WEBVTT 00:27.310 --> 00:33.670 Well, but when a social movement is only the sum total of individual attitudes, 00:34.410 --> 00:37.930 for example, the 60s in the U.S., 00:37.930 --> 00:45.070 what made that so crazy was the government wanted to fight a war 00:45.070 --> 00:47.190 which the people didn't want. 00:47.730 --> 00:51.650 So it was a moment where the government really wanted the people 00:51.650 --> 00:56.310 to pull together and follow it down this certain path. 00:56.310 --> 01:02.890 And instead, the children of the war planners were manufacturing LSD 01:02.890 --> 01:05.010 and giving it out at college. 01:08.480 --> 01:12.180 And they said, and that just enraged them 01:12.180 --> 01:16.700 because it eroded this consensus that they were trying to build. 01:17.580 --> 01:24.920 A democratic consensus for war is as ugly as a Nazi consensus for war. 01:24.920 --> 01:28.660 I mean, you get people in stadiums chanting death 01:28.660 --> 01:28.920 to the Indians. 01:29.060 --> 01:36.720 That's an ugly sight, no matter who the enemy is 01:36.720 --> 01:40.100 and no matter who the people doing the chanting are. 01:40.580 --> 01:45.940 And for that kind of mass-mindedness where people are actually ready to die 01:45.940 --> 01:49.960 for some bullshit trip they can't even understand, 01:50.440 --> 01:53.100 you have to have a kind of mass hysteria. 01:56.480 --> 01:58.540 And psychedelics cause people to die. 01:58.540 --> 01:58.620 And that's what caused people to die. 01:58.620 --> 01:58.680 And that's what caused people to die. 01:58.680 --> 01:59.040 And that's what caused people to die. 01:59.040 --> 01:59.060 And that's what caused people to die. 01:59.060 --> 01:59.120 And that's what caused people to die. 01:59.120 --> 01:59.160 And that's what caused people to die. 01:59.160 --> 01:59.820 And that's what caused people to die. 02:00.820 --> 02:04.120 I mean, like, take Vietnam, for example. 02:05.020 --> 02:07.060 The assault wave put soldiers... 02:07.840 --> 02:08.400 Vietnam. 02:09.160 --> 02:11.740 You want to go kill some brown people 02:11.740 --> 02:15.180 and then die in a ditch with your brain shot out 02:15.180 --> 02:16.480 and you're 24 years old? 02:16.520 --> 02:17.880 Does that sound like fun? 02:18.220 --> 02:20.400 While attacking a huge Viet Cong installation. 02:21.800 --> 02:26.060 No, but if you listen to enough political demagoguery, 02:26.060 --> 02:29.040 it sounds like you'll be a man 02:29.040 --> 02:33.320 and you'll, you know, it's insane. 02:33.780 --> 02:36.280 This is the force of 20th century man. 02:36.960 --> 02:39.020 There are all kinds of situations 02:39.020 --> 02:43.780 in which the goals of society do not serve the individual. 02:44.280 --> 02:46.520 This is something we talked about on the first day 02:46.520 --> 02:49.960 and it's a funny message to give anywhere in the world now 02:49.960 --> 02:52.980 and maybe even slightly odder in South Africa 02:52.980 --> 02:57.300 because there's so much stress here on cultural identity 02:57.300 --> 02:59.020 and everybody wants to be a man. 02:59.020 --> 03:00.920 Everybody wants to think they're a tribe. 03:01.420 --> 03:03.140 The Afrikaners, everybody. 03:03.660 --> 03:06.960 But culture is not your friend. 