 00:27:08.390
issue of how automation is displacing workers,

00:27:08.690 --> 00:27:14.710
as well as the question of how we redistribute

00:27:14.710 --> 00:27:17.589
wealth. I mean, okay, so the comparison being

00:27:17.589 --> 00:27:20.690
made here is between oil, which is a property,

00:27:20.809 --> 00:27:26.049
and the production of oils and the revenue from

00:27:26.049 --> 00:27:29.809
that is sort of a state property in Alaska. The

00:27:29.809 --> 00:27:32.750
state is taking part of that. Now, that's an

00:27:32.750 --> 00:27:34.829
oversimplification because really the Alaskan

00:27:34.829 --> 00:27:38.250
fund is not a portion of oil revenue, but it's

00:27:38.250 --> 00:27:43.089
an investment fund that was set up with revenue

00:27:43.089 --> 00:27:48.789
from oil. Taxed revenue? What's that? Taxed revenue

00:27:48.789 --> 00:27:53.190
from oil companies? No. When the fund was set

00:27:53.190 --> 00:27:56.599
up, the Alaskan government... Yes, they did take

00:27:56.599 --> 00:27:59.759
some oil profits and they just bought a portfolio

00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:02.779
of stocks, bonds, whatever. You know, there's

00:28:02.779 --> 00:28:05.359
an investment portfolio that was initially purchased

00:28:05.359 --> 00:28:08.779
with oil money. But the dividend that people

00:28:08.779 --> 00:28:11.160
get from year to year is not dependent on the,

00:28:11.180 --> 00:28:12.779
you know, the profits that the oil companies

00:28:12.779 --> 00:28:14.839
make. It is dependent on how that investment

00:28:14.839 --> 00:28:17.480
portfolio is doing. Right. But the original case.

00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:20.200
So that's interesting. So really, it's not quite.

00:28:20.690 --> 00:28:23.309
It's not a tax on oil companies. Right, right.

00:28:23.369 --> 00:28:24.930
It's not a tax on oil companies and it's not

00:28:24.930 --> 00:28:26.869
a redistribution of the oil company's profits.

00:28:27.910 --> 00:28:30.710
The original investment portfolio, which came

00:28:30.710 --> 00:28:34.150
from oil revenue, was that coming from a state

00:28:34.150 --> 00:28:37.269
-owned oil company? That I don't know. What I'm

00:28:37.269 --> 00:28:39.349
telling you, I have not researched recently.

00:28:39.369 --> 00:28:41.190
It's just from my general store of knowledge.

00:28:41.569 --> 00:28:45.390
So, all right. So, I mean, right there, what

00:28:45.390 --> 00:28:50.170
you're talking about is actually just... Something

00:28:50.170 --> 00:28:52.529
that any state that happened to have a big lump

00:28:52.529 --> 00:28:55.910
of money that they wanted to put into the stock

00:28:55.910 --> 00:28:58.529
market or some other investment scheme, some

00:28:58.529 --> 00:29:01.069
other portfolio, could do, right? I mean, the

00:29:01.069 --> 00:29:04.009
fact that Alaska is an oil -rich state with a

00:29:04.009 --> 00:29:09.670
small population is what gave them this ability

00:29:09.670 --> 00:29:13.670
to invest oil revenue into a portfolio that could

00:29:13.670 --> 00:29:16.569
be redistributed in a way that had a real impact.

00:29:17.230 --> 00:29:20.190
Yes, it was a fairly easy thing to do. It didn't.

00:29:20.190 --> 00:29:22.509
But the thing is, it happened in Alaska. It didn't

00:29:22.509 --> 00:29:24.670
happen in Vermont. It didn't happen in Massachusetts

00:29:24.670 --> 00:29:26.950
or California or Washington State. It would have

00:29:26.950 --> 00:29:29.750
happened in Vermont or California if they had

00:29:29.750 --> 00:29:32.049
had a small population and huge oil revenues

00:29:32.049 --> 00:29:34.809
and they wanted to bring people to bad conditions

00:29:34.809 --> 00:29:38.950
to work for, you know, an industry that was very

00:29:38.950 --> 00:29:41.710
profitable but grueling. I mean, it's not easy

00:29:41.710 --> 00:29:45.380
in Alaska. A basic premise of Andrew Yang's argument

00:29:45.380 --> 00:29:47.460
is that machine learning and information technology

00:29:47.460 --> 00:29:50.339
are in the process of generating enormous amounts

00:29:50.339 --> 00:29:53.200
of wealth. And if we don't take proactive steps,

00:29:53.500 --> 00:29:56.019
that wealth is going to accumulate in a very

00:29:56.019 --> 00:29:59.819
small portion of the population. thus increasing

00:29:59.819 --> 00:30:02.380
the already gross disparity between rich and

00:30:02.380 --> 00:30:05.059
poor in this society. And this is something that

00:30:05.059 --> 00:30:07.259
needs to be addressed proactively before it gets,

00:30:07.259 --> 00:30:10.299
you know, even more grossly disproportionate

00:30:10.299 --> 00:30:12.759
than it already is. I don't think Andrew Yang's

00:30:12.759 --> 00:30:15.859
wrong about digital technology generating a huge

00:30:15.859 --> 00:30:18.799
amount of wealth. But, you know, I think we have

00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:20.920
to, I really think Marx is very helpful here

00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:24.500
because Marx distinguishes between actual wealth,

00:30:24.859 --> 00:30:31.180
sensuous stuff. buildings, food stuff, commodities

00:30:31.180 --> 00:30:36.599
that we use, and the value that they hold, which

00:30:36.599 --> 00:30:41.279
we measure in money, right? And the money is

00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:45.500
a measure of the labor time invested in production,

00:30:45.640 --> 00:30:49.500
whereas the useful stuff is just useful stuff.

00:30:49.660 --> 00:30:54.579
That's real wealth, right? And the strange thing

00:30:54.579 --> 00:30:56.660
about capitalist production is that the faster

00:30:56.660 --> 00:31:02.170
you produce, stuff, the less value it has because

00:31:02.170 --> 00:31:05.630
the less labor time has gone into it. So digital

00:31:05.630 --> 00:31:09.109
technologies increase, give us the capacity to

00:31:09.109 --> 00:31:13.190
increase production and the time we spend producing

00:31:13.190 --> 00:31:16.029
things. I mean, and decrease the time we spend

00:31:16.029 --> 00:31:20.089
producing things, right? So digital technology

00:31:20.089 --> 00:31:23.670
sets up conditions where for some industries,

00:31:23.730 --> 00:31:27.069
there's massive profits. But overall, there's

00:31:27.069 --> 00:31:29.789
less and less need for people working, which

00:31:29.789 --> 00:31:34.950
means also that there's less and less money being

00:31:34.950 --> 00:31:37.910
produced overall in the economy. The economy

00:31:37.910 --> 00:31:40.509
goes into crisis. This is one of the reasons

00:31:40.509 --> 00:31:43.890
why we had the economic crisis of 2008 was because

00:31:43.890 --> 00:31:46.710
of a declining rate of profit. It got expressed

00:31:46.710 --> 00:31:48.789
through the financial system. It got expressed

00:31:48.789 --> 00:31:51.730
through mortgages. But the underlying condition

00:31:51.730 --> 00:31:56.859
was this declining rate of profit. The difficulty

00:31:56.859 --> 00:31:59.859
here is that the digital technologies are going

00:31:59.859 --> 00:32:02.700
to create wealth, but they very well could also

00:32:02.700 --> 00:32:05.019
create economic crisis. Not only unemployment,

00:32:05.200 --> 00:32:10.000
but bankruptcies, recessions. These things will

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:12.819
come along with the expansion of the power of

00:32:12.819 --> 00:32:16.180
the speed up of production through digital technology.

