In the movie Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story there’s a powerful scene where Bruce takes his wife Linda into his martial arts studio to show her the result of following his dream to teach his craft in the U.S.
In this scene Bruce illustrates a powerful lesson in both human potential and human agency with Linda.
Bruce said, “When I came over on the boat I knew this was an ‘idea’ place. Ideas make this country great. Here a good idea makes a man anything he wants to be.”
He continues, “You drop a pebble into a pond, you get ripples. Soon the ripples cross the whole pond.”
It was at this moment Bruce emphasized the power of his message in the scene when he placed a pebble into Linda’s hand and told her to drop it.
After she dropped the stone he said, “See, it has begun.” (Source: The Way of The Awakened Warriors)
This illustration is going to be the central message of today’s episode because I want more than anything in this world for you to grasp the overall purpose of this show which is for you to understand that for the moment you still have enough freedom to have choices in your life, but to maintain that freedom you must choose wisely.
So what do I mean when I say choices?
That word choices within the context of the message I’m trying to convey to you here means that you have choices that you can make that will significantly impact both your life and your culture.
If you want to make choices that support and enhance the growth of an environment that transfers control of your life from you to someone else, that's also a choice that you can certainly make, however is that a choice that you want to make?
My guess is that most people would NOT want to make this choice, however in order to recognize what the choice is you FIRST have to understand your environment and how you can avoid making such a bad decision.
In order to do that you will have to learn how to discern fact from fiction. You also need to have a sense of purpose and understand where and how to aim that purpose as you venture out into life to pursue it.
The Impact of Dynamis
The Greek origin of the word Dynamis means strength and fortitude. However through the time of Aristotle it also carried the meaning of ‘potential’ as well.
To dive deeper, in its most common meaning, dynamis means the ability to generate effects as in the ability to exert force. (Source: Hidden Hub)
Another extension of this meaning can also be surmised when we look at the prospect of an acorn that becomes an oak tree. In this example, how can something such as an acorn that you can fit into the palm of your hand and carry around in your pocket eventually become something that towers over buildings and weighs several tons?
The answer here is that this includes the process of both potentiality and actuality. In short, the acorn possesses the potential to become the oak tree and the oak tree itself is the actualization of that potential that was held within the acorn from the very start. (Source: Hidden Hub)
Keep that in mind for the moment and place the concept of dynamis on a holding shelf as I will address this concept again later in this episode to illustrate a larger point.
Having said that, I want to switch gears and talk about another concerning challenge in today's world. These days I believe most of us can agree that it takes a conscious effort for an individual to muster up the courage to speak up about current events and to speak truth in the face of a hostile mob in the public square who is willing to attack you with the threat of being ridiculed and canceled.
However, I believe the way I framed that last sentence is something we should examine at a deeper level.
So you’re probably thinking Brandon, where are you going with this?
I’m talking about the fact that when we commonly hear about the act of speaking out against certain radical ideas, or radical groups, it’s as if most of civilized society takes on the timid position of self-censorship.
Why do so many people do this?
Well the fear and discomfort that comes with the active decision of self-censorship is due in part to the fear of loss, the fear of ridicule, or the fear of one being “othered” by their peers.
As an example when far leftist Marxists, or the more recently labeled American Bolsheviks, rail against us when we try to voice our opinions we often view ourselves as being the person that’s constantly sitting at a defensive position while the radical Marxists, Socialists, or American Bolsheviks are often the ones seen by us as being on the offensive side of a particular narrative.
As most people see this they may find themselves sitting there and examining whether they want to muster up the courage to speak up and set the opposition straight when they spew lies and propaganda in the name of Mao’s second Cultural Revolution.
However the issue with the self-censorship can best be described here with a concept that German political scientist Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann coined as the Spiral of Silence.
Examining The Element of Self-Censorship
In Elizabeth’s Spiral of Silence theory she basically points to how people’s opinions change or go unspoken as a result of them wanting to fit in with the day’s popular ideologies in an effort to stay hidden and to avoid being singled out for holding an opposing ideology that goes against the grain of society. (Source: Wikipedia)
A really powerful and effective way to illustrate why this happens is to look at Hans Christian Anderson’s tale of The Emperor’s New Clothes.
