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Are you familiar with the term magical thinking? If not, then stick around

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because I'm not only going to explain what it is, but how it destroys lives

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and what you can do about it. Hello, my name's Ernest. Welcome.

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If you're an adult listening to this, and I assume you are, I want to ask a

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question that on the surface may seem well silly, but I mean it seriously.

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Do you believe in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy?

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Serious, I'm I'm not kidding. Do you actually believe in them?

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And if you don't, why why is it really that hopefully past a

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certain age we no longer believe that?

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Well, one of several reasons, of course, is that as we hopefully mentally grow

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and mature, we can intellectually figure out that the proposition of an actual

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Santa Claus or the tooth fairy is well impossible.

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And we understand that based on all the information in the world that we gather

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around us as we grow up. And so you don't necessarily past a

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certain age and stage have to be concerned about being good because

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you're worried about what Santa Claus will or will not bring you for Christmas because the proposition is well again

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silly. And that's the same point that I wanted to make, and I'm going to make a huge

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jump here, but that's the same point concerning

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magical thinking because basically what you're engaging in, even though you

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don't know it at that time in your life, is you're engaging in magical thinking.

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Then as you grow older, those particular aspects of magical thinking, they fall

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to the wayside. Well, as I said before, because we we grow up, we're not

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children, at least not in that respect. Now what I propose to you is that what

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happens is as we transition into you know uh adolescence and then early

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adulthood and for the rest of our lives, we end up replacing those two items on

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the magical thinking list with other items um such as the belief in God or in

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the belief in extraterrestrial beings or that the world is flat or any other

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number of other things which broadly still fall under the category of magical

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thinking. Now, when you're a little child and you

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believe in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy or Easter Bunny or any of those

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things, you know, the implications in life in general and for those around

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you that you as a child believe those things, um, well, they're pretty

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inconsequential. you know, they're they're not going to, you know, heavily impact other people's

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lives that much. But as far as the other things that I

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mentioned, well, they most certainly do.

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And that is the problem of magical thinking.

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Because if you're any adult out there who hasn't spent the large majority of

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your life living under a rock, you for instance know the neverending turmoil in

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the Middle East between, say, for instance um Israel and Palestine, the

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Palestinians. This is driven primarily.

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There are also many other outside factors but primarily its foundation is

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magical thinking. And this ends up with thousands and tens

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of thousands for 20 30 40 50 years or more. I'm

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ished u state of Israel since: 1948

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that it it goes on it has been going on and despite just recently a so-called

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ceasefire. Yeah, right. Let's see how long that lasts.

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It's not going to last because those two groups of people both engage

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very actively in magical thinking. They are at an impass and that impass is

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not going to change because of magical thinking.

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That alone, just that example, that one example alone

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should clearly explain the dangers of magical thinking.

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That's what it is. And anytime you happen to be someone, even if you're

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one of the relative few who refuse to engage in magical thinking,

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you can get caught up in it. Nonetheless, because one group of people under their

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government decides to bomb the [ __ ] out of the other group of people that they

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don't agree with and you just happen to be living there,

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you know, let's say if you're a either an Israeli or Palestinian who is not in

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any way, shape, or form religious, and they do exist,

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But still you get caught up in the quagmire of this this whole nonsense

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because of other people who are in control and are not operating under their full

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faculties. Yet you can get, you know, harmed or

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maybe even killed. And this has been repeated countless

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times throughout history. You know, all of the uh people in the Second World

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War, whether you know it was um the Nazis or what have you, you know, you

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you got to remember although a very mass number of Germans identified with the

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Nazis, not all of them did. There is a a very famous photo of a man

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whose name won't come to me at the moment, but it was I believe it was

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taken at some um it may have been Nuremberg, not certain, but he circled because he was the one person and all of

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the group of hundreds that were around him while everybody else was doing the Nazi salute, he stood there, his arms

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folded. So that's what I mean by that. It is

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always very difficult to swim against the crowd.

