Unmasking the Big Lie | Ep. 62
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Order Within Navigating a world of endless chaos and crisis, many of us are experiencing inner turmoil, insecurity, anxiety, fears, and isolation. These feelings are only being amplified by news cycles. Social media and never ending political madness. How do we find our way out of the chaos?
[00:00:24] How do we find strength within ourselves? How do we find meaning in a world driven by materialism? These questions and many more I aim to answer on the show. My goal is to be a trusted guide on your journey to selfhood. May you find what you seek.
[00:00:42] hello and welcome everyone. I'm your host. Brandon Ward. Back with another episode of order within. Episode number 62. Today. We are going to be [00:01:00] discussing the concept of the big lie. Now, this is a, an older concept it's been around for. Almost a hundred years now. Was originally. Introduced. And. Adolf Hitler's mind camp.
[00:01:20] Work. So it's the book that he wrote. And ultimately the concept of the big lie is. Used to manipulate populations and societies and cultures. So we're going to talk a lot about that concept. How it expands in our society. Historical aspects of how this has happened and then looking at the modern world on what we're going to be covering.
[00:01:48] We want to talk about the psychological components of the big lie, understanding the big lie, how to counter the big lie. And ultimately empowering individual agency to [00:02:00] overcome these big lies.
[00:02:03] So the big lie was first used by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 book mind camp. Where he accused Jews of telling.
[00:02:15] So a lie. So colossal that no one would believe anyone could have the impudent impotent impudence to distort the truth. So infamously.
[00:02:26] It's. The irony is that Hitler was accusing the Jewish people. Of creating these big lies. But the reality is that he was actually using the big lies and accusing the Jewish people. As a tactic that would become a significant part of his own regime's propaganda machine. So this is pretty standard projection.
[00:02:49] And authoritarian regimes, tyranny, tyrannical regimes, anyone that's really trying to be a hierarchical leader. And small levels or large [00:03:00] levels. They often project their own. Sins, if you will. Onto their opponents or enemies. A prime example of that. So we're going to dive into what that is. The CA the psychological aspects of it. But first I want to look at how.
[00:03:20] I think there's a. So there's actually quite a few situations where, and I'm going to talk a few about them historically as well, but the, this is used, the big line is used to. Manipulate individuals and communities. And the psychological components of it and understanding what it is really it's important.
[00:03:40] But first let's look at some historical and contemporary context is so for a big one that we've obviously talked about. Is the Nazi era. Was the portrayal of the Jews as the source of Germany's economic and social problems. So antisemitic, propaganda [00:04:00] repeated frequently and vehemently. Led to widespread acceptance of this lie.
[00:04:05] Paving the way for the Holocaust. So we're going to get into some of the components of this, but first I'm setting the stage with examples. The Nazi party was. Very good. At repeating these massive lies over and over and over again, as a way to.
[00:04:25] But bias.
[00:04:28] The German people. So they were blaming all the economical and social struggles on the Jewish people. That was one component that the Nazi party did. They blamed. The Jewish people for the social and economic problems at the time. They repeated that vehemently. Another big lie. That the Nazi party shared was that the Erin races supposed superiority.
[00:04:53] A false hood that served as a core tenant of Nazi ideology. The repeated propagation of this [00:05:00] lie, allow the Nazi regime to justify its aggressive expansionist policies and horrific war crimes in the name of racial purity and supremacy. So when you have anyone claiming superiority, Not even just race.
[00:05:14] But it could be ideology. It could be religion. It could be philosophy, whatever it is when people are claiming superiority over others. That they are the cream of the crop. And that they're using that lie to justify violence and destruction and terror against other people. That is a core tenant of the deception.
[00:05:37] You are not, it's not acceptable morally to go out and destroy entire peoples if you're claiming superiority and you're using that lie to justify violence and tyranny in the world. You are in fact, the tyrants.
[00:05:53] And there's not a lot of. There's a, so these are historical aspects of that. When you start to learn about this stuff, though, you see it [00:06:00] happening in our modern times as well.
