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If you look at today, I think the risk of a second American civil war is increasing by the day.

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We're riding this thing off the rails right now. And so something has to change.

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I think Bitcoin at the individual level makes you more optimistic. It reduces your uncertainty in the world, which allows you to act better.

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I think the question remains, though, are we going to go hole up in the mountains and build our citadel and f*** off?

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Or are we going to stick around and grind through this transition period and rebuild the world in a way that we think is better?

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Incentives wise, it's really easy to just give up the fight and live out your days comfortably.

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Luckily, I think Bitcoiners are a different breed.

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but I think we have what it takes to rebuild the world in a better way. If we just get through this

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one, we all get rich and disappear. Is that really the win? Is that really the mark we want to leave?

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I don't think so. I think we have a golden opportunity here or an orange opportunity here

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to dramatically change the trajectory of our species.

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Brandon, man, good to see you. It's been a little while since you've been on the show. You've not

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been on the new show yet um you're kind of our our fourth turning pundit i think this is the

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fourth this is the fourth turning of fourth turning shows so welcome back man hey thanks

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for having me danny i'm excited to be here yeah i think we did maybe like four shows with peter and

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very much excited to to chat with you today when was the last time we saw each other new year's

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eve maybe uh i saw you in vegas that'd have been the last time i think that's true forgot about

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vegas yeah how have you been i've been good man uh enjoying life here with a little three-year-old

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um starting to become fall here in the midwest which is my favorite time of year so lots of

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camping lots of outdoor stuff and yeah life is good last chance to do something before it completely

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freezes that's right honestly i turn into a psycho this time of year and i i just freak out because

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i'm like oh no snow is coming i'm not i didn't spend enough time outside and so i try to cram

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it all in here before the snow flies that's the way man i've still not been out there i need to

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come up to where you guys are. But maybe we should start. I've been told off in the comments,

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but not introducing my guests because I just assume everyone knows everyone. But why are you

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into the fourth turning? Who are you? What do you do, Brandon? Yeah, absolutely. So let's see.

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I'll start with Bitcoin. Found Bitcoin in 2017. Friends making money on internet coins. I felt

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left out. I started trading shit coins, made a bunch of money in 2017, thought I was a genius,

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thought I was a traitor. And then in 2018, I quickly realized how lucky I was. And I watched

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the number go back down. And then I had a decision to make, which was run away, pretend it never

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happened, which most people do, or double down, study this thing and figure out what's going on.

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I chose the second path, partially because I'm extremely stubborn and I like to be right.

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So in this case, that served me well. And then I spent the first half of 2018 reading all the

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books, doing all the podcasts, teaching myself economics from the ground up through an Austrian

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lens. And then it all sort of crystallized there. I was living in Bali at the time with my girlfriend,

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now wife, going to meetups all the time, really just sprinting down the rabbit hole. And one of

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the meetups, a guy gave a presentation showing the lightning network, like the topographical map of

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the nodes in 2018, which there were very few. And I have a history in mycology, which is studying

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fungi, totally as an amateur, no formal training. But for like 15 years, I've been foraging,

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learning about mushroom ecology, growing them, all that kind of stuff, cooking with them.

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And what I saw with that topographical map of the lightning network was something resembling

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a mycelial network, which is the primary form that a mushroom takes. It's like an underground

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root system. It forms a network. And I took my little scooter home that night, got back to the

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villa just scribbling on paper. And I essentially wrote the first Bitcoin essay I ever published,

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Mycelium of Money, the first part in 2018, published that later in the year. And that

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sort of gave me some sort of a reputation in Bitcoin land. And to my surprise, the Bitcoiners

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were very open minded to such a topic. You know, most people talking about finance, software,

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game theory, whatever. And I'm like, are we sure Bitcoin's not a living organism?

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and so somehow that worked and fast forward a little bit i met cory clipston the ceo of swan

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at the bitcoin 2019 conference in san francisco which was a great event and later that year in

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2019 i joined swan been there ever since almost six years now and yeah very proud of what we built

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if you want to get buying some bitcoin in the u.s check out swan.com and now let's fast forward a

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little bit more. It's 2020 COVID, you know, fully ingrained in the Bitcoin community,

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radically changed my life personally after interacting with this thing, as many people do.

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And it's maybe May or June 2020. George Floyd died like three miles from where I live in

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Minneapolis here. I'm on a camping trip, come out of the woods, hear that news. My city's burning.

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Now we have lockdowns. I'm cooped up. And I was living in the city at the time.

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and I was trying to make sense of the world.

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What is going on?

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People are not acting in a way that I would have predicted.

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I assumed that Americans would be more conscious

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of their civil liberties and giving up everything

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in exchange for this like vague sense of security

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that never really came.

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And instead I watched my neighbors call the cops

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on my other neighbors for too many cars in their driveway

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for like had their parents over for dinner or something.

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And so I'm locked in my room,

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all the monitors up, reading books, trying to figure it all out. And during that borderline

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manic phase, I found the fourth turning book, read that in like two days. And I'm like, okay,

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this is a framework that at least starts to make sense of what I'm seeing around me.

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It's not as intimidating or chaotic if you have a framework to map it against.

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And so at that point, I started devouring all the content from that author, eventually wrote an

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essay called Bitcoin and the Rhythms of History later that year, sort of viewing that thesis

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through a Bitcoin lens, of course, as all good think boys do, and sort of modernizing those

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ideas and bringing those ideas to current form. Because the book was written in 97,

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and so predicted a lot of what we're experiencing right now. It was the same year as a sovereign

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individual, equally as prophetic. And so, yeah, I think those two books together kind of give you

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a good macro picture of what we should experience socially during this period of time. And yeah,

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that's where I found it. SA became very popular, extremely popular on Twitter. And now I turned

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into, I went from the mushroom guy to the fourth turning guy and here we are. I love it, man. It's

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funny. I've been talking to people about this recently. One of the things that I think Bitcoin

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has lost is the more kind of fun abstract pieces on Bitcoin. Like back when you wrote Mycelium

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and money i think that was the title um and there was people like gg writing bitcoin is time there

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was like chur did an amazing piece on the bitcoin reformation there were these kind of like

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slightly weird and more abstract takes on bitcoin whereas now it's just so financialized do you

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think we're missing something that's a really good point really good point um my initial reaction is

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yes i think the glory days of philosophical bitcoin musings was probably 2018 to 2020 2021

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and then as Bitcoin became more mainstream, more financialized, the content that was rewarded

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online was more treasury companies, corporate adoption, BlackRock this, ETF that, right?

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Do I think we're missing something? For me, I'm definitely missing something. That era of content,

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I would devour. Now, honestly, I don't listen to that many Bitcoin podcasts. I don't read the books.

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I don't read the blog posts anymore.

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And to me, that's really sad.

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But if I step back for a second and rude myself, I think this is just a natural progression

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of Bitcoin, right?

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I don't think that many people around the world on a percentage basis are going to go

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down the rabbit hole and get obsessed with this thing.

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I think the majority of people that are going to get obsessed with Bitcoin already are.

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And if that's true, what we should expect going forward is more of a sanitized content

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sphere that reward that gets rewarded because there's more normal people interacting with

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content. Normal people don't want to read about mycelial networks. They just want to know if the

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number is going up. Right. And so I think it's natural. I think it should be expected.

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But personally, I do feel a loss. And I joke, I think if we go forward maybe 10, 20 years,

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Bitcoin will be boring. You probably won't be doing this show anymore. And what will we do if

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we want to rekindle that like early revolutionary energy we're gonna have to call up josh and have

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a beefsteak in the woods somewhere and call the old crew together and you know we'll be grandpa's

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by then and relive the glory days tell tell some war stories yeah i i like personally i really miss

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that stuff as well if anyone's out there who's writing strange bitcoin pieces let me know because

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i want to cover that stuff it was the most it's almost like that meme of like you don't know the

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good times until you're out of them or whatever it is like they were the good times um we need we

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need to bring it back brandon but let's let's get on to the fourth turning stuff um so what is the

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fourth turning if for anyone that's not listened to you before like can you just give us a bit of

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a synopsis yeah absolutely so we touched on it's a book the authors uh two authors a historian and

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a demographer and they wrote a series of books prior to the fourth turning the primary one was

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generations. And they were just looking at American history over, let's say, 500 years,

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and they were studying those different generational cohorts. These authors also

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coined the phrase millennial generation, by the way. And so what they found looking over the last

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500 years is that these patterns kept coming up over and over and over again. I'll cut right to

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the juicy part. They noticed that every 80 to 90 years, we have some sort of a crisis moment.

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And if we go back in time, the previous one was World War II.

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Before that, we had the Civil War.

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Before that, we had the Revolutionary War.

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And what you might notice is they're all wars.

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And so essentially what happens is society outgrows its institutions, its structure that

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sort of keeps people in line and keeps society humming along.

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We outgrow that for whatever reason, either it decays or society changes, whatever it

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is.

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And we look around and there's just no order.

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And the people start to demand that order.

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And so we tear down our institutions.

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We rebuild new ones.

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And that's sort of the juicy part.

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But how do we get there?

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What's it based on?

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Let me give you a little bit more here.

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And so, okay, I think that the best way to understand it is that there's a symbiotic

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relationship between history and generations.

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Generations being like a cohort of people born during a certain time window, usually

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like 20-ish years.

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and all those people born in that 20-year window,

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let's take millennials because we're millennials,

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you're born in our period,

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the context in which you were born

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and in which you were raised is relatively the same.

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And so what that means is history imprints itself

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onto a generation

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because we're all exposed to the same type of thing.

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And then we grow up and we leave our parents' nest

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and what do young people do?

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They push back on their parents

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and they go do their own thing.

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And we leave the nest, we go out with our peers

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and that age, let's say 20 to 25, roughly, people are immersed with their peers. And that's when you

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essentially forge that identity. We become cemented as millennials and we carry those same

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hopes, wishes, dreams, how we respond to things. We carry that for the rest of our life.

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And we also exit the childhood stage. We go to early adult stage. That's very different.

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Then we go to middle age and we start running things and then we become elders and we pass

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the wisdom on.

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Right.

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So what the authors notice is that there's four archetypes and those four archetypes go

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in a repeating pattern.

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So hero, artist, prophet, nomad on repeat.

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And depending on which age each archetype is.

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So if the hero is young adult and the prophets and elder, et cetera, et cetera, the constellation

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of those archetypes creates a mood. And that mood will be used in this theory to predict how society

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will respond to events. So it doesn't tell the future, it predicts the mood, and the mood you

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can more or less predict how we respond to things. And so again, based on the constellation of

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archetypes, let's say we're in the third turning, right? In that 80 to 90 year window, there's four

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turnings, four quadrants, whatever you want to call it. In the third turning in the early 1900s,

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the Germans sank one of our American ships. And what do we do? We said, oh, that's bad. And

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whatever. Next day, turn on the game, move on. Okay. Fast forward to the fourth turning, Pearl

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Harbor, Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. How do we respond to a similar catalyst? The next day,

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total war, right? So different turnings, different moods, different responses to a similar catalyst.

