This video, of that ubiquitous guy (who I am sure is a pushed narrative guy) Chase is interesting, because although I am fairly certain he, along with probably most if not all of so-called “famous” YouTubers is a pushed for “influencer” as in, narrative approved (it’s a subtle one with him and all the more efficient because of it) artificially promoted guy, there is still, one important truth revealed in the very first few minutes of this video . And it’s really the only part that really matters.
Transcript is below and more useful for those who can still do that vanishing art: Reading.
I have bold and italicised the most relevant passages.
Chris (Host): “Who are you? How do you describe what you do for work?”
Chase (Guest): “It’s so hard. But if I’m talking to somebody that’s boring, I’ll just tell them I teach psychology stuff. But if I want to get into it, I’ll say, you know, I teach everything from brainwashing to interrogation — apply it on yourself and other people. And most of what I do is train sales teams nowadays. Sales has gotten really addicted to this stuff. But I’ve studied neuroscience for a long time. And I spent my life trying to figure out how the brain works and how to shift human behaviour. Not just like to get someone to confess to something in an interrogation, but how do we modify our own behaviour and what are the mechanics that make that possible?”
Chris: “Do you think we’re living in the most psychologically manipulated era in human history?”
Chase: “Yes, hands down. But I mean, you go to ancient Rome, some shit would happen and they would say, ‘Hey, do the lion fighting thing with the guy, let’s distract everybody.’ So I don’t think it’s new. I think it’s a lot more pervasive though.”
Chris: “Is that because of it being facilitated through technology or is that because of a requirement for control? What’s the motivation for that?”
Chase: “I think it’s the digital media. If you think about what is the number one fear of human beings — like every psychology class talks about it — it’s public speaking, but it’s never public speaking. It’s ‘I don’t want to be judged. I don’t want to be ostracised,’ because our brain that’s 200,000 years old — getting kicked out of a tribe means I’m dead. Not going to have sex, I won’t have babies and I’m going to die. It’s a mortal fear of dying. But if you go back to the 1980s, if I did something stupid in high school or even as an adult, I have to worry about 30 or 40 people judging me and maybe really kind of kicking me out of a social group. And now with social media, you’ve got to worry about five or ten million. So the consequences of doing something wrong are unbelievably exponentially increased, which has made us a whole different society. And this is the origin of this pandemic of loneliness that we’re in right now, where everybody will agree that we’re in pandemic levels of loneliness and nobody — you don’t hear anyone saying ‘I’m lonely’ — which is a deeper root of this exact problem.”
Chris: “What’s happening then?
Chase: You ever study the French philosopher, this guy named Sartre?”
Chris: “I’ve [snorts] read a little bit of his stuff, but I just — single quotes.
Chase: He had this play. It was called Sartre’s Hell, where three people are locked in a room basically like this. And it’s a play, but the room’s not totally locked. Every couple of hours the door opens and you can leave if you want to, but nobody leaves. And they’re all desperate to be seen a certain way by someone else. This one guy — I’m paraphrasing — but he wants to be seen as a good person. So he asks this woman in there, ‘Please tell me I’m a good person, please.’ And she says, ‘Yeah, you’re a good person.’ But he knows she doesn’t mean it. So he stays. The door opens, nobody leaves, and they stay because they’re waiting for this confirmation from other people of who they are. And in this world today, with how performative and artificial everybody has become — I’ve got to show my best self, I’ve got to hide shame, I’ve got to conceal all this guilt and the stuff that people carry around — [coughs and clears throat] the reason that somebody can feel lonely in a room full of people, and I’m not just talking about on Facebook, I’m saying like in a real room full of people, is because no matter how many times your friends come over and pat you on the back and say, ‘Oh Chris, you did a great job, we love you, you’re a great guy,’ your spouse might say, ‘We love you and you’re a great person,’ in the back of your mind you know you’re faking it. And you know that none of them really like the real you. And at the end of the day — and I’m not saying this is you — but at the end of the day you’re lonely in a room of 150, 200 people because you know that none of them know you and you haven’t ever really been seen by anybody. So increased fear of judgment because of social media equals increased performance, equals I’m wearing a costume almost all the time and nobody has ever seen me. Nobody really knows me. So even if they claim to like me, in the back of my brain there’s this little reminder mechanism that says they don’t like the real me, and nobody ever has. Nobody’s ever seen me. This is my opinion, but I think that’s the root of the pandemic that we’re in right now of loneliness — we’re more connected than ever and more performative than ever at the same time. So we can’t really connect, and our brains are wired for a 120 to 130 person tribe, and we start getting over that and we have massive issues.”
Chris: “It’s interesting that a lot of the time the person has been subsumed by the persona, the role that people are playing.”
