WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:07.360 Malcolm X famously spoke about the difference between field slaves and house slaves, the 00:07.360 --> 00:12.860 latter exhibiting a somewhat pathetic level of love and loyalty toward their masters. 00:13.560 --> 00:21.340 Looking back, people today tend to feel less pity and more disgust and contempt toward 00:21.340 --> 00:22.420 house slaves. 00:23.260 --> 00:29.320 The character played by Samuel L. Jackson in Django Unchained, for example, is universally 00:29.320 --> 00:35.140 reviled and hated, and for good reason, but why would such a thing ever happen at 00:35.140 --> 00:42.060 all? Why would any victim of such a heinous injustice as slavery have felt 00:42.060 --> 00:49.380 emotionally attached and faithful to his abuser? You've probably heard of Stockholm 00:49.380 --> 00:56.790 syndrome and the phenomenon of battered spouse syndrome is very real too, so 00:56.790 --> 01:05.310 that trauma can twist and mangle the human psyche, but surely normal mentally 01:05.310 --> 01:11.190 balanced people would never love or praise their own abusers, would they? 01:12.070 --> 01:18.690 What psychologically well-adjusted victim of injustice would ever proudly 01:18.690 --> 01:26.790 support his own victimizer? The answer is, almost everyone who votes Democrats, 01:27.190 --> 01:32.410 Republicans, whatever makes no difference. Now, whether voters should be called 01:32.410 --> 01:37.690 psychologically well-adjusted, I won't get into it the moment, but since I'm 01:37.690 --> 01:43.050 sure that plenty of proud politically active voters on all sides will 01:43.050 --> 01:48.550 already be offended by what I just said, let's consider a few things and 01:48.550 --> 01:53.570 then you can decide for yourself whether or not my claim was justified. 01:56.830 --> 02:02.590 We were all taught the mythology about how we elect representatives who then 02:02.590 --> 02:09.550 carry out the will of the people and serve us, but does that mythology actually 02:09.550 --> 02:17.190 match reality at all? Are you under the impression that politicians care what 02:17.190 --> 02:22.830 you want? Yeah, if you can throw a big enough pile of money at one of them in 02:22.830 --> 02:29.430 the form of campaign contributions you might get a favor or two out of him, but 02:29.430 --> 02:36.310 you can't possibly think that politicians actually care what you want or that 02:36.310 --> 02:41.650 they do what they do with your interests in mind. Someone who actually 02:41.650 --> 02:46.890 represented you would answer to you and would act on your behalf and do what 02:46.890 --> 02:55.030 you want done. Is that what politicians do? How about the ones you vote for? Even 02:55.030 --> 03:01.310 if your guy wins, you can't possibly actually believe that they work for 03:01.310 --> 03:07.770 you. Those in government boss you around via legislation and they take your 03:07.770 --> 03:13.930 stuff via taxation and they send armed enforcers to punish you if you 03:13.930 --> 03:21.550 disobey or resist. You know that's the case. Now, if I forcibly bossed you 03:21.550 --> 03:26.370 around and took your stuff, would you view that as me representing and 03:26.370 --> 03:32.490 serving you? Obviously not. Would you view it as me abusing and 03:32.490 --> 03:38.150 victimizing you? Yes, because that's what it would actually be. Despite the silly 03:38.150 --> 03:43.570 mythology that we were all taught, government by its very nature, by 03:43.570 --> 03:51.910 definition, is the thing that exercises authority, the right to rule over a 03:51.910 --> 03:57.430 particular territory. No matter how many euphemisms and no matter how much 03:57.430 --> 04:04.550 dishonest vague mush is used to mischaracterize it, government is a 04:04.550 --> 04:12.650 ruling class. Nothing else. It is a political master, coercively robbing 04:12.650 --> 04:18.010 and controlling its subjects. It might make you uncomfortable to hear 04:18.010 --> 04:22.990 that because the truth doesn't match the silly nonsense we were all 04:22.990 --> 04:30.010 taught. But that is still the obvious literal reality, whether you like it 04:30.010 --> 04:35.410 or not. You're not represented by those in power, including the ones 04:35.410 --> 04:43.630 you voted for. You are ruled by a ruling class, just as much as any 04:43.630 --> 04:50.530 subject of any king ever was. That is the literal reality. But how you 04:50.530 --> 04:56.270 view that, how you perceive that, and how you react to that, that's 04:56.270 --> 05:03.970 another question. Many people all over the world and throughout much of 05:03.970 --> 05:08.910 human history have been openly enslaved and treated as if they 05:08.910 --> 05:14.250 were the rightful property of other people. That was and is 05:14.250 --> 05:20.050 profoundly evil, obviously. But how did it come to be that some 05:20.050 --> 05:27.610 of the slaves felt actual love and loyalty to their owners? To 05:27.610 --> 05:31.770 answer that, I defer to someone who spent much of his life as a 05:31.770 --> 05:37.310 slave. Frederick Douglass said this, To make a contented slave, you 05:37.310 --> 05:41.730 must make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral 05:41.730 --> 05:46.390 and mental vision, and as far as possible to annihilate his power 05:46.390 --> 05:50.910 of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in 05:50.910 --> 05:54.610 slavery. The man that takes his earnings must be able to 05:54.610 --> 05:58.490 convince him that he has a perfect right to do so. It must 05:58.490 --> 06:04.370 not depend upon mere force. The slave must know no higher law than 06:04.370 --> 06:08.790 his master's will. The whole relationship must not only 06:08.790 --> 06:13.770 demonstrate to his mind its necessity, but its absolute 06:13.770 --> 06:17.830 rightfulness. Now for many of us today, that may feel 06:17.830 --> 06:22.410 incomprehensible. How could anyone have ever been convinced 06:22.410 --> 06:25.950 that he was the rightful property of someone else, 06:26.590 --> 06:30.890 convinced that someone else had the right to forcibly deprive 06:30.890 --> 06:36.090 him of his freedom and of the fruits of his labor? Surely 06:36.090 --> 06:41.310 modern enlightened man would never fall for such anti human 06:41.310 --> 06:48.210 insanity. Right? So how much did you voluntarily choose to 06:48.210 --> 06:52.850 donate to your public servants this year? Or did those in 06:52.850 --> 06:57.390 government not let you be the one to decide how much of your 06:57.390 --> 07:02.010 money you would give to them? They didn't let you decide your 07:02.010 --> 07:07.590 own tax rate? They decided that for you? It was up to them 07:08.220 --> 07:12.310 to decide how much of the fruits of your labor you would 07:12.310 --> 07:17.010 be forced to hand over to them? Or to put it another way, 07:17.710 --> 07:24.610 those in power get to decide how much of what you earn they 07:24.610 --> 07:30.150 will let you keep? Now, maybe you voted for someone who 07:30.150 --> 07:34.090 promised to lower your taxes, but whether he even did that or 07:34.090 --> 07:38.170 not, that's still just you hoping that the master will 07:38.170 --> 07:41.790 give you his permission to keep a little bit more of what 07:41.790 --> 07:45.830 you earned while you still accept that ultimately that's 07:45.830 --> 07:53.750 his choice to make, not yours. Please, Massa, can I keep a 07:53.750 --> 08:00.290 bit more of what I produce? Is that not the attitude and 08:00.290 --> 08:05.890 mentality of a slave? And yes, I can hear the objections 08:05.890 --> 08:09.670 already. How dare I compare our modern representative 08:09.670 --> 08:15.150 political system to slavery? It's not the same. Taxes are 08:15.150 --> 08:20.050 the price we pay for civilization. Again, in the words of 08:20.050 --> 08:25.410 Frederick Douglass, the man that takes his earnings must be 08:25.410 --> 08:29.630 able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so. 08:33.750 --> 08:38.030 Democrats vote for a ruling class to dominate and 08:38.030 --> 08:43.110 extort them. Republicans vote for a ruling class to 08:43.110 --> 08:48.270 dominate and extort them. So does every other voter. None of 08:48.270 --> 08:53.190 them oppose being ruled. Every voter by his own actions 08:53.190 --> 08:59.510 gives his blessing to being ruled. Yeah, voters argue 08:59.510 --> 09:03.050 amongst themselves rather zealously and angrily 09:03.050 --> 09:07.430 sometimes about which people should abuse and rob 09:07.430 --> 09:10.910 them, but none of them actually oppose their own 09:10.910 --> 09:15.990 enslavement. All of them legitimize it and condone it 09:16.460 --> 09:22.070 with their votes. They argue only about which flavor of 09:22.070 --> 09:27.170 ruling class they want to bow to and which rulers they 09:27.170 --> 09:30.830 want to be controlled and exploited by. Again, I know 09:30.830 --> 09:33.330 some will object to this characterization of the 09:33.330 --> 09:37.870 situation. We have democracy here. We get to vote for 09:37.870 --> 09:42.450 our leaders, so it's not the same. To quote Lysander 09:42.450 --> 09:46.890 Spooner, a man is no less a slave because he is allowed to 09:46.890 --> 09:53.050 choose a new master once in a term of years. Incidentally, if 09:53.050 --> 09:56.490 you haven't yet seen the movie Jones Plantation, you 09:56.490 --> 10:00.250 really need to check that out. Watch how zealously both 10:00.250 --> 10:04.130 sides of the political circus condemn and insult each 10:04.130 --> 10:08.850 other while proudly bragging about the rulers that they 10:08.850 --> 10:14.710 want to bow to. Again, quoting Frederick Douglass relating 10:14.710 --> 10:19.210 to his own personal experiences. It is not uncommon for 10:19.210 --> 10:22.230 slaves even to fall out and quarrel among themselves 10:22.230 --> 10:25.990 about the relative goodness of their masters, each 10:25.990 --> 10:29.510 contending for the superior goodness of his own 10:29.510 --> 10:33.090 over that of the others. And many voters aren't just 10:33.090 --> 10:36.370 choosing what they think is the lesser of two evils. They 10:36.370 --> 10:41.170 get excited and enthusiastic about their choice of 10:41.170 --> 10:46.610 master, about the people they want to be ruled by. The 10:46.610 --> 10:50.610 proud Obama supporters, the proud Trump supporters, 10:51.570 --> 10:56.390 everyone with a bumper sticker or a yard sign bragging 10:56.390 --> 11:00.450 about what candidate or political party they 11:00.450 --> 11:07.570 support, which rulers they want to bow to and obey. All of 11:07.570 --> 11:13.910 them are openly and proudly expressing love and loyalty 11:14.610 --> 11:20.490 toward political rulers who view and treat those 11:20.490 --> 11:26.670 voters like livestock. And that makes all voters 11:27.160 --> 11:31.630 left, right and anything else the modern day equivalent 11:32.120 --> 11:38.070 of pathetic brainwashed house slaves. And ironically, 11:38.570 --> 11:41.650 both those who zealously advocate that they be 11:41.650 --> 11:46.650 subjugated and extorted by politicians on the right and 11:46.650 --> 11:49.650 those who zealously advocate that they be subjugated 11:49.650 --> 11:53.970 and extorted by politicians on the left will both join 11:53.970 --> 11:59.050 together in their confident resentment and hatred for 11:59.050 --> 12:02.470 people like me who suggest that they shouldn't be 12:02.470 --> 12:04.590 ruled by anyone.