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And often times when the crowd is into

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magical thinking or you could call it delusional thinking. Regardless, they're in a temporary state

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of insanity. And it can be very hard to stand against

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that. So this is what I mean by magical

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thinking. And in order to understand that even more fully,

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you would have to be a person who is um say as myself is happily agnostic.

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And you're caught up in a society that is in the throws of that kind of

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thinking. And um you feel you feel incredibly isolated

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and um you feel the pressure and you're you're the fish

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that's swimming against all the other fish headed in that direction, the wrong

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direction. So hopefully

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um if I made that you know clear enough that's what I mean by magical thinking.

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So yeah a lot many places even in the US

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are under the under the throws throngs if you will of this kind of thinking.

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Now it's not all out war. They're not all out killing each other.

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Not yet. But it's entirely possible that that

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could happen. And all it takes is a spark.

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And when you keep building a powder cake

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of resentment and then on top of that you mix in a whole lot of economic

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troubles, people living, you know, with job uncertainty in general in no

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certainty. you know, you uh you you're mixing up a brew of uh desperation, despair,

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a whole mix of bad things. Then if those same people, if you add to

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that ingredient list, you have them in a state of magical thinking,

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um, such as believing that you're going to hire a president, some kind of

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doofus, and that he's going to change everything relatively overnight and

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going to make everything better. That's delusional thinking. It's not

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going to happen. As a matter of fact, and I want to make this very clear,

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I am not necessarily wanting to say that a dictatorship is a

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good idea. But what I am saying on the other hand

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is that when you're having multiple societal crisis

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um you know at the same time that I believe is what it would take to

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change things for the better. And I think in many people's heart of

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hearts, even if they don't want to admit it,

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that's what they want. That's what they want. They want a dictator.

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They want a dictator. There, I said it. Because with all of this kind of

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turmoil, everything that I just mentioned, it was the exact same uh situation in

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that sense. Uh tremendous uh economic uh

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problems, uncertainty, people, you know, people in dire economic times and then

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you can't can't even afford food because inflation's going through the roof. All

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the conditions are there to just make things in this pressure cooker of crazy

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worse and worse by the day. And it gets so bad that people just throw in, you

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know, they give up reason and they kept trying reason repeatedly with quote unquote getting presidents

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and presidents in the US are such under the under the current life that we live

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and the times. This isn't we're not talking 250 years ago when a constitution was written and we didn't

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even have [ __ ] electricity or running water or a whole host of other things.

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It's a very different time of course. Well, obviously that time is long past.

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But regardless, this entire rule book, this entire framework, and I'm not necessarily talking about

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the framework work of democracy, but I'm talking about the entire structure as it

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is, obviously is not working.

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When I say working, well, actually, let me let me clarify that for a certain

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segment of the population, it's absolutely working. meaning the rich of course um you know you know the

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story these guys they steld them if ever they don't pay any taxes they break the

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law they get slapped on the hand you know I'm to the the guys I'm talking about or at least you should

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but the rest of us nah not so much so yeah um it's not the system is not

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work for us and they keep people keep saying, "Well,

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the system's broken and it No, no, no. It's not broken.

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It's not broken at all. It's working exactly the way it should

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again for them, but for the common average person, nah,

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not so much." And just like at the times of the French Revolution or any other huge social

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uprisings that occur, yeah, that's um you know that's pretty much you know the

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situation that it is. And that's why you have revolutions and

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all this nastiness which also I'll say it doesn't it

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doesn't end up or it hasn't let's just say for the most part it hasn't really changed anything because what happens is

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is whether it's through the guillotine or whatever the case may be even if even

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if we you know got rid of all the bad guys however that's done and you put

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things more to you a much leveler playing field. You tried to write all the wrongs. You redistributed wealth. If

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the fundamental system is in place that enabled that in the first place,

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in a relative short amount of time, it's going to creep back in and you're going

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to have the same damn thing all over again. So the way you have to get rid of that

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is you have to get rid of those ideas which are backward and stupid and well

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based in magical thinking. But in the meantime,