Chase: “Yeah. But the persona is incapable of receiving love. It can only receive praise at best, and it feels like a pat on the back. The same as people don’t love Chris Hemsworth, they love Thor. They don’t love Russell Crowe, they love Gladiator. So how can you be surprised if you don’t genuinely, existentially feel the connection with your pursuits and your successes and the people around you — you know that they’re just applauding the role that you play as opposed to seeing who you are truly.”
Chris: “Yeah.
Chase: Have you seen the movie Pig with Nicolas Cage?”
Chris: “No.”
Chase: “You’ve got to watch it. Even if you just watch this one scene, it’s like five minutes long. Nicolas Cage plays this guy who’s just kind of had enough and he stopped performing forever. Like he doesn’t care. He’s not mean or anything, just doesn’t perform. And he goes to this restaurant — he’s a famous chef and he’s exiled and stuff. And this other chef is just pretending to be a certain type of person so that his restaurant is more successful. And Nicolas Cage basically says, ‘None of this is real. You’re not real.’ Which means they’re not real. And none of this — everything’s fake. Everything here is completely fake. And you’re going to wake up every day and there’s going to be less of you and less of you until there’s nothing left that you will ever recognise again. [gasps] And it’s this massive awakening scene for this guy. And it’s beautiful. And I think when people watch it they assume, ‘Oh, I’m in the Nick Cage role here.’ And maybe sometimes in our life we are, but I think in other times we need to be kind of shaken awake and somebody grabs our little camera and changes our camera angle to look at a situation differently. I want to be woken up like that in every possible way. And I think that’s what we all need.”
And here is basically why I have never cared really much about how anyone else sees or thinks of me. Because in the first place, 99.999999% of all the people on the planet, at any one time literally don’t matter or make any difference to my life. On current global population of about 8.2 billion, , that percentage leaves about 82 people that do make a difference or matter to me. And that’s probably 50 people more than really do. After I count family, close friends, and maybe work related people I “need” in my life, and perhaps some random strangers that MIGHT affect my life because of some bureaucratic process (that I have no knowledge about anyway so how COULD I care even if I wanted to?) I estimate I’d still have at least a couple dozen people left over.
So… why bother worrying about it at all?
As for those I do care about… well… with most of them the caring is reciprocal.
If you are the kind of friend that would help me move, not just furniture, but bodies, then I will care about you that way too. And if you don’t I won’t. The only people that are SOMEWHAT (but not completely) exempt from this are my children. Even if they turn out to be real assholes, I will probably always care about them. That’s a pretty small subset of people.
AND… even if I DO care about them, it in no way means I will compromise my personal integrity for them. And if they don’t like me as I am, well, that’s fine. And if they can’t respect how I am, well, I guess there will be distance between us then. So be it.
The Second point is that I think this specific issue affects and afflicts Americans FAR MORE than it does anyone else on the planet. I was just discussing with an English friend yesterday, how different the English and Italian cultures are on some of the most basic things. And yet we both felt the Americans were of almost an entirely different species altogether, and a lot further away from either of our cultures.
It was quite a funny conversation really. Part of it is below. It had started with questions about how a man would or could know what actions or behaviour or attitudes could be right or wrong for himself.
FRIEND 2: Funnily enough, I heard about a podcast on masculinity by [REDACTED OUT OF KINDNESS] and their take was about as cringeworthy as you could guess. Being around [REDACTED]’s people has given me an uncanny [WELL KNOWN AMERICAN CONTRARIAN INTERNET PERSONALITY] feeling a couple of times.
KURGAN: I can see that… Protestant-legalism, secularisation of everything into materialistic mechanism… Americanism basically
FRIEND 2: Yes. The way they think about things (like Italian culture for example)
KURGAN: When my family first encountered Americans we called them “plastic people.” As in artificial constructs.
I’d be interested in your view on that… in what they think of it I mean (Italian culture)
FRIEND 2: Best way I can try to put it is: it’s as if they’ve read a textbook or encyclopaedia about real culture but never actually lived the real thing and so their entire interaction with it is almost completely “academic” like reading a textbook about horse-riding and thinking you understand cowboys
KURGAN: Hahahha that is an awesome description.
I find the English interaction when it crashes into Italian culture is just funny.
Sort of bowler hat wearing Englishman going “but! But! THIS IS NOT PROPER!” And the wop looking at him like “eh? What? Have a bombolone! Relax.” But then the wop meeting a Spaniard’s culture is sort of like “look, relaxed is one thing, but this is just fucking not doing shit at all!”
And no one likes the French. Or the Germans. Nothing more needs saying than that.
