Surviving America 018: The Gulag is Digital (REPLAY)

[00:00:00] Society in every state is a blessing. The government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil. The future has already arrived.

[00:00:23] Cheers PBN family, what is up? Good morning. Welcome to Surviving America. Way too caffeinated this morning, way too early this morning and way too damn cold this morning. I'm still with it. The sun is just starting to make its presence known out there, but it'll be what it is. It'll be what it is on a day like today. The Gulag is digital.

[00:00:51] PBN family, the Gulag is digital. That is what's on my mind this morning. We have had a lot of techno digital sort of news as of late in the form of things like a tick tock ban and all that kind of stuff. PBN family, the gulag is digital. You know, sometimes these phrases and stuff just pop up when managing life.

[00:01:19] And one of those things, one of those phrases that popped up was the Gulag is digital. And the Gulag is digital became, you know, they're like warnings, you know what I mean, that pop up in my head. You probably have them too. Or it could be because I read people who make notable quotes all the time that like my mind will generate quotes from, you know, the impacts of life.

[00:01:46] But I can assure you. The Gulag is digital. And I want you to think about that and I want you to wrap your head around that. And I want you to understand that that's that's part of your challenge in this life. Right. We all know about the Gulag, the relentless and torturous, icy prisons of communist Russia. Right. Probably one of the worst places to spend any duration of time as a prisoner and.

[00:02:18] Looking for that, looking to avoid that Gulag, looking to avoid that those same human missteps that we continue to make time and time again. You know, I was talking to my father about it just a couple of days ago about like. Watching people watching the crazies, particularly on the left side of politics and culture, you can really easily see how.

[00:02:48] Groups of people can wind up in concentration camps, gas chambers, ovens. You could see it. You can watch it. You can watch how they become drunk off the power. Put your mask on your needles. You're this. You're right. You can see it. It's pretty it's pretty obvious. It's pretty scary. What's most scary is that it's clearly in everyone.

[00:03:14] You know, not like going to bubble to the surface in everyone, but everyone feels the pool. Everyone can feel like the pool of, oh, I got power. Oh, I could I could tell you what to do. You're doing the wrong thing and I'm going to tell you about it. And I've got all this power and backing behind me to make sure that, you know, you're doing the wrong thing. Damn it. And you could see it. You could just see it. You could see how it how it takes hold of people. So.

[00:03:42] Today, we're going to talk about the gulag is digital, and we're also going to talk about who's here to spring you. From that torturous prison. Right now. I think it's it's in degrees. Right. But what me and Jay Ferg were talking about on Monday night. Was the fact that these digital technologies are powerful. Right. Right.

[00:04:10] These scrolling apps, these shorts, these YouTube's, tick tocks, Instagram, snapchats, video games, virtual reality like these are. Impressive. Drugs. And we'll talk about that later. I mean, but you know that largely that's what they're doing. Right. They're making you feel real good for next to nothing.

[00:04:37] The only the only thing that stands out in that as being somewhat different is virtual reality because it is a physically demanding. It's physically demanding. Right. So, in other words, I mean, there are things that you can do in virtual reality that are like dopamine pumpers. But. At the end of the day, for most games, it's at least physically demanding.

[00:05:04] You know, you have to physically work for that good feeling. It's not like scroll, scroll, scroll. You know, the dizzy anime eyes is what I always picture on people. Oh, we got another medal. We got another medal from our friends at YouTube today for our conversation on Monday night. In our in our war.

[00:05:31] Against censorship, we were handed another community guidelines medal from YouTube. For medical misinformation of all things, you know, as if they don't know that Fauci was pardoned the other day. I had no clue. Why was it? If all of his advice was so great, why was he pardoned? What's what's the deal? I want to talk about Henry David Thoreau today. We're going to spend a lot of time on him. There are things, you know, age independent.

[00:06:03] I want to talk to you about testosterone. I want to talk to you about. Poppy, the baby hippo. Well, to be honest, Poppy, the baby hippo kind of set the whole show in motion. For me, truly set the whole show in motion because. Here in the Richmond Metro Zoo, a baby hippopotamus was born and it's super cute, right? It's like a little slimy little. I don't know. Little eared horse creature thing.

