The Secular Individual - Independence Reimagined Chapter 12 | Bitcoin Infinity Academy #27

0:00 Welcome to the Bitcoin Infinity Academy brought to you by the Plan B Network and Bitbox. This is our course on my second book, Bitcoin Independence Reimagine. We are at the penultimate chapter. I'm Knut Svanom. I'm here as always with Luke DeWolf. How are you today, Luke? Good to see you. Good morning, Knut. I'm doing great. Good to see you as well. This chapter is the secular individual and this one should be quite interesting. I think we'll have quite a bit to talk about between our two opinions on this overall subject. So I'm excited. What about you? Yeah, I like this chapter. It has a good plot twist, if you will. Yes, this is not really a war cry for atheism or anything like that.

0:43 It's more about what a cult is and how we are not the cult necessarily. Excellent. The secular individual. According to Wikipedia, a religion is a sociocultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations that relates humanity to supernatural, transcendental, or spiritual elements. However, there is no scholarly consensus over what precisely constitutes a religion. One could say that religions are intersubjective sets of unverifiable beliefs that large groups of individuals hold at the same time.

1:26 Similarly, a cult is defined as a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs, or by its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. There are many different opinions about what distinguishes a cult from other groups of believers in intersubjective things. In one of these examples of a definition on Wikipedia, a cult is defined as a social movement that has the following characteristics. 1. Authoritarian Ruler. The self-appointed rulers of cults have complete and final say. They are usually considered charismatic and charming. 2. The identity of the community becomes communal and totalistic. Everyone involved relies on each other and the group's wants and needs become the core identity for each follower.

2:14 3. Aggressive campaigns and conversion efforts are enforced by the authority figures. For most, the fear of heaven and hell prompts members to reach out, but authority figures may also rely on social issues. 4. In order to be initiated into the group, there will be enforced and systematic indoctrination. There are usually several practices or ceremonies new followers must complete to secure their place among the group. 5. Religious movements labeled cults are usually quite new and do not have the established title of other religious practices. They also tend to build upon old theology and either update it to modern times or adapt it to their teachings.

2:58 Alright, we're going to pause here because that was already a lot to read. The definitions of religions and cults. Yes, we could maybe give some examples of these five points, what a cult is. Charismatic leader, I think political parties, almost all of them fall into that category. They have a charismatic leader, maybe not the Democratic Party in the US, but the Republican Party certainly has a leader that stands out as something special. And people tend to idolize other human beings.

3:40 And therefore, there's a risk of that fan group becoming a cult. Not necessarily saying that the Republican Party is an example of it. But still, it sort of needs this leader type thing. And this is where I think Bitcoin differs from most other cults. But we're getting into that in the meat of the chapter. So the second point, the identity of the community becomes communal and totalistic. So cults are inherently collectivistic. This is important to remember. They are not made up of individualists for the most part.

4:20 Collectivists are much more likely to end up in cults. Aggressive campaigns and conversion efforts, I mean, all political campaigns are basically this. And also, I'd say the Scientology movement is a good example of that. Aggressive campaigning and using celebrities and stuff to get more people to rally around their cause. Four, in order to be initiated to the group, there will be enforced and systematic indoctrination. Yes, ceremonies and stuff. so people are slowly but surely indoctrinated into getting into the mindset of a cultist I think most religions fall into that actually because since you were born this set of values and traditions are sort of imposed on you so I'm not saying that all religions are cults But this is one point that also applies to organized religion in general, I'd say.

5:33 And five, including, by the way, public schooling, which I think is a form of organized religion in that sense. Like the notion that schools ought to be paid for by taxes, in other words, stolen money. That is a religious concept, in my view. That is organized religion in a way. It sort of rationalizes itself. It becomes a rationalization loop. So they tell you in school that this is the way that schools ought to be paid for, because how could schools exist if there were no taxes? And so it becomes a self-reinforcing loop, and this is a danger in all cults, I think.