00:32:16.759 --> 00:32:20.960
This is why Marx thinks that the potential to

00:32:20.960 --> 00:32:24.420
overcome the kind of relationships that... set

00:32:24.420 --> 00:32:27.460
up capitalist production will arise as our technology

00:32:27.460 --> 00:32:31.140
gets more and more effective and powerful is

00:32:31.140 --> 00:32:34.539
because there's this contradiction between the

00:32:34.539 --> 00:32:36.960
economic value that's produced in production

00:32:36.960 --> 00:32:39.829
and the real wealth. So we can have a society

00:32:39.829 --> 00:32:42.150
filled with real wealth. And I can tell you that

00:32:42.150 --> 00:32:44.430
90 % of the Yang gang members watching this,

00:32:44.470 --> 00:32:46.549
their eyes have glazed over. They are getting,

00:32:46.609 --> 00:32:49.690
that's their problem because look, they're, they're,

00:32:49.690 --> 00:32:51.789
they're just, they're these people. That's shocking

00:32:51.789 --> 00:32:55.390
to me because these are people who love the technocratic

00:32:55.390 --> 00:32:58.799
Yang. with his technical fix while I'm talking

00:32:58.799 --> 00:33:01.119
about something very technical, which is the

00:33:01.119 --> 00:33:03.779
way the economy works. If they can't follow along,

00:33:03.880 --> 00:33:06.500
then they need to, you know, drink some coffee

00:33:06.500 --> 00:33:10.460
and pay attention. This isn't on me for them

00:33:10.460 --> 00:33:14.019
to try to entertain them. This is on them to

00:33:14.019 --> 00:33:16.279
understand what their guy Yang is talking about

00:33:16.279 --> 00:33:19.519
and the real problems that they're facing. I've

00:33:19.519 --> 00:33:22.509
been accused of... being a crypto Bernie bro

00:33:22.509 --> 00:33:25.549
who's claiming to be a Yang supporter, but really

00:33:25.549 --> 00:33:27.390
I'm bringing on all these people who don't like

00:33:27.390 --> 00:33:30.210
universal basic income. And I'm a villain, you

00:33:30.210 --> 00:33:33.470
know. Okay. Villain for bringing on people like

00:33:33.470 --> 00:33:36.049
you and amplifying your voice. Well, look, I'm

00:33:36.049 --> 00:33:37.789
not talking, I mean, I'm not saying that Bernie

00:33:37.789 --> 00:33:40.910
Sanders is, I'm not advocating Bernie Sanders

00:33:40.910 --> 00:33:44.549
in this conversation. I mean, I happen to. You

00:33:44.549 --> 00:33:46.230
called him a left gatekeeper in the previous

00:33:46.230 --> 00:33:51.400
electoral cycle. Yeah, I did. Explain what that

00:33:51.400 --> 00:33:52.880
means. I don't think a lot of people who are

00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:54.480
watching this are familiar with that phrase.

00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:59.859
What's a left gatekeeper? Well, okay. I don't

00:33:59.859 --> 00:34:02.279
think he's consciously a left gatekeeper, but

00:34:02.279 --> 00:34:07.039
what it means is someone who will present a reformist

00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:11.119
position as if it's a revolutionary one. That's

00:34:11.119 --> 00:34:12.800
how I'm thinking of it now. I don't know what

00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:16.400
I said before, but there was a need for... dramatic

00:34:16.400 --> 00:34:18.920
change especially again after the economic crisis

00:34:18.920 --> 00:34:21.719
of 2008 it was becoming obvious that there was

00:34:21.719 --> 00:34:24.659
something fundamentally wrong in our system and

00:34:24.659 --> 00:34:28.480
uh by being the furthest to the left candidate

00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:33.260
with a set of policies that really were uh a

00:34:33.260 --> 00:34:39.219
compromise in the 30s and 40s by you know bringing

00:34:39.219 --> 00:34:42.559
back fdr and the new deal as the new most radical

00:34:42.559 --> 00:34:46.280
position out there um He was a left gatekeeper.

00:34:46.380 --> 00:34:49.559
He was lowering the horizon of people's expectations.

00:34:50.420 --> 00:34:54.159
But that wasn't really his action. He was more

00:34:54.159 --> 00:34:56.739
of a symptom of that horizon already being lowered.

00:34:56.980 --> 00:35:01.159
I mean, this is the limit of the left's vision

00:35:01.159 --> 00:35:04.539
today is to return to the New Deal or to Lyndon

00:35:04.539 --> 00:35:06.860
Johnson's Great Society or something. Which,

00:35:06.940 --> 00:35:10.239
again, I'm not against it. I'm not against UBI

00:35:10.239 --> 00:35:13.809
in the short term. Because, yeah, some people

00:35:13.809 --> 00:35:16.489
would benefit. And I'm not against Medicare for

00:35:16.489 --> 00:35:20.449
all or those kinds of schemes to redistribute

00:35:20.449 --> 00:35:22.309
the wealth either because people would benefit

00:35:22.309 --> 00:35:24.369
in the short term. But I'm just saying if you

00:35:24.369 --> 00:35:28.409
want to get to the fundamental problem, you're

00:35:28.409 --> 00:35:30.510
going to have to think more deeply. And I think

00:35:30.510 --> 00:35:35.269
Yang, by addressing industrialization and automation

00:35:35.269 --> 00:35:38.369
rather than just talking about billionaires and

00:35:38.369 --> 00:35:41.070
bankers. is getting to something more fundamental

00:35:41.070 --> 00:35:47.110
than Sanders is. All right. I brought on a Marxist

00:35:47.110 --> 00:35:49.730
who said something nice about Andrew Yang. Yeah.

00:35:51.409 --> 00:35:55.710
So let me ask you this. As far as I can see,

00:35:55.849 --> 00:35:58.409
there's really three positions represented by

00:35:58.409 --> 00:36:02.650
the umpteen Democratic candidates. One is neoliberal

00:36:02.650 --> 00:36:05.090
business as usual. You know, that's Joe Biden,

00:36:05.170 --> 00:36:09.179
basically. The other is a hard shift to the left

00:36:09.179 --> 00:36:12.539
to a sort of, you know, New Deal sort of expand

00:36:12.539 --> 00:36:14.820
government programs, expand the power of government

00:36:14.820 --> 00:36:17.019
institutions, you know, invest a lot of public

00:36:17.019 --> 00:36:19.719
money in things like, you know, clean energy

00:36:19.719 --> 00:36:22.440
and jobs guarantee, that sort of thing, Medicare

00:36:22.440 --> 00:36:26.849
for all. And then Andrew Yang's position. to

00:36:26.849 --> 00:36:29.269
me, I have to admit, is a pretty libertarian

00:36:29.269 --> 00:36:32.650
position. I mean, one of his catchphrases is

00:36:32.650 --> 00:36:35.210
human -centered capitalism. And he makes no bones

00:36:35.210 --> 00:36:38.210
about the fact that he is a capitalist. He advocates

00:36:38.210 --> 00:36:40.349
capitalism. He thinks that capitalism creates

00:36:40.349 --> 00:36:42.750
wealth. And I think you would agree that capitalism

00:36:42.750 --> 00:36:46.909
creates, you know, tremendous amounts of wealth.

