Shaun Newman Podcast - #1025 - Cornerstone Forum 26’

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Today I am releasing three keynote speeches from the Cornerstone Forum. Neil Oliver, Chad Prather, and Karen Kwiatkowski each brought a unique voice, yet their messages formed the theme of the Forum this year:The power of open discussion and honest dialogue in an age of censorship and division. Why aiming at a clear goal matters — having vision and direction in uncertain times. The core truth is that freedom is in our DNA — it’s not granted by governments, it’s hardwired into who we are as human beings.The entire Cornerstone Forum is being released on Substack. Watch the Cornerstone Forum 26’https://shaunnewmanpodcast.substack.com/Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500

This is Brett Weinstein. This is Tom Lomago. This is Bruce Party. This is Alex Krenner. Hey, this is Brad Wall. This is Dr. Pierre-Core. Hi, this is Frank Paredi. This is Danielle Smith.

This is James Lindsay. This is Vance Crow and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Tuesday. How's everybody doing? Everybody's been asking me, okay? How was the Cornerstone Forum? So I just want to say an apology today to all the sponsors.

I promise to make it up. Silver Gold Bull, RecTech, PlanetCom, all of which we're here, you know. Nick was here and Brent from Silver Gold Bull and a whole bunch of others, I should say. And then Al was here from RecTech and Carl from PlanetCom. So that's super cool. And I hope to find, well, no, not hope. I will find a way to make it up here in the coming days. But I want to talk about the Cornerstone Forum today.

Since, you know, Monday's episode, if you had figured it out, I'd recorded that before the weekend. It was a busy week leading up to the forum, and then obviously the forum itself was quite a day. And I wanted to just talk briefly about that, to bring everybody up to speed. I've been getting lots of texts asking how it was. And so, you know, I thought I would maybe walk through that and let everybody know.

So I, first off, I really enjoyed the venue. I think there was a ton of great feedback on the West and Calgary Airport, just for, you know, everything being in the same building and its proximity to the airport. I think that really was beneficial. And so a ton of great feedback. The staff here just has been fantastic. You know, this year at the forum, one of the things we changed is I didn't MC. I had two's MC and I thought he did a great job.

To be honest, I thought everybody on stage did a great job, but Tews stepped into a role where I, I used the cattle prod many of time. Anyone who's been to any show of mine knows that I fixate on time and making sure we stay on time. And so I was all over twos. You know, we got behind eight minutes. And I was probably beside myself. I'm sure twos can talk about it on the mashup coming up later this week. But, you know, we found a way to wrangle it back in and keep everything on time.

And I thought, you know, he rolled with the punches. And, you know, twos is an avid learner. I don't know if you know that or not, but I was explaining how I do things. And by the end of the show, Toos had really got into the role of it. And I think it was Vince Lanci who said he liked himself better after Toos's intro of him. So he was doing quite the intros. All the speakers were talking about that well into the night. You know, to Tom Bodervix, he hosted again the Economics Roundtable.

And my hat's off to Tom all the time. I think he's such a wonderful host. host and he's got a very interesting or maybe just a great background in economics and interviewing all these different guys. And so I believed in putting them back in that role. And I think everybody enjoyed that. Now, all the speakers we had, we had everybody show up. You know, on this side, people ask about the stress of putting on the show.

Part of it's just the unknown until all the speakers are here, you know, it's like, oh, is everybody going to show up? And, you know, because if nobody shows up, then, you know, you don't really have a show, right? So regardless, Martin Armstrong got here. Vince Lanchie, Brett Olin, Chad Prather, Karen Katowski, Neil Oliver, Premier Daniel Smith showed up, Larry C. Johnson, Sam Cooper, Matt Err, Tom Longo, and Alex Craneer. They all showed up. And I've been told time and time again from people who, you know, there's some people

have made all three cornerstones. There's been a lot who made the last two and they just said it was a step up from even the previous year. They didn't think I could outdo last year and they all said I out did it this year. So if you missed it, um, you can find it on substack. It's airing daily right now. And so I would, uh, really push you to go become a paid member of substack and see, um, the Cornerstone Forum year three. Uh, regardless, all the speakers, uh, were fantastic. Everybody always asked me what were my favorite parts. And it's, it's hard because you, you know, I got to, you know, if you'd ask me this five years ago, when I first found Martin Armstrong, I'm like,

I'm going to have a one-on-one with Martin Armstrong to start the day. Like, how cool is that? And he gave me, once again, another old Roman coin, which is like, I don't know, a highlight for me, super cool. And then I could list off all the other speakers. Like, you know, Premier Daniel Smith showed up this year. Like, yeah, that's pretty cool. I really enjoyed, I always want to be positive.