6:17 And the fifth point, religious movements labeled cults are usually quite new and do not have the established title of other religious practices. So, in other words, older religions are basically just cults that outgrew the cult status. Or at least they had some type of Lindy effect to them, showing that there might be some more value to them than just the cult fan club following value. the longer they've existed the more likely they are to have provided some value for people over time since they still exist their mere existence show that they might have something more to them than just the dogmatic thinking so yeah I think there's a lot to be said here and a lot to unpack and yeah the rest of the chapter tackles that yeah I think we should just continue Sure. Now compare these characteristics to any modern democratic nation-state and see if you can find one that cannot be described as a cult. Authoritarian ruler? Check. Communal and totalistic?

7:31 Check. Aggressive campaigns? Check. Systematic indoctrination? Mega-check. In fact, the only bullet point whose applicability to the nation-state could be somewhat questioned here is the point number five, the one about religion and old theology, but not really. Ceremonial burial, holidays on traditionally sacred days, no work on Sundays, marriage and name giving ceremonies are all very old theological practices shoehorned into our current systems in order to not upset the established order too much. Not to mention the In God We Trust banner printed on every US dollar bill in existence. Okay, now I think we're into the meat of it. Yeah, so democracy in this sense is sort of a continuation of Judeo-Christian values or whatever use it, older traditions in the Western world.

8:23 I'd also say that Christianity is sort of a best of of what preceded that. So that in itself was a continuation of previous beliefs. It didn't come from nothing. It wasn't just invented one day. many of those beliefs were present long before Christianity ever was founded. So I think this whole history of Western civilization is a continuation, and we rebrand the system sometimes, but it's more vague or distorted where the actual line goes between one system and another. Your thoughts on this, Luke?

9:05 Yeah, I mean, I think the whole idea of considering democracy to be a cult or a new religious movement, it holds, right? Because I think the really interesting thing here about democracy is that in absolute terms, maybe a couple hundred years of widespread democracy, and it's actually not even really that, it's all mostly within the last century. That might seem like a long time. That's multiple human generations, right? But in the large scheme of things, like we're talking about hundreds, thousands of years of some kind of monarchy or feudalism or something like this, like democracy is the newcomer. Democracy is the new system.

9:45 And, well, we've played it out for, sure, like 50, 100 years across the whole world for the most part. Post-World War II, I would say, is when most of the world was on the democratic system for various reasons. something to do with the winning side being democratic, I would guess. But yeah, it's the newcomer and we all have to participate in this ritual of going to the polls every so often. And even in some countries, they mandate it like Australia, you have to go or else you get a fine. You can spoil your ballot, but you still have to go do the thing, right? So mandatory mandatory democracy attendance, something like this.

10:32 And yeah, so the thing is with the old parts of the tradition, I don't think it's really that, I'll say, comparable to say that no work on Sunday's name giving ceremonies, blah, blah, blah. I think those are aspects of culture generally. That's a different layer than, say, the government system. But yeah, those are relics from before, for sure. Yeah, just to say here that democracy sort of had to respect those because that's how society was structured.

11:15 So you can't make too big a change to a system if you want the people on your side. I think the In God With Trust thing is quite interesting too knowing about John Locke and how America was founded on secularity and freedom of religion And they still have In God We Trust on the bill I suspect that during the time that decision was made, no God was sort of not an option. It was one God or the other. Everyone sort of belonged to some religion. So I think that's where that originates from. But I'm just pulling that out of my behind.

11:55 well yeah it was over 200 years ago right like i i think that that's not actually the biggest uh leap kind of kind of thing here to most people were religious or yeah so i don't think that's i don't think it's that outrageous that that it's there but it's maybe a little starting to get a little funny now that now that we have this separation of church and state and all this also yeah and separation of money and state i mean the in the fed we trust would be more appropriate for what the dollar bill actually represents. Absolutely. Should we continue the discussion here now moving to secularity? Absolutely. Okay.

12:35 Secularity is the state of being separate from religion or of not being exclusively allied with or against any particular religion. The idea that nation states ought to be secular and that there should be a distinct dichotomy was born in Europe during the Enlightenment. Secularity on a national level has put an end to many barbaric religious rituals of the past and saved a great number of innocent victims from the repercussions of these practices. Forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and even stoning still exist in some parts of the world, but they are considered very cruel and primitive by the vast majority of people in states that try to uphold Enlightenment values.

