 G'day mate. So my live stream just cut off. I think the internet connection died But I was nearly two hours in so that I'll do it for today, but I was going to talk about a Story novella by Herman Melville called Benito Serino So There was a captain And his name was Captain Delano and he saw a ship that appeared to be in a bit of distress so we hailed it and went over and checked on it and ran into a captain of the supposedly distressed ship was named Benito Serino and Benito says now everything's great. So they carry on various conversations and Benito Serino Captain Serino's redivoted servant Bobo Redivoted black servant never leaves his side during every conversation Bobo was right there with Benito Serino and Captain Delano little uneasy About Benito Serino ship because there are very few Spaniards on the ship and an overwhelming number of slaves Like how can this tiny number of Spaniards? How can they maintain order when they're so dramatically outnumbered by the slaves? and There's some odd things going on this slave like smacks some Some white kid in the face and there are no repercussions for the slave And also there's this very proud aristocratic black man who's in chains, but He has such a presence It just seems off-putting that this guy is in chains something doesn't seem quite right So near the end of the story When Captain Delano and Benito Serino are parting Benito Serino just throws himself at the feet of Captain Delano and says save me so apparently his ship had been overtaken by the slaves and they'd they'd murdered the previous captain and They'd appointed Benito Serino to either the new captain in in face only in figurehead only But it was really the slaves who were running the show So Benito Serino had to act like a captain. He actually had no power So Babo Benito Serino is devoted servant He turned out to be the real captain of the ship. He'd been the one who that organized the mutiny And he's put on trial. He says not a word in your self-defense. He's hanged and then three months later Benito Serino dies So Sir Herman Melville novella Benito Serino as to Why the heck was I going to talk about it today? Carl Schmidt cites this work more than any other work like it's his favorite piece of literature to cite and Carl Schmidt would often sign his correspondence BC for Benito Serino So why did Carl Schmidt love Benito Serino? particularly during the late 1930s 1940s and afterwards and That's because Carl Schmidt saw himself as Benito Serino. He saw himself as effectively captured by by this dark uprising of say national socialism and that he was forced to To act a role that he didn't really believe in but it's forced by circumstance by this uprising To play this role. So Carl Schmidt Saw himself pretty much as a victim. Okay. I think anyone who so strongly identifies with Benito Serino. I Think they could only do that if they saw themselves as victims, right? No, no happy high achieving person Is going to See themselves as Benito Serino So Carl Schmidt saw himself as a victim and He devoted Approximately 40 years of his life after the end of World War two to try and rehabilitate his reputation with mixed success has just made me think that the The stories we love reveal a great deal about us Reminds me of a point that Walker Connor made in his book on nationalism that the poetry of a nation will probably reveal more about the character and Self-identification of the nation than any political science survey Because nationalism is a non-rational feeling and it is best expressed through poetry and song So the poetry that a nation loves the songs that a nation loves to sing that reveals Who it really is What's truly important and how they see themselves? so The car Schmidt sided Benito Serino more than any other work Reveals that that's how he saw himself Just that single insight gives you a Glance into the soul a car Schmidt That's how he looked at the world that he was this captain He was this man who'd been forced to play a role of as a captain Because there's been a mutiny and the forces of darkness have taken control and now he is a puppet for the forces of darkness So what are movies that you love? I what are movies that make you cry? I'm thinking love story. I was a movie that Was just deeply deeply moved me and I think almost all the stories that I love the stories about loss because loss is such a dominant theme in my own Understanding of my life So I was constantly moving around as a kid So the connections that I would make would be I would largely lose due to the constant moving I Was in foster care for many years Like from age one to four So my mother was dying of cancer Then of course the loss of my mother with that the loss of a happy home my father getting kicked out of something out in his church and us moving out on our own Into the quarter more secular world Tremendous feeling of loss. So the feeling of loss is very familiar dominant feeling in my psyche and I'm sure 10 to millions of people are far more reason to feel Loss, but that's there. It's been it's been in my psyche. Why do I love the music of air supply? Because I've been a lifelong addict because the experience of being in love has made me feel whole It's made me feel okay has I Kind of staunch the the inner psychic wounds Stunch that staunch the bleeding just the high of being in love It's kind of made Made me functional so From discovering s play it at age 13 Till say the last five years s applies being my favorite pop group because it's music Articulated my inner life my deepest yearnings could listen to their songs over and over and over again Because I was that kind of love sick love addicted Now yearning for love Kind of kid inside So what music do you love or what stories do you love? So now that I started to get my life together the last few years stories of loss And all that lovesick music doesn't mean as much to me now as as it used to when I was in more of these compelling