Making Sense - Sam Harris - January 22, 2015


#5 — After Charlie Hebdo and Other Thoughts


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

174.07306

Word Count

2,759

Sentence Count

148

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

19


Summary

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, many of us are concerned about the lack of action by the media in response to the attacks, and the subsequent self-censorship that has resulted, we can't help but ask: why? Why does the media not do the one thing it could do to keep the cartoonists safe, which is to publish all of their cartoons and present a united front against this creeping theocracy? And why is this a bad thing? And what is the reason for this? And why does it have to do with Islam and the depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in the media? In this episode of The Making Sense Podcast, I try to answer these questions, and suggest a possible explanation for why the media is so paralyzed by fear that it can't do what it should do, and why we need to do what we can to fight back against the creeping totalitarianism of the Islamic theocracy. We don't run ads on the podcast, and therefore it's made possible entirely through the support of our listeners, we don't need to run ads. So if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider becoming a supporter of the podcast and/or become a supporter! You'll get access to all sorts of premium premium features, including ad-free versions of the Making Sense podcast wherever you get your listening choices, as well as access to our most popular podcast episodes, including the most popular podcatcher, The Huffington Post and The New York Times besties, The Daily Beast. Thanks for listening to the podcast! - subscribe to Making Sense. . Subscribe, subscribe to the making sense podcast, wherever you listen to the show, and subscribe on your favorite podcast, to learn more about what's making sense? You're listening to something that matters to you? Subscribe to the Making sense podcast? - Sam Harris This is an Ask Me Anything? - by asking me anything? - and I'll try to respond to your thoughts on the latest episode of Making Sense? by tweeting me anything you care about it? on Insta: on that's a tweet me and I'm listening to me? and in the most profound and thoughtful of what s making sense, I'll get a chance to know what you're listening about that you're making sense of it, right there, I'm making sense there? I'll be listening to this podcast, right?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast.
00:00:08.980 This is Sam Harris.
00:00:11.040 Just a note to say that if you're hearing this,
00:00:13.180 you are not currently on our subscriber feed
00:00:15.300 and will only be hearing the first part of this conversation.
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00:00:26.100 to add to your favorite podcatcher,
00:00:28.120 along with other subscriber-only content.
00:00:30.380 We don't run ads on the podcast,
00:00:32.540 and therefore it's made possible entirely
00:00:34.080 through the support of our subscribers.
00:00:35.940 So if you enjoy what we're doing here,
00:00:37.820 please consider becoming one.
00:00:46.220 Well, this is an Ask Me Anything podcast.
00:00:48.540 I've now received hundreds of questions on Twitter
00:00:50.780 and in other formats,
00:00:52.680 and I'll try to get through several of them,
00:00:54.620 but many have converged on a single topic,
00:00:57.340 which will come as no surprise,
00:00:58.580 as well as the recent atrocities in Paris,
00:01:01.340 the murders of the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists,
00:01:03.380 and the murders in the Jewish market.
00:01:05.320 And also many of you are concerned
00:01:06.440 about the subsequent self-censorship,
00:01:08.480 which has really been quite amazing to witness.
00:01:11.900 It's just astonishing that the media
00:01:13.600 cannot do the one thing that it could do
00:01:16.460 to keep it and everyone else safe.
00:01:18.440 And it can't do the one thing
00:01:20.000 that would have kept the Charlie Hebdo cartoonists safe,
00:01:22.480 which is publish en masse all of these cartoons
00:01:26.120 and present a united front against this creeping theocracy.
00:01:29.360 So, I'll try to say a few things on this topic.
00:01:32.920 I haven't commented on it publicly yet,
00:01:35.640 and while I've been circulating the interviews
00:01:38.560 done by friends and colleagues like Majid Nawaz
00:01:41.240 and Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Douglas Murray,
00:01:43.500 all of whom have been excellent,
00:01:45.260 I've been declining interviews myself,
00:01:47.320 and I'm not quite sure why I've been doing that.
00:01:50.680 I think the main reason is that it's just become toxic
00:01:52.860 for me to say over and over again
00:01:54.840 that which should really go without saying
00:01:57.640 and to then be vilified for it.