13:17 Yeah, still in some parts of the world, like Minnesota. Yeah, good point. I mean, yeah, I think this is also maybe not just to be attributed to secularity, but just a shift in moral values across time that may be a product of people just becoming more ethical in a sense. I think the ultimate insight is yet to be found that the state is wrong in every way and that theft is wrong and property rights should be the guiding light for all societies.

14:03 But we're not there yet. I mean, we're all taking steps towards that. In my mind, that's what it looks like. We go from stoning and crucifixion and barbaric, cruel shit towards more and more humane codes of conduct, ultimately leading to absolute property rights. That's the natural conclusion of what that leads to. There is only one human right, and it's the right to be left alone. And we aren't there yet, but we're on our way. That's the way I see it. Yeah, definitely. And I think the thing here is that that unifying factor is what actually makes secularism work, because there is a double-edged sword to secularism based on the things that kind of follow from it.

14:44 if all religions are considered equally valid and anyone can belong to one of those religions, you kind of need a unifier in any one geographical area that says, you can't impose your religion on me. You can't do the barbaric things from this or that part of your religion. Right. And so, and so there's sort of an erosion of like, okay, well, this religion is equally valid. Like this culture is equally valid to our base culture. Therefore, you get a whole ton of immigration coming in. And sometimes there can be a good melting pot type situation. But other times you get cases where people who come in on mass basically just settle in their own areas. And then you basically get little enclaves of different cultures in the same geographical area. And that starts to cause more conflicts and all this. So I think there does need to be some kind of unifier for secularism to be popular.

15:40 And just so we're completely clear, I do not believe in cultural relativism at all. There are many aspects of different cultures that are less good than others. And I don't think it's okay to, in the name of diversity and inclusion, to say that it's equally valid to bring all of your cultural baggage to a new place. And the European Enlightenment is currently getting a little bit of a resilience test in terms of how it's able to continue in the face of those who are more willing to impose their religious views on others.

16:22 extremely good points luke and uh yeah i absolutely agree like uh the the all religions are not of equal value of course some ideas are good and some ideas are bad and ideas that lead to like sub-communities with their own sets of laws and and traditions is probably not good if you want a society to be a high trust one which is not necessarily something you want but uh yeah I think what I'm fishing for in this chapter and what I still think is super important is that we cannot be truly secular until we recognize statism as just another religion.

17:02 Because statism is imposing your beliefs on the population without consent. And that's what this is all about. That's why secularism was invented in the first place. I couldn't stone you for blasphemy and using the name of our Lord in the wrong context, because that was not lawful. It was a religious practice. But the point is, there's still a difference between lawful and legal as we get into the other books. natural law is what should govern this and no one should be able to impose their beliefs onto others including the tax man and we're not there yet we're definitely not there yet yeah i think i think my last point on this is something like i i think secularity uh is a is a very admirable goal absolutely but but it's it's hard to implement when ironically you have a lot of a lot of different things that need to be secularized at the same time.

18:10 Like the funny thing is, I think about examples where maybe secularism kind of works in practice. I'm biased and I think you're biased differently, but I think the Nordic countries are one of the ones who have implemented it the best, where society is pretty darn, it's ingrained. There's not a lot of religiosity and there's not a lot of controversy about there not being a lot of religiosity. But the thing is, those were extremely homogenous societies 50, 100 years ago, when this was all really getting implemented, right? So it's, yeah, I hate to be like really on a bit of a screed here in terms of this particular point. But there's a lot of reasons why it's important for a certain geographical area to all have the same culture base and those coming into a culture are willing to adapt themselves to the cultural base themselves.

19:14 I think that's important regardless of whether we're in Ancapistan or some kind of state exists. Absolutely. And I think we will have a lot of long and fruitful discussions about this. This is an area where we slightly differ in our takes, but I think we have a lot to learn from one another in these specific areas. And we did in Clown World. We wrote a lot about this stuff. And the thing to be said for the Nordic countries is that if there's one thing this has led to is the religion of statism becoming even stronger. So there's something to be said for that. Like the church as a force in the opposite direction to the state is sort of non-existent in the Nordics.