[00:06:03] So that was Nazi Germany. This is a couple of big lies. Another one though, that's more modern was the Iraq's weapons of mass destruction lie. That led up to the Iraq war in 2003. The us government and several other Western governments claim that Saddam Hussein Podesta possess weapons of mass destruction that possessed that posed an immediate threat.
[00:06:26] Despite the lack of evidence, this narrative was used to justify the invasion of Iraq. It was later found. It was later found that Iraq had not. Had a functional weapons of mass destruction program for years prior to the invasion. So it was just an excuse. It was another excuse. It was repeated by the media.
[00:06:47] And this is another thing. Governments need media. And they need to control information and then they need to set the tone for the story that they're trying to share and spin. This is a prime example of that. The media all [00:07:00] bought in on it. They had the. And I think this actually might've been, there was the component of, in the nineties for the Gulf war.
[00:07:10] Where they were again, going against. Saddam Hussein talking about. How they are throwing babies out of the incubators. I'm pretty sure that was in the nineties. And there was a woman that was doing that in court. That was also a lie. Because the government can't get us to buy into things without those emotional stories. That, that, that was those lies.
[00:07:33] That they spread. And that's why these big lies are so powerful because they blot out. Any kind of rationality and they tap into our emotions. That's the, because humans are emotional creatures. We re we respond with our emotions. Our logic is a later developed component of our brains. So logic is the thing that we're still working on.
[00:07:56] But we are absolutely emotionally driven creatures. And so [00:08:00] that emotional component to those stories are crucial. So when they're suffering, when there's anger, when there's hurt, Leaders and tyrants authoritarians, tap into that emotional power. That was used in.
[00:08:14] The Iraq war. And another one going back. Is the Soviet denial of the whole dumber. And the whole summer was a man-made famine and Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933. That killed millions of Ukrainians. It is wildly understood to have been a result of Soviet policies, but the Soviet government denied its existence, both domestically and internationally.
[00:08:41] Even today, Russia does not recognize the hold emerge as a genocide perpetuated by the Soviet government, despite its recognition as such by Ukraine and many other countries. And there's you have the Archlight Gulu Gulag archipelago. I'm saying that wrong. But the gulags where they were throwing in.
[00:08:59] The [00:09:00] most productive farmers.
[00:09:03] Based on lies that they were telling about the wealth that they had and the, how they were taking from other people, the community and all of those things. And the reality was is that the most wealthiest farmers. Happened to be the most productive. So when you jailed and killed those people, Out, based on the lies, the wealth driven lies that were told about them. You now destroyed your most productive farmers and then.
[00:09:28] Famine sets in that was all manmade, all built around lies and deception of those, of the working class versus the wealthy. And at the time the farmers were the wealthy people. Because they were being productive. These are the lies that we can be told that roots into us that can cause horrific things in our, in, in modern societies. In past societies, we have to learn from these things because the same thing is happening now.
[00:09:56] If you can't challenge things, if you can't ask [00:10:00] questions, About something. That's a huge red flag. There's there is problems. Connected to that. If we're not allowed to ask questions about certain things, then we are in trouble. A few modern time components of that. Is I use chat GPT to plan out a lot of my episodes and organize information. It's a very powerful tool. I love AI. I think it's an incredible thing, but there's also a lot of dangers to it. And I know that.
[00:10:27] A prime example is how biased it already is. And I was going through looking for examples of modern time of the big lie. And the examples that it gave me or climate change. Saying anyone that debates or disputes climate change. Is. Not correct. And that there's consensus data, that climate change is there. That it's manmade that manmade.
[00:10:54] Is the only acceptable route calls. It's not even the fact that you can discuss climate change. Climate change is [00:11:00] obviously happening. There's the data. Is there the root cause for why it's happening is the di the room for debate. But when I asked Chad GPT about that, it was clear that it was manmade and the data was there and the consensus was there of the scientific experts. That's what it's saying. That's the same narrative.