00:02:00.160 It really is no fun dealing with this topic.
00:02:04.020 Although I am writing a short book with Majid Nawaz,
00:02:06.620 the working title of which is
00:02:07.940 Islam and the Future of Tolerance.
00:02:09.940 And I'm very happy about that.
00:02:11.140 Majid is doing amazing work,
00:02:13.500 and he's really just indispensable.
00:02:16.060 And we're having a very good conversation.
00:02:18.400 And that will be published in June,
00:02:20.820 at the latest, I hope, by Harvard University Press.
00:02:24.960 And beyond everything we may or may not agree about,
00:02:28.060 I think we've produced an example
00:02:29.680 of a fundamentally different conversation
00:02:32.020 on this problem of Islam at this moment.
00:02:36.560 And if you don't know who Majid is,
00:02:38.180 you should Google him.
00:02:39.120 He's a former Islamist who obviously knows
00:02:41.880 exactly why Islamists do what they do.
00:02:44.900 But now he's a reformer,
00:02:46.800 and he's quite articulate on the topic
00:02:49.440 of how to move Islam forward.
00:02:52.300 And while I'm skeptical of that project
00:02:55.280 and increasingly worry that it might be hopeless,
00:02:57.880 he and I manage to have a very good conversation.
00:02:59.920 So I will alert you all to the birth of that book
00:03:02.280 when it occurs.
00:03:04.500 But perhaps I can say a few things
00:03:06.120 about recent events in the meantime.
00:03:09.380 Well, the first thing to say
00:03:10.340 is that the response of liberals,
00:03:11.960 and again, it is so depressing
00:03:13.500 to have to use the term liberal
00:03:15.500 in a pejorative way in this context.
00:03:18.560 But liberalism has completely lost its moorings
00:03:22.340 on the topic of Islam.
00:03:24.460 Needless to say, we have all the usual suspects,
00:03:26.660 Glenn Greenwald and Reza Aslan
00:03:28.440 and Chris Hedges and Karen Armstrong.
00:03:30.700 And as unreadable as these people have become,
00:03:34.380 you can't help but notice
00:03:35.520 the stupid things they say about Islam,
00:03:37.520 even in the immediate aftermath
00:03:39.020 of an atrocity like this.
00:03:40.860 And as will come as no surprise,
00:03:42.520 they will tell you
00:03:43.140 that this has nothing to do with Islam.
00:03:45.140 It has nothing to do
00:03:46.140 with heartfelt religious convictions.
00:03:48.560 No, it has everything to do
00:03:49.640 with capitalism
00:03:50.300 and the oppression of minorities
00:03:51.860 and the racism of white people in Europe
00:03:54.900 and the racism of cartoonists
00:03:56.980 at a magazine like Charlie Hebdo.
00:03:59.420 That is the cause of this behavior.
00:04:02.360 That's what causes someone
00:04:03.240 to grab an AK-47
00:04:04.400 and murder 12 cartoonists
00:04:05.920 and then scream Allahu Akbar
00:04:07.220 in the streets.
00:04:08.700 It is a completely insane analysis.
00:04:12.000 Even if you grant everything
00:04:13.480 that's wrong with capitalism
00:04:14.920 and the history of colonialism,
00:04:17.180 you should not be able to deny
00:04:18.620 that these religious maniacs
00:04:20.280 are motivated by concerns
00:04:21.760 about blasphemy
00:04:22.880 and the depiction
00:04:23.900 of the Prophet Muhammad
00:04:24.880 and consider their behavior
00:04:26.540 entirely ethical
00:04:27.780 in light of specific religious doctrines.
00:04:32.140 And it's a kind of masochism
00:04:33.660 and moral cowardice
00:04:34.940 and lack of intelligence,
00:04:37.140 frankly, at this point,
00:04:38.500 that is allowing people
00:04:39.600 to deny this fact.
00:04:41.680 And then we have the practice
00:04:42.640 of self-censorship,
00:04:43.700 which is completely understandable
00:04:45.080 and entirely based on fear.