emotional addictions So another favorite movie of mine is legends of the fall starring Brett Pitt Remember I started in the theater in something like May of 1994 June 1994, so I just moved to Los Angeles about too much previous and I was dating this woman had gone out with her three four five times and she still hadn't slept with me so very frustrated very needy and We went to see this movie legends of the fall and then about halfway through the movie the Brad kick Brad Pitt character who had already begun to identify where there's the kind of strong silent type is Unable to articulate his emotions and feels kind of driven to a solitary adventurous life Yes, he probably played into my self-image Being the strong silent type the laconic male So halfway through the movie Brad Pitt's already had more than a share of heartache and and then His wife is killed by by an accident or ricochet of a bullet from law enforcement and I think that just tapped into my own chip on my shoulder about law and force about authority and that's what that tapped into and Luke I'm playing for you to try to knock so that tapped into my own like Suspicion hatred of authority tapped into my my empathy for what it's like to lose your mother when she's young So Brad Smith lost his wife when she was young just this reminded me of my mother And so if the last half of the film I was sitting there with this woman that I really hope to take to bed and never did I was just crying He's crying That that's never happened. I mean I've shared the occasional tear at a movie, but I cried for like an hour So I just moved to LA. I was insecure just coming out of six years of chronic fatigue syndrome and I was scared and frightened looking for the reassurance of a woman going to bed with me and My anxiety I watched this movie and it just triggered me It's weird when adults use apps that usually any teenagers use like tiktok. Absolutely So it occurred to me to use tiktok. So what stories do you love? Because if you share the story that will reveal Snapshot of your soul, you know, we love stories because they speak to us in a particular way Just as Carl Schmidt love Benita Serena because that's how we saw himself I loved legends of the fall because I saw myself as the Brad Pitt character another movie That loved is a perfect world starring Kevin Costner and In this movie Kevin Costner breaks out of jail with an acquaintance and They ended up taking along this Jehovah's Witness kid who's never experienced much of life So that strongly reminded me of my own childhood as something Adventist That felt there's so much the world. I did not get to experience So that that spoke to Kind of some of the bereft feelings that I had from my childhood I Grew up in a way that I never really knew what a cousin was or an uncle or a niece because I had so little contact with extended family because just my parents and I were something Adventist But none of our relatives were and so because they weren't saved We you know, we didn't really have much to do with them So being part of this extreme religion something Adventism is kind of akin to Jehovah's Witness We We were separate from the world and I felt like I missed out on much of life being a something Adventist Being shorter from the world had had his good parts and his bad parts. So watching a perfect world just really grabbed me right here Okay, oh he may get in a bit of fresh air. Are you you bet? I am No worries mate. It's beautiful out as 82 degrees Air is nice and clean in LA How many cars on the road, do you know that I read in the LA Times yesterday that 60% of car trips in America for six miles or less So maybe we could start walking those distances or biking so nice when there are very few cars on the road Not nearly as many people Yeah, Beast Luke patrolling his neighborhood watching our friend Samites. That's right. It was nice having clean air here in LA It's so much quieter with very little traffic people are out on the streets walking people are friendly Even though we're not getting too close Very few people are dying in car accidents. There are very few traffic jams life. It's just Someway is much more relaxed Really pleasant so 60% of our car trips in America for less than six miles Wouldn't be nice if we started walking those miles or biking Now I sound like a lefty We're gonna turn boulevards into bike paths All right, another movie that I love I think it's very revelative of My own psyche Yeah, it's like living in the outback right now is the Nostradamus kid Australian movie came out about 1992 Two neighbors of mine cured in last three days in traffic accidents. Wow, that's Unusual because there's not a much traffic out there Though I heard someone did the cannonball run Yeah, never thought I'd hear Luke advocate biking. Yeah, but just Kind of love this feeling of Partly car-free Los Angeles right now. I love the fresh air I'm so skeptical when I read that article in the LA Times Advocating wouldn't be nice if LA had a lot less car traffic So I was predisposed to not like it and then I read it and I thought oh, these are a lot of good points I like how much cleaner the air is like the fewer people are dying in accidents. I like that. It's just quieter I like that there isn't all this, you know tire dust and you know brake pads and Emissions in the air polluting the air Like this is not the frantic You know car Jams all over LA So it's just so quiet and peaceful there. Yeah, mate. It's just like the outback. Okay, the Nostradamus kid anyone watch that So it's about the seventh-day Adventist kid Who becomes convinced the world is coming to an end? But he doesn't want it to end before he gets to bed the pastor's daughter I really could identify with that when I was growing up I didn't didn't want the world to end until I bedded the pastor's daughter I also had that similar obsession about the world coming to an end and my dad did a phd in eschatology so We had all these