[00:11:16] That these large media corporations and governments are telling us when you can't challenge a narrative, when you can't ask questions about a narrative that's being pushed. You can bet your bottom dollar that's most likely. A propagandist lie. Another big lie. COVID 19 is another example of that.
[00:11:38] This was something that it brought up that said any dissent from that, from the accepted narrative brought harsh consequences around the world during the pandemic. And it still is happening. You're still seeing these things. Now. There is so much data now. Pfizer released its own data. About.
[00:11:57] Over 1.5 million [00:12:00] injuries. From the vaccine that are not being covered in the media. That's not being shared at all. But that's not being considered at any of this. But if you challenged the narrative, that those weren't effective. That masks weren't effective. That all the things that we were told during COVID, which have come out to be untrue.
[00:12:19] If you challenge those things, though, that is. Unquestionable, you cannot do that because this data is consensus it's there. It's prime. So already. We have modern day big lies that were being told. If you can't question things, if you can't ask questions, if you can't challenge narratives, if you can't consider alternative information.
[00:12:40] It's most certainly dealing with some sort of propaganda or information that's being manipulated to keep us in a state of confusion and fear.
[00:12:49] These lies, exploit. Psychological vulnerabilities and they rely on repetition and amplification to deceive and manipulate. So [00:13:00] repeating repetition is a core component of this. We've talked about a few examples. Of how some of these things can be used. So repetition is critical that repeating a lie often enough can make it seem more truthful. So if there are Thoratec.
[00:13:14] Darien figures. If there are government organizations, if they're immediate organizations. Repeating the same thing over and over again. People will mistake that for truth, even though it may not be. This phenomenon is referred to as the illusionary illusory truth effect and psychology. Familiarity can often be mistaken for truth. So repetition is a key component.
[00:13:39] Of exploiting psychological vulnerabilities. To get people to accept certain things. So repeating these things over and over is a critical component of it. Leveraging distrust and fear. In times of social unrest or fear when S. Economy's may not be doing well when there's mass events happening around the world, when people [00:14:00] are scared.
[00:14:01] People are going to be more susceptible to big lies. They're looking for answers. They want to know what's happening. They're looking for clarity. That makes us vulnerable.
[00:14:11] When we're in those states. Because the big lie can provide a simple explanation for complex problems and give people a sense of understanding and control. Fear and distrust can also be manipulated to direct blame towards others. Fostering divisions that the big lie can exploit. And that's critical to the big lie as well. There has to always be an other out there. There has to be another.
[00:14:34] Group. Or party. Or identity or enemy. And Nazi Germany. It was the Jewish people. And Soviet Russia. It was the farmers in the working class, the wealthy people. The people that were had the money. And our times. You're seeing a lot of the similar things. There's a lot of this around successful [00:15:00] people. There's a lot around this, around educated people. There's a lot around this, around people that view things more traditionally.
[00:15:08] There's a lot of targets. There's a lot of grouping people together. Left and right. Republicans and Democrats all this. Group other concept is how we build distrust and fear. And they leverage that.
[00:15:22] And then the other side of this, as they look to leverage that. Problem reaction solution or the regalian dialectic.
[00:15:31] Although the second term is a little misleading. What this refers to is order out of chaos and this, and the strategy involves three basic steps. You create a problem. So the authorities intentionally create a problem or crisis. This can involve anything from a terrorist attack to an economic collapse.
[00:15:50] The issue could be completely fabricated. It doesn't even have to be real. It could just be perceived. The next thing is the reaction. The authorities then [00:16:00] publicize this problem extensively through the media, causing the public to react by demanding a solution often involving a state of fear or outrage. So again they want to prompt the reaction.
[00:16:10] If you think about. An example of this could be. Whether you believe this or not would be nine 11. You have the ma. The weapons of mass destruction that lie, that was told that justifies the lie. You have the act the terrible event that happened of nine 11. Now everyone is in fear. You get the Patriot act that comes out of that. And then you get the war in the middle east.
