Descriptions:
Video Description
Money feels real, but this opening lecture from Professor Jiang argues it is actually alchemy — something conjured out of nothing and then made to feel scarce. The course walks through the three big illusions that hold the modern world together: money, the individual, and the nation-state. School, he says, is not really about knowledge; it is about making those stories feel true. The whole point is freedom — once you see how power builds the world, you can start imagining a different one.
Full Video Transcript
Good morning class welcome to our first class and today what I want to do is provide the framework
for how we will learn the semester what are we learning how are we learning why are we learning
all right so this is a class of ideas so it’s really important for you to pay attention
and understand how these ideas connect with each other if i’m not being clear ask me a question
in fact make it a habit to ask as many questions as possible because that way you will learn more
learning will be more fun for you and learning will be much more clearer to you okay so let’s
get in the habit of asking questions so wherever i am confusing wherever i’m speaking too fast
wherever you don’t understand interrupt me okay let’s get in the habit all right so um
i first want to talk about emmanuel kant we will be discussing a lot this semester because
he is the greatest philosopher in western history and he teaches us he taught us how
the world works. And this is what he told us. He told us that we can never know the objective
reality. There is an objective reality, what he calls the Nomana, okay? Or the things in themselves.
That is not knowable to us. That is a world we can never access. Why? Because we perceive the world
for our senses our senses our perception warps the world and changes it into a structure that
we can process called the phenomena which are the things that appear to us okay so the example is
time and space time and space do not exist outside of us time and space do not exist in reality but
But for us to understand reality, we need to add in time and space.
That’s the example.
All right.
So how the world works is we perceive the world.
We perceive the phenomena and turn it into the phenomena for us to process.
In other words, and this is really important, reality is what we imagine it to be.
There is no objective reality.
Reality is what we imagine it to be.
Life is a constant process, a constant act of imagination, alright?
That’s Immanuel Kant.
That’s the first idea I want you to understand.
So what I want to do in this class this semester is train you or teach you or inspire you to
augment your imagination so that you see the world much more clearly.
This class is not about what to think.
about how to think all right so let me explain the structure of the course so there’s past
there’s present and there’s future we’ll be looking at all three this semester the past
the present and the future we were analyzing all three in order to construct a more objective
reality for ourselves we will not succeed we will fail but the process of trying will train
our minds to think much more critically about the world so let me explain how in the present
we have geopolitics we’ll be studying geopolitics for example why is there war in ukraine why is
there war in the middle east what happened we’ll be studying geopolitics and we’ll try to understand
why this is happening we’ll try to formulate an analytical model of geopolitics okay an analytical
model. We will then use this analytical model to make predictions about the future. Why do we do
this? Because these predictions will tell us if our analytical model is correct or not. Does that
make sense? It’s no different from artificial intelligence. How do you know if your artificial
intelligence, the model is correct or not? When you test it against reality. There’s no difference
between that artificial intelligence system and what we’re trying to do here.
And why are we doing this?
Because if we’re able to have an actual model
that makes correct predictions, then we take all this and go back
and analyze the past to reveal the secret history of the world.
That is a project we are undertaking this semester
to discover for ourselves the secret history of humanity.
Because you may not know this,
but all the history that you learn in school,
all that history that you think you know, it is false.
The history that you know, the history that you believe,
it is a system implanted into your brains
by powerful people.
So the real question that we’re looking at this semester
is really how does power work?
Because if we can figure this out,
then you will achieve liberation.
You will achieve freedom.
You understand how you’re being manipulated by others,
and therefore you’ll be free,
you’ll be empowered to live the way you want to live,
to see the world that is true to you.
So let me give you three current examples
how power works. The first example is money. Let us do a thought experiment. I’m a bank, okay? I
decide I want to open a bank. And now you’re allowed to put money in the bank, okay? So all
of you get together and you put $5 million in the bank. Not $5 million. Now, why do you put $5 million
into my bank because I promise you 1% interest, right? 1% interest. That’s a really good deal.