03:08.200 --> 03:10.400 Culture is... 03:10.400 --> 03:14.280 It's like a Masonic order lurking around 03:14.280 --> 03:18.420 that wants to induct you into a bunch of weird ceremonies 03:18.420 --> 03:21.300 that you may not really be comfortable with. 03:21.820 --> 03:25.220 You know, I think when you get to be approximately my age 03:25.220 --> 03:28.080 and maybe some people get there sooner than I did, 03:28.080 --> 03:28.940 you begin... 03:28.940 --> 03:30.560 You begin to realize all this. 03:31.080 --> 03:36.600 That so much of social existence is an inconvenient con 03:36.600 --> 03:41.920 and an intrusion on your identity and your freedom 03:41.920 --> 03:42.800 and then you just say, 03:42.920 --> 03:45.380 well, I'm not going to do it anymore. 03:45.700 --> 03:49.300 I may not even work as hard as you want me to 03:49.300 --> 03:51.520 and I'm certainly not going to fight your wars 03:51.520 --> 03:53.840 and I'm not going to design your war machine 03:53.840 --> 03:58.180 and I'm not going to joyfully pay your taxes. 03:58.940 --> 04:02.540 And I'm not going to affirm your community values. 04:02.760 --> 04:03.820 Piss on it, you know. 04:04.080 --> 04:05.820 Con 20-year-olds. 04:05.940 --> 04:07.300 But I've been through it. 04:07.340 --> 04:08.140 I've had it. 04:08.220 --> 04:11.080 I've been around the block too many times 04:11.080 --> 04:13.680 to once again be led into the alley 04:13.680 --> 04:17.760 by the government and the church to be beat up on. 04:18.160 --> 04:19.380 I've been lenient. 04:20.360 --> 04:23.020 And the great thing about the youth culture 04:23.020 --> 04:25.800 is I think they're figuring this out 04:25.800 --> 04:28.880 without putting in 30 years in the corporation. 04:28.940 --> 04:32.720 The army, the university and all that other bunkum. 04:33.180 --> 04:34.800 It's baloney. 04:35.700 --> 04:38.660 And, you know, we are very uncomfortable. 04:39.340 --> 04:41.940 I mean, yes, we have Mercedes and we have jacuzzis 04:42.660 --> 04:44.900 and we have this, but is it worth it? 04:45.340 --> 04:47.280 Does it make you feel, you know, 04:47.340 --> 04:49.760 can you face yourself in the mirror? 04:53.710 --> 04:58.570 So, you know, they want your life 04:58.570 --> 05:00.170 and they pay. 05:00.770 --> 05:02.390 In garbage. 05:02.850 --> 05:05.870 They have no other medium of exchange to pay in. 05:06.090 --> 05:08.050 All they can give you is stuff. 05:08.050 --> 05:12.110 All they can do is appeal to your object fetishism. 05:14.050 --> 05:17.910 And, of course, it is completely unsatisfying. 05:17.990 --> 05:21.950 The number of suicides, divorces, so forth and so on 05:21.950 --> 05:23.890 are testament to the fact 05:23.890 --> 05:27.590 that that cultural style is completely bankrupt. 05:28.930 --> 05:30.750 One thing we need to do, 05:30.770 --> 05:34.190 is by strongly rejecting it, 05:37.420 --> 05:38.380 you know, I was thinking, 05:38.480 --> 05:39.780 I don't know if I said this to you, 05:39.820 --> 05:41.880 I can't remember what I think in my room 05:41.880 --> 05:43.340 and what I say to you guys, 05:43.420 --> 05:46.780 but I was thinking this thing recently somewhere 05:46.780 --> 05:51.020 about how the smarter you are, 05:51.160 --> 05:52.900 the funnier it seems. 05:57.430 --> 05:58.390 That, you know, 05:59.550 --> 06:03.030 it's almost an index of intelligence. 06:03.030 --> 06:03.310 Intelligence. 06:05.950 --> 06:10.950 The level of hilarity you perceive in the situation. 