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Rachel Denning (00:10.702)
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Extraordinary Family Life podcast. We are your host, Greg O 'Reilly, presenting. And today we're going to tell a couple of interesting stories that are about 12 or 13 years apart, but then really lined up yesterday. And we're very insightful to what's happening in our societies today. And it's super insightful for us, for our families, for our culture.

This is gonna be super significant. But before we dive into that, we want to give a quick update. We just returned from Africa. We were... Specifically Tanzania. We were in Africa for the New Year in Morocco. That's what I was gonna say. Specifically to Tanzania, we were... I don't even know. Pleasantly surprised is not strong enough. We were blown away by how peaceful, how loving, how friendly...

how wonderful the people are in the place. So these national parks that just absolutely blow your mind, specifically the Ngoro Ngoro Crater. It was pretty cool. Unreal. The safari. And then of course we led a group up the mountain to Mount Kilimanjaro. Unfortunately you did not make it to the top. I did not summit. I got very ill. I was vomiting like crazy and just tried to keep pushing through it, but that wasn't working.

I'll have to go back another time. But all of our guests that came made it to the top and summited. And it was just an absolutely spectacular experience. And two of our teenagers summited. Kimbal and Aliyah, who are 18 and 17. And then two of our other teens did not make it because of also sickness and welling of the legs for one of them. So anyways, we had a wonderful, wonderful experience on Kilimanjaro. Highly recommend it.

It was very challenging. And the safaris, of course, like the safaris were amazing. I love the safari since we were children. Yeah. Like, wow, this is so good. Highly recommend a safari in Tanzania. Yeah, so good. And the people and the place, the whole experience was just so wonderful. It was so good. While I was on the mountain and did not have reception, Rachel finalized our purchase contract of

Rachel Denning (02:37.198)
the first world school family resort. Yeah. On Valentine's day, actually, I finalized it. And that was exciting. It is happening. Yeah. It's amazing. So we have a large building. We have not taken possession of it yet, which will happen in the next month or so. It's got, it's six hectares, which is about 15 acres.

of land that we're going to just turn into beautiful resort property with animals and orchards and gardens. And then it's a big old house that we're going to be able to host. It was previously a hostel. We are going to maintain some of that, but then also upgrade it and make it into a resort. Well, essentially in our in our mind, the vision we have is this.

kind of world school family, that's what we're calling it, the World School Family Resort, a world schooling family gathering place. So it will have places for families to stay, multiple families, groups to stay, you know, because we're going to keep leading group retreats and family retreats and couples retreats and men and women's retreats. And then there's a gathering place for hanging out, chilling, playing music, learning, working, because of course being a

location independent is a part of that. So it's, man, it's exciting and awesome. And the hard work is about to begin. Yeah, exactly. Because opportunity is always dressed in overalls. Yeah, disguised as hard work. So that is, that is what's happening. A lot of hard work is going to be taking place to make this place amazing. But it's also a great opportunity for.

fulfilling many of the dreams that we've had of having a community gathering place where people can come to I I like to use the word transform because we we can have these experiences that literally transform us to come and Get tools and strategies and systems and connections and friendships and healing just to rise to be the our best selves and just come together to be inspired and motivated and excited to

Rachel Denning (05:04.525)
leave with this determination and toolkit to live our best lives and to create our extraordinary family life. Okay, so let's do some stories. So I can't even remember how long ago it was. It was 2010. So that's 14, holy guacamole, almost 14 years ago. We started driving up to Alaska and we're driving on the Alcan. After living in India, we're in India. We're discovering I was pregnant.

went back to Atlanta, bought a van and we're driving up. And we were driving to... We were across the US and then into Canada. Alberta, Canada and drove through Calgary and Cardston and we stopped at this campground, I think it was just outside of Calgary and the sheriff happened to be there.

And we got talking and I was curious. I'm always curious. I've always been a very curious person. I love talking to anyone, anywhere, and just finding out about their world, their life, their experience, what's going on in their environment, their reality. And so I asked him about crime in the area and he said, no, in 25 years, I have drawn my firearm one time.

And I contrasted that with having lived in Dallas, Texas and been through some other rough areas, both in the world and particularly in the United States. My brother was a police officer in Dallas and I think probably had to draw his firearm every shift. It was just the contrast was unbelievable.

The contrast was such that it stood out in your mind as very significant. 14 years later, I was like, are you kidding me? Yeah, I'm driving through this place. It's an area that is so safe, the city, that this officer has driven it, drawn his weapon one time in 25 years. That's how safe it is. Now, this is important. You have to remember this because what you're going to say later is significant. So it stood out like, wow, okay.

Rachel Denning (07:22.253)
They have very little crime here and very little violent crime and that's fantastic. I'm like, this is great. Yesterday we met a Canadian couple here in Portugal and we're talking to him. He's like, Oh, I just, we have to leave Canada. And they were, they live near that area and they live. Wait, wait, we didn't know that. Yeah.