But now because I owe you some money, right? I owe you 1% interest. I now need to go make money
for myself. So I have a friend who’s building a restaurant and he says, I need $5 million
to build a restaurant. And after a year, I will pay you back 10% interest. Okay. 10% interest.
and so I make a 90% profit and I can use that to pay my employees to pay myself a salary to build
a new building okay so now I want you to think about this I’m the bank I got five million dollars
in deposit money then I gave out a five million loan today how much money is in the bank
how much money now do I have I got five million dollars from you guys then I gave it out to
someone else right so how much money is in the bank right now zero is zero right
it should be zero logically the answer is zero in fact zero is the answer that
you are taught in economics it’s what you are taught yeah okay okay yeah
okay really good point okay oh yes okay so that’s really good so in economics you learn about the
idea of the fractional reserve system okay what’s fractional reserve as you say you must leave
behind a certain amount of money it could be seven percent it could be ten percent depends on the
country okay let’s say ten percent so theoretically i can i can actually lend out five million dollars
i’m going to lend out 4.5 million dollars okay you’re right okay that’s that’s that’s law as
well okay um actually um okay let’s say i learned for 4.5 million dollars okay now how much money
do i have in the bank yeah half a million right okay so again this is what you’re taught in
economics this is what makes logical sense right the correct answer what actually happens in real
life is you have you now have 9.5 million dollars okay that is the correct answer this makes no
sense right but it happens in reality and how do we know because over the past 20 years chinese banks
like the bank of china the bank of industry and commerce the agricultural bank of china
if you google these banks what you will see is these past 20 years these banks have become the
largest in the world how did it happen was it because chinese people got rich and put all the
money in the bank no that’s not what happened what happened guys what happened was these banks start
to lend money out to corporations to government to people to build skyscrapers to build roads
in other words the banks start to create money out of nothing in order to finance china’s
infrastructure projects and that’s what banks are allowed to do they’re allowed to print money
create money out of nothing okay does that make sense now the question then is wait a minute here
that’s kind of absurd how this system come into being how’s it created okay well actually there’s
a very easy explanation for where we got the system from all right so let me explain the
history and the origin of the system so in the beginning it was merchants who engaged um in
finance because merchants needed money in order to facilitate trade and some merchants became extremely
wealthy and when they became very wealthy they started banks in order to support trade and other
merchants okay so um these banks traded in gold because that was the primary source and supply
of money back then okay so um what happened is you would come and you would put your money your
gold in the bank for safekeeping and the bank would give you a contract right a contract is
just saying thank you for giving me your gold i promise to give back your gold at any time
that you wanted and this is what we call a receipt right and this would allow for better and easier
trade because now i can take this contract and i can go to england okay maybe i’m based in italy
but now i can go to england and said listen i need to buy cotton or bananas from you and the person
is like well what do you give me i’m gonna give you gold right so i take the receipt and i give
to you right and why do we and why do we do this because it’s a lot easier than giving gold to
other people and so this system would facilitate trade throughout the world doesn’t make sense
now i’m the bank i have all this gold and i want to make money with it so i want to give it to
other people so other merchants will come come to me and say listen i need gold can you lend me out
gold right but I say to him yeah but if I give you the gold you have a security issue it’s
inconvenient for you so why don’t I give you a receipt a contract instead does that make sense
because all I need is a contract all I need is a receipt in order to go and do trade elsewhere
right so so by doing this what I’ve done is I’ve doubled the gold in my bank right I’ve created
money out of nothing. So the gold is still 5 million. That hasn’t changed, but the receipt
is now 5 million plus 5 million. So theoretically, I now have 10 million in the bank. All right.
So that’s how money and finance works. Now there’s a problem with the system. What’s the problem with
the system? What do you mean? That’s a good question. Okay. Why is it that people believe
in me okay the answer is very simple the answer is because for most of you of human history people
didn’t need money if you if you were just a normal person what were you doing were you in a village
growing crops if you wanted to to like get new stuff what would you do you would trade with
someone else right maybe you have a goal that i want well then i would trade you a cow for it
so we didn’t actually need money so for most of human history no one had any need for money it
It was only in certain circumstances that you would want money.
So, for example, marriage, right?
So, throughout most of human history, money represented debt that could be unpaid.
Oh, sorry, debt that could never be repaid.
So, for example, a very common thing is maybe you and I fight and I kill you.
Well, in theory, your family should not come and kill me.
But obviously, that would create a lot of problems, right?
