Morality: What You Do When Nobody's Watching.

hey guys all my videos are spontaneous
but this one's a little bit extra spontaneous about us yen I was just sitting here reading Aristotle and it occurred to me to try to do a video covering two topics in one kind of compare and contrast them because I've got such a long list of topics I'd like to get to you before I run out of time this month when September first rolls around I'm back to school and my video-making days are over over over over for a semester at least um you know two of the stupidest debates I've ever engaged in on the Internet both of them I know for a fact really help people so when I was in France recently I met face to face with someone who's a longtime viewer the channel longtime fan and supporter of the channel and she told me right at the end of talking as a total non sequitur she said you know the videos you made talking about secondhand leather really impacted me and really changed my life oh okay and it was just kind of wasn't the topic we've been discussing it all wasn't a natural segue you know I appreciate it telling us oh wow thanks and she went on to explain that for years she'd felt totally fine about the fact that her car had leather seats she got in the details of when she bought the car and so on she told herself it was secondhand leather it was okay and so on then she watched the videos I did on that topic questioning the ethics of second-hand leather and it really changed her perspective it really changed the way that she felt about it you know forever and she said she really thinks about it now I know every day or every week or something that it definitely haunts her she mentioned a couple other ways in which my videos and you know in that sense negatively impacted her life me you know it's a positive actually appreciates that she has a she feels she has a deeper appreciation for some of these these issues in her life but but she does feel feel badly about but she regrets the decision she made in the past you wouldn't make the same decisions again in future because because of the burden the person might Maya what channel is put in her shoulders you know but the actual origin those videos about secondhand leather was one of the stupidest to me astoundingly stupid discussions or arguments I've ever had with anyone on the internet and the guy was talking to this was over discord it was live voice chat with with an audience with with witnesses um you know he had all these really really weak reasons for why he essay as a quote/unquote vegan would wear leather including that he cares a lot about fashion he cares a lot about looking stylish in this sort of thing I would he accept that excuse from someone else just to me it's mind blowing for someone who calls themselves an ethical vegan to make that excuse and he was you know he could I could hear the tone of his voice and everything he was he was being dead serious and I asked him a really simple question in response and this comes to the kind of profound link to the two topics I'm dealing with in this video I asked him would you wear your secondhand leather coat to a an animal rights demonstration would you wear it to a vegan protest or a vegan meetup as it the exact same excuses you give me or you've just told me with passion and conviction how oh no no it's okay it's totally alright it's totally fine it's no problem because you know it's uh you got it secondhand and in one case it was a like a hand-me-down from his brother or something his brother had been wearing the coat and his brother didn't have any use for anymore you know with each of these leather and fur coats the only a different you know excuse for why the the the bad karma you know didn't didn't get a lot of them and of course suddenly the question is in a very different frame of reference and why simply because someone is watching simply because there's a role for observation for the observer we have a witness right now I think it's a very sad thing about human nature that we don't value our own judgment as much as we value the judgement of an anonymous stranger or group of strangers or peer group right now of course this isn't something inescapable this isn't something that you know we're born with and can never change in human nature but I think as Tina szura's children are growing up a lot of us instinctually act and think this way this is part of you like the the unexamined life that's not worth living and we have to examine our way our way out of with philosophy but you know if somebody told you and you may in your life you may encounter people who say this somebody told you that they were vegetarian only when there were other people around to see them but they're willing to eat meat when nobody else was around when there were no witnesses what would you think of that that person what do you mean nobody's around what do you know well nobody's gonna know you will you'll know or aren't you the most important witness of all or it makes the decision and bears the consequences and look there are many consequences talked about here you know yeah yeah yeah you can talk about ecology you can talk about the animals you talk about your health but I say this again and again ultimately the product we're questioning here is not the leather jacket it's not a candy bar it's not popcorn it's not anything that comes to package the ultimate product here is you the question we're going to ask and we're gonna answer is what kind of person that you want to be now if you're a Muslim and you believe in eating only halal meat then you're gonna do that even when you're all alone and there are no witnesses there's nobody to hold you accountable because you are gonna hold yourself accountable if you're Jewish and you believe it only eating kosher food if you're jiying and you only believe in following the giant religions set of dietary laws then it's not gonna rest on whether or not you can get away with it they're not there are witnesses because we know there's one witness in the room and it's the witness that matters most of all you know again I think just if you take you know life and politics and ethics there's they if you take if you take things seriously that's really all there is all there is to it and you know for me this is linked to another one of what I think are kind of the stupidest conversations or debates I've ever been engaged in the internet that's been the debate with with the anti-natal ists child-free is a different kind of idea that has more to do with I'm not an idiot I'm not smart enough to know life is stupid but I am smarter no kids are a pain in the ass and I don't have any use for one they're not gonna do anything for me I'm gonna have to do a bunch of [ __ ] for