Secret History #1: How Power Works

Good morning, class. Welcome to our first class. Today what I want to do is provide the framework for how we will learn this semester. What are we learning? How are we learning? Why are we All right. So this is a class of ideas, so it's really important for you to pay attention and understand how these ideas connect with each other. If I'm not being clear, ask me a question. In fact, make it a habit to ask as many questions as possible, because that way you will learn more, learning will be more fun for you, and learning will be much more clear to you, okay?

So let's get in the habit of asking questions. Wherever I am confusing, wherever I'm speaking too fast, wherever you don't understand, interrupt me. Okay? Let's get in the habit. All right. So I first want to talk about We will be discussing a lot this semester, because he is the greatest in Western history. And he taught us how the world works. And this is what he told us. He told us that we can never know the objective reality. There is an objective reality, what he calls the noumena, or the things in themselves.

That is not knowable to us. That's the world we can never access. Why? Because we perceive the world through our senses. Our senses, our perception, warps the world and changes it into a structure that we can process, called the which are the things that appear to us. Okay? So the example is time and space. Time and space do not exist outside of Time and space do not exist in reality. But for us to understand reality, we need to add in time and space. Okay, that's the example. All right?

How the world works is we perceive the world, we perceive the noumena, and turn it into the phenomena for us to process. In other words, and this is really reality is what we imagine it to be. There is no objective reality. Reality is what we imagine it to be. Life is a constant process, a constant act of imagination.

All right? That's Immanuel Kant. That's the first idea I want you to understand. So what I want to do in this class this semester is train you, or teach you, or inspire you to augment your imagination, so that you see the world much more This class is not about what to think, it's about how to think.

All right. So let me explain the structure of the course. There's the past, there's the present, and there's the future. We'll be looking at all three this semester, the past, the present, and the future. We will be analyzing all three in order to construct a more objective reality for ourselves. We will not succeed, we will fail. But the process of trying will train our minds to think much more critically about the world. So let me explain how. In the present, we have geopolitics.

We'll be studying geopolitics. For example, why is there war in Ukraine? Why is there war in the Middle East? What happened? We'll be studying And we'll try to understand why this is happening. We'll try to formulate an analytical model of geopolitics. Okay? An analytical model.

We will then use this analytical model to make predictions about the future. Why do we do this? Because these predictions will tell us if our analytical model is correct or not. Okay? Does that make sense? It's no different from artificial intelligence. How do you know if your artificial intelligence model is correct or not? Well, you test it against reality. Okay? There's no difference between that artificial intelligence system and what we're trying to do here. And why are we doing this? Because if we're able to have an analytical model that makes correct predictions, then we can take all this and go back and analyze the past to reveal the secret history of the world.

That is a project we are undertaking this semester, to discover for ourselves the secret of humanity. Because you may not know this, but all the history that you learn in school, all that history that you think you know, it is false. Okay? The history that you believe, it is a system implanted into your brains by powerful people. Okay? So the real question that we're looking at this semester is really how Because if we can figure this out, then you will achieve liberation.

You will achieve freedom. You will understand how you're being manipulated by others, and therefore you will be You'll be empowered to live the way you want to live. To see the world that is true to you.

Let me give you three concrete examples of how power works. Okay, the first example is money. Let us do a thought experiment. I'm a bank, okay? I decide I want to open a bank.

And now you're allowed to put money in the bank, okay? So all of you get together, and you put $5 million in the bank. Now, why do you put $5 million into my bank? Because I promise you 1% interest. Right? 1% interest.

That's a really good deal. But now, because I owe you some money, right? I owe you 1% interest, I now need to go make money for myself. So I have a friend who's building a restaurant, and he says, "I need $5 million to build the restaurant, and after a year I will pay you back 10% interest." And so I make a 9% profit, and I can use that to pay my employees, to pay myself a salary, to build a new building, okay? So now I want you to think about this.

I'm the bank, I got $5 million in deposit money, then I give out a $5 million loan. Today, how much money is in the bank? Countless. Hm? Countless. How much money now do I have? I got $5 million from you guys, then I give it out to someone else. Right? So how much money is in the bank right now? Zero, right? It should be zero. Logically, the answer is zero. In fact, zero is the answer that you are taught in economics. It's what you are taught, yeah?

Zero is not the answer that we're taught in economics. Okay. You cannot loan all of the money that you have. For example, if they will have a limit like 25 percent, I don't know. Okay. Maybe 10 percent. So you can only loan like 4 million dollars. Okay. Yeah. Really good point. Oh, yes. So that's really good. So in economics you learn about the idea of the fractional reserve system.