So the way to settle the dispute is I would give your family money because money was symbolically
meant to say I’m sorry I killed you this is a debt that can never be repaid. That’s what money
was used for in most circumstances throughout human history. There was no actually real use
for money it was symbolic but with the rise of trade over merchants they needed money in order
to facilitate the trade but these merchants all knew each other so they trusted each other anyway
so money was a mechanism for them to trade easier okay does that make sense all right okay so let’s
go back to the question this system looks great I can print money out of nothing but there’s a
problem with this system what is the problem there’s a problem here okay that’s actually a
great question okay so yeah is it possible to forge the contract okay so um that’s a really
good point the problem is so the the answer is that they all knew each other anyway okay because
it’s a very small circle again we have not reached the modern period where um it’s a lot of people
using money if that’s the case then fortune becomes a problem we’ll discuss this in future
class is okay counterfeiting but at this point in history forgery is actually not a big issue
there’s actually a bigger issue and it’s a huge issue what’s the issue i have five million dollars
of gold right there’s about ten million dollars of gold out there in receipts what’s the problem
with that the problem is that if everyone wants to go at the same time i go bankrupt right because i
lose my reputation the contract says that at any time you want the gold i must give it to you but
if i have like if there’s 100 million dollars in gold contracts but i only have 10 million dollars
in gold only if 15 million wants the gold back then i’m screwed if this is what we call a
bank run okay a bank run and this is a huge problem for merchants okay there’s also another
problem with the system the problem is this who do i usually lend my money to do you guys know
if i’m a bank if i’m a merchant who do i usually lend my money to okay guys um today we lend the
money to entrepreneurs but back then there really weren’t entrepreneurs there were kings and noble
people and what do they do all the time why do they need money to fight wars okay that’s why
that’s why there’s a demand for gold because i’m a king i need to fight a war usually against my
brother or someone else to control this territory right now the problem with this is i could get
killed in which case oops but also what’s much more common is the king would be like screw you
bank i don’t need to pay you back okay so there’s actually a lot of risks with this system so over
time develop a system to mitigate or reduce this risk okay what would they do what they would do is
they would create cartels cartels are just partnerships so maybe this bank works with
another bank works with another bank throughout europe they and the way they establish these
cartels is usually through intermarriage right they would marry each other um they would combine
together and that way let’s say let’s say 15 million uh of receipts once back the goal but
there’s only 10 million well guess what you just go to another bank okay and let’s just say a king
decides i’m not gonna pay you back bank well your bank works with other banks to establish
a new enemy to kill the king to get the money back you understand and this system is what we call
today central banking and what you will learn in this class is central banking controls the world
today okay now what’s really important about this system is that it’s based on power right and what
power is you can turn nothing money the contract into everything right that’s what money is okay
so we live in a world in which banks can print out money right so now let’s ask
ourselves a question wait a minute here if the banks can print as much money as
possible why do we have poverty right because we just give money to poor
people and they won’t be poor anymore why do we have poverty if there’s all the food
world that we want why are people starving still why so we don’t have limited resources we have
scarcity okay right so that is the common answer scarcity we have poverty because of scarcity but
i already told you this they can put money out of nothing so money is infinite money is an infinite
resource so why are we why do we have poor people then that’s kind of strange they still have
You see what’s happening is this.
You all believe money is scarce, okay?
I just spent the past 10, 20 minutes explaining to you, it’s not scarce.
It’s infinite.
It’s just a number.
We can at any time print out as much money as we need, okay?
So that’s how power works.
Power has brainwashed you into thinking something that is not true.
been taught from the first day that money is scarce but it’s not scarce it’s infinite and
no matter what i say to you you still believe this okay so you have to get that out of your head
money is not scarce it is infinite so let’s work with a question why is there poverty in this world
why do people starve why is there inequality in this world why are there poor people why are there
to rich people, what’s the answer?
Because they don’t.
Okay, because it’s scarce.
So guys, this is amazing, okay?
You guys can’t get it out of your head.
You think money’s scarce.
You think it is not possible to print infinite money.
When I already told you, it is possible
to print infinite money, because they do this all the time.
Yeah?
The ones who don’t want to share the same.
Yeah, because we don’t want people to all have money.
have money.
The powerful people don’t want that.
That’s the exact answer.
And why?
Because otherwise no one would work.
Do you understand?
The point of putting money is not to give you money.
The point of putting money is to create the illusion
that money is valuable and therefore you work hard
in order to obtain it.
But in order for me to make you want to get money,
I need to create artificial misery.
Do you understand, right?
If there weren’t poor people, you wouldn’t want to be rich.
It’s only because you see people suffer
that you would want to go make money for yourself.
What do your parents tell you?
Your parents tell you, work hard in school,
make a lot of money.
Otherwise, you’re gonna end up like a poor person, right?
Well, guess what?
If there are no poor people,
your parents couldn’t say that to you.
and you wouldn’t want to work hard in school, right?
That’s why we have poverty,
because poverty creates the illusion that money is valuable.
In other words, poverty isn’t what you do to yourself,
it is what the powerful do to you.
Now, let me ask you another question.
You guys have studied some economics.
Why do you have like crises, crises?
For example, there’s a stock market crash,
or for example, the economy goes down
and people lose their jobs.
Why do you have crises?