[00:06:32] They're just they're super cute. Baby hippos are. And, you know, Poppy's been in the news like crazy and constantly. And now they're allowing people to go visit Poppy like in hip waders. Like you're going trout fishing and you go pet Poppy or what. I don't know. Feed it. Maybe I don't know what you do. And the visual was this all happened this morning, by the way. I don't do like great planning on shows, but this all happened this morning.

[00:06:57] So I'm watching Poppy, the baby hippo come up to the bars of her enclosure to meet people. And they're standing in water. She's in water and they're feeding her like celery sticks or whatever. And I'm watching and I'm going like. When does Poppy. Start to realize she's in prison. You know, because she's a baby. And that immediately flip flopped into the children. Right.

[00:07:26] That immediately flip flopped into the kids. I immediately got to the headspace of like, OK, when does Poppy realize that she's in an enclosure and in prison for the rest of her life? And she'll never be why a wild hippopotamus. And then I started thinking about. Children. And I started thinking, when do the children understand that when they're see and this is a bit. This is a bit much, but we'll go with it.

[00:07:54] When do the children understand the gulag, the digital gulag that they're in? Right. Not that they're in it constantly, but a lot of kids spend a lot of time in it. A lot of kids spend a lot of fun time in it. A lot of kids spend a lot of rewarding time in it, you know. But there does come a time.

[00:08:16] And I've seen it in my own kids where they where where they will understand that they have been a part of something or are now a part of something that is way more nefarious than they thought. You know what I mean? It would be like playing with your matchbox cars. And all of a sudden, your mom sits you down and goes like, you know, these matchbox cars are they've been created by scientists at the highest level.

[00:08:44] They know how to mess with your brain chemistry to make the paint jobs on the matchbox cars have been designed by neuroscientists to take advantage of you to some degree and assure that you only want to play with matchbox cars. You know what I mean? Can you imagine something like that? The bicycle manufacturers have worked with top level neuroscientists to assure that you want to spend all your time on your bike.

[00:09:11] This generation of kids and generations to come will have to grapple with that sort of digital gulag as part of their entertainment, as part of their not only their entertainment, but, you know, the digital gulag is most certainly a part of it is their number one communication method to. If you haven't noticed, like kids don't do this. Kids don't do this.

[00:09:38] I don't even know if I've ever seen my son do this in the last five years. Hey, what's up, man? What are you doing? Oh, yeah. Cool. You want to go out? All right. See you. Click. Click. My kids are perpetually on. Well, my son, my oldest son is like he can come downstairs like on video people on life. You know what I mean? There's no phone calling. All that stuff happens through apps.

[00:10:05] It happens, you know, via video or the video turned off. But it's not like a phone call, phone, phone. It's a different world. It's a fundamentally different world. And one of the crazy things for our kids is that they do have to come to this realization that they're even if they're just at the gates or even if they're just visiting the digital gulag, they're in it. You know what I mean? This is part of the deal. They're in it.

[00:10:34] And what Jay Ferg and I were talking about Monday was. So are we. You know, I think as parents, it's easy to deflect. It's easy to be like, well, I got to make sure that my kids aren't spending too much time on electronics. And they're doing that while they're like this number. Like, I got to make sure my kids aren't on electronics too much. You know, and you've you know, you've got to come to the realization like you're on it all the time, too. You're on it all the time.

[00:11:04] Maybe you're not. Maybe you've you know, you've figured it out. In my experience, it seems like the best way is to just put it away and forget about it, like mentally forget about it. Like fill your time with something else. But watching little poppy, it is it is an interesting exercise in this whole digital prison that we have created. And look, to be clear right up front, like we participate. Don't get me wrong.

[00:11:34] I'm not the type of dude who is like my kids get an hour a day screen time and we don't do X, Y and Z. And we have shut off the Wi-Fi like we participate. You know what I mean? We all play video games, have fun, have social media, talk to you know, look what I do here with the podcast. You know what I mean? This is why the phrase the gulag is digital was so important to me because I live in this world. You know what I mean?

[00:12:04] I exist in this world. All my business is done through digital. You know what I mean? And it's just it was one of those sort of warnings that that popped up in my head. And I wanted to share with everybody at PBN. It's just that it's like. Don't get stuck. Don't get trapped. Right. You can visit the gulag, but you don't want to become a prisoner. Right. Because the gulag is digital.

