“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”

Rudyard Kipling, Interview with an Immortal

“You have to decide that you are going to be in control, that you are going to do what YOU want to do. Weakness doesn’t get a vote. Laziness doesn’t get a vote. Sadness doesn’t get a vote. Frustration doesn’t get a vote. NEGATIVITY doesn’t get a vote. ”

“You are declaring martial law on your mind: MIND CONTROL.”

https://youtu.be/q5SHjSnynzw

Joseph Goebbels presents Nazi propaganda as the model for the rest of the world, calling it the “background music” to government policy because a modern state, whether democratic or authoritarian, cannot withstand the subterranean forces of anarchy and chaos without propaganda.

https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/goeb59.htm

If you want to find a place of equity, where you're not judged by the color of your skin, gender, sexual orientation, political ideology, or religious belief, sign up for jiu-jitsu.

GoFundMe for 10th Planet BJJ - Long Beach: https://www.gofundme.com/f/rebuild-10p-long-beach?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link-tip&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. “Love your enemies.”

https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church

Why do people act against their best interests and consent to their enslavement?

...it has been common to assume that the masses are purely victims in their enslavement, unable to mount any form of resistance due to the threat of force wielded by those in power. In the 16th century, the French philosopher Etienne de La Boétie challenged this view in his essay The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude. All governments, he argued, including the most tyrannical, can only rule for extended durations if they have the general support of the populace. Not only are those in power vastly outnumbered by those over whom they rule, but governments rely on the subjugated populations to provide them with a continual supply of resources and manpower. If one day enough people refused to obey and stopped surrendering their wealth and property, their oppressors would, in the words of La Boétie, “become naked and undone and as nothing, just as, when the root receives no nourishment, the branch withers and dies.” (Étienne de La Boétie, The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude) Hence mass submission to even the most oppressive political regimes is always a voluntary servitude, one based on popular consent. As de La Boétie explains:

https://academyofideas.com/2018/03/how-we-enslave-ourselves/

Why do we have a strong tendency to obey those in positions of power? Why do people obey commands that seem both bloodthirsty and stupid? Are those who in the face of corrupt power, who are willing to stand up and refuse virtuous, or villains?

https://academyofideas.com/2017/03/psychology-of-obedience/

https://youtu.be/OWMkmljltvo

Brute force is not enough to maintain tyranny, rather a tyrannical regime will only maintain power if they can control the minds of their subjects.

https://academyofideas.com/2017/01/the-individual-vs-tyranny/

Previous podcast on Fear & Social Control: https://anchor.fm/donavon-riley/episodes/45-Academy-of-Ideas---Fear--Social-Control-edrc0j

When each person strives to outdo the other in devotion, the marriage is ideal and worthy of envy, for such a union is beautiful.

“In marriage, there must be complete companionship and concern for each other on the part of both husband and wife, in health and in sickness and at all times, because they entered upon the marriage for this reason as well as to produce offspring. When such caring for one another is perfect, and the married couple provides it for one another, and each strives to outdo the other, then this is marriage as it ought to be and deserving of emulation, since it is a noble union. But when one partner looks to his own interests alone and neglects the other's, or (by God) the other is so minded that he lives in the same house, but keeps his mind on what is outside it, and does not wish to pull together with his partner or to cooperate, then inevitably the union is destroyed, and although they live together their common interests fare badly, and either they finally get divorced from one another or they continue on in an existence that is worse than loneliness.”

Musonius Rufus

And, for those who don't know...

Gaius Musonius Rufus was a Roman Stoic philosopher during the reign of Nero. Rufus is considered the Roman Socrates and was the teacher of Epictetus.

In our thinking, if we can recognize self-defeating thoughts as they come up, block them, and then respond with a productive counterpunch, we can avoid trouble and live a good life.

https://modernstoicism.com/the-epictetus-club-part-one/