The Pete Quiñones Show - How Should We Think and Handle Our Emotions? w/ Stormy Waters

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

82 MinutesPG-13Stormy Waters is a managing partner of a venture capital firm. The opening words of Marcus Aurelius' "Meditations," which they utilize as a springboard to discuss attitude and emotion for the future, are read by Stormy and Pete. This was episode 1276.Stormy's SubstackStormy's Twitter AccountPete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's Substack Pete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

I want to welcome everyone back to the Pekinguena show. Stormy's back and, yeah, we're going to go in a completely different direction. And let me put this out there right up front, right up front. Because whenever I do an episode like this, I'm going to get comments saying, you should have this person on to talk about this. You should have that person on to talk about Marcus Aurelius and the meditations. and stoicism. Now, Stormy and I are going to talk about this. So how are you doing, Stormy? Doing well. Doing well. How about yourself? Doing well, man. So you mentioned, you mentioned Marcus

Orelius. It was a few months ago you said, you know, we should read and discuss, you know, some of the meditations, go through, go through some of the meditations. And I just put it in the back of my head and I was like, okay, when the time comes, you know, when I think about it, when I remember again, when it comes back to the forefront from the back, it comes back to the front from the back, we'll do it. But why do you, why did you talk about this? Why did you think we should talk about this on the air? Well, because it, I don't know how Marcus Aurelius came to a lot of his ideas. But it's basically the,

I don't want to call it like Eastern mysticism, he could have arrived at these entirely organically, but it's something that would index much more to us. Let me interrupt you real quick, so that you, I'm sorry. you know zino of sitiam round three in the 300s BC

he's basically considered the founder of stoicism he forms a school Cleanthes is his student Chrysippus is his student so you know in the in the BC times

in the before times you did have a school a stoic school and these these are the three, you know, early figures in establishing stoicism in ancient Greece, but later Romans picked up on it like Seneca, epictetite, I can never pronounce his name, epic tetis or epictetepetepetetis, I'll go with that, and Marcus Aurelia is built on the foundations,

but they're not considered the founders. So basically what, what Marcus Aurelius is, doing is a Roman form of stoicism that he got from Greek fathers, I would say 300 years before he lived. Well, so when I say like Eastern mysticism, there is a lot of Eastern mysticism that is taken, again, like people, guys like Dr. Steven Skinner and a couple others, that basically do like the history of the basically like uh deep histories of mysticism and not from like the um from the content of it but basically who said what and when and how these ideas

propagated so something magical happened when um alexander got to egypt because you had two groups of people that were working on the same problem, but from opposite ends. And the Egyptians had a lot of what the Greeks miss, but without the Greeks rigor. You know, Pythagoras had a large amount of followers at the time, even though he didn't survive. The siege of Tyre, all of his followers did. And from there on out, Greek thought on, well, in this case, to what we're talking about today, emotions, changes quite a bit.

And then Marcus Aurelius, I think you're, yeah, you're definitely correct. This would be like a rediscovery of it, right? Because there wasn't a lot of Romans actually, I mean, for as much as they were, you know, Greek fans at this time, I don't think there were anybody else but those three that we know of. Well, yeah, I mean, there are going to be others, but that's, that's, that's the school, that's where, um, those are the three big names, you know, like if you were going to talk about, uh, Greek philosophy, you were going to talk about Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. I mean, that's basically, so Roman stoicism. It's just those three names.

I, I, I mean, there, there is more, but, you know, as, as I said, we went, we never know, naming a whole line of people and everything. You have to concentrate on who the main most influential were in a stow story. So the reason I like Marcus Aurelius' meditations is because you can pull these lessons out with and leave the mysticism. And because it is in Latin, it's very easy to read and digest. And when he is described when he, instead of like a very esoteric teaching,

that will take you, you know, months and months to pull apart to find out what the guy actually meant. Marcus Aurelius gives it to you in context of real situations he's dealing with. So it is both the knowledge and applied knowledge simultaneously. So you're able to grasp the concepts much, much easier. And he leaves out a lot of the other stuff that I think would take people of a Christian background it would probably cause a lot of people to turn their nose up at it. So just the teachings of how the man views his emotions as separate from him, right? They are not, you know, things that he has control over that are internal processes.

Marxist views them as external processes, right? his, you know, the question is for him is how one reacts to these external processes. So it's not like, you know, you're going to get rid of emotion. You're not going to get your emotions under control. Like all these things are impossible. You have no control over the emotions, the emotional information, the content that comes to you. The only thing you do have. control over is how you respond or react to these emotions.

You know, and Marcus's take is the same as, oh God, I can't believe I'm blanking. Lao Tzu, the Eternal Dow, these things, these are things to be observed, studied. Let them wash over you. and wait till they're gone, right? And then internalize each time more and more information. And then these emotions that you are sucking away, you know, in your knowledge bank,

become something you can pull from later and use almost like a power source of infinite immovability, steadfastness or strength. And I think that would be something that would be very valuable for people in our day and age, specifically our guys when we have to interact on the internet and are interfacing with algorithms that are deliberately designed to elicit emotional responses and get them into very non-productive moods. It teaches, it'll teach you how to not be a reactive, you know, loser, jumping from current thing to current thing.

These things don't mean anything. The emotions they give you are not yours, right? They're not innate to your conscious mind. And the strength to not react to them and to study them, like, why am I having this? why is this particular thing making me feel this particular type of way would benefit our guys a lot because i think our information environment is extremely more hostile than one in any other age i think it's actually the biggest hurdle to us making change well i also think it's important to know if something is if you're if you're having trouble if something is causing you to get emotional

get upset, whatever it might be, then to avoid that. And I think that the problem is, is like one of those things that I know causes a lot of people, because sometimes I have to just get off of it for long periods of time is social media. Social media can be daunting because it is designed to bombard you with information. And if it's information that is going to upset you. If it's information where you, you feel like you have a stake in it, like you're invested in it. And it's not going your way, which, let's face it, most of the time things aren't going to go your way, especially if you have no power over them, then you should know to avoid it. I mean, that's just really the beginning of knowledge. And I fail often at that,

because I feel like, oh, if I'm not on social media, I'm not on the biggest battlefield in the world. No, actually the biggest battlefield in the world is in your skull. I couldn't have said it better. Yeah, that's what you have to. You know, you have to try to learn to master. You'll never master it, but at least, you know, you're on the path. It also creates what's necessary for leadership.

