"Leading by Example" is Not Leading Anything at All.
28 July 2016 [link youtube]
Vegan / Vegans / Veganism / Ecology / Animal Rights.
Youtube Automatic Transcription
hey guys I have to start with the caveat
that if I look exhausted it's because I am exhausted I've been sleeping very irregularly working out a lot at the gym and never before my life of a she had this problem we're working out of the gym is it really interrupting and scrambling my my sleep cycle very strange anyway interesting issue that's come up in the discussions within my my patreon page one of my supporters one of my patrons commented that she has concluded after ten years as an ethical vegan more years before that as a vegetarian the only way the only way to influence people is leading by example now the vast majority of us know this isn't true even if we've never thought through the ways in which it isn't true we've never thought through the implications of what our lives would be like if it really were true or what's problematic with this perspective on the world leading by example sounds like a good thing and I think actually the medium of television has really encouraged in our culture the assumption that role models that leading by example this is a tremendously important and positive thing and it's not what do you do if your son is trying to quit smoking do you just lead by example do you lead by example and then stop saying this is all I can do leading by example is the only thing I can do or leading by example is the best thing I can do what do you do if your father is trying to quit smoking do you just lead by example do you think that's the only way you can help him or do you declare without even looking into it this is the most i can do this is the only thing that you're leading by example is our only option I like to use this comparison between veganism in both its long-term social aspirations and it the short-term immediate the of dealing with your own father with your own son with your own brother your own friends and co-workers in so many ways what we're looking at in the future it's similar to the long-term struggle to abolish the use of tobacco there are also important differences people do not quit smoking in order to save the lives of the tobacco plants whereas many people become vegan to save the lives of animals the mean concern with cigarette smoking is not ecological it's instead health and the psychology of addiction and men many other factors but right away we see the absurdity of saying no the only way I can influence these people on that human level my own father mount son is by leading by example the fact that I don't smoke or that i may have quit smoking in the past the fact that i may be an excellent example actually does nothing to help them as they say i think that the culture of watching television of watching heroes and villains act out scenarios of watching role models being presented to us on the nightly news i think in some ways it it trains us in our culture to think about that leading by example is a very important thing or to think that leading by example really helps people when it does not i am actually not helping my father or my son at all I don't have a son so as a theoretical example and my father is never been a cigarette smoker it's a purely hypothetical example I am not helping these people in any way if I am leading by example and in fact that approach to the problem becomes a dangerous excuse for not helping them at all now that's only on that immediate small scale on the larger scale talking about policy decisions made by government talking about no social planning public education outreach lobbying government forming a group you know I don't know let's say you live in a country where the government doesn't yet have these policies you say okay we're going to form a political group we're going to try to influence the government's to put warnings on the packages of the cigarettes to have taxes that discourage people from smoking we want to have education in the schools we want to have posters up and want to have a whole Oh program pressing for social change lobbying the government's trying to educate and motivate the public let's go interview some doctors let's put together a movie about how you know diseases caused by cigarettes ruin people's lives there's so much you can do that is not leading by example and the example would be a terrible excuse to not think about those things or not do those things if your goal is seriously if you're putting together a group of activists so this particular eyes I'm trying to bring about on a larger scale you know the quitting of smoking the abolition of of cigarette smoking or what have you now because I have dealt with Buddhism for so many years i have met devout true believing Buddhists who really actually believe that the only way they could help the poor was leading by example very few people sincerely believe that I've met some people sincerely do so for example you get a Buddhist who is a wealthy immigrant from Asia to the United States and let's just say they're racist against black people not uncommon if you spent time to put us monasteries in meeting to vote Buddhists you meet a lot of developers who are racist it's perhaps especially against against black people um and let's say this Asian immigrant explains to you that their view of the world is there's absolutely nothing they can do to help black people except enjoying their own wealth except leading by example except earning a lot of money spending a lot of money and that's leading by example showing others how to make money showing others how to enjoy money what have you that there is nothing they can do but lead by example it's sick and there's a whole you know outlook on the world shaped by the belief in karma shaped by some principles in Buddhist philosophy that could be not a no good if if sort of used in the right way but principles in Buddhist philosophy that very readily slip into a self-indulgent ego trip that basically those who have money should just go on earning more money and enjoying their wealth and privilege and status now of course there was a time when this was a debate within you know ho amongst white Americans definitely if you go back to the period say 1948 through to about 1958 you know after World War two there were many white Americans who felt that the only thing they