[00:16:32] All of those are possible based on the reaction that came from those events and the amplification of it in the media. And what we were being told was the root cause of that. Come to find out that wasn't the case at all. And there were no. Weapons of mass destruction. And it is just used a justifiable lie to tell, to go in there and do the thing.
[00:16:54] And then finally, this is leading us into the solution stage. Finally the authorities who originally [00:17:00] created the problem presented a solution that was planned long before the crisis occurred. Often this solution involves a loss of rights or liberties in exchange for a sense of security. And that's exactly what we had.
[00:17:11] COVID was the same thing. We have the problem, the virus don't ask questions where it came from. It's irrelevant. If it was born in a lab, that's a relevant. Don't you dare ask questions about it. But there's this. Terrifying. Deathly virus spreading rapidly around the world reaction. Now, fear people aren't fear. Oh my God. Save us. We need help. Lockdowns. That's the answer.
[00:17:36] You lose your rights, you can no longer do things that you once did. In the name of safety and protection. This stuff happens all the time. Y'all. It happens all the time. And it's right around us. And why does this happen? Because people in authority, they have motivations. Behind there lies. They desire [00:18:00] to be in power and in control.
[00:18:02] They want to stay in power or they want to seize control. They want to silence their enemies. All these things are effective means to do that. But something else that ends up happening is that people have an authority bias. And so we tend to believe in a bay figures of authority, even if what they say contradicts empirical evidence.
[00:18:20] If the big lie comes from a respected or powerful figure, it is more likely to be accepted. And that also happens all the time. This is our governments. These are the government agencies. These are the talking heads that represent these agencies. These are the media figures in corporate media, telling us all the lies.
[00:18:38] This is what we do, because we N we accept what they're saying, because we view them as authorities. And therefore we trust them, even though we're denied, even though we're denying what we know to be true. We're leaning into trusting and authoritative figure over our own instincts and intelligence.
[00:18:56] That's a huge slippery slope. [00:19:00] From that side of it. And that leads more into the psychological components of the big lie.
[00:19:07] And why this ends up happening. And the components of this first is going to be the cognitive biases that we deal with. This makes us susceptible as individuals to believing in perpetuating these false hoods. The first is confirmation bias. People have a tendency to seek interpret and remember information that confirms their preexisting beliefs.
[00:19:30] And ignore or discount information that contradicts these beliefs. Now we're all susceptible to this. No one is free of this. Confirmation bias is very relevant and real. That's why we have to be mindful of it.
[00:19:44] A big lie that aligns with one's preexisting worldview is more likely to be accepted as truth. That's why demagogues can come along. And leverage the things, the fears, the drama, the pain, the emotions that [00:20:00] people already experienced and feel, and they leverage those things. So in Nazi Germany, the people were struggling. They were struggling. They weren't doing well. The economy was suffering.
[00:20:10] Hitler comes in with an answer. I know the problem. I've got the root calls here for you and I've got a solution.
[00:20:16] That happens a lot.
[00:20:19] That's why our pre-existing worldviews can be leveraged, especially in a world that's driven by data now because they have much deeper understanding of what that may be.
[00:20:28] On the other. On the right side. Something like this could be looked at as the Q Anon stuff. If you're not familiar with that it's a rabbit hole of a deal, but ultimately it was like, there, it was the wet dream. Of many. Right-leaning people of what was happening there was this. Supposedly.
[00:20:49] Underlying.
[00:20:51] Story going on, where there are good guys doing things in the government on the behalf of the people that we just don't know yet. And was this whole thing [00:21:00] going on, Reddit? But that's another thing that leans into someone's preexisting worldviews, and could leverage that in a way that would manipulate those people who believe those things.
[00:21:10] That is a common thing. How confirmation bias can be leveraged. The next side of that is cognitive dissonance. And this theory suggests that people find it uncomfortable to hold contradictory beliefs and therefore are motivated to reduce this inconsistency. If a big lie is repeated often enough by respected sources. Some people might resolve the dissonance by accepting the lie.