00:36:47.349 --> 00:36:49.670
So those are the three positions on offer. And

00:36:49.670 --> 00:36:51.489
then there's Donald Trump. So of those four,

00:36:51.690 --> 00:36:54.440
you know, four more years of Donald Trump. Back

00:36:54.440 --> 00:36:56.599
to the, you know, business as usual, neoliberal

00:36:56.599 --> 00:37:00.719
Democrat position, a hard shift to the left or

00:37:00.719 --> 00:37:03.679
a modification to make human -centered capitalism,

00:37:03.860 --> 00:37:06.079
you know, to create human -centered capitalism

00:37:06.079 --> 00:37:09.539
as opposed to just vicious, you know, social

00:37:09.539 --> 00:37:12.179
Darwin capitalism. Of those four, what's your

00:37:12.179 --> 00:37:15.099
preference? Those are what's on offer. There

00:37:15.099 --> 00:37:17.360
are no Marxists. No Marxists will be on the list.

00:37:17.360 --> 00:37:19.280
I understand. You don't have to remind me there

00:37:19.280 --> 00:37:22.460
are no Marxist candidates. What's your preference?

00:37:23.329 --> 00:37:26.250
Yeah, okay. Well, my knee -jerk preference is

00:37:26.250 --> 00:37:30.050
for the hard left, you know, that Sanders. I

00:37:30.050 --> 00:37:32.210
mean, just, you know, like if you ask me who

00:37:32.210 --> 00:37:35.230
I'm likely to vote for, I'm likely to vote for

00:37:35.230 --> 00:37:37.309
Bernie Sanders, despite the fact that I said

00:37:37.309 --> 00:37:39.510
nice things about Yang. How about Elizabeth Warren?

00:37:42.710 --> 00:37:48.710
Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I like her spirit

00:37:48.710 --> 00:37:50.449
and everything. I like how she gives it to the

00:37:50.449 --> 00:37:54.059
bankers, but I do feel like that. That whole

00:37:54.059 --> 00:37:56.480
focus on the billionaire class and the whole

00:37:56.480 --> 00:38:02.659
focus on Main Street versus Wall Street, that

00:38:02.659 --> 00:38:07.179
kind of talk is not entirely wrong, but it also

00:38:07.179 --> 00:38:10.460
misleads people because the truth is in our system

00:38:10.460 --> 00:38:13.019
today, if Wall Street falls apart, so does Main

00:38:13.019 --> 00:38:16.079
Street. We don't have a system where we can live

00:38:16.079 --> 00:38:18.460
without the financial sector. We don't have a

00:38:18.460 --> 00:38:20.780
system where we can live without capitalist production.

00:38:20.960 --> 00:38:22.920
And that means we don't have a system where we

00:38:22.920 --> 00:38:25.039
can live without people trying to maximize profits.

00:38:25.739 --> 00:38:29.159
That is what sets up our society today. And to

00:38:29.159 --> 00:38:31.920
act as though you can demand that capitalists

00:38:31.920 --> 00:38:35.000
think about other things than maximizing profits

00:38:35.000 --> 00:38:39.960
and not be out -competed, I think is a mistake.

00:38:40.039 --> 00:38:45.780
And I think it's just misguided. But having said

00:38:45.780 --> 00:38:49.380
that, the spirit of Warren and especially even

00:38:49.380 --> 00:38:53.239
more so Sanders and Sanders' support for working

00:38:53.239 --> 00:38:57.340
class struggles, the way he's been involved in

00:38:57.340 --> 00:39:01.360
strikes, I mean, he promotes the struggles of

00:39:01.360 --> 00:39:07.260
striking workers, to me is more promising than

00:39:07.260 --> 00:39:10.880
Yang's technocratic. pro -capitalist libertarian

00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:15.699
approach, which is more top -down. But I don't

00:39:15.699 --> 00:39:18.800
think that simply saying, I like workers and

00:39:18.800 --> 00:39:21.559
here, let's support this strike, is going to

00:39:21.559 --> 00:39:24.159
get us to the kind of solutions that we need.

00:39:24.940 --> 00:39:28.980
So the real truth is that if I'm going to just

00:39:28.980 --> 00:39:31.659
be completely principled, I wouldn't get involved

00:39:31.659 --> 00:39:35.139
in this upcoming election. It's not where the

00:39:35.139 --> 00:39:38.019
change is going to have to come from. You're

00:39:38.019 --> 00:39:40.739
going to write in Karl Marx? Huh? Are you going

00:39:40.739 --> 00:39:43.300
to write in Karl Marx? I'll write in Karl Marx.

00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:45.559
No, I don't know. I'll probably vote for a fish

00:39:45.559 --> 00:39:50.440
again. Last question, because I got to go. But

00:39:50.440 --> 00:39:54.860
one of Andrew Yang's catchphrases, and I know

00:39:54.860 --> 00:39:56.460
I'm going to get this in the comments, is that

00:39:56.460 --> 00:39:58.659
what he's proposing by giving money to everybody

00:39:58.659 --> 00:40:02.340
is a trickle up. as opposed to being a top -down

00:40:02.340 --> 00:40:05.679
economy where a Sanders or Warren -style expansion

00:40:05.679 --> 00:40:09.199
of the power of the federal government to shape

00:40:09.199 --> 00:40:12.280
the economy is top -down? And you've described

00:40:12.280 --> 00:40:18.679
them in the reverse. Well, what I described in

00:40:18.679 --> 00:40:22.139
reverse was the fact that in order for, okay,

00:40:22.219 --> 00:40:24.579
in order for Sanders to get political power in

00:40:24.579 --> 00:40:29.409
order to actually enact his agenda, in the Congress

00:40:29.409 --> 00:40:33.389
and to succeed, he will have to build a political

00:40:33.389 --> 00:40:39.110
movement based on grassroots support. And Yang

00:40:39.110 --> 00:40:46.190
can rely on, I mean, I'm not sure what Yang says

00:40:46.190 --> 00:40:49.090
about how he'll accomplish his goals and who

00:40:49.090 --> 00:40:53.269
his constituency is. But Sanders has made it

00:40:53.269 --> 00:40:55.610
clear that he's representing the working people

00:40:55.610 --> 00:40:58.920
and their struggle. And that's why I feel like

00:40:58.920 --> 00:41:02.099
the Sanders campaign is more of a grassroots

00:41:02.099 --> 00:41:04.679
campaign, even though what they're trying to

00:41:04.679 --> 00:41:09.179
do is hold on to federal, use the power of the

00:41:09.179 --> 00:41:15.360
government to accomplish their mission. So who

00:41:15.360 --> 00:41:17.820
is Sanders, not Sanders, Yang's constituency?

00:41:18.280 --> 00:41:20.039
Normal people. I don't know who those people

00:41:20.039 --> 00:41:22.610
are. I've never met a normal person in my life.