Well, we're talking to them and they're talking about leaving Canada and you're thinking, oh, they must live in someplace dangerous work or cold or miserable or wherever. And like, where are you? And they tell us they're near that same area in Alberta. And I was like, well, what's going on? Well, because you're like, oh, dangerous. Well, at first you said something like, oh, it's so safe there because I talked to this, you know, exactly. Sheriff all these years ago. And he's like, no.

It is so dangerous there. And he said, it is one of the most dangerous cities in Canada right now. And I was like, what? We started putting pieces. So you hearing that, OK, so first of all, you hearing that at that moment, you were like in shock because you're like. It's an absolute contrast from what it had been. When we were there 13, 14 years ago, it was.

was so safe and now suddenly this man is saying to you, oh no, it's so dangerous. It's one of the most dangerous cities in Canada. And we're like, what? And so we put the pieces together that in the last, you know, five plus years, there's just been a total transformation in Canada as a whole. And then specifically in this area where they live. And again, okay, we have to, we have to give a disclaimer here though. We're not there. This isn't.

first hand, I'm not there myself. And so, you know, we're taking this perspective from this couple we met yesterday and in contrast of our experience there. And so even if, you know, we don't have all the details firsthand, so we can take this as a bit of a parable today for our discussion and just say, you know, a hypothetical situation, but the reality is we're starting to see these things in reality.

Rachel Denning (09:43.981)
And so they start describing just the amount of violence and crime, drug abuse, drug use, homeless people. And then of course, well, I guess that's what we're gonna get into today is like, when you bring in all these. So essentially, obviously being very curious, you're like,

What has happened? Because you led with that, like, oh, that's such a safe area because, you know, we were there all that time ago and he's like, no, it's not. It is so dangerous. And so you started asking all these questions. And one of the things that they were telling us is that the government there, and I've heard this across Canada, so I don't think it's just unique to this city, has just had this open door policy of, oh, in the name of tolerance and acceptance and compassion, we're going to just...

What they did is they opened up a safe, I forget the word that he used. Injection clinic. A safe injection clinic. Essentially where drug addicts can come to safely be injected with drugs for free. And he's like, they opened that up and of course it attracted all sorts of drug addicts to our city. Then he said they started busing them in. Yeah.

Right. They started busing them in to go to the safe house where they can safely get drugs. He's like, but then of course an addict who's addicted to drugs, I mean, they don't give them unlimited amounts of drugs, right? Because that would be crazy to some. And so then in an effort to continue getting their fix, he's like, they're not going to go out and get jobs to work for their drugs. He's like, they just start robbing people. And then of course they start murdering people.

So he said specifically in the neighborhood he's in where it's very, it's one of the safer neighborhoods, within the last month or two, there's been at least two different cases of elderly people whose homes have been broken into and they have been beaten and killed by drug addicts who are stealing money to continue their habits.

Rachel Denning (11:55.501)
That's just one example in his area, in a safer area. And he said that is happening all across the city. And so the crime rate is through the roof. They've also brought in, he mentioned child molesters. Yeah, you know, sex offenders, child molesters, just all kinds of stuff. And again, in the name of tolerance and acceptance.

and non -judgment, non, we're not gonna judge people. We're just gonna be kind and nice. Society starts unraveling. And we're telling the stories and kind of leading into this discussion and this invitation we have for all of us to get to both long -term thinking and deeper level thinking, next level thinking instead of just superficial thinking. So I was like, and so one of the questions I asked him, I'm like, well, wait a minute, tell me about like the Canadian people in general, like,

Are they just rising up or are they in favor of this? Are they against like what's going on? And he's like, well, he says in general is as long as they have food and he said their game boy, their entertainment, their their pacified. They basically say his words were do whatever you want. Like I've got my food. I've got my game boy. I've got my TV.

I'm gonna get all fired up about it because, you know, we have food, we're entertained, and they're not using those words, but that's what people are thinking. It's like, well, look, as long as I'm not starving and as long as our life's comfortable and enjoyable, I'm not gonna worry about it so much. And I thought, are you kidding me? This is like right from the playbook of failed civilizations, specifically.

the term bread and circuses. Panam and their senses. Which is what brought down the Roman Empire and many empires. It's like this strategic idea of like as long as you feed and entertain the populace, they become so docile and passive you can do whatever. You can get away with anything and they'll just go along because why do they care? They have some fun things to distract them and they're eating. Right. Their bellies are full.

Rachel Denning (14:16.877)
I'm like, are you kidding me? And so we're seeing these elements pieced together that literally bring down entire civilizations and societies. Exactly. And so, yeah, I mean, we had this conversation yesterday and I think it's been growing in my mind for sure. It's definitely been a big picture that's been developing over time as different puzzle pieces are put into place. Specifically, the last five years have been exacerbated and accelerated. Oh, absolutely.

But you know, so yesterday I said to Greg, I'm like, oh my gosh, we need to do a podcast episode and talk, because we specifically brought up with this gentleman we were talking to this whole woke ideology and how it's contributed to these factors, which are specifically in his city, resulting in its destruction. It literally is being destroyed before your eyes. And if you think that, you know,

that kind of stuff going on does not lead to the destruction of society. You need to read some history books. That's exactly how it works, right? And so we mentioned how this woke ideology is playing into all of this. I'm like, man, we need to do a podcast saying, wokeism is a cult that's destroying society. And I think for me that that was a significant thing for me to say that to Greg because there's...