Okay. What's fractional reserve? As you say, you must leave behind a certain amount of money. It could be 7 percent. It could be 10 percent. It depends on the country, okay? Let's say 10 percent. So theoretically, I cannot actually lend out 5 million dollars. I can only lend out 4.5 million dollars. Okay. You're right. That's law as well.

Okay. Let's say I lend out 4.5 million dollars, okay? Now, how much money do I have in the bank? 2.5 Yeah. Half a million, right? Okay. So again, this is what you're taught in economics. This is what makes logical sense, right? The correct answer. What actually happens in real life, you now have 9.5 million dollars. Okay. That is the correct answer.

This makes no sense, right? But it happens in reality. And how do we know? Because over the past 20 years, Chinese banks, like the Bank of China, the Bank of Industry and Commerce, the Agricultural Bank of China, if you Google these banks, what you will see is these past 20 years, these banks have become the largest in the world. How did that happen?

Was it because Chinese people got rich and put all the money in the bank? No, that's not what happened. What happened, guys? It's supported by the government. The government. Okay. What happened was these banks started to lend money out to corporations, to government, to people, to build skyscrapers, to build roads. In other words, the banks started to create money out of nothing in order to finance China's infrastructure projects. And that's what banks are allowed to do. They're allowed to print money, create money out of nothing. Okay. Does that make sense?

Now, the question then is, wait a minute here, that's absurd. How did this system come into being? How was it created? Okay. Well, actually, there's a very easy explanation for where we got the system All right. So let me explain the history and the origin of the system. So in the beginning, it was merchants who engaged in finance. Because merchants needed money in order to facilitate trade. Okay. And some merchants became extremely wealthy. And when they became very wealthy, they started banks in order to support trade and other Okay. So these banks traded in gold, because that was the primary source and supply of money back then.

Okay. So what happened is you would come and you would put your gold in the bank for safekeeping. And the bank would give you a contract. A contract is just saying, "Thank you for giving me your gold. I promise to give back your gold at any time that you want it." And this is what we call a receipt, this would allow for and easier trade. Because now I can take this contract and I can go to England, okay? Maybe I'm based in Italy. But now I can go to England and say, "Listen, I need to buy cotton or bananas from you." And the person is like, "Well, what are you going to give me?" I'm going to give you gold, right?

So I take the receipt and I give it to you. And why do we do this? Because it's a lot easier than giving gold to other people. And so this system would facilitate throughout the world. Does that make sense? Now, I'm the bank. I have all this gold and I want to make money with it. So I want to give it to other people. So other merchants would come to me and say, "Listen, I need gold. Can you lend me gold?" I say to him, "Yeah, but if I give you the gold, you have a security issue.

It's inconvenient for you. So why don't I give you a receipt, a contract?" Does that make sense? Because all I need is a contract. All I need is a receipt in order to go and do trade elsewhere. Right? So by doing this, what I've done is I've doubled the gold in my bank.

Right? I've created money out of So the gold is still 5 million. That hasn't changed. But the receipt is now 5 million plus 5 million. So I now have 10 million in the bank.

All right? So that's how money and finance works. Now, there's a problem with this system. What's the problem with the system? What do you mean? Why would the other people say the receipt has gold? That's the same value. Okay. That's a good question, okay? Why is it that people believe in me? The answer is very simple. The answer is because for most of human history, people didn't need money. If you were just a normal person, what were you doing? Were you in a village growing crops?

If you wanted to get new stuff, what would you do? You would trade with someone else. Maybe you have a goat that I want. Well, then I would trade you a cow for it. So we didn't actually need So for most of human history, no one had any need for money. It was in certain circumstances that you would want money. So, for example, marriage, okay. So for most of human history, that could unpaid.

Oh, sorry. Debt that could never be So, for example, a very common thing is maybe you and I fight. And I kill you. Well, in theory, your family should now come and kill me. But obviously that would create a lot of problems, right? So the way to settle the dispute is I would give your family money. Because money was symbolically meant to say, "I'm sorry I killed you. This is a debt that can never be repaid." Okay. That's what money was used for in most circumstances throughout human history. There was no actually real use for money.

It was symbolic. But with the rise of trade and with merchants, they needed money in order to facilitate the trade. But these merchants all knew each other. So they trusted each other anyway. So money was a mechanism for them to trade easier, okay? Does that make All right. Okay. So let's go back to the question. This system looks great. I can print money out of nothing. But there's a problem with this system. What is the There's a problem here. What was the trade? Hm? I think you can forge the receipts, the money fakes.

Okay. That's actually a good question, okay? So yeah, is it possible to forge the contract? That's a really good point. The answer is that they all knew each other anyway. Because it's a very small circle. Again, we have not reached the modern period where it's a lot of people using money. If that's the case, then forging becomes a problem. We'll discuss this in future classes, okay? Counterfeiting. But at this point in history, forging is actually not a big issue. There's actually a bigger issue.