00:41:22.809 --> 00:41:25.389
Well, here's what I think you mean. I know who

00:41:25.389 --> 00:41:27.670
they are. I know what a worker is because worker

00:41:27.670 --> 00:41:30.849
goes to work for a wage. A normal person, what

00:41:30.849 --> 00:41:32.849
does that mean? They have a picket fence and

00:41:32.849 --> 00:41:37.369
two dogs? Here's the answer. Yeah. So the current

00:41:37.369 --> 00:41:41.389
economy is skill biased. People who have skills

00:41:41.389 --> 00:41:43.750
which are economically relevant are very well

00:41:43.750 --> 00:41:46.590
rewarded. But lots of people who in the 20th

00:41:46.590 --> 00:41:50.760
century could do low skill work at decent. remuneration,

00:41:50.760 --> 00:41:54.539
they're just not needed. So normal people are

00:41:54.539 --> 00:41:57.239
the people who don't go to MIT, who don't work

00:41:57.239 --> 00:41:59.500
for Apple, who don't work for Microsoft or Facebook,

00:41:59.719 --> 00:42:02.800
who don't have a STEM degree or really the mental

00:42:02.800 --> 00:42:05.500
ability to get one. Realistically speaking, I

00:42:05.500 --> 00:42:09.639
don't have that skill set. We are the normal

00:42:09.639 --> 00:42:12.760
people, people who still need to make a living,

00:42:12.820 --> 00:42:14.980
even though the current economy doesn't value

00:42:14.980 --> 00:42:22.039
what we have to contribute. Well, if you're just

00:42:22.039 --> 00:42:24.019
going to advocate workers, 20 % of the workers

00:42:24.019 --> 00:42:26.780
are doing great. They're doing great. It's a

00:42:26.780 --> 00:42:31.119
great time, you know, to be really good at programming,

00:42:31.260 --> 00:42:33.820
to be really good at technical stuff, you know,

00:42:33.820 --> 00:42:36.019
to be an electrical engineer or a chemical engineer.

00:42:36.119 --> 00:42:41.150
It's a great, great time. But if you just want

00:42:41.150 --> 00:42:43.570
to go to work and do a job that doesn't take

00:42:43.570 --> 00:42:47.429
an advanced degree to do and come home and take

00:42:47.429 --> 00:42:51.590
vacations and have Medicare or medical care,

00:42:51.710 --> 00:42:54.570
it's a bad time and it's getting worse. Are 20

00:42:54.570 --> 00:42:58.289
% of workers getting six -figure salaries in

00:42:58.289 --> 00:43:01.510
the digital sector? The STEM field is more like

00:43:01.510 --> 00:43:05.920
6 % to 8%. Okay. But the people who have what

00:43:05.920 --> 00:43:07.840
data. And of those, how many are workers? They're

00:43:07.840 --> 00:43:09.139
doing pretty well too, even though they don't.

00:43:09.139 --> 00:43:11.880
How many of those are wage workers, not salary

00:43:11.880 --> 00:43:17.000
managers? Well. I'm talking about workers here,

00:43:17.079 --> 00:43:21.079
not just anyone who has a job. Wage earners and

00:43:21.079 --> 00:43:23.840
salary earners with management. I mean, most,

00:43:23.960 --> 00:43:29.179
most. All right. Well, look, the point, we should

00:43:29.179 --> 00:43:30.880
come back and debate this again, but I'll just

00:43:30.880 --> 00:43:35.829
stop. All right. All right. Everybody, this is

00:43:35.829 --> 00:43:37.650
Doug Lane. He has a YouTube channel, which is

00:43:37.650 --> 00:43:41.090
way bigger than mine. It's Zero Books. Yep. All

00:43:41.090 --> 00:43:43.869
right. Thanks, Doug. Talk to you soon. All right.

00:43:43.869 --> 00:43:48.510
Bye -bye. All right. So that was a conversation

00:43:48.510 --> 00:43:50.710
with Doug Lane. Of course, you recognize Doug's

00:43:50.710 --> 00:43:52.809
voice. He's been on this podcast, I couldn't

00:43:52.809 --> 00:43:55.889
say how many times, a great many. In part of

00:43:55.889 --> 00:43:58.969
the conversation, we were talking about the Alaska

00:43:58.969 --> 00:44:02.190
Fund. Basically, the investment fund that was

00:44:02.190 --> 00:44:04.929
purchased with oil money that pays out, depending

00:44:04.929 --> 00:44:07.530
on how the investment portfolio did over any

00:44:07.530 --> 00:44:09.469
given period of time, it pays out some money

00:44:09.469 --> 00:44:11.909
to everybody who lives in Alaska. And Doug kept

00:44:11.909 --> 00:44:14.809
asking me, where did the initial money come from?

00:44:14.989 --> 00:44:18.110
And I said, I didn't know. That I hadn't researched

00:44:18.110 --> 00:44:21.130
this in preparation for the conversation. I was

00:44:21.130 --> 00:44:23.130
just drawing on my general storehouse of knowledge.

00:44:23.469 --> 00:44:26.269
And your general storehouse of knowledge doesn't

00:44:26.269 --> 00:44:28.590
have footnotes. It doesn't have links to Wikipedia

00:44:28.590 --> 00:44:31.230
entries. But rather than read to you from the

00:44:31.230 --> 00:44:33.130
Wikipedia entry, what I'm going to share instead

00:44:33.130 --> 00:44:35.889
is something that was sent to me directly. It

00:44:35.889 --> 00:44:40.710
was posted as a comment to the video. And David

00:44:40.710 --> 00:44:44.269
writes, I like Yang's ideas generally, even though

00:44:44.269 --> 00:44:47.329
I'm deeply ambivalent about UBI. As an Alaska

00:44:47.329 --> 00:44:50.550
resident for about 12 years, I'll first say KMO's

00:44:50.550 --> 00:44:53.150
summary of it was really accurate. As for Yang

00:44:53.150 --> 00:44:55.809
using the Alaska PDF, permanent fund dividend,

00:44:56.050 --> 00:44:58.269
as a way of introducing UBI to a larger crowd.

00:44:58.750 --> 00:45:00.769
I can see why he does it, but it's not really

00:45:00.769 --> 00:45:04.010
accurate. When Prudhoe Bay and the North Slope

00:45:04.010 --> 00:45:06.329
oil fields came into production in the 1970s

00:45:06.329 --> 00:45:09.489
and 1980s, well before I was here in state, Alaska

00:45:09.489 --> 00:45:12.469
had a tiny population, immense wealth that could

00:45:12.469 --> 00:45:15.329
not be spent. It was a blue state at the time.

00:45:15.429 --> 00:45:19.030
It only became conservative after the oil boom

00:45:19.030 --> 00:45:21.909
brought in lots of oil workers and oil company

00:45:21.909 --> 00:45:25.250
executives. And it was an owner state. meaning

00:45:25.250 --> 00:45:28.010
the oil wealth, well, most subsurface mineral

00:45:28.010 --> 00:45:30.550
wealth, including most oil, belonged to the state

00:45:30.550 --> 00:45:33.110
rather than individual landowners. So when the

00:45:33.110 --> 00:45:36.130
companies were all private, BP, Exxon, etc.,

00:45:36.130 --> 00:45:38.929
the state originally got a better cut. The original

00:45:38.929 --> 00:45:41.469
proposal for the permanent fund dividend was

00:45:41.469 --> 00:45:44.449
to base the share depending on longevity in the

00:45:44.449 --> 00:45:47.309
state. So a 20 -year resident might get 20 shares

00:45:47.309 --> 00:45:49.789
of the oil wealth dividend, and a one -year resident

00:45:49.789 --> 00:45:52.610
might get one share. This was challenged in court

00:45:52.610 --> 00:45:55.230
and struck down, unfortunately. So now we all

00:45:55.230 --> 00:45:57.449
get a yearly check, even one -year -olds. It

00:45:57.449 --> 00:46:00.530
varies from $800 to over $1 ,000 each year based

00:46:00.530 --> 00:46:02.730
on what the permanent fund makes in profits.