[00:21:34] Especially if they identify closely with the source of the lie. So again, that authoritarian bias. If they. Identify closely with those sources. They will be more likely to accept the lie and disregard the pieces within them that they know is inconsistent. So if there's counter, if there is information that they hold, beliefs that they hold that are inconsistent.
[00:21:57] They will disregard pieces of that to [00:22:00] make the pain. Have there. Psychological state less because we. If you look at kids. Lying is a terrible thing. We can't be dishonest. And as we get older, we get better at accepting lies. But it still hurts us. And so the way that we have to deal with that is we have to disregard pieces of that information and deny its existence. Ignore it, push it away so that we can live a more honest life, at least in our heads.
[00:22:28] Or not because we're just outright denying things. But we're doing that in a way that allows us to navigate it and move away from information that we're not comfortable with, or doesn't align with parts of our beliefs. This is the component of cognitive dissonance. Just go on social media and you'll see it all the time.
[00:22:46] It's all around. There's a lot of cognitive dissonance happening in our society today.
[00:22:52] Another aspect of that. So that's more of the individual components, the cognitive bias and the cognitive or confirmation bias and the cognitive [00:23:00] dissonance. But then you also have the role of social influence group identity and emotional. Manipulation and reinforcing. The big lie. Group think is a psychological phenomenon where people conform to the beliefs or behaviors of a group to achieve harmony and minimize conflict.
[00:23:18] If the big lie is widely accepted within a group. Individuals may also accept it to maintain social cohesion. And in my mind, There's a lot of this happening again, group think. All these ideas were most like a majority of people believe certain things in a group. And then those people rally around those ideas, whether they actually believe them or not because the group is accepting them. And that just becomes a.
[00:23:47] A growth component within a group because you're looking more to be secure and safe within your group. You're not going to challenge your group because when you get pushed out of the group, you're now alone. You're dangerous. These play into very primal [00:24:00] components. Of our evolution as a species. It's a group think is a psychological safety because in reality,
[00:24:07] We are safer in groups, especially as we've evolved over time, we grew up in little tribes. So the last thing you want to be have done to use rejected by the tribe. Removed from the tribe. There's a lot of danger and a lot of pain and all those things that, so if you do that, You're trying to avoid that.
[00:24:25] So group think. Makes us vulnerable and susceptible to accepting lies. Simply to be a part of the group. Whether we believe them to be true or not.
[00:24:36] Gaslighting. Is another form of psychological manipulation where a person or group, so seeds of doubt in individuals or groups, making them question their own memory perception or sanity.
[00:24:49] Gaslighting on a societal level can contribute to the acceptance of a big lie. This happens a lot. The media does this stuff all the time. New information will [00:25:00] come out. They never admit to what was wrong before they roll out the new information. And then they act as if that's the way it's always been. And that they've never said the other things that actually counter the information that they're talking about now.
[00:25:12] And they just roll along, like nothing happened. Honestly, to me, a huge example of all this is COVID stuff, the masks, all that information flipped. From, oh yeah, it's totally fine. You have a mask. It'll protect you too. Oh, wait. Actually, they're not very effective of that at all. The particles are too small unless you're using very specific types of masks, blah, blah, blah. All that information came out. But the media goes on and pretend like they never said the things before the same thing with the vaccine efficacy.
[00:25:40] When the government. And one of these things we're rolling out. Initially the government and the media were saying that this is all a hundred percent effective. You get the vaccine. You're not going to get sick. We know now that that's absolutely not true. There's tons of data. That's showing this not to be the case.
[00:25:53] And in fact, the more vaccinated nations and states became the more susceptible to the virus they became. This is [00:26:00] all out there. This is not stuff that's just made up, but when you're, when media, when government and figures, when authorities. They leverage this gasoline and component. They make you challenge in doubt yourself.