In this folktale a couple of swindlers approach the emperor and successfully sell him on the idea that they can provide him with some magnificent new clothes that would be invisible to people who were stupid or incompetent.
After giving the swindlers the approval to proceed with the deal of making the emperor’s magnificent new clothes officials would check in on the swindlers only to see that no clothes are being produced on the swindler’s looms, but none would say anything for fear of being singled out as being a fool. When the emperor walked through the middle of the city in his new clothes everyone could see that he was completely naked, but no one would dare be the one to say it.
However a child in the crowd would come along and in the child’s naivete would defy the mob mentality and speak out that the emperor was, in fact, not wearing any clothes.
Now the powerful lesson here wasn’t that the child actually spoke up and said it, or even that other people heard it, but the biggest thing was that everyone all at once knew right then and there that the child had said it. The message was profound and the absurdity of the narrative was immediately exposed and came rapidly crashing down all at once. (Source: Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism)
It’s my opinion that we are living in the same situation here today when we look around at the news cycle and see a corrupt government and regime that continues to fail masterfully with one policy after the next. On top of that this same government lies and gaslights the American public directly to their face on a daily basis trying to convince us that the Emperor does have clothes when, in fact, he’s completely naked with every new outfit, or narrative, that he tries to wear and parade around in front of the American public on a daily basis.
You see just like in the story about the Emperor’s New Clothes much of our society decided to go along with one ridiculous narrative after the next such as with all of the absurd policies associated with the pandemic, the absurd policies associated with the economy, the absurd policies associated with the invasion of our southern border, the absurd policies associated with the Ukraine war, and I could go on and on.
As a result of the continued silence by a large portion of the population we’re seeing the country fall deeper and deeper into a collapse that parallels the collapse of the Roman Empire.
When will the silent finally decide to speak out and declare that the Emperor is naked?
The Maverick Understands Dynamis
So that last part leads me back to the central piece of today’s episode. I personally believe that one of the biggest problems with our society in this day and age is that too many people have lost their sense of purpose. In fact, I can make the powerful case that sense of purpose has been sold out by our politicians in Washington D.C.
I recently watched a sobering video online with the comedian Theo Von who took a moment to step away from the comedy act to break down, in his humble opinion, as to why our society produces and has to deal with the sad and tragic reality of school shooters. The central point of his theory revolves around how the sense of purpose has tragically been lost and sold out within our society and I would completely agree.
You see, having a sense of purpose is the most powerful thing for every individual because purpose brings fulfillment and fulfillment brings contribution to both a society and to individuals within a society. Eventually that contribution leads to self actualization. In short, purpose fosters dynamis.
Ah, there’s that word dynamis I said I would eventually come back to revisit in the episode. You see when an individual understands and truly has their hands wrapped around their purpose then that individual will transform his or her potential into actuality. This is the definition of dynamis and this happens just like the example I referenced earlier with the acorn that eventually becomes the oak tree.
My perspective is aligned with Theo Von’s perspective when it comes to society having lost its sense of purpose which in turn funnels down directly and leads to individuals losing their sense of purpose.
This sense of purpose is lost because the family structure has also drastically changed, or more specifically has been destroyed, over the past 50 to 60 years due to the growth and size of the federal government and the federal government's ever expanding menu of social programs.
Furthemore, with this ever expanding massive federal government the size of the national debt has reached a 31+ trillion dollar debt and counting. This seemingly endless massive debt has caused steady, continuous, and unrelenting inflation that has devalued the dollar and decreased the purchasing power of the dollar by as much as 96% since the federal reserve was enacted in 1913. (Source: The End of The Dollar Empire)
Additionally this has resulted in the problem where there are too many single parent households and understand I’m not saying that, or making that accusation as a criticism, but rather saying it as a statistical and objective fact.
When you combine the growth of the federal government with its relationship to the continuing devaluation of the dollar it makes it more and more difficult for society to produce trailblazing Mavericks who might otherwise start their own business and use their agency for a purpose that society would deem to be a great contribution.