00:46:02.969 --> 00:46:05.849
It was done well, but by comparison, Norway,

00:46:06.030 --> 00:46:08.570
which basically nationalized its oil, had a permanent

00:46:08.570 --> 00:46:12.309
fund many, many times larger, i .e. they did

00:46:12.309 --> 00:46:14.889
even better. Ironically, if the state had been

00:46:14.889 --> 00:46:17.070
red at the time, it probably wouldn't have taxed

00:46:17.070 --> 00:46:19.289
oil companies so much originally that a permanent

00:46:19.289 --> 00:46:22.449
fund could have been set up. Currently, we have

00:46:22.449 --> 00:46:24.630
the resource state problem that after a boom,

00:46:24.670 --> 00:46:27.309
we're facing a bust, partly because of declining

00:46:27.309 --> 00:46:29.789
oil production, but also because we're actually

00:46:29.789 --> 00:46:32.150
paying the oil companies several hundred million

00:46:32.150 --> 00:46:35.389
more dollars yearly in production subsidies than

00:46:35.389 --> 00:46:39.440
we take in for oil taxes. We now have conservatives

00:46:39.440 --> 00:46:42.260
arguing for radical cuts in state spending, keeping

00:46:42.260 --> 00:46:45.059
very low oil taxes and industry subsidies, and

00:46:45.059 --> 00:46:47.980
decrying socialism, while arguing for generous

00:46:47.980 --> 00:46:50.820
PFD payments from the state government each year.

00:46:51.039 --> 00:46:53.340
I think oil has probably been good for Alaska,

00:46:53.619 --> 00:46:56.920
but it's a mixed blessing. And the PFD it generated

00:46:56.920 --> 00:47:00.659
is a poor, ill -fitting analogy for UBI, in my

00:47:00.659 --> 00:47:04.219
opinion. So thanks to David for that perspective.

00:47:04.400 --> 00:47:16.380
That was helpful. And speaking of my daily YouTube

00:47:16.380 --> 00:47:19.719
videos, I did one, was it just yesterday? Maybe

00:47:19.719 --> 00:47:23.219
it was just yesterday or the day before. I think

00:47:23.219 --> 00:47:25.559
it was the day before. Anyway, I recorded a video

00:47:25.559 --> 00:47:28.900
in which I touched on the topic of intergenerational

00:47:28.900 --> 00:47:33.760
tensions and animosity here in the United States.

00:47:33.760 --> 00:47:36.679
The video is called... Sympathy for the Boomers.

00:47:36.940 --> 00:47:39.539
And if you're interested, well, I would suggest

00:47:39.539 --> 00:47:41.420
you go and check it out on my YouTube channel.

00:47:41.500 --> 00:47:44.699
But it reminded me that I had written a blog

00:47:44.699 --> 00:47:47.940
post about, you know, the plight of the boomers.

00:47:47.980 --> 00:47:50.300
And I didn't remember, you know, actually where

00:47:50.300 --> 00:47:54.639
I posted it or when. So I just googled KMO Gen

00:47:54.639 --> 00:47:58.639
X slacker and Google served it right up to me.

00:47:59.119 --> 00:48:02.960
It is a post from my blog at crealm .blogspot

00:48:02.960 --> 00:48:08.000
.com. This is from May 31st, 2013. So this is

00:48:08.000 --> 00:48:11.460
when I was living in Brooklyn. And this is actually

00:48:11.460 --> 00:48:13.480
going to be a cold reading. I have not gone back

00:48:13.480 --> 00:48:17.500
to reread this. And I don't know in advance that

00:48:17.500 --> 00:48:20.179
I'm still going to agree with the KMO of 2013.

00:48:20.420 --> 00:48:24.940
We'll see. But back in May of that year, I wrote.

00:48:25.760 --> 00:48:28.039
In the wake of World War II, the United States

00:48:28.039 --> 00:48:31.119
stood intact amidst countries leveled and exhausted

00:48:31.119 --> 00:48:33.579
by conflict and was thus in a position to dictate

00:48:33.579 --> 00:48:36.460
the terms of the new international economic order.

00:48:37.219 --> 00:48:40.119
From this position of strength, the USA relieved

00:48:40.119 --> 00:48:42.619
the British of their global empire, set the U

00:48:42.619 --> 00:48:44.559
.S. dollar as the world's reserve currency, and

00:48:44.559 --> 00:48:46.760
established a flow of imperial tribute from the

00:48:46.760 --> 00:48:49.420
global economic periphery to the new center of

00:48:49.420 --> 00:48:52.219
imperial gravity, while demurring at the prospect

00:48:52.219 --> 00:48:55.460
of actually calling ourselves an empire. Our

00:48:55.460 --> 00:48:57.980
soldiers returned home to a booming industrial

00:48:57.980 --> 00:49:01.099
economy that was hungry for workers. Jobs were

00:49:01.099 --> 00:49:03.719
plentiful, as were houses in the new suburbs

00:49:03.719 --> 00:49:07.099
for qualified GIs. The corporations feared underproduction,

00:49:07.300 --> 00:49:09.840
and the government feared discontent among veterans

00:49:09.840 --> 00:49:12.980
who might organize and agitate. And so advertisers

00:49:12.980 --> 00:49:15.320
convinced workers to define themselves and express

00:49:15.320 --> 00:49:17.500
their individuality through their purchases.

00:49:17.800 --> 00:49:20.139
Their patterns of consumption became their identity.

00:49:20.599 --> 00:49:22.800
The rights and privileges of citizens devolved

00:49:22.800 --> 00:49:24.920
into the rights and privileges of consumers.

00:49:25.400 --> 00:49:28.659
The new architects of suburbia laid out the new

00:49:28.659 --> 00:49:31.420
subdivisions without public spaces and with houses

00:49:31.420 --> 00:49:33.300
designed to direct the family's attention to

00:49:33.300 --> 00:49:36.179
the backyard rather than to the street. Fossil

00:49:36.179 --> 00:49:38.900
fuels were practically free, and the new interstate

00:49:38.900 --> 00:49:41.000
highway system and prosperous workers elevated

00:49:41.000 --> 00:49:44.380
the car that was a necessary component of suburban

00:49:44.380 --> 00:49:46.800
living to an exalted position in the pantheon

00:49:46.800 --> 00:49:49.239
of consumer goods. Jim Kunstler's age of happy

00:49:49.239 --> 00:49:52.500
motoring commenced. The children of this jubilant

00:49:52.500 --> 00:49:55.380
period, the baby boomers, were the ultimate repository

00:49:55.380 --> 00:49:58.400
of the aspirations of this triumphant culture,

00:49:58.579 --> 00:50:00.800
and their parents, the self -identified greatest

00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:03.519
generation, told their children that they were

00:50:03.519 --> 00:50:05.880
the heirs to the kingdom of heaven made manifest

00:50:05.880 --> 00:50:10.059
on earth. They could have anything, do anything,

00:50:10.340 --> 00:50:12.900
and surpass God's angels as the ultimate manifestation

00:50:12.900 --> 00:50:15.789
of his vision. The boomers' parents told them

00:50:15.789 --> 00:50:18.150
that if they played by the rules, embraced their

00:50:18.150 --> 00:50:20.210
own self -aggrandizing mythology, and worked

00:50:20.210 --> 00:50:23.269
hard, they could enjoy unprecedented educational

00:50:23.269 --> 00:50:26.730
opportunities, careers, prosperity, and abundance.