[00:26:14] And your own memories and. And perceptions. Another very common tactic. Challenges. It's getting harder now because all this stuff is recorded. You can go back and review clips. And thank God we can, because this would be so much difficult without it so much more difficult, but we can, now we can actually go and say, oh actually, no,
[00:26:35] Six months ago, you said the exact opposite and here's 20 clips of you and other news media organizations and representatives of the government saying the exact opposite of what you're saying now. And you're saying like, you never said this stuff before, which is also a lie. So it's just complete disregard.
[00:26:52] And disrespect. To information and the truth, which makes our job as individuals. So much more [00:27:00] challenging to do that. And that's where we move into countering the big lie. And how we do that. And our lives and societies. The key components are going to be critical thinking fact-checking and media literacy as essential skills to discern truth from falsehood.
[00:27:16] Having a healthy skepticism is crucial. And the age. Of information overload. There's so much information. You have to be skeptical of everything. Be skeptical of everything, and everyone. A healthy level of skepticism is good. Question it challenge it. Find out for yourself. That goes into the second thing, verify as much information as you can do. Not blindly trust anyone.
[00:27:45] Never. Never. It's not a good practice. It makes us vulnerable and susceptible to manipulation. Verify information as much as you can go to the source. Find out for yourself. [00:28:00] Because. We have to be doubtful. This is the third piece here. Be doubtful of those seeking to control information. If people are afraid of you viewing information, if they don't want you to see certain pieces of information, if they're trying to control what you see or what you know, or what you don't know and see.
[00:28:18] Be skeptical of that person or those groups be very doubtful, controlling information. Is often only done to manipulate people. If you're trying to show people the truth. You have no fear to show them what is actually happening. But that's not the case. And so much of our world today. So be weary of people that are seeking to control information.
[00:28:40] Don't become overly reliant on a single source of information. Either look at varying sources of information. Look at varying viewpoints left, right middle look at all these different things. Challenge yourself to view the world. In a more broad. Perspective. You will be much stronger and [00:29:00] balanced and.
[00:29:02] An open. If you take this approach. So don't become too overly reliant on a single source of information. Get your information from a wide variety of sources. And that includes moving outside of mainstream media. Look at independent media, you have to observe the things that they're doing. Go in the weeds on some of this stuff. Take time.
[00:29:24] To learn. And discover. And explore for yourself.
[00:29:29] Internal strength. Is crucial to counter manipulation. I've talked a ton about on this show. That's ultimately the concept of order within. Finding streaked within ourselves to live true to who we are, is key to how we do this. So building a relationship, a loving, compassionate relationship with yourself becoming connected.
[00:29:48] And true to who you are, being more authentically aligned with who you are. Is an excellent way to counter manipulation because you're trusting yourself. You're operating from within your you're trusting your own mind, your own [00:30:00] thoughts, your own emotions. Learn to build the relationship and strength within yourself. Trust yourself more than anyone else.
[00:30:07] Ultimately, that is what it is. Trust what you have been given and trust yourself more than anyone else.
[00:30:13] Uh, last piece here on this side of it is. On the. If someone has to use force to spread ideas or enforce certain rules, that's a red flag. Truthful information. Good ideas do not require force. To support them. Using force to have rules and laws is a huge red flag. So be mindful that if people need to get locked up with jail time or violence or punishment, because they're not cooperating with certain things.
[00:30:45] That's most likely.
[00:30:47] Not a very good idea. And it's should symbol. It should signal to us that that's not a good idea. And then we need to be weary. We need to be skeptical of whatever it is that they're trying to enforce upon us. [00:31:00] So again, COVID. It's a prime example. If this stuff was really valid and truly what it was, they could've just shown us these things. And we would have been, it would have been obvious to us what it was and all of us would have done it, but that wasn't the case.
[00:31:18] Information was being manipulated. Withheld you couldn't question. Dang. You couldn't challenge things. You're being mocked and ridiculed and. Targeted. Like this, that's not the. Process. Of discussion and open debate in a free and open society. It's not.