00:04:47.680 And the reason why it's understandable
00:04:48.840 is that this fear
00:04:49.740 is actually quite rational
00:04:51.020 if you were the only person
00:04:52.640 or news organization
00:04:53.740 printing pictures
00:04:54.880 of the Prophet Muhammad.
00:04:56.180 And that's why every newspaper
00:04:57.500 and magazine
00:04:58.120 and news outlet on earth
00:04:59.620 should have agreed to print
00:05:01.160 the latest Charlie Hebdo cover
00:05:02.680 immediately on the same day
00:05:04.360 and spread the risk.
00:05:06.460 We hear everywhere
00:05:07.200 about this false trade-off
00:05:08.480 between freedom of speech
00:05:09.860 and freedom of religion,
00:05:11.700 as though there was
00:05:12.160 some kind of balance
00:05:13.000 to be struck here.
00:05:14.020 There is no balance
00:05:15.040 to be struck.
00:05:16.300 Freedom of speech
00:05:17.180 never infringes
00:05:18.600 on freedom of religion.
00:05:20.620 There's nothing I could say
00:05:21.600 in this podcast
00:05:22.300 about religion generally
00:05:23.760 or about Islam in particular
00:05:25.760 that would infringe
00:05:26.960 upon someone else's freedom
00:05:28.220 to practice his or her religion.
00:05:30.400 If your freedom of religion
00:05:31.980 entails that you force
00:05:33.380 those who do not share it
00:05:35.060 to conform to it,
00:05:36.800 well then that's not
00:05:37.340 freedom of religion.
00:05:38.240 We have a word for that.
00:05:39.840 That's theocracy.
00:05:41.140 This respect
00:05:42.040 that we are all urged
00:05:43.180 to show for, quote,
00:05:44.320 religious sensitivity
00:05:45.380 is actually a demand
00:05:47.320 that the blasphemy laws
00:05:48.900 of Islam be followed
00:05:50.540 by non-Muslims
00:05:51.880 and secular liberals
00:05:53.220 in the West
00:05:53.760 are defending
00:05:54.540 this thuggish ultimatum
00:05:56.120 and putting the lives
00:05:57.280 of cartoonists
00:05:58.220 and journalists
00:05:58.760 and freethinkers
00:05:59.840 and public intellectuals
00:06:01.620 in jeopardy
00:06:02.660 day after day.
00:06:04.400 So we're harming ourselves
00:06:05.700 when we practice
00:06:06.620 censorship on this point.
00:06:08.320 The Muslim world
00:06:09.180 simply has to get used
00:06:10.760 to free speech winning
00:06:12.040 and we should make
00:06:13.640 no apologies for this.
00:06:15.500 But there are several
00:06:16.460 double standards
00:06:17.240 that are quite harmful
00:06:18.220 on this point.
00:06:19.300 For instance,
00:06:19.760 it is illegal
00:06:20.540 in France and Germany
00:06:22.120 and a few other countries
00:06:23.020 in Western Europe
00:06:23.720 to deny the Holocaust.
00:06:25.920 That's a bad law.
00:06:27.800 A person should be
00:06:28.740 absolutely free
00:06:29.940 to deny the Holocaust,
00:06:31.920 which is to say
00:06:32.500 he should be free
00:06:33.180 to destroy his reputation
00:06:34.620 and others should be free
00:06:35.980 to ridicule him
00:06:36.840 and to boycott his business.
00:06:38.360 There shouldn't be a law
00:06:40.720 against this kind of idiocy
00:06:42.160 and making this category
00:06:44.400 of speech illegal
00:06:45.480 is a terrible mistake
00:06:47.420 and Islamists
00:06:48.740 and liberals
00:06:49.660 are using this mistake
00:06:51.280 as a basis
00:06:52.800 to condemn
00:06:53.580 the so-called hypocrisy
00:06:54.980 of all the people
00:06:55.660 who are defending
00:06:56.420 Charlie Hebdo
00:06:57.640 at this moment.
00:06:58.900 Whatever you think
00:06:59.620 about the content
00:07:00.320 of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons
00:07:01.800 and as many people
00:07:03.020 have pointed out,
00:07:03.840 this content
00:07:04.320 has been misunderstood
00:07:05.740 outside of France.
