I knew this guy he'd being in a
00:02
motorcycle accident and it really ruined
00:04
him and he was like a linesman you know
00:06
working on the power and he was working
00:08
with someone who had Parkinson's disease
00:09
and they had complementary inadequacies
00:13
and so two of them could do the job of
00:16
one person so they're out there fixing
00:18
power lines in the freezing cold despite
00:20
the fact that one was 3/4 wrecked but a
00:22
motorcycle accident the other one has
00:25
Parkinson's it's like that's how our
00:27
civilization works it's like there's all
00:29
these ruined people out there they've
00:31
got problems like you can't believe off
00:33
they go to work and do things they don't
00:35
even like and look the lights are on
00:39
well I'm a black woman who has two
00:42
children and one of them isn't very
00:43
healthy and then while I'm uh I'm a
00:46
Hispanic woman and I have a genius son
00:48
who doesn't have any money so that he
00:49
can't go to university and you know I
00:52
had a hell of a time getting across the
00:53
border it was really hard on me to get
00:55
my citizenship my husband is an
00:57
alcoholic brute it's like well yeah that
00:59
sucks too maybe you're too short or
01:02
you're not as beautiful as you could be
01:03
or you know your parent your grandparent
01:06
with a serf likely because almost
01:08
everybody's read great grandparent was
01:10
it's like you know and you're not as
01:12
smart as you could be and you have a
01:14
sick relative and you have your own
01:15
physical problems and like frankly
01:18
you're a mess and you're oppressed in
01:20
every possible way
01:21
including your ancestry and your biology
01:23
and the entire sum of human history has
01:26
conspired to produce victimized you with
01:30
all your individual pathological
01:32
problems it's like yes true it's not an
01:37
accident that the axiomatic Western
01:40
individual is someone who is unfairly
01:43
nailed to a cross and tortured it's like
01:45
yes right exactly the terrible things
01:53
that people have done to each other you
01:54
just cannot even imagine it so awful
02:00
so you don't want to be someone like
02:02
that now do you have a reason to be yes
02:05
you have a lots of reasons to be god
02:08
there's reasons to be resentful about
02:09
your existence everyone you know is
02:11
going to die you know you too there's
02:15
going to be a fair bit of pain along the
02:16
way a lot of it's going to be unfair
02:18
it's like yeah no wonder you're
02:20
resentful it's like act it out and see
02:22
what happens
02:23
you make everything you're complaining
02:25
about infinitely worse that's what life
02:29
is like it's suffering that's what the
02:32
religious people have always said life
02:34
is suffering yes
02:37
well who wants to admit that well just
02:39
think about it well so what do you do in
02:42
the face of that suffering well there's
02:45
a di D in the West too it's like pick up
02:47
your damned suffering and bear it and
02:52
try to be a good person so you don't
02:54
make it worse it's an old old old old
02:57
ideas far older than Christianity it's
03:00
old it's the oldest story of mankind
03:04
start with yourself what good are you
03:07
get yourself together for Christ's sake
03:09
so that when your father dies you're not
03:11
winding away in the corner and you can
03:12
help plan the funeral and you can stand
03:14
up solidly so that people can rely on
03:17
you that's better
03:18
could be a damn victim course you're a
03:21
victim Jesus obviously put yourself
03:26
together and then maybe if you put
03:28
yourself together you know how to do
03:30
that you know what's wrong with you if
03:31
you'll admit it you know there's a few
03:33
things you could like polish up a little
03:35
bit that you might even be able to
03:36
manage in your insufficient present
03:39
condition maybe you could bring your
03:42
family together instead of having to be
03:44
the hateful spiteful neurotic infighting
03:47
batch that you're like doomed to spend
03:50
Christmas with how do you overcome the
03:53
suffering of life be a better person
03:55
that's how you do it well that's hard it
04:00
takes responsibility you want to have a
04:02
meaningful life everything you do
04:05
matters
04:06
definition of the meaningful life but
04:08
everything you do matters
04:10
you have to carry that with you you have
04:14
to take on the fact that life is
04:16
suffering you have to put yourself
04:18
together in the face of that that's hard
04:21
Christ it's amazing people can even do
04:23
it get yourself together
04:27
transcend your suffering see if you can
04:30
be some kind of hero make the suffering
04:33
in the world less well that's the way
04:35
forward as far as I can tell if there is
04:37
