The Philosophy of Ted Carr. (vegan / vegans / veganism)

when do we talk about philosophy when do
we talk about politics I am NOT an academic I want to talk about these things when they matter and when you talk about the questions when they really matter people get upset people get offended and people also get energized and motivated to make a difference to make a positive difference sometimes I think when somebody like Ted car makes a statement such as the meaning of life is joy the reason why you're alive all of your goals should just be the pursuit of your own personal happiness short term happiness joy he's making a philosophical statement he's making a philosophic claim that's worth debating it's worth debating in and of itself it would be worth debating if nobody watched Ted Cara's YouTube channel if nobody heard of Ted car within veganism as a movement it's even more worth debating because it's a philosophical question that's linked to a bunch of political problems within veganism as we know it today veganism as it takes its baby steps towards being a real political movement give you another example ladies and gentlemen take our the image of being that person who deserves that and we all get what we deserve and we deserve whatever we're managing for ourselves whether that's good bad or indifferent neutral whatever we all get what we deserve I deserve to have this graffiti in the back over here the background I deserve this backdrop right now I deserve the camera I'm holding I deserve this black t-shirt of mine I deserve the shoes I'm wearing reserve the jeans of mine I deserve to be in Chiangmai right now in the city I deserve that man you deserve to be watching this video right now you do because you are we get what we deserve now many people have said to me that Ted Carr is merely offering a poorly reasoned mishmash of quotations from self-help books that he may or may not have even read himself that the whole line of his reasoning is so far beneath contempt that I shouldn't be discussing it or debating it I don't know I actually think that I mean for one thing I do think that what a lot of take are is saying is original from his own perspective he may have never read those books or may have I think he's being sincere and in the same sense that anyone can reinvent the wheel I think that a lot of people have the same thoughts I have the same questions as Ted Carr and evidently a lot of people do come to same conclusions whether or not that's because they're actually reading the same books or just that they have the same interests they have the same fantasies they have the same dreams and they come up with similar sets of reasons to justify that outlook on life I don't know but when someone liked a car makes a statement he just did that everyone gets what they deserve that whatever you got in life it is what you deserve that the world the universe God to some cosmic force beyond our imagining he is claiming provides each and every one of us with only what we deserve a lot of Christians the United States used to say things like God never gives you more than you can more than you can bear this kind of thing but this is a step beyond this is saying whatever your current situation is whatever your future situation is you're getting what you deserve as shocking to me it's immoral from my perspective it's offensive I can even say but it's also worth debating and it's worth debating now because people believe it and people are influenced by it and people care about and people embrace it and you know you can sit in a university classroom and discuss philosophy with people who don't really disagree with you or people who are only disagreeing with you because they're gonna receive a grade like it's a graded assignment but I think for those of us who have some background in philosophy and politics to take the time of our day to really address these misconceptions and their implications I think it still is worthwhile I think it's still is important and I know that my taking the time to deal with these sorts of things and I know that it does actually impact people's lives because I get emails back from people explain to me exactly how it's impacted their lives we can jump to the most extreme example imaginable because this is the internet if you really believe that everybody gets what they deserve without exception then you would have to believe that in the Holocaust in World War two in the atrocities carried out by the Nazis that the people who were put into death camps got what they deserved Ted car that is an absolutely ineluctable implication of your philosophy but you can turn it around the main implication of your philosophy is that everyone who was simply born rich deserves what they were born into and I think that is what's on your mind Ted I think that's what's weighing down your soul I think that justifications for inequality and wealth and privilege is what is on your mind when you say when Ted Carr says that he deserves to be in and to me the depth of this misconception the depth of this delusion is proven by the fact that he really sincerely thinks that in saying this he's saying something that's gonna motivate you positively to work harder to make a better future for yourself I don't know Ted what about someone who has the exact opposite philosophy Ron what about someone who gets the tile and who moves to Chiangmai and feels that they don't deserve this that they have to do something meaningful in order to deserve it don't you think that person would be more highly motivated to make a positive difference in the world what about somebody who goes to Chiangmai and just a simple example it just feels hey if I want to be part of the society if I want to be positively engaged with what's going on in northern Thailand if I want to live here I've got to learn to speak the language I've got to put in hundreds of hard hours sitting down with a book and a pen and paper teach you myself the Thai language if I want to feel that I belong if I want to feel that I deserve to be part of the city what about someone let's say there's no language barrier what if you move to New York City and you want to feel like you deserve to live in New York City and you're a little way of doing that because you feel like you don't deserve it is to go to City Hall and pay attention what's going