00:07:07.140 Cartoons that appear racist
00:07:09.120 to a non-French speaker
00:07:10.360 or to someone
00:07:10.980 who's ignorant
00:07:11.460 of French politics
00:07:12.280 are anything but racist
00:07:13.960 when you understand
00:07:15.200 the context.
00:07:16.540 But even if you granted
00:07:17.700 that most of these cartoons
00:07:19.720 were racist
00:07:20.720 and therefore offensive,
00:07:22.180 you have to concede
00:07:23.080 that protecting this speech
00:07:24.340 becomes important
00:07:25.200 when you have one group
00:07:26.380 of people,
00:07:27.320 quote,
00:07:27.640 radical Muslims,
00:07:29.020 who are responding
00:07:29.980 to this offense
00:07:30.780 with credible threats
00:07:32.160 of murder
00:07:32.760 in every country on earth.
00:07:35.240 We can't give in to this.
00:07:37.140 So here's one sign
00:07:38.740 that a person,
00:07:39.420 whether he's on the left
00:07:40.160 or the right politically,
00:07:41.200 has completely lost
00:07:42.280 the plot here.
00:07:43.660 The moment he begins to ask,
00:07:45.720 what was in those cartoons?
00:07:47.600 Were those cartoons racist?
00:07:50.080 Was that a negative portrayal
00:07:51.780 of Muhammad?
00:07:52.880 To ask such questions
00:07:54.280 is obscene.
00:07:56.420 People have been murdered
00:07:57.880 over cartoons.
00:08:00.340 End of moral analysis.
00:08:01.820 And we are seeing
00:08:03.700 a total capitulation
00:08:04.940 on the part of news organizations
00:08:06.280 in the face of this terror.
00:08:08.020 The fact that the New York Times
00:08:09.280 will not print
00:08:10.220 the current cover
00:08:11.180 of Charlie Hebdo,
00:08:12.520 even though it is
00:08:13.460 absolutely newsworthy,
00:08:15.340 and even though they are
00:08:16.080 writing articles about it,
00:08:17.880 is shocking.
00:08:19.200 And we should notice
00:08:19.940 how euphemism
00:08:20.820 is preventing
00:08:21.820 honest conversation
00:08:22.760 on this topic.
00:08:23.940 We use words like
00:08:24.940 extremist and extremism.
00:08:26.840 What do these words mean?
00:08:28.200 Well, extremism generally suggests
00:08:29.920 that an expression
00:08:30.660 of a certain set of ideas
00:08:32.080 has become an exaggeration
00:08:34.200 or distortion
00:08:35.020 of those ideas.
00:08:36.540 But when we're talking
00:08:37.300 about Muslim extremists,
00:08:39.300 have they really exaggerated
00:08:40.740 or distorted
00:08:41.600 the core teachings of Islam?
00:08:43.480 No.
00:08:43.800 Muslim extremists
00:08:44.560 are motivated
00:08:45.140 by the most literal
00:08:46.180 and straightforward
00:08:47.180 and comprehensive resort
00:08:48.880 to the ideas
00:08:49.700 expressed in the Quran
00:08:50.660 and the Hadith.
00:08:51.680 What is ISIS doing
00:08:53.260 that Muhammad didn't do
00:08:54.860 or didn't advocate
00:08:55.920 somewhere in scripture?
00:08:57.480 Good luck finding
00:08:58.380 something important.
00:08:59.920 And that's a fact
00:09:00.900 that we just have to absorb.
00:09:02.240 That is a body blow
00:09:03.560 to political correctness
00:09:04.840 that just has to land
00:09:06.940 and land hard.
00:09:08.840 Happily, someone like
00:09:09.680 Majid Nawaz
00:09:10.420 is prepared to talk
00:09:11.500 about this.
00:09:12.160 He's prepared
00:09:13.040 to take the other side
00:09:14.820 in a conversation
00:09:16.160 with me in this case.
00:09:17.860 And he can do it
00:09:18.700 without lying
00:09:19.640 about the connection
00:09:20.760 between what people believe
00:09:22.800 and their behavior
00:09:23.680 in the world.