them and I don't know how I win in that game our existence we come into the world breaking okay broken and all we do is spend the rest of our lives trying to glue ourselves back together and that's it we don't accomplish anything but you know one of the things I've pointed out in debates with and debates about antenatal Asst is their view of the world depends on a notion of objective tragedy objectively real values I think this is true in both cases they'll come back to the second-hand fur coat I its most basic there's a clinging to a notion that moral values are objectively real apart from the the perspective of the observer and that's actually why in a subtle way the absurdity of their their philosophical positions revealed by just introducing another observer into the equation like oh well if you think it's fine if you think you have this rock-solid argument it's completely convincing you for why you can wear a fur coat or a leather coat why don't you just wear it to a vegan protest and you can tell those people the same thing you told me so passionately if you really believe in this you know if you really believe in eating kosher food you're gonna eat kosher food all the time if you believe in wearing second-hand leather and second that fur you're gonna wear secondhand leather and second-hand for all the time it's not gonna change the question of who's watching who's the witness who's the observer but in the same sense the anti-natal lists they'll talk about the tragedy of having your own child die you know before before you yourself have died as a parent as if this is some kind of objectively real value that exists independent of the person observing at perceiving it suffering at experience it now my daughter is five years old she has had a wonderful life she's an incredibly joyous happy kid at five she has not yet seen many of the sorrows this if he is suddenly struck by a bolt of lightning and dies that's a tragedy from my perspective for me that's a tragedy whether or not that's a tragedy for her I think is is almost meaningless from the perspective of someone who ceased to exist there is no that you know her life its joys and sorrows are completely at an end and whether or not it's a tragedy from the perspective of some kind of abstract some kind of abstract notion like nature or all of the human race or even say the Census Bureau you know government Department of Statistics this also becomes a bit observed I'm now 39 years old I think many people could say I've had a wonderful life now unlike a five-year-old I've had a life that certainly had a great deal of sorrow a great deal of suffering but nevertheless I've had a wonderful life it's been tremendously rewarding and interesting and what have you obviously so if I think about people I've actually known people who have known well enough to have an opinion I don't know if I've ever met anyone who have ever known anyone who had a better life than I did a more wonderful life an idea you know I'm sure they're out there but in terms of the people were I've liked even including my professors the professors who've really shared with me what their life has been like enough for me to judge your own opinion so you know there's a lot of people have to endure suffering but that doesn't mean you don't have a meaningful life what wonderful life now nevertheless aged 39 if I'm struck by lightning and I die tomorrow that would be a tragedy from my mother's perspective but not from mine you see it's like I had a full wonderful life what are you talking about I saw the Mekong River you know I saw everything there was for me to see whenever were there was me to go you know I've seduced beautiful women and been seduced by them and whatever I was very full life and if I managed to read Aristotle's politics twice once when I was 19 and once I was 39 what what a life um you know it's it's a it's slightly absurd to say from my perspective that my life would end in tragedy I'm struck by lightning but sure my mother my mother would say oh he was only 39 you know he had so much potential there were all these other things he could have done with his life all these other things weren't due for her his tragedy right no in reality the the quote-unquote objective perspective that these people imagine it's really a theological or theistic perspective they imagine that there is some kind of God whether that's a Christian God or not observing these things and judging right and wrong and good and bad and the perspective of in mentem specifically and if many of the antenatal is have spoken to I guess I can say most but not many because I haven't spoken to that many but they really do rely on a kind of crypto theological sense that suffering and an evil and death that the values these things have aren't their subjective perspective it's not because they love this particular child or they love this particular middle-aged man it's not because of their values and their hopes and their aspirations not from my perspective or another human perspective that this is a tragedy this is sad no no no they think there's an absolute reality to this being evil the experience of death being evil and actually objectively there is no reason why a human being dying should be more evil than a human being falling asleep and for many of us the experience of death is precisely the same as falling asleep after which we simply don't wake up again so if you think one is evil objectively I think you'd have to believe the other is is evil also in reality we live in a world where all the things we consider objective are really just intersubjective because a many subjective people agree to disagree about what they're supposed to mean or what values they're supposed to have and the flip side of this is from fajita it's just hilarious the second hand leather argument that no no because my brother used to wear this coat performing it's okay look objectively this is no longer wearing the dismembered body parts of an animal objectively it's okay except when you're around other vegans right except when you're around people who actually believe what it is you say you believe isn't that an interesting limit for where you're supposedly objective supposedly real values and judgments all come to an end [Laughter] all right guys there is a playlist on nihilism some of my least popular and most thought-provoking videos about my own approach to epistemology metaphysics philosophy in general check all historical nihilism we'll see what becomes of this channel as I already said I'm going back to school so you won't be quite so burdened with videos expressing my my unpopular political perspective otherwise guys sports channel for $1 a month send me messages on patreon amia a bonus yen