on in politics and get a little bit involved with I don't know let's say the movement to try to raise the minimum wage any any political or social would a move it okay so this is New York City is the example River pollution pollution in the river water huge issue for New York City what if someone said to you you know what when I moved to Chiangmai or when I moved to New York City I didn't feel that I deserved it I didn't feel that an airplane ticket entitled me to be a part of the society I didn't feel that my opinion mattered in this society just because I bought an airplane ticket and showed up here as a tourist I needed to feel like I was making a positive contribution by learning the language by going to City Hall by doing research by caring by trying to make this little part of the world a better place in some way that's what I felt I needed to do and then after I'd done that maybe after I'd done that for five years maybe after only six months I felt better I felt that when I had an opinion about local politics I deserve to be listened to even though I was a newcomer even though it was a new immigrant or a tourist or an expatriate because I've learned the language I'd gone to City Hall I'd done some charity work I've been concerned about the environment had been concerned about the middle age I'd been concerned about the minimum wage part of me something anything some shred of human moral fiber decency duty obligation public service this concept from Ted appears in the midst of it longer and more complex philosophical argument that again it is genuinely a philosophical argument it's just no argument happen to disagree with I would not say take car doesn't have a philosophy he has a philosophy that I think is a hundred and eighty degrees wrong he starts off by telling us that 2017 should be the year in which we improve our self-image but what he sets out I think is actually a plan to pursue image dysphoria lying to yourself about yourself image the fact that you bought an airplane ticket to New York doesn't mean that you're in New Yorker right the fact that you got money doesn't mean that you deserve money so on down the line the fact that you've got anything good or bad doesn't mean that you deserve it and we take our I just think he's never studied any example of political for any example from the political history of the world so there's so many situations in which terrible things happen to good people terrible things happen to people they didn't deserve but let's leave that aside it can't be the main argument of this video but yes absurdly Ted Carr would claim that people who were put into concentration camps deserve to be there simply because they were there which is a sickening and immoral ethical philosophy that does not take a genius to point out Ted car begins this little essay by telling us the 2017 should be the year in which we improve our self-image he talks about setting goals but Ted how can it be that you're so deep into this self-deception that you don't see that by telling people they already deserve everything they've got and they've all right they already deserve everything they will have in the future this is a disincentive for people to actually plan and actually work towards goals it's surreal to me it's a hundred and eighty degrees wrong but Ted's idea of setting goals does not involve planning does not involve hard work to deserve those outcomes his idea of setting goals is to encourage you to pretend that you've already achieved those goals just say to me is actually psychologically unhealthy it actually resembles image dysphoria right if you plan to become a medical doctor why would you tell yourself now at the planning stage that you already are a medical doctor if you plan to learn to speak the Chinese language or the Thai language or even English why would you pretend that you already can speak that language even if it's a difference of degree let's say your goal for 2017 was to raise your ability to your level of ability in speaking English from speaking it in a very uncertain stuttering way with a thick accent maybe you're a new immigrant and you speak English but with a very bad accident you want to raise it so you can speak fluently convincingly if you behaved as if you already couldn't do that before you did all the hard work [Music] what would you be arrogant deluded privileged entitled let's stick to that with arrogance deluded privilege and title that's what you would be and you would be laughable you'd be the you be speaking as incredibly poorly and behaving as if you were entitled to some other reaction same would be true of myself learning I have to remain humble and learning languages is an extremely humbling experience and I've been humbled again and again by studying so many different languages but he doesn't he doesn't think of these these kinds of examples move on to some of the other examples and again this is part of the same ideological package as this fundamental delusion you deserve whatever you've got quote we all get what we deserve close quote Ted Carr start pretending to be a success right now he tells us start pretending to be a successful athlete start describing yourself as if you're already a successful businessman start thinking of yourself as already thin if you're fat as already does it take so much imagination and human sympathy to realize how buffoonish how ridiculous some would be if they if they pay that way even with the examples he selected let alone the examples of learning a language do you not see how invidious it is how much it would create terrible conflict in hatred if somebody shows up in the company of other painters artists people who paint pictures people who devoted years of their lives to building up the skill to paint to paint a canvas and they behave as if they're already a highly accomplished highly trained highly disciplined highly practiced painter why would you think of yourself that way you would seem deluded entitled arrogant and you'd be offensive to the people around you who had the humility who had the self-discipline who had the education of the training or the long hours whether it's the long hours sitting alone studying a language or the long hours sitting and practicing of the pendant he gives the example though of how long before he was an accomplished athlete he claims he's