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And so that's just one way you can kind of look at this kind of stuff.

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And again, going back to the symbiosis, history creates the generation.

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That generation grows up and creates history.

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And that's just on repeat.

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Bitcoin is absolutely ripping.

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And in every bull market, there's always a new wave of investors.

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And with it, a flood of new companies, new products, and new promises.

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But if you've been around long enough, you've seen how this story ends for a lot of them.

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Some cut corners, take risks with your money, or just disappear.

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So whether you're interested in mining Bitcoin or harnessing AI compute power, Iron is setting the standard.

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visit iron.com to learn more which is i-r-e-n.com so of those four categories what are the attributes

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of each of those um those four turnings those four generations the first before we go into each

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one the way you can the way those different archetypes come in a repeating pattern is because

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of the history so when are you born let's take the young people now they're born during a crisis

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period. These are the artists. What happens in a crisis period? They watch their parents lose their

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house. They went through COVID lockdown, lost two years of school. They're seeing all the social

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unrest, the political violence. There's no stability in the world and they feel that.

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And so that type of context creates the artist generation. Artist archetypes are inward.

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They're not very social. They're very creative. They don't work in teams. They're very individual.

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and so that's how they're raised.

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And that's more or less how they are

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for the rest of their life.

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If we go back one to the millennials,

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which are the hero archetype, that's us,

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we were born in a period of, in a third turning

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and a third turning is defined as essentially deregulation,

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increasing violence, but economics are still pretty strong.

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And so essentially day-to-day life is good,

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but we're gutting all the things that keep society going.

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And so in that type of environment, we're essentially under-parented.

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Or sorry, we're over-parented.

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And that's also just a response from the period before the second turning when all the kids are under-parented.

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And so what you see is these pendulums swing back and forth.

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But back to millennials.

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Millennials, we're all special snowflakes.

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We're all unique.

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We got seventh place ribbons at the track and field day.

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Baby on board stickers.

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mothers against drunk driving rights all this thing we got to foster the kids we got to over

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invest in them so we grow up and we're team players we expect all our work to be valuable

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and meaningful and we're you know we're we're relatively good in the workplace but we're

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nothing like the generation before us which is the gen x's which are the nomads when i think of

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like my childhood so i was born in like the early 90s and i know there's always sort of

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rose-tinted glasses and nostalgia when you look back but that like early period everything seemed

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pretty great um but then you have sort of the attacks in 9-11 then there's like the patriarch

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that comes off the back of that the start of mass surveillance and then 2008 which i know is sort of

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the start or what you think of the start of the fourth turning so in that third turning is it

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the world moving from something that works really well to the beginnings of seeing the sort of

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crisis. Yeah, exactly. So again, the third turning, we deregulate and we start removing

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scaffolding in society like Glass-Steagall, letting Wall Street go crazy, bailouts, etc.

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And so, yeah, that world goes like it's starting to break down. And then the transition period is

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when humans look around and we say, uh-oh, society is going off the rails and there's

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no institutions to keep us in order. And it's sort of defined by lack of trust in institutions.

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You can go look at polling from all the main polling companies, and they're showing historic

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lows of trust in institutions. They're showing a separation in the left and the right, larger than

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we've ever polled. They're showing political violence being justified, especially on the left.

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And so these are all the climate you would expect in a fourth turning Yeah I mean you don even need to go to the polls You can just feel it You see it every day You can feel that that sort of divide in society is obviously there

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Okay, before we get into that,

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because I do want to get into what's happening in this fourth cycle,

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let's go back.

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So we had nomads and artists to go through.

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That's right.

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And I'm actually going to skip to the prophet, the baby boomers,

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and do it more historically.

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It'll make more sense here.

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So the baby boomers, they were born in a time when life is great.

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Okay, baby boom.

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That's right on the post-World War II era.

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So World War II, we're all fighting.

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Things are crazy.

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Then we're done with World War II and everyone has a collective sigh of relief and we go back to normalcy.

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We're fatigued.

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What does that mean?

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We raise kids in the most boring environment imaginable.

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This is white picket fences, leave it to beaver.

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this is like Pax Americana you know that kind of thing and predictably what do the boomers do when

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they grow up they push back on their parents and they create the second turning energy which is the

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civil rights movement the psychedelic 60s all that kind of stuff sex drugs and rock and roll

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right polar opposite of the first turning because those young people came of age and they push back

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and the baby boomers they're principled yet they're narcissistic their tagline would be like

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do as I say, not as I do. Right. So you can kind of think of that. They grew up in the indulgent

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post-crisis children. And then you get into the Gen Xers, right? They're the kids of these hippies.

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What do they do? They don't want to really be parents. They had kids, but they underparent

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the next generation, the Gen Xers. So those kids grew up on their own. This would be movies like

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Terminator, The Goonies, stuff like that, right? Where the young kid is on his own. He has to

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figure it out and acts larger than his age. They're like coming of age tales for young kids.

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That's like the most Gen X vibe. And they grow up and they become practical and yet entirely

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unfeeling. And so this would be Elon Musk. This would be Peter Thiel, things like that. Individual

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practical kind of folks, right? They don't care about political correctness. They don't care if

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everyone gets rich as long as they get rich themselves, right? Where the millennials are

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more like, I'm fine sacrificing. And as long as the greater good, dramatically different.

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Right. And then back to the millennials, which are born in the third journey. So I think that's

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all four there. But it's really about the context that shapes the kids. That's what forges that

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archetype. And that's why it repeats. So is this a sort of America specific phenomenon? Because I

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don't imagine just to pick another country like India, we're going through the exact same cycles

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at the same time.

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Yeah, it's a good question. So the authors focus only on the US. However, recent talks with Neil

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Howe, we've done a couple of podcasts together and I consume everything he does. His perspective

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is that this is the first global fourth turning. And I think that makes sense. So post-World War

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II, what do we do? Okay, let me back up for a second. The previous fourth turning, 1929 to 1945,

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global stock or stock market collapse great depression fdr takes power fdr does all this

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crazy stuff that's never really happened before deficit spending social security unemployment

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insurance nato world bank imf breton woods obviously world war ii right so we essentially

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recreated all the institutions that we've been living under since the end of world war ii

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is it global or not? So after World War II, those institutions are pretty global, right?

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Reparations against Germany, rebuild Europe, financial system based on the US, Bretton Woods,

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but that's global. World Trade, WTO, NATO, those are all global organizations. And what we're seeing

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now in present times is that populism on the left and populism on the right is exploding all over

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the world. We're having similar crises, overthrow of the thing, crazy new election, can't believe it.

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That's happening everywhere. And so in a global trade world, and obviously China entering the WTO,

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those type of things really, really pull us into a global world. We saw this during COVID when

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supply chain disruption in one area causes all these issues all around the world. And so I think

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we're firmly in a global foreturning. I don't know what that means in terms of what's going to happen

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because of that, all I know is that everyone is in a more volatile state. And so if our peer or

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competitor nations are more volatile, their backs against the wall, they're going to be willing to

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do more crazy things. And so I would say that adds more chaos to the pot here.

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I guess volatility is a good way of looking at this in terms of like

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foreturning being the obviously the highest volatility first being the lowest.

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So it's the interesting thing you said there, though, is like all those institutions and ideals

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that came out of the previous first turning, things like the IMF, deficit spending, social

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security, are all the things that are unraveling today. Is that the way that it always goes?

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Pretty much. Yeah. Is it inertia? Is it, you know, organizations just get corrupted over time? Like,

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I think most of those organizations and other people that spoke on this had good intentions,

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especially Gladstein. They had good intentions at first, but then they sort of lost their mission.

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Their mission is no longer relevant. So people capture the org and use it for their own benefit.

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And then all of a sudden it's a shell of what it once was. I think that's part of it. I think

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with social security, that was a really good story to tell for about 80 years, right? It said,

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hey, listen, you can go back to work. You can trust the social contract of the United States

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because worst case scenario, when you're old, we'll get you covered. Oh, you're worried about

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bank runs? Don't worry. We have FDIC insurance. Don't worry about this. We got you covered, right?

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So you make a lot of promises when your back's against the wall. It doesn't matter if those

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promises will eventually break because you got us through the last cycle. And so I think a little

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bit of decay naturally, a little bit of over-promising to get yourself out of trouble,

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and then eventually the bills do.

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And I think one more layer here that makes this important

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is that every fourth turning,

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we notice easy money coming back on the table.

335
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And so, yeah, fourth turnings are when we print money,

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when the long-term debt problem comes due, et cetera, et cetera.

337
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So both of those two frameworks,

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I think together is the best way to see this world.

339
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It's like an emergent social phenomenon

340
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with the fourth turning generational theory

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and then the macro picture with the long-term debt cycle coming due again adds more volatility

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less room for error and that's obviously what we're experiencing now and and in terms of the uh

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the money printer turning on at the end of the fourth turning like the very easy answer to that

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is there's a war so we need to print money um and we're going to get into that because because

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all the previous fourth turnings have ended in war um i'm curious to think if you to know if you

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think this one will but like let's start with why we're in the first turn the fourth turning and when

347
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it started. So was 2008 the catalyst that started the fourth turning? That's right. Yeah, it's a

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perfect parallel with 1929. So 2008 very firmly marks the transition. That's also Obama, right?

349
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So if you look at political slogans between third and fourth turning, that sort of shows the mood.

350
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In the third turning, let's take the 90s. Problems were starting to appear. And what did politicians

351
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do, they got elected by minimizing the problems and saying, no, everything's fine. I got this.

352
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Problems are no big deal. Then you transition in 08, obviously global financial crisis,

353
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but all the political slogans switched immediately. They switched to hope and change,

354
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make America great again, right? These are capturing the political energy saying everything's

355
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messed up and I'm your guy to fix it. And so it started in 08. We've been firmly in it since.

356
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I expect we'll wrap up in three to seven years, something like that.

357
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And unfortunately, I don't think we've hit the crisis yet.

358
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I think we're ramping up.

359
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I would love to believe we hit the crisis, but I really don't think we have.

360
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The crisis would be defined as something large enough to mobilize people to go in a certain direction.

361
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War is a great mobilizer.

362
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The barbarians are at the gate.

363
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Print the money.

364
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Grab the spears.

365
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We're all defending our freedom or our lives or whatever.

366
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And so we need a catalyst sufficiently large enough to mobilize the people. We've had a total hot war. We've had proper civil war in the U.S. And the Revolutionary War was actually kind of a hybrid. And so most of the fighting was actually U.S. versus U.S., loyalists versus patriots, less than like the British coming over. And so it was kind of a hybrid one.

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If you look at today, and I don't know if you want to go into climaxes now, but if you look at today, I think the risk of a second American Civil War is increasing by the day.

368
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I think if I had to choose, this would be the least attractive option as someone who lives in the U.S.

369
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And before people say, hey, we're not going to have another Civil War.