[00:12:31] So do you want to see the I did link to this? I mean, I might as well show you. We have merchandise. I never talk about it. I never promote it. It's just one of these things. I never I don't care to sell merchandise much. You know what I mean? There's a link down to our merch store down here. And I just wanted to show you this because if this if this resonates with you, you know, this quote, if it resonates with you, then it's something worth talking about.

[00:13:00] It's it might be something you want to own a T-shirt or a sticker that says the gulag is digital because. And like I said, you'll see those postings are old, man. They're that stuff that we. Like I said, I probably two or three years ago, I started saying that. So it's all it's old stuff, but whatever. For those of you who are listening to the podcast, it's down below the down in the show description there. You can see the gulag is digital.

[00:13:28] Now, I want to talk about who's going to spring you. You know, I want to talk to you about the just the absolute amazing foreshadowing. Of one Henry David Thoreau and and how his writings and his mentality were built. This happens a lot in humanity. This is why it's so important for you to access that sort of creative side of yourself and to.

[00:13:58] Express the things that you are feeling, you know what I mean? Like the podcast for me, man, and writing for me, one of the most important things for me in life is self-expression. It's huge. It's absolutely it's monumental for me. It's why I can't stop. Podcast. I'm OK with saying that. I'm OK with letting you know that I can't stop. All right. It's just one of those. And many of the hosts are in the same boat.

[00:14:28] Right. You get in this self-expression. You get into doing the reps of expressing yourself and you like what comes out and you like the way you feel after and you like the, you know, the feedback from other people who say like, yeah. I feel the same way. I feel the same way. Thanks for saying that. That really, you know, helped me out with something I was dealing with. And you're like, why? Why wouldn't I put these little cluster bombs of thought and expression out into the world that help you?

[00:14:56] And it also helps you like mitigate the stress of a life in the gulag. Right. So it's important. But, you know, all that self-expression. In Thoreau's time, he didn't know it. He couldn't have known it. He he knew to some degree. But this is, you know, the early 1800s, early to mid 1800s. He had no idea. Tick tock was coming.

[00:15:24] He had no idea the digital gulag was coming, maybe in his wildest dreams, but I doubt it because it wasn't really his mentality. But in his writing. He tapped into something that transcends the threat. Right. In his writing, he tapped into things that transcend. And in other words, whatever the threat is to humanity, he figured out there is a thing and it's the wild. And it transcends the threats.

[00:15:52] So we're going to read a bunch of quotes from Thoreau today. We'll talk a little bit very briefly about sort of his his journey and how he found the way in a really funny way out of this sort of rat race. And, you know, he didn't live some kind of lavish. He's not this super success story. Henry David Thoreau was not a guy who made millions off of his writings and died in a golden posted bed.

[00:16:22] You know what I mean? It is. But that doesn't matter, because what matters is his writings went on to land at a time like this. And as we get through some of these quotes and some of his writings, I'm telling you, you're going to understand, like, if the Gulag is digital. Then Thoreau is here to spring you. He is here for the jailbreak.

[00:16:48] That's what this dude was put on on the earth for 100 years ago. I'm sorry, 200 years ago. And, you know, it's one of those wild things. Simplify your life. Don't waste the years struggling for things that are unimportant. Don't burden yourself with possessions. Keep your needs and wants simple and enjoy what you have. Don't destroy your peace of mind by looking back, worrying about the past. Live in the present.

[00:17:18] Simplify. Now, this is Henry David Thoreau's most hallmark-ish quote, in my opinion. This is hallmark, right? Back in the day, I'm sure it was a little more profound. But this is not the Henry David Thoreau. But it's a big one. It's a big, long one. It kind of sets the tone because this became the guy's whole mantra. It became his whole mindset, right?

[00:17:48] I don't want to do the beauty within us. Now, this is one that really sets the tone. This is a quote that I think this came out of civil disobedience. I could be wrong, though. We'll talk about civil disobedience and how he wrote that book and why he wrote that book and the tax debt that got him thrown in prison. It's interesting. But all the way back in those days, you know what I mean?