could do for black people are the best thing they could do for black people was simply to lead by example and this was a considerable distraction in that period of time in many parts the United States actually the status of African Americans of black Americans got worse not better even though as a period of tremendous overall economic opportunity and expansion which to some extent masked that actually there were terrible policies many of the most important which can be blamed on franklin delano roosevelt in the roosevelt administration terrible unforgivable racist policies that really did result in the ghettoization of black americans in areas where before they were not living in ghettos post-world war two ghettoization so there are so many reasons doesn't i don't want to make this into a one-hour monologue but again actually where I was in Saskatchewan again you had very similar form of of racism you could meet Asians who had immigrated to Canada who felt that native Canadians indigenous Canadians First Nations that those people were living in poverty and that the only thing that these new immigrants could do or should do or would do is to to lead by example so this is deeply deeply problematic it avoids anyone thinking about what leading by example really means and how profoundly different it is from actual leadership right to actually lead people in quitting smoking is totally different from leading by example and leading by example if we're honest with ourselves is is not leading it all it's not helping at all I mean the last thought I wanted to state on this the reason why I've chosen these examples is that the worst thing about leading by example isn't the excuse for inactivity which is natural or inevitable rich people want excuses to just relax and be rich people and not help the poor I don't know everyone wants an excuse to not help their brother quit smoking you may not need excuse that guy's a jerk anyway you can quit smoking on his own whatever you know the excuses for inaction to some extent are just human all too human the most dangerous part is that it precludes asking questions how can I help my brother quit smoking how can I help my son quit smoking of course it will talk about quitting heroin or something and maybe even worse that is actually opens up and incredibly difficult and painful set of questions it may require real research but both on the human level and political level and everything else how actually person to person can I help you quit smoking and it's probably going to be a very difficult conversation between the two of you maybe one you have to ask again and again you know well look you've got a vacation coming up is it going to help you if I actually you know if you spend that vacation somewhere where you're not going to be tempted to smoke cigarettes if you take two weeks and you really try to dry out or what have you maybe we try that and it backfires because as soon as you're back to the stress of your regular job you start smoking again whatever the story is the question of how can I help what can I do it's going to lead to a long series of difficult faltering and uncertain answers seeking out new information and new options the question of again especially if we go back to nineteen forty eight the question of how can white Americans help black Americans escape the terrible poverty inequality poor access to houses poor access to bank loans you know one of the crucial problems that african-americans had much worse time getting a loan in order own a house you know there was systemic racism and disallowing blacks from renting homes in some neighborhoods so they were forced to only rent homes and ghettos because they were not allowed to rent homes elsewhere so you know systemic racism involving the bank involving the housing company involving the government absolutely etc etc the question of how could white people help just to pick 10 years 1948 958 in answering that question tremendously difficult tremendously uncomfortable series of answers you know seeking out new information seeking a new options etc and we avoid even asking ourselves that with this paradigm of all I can do is lead by example or the best thing I can do is lead by example if you are a vegan and you think you are leading by example I think you're doing nothing I don't think you're leading anyone anywhere I don't think you're leading anyone to do anything I don't believe in that um there's there's a real sense in which I don't believe in role models in the same way that I don't believe in the tooth fairy I got an email complaining not too long ago that I was being a bad role model and why shouldn't my my channel instead you know why shouldn't I struggle to present myself as a good role model now that gets into a whole different topic of keeping it real what keeping it real means to me why this channel is the way it is but you one of my responses to questions of that kind because I've gotten asked that more than once every one of our responses was you know tell it to raekwon raekwon is a wrap or a hip-hop artist you'd hope large large parts of the arts not just rap music do not have this idea that everyone should be a role model but more fundamentally what do you think I would be accomplishing if I presented myself as a role model on a really deep level I think I would be accomplishing nothing and worse than nothing in presenting myself as a role model I will be presenting a dishonest half real and half unreal version of my life instead of presenting you with something really honest that includes the misgivings and the contradictions and the uncertainties and the questions the quest for new information new information new options new routes to make a pause the difference in the world we've got like 1,000,000 youtube channels where people present themselves as role models where they present an illusion of affluence even if they don't have affluence they present an illusion of leisure even if their lives are not really that leisured and where they present an illusion of absolute confidence of having all the answers of being completely self satisfied in their convictions and I want to present you with none of that I want to keep it real and sometimes the answer to the question is I don't know and sometimes the answer to a question is I think we need to ask new deeper better questions and when I'm doing that I'm not leading by example and I think I'm doing something much more meaningful even than offering leadership