20:01 if you compare it to Midwestern US, for instance, where the churches are still sort of a resistance movement to political movements. I think there's a very interesting topic in general. And it's... The idea of secularity is sort of a nudge in the right direction. It's sort of one of these old ideas that didn't walk all the way. And but it's still like... It still made people think about these things, and I find it insanely fascinating that this is the timeline we live in. Absolutely agree, and I think you're foreshadowing the continuance here, so I think let's move on.

20:42 While the separation of church and state was all nice and dandy, it is hard to see it as something other than a small first step towards something even greater once you've accepted the idea that there's really no clear distinction between religious and political dogma. Democratic countries still engage in warfare, and they still imprison people for victimless crimes, such as owning a gun or a specific plant. We're not immune to barbarism until we're truly self-sovereign. In order for society to be truly secular, we need to separate not only church and state, but money and state. In other words, we have to separate ourselves from the state, or at least minimize its influence over our lives. This will never be done by the state itself, but requires individuals to take matters into their own hands.

21:29 Those who don't aren't ever really secular, but shackled to whatever set of beliefs their nation's leaders hold. Politics has never truly been about us versus them. It has always been, and still is, about you versus those who wish to control you. Alright, separating money from state. Yeah, which is basically separating everything from state because separating money from state means no money for the state. That's what it ultimately leads to. And that's the revolution I'm in here for in this for to begin with. At least taking away as much as possible of their power because they have way too much power now.

22:13 The fact that wars exist is a testament to that. A war is a hideous crime against humanity and it's always carried out by the state. Taxes are a crime against humanity. Everything non-consensual is a crime against humanity. And I'm adamant about that. I'm not going to change that view. I think we can do better than politics. Yeah, totally agree. And well, yeah, this is exactly what I'm here for as well. Get the control of money out from the state. I mean, I think we can start with taking away the power of the money printer. I think that's important.

22:57 Even if we looking sort of more short term if the state has fewer means of affecting monetary policy that a good thing And they still going to have quite a lot of say in things as long as there is such a thing as fiat currency and they can change the interest rate, and the banks therefore make more money or don't make as much money. but take away the power of the money printer and fix onto a form of money that is decentralized and not in anyone's control and we might be able to take away the monopoly on violence and the ultimate end step for me would be that the nation state or the state of any kind is really no more than just the management corporation of the natural monopolies of a certain geographical area. And that is hopefully going to be quite small, the 10,000 Lichtensteins kind of deal.

23:57 Absolutely. One thing that I just remembered is you said something about secularity before and how hard it is to achieve when you don't have cultural homogeneity. There's a very good comparison in Bitcoin there, and that is the word decentralization. If you replace the word secular with the word decentralized, that is sort of what's going on in Bitcoin. Like, you need a homogenous culture. In other words, you need Bitcoiners to be monetary maximalists to actually impose, to actually make decentralization work. If you don't, then decentralization is just a buzzword like in the other fucking cryptos.

24:40 So this is crucial. It's exactly the same thing. You need this sort of base. You have to take this base set of moral values for granted for the thing to work at all. In order for a society to be secular, you need a high trust society to begin with. You need people to have the same set of moral values. Same thing is true for Bitcoin. If Bitcoin is to stay decentralized, we need to all view Bitcoin as money. Otherwise, we're fiddling around with a very, very slippery slope. So I think that's a true comparison. I really like that. And in an attempt to clarify my previous statement just slightly so that maybe I don't get fired if someone from my employer sees this particular video, what I mean by you need sort of a base of homogeneity is that you still need in a certain geographical area, country for lack of a better term, but in the larger countries like a region or something like this, a province, Alberta, for example, a US state, you need some kind of base where say 90% is all kind of going the same direction, speaking the same language. People understand each other.