Like, I think people misunderstand, like, what leadership is. It's like it's not like a learned thing. You can't like learn to be a leader like it's a thing that you study. Right. You could jump up and navigate. Like I know everything about leadership. That does not mean people will look to you as a leader. You don't get to decide whether you're the leader or not. That is a decision that everybody around you makes independently inside themselves. And what are they basing that decision on? They're basing it on your presence. People want a leader because that person is unmoved,

unchanged by, you know, very negative externalities, by crisis. The person that is always of a cool head, A leader, we call it like leaders. These are just men that are internally ordered inside. They are integrated. Their conscious mind. Their unconscious mind. Their physical self.

These are, they are mind, body, and soul of one thing. They are firm and immovable. And when they are these things, how they order themselves internally, projects externally, right? I guess for lack of a better term, it's a vibe. And everyone around you will pick it up. So ordering yourself internally is how we make leaders, I think. I mean, there's many people that can disagree with me, but I think you'd have a hard time because who people look to as a leader is a choice that they make. And oftentimes, Without even knowing you, in a crisis, people decide in an instant who the leader is.

And if our guys are ordered internally, when crisis hits, which it will, they will be the ones who will be looked to as leaders. Because they will be the ones calm, firm and immovable. And they will project the type of safety that everyone is going to be attracted to. So I think Marcus Aurelius has the best tools to make leaders because I think it's an internal thing and not an external thing. Not something that you can like, I'm going to learn and, you know, take a crash course in leadership. I think that it's a waste of time. We haven't even read the book yet. This is already a pretty good discussion.

Yeah, yeah. Let's just let people know. Marcus Aurelius was the Emperor Rome from 161 to 180. he came from his he was a son of a praetor so yeah he's he comes after hadrian's adoptive son alias caesar died in 138 adrian adopted marcus his uncle antonius pious as his new heir later later in turn antonius adopted marcus and lucius the son of alias so yeah he this is somebody who was emperor of Rome. And let's,

I think a lot of people have in their mind what the emperor of Rome, how the emperor of Rome would act and how he would think. But Marcus Aurelius' meditations are, seemed to, seem to fly in the face of what most people would think. So let me read, this is love. Yeah, this is.

well, yeah, this is broken up into parts, into verse, almost verses, like biblical, how biblical chapters are broken up. So let me just read the first one. So this is the first book of Marcus Aurelius. This is the first, first part. Of my grandfather of Aris, I have learned to be gentle and meek and to refrain from all anger and passion. From the fame and memory of him that begot me, I have learned both shamefastness and

manlike behavior. Shamefastness is in a term that we're very, you know, very familiar with anymore, but it's basically the quality, I'm going to read the definition, the quality or state of being modest, shy or bashful, rooted in a sense of propriety and restraint rather than the awkwardness of being shamefaced. Of my mother, I have learned to be religious and bountiful and to forbear, not only to do, but to intend any evil, to content myself with a spare diet, and to fly all such excess as is incidental to great wealth. Of my great-grandfather, both to frequent public schools and auditories, and to get me good and able teachers at home, and that I ought not to think much, if upon such occasions I were at excessive charges. So this one of my first. So this one,

already flies in the face of what most people think a leader is. It's what most people, most people think a modern leader is a sociopath. And this is an emperor of Rome. And obviously, he's not a sociopath. He's telling you to do the exact opposite. So part two, I'll just do here real quick. Of him that brought me up, not to be fondly addicted to either of the two great factors. of the coursers in the circus called Prasini and Veneti, nor in the amphitheater partially to favor any of the gladiators or fencers as either the parmulari or the secutoris, and those are two classes of gladiator. Moreover, to endure labor, nor to need many things,

when I have anything to do to do it myself rather than by others, not to meddle with many businesses and not easily to admit of any slander. I'm starting to feel seen here. Yeah. This is how you get men like Cincinnati. It's thinking like this. Yeah. Moreover, to endure labor, nor do to do many things.

And when I have anything to do it myself rather than by others, it's too easy in the modern world to have other people. do something for you. Of diagenetus, not to busy myself about vain things and not easily to believe those things, which are commonly spoken, by such as take upon them to work wonders and by sorcerers or prestidigitators and impostors concerning the power of charms and they're driving out of demons or evil spirits and the like. Not to keep quails for the game, nor to be mad.

after such things, not to be offended with other men's liberty of speech and to apply myself unto philosophy. Him also, I must thank that ever I heard first Bacchus, then Tendassus, and Marcianus, and that I did write dialogues in my youth, and that I took liking to the philosopher's little couch and skins and such other things, which by the Grecian discipline are proper to those who profess philosophy, not to be offended with other men's liberty of speech and to apply myself unto philosophy. What do you have to say to that? I don't see a single modern leader. It really, this particular, yeah, there's a lot to say.

This is a person that is very, very particular about how he keeps. his mental space, right? If you, like, so the verse three talks about all the things like he does and does not do. But the common theme with the other three, the other two verses is what he thinks and what he does not allow himself to think. And most importantly, what he allows others to see. This is a person that is completely sovereign in his own mind. He's not, if he doesn't want, to think about something or think a certain way about something he doesn't if he wants to think about something his mind is doing what his mind is tasked to do and not what it wants to do right not to be offended by another man's liberty of speech well he can't decide whether he's

offended or not initially so what does he mean he means i'm going to have control over how I express myself. Because you can't decide to be offended or not. So you can decide how you can react, how you react or not. Yeah, that's not. That's not something in the modernity as it tells us to just react to everything.

In a very feminine, in a very feminine way. Yeah, We're supposed to be the passive recipients. And this man is not a passive anything. I mean, so he's constantly talking about like all of the things he doesn't do. I don't want to show favor to anyone. I want to do things myself.

I don't want to bother anyone. I want to give thanks to each and every person that has helped me along the way and think about and remember them. I don't think a lot of us, especially nowadays, give thanks. I mean, we do when we pray. But there's a lot of people in our lives that do a lot of things for us. How often do we take time to remember all of those people and what they have done to help us? I mean, before I came across the text, I don't think I ever had.

There's an ordering to, him thanking, taking the time to give thanks internally for every single person that has helped shape him to the person that he is, is hand in tied to him not busy himself with vain things, right? Him not favoring any excess. right how do you be humble well he's telling you he's doing it in front of you he is recognizing each and every person's contribution to them himself well if you do that it's really hard to be an ego maniac isn't it right this is him checking he is checking his ego he's humbling himself by recognizing each individual person's contribution to what makes him up the man that's writing it today or on the day that he wrote it. And he's actually what's actually I forgot was like how detailed he is in like this person

taught me to do this or behave in this way. And now this is how I behave in all of these instances. And I was brought up to not be addicted to either of the great factions. And this is how I don't favor these groups in the amphitheater. And this is how I don't favor these groups in the gladiatorial arena. This is an exercise in humility. Go ahead. Yeah.