that if I look exhausted it's because I am exhausted I've been sleeping very irregularly working out a lot at the gym and never before my life of a she had this problem we're working out of the gym is it really interrupting and scrambling my my sleep cycle very strange anyway interesting issue that's come up in the discussions within my my patreon page one of my supporters one of my patrons commented that she has concluded after ten years as an ethical vegan more years before that as a vegetarian the only way the only way to influence people is leading by example now the vast majority of us know this isn't true even if we've never thought through the ways in which it isn't true we've never thought through the implications of what our lives would be like if it really were true or what's problematic with this perspective on the world leading by example sounds like a good thing and I think actually the medium of television has really encouraged in our culture the assumption that role models that leading by example this is a tremendously important and positive thing and it's not what do you do if your son is trying to quit smoking do you just lead by example do you lead by example and then stop saying this is all I can do leading by example is the only thing I can do or leading by example is the best thing I can do what do you do if your father is trying to quit smoking do you just lead by example do you think that's the only way you can help him or do you declare without even looking into it this is the most i can do this is the only thing that you're leading by example is our only option I like to use this comparison between veganism in both its long-term social aspirations and it the short-term immediate the of dealing with your own father with your own son with your own brother your own friends and co-workers in so many ways what we're looking at in the future it's similar to the long-term struggle to abolish the use of tobacco there are also important differences people do not quit smoking in order to save the lives of the tobacco plants whereas many people become vegan to save the lives of animals the mean concern with cigarette smoking is not ecological it's instead health and the psychology of addiction and men many other factors but right away we see the absurdity of saying no the only way I can influence these people on that human level my own father mount son is by leading by example the fact that I don't smoke or that i may have quit smoking in the past the fact that i may be an excellent example actually does nothing to help them as they say i think that the culture of watching television of watching heroes and villains act out scenarios of watching role models being presented to us on the nightly news i think in some ways it it trains us in our culture to think about that leading by example is a very important thing or to think that leading by example really helps people when it does not i am actually not helping my father or my son at all I don't have a son so as a theoretical example and my father is never been a cigarette smoker it's a purely hypothetical example I am not helping these people in any way if I am leading by example and in fact that approach to the problem becomes a dangerous excuse for not helping them at all now that's only on that immediate small scale on the larger scale talking about policy decisions made by government talking about no social planning public education outreach lobbying government forming a group you know I don't know let's say you live in a country where the government doesn't yet have these policies you say okay we're going to form a political group we're going to try to influence the government's to put warnings on the packages of the cigarettes to have taxes that discourage people from smoking we want to have education in the schools we want to have posters up and want to have a whole Oh program pressing for social change lobbying the government's trying to educate and motivate the public let's go interview some doctors let's put together a movie about how you know diseases caused by cigarettes ruin people's lives there's so much you can do that is not leading by example and the example would be a terrible excuse to not think about those things or not do those things if your goal is seriously if you're putting together a group of activists so this particular eyes I'm trying to bring about on a larger scale you know the quitting of smoking the abolition of of cigarette smoking or what have you now because I have dealt with Buddhism for so many years i have met devout true believing Buddhists who really actually believe that the only way they could help the poor was leading by example very few people sincerely believe that I've met some people sincerely do so for example you get a Buddhist who is a wealthy immigrant from Asia to the United States and let's just say they're racist against black people not uncommon if you spent time to put us monasteries in meeting to vote Buddhists you meet a lot of developers who are racist it's perhaps especially against against black people um and let's say this Asian immigrant explains to you that their view of the world is there's absolutely nothing they can do to help black people except enjoying their own wealth except leading by example except earning a lot of money spending a lot of money and that's leading by example showing others how to make money showing others how to enjoy money what have you that there is nothing they can do but lead by example it's sick and there's a whole you know outlook on the world shaped by the belief in karma shaped by some principles in Buddhist philosophy that could be not a no good if if sort of used in the right way but principles in Buddhist philosophy that very readily slip into a self-indulgent ego trip that basically those who have money should just go on earning more money and enjoying their wealth and privilege and status now of course there was a time when this was a debate within you know ho amongst white Americans definitely if you go back to the period say 1948 through to about 1958 you know after World War two there were many white Americans who felt that the only thing they could do for black people are the best thing they could do for black people was simply to lead by