an accomplished athlete in the triathlon he would think of himself and talk about himself as already being a an athlete already being a try athol on athlete I don't know how that would go over with other people Ted who made the sacrifices to really be athletes when you have made those sacrifices here but I can tell you in the art world you would be hated hated by other painters who put in the decades of hard work when you didn't in the language world okay look um very very small number of white men have learned to speak a language like Cree or a Jib way Ted cars Canadian you should care about legit very larger number of white men white men and women have learned Inuit the Inuit language inductively extremely hard work anyone can google this you know what go to Google and just Google Cree months of the year look at the names of December January February March there's a goal for you Ted car do you think you could just learn the names of the months of the year in one native language one native Canadian language like Cree it's incredibly hard work and you have to remember the vowels correctly the spelling correctly and practice saying them the pronunciation who I've met a couple of those guys I've met a couple of the white men who put in the incredibly hard work to learn native Canadian languages whether Cree or a Jib way or otherwise okay you know years of struggle and suffering and it's not an exaggeration it's it's hard it's horrible and when they talk to me so then I'd only been when I met them let's say I've been studying Cree for three months or six months or nine months I think I was involved with that for less than a year and a half not much less but you know I was at First Nations University studying those languages I never once lied to them I never once deceived them about my level of accomplishment or even my level of commitment or my level of ability but you know what they could relate to I could say to them I know what it's like to sit under a mosquito net in Southeast Asia and to study a language for hundreds of hours alone with no teacher and no textbook and no school I know that hard work has have done it for other languages so I know I can come here and do it for your language and I want to and I care and here's my passion here are my motivations here is how I'm gonna do it and of course I mean that's a mix of confidence and humility and of course the response I got was tremendously positive and you know what let's let's keep it all the way real Ted I met a lot of people who were ethnically Cree ethnically a ghibli sometimes other other First Nations groups let's stick with those two I met a lot of people courage when they had your attitude Ted they had the attitude that they already spoke those languages that they already were highly accomplished when they never put in that work and one of the reasons that could get away with that was that most of the time they were in a context where they could pretend they knew the language and nobody could question them but then when they came to my university it would pretty soon be revealed that maybe they knew five or six words that they had heard from their grandfather or the grandmother and that was it they couldn't say a single sentence in the language they had never put in the work they had never sat down with a list of the names of the 12 months and learned the 12 months they couldn't do math in the language they couldn't ask how much does this cost they couldn't say here's ten dollars give me five dollars back they couldn't do anything with the language they did not allege they never studied the language but a lot of them Ted I met many people like that Ted who have your attitude your think positive attitude and you know what it comes off as arrogant and deluded and insulting to the people who understand what the work is and the people who really do the work and the people who really care and in that case you're talking about a language that's going extinct and I can say setting aside you know languages as the example this something similar in humanitarian work when I was involved in humanitarian work you can spend months and months and months trying to find a project and then the actual project lasts for six weeks you spend a lot of time looking for opportunities to do something positive in humanitarian work and then you get a very brief opportunities in positive and Ted anything like if you know you're living in Thailand if you get off your ass and actually get concerned about the refugees who right now are crossing the border from northern Myanmar to northern Thailand if you get interested in the civil war that's happening outside your window and the refugee camps if you get involved in humanitarian cause you'd better bring that kind of pragmatic humble down-to-earth attitude and not pretend that you are something you aren't not pretend that you've accomplished on the you haven't accomplished and not pretend that you deserve something you do not deserve take our this is one part of your philosophy as you say people should behave as if they've already accomplished things they haven't accomplished and they should behave as if they deserve things they do not deserve both the things they actually have and the things that don't have yet that is a formula for entitlement privilege arrogance and it's invidious it will make other people hate you because other people who have actually done that work who have actually become a painter who've actually learned to speak a language or actually invented whatever these applets people who are actually athletes people who know what it's like to wake up at 5:30 in the morning because of their coach or because of the team stuff you can't relate to because you're not an athletes head car you're a fraud you're not even an athlete and this this whole problem I think is invisibly and ineluctably connected to Ted's broader philosophy that the meaning of life is joy the meaning of life is just short-term self-indulgence and personal happiness and it's only from that perspective that anyone could strive that it is only from that perspective that anyone could subscribe to a philosophy that is so odious that is so destructive and self-destructive so obviously immoral as to suggest that in a world full of so many terrible tragedies whatever happens to you good or bad is what you deserve