00:50:27.250 --> 00:50:31.449
And so it was. For a time. In that period in

00:50:31.449 --> 00:50:33.550
which the baby boomers' self -congratulatory

00:50:33.550 --> 00:50:35.570
narrative was taking shape, the United States

00:50:35.570 --> 00:50:39.030
was the world's biggest oil exporter. By the

00:50:39.030 --> 00:50:41.750
time I was born in 1968, domestic oil production

00:50:41.750 --> 00:50:45.420
was reaching its peak. I was a child when the

00:50:45.420 --> 00:50:48.059
second OPEC oil embargo of the 1970s created

00:50:48.059 --> 00:50:51.119
fuel shortages. TV news reports focused on the

00:50:51.119 --> 00:50:53.179
long lines and short tempers at gas stations.

00:50:53.380 --> 00:50:55.739
The embargo was short -lived and the bonanzo

00:50:55.739 --> 00:50:58.800
soon resumed. And by the time I started driving

00:50:58.800 --> 00:51:01.840
in 1984, gas still cost less than a dollar a

00:51:01.840 --> 00:51:04.420
gallon. My father continued to repeat the core

00:51:04.420 --> 00:51:06.219
tenet of the boomer belief system that every

00:51:06.219 --> 00:51:08.300
generation in America does better than their

00:51:08.300 --> 00:51:12.239
parents. Douglas Copeland published his novel.

00:51:12.539 --> 00:51:15.880
Generation X, Tales for an Accelerated Culture,

00:51:16.079 --> 00:51:19.820
in 1991, when the baby boomer belief system remained

00:51:19.820 --> 00:51:22.940
unassailable. The explanation for the fact that

00:51:22.940 --> 00:51:25.139
the boomers' children did not seem to be on track

00:51:25.139 --> 00:51:27.500
to exceed their parents in achievement and material

00:51:27.500 --> 00:51:30.420
abundance was a story of how the Gen Xers were

00:51:30.420 --> 00:51:33.400
cynical, psychologically detached, and more interested

00:51:33.400 --> 00:51:35.599
in sabotaging the American dream with their hip

00:51:35.599 --> 00:51:38.280
irony than in joining the workforce and embracing

00:51:38.280 --> 00:51:41.500
their American birthright. The problem had nothing

00:51:41.500 --> 00:51:43.840
to do with the decline of an economy based on

00:51:43.840 --> 00:51:46.659
manufacturing or with the rise of the new financialized

00:51:46.659 --> 00:51:49.079
economic order that didn't need nearly as many

00:51:49.079 --> 00:51:52.019
workers as before. The problem was clearly with

00:51:52.019 --> 00:51:54.519
the young people, who could have lived even larger

00:51:54.519 --> 00:51:56.639
than their baby boomer parents if only they would

00:51:56.639 --> 00:51:59.780
shrug off their unjustified malaise and get with

00:51:59.780 --> 00:52:02.360
the program. According to this narrative, the

00:52:02.360 --> 00:52:04.840
Gen Xers' obscure media obsessions and their

00:52:04.840 --> 00:52:06.860
rejection of the supposedly bourgeois values

00:52:06.860 --> 00:52:10.119
of their parents was just a smokescreen. for

00:52:10.119 --> 00:52:15.039
laziness. Richard Linklater's 1991 film, Slacker,

00:52:15.260 --> 00:52:18.619
sealed the deal and indelibly affixed the suffix

00:52:18.619 --> 00:52:22.400
slacker to my generation. Just speak the words

00:52:22.400 --> 00:52:25.800
Gen X slacker aloud. Notice how easily they roll

00:52:25.800 --> 00:52:28.559
off the tongue. As easy as it is to say, the

00:52:28.559 --> 00:52:30.860
Gen X slacker meme slotted into the baby boomers

00:52:30.860 --> 00:52:33.340
worldview just as effortlessly as it spilled

00:52:33.340 --> 00:52:36.320
out of their mouths. The greatest generation

00:52:36.320 --> 00:52:39.420
propelled the USA on its path to global dominance

00:52:39.420 --> 00:52:41.760
with their hard work and belt tightening at home

00:52:41.760 --> 00:52:44.340
and with their courage and self -sacrifice in

00:52:44.340 --> 00:52:47.599
the theaters of war. Or so goes their self -serving

00:52:47.599 --> 00:52:50.139
narrative. Lewis Menard, writing about Timothy

00:52:50.139 --> 00:52:52.239
Leary for The New Yorker, offers a different

00:52:52.239 --> 00:52:55.960
take. Quote, Leary belonged to what we reverently

00:52:55.960 --> 00:52:58.619
refer to as the greatest generation, that cohort

00:52:58.619 --> 00:53:00.940
of Americans who eluded most of the deprivations

00:53:00.940 --> 00:53:03.039
of the Depression, grew fat in the affluence

00:53:03.039 --> 00:53:05.320
of the post -war years, and then preached hedonism

00:53:05.320 --> 00:53:08.340
and truancy to the baby boom generation, which

00:53:08.340 --> 00:53:11.500
has taken the blame ever since. Great ones, we

00:53:11.500 --> 00:53:15.820
salute you. The baby boomers enjoyed an unprecedented

00:53:15.820 --> 00:53:18.659
starting position, and they did their part to

00:53:18.659 --> 00:53:20.699
fulfill the glorious destiny that their parents'

00:53:20.820 --> 00:53:24.389
heroism made possible. Then along came Generation

00:53:24.389 --> 00:53:27.349
X, and in a self -indulgent fit of unjustified

00:53:27.349 --> 00:53:30.670
cynicism, the slackers sabotaged the whole glorious

00:53:30.670 --> 00:53:32.929
enterprise with their obstinate refusal to get

00:53:32.929 --> 00:53:35.570
with the program. The scapegoating of Generation

00:53:35.570 --> 00:53:38.170
X is a narrative you probably haven't heard repeated

00:53:38.170 --> 00:53:40.829
any time recently, but if you are a baby boomer,

00:53:40.829 --> 00:53:43.250
you surely did not encounter the phrase Gen X

00:53:43.250 --> 00:53:45.050
slacker for the first time here in this blog.