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the question you might be thinking is, okay, let's storm the gates. Let's hang

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the bastards. Let's, you know, let's let's have a whole bastile day with and

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have a, you know, have a field day and then be a big gigantic huge blood bath

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and all that. Let's we we know that. But as I said, if you don't thoroughly

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accept and understand what got us there in the first place, it will all

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eventually come back again. So that first of all you need to

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understand you need to recognize that you need to get rid of the magical

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thinking. Now maybe you

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maybe you can do that yourself and that's that's

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great. That's wonderful because it has to start somewhere and there's no place better in the world where it should

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start particularly for your own life is it needs to start with you that that's

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great. But if you can't count on this, if it

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doesn't take off into an absolute very broad um say national movement um where

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just you know suddenly suddenly like what I'm visualizing is just you know

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like um masses masses of people that you know just become aware you know it's

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kind of like for you people that remember the old the movie um V for Vendetta

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uh when on the 5th of November all these people showed up dressed as V and they

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all had the masks on and and all that that kind of thing. Uh as far as the

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possibility of that happening, I I don't know. I mean, maybe maybe it could,

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but I'm not necessarily counting on that. I think it's going to be a much

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more, you know, gradual uh but yet forceful uh shift. Let's say one of the

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I believe as I don't know as incredible or silly as this may sound again since

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primarily it's a propaganda machine not a truth machine and can't believe a damn

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thing in our own uh mass media today. But when they're constantly talking

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about u let's say if we just limit it to across America the huge price spikes in

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fast food but consequently all the places selling fast food that no one's

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no one's going to and say well they they bring it back into the economy and how

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broke everyone is. And I'm like, look, you know, if you can't afford

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McDonald's, yeah, there's something really wrong. But you see, even that is

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disingenuous in itself because it's not it's not addressing

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what the real issue is. The real issue I believe what the truth is is that what

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many Americans at least have done is they're doing their own form of becoming

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V and they're simply they're they're be honest just [ __ ] you I'm not paying 135

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$20 for a Big Mac Coke and fries ain't happening screw yourself

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and so it's an unwillingness to pay that's that I is driving this and I

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think that I think that's great. I think that's wonderful and I hope it continues

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and I hope it spreads to so many other areas where people have been they've

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been gouged for 30 plus years. Everything from cars, housing, houses, clothing, you name it.

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I mean, we've been gouged, really gouged, really bad, and people are sick of it, and I understand that.

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But what drives the machine, the old the old guard, the old thing gets it, you know, gets it really going. What they

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count on is the whole magical call. They ring the bell. It's sort of like, you

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know, everyone turns and drops what they're doing mentally. and they can always count on Christmas,

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the whole Christmas thing. And so they could eek out just long enough to make

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it to, let's say, you know, the beginning of December and then they get

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that whole PR thing going because that's the shopping. It's it's the shopping

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season and you know a million sales and this and that and they that's what they do

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and that's what I've done my whole life and I haven't I haven't participated in

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Christmas let's see it's been

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over 30 years over 30 years. Think about that. No

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Christmas, nothing. No gifts, no dinners, nothing. Nothing at all.

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Now, just to say on a side note about that, I will readily admit because I I'm

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not a space alien and I don't have six heads and grew up just like most Americans and

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I engaged and did all that [ __ ] for, you know, roughly half of my life.

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And then when I started figuring all this stuff out and I decided no and I

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let people know and of course at first they thought I was kind of well losing my mind. Um, again, this is where the

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fish starts to swim upstream. And I admit there's a a very strange

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feeling when the masses, friends, family, all that. All of them um are

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doing this and you're not. It's, you know, I remember for probably

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[ __ ] three, four seasons, um, feeling that way and, um, it was

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weird and it was tough and at least and but then finally by

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like the I guess it was around the fourth or fifth year, I felt it, but I

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felt it less. And then as the story goes, as time went on, I felt it less

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and less. And fast forward to today, I see I feel I see clearly

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because I try to the best of my ability not to engage in magical thinking and so