any way forward
04:41
[Music]
04:48
sorry to keep letting you down
04:54
come with me save yourself you don't owe
05:02
these people anymore
05:04
you've given them everything not
05:06
everything you have many puzzles in
05:18
front of you that you could solve but
05:19
you choose not to you know that those
05:22
are the things that weigh on your
05:23
conscience it's like you know what I
05:25
should really do this but you don't what
05:27
would the world be like if people
05:28
stopped avoiding the things they knew
05:31
they should do you know guess the
05:33
question is how much are we contributing
05:34
to the fact that life is a is an
05:38
existential catastrophe and a tragedy
05:40
how much is our own corruption
05:42
contributing to that that's a really
05:44
worthwhile question things you leave
05:46
undone because you're angry you're
05:48
resentful you're lazy you have inertia
05:51
well you consult your conscience and it
05:54
says well you know that place over there
05:56
can use a little work it's the same as
05:59
working on yourself until you clean that
06:00
up because you can and then things are a
06:03
little clearer around you and you're a
06:05
little better off because you've
06:06
practiced a bit and and so you're little
06:09
stronger and then when something else
06:10
manifests itself and says well maybe you
06:12
could take a crack at fix me up do so
06:15
you decide to do that then that gets a
06:16
little bit more pristine you know and
06:18
soon and it's it's humble because you're
06:21
not exceeding your domain of competence
06:24
[Music]
06:28
responsibility is what gives you life
06:30
meaning and so then you might say well
06:31
then take on ultimate responsibility and
06:35
what happens you have an ultimately
06:36
meaningful life and then you might say
06:38
well if your life is ultimately
06:39
meaningful doesn't matter if it's
06:41
punctuated by tragedy or even predicated
06:44
on tragedy it's worth it life is
06:49
suffering right indisputable
06:55
what do you do about that you you
07:00
voluntarily accept it and then strive to
07:04
overcome the suffering that's a
07:06
consequence of that and you do that for
07:09
you and you do that in a way that makes
07:10
it better for other people and then that
07:13
works and one question might be well how
07:16
well does it work and the answer is
07:18
you'll the only way that you can find
07:20
out is by trying it that's it that's the
07:24
extension elementalist the proof is to
07:26
be derived by the incarnation of the
07:28
attitude in your own life no one can
07:31
tell you how it will work for you it's
07:34
the thing that your destiny is to
07:36
discover that there was a dream that was
07:43
Rome
07:44
shall be realized
07:47
these are the wishes of Marcus Aurelius
07:50
three the prisoners go you have to make
07:55
the decisions to begin with it's like
07:56
because you can't do this without
07:58
commitment you have to commit to it
08:00
first that's the act of faith that the
08:02
Kierkegaard was so insistent upon you
08:06
have to say I'm going to act as if being
08:08
is good I'm going to act as if truth is
08:10
the pathway to enlightenment I'm going
08:12
to act as if I should pursue the deepest
08:14
meaning possible in my life and there's
08:16
there's reasons to do none of those
08:18
they're real reasons so it's really a
08:22
decision but you can't find out what the
08:24
consequence of the decision is unless
08:26
you make the decision and the other
08:28
thing that's so interesting about being
08:29
alive is that you're all in you enter
08:34
what you do you're all in this is going
08:36
to kill you so I think you might as well
08:39
play the most magnificent game you can
08:42
while you're waiting because do you have
08:45
anything better to do
08:46
really why not pick the best thing
08:50
possible that you could do why not do
08:53
that maybe you could justify your
08:55
wretched existence to yourself that way
08:56
you know people find such meaning in the
08:59
responsibilities they adopt it's like
09:01
how far can you take that if you stopped
09:03
wasting time and if you stopped lying
09:04
and if you oriented yourself to to the
09:06
highest possible good that you could
09:08
conceive of and you committed to that
09:09
how much good could you do well I would
09:13
say when you find out you should find
09:17
out you don't have anything better to do
09:19
and there's nothing in it as far as I've
09:21
been able to tell there's nothing in it
09:23
but good all you have to do is give up
09:27
your resentment and your hatred
09:29
I know that's a hard thing to give up
09:31
could be a pretty reason for its that
09:36
the answer to the problem of humanity is
09:38
that is the is the integrity of the
09:42
individual that's the answer