370
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First of all, it won't be anything like the first Civil War.

371
00:29:23,300 --> 00:29:31,020
it will feel more like splinter cells political terrorists uh i'm just going to pick some groups

372
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antifa versus the proud boys they carry out these missions and both sides believe they're justified

373
00:29:37,260 --> 00:29:43,920
well if trump is actually hitler then i should probably do something about it uh if the other

374
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:48,420
side is actually communist i should probably do something about it right so you create this

375
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condition where both sides feel justified in some sort of a political violent situation.

376
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You combine that with the fact that socially, we don't see eye to eye. There's really two parties.

377
00:30:02,500 --> 00:30:07,140
There's not one country anymore. The left and the right have different language, different facts,

378
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different sources, different everything. And so in that world, it's very easy to demonize the other

379
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because they're nothing like you.

380
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And I feel this in my personal life.

381
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Social groups have changed.

382
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And if you're in, let's say, mixed company,

383
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you kind of have to feel out the room a little bit

384
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and you drop these little lines to see

385
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are we aligned on this issue or not.

386
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You can just pick a current event,

387
00:30:31,580 --> 00:30:32,480
say the current event,

388
00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:34,200
and based on the reactions in the room,

389
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you know exactly how people stand on most political issues.

390
00:30:38,260 --> 00:30:41,020
And I think cancel culture is also a symptom here

391
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because in a fourth turning,

392
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collectively we realize that we got to work together to solve the problem and that means

393
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making sacrifices to essentially survive and so if you're not with us you're against us

394
00:30:54,160 --> 00:31:00,360
so we cancel each other the left eats the left because they're not left enough right that's crazy

395
00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:05,520
if you were trying to win an election you wouldn't want to eat your own you'd want to allow them to

396
00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:10,040
be part of the group and have a big tent and win but instead we cancel people in our own

397
00:31:10,040 --> 00:31:13,360
for that same existential feeling deep inside.

398
00:31:13,500 --> 00:31:15,180
I don't think people are conscious of this.

399
00:31:15,260 --> 00:31:17,780
I think this is a society-wide mood situation

400
00:31:17,780 --> 00:31:18,480
we're experiencing.

401
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:21,060
It's funny that you say you have to like

402
00:31:21,060 --> 00:31:22,260
get a temperature check

403
00:31:22,260 --> 00:31:23,140
whenever you're talking to someone

404
00:31:23,140 --> 00:31:23,980
about any of this stuff

405
00:31:23,980 --> 00:31:25,360
because I do the exact same thing.

406
00:31:25,460 --> 00:31:26,140
And that's one of the reasons

407
00:31:26,140 --> 00:31:27,100
I love hanging out with Bitcoin

408
00:31:27,100 --> 00:31:28,840
is because you can kind of skip that

409
00:31:28,840 --> 00:31:29,900
because you know that there's like

410
00:31:29,900 --> 00:31:31,140
a shared set of values

411
00:31:31,140 --> 00:31:32,360
before you even talk to someone.

412
00:31:33,280 --> 00:31:35,100
But one of the things that I'm unsure about

413
00:31:35,100 --> 00:31:37,520
is like if to move from the fourth turning

414
00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:38,240
to the first turning,

415
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:39,980
you kind of need to coalesce people

416
00:31:39,980 --> 00:31:43,120
and get people working together again in some sense to rebuild.

417
00:31:43,660 --> 00:31:45,000
How do you do that now?

418
00:31:45,080 --> 00:31:48,160
Because one of the things that I've been thinking a lot about

419
00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:51,820
is kind of the loss of monoculture.

420
00:31:51,980 --> 00:31:53,640
I don't think monoculture exists anymore.

421
00:31:54,020 --> 00:31:57,820
When we grew up, everyone would watch Friends or The Simpsons

422
00:31:57,820 --> 00:32:00,340
and consume the same media and you'd watch the news at 6pm

423
00:32:00,340 --> 00:32:01,800
and whether it was right or wrong

424
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:03,460
and they were trying to sell you a narrative or not,

425
00:32:03,740 --> 00:32:05,280
everyone was fed the same information.

426
00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:09,140
But now everyone lives in entirely different worlds.

427
00:32:09,140 --> 00:32:11,620
You live in the algorithm that is provided to you.

428
00:32:11,980 --> 00:32:16,500
And so you can go home and my neighbor will consume entirely different content to me.

429
00:32:16,580 --> 00:32:17,820
They'll get entirely different information.

430
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:20,840
And so where's the cohesiveness going to come from?

431
00:32:21,900 --> 00:32:22,360
Great question.

432
00:32:23,340 --> 00:32:27,040
I think it depends what the ultimate catalyst is.

433
00:32:27,420 --> 00:32:32,760
I think the easy one is if we have an external conflict, let's say with China, that's pretty

434
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:35,820
easy to rally the people and let's go solve a bigger problem.

435
00:32:35,820 --> 00:32:44,240
put our differences away for a little bit. But I fear that if we have ramping up political

436
00:32:44,240 --> 00:32:48,700
violence in the US, both sides are just going to dig their heels in and accelerate this thing.

437
00:32:49,420 --> 00:32:55,320
And in that type of environment, I don't see a world where we put our differences behind us.

438
00:32:55,420 --> 00:33:00,840
I see a world where we exhaust ourselves through conflict and we just are so sick of it,

439
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:02,100
We just give up the fight.

440
00:33:02,520 --> 00:33:04,720
Whereas both sides don't budge.

441
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:06,540
It's only getting worse.

442
00:33:06,820 --> 00:33:11,680
And somehow, some way, we just give up because we're exhausted and we want to go back to normalcy.

443
00:33:12,140 --> 00:33:13,540
That's the Civil War path.

444
00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:25,920
I think another path, let's say optimistically, is let's say the conflicts abroad and we essentially redo global trade.

445
00:33:26,060 --> 00:33:28,580
We sort of bring back manufacturing here.

446
00:33:28,700 --> 00:33:29,880
We de-globalize.

447
00:33:29,880 --> 00:33:34,700
we reinvest in the middle class, we make housing affordable, we make student loans for people who

448
00:33:34,700 --> 00:33:40,940
can't pay them, go away, whatever basket of things to help out the little guy today, the young people

449
00:33:40,940 --> 00:33:47,320
today, I think that could essentially lower the tension, right? If half the population in the U.S.

450
00:33:47,400 --> 00:33:52,940
wasn't on the poverty line, essentially, they wouldn't be so desperate. They wouldn't have to

451
00:33:52,940 --> 00:33:57,800
care about national politics as much because their day-to-day life is a lot better. But right now,

452
00:33:57,800 --> 00:34:03,020
young people have no hope. They feel like the social contract's broken. And so it's natural

453
00:34:03,020 --> 00:34:08,000
to lash out there and to feel a little bit hopeless. And if young people are hopeless,

454
00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:14,860
that causes a lot of problems. Their neofrontal cortex isn't developed. They do crazy things.

455
00:34:15,280 --> 00:34:20,580
Obviously, we have a pharmaceutical issue, a mental health issue, all kinds of social issues

456
00:34:20,580 --> 00:34:25,980
that contribute here. And so the short answer is depending on the catalyst, I could see that

457
00:34:25,980 --> 00:34:32,020
cohesion going different ways and there is a world where there's no cohesion and instead we rally in

458
00:34:32,020 --> 00:34:37,480
two groups and we fight it out until we're exhausted if you're already self-custody of bitcoin you know

459
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464
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488
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That's ledn.io forward slash WBD. Do you think that sort of growing nihilism, the sort of

489
00:36:53,920 --> 00:37:00,120
medicated youth is all part of basically broken money? And is that where Bitcoin can fit into the

490
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:06,180
next first turning? That's a good question. I think it's a big part of it. I think if young

491
00:37:06,180 --> 00:37:11,960
people had a Bitcoin stash, they watched it go up a little bit. That radically shifts your

492
00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:16,120
perspective on the future because you found something that gets you out of the troubles

493
00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:16,580
you're in.

494
00:37:17,340 --> 00:37:24,080
And so, yeah, if you look around at Bitcoiners versus Genpop, okay, Bitcoiners are way more

495
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:25,440
optimistic about the future.

496
00:37:25,900 --> 00:37:30,480
They don't have to get caught up in the political drama of the day, even though we play there

497
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:30,740
too.

498
00:37:30,860 --> 00:37:32,160
But we don't have the need.

499
00:37:32,200 --> 00:37:35,500
It doesn't feel existential because your future feels secure.

500
00:37:36,020 --> 00:37:38,940
And if your future feels secure, you raise a family.

501
00:37:39,660 --> 00:37:41,240
You're generally more peaceful.

502
00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:46,180
you're more hopeful and that's when people are at their best and so yeah if we could somehow

503
00:37:46,180 --> 00:37:52,180
seed all 18 year olds with ten thousand dollars for the bitcoin that they couldn't touch for 10

504
00:37:52,180 --> 00:37:58,020
years or something like that um that might change the world pretty quickly it's like the way that we

505
00:37:58,020 --> 00:38:02,960
interact with the sort of daily news is much more voyeuristic like we don't even live in that system

506
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:08,640
but it's still interesting to see what's going on um but the thing that has like come up in my mind

507
00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:12,400
a couple of times while you've been talking is I wonder if UBI is one of the things that's going

508
00:38:12,400 --> 00:38:16,960
to come from this, especially when you like factor in AI and what that's going to do in terms of job

509
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:21,960
replacement. Like, do you think that that is one of the things that we see before the end of this

510
00:38:21,960 --> 00:38:26,980
fourth turning? Yeah, I do. Actually, I've been thinking I've been calling for UBI for a long

511
00:38:26,980 --> 00:38:34,000
time, maybe close to 10 years. I don't think it's a long term solution to anything. But I think if

512
00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:40,480
we go through a rocky transition here where AI and robotics, automation generally starts to eat

513
00:38:40,480 --> 00:38:45,340
a bunch of jobs, I think people will start to freak out. And what we're going to experience

514
00:38:45,340 --> 00:38:50,660
next with AI is white collar jobs going away, right? If it was just the blue collar jobs,

515
00:38:51,420 --> 00:38:56,920
sadly, those folks don't have much representation in the highest levels in our country. So we just

516
00:38:56,920 --> 00:39:03,040
pretend it doesn't happen. And we let the rust belt occur. And it's tragic. We lost families

517
00:39:03,040 --> 00:39:06,520
and generations in those regions. And we didn't really do anything about it. We didn't really care.

518
00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:12,460
Trump seems to care, or at least he panders about caring about bringing jobs back.

519
00:39:12,980 --> 00:39:19,280
But in an AI robotics world, when white collar jobs are gone and it becomes really desperate,

520
00:39:19,660 --> 00:39:26,040
and then you see the AI companies just printing money, economic divide growing. Well, in that type

521
00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:31,340
of environment, I think UBI would be very, very, very popular in the political sphere.