And there's a huge issue. What's the issue? I have 5 million dollars of gold, right? There's about 10 million dollars of gold out there in receipts. What's the problem with that?

The problem is that if everyone wants the gold at the same time, I go bankrupt, right? Because I lose my reputation. The contract says that at any time you want the gold, I must give it to you. But if there's a hundred million dollars in gold contracts, but I only have 10 million dollars in gold, only if 15 million wants the gold back, then I'm screwed. This is what we call a bank run. Okay? A bank run. And this is a huge problem for There's also another problem with the system.

And the problem is this. Who do I usually lend my money to? Do you guys know? If I'm a bank, if I'm a merchant, who do I usually lend my money to? Okay, guys, today we lend the money to entrepreneurs. But back then, there really weren't entrepreneurs. There were and noble people. And what do they do all the time? What do they do with To fight wars. Okay? That's why there's a demand for gold. Because if I'm a king, I need to fight a war. Usually against my brother or someone else to control this Right?

Now, the problem with this is I could get killed, in which case, oops. But also, and what's much more common, is the king would be like, "Screw you, bank. I don't need to pay you back." Okay? So there's actually a lot of risk with this system. So over time, they developed a system to mitigate or reduce this risk. Okay? What would they do? What they would do is they would create cartels. Cartels are just partnerships. So maybe this bank works with another bank, works with another bank throughout Europe. And the way they establish these cartels is usually through intermarriage, right?

They would marry each other. They would combine together. And that, let's say, 15 million of receipts wants back the gold, but there's only 10 million. Well, guess what? You just go to another bank.

And let's just say a king decides, "I'm not going to pay you back, bank." Well, your bank works with other banks to establish a new enemy to kill the king to get the money back. Do you understand? And this system is what we call today central banking.

And what you will learn in this class is central banking controls the world. Now, what's really important about this system is that it's based on power. Right? And what power is, you can turn nothing, money, the contract, into everything. Okay? That's what money is.

Okay. So we live in a world in which banks can print out money, right? So now let's ask ourselves a question. Wait a minute here. If the banks can print as much money as why do we have poverty?

Because we can just give money to poor people and they won't be poor anymore. Why do we have poverty? If there's all the food in the world that we want, why are people starving? Because we don't have limited money resources. Okay. So we don't have limited resources. We have scarcity, okay? Right. So that is the common answer, scarcity. We have poverty because of But I already told you this. They can print money out of nothing. So money is infinite. Money is an infinite resource. So why do we have poor people then?

That's kind of strange. Like, money is only just, you know, used for trade. They still have limited resources and, you know, the actual needs Okay. You see what's happening is this. You all believe money is scarce, okay? But I just spent the past 10, 20 minutes explaining to you it's not scarce. It's infinite. You see, it's just a number. We can at any time print out as much money as we need. Okay? So that's how power works. Power has brainwashed you into thinking something that is not true.

You've been taught from the first day that money is scarce. But it's not scarce. It's infinite. And no matter what I say to you, you still believe this, okay? So you have to get that out of your head. Money is not scarce, it is infinite. So let's go back to the question. Why is there poverty in this world? Why do people starve? Why is there inequality in this world? Why are there poor people? Why are there rich people? What's the answer?

Because they don't print infinite money. Because it's scarce. So, guys, this is amazing, okay? You guys can't get it out of your head. You think money is scarce. You think it is not possible to print infinite money, when I already told you it is possible to print infinite money, because they do this all the time. Yeah? The one who has the power doesn't want everyone to share the same Because we don't want people to all have The powerful people don't want that. That's exactly the answer. And why?

Because otherwise, no one would work. Do you understand? The point of putting money is not to give you money. The point of putting money is to create the illusion that money is valuable and therefore you will work hard in order to obtain it. But in order for me to make you want to get money, I need to create artificial Do you understand? Right? If there weren't poor people, you wouldn't want to be rich. It's only because you see people suffer that you would want to go make money for yourself. What do your parents tell you?

Your parents tell you, "Work hard in school. Make a lot of money. Otherwise, you're going to end up like a poor person." Right? Well, guess what? If there are no poor people, your parents couldn't say that to you. And you wouldn't want to work hard in school. That's why we have poverty. Because poverty creates the illusion that money is valuable.

In other words, poverty isn't what you do to yourself, it is what the powerful do to you. Now, let me ask you another question. You guys have studied some economics? Why do we have crises?

For example, there's a stock market crash. Or for example, the economy goes down and people lose their jobs. Why do we have crises? I don't Exactly. You're not taught this in economics class. That's kind of weird, right? The point of crises is to destroy money. Why do we need to destroy money? Because if there's too much money in the system, people don't have to work. So you have to destroy this money in order to make people feel money is Okay, does that make sense? So why do we have wars? Right?