25:57 You walk down the street and you can predict how people are going to be. And the percentage of people who fall outside of that because they're from elsewhere are small enough that they are more inclined to integrate into the society. And there also definitely needs to be some kind of avoiding ways for ghettoization, for lack of a better term, like people just moving to their own neighborhoods. I mean, a historical example that applies to Europe is the Roma people. for centuries, and actually even the Jewish people. For centuries, both groups tended to be shunted off into their own little places.

26:43 And you can argue who refused to integrate who, but basically you created this entrenched long-term minority that wasn't actually a part of the wider society. It was nice Christian people. And then you had the Romani people over here and you had the Jews over here. And there's still long, long term effects of that. And in the US, for example, there are neighborhoods that are predominantly one ethnic group and not a lot of mixing there. You can argue about whether that's effective or not, but it creates different subcultures within an area.

27:30 And that might be good for getting a variety of experience. There's a subset of people who really enjoy all of these experiences, like being open to new experiences and enjoying things that are on boundaries and stuff. And there's a place for that, for sure. But there's a point where it gets to be too much for the average population. And then you lose social cohesion and everything is kind of lost. But since we've drawn these borders on a map, you get countries that plot on and on and on and have an illusion of actually staying together, where maybe there is enough of a cultural difference between various places that maybe it's not the best to keep these nation states together.

28:19 There's a lot there, but this really is just a point of saying that immigration is a good thing if done right, if people aren't taking advantage of it and are willing to adopt the culture for the most part, or at least not be actively opposed to it. That's my position. consensual consensual immigration in other words so that i think that's another comparison to be made to the bitcoin uh network here uh with which is like the mempool policies and you need it as soon as you get above the threshold of like 10 then the ideas will propagate around the network so so if if these smaller subgroups get larger than 10 percent then their ideas will be around the rest of the culture too i think that's how um it works very similar with a network of uh people in a society uh we relay messages to one another we speak different languages if if a smaller language is around 10 then it will propagate throughout society and we will adopt some of their sayings and so on and so forth.

29:32 I think this is true for Bitcoin as well as the rest of society. Maybe it's a bit of a stretch, but yeah, I find these comparisons fascinating. I thought it was good. And yeah, actually, I forgot to bring it back to the Bitcoin of it. So I'm glad that you did. But yeah, the analogy works very much so. And I mean, I think the thing is you can have some rate of change on a nation state level. things are always going to change and all this. And even on Bitcoin, the thing is the external conditions to Bitcoin and the people on the network are always changing, growing hopefully in terms of the number of people. But Bitcoin needs to be able to respond to threats and be able to take action if there is some kind of attack against Bitcoin.

30:20 But the thing is, other than that, I'm very much for extreme conservatism within Bitcoin. A change has to be good. It has to convince the whole network that it's definitely going to be a good thing for us to really do any changes to Bitcoin. So, yeah, lots there. Absolutely. I mean, for the highest quality plebslop, there is no better channel than the Bitcoin Infinity Show. So this is where it happens Anyway, move on to the next section please, Luke Yes, definitely If a mobster with a gun knocks on your door and demands payment for your protection The wisest response might be to pay him off It may also be wise not to slander or talk about him and his organization behind his back That doesn't mean you have to agree with his worldview or find his behavior to not be morally reprehensible The thoughts in your head are always your last bastion of freedom.

31:23 No matter the threat, you're always free to do as you please inside the dome of your skull. Remember this, because one day the truth will truly set you free if you need it to. The truth of 24 words memorized. The act of memorizing the seed of a Bitcoin wallet has already saved the lives of an unknown number of refugees, and one day you might need to carry your own 24 words in your head too. The more of your wealth you store in the physical realm, the easier it is to confiscate what you have. 24 words in a brain, on the other hand, can't even be detected. It is impossible for a perpetrator to know that you even have them. The so-called brain wallet is a very underrated concept, and one of the most profound aspects of what Bitcoin can do for you.

32:08 It completely redraws the political world map for those who know about it, blurring out the borderlines between nations and turning otherwise dangerous places into potential markets. When the money already exists everywhere, any limit on what amount you may carry from one nation to the other is as laughable as if there was a limit on how many languages you are allowed to know. The impact this will have on the financial freedom of individuals and, in turn, the world economy, is vastly underestimated. The practice is still unknown to most people, but real nonetheless. Like with everything else in Bitcoin, it is only a matter of time before people begin to realize what's going on.