00:53:45.719 --> 00:53:48.500
You may not have heard it or read it, much less

00:53:48.500 --> 00:53:51.519
said it, since the fall of 2008, but reading

00:53:51.519 --> 00:53:53.780
it now surely activates long -dormant mental

00:53:53.780 --> 00:53:56.480
circuits, as when hearing an advertising jingle

00:53:56.480 --> 00:53:59.699
from yesteryear. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh,

00:53:59.840 --> 00:54:04.239
what a relief it is, fast, fast, fast. Now that

00:54:04.239 --> 00:54:06.739
the grand -scale malfeasance of a financialized

00:54:06.739 --> 00:54:09.119
economy is a fait accompli, and the speculative

00:54:09.119 --> 00:54:11.519
bubbles that seduced homeowners into liquidating

00:54:11.519 --> 00:54:14.389
the accumulated equity in their homes, have affected

00:54:14.389 --> 00:54:16.949
a mass transfer of wealth to the rentier class,

00:54:17.190 --> 00:54:20.030
and the boomers feel the walls of the shrinking

00:54:20.030 --> 00:54:23.030
middle class closing in on them, the Gen X slacker

00:54:23.030 --> 00:54:26.210
meme no longer fits the current narrative. Consequently,

00:54:26.210 --> 00:54:29.409
it has fallen into disuse. The boomers may have

00:54:29.409 --> 00:54:31.909
conveniently forgotten how regularly they once

00:54:31.909 --> 00:54:34.570
used that detestable phrase, or how fully they

00:54:34.570 --> 00:54:36.409
embraced it as a label that identified something

00:54:36.409 --> 00:54:39.389
real. But for most of my 20s and well into my

00:54:39.389 --> 00:54:41.789
30s, the mainstream narrative of the echo chamber

00:54:41.789 --> 00:54:44.190
corporate media and the dinner table conversations

00:54:44.190 --> 00:54:46.449
that it informed treated the concept of the Gen

00:54:46.449 --> 00:54:49.110
X slacker as if it had real explanatory and predictive

00:54:49.110 --> 00:54:51.889
power. The boomers may have forgotten their behavior

00:54:51.889 --> 00:54:54.250
from this period, but we Gen X slackers remember.

00:54:54.570 --> 00:54:56.929
Now that the glorious destiny of the baby boomers

00:54:56.929 --> 00:54:59.150
lies in ruins and the boomers have eclipsed depressed

00:54:59.150 --> 00:55:02.030
teenagers and the elderly as the group most likely

00:55:02.030 --> 00:55:04.650
to commit suicide, it is tempting, though certainly

00:55:04.650 --> 00:55:07.590
not helpful or praiseworthy, to enjoy a moment

00:55:07.590 --> 00:55:10.329
of schadenfrude. as the boomers wallow in their

00:55:10.329 --> 00:55:14.150
incomprehension, disbelief, and despair. If you

00:55:14.150 --> 00:55:16.730
are a member of Generation X, or some later generation,

00:55:17.010 --> 00:55:19.650
and grew up in the confining shadows of the most

00:55:19.650 --> 00:55:23.489
annoyingly smug, self -important, pampered, and

00:55:23.489 --> 00:55:25.829
flattered demographic phenomenon in living memory,

00:55:25.989 --> 00:55:28.489
a group that has insisted that they did everything

00:55:28.489 --> 00:55:31.030
right, and now that things are visibly falling

00:55:31.030 --> 00:55:33.269
apart that it must be because young people are

00:55:33.269 --> 00:55:35.670
too lazy or self -absorbed to take on the roles

00:55:35.670 --> 00:55:38.699
of responsible working adults, No, the boomers

00:55:38.699 --> 00:55:40.820
don't see the irony, and they're accusing anyone

00:55:40.820 --> 00:55:43.019
of putting selfish obsessions above the good

00:55:43.019 --> 00:55:44.800
of one's community, nation, or civilization.

00:55:45.139 --> 00:55:48.159
Well, if you want to take a moment to enjoy their

00:55:48.159 --> 00:55:52.099
wailing and gnashing of teeth, go ahead. We have

00:55:52.099 --> 00:55:54.639
work to do, but if you don't think that you have

00:55:54.639 --> 00:55:57.760
taken ample time to gloat, snort, and savor their

00:55:57.760 --> 00:56:00.059
lamentation, then a nagging sense of a missed

00:56:00.059 --> 00:56:02.519
opportunity might distract you from the task

00:56:02.519 --> 00:56:05.559
ahead. The task will require your full attention

00:56:05.559 --> 00:56:08.360
and focus, so if you want to just pause here

00:56:08.360 --> 00:56:11.039
and take satisfaction in the boomer's moment

00:56:11.039 --> 00:56:14.980
of manifest failure and ignominy, that's okay.

00:56:16.260 --> 00:56:18.900
I won't even say I'll wait, because I cannot

00:56:18.900 --> 00:56:21.199
claim that I've yet had my fill and that I'm

00:56:21.199 --> 00:56:23.559
over it. I will be gloating right along with

00:56:23.559 --> 00:56:25.460
you for as long as you care to linger in this

00:56:25.460 --> 00:56:29.039
moment of anti -Bodhisattva -hood. Insert timeless

00:56:29.039 --> 00:56:51.500
moment for gloating. Okay. Done? Good. Me too.

00:56:52.860 --> 00:56:55.579
Now, let's build up a little compassion before

00:56:55.579 --> 00:56:58.119
we continue. Because we are going to be a lot

00:56:58.119 --> 00:57:00.460
more useful to our communities and to our civilization

00:57:00.460 --> 00:57:02.900
if we are working in a spirit of compassion and

00:57:02.900 --> 00:57:05.500
empathy than if we move forward with a gale force

00:57:05.500 --> 00:57:08.659
ideological wind filling our egoic sails with

00:57:08.659 --> 00:57:11.760
righteous indignation. What's more, forgiving

00:57:11.760 --> 00:57:14.199
the baby boomers and welcoming them into the

00:57:14.199 --> 00:57:16.719
ranks of conscious revolutionaries will be good

00:57:16.719 --> 00:57:18.900
practice for forgiving and learning to work with

00:57:18.900 --> 00:57:22.960
the 1%. We cannot build lasting prosperity, effect

00:57:22.960 --> 00:57:25.619
ecological restoration, and navigate the challenges

00:57:25.619 --> 00:57:28.000
of increasingly disruptive technological development

00:57:28.000 --> 00:57:30.860
while simultaneously fighting a war against our

00:57:30.860 --> 00:57:34.039
oligarchs. I certainly don't want to leave a

00:57:34.039 --> 00:57:36.079
world to my children that is the product of a

00:57:36.079 --> 00:57:38.900
global revolution in consciousness born of savagery

00:57:38.900 --> 00:57:42.130
and vengeance. As annoyed as you may have felt

00:57:42.130 --> 00:57:44.050
at the boomers, who thought that their own choices

00:57:44.050 --> 00:57:46.269
and actions created the unprecedented prosperity

00:57:46.269 --> 00:57:48.550
that they enjoyed from birth, right up to the

00:57:48.550 --> 00:57:50.449
moment when they had the rug pulled out from

00:57:50.449 --> 00:57:52.710
under them at the end of their careers, you probably

00:57:52.710 --> 00:57:54.989
never wanted to parade them through the streets,

00:57:55.090 --> 00:57:57.030
march them up onto a platform, and end their

00:57:57.030 --> 00:57:59.150
lives in a public spectacle of brutal revenge

00:57:59.150 --> 00:58:02.449
entertainment. But if you don't occasionally

00:58:02.449 --> 00:58:05.369
thirst for the blood of the 1%, The people who

00:58:05.369 --> 00:58:07.849
robbed the rest of us with debt, presided over

00:58:07.849 --> 00:58:10.429
the dismantling of the industrial economy, confiscated