Exactly, you’re not taught this in economics class.
kind of weird right the point of crises is to destroy money why do we need to destroy money
because if there’s too much money in the system people don’t have to work so you have to destroy
this money in order to make people feel money is scarce okay does that make sense so why do you
have wars right why are there wars in the world then because they’re fighting over scarce resources
right i already told you scarcity is a lie the real reason is war is meant to destroy wealth
in order to make you think money is valuable do you understand you guys play war of warcraft or
these games right guess what guys what a world craft in our world there’s absolutely no difference
you just run around pointlessly working hard to obtain credits in order to buy stuff if credit
just flew out of the sky because they could do that right they could actually program the engine
to just put money out of nothing you wouldn’t do nothing every day you wouldn’t play the game
okay it’s only because you believe that there’s scarcity in the world and that you must work hard
to obtain wealth that you do any work do you understand this okay so this world that we live in
it’s a complete illusion created by central banking in order to make us work as hard as
possible because the real value is that money the real value is the work we do okay does that make
Make sense, guys?
All right, yeah?
You said scarcity is an illusion, right?
I understand money can be printed infinitely,
but resources such as food and land,
they aren’t technically unlimited.
Scarcity, does scarcity still exist in other resources?
Okay, that’s a great question, okay?
So the question is, isn’t food scarce?
Because food is a finite resource, right?
Do yourself a favor, okay?
go to the garbage dump somewhere anywhere in beijing and see the amount of food that is wasted
every single day if food was scarce why do we have food waste okay so if you just do the mathematics
what you will discover is there’s enough food to feed everyone okay there doesn’t have to be
hunger and starvation it’s an artificial crisis it doesn’t make sense so you’re right in that
yeah the food’s not infinite but it’s abundant there’s a lot of it enough to feed people okay
okay all right um so again you guys are stuck in the scarcity mindset um and
it’s very convincing so let’s move on okay so this is this is something that we’ll go back to later
on okay because i cannot convince you today this morning that everything you believed about the
world about yourself is wrong okay you’re still stuck there like okay there’s scarcity um and
you’re right there’s scarcity but we also live in a world of abundance okay and a lot of things that
you believe are just misconceptions about the world okay so so we’ll go back there okay later
on all right so let’s move on okay so we’ve done money now right now let’s do another question
let’s do a question of happiness the question for us today is what makes us happy come on what makes
you happy how can you live a happy life well obviously money right you have a lot of money
that’s gonna make you happy what else exactly power right sure power excuse me okay good freedom
yeah what else relationships yep sure you have good friends right like lots and lots of friends
what else okay love right love sure what else like video games i guess vacations okay lots
and lots of things okay what you will discover about this list is this you are thinking about
individual happiness and this is actually unique in human history if you were if you go back in
time to 500 years ago and you ask people how can you be happy they would focus more on collective
happiness in other words if your community were not happy you cannot be happy so the very idea of
the individual is new in human history before we understood that if you want to live a happy life
you need to take care of your family you need to take care of your community for them for us
throughout most of human history happiness meant helping others being generous to others
so for example let’s just say that i go off and i wonder and then i find a lot of gold right
i come back and what’s the first thing i do with all this gold do you guys know and this is like
the ancient past okay yeah good right we’re gonna dig a hole and put that money inside because we
we want to give to our children that’s a modern mindset but what did they do before you and this
happened throughout every society if i became rich one day what’s the first thing i would do
no okay so so we’ll learn this okay but the first thing that people did was they had a big feast for
everyone they spent all the money on a big feast because what mattered was your reputation with
the community what mattered was your generosity if you got rich one day you made sure that everyone
in the community benefit from your wealth usually by holding a big feast and guess what guys this
is true in China for most of Chinese history right if you are if you come from a Chinese village
come you come to Beijing you open a restaurant you make a lot of money you go you go out to
your village what’s the first thing you do come on guys you have a big feast for everyone okay so
So this is ingrained in us, okay?
But as you say, today, what we believe is,
if you have a lot of money,
put it underground or put it in the bank, okay?
But back then, for most of human history,
we would just spend it all on a big feast.
We wanted everyone to share in happiness,
and that’s what made us happy, okay?
Any questions?
Yeah?
I was wondering, you mentioned that
it was full reputation on some levels,
that count into as individual happiness?
Because you get rich, you care about your reputation.
Yeah, so you’re asking,
isn’t this about individual reputation?
And again, I mean, this is hard, okay?
But the individual, the concept of individual
did not exist before.
We just created it.
The idea that I’m a person independent of my family,
independent of my community,
independent of the world around me, makes no sense.
