https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=Zi9BZUBDV9U
Think actually that people are are quite hard on themselves And you know this is one of the reasons that I believe that the presumption of innocence that Characterizes our legal system is such an absolute bloody miracle I cannot figure out how in the world that idea ever came about and developed Universal acceptance it’s so unlikely You know if you deal with people in a clinical setting and they’re somewhat depressed Which is not uncommon and they’ve done something that they are guilty about independent of whether They’ve done something that they feel guilty about Independent of whether they’re actually guilty they tend to take themselves apart Now that’s especially true if you happen to be high in trait Neuroticism which is one of the big five traits Extraversion which is a positive emotion dimension Neuroticism a negative emotion dimension agreeableness which is compassion and politeness Conscientiousness which is orderliness and industrious and openness which is intellect and openness proper something like creativity If you’re higher than normal in neuroticism It’s very easy to take yourself apart if you’re feeling guilty about something that you’ve done and people Many people will feel guilty about what they’ve done at the drop of a hat I mean first of all they accused themselves of their own shortcomings And then if they are accused by someone else it’s often very very difficult for them to mount their own defense You know to believe in their own innocence, you know, because you’d think well You know the police come to your door or a mob comes for you Let’s say on Twitter and you know your stalwart sort of person and you pronounce your Innocence and you know, you’re a you’re a brick wall Nothing gets through that and that’s just not how it goes man If the mob comes from you for you on Twitter the probability that if you’re a reasonably well socialized person that you’re going to be wondering what you did wrong and how you should apologize and What you should do to put yourself back in the good graces of the community is extraordinarily high You know because well you you probably have done some things wrong in your life And you probably are guilty about this and that and perhaps you didn’t conduct yourself perfectly And so it’s very difficult for you to mount your own The defense to presume your own innocence and mount your own defense, which by the way is Why it’s a very good reason to have a lawyer and one of the things I would say I’m dead serious about this I’ve worked with legal cases a lot and learned a lot about the limitations and lack thereof of police ability to question you for example and If you’re ever accused of something serious Then do not talk to the police until you have a lawyer because you will Definitely get yourself in all sorts of trouble and so you might think well if you’re innocent and the police will tell you this too then you have nothing to be afraid of of course that’s complete bloody rubbish because You always have something to be afraid of and innocence and guilt are relative things and they’re not that easy to determine So don’t be so sure that you can defend yourself For reasons we’ll go into but also don’t be so sure that you don’t need someone who’s professional to stand sort of outside of you and to look at you like an individual among other individuals and to adjudicate your Relative guilt or innocence in that manner, you know in our legal system You’re actually not required to be perfect and thank God for that What you’re required to be is Reasonable and like like a reasonable and and let’s say somewhat normative human being You’re not required to go above and beyond the duty with regards to heroism for example I was involved in a court case. It was quite a terrible case where a woman was up on trial for murder and She happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time shall we say she was in a Motorhome in a junkyard waiting for her boyfriend and She happened to walk out of the motorhome just as a gang was killing An enemy I guess an enemy gang member with a with with rocks very very brutal and they stripped her naked and told her That they would rape her and that they would kill her child She had one child unless she participated in the murder and so she did it She ended up dropping a rock on the unfortunate gentleman’s head although by all appearances he was Well on the way to being dead at that point and at that point in Canada the law was there was no excuse for participating in homicide regardless of the What would you call? ameliorating preconditions, but they did Decrease her culpability substantially because they believed there was genuine reason for her to believe that her life was threatened and that she was going to be subjected to sexual assault and That her child I don’t think they did threaten her child, but they did certainly threaten her child with no longer having a mother so In any case we can get involved in very terrible things And it’s very difficult for us to defend ourselves you need a lawyer to do that and So that’s a good piece of practical advice And I would strongly recommend that you follow it if you ever happen to find yourself in trouble It’s also the case if you find yourself in trouble at work Or on social media, you know it’s hard to sit and remind yourself That you deserve the benefit of the doubt and then to try to make a coherent case for that one of the things I often did for my clients Who were in trouble at work for one reason or another? often because Well for a variety of reasons sometimes because they hadn’t done everything they should have that work You know and so they carried some burden of responsibility for that, but sometimes because there were people who were genuinely malevolently predisposed towards them bullying them in terrible ways and They just weren’t good at mounting their own defense Which was also one of the things by the way that made them prone to being bullied and so we would work for hours on at least hypothetically outlining a story that involved the possibility that The person who was being accused so that would be my client was actually innocent of the charges You know and that’s something that’s useful to do for yourself if you ever run into trouble It’s you don’t have to believe that you’re innocent to begin with but you could make the strongest case possible that you are right because everyone’s entitled to a strong defense and then just See how that flies you know see if it’s coherent I mean you could make the opposite case too just so you know what you might be in for but you know We have an adversarial system for a reason and part of the reason is is that one of the easiest ways to get at? the truth in so far as that’s possible, and that’s not an easy thing is to attack you know with a certain degree of intensity and viciousness and defend with a certain degree of intractability and and and and coherence and You need both of those