it is the case that even in a hierarchy that's functional the thing can go sideways and it does you know you get companies that get too big they start to get corrupt people who play politics and who are good at manipulating start to rise up the hierarchy the the structure stops performing its function its useful function in the way that it should it starts to degenerate but generally then it dies you know like the typical fortune 500 company only lasts 30 years and the typical family fortune only three generations it's not that easy to keep
a functional enterprise going you have to be awake and so no it's not an oppressive patriarchy our culture that's wrong it's based on competence fundamentally imperfect as that is it's not like we don't make hiring mistakes it's not like there aren't people who are foolish and blind and higher and fire based on attributes that have nothing to do with competence but that's a sign of the deterioration of the system and the corruption of the system and not an indication of its fundamental function and it's also the case that and this is partly what i tried
to outline in rule one which is pretty much the rule we're going to discuss today um part of your goal if you want to take your place in the hierarchy properly is to be a good person and that was the argument i was trying to make in the chapter not that you're supposed to be like the most brutal crustacean on the block you know it's so foolish it was kathy newman i think that asked me in in in the uk so you're saying that human society should be organized along the lines of lobsters it's like
look lady if you're gonna if you're going to insult someone you might want to try accusing them of something of believing something that someone somewhere believed at least once in the entire history of the human race and not that yes absolutely lobsters for everyone you know that's how what i was trying to make the case was that we have this very old system in our nervous systems which is very old which keeps track of where we are in hierarchies and that regulates our emotions because of it because it's really important to you and you and
you and you if you're not completely bloody psychopathic that you have a place in a social hierarchy and that you're admired and respected and valued by other people and it's so important that that the neurochemical system that keeps track of that regulates your other emotions so that if you're low on the totem pole because well for whatever the reason happens to be sometimes you deserve it sometimes it's accidental sometimes you've been hurt there's lots of ways that that that that this can happen your serotonin levels plummet like a defeated lobster and then you you feel
way more negative emotion about everything and way less positive emotion about everything and that's absolutely dreadful like it's it's that's clinical depression and it's a terrible terrible condition and so it's absolutely crucial that you maintain a tenable position in a hierarchy and not of one of power but one of competence and at least even if you're not in a position that's tenable you're moving upward towards one that's tenable because that at least gives you hope you know because maybe you're young and useless and you don't know what the hell you're doing you're just getting started
and so you're low man on the totem pole but it's not like you're stuck there forever you do some decent work i had some kid tell me the other day it was really nice it was just last night was it a comedy show i went to here and um a lot of the comedians knew us reuben and i went in there and so a lot of them knew us which was quite interesting and one of them said god you know i was in a rough shape two years ago i was just getting married i just
got married and i was nihilistic as hell and depressed and bitter and things weren't going well for me at all and uh and i was unemployed and one of my friends got me a job and he said i'd really liked a bloody job i didn't want to have the job and i was kind of dragging my ass to the work and not doing it well and i listened to one of your lectures and it said look if you haven't got anything going for you but you have a job don't quit your job whether you hate
it or not it's like man that's what you're hanging on to the edge of the world with your fingertips you know don't let go oh if you can find a better job okay fine but you don't just quit because then what you're done and he and he said and another thing that i had mentioned was uh why don't you just try to work as hard as you can at your damn job for like six weeks right all flat out you know if you work 10 longer hours you make 40 percent more money that's something worth
thinking about you know you've got a job maybe you show up 15 minutes early and you leave 15 minutes late you know when you actually work and your boss notices because people would probably notice and then maybe someone's going to get promoted and maybe it'll be you because something's going to tilt the scales and that little extra bit of work done without cynicism and resentment might be enough well he said he started at 21 bucks an hour and in six weeks he was making 37 an hour and it's not a king's ransom man but it's
a hell of a lot more than zero and it's quite a lot more than 21. he said his life had turned around substantially because he learned if he put some damn effort into it and i'm not trying to be joel optimist here like i know that people hit runs of bad luck and that things can take you out of life right unfortunate illnesses and and and and betrayal and like there's no shortage of randomness and horror that can wipe you out even if you're doing your best but you don't have a better bloody plan than
to do your best and it tends to work a lot better than you think and what's so interesting about the hierarchies that people set up is that that's how they're set up they're not set up on power they're set up on reciprocity and skill and trust not always you know and if you're in a job where you work hard and you're a good guy and and you're doing your best and your boss is a bloody tyrant and you never get a break it's like okay fine you're you're you're in a fuco world get the hell
out of it you know you get your resume set up write your cv fill in the educational gaps that you can ha that you have send out your 25 resumes a day and prepare to make a lateral move because you're in a bad place but almost everywhere and this certainly been the case virtually everywhere i've worked and i've had like 50 jobs you know if you go above and beyond the call of duty you know and wake an intelligent way interpersonally socially with regards to the diligence of your work with regards to the truth of
your attitude and your courage and all of that that will work and you know if you try it for a year and it doesn't work then go somewhere else because you can right you're free i mean it's not easy you can't just walk out the door and instantly find another job but you're not enslaved you could make a move you could even decide that you're going to make a move and double your salary you know it's not a bad goal and it's certainly a possibility it's like it isn't hierarchy it's ethics that determines success in
a functional society it's ethics that determines success not power the rest of it's a bloody lie and that doesn't mean that all our systems are perfectly ethical you know you've got to be awake if you're in a system there's going to be some corruption in it part of what you're supposed to do is keep your damn eyes open for the corruption and your mouth speaking truth so when the corruption starts to take root you object to it so the whole damn system doesn't turn into a pathological power play and that's part of your ethical responsibility
as a conscious being an ethical being a religious being for that matter and a citizen you know and then you're charged with that that's why you're that's why you vote that's why you're the cornerstone of your state man you're you're the you're the you're the what would you call you're the you're the wellspring of the ethical actions that replenish the dying world that's what you are