What was the worst punishment
could be inflicted on you in the past let’s just say that we’re gonna fight i kill you right
exactly banishment exile not death right and today if i killed you the police would come
catch me and kill me but before we didn’t do that because the worst thing that we could do
was exile you says you’re no longer part of us you understand so the concept of the individual
did not exist right okay so let’s move on all right so now i’m going to present two understandings
of the world and you’re going to tell me which understanding you think is correct and the first
understanding we humans don’t have agency we don’t have really control why because there are powerful
gods out there okay there are these powerful gods like apollo dionysus oh the problem though is that
they are also controlled by other gods that are more powerful like for example fate fortune and
then there are these really ancient gods that control the structure of the universe for example
maybe anger and pride so you actually know individual agency because there’s always a god
screwing with you okay you might get rich but then the god of pride looks at you and says no no no i
I need to teach this mortal a lesson.
So the God comes into me, makes me too arrogant,
and I screw up, okay?
So we’re always being controlled by these forces
beyond our understanding.
Okay, so that’s a first worldview.
Second worldview is this.
We are synapses that generate memories, okay?
We are memories.
Our understanding of the world comes from our experience
that is controlled by synapses.
Synapses come from a combination of DNA
and environment our genes and our interaction with the environment our experiences and what this
means is that we can now have control over our own individual fate if you’re angry it’s because
some experience or some genes made you angry and this anger becomes reinforced in your memories
and therefore if you do proper therapy if you do proper reflection if you do some exercises
you can better control your anger and therefore control your fate okay so in the first world view
there are lots and lots of gods they’re evil and they’re random and we have absolutely no control
or our fate, we can only hope to get lucky in life
and not piss off the gods.
And the second worldview,
we are only a collection of our memories
and we are only synapses.
So we’re able to manipulate the memories
and the synapses in a proper way,
we can be free of all problems.
We can be free of anger.
We can be free of depression.
We can be free of misery, all right?
Let me ask you this question.
Which worldview is a more accurate reflection of reality?
Obviously the second one, right?
Because this is neuroscience, science,
or psychology or psychiatry.
This is what you’ve been taught in school.
This is what you all believe.
Our entire society is structured around this very idea.
And what you will learn in this class is
it is completely wrong.
It is the first one
that is more accurate reflection of reality.
The first one gives you more information,
gives you a more accurate assessment
of how the world really works, okay?
So now let me ask you this question.
If the first worldview,
and this is what we call polytheism,
and polytheism for most of human history
was the dominant religion, okay?
Now we live in a world where the religion is science.
Science is basically religion.
So why did we make the transition?
What’s the benefit?
If you’re a powerful person,
why would you prefer the second one
as opposed to the first one?
Why? What’s the benefits to powerful people?
What does power want to believe the second one, but not the first one?
Yeah, okay.
So, the idea of individual responsibility, okay?
So, then there’s more control, okay?
It’s easier to control people in the system, right?
That’s the first benefit.
What’s the second benefit?
The second benefit is you will work harder, right?
Because in the first system, you’re like, you know what?
I don’t need to go make a lot of money because if I make a lot of money, the gods will punish me
and make me proud. So I’m just going to like enjoy life and take it easy. All right. So in the first,
in the second system, no, no, I’ve control over my own life. So I need to work hard. Okay. So,
and again, the entire point of the system is to make you work as hard as possible because when
you work hard, that generates real wealth for the powerful people. Money does nothing. Okay.
Money just incentivizes you to work hard.
So this exists in order to make you work harder.
There’s one more benefit, or there’s more benefits,
but what’s another benefit?
The other benefit is this, powerlessness.
It makes you powerless.
Why?
This system is designed to make you absolutely powerless.
Why?
Why?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
See, see, again, again, this is how you’re brainwashed.
you believe one makes you powerless but that’s not correct two makes you powerless why what’s
the difference between one and two why is it in number two you are powerless okay so the problem
with number two is you are incapable of collective action because you think all sorts of your
problems is the individual in you and not society but number one you are capable of collective
action and the only way to change the world is through collective action. Does it make sense?
This is a really important point. Two, it’s designed to make you think the source of all
your problems is within you. So you should ignore what other people do and think. It doesn’t matter
to you and therefore you’re incapable of identifying with other people. You’re not capable
of collective action. If you’re not capable of a collective action and you feel really miserable,
what you will do is play video games or watch porn all day okay and that’s what’s happening
in society today yeah number two from experience should take others and not just so number two who
has authority who do you listen to you listen to scientists right scientists because this system
was created by scientists to trick you okay this system you think oh it’s science therefore it must
be real guys let me give you a piece of advice okay if you’re ever feeling sad and you are
depressed what should you do what should you do what have you been taught to do you feel sad you’re
depressed what should you do okay yeah the correct answer is walk around but that’s not what you’ve
been taught right what have you been taught to do okay telling your friend to your parent that’s
that’s actually really good right so walking around exercising resting talking to a friend
about your problem that’s all really good but what have you been taught to do in school
really if you if you are feeling really really sad what should you do you should go talk to a
psychiatrist right you should talk to a psychologist and what will he do what will he or she do
okay well i’m gonna give you a piece of advice okay and you can test it out for yourself
but if you’re feeling sad and you are feeling depressed and you feel you have to talk to a
psychiatrist and you do so i will make you bet that the psychiatrist will make it a lot worse
you will feel worse after talking to a psychiatrist okay and the reason why is the system
is not designed to cure you of any problems the system is to make you dependent on authority
you know that if you feel sad well you know what just go for a walk talk to a friend you’ll feel
better over time but the system teaches you no if you’re sad go talk to a psychiatrist
will give you drugs. It’s designed to make you dependent on authority. Yeah?