32:48 Yeah, so a lot there, but the brain wallet concept is extremely interesting. Yeah, and the first couple of sentences in this paragraph, if you back up one page, the mobster that knocks on your door, like, this is the thing, everyone is suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, because it's dangerous to say bad things about the state. in most states, if not all. It's dangerous to not do as they say and to claim that you do not adhere to their principles. Like it's, I think that's a very underrated way of looking at things and view the world.

33:31 There's, I love South Park, as you know, and if you look at their latest depiction of Trump, which is not in a very good light uh that show is aired in the us and even though the white house have have has uh officially stated that they think they're irrelevant or whatever it's still allowed like there there's no other place on earth where probably where you could where a cartoon could make such mockery out of the elite class that is very dangerous in most other countries especially now in the UK and Germany. I don't think you can even say anything bad about any politician unless they're from the so-called far right without risking being thrown in jail.

34:16 So I think this is so underrated. And also the other underrated idea here is, of course, the 24 magic words or 12 magic words, which is sufficient for most cases. The brain wallet, I think it's super underrated. It not a recommended practice to memorize your seed phrase and walk over a border but you can if you need to and that that the important takeaway here all the you not allowed to carry more than ten thousand dollars so across this border which is a figure that hasn't been updated since the 70s by the way is is completely uh what do you say uh it's um obsolete at this point it doesn't work it cannot be enforced because people can have money in their heads.

35:03 And in effect, this is sort of a thought embryo to the you are your Satoshi thing that we go deep into in clown world, right? The fact that they exist within your head is proof that you not only own your Bitcoin, you are your Bitcoin. And I think this is like vastly unexplored. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg. we've discovered the wheel, but we have not yet figured out that we can roll it. That's how early we are into Bitcoin. Yeah, definitely. I think this earlier part about essentially the payment for protection, which is a nice analogy that the state is really the mob, basically, and you kind of go along with it, but you don't have to like it or agree with it.

35:54 I mean, this is the funny catch-22 that we're in as Bitcoiners, right? Like, for the most part, we all live in places where we have to be somewhat careful about what we do or do not say. We would never advocate for anything illegal on this show, right, Knut? Unlawful is the correct perf. Yes. So, no, no, no, we don't advise people to break any laws of their particular jurisdiction. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I think the border wallets thing is also really interesting because it's, as you say, it breaks down borders, but it also creates other things, right?

36:35 Like wealth moves more freely throughout the world, even if there are barriers on people moving throughout the world. And if people are able to move their capital so freely, like they're going to choose the places that are the best for them and advocate for improvements in their local area, right? Like a person with capital is fundamentally different from a person without capital, just like a person with skills is fundamentally different from a person without skills or communication ability or this and that. Again, this is in the category of like brutally harsh truths that are extremely politically incorrect. But it's jurisdictions are going to compete for people with capital and skills and things that can contribute, right?

37:20 Yeah, we can play pretend and claim that every single person is of equal value, but that is not true. It simply isn't because value is subjective and dynamic and we evaluate different people and different things within our brains. It's not something that you can quantify. And you are of a different value if you have more capital. It's like you can live in this fairytale world that that isn't the case. And your political beliefs and your political system can pretend that that's the case. But it's simply not the case. By the way, there are two sexes. Ah, interesting.

38:01 so so the the the other point here kind of that follows along with that is the the point about like the um the effect of basically this financial freedom right like if if you're able to move your capital to wherever you want and and invest it wherever you want and you know put most of it into bitcoin because that's just smarter to do than not put it into bitcoin the incentives are all going to completely change right investment is only going to go into those things that are valuable instead of so much of it being taken away by tax. And the exit tax, we've talked about this before, is one of the most immoral taxes there is because it means you can't even leave without giving up some portion of your wealth. I think they're absolutely barbaric because it takes away even the optionality of just leaving the system, right? Yeah, not applicable to people with KYC-free Bitcoin though. That's the big takeaway here. This is actually separating borders from state like which is sort of separating the state uh or borders from money if you will this is one of the aspect that makes bitcoin so fantastic because it's it's making us question all of these political lines that were drawn in the sand about what the difference is between you know one country and the other or the difference between uh capitalism and socialism and whatever the red and the blue all of that being questioned by this