As a leader, I'm going to jump to this. I probably would have held this comment a little longer. But this is the kind of person, and you've known people like this in your life, the quiet person the person who's a man a few words you get the idea that writing this was him

was an outlet for him because he's somebody who's not going to speak many words he's also the kind of person who if he's not choosing sides in the most in things that don't matter

like the you know like the the arena. And what happens if you're, what happens if you're invaded? Say the barbarians are at the gates. How do you act towards that? Do you start to panic? Do you lose your mind? Are you such a stoic that you don't care? No, that's not it at all. The thing is he, this is somebody who is in the face of problems is not going to think about how solving them makes him look in the eyes of others. He's just going to solve the problem. And it's not going to be for any other reason then there's a problem that needs to be solved. And I'm not going to get worked up over it. I'm not going to be emotional over it. I'm just going to solve the problem. And once the problem is

solved, we move on. And that's it. That's one of the reasons why, you know, when we say hating your enemies, oh, I hate them. Why? Why are you expending that energy? Why do you think, why do you think that that emotion is profitable? Do you think that one day you're going to have to kill and that that by hating it'll be easier to do that someone like marcus aurelius doesn't he doesn't need that he just knows that if he has to kill he has to kill and that's it it's just a decision that he has to make it doesn't have to be emotional it is just something that needs to be done and I think hate and emotions as such just weaken you. And it weakens your vision for sure.

And I think we're taught to hate. And I think really, if you really think about it, our enemies have taught us to hate because they know it makes us weak. Yep. And it makes them strong. They need it. But what's also really interesting is I kept on, well, you were saying that, I kept thinking about justice must be delivered dispassionously. If not, then it is not justice.

It's vengeance. This is a man that could meter out justice. There's lots of men that will, you know, commit acts of revenge. but then you're not actually doing anything. If you're committing acts of revenge, maybe people will be afraid of you, but they won't come to you. If you're dispassionate,

then when you do kill someone, whether you suffer by order, it's justice. It actually means something to everyone, where vengeance means something, only to you. It means nothing to anyone else, except for this guy just murdered somebody.

And you could apply that to pretty much every aspect of leading. Right. Again, back to him thinking each and every person, he will go on to do more of it. Is this an emperor that heeds his advisor's counsel? Is this a person that thinks that he knows more than everyone in the room? So what Pete just talked about as far as hatred, right, or whether this is a person that is going to take counsel from his advisors when offered, right, isn't going to dismiss them as like, oh, no, I know more than you. I'm the smartest guy in the room, right? These are very similar things, even though they have, they sound like they have nothing in common, unless you're a leader.

than what Pete just described, and I just described, are blind spots, places where you will make the wrong decision for selfish reasons, whether it be to fulfill your own hate or to fulfill your own ego, right? This is how you're supposed to rule and not for your own benefit. you can be a macchi like Pete was just saying does this guy sound like a sociopath or not he doesn't oh well then how is he going to get into power and be all machiavellian this is about exercising power having the right to rule I think the Bronze Age barbarianism shit has kind of poisoned a lot of people's minds to what having agencies is to what being a leader is, to what governing is, having power is. All those things are duties.

Having power over your family, over your wife and children. Yeah, they have to listen to you. That's one thing they have to do. But that means you've got about like three or four different duties to them. It is you having power over them. There's a lot more duties in your column to have that power than there is duties in their column. Their column is listen to you. Do as you say.

Yours is protect, provide, lead, plan, right? You have a lot more duties than they do. And that's what ruling, that's what leading. is. It is duties. It is obligations. It's leading correctly. Being a leader is should be an act of selflessness. Like the eagle's nest that was built for Hitler's birthday, you never, I think he spent, he was there once. right the only person outside of that the only house that was his or that was you know that he had built the film was i believe for his mother or his sister he slept on on a cot the same one that was issued to the vermouth hitler slept on the entire length of the war right so for five years four years

the most powerful man in europe slept on a cop this is a person who thought it was his person obligation to fix the country. Right? What Hitler was doing was a selfless act. And until you understand that, understand why it is, people won't love you like they love him. Right? People, the most common, the most potent thing in this is, From my mother, I have learned to be religious and bountiful and to forbear, not only to do, but to intend any evil.

It's about intent. You can say a lot of things. Politicians say a lot of things to us, but we don't believe them. Their words are the same words as someone else, but in certain people when they say the identical words, we believe them. Why is that? If person A and person B can say the same exact words, the same exact cadence, even the same exact accent, how do we know who's telling the truth or not? We just know we can feel it in our gut.

We can sense their intent. And that's something that you see again and again and again throughout this text. It's intent. Anyways, that's all I have to say. about that. That was a lot longer of a rant than I planned. I could add on to it, but I'll keep reading. I'm sure what I have to say will be, we'll make sense as we move. Four, to Rusticus, I am beholding that I first entered into the conceit that my life

wanted some redressing cure, and then that I did not fall into the ambition of ordinary softests, either to write tracks concerning the common theorems or to exhort men unto virtue and the study of philosophy by public orations, as also that I never, by way of ostentation, did affect to show myself as an active able man for any kind of bodily exercises, and that I gave over the study of rhetoric and poetry and of elegant, neat language, that it had not used to walk about the house in my long robe, nor to do any such things. Moreover, I learned of him to write letters without any affectation or curiosity, such as that was, which by him was written to my mother from Sinuessa, and to be easy and ready to be reconciled and well pleased again with them that had offended

me, as soon as any of them would be content to seek unto me again, to read with diligence, not to rest satisfied with a light and superficial knowledge, nor quickly to assent to things commonly spoken of, whom also I must thank that I ever lighted upon Epictetus, his hyponematica or moral commentaries and common factions, which also he gave me of his own. From Apollonius, true liberty, and unvariable steadfastness,

and not to regard anything at all, though never so little, but right and reason, and always, whether in the sharpest pains or after the loss of a child, or in long diseases, to be still the same man, who also was a present and visible example unto me, that it was possible for the same man to be both vehement and remiss, a man not subject to be vexed and offended with the incapacity of his scholars and auditors in his lectures and expositions, and a true pattern of of a man who of all his good gifts and faculties least esteemed in himself, that his excellent skill and ability to teach and persuade others the common theorems and maxims of the Stoic philosophy. Of him also I learned how to receive favors and kindnesses, as commonly they are accounted,

from friends, so that I might not become obnoxious unto them, for them, nor more yielding upon occasion than in right I ought, and yet so that I should not pass. them neither as an unsensible and unthankful man. That's a good one. Yeah, that is. Let's stop there. Yeah. True.