522
00:39:31,340 --> 00:39:34,440
I just hope we have a timeline on it

523
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:37,040
or a means tested version of this or something

524
00:39:37,040 --> 00:39:40,440
because obviously that type of spending

525
00:39:40,440 --> 00:39:41,720
contributes to the deficit,

526
00:39:41,980 --> 00:39:43,840
it erodes the value of the dollar further.

527
00:39:44,520 --> 00:39:45,980
It would be pretty good for Bitcoin,

528
00:39:46,540 --> 00:40:00,460
but yeah I think UBI is a good idea I think in general what we have to think about here is give hope to young people And our AI overlords who run these companies they going to be ruling over a pile of ashes if they

529
00:40:00,460 --> 00:40:05,240
continue to dominate, and that's going to make their lives a lot worse. And so the elite should

530
00:40:05,240 --> 00:40:12,020
essentially give a bunch up right now to preserve order, which also benefits them, in the form of

531
00:40:12,020 --> 00:40:18,100
student loan forgiveness, housing, UBI, whatever it is, some combination of that kind of stuff.

532
00:40:18,100 --> 00:40:25,260
I think it needs to happen. I don't support those views in a vacuum. Politically, my ideology would

533
00:40:25,260 --> 00:40:29,500
say those are bad ideas. But in this time, I think that those are the right ideas, all things

534
00:40:29,500 --> 00:40:35,220
considered. Do you think there's any chance that actually happens, though? I wouldn't trust my

535
00:40:35,220 --> 00:40:41,320
opinion or instincts on that. I think 10 years ago, the chance of that happening was approaching

536
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:46,260
zero. I think within the next five or 10 years, that happening, I think, is pretty good chances.

537
00:40:46,260 --> 00:40:51,000
right we got to go back to the the previous fourth turning because everything that happens

538
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:58,540
feels new it feels like it came out of left field entirely not predictable and so push comes to

539
00:40:58,540 --> 00:41:03,200
shove we do crazy stuff and people are willing to accept it because the alternative is worse

540
00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:09,640
do you think there's a chance that this is either the last fourth turning or an infinite fourth

541
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:16,780
turning in and and this gets back to the idea of the death of monoculture because if we do all live

542
00:41:16,780 --> 00:41:20,840
completely separate lives with completely different media like subcultures are huge and monoculture is

543
00:41:20,840 --> 00:41:26,380
dead um like how do people coalesce that's that's the thing that i really struggle with because

544
00:41:26,380 --> 00:41:32,040
like everyone will go home and either doom stroll twitter or youtube or instagram or tiktok or

545
00:41:32,040 --> 00:41:37,100
whatever it is and you just fed an entire set of different information to everyone else so like

546
00:41:37,100 --> 00:41:42,220
and it's called doom scrolling because it makes you feel like shit there's no end to it like

547
00:41:42,220 --> 00:41:46,340
whenever any content previously there's always been a start and an end and then you have to wait

548
00:41:46,340 --> 00:41:51,020
till next week to get the next episode or whatever it is and and so i just worry that people are going

549
00:41:51,020 --> 00:41:55,920
to fragment more and more as these algorithms get better and more powerful and i think add ai into

550
00:41:55,920 --> 00:42:00,700
that and it could be even worse that's a good question a few questions there let me try and

551
00:42:00,700 --> 00:42:06,300
break it down so i think monoculture versus polyculture is one angle here if we go back to

552
00:42:06,300 --> 00:42:12,120
the glory days of broadcasting or radio or something like that, there's only five channels.

553
00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:18,720
Everyone watches the same three people give the news, right? So it's one news stream. And that

554
00:42:18,720 --> 00:42:23,740
medium does create social cohesion. Even if everything they said was a lie, at least we all

555
00:42:23,740 --> 00:42:31,380
believe the same lie, right? In an internet world, many sources create information and you can sort

556
00:42:31,380 --> 00:42:36,360
to choose where you want to go. The algorithms steer us towards outrage. And so, yeah, then we

557
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:41,300
end up doom scrolling. And that does create a polyculture, a poly information sphere, whatever

558
00:42:41,300 --> 00:42:48,340
we want to call that. Do I think that this fourth turning will change that? Or can we ever get back

559
00:42:48,340 --> 00:42:53,520
to a monoculture? Or would we even want another monoculture? I would zoom out a little bit and

560
00:42:53,520 --> 00:43:00,900
look at the technology that's causing this. Always online algorithm fed content, etc. Whatever we

561
00:43:00,900 --> 00:43:08,460
call that that's new right our hardware our homo sapien hardware is hundreds of thousands of years

562
00:43:08,460 --> 00:43:17,760
old and in one or two generations we went from like uh pay phones to supercomputers in our pocket

563
00:43:17,760 --> 00:43:25,080
and which is just dopamine hits constantly yes yes it's hard for our bodies to handle this and

564
00:43:25,080 --> 00:43:29,440
what i'm trying to say is that we haven't integrated these new technologies into our

565
00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:33,840
lives in a way where we really understand them. We don't use them responsibly. We went in guns

566
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:40,000
blazing and now we're starting to notice the problems. And so over time, I do expect a backlash

567
00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:46,500
towards that. And I expect humans to eventually properly integrate the technology we have now.

568
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:52,040
But where this gets tricky is, okay, great. In 20 years, we figured out how to deal with social

569
00:43:52,040 --> 00:43:57,860
media, but what's coming out in 20 years and how are we going to deal with that? And so it's kind

570
00:43:57,860 --> 00:44:04,060
of like we're always late to integrating things and there's never any problem because technology

571
00:44:04,060 --> 00:44:10,300
is exponential. We keep on going. And so I think, do we ever become monoculture? I think the answer

572
00:44:10,300 --> 00:44:18,140
is no. I also think that that's okay, but that also comes with some consequences, right? So if

573
00:44:18,140 --> 00:44:23,400
we never go monoculture again, it's going to be really hard to maintain cohesion in a country like

574
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:30,800
the U.S. Extremely diverse regional differences, different migration patterns, different religions,

575
00:44:31,060 --> 00:44:38,260
political views. I don't see us going back to one culture unless we have like a hot war abroad and

576
00:44:38,260 --> 00:44:43,240
we sort of re-buddy up again. But again, the technology forces will fracture us again because

577
00:44:43,240 --> 00:44:49,360
our information sphere is different. So if I had to bet, this might take a while, but I forecast

578
00:44:49,360 --> 00:44:54,340
a world where we go from, let's say, 300 countries to a world of, let's say, 3,000 countries.

579
00:44:55,160 --> 00:45:00,900
And in that world, a lot of things would be different. You could choose your geography based

580
00:45:00,900 --> 00:45:07,240
on whatever things you care about. And smaller groups in an information world is actually

581
00:45:07,240 --> 00:45:13,360
competitive, right? Going back to sovereign individual, the previous trend was the Industrial

582
00:45:13,360 --> 00:45:18,880
Revolution. And in the Industrial Revolution, the way to win as a country is to have the most

583
00:45:18,880 --> 00:45:25,480
magnitude, the most ships, the most soldiers, the most energy, the most, most, most. But in

584
00:45:25,480 --> 00:45:30,760
information technology world, information is the primary valuable or knowledge is the primary

585
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:37,100
resource. And in that world, you don't gain anything by having more people. You gain things

586
00:45:37,100 --> 00:45:42,400
by having the best people, the most productive people, right? You also pair that with asymmetric

587
00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:49,000
warfare, right? We could have a small little island country with high-tech automated defense

588
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:53,900
systems where you could be small, you pay your military tax, and the automated drones keep you

589
00:45:53,900 --> 00:46:01,740
safe or whatever it is. And so I also think it ties into Bitcoin mining sort of colonizing

590
00:46:01,740 --> 00:46:06,540
energy assets in the middle of nowhere. And if you can go build a nuclear plant in the middle of

591
00:46:06,540 --> 00:46:13,360
nowhere. Okay, great. Now you have energy, you funded the energy by Bitcoin mining. If there's

592
00:46:13,360 --> 00:46:18,480
cheap energy, you'll bring industry. If industry's there, you bring people. So similar to how Balaji

593
00:46:18,480 --> 00:46:25,320
sees this like startup society, these little pop-up geographies, pop-up little country sort

594
00:46:25,320 --> 00:46:31,320
of things popping up all over. I think that makes a lot of sense. And I think going back to money

595
00:46:31,800 --> 00:46:34,140
In an industrial age world, gold is money.

596
00:46:34,700 --> 00:46:38,220
And so the first thing the military does is they go to the vault and they take all the gold.

597
00:46:38,820 --> 00:46:43,260
In a Bitcoin world, there's no Bitcoin to seize in the vault, right?

598
00:46:43,300 --> 00:46:45,280
So you can defend yourself against that.

599
00:46:45,380 --> 00:46:49,080
So the economic incentive for violence goes down a little bit.

600
00:46:49,380 --> 00:46:50,800
It doesn't mean war goes away.

601
00:46:51,020 --> 00:46:52,900
There's a lot of complex reasons for war.

602
00:46:52,900 --> 00:46:57,760
But at least the incentive for squashing these small territories reduces.

603
00:46:57,760 --> 00:47:01,620
and I think that could be a better world to be honest.

604
00:47:02,240 --> 00:47:05,760
I think the U.S. attempted such a thing with 50 states

605
00:47:05,760 --> 00:47:08,320
and so there's also a world where we go back

606
00:47:08,320 --> 00:47:10,680
to a more of a federalist model in the U.S.

607
00:47:11,380 --> 00:47:13,300
which would probably be my preference,

608
00:47:13,840 --> 00:47:17,020
give way more power to the state and totally gut the Fed,

609
00:47:17,540 --> 00:47:19,680
then you can move around and choose the values

610
00:47:19,680 --> 00:47:20,480
that you care about.

611
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:24,240
Yeah, that's my smattering of thoughts on the topic.

612
00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:26,100
Yeah, no, I agree though.

613
00:47:26,100 --> 00:47:28,220
I think that's the most likely outcome from this.

614
00:47:28,280 --> 00:47:33,960
Because one of the things that you're seeing super clearly in the UK at the moment is there's massive social unrest.

615
00:47:34,640 --> 00:47:37,700
It's all kind of being blamed on immigration.

616
00:47:38,020 --> 00:47:41,500
And don't get me wrong, like just tons of illegal immigration is not going to be good for a country.

617
00:47:41,920 --> 00:47:49,160
But I do feel like one of the there's obviously the money side of it, where if people feel impoverished, feel like they're not being looked after, then they're going to get angry.

618
00:47:49,740 --> 00:47:53,940
And then I do think part of it, again, comes back to like the nostalgia for shared culture.

619
00:47:53,940 --> 00:47:57,080
Like, what does it mean to be British or what does it mean to be American?

620
00:47:57,460 --> 00:48:01,860
I think that's been totally lost because there is no shared culture anymore.

621
00:48:02,080 --> 00:48:03,420
Like, everyone lives in their own world.