I want to have a positive aspect in the show. And so having Karen Katowski, Chad Prater, Neil Oliver, run with my idea. I thought they all did excellent. And I thought that roundtable was fantastic. But, you know, like the rest of the speaker, we had her first debate this year with Sam Cooper, Matt Erritt. It was my flavor of debate. I thought it was very cordial. I thought they were very respectful of each other as they tried navigating their two thoughts on China.

That was very interesting. You know, you had Tom and Alex end the day. They've been here four straight years. And obviously with what's going on in Iran, there is, you know, a bit of disagreement. And that's welcomed, you know, I think when it comes to the Cornerstorm Forum, the theme of this year was discussions and why they matter, especially on the important things. And that's not to take away from Brett Olin and Vince Lanshee, who, you know, Vince's first time, he finally made it this year. And I think I listened to different people talk to him saying, he was their favorite speaker.

And then Brett Olin, you know, I called him up a week ago because we'd had Mark Cohodas back out. And Brett was just like, yeah, I'll hop in. And he probably had the funniest line of the entire show. And Tuesday was given him a hard time later that he had the best joke of the night. So, you know, it was a great show. So if you missed it, it's up on subs. Or, well, I guess I should say it's coming out.

It's airing daily this week. And you can get it by becoming a paid member of Substact. Today I'm going to show just a few of the keynote speeches. I wanted to, you know, just give you a little taste of what the Cornerstone Forum had this year. You know, to the volunteers, everyone who helped check people in and just be a part of, you know, making this show possible, I can't thank you enough. You know, obviously I want to start with my wife. Mel came and I put it over for way too many days. But, you know, she's such a trooper.

and, you know, got everybody through the door. And then she was helped alongside her was Jillian Dakers, Jackie Hines. Is it Cat? Cat. Miles? Man, I'm sorry, Cat. I know that's what you said to call it, but it's catta? Katta?

I don't know. There I'm going to get text now. Lori, Zacharach, Shannon McNally, obviously ran not only helped in the front, but then ran the Expo. Shannon Heinz. Terry Larson from SGB came. and Toby Daniels. So all those ladies, shout out to all of you. You were wonderful.

You got everybody checked in on time. We had no issues. And I think it was a smooth process this year. Greg, shout out to Greg. Literally the night before, I'm sitting in the venue. And I didn't realize I was going to have to move chairs on it off the stage because this year it wasn't just round tables of groups of four of us, a host, and three speakers. You know, we had the debate.

We had one-on-ones. We had a bunch of different things. And Greg said, well, what do you need help with? I'll do it. And so Greg became the unofficial or maybe official chairmover of the day. And so I showed it to him. That's what this community has been. It's just like, it's super cool.

And I showed up to all of you for volunteering your time and being a part of this. To the sponsor's Silver Gold Bull, Bull, Boulevard Credit Union. I said at the start of the day and I'll say it again here. It wouldn't be in Calgary if it wasn't for the support of those two companies. and just appreciate them, you know, stepping up for the last two years and bringing it here. To the inner workings of the show, the audio visual guys, I thought they did a bang-up job this year, to the staff of the Weston, I thought they did a bang-up job this year. I thought they really were just on top of things.

And, yeah, I was really happy with all of that. I thought everything came together that way. to the group of companies that came, you know, and we're part of the Expo, some of you for the second year in a row, just a show to all of you. It's a crazy idea of what we do at the Cornerstone Forum, and I appreciate all of you continuing to believe in what we do, and I hope it was beneficial

to each of every one of you that sat out there and talked to all the attendees, and I'm sure had some very cool conversations. There were some newbies this year, and I hope they'll attend again in the years to come, Either way, thank you once again to all the Expo companies that showed up. And then finally, to all of you wonderful people. Friday night, I'm walking into the Friday night social.

We did a social this year. There had to have been 300 plus people there. The hotel was just jarred with people. And it took me probably anywhere between 30 to 40 minutes to finally make it in that room. Because everywhere I walked, I was just like, man, these are some of my favorite people. And they're just all sitting here. And I didn't know, maybe I'd forgotten, maybe I wasn't painted. attention, I don't know, but I didn't realize all of you were going to be here. And certainly there

was some people that couldn't make it this time around, but there was a lot of my favorite people here. And it was hard to walk through the hotel because I just kept running into them over and over. Mel was trying to steer me. Sometimes we just had to walk outside because she, you know, she wanted to get things done. And I kept running into people. And I just enjoyed conversating with all of you. And I can't thank you enough for trusting me to once again do the Cornerstone Forum, be a part of it for all you to come from you know this year the furthest away was germany but you know that's no slight on on people who came from you know um p i virginia uh california i don't know the first night it was denver new jersey california i was laughing i was like what is going on there's so many people

from bc we had people from manitoba ontario lots of people come from toronto just it's a cool group of people. And I can't thank everyone enough for trusting me to put on a show and, I don't know, and just being a part of it. If you're asking me how it went, it went amazing.

My word I always use is a good show is smooth, and it was very, very smooth. And all the speakers came. I thought they all did excellent. The premiere was here on time, I might add, which was super cool.