In my own journey, there's been a time where I wouldn't have said that. I would not have been bold about that. I wouldn't have declared that because the nature of this cult that's happening, and I use that word intentionally, is that it can cancel you. It can shut you down. It can, you know, deplatform you. It can turn on you like a vicious mob, which I've heard again and again, because you're not towing the party line. You're not in line with the...

the approved thinking and the approved, you know, you're not signal virtue signaling with your little pronouns and all the things you say and do that mean like, yeah, I'm on board with this thinking. So we have to start speaking up. We have to start speaking out against this because it is getting very, very dangerous for all parties involved, for all people, not just right versus left or whatever, how we want to decide, divide ourselves. It's not about that. It's about.

Rachel Denning (16:41.293)
protecting society as a whole, which is beginning to fall apart. And unless we take action to try to stop it or slow it, we're all in trouble. Yep. The unraveling is accelerating. And this is kind of the whole basis of this conversation today and this invitation for you and for all of us is to really start thinking at deeper levels and

and with long -term consequences. Because, and I get why it happens. I understand that. It's so many seemingly good ideas, they seem good on the surface. And that's my point. They're superficial. They're kind of frothy and frivolous. And on top, you know, it looks like cotton candy. Yeah, it's just this feel good. Like, let's not judge people.

Don't be condemning. Don't be mean. Be tolerant. People make mistakes and they go through hard times. You just gotta give them a chance. And while all of that is true and we have taught that, you have to stop and say, well, wait a minute, let's take drugs for example. Yeah, people make mistakes, they go through hard times and they get into trouble. But ultimately I think,

it's very naive, extremely naive to not fit in human malice into the equation. Malevolence, whether it's intentional or drug induced, or whether it's deliberate evil or psychosis. You might say, well, it's not their fault, they're crazy. Yeah, okay. But if a crazy person goes out and murders, murder's murder. Like,

Okay, someone still died. Yes, somebody still died and you can't get that life back So you have to fit this into the equation of like look we want to give them a chance. We want don't condemn them Don't be mean. Let's let's be loving and tolerant and let people do their thing On the surface that all sounds like the best message But then today this this is what we're talking about. I want you to play that out in your mind Where does that path lead?

Rachel Denning (19:06.573)
What are the consequences? What's at the next level and the next level and the next level? And so we say, well, let's give them a chance. Let's help them out. Let's provide an environment where they can really grow and change. The end result is specifically the story we heard yesterday is that drug addicts, at some point they're like, hey, I need a fix and I am desperate for it. I'm gonna go rob and even murder.

And it's not even necessarily a conscious thought. It's just purely reactionary and biological. You know, it's just their system acting out in that way that again, malevolence that is either intentional or not, it's still happening. It's still occurring. And the funny thing is like, I've heard even in the extreme of woke, I'm gonna call it doctrine, woke ideology is that this idea of even expecting someone to grow and change is...

some sort of white privilege because why should they have to grow and change exactly as they are is fine. Like we can accept them exactly as they are. They don't have to have any merit or value or add anything to society. Like let them be a drug addict, give them their drugs and that's the right way to have compassion. Just let them live their life, right? Exactly. And you can stop and say, okay, let's, yeah, you know, why are we insisting that they become...

Contributing members of society or even they become different than what they are. Yeah Why not allow people to exist where they are? right and just just be and and you're like, oh Okay, gal you're right. That does feel good. People not to become better just because I want to become better They don't have to be different than what they are if they want to be homeless or if they want to do these other things Okay, and that is that surface level thinking that's extremely naive. I

and doesn't bring into account malevolence and malice and the destruction that is always on the other end of that. It doesn't go down the path enough to go, ooh, actually the seemingly good idea upfront is a really horrible idea down the road because you can take that idea of anyone and just let them stay where they are. Well, what happens when people just stay stagnant? When they stay where they are, when they don't?

Rachel Denning (21:32.973)
participate or contribute or they don't rise or level up. It always turns into trouble. Well, it's like what we talk about and teach on this podcast all the time. I mean, you're either green and growing or you're dead and dying. I mean, you're stagnating and decaying. That is the natural course of all life on Earth, not humans. But it's...

certainly plays out in human life as well. And so if you have a human being who's not green and growing and changing and improving, by default, they're doing the opposite and they're, they're de - something. They're decaying. They're decaying. They're destroying themselves. And as a result, that the disease and that decay is spreading around them. And so they behave in ways. That's what I was gonna say right there.

