Stefan Molyneux
  • last month
What you think is feeding you is actually eating you. An examination of the heroism that is stolen from you.

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Transcript
00:00Imagine that the only thing you know about some 30-year-old guy is that he is really,
00:28really into comic books. Now comic books are all about courage and heroism and nobility
00:40and fighting and triumphing over evil. This 30-year-old man is constantly immersed in
00:50these heroic tales. What do you picture when you think of such a man? Do you picture a
01:00hero or not so much? With this change, if instead of being into comic books, this man
01:11was a fanboy of Star Trek or Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica or Lord of the Rings
01:16or Dungeons and Dragons or Star Wars? Isn't it odd when you think that those men who are
01:26the most into heroic fiction tend to be the least heroic people around? Actually it isn't
01:34that odd because that is exactly what comic books and science fiction and fantasy are designed to
01:43do. What is the basic message of, say, Star Wars? Sure, it's that heroism and courage can exist,
01:54but where? Why, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. You see, heroism is never where you are.
02:10It is never something that you can achieve on your own. In these stories you don't actually
02:17have to do anything in your own life to become a hero. All you have to do is sit around and whine
02:23until some old dude in an old blanket comes along and whisks you off to a life of adventure and
02:30combat. This also works if you have furry feet. It might be an owl though if you're forced to live
02:37under the stairs. All these mythologies, which have remained essentially unchanged for thousands
02:46of years, are entirely about enslaving you and turning you into useful cannon fodder for your
02:54masters. In all these tales, a depressed life of dumb chores and crushed opportunities gets
03:02magically transformed into heroic and always violent adventures when an older man comes and
03:09takes you away. All this is just designed to make you want to go to war when the state comes to
03:18kidnap you. Real heroism, however, is something very different from what is always portrayed.
03:30Real heroism is something that you can achieve now, today, in the next hour, if you want.
03:42Real heroism does not require you to be bitten by a radioactive spider, or exposed to a gamma-ray
03:51bomb blast or cosmic radiation, or be injected with a super soldier serum, or pilot giant god-like
03:59robots, or get a blood transfusion from a demon and bang a succubus, or drink radioactive wastewater
04:07in your fishbowl, or crash land from the planet Krypton, or be sprayed by chemicals that were
04:13struck by lightning, or have a magical ring, or be blinded by more of this omnipresent radioactive
04:19stuff, or die and make a deal with a demon to return to the living world with superpowers,
04:24or have rare DNA mutations, or yet another magical sword, or just have the ability to
04:32talk to squirrels. All these stories have exactly the same message. Heroism is not for you. Heroism
04:47is for other times, other places, other worlds, other circumstances, which will never, ever happen
04:56to you. You must wait for someone to come and turn you into a hero, and that man will never come.
05:09You are allowed to be heroic in your imagination, because that way, heroism remains an otherworldly
05:17fantasy, posing no danger to the powers-that-be. You're just not allowed to be heroic in your own
05:26life. But the world will never be saved without heroes. You are constantly being trained to be
05:37heroic only in the service of your masters, only in slaughter, and sacrifice, and subjugation.
05:44But there is no heroism in serving your masters. Real heroism is questioning why you have masters
05:57at all. All these stories, all these fantasies, all these superpowers are designed to steal
06:09heroism from you, to make it impossible, and fantastical, and remote, and unachievable,
06:16and make you useful to your masters as a hitman, if needed.
06:25What is the opposite of this? Well, the opposite of fantasy is philosophy. The opposite of
06:35mythology is integrity, and integrity is truth in action. Integrity does not require laser swords,
06:47rings of power, magic, or starships, or mutant genes. You can be heroic and start the process
06:57of truly saving the world before the sun goes down tonight. And when the sun rises tomorrow,
07:06you will be a different person, and the world will be brighter by one true hero.