[00:18:15] Henry understood the value of time. You know me. If you know me, right? My podcast audience, my listeners who've been with me a long time, you understand that I am always very cognizant of time. In every way. You know what I mean? In every way. In the aging of my physical body. The limited time I have with my kids.

[00:18:42] The limited time I have with people who are older than me and who will be gone. You know, standing there talking to my father. We talked for like three hours. We stood in the living room. We had a little bit of like an electrical issue. We fixed it. And then we stood in the living room side by side, arms crossed, rocking as we do. You do this with your dad? Yeah. I'll tell you about it. You know what I mean? It's one of those numbers. And it's great. We have fun. We laugh. We joke.

[00:19:10] We laugh about politics and sports and all that kind of stuff. We just have a great time. And I get back home. I get back home with my wife. And I'm like, sorry, I've gone so long. And, you know, because I didn't. Whatever, you know. And I get back and everybody's hungry. And she was making dinner and all that kind of stuff. And I get back and I'm like, how many more three-hour talks with dad do I have left? You know.

[00:19:39] Not in like a. We weren't arguing about it at all or anything like that. It wasn't that kind of a comment. It was just a literal like a. Because this is something I think about all the time. Right? I think about this stuff all the time. And you should too. You should most certainly think to yourself the next time you're with your parents, your kids, your whatever. Anybody who's of value to you. Look at them. And in the midst of whatever it is you're doing, say like, no, really. Like. How many more times in my life am I going to do this?

[00:20:07] How many more opportunities in my life do I have to stand in the living room with my dad and talk for three hours straight and laugh with him and joke and talk about the past and about fishing adventures and life? And, you know, he's 70. What? He'll be 75 in a month. And. That's it. That's the average. You know what I mean?

[00:20:32] There's a chance based on averages that that might have been the last one that might have been. I did the same thing with my in-laws. I just spent hours with my in-laws. I'd go over there to help them with something. And I'd sit there on the couch. My wife would be texting me. You know what I mean? Hours would go by and they'd be telling me about my wife and what, you know, when growing up and about their other kids and about growing up in Richmond back in the 70s. And I just sit there, man, and listen.

[00:21:01] And it would be so great to listen to the stories. And also in the back of my mind, I would always say, like, how much more time do I got? How many more times am I going to sit down with both of these people and have this kind of a good time? And Henry David Thoreau reflected that in his quote. He said, the price of anything. This is so valuable in this day and age where people are always chasing money, crypto, you know, wealth.

[00:21:30] The guy on social media who's got the Lamborghini and all that kind of stuff. And he says, the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. That's heavy, man. The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. Now, when you put that in context to the digital gulag, what is the price? What is the price? What is the price? What is the true? Remember, TikTok's free.

[00:22:02] Facebook, Instagram, every social network is free. YouTube, free, 100%. You might have to watch a couple of ads, but largely it's free, right? I'm allowed to do this for free. But then the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. You want an in-depth look? I feel like I'm in the mood to, I'm getting some, what is this?

[00:22:32] Hypothermia from Chin. Warning signs of hypothermia, confusion, shivering, difficulty speaking, sleepiness, stiff muscles. It's 7.30 in the morning. That's an interesting one. But I think the, I think that's going out to, probably to the Rabelais. The Rabelais are having a blast down there in Louisiana. They got like nine inches of snow.

[00:23:02] That stuff don't happen. So, the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. Put that in the back pocket. You know, that's everything. That's everything, man. That's everything. Your work, you know. I'm going to get this project done at work and I'm going to get a big bonus for it. Oh yeah? Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.

[00:23:32] Live the life you've imagined. I don't know. That's pretty hallmarky too nowadays. Here's a good self-reliance quote that I like. A man's wealth is measured by what he doesn't need. There is something about that, right? There is something to be said about this constant war of attrition that we all feel. You ever feel it? Do you ever feel that sort of war of attrition in your own life?

[00:23:58] I feel it a lot with bills and with, you know, like clothes for kids and shoes and all this kind of stuff. When I get real sort of manic, everything looks like attrition to me. Everything. Like, oh, here comes another this. You know, another trip to the market. And we got running out of this and getting this and that and this. You know what I mean? And it just feels like I'm butted up against this, like, searing hot life.