Why are there wars in the world? Because they're fighting over scarce resources, right? I already told you, scarcity is a lie. The real reason is war is meant to destroy wealth in order to make you think money is Do you understand?

You guys play World of Warcraft or these games, right? Guess what, guys? World of Warcraft and our world, there's actually no difference. You just run around pointlessly working hard to obtain credits in order to buy stuff. If credits just flew out of the sky, because they could do that, right? They could actually program the engine to just print money out of nothing, you wouldn't do anything every day. You wouldn't play the game. Okay? It's only because you believe that there's scarcity in the world and that you must work hard to obtain wealth that you do any work.

Do you understand this? Okay? So this world that we live in, it's a complete illusion created by central banking in order to make us work as hard as possible. Because the real value is not money. The real value is the work we do.

Okay? Does that make sense, guys? All right. Yeah? But what if the resources You said scarcity is an illusion, right? But I understand that money can be printed infinitely, but resources such as food and land, you know, they aren't technically unlimited. So the scarcity still exists in other resources. Okay, that's a great question, okay? So the question, "Isn't food scarce because food is a finite resource?" Right? Do us a favor, okay? Go to the garbage dump somewhere, anywhere in Beijing, and see the amount of food that is wasted every single day.

If food was scarce, why do we have food Okay, so if you just do the mathematics, what you will discover is there's enough food to feed everyone. There doesn't have to be hunger and starvation. It's an artificial crisis. Okay, does that make sense? So you're right in that, yeah, food's not infinite, but it's abundant. There's a lot of it, enough to feed people. Okay? What about land, oil resources? You know, the reason they go to war. Okay. All right, so again, you guys are stuck in the scarcity mindset, and it's very convincing.

So let's move on, okay? So this is something that we'll go back to later on, okay? Because I cannot convince you today, this morning, that everything you believed about the world and about yourself is wrong. Okay, you're still stuck there, like, okay, there's scarcity. And you're right, there's scarcity, but we also live in a world of abundance. Okay, and a lot of things that you believe are just misconceptions about the world. Okay, so we'll go back there, okay? Later on. All right? So let's move on, okay?

So we've done money now, right? Now, let's do another question. Let's do a question of The question for us today is what makes us happy? Come on. What makes you happy? How can you live a happy life?

Okay, well, obviously money, right? You have a lot of money, that's going to make you happy. What else? Power. Exactly, power, right? Sure. Excuse me? Freedom. Okay, good. Freedom.

What else? Relationships. Relationships, yep, sure. You have good friends, right? Like lots and lots of friends. What else? Romantic relationships. Okay, love, right? Love. Sure. What else? Like video games, I guess. Vacations, okay? Lots and lots of things, okay? What you will discover about this list is this. You are thinking about individual And this is actually unique in human If you would go back in time to 5,000 years ago, and you ask people how can you be happy? They would focus more on collective In other words, if your community were not happy, you cannot be happy.

So the very idea of the individual is new in human history. Before, we understood that if you want to live a happy life, you need to take care of your family. You need to take care of your community. For them, for us, for almost all of human history, happiness meant helping others, being generous to others. So, for example, let's just say that I go off and I wander, and then I find a lot of gold, right? I come back, and what's the first thing I do with all this gold?

Do you guys know? And this is like the ancient past. Dig a hole and put them inside. Okay, yeah, good, right? We're going to dig a hole and put that money inside because we want to give it to our children. That's a modern mindset. But what did they do before? And this happened throughout every society. If I became rich one day, what's the first thing I would do? Show off. Hm? Show off. No. Okay, so we'll learn this, okay? But the first thing that people did was they had a big feast for everyone.

They spent all the money on a big feast. Because what mattered was your reputation within the community. What mattered was your generosity. If you got rich one day, you made sure that everyone in the community benefited from your wealth. Usually by holding a big feast. And guess what, guys? This was true in China for most of Chinese history.

If you come from a Chinese village, you come to Beijing, you open a restaurant, you make a lot of money, you go back to your village, what's the first thing you do? Come on, guys. Feast. You have a big feast for everyone. Okay, so this is ingrained in us, okay? But as you say, today what we believe is if you have a lot of money, put it underground or put it in the bank, okay? But back then, for most of human history, we would just spend it all on a big feast.

We want everyone to share in our happiness, and that's what made us Any questions? I was wondering if you mentioned that it was for reputation on some levels. Would that count into us, you know, individual happiness? Because when you get rich, you care about your Yeah, so you're asking, isn't this about individual reputation? And again, this is hard, okay? But the individual, the concept of the individual did not exist before. We just created it. The idea that I'm a person independent of my family, independent of my independent of the world around me, makes no sense.