FRIEND 2: Ironically, Americans are English+French+Germans, so…
KURGAN: Hahhaha the worst part of them all! Brrrr… shivers
FRIEND 2: Indeed
And really, I think it’s the shared sense of humour that allows English culture to be compatible with Italian culture. The two places seem to think quite highly of one another. I’ve heard many more Italians speak positively about the English compared to praising the French or Germans
KURGAN: Oh, without a doubt.
We find the English concern with “properness” and the absurd way they are “shy” in contexts that don’t require it at all, and absolutely embarrassing in the ones that do, quite hilarious.
FRIEND 2: I have to explain to most Italians why I say “grazie” and “scusa” so habitually
KURGAN: Or that thing of calling or texting after a dinner or whatever to say thanks for the invite. We’re like… WTF?
Why are they thanking me? Are they assuming I had them over against my will and it was a chore?
If a wop doesn’t want your company he won’t ask you over. Pretty much no “social contract” will make us do that.
FRIEND 2: Ha, yeah which shows the difference in psychology and perhaps the English pessimism versus the Italian optimism.
For an Englishman the psychology of “thank you” is: “You could have been an absolute cunt in this situation. Every human has that option. You have chosen not to be an absolute cunt today. And I commend you for it. Thank you.”
KURGAN: So weird.
FRIEND 2: Eh, seems quite natural to me. Not only that, but it’s something I quite like about our culture. It’s almost like the Italians say : “we are made in the image of God.” and the English say “we are descended from Adam”. And so, for the Italians you expect the good and hit the exceptions, whereas the English expect the bad and commend the exceptions.
KURGAN: Accurate summary. You are indeed quite a misreable people. Hence the drinking! Ha!
FRIEND 2: Washed down with a nice pie and a can of beans.
Life isn’t good.
But it could be worse.
KURGAN: HAAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA!
His last line really does sum up the English, except for one more thing, if things are actually really good, like money coming in, sunny weather, it’s like they get almost uncomfortable. They need to try and find some problem with it all.
The point wasn’t to rag on Americans, but it really is fairly obvious to pretty much the entire rest of the world that Americans are the most atomised, and the least in touch with human aspects of life. I put it down to really one simple thing, which has, of course, endless ramifications but it really boils down to just one thing:
The abandoning of Catholicism.
Even the so-called American Catholics, even the supposedly quasi-sedevacantists, end up becoming secular in their thinking. Materialism before all.
It’s why people like Sanborn are worried about money and their position in the scheme of things (pride) instead of the good of the Church.
Every American I worked with was more concerned with margins, the bottom line, and profits than almost anything else. Only one thing was more important. Their own self-perceived idea of “status” (in their own mind) which usually just made them look like even bigger dickheads than everyone already thought they were.
The abandoning of Proper Christianity was, of course, inevitable. As my friend rightly said, the colonies were primarily composed of French (French Enlightenment anyone?) English and Germans, which were all Protestant or at least heavily Freemasonic pushed (the French in particular). The American revolution was literally pushed and financed by French money and Freemasonry. America was founded on completely Freemasonic principles, which is why their entire legal system is completely Talmudic, and their “culture” is equally extremely shallow and materialistic.
Contraception was started in the Protestant branches of “Christianity”. Which naturally leads to sex before marriage, which naturally leads to sport-fucking, which naturally leads to divorce, and then that naturally leads to murdering babies by ripping them apart limb from limb, because babies get in the way of sport-fucking. And literally every other thing follows the same mechanistic path. The Industrial Revolution, was about making human beings into replaceable cogs in a machine.
Infuriating as the Catholic “eh…I’ll do it properly, (and when I feel like it)” attitude to work, the fact is that the human aspect is alive and well still; even in ex-Catholic countries like Brazil or Italy and so on. Yes the Anglos are more efficient and effective. But at what cost in humanity?
And no one can touch a Catholic with a passion when it comes to quality. Just look at Catholic Churches compared to Protestant ones. There is a reason why not just in cars, motorbikes, fashion and even construction industry details the Italians dominate the bespoke and aesthetic market. Because Catholic reality is BEAUTIFUL. And yes, also functional and awesome and effective. Does it take more care? Sure. Longer? Sure. Harder to do? Sure. Not as scalable? Sure.
Now ask the average woman if all other things being equal she’d rather be made love to by an Italian or an American. Or who is more likely to paint a beautiful painting. Or make an awesome sculpture. Or be better able to truly enjoy a sunset, or a dinner with friends.
The point is, my American friends, not to make you feel bad.
It’s to make you see.
Profits are not the most important thing. And everyone can see the mask. Drop it. It’s ok. And above all, remember that the character you’re acting us is not real and can’t be loved nor feel loved, nor indeed give love. Because he’s an actor. He’s not real.
Drop the act. Be real.
Scary? Sure.
But you literally have NOTHING to lose.
This post was originally published on my Substack. Link here