So a person who is diseased on the inside behaves in a way that passes that destruction onto someone else, even if it's in the form of murdering another human being or beating them to death because they need money for their drug addiction. And that, you know, some people might argue, okay, murder and that kind of stuff. That's an extreme. You Dennings, you guys are arguing to the extreme. And you say, well, if people want to decay, let them decay. If they want to just...

self -destruct, let them self -destruct. And again, that's a superficial argument. Unless you think through next level thinking and all the ramifications you think, well, just let them self -destruct. They don't want to be like that, great. Here's a classic argument. If people want to be unhealthy, just let them be unhealthy. If they want to be obese and just eat garbage and never work out, just let them. It's their choice. It's their life. They can do what they want. What you don't realize...

is how that quickly becomes a gigantic burden on the emergency medical services. Well, let's start even closer. That becomes a gigantic burden on your spouse and on your children because your health and fitness and well -being directly impacts me and our family life. Absolutely. 100%. You can't get away from that.

Rachel Denning (23:54.285)
You cannot get away from your own self -destruction having an impact on those closest to you. So one of the great poets said that no man is an island, right? So in that sense, you're right, it's immediate right there. Again, the argument from some people would be like, well, it's their family, they can do what they want. But it becomes generational. Even that, though, I think is naive because, well...

Who puts you, let's hypothetically say it's the man in the family who wants to be overweight. Who puts you in charge of bringing misery to your family's life? That's selfish. Like it's your family, you can do what you want. Those are people in your family. And they're human beings that are gonna grow up and have children, like you said, the generational effect. That, that.

Trauma that you bring because trust me it brings a sort of trauma to your family to your children is going to be carried with them into their adult lives and Impact their relationship with their children. Well and and their whole engagement in society So let's say they live 70 or 80 years It'll affect what kind of career they choose how they show up in their career I mean their spouses are like their community that all of it. So yeah those choices that

that one individual makes that it's just him or just his family now plays out. And I mean, think through this, how many interactions in a lifetime. Right. And if you think that this is an extreme view, just think in your own life, how many of the things that you're dealing with, your challenges, your trials are traced back to their roots being things your parents did in your childhood. Or did not do. Exactly. And those kind of things. So it has a ripple effect that is...

incomprehensible and I would say infinite. And so you're right, it starts in your family, it starts spreading out and it makes other people miserable and suffer, but it starts to take a draw. Let's just say, okay, let's hypothetically say, well, it's their family, they can do what they want. You start playing this out, it's like, well, look what it does on the EMS system. The vast majority of calls when I was working on ambulances were just people who were chronically unhealthy by their own choice.

Rachel Denning (26:07.181)
Well, our calls weren't out to emergencies like oh, there was a car accident or fall the vast majority of calls were to sick people who by their own choices kept getting sick and And it was interesting. There was massive a draw on resources Sometimes the judgment of calls to other emergencies like legit These are people they're living with say like 27 cats and just grossly overweight and extremely obese like the

regularly are just getting so sick from their own choices, their own living environment. They call 911 and have to be taken to the hospital again and again and again. Like repeats. And so then they go to the hospital and now it's a massive draw on resources in the hospital. Again, some people might say, well, that's the job of EMS and that's the job of the hospitals is to care for the people. Well, most of those people also don't have the funds.

paid for it. So who pays for it? Everybody like taxpayers and and and then then well it's not in the hospital like ends up doing this stuff. So well how do they make up for it? Well they raise the prices for everybody else. Right? And so the prices keep rising rising. So all these other good innocent help people who strive to be healthy have to pay exorbitant prices now because of these people who they're just doing their own thing. That are not contributing to society. And they can do what they want.

That's just one example of how this starts to play out again and again and again in massive ways of like, look, your choices have consequences. And this isn't to just because again, talking about our own journey along these lines, this isn't to discount the need for, let's say, welfare and different programs to help people that are literally helpless. They need there are those people in society and there needs to be a place for them. But there also needs to be boundaries. In line.

with where those virtues end, so to speak. Because we like to talk about sometimes virtues become a vice. Virtues produce the opposite effect when they go too far. And so when we have compassion or non -judgment or inclusion or all of these things, but we continue to push those bounds further and further and further, that's when we go too far and the destruction of families.

Rachel Denning (28:32.109)
Well, first of all, the destruction of individuals, which leads to the destruction of families, which leads to the destruction of communities, which leads to the destruction of society. That's where it comes from. That's where it begins. And, you know, I mean, of course, the classic example of all this is in.

Solzhenitsyn. Why can't I not say his name? Alexander Solzhenitsyn in the Gulag Archipelago. In the Gulag Archipelago. I mean, he talks about and his story is so powerful in that he lived through that destruction. He was thrown in the Russian Gulags. And as he spent, I forget how many years or 20, 30 years in the Gulags, he asked himself, like, how did I get here? How did we get here as a society?

And even more importantly, how did I contribute to this eventually happening? Well, and that I think was one of the most important points, is he asked himself, how did I contribute to this becoming a problem in society? And he ultimately realized that it's individual responsibility that makes all the difference. When as individuals, we become responsible for our choices because we recognize the ripple effect they have on the rest of the world, that's when we create a healthy society. Yeah.

And his conclusion, one of his conclusions was, well, I just didn't stand up for it years ago. Years ago when it didn't seem like a problem, when it's just starting, I didn't stand up and speak up and fight back. And so it's like, it was a subtle form of negligence that became collective that then led to an absolute horrendous collapse of a functioning society. And the death of...