[00:24:28] And it just shears, like, layers off of me every single week. Until you're dead. You know, when you get real, when you get real, real sort of sarcastic and sardonic with it, all that happens. What else we got from Henry? We could go into the book. Let's talk about the highlights, right? So he's a Harvard grad.

[00:24:57] You know what I mean? And, you know, not like you must not have been a poor guy. I don't know his biography. I'm not like an expert. You know what I mean? But I know he went to Harvard. He was studious, did well. And his whole thing was, I'm going to be a teacher and a tutor. And he was teaching and tutoring. And then in 1939, he goes on a canoe trip. And on that canoe trip, he just abandoned ship.

[00:25:26] On the whole idea. He just basically abandoned ship on the whole concept of, like, I'm going to be a tutor. And a teacher. And I have a Harvard degree. And he says, no, I'm going to go into the woods and write poems. I laugh because, like, you know, if you're that kind of person, you're laughing. If you're that kind of person, you understand it. You've been gripped by that feeling. You've been gripped by that.

[00:25:56] You've seen the majesty of the wild. And you've been like, oh. And you feel it. You know what it is. You know exactly what that feeling is. On July 4th, 1845. So six years after he's made that declaration, he moves into a small self-built house in a second growth forest around Walden Lake. Right. And Walden becomes another book that he writes.

[00:26:25] But civil disobedience was – that's an interesting read because he was arrested for a tax debt that he had that had to be paid to support the American-Mexico War at the time. And he didn't pay it. And he gets lifted. And out of that whole experience, he writes civil disobedience.

[00:26:48] And a lot of the concepts and quotes that we touch on when we think of Henry David Thoreau come from that if they're not, like, based around the natural world in the woods. Now, my father gave me this book years ago. This is actually how I heard of Henry David Thoreau. I never knew the guy. I didn't read, like, civil disobedience or Walden because I was such a great student in school. You know what I mean?

[00:27:14] I found these guys, all these writers that I read to you, none of them were, like – they may have been recommended to me by my English teachers, but I didn't care at the time. And I didn't go to a traditional college, so it didn't hit me there. But my dad sends me home with this book years ago. I don't know, decade at least. And The Fisherman's Guide to Life.

[00:27:37] And, I mean, it's full of – if you're not a fisherman, it may not resonate as well. You know what I mean? But if you are a fisherman, it's just – sparse gray hackle in this book says, if fishing interferes with your business, give up your business. But I happened upon all these quotes from this guy, Henry David Thoreau, and I was like, what is this guy's deal? You know? Isaac Walton in here also.

[00:28:09] Let's see if we can find some Henry. See, I've dog-eared so much. One of the most epic quotes, I think, in terms of standing against the digital gulag, right? And Henry's sort of – in my metaphoric take on the whole thing, his ability to spring you from the digital gulag is his quote, we need the tonic of wilderness.

[00:28:36] And this – like, this is the concept that he drives home in a lot of his quotes about being in the woods and spending time in wild places is – it's not – it's not a thing that we do. It's not a holiday. You know what I mean? It's not a day trip. It's not one of these things that humans do because it's like, ooh, let me get some good pictures on the mountainside, the top of a mountain, a great view, post it on social media, and then go about my life.

[00:29:08] It's something that we need. Like, we need this return to the wilderness, and it makes perfect sense. You know, when you think about what we are, it makes perfect sense. Here's another great one. And, I mean, this is direct correlation to what we're talking about, right? In the wilderness is the salvation of mankind. Henry David Thoreau. I mean, how much more clear can it get than that? In the woods is the salvation of mankind.

[00:29:38] And he was living in the early 1800s, so it wasn't like he's traipsing through downtown Manhattan with the lights and, you know, concrete jungles and all that kind of stuff. So even then, there was a disconnect that needed to – there was an emptiness that needed to be filled, you know? You guys digging this? This is not – this is atypical. But, you know, that's kind of my run of things around here.

[00:30:06] I'm good for the atypical from time to time. I did want to get into one article we can break for a minute. I wanted to talk about the weakness of people. I wanted to talk about – I mean, coming off of what we're talking about, it is absolutely terrifying to even read a headline like this. We've got the Israel-Hamas situation. We've got the ceasefire.