Yeah. From Apollonius. Let me see here. Yeah, the, this part, true liberty and unvariable steadfastness. And not to regard anything at all, though never so little, but right and reason. And always, whether in the sharpest pains or after the loss of a child or in long diseases to be still the same man, who also was a present and invisible example, and to me, that it was possible for the same man to be both vehement and remiss, a man not subject to be vexed

and offended with the incapacity of his scholars and auditors in his life. How many people can even find that strength anymore? Yeah, or be as humble as, to what Rusticus taught him in the passage above. And it's all about him purposely. There's like that famous scene, you know, where Caesar comes in triumphant into Rome, and they paint his face red, and they have a servant, ride in the chariot with him as he takes his triumph,

and whispers in his ear the entire time, you are not a God. You are not a God. He's basically doing that in every aspect of his life. He is functionally policing his humility. And the, where is it, is himself, what terms? About how to take, basically how, where does he say it here? Where he talks about reconciling. Moreover, I learned of him to write letters without any affection

or curiosity. I think he talked about like intrigue or gossip, such as that was, which by him was written to my mother from Sunoessa, and to be easily and readily, I'm sorry, easily, easy and ready to be reconciled and well pleased again with them that had offended me, as soon as any of them would be contingent to seek it unto me again.

That's a most people don't have the temperament to do that anymore. No. When somebody comes on the timeline, it's like, hey, I think this, this and this, rather than congratulate and say, oh, awesome, this person has changed their mind. They think like us now without fail. I will always see a comment. And then many of them. it's always one of the first couple ones of somebody going back on their timeline to like three or four

years ago or whatever and taking a screenshot of something that they said before when they thought something different and said, oh, this you, this you, bro, how the fuck is anyone supposed to change their mind? Were you born here on the far right? Like, yes, like, did you always exist here? If no one can change their mind, how can anyone come to agree with us that doesn't always already agree with us? If someone expresses your opinion who once expressed the opposite of it, right? Why are you not reconciled and well pleased again with them? This is not how men act.

it's more important for people to hold a grudge and or get a dunk in on someone rather than congratulate them for changing their mind and encouraging them to go further. And you know, and I'll add, behavior. Yeah, and I'll add real quick that we can all do this. We all fall victim to it every once in a while. You know, where have you been? You know, I was here five, you know, I learned about this five years. ago, what took you so long?

The thing is you don't want, you want to recognize when you're doing that and stop and apologize for it. And you also, you also want to, you don't want that to be who you are. Because there are a lot of people that you can see on social media. And, you know, this is something that people don't do in real life. They don't do it to people's faces, which is why social media is such a curse to many. Because a lot of people don't even know how to talk to people in real life anymore, but they

sure do think they know how to talk to people on social media. And we all fall into it. But if this is like your personality, if this is your, if when people think of your account, this is the first thing they think of, oh, this person is just going to try to own people the whole time. and, you know, I mean, like, I had somebody reach out to me the other day and say, hey, man, I haven't contacted you in like five or six years. It took me a long time to get here, but, you know, now I'm reading, you know, I'm reading Henry Ford. And I'm like, awesome, man. Hey, you know, welcome. And he's like,

well, he actually said, he said, let me pull this up because I really, well, let's, let's, let me pull this up. because I really, let me see where this is. This was awesome to me. He said, he said, took me too long, but must admit you were right about the JQ, currently reading Martin Luther and Henry Ford. Apologies, my friend, for my quiet skepticism, I'm retarded. And I said, we all reach touch points at different times.

It's a never-ending race. There is no finish line. And he said, appreciate your grace. I appreciate your grace. That's it. That's it. Guy came and said, Maya Kulpa should have been here all along. But, I mean, the only what am I supposed to be an asshole?

Well, and, and what, how did it affect him by taking this long? I'm sure he was. He's still living his life. He's still loving his family. He's still taking care of his family. Now he gets to see the way the world works a little clearer. It just took him a little bit longer. So what?

And the type of people we're trying to attract to our coalitions are going to be busy. The more tools that they have at their disposal is a one-to-one of how much busier they are in their day-to-day life. Right. So like the type of guys that you want on your side, you're going to want them to be too busy to learn all this shit, just drop what they're doing and learn all the shit that you don't, right? Because they'll have means and tools and relationships at their disposal that they built

by doing other shit, then not learning about this every day. So the type of people you're going to want are going to be the type of people that take longer to get here. Right. Like the CEOs, the entrepreneurs, like these people have already very stressful days. And if something looks to them like a rabbit hole or something that's going to be like upsetting, are going to require a huge amount of mental investment, which this does, then they're going to put that off because they have to because people depend on them to do things. So it's the people that come to this late that are going to be people that you want to congratulate.

And think about how hard that was for that person to write because he was full well expecting you to dunk on him and talk shit. So he wrote that to you knowing or at least he thought he knew that he was going to get nothing but scorn in return. And it was still important enough for him to tell you, I want that guy on my team. I don't want somebody that would excoriate him or frankly, you know, be an asshole. Because that person that sent Pete that message is a bigger person than I would say most people I see. So yeah, it took him longer to get here. He probably had shit to do. And I would much rather have him as an ally at this point in his learning stage than somebody who's known this stuff.

who's been reading this stuff for 10 years and is in their black-pilling, you know, just negativity, spewing negativity stage. Yeah, I find it funny that all of those people, right, the guys that are always crowing about how long they've been here for and how much more they know than everybody, what's really interesting is that those are the people that can't see the ground shifting underneath them. The people that crow about how long they've been here.

And oh, oh, you fell for it again. Aw. Those are also the same people that can't see the shifting sands underneath their feet, which I find just deliciously ironic to steal a quote from Thomas. So Pete's right. That dumb shit will blind you because all of those guys,

we all know who we're talking about. There's a whole bunch of them. They can't see the change that's happening right now, and they're going to be the most surprised and the last to realize it. So what use are they then? I don't even know if they're going to be the last to realize it. I think they'll...

Might never? I think, well, I think many of them, many of them could see the destruction of their enemies and not realize it's happened or the beginning of the destruction of their enemies, and their hatred has just blinded them. Yeah. Benjured Netanyahu has had to do seven little videos,

little table talk videos, to try and convince you that he didn't kill Charlie Kirk. Does that sound like a person that's in charge to you? Does that sound like a person who has everything going according to plan? Did he plan to do all of these emergency little fireside chats? They're spending billions of dollars to buy, CBS News I mean

Who watches CBS News TikTok? Yeah, TikTok What? Like people aren't just going to Figure out ways to get around the sensors I mean that's What isn't that what like the meme wars we're all about?