Millions of people I mean million deaths during that time period in the Soviet Union were far exceeded deaths from the Holocaust of just Russian people to each other And here's the crazy thing because I know it sounds insane to say that but to think that we're not on the brink of that now Would be naive right exactly now. It doesn't mean it's going there for sure

Rachel Denning (30:45.741)
but it definitely has the warning signs. If you read through the histories, you will see, it's not the same exact story, you know, but you will see the warning signs of things like this happened in pre -Nazi times. This happened in the pre -Gulag Russia. It's the playbook again, like I mentioned before. It's literally is the playbook. And everybody should learn.

about the collapse of the Roman Empire. Everyone should read, and it is hard reading, everyone should read the Gulag Archipelago. You have to. You can't read the Gulag and sit back and think, oh no, people are just good. We just need to give them another chance. No one will take advantage of our welfare system because welfare is good. That's a perfect example. Welfare is a good principle. We're helping people that need help.

But the only way it can ever work is if nobody ever took advantage of it. And you have to realize you have to step back and be like, man, a majority of people in there are going to take advantage of, they're going to manipulate it. It's going to be corrupt. They're going to cheat the system. And there's human malice and malevolence. Well, another book that our son is actually listening to right now, it's called Ordinary Men. And it talks about how in Nazi Germany, it was...

the ordinary men, like the normal people that ended up being the ones who committed horrible atrocities. Enos crimes. Enos crimes against other human beings. Friends, neighbors, family members. Yeah. And so, and I had this thought actually when we were in Cairo, Egypt last May, and I don't know why it came to me, but I guess I f -

felt it more on the surface there in a way, because we went to Egypt and I've heard mixed reviews about Egypt, about the people and things like that. And I was a little apprehensive. And when we were there, we had an amazing experience. I mean, Egyptians love kids, they love families. So and traveling with a family, people are usually very, very positive and kind and responsive to us. But we were out, we went out shopping in the Cairo markets.

Rachel Denning (33:07.501)
at night and had a great time, shopped and interacted and it was just so fun. And then we walked back to our car and it was, I mean, it was like midnight, but Cairo was still hopping. Like there was just people everywhere all over. And I kept getting this sense while I, while I definitely felt accepted and, and people were friendly to me. And it wasn't necessarily anything personal. It was just almost this underlying sense of.

humanity in general, I felt like while on the surface people are kind and nice to me, and again, this isn't just about the Egyptians, this is about humanity in all, overall, at any moment I feel like they could switch and turn on me.

Rachel Denning (33:58.349)
And as you're walking through crowds of people who are smiling and laughing and being nice, I still, and I knew it, like I knew it in my soul that if something happened where suddenly I became the enemy, they would turn on me like that. And again, this wasn't anything, it was like an archetypal experience. It wasn't specifically about the Egyptians or whatever. It was just this sense of humanity in general can be that capricious.

We had that same experience we live in India. Yeah. Like every experience we had with the Indian people was phenomenal. They treated us so well. We loved them. But there were occasions we saw things just completely undone. There was a funeral procession. I remember once we got stuck in some traffic. Something had happened in front of us where I don't know what, but we saw everyone. Like, which?

and started picking up stones ready to stone someone. And our driver was like, we need to get out of here. And they just started bashing out car windows and just the mob mentality. Once it flips the mob mentality, it was just random people that happened to be caught in traffic. All of a sudden, all their windows are being smashed out of their cars. It just went mayhem and chaos. And we've seen that happen even on the news and in videos we see where all of a sudden a mob or riot breaks out.

stores and shopkeepers and bystanders and cars, like whatever just happens to be in the way, can be burned, destroyed, broken, even people murdered. I think more frightening than that is that in a way it deadens their own humanity. Absolutely. And I'm thinking specifically because we were caught in a mob situation like that in Mexico and this was in I think 2021. We were driving through Mexico.

We drove through this area of Mexico that you should never go to. It's in... Western Chiapas. Yeah, it's in the state of Chiapas. Don't go there. And we drove through this small town who basically had been taken over by a mob. It was ruled, it was mob rule. And we even got stopped by them. So we got stopped by them. They put tire shredders in front of us. They blocked us behind. We couldn't get out. They...

Rachel Denning (36:21.933)
We're opening up our doors, trying to get in. They literally tried to grab my phone out of my hand. Like this was happening. They took clubs. They all had clubs and masks. We're hitting our vehicle with clubs. And you were asking like, where's the police? Where's there's like, there are no police here. And he said that. He said, I'm like, who's in charge here? Who are the officers? Give me the police officers, the military. And he's like, there are none. We are in charge. And, but the saddest thing to me is while this was going on and it was really only being instigated by maybe 10 men.

but the rest of the people standing around watching, not interfering. That to me was the saddest part, because I saw grandmas and I saw moms with their kids and I saw young teen boys and I looked at them. And I looked at them and I looked them in the eyes and I just sent this message to them like, how can you just stand there and do nothing about this?

That to me is the most frightening part because when the mob mentality breaks out, the most dangerous part of it is not the people who are committing the crimes, but those who stand by and watch it happen. That's where the danger lies. Another book. And the endowment. That is an absolute must read. I just finished it is literally so good. It sounds like it would be completely boring. And there's parts that you might get a little, you know, leap in.