Instead you get a society that is stripped of this opportunity with the family structure being damaged over the cycle of multiple generations, particularly since Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society began in 1964.
You get a more centralized bureaucratic federal government that is hostile towards creativity and individuality. The federal government in turn fuels its existence by continuing to spend more and more money that the country doesn’t have by printing more and more dollars with the press of a button at the Federal Reserve.
This in turn kills the purchasing power of your money making it more difficult for every new generation to build a life, start a family, and set themselves up for retirement savings.
Instead you get strapped with debt, broken family structures, loss of hope, loss of purpose, and an ever growing federal government that by its very nature sucks the oxygen out of society to perpetuate its growing reach. Meanwhile the individual at ground level is stripped of his or her purpose, opportunity, and most importantly the will to create something of value that society would otherwise deem to be a positive and powerful contribution.
If you’ve read this blog or listened to this podcast then you’ve probably heard me use that term Maverick on multiple occasions. To be a Maverick means that one is a nonconformist, and individualist, and is not afraid to blaze his or own trail in life by building a life that they want to pursue and grow.
However, the creation of the Maverick is becoming less and less possible because the Federal Government continues to grow bigger and bigger, centralizing its authoritative control over society while stripping the wealth away from society to foster its own existence.
The Maverick understands dynamis very well, but if the Maverick is unable to foster in the environment that he or she resides then the Maverick will cease to exist and with that the potential and self-actualization, or dynamis, will die with the Maverick in the dreaded dystopian environment of despair.
Now my intention is NOT to communicate pessimism, but rather to communicate REALITY to you as you sit and absorb everything I’ve laid out before you.
So what is the prevailing message here?
To me it’s simple. There are several steps to take, but we need to start by not being afraid to say that the Emperor is naked.
Additionally, for the Mavericks that do currently exist and that do know their purpose it’s up to you to also leverage your influence in order to encourage the voices of those who desire to build a new environment of hope, freedom, and change..and I’m not talking about the Orwellian dystopian idea of hope and change that Barrack Obama touted during his tenure in government.
I’m talking about drastically diminishing the size of the federal government leviathan by defunding it and eliminating corrupt institutions that have done nothing more than wage a war of pain and suffering onto the individuals and families that have lived, worked hard, and played by the rules right inside the borders of the United States as its own abused citizens.
I’m talking about change to eliminate the abuse and to create a healthy political, social, and economic movement that is absent of Marxist radical agendas and corruption.
I told you that the choice I was talking about earlier hinges on you understanding your environment so that you could know how to make wise decisions.
Well what I just laid out before you and explained about the environment the federal government has created with the economic and political harm it’s caused is exactly the environment that I was referring to .
Your choices are simple. You either want more of the harm that’s been dropped into your lap with more hardship to come, OR you don’t. That’s your choice.
The Wrap Up
The central motivation of today’s episode is to give you a wake up call.
You must understand that the situation you find yourself in right this very minute is one where if you’re under 35 years of age you are now the equivalent of a Russian serf meaning that your ability to invest in and own assets along with growing a nest egg worthy of retirement does NOT exist right now.
Furthermore, the Emperor is telling you that he is fully clothed on a number of fronts and that everything is going to be ok. I’m simply here to tell you that the Emperor is playing you for a fool. All I’m saying is that you don’t have to accept that narrative, or go along with it like a puppet would go along with a Puppet Master.
If a child can call out the Emperor then you can do the very same thing. If you don’t want a toxic environment to continue to foster that would kill the dynamis of the Maverick then you need to understand the power of your dynamis now and express your agency by getting behind those who support the efforts to create more freedom.
Be aware of where you spend your dollars.
Be aware of the media you support.
Be aware of big business corporate centralization and furthering your dependence on those corporations.
Be aware of the politicians who are telling you the Emperor has clothes when he is clearly naked.
Be the change by not being afraid to engage and speak up by putting your dollars exactly where your values are located.
It’s time for you to drop your pebble into the pond and start making some ripples that will eventually become tidal waves just as the great Bruce Lee showed us.
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