00:09:24.520 And he should be
00:09:25.080 distinguished in your mind
00:09:26.380 from someone like
00:09:26.980 Reza Aslan
00:09:27.660 who is a fount of lies
00:09:29.160 and misdirection
00:09:30.020 on this topic.
00:09:31.040 Reza is one of these people
00:09:32.100 who has said
00:09:32.580 in recent days
00:09:33.200 that the murder
00:09:33.780 of cartoonists
00:09:34.600 and Jews in Paris
00:09:35.720 was due to the failure
00:09:37.440 of integration
00:09:38.280 of Muslims in France
00:09:39.920 and the racism
00:09:40.940 that has been directed
00:09:41.820 at them.
00:09:42.700 This is leveraging
00:09:43.420 a very common intuition
00:09:44.960 that there must be
00:09:45.680 two sides
00:09:46.460 to every conflict.
00:09:48.180 So there's two sides
00:09:49.400 to this story.
00:09:50.100 On the one hand,
00:09:50.720 you have the racism
00:09:51.460 of Charlie Hebdo
00:09:52.400 and its readers
00:09:53.020 and on the other side,
00:09:54.280 you have the poor immigrants
00:09:55.120 who are struggling
00:09:55.720 to assimilate
00:09:56.340 in a hostile society.
00:09:58.140 That's what causes people
00:09:59.260 to slaughter cartoonists
00:10:00.380 while shouting
00:10:00.880 we have avenged the prophet.
00:10:02.540 This politically correct analysis
00:10:04.260 is morally insane
00:10:05.720 and news organizations
00:10:07.440 and readers
00:10:08.160 should lose
00:10:08.780 their patience for it.
00:10:10.240 To focus on the content
00:10:11.780 of the cartoons
00:10:12.620 as people like Aslan
00:10:14.400 and Greenwald have done
00:10:15.720 as though it were
00:10:16.760 somehow morally relevant
00:10:18.280 is a disgrace.
00:10:19.800 And the moment
00:10:21.160 that someone does it,
00:10:22.040 he has tipped his hand.
00:10:23.520 It is a perfect litmus test.
00:10:26.820 I get the sense
00:10:27.620 that people still
00:10:28.500 don't understand
00:10:29.340 what we're dealing with here.
00:10:31.140 Have you seen
00:10:31.520 any of these recent interviews
00:10:32.480 with captured ISIS fighters?
00:10:34.460 Religion is the whole story.
00:10:36.520 They are totally fixated
00:10:37.840 on getting into paradise.
00:10:39.760 In fact, the Kurds
00:10:40.680 have put female soldiers
00:10:41.860 into the field
00:10:42.480 and this terrifies
00:10:43.440 members of ISIS
00:10:44.120 because they believe
00:10:45.400 that they won't go to paradise
00:10:46.640 if they get killed
00:10:47.880 by a woman.
00:10:48.420 They literally run away
00:10:50.860 from these female soldiers.
00:10:53.340 It's like a culture
00:10:54.240 of psychotic
00:10:55.200 and psychopathic children.
00:10:57.640 And just consider
00:10:58.080 the attitude
00:10:58.620 they show
00:10:59.200 toward real children.
00:11:00.600 Of course,
00:11:01.060 they've been murdering
00:11:01.920 Shia and Christian
00:11:02.860 and Yazidi children,
00:11:04.600 burying them alive
00:11:05.560 and crucifying them,
00:11:06.920 but they seem happy
00:11:08.340 to inflict needless horror
00:11:09.940 on their own children.
00:11:11.500 You may have read
00:11:12.080 a story recently
00:11:12.800 about a street magician
00:11:13.860 in Raqqa, Syria
00:11:14.820 who had been entertaining
00:11:16.100 children for years.
00:11:17.180 ISIS deemed
00:11:18.280 his activities
00:11:18.920 un-Islamic
00:11:19.740 and cut his head off.
00:11:21.240 Just imagine
00:11:22.080 what it is like
00:11:23.120 to be a child
00:11:23.980 in this context.
00:11:25.640 Imagine the sort
00:11:26.420 of men and women
00:11:27.320 that such a childhood
00:11:28.740 will produce.