622
00:48:03,900 --> 00:48:12,320
And then, like, if you're feeling poor and you don't feel, like, aligned with the people that you live amongst, blaming immigrants is, like, the easy scapegoat.

623
00:48:12,740 --> 00:48:19,340
And, again, it's not that there should just be total illegal immigration, but I don't think – I think people are using that as a scapegoat.

624
00:48:19,400 --> 00:48:21,020
It's not actually the root cause of the issues.

625
00:48:21,640 --> 00:48:22,700
Yeah, that's interesting.

626
00:48:23,940 --> 00:48:25,820
I feel very strongly about immigration.

627
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:29,280
Like Europe's entirely cooked and I don't think they recover.

628
00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:39,680
I think the U.S. has a chance to clean up by removing as many illegal immigrants as we possibly can, starting with the dangerous ones.

629
00:48:40,260 --> 00:48:44,520
But I think there's something to shared culture that actually really matters.

630
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:51,800
if we don't have some sort of shared culture you don't feel like a country in which case you don't

631
00:48:52,380 --> 00:48:59,140
care about your country your national pride goes down and that's not a good way to run a country

632
00:48:59,140 --> 00:49:06,260
right the glory days of any state is when the whole country shares the identity and they march

633
00:49:06,260 --> 00:49:11,620
together right you can't go to space you can't go to the moon if you don't have everybody working

634
00:49:11,620 --> 00:49:17,260
together. You can't have an industrial revolution where people aren't aligned, right? Like that is

635
00:49:17,260 --> 00:49:24,560
how countries are effective is when you mobilize people to a common goal. And so I think it is also

636
00:49:24,560 --> 00:49:30,760
an easy scapegoat to your point. I think there's good, I don't think it's just an easy scapegoat

637
00:49:30,760 --> 00:49:39,520
though. I think when you bring in crime and you bring in competitive nature around housing, right?

638
00:49:39,520 --> 00:49:50,040
If you had 20 million people bidding up housing in the U.S. and 10 people all chipping on one house and some like single family can't afford the houses.

639
00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:54,220
Right. It's more complex than that. But point being is easy scapegoat.

640
00:49:54,220 --> 00:49:58,520
And there's truth to the social consequences of immigration.

641
00:49:59,720 --> 00:50:07,460
No, I totally agree with that. And I guess to expand on that, it's not that in Britain, people are just angry at the illegal immigrants come across now.

642
00:50:07,460 --> 00:50:10,240
like that's boiling over to the point where they're angry at immigrants who have been in the

643
00:50:10,240 --> 00:50:15,220
country for 40 years and might identify as british like it that's where the line gets really blurry

644
00:50:15,220 --> 00:50:20,720
and this becomes a really hard problem but it's what everything that you're saying there

645
00:50:20,720 --> 00:50:26,940
kind of leads to war in the sense that when like in the previous first turning um after world war

646
00:50:26,940 --> 00:50:33,080
ii britain was obviously rocked by world war ii there was the blitz like the so and it was a really

647
00:50:33,080 --> 00:50:36,880
shit time for a long time like those rations everyone was having to like band together and

648
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:42,380
and try and like step up and rebuild britain and so there was that like shared culture of like get

649
00:50:42,380 --> 00:50:46,600
through this i think it's where like the keep calm and carry on phrase comes from um and then in

650
00:50:46,600 --> 00:50:50,160
america that was like the birth of the american dream and again everyone was together on this one

651
00:50:50,160 --> 00:50:59,400
big idea and so is the only real outcome from this four turning war probably um i think all

652
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:06,180
fourth turnings ended in total war and all total wars have and have occurred in a fourth turning

653
00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:10,780
And it doesn't mean for sure, but if I'm betting, yeah, that's where I'm betting.

654
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,580
I think that the social climate feeds into it.

655
00:51:15,620 --> 00:51:17,380
I think the debt feeds into it.

656
00:51:17,380 --> 00:51:25,360
I think declining America, rising China, it's not that simple, but that story plays into it.

657
00:51:26,080 --> 00:51:33,640
I think in general, we just have a lot of things ramping up to say social institutions are decrepit.

658
00:51:34,360 --> 00:51:37,080
Pain is felt all over the world from multiple variables.

659
00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:42,880
If people feel hopeless and their day-to-day sucks, it pushes people to violence.

660
00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:49,940
And I also think if the U.S. continues its path, let's say accelerating political violence,

661
00:51:50,660 --> 00:51:57,500
why wouldn't a competitive country like China say, hey, the U.S. is pretty preoccupied internally.

662
00:51:58,140 --> 00:51:59,440
Why don't we go take Taiwan?

663
00:51:59,440 --> 00:52:03,720
Why don't we get in the Middle East and secure our energy interests?

664
00:52:04,300 --> 00:52:10,180
And so I could see a world where the U.S. starts getting worse, and then it turns into a hot war abroad.

665
00:52:10,340 --> 00:52:14,320
I think that's, if I had to pick one, I think that's probably the most likely outcome.

666
00:52:15,220 --> 00:52:22,720
But I also don't expect a World War II-type battle with soldiers, tanks, ships, etc.

667
00:52:23,380 --> 00:52:28,700
I expect something more like a Cold War 2.0, which you could say we're even in now.

668
00:52:28,700 --> 00:52:36,240
this would be defined by things like plausible deniability. I hacked your energy grid and took

669
00:52:36,240 --> 00:52:42,460
down the grid. I cyber attacked your whatever and released the thing. I stole your government's

670
00:52:42,460 --> 00:52:52,280
Bitcoin, economic war, trade war, all these sort of like hit and run cyber guerrilla type tactics

671
00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:57,180
where both sides can pretend that they're innocent, but in reality, they're fighting

672
00:52:57,180 --> 00:52:58,620
just more covertly.

673
00:53:00,060 --> 00:53:01,740
Maybe we just need the aliens to turn up, Brandon.

674
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:03,540
I don't know if you've seen the clip from,

675
00:53:03,620 --> 00:53:05,460
I think it was Reagan and Gorbachev

676
00:53:05,460 --> 00:53:06,560
during the first Cold War.

677
00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:07,940
And Reagan says to him,

678
00:53:08,460 --> 00:53:11,140
if like, I can't remember exactly how he phrases it,

679
00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:12,360
but he's like, if the aliens come,

680
00:53:12,520 --> 00:53:13,180
are you on our side?

681
00:53:13,220 --> 00:53:13,920
And he's like, of course.

682
00:53:14,340 --> 00:53:15,760
So we just need them to turn up

683
00:53:15,760 --> 00:53:17,200
and that'll coalesce everyone.

684
00:53:18,020 --> 00:53:19,240
That's an incredible quote.

685
00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:21,120
Yeah.

686
00:53:21,420 --> 00:53:23,600
I mean, I definitely didn't say the quote word for word,

687
00:53:23,600 --> 00:53:24,860
but it's something like that.

688
00:53:25,180 --> 00:53:27,000
President Reagan suddenly said,

689
00:53:27,180 --> 00:53:37,920
to me what would you do if the united states were attacked by someone from outer space

690
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:49,220
would you help us i said no doubt about it he said we do um so we've done all the depressing

691
00:53:49,220 --> 00:53:56,800
ship. We've got three to five years of maybe crisis, war, complete volatility. What comes

692
00:53:56,800 --> 00:54:01,960
next? And maybe on top of what comes next, what makes it through the fourth turning?

693
00:54:03,020 --> 00:54:07,540
Yeah. So I would say we're ramping into a climax period. We'll experience the climax.

694
00:54:08,180 --> 00:54:14,600
It will suck, but it will be over. It will not last forever. And before we get into resolution,

695
00:54:15,080 --> 00:54:16,380
Forth turnings are necessary.

696
00:54:17,080 --> 00:54:18,680
These aren't all bad, right?

697
00:54:18,740 --> 00:54:20,760
Like society does need to change.

698
00:54:21,060 --> 00:54:23,420
We're riding this thing off the rails right now.

699
00:54:23,500 --> 00:54:24,980
And so something has to change.

700
00:54:25,340 --> 00:54:26,580
I wish it wouldn't be war.

701
00:54:26,720 --> 00:54:32,880
And I wish we wouldn't make the next hundred years of institutional decisions in a period

702
00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:34,180
of a crisis.

703
00:54:34,380 --> 00:54:39,200
I wish we would make those decisions methodically, but humans are humans and we act last minute

704
00:54:39,200 --> 00:54:40,700
and we don't change until there's pain.

705
00:54:41,240 --> 00:54:42,260
And so we're going through it.

706
00:54:42,260 --> 00:54:47,460
and if you're going through hell, keep on going. There's nothing else to do. Protect yours,

707
00:54:47,620 --> 00:54:52,600
protect your family. We'll get through this, right? When we know that it's over,

708
00:54:52,600 --> 00:54:59,720
the mood will shift to something like exhaustion. You will be less political energy. There will be

709
00:54:59,720 --> 00:55:05,140
more, okay, I gave up the fight. I'm going to become a farmer. I'm going to raise a family,

710
00:55:05,660 --> 00:55:11,200
just like general temperature going way down. And in order to do that, what we need is order.

711
00:55:11,580 --> 00:55:13,280
We need strong institutions.

712
00:55:13,960 --> 00:55:15,000
You could call that order.

713
00:55:15,720 --> 00:55:17,020
And so we have a debt problem.

714
00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:18,240
We have a social problem.

715
00:55:18,380 --> 00:55:20,240
We have geopolitical issues rising.

716
00:55:20,460 --> 00:55:22,020
We have immigration, a whole bunch of issues.

717
00:55:22,840 --> 00:55:28,120
And on the other side of that, most of those things will be behind us, but it's not going

718
00:55:28,120 --> 00:55:30,640
to be like a hard line in the sand, right?

719
00:55:31,360 --> 00:55:36,600
08 is pretty easy to find the transition, but it's usually only easy to define the transition

720
00:55:36,600 --> 00:55:37,240
in hindsight.

721
00:55:37,240 --> 00:55:39,760
and so I don't think it will be like,

722
00:55:39,860 --> 00:55:42,020
okay, first turn starts today, we're good to go.

723
00:55:42,200 --> 00:55:44,020
But on the other hand, if we have a hot war

724
00:55:44,020 --> 00:55:45,220
and there's a ceasefire

725
00:55:45,220 --> 00:55:47,680
and then we do reparations at the end of that,

726
00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:49,400
then that would probably be the end of the thing.

727
00:55:50,280 --> 00:55:51,520
But in order to get through it,

728
00:55:51,580 --> 00:55:53,580
strong institutions, number one.

729
00:55:53,700 --> 00:55:55,240
Number two, what are we going to do with the debt?

730
00:55:56,040 --> 00:55:57,960
Those two are both crucial to solve

731
00:55:57,960 --> 00:56:02,120
and to pull Bitcoin in at roughly the one hour mark.

732
00:56:02,680 --> 00:56:04,960
I think Bitcoin plays a role here

733
00:56:04,960 --> 00:56:27,140
And I think Bitcoin, properly understood, is a new type of institution. It is a global, digital, fair, central bank-type system that anyone can use. And in a world with lots of debt and no trust in the banking institution or any other institution, we can outsource our trust to this Bitcoin protocol.