What was the worst punishment that could be inflicted on you in the past? Let's just say that we get in a fight, I kill you, right? No, like, they say you no longer belong to this world. Exactly. Banishment, exile. Not death, right? And today, if I killed you, the police would come, catch me, and then kill me. But before, we didn't do that because the worst thing that we could do was exile you. Says, you're no longer part of us. You understand? So the concept of the individual did not exist.

Okay. So let's move on. All right. So now I'm going to present two understandings of the world, and you're going to tell me which understanding you think is correct. In the first understanding, we humans don't have agency. We don't have real control. Why? Because there are powerful gods out there, okay? There are these powerful gods like Apollo. Oh, the problem though is that they are also controlled by other gods that are more powerful, like, for example, fate. And then there are these really ancient gods that control the structure of the universe.

For example, maybe anger and pride. So you have absolutely no individual agency, because there's always a god screwing with you, okay? You might get rich, but then the god of pride looks at you and says, "No, no, no. I need to teach this mortal a lesson." So the god comes into me, makes me too arrogant, and I screw up. Okay? So we're always being controlled by these forces beyond our Okay, so that's the first worldview. The second worldview is this. We are synapses that generate memories.

We are memories. Our understanding of the world comes from our experience. That is controlled by synapses. Synapses come from a combination of and environment. Our genes and our interaction with the environment, our experiences. And what this means is that we can now have control over our own individual fate. If you're angry, it's some experience or some genes made you, and this anger becomes reinforced in your memories. And therefore, if you do proper therapy, if you do proper reflection, if you do some exercises, you can better control your anger, and therefore control your fate.

Okay? So in the first worldview, there are lots and lots of gods. They're evil, and they're random, and we have absolutely no control over our fate. We can only hope to get lucky in life and not piss off the gods. In the second worldview, we are only a collection of our memories, and we are only synapses. So we're able to manipulate the memories and the synapses in a proper way, we can be free of all We can be free of anger. We can be free of depression.

We can be free of misery. All right? Let me ask you this question. Which worldview is a more accurate reflection of reality? The second one. Obviously the second one, right? Because this is neuroscience.

Or psychology or psychiatry. This is what you've been taught in school. This is what you all believe. Our entire society is structured around this very And what you will learn in this class is it is completely wrong. It is the first one that is a more accurate reflection of reality. The first one gives you more information. Gives you a more accurate assessment of how the world really works.

So now, let me ask you this question. If the first worldview, and this is what we'll call And polytheism, for most of human history, was the dominant religion, now we live in a world where the religion is science. Science is basically religion. So why did we make this transition?

What's the benefit? If you're a powerful person, why would you prefer the second one as opposed to the first one? The second one. Why? What are the benefits to powerful people? Why does power want to believe the second one but not the first one? They can blame their failure on the old Yeah, okay. So the idea of the individual. So then there's more control.

Okay? It's easier to control people in the system. Right? That's the first benefit. What's the second benefit? The second benefit is you will work harder, right? Because in the first system, you're like, "You know what? I don't need to go make a lot of money, because if I make a lot of money, the gods will punish me and make me proud. So I'm just going to enjoy life and take it easy." So, in the second system, "No, no, I have control over my own life.

So I need to work hard." Okay? And again, the entire point of the system is to make you work as hard as possible, because when you work hard, that generates real wealth for the powerful people. Money does nothing, okay? Money just incentivizes you to work hard. So this exists in order to make you work harder. There's one more benefit. Or there are more benefits, but what's another benefit?

Okay. The other benefit is this. It makes you powerless. Why? This system is designed to make you absolutely powerless. Why? You can't control anything. Why? Everything is controlled by gods and fate. No, no, no, no. No, no, no. See, again, this is how you're brainwashed. You believe one makes you powerless, but that's not correct. Two makes you powerless. Why? What's the difference between one and two? Why is it that in number two you are powerless? You're playing in the game that the ones who have the power want you to Okay.

So the problem with number two is you are incapable of collective action. Because you think all the source of your problems is the individual in you and not society. With number one, you are capable of collective action. And the only way to change the world is through collective action. Does that make sense? This is a really important point. Two is designed to make you think the source of all your problems is within you. So you should ignore what other people do and think. Doesn't matter to you.

And therefore you're incapable of identifying with other people. You're not capable of collective action. If you're not capable of collective action and you feel really miserable, what you will do is play video games or watch porn all day. Okay? And that's what's happening in society today. Yeah? But in number two, like from experience, we would know that you should listen to others' advice or, you know, you should take others' perspectives and not just So in number two, who has authority? Who do you listen to? You listen to scientists, right?

Because this system was created by scientists to trick you. Okay? This system, you think, "Oh, it's science. Therefore, it must be real." Guys, let me give you a piece of advice. If you're ever feeling sad and you are depressed, what should you do?