[00:31:38] Which leads us to understanding the importance of fostering empathy, open dialogue, and respectful engagement. To bridge these ideological divides that combat so we can combat the spread of the big lie. Empathy is the root that makes discussion possible. Finding common ground in humanity. That's the thing for me is we are all humans. We're all born. We were all on this planet. We all [00:32:00] bleed red.
[00:32:01] All of us. Are at the core of what we are the same in that sense. So there's unity in that finding that common ground and humanity can allow us to come together and empathize with one another and be more open to each other and loving and caring, which leads me to treating people with respect and honoring their God-given abilities.
[00:32:19] For me. The belief that I have. That enables me to do this is that we are all brothers and sisters of life. We are all children of the same creator. Therefore, even if you are the most vile and evil and decrepit person on this planet. You are still a sister or brother of creation. And you have simply chosen the path that you have, you've taken the dark path, but that does not change the fact that you are still my brother or sister.
[00:32:48] In that spiritual sense. It hurts me to see the things that people do in this planet. But that does not change the fact that that is the reality. So that's a belief that I hold that enables me to find connection [00:33:00] with anyone, even the most viral people on the planet.
[00:33:04] Open debate and discussion are crucial to growth as a society. If we can't have open debate and discussion, then we are done.
[00:33:13] It's a slippery slope into authoritarianism at that point. So open debate, discussing, listening to one other actively and challenging each other's eyes and in respectful, meaningful ways are crucial.
[00:33:26] Only authoritarians fear, debate or discussion because this has the potential to weaken their fear-based grip. If you are not trying to control through fear and anger and.
[00:33:39] Evilness darkness, whatever. You're not going to be afraid to debate. You're not going to be afraid to discuss ideas, to talk about information, to have questions, ask. You're open to it because you know what you're, you know what you hold. Is sure is strong. You've done the research you've put in the time.
[00:33:57] You've leveraged information. You've [00:34:00] gone through the process to prove out what you're saying. So it's not, there's nothing to fear. Only authoritarians fear debate because it will weaken that perception. Of their total control on society, that they have all the answers that they know everything and that how dare you challenge them?
[00:34:16] If someone challenged yours, you for challenging them. They are in the weaker position. That's just the reality. Because those were strong positions are not afraid to hold them.
[00:34:29] And that's where fear comes into play with manipulation. When we're kept in a state of fear, we are easier to manipulate. And so that's why living with compassion and empathy and strength and courage is so crucial. It's so crucial. Y'all. And that leads me to this last part of the show, which is empowering individual agency.
[00:34:51] This is the single most important component in overcoming the big lie and combating the big lie.
[00:34:58] Individual [00:35:00] agency is the most underrepresented and underrated power that we hold as individuals. The most underrepresented person in our society is the individual. Everything is being grouped together. And that's a classic with the word Terry and tenant is you lose your individuality and you become a part of the collective.
[00:35:19] There has been terrible things throughout history done in the name of the greater good. You're surrendering the individuals you're turning them in away from actual identifiable characteristics of humans and individuals. And you're turning them into an, a morphous blob. Of ideas and values. This enables people to disconnect from hurting individuals, which is what you do when you do this.
[00:35:43] And turning it into this high level overview. Of a group, the collective. The collective good. Is the most common way to do terrible things in our world. So representing an honoring the individual and living from that, living from your [00:36:00] individual agency.
[00:36:02] Is the most powerful rebellious act you can perform in our world today. And it has always been that case on the earth because earth has never been free. We've been in slave in some form or fashion throughout the entirety of our existence as humanity. That time is coming to an end. I hope I believe it is. I believe that's why many of us are here.
[00:36:21] But we have a lot of work to do.
[00:36:23] But when we honor. The individual and ourselves, all of us are honored because all of us live as the individual, all every aspect, color, race, gender, sexuality, beliefs are all exist within the individual. So when we make it about the individual and what the individual desires. And we honor the individual.