I want to, in scenario one, bill number one, God also be an author. God will also be author.
That’s actually a great question. Okay. God is authority. Okay. That’s actually a great question.
Thank you so much. So I have to spend time to explain to you both systems and I will do so.
but what’s really important about number one is the gods are really bad people okay the gods in
number one the polytheistic system they fight all the time they’re vengeful they’re angry they’re
proud but because they’re gods they’re thinking they can get away with it and that’s the difference
between humans and gods we’re all the same we’re all angry we’re all jealous we all fight okay
but the gods can get away with it the humans cannot gods can do hubris we cannot do hubris
you understand so the idea that oh the people in power are benevolent the people in power
or authority figures who are after our best interest that is a new modern concept before
it was assumed that the king is a king why because he’s favored by the gods it’s not because he’s a
good person it’s not because he’s a just ruler it’s just because the gods like him for whatever
reason but guess what the gods give and the gods take maybe today the king will uh rule us but
maybe five years from now he gets unlucky and the gods kill him too bad if you read greek mythology
and we will do so in this class okay we’ll go over into greek civilization we’ll look at Oedipus
we’ll look at Homer the Iliad okay they talk about this all the time fate is something that you cannot
control something that happens to you and therefore you must live life to your best all right so the
difference is this the difference is in number one they have a concept called eudaimonia if you have
no control over your fate if things can happen to you tomorrow that kill you then live your life
to the best of your ability today seize the day be the best that you can be today and that’s how
you win favor from the gods eudaimonia what we call flourishing the point of life is to live it
to the best of your ability.
And that’s why, guess what guys,
the ancients, the Greeks, they were superior to us.
If you read Greek literature, if you read Greek philosophy,
Plato, Homer, Aeschylus, Eurydice, they were the best.
Today, we suck.
Why?
Because instead of eudaimonia, we have pleasure.
Rather than flourish as creative people,
we’re like, how do I enjoy my life today?
How do I not feel sad, okay?
So in the first system, even though it sounds like we have no control, we have no agency,
but it inspires us to live to the best of our ability.
In the second system, we’re like, oh, you have complete control over your life.
It enslaves us.
All right, now let’s move on to the third and final example.
And I know this is shocking.
I know this is surprising.
But over the course of the semester, I will give you enough evidence to convince you that this is all true, okay?
but i’m just set up the structure in the framework today all right let’s let’s let’s do down to school
guys why do you have school why are we in school why why are you here what
exactly right learn what else yeah to get the degree okay to get the degree
ready to graduate what else knowledge yes
Give the power a chance to brainwash the students.
Excuse me?
I feel like, give the power a chance to brainwash our students.
Brainwashing.
Okay, guess what guys?
The correct answer is brainwashing.
Everything else is a lie.
Alright, what do you do in school?
You come to class, you listen to a lecture, you read books, right?
And then you have to do a test, and you have to write a paper.
and then and then the teacher gives you a grade that’s how you learn right let me ask you this
question then throughout most of human history how did we learn if you want to become a doctor
what did you do the answer is experience do it right let me ask you this question let’s say
you’re 12 years old you want to be a doctor okay there are two paths ahead of you the first path
is you know what i’m just put you in a hospital and you’re going to learn there for like 10 years
someone’s going to mentor you someone’s you’re going to be that person’s apprentice maybe the
first year all you do is like wash the floor okay but you’re going to observe the doctor
and then eventually the doctor is going in to tell you how to um treat patients okay that’s
the first system second system is you go to the best school in the world then you go to harvard
for undergraduate then you go to harvard medical school the best medical school in the world okay
age 30 who’s the better doctor number one or number two obviously the first one right because
the second person, the person who went to Harvard and Harvard Medical School, did not
ever work in a hospital. You understand? Now let me ask you another question. In the first
system, do you have to be really, really smart to be a good doctor? You don’t actually. Anyone
can be a doctor in the first system. Anyone. We human beings are all born with the capacity
to learn anything if you wanted to learn it, right? You can be an engineer, you can be
If you’re a lawyer, if you want to be a doctor,
if you want to be a scientist,
you want to be anything, okay?