But overall with the ending and everything, it was fantastic. It's called the psychology of totalitarianism. And he talks about that. He says how in, and he also talks a lot about, he calls it mass formation, which is essentially some sort of mass hypnosis, which is what I was almost describing. It's this idea where there's the people who are instigating the insanity and the chaos. Usually a small percentage.

Usually a small percentage then the larger percentage is the ones who go along with it and Then there's the smaller percentage this actively speak out against it But the reason things happen and this he said it was the exact same case with Nazi Germany. It was the same case in Russia It happened during kovat is because of the masses Who fall under this and he explains it way better than I can fall under this sense of hypnosis

Rachel Denning (38:46.413)
which this is documented, it's proven, this isn't some crazy idea he just came up with, it's like a real psychological thing. And just, they go along with what's happening. And that's why these horrendous things are allowed to happen in our society, and you know, the classic example of like, oh, if we lived in Nazi Germany at that time, we wouldn't have allowed those things to happen. But they happen because of this mass formation. It happened because...

the guy in Canada who's talking about, well, as long as we've got our food and our Gameboy and our Netflix, I'm not going to say anything. I'm not going to speak up. I'm not going to... Basically, it's like, as long as it doesn't happen to me, well, that's too bad for them. And they're so passive until it gets to their doorstep. And then they're like, help, help. And you're like, well, who's going to come help you? Well, the police. You're like, well, yeah, you voted to defund the police. Exactly. Because...

We don't need police officers. Police officers are bad guys making people feel bad. And so you wanted to defund the police and now you're begging and pleading and you are so anti -gun that you're like, we don't need guns. Guns are terrible. So now you are literally defenseless. You have no weapons and no one's coming to rescue you. All of which you voted for. Right. You were all in favor of it. Or at least didn't vote again. Right. Or you did nothing. And so all the... I mean, play that out.

So those of you are just like, you know, so anti weapons and you're so anti police and you're anti military, just play that all out. They're probably not listening to our podcast. But maybe we need to share these and have these discussions again, amyably and try to be persuasive, but play that out. If you're sitting there saying, look, no weapons, no police. Can't we all just get along if we just love people?

and we were just more kind and less judgmental, all the problems go away. Yeah, they would if there were no malice. Right. And if everyone, every single person agreed to that idea. And that's just not... Well, even if they agree, okay, let's play that out. Let's say all of a society says, yeah, we're going to agree to that. Well, I guess I'm using the word agree as in actually act it out in the world. Okay, let's even do that. So they begin living now.

Rachel Denning (41:09.645)
Well, what happens, let's play this out. We play out this little utopia, I think, that kind of the woke idea. And again, we're using woke and that's become a little term, but it's this idea, it's been happening for millennia. That's the other thing I wanted to actually mention today was because it's not new. I mean, in the last few months, I've been reading, I'm currently reading Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.

Why do I always mix up with others? And then I just also read Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. And in both of those books,

This is why these authors are brilliant because they have these dialogues that occur between characters that are essentially discussing ideas like this. They're talking about ideas that are quote unquote woke. But this was before wokeism existed, right? Exactly. They seem new. Everyone's like, no, this is a new thing. New progressive ideas. Progressive. You're like, yeah, this was the same issue a couple of years ago. Right. And a couple of years before that. Just read Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. You'll come across these ideas. They're not new ideas.

So wokeism in and of itself is not new. It's just recycled. It's again, it's an is right from the playbook of failed societies. Okay. But I want to, I want to play through my thing here. So you get this utopia where everyone agrees and starts to participate and it's all great. I mean, there's no judgment. Everybody's compassionate and patient. I mean, we all agree to tolerant, right? And it's just so good. But

Even if they're acting it out, which would be unbelievably rare, the moment there's real pressure put on people, human beings, most of them, just snap. They just break. So if anything goes wrong, there's pressure put on the pipe, the leaks are going to go and things are going to break. So whether it's hunger or an act of violence,

Rachel Denning (43:20.909)
or somebody from outside or something happens, the pressure's too great, things snap and then they really start snapping and they really start going crazy. So even in this idealized society where everyone agrees to play along to this little dreamy existence, all you have to do is add some pressure, add some chaos and people come unglued. And we just have to,

it's naive not to consider that things go wrong. Well, I mean, right, that is the nature of humanity. If anything's common in humanity, it's that things go wrong and human beings suffer. And when you're talking about pressure, I'm thinking like, yeah, I mean, not all human beings can handle pressure, stress, responsibility in the same way. And they it...

burdens them in different ways, which lead to their own snapping, right? Not everyone, but some people do. They snap when they are held to certain standards or certain expectations. And so it's accounting for those inconsistencies of humanness that require us to have some sort of, well, ultimately, whatever form that takes, if that's government, police, it's whatever.