734
00:56:27,140 --> 00:56:45,180
It handles the money side, it handles the debt side. And if economically, there's a little more tailwinds for the masses, all the political energy dies down. Right. So like, honestly, if economics were better, I think we would be totally fine right now. And I think we would move past most of the differences we have.

735
00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:48,980
And so that's the thing I'm looking for.

736
00:56:49,140 --> 00:56:52,500
I think Bitcoin at the individual level makes you more optimistic.

737
00:56:52,840 --> 00:56:57,240
It reduces your uncertainty in the world, which allows you to act better.

738
00:56:57,700 --> 00:56:59,160
And that's true at the company level.

739
00:56:59,300 --> 00:57:01,180
That's true at the nation state level.

740
00:57:01,280 --> 00:57:02,800
That's true at any level you look.

741
00:57:03,980 --> 00:57:08,100
Owning some Bitcoin gives you more security about your future, less volatility.

742
00:57:08,680 --> 00:57:13,800
And so what we want to see is global Bitcoin adoption growing faster than political uncertainty

743
00:57:13,800 --> 00:57:16,020
or political violence growing.

744
00:57:16,100 --> 00:57:17,440
I think that'd be one thing to watch.

745
00:57:18,060 --> 00:57:20,360
And I think on the backside of this,

746
00:57:20,480 --> 00:57:24,060
we'll probably reinvent what America means,

747
00:57:24,220 --> 00:57:25,240
what America is.

748
00:57:25,980 --> 00:57:27,840
The author of the book, Neil Howe,

749
00:57:27,900 --> 00:57:29,060
says every fourth turning,

750
00:57:29,260 --> 00:57:31,640
we test all the American values

751
00:57:31,640 --> 00:57:33,360
and we create a new republic.

752
00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:36,680
And so we'll be entering the fourth American republic

753
00:57:36,680 --> 00:57:38,580
in the next decade or so.

754
00:57:39,240 --> 00:57:40,860
And it's my sincere hope

755
00:57:40,860 --> 00:57:46,600
we end up in something more like OG American values, separation of power, federalism,

756
00:57:47,360 --> 00:57:55,040
checks and balances, all the things that made America great. Sorry for the slogan. I think it's

757
00:57:55,040 --> 00:58:01,140
true. I think on the other side, we could devolve into something like a techno authoritarian state

758
00:58:01,140 --> 00:58:11,840
defined by mass surveillance uh cbdc type money um you know ubi for everyone everyone gets free

759
00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:17,540
internet porn and weed and they live in a shipping container and they we go on to the vr worlds and

760
00:58:17,540 --> 00:58:24,360
it's some sort of like manage the masses with technology which is what china appears to be

761
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:30,800
doing um as the ready player one version that's right i really hope we go 180 degrees away from

762
00:58:30,800 --> 00:58:39,660
China's approach. Some of our politicians and tech people are kind of admiring how swift China can

763
00:58:39,660 --> 00:58:45,040
work in a centralized country, which is true. They can make rapid changes. Look at what they're doing

764
00:58:45,040 --> 00:58:49,720
on energy production. We haven't produced a nuclear reactor in 50 years. China's got like

765
00:58:49,720 --> 00:58:55,840
20 of them coming up right now. And so, yeah, there are advantages to being an authoritarian state,

766
00:58:55,840 --> 00:59:12,460
But there's obviously severe disadvantages. And I think America's decentralized model provides a more anti-fragile state. Maybe we move slower, but maybe that's a good thing sometimes. And maybe that is what helps us preserve our values.

767
00:59:12,460 --> 00:59:37,680
But that being said, America today is nothing like America that it once was. And so it will take something large for us to retest all these values. And then one more point is we're seeing communism, socialism become really popular for young people. We see Mamdani in New York. There's probably going to be many more of these. And you might say, well, what are we doing? That's not American. Well, go back to the 30s.

768
00:59:37,680 --> 00:59:42,680
the educated upper-class elites, they were all communists.

769
00:59:42,820 --> 00:59:44,660
They're all saying, hey, you know what?

770
00:59:44,660 --> 01:00:01,600
It not working Maybe capitalism the problem Maybe we should make a change And we were on a knife edge during that decade on where we going to go And I expect us to do the same now And so obviously socialism or communism is bad It not a good model But we should empathize

771
01:00:01,600 --> 01:00:07,300
with young people for why they came to that conclusion. Yeah, I totally agree. I like this

772
01:00:07,300 --> 01:00:11,920
is something like you see the like I see posters all the time for like Marxist walks where you can

773
01:00:11,920 --> 01:00:16,100
go and learn about it. And it is clearly on the rise. And I totally understand why. Like,

774
01:00:16,120 --> 01:00:20,220
they feel totally disenfranchised and they don't know what's going on. And they're diagnosing a

775
01:00:20,220 --> 01:00:26,000
problem. They're just misdiagnosing a solution. Exactly right. Yeah. And so we should take it

776
01:00:26,000 --> 01:00:31,340
seriously. We should not dismiss it. And we should do whatever we can to help young people.

777
01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:38,160
I guess I am optimistic that young males in general are shifting, right? They're sort of

778
01:00:38,160 --> 01:00:43,840
sick of what's going on. They've been told their whole life they're bad. So they're having a

779
01:00:43,840 --> 01:00:49,740
reactionary movement. That's a good sign. And that's another way to look at the fourth turning.

780
01:00:50,120 --> 01:00:53,880
These are just a whole bunch of different pendulums swinging on different axes.

781
01:00:54,620 --> 01:00:59,220
And every so often the pendulum synchronized and you have a very big shift together.

782
01:00:59,900 --> 01:01:05,060
And so over-parenting, under-parenting, socialism versus capitalism,

783
01:01:05,060 --> 01:01:14,440
you know big state small state hard money soft money social conservatism social progressivism

784
01:01:14,440 --> 01:01:21,500
that's really what this is all about and we we feel it in ourselves right we're all to some

785
01:01:21,500 --> 01:01:25,860
degree reactionary we all rebelled against our parents right this is some innate thing

786
01:01:25,860 --> 01:01:32,600
which leads me to believe the fourth turning is like a social organism phenomenon that emerges

787
01:01:32,600 --> 01:01:37,780
out of civilization. And so going back to your previous question, is this the last for turning?

788
01:01:38,120 --> 01:01:43,540
Hell no, it's not. All the orange tinted glasses, Bitcoin people who always trip at me on Twitter,

789
01:01:43,620 --> 01:01:50,300
this is the last one Bitcoin breaks for turning. That's bullshit. Absolute bullshit. Do you think

790
01:01:50,300 --> 01:01:54,820
human nature is going to change? You think our hardware is going to change? I don't think so.

791
01:01:54,820 --> 01:02:01,820
And so Bitcoin might reduce the magnitude of the volatility. I think that's fair to say.

792
01:02:02,600 --> 01:02:08,400
If the money is fixed, let's say for a thousand years or a hundred or 200 years, whatever,

793
01:02:08,940 --> 01:02:13,320
if that's true, that definitely helps reduce volatility.

794
01:02:13,760 --> 01:02:19,340
But it doesn't change that humans have conflicts and we rebel against our parents and that

795
01:02:19,340 --> 01:02:21,980
there's still other variables here besides the money.

796
01:02:22,500 --> 01:02:24,180
And so, no, we're going to keep doing this thing.

797
01:02:24,940 --> 01:02:28,700
It's interesting that you say like the young people, especially young men probably are

798
01:02:28,700 --> 01:02:29,760
turning to the right.

799
01:02:29,760 --> 01:02:32,460
because when Charlie Kirk got killed,

800
01:02:33,040 --> 01:02:34,600
I was aware of him.

801
01:02:34,680 --> 01:02:35,400
I'd watched some of his stuff.

802
01:02:35,520 --> 01:02:37,180
I thought a lot of the stuff he said

803
01:02:37,180 --> 01:02:38,000
was really interesting,

804
01:02:38,000 --> 01:02:41,640
but I didn't understand how much of a pop culture figure

805
01:02:41,640 --> 01:02:42,860
he was for young people.

806
01:02:43,800 --> 01:02:46,760
And that death was like,

807
01:02:46,780 --> 01:02:48,500
it impacted me in a way that I didn't really expect

808
01:02:48,500 --> 01:02:50,820
because obviously you see it right in front of you

809
01:02:50,820 --> 01:02:52,880
on multiple camera angles and that's pretty visceral.

810
01:02:53,420 --> 01:02:54,460
But what I didn't,

811
01:02:55,240 --> 01:02:57,160
I couldn't really quite put my finger on

812
01:02:57,160 --> 01:02:58,320
why it bothered me so much.

813
01:02:58,320 --> 01:03:08,080
And I think part of the reason is because of how instrumental this feels and how much like this is just a perfect example of being in the full turning, I think.

814
01:03:09,560 --> 01:03:14,640
I totally agree. I think, first of all, I'm with you. I did not know Charlie's impact ahead of time.

815
01:03:14,840 --> 01:03:21,000
I just saw like either the left being like, oh, this is your flag bearer. He's racist.

816
01:03:21,120 --> 01:03:25,500
And the right saying like, look at this epic takedown of the libs. Right.

817
01:03:25,500 --> 01:03:27,340
So that's the version of Charlie I got.

818
01:03:28,660 --> 01:03:31,360
Then I watched some of his more long-form stuff.

819
01:03:31,940 --> 01:03:33,860
He's like a middle-of-the-road conservative.

820
01:03:34,460 --> 01:03:38,800
Like, other people say this, but that's who I grew up surrounded by.

821
01:03:38,880 --> 01:03:43,180
That's the average Catholic dad in my hometown's point of view.

822
01:03:43,360 --> 01:03:53,160
Like, these aren't crazy ideas, but it does demonstrate the fact that our social climate in the U.S. has shifted dramatically since when we were growing up.

823
01:03:53,160 --> 01:04:13,860
And so now he's considered a Nazi fascist when really he's like 10%, 20% to the right of center. And so that's insane. And I think it is forth turning aligned because strong political voices come in and they mobilize the masses.

824
01:04:13,860 --> 01:04:19,360
and it's what else is interesting is it's mobilizing young men to be more conservative

825
01:04:19,360 --> 01:04:30,220
and more family oriented you know god family etc it's wild to me that that's popular for young

826
01:04:30,220 --> 01:04:34,380
people i've never experienced when i grew up that none of that stuff was popular for young people

827
01:04:34,380 --> 01:04:39,560
at best it would be neutral young people wanted to do more crazy stuff and now young people are

828
01:04:39,560 --> 01:04:45,060
like, give me the straight and narrow. I think that's pretty wild. So when we move into the

829
01:04:45,060 --> 01:04:49,160
first turning, do you think the dollar will survive? Or do you think we'll have another

830
01:04:49,160 --> 01:04:54,000
Bretton Woods type agreement where gold or Bitcoin becomes the global money?

