season 1 episode 1

The speaker, Jeff Turnbull, introduces the concept of social ecology and the need to solve the human problem in order to address environmental issues. He criticizes politicians from both the right and left, calling them unserious and focused on staying in power rather than making meaningful change. Turnbull shares his journey from being a Republican to a Democrat, highlighting the challenges he faced with the welfare system. He expresses concern about the state of democracy and suggests the possibility of a complete overhaul, mentioning direct democracy as a potential solution. He emphasizes the importance of seeing the impact of voting and calls for more accountability in the political process. Namaste you filthy animals. Welcome to Project Utopia. All power to all people. That is right. Power to the people right on, right on. Okay, so my name is Jeff Turnbull and I'm here to talk to you about civilization, society if you will. I've recently come across a new philosophy that I've just completely embraced and it's engulfed me. Social ecology. A gentleman by the name of Mary Bookchin. He's an autodidact. He taught himself about philosophy. He's a very smart and self-educated person. And basically saying that to solve the ecology problem, global warming and climate change and all that is first we must solve for the human problem. Basically that's what we need to do for every problem. Solve for the human problem. So we can't fix anything incrementally about the planet without addressing the root cause, which is humanity or the lack thereof. That leads us back to politics. So if you're not happy with the government, I don't blame you. Look at the people who are in office right now. We'll start with the right. I hate to use the word clown show, but they're not serious people. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, that speaker of the house, Kevin. Oh, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin. They're not serious people. They're playing games. It's cosplay government. It's just ridiculous. They're not there to do anything. They're there to culture war, basically to stay in power and destroy the government. And if you want to destroy the state, you might as well be serious about it and take it seriously and have something to show for it at the end. But they're just messing shit up. And, you know, for the former guy, President 45, the orange, the orange fuck. So he's destroying everything. He needs to be in jail. And then there's people on the left like. Oh, what's his name? I got his hand caught in a cookie jar. Yeah, his name is excuse me, but you know what I'm saying? Incrementalism. They talk about getting money out of politics and this and that. It'll never happen. How do you have those? How are those people going to police themselves when they benefit financially and power and absolute power? Absolutely. Joe Biden, bless his heart, is doing his best. He's got his, you know, I have my druthers with him. But that being said, I will start where when I started voting, I graduated from high school in 1980. I was panicked about the draft because that was going around at that time. And I would stay after class and talk to my government teacher. And he was a man of few words. He is. He had some crazy mottos. Where do you draw the line? How much is enough? Well, the rest of the time we watch television. But I was panicked. And he said, you know, not to worry about it. I was ready to head to Canada. What have you? So. But that being said, back then, probably still as it is, people vote like younger people vote. What's your parents? Probably not so much anymore. But my parents were died in the war, Republicans. So that's what I voted. So I didn't go to college. That's another story for another time. But I was a smart guy. I started selling insurance and someone got me into the Wall Street and the financial markets. And I was working for a firm, a bunