Jocko Podcast - Jocko Underground: Losing My Faith in Humanity and The World.

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

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This is the Jocko Underground podcast number 216 sitting here with Echo Charles. We have some questions from the front lines from where the rubber meets the road. And we are going to offer some suggestions, possibly some answers. And at a minimum, some courses of action you can follow to navigate the maze of life. As Echo Charles puts it. It's true. That is correct. And very helpful too, by the way.

So thank you. First question. I believe in science. I work in the medical field. Yet all my life I felt that science alone will not. suffice. There's a spirit within us. There's some divine beyond. Call it what you may, God, or otherwise. I live in a war-torn part of the world. Events of the last few years made me resent, even hate whatever God there may be, not because what happens to me, but because what happens

to others and to others' children on both sides of the conflict. My faith in the basic good nature of this life and world is completely shattered, what God can allow such things. If this is the price of paradise, then paradise is lost to begin with. Never saw myself as a man of faith until I had it all shattered. My spirit is now broken. I'm open to ideas. Thank you for your service. Yeah. There is evil in the world. There's no doubt about it. And depending on where you are in the world and what is happening where you are in the world, sometimes evil gets the upper hand that that that absolutely happens evil gets the upper hand and there's

countless examples of that throughout history you're talking about the Holocaust or the holedomor or the rape of nan king or the genocide by the Khmer Rouge or even stuff like the Jim Jones mass suicide like no doubt there are heinous things that occur and and evil does sometimes get the upper hand. And I think the reason that these things occur is because it's the path of least resistance. It's the easiest path, right? It's simple.

It doesn't take work. All you have to do is be able to just set aside your humanity and these things can just, evil can flourish. That's all it takes. And oftentimes once somebody crosses that line, they don't come back from it. So when we are surrounded by that type of environment, it's very easy to lose sight of the good. And it's very easy to become surrounded by darkness and think that there isn't going to be no light.

and perhaps even think that there is no light. And yeah, I think I and I think everyone at some juncture in our lives asks the question, why? Why is this happening? Or why is God allowing this to happen? And there's, I mean, there's theological explanations for. this right there's theological explanations where people have answered this question people that study theology things like free will right that's a whole argument or the idea that spiritual growth can only occur when people are facing suffering

and injustice in the world or the idea that yeah the world is fallen which is a result of the original sin and spiritual rebellion and the horrific symptoms that we see are not active you know choices by God but there but the horrific things that we see are the results of our misdeeds we own those misdeeds and those misdeeds and those will flourish until we get to the afterlife. So there are theological explanations, which I'm not equipped, and I don't study that kind of thing. It's a lot to digest, especially when you are facing,

which you are in a war-torn area, you are literally facing the horrific dark side of human nature. And it can be hard to intellectualize all that with theological answers when you're in that horrific space. So there's, I want to offer a little bit of a little bit of a simpler idea that I have fallen back on when I start to get this type of feeling. and it's a quote, and we'll give you a quote, Echo Charles. So shines a good deed in a weary world.

Do you recognize that quote? Well, speaking of theology, it's a quote from Willy Wonka in the Chocolate Factory. So what happens is the boy is, the boy is, he's broken the rules and he's got that speech from Willy Wonka, you'll get nothing, you'll get nothing. And so he knows he lost,

He knows he messed up, but he decides in that moment to take the everlasting gobstopper that he had stolen and give it back to Willy Wonka. And that was actually the final test. So he puts the little everlasting gobstopper on Willie Wonka's desk or half desk because everything in the room is cut in half. And he starts to walk out. And Willie Wonka says, so shines a good deed in a weary world. and then he says, you know, boy, you won. You did it. That was the last test.