06:10.950 --> 06:14.950 People who have the right idea 06:14.950 --> 06:18.950 can hardly keep from giggling aloud 06:18.950 --> 06:23.950 as they walk around doing their daily business. 06:23.950 --> 06:31.600 And I think if you correctly assimilate the time wave, 06:31.600 --> 06:34.600 you will laugh aloud. 06:34.600 --> 06:37.600 You know, you will laugh aloud. 06:37.600 --> 06:39.480 Just as Oscar Wilde said, 06:39.480 --> 06:41.480 any person with... 06:41.480 --> 06:44.480 Oscar Wilde said you'd have to have a heart of stone 06:44.480 --> 06:46.480 to not have laughed aloud 06:46.480 --> 06:49.480 when you heard of the death of Little Nell. 06:50.480 --> 06:54.480 Little Nell was a character in a Dickens novel 06:54.480 --> 06:58.480 and was being followed very avidly in America. 06:58.480 --> 07:01.480 It was being serialized in newspapers. 07:01.480 --> 07:04.480 And Dickens gave Little Nell pneumonia 07:04.480 --> 07:07.480 and then she hovered at the brink of death 07:07.480 --> 07:08.480 for weeks and weeks. 07:08.480 --> 07:11.480 And when the packet ships would arrive in Boston 07:11.480 --> 07:13.480 with the next installment, 07:13.480 --> 07:15.480 people would come down onto the docks 07:15.480 --> 07:18.480 to get the news on Little Nell. 07:18.480 --> 07:22.480 It was sort of the first daytime TV show type phenomena. 07:22.480 --> 07:23.480 And then Oscar... 07:23.480 --> 07:25.480 And then she died. 07:25.480 --> 07:28.480 And Oscar Wilde said you would have to have a heart of stone 07:28.480 --> 07:30.480 to not have laughed aloud 07:30.480 --> 07:33.480 when told of the death of Little Nell. 07:34.480 --> 07:46.460 It's a kind of... 07:46.460 --> 07:48.460 It's a very profound... 07:49.460 --> 07:54.460 Not joke, but pun of some sort. 07:54.460 --> 07:57.460 And we are very profound puns. 07:57.460 --> 07:59.460 I mean, we are puns in matter. 07:59.460 --> 08:02.460 The condition of being alive 08:02.460 --> 08:05.460 is somehow to be... 08:05.460 --> 08:08.460 the Word made flesh. 08:08.460 --> 08:10.460 I mean, we are the Word made flesh 08:10.460 --> 08:13.460 and hence under the control of syntax, presumably, 08:13.460 --> 08:16.460 and hence subject to being puns 08:16.460 --> 08:18.460 and to carrying... 08:19.460 --> 08:22.460 different levels of meaning in all situations. 08:22.460 --> 08:25.460 And the only proper response to that 08:25.460 --> 08:28.460 is a small smile. 08:28.460 --> 08:31.460 You know, people who take life seriously, I think, 08:31.460 --> 08:34.460 are going to find it slipping through their fingers 08:34.460 --> 08:37.460 in a very maddening fashion. 08:37.460 --> 08:39.460 It's a joke, right? 08:40.460 --> 08:41.460 Right. 08:43.460 --> 08:45.460 You see, people say, well, 08:45.460 --> 08:47.460 but the world is in a terrible... 08:47.460 --> 08:49.460 situation. 08:50.460 --> 08:52.460 Well, it is and it isn't. 08:52.460 --> 08:53.460 I mean, and in the first place, 08:53.460 --> 08:55.460 what can you do about it? 08:55.460 --> 08:57.460 One thing that really impresses me 08:57.460 --> 08:59.460 is how... 08:59.460 --> 09:03.460 immune to noticing change people are. 09:04.460 --> 09:07.460 There has been enormous change 09:07.460 --> 09:10.460 in this world in the last ten years. 09:11.460 --> 09:14.460 The whole Soviet Union thing, 09:14.460 --> 09:17.460 which basically was the threat of... 09:17.460 --> 09:20.460 thermonuclear war on every man, woman, and child 09:20.460 --> 09:21.460 on the planet. 