Yeah, there's goddamn Galatians. They can spend a lot of money but they sure can't stop people from talking about them. Oh, man. What's really interesting is that, like, you'll watch Tucker Carlson come out and say something. And then the fucking Prime Minister of Israel has to rush in front of a camera in his office, sit down to sit down in front of his desk,

and try and bullshit his way around something that Tucker said, a media person in America. And he sends it out. and then some random black lady that lives in England does another video and there it is that faggots running back to his office setting up the camera again trying to come up with some more bullshit that is rear guard action

that is a person who is no longer able to set the tempo of battle and is no longer able to determine the place and time of battle that person if we were looking at any type of conflict, that person has lost dominance over a key part of the battlefield. Ukraine right now cannot set the tempo of battle. Ukraine right now cannot determine the time and place in which their forces fight. And that is because Russia has total air dominance

over Ukraine. There is a field of battle which Ukraine can exert no control over, and that is forcing them to respond a different way that is very noticeable on the field that they can still engage in. Right? Benjamin Netanyahu's behavior is a man that is suffering from total information dominance by his enemy. he does not get to determine the time and place of battle.

He's running around, doing little TikTok videos, trying to put out fires his enemies set whenever they decide to set them. Not him. And none of the fucking guys that'll, you know, swagger around about how much longer they've been here and how much you need to shut the fuck up because I was here and this, that, and the third thing, all those faggots can't even see it.

But they'll tell you how much smarter than they are. they are than you and how wrong you are because of how long they've been here. Well, have you ever seen the prime minister of a country, like arguably the most evil, most powerful guy in the world? Were you bracketing for them doing six, you know, fireside chat videos about how I pinky, pinky promise I didn't kill somebody in a period of less than two and a half weeks? No, they didn't. because they can't physically even see when they're winning. They don't have the humility, which is I think the overarching theme of this text is thus far.

And self-reflection, that's another thing that we see again and again and again and again and again. It's almost like he lives in a constant state of self-reflection. You know, there's, there have been many times in my quote-uncle, was quote unquote public life, you know, since I started a podcast, since I put myself out there, that I've been wrong and had to, you know, maya culpa change my mind and say, yeah, I just don't see it that way anymore. And you always get attacked for that because, you know, a lot of people are, they seem to have to. And what's funny is it's outside of,

religion, it's politics, put themselves into this political bubble that they can never allow themselves to extricate themselves from, mostly because they've made their version of politics, their morality, because they don't have a morality that's based in anything other than materialism. so they have to find materialistic morality. And yeah, I'm not saying that that makes me any better than anyone else. But, you know, once you do it the first time, you realize I'm never going to get this right. I'm never going to get it 100% perfect.

I'm constantly going to be adjusting here and tweaking there. and there may even be some seismic shifts. You know what's funny? Scott Horton and Daryl Cooper have this new podcast provoked. And they had Oren McIntyre on the last episode talking about the hit piece that Reason ran on Oren and mentioned Daryl in. And one of the things Daryl said, and what's funny is Daryl came off even more radical in that episode. said than Orrin because Orrin's like, oh, we got to do everything

within the law and Darrell's gone to defeat our enemies. And I was like, I am. He's like, I don't know about that. But something Darrell said was, he said, look, I would love to still be a libertarian. And I think

Cortin asked him, you know, what do you believe now? And he's like, well, it's hard to say what you believe because things are constantly changing. When things are constantly changing, you have to change with them. You can't deal with, if you have people being killed openly for their beliefs, your non-aggression thing where you're like, oh, I'm not going to aggress against anybody unless they, you know, unless they aggress against me first.

well, basically there's a whole class of people out there now who are threatening to kill you if you don't agree with them. So how do you deal with that? How do you put yourself into a box when things change? Let me put it this way. Do you sit by and watch everybody else get killed because they haven't aggressed on you yet? Right. Well, also, you know, how about this? say you are forced to move to England and you're forced to live in London.

Are you taking your political sensibilities with you? Are you taking your ideology with you? You're talking about a completely different system of government now. How is that going to help you? You think you've created this political ideology that helps you get through the American landscape in 2025. It's not the same thing as the British landscape. landscape in 2025 or the Japanese landscape in 2025 or the Indian landscape in 2025. It's here and it's for a certain time.

It's like talking about one of the things that Darrell said that it was just you would hope people would, especially libertarians would hear it and a light bulb would go off is this whole article was basically saying they talk about Carl Schmitt. Carl Schmidt was a Nazi. these people are Nazis. Well, did James Lindsay write this? Yeah.

Well, they talk about Carl Schmidt like Carl Schmidt was writing in Vermont. That's how they're- Oh, yes, I remember that. That was a really good point. Yeah. They're judging Carl Schmidt like he was living in Vermont in 19-20, in 1933. No, he was living in fucking three. in fucking Germany in 1933,

where there were gun battles in the streets between communists and the national socialists, where they were literally having battles in the street. And you want to judge him like he lived, like he lived in all white Vermont in 1933? Yeah. There were hundreds of people dying in Berlin, hundreds more dying in Munich.

Like we had one guy get shot and it was a total paradigm shattering event for most of the country. Now imagine what it's like having hundreds of people shot running gun battles in the street. Like, Darrell is really, really, really, really good at taking like something that would probably take me five minutes to say. And just whipping it out in a punchy sentence that is also contextualized. He's very good at that. And I think, I hope he leans into it more because I think it's one of his, one of his greatest weapons in his, in his toolbox that he has. Like for me, I'm a nationalist for me.

I'm a globalist for you. I am pro-life for me. And I am pro-choice for you. And so on down the line where it's like, yes, these things are indexed to a people. Right. I don't have any political beliefs. I don't. This is a core group of people that I care about and love deeply.

Yeah. Is this good for them or is this bad for them? Yeah. And that's it. That's politics. And I think something else Daryl is really good at is what we've been talking about, what we've been reading about. Because at the end of that,

Horton asked, Orin about the people mentioned in the, in the article like Yarvin and Yeram Hazzoni and Daryl. And Oren said, look, there are a lot of things I disagree with with Daryl on because I think Darrell's a bleeding heart on some things. If you look at Daryl's face, he just smiled a little bit. You know, let it bother him. It's not like he's not going to take Oren's call if Oren calls. It's one man's opinion.

And he also knows that that man doesn't want, it doesn't want anything bad to happen to him. He just has different opinions on him on different things, you know, on different things. But as a whole, I think Orrin would rather have Darrell as a neighbor than some Antifa fuck from Portland.

You know, it's like, yeah, the friend enemy to see you right there at that table. Yeah, a lot of our guys, talk about Darrell like he's no different than than someone Antifa. They're so black and white.

Well, he's just a leftist like all the other leftists. Oh, really? You're that ignorant? How'd you get this way? He'll take one take. Oh, he doesn't agree with me on how we structure our mass deportations. He's a leftist. Okay, but what about the other 99.999% of his beliefs. We get what doesn't matter because he doesn't agree with me on this particular thing.