And, you know, Everybody just gave their best. And shout out to Jamie, because Jamie had the Saskatchewan Bush party again. And I'm sure he'd love a shout out for that. And everybody out hung out and had a good time on Saturday night. And it was just a wonderful weekend of catching up with a lot of people who were scattered across our country and further out. And we're all coming in, searching for answers and a space to just be open with conversations and explore ideas. And that was a ton of fun.

So thank you all. I know I'm rambling on it's 12 minutes in And it just you know People are asking me how did the cornerstone form go how did it go? It went phenomenal and if you haven't made one yet I hope in the future you'll you'll find time to come and experience it It is a Well today's sitting here I'll leave you with one final thoughts and people have been asked oh you must be

Must be nice to just breathe And I was telling an older couple as we were walking out of the venue the one night they were asking me that and I was like well it's kind of like if you were standing there with it with like a bar on your shoulders very little weight and then every day just a little more weight gets put on you actually don't know realize how much weight you're holding by the end and then all of a sudden it's just done all the speakers are gone and I'm sitting here um and I've taken the bar off and it's it's I almost didn't realize how much on my shoulders I'd been carrying how much stress maybe of unknowing about all the speakers coming in from all over

the world and and uh you know just a lot of the other things going on behind the scenes with the show but it was worth it it was worth every last inch every last ounce of stress that it caused it has been uh very enjoyable to see all of you come here and i hope if you get to watch it on substack that you leave your thoughts and and send me your thoughts it's um it was a ton of work but the product I think you know that came out and the conversations that were had and just seeing that community once again come together and interact has been really really enjoyable so with that being said I'm going to have a few of the keynote speeches here so you can get a flavor of what was said at the forum and I hope you'll maybe check out more of it on

substack. That's where it's all at. Okay. Folks, it's been a pleasure. We'll be back to regular scheduling tomorrow. Today, we're going to take a glimpse into the Cornerstone Forum. If anybody has a pen, would you write down for me? I was trying to make a list and I got lost bullets, bourbon beans. Just hand me that later on. It's good to be with you guys. Thank you for the introduction to. A lot of times people will introduce me over the years as an internet sensation, which is just a 21st century way of saying I'm unemployed, but I'm popular. And I want to say thank you to Sean for the accommodations last week. I was staying in a place that was so, it wasn't a hotel, it was a motel.

You know the difference, right? And I got up to my room and I called down to the front desk. It was so bad. I told the guy at the desk, I said, I got a leak in my sink. He said, go ahead. Sean has tasked me with telling you how to change the world in 13 minutes, so let's get after it. I will tell you guys, and I'm so appreciative for the opportunity to be with you, that that people don't fail because they lack opportunity.

People don't fail because they lack resources. People don't fail because they lack talent. People fail because they don't build their life on a foundational structure that matches their calling. And I want to tell you a couple of things. I was on Sean's podcast a number of months ago. I guess it was last year. And I told him four pillars that I've built my life on and I've tried to operate around that.

And I want to share those with you. It's very simple. It's the four pillars of vision, passion, discipline, and risk. And it's got to be in that order, vision, passion, discipline, and risk. I want to start, first of all, with this idea of vision. You know, we're here today as visionaries. You're listening to people who are supposed to be visionaries. I define vision as being able to see beyond your boundaries, seeing beyond your horizons.

We don't know what's going on out on the street right here. There could be a massive traffic accident happening out on the highway, but we don't know because our vision is bounded by these four walls. We come into places like this hoping to hear from visionaries who can see beyond the walls. A few years ago, I was fishing in a farm tank down in Texas where I'm from. And my buddy and I were down on the bank. We were sitting under the shade of an oak tree, and we heard coming up the drive up the dark road on the top of the embankment there.

A truck was coming, and it was definitely in a hurry. And it screeched to a halt in a cloud. dust and a guy he was quite portly he was very large fella you could tell he was on his lunch break from work he was wearing his pressed slacks and his starched shirt and he gets out and he starts fumbling with a tackle box and a fishing bowl out of the back of his truck and then he pulls out one of those inner tubes you've seen the inner tubes these guys put on like pants and he's a fat guy and he starts testing the PSI of this inner tube I mean he is stretching into this thing but he's in a hurry the whole time. He puts the suspenders on and he takes one step with his tackle box and his fishing

pole out towards the water. Well, it's a 45 degree angle down 60 feet into the water and he's not paying attention and he's not looking and he takes that one step and his first step kind of becomes a tumble. A second step turns into a jog by the time he's halfway down. He's in a full sprint and all 400 pounds of him in an inner tube hit the water and when he was knee deep, he plopped upside down. And all we saw was two rubber feet kicking in. And all we saw was two rubber feet kicking in the air. And I looked at my buddy and he looked at me and we both chuckled and then we realized this is life or death.