It's a powerful statement in a, in a movie that's surprisingly very deep. But just to give credit where credit is due, that line is actually a version of a line from Shakespeare play called The Merchant of Venice and Portia, who's returning home. and she sees this little candle burning in her window as she's returned home and she reflects on how a very small seemingly insignificant thing can actually have a massive impact and spread light. And so she says how far that little candle throws his beams so shines a good deed in a wicked world. and actually I modified that myself

because the the original Shakespeare version doesn't use the term wicked it uses the term naughty but at that time in 16 oh whatever naughty didn't mean what it means now

like oh you little kid is being naughty like mischievous it didn't mean that it actually came from the word not which is zero so it means like morally bankrupt and worthless and corrupt that's what it meant

so I substituted it for wicked But the reason I'm saying all this is that I think and I believe that in the darkest of times, we have to remember that the smallest deed, the smallest good deed, brings light into the world. and that light is going to impact someone somewhere somehow. That little bit of humanity that we can hold on to and that we can share, that emanates and it propagates. And to me, that's the human spirit.

That's the humane spirit. And we have to make sure that we do not allow that to be extinguished. and it's up against them again the easiest thing is to let that flame go out and go to the dark side right star wars yeah you like star wars don't you yeah i like star wars are you star wars maniac

i would not say maniac no your brother is no no probably same whatever i'm down for some star wars for sure well look at the whole story you know it's the dark it's the dark side turning the dark side an again he starts off is all good to go then he goes to the dark side he doesn't listen to what I'm saying

I didn't have my podcast in that level of the empire but he didn't have a mentor he didn't have someone tell him he didn't keep that humanity he went to the dark side so we it's on us right it's not God's responsibility

it's our responsibility that we make sure that that that little bit of light that we can bring to the world does not get extinguished and and I'll tell you it hasn't been extinguished despite the despite the absolute horrors that humanity inflicts on itself there's not been a surrender right evil has not triumphed it hasn't it be the world would be a completely different place if it wasn't for this this this core goodness

that we have. And by the way, by every metric, it should, right? It should because it's way easier to take the dark, demonic path. It's just the easier way to go. That's why people talk about doing the right thing is usually the hard thing. It's a lot easier just to do the easy thing. That's the wrong thing. And some people do, clearly.

And sometimes whole cultures get wrapped up in that, but we don't have to. So my recommendation is that you be one of the people that hangs on to that little bit of good. And you do everything that you can to be the light where there is darkness and as much as you possibly can do good. do good deeds in a weary world. And that's what I got. Next question. Willie Wonka.

Yeah, Willie Wonka. The OG one. Yeah. I haven't even watched the new one. My kids say it's good. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The Johnny Depp one? Yeah, I haven't watched the Johnny Depp one.

Yeah, yeah. Brother, the old one is so good. Yeah. And Gene Wilder's so classic. Yeah, yeah. It's like an amazing movie. It's an amazing movie with an amazing message. But that message right there, man,

for real. Yeah, you talked about the easy, easy path or easy decisions versus hard decisions, whatever, which kind of like it dawned upon me and as I indicated to you off and online, that a lot of these things, and this is one of them, come down to short term, long term. So even when it's like, oh, yeah, what's the right decision? It's going to have to do with the best thing for the most people for the most amount of time. that's really what the right decision is you know so at first the right decision is hard because the short-term benefits for the one person usually or one or two or whatever people is going to be

not a benefit but the benefit is going to go to more people for a longer amount of time somewhere in the future it's like a big you know big picture small picture long-term short-term it's usually being like you can usually narrow it down to that I'm saying even like evil and this is why I think when you say evil doesn't triumph this is why I think at the end of the day because it doesn't have the it doesn't have sustainability

you know well yeah you're right it evil eventually turns on itself on itself exactly right that's the problem with it yeah you're right and and that's not to mention there's good people doesn't so even if there's little pockets of good people it I mean

even if the good like the evil overwhelms the good the evil like how you said kills itself yeah so it's like that's not like a good sustainable model you see what I'm saying yep it's have you ever seen the movie the exorcist yeah like the opening I remember I saw that movie I was a little kid freaked me that hell out yeah that's real that's legit but I was young but I remember there's so that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the jaco underground podcast so if you want to continue to listen go to jaco underground.com and subscribe and we're doing this

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