Well, is that thing being discussed right now? Is that thing a possibility that's on the table right now? No, it's not. So right now he's your ally. You fucking retard. Well, I mean, think about this. Would you rather live next to some libertarian that you probably agree 70% on, but they're a degenerate scumbag and you're going to have to deal

with degenerate scumbag behavior from them as a neighbor or a Jewish banker. Jewish banker. Like every day, all day. Every day. Every day, all day. Yeah, because this is real life. This isn't the internet. Well, it's kind of the internet.

We're recording over the internet. Yeah, you know who's going to make my neighborhood a better place and throw a bunch of money at lawyers, things like that. If anybody tries to make my neighborhood a bad place, that guy. But the libertarian is going to be like, oh, no, well, these people doing shitty things in our neighborhood. They're doing it on their property. Like, no, the Jewish guy and me are going to team up to make sure the libertarian gets evicted. That's what's going to happen.

You sound like a traitor. Yeah. Really, like, they have no power over any individual person. They have power over the mass. They have power over themselves. This is true. But because, oh, the Jews could try and subvert you. Yeah, but I can say no.

He's going to try and tell you these things, and I'm going to not listen. That was another thing Orrin said on that episode. That was another thing that Orrin said on that episode. He said that a lot of people on the right were really pissed off at me for having Yerim Hozoni on because he was going to try to sell me on, you know, on his I can try and sell me. I can talk to a Zionist on my show if I want to, and he can try and sell it to me. I ain't buying.

It doesn't mean that I'm going to be buying. I mean, maybe you're too weak to, you know, refuse. It's like people who don't want to hear other opinions other than their own. They don't want to read outside of whatever. It's like, you know, Christians who don't want to read the Koran because they're scared, they'll be convinced by it or something like that. You don't want to read one of the most red religious texts, like probably the second most red religious text of all time and know what's in it.

And there's like a billion of them in the world. You don't want to know what's in there? So that's what the left does. I talk to our British friend about this all the time. All right. The left cannot do strategic empathy because they know that our, worldview is cogent, at least subconsciously. They explain it away because, you know, our worldviews are old-fashioned,

and we've disproven those ideas and move past them, but they will resonate with you, culturally, you know, basically with your soul that they also think doesn't exist, but whatever. Doesn't matter. They, as doctrine, refuse to induce to indulge. engage with any of our material or ideas even in a strategic sense. This is why they're always wrong about us, and this is why they are constantly surprised and fall flat, is because they are not allowed, they don't allow themselves or others to

read our stuff, to dialogue with us at all. And that's why they're, that's why they lose. And that's why they're always wrong. So the same thing that we cry about, that we mock in the left, I see just as much of it, like in the example you just gave on the right. Oh, no, I can't read this text. Well, then you're never going to understand these people. And then you're going to lose. We have no discernment at times.

It really frustrates me. Well, I mean, it's, I don't know what it is. And look, I've, I'm trying to talk about. things that I I know places where I've changed my mind things but I know I'm still wrong I still have a bunch of things wrong that I have to work on I'm not perfect I'm trying and I'm not I hope no one thinks that by I'm talking about things that I know now things that I've worked through things that I've struggled with things that things that like literally caused me loss like not only like emotional loss, but like monetary loss in the past by changing my mind and and saying, you know,

I was wrong here. And I really think this is this is the wrong path. I think I'm leading people down the wrong path by talking about this. And people will be like, no, this is my religion. So, you know, you're a heretic now and you're, you're immoral now. And you have no principles now. And you're like I literally had somebody in in the comments. And I didn't say anything about it because I've resigned myself to ignore comments and not even really even unless somebody starts spamming. So not even block during my live streams. But someone said, oh, you used to be a libertarian. Now you're a neocon.

How do I are? What am I supposed to argue? I'm supposed to argue there? Am I supposed to argue there? It's like, I mean, I'm sorry. Sorry that I offended your religion. But you have to understand what Stormy said. There is political ideology is it's fleeting.

I mean, it never meant, you know, Sam Francis said it just never manifests itself. You know, channeling James Burnham from, from, was it suicide of the West? I think that's one it was yet. Yeah, suicide of the West. where he says, yeah, political ideology is great until it gets introduced to the air. As soon as it gets introduced to reality, it's like Mike Tyson said. Everyone's got a plan when they come in the ring with me until they get punched in the mouth. Then they're planning goes out the window.

Yeah, it's a synthesis. Yeah, that's political ideology. The only political ideology is what is good for me and my people. is this good for me and my people? If it's not, we need to change it or we need to fight against it. And if you get to the point where you can take power, you can get your people in power, then maybe you can start from a legitimate standpoint

trying to shape policy or shape things in your area that lend itself to your people. You know, one of the most important things I heard, you know, a long time ago was, you know, the way America was set up in the beginning was it was set up so that white Europeans, you know, mostly northern Europeans and and wasps and Scotch Irish and people like, can thrive in. As soon as you introduce a group of people into that, that can't thrive in that environment, one or two things is going to happen. Either they're going to fail miserably, and it's best for them to leave,

or somebody's going to come up with the idea that what you built for the people who found it, it needs to be changed, so that it's easier for these people. And as soon as you change it for those people, now the founding stock, it's harder for them to operate in it. Now it doesn't benefit them anymore.

And what should happen is wherever these people are coming from, even if you need to help them, if you feel like you need to help them, if you're some kind of Captain Save a Ho with frigging an African nation or something like that, figure out a way to design a system that they can benefit from. Help them do that. if you feel like you're an Albert Schweitzer or something like that.

Because they're not going to be able to thrive in this system. They need to find their own system. And there needs to be multiple systems for multiple people and multiple cultures and multiple, that's why when people say, oh, capitalism is the greatest. For who? For who is capitalism? I mean, for what, Somalia? For average 65 IQ country?

then that doesn't work. Capitalism doesn't even really work for what we have now. Capitalism really didn't work for, I mean, once you got very much past the founding, because capitalism, whatever you were calling capitalism in the beginning, morphed into something else. And whatever it morphed into was not conducive to the actions and the beliefs of the founding stock. So if you're not willing, if you're not willing to look at politics in a way of how does this benefit my people and be willing to say, and those people over there, I don't hate them, but they need to figure out whatever system works best to benefit them. In Singapore, the best way it benefits them is to have a system of authoritarianism. because that's what they need.

But they also have a very open economy. Somebody told me that you can like pass through the airport and go to a bank in the airport and not even be from there and open a bank account and deposit money. Not even leave the international terminal. Your passport never even get stamped. Yeah. So they have this open economy and it works for them because the people get along. why do they get along?