We got to go save this guy. So we made a degree, we made a 45 degree angle across the water ourselves and plucked him out. He came out with a plop. And he was half drowned. He climbed back up the hill, pull that thing off, tackle box floating off, fishing pole sunk to the bottom. And he got in his truck and he drove off.

Never said thank you or anything else. And I thought to myself, the stuff we get ourselves into was. the lack of vision, not being able to see beyond our boundaries or our horizons, we get so focused. And so I'm glad you're here today to catch some vision. And then if you are a visionary, then by its very nature, your vision, seeing beyond your boundary should get you so excited by what you see that you develop passion. Passion is being inspired by what you see. Passion is that thing that gets you up in the morning. Typically, my day starts about 4 a.m. many of you, Maybe you've seen my before the noise episode.

It comes on at 5 a.m. live here daily, and a lot of people get up in this time zone and in the Pacific time zone and they watch it. They're dedicated to it. I get up 3.34 o'clock in the morning because I'm so excited about what I believe God has placed in my heart in a vision. Everything that I do, if I'm not excited about doing it, I'm not going to do it. I've learned as a guy who was broke once upon a time in my adult life. I can remember having $7.56 in my bank account on a Tuesday trying to figure out how I was going to make it to Monday.

But I made a decision a long time ago. I said, if it's not fun, if it's not exciting, if it doesn't wake me up in the morning, I'm not going to do it. I've prospered because of that philosophy. I've been successful because of that. I've chased my dreams. I've been in the room with some of the most important people, if not the most important people in the world. and I can tell you that it's a far better way to live your life is to live with passion. If you come in here today and you want to hear these people talk about economics or the future

or the state of our world or the state of our economies or the state of our culture and society and you want to hear their vision about it, if they're not excited about what they're telling you, don't listen. Because I like money. How many of you like money? wouldn't you rather be blessed than broke? Wouldn't you rather be successful than a failure? Now, failure is great.

Pain is great. Loss is great if you understand it. And too many people are wasting their failures because they don't understand that it's a stepping stone to success. And so people who have failed, I've been at pretty low places in my life and a good friend of mine who's a singer-songwriter in Nashville, he told me years ago, he said,

if you hit rock bottom, Chad, he said, look around. You'll see my name Scratch. on the wall three or four places. And I've been at rock bottom. You have to. And some of you have wasted that. That should get you to the point where now that you have crossed that hurdle, you're

more excited than anyone else in the world. You're contagious with the vision. And then if you have that ability to see beyond the horizons and the boundaries, you have the ability to be excited about what you see, then you ought to start shaping your life around that vision. and that's called discipline. Discipline, I would just tell you, if your life is going to be built on anything, it will not be built on your best days, it's going to be built on your most consistent days.

The days where you get up and you don't feel like it, and maybe the passion is waning, but you know that that passion has been put in your heart, and I'm going to discipline myself to keep myself in the boundary, and I'm going to run the race as one who intends to win this thing. The Apostle Paul talks about that in the New Testament, consistently. buffeting his body. He says, I don't box his one who is boxing the air. I'm actually in a competition. I'm running the race so as to win. So you see, I don't know if you guys realize this, but down south, well, on Sundays we have this major event. It's a thing called football. They don't

really use their feet very much. But people love it down there. And these guys, they sacrifice their bodies. They throw a long pass with the football down the field. And this guy, he dives out to catch it. His fingertips touch the pig skin, and as he's extended, it looks like he's flying. The cameras are clicking. ESPN's da-na-na-na-da-da-da-da. He knows in his brain this is going to be a highlight reel.

He pulls the ball in. It's an amazing acrobatic feat of gymnastic athleticism. But he lands out of bounds. Nobody cares. Doesn't matter how good it looks. Doesn't matter how spectacular. Doesn't matter who's talking about it tomorrow. Doesn't matter how the picture is.

came out for Sports Illustrated. It didn't count because it came down outside the line. See, that's discipline. We will run our race, talk about great visions, and have illusions of grandeur, because ultimately that's what they are. You can be the most excited person in the world. You can have the best opportunity in your pocket. But I'm telling you, if you don't discipline yourself to keep going day by day, all of it's for naught. Because your life's not determined on your best days. It's your most consistent days. How many of you know those people? Some of us can't even take a 10 minute break and come back.

It's amazing. See, right now, you're thinking about the undisciplined grandkid. I'm looking at you. Vision, passion, discipline, discipline, risk. I'm telling you, if your habits don't match your vision, your vision is a lie. And then it leads us to risk. Risk is something I've got to be willing to bleed for. If what I see beyond my boundaries isn't big enough for me to sacrifice for it, then what I'm doing is just dreaming.

And usually it's a nightmare. Risk is something that few of us do. Now, we love to go out to the gun range down in Texas and we take out our rifles. We have more rifles than we know what to do with. That's why I clarified saying down in Texas, we call y'all Texas of the North. You're getting there. But I also say I wouldn't emulate Texas too much right now. either. For a lot of reasons, we had our chance of secession just like you, and we're both failing.