39:32 apolitical thing that just allows you to float above it all and not give a crap love it I think let's go through the final paragraph here which to a certain extent is the final canon paragraph of this book we have one chapter still to come but it's a bit of a glossary of terms chapter so I think this is a a nice one to end the canonical book with. Absolutely. Clear your mind. Start from scratch. Unlearn what you have learned. Every educational institution you've ever been to exists solely because of someone's agenda.

40:14 If you are a straight A student, you excelled at being average. Congratulations, you're a sheep. The core science subjects are true because the experiments can be verified. The social sciences are all biased and tailored for a certain narrative. You're born, you live, and you will most probably die eventually. The laws of nature govern everything in between. All societies are just intersubjective constructs of the human mind. Choose your life's focus carefully. If you don't, you might trifle away your existence, believing fairy tales to be true. Wonderful. What did you mean by that, Knut?

40:55 Yeah, it's a nudge here in the a priori direction, even though it doesn't explicitly say a priori sciences anywhere. But the social sciences being opinion rather than science is absolutely true. because you can there is an absolute social science and that is praxeology as introduced by this wonderful book in the corner here and you can figure out stuff about human action without need the need for any empirical evidence whatsoever you can just draw if then statements and draw conclusions from if then statements if a then b in other words use deductive reasoning to to know how humans act how how action works how incentives work uh the law of diminishing marginal utility and so on can teach you a lot about human being and human behaviors so yeah study praxeology and uh shout out to daniel prince for this fantastic sentence if if you're a straight a student you excelled at being average uh that's uh daniel's sentence and i had to put it in the book because it's so good so thank you for that daniel yeah it's an excellent sentence and the whole thing is is great it's uh yeah this is the philosophical side of bitcoin the things that you learn by and or through adopting bitcoin you of

42:30 course can learn praxeology entirely independently from Bitcoin. There are certainly many people who have done so. Even the praxeology book never mentions Bitcoin except in the bio page for you, Knut. And so a little Trojan horse situation, perhaps, if we can get that out to more people. But yeah, it's great. The natural conclusion of adopting Bitcoin to me is that you become more focused on the sovereignty of the individual and the independence and freedom aspects. And those are important. And that's what we're aiming to overturn.

43:16 the state and I'm not really totally hedging here like the the state is a is a construct that exists and and we live in a world with states and borders and boundaries and all this and there are good aspects to that uh many many places are very nice to live in and they they bring a good order to society and that's that's all right but the the downsides the threat of violence the monopoly on violence. These are all things that would be good to reduce and reducing the constant theft of individuals' time and efforts and all of the things that could be if you didn't have taxes taking 60% of it or 90% of it, depending on how you count. That's a world worth exploring. And I hope we move in that direction as Bitcoin grows in adoption further and further.

44:12 yeah and also inflation if not even more so that's the thing that skews everything into the states to the states advantage they wouldn't be able to harass us as much if inflation wasn't a thing it's the invisible tax that everyone has to pay that sort of puts a dampener on human progress in general, we never see the exponential effects of the free markets that could have been because of inflation. And it's horrible. Absolutely. Well, I don't have anything else to add here. I think this has been a very interesting chapter, though, secularism and the effects of secularism and parallels on Bitcoin. Anything else to say about this chapter, Knut?

45:04 now as you say this is sort of the final chapter of the book the actual final chapter is sort of a glossary of concepts here we're going to go into that next week I'm very happy with this book in hindsight it's the book I had least help writing from editors and such and I still think it holds most of the things in the book are things I still agree with and yeah I'm very happy about it. Very good to hear. Yeah I've enjoyed this very much one more chapter to go and then we'll do a summary so I think that's it.

45:48 And with that this has been the Bitcoin Infinity Academy thank you for listening. Bye bye. Thank you.