https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=B-MIrDCipTQ
And you might think, well you never get messages from God. It’s like, yeah actually you do. It’s your conscience. And that pesky little thing doesn’t exactly do what you want it to do. It tends to upbraid you on a fairly regular basis and remind you of your various idices and inadequacies. And you might think that that’s you speaking, but then you might ask, well why does it tell you things you don’t want to hear then? And why can’t you control it? And those are both extraordinarily good objections. And the equation of conscience with the God within, let’s say, isn’t something I’ve just invented either. There’s a very pronounced and profound thread of Catholic thinking in particular that identifies the conscience with the voice of God within. And it’s an idea that emerges in the Old Testament with the prophet Moses, and who’s the prophet? He appears with Christ when he’s transfigured on the mount. It’s Moses and Elijah, Elijah, who is the first person to posit that God is not in nature but is the still small voice within. Right, so that’s what comes to Jonah. And it says, just what the conscience always says, that you have to go do something you’d rather not do. You have to admit something you don’t want to do. You have to undertake some remedial action that you don’t want to undertake. You have to tone for your bloody sins and sometimes for the sins of other people. And so the voice comes to Jonah and says, you know, there’s a city some distance from you, Nineveh, and it’s full of your enemies. And so the people of Nineveh are the historical enemies of the Israelites at that time. But despite the fact that it’s a city of your enemies, I want you to go there, because I’m not very happy with the Ninevites. They’ve wandered off the pathway and I’m thinking like giving them a good smiting, and if they don’t straighten up, there won’t be any of them left. And I’m sort of, you know, deliberating about whether or not my choice in that regard is acceptable. And I thought I might send you there just to see if they’ll straighten out. And Jonah thinks, yeah, I don’t think so, buddy. First of all, I just soon see them go to hell in a hand basket, because they’re my enemies and they’re the habitual enemies of the Israelite people. So why would I give a damn if they live or die? And since they’re my enemies, it might be better if they burn in hell for all I’m concerned. So no, I don’t think I’m going to go there. And there’s 150,000 of them, and one of me, and I’m their enemy. And so why this sounds like a very bad strategy, as far as I’m concerned. So Jonah does what people always do. And he thinks, I think I’ll just hightail it in the other direction, which is exactly what you do when you’re called upon to say something that you bloody well know you should say, and you don’t. And furthermore, you also think in your pride and foolishness that you can get away with it, and you can’t, because you never get away with anything. So and if you think you do, that’s that same voice of pride telling you that you are capable of bending or twisting the fabric of reality itself without it snapping back and taking you out. And that is not a wise thing to think. Anyways, Jonah hightails it in the other direction. He takes a boat and he’s off to parts unknown. There’s no damn ways going to Nineveh. And so what happens? Well, Jonah is called upon to speak, and he doesn’t. And so his life starts to destabilize as yours will, if you’re called upon to speak and you hold your tongue. And so the waves rise and the wind blows and the ship that’s Jonah’s on, which is the Ark or the ship of state, you can think about it either way, is now in danger. And that’s exactly what happens to the ship of state when the people who are on board it refuse to say what they have to say and run away instead. And so the waves rise and the wind blows and the ship is in danger. And the sailors, a rather superstitious lot, think, huh, there’s probably someone on this boat who isn’t quite right with God. And that’s a pretty good thing to think actually when your shopkeepers are starting to lock up your ice cream because the thieves come in the night to steal it, which seems to be what’s happening in New York right now. And you think that the waves are starting to rise and the wind is starting to blow. And maybe that’s because people aren’t saying what they have to say. And so Jonah is asked by the sailors, is everything okay with the God you worship and you? And Jonah, who’s still a relatively honest man, says, well, no, you know, as a matter of fact, I had a direct commandment from Yahuwah. And they say, well, who’s this Yahuwah? And he says, well, he’s the creator of the entire universe. Which makes him first and foremost among the gods. And the sailors are pretty short-circuited about this because they’re worshiping these low-level gods who are maybe in charge of like the local tavern or something. And now they’ve come up with Yahuwah and he’s like king of the universe. And now you have Jonah who defied a direct commandment. And they think, well, that doesn’t seem like a very good idea if you actually believe in this guy. And nonetheless, the sailors are even pretty good guys and they try to make for port so they don’t have to throw poor Jonah overboard. But it’s God they’re dealing with, creator of the universe, so the waves just get bigger and that’s just not so good. And finally they think, all right, all right, throw him overboard. And so he’s overboard. And so what’s the moral of the story there? It’s like, keep your mouth closed when you have something to say and let the cat take your tongue when it asks to and you’ll end up drowning in the briny deep. And you think, well, that’s pretty harsh. It’s like, no, that’s nothing. I mean it. That’s nothing. If you think that danger of death is the worst thing that can happen to you, if you walk off the straight narrow path, you know nothing about life. There are things that are far worse than death. And if you have even the least bit of familiarity with the catastrophic history of the 20th century and all the brutality that went along with all the silence and lies, you’d know perfectly well that death is one of the things you have to fear the least. And so what happens to Jonah? He’s drowning away. That’s pretty miserable, but that’s nothing. The beast comes up from hell itself, right, and takes him in its mouth and pulls him down to the depths. And you might say, well, what are the depths? What’s this whale? It’s the jaws of hell. Well, how do you know that? Well, he’s there for three days. It’s the same three days that Christ spends harrowing hell. It says in the story of Jonah that it’s a beast from hell. That’s a hint. The parallels are there as well as the direct representations, and it’s part of the standard mythological landscape. And what it