What should you do? What have you been taught to do? You feel sad, you're depressed, what should you do? Go through nature. Hm? Walk around. Okay, yeah. The correct answer is walk around. But that's not what you've been taught, right? What have you been taught to do? Tell your friend or parent. Okay, tell your friend or your parent. That's actually really good, right? So walking around, resting, talking to a friend about your problem, that's all really good. But what have you been taught to do in Really. If you are feeling really, really sad, what should you do?

You should go talk to a psychiatrist, you should talk to a psychologist. And what will he do? What will he or she do? Okay, well, I'm going to give you a piece of advice. And you can test it out for yourself. But if you're feeling sad and you are feeling depressed and you feel you have to talk to a psychiatrist and you do so, I will make you a bet that the psychiatrist will make it a lot worse. You will feel worse after talking to a And the reason why is the system is not designed to cure you of any problems.

The system is to make you dependent on authority. You know that if you feel sad, well, you know what? Just go for a walk, talk to a friend, you'll feel better over time. But the system teaches you, "No, if you feel sad, go talk to a psychiatrist who will give you drugs." It's designed to make you dependent on authority. Yeah?

I want to know if, like, in scenario, in world number one, wouldn't God also be an authority? Like God would also be an authority. That's actually a great question, okay?

Is authority. Okay. That's actually a great question. Thank you so much. So I have to spend time to explain to you both systems and I will do so. But what's really important about number one the gods bad people, okay? The gods in number one of this system, they fight all the time. They're vengeful. They're angry. They're proud. But because they're gods, they can get away with it. And that's the difference between humans and gods. We're all the same. We're all angry. We're all Hm? Jealous. We all fight, okay?

But the gods can get away with it. Humans Gods can do hubris. We cannot do Do you understand? So the idea that, "Oh, the people in power are benevolent. The people in power are authority figures who are after our best interest." That is a new modern concept. Before, it was assumed that the king is a king. Why? Because he's favored by the gods. It's not because he's a good person. It's not because he's a just ruler. It's just because the gods like him for whatever reason. But guess what?

The gods give and the gods take. Maybe today the king will rule us, but maybe 5 years from now he gets unlucky and the gods kill him. Too bad. If you read Greek mythology, and we will do so in this class, okay? We'll go over into Greek civilization. We'll look at Oedipus. We'll look at Homer, the Iliad, okay? They talk about this all the time. Fate is something that you cannot control. Something that happens to you. And therefore, you must live life to your best.

All right? So the difference is this. The difference is in number one, they have a concept called eudaimonia. If you have no control over your fate, if things can happen to you tomorrow that kill you, then live your life to the best of your ability Seize the day. Be the best that you can be today. And that's how you win favor from the Eudaimonia, what we call flourishing.

The point of life is to live it to the best of your ability. And that's why, guess what, guys, the ancients, the Greeks, they were superior to us. If you read Greek literature, if you read Greek philosophy, Plato, Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, they were the best. Today, we suck. Why? Because instead of eudaimonia, we have pleasure.

Rather than flourish as creative people, we're like, "How do I enjoy my life today? How do I not feel sad?" So in the first system, even though it sounds like we have no control, we have no agency, it inspires us to live to the best of our The second system, we're like, "Oh, you have control, complete control of your life." It enslaves us.

All right. Now, let's move on to the third and final example. Okay. And I know this is shocking, I know this is surprising, but over the course of the semester, I will give you enough evidence to convince you that this is all true, okay? I'm just going to set the structure and framework today. All Let's do now Why do we have school? Why are we in school?

Why are you here? Someplace to learn and teach. Exactly, right? Learn. What else? Yeah, to get the degree, okay? To get the degree. Okay, to graduate. What else?

Knowledge, yes. Yeah. Hm? The power Hm? A chance to brainwash the students. Excuse me? I feel like you have the power, a chance to brainwash them. Okay, guess what, guys?

The correct answer is brainwashing. Everything else is a lie. All right. What do you do in school? You come to you listen to a lecture, you read books, right? And then you have to do a test, and you have to write a And then the teacher gives you a grade.

That's how you learn, right? Let me ask you this question then. Throughout most of human history, how did we learn? If you want to be a doctor, what did you The answer is experience, do it. Right? Let me ask you this question.

Let's say you're 12 years old, you want to be a doctor, okay? There are two paths ahead of you. The first path is, "You know what? I'm just putting you in a hospital, and you're going to learn there for like 10 years. Someone's going to mentor you. Someone's going to You're going to be that person's apprentice. Maybe the first year all you do is wash the floor. Okay? But you're going to observe the doctor. And then eventually the doctor's going to tell you how to treat patients, okay? That's the first system.