09:21.460 --> 09:22.460 I grew up with it. 09:22.460 --> 09:25.460 We thought we would live with it to eternity. 09:25.460 --> 09:26.460 It disappeared, 09:26.460 --> 09:28.460 and nobody basically even gave a shit 09:28.460 --> 09:30.460 or could bother to write an article 09:30.460 --> 09:32.460 analyzing what happened. 09:35.460 --> 09:39.460 You people have an amazing capacity 09:39.460 --> 09:41.460 for being sanguine. 09:41.460 --> 09:44.460 I mean, the number of people who have told me, 09:44.460 --> 09:46.460 well, you know, nothing's really changed. 09:46.460 --> 09:48.460 It's all been sort of... 09:48.460 --> 09:50.460 Really? 09:51.460 --> 09:52.460 Great! 09:52.460 --> 09:55.460 If you can pull this kind of stuff off 09:55.460 --> 09:57.460 and walk around telling yourself 09:57.460 --> 10:00.460 nothing has really changed, 10:00.460 --> 10:02.460 that's pretty good protection 10:02.460 --> 10:05.460 against panic and hysteria, I would think. 10:05.460 --> 10:07.460 But if every society could change 10:07.460 --> 10:10.460 as much as you have in the past ten years 10:10.460 --> 10:12.460 and walk around telling visitors, 10:12.460 --> 10:15.460 well, you know, it's really business as usual. 10:15.460 --> 10:18.460 They just sort of twiddle the players. 10:18.460 --> 10:21.460 An astonishing assertion. 10:21.460 --> 10:24.460 And I have Russian friends who come and visit me 10:24.460 --> 10:27.460 and I want to know about Yeltsin and Zhirinovsky 10:27.460 --> 10:28.460 and this and that. 10:28.460 --> 10:29.460 And they say, well, you know, 10:29.460 --> 10:32.460 it's just really hasn't changed much. 10:33.460 --> 10:35.460 Same old, same old. 10:36.460 --> 10:37.460 Amazing. 10:37.460 --> 10:41.460 I saw graffiti once on a wall in Colombia 10:41.460 --> 10:44.460 and it said it had a picture of the mushroom 10:44.460 --> 10:45.460 and it said, 10:45.460 --> 10:47.460 in Spanish, 10:47.460 --> 10:51.460 without this, you are not yourself. 10:52.460 --> 10:54.460 You know, accepting that idea 10:54.460 --> 10:57.460 would change our relationship 10:57.460 --> 10:59.460 to the whole question of drugs 10:59.460 --> 11:01.460 because we're told, you know, 11:01.460 --> 11:03.460 un-intoxicated, un-stoned, 11:03.460 --> 11:04.460 as you stand here, 11:04.460 --> 11:08.460 you are somehow the beloved of the almighty. 11:08.460 --> 11:12.460 Loaded, you are somehow the scourge of the earth. 11:12.460 --> 11:15.460 Well, this would play with those categories. 11:15.460 --> 11:18.460 And give us a different relationship 11:18.460 --> 11:20.460 to what we call intoxication. 11:21.460 --> 11:24.460 We're, over time, it's fascinating. 11:24.460 --> 11:25.460 On the other hand, 11:25.460 --> 11:28.460 we have days of this ahead of us. 11:28.460 --> 11:32.460 And I'm usually available in the bar 11:32.460 --> 11:35.460 in the evenings and the mornings. 11:36.460 --> 11:39.460 Thank you for your attention to all of this. 11:39.460 --> 11:40.460 Thank you. 11:45.200 --> 11:46.200 So just keep telling yourself, 11:46.200 --> 11:48.200 same old, same old, 11:48.200 --> 11:50.200 as the internet rises, 11:50.200 --> 11:52.200 borders are erased, 11:52.200 --> 11:54.200 philosophies disappear, 11:54.200 --> 11:57.200 whole new races of people are empowered, 11:57.200 --> 11:59.200 and on and on and on. 11:59.200 --> 12:00.200 And everybody sing.