[00:30:36] I don't know what the hell the ceasefire means because there's all kinds of stuff going on over there that I'm reading about that makes no sense in a ceasefire. But this headline, after 15 months of war, Hamas still rules over what remains of Gaza. And I don't know how old this picture is, but there's a picture of the Foot Clan. Hamas dresses like the Foot Clan from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You know what I mean? You look at them.

[00:31:04] That's what I see every time, especially when they have like the – well, I'll show you. Let's put it on the podcast so you can see it. Because they definitely dress just like the Foot. And I think it's kind of a silly outfit. And someone up there in the upper echelons of head cutters should definitely tell them, hey, look, we look kind of silly. We look kind of like the Foot Clan. Whoa. You see all the ads on the website? There's so many ads on websites. Okay, so look at this guy. Right? Check him out.

[00:31:34] Now I'll get you a picture of the Foot Clan from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. T-M-N-T. Let's see. I definitely like the movie version too. I should say that movie version because they're not like the robot kind. But they're definitely like the Foot Clan from the movies. Yeah, here we go. Here's some good ones. Look, it is what it is.

[00:32:04] All right, so you got Hamas. Let me bring the picture up. You got Hamas. You guys see Hamas. Now I'm going to switch. And I'm going to show you the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you know, beat-em-up clan. And you'll be able to see what I'm talking about. And there they are. And there they are. The comic version of Hamas. Right there waiting on the Ninja Turtles.

[00:32:35] But, you know, whoa. Whoa. I almost just closed out the entire show playing around with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles footage. But in all honesty, you know, you read this sort of story. After all this time at war, all these dead. All these people dead. You know what I mean? On both sides of the ball. The terror of it all. A ceasefire brought calm to Gaza's ruined cities. Hamas was quick to emerge from hiding.

[00:33:04] The militant group has not only survived 15 months of war with Israel, among the deadliest, most destructive in recent memory. But it remains firmly in control of the coastal territory that now resembles an apocalyptic wasteland. With a surge of humanitarian aid promised as part of the ceasefire deal, the Hamas-run government said Monday it will coordinate distribution to the desperate people of Gaza. Yeah.

[00:33:29] If by desperate people of Gaza they mean the building of rockets and launchers, then yes. So the Foot Clan. Yeah. It's just the same old story. There was an element of theater in Sunday's handover of three Israel hostages to the Red Cross when dozens of masked Hamas fighters wearing green headbands and military fatigues paraded in front of cameras and held back a crowd of hundreds who surrounded the vehicles.

[00:33:59] It's it's. And all it is is guns. These guys all have AK-47s. And that's the difference. That's why these that's why the people of Gaza will suffer again. That's why the people of Gaza will will be back under the rule of Hamas. That's why Hamas will build back up. That's why Israel Israelis will be slaughtered again by Hamas militants in the future.

[00:34:28] Because the people are screwed. And the reason the people are screwed is they have no ability to defend themselves. None. They have no ability. What are you going to throw rocks at guys with AK-47s? The truth of the matter is the only way. The only way. You can ever have anything in the Middle East is through freedom and firearms. See it. There has to be a division.

[00:34:58] Yeah, I know we hate that word. We mean division. There has to be division. There has to be a clear line in the Middle East. And it says, look, if you want to cover your women in trash bags and rape them and rape little girls, you got to live over there. And we're going to have to come over there sometimes when things get crazy and we're going to have to have wars. And this is the Israel position, right?

[00:35:25] What we can't have is those people in control of everything. You can't have it. It just doesn't work. It's just war. So if you want to live out your crazy religion, then there has to be a divide. Morning, Jay Ferg. There has to be a divide in it all. You know what I mean?

[00:35:46] There has to be an armed population of Muslim militants who tell themselves that they're righteous and do horrible things and treat their women like cattle. And then there has to be an armed population of people who want to live life the way they want to live life, whatever that looks like. The problem in the Middle East is only one half has guns. So you'll never be done with Hamas. You'll never be done with any of these militant groups.

[00:36:17] And that's just what it is. And Israel will be the only ones out there, you know, fighting it off. It just surprised me this morning. I thought it would be a good break in sort of the digital gulag conversation. Because it's wild. I mean, it's wild, but it's predictable. You know what I mean?