The second system is you go to the best school in the world. Then you go to Harvard. Then you go to Harvard Medical School, the best medical school in the world. Okay? Age 30, who's a better doctor, number one or number two? First one. Obviously the first one, because the second person, the person who went to Harvard and Harvard Medical School, did not ever work in a hospital. You understand?

Now, let me ask you another question. In the first system, do you have to be really, really smart to be a good doctor? No. You don't, actually. Anyone can be a doctor in the first We human beings are all born the capacity to learn anything if you wanted to learn it, right? You'll be an engineer, you'll be a lawyer, if you want to be a doctor, you'll be a scientist, you'll be anything, okay? Just go find a mentor who can teach you how to do so. And I guarantee you that you will learn how to do it well.

And anyone can do this. But instead, we have a system in which we tell students, "You're smart, you're stupid." Smart students go to good schools and good universities, and they get good jobs. Stupid students go wash Okay? And that was not true for most of human history. It's true today, but throughout most of human history, if you wanted to go learn something, all you had to do was go find a teacher. And that teacher would teach you, and then you would learn it.

So school is not a place to teach you how to learn. A school doesn't teach you knowledge, it doesn't do that. A school is a place that brainwashes Okay? Now, the question then is, what does it brainwash you in? Why would it brainwash you? Okay. All right, to answer that, I'm going to give you some history, okay? We will do a lot of history in this class. But I'm going to tell you the three societies that first introduced public schooling in the world, okay? The first is called Sparta.

Okay? Sparta was a small city-state in Greece, like three, four thousand years ago, three thousand years ago. And they had a new system in which children as early as five or six years old were put into a school. And in the school, they were being led by older kids who were like nine or 10.

That's Sparta. The second society was called the Aztecs. And they also provided free compulsory education to all their children. Really good, right? And the third society is called Prussia. And actually Prussia is a system that everyone uses today. Do you guys know any history? Okay? What is common about all three societies? Sparta, Aztecs, and Prussia.

What is common to all three? All three societies are fundamentally war societies dedicated to defeating their neighbors. Sparta was one of thousands of city-states in The only society of these thousands that had compulsory education. Why? Because Sparta was first and foremost engaged in war making. Sparta, you've heard of Spartans, right? It's the Spartan The Aztecs were the greatest war society in Central before the arrival of Europeans. They defeated everyone. They were engaged in war. They also did a lot of human sacrifice as well. Okay, we'll learn about the Aztecs later. The Prussians, the greatest military in Europe for centuries.

They were engaged in war making as well. Okay, do you understand this? Why we have schools is because they are really good at preparing people for war. Excuse me?

Why, let me ask you this question. Why did they not have schools before? Why is it that people were like, "We don't want schools." Why?

Sparta, Aztecs, and Prussia were the few societies that had free public Why didn't other societies just copy? Okay, let me ask you this question. Let's just say you're a mother or father. What's the And you have a child, right? What's the worst thing that could happen in your life?

Hm? No parents? No, no. Your mother or your father. You have a child, right? What's the worst thing that can happen to you in your life? Your child is taken away from you, right? Oh. What does school do?

School is designed to take your child away from you. Let me ask you this question. If school was about learning, why don't parents and children go to school Yeah, why not? Why? Because they have to To make money to survive. Because parents have to work to survive, right? There's actually a better reason. School is for us is to socialize and also have two people to do something. Okay, it's about brainwashing, right? Because how do you brainwash someone?

If you're with your parent, are you going to be brainwashed? No. No, because you feel loved. You feel secure. Your parents are going to protect you. You can ask your parent, "Hey, is this teacher lying to me?" And the parent might say, "Yeah, he's lying to you," okay? It's only because you've been taken away from your parent that you are now willing to be brainwashed. Why? Because what happens if you leave your parents, how do you feel? How do you feel?

Insecure. Yeah, exactly, right? Insecure. You're anxious. You're afraid. Do you understand? You've lost your parent. You're four, you're five, you're six years old. You've lost your parent. You feel really insecure. So who do you trust? Your teacher. Your teacher. Whatever your teacher says is now correct. But whatever, our parents are also brainwashed, because they went to school before, when they were in school. Yeah, yeah, okay. That's a good point, okay? Aren't our parents brainwashed as well?

That's correct. Your parents are brainwashed. But what I'm saying is when a parent is with a child, the child feels secure. And if you're secure, you're much more willing to disobey authority. You're much more willing to ask questions. You're much more willing to think for yourself, because you feel secure. Because your parent is there to protect you. But if you take the parent away, you can't do that. You must now rely on the teacher, who can now brainwash Okay? So are you brainwashing us? Am I brainwashing you? Okay. I think it's the dark truth.