It's these boundaries that we have to have in place. It is the boundaries that keep society functioning. And if you don't think that's the case, you know, I mean, I know that it's true because I've seen it if nowhere else but on Instagram of these people who are absolutely clueless to how the world operates, where these women will say things like, I don't even need men in my life. Like, I can live without men.

without realizing that their entire world behind the scenes is supported by men doing the dirty jobs. Like they're building the house that they live in and they're maintaining the internet and the infrastructure. So that they can throw their garbage away and flush their toilet. Like they don't even realize that it's men mostly, because 80 % or more of those jobs are done by men that are making that happen. And so we live in this.

Rachel Denning (45:45.485)
cozy, comfort little society where we're completely clueless to how it functions. And then, oh, and then the phrase is, like you said, we have these, I can't even remember, these privileged beliefs, right? We have these beliefs that we can only hold because we live such privileged lives. But if you strip all of that privilege away, and I'm talking about the fact that you can be safe, comfortable, and eat.

without much effort on your part, besides getting on Uber Eats and having food delivered to your house, that you can do all of that safely in today's society, strip all of that away, and what are we left with? It's chaos, it's craziness, it's life and death. As you said that, you strip it all down to this, the lowest level of the animal.

level and it's rape and murder. It's true. It is. I mean, that's what men and women have been fighting against for centuries is like protecting yourself and your family from being killed and raped and plundered. Like, hello, welcome to the human condition. And now we are so distanced from that because of the borders that we've placed in around society to protect us.

That we get so comfortable that we get so comfortable. Now we have the privilege of holding beliefs that actually will crumble that entire structure. And for me, it's most.

It's illustrated best in something I heard, and I know I've talked about it before, but something I heard a few months ago about two or three different instances of people, and specifically in this case, and I think it's relevant, they were people who had been big supporters of Black Lives Matter, which, if you do not know, Black Lives Matter has literally been proven as one of the most dishonest non -profits out there. The money that they gathered during the whole Black Lives Matter movement,

Rachel Denning (47:54.573)
went to buying mansions in Los Angeles and other crazy things like they they're absolutely corrupt anyways these people are big Black Lives Matter supporters they were fully against and behind the Black Lives Matter movement there's goodness there but there's also this element of like don't judge black people at all type thing which on the surface that sounds like oh yeah that's a good thing we shouldn't judge people because of the color of their skin but if you are talking about first

level, second level, third level thinking, well you realize, well yeah, ultimately you shouldn't be judging people on the color of their skin, but like Martin Luther King said, on the content of their character. So you should be judging someone, a black person, an Asian person, a white person, it doesn't matter the color of their skin, based on their character. But if in your mind you equate judging black people with being racist,

because of the Black Lives Matter and so you don't judge someone to be potentially dangerous because they are black, that alone, forget their character, forget how they're behaving, that puts you in a dangerous spot and this can be for any color of skin, right? But if you think, oh, they're black so I'm not gonna judge them even though if a white person was acting like that or whatever, my same race, I would be judging them like crazy and saying, they're dangerous, I'm not going around them.

that puts you in danger. And that happened to at least two different people that I know of in the news where they didn't judge someone because they were black, allowed them to get close to them, and in both these instances were murdered. One by a homeless black man, another by, I don't know if he was on drugs or what, but a woman who was a Black Lives Matter supporter allowed this man into her penthouse. They found her days later murdered.

And I think that that illustrates the example of, yes, we should have compassion. Yes, we shouldn't be racist just because of someone's color. But we also need to be wise enough to make judgments of other people. We do need to judge other people to protect ourselves. Yeah, based on character and behavior to protect ourselves and society as a whole. And when we fail to do that, we are literally like,

Rachel Denning (50:13.261)
crumbling the boundaries of society, which will lead to its collapse. So I guess today's invitation is take all of the issues, big and small, take the things that you've been thinking about or hearing about. You hear people talk about even your own beliefs or ideology. Just start running them through this process. Where does this lead? What's the long term outcome of this thing? What's the...

what's below the surface of this idea? And I think too often, well, because thinking is hard work. And so you start to, you're like, oh, I don't have time, I'm busy or I don't know, I don't know. And so we just dismiss it and we take surface level thinking. I think that's what's happening with most people in society. I mean, they're not taking time to think about, and if you, you know, something like even the transgenderism or the pronoun thing, like what's your preferred pronoun? Nobody takes time to think.

What's the second and third level, you know, thinking on this process? Where does this lead? And is it detrimental? We just take it at face value and we think, oh, this person wants to be called by that pronoun. Okay, yeah, I don't want to be rude to them. And that seems right and good. And on the surface, yes, that's true. But when we really think about the long term consequences of actually questioning base, like the basic of biology, male, female,

It begins to put our entire worldview in this place of uncertainty. And human beings don't do well with too much uncertainty. And in fact, that much uncertainty is actually the foundation of mental illness. When you are so uncertain about everything that you don't even know if you're a male or a female, that plants the seeds of ultimately mental illness. Because our brains,

need certainty. They need to know certain things about the world. Like we have to be able to know that if I put my foot on the ground, I'm going to be standing and not fall through space and time into another realm. We have to have these certain levels of certainty in order to operate and function in society. And so when we begin to unravel all of that,

Rachel Denning (52:37.709)
We're just looking for trouble. And part of the, one of the greatest parts of certainty that comes to all of us is those boundaries you were talking about. And the boundaries are so important and the boundaries are in place because of consequences that cannot be seen immediately. They're not close up. They're down around the corner. Right. I think pornography is an excellent example. You might look at pornography and think, you know, okay, it's a, it's an art.