nutters coming over the house wanting to yak to my old man about eschatology the time of the end signs and portents This guy's trying to pick up this check And try to convince her to go to bed He's telling her there are signs and portents I don't know. Is that that very effective? I guess it all depends on the time the circumstance and the delivery Oh, love Love love love the Nostradamus kid. I probably watched it five times I might just do a blow by blow of the movie I've done a few streams about it already It just holds up really well for me And it was a commercial failure I think I got mixed reviews a lot of politically incorrect stuff in it Yeah, climate change is the new eschatology Good point Remember there are these seventh-day Adventist boys who are convinced the world's coming to an end that night So The house feels what should we do? Well, we should go reap all the women Disavow Disavow But they're out there seventh-day Adventist church Camp The Nostradamus kid great great movie So tell me tell me about the movies the stories Music that you love and I'll tell you who you are Aussie movies in general seem to be a bit politically incorrect. That's right. Jim Goad says that He says that Aussies are about the most politically incorrect people there are And while at the same time their media is incredibly politically correct. So discrepancy between Aussies and their media is dramatic Rumpa stomper bad boy, bubby All right Wait, that's an acronym But why am I talking? It's good, isn't it? Wait Why am I talking? So This is the cabala center right behind me there Go in might have a have a chin wag with Madonna get some holy water and some of those red red Strings for your wrists Good old cabala center Why am I talking? So good question to ask yourself And you can just sit there and pause and you can think until yeah something to say with confidence and clarity Why am I talking? right, so for every One time that I've gotten in trouble in life for not talking I've probably 100 times gotten into trouble on For talking too much So I need that Wait, why am I talking? and I don't think anyone's ever been fired as an executive Or a leader for not talking to the press And simply referring the the journalist to the PR department Right nobody's been fired for that But thousands of people have been fired for talking to the press so It's an ironic question for a for a live streamer to ponder And to offer wait. Why am I talking? That's a good one Should have a have a reason for talking It should be a purpose to your conversations It'll be a purpose to your live streams The purpose may just be to connect with people With whom you share common values Or to have a laugh Or to enlist them in a cause or to ask for help Yeah, keep Biden talking Man, he doesn't doesn't seem like the the sharpest tool in the shit So give me some of the movies that you guys love Give me a movie that you love and then tell me why you love it And I'll get a snapshot Of your soul Give me a short story or a novel that you love I'll get a snapshot of your soul Wait, why am I talking? And then Whenever someone's talking to you it's because they want something from you It's a topic I covered yesterday. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that So why do people talk to you? Why is it that they want? They simply want reassurance. They simply want an audience. They simply want to know that they matter to you They simply want to connect with you Do they want to enlist you in a cause? They want to make money off you Whenever people talk to you they want something So I must want something right now I want to bounce my ideas off of you I want to get clarity on my thoughts I want to get some feedback I want to share my ideas Eyes wide shut Okay, John. Why did you love eyes wide shut? Do you think it was revelatory about how the there's an inner party that's running america? I think it was revelatory because They're the kind of erotic expression that you wanted for your life You think it was a movie about the jews Think it was a movie about the deep state Why did you love eyes wide shut? I remember had this rabbi morachi finley Said that when there's there's a part of When there's a text that resonates with you You should ask now. Why do I love it? So usually you'll love a movie or a text Because it reflects your deepest desires usually to be loved To be appreciated respected to be understood To be correctly valued To be discovered That's why we we love stories and texts Because they resonate with our deepest values and probably the deepest yearning for most people is to be loved To be heroic we see ourselves as heroic, but no one else does So we love movies about unsung heroes Or misunderstood heroes if we're consistently misunderstood We're going to resonate the stories of those who are misunderstood So usually we'll love a movie Because it reflects our own yearnings to be recognized to be valued To be idolized to be loved to be appreciated Okay as a movie that showed how depraved some rich people behave Is that the movie where tom cruise almost beds an infested prostitute? Yes It is So often we'll love a movie because we imagine ourselves as like some heroic male figure That we've always wanted to be Or even consider ourselves to be but nobody else sees us that same way So we want adulation we want attention we want recognition And we see this ordinary person much like us achieving all the things that we really want So I think that's why we love a story We may feel consistently underappreciated Misunderstood not valued invisible Even low in status Lacking appropriate recognition for our contributions our gifts our talents Uh, we may probably feel like we're toiling away in obscurity And then we watch a movie about some other bloke who's toiling away in obscurity And suddenly he receives the recognition adulation love sex excitement heroic role That we have always yearned for and believe that we deserve Bye-bye