Okay. All right. So the question is, am I brainwashing you? Okay, that's a good question. And it's a fair question. And again, that's why I tell you this, okay? You have the capacity to ask me questions. You have the capacity to challenge me. You have the capacity to think for Okay? So all I'm saying is, hear me, ask me questions, and then think for yourself whether or not I make sense. Because the difference between my class and other classes is I don't test, right? I don't give you grades.

It's a pass/fail class. You can actually choose to say, "You know what? This is nonsense. I don't want to listen anymore." I can't stop you. Okay? But in school, guess what happens if you don't come to school? Your parents get arrested. All right? Do you understand? That's the It's your choice whether or not to pay attention.

All right. So another question is, if schools are designed to brainwash you, what are they brainwashing you in? They're designed to brainwash you to believe a concept called the nation state.

The nation state. The school is designed to brainwash you to think the nation state exists. It is a person, Mother China. You must love this person. You must be willing to sacrifice yourself for this person. You must be willing to dedicate yourself to this person because it is Mother China. And how do we brainwash you? We teach you language, right? We teach you history. We teach you We teach you all this to make you believe that the nation state, Mother China, the United States, France, they all exist. But guess what?

Throughout most of human history, it was absurd to think the nation state existed. Okay? Before, you didn't say, "I'm Chinese." Before, you'd say, "I'm a Or I'm from Haidian. Or I'm from Chaoyang," right? Because that makes more sense. You're from a place where you know the But now, because of the nation state, you are forced to believe that you are the same person as someone from Yunnan, Tibet, Guangxi, even though, guess what, guys, you have absolutely nothing in common. Okay? But you're all Chinese. And that's what school is designed to do.

School is designed to implant in you a false memory of a nation state. Okay? That's what history is. History is the false memory of a nation state. And that's why you're all forced to go to Okay, maybe they also want you to just think about degrees and work as a normal person, not to create a new business or be resourceful. Yeah. So yeah, the point of school is to serve the nation state. Do you understand? Oh. Right? Does that make sense? If you believe in the nation state, if you believe in Mother China, then you must serve her.

You must obey her. You must fight for her. You must die for her. Okay? So the idea of the nation state was created in order to make you obedient to authority. And it works very effectively.

I was just wondering if this only works out in the Chinese context, like All countries. All countries are nation states, okay? So I'm not saying China is different from other places. China is exactly the same as other places. Okay? What you will learn in this class is, how do we get to this place? Because again, the three things that we learn, okay? Money, the individual, the nation state. These are all ideas and concepts beyond the human experience. If you try to work this out from first principles, if you try to figure this out by yourself, you couldn't do it.

You have to be brainwashed into believing these three things. If someone from the past, maybe a thousand years ago, were to come today and you would explain the concept of money, individual, and nation state, the person would be like, "Wait a minute here. This means that you're all slaves." So another question then is, where do we get these three concepts? What you will learn in this class is these three concepts come from a in human thought called monotheism.

The one true God. This idea, monotheism, forever changed the course of human history. And it gave us these concepts of money, individual, and nation state. Monotheism is such a powerful idea that it turned nothing into everything. Okay? That's what you will learn in this class. We will learn about monotheism. We will discover how it created money, individual, and the nation state. And it basically created the world that we live in today.

All right. Any questions? Is Christianity like Excuse me? Christianity is like monotheism. Okay, yeah. So there are three great monotheistic religions, right? Judaism, and Islam. What I will show you later on is it's basically the same religion.

Yeah. All right. Okay, so I don't want to give you too much information, okay? Because there's a lot to process. But I want you guys to learn the concepts. Money, individual, and nation state are all powerful concepts that are embedded into everyday life. You cannot escape them. Okay, you've been brainwashed into thinking that they all exist when in fact they don't actually exist. And that's how power works. What power is, okay? What power truly is is what I call, throughout human history, the pursuit of turning lead into Okay?

Lead into gold. into everything. That's what alchemy was. Maybe in science class you're taught that alchemy is this fake science. It's a pseudoscience. And it did not work. What you will learn in this class is we achieved alchemy. Okay? We turned nothing into everything. We turned lead into gold. Or that's what power is. Power is the capacity to turn nothing into everything. Power is the capacity to make you believe that money is That the individual can lead to That the nation state exists. That's what power is. Okay?

And as a result, today we live extremely miserable So you've been taught to think that, "Oh, life just gets better and better." What you will learn in this class is actually Nope, okay? And what's really important is you will also learn in this class that this was an accident.

Okay? This is an accident. It's an accident of the human It's because we didn't know what we were doing that we created this system. So what you will also learn is that if you're able to control the human you can use it to create a new system that allows for eudaimonia, or the flourishing of the human intellect.

All right. Any questions? Okay. So that's it for today. Okay? I'll see you guys next class.