[00:36:46] We become free. We empower ourselves to honor one another because we're honoring ourselves and we're honoring the other, but that all starts within us. That's why honoring the individual in ourselves is crucial, honoring understanding who we are. [00:37:00] So that we can do that for others.
[00:37:02] And then the last component of that is that rights are innate and they are not granted by our governments. They are innate within us. That's the power of the individual. The individual is because of the spark of existence that lives within each of us, the soul, the spirit, whatever you want to call it.
[00:37:20] That gives us our individual agency.
[00:37:23] And it's not granted by our governments or by any earthly authority that is rightfully ours and can never be taken from us. That's why we are despised when we feel and believe these things. By authoritarians in power. Because they know that we cannot be moved. We can not be destroyed. Those ideas, no matter how much they may try and cannot be removed because they live within us.
[00:37:49] And that's the difference. Rights are innate. Our values are innate. They are not granted by any external authority. Remember that always.
[00:37:59] [00:38:00] And please, please. The greatest thing you can do in this age is to be proactive truth seekers, question narratives, and engage in responsible information sharing. Get out there and challenge things. Be strong. Question things be skeptical. It is your duty. You're right. To be questioning and skeptical of information and authority figures.
[00:38:24] There's nothing more American than that. If you live in the United States. Is to question authority and challenge authority figures. It's the very foundation with which this country was born upon individual Liberty. And challenging authorities that try and over use SERP, the individual rights and power that we hold.
[00:38:42] As God given citizens. So question those narratives seek that truth. Ruthlessly. And inspire a commitment to integrity, honesty, and ethical conduct in your personal and public life. Be true through and through in everything that you do. [00:39:00] Inspired to do that. Make your life worth living. Be honest and integrity, driven and ethical in everything that you do.
[00:39:10] Be true. Both in your private and public life align those two things. As much as you can. Don't think don't say things dishonesty don't mislead yourself or others. Be honest and true in every aspect of your life. Don't pose on social media in ways that are not reflective of who you are. Be genuine and honest and everything that you do inspire to be that way.
[00:39:36] The world needs people like that more now than ever.
[00:39:42] B excellent humans. Y'all.
[00:39:46] All right gang.
[00:39:48] We covered. The urgency and emphasis of unmasking and countering the big lie. There are a lot of psychological components that go into this. [00:40:00] Re repetitive nature, making the lie huge, having an identifiable, other or enemy is critical to that leveraging people's biases that they have. Understanding the psychological vulnerabilities that they may be experiencing the fears that they have within them and how demagogues.
[00:40:19] Leverage those things and manipulate that information. To usurp power. If people are afraid of questions or challenges or going against anything, if they're, if they are pushing back on questions in any form. That's a huge red flag questions. And. Digging into information. Exploring curiosity is always okay.
[00:40:43] Always that's how we grow and evolve as a species. So when people are not doing that, When they're not allowing for that. And you know that that's a huge red flag. And we have to be mindful of that. History will keep repeating itself until we learn to overcome these things. [00:41:00] And that's why. Cultivating a vigilant and critical mindset.
[00:41:04] Prioritizing the truth and integrity. And actively participating in the collective pursuit of a more informed and truthful society is the ultimate mission that you can live upon. And that is the mission that I call upon you. To accept that mission and live that mission with honor and help us in this.
[00:41:23] Fight for truth. And this fight for. Authenticity and reality. And a more compassionate and loving society. So with that being said, y'all, that's all I got for today's episode. You can catch me on Twitter at Brandon Lee ward. I'm on LinkedIn at Brandon L. Ward. And my website is Brandon Lee, war.com. If you want to hit me up.
[00:41:43] But otherwise, I sure do appreciate your time. I hope you're enjoying the show and I hope you have a good rest of your day. And until next time y'all.
[00:41:53] Thank you for listening to Order Within. If you found the episode helpful, please consider sharing, [00:42:00] rating and subscribing. New episodes will be released every Thursday at 11:00 AM Eastern Standard time. Until next time y'all.