Tough crowd. Well, tell me when we do it, okay? Because I'm just telling you, like, again, Texas in many ways is lost. And we're continuing to do that. Because again, Texas is bought into the lie that big government's going to somehow save them. And people stop being risky. People stop being independent-minded. They stop chasing vision. You know, the great adage, don't mess with Texas. Oh, Texas has been messed with. Bad. Texas is falling. It's failing in many, many ways. And I always jokingly say that nobody goes to the gun range, pulls the rifle out, that high-powered scope, and sights in on that bullseye and says, ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim. At some point, you pull the trigger.

that's risk and so many of us aren't willing to spend anything to accomplish the vision so what you hear today what you hear today are things that should get you out of bed in the morning they should inspire you they should make you want to be more disciplined to carry them out and at the end of the day you should be ready to take a risk a risk that believes in optimism and progress and the ability to have faith beyond anything that the chaos and the news stories and the headlines are you lines are trying to control you and manipulate you with, because your vision, if it's truly a God big, faith big, faith inspired, willing to bleed for vision, the profiles trending on X aren't going to deter you from that. The naysayers, the negativity, the persecution and the suffering, none of that is going to deter you from what you've seen because that's how confident you are and you're willing to risk the rest of your life in order to accomplish it. I'll say this, if nothing in your life requires faith to accomplish, then you're not building anything worth remembering.

If you don't know who you are, it's probably because you don't know where you came from. History has been revised and renamed and rewritten. We don't know our history, therefore we don't know who we are. We believe that our history is bad, it's scarred, it's evil, and therefore we must be evil, and therefore we have started apologizing for who we are. our identity must somehow be evil too. And so if you don't know where you came from, you don't know who you are, you certainly won't know where you're going. And you definitely won't know what you're leaving behind.

So you better know who you are based on where you came from and you better know where you're going, destiny and what you're leaving behind legacy. History, identity, destiny, legacy. Those four things have been lost in our culture today. We've lost the big story and I believe God's telling a big story. Now you might not want to hear that, but my faith tells me God's telling a big story. And so I want to leave you with this. vision without passion is just a dream and passion without discipline is noise. Discipline without risk is just playing it safe. And I'll tell you that safety's never changed the world.

Now if you want to make a difference walking out of here today, I want to remind you that risk without discipline is recklessness. That's just getting in the airplane with something you hope is a parachute. Could be a knapsack. If you didn't discipline yourself to make sure it was packed, you don't know. That risk without discipline is recklessness. Discipline without passion is legalism. Nobody wants that. That's boring. Passion without vision is hype. That's cheerleading. And vision without faith is meaningless. Whether it's faith in God, faith in yourself, faith in the community of people around you? Without faith, it's meaningless.

I believe that we are truly being called back to a place of being faithful again. And we're missing much of that. And that's why I invite you every morning to listen. I love talking about my faith. And I have the opportunity to do that every day. Because I want to be a person that when I die, people can say he brought something to the table. When he opened his mouth, when you handed him a mind, microphone, he gave something of substance, something that you could hang your hat on.

Walt Mason, who was a contemporary of Walt Whitman, wrote a poem called A Man Who Delivers the Goods. He said, there's a man in this world who's never turned out wherever he chances to stray. He gets a glad hand in the populous town and out where farmers make hay. He's greeted with pleasure in deserts of sand and deep in the Isle of the Woods wherever he goes. There's a welcoming hand. He's the man who delivers the good. Goods. At the end of this day, I want you to make a decision. Are you going to be a man? Are you going to be a woman who delivers the goods? Are you going to make a difference in the world? Are you going to build that foundation of vision, passion, discipline, and risk that's going to carry the calling that you have into your legacy. Thank you so much. God bless you. I need to find out who scheduled me behind Chad Prather. But, yeah, it's great to be here.

And I wanted to share, I'm so short, I wanted to share something that Sean and I talked about just like kind of after the podcast last fall. And it's something that I learned. It's actually relating to a failure that I had back in about 1988. And I had, I was stationed at Hanscombe Air Force Base, Boston, and I wanted to get another master's degree because I'm studious like that. And so I went to Harvard, took some classes, government, with an emphasis in Russian and

Eastern European Studies, which I was very interested in. And this was during the time of my military career, the first half, where Cold War was everything. And we didn't know how the Cold War would end, but obviously we were fighting it. And there were quite many neocons and others who wanted that fight to be bloody. Nobody really knew. So we're learning. Anyway, I took a class on Eastern Europe, and they were in the process. At the time I took that class, we could see that they were spinning off. They were spinning away. The Soviet Union was breaking down. So our professor tasked us to all the students in the class. We were to write a paper, and we would predict which of the major Eastern European communist satellite states

would spin off and find freedom and liberty first. So, you know, a very exciting little project, and I took it very seriously, and I studied, and I read the history of all the countries, and I put it all together what I thought it would be, and I said, you know what, it's going to be Romania, because Romania suffers the most. Romania has the least amount of freedom.