831
01:04:55,300 --> 01:05:02,340
Yeah, I think that there's almost no chance the dollar survives as it's currently set up.

832
01:05:02,900 --> 01:05:08,340
But I don't think of it as much as dollar. I think about it as we have to reset the debt somehow.

833
01:05:08,340 --> 01:05:14,460
and I think that US treasuries won't be the reserve asset of the world anymore.

834
01:05:15,220 --> 01:05:20,280
And so I think the dollar can survive as long as we de-globalize

835
01:05:20,280 --> 01:05:23,680
and treasuries aren't the standard and we fix the debt.

836
01:05:24,560 --> 01:05:26,800
And so I think Bitcoin plays that role nicely.

837
01:05:27,740 --> 01:05:30,120
Bitcoin's the new treasury reserve asset for the world.

838
01:05:30,280 --> 01:05:30,940
It's neutral.

839
01:05:30,940 --> 01:05:33,880
You can settle trade with China using a neutral currency.

840
01:05:34,140 --> 01:05:35,280
I think that makes sense.

841
01:05:35,600 --> 01:05:37,620
And in that world, somehow we figure out the debt,

842
01:05:37,620 --> 01:05:42,840
But I don't think that means the dollar goes away. And I don't think fiat currencies go away

843
01:05:42,840 --> 01:05:47,540
anytime soon in a Bitcoin, a fully Bitcoin adopted world. I don't think that's going to happen

844
01:05:47,540 --> 01:05:51,880
because there's a lot of power in having a local currency and governments aren't going to give that

845
01:05:51,880 --> 01:05:58,100
up. But they could give up the treasury reserve part of the puzzle, which essentially means

846
01:05:58,100 --> 01:06:02,160
America cannot be the world police anymore because we can't sanction our enemies.

847
01:06:02,920 --> 01:06:08,740
And so maybe that's bad for imperial America, but that's a good thing for middle class America.

848
01:06:08,960 --> 01:06:12,100
And that's for sure a good thing for our adversary countries abroad.

849
01:06:12,760 --> 01:06:16,780
And so I'm envisioning Bitcoin everywhere on the balance sheet.

850
01:06:17,020 --> 01:06:20,080
That is the new gold for central banks.

851
01:06:20,580 --> 01:06:25,360
And I envision individuals in various countries doing their best to save in Bitcoin.

852
01:06:25,360 --> 01:06:28,120
but I'm not going to be surprised

853
01:06:28,120 --> 01:06:31,440
if we're still spending dollars, pesos, shekels

854
01:06:31,440 --> 01:06:33,920
Aussie, kangaroo bucks

855
01:06:33,920 --> 01:06:35,180
whatever you guys call them over there

856
01:06:35,180 --> 01:06:37,320
I think those will stick around

857
01:06:37,320 --> 01:06:40,140
and I think that's totally fine by the way

858
01:06:40,140 --> 01:06:42,920
that's your checking account

859
01:06:42,920 --> 01:06:44,300
and Bitcoin's your savings account

860
01:06:44,300 --> 01:06:46,220
and if you need to make transactions

861
01:06:46,220 --> 01:06:48,540
that you don't want your overlords to spy on

862
01:06:48,540 --> 01:06:50,280
then use Bitcoin privately

863
01:06:50,280 --> 01:06:54,160
or use some new technology to e-cash

864
01:06:54,160 --> 01:06:54,500
whatever

865
01:06:55,160 --> 01:06:57,120
I think that's an okay outcome here.

866
01:06:57,580 --> 01:07:00,220
The real issue is getting money out of the central bank,

867
01:07:00,720 --> 01:07:04,580
getting the printer away from the consolidated groups of power.

868
01:07:04,640 --> 01:07:05,300
That's the win.

869
01:07:05,780 --> 01:07:07,620
I don't need to buy self-sovereign coffee.

870
01:07:08,300 --> 01:07:10,180
I don't need to only pay in Bitcoin.

871
01:07:10,280 --> 01:07:12,180
I don't need Bitcoin to be the only currency.

872
01:07:13,420 --> 01:07:16,360
I think that's like we're already 90% there

873
01:07:16,360 --> 01:07:19,060
and we could fight for 1,000 years to get the last 10%.

874
01:07:19,060 --> 01:07:20,500
I don't even know if it would be worth it.

875
01:07:20,500 --> 01:07:27,560
um and but i do think the interesting thing will be like what bitcoiners do um because the the shift

876
01:07:27,560 --> 01:07:33,880
in bitcoiners are going to be the new financial elite at some point in the future and like it

877
01:07:33,880 --> 01:07:38,500
will be people that we're friends with that are reshaping the way the world works and it'll be

878
01:07:38,500 --> 01:07:42,960
really interesting to see how the values that we think bitcoiners hold actually play out in the

879
01:07:42,960 --> 01:07:49,460
real world and how that that does impact kind of everyone's life society yeah i think that's a good

880
01:07:49,460 --> 01:07:55,140
Good point. Strong agree Bitcoiners are the new capital allocators. I think the question remains,

881
01:07:55,300 --> 01:08:02,540
though, are we going to go hole up in the mountains and build our citadel and fuck off? Or are we

882
01:08:02,540 --> 01:08:07,080
going to stick around and grind through this transition period and rebuild the world in a way

883
01:08:07,080 --> 01:08:13,760
that we think is better? I think that's yet to be seen. I think it's clear that, I should say,

884
01:08:14,060 --> 01:08:19,360
incentives-wise, it's really easy to just give up the fight and live out your days comfortably.

885
01:08:19,460 --> 01:08:27,140
luckily i think bitcoiners are a different breed and not all bitcoiners but i think we have what it

886
01:08:27,140 --> 01:08:32,660
takes at least some percentage of the bitcoiners around now to rebuild the world in a better way

887
01:08:32,660 --> 01:08:39,060
and i think american hodl has a few good takes on this he's very strong on this one and i agree like

888
01:08:39,060 --> 01:08:45,420
if we just get through this one we all get rich and disappear is that really the win is that really

889
01:08:45,420 --> 01:08:49,280
the mark we want to leave? I don't think so. I think we have a golden opportunity here or an

890
01:08:49,280 --> 01:08:56,140
orange opportunity here to dramatically change the trajectory of our species. And I think missing

891
01:08:56,140 --> 01:09:01,520
this opportunity would be a really big shame. And I feel the same way about taking money out

892
01:09:01,520 --> 01:09:06,420
of central banks. If we don't do it right now, well, right now meaning like the next 20, 30 years,

893
01:09:06,640 --> 01:09:12,140
if we don't do it right now, we'll probably never do it. And so that has to be goal number one.

894
01:09:12,140 --> 01:09:15,740
and I think when we've sufficiently won,

895
01:09:16,160 --> 01:09:17,440
it's not just the money.

896
01:09:17,560 --> 01:09:18,440
There's problems everywhere.

897
01:09:19,100 --> 01:09:22,080
And so if we go back to the American industrialists

898
01:09:22,080 --> 01:09:23,320
who, quote, built America,

899
01:09:23,860 --> 01:09:26,100
yeah, they put libraries everywhere.

900
01:09:26,420 --> 01:09:27,300
They built research.

901
01:09:27,460 --> 01:09:29,340
They built universities, et cetera.

902
01:09:29,880 --> 01:09:31,940
And it's our turn to do that kind of stuff too.

903
01:09:32,460 --> 01:09:36,800
And so I think education is going to need an entire overhaul.

904
01:09:36,920 --> 01:09:38,700
I see Bitcoiners playing a role there.

905
01:09:38,700 --> 01:09:45,440
I see like self-sovereignty, grow your own food, whatever we call that basket of stuff.

906
01:09:46,200 --> 01:09:52,680
I think that's going to be popular in any fourth turning. But I think if we transition to like

907
01:09:52,680 --> 01:09:57,800
peacetime and you trust your neighbors again, I think those skills all of a sudden become worth

908
01:09:57,800 --> 01:10:03,180
less. And so I think I view it as like practically, you want to be a prepper,

909
01:10:03,180 --> 01:10:07,520
but you want to stay practical. You don't want to move your family in the middle of nowhere and

910
01:10:07,520 --> 01:10:12,080
ride out the worst thing ever. You want to have one foot in the matrix and one foot out of the

911
01:10:12,080 --> 01:10:16,620
matrix because we don't know how bad it's going to get. And you don't want to sacrifice a decade

912
01:10:16,620 --> 01:10:24,220
because of the worst case scenario fear. And so I'm on team like have a backup plan, but also,

913
01:10:24,440 --> 01:10:30,860
you know, stay connected to the world. I think it's easy to get in like a doomer point of view

914
01:10:30,860 --> 01:10:35,620
here, especially coming from a Bitcoin lens. You realize that they lied about the money. They lied

915
01:10:35,620 --> 01:10:39,880
about the schools and the healthcare and everything's a lie. So let's just throw it all

916
01:10:39,880 --> 01:10:46,780
out. But that's also wrong, right? Most of the things in society are there for a reason. And

917
01:10:46,780 --> 01:10:53,000
it's usually a larger reason than we think, right? It's easy to throw the baby out the bathwater,

918
01:10:53,120 --> 01:10:58,540
essentially. And that's not a good idea. And so, yeah, and that's also the tension between

919
01:10:58,540 --> 01:11:05,460
conservatism and progressivism. They each play an important role in society. This is true in a

920
01:11:05,460 --> 01:11:10,400
a friend group. This is true in an organization. This is true in a country. If you're in a company,

921
01:11:10,820 --> 01:11:16,020
the progressive people's role, usually younger people, is to say, hey, this all sucks. Let's

922
01:11:16,020 --> 01:11:20,760
try a new way. And the conservative people are saying, yeah, well, you don't know what you're

923
01:11:20,760 --> 01:11:24,300
trying to remove. And you should probably understand what you're trying to change before

924
01:11:24,300 --> 01:11:29,140
you just change because every change comes with unintended consequences. And that tension is

925
01:11:29,140 --> 01:11:34,900
healthy. That tension is good. And so I think from the Bitcoiners' standpoint, we should be

926
01:11:34,900 --> 01:11:39,880
open-minded and we should be optimistic and we should share that with our peers, our family,

927
01:11:39,880 --> 01:11:45,060
and let that ripple out. And if we don't have hope for the future, we don't have a chance.

928
01:11:45,620 --> 01:11:51,040
And so I think hope for the future is probably the lead domino, right? If you all of a sudden

929
01:11:51,040 --> 01:11:56,280
cancel most of the student debt and make housing affordable, you tell me that's not going to lower

930
01:11:56,280 --> 01:12:01,620
the tensions? Even if that comes with an unintended consequence later, I expect it will.