[00:36:41] Again, the digital gulag does also come complete with tremendous distractions about world news and all that kind of stuff. The only people who ever get any place interesting are the people who get lost. It's an interesting one.

[00:37:04] This is one that I see everywhere with Henry David Thoreau that I get it, but it is an important one. And it says, I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately. In other words, and in his situation, you can understand it, right? Harvard graduate, tutoring, school teaching, got to get up at a certain time, got to be at a certain place, got to do these kinds of things.

[00:37:33] And with his quote about exchanging time for life, right? Or things for time and things for life. What is the quote? Let me read the quote again. Because he says, I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately. But I want to read you the time quote. Because remember, this is all ticking in the back of his head. He says, the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. Not the amount of time, not the amount of money, the amount of life you exchange for it. And life is different than time.

[00:38:03] Life is different than time because time is, you know, an hour, two hours, eight hours, whatever it is. But life I always look at as, what is it? It's your passion. It's your fire, right? Like many people come home after spending a lot of time at work. But they've also spent the majority of their life force at work.

[00:38:31] And they get home and they're washed out. You know what I mean? So you're presenting a different kind of life. You spent a certain amount of life on the nine to five. And you come home and you're a shell of what you were trying to, you know, spend time with the most important people and do the most important things in your life in a four-hour window before bed. So he said, the price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.

[00:39:00] And I think his sort of mentality of, I went to the woods because I wish to live deliberately, was that idea. I'm trapped in this world where I'm exchanging tremendous amounts of life for things that I don't even really want, right? Like to be a teacher, to be a tutor, to have this Harvard degree, to live this life. He could see, I think, the life. And anybody who makes radical changes in their life, they do that.

[00:39:29] They foreshadow. They see like in 20 years, I'll still be a teacher. I'll still be a tutor. Maybe I'll be a dean or whatever. And none of that sounds fun. None of it sounds good. None of it sounds like something I want to invest all my life into because, you know, the funny thing about life is it just goes away eventually. It's just gone, you know. And that could be tomorrow or that could be in 40 years or whatever. Nobody knows.

[00:39:57] So I think he looked at a life in the woods writing poetry, writing, you know, self-expression at large, nothing that was going to pay the bills. He didn't go into this thing thinking, I'm going to hit it big. I'm going to be like Shakespeare. You know what I mean? I don't think that was his motivation. I think he truly went in there with this mentality of self-sufficiency and the ability to really enjoy the things that he enjoyed in life.

[00:40:26] And you look at the man's eyes, you know that it was sacrificial. You look at portraits of Henry David Thoreau. You don't see a guy who like. Live this life and he's not like a homesteading Instagram mom. You know what I mean? Like you see those homesteading Instagram moms and they're like all happy, great complexion. You know what I mean? Like you could tell they're on like this journey. And this dude's like, well, I'll show you. I'll show you a picture of him for those of you who are watching the video.

[00:40:56] You can see like many men lead lives of quiet desperation, which is one of his most famous quotes. But you could see in the guy's eyes like this. It was not this was not a thing that he did because it was going to make him tremendously happy, tremendously famous, rich, largely alone. You know what I mean? Was was Henry David Thoreau's life. But. This is what he wanted.

[00:41:26] And out of that, like I said, out of that life came. This tremendous ability to. Save us all through his words. To save us all from the digital gulag to remind us that, you know. There's a way out of. Like I said, his concepts on the tonic of the wilderness, they transcend every threat.

[00:41:55] They transcend every mental situation that people are in. Like he didn't create writing. And this is why he's a great writer. He didn't create writing that pinpointed one thing. Like sort of like if if I were to publish a prepping book. Right. I would be targeting your water storage needs. You know what I mean? His writing. Was about the human condition and how to how to save people from the distractions of of what it is to be human.

[00:42:25] Now, from civil disobedience, he had a great quote that. This this is one of those like what is it? Five words. This is one of those five words that combined effectively can touch everything. I mean, they can touch every major event in history. And, you know, Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi. These are people that read civil disobedience and took a lot away from it. But he says dissent.

[00:42:52] This is so perfect for our time, by the way. Dissent without action is consent. Remember that when you think about social media. Dissent without action is consent. Right. You think about the social media age that we live in. See what social media provides people is an ability to pretend that they dissent. Right. They get to get on there and say, I do not agree with this.