The people must be so angry in Romania that they will take matters into their own hands first. And then I racked them and stacked them. Completely the opposite of the way it occurred. So a year or so later, really months later, after that paper, we got to see how it really rolled out. And of course, it was the most free of the Eastern European satellites. It was Poland with their strong union organization

and a lot of beer drinking and getting together, working hard, But it was Poland that did it. And then every place that I had said would discover freedom first, it was the complete opposite. So those countries that had experienced and lived and tasted the freedom, the sweetest and the most, they loved it more. And they understood what was at stake. And they also were organized in a way. If you think about where the freedom movement in Poland really started. it was the dock workers, it was the unions, you know, like Well, Lekwelsa, but it was the union activity.

And what is the union? Well, I've never been in a union, but I have been in the military. And what it is is a group of guys and gals working really hard, sharing pain, trying to accomplish something, and then after work, they get together to talk about it. And that's really, I think, the most important thing. So in Poland, they articulated, they talked, they complained to each other. And they developed kind of a teamwork, a vision, a shared vision. Certainly they had their faith. And they moved forward and took power. And they took it, they rejected communism in a way that was really pretty not bloody.

It wasn't completely bloodless, but it was more peaceful. And then the other Soviet satellites followed. And most of those separations, those assertions of freedom, new governments, Separation from the Soviet chains, it went pretty well. And finally, finally, Romania happened, and they got freedom, but it was very bloody in Romania. It was very hard. And when they hung Chalchescu and his wife in the town square, he was replaced with a very similar guy. It wasn't Chalchescu, but he was kind of like Chalchescu light.

And it took a long time. So, anyway, I was wrong. and I thought about it for many years after it, and I still think about it frequently. You know, how could I be educated, someone who's very interested in studying these things, in the military, and yet I couldn't see how this all worked. And so it caused me to think, and I still think about it,

and I occasionally talk about that, what I kind of learned. So freedom begats freedom, I think it is, and talking and develop and working together, whether it's in a union, on a dock, in the military, whatever, you know, you're developing up a way of conversing, dealing with problems, kind of not really intellectually, but a little bit intellectually, and a whole lot with your heart and soul. And then you also feel that people like you exist, and that gives you confidence. So it was very, it's a good lesson. And it teaches me now to, you know, why was I so stupid,

or does everybody know this? And it occurs to me. Because we've since this time, been 30 years. We had COVID, what, six years ago, and the government lockdowns, and I know they were painful in Canada as much as they were in the United States. And it makes me wonder now, in retrospect, the government really doesn't want us talking to each other. You know, it really doesn't want us sharing camaraderie, blood, sweat, and tears.

it doesn't want us going into local shops where we know the boss and we know the guy that works the counter. It doesn't really want us going to bars and complaining about our day, our collective day, and talking about what we've learned and what we think. Government doesn't want that. So government's really smart. They're much smarter than I was 30 years ago. And they understand that that's where our power derives, our power for freedom, decentralization, and liberty. it is derived from communicating with others

and feeling part of a team that has something worth fighting for. And we're seeing it right now. I mean, in this room with the Alberta independence movement, I mean, this is a huge conversation, not just for Alberta, but the whole world is watching to see how successful you'll be.

And, you know, you will be successful. And I think what Martin had to say about the decentralization of the United States, the breaking apart of the United States. This has been, honestly, it may sound anarchist of me, but it's been a dream of mine for many, many years, including when I was in the military. So that's probably not an acceptable dream to have,

but it is something I think it's coming. And how well we will handle it, how well we will rebuild after that, is going to be how well we know each other, and how well we trust and have built a shared faith and built camaraderie, and understanding with not just all the people who agree with us, but also many of the people who maybe don't agree with us entirely,

but we don't reject them. And again, coming back to COVID, because I'm still recovering, not from COVID, but from what the government did to us during COVID. And I think one of the things they did to us with the masking, you know, it's very symbolic. But not only did they destroy like the kindergarten and the first and second graders' ability to learn anything,

particularly reading, but they also labeled us. You can't talk to that person. And also if they don't have a mask, you must hate that person. And this is on top of all the political division that's sewed, you know, and that kind of thing. It's on top of that. So they really don't want us getting together. And which makes the solution very easy. We must get together more. Hello, everyone. I, listening to that reception to my introduction, I'm lucky to be here and I'm lucky to be with you. And I've already had excellent chats and encounters with, well, not enough of you, but some. And really what I offer back is love.