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I don't and it's just I I recognize it exactly for what it is and I refuse to

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participate. Um, I'm not there's nothing wrong if you

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if you like someone or you love someone and you want to give them a gift. Um,

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anytime you want to give them a gift, fine. I'm not against gift giving. I'm

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talking about the cult of consumerism around Christmas

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and everything that that economically demands of you and the whole drive about

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that. And it's it's it's obscene. And it's stupid and it's magical

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thinking which like I said I try not to

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engage in. So now I think I would mention the part

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to you about what you can do. Now, I

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don't have the time in this episode to go into all the things you can do, but

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just a few things and hopefully we'll get you on track so you can, as they

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say, unplug from this. Um, what do I say? Simply don't engage.

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Just like all the people that are foregoing fast food and they're foregoing, you know,

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movie theaters that are charging, I don't know, they want to charge 20 and $25 for a ticket to see a [ __ ] movie.

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And that's before any of the, you know, concession stand items. Just stop engaging.

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And you're not you. You don't have to worry about this as a

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movement. Just worry about you. You and maybe your immediate family. If

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you're married, for instance, um you know, or if you have kids, this

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makes it can make it so much tougher. But if you both do this, uh and you

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know, it would kind of work much better if you both did. And you know, and don't go into the Saab

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thing. And then don't go into the psychological manipulation of so-called caring friends and family and grandma

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and grandpa. What do you mean? The kids aren't going to get any toys for Christmas. What kind of what have you

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lost your mind? Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. You have to decide in unplugging

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from magical thinking. Are they living your life or do you want to live your

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life? And in addition to that, as far as passing on traditions and values, I

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can't think of any better traditions and

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values to pass on than non-engagement. And then eventually

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when they're old enough, they'll understand. they'll figure it out and they'll say, "Well, it felt really weird

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at the time, but um you know, do the right thing, they'll

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thank you later." kind of thing. So, I can't, you know, I can't speak um for

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obviously for everyone out there and I would certainly be interested in hearing your thoughts or what you have to say.

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But the point is is to unplug and you know if you have to like cigarettes or

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whatever if you have to withdraw gradually that works for you. Um

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that's what will not only not only clear your conscience and clear your mind

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but it will also save you a hell of a lot of money. Uh yeah that so you'll

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have that Hollywood's uh that uh holiday spirit. Ho ho ho.

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So I just um yeah I just think the whole the whole thing is well it is what it

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is. It's a part of magical thinking and that's simply one of the things that you need to do to move forward is to unplug.

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And there's there's not just Christmas. There's just so many fields, so many

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things that you need to unplug from.

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And what does all this mean? Well, it means basically in time, you know, you

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give it some time and especially from all the money you'll save. And there's a lot of headaches

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associated this with this. you you begin to think well clearly and

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you begin to feel better but it's not going to happen overnight you know this

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isn't something that you just do once and say well I tried that but you know

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parents didn't like it and my sister and brother brother or brother-in-law or whatever thought I was crazy and I I

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made up for it the next year because because I have beliefs

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these things and this living it's all part this is all an an integral part of

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what is not sustainable for all those groups out there for instance and they talk about sustainability

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well yet they engage in Christmas and the if you look at it just from an

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environmental point of view it would be absolutely staggering

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almost you know inconceivable just the amount of waste

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from all of the paper and and nonsense that goes with the presence. Hundreds

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and hundreds of tons, hundreds of millions of tons perhaps

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that won't go into the landfill. You see, it affects everything. And that,

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think about it, that's just one. Although probably the biggest, at least

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in North America, but that's just one holiday.

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That's just one. So, um, anyway, I'd like to I'd like to

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hear what your thoughts are about this. And of course, yes, I I hate I always

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feel guilty to ask this, but I'd appreciate it. I would if you would hit that button and subscribe and all that

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jazz and it would really help the channel grow, of course. But, you know,

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um yeah. Anyway, so I hope that what I told you here is far

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as this is concerned is has been helpful. Anyway,

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until next time, this is Ernest and that's all I've got

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for today.