Leo D.M.J. Aurini - May 11, 2017


What You Believe is Who You Become： Narrative and the Self


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

120.59206

Word Count

1,051

Sentence Count

107

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

In this episode, I talk about how important it is to have your own narrative in order to understand how we live our lives, and the stories we are told about the world around us. I also talk about the role that narratives play in shaping the narrative we live in, and why they are so important.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Thank you.
00:00:30.000 Man is the storytelling animal.
00:00:35.080 This cannot be emphasized enough, how absolutely crucial narrative is to everything that we do.
00:00:48.060 And one thing that strikes me is just how destructive the narratives that are being pumped into people these days are.
00:00:57.040 You know, let me give you three examples of these narratives.
00:01:00.920 The first is from a DMX song from way back when that I'm not going to quote it because otherwise it'll be stuck in your head.
00:01:09.480 But the song is basically him saying that, you know, you people are driving me, driving me nuts.
00:01:16.820 You are making me lose my mind and I'm going to chimp out and that makes me a hero.
00:01:25.060 You know, that's the story of that song that gets internalized by everybody that hears it.
00:01:30.500 Another story, another narrative that people have is soak the rich.
00:01:38.660 You know, that the rich people were just born rich.
00:01:42.780 They are lucky.
00:01:44.400 They were just born rich.
00:01:45.480 They never worked for anything.
00:01:47.100 They just had a silver spoon in their mouth.
00:01:48.840 And so the hell with them.
00:01:52.360 You know, I don't need to deal fairly with them.
00:01:55.280 I don't need to follow my contractual obligations.
00:01:59.200 I don't have to have any respect for them because they were just born rich and they're entitled.
00:02:03.840 So who cares about them?
00:02:04.940 And the third one, the third narrative that you see very commonly is the whole feminist patriarchy.
00:02:15.320 You know, that there's something wrong in a woman's life and the person to blame is this ephemeral patriarchy that she can never really point to.
00:02:25.340 But it's the patriarchy's problem.
00:02:26.860 It's their fault that she feels ashamed for after having casual sex.
00:02:30.380 It's their fault that she doesn't feel fulfilled having the career that she was told to have, etc.
00:02:39.060 These are the narratives in people's heads that they live by.
00:02:43.020 Okay, this is the recurring pattern that they live by.
00:02:46.880 And each one of these narratives, if you notice something about them, is they're disempowering.
00:02:57.080 So the first one, you know, you're all going to make me lose my mind.
00:03:00.700 So I'm going to chimp out like an idiot and get into a fist fight.
00:03:06.500 And, you know, then later on, when they're being booked into prison, you know, that guy's going to be arguing with the other guy about which one was the protagonist of that story.
00:03:15.000 You know, who was the guy that was having that heroic chimp out.
00:03:19.540 Well, you notice, you're going, you are making me lose my mind.
00:03:23.940 You have power over me.
00:03:25.820 I don't have power over myself.
00:03:27.060 So that's handing out that power, that control to the outside world.
00:03:34.200 The second one, the soak the rich.
00:03:39.700 They're just born that way.
00:03:40.640 They're just lucky, etc.
00:03:42.220 Well, if that's the case, then why bother being frugal?
00:03:48.600 You know, why bother scrimping and saving?
00:03:51.340 You know, and trying to get an investment property or trying to build a business or whatever.
00:03:55.920 If people are just born rich, there's no point in you saving money, so you might as well blow your whole paycheck on alcohol or whatever.
00:04:06.380 And again, the third one, with the feminist patriarchy nonsense, if it's some sort of ephemeral patriarchy, there's nothing you can do about it.
00:04:16.000 You might as well accept failure.
00:04:22.720 So yeah, these are very disempowering narratives.
00:04:26.160 They're very destructive narratives that people believe in.
00:04:31.980 They follow them.
00:04:33.520 They repeat them again and again and again.
00:04:36.620 They become enslaved to these damn narratives.
00:04:39.020 And this is what we're putting into people's heads.
00:04:45.620 All of this is very closely related to addiction.
00:04:50.700 That's just how I was raised.
00:04:52.360 This is the environment I was raised in.
00:04:56.660 You know, because you are going to repeat the narratives and the patterns and the stories of your childhood environment that you pick up from your parents.
00:05:05.900 Pick it up with your mother's milk.
00:05:09.020 But when you start getting these bad outcomes, see, this is the point where you have to decide.
00:05:17.680 You need to choose what narratives you allow into your own head.
00:05:23.880 Which script you're going to follow.
00:05:29.520 You know, Peterson put it quite well.
00:05:31.860 It's that, you know, you could be living a tragedy right now.
00:05:34.960 Is that the script you're following?
00:05:36.600 Is that the story you're following?
00:05:38.360 Is it a tragedy?
00:05:40.920 Do you want to be following that story, that script?
00:05:44.100 Is that the life you want to be leading?
00:05:48.880 Because every time you follow it, you're choosing to follow it.
00:05:54.140 This is the lie that addicts use.
00:05:58.820 That I'm addicted.
00:05:59.860 No, you are choosing to be addicted.
00:06:04.560 You are choosing to follow that story that always ends in the same place.
00:06:11.480 You are choosing.
00:06:13.160 When everybody else drives you mad and you chimp out, you are choosing to let them drive you mad.
00:06:20.560 You are choosing your behavior.
00:06:23.140 You know, and as the old sergeant major said to me once, you know, you choose the behavior, you choose the consequences.
00:06:30.520 If you want to blame your poverty on the rich, you know, you're choosing that.
00:06:42.560 You are choosing poverty.
00:06:43.580 When you're choosing to not control yourself, you are saying that somebody else needs to control me.
00:06:56.140 And so it's absolutely vital that you find out which story, which narrative you're following.
00:07:08.180 What are these stories that you're entering into your life, you're putting into your head?
00:07:15.280 Because if they're bad stories, then you're going to have a bad outcome.
00:07:24.540 You know, and there's, they're usually, there's stories that are useful to somebody else.
00:07:29.200 Somebody else is getting an advantage.
00:07:33.820 But you are losing.
00:07:38.460 So pay attention.
00:07:39.600 Pay attention to what you let into your head.
00:07:42.940 Because not everything out there is going to be particularly good for you.
00:07:52.680 Deus Volt.
00:07:54.540 Irini out, folks.
00:08:12.940 I hope not.
00:08:24.500 I hope not.
00:08:26.520 I hope not.
00:08:26.660 I hope not.
00:08:27.240 I hope not.
00:08:28.660 I hope not.
00:08:30.080 We'll be right next time.
00:08:30.580 I hope not.
00:08:30.680 I hope not.
00:08:31.160 I hope not.
00:08:31.260 I hope not.
00:08:32.720 I hope not.
00:08:33.240 I hope not.
00:08:34.940 I hope not.
00:08:35.100 I hope not.
00:08:35.440 I hope not.
00:08:35.900 I hope not.
00:08:36.380 I hope not.
00:08:37.440 I hope not.
00:08:39.040 I hope not.
00:08:40.260 I hope not.
00:08:40.540 I hope not.
00:08:40.780 I hope not.
00:08:41.100 I hope not.
00:08:41.480 I hope not.
00:08:42.160 I hope not.
00:08:42.540 I hope not.