And I mean that sincerely, you know, not in the romantic sense, but in that every single person that speaks to me and the people that have taken the trouble to gather together in this room, you know, I won't. the best for you. I want the best for all of us. And I think it's by conspiring, which is to say breathing the same air, that we can achieve that. So I say again, I'm lucky to be here. I listen. I represent, I like to think that I represent most people in the room, because I am not an expert in anything. I'm not a credentialed academic. I went to university a thousand years ago, but I have no claim on any kind of specialism. And so I listen to people who have already graced the stage, you know, people like Martin and people like Vince, and I listen in bewildered awe to that kind of depth of knowledge.

And I know I speak for many when I say that I do genuinely struggle to keep up with a lot of what I hear said. You know, I find it very complicated. I find the concepts challenging and God knows I try and I still find that I have to really pay attention just to hold on to the outside edge of what people are saying so if you feel like that

then I am there with you I got a lot of stick when I started speaking six years ago for not being an expert I was continually told to be quiet because I was not an expert in pharmacology in virology in biology in

whatever but my contention was always but that's why I want to ask questions, that entitles me to ask questions, not just for me, but on behalf of other people. It's because I'm not an expert. I want to know, and I can only get to that place of knowledge by asking questions. So for everyone in the room that listens and can only just follow and needs to do a lot more reading all the time just to try and keep up, just to do your homework and do your remedial work, just to follow it, while I'm there with you. I, I, I feel that our natural tendency as a species to forget has been weaponised against us.

Generationally, if not for centuries, if not for thousands of years, a philosopher called Henri Bergson put it well when he said it's the function of the brain to enable us not to remember but to forget. And there's a deep truth in that. It may have afforded us an evolutionary advantage to some extent that we don't retain a memory of every single thing that happens to us every moment of every day. You know, we have a part of the brain, you know, the hippocampus that is that is sorting out what's worth remembering, what's new and ditching everything else, and it's a

necessary process. But I think that that natural tendency is being used against us because we're not remembering our own humanity. The process of forgetting that's being important posed upon us is inviting us to forget the most fundamental things, the most fundamental bonds. You know, we've been discouraged from prioritizing family. You know, we've been discouraged from prioritizing the primary relationships in our lives. You know, children are taught that their parents are not the first port of call, that their allegiances and that their source of education should lie elsewhere. And these, these compulsations, these compulsory. compulsory forgettings. This forgetting that's being imposed upon is malign and intent, I say.

And it's about remembering. We have to remember to remember. Rose Bertan was, amongst other things, she was dressmaker to Marie Antoinette. And there was an occasion when she was fitting the queen with a new dress. And Marie said, is this a new dress? Because I recognize it. And Rose Bertan said, no, it is an old dress, but I'm refitting it and I'm adjusting it. And she said, there is nothing new except what has been forgotten. And there's a great deal in that. And when I contemplate why it is that I struggle to understand so much that I see going on around me, I put it down to the compartmentalisation of knowledge. I put it down to the way in which the science, the science, method that has delivered so much and which we are invited to worship has nonetheless fragmented

knowledge into smaller and smaller slices so that we now live in the time of the specialists who know more and more about less and less and that it becomes harder and harder to bring it all together into some kind of coherent whole and I think that is intentional because it puts even the experts and the specialists in windowless rooms where they can't see each other and they're not even really encouraged to look for each other and I think that that is done with malign intent there was a time there was a time clearly when knowledge was more coherent and there was more of a system that enabled people to get a grasp on the whole of it in a meaningful and useful way in the 15th century a renaissance figure called Giovanni pica de la

Mirandela was one of those who at that time could still claim to have read every book, to have read every book ever written. And at the same time, approximately the same time in the second half of the 15th century, there was another called Fernand Colon, who was an illegitimate son of Christopher Columbus, and he was in a position to endeavour to collect and read every book in existence. Now imagine even being able to aspire, even being able to aspire to read all of the books. It's not possible.

And it's very discouraging. I think it's a very discouraging situation in which we find ourselves. And we know that we've been in the process of forgetting. We know that as a species we've forgotten over and over again because we keep discovering things that people evidently knew thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years ago. And there are numerous examples. of it. In the Da De Ching, which is the Tao book of, the way of the way of Tao or the Tao virtue book,

Lao Tzu said there is a thing inherent and natural that existed before heaven and earth. Motionless and fathomless, it stands alone and never changes. It pervades everywhere, yet never becomes exhausted. It may be regarded as the mother of the universe. I do not know its name. I call it Tao and I name it as supreme. Now he wrote those words two and a half thousand years ago and it sounds a lot to me like dark matter. It sounds like a definition of dark matter and dark energy, the 90-odd percent of which seems to make up the physical universe. Now, how was Lao Tzu or anyone around them able to intuit that without any of the science and technology that we take for granted? When James Watson and Robert Crick understood the double helix

of DNA in the 1950s, they realized that it was based on the number of the number of the number of the number 64, which is to say that the chemical bases, adenine, cytosine, thymine and guanine, coming together in pairs, would come together in RNA codons, three and three hexagrams of six, and that were eight times eight of those hexagrams, giving you 64. 64 is the number of hexagrams in the Iging, another ancient text, so old that no one is actually sure when it was first conceived, far less written down. And it's based upon trigrams doubled up as hexagrams, eight times eight, giving a total possible number of hexagrams of 64.