If people want to indulge in that, go ahead. If some guy wants to sit in his apartment and look at porn and masturbate, that's on him. It's not affecting anybody. But it's because you don't understand. You don't see where that leads to. Especially on a mass level, which is what's happening now. Where all of a sudden porn's just not enough. And so it turns to violent porn and then the child sex material now, which is what's coming out. And then it turns people into predators. Well, and now, now...

Because we're questioning everything else like you can be a man or a woman you can be a cat or a dog you can be whatever Why can't you be a child? Attracted person you're just someone who's attracted to children and that should then be and if you think this is crazy on the fringes This is being brought up. It should be allowed more and more now. We made same -sex marriage allowed Why can't we allow child protected attracted persons to be legal? Yes. I just saw a TED talk about it. Hey, yeah woman was up there

just saying, look, child attraction is just another way of life and they should be allowed to be sexually attracted and have sex with children. And the fact that that's allowed on a TED talk, that tells you where our society is heading. Well, and there are institutions around the planet that are actually trying to lower the age of consent. They're trying to get it lower and lower so that, you know, the...

younger people can consent whose brains aren't even formed. If you understand what's happening to an adolescent on a brain wave, like no, there's no way that a human being at that stage of development can make those kinds of decisions. But again, this is all, and this is an example of next level thinking. Like pornography is a horrible problem. It's open sexuality society. It's like, well, why not sleep around? And then you get all these fatherless children.

Rachel Denning (55:04.525)
and all these abortions, I mean, it just starts to play out in society. This doesn't even include the other psychological aspects that, you know, I mean, we're talking more and more about the teenage years being extended into the 30s now because men aren't going out and getting married, neither women either, of course. But all of this is interconnected. And so in a lot of ways, on a psychological level, if a man can be at home and watch porn and have all of his needs fulfilled in those ways,

What drive does he have to get out there into the world to find a job, to find a wife, especially when he has to talk to real world women who will reject him and turn him down. That's a lot more frightening. He can have a virtual girlfriend, right, or watch porn. And there's no danger or risk involved. There's no rejection there. And so it's creating this whole generation of people who have no need to push boundaries. No need to do hard things. And the argument, Rachel, is like, well, if that's how he wants to do his life, so be it.

And you think, okay, as an individual, sure, if he wants to just be a little boy into his 30s and do his little thing in his basement, okay, no harm done, except it spreads. And then like you said, you have a generation with no real men. What happens to a society that has a massive generation with no men? Well, if you bring it back to the girl sitting in her little apartment,

on Instagram who says, I don't need any men in my world. I can live without men. If you think about that, what happens when all the men die off who are taking care of the internet, taking care of the electricity, building the houses, and now we have no one to replace them? Literally think about what happens to society when nobody wants to take on those jobs because they want to be at home watching porn. And we think, oh, it'll never come to that. But that's exactly how these things.

By everybody thinking that would never happen and in the meantime, it's happening right before your eyes.

Rachel Denning (57:11.597)
And so society will collapse, infrastructure collapses. Just play this out. Again, the whole, thanks for listening, you guys. We're glad you're here. And we get fired up through these, these philosophical ideas, but just take an idea and walk it, walk it out as far as you can. And then once you hit a limit, read some books and talk to some other people, talk to some older people, just, just start playing out your ideas and walk them down the path as far as you can. And then read lots of history books.

And what's happened is you start reading history hundreds of years or thousands of years ago, and you come across this idea, you're like, wow, they were wrestling with that same stupid idea 2000 years ago, and it actually unraveled their community. And here we are thinking we're so progressive that this is the first time this idea has been thought up, you know, in the, in the 2020s, like, wow, we got it going now. We're going to be so tolerant.

not like the people back in the day. And it's the same problem and it'll be the same ugly outcome. So be thoughtful, spend tons of time reading, thinking, discussing these ideas, get beyond surface level thinking. And will you please, with tact and diplomacy, begin speaking up. We've got to speak up. And in a...

adroitly, skillfully share the next level of thinking so that people who are jumping on the bandwagon are like, oh yeah, let's do this. Say, well, wait a minute. What about this next level? What about further down the road? So they can stop and go, ooh, yeah. Or at least say, ooh, I'm not sure. I don't know. Because back to where we started in Canada, if you thought five.

seven years difference, even 10 years from now, a place that was so safe and so wonderful, great place to live is now becoming a pretty unsafe one of the most dangerous cities in Canada. And that's happening across Canada. It's not unique. Well, it's happening across many societies. It is. So we've got to be a part of the solution. So love you guys. Work on yourselves harder than you do on anything else. Join Rachel's

Rachel Denning (59:36.077)
a 28 year challenge or to be the man master class, get in there, let's be our very best self and live extraordinary family life. Love you guys, reach out for it.