example and this was a considerable distraction in that period of time in many parts the United States actually the status of African Americans of black Americans got worse not better even though as a period of tremendous overall economic opportunity and expansion which to some extent masked that actually there were terrible policies many of the most important which can be blamed on franklin delano roosevelt in the roosevelt administration terrible unforgivable racist policies that really did result in the ghettoization of black americans in areas where before they were not living in ghettos post-world war two ghettoization so there are so many reasons doesn't i don't want to make this into a one-hour monologue but again actually where I was in Saskatchewan again you had very similar form of of racism you could meet Asians who had immigrated to Canada who felt that native Canadians indigenous Canadians First Nations that those people were living in poverty and that the only thing that these new immigrants could do or should do or would do is to to lead by example so this is deeply deeply problematic it avoids anyone thinking about what leading by example really means and how profoundly different it is from actual leadership right to actually lead people in quitting smoking is totally different from leading by example and leading by example if we're honest with ourselves is is not leading it all it's not helping at all I mean the last thought I wanted to state on this the reason why I've chosen these examples is that the worst thing about leading by example isn't the excuse for inactivity which is natural or inevitable rich people want excuses to just relax and be rich people and not help the poor I don't know everyone wants an excuse to not help their brother quit smoking you may not need excuse that guy's a jerk anyway you can quit smoking on his own whatever you know the excuses for inaction to some extent are just human all too human the most dangerous part is that it precludes asking questions how can I help my brother quit smoking how can I help my son quit smoking of course it will talk about quitting heroin or something and maybe even worse that is actually opens up and incredibly difficult and painful set of questions it may require real research but both on the human level and political level and everything else how actually person to person can I help you quit smoking and it's probably going to be a very difficult conversation between the two of you maybe one you have to ask again and again you know well look you've got a vacation coming up is it going to help you if I actually you know if you spend that vacation somewhere where you're not going to be tempted to smoke cigarettes if you take two weeks and you really try to dry out or what have you maybe we try that and it backfires because as soon as you're back to the stress of your regular job you start smoking again whatever the story is the question of how can I help what can I do it's going to lead to a long series of difficult faltering and uncertain answers seeking out new information and new options the question of again especially if we go back to nineteen forty eight the question of how can white Americans help black Americans escape the terrible poverty inequality poor access to houses poor access to bank loans you know one of the crucial problems that african-americans had much worse time getting a loan in order own a house you know there was systemic racism and disallowing blacks from renting homes in some neighborhoods so they were forced to only rent homes and ghettos because they were not allowed to rent homes elsewhere so you know systemic racism involving the bank involving the housing company involving the government absolutely etc etc the question of how could white people help just to pick 10 years 1948 958 in answering that question tremendously difficult tremendously uncomfortable series of answers you know seeking out new information seeking a new options etc and we avoid even asking ourselves that with this paradigm of all I can do is lead by example or the best thing I can do is lead by example if you are a vegan and you think you are leading by example I think you're doing nothing I don't think you're leading anyone anywhere I don't think you're leading anyone to do anything I don't believe in that um there's there's a real sense in which I don't believe in role models in the same way that I don't believe in the tooth fairy I got an email complaining not too long ago that I was being a bad role model and why shouldn't my my channel instead you know why shouldn't I struggle to present myself as a good role model now that gets into a whole different topic of keeping it real what keeping it real means to me why this channel is the way it is but you one of my responses to questions of that kind because I've gotten asked that more than once every one of our responses was you know tell it to raekwon raekwon is a wrap or a hip-hop artist you'd hope large large parts of the arts not just rap music do not have this idea that everyone should be a role model but more fundamentally what do you think I would be accomplishing if I presented myself as a role model on a really deep level I think I would be accomplishing nothing and worse than nothing in presenting myself as a role model I will be presenting a dishonest half real and half unreal version of my life instead of presenting you with something really honest that includes the misgivings and the contradictions and the uncertainties and the questions the quest for new information new information new options new routes to make a pause the difference in the world we've got like 1,000,000 youtube channels where people present themselves as role models where they present an illusion of affluence even if they don't have affluence they present an illusion of leisure even if their lives are not really that leisured and where they present an illusion of absolute confidence of having all the answers of being completely self satisfied in their convictions and I want to present you with none of that I want to keep it real and sometimes the answer to the question is I don't know and sometimes the answer to a question is I think we need to ask new deeper better questions and when I'm doing that I'm not leading by example and I think I'm doing something much more meaningful even than offering leadership