Just go find a mentor who can teach you how to do so.
And I guarantee you that you will learn how to do it well.
And anyone can do this.
But instead, we have a system in which we tell students
you’re smart, you’re stupid.
Smart students go to good schools and good universities
and they get good jobs.
Stupid students go wash dishes, okay?
And that was not true for most of human history.
It’s true today, but for most of human history,
if you want to go learn something,
all you had to do was go find a teacher,
and that teacher would teach you,
and then you would learn it, right?
So school is not a place to teach you how to learn.
A school doesn’t teach you knowledge.
It doesn’t do that.
A school is a place that brainwashes you, okay?
Now the question then is, what does it brainwash you in?
What would it brainwash you?
Okay, all right, to answer that,
I’m going to give you some history, okay?
We will do a lot of history in this class.
But I’m gonna tell you the three societies
that first introduced mandatory free public schooling
in the world, okay?
The first is called Sparta, okay?
Sparta was a small city-state in Greece,
like three, 4,000 years ago, 3,000 years ago.
And they had a new system in which children
as early as five or six years old,
they were put into a school.
And in the school, they were beaten up by older kids
who were like nine or 10, okay?
That’s Sparta.
The second society was called the Aztecs, Aztecs.
And they also provided free compulsory education
to all its children.
Really good, right?
And the third society is called Prussia.
And actually Prussia is a system that everyone uses today.
Do you guys know any history?
Okay, what is common about all three societies?
Sparta, Aztecs, and Prussia?
Hmm?
What is common to all three?
Okay, war.
All three societies are fundamentally war societies
dedicated to defeating their neighbors.
Sparta was one of thousands of city-states in Greece.
The only society of these thousands
that had compulsory education.
Why?
Because Sparta was first and foremost engaged in war making.
Sparta, you’ve heard of Spartans, right?
It’s the Spartan warrior, okay?
The Aztecs were the greatest war society in Central America
before they rivaled the Europeans.
They defeated everyone.
They were engaged in war.
They also did a lot of human sacrifice as well.
Okay, we learn about the Aztecs later on.
Prussia, the Prussians,
the greatest military in Europe for centuries.
They were engaged in war making as well.
Okay, do you understand this?
Why we have schools is because schools are really good
at preparing people for war.
Why?
Excuse me?
They don’t have people under their hands.
They can’t teach something.
How can you do with someone?
What is, what is, why, why?
Let me ask you this question.
Why did they not, they did not have schools before?
Why is it that people are like, we don’t want schools, why?
Again, the Sparta, Aztecs, and Prussia
were the few societies that had free public schooling.
Why didn’t other societies just copy them?
Why?
Okay, let me ask you this question.
Let’s just say you’re a mother or a father,
and you have a child, right?
What’s the worst thing that could happen in your life?
No, no, your mother or your father?
You have a child, right?
What’s the worst thing that can happen to you in your life?
your child is taken away from you, right?
What does school do?
School is designed to take your child away from you, okay?
Let me ask you this question.
If school is about learning,
why don’t parents and children go to school together?
Yeah, why not?
Why?
Because parents have to work to survive, right?
There’s actually a better reason why.
Okay, it’s about brainwashing, right?
Because how do you brainwash someone, right?
If you’re with your parent,
you gonna be brainwashed no because you feel loved you feel secure your parents gonna protect you
you’re not your parent hey is this teacher is is he or she lying to me and the parents like yeah
he’s he’s lying to you okay it’s only because you’ve been taken away from your parent that you
are now willing to be brainwashed why because what happens if you leave your parents how do you feel
how do you feel yeah exactly right insecure you’re anxious you’re afraid you understand
you’ve lost your parent you’re four you’re five you’re six years old you’ve lost your parent
you feel really insecure so who do you trust your teacher what your teacher says is now correct
yeah okay that’s a great point okay aren’t our brain parents brainwashed as well um that’s
correct your parents are brainwashed but what i’m saying is when a parent is with a child the child
feels secure and if you’re secure you’re much more willing to disobey authority you’re much willing
to ask questions you’re much willing to think for yourself because you feel secure because your
parent is there to protect you but if you take the parent away you can’t do that you must now rely on
the teacher who can now brainwash you okay so are you brainwashing am i brainwashing you okay
okay all right okay so the question is am i brainwashing you okay that’s a good question
and it’s a fair question and again that’s why i tell you this okay you have the capacity to ask
me questions you have the capacity to challenge me you have the capacity to think for yourself
okay so all i’m saying is hear me out ask me questions and then think for yourself whether
or not i make sense because the difference between my class and other classes is like i don’t test
you right i don’t give you grades it’s a pass fail class you can actually choose to say you know what
this is nonsense i don’t want to listen anymore i can’t i can’t stop you okay but in school guess
what happens if you don’t go come to school your parents get arrested all right do you understand
that’s the difference it’s your choice whether or not to pay attention or not so another question
is okay if schools are designed to brainwash you what are they brainwashing you in well they’re
designed to brainwash you to believe a concept called the nation state the nation state the
schools are designed to brainwash you to think the nation state exists. It is a person. Mother China.