means is that, look, if you fail to say what you have to say when it’s your turn to talk, it isn’t just your life that you’re putting in danger. It’s the entire bloody social contract. So what did Solzhenitsyn note in the Gulag Archipelago, which was perhaps the greatest study of totalitarian atrocity and the psychological reasons, practical reasons as well, for the existence of that atrocity? Solzhenitsyn’s conclusion was a totalitarian state isn’t a dictator oppressing the freedom-loving masses. That’s a fool’s vision of the world. It’s the universal grip of the lie on every soul, every single one. Not a single man in a totalitarian state is willing to stand up and say what he knows to be true, and that’s the totalitarian state. So what happens if you don’t say what you have to say? Well then you go to hell and you take everyone you love with you, and that’s what happens. And then I’ll close with this, and that’s not like some story. It is some story, but it’s also what actually happens, as bluntly as it can be stated. And so that’s another reason why it doesn’t take courage to say what you have to say when you’re called upon to speak. It takes wisdom, and that’s not the same thing. Okay, and I’ll close with this. Here’s something to think about as well. I’ve been writing about the story of Abraham. Abraham’s an interesting story. So it opens up with, it opens up to the guy who’s already in paradise. At least he’s in the socialist utopia paradise, and I mean that, in that he has everything he needs given to him. So his state has fulfilled for him the Marxist dictum of each according to his need. Abraham has rich parents. He has everything he needs in his tent. He can lay there and let half naked slave girls wave palm fronds over me, peeled grapes, and he does that till he’s like 75. And no wonder. Anyways, a voice comes to him and says, okay buddy, up and at him. It’s time to get away from your tent, and get away from your mom, and get away from your dad, and get away from your family, and your tribe, and to go out in the world and have an adventure. And so Abraham listens. Oddly enough, he listens, and he goes out on his adventure, and it’s one bloody cataclysmic catastrophe after another. It’s starvation and tyranny, and the conspiracy of the Egyptian aristocracy to steal his beautiful wife, and war, and death, and the necessary calling for the sacrifice of his son. It’s just a cataclysm. And through all that, God promises him that if he maintains his faith, he’ll be the father of nations. And what does that mean? It means if you have the adventure of your life, then everything that could possibly be granted to you will be granted to you. And then you might ask, well, how do you have the adventure of your life? And the answer is, you tell the truth. You exercise your right and responsibility to free speech. You tell the truth. And then you might say, well, why is that an adventure? Well, first I could say, try it. But I could say, let’s explain it. Why is it an adventure? And also, why is it your adventure? Well, if you’re lying, whatever happens to you, that’s not your adventure. If you’re lying and something happens to you, that’s the adventure of the spirit of the lie. The lie that you think you told, but that actually possesses you. And that’s the spirit of the lie. And that’s the spirit of the lie. And that’s the spirit of you. And the adventure of the spirit of the lie is hell. And so that’s not a good idea. So it’s not you that has that adventure, because if it was you, that would be you speaking. And if it was you speaking, that would be your truth. That would be the truth. That would be your adventure. And then you might say, well, if it’s my truth, it’s me. But why is that an adventure? And I can tell you why that is. Imagine that you’re having a conversation with someone and you’ve already decided what you want the outcome of the conversation to be. You want something from that person. You want them to sleep with you. You want them to give you money. You want them to admire you. You want them to think you’re beautiful. You have some instrumental goal in mind. And maybe it’s even somewhat noble goal, but it’s instrumental. You craft your words so that you manipulate the situation so that you obtain from the person you’re communicating with, the crowd you’re communicating with, what it is that you want. And you might…and maybe you get it. And then maybe you say, well, what’s wrong with that? And what’s wrong with that is like, well, what the hell do you know? Really, I’m dead serious. Have you never got something that you were aiming at that was the wrong thing to get? That happens to you all the time. I mean, sometimes you fail too. And, you know, that’s obviously not pleasant, but the worst kind of failure is to get exactly what you’re aiming for and find out that it’s…that the lies you had to tell to get it turned out to deliver you to do…to deliver to you something that not only had no value, but that was actually contrary to your best interests. And then you might say, well, how could you possibly exist in the other world…in the world otherwise? Because you have to have a plan. You have to be aiming at something. You have to be wanting something to even communicate. And I could say, well, actually, that’s not true. You can replace that instrumental longing with faith. And here’s the basis of faith, a form of faith. The basis of the highest form of faith is the decision to accept the proposition that whatever happens if you live in truth is by definition the best thing that can possibly happen. Despite the…despite your inability as a consequence of your limitations to have the wisdom to see that. And that’s a…it’s a statement of faith because there’s no way of demonstrating the validity of that proposition before enacting the hypothesis. You have to commit to it. Well, let’s make it practical. I manipulate you and I get what I want, but then I find out I didn’t want what I wanted. And so instead I don’t manipulate you. Instead, what I do instead every time I speak is I make things as clear to myself and everyone else as I possibly can, right? And let the devil take the consequences. And so what’s the consequence of that? You have no idea what’s going to happen next, right? You throw caution to the wind. You have no idea. You think, well, I better not say that because this might happen. It’s like you you just have to let that go. It’s like, no, this is the thing to say now. And whatever happens, bring it on. Well, that’s an adventure, right? That’s an adventure. And if you do it enough, then you have the adventure of your life. And then if you have the adventure of your life, it’s so bloody interesting and so engaging and so exciting that it justifies the misery of your existence. So I know that and that’s why I say what I have to say. That’s why I said what I had to say tonight. And so thank you very much.