931
01:12:01,620 --> 01:12:08,440
but again desperate times desperate measures the reason that i think the incentives will align and

932
01:12:08,440 --> 01:12:13,880
bitcoiners will make a meaningful impact is if the massive generalization but if you try and put

933
01:12:13,880 --> 01:12:20,260
things that bitcoiners care about more than bitcoin it's having a family and time and i think

934
01:12:20,260 --> 01:12:25,180
those two things will lead to the incentive of build a better world for my kids to grow up in

935
01:12:25,180 --> 01:12:29,320
that's what i hope like bitcoiners do need to do stuff and and you don't want to do stuff too early

936
01:12:29,320 --> 01:12:35,140
Accumulate as much capital as you can, have family, but at some point there comes a time

937
01:12:35,140 --> 01:12:36,700
where you have to then rebuild.

938
01:12:37,380 --> 01:12:37,700
Absolutely.

939
01:12:38,420 --> 01:12:41,460
And let's also be vain for a second here.

940
01:12:41,680 --> 01:12:44,100
Humans care about legacy, right?

941
01:12:44,120 --> 01:12:48,300
If you have your basic stuff figured out, the next thing is legacy, right?

942
01:12:48,440 --> 01:12:54,980
Elon Musk goes to Mars, Jeff Bezos goes to space and gets a new girlfriend or wife or

943
01:12:54,980 --> 01:12:55,240
whatever.

944
01:12:56,100 --> 01:12:58,060
Bitcoiners are going to do the same thing, right?

945
01:12:58,060 --> 01:13:02,160
We care about the fraternity of Bitcoin people in our era.

946
01:13:02,680 --> 01:13:08,880
And I fully expect a time when Bitcoin has won and the American hoddles and whatever personalities

947
01:13:08,880 --> 01:13:10,660
are flaunting their impact.

948
01:13:10,660 --> 01:13:16,200
And that's going to inspire other people to give back and build real things.

949
01:13:16,320 --> 01:13:18,900
And that's a positive force.

950
01:13:19,180 --> 01:13:24,640
Even if the motivations individually are somewhat selfish, the positive externality there is

951
01:13:24,640 --> 01:13:26,380
we do build a better world.

952
01:13:26,380 --> 01:13:32,700
In the same way that the billionaires pressure each other to give up 99% of their wealth or whatever, Bitcoiners are going to do the same thing.

953
01:13:33,580 --> 01:13:35,060
And I'm here for it.

954
01:13:35,940 --> 01:13:37,300
Brandon, this has been amazing.

955
01:13:37,420 --> 01:13:39,400
Is there anything that we've not covered that you think we should?

956
01:13:39,760 --> 01:13:45,780
I think the only thing that comes to mind is another framework to help it make sense is supply and demand of order.

957
01:13:46,720 --> 01:13:50,540
And I have a really nice graphic on the essay originally.

958
01:13:50,800 --> 01:13:52,400
I don't know if you want to pop it up or not.

959
01:13:52,780 --> 01:13:53,940
I can pull it up, yeah.

960
01:13:53,940 --> 01:14:01,080
I think if you could remember one thing, I think this is probably the most valuable thing to take away.

961
01:14:01,720 --> 01:14:03,620
I'm going to pull it up on the article on my end, too.

962
01:14:05,520 --> 01:14:06,320
Yeah, there it is.

963
01:14:06,620 --> 01:14:09,700
Shout out to the people on Twitter who critiqued the curves.

964
01:14:10,060 --> 01:14:10,700
You were right.

965
01:14:11,080 --> 01:14:15,380
But this was just a crude version, and then I had Nick Ward build it for me.

966
01:14:15,440 --> 01:14:15,980
Shout out, Nick.

967
01:14:16,420 --> 01:14:17,780
Okay, let's look at this now.

968
01:14:17,900 --> 01:14:19,800
First turning, what do we have?

969
01:14:20,540 --> 01:14:23,500
Supply and demand for order are high.

970
01:14:23,940 --> 01:14:24,940
Okay, what is order?

971
01:14:25,040 --> 01:14:28,780
Order is strong institutions that kind of keep society going.

972
01:14:29,400 --> 01:14:32,460
Demand of order is like people want stronger institutions.

973
01:14:32,800 --> 01:14:35,700
Supply of order is we have strong institutions, right?

974
01:14:36,040 --> 01:14:38,060
So the first turning at the end of a war,

975
01:14:38,480 --> 01:14:41,720
we have a high supply of order because we just rebuilt the world

976
01:14:41,720 --> 01:14:45,620
and high demand because we're exhausted from the chaos, right?

977
01:14:45,620 --> 01:14:48,020
Then as we transition to the second turning,

978
01:14:48,840 --> 01:14:50,740
the demand for order goes down

979
01:14:50,740 --> 01:14:57,080
because young people who were raised in a high order society push back. And then they're like,

980
01:14:57,140 --> 01:15:01,420
we don't want this. We want sex, drugs, and rock and roll. So then you have the delta between

981
01:15:01,420 --> 01:15:07,100
supply of order still being high, but the demand is low. That's the condition for creating an

982
01:15:07,100 --> 01:15:14,140
awakening. An awakening is a religious thing or civil rights or the hippies. All previous religious

983
01:15:14,140 --> 01:15:18,700
movements happen in the second turning. So essentially the midway point of that 80, 90 year

984
01:15:18,700 --> 01:15:24,300
cycle is a religious movement. You can go back to the Quakers and the whatever's going back in time.

985
01:15:24,420 --> 01:15:29,420
It always happens then. Then in the third turning, we're essentially deregulating.

986
01:15:30,280 --> 01:15:35,700
And what does that do? The supply of order goes down. We're removing the order, removing the

987
01:15:35,700 --> 01:15:42,520
institutions. So now we hit rock bottom for supply and demand of order. That's when crime goes up.

988
01:15:42,520 --> 01:15:47,900
That's when we start to sow the seeds of the crisis in the third turning.

989
01:15:48,360 --> 01:15:49,920
Then in the fourth turning, what happens?

990
01:15:50,560 --> 01:15:52,260
Our institutions start failing.

991
01:15:52,660 --> 01:15:54,040
So supply stays low.

992
01:15:54,220 --> 01:15:57,600
But we look around and we say, we actually need these institutions.

993
01:15:58,460 --> 01:16:00,180
And so the demand skyrockets.

994
01:16:00,380 --> 01:16:04,780
And again, the delta between the supply and demand is where you have change.

995
01:16:04,820 --> 01:16:06,360
And that defines the crisis period.

996
01:16:06,720 --> 01:16:07,640
We're done fighting.

997
01:16:08,780 --> 01:16:10,880
Supply order goes up because we rebuild.

998
01:16:10,880 --> 01:16:12,100
And we're back to the beginning.

999
01:16:12,520 --> 01:16:18,080
so on this chart at the end of the fourth turning the gap between supply and demand of orders the

1000
01:16:18,080 --> 01:16:25,560
the highest it it gets um and then by the start of the first turning they are basically equal with

1001
01:16:25,560 --> 01:16:31,180
high demand and high supply so that gap i issue i assume this is why you think fourth turnings end

1002
01:16:31,180 --> 01:16:36,460
in war because that gap has to close very quickly yeah exactly the gap has to close quickly and so

1003
01:16:36,460 --> 01:16:42,560
if I redid this chart, which I should do, the supply of order should start ticking up at the

1004
01:16:42,560 --> 01:16:48,300
end of the fourth turning and the peak should actually be like midway in the first turning or

1005
01:16:48,300 --> 01:16:54,100
something like that. Because this should be a graph that goes continuously and I didn't

1006
01:16:54,100 --> 01:17:00,620
effectively do that. So that's my bad. So we've got a few more years of chaos before

1007
01:17:00,620 --> 01:17:05,960
life gets good again. Is that right? That's the TLDR. Yeah, but I mean, honestly, life is good

1008
01:17:05,960 --> 01:17:12,760
right now. I think what we should do to wrap up here is do not let the macro affect the micro.

1009
01:17:13,220 --> 01:17:17,880
Okay. Go raise a family, build real relationships, spend time with your loved ones,

1010
01:17:18,360 --> 01:17:24,500
get physically fit, get smart, get healthy, and live your life right now. There's always going to

1011
01:17:24,500 --> 01:17:29,700
be some chaos in the world and we should not just hide in our bunkers for this period. We should be

1012
01:17:29,700 --> 01:17:34,900
bright eyed and bushy tailed. And it doesn't mean you just ignorance is bliss, go by your ways.

1013
01:17:34,900 --> 01:17:39,480
like you should take this part seriously this is a serious time this is the most serious time in

1014
01:17:39,480 --> 01:17:46,940
anyone who's alive's life and so take it seriously um become anti-fragile get a second source of

1015
01:17:46,940 --> 01:17:53,020
income have a backup plan maybe get another passport um save more than you earn what happens

1016
01:17:53,020 --> 01:17:57,960
if you lose your job right like play all those scenarios out and make sure that you survive this

1017
01:17:57,960 --> 01:18:03,520
with your wealth intact with your health intact with your family intact and yeah eventually the

1018
01:18:03,520 --> 01:18:08,900
chaos will subside, but we should be working on ourselves now, right? Most people aren't.

1019
01:18:10,060 --> 01:18:16,320
Same with COVID. What happened during COVID? People hung out inside and they whined and they

1020
01:18:16,320 --> 01:18:21,220
just like yelled on the internet. Well, guess what? When everyone else is stagnant, you could

1021
01:18:21,220 --> 01:18:25,180
have built a company. You could have learned a language. You could have gotten jacked and healthy.

1022
01:18:25,480 --> 01:18:31,700
You could have started a family. And so don't waste the time and use this opportunity if you

1023
01:18:31,700 --> 01:18:38,260
want to to get ahead of your peers because people are stagnant right now so seize the cart what a

1024
01:18:38,260 --> 01:18:42,880
way to end the show brandon i strongly co-sign that message um before we close out is there

1025
01:18:42,880 --> 01:18:47,340
anywhere you want to send anyone to check out everything you do yeah all the writing is at

1026
01:18:47,340 --> 01:18:53,020
brandonquittum.com uh the essays we mentioned here and some other ones find me on twitter at

1027
01:18:53,020 --> 01:19:00,020
bquittum b and then my last name if you want to get started buying bitcoin at swan swan.com to

1028
01:19:00,020 --> 01:19:03,620
get started. You can buy in your personal account. You can buy in a retirement account.

1029
01:19:04,120 --> 01:19:09,600
You can custody your Bitcoin in our two of three collaborative multi-sig product. Many more

1030
01:19:09,600 --> 01:19:15,360
products down the line. I'm very proud of what we built. Shoot me a DM. My DMs are open. I love

1031
01:19:15,360 --> 01:19:21,320
hearing from you guys. And as always, Danny, great catching up with you. Yeah, good to see you too,

1032
01:19:21,360 --> 01:19:26,420
man. Thank you for this. Hopefully I'll see you again soon. But if not before Vegas, Vegas again.

1033
01:19:26,820 --> 01:19:29,100
Definitely we'll see you there. Worst case scenario.

1034
01:19:30,020 --> 01:20:00,000
Thank you.