00:58:10.429 --> 00:58:12.630
that portion of the imperial tribute gravy train

00:58:12.630 --> 00:58:14.809
that used to go to the middle class, and used

00:58:14.809 --> 00:58:17.570
the occasion of global crisis to justify a massive

00:58:17.570 --> 00:58:20.289
transfer of wealth to their own strata, and simply

00:58:20.289 --> 00:58:22.369
assumed that the rest of us would just reconcile

00:58:22.369 --> 00:58:24.789
ourselves to the new normal, and continue to

00:58:24.789 --> 00:58:26.989
feed on the false hope of winning the lottery

00:58:26.989 --> 00:58:29.630
or somehow becoming famous, then you are a more

00:58:29.630 --> 00:58:32.530
spiritually advanced being than I am, and I salute

00:58:32.530 --> 00:58:35.610
you. We will need more like you if we are going

00:58:35.610 --> 00:58:37.429
to make it through the coming transition with

00:58:37.429 --> 00:58:41.389
our souls intact. For the time being, just know

00:58:41.389 --> 00:58:43.650
that the boomers were, for the most part, either

00:58:43.650 --> 00:58:45.369
doing what their parents told them was the right

00:58:45.369 --> 00:58:48.389
thing to do, or trying to correct the moral and

00:58:48.389 --> 00:58:50.610
intellectual failings of their parents, and mostly

00:58:50.610 --> 00:58:53.730
failing themselves, but in new and spectacularly

00:58:53.730 --> 00:58:56.869
creative ways. If we can learn from the mistakes

00:58:56.869 --> 00:58:59.570
of previous generations, the boomers have much

00:58:59.570 --> 00:59:02.760
to teach us. So, do I still agree with all that?

00:59:02.840 --> 00:59:06.659
Well, maybe not with the attitude in which it

00:59:06.659 --> 00:59:08.539
is written. But certainly the message, I think,

00:59:08.579 --> 00:59:11.980
is still worth paying attention to. And I know

00:59:11.980 --> 00:59:14.880
that, you know, my audience, the C -Rome Vault

00:59:14.880 --> 00:59:16.900
audience, who actually pays to listen to this,

00:59:16.980 --> 00:59:19.440
is disproportionately weighted with baby boomers.

00:59:19.860 --> 00:59:22.760
Baby boomers, do you remember the Gen X slacker

00:59:22.760 --> 00:59:26.920
meme? I can assure you, Generation X remembers.

00:59:27.740 --> 00:59:29.760
Fortunately, there aren't that many of us, and

00:59:29.760 --> 00:59:32.059
I can't speak to the attitude of millennials.

00:59:32.679 --> 00:59:35.460
My recent adventures in YouTube and trying to

00:59:35.460 --> 00:59:38.880
attract a larger viewing audience by putting

00:59:38.880 --> 00:59:41.260
Andrew Yang's name in the video, I've learned

00:59:41.260 --> 00:59:43.260
that very few millennials really connect with

00:59:43.260 --> 00:59:46.519
what I have to say. Or perhaps it's how I say

00:59:46.519 --> 00:59:50.480
it. And it's kind of strange because I have almost

00:59:50.480 --> 00:59:53.340
no contact, no real -life contact with millennials.

00:59:53.719 --> 00:59:57.130
Living in southern Vermont, Young people tend

00:59:57.130 --> 01:00:01.130
to flee, and those that stay are of a social

01:00:01.130 --> 01:00:03.690
class, shall we say, that I don't enjoy interacting

01:00:03.690 --> 01:00:06.809
with. My kids are both of the generation that

01:00:06.809 --> 01:00:09.449
follows the millennials, as is Colin over at

01:00:09.449 --> 01:00:11.489
the TV station with whom I do my Friday videos.

01:00:12.789 --> 01:00:17.190
But people in their late 20s and early 30s, I

01:00:17.190 --> 01:00:19.909
almost never have any face -to -face interaction

01:00:19.909 --> 01:00:23.949
with them. And the behaviors which have been

01:00:23.949 --> 01:00:27.139
normalized by social media, really odious behaviors.

01:00:28.219 --> 01:00:31.900
You know, I have said things online that I hope

01:00:31.900 --> 01:00:36.059
I wouldn't say, you know, in person. And if I

01:00:36.059 --> 01:00:38.139
did say them in person, you know, face to face

01:00:38.139 --> 01:00:40.019
with somebody, I would hope that I would either

01:00:40.019 --> 01:00:43.400
be enraged by some special circumstance or possibly

01:00:43.400 --> 01:00:46.320
drunk. But the sort of things that people type

01:00:46.320 --> 01:00:51.000
on Twitter or Facebook on a Monday morning when

01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:53.500
they are fully sober are the sorts of things

01:00:53.500 --> 01:00:56.699
that would cause me to blush if somebody played

01:00:56.699 --> 01:00:58.519
a recording of me speaking them aloud when I

01:00:58.519 --> 01:01:01.800
was intoxicated. I know that the imperatives

01:01:01.800 --> 01:01:05.000
and the reinforcements of social media have lured

01:01:05.000 --> 01:01:09.119
me into behaviors that I regret now. And they

01:01:09.119 --> 01:01:11.780
were overcoming my previous conditioning, not

01:01:11.780 --> 01:01:15.199
laying down my initial conditioning, as social

01:01:15.199 --> 01:01:19.739
media has done for the millennials. So as much

01:01:19.739 --> 01:01:22.639
as I remember resenting the attitude of the boomers,

01:01:23.659 --> 01:01:25.880
I don't resent the attitude of the millennials.

01:01:25.960 --> 01:01:30.699
I just don't connect with it. And I just find

01:01:30.699 --> 01:01:34.099
it unappealing. But as I move in, you know, from

01:01:34.099 --> 01:01:37.320
middle age into my early old age, I'm certainly

01:01:37.320 --> 01:01:39.539
going to be swimming in an environment defined

01:01:39.539 --> 01:01:43.119
by the attitudes, the desires, the prejudices

01:01:43.119 --> 01:01:45.639
of the millennials, particularly as the baby

01:01:45.639 --> 01:01:50.920
boomers die off. Because Generation X, those

01:01:50.920 --> 01:01:54.340
of us who were teens in the 80s, There just aren't

01:01:54.340 --> 01:01:57.460
that many of us. We were a small generation,

01:01:57.739 --> 01:02:01.760
a blip, not worth marketing to really, and a

01:02:01.760 --> 01:02:06.559
generation that you could easily ignore, denigrate,

01:02:06.659 --> 01:02:09.380
or scapegoat. And once the boomers are gone,

01:02:09.500 --> 01:02:12.260
I think Gen X will be the prime target for that

01:02:12.260 --> 01:02:15.860
scapegoating. And with that, I am going to bring

01:02:15.860 --> 01:02:18.199
this episode of the C. Rombolt Podcast to a close.

01:02:18.300 --> 01:02:21.139
Thank you very much for subscribing. If there's

01:02:21.139 --> 01:02:22.840
something that you would like for me to talk

01:02:22.840 --> 01:02:26.320
about or research in order to inform the future

01:02:26.320 --> 01:02:29.000
content of this podcast, well, you know where

01:02:29.000 --> 01:02:31.019
to find me. I look forward to hearing from you.

01:02:31.539 --> 01:02:32.059
Stay well.