00:11:30.000 The crucial thing
00:11:30.640 to understand
00:11:31.020 is that stories
00:11:31.740 like that
00:11:32.420 do not represent
00:11:33.920 an excessive use
00:11:34.960 of force
00:11:35.580 by a few deranged
00:11:37.020 individuals.
00:11:38.240 All of this butchery,
00:11:39.700 the murder of journalists
00:11:40.860 and aid workers,
00:11:41.820 the torture of women
00:11:42.780 who get caught
00:11:43.300 breastfeeding in public,
00:11:45.380 is as central
00:11:46.260 to the project
00:11:47.060 of jihadism
00:11:47.880 as an opening
00:11:49.100 of a new Starbucks
00:11:50.020 is for us.
00:11:51.420 This is what they think
00:11:52.400 is best about themselves.
00:11:54.800 This is what they use
00:11:55.900 to advertise
00:11:56.740 their project
00:11:57.740 to the rest of the world.
00:11:59.740 Video footage
00:12:00.540 of an aid worker,
00:12:01.980 an aid worker
00:12:02.920 getting his head
00:12:04.000 cut off,
00:12:05.060 is part of their
00:12:05.980 recruiting materials.
00:12:07.920 These horrible stories
00:12:09.280 coming out of Syria
00:12:10.160 and Iraq,
00:12:10.940 this is not their
00:12:11.940 Milai massacre.
00:12:13.540 This is what they
00:12:14.460 unabashedly stand for.
00:12:17.020 This is an expression
00:12:18.080 of a worldview.
00:12:19.940 And this worldview
00:12:20.800 is contagious.
00:12:23.220 It doesn't matter
00:12:24.080 if a person's had
00:12:24.840 direct contact
00:12:25.780 with al-Qaeda
00:12:26.380 or ISIS
00:12:26.940 or whether he's
00:12:27.520 quote,
00:12:27.800 a lone wolf.
00:12:29.020 We're talking
00:12:29.980 about the spread
00:12:30.680 of ideas.
00:12:31.780 Again,
00:12:32.280 ideas about martyrdom
00:12:33.640 and jihad
00:12:34.220 and paradise
00:12:35.080 and the rights
00:12:36.300 of women
00:12:36.740 and blasphemy.
00:12:38.580 The point
00:12:39.100 we cannot ignore,
00:12:40.720 the point
00:12:41.160 that should never
00:12:41.800 be obfuscated,
00:12:42.900 is that we are
00:12:43.420 at war
00:12:43.940 with a global
00:12:44.900 phenomenon
00:12:45.580 of jihadism.
00:12:47.700 And there can be
00:12:48.280 no compromise
00:12:49.120 with this death cult.
00:12:51.100 And these fake liberals,
00:12:52.420 these fellow travelers
00:12:53.580 with theocracy,
00:12:54.900 these people
00:12:55.400 who in the name
00:12:56.120 of liberalism
00:12:56.960 protect only
00:12:58.200 political correctness
00:12:59.320 and masochism,
00:13:00.740 they are absolutely
00:13:01.740 part of the problem.
00:13:03.340 They are preventing
00:13:04.000 us from demanding
00:13:04.960 that the Muslim community
00:13:06.120 worldwide get its act together.
00:13:09.820 And this is why
00:13:10.380 expressions of horror
00:13:11.460 and rejection
00:13:12.120 are insufficient
00:13:13.000 in the Muslim community.
00:13:15.060 Of course you're horrified
00:13:16.160 by this behavior
00:13:16.860 if you're a decent human being
00:13:18.180 and have even a tenuous
00:13:19.480 connection to civil society
00:13:21.020 in the 21st century.
00:13:22.240 But that's not enough.
00:13:23.720 Muslims have to honestly
00:13:25.060 grapple with the bad doctrines
00:13:26.920 in their faith.
00:13:27.960 They can no longer
00:13:28.540 just say that Islam
00:13:29.420 is a religion of peace.
00:13:30.980 They can no longer
00:13:31.620 lie about the doctrines
00:13:33.020 that relate to martyrdom
00:13:34.300 and jihad and apostasy
00:13:35.760 and the rights of women.