Because if they don't get along, there's consequences. Maybe that's the way it needs to be in some places. I don't know. The only question I'm asking is, what's best for my people? And people who think like I do. Yeah. And to search back on the difference in beliefs, basically, creating a strike that there's no coalition building happening or just a circular firing squad.

I want to remind everybody that there is no set of beliefs on the right right now. And this is actually a huge problem for us strategically. I can pull 100 right-wingers and say, okay, can you. describe to me what it looks like when we win? And I'll get a hundred different answers. Monarchists, Christian nationalists, wignats, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. And it's going to stay that way for forever until we learn to do what Pete is describing.

And this is, everyone's like, oh, well, we need, you know, right-wing billionaires to fund all these things. Okay. Why the fuck did they do that? You can't even convince them what it looks like when they win. I say that often. Sorry. But unless we can agree upon what it looks like when we win,

they can't make that investment. Because you can't tell them how it will benefit them or how it will protect them. Everybody, and like Pete, you know, this because I think as I probably chipped out to you privately, Darrell and I disagree on something. I don't even know if he still even has that opinion or whatever, but there's an opinion that he had that kind of cut me below the quick. I don't know if that's a term people still use anymore, but it got under my, it happened to hit like all of my sensitivity buttons. And I will still champion his stuff. He is brilliant and he's doing fantastic.

work. And I will never say, I won't even air our disagreement. I won't, I won't tell anybody what we disagree about. That's for me and him to talk and we sit down privately and we can actually discuss that. But he's on my side. And I'm on his side. Just like Orrin is on Darrell's side. And Daryl's on Oren's side, even though they disagree, right, because they can prioritize things. Daryl knows that having a neighborhood full of Orrin's is great. And Oren knows having a neighborhood full of Daryl's is great. Daryl knows having a government full of Orin's is great. And Oren knows that having a government full of Daryl's is great.

And that whatever the thing that they don't agree on doesn't fucking matter. And I think we need to look I think we need to do that at scale. I think that basically what we saw on that on that episode of what's it called? I always forget the name. It's a one word name. Provoked. Provoked. There we go.

What happened on that show in real time is something that we need to be doing all the time. Because it's only when we can do that, that we can eventually sell. on a cohesive picture of this is what is attainable in the short term. This is what is attainable in the long term. This is how we structure things after that. Now you can paint a worldview that you can sell people with money on. The one thing about the left is if you ask them roughly what it looks like when they win, they have enough slogans memorized where they can most of the time convince you that they're in agreement on this.

And that's what gives people the ability to donate tons of money to them. Because they can paint a picture about what that money is going to be used for and how great it's going to be for the person that's giving that money and for the people receiving that money when they win. And that's why they get money to win. And that's why we don't. A billionaire will never not be an investor no matter what. Like they have a million people pitching them a million ideas all the time.

and you need to be able to paint a picture of what it looks like in the future to pitch. Like, what are you pitching? And I think the more serious people in our thing, Pete, I think we're doing that. And I think the people that don't want to do that are going to, whether they know it or not, or whether they do it with intent or not, are going to find themselves. not in the mechanisms of what's going to happen next. Well, they'll benefit from what happens next. They'll be bitter about it.

Yeah, yeah. They'll never say thank you to those who came up with the ideas and everything. And really, I think everybody knows I'm not a big fan of Ronald Reagan, especially the amnesty and the making machine, making machine guns go from $700 to $30,000. For a cheap one. Yeah, yeah. But he did say, you know, it's amazing what you can achieve and get done if no one wants

the credit for it. And that's something I think that's really important because that's not, I mean, there are things that I've done and people I know have done and people I know have done and no one knows that they did it. Yet a lot of people celebrated it. And I think part of the reason it got done is because no one, everybody was like, we don't need credit for it. Just get it done. and, you know, if you get credit for something, puts a bull's eye on the next thing. If you're like, yeah, I did this, puts a bull's eye on you the next time you try to do something.

So, you know, humility is important. And I think that, you know, what we see and you and I have talked about this before, that a lot of the people out there who are quote unquote content creators, really, they just want credit for being right. I was right about this. I was right about that. See how I predicted this. Now, what did their predictions?

How did their predictions change your life? Well, I knew this was going to happen. Okay, so how did you benefit from that? Did you short a stock? Did you buy a stock? What did you do? Well, I knew. I get to brag about the fact that I watched the guy who told me this and I told my friends and I was right.

Can you pay your mortgage with it? Quite the accomplishment. Quite the accomplishment. But no, you know what, though? That content creator, they could pay their mortgage with it. What did you get from it? Astral makes a really good point about this. Like, basically, like, if you're on the right and you're in anon,

you may think you deserve credit or whatever, but you actually don't. You're in anon so people can. take your ideas and run with them and dumb them down and not say them as good as you or whatever. Right. By being in anon, you're making that tacit agreement that I don't care if I get credit or not. I just want to win. And I think we forget that a lot. And the more you win, the less people will have to be anon. I think as things progress, none of us will be. But that only happens if we win. Why do we want to win? Is it because of how it will benefit us?

And this is another thing about being ordered internally, right? One thing you could tell almost immediately about Marcus Aurelius. And this is another thing is, correct me from wrong, Pete, but the meditations were never published. They were just his internal notes. And I'm sure if you found out that they did publish, he'd be probably mortified. Yeah, yeah. This was like a diary of his. probably closest to a diary and stuff he wrote down for himself.

And it was never meant to be in the public. So he is self-reflecting daily to himself. No one's ever going to read this. Right. He is centering himself every day. And this is a man, how did Yaki say it? no one will die for an idea, but a few men will die for an ideal. Or a few great men will die for an ideal.

There is a thing inside of Marcus Aurelius that is driving him from his soul, not from his spirit or his body. The ego is a separate thing from the human soul. right the thoughts in your head you know the feelings like these are all separate and you know they're separate because when a baby is born it doesn't have any of that shit yet it has no opinions it has no beliefs it has no opinions of others no thoughts it's just awareness it's It's just soul and body. And that's where an ideal comes from. It is a layer deeper than the conscious mind.

The conscious mind wants recognition. The constant mind wants status. Because the constant mind can think about, the conscious mind can think about how that status will benefit them or how that credit will benefit them. And what you see him doing by reflect thing again and again and again throughout his life. You can see him pushing that aside, that conscious mind aside, right? And what matters to my soul? Well, that these people flourish, that no evil is done to them, that they have the means as God intended to self-actualize,

to be the best versions of themselves. None of those things benefit him. He's not going to wear fancier robes. He's not going to get fancier robes. What does he say here? To not busy myself with vain things and to not easily believe those things which are commonly spoken by such as take upon them to work wonders by sorcerers or prostitigitators or impostors concerning the power of charms and the driving out of demons

or evil spirits and the like. to not keep quails for the game, to not be mad at such things, or be offended by another man's liberty of speech. I'm sorry, I grabbed the wrong paragraph. And then I did not fall into the ambition of ordinary sophists, either to write tracks concerning the common theorems, or to exhort men unto virtue in the study of philosophy by basically grandstanding, by public orations. As also that I never, by way of, ostentation did affect to show myself an active able man for any kind of bodily exercises.