Now, how can that be a coincidence that a fundamental building block of reality was understood by the authors of the E Jing, the Book of Change, at least 3,000 years ago, when that number is mirrored again in the 1950s discovery of the makeup of DNA. We've clearly been in the process, we are in the process of forgetting

and then discovering and remembering as though for the first time. There's so much that I want to say to you. You know, the emotion of it, builds so that I have a physiological response to how much I feel. You know, last night when I walked into the room, into the social last night, I was almost overwhelmed by the intensity of the emotion that I felt from every single one of the people that came up to say hello to me. And increasingly I understand it as a latent charge.

It's an energy that's in these gatherings of people that I only wish I had somehow the wit or the gift to channel in some meaningful way, because that energy is there, and it's a manifestation of everything that we need to go forward and to get out of the predicament into which we have been put by those malign authorities. I mean, I look out at what's happening in the world at the moment. I look out at what's happened in Ukraine.

I look at what's happening in Iran. or in the Middle East, and I'm struck by its similarity to what's happening because of the civil war that is currently being fought within the Sinolao drug cartel. That upscaling, that upcycling of violence, of unimaginable ferocity and cruelty is on account of a civil war within that criminal entity. And that violence will only get worse until one side or the other in that civil war has defeated and destroyed the other. And I think that what we're seeing on the macro scale, the geopolitical scale, is some kind of civil war within the crime family that runs our world. Because I think it is a crime family that runs our world. You know, we've all, we've all seen the Godfather. We all know

that crime families fight amongst themselves. And they keep on fighting in the bloodiest fashion until until somebody wins and somebody's dead. And I give it to the experts and the specialists to more forensically analyze the nature of what it is they're fighting about. But I know that's what it is. And that predicament in which we are placed by that entity fighting amongst itself for control and really all we can do is run around

trying not to be trampled under their giant clumsy feet because we are irrelevant to them. We are insects or at best some kind of herd animal, you know, that they benefit from manipulating, but they have no particular care for our welfare and well-being. And so it's the, but it is the energy that I feel that I have the privilege of experiencing in rooms like this. Therein lies the solution. It's everything that we will ever need when we remember to channel it. There was an anecdote that I shared with Sean on the podcast.

where he and I met that he was quite taken with and so I thought I would share it again. It does seem opposite to me in many ways. An experiment was done by biologists. I think it was about 30 years ago, but I'd be prepared to be corrected on that, where weaverbirds were taken out of the wild. Now, weaverbirds are those little feathered creatures that weave, those unbelievably beautiful hanging pendulate nests in which they raise their young.

They're incredible. Works of architectural genius and yet they're done by creatures equipped only with beaks and feet. Weaverbirds were taken into captivity and generation after generation, the offspring were only given little soft socks in which to rear their young.

And this went on for many, many generations so that eventually there was a generation that I had never seen the natural environment, far less done anything with it. But a cohort of those birds were taken and placed in an environment where there were twigs. And every single one of the birds... Now, these things are the size of your thumb.

Every single one of the birds built a perfect, pendulate nest, identical to those of the forebears, without any instruction, far less ever having been taught or having seen it done in the wild. Because the ability to be, weaverbirds and to do what weaver birds do was in them. It was innate in them. And even generations of

captivity and being stripped of all their ancestors had known, given the moment, they instantly went back to being weaverbirds doing what weaver birds do. And it means that there's a great hope in that for us because the way in which we've been and are being manipulated, the things that have been taken from us, the freedoms, the confidence, the trust, you know, the trust that so many of us used to have in the entities that are supposed to educate us and take care of us and all of the rest of it. The innate humanity with which we can repair all of the damage like that is in us. It's in our hearts in the same way that the knowledge of how to build weaver bird nests and be weaver birds was there in those creatures. And that's what I mean.

said to me, I said, what should I talk about Sean? And he said, have a message of how we move forward and look to the future. And I absolutely refuse any more to take part in doom councils. You know, it can be cathartic in a way to just lament the state of the world. But I also have unbreakable confidence in the certainty that we will get back to where we were supposed to be. And our humanity will reassert itself because the natural order of things has been deliberately subverted and inverted by malign forces. And no matter how much energy you put into holding a beach ball under the surface of the water, eventually you get too tired and eventually the ball goes to where the ball wants to be. And so it will be with the universe. The natural order will reassert itself

and I hope that many of us are there to see it. I will close with, I'll just say, Wendellips, a great abolitionist, a 19th century US abolitionist. You know, he said the prime price of freedom is constant vigilance and I'll also close with it's never about what they say it's about we know what it's about