00:13:37.380 Muslims have to fight
00:13:38.300 a civil war of ideas
00:13:39.780 or a civil war
00:13:41.320 against jihadism
00:13:42.880 and Islamism generally.
00:13:44.800 That's what has to happen.
00:13:46.240 It's not a matter
00:13:46.840 of blaming all Muslims
00:13:48.380 for the actions of a few.
00:13:50.220 It's a matter
00:13:50.800 of demanding
00:13:51.540 a reformation
00:13:52.400 within Islam
00:13:53.320 that only Muslims
00:13:54.800 can accomplish.
00:13:56.320 The civilized world
00:13:57.280 is waiting for this
00:13:58.260 to happen
00:13:58.680 and people will continue
00:14:00.100 to die until it does.
00:14:02.160 And of course
00:14:02.680 most of the people
00:14:03.680 dying are Muslims.
00:14:06.120 As I said,
00:14:06.580 the conversation
00:14:06.980 I'm having with Majid Nawaz
00:14:08.320 is directly on this point.
00:14:10.140 And Majid is doing
00:14:10.680 extremely important work
00:14:11.780 with the Quilliam Foundation
00:14:12.800 and I encourage you all
00:14:13.880 to look him up
00:14:14.600 if you're not aware
00:14:15.200 of who he is.
00:14:16.860 Well, moving on
00:14:17.800 to a very different topic
00:14:18.980 about which I've
00:14:20.040 also received
00:14:21.020 several questions.
00:14:21.720 I released a video
00:14:23.480 of a lecture I gave
00:14:24.260 in the fall
00:14:24.720 on the subject
00:14:25.200 of my book
00:14:25.760 Waking Up
00:14:26.360 and that's available
00:14:27.400 on my website.
00:14:28.700 But I received complaints
00:14:30.000 from several readers
00:14:30.880 that I was selling it
00:14:31.860 and not offering it
00:14:32.720 for free.
00:14:34.160 Now, I knew this was coming
00:14:35.460 and this is actually
00:14:36.340 a difficult thing
00:14:37.720 for me to talk about
00:14:38.560 but I think it's important.
00:14:41.160 We've all begun
00:14:42.160 to expect everything
00:14:43.460 online for free
00:14:44.740 and I include myself
00:14:46.180 in this.
00:14:46.860 I want to read articles
00:14:47.760 and watch videos
00:14:48.600 and I don't want to
00:14:49.260 pay anything for them.
00:14:50.440 If someone sends me
00:14:51.080 a link to an article
00:14:51.900 in the Wall Street Journal
00:14:52.780 and I hit their paywall,
00:14:54.400 I'm not going to read it.
00:14:55.460 I don't want to subscribe
00:14:56.680 to another newspaper
00:14:57.860 or magazine,
00:14:58.880 certainly not for
00:14:59.540 a single article
00:15:00.260 and money aside
00:15:01.460 it's just too much
00:15:02.040 of a hassle.
00:15:02.940 But of course,
00:15:03.560 everything can't be
00:15:04.560 free online
00:15:05.300 or no one will be able
00:15:06.280 to make a living
00:15:07.040 producing quality work.
00:15:09.080 We have yet to find
00:15:10.300 an elegant solution
00:15:11.300 to this problem
00:15:11.980 but the problem
00:15:12.660 runs deeper than this
00:15:13.560 because people actually
00:15:14.580 make a significant effort
00:15:15.920 to find content
00:15:17.200 for free
00:15:17.740 rather than buy it.
00:15:18.600 I've heard from
00:15:19.740 several people
00:15:20.400 ostensibly fans
00:15:21.520 who are just waiting
00:15:22.540 to find my
00:15:23.220 Waking Up video
00:15:23.940 free
00:15:24.600 on the Wall Street.
00:15:26.200 If you'd like to
00:15:27.080 continue listening
00:15:27.660 to this conversation,
00:15:29.040 you'll need to
00:15:29.500 subscribe at
00:15:30.180 samharris.org.
00:15:31.760 Once you do,
00:15:32.420 you'll get access
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