Marcus Aurelius mugged no one. He showed off never. This is what he's saying. I never, by way of ostentation, what is ostentatiousness, did affect the show of myself to be an active and able man in any kind of bodily exercises. and that I gave over the study of rhetoric and poetry and of elegant, neat language, by basically speaking frankly, that I did not use the walk about the house in my long robes, nor to do any such thing.

Moreover, I learned of him to write letters without any affectation or intrigue and gossip, right? He's basically telling you that the things he does that Rusticus taught him, right, is to not flatter himself, to not show off, to not seek, more importantly, to not seek the status giving of others, to not seek the recognition of others. And this circles all the way back to what his mother taught him. And of my mother, I have learned to be religious and bountiful and to forbear. not only to do, but to intend any evil, right? Intent. So why is he not fall into ambition of ordinary sophists, right? Or to grandstand with large public orations to show how virtuous he is

and how philosophically intelligent he is, or by way of ostentation did affect the show of myself as an active able-bodied man for any other kind of exercise or basically stroke himself being a word cell doing poetry and talking in neat flowerly language

or prance around his house in his nicest gear because that means when he does do exercise right when he does do oration right or right or right or right tracks of theorems or when he exert exhorts men to virtue and study the intent behind those actions is not for his own benefit the intention matters and this is why I say like it's it's a it's some things that I you would read in like mystical texts about why you do something. And in that like reality isn't what you think it is series we did Pete. We talked about like consciousness being able to affect

random number generators. And they also did that test on money. Right. So why you do things matters. So God has built right and wrong into the universe. It's built into the fundamental framework, right, that undergirds our reality. So one of the tests that Rupert Sheldrick and Dean Raden did was basically they had people concentrate on a certain dollar amount. And then they kept track of them and to see if they had people concentrate on a certain dollar amount. track of them and to see if they would buy any, you know, instance, this money would fall into their lap through unexpected means that they did not initiate. And you can measure whether something is statistically significant or not, right, by basically how many, how many degrees from random is it,

like total randomness, like winning a lottery ticket? for instance. And what they found is, okay, to give a really dumbed-down example, when a person, let's say, wishes for, not wishes, but just focus their consciousness on $100,000 just dropping in their mailbox, the chances of that actually happening to that person were less than random, as in $100,000 will land in the mailbox of somebody not even thinking about it sooner than it would the guy that is. That's funny. But what's even more interesting is, let's say the guy who's thinking about $100,000 landing in the mailbox of his next door neighbor, right? Because his next door neighbor has cancer. And the chemotherapy costs are

eating through all of his neighbor's savings. And, you know, now his neighbor's about to lose his house because he owes $100,000 on his house and it's going to get foreclosed on. Those people that thought about having $100,000 land in their neighbor's mailbox, again, I'm dumbing down and, you know, taking liberties with the experiment and had nothing to do with mailboxes or $100,000 checks. The chances of $100,000 landing in that person's neighbor's mailbox was not only... more statistically significant, like actually statistically significant. So enough multiples above absolute randomness to where it is signaling that something else is happening.

Right. So let's say if the landing in your mailbox was negative, I don't know, 5%. Right? random person mailbox, 0%. So total randomness. Landing in the cancer neighbor's mailbox, 10%. So you increase the chances of some random event happening from zero to 10%. Because the intent behind it was selfless.

And they've proved this a bunch of different ways. So that means the intention in which you do an action affects the success of that action. So a leader that is acting out of selflessness, the thing that motivates him is not himself or his own self-benefit. That person is going to be more successful. Random chance is going to break his direction far more than the leader that is doing any such action for his own personal benefit.

it. So God has written morality and virtue into the very fabric of the universe. There is no randomness. Randomness is something that is affected by our virtue and why we do things matters. And this is, you'd only be the only in places you pick this up or in like, you know, like occult mystic traditions or whatever, that the intent in which something is, done or as a Christian in whose name something is done will affect the outcome. So are you acting selfishly or selflessly? Are you doing it in Christ's name or are in your own? Who has the power here? Is it you that is making that check hit that mailbox or is it God? That's God. All right. So humility and selflessness are very important. So I find that really interesting.

that the overall theme in his governance and the way he acts in the world is entirely selfless and he is constantly policing his own mind and reinforcing this again and again and again, so much so that he meditates on it daily. He takes credit for none of his positive attributes. He is going through and enumerating all. All of the good things about him, even his own virtue, he does not take credit for, because they're not his. They were given to him by someone else.

So even the best things about himself, he will not attribute to his innate ability or his innate virtue. Marcus, why are you so kind? Oh, I'm not kind. I was shown this kindness, how to be kind. by this other person. So even in attributing his own virtues, there is selflessness.

The order of this person's internal state is, I think, what people should be focusing on. Sorry about that. Right there. That's where we're going to end it. I don't think we need to even come back to this. I think even just the first five or six that we talked about should be enough to keep people, you know, help people to think in a different way.

You know, I mean, it's not very fun to read. It's not fun to read. And well, yeah, because self-examination is hard. Just ask a certain group of people. It's a who it's impossible for. The vampire can't see his reflection. We were told this. Yes.

But the, yeah. I mean, I hope. Nobody comes away from this thinking we think we're perfect. I mean, I think we both know that we're works and process and that the, you know, we'll change our mind on things when we get more information. But knowing that you've made mistakes in the past, being able to admit them and even be able to explain why they were mistakes and why you change your mind, I think is. is very important.

And to talk about it publicly, you know, it doesn't always seem to be the, you know, something that people want to do. But, you know, I have no problem with it because if my, even from a personal standpoint, a,

if you don't want to get involved in politics, you don't want to be public about anything that you believe. If anything can help you just to, thrive in your personal life. You know, I'll put a little bit of myself out there to see if it helps. Yeah, this, this text is going to get really thick and not as cleanly broken up as I think the other ones are going to be. So, yeah, maybe like if we, we don't have to touch on this again, or if we have to do one

more about like other stuff than yeah because i think this is also something that somebody should read to themselves and work on like i think you're going to read meditations yeah you should read it many times yeah it's not long at all i mean you got when you go to the 12th book you're only on the 139th page in this pdf so i mean you're talking about 120 pages basically so yeah all right stormy have a good night my friend i will talk to you later take care mao bye