[00:43:21] And here's why. And here's some facts. And here's some stats. And then they turn off their phone and go back to living life, back to a life of consent for whatever it is the government wants to do to you. You know, whatever it is, whatever your boogeyman is. And I just always love that quote. You know, dissent without action is consent. Like great that you're upset. What are you doing about it? Because if you're not doing anything about it, you're participating. Very good. Here's the extended version.

[00:43:51] I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately. To front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not. When I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Yeah, see. I don't know if we're related. But that's one of those quotes that is like so akin to me. I mean, it's so me. It's how I feel.

[00:44:21] One of the scariest things of all is. And not when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Like at the end of this ride to be laying there in the bed, soaked in sweat, you know, covered in pain and racked with the horrors of the end of life, surrounded by the people that you love that are mortified, but faking it to pretend that they're okay. And everything's going to be okay, dad.

[00:44:54] And to sit there on your deathbed and say, what all the things I could have done, I didn't do any of them. I could have done this. I should have done that. Why didn't I? How did I make that mistake over and over again? And you know what I mean? I stayed trapped in some box. For eight hours a day and went home and drank a beer and fell asleep and like just like the poem I always read you about rugby rugby chapel, that whole concept of, you know.

[00:45:25] A man's life is no different than a wave at the center of the ocean rising, foaming for a moment and disappearing and no one ever knowing about it. And it's just, you know. The great ones are the great ones, folks. The great words stick with us. It is true that we've reached a moment in history where the gulag is digital. You know, that's just what it is.

[00:45:50] The great prison is not something that you'll be hands clapped together and thrown into by some black helmeted, you know, living creature. It's just right through here. It's just right through here. And we, without the right guidance, without the right willpower, like we can fall into that gulag ourselves. We can lock ourselves up in that hole. And it's not just the digital, right? It's not just the social media and that kind of stuff.

[00:46:20] It's also your, this insane drive to have a Bugatti. And I'm going to work 16 hours a day every day of my life till I get rich. And that's how you wind up on that deathbed going, what did I do? I had kids. I don't know them. I had a wife. I don't know her. Right? I think I had a life. But I was never around to enjoy it.

[00:46:51] So, a little different today. No doubt about it. A little different today than, I think, what we do on a regular basis here. But I can only give you what's on my mind. You know? Thank Poppy the Hippo for today's show. Because it really was staring at little Poppy and wondering, when does Poppy realize the baby hippo? When does she realize that she's imprisoned? And then thinking about people. And little kids. And looking at little kids.

[00:47:21] And going, when do they realize that they have the power to imprison themselves completely? Right? All right, folks. I'm going to get out of here. Please. Links down below. Support our great sponsors. What is the weird link? Oh, the merch store is down there. If you really like the Gulag is digital thing. I can promise you it's not a make or break thing in terms of merch. We're not going to pay the bills off of our merch sales.

[00:47:49] But if you like the concept and you want to have a sticker, t-shirt, whatever, link is down below. And don't forget, PBNfamily.com, man. You know? Become a member. This is the year for membership. I don't feel like... I'm not in the right headspace to sit here and tell you why. We've got 6,000 podcasts to tell you why.

[00:48:11] Every news headline across the world explains to you why you should be a member of PBN and take preparedness very seriously in 2025. It'll change your life, man. You know? A life of prepping and homesteading, urban homesteading, whatever it is. It will change your life. You know? It really will. For the better. You will, by demand, wind up living a life like the one we're talking about. Deliberately. Deliberately.

[00:48:39] Saying to yourself, like, oh, this is what life is. You know? Because you get forced. You start getting chickens and animals and all these kind of responsibilities. All of a sudden, you're forced to live deliberately. You're forced to slow down. You're forced to think outside of the cubicle. You're forced to think about things and say, like, ooh, what's happening in my life? All right, folks. I'll see you tomorrow. We do have a prepper tip of the day coming today. We may have a rising republic. I'm not sure.

[00:49:07] See what Ryan and Douglas can put together for us. But either way, man, enjoy your day. Okay? We don't know how many more of them we got left. You know what I'm saying? All right. You're listening to PBN. Your path back the stability here.