You must love this person. You must be willing to sacrifice yourself for this person.
You must be willing to dedicate yourself to this person because it is Mother China. And how do we
brainwash you? We teach you language, right? We teach you history. We teach you geography. We
teach you all this to make you believe that the nation state, Mother China, the United States,
France. They all exist. But guess what? Throughout most of human history, it was absurd to think the
nation-state existed, okay? Before, you didn’t say, I’m Chinese. Before you say, I’m a Beijing-er,
or I’m from Haidian, or I’m from Chaoyang, right? Because that makes more sense. You’re from a place
where you know the people. But now, because of the nation-state, you are forced to believe that
you are the same person as someone from Yunnan,
Tibet, Guangxi, even though, that’s right guys,
you have absolutely nothing in common.
Okay, but you’re all Chinese.
And that’s what school is designed to do.
School is designed to implant in you
a false memory of a nation state.
Okay, that’s what history is.
History is the false memory of a nation state.
And it happened, and that’s why
you’re all forced to go to school, okay?
Like, we also want you to think about degrees and work as a…
Yeah, so the point of school is to serve the nation-state.
Do you understand?
Right? Does that make sense?
If you believe in the nation-state, if you believe in Mother China,
then you must serve her.
You must obey her.
You must fight for her.
You must die for her.
Okay?
So the idea of the nation-state was created in order to make you obedient to authority.
And it works very effectively.
Yeah?
Yeah?
All countries, all countries are nation states, okay?
So, I’m not saying China is different from other places.
China is exactly the same as other places, okay?
What you will learn in this class is
how do we get to this place?
Because again, the three things that we learn, okay?
Money, the individual, the nation state.
These are all ideas and concepts
beyond the human experience.
If you try to work this out from first principles,
you’re trying to figure this out by yourself,
couldn’t do it you have to be brainwashed into believing these three things if someone from the
past maybe a thousand years ago were to come today you would explain the concept of money
individual initial state the person would be like wait a minute here this means that you’re all
slaves okay so now the question then is where do we get these three concepts from what you will
learn in this class is these three concepts come from a revolution in human thought called
monotheism, the one true God. This idea of monotheism forever changed the course of human
history and it gave us these concepts of money, individual, and nation state. Monotheism is such
powerful idea that it turned nothing into everything okay that’s what you will learn in
this class we will learn about monotheism and we will discover how it created money individual in
the nation state and it basically create the world that we live in today okay all right any questions
excuse me okay yeah so there are three great monotheistic religions right judaism christianity
and islam what i will show you later on is it’s basically the same religion yeah all right okay
so i i don’t want to give you too much information okay because there’s a lot to process but i want
you guys to remember the concepts money individual and nation state are all powerful concepts that
are embedded into everyday life you cannot escape it okay you’ve been brainwashed and thinking that
they all exist when in fact they actually they actually don’t exist and that’s how power works
what power is okay what power truly is is what we call alchemy alchemy throughout human history
was the pursuit of turning lead into gold okay lead into gold okay nothing into everything
that’s what alchemy was and maybe in science class you’re taught that alchemy is this fake science
It’s a pseudoscience, and it did not work.
What you will learn in this class is we achieve alchemy, okay?
We turn nothing into everything.
We turn lead into gold, or that’s what power is.
Power is the capacity to turn nothing into everything.
Power is the capacity to make you believe that money is valuable,
that the individual can lead to happiness,
that the nation state exists.
That’s what power is, okay?
and as a result today we live extremely miserable lives okay so so you’ve been taught to think that
oh life just gets better and better what you will learn in this class is actually um nope okay
and what what’s really important is you will also learn in this class that this was an accident
okay this is an accident it’s an accident of the human imagination it’s because we didn’t
know what we’re doing that we create this system so you what you also learn is that if you’re able
to control the human imagination you can use it to create a new system that allows for eudaimonia
or the flourishing of the human intellect okay all right any questions okay so um that’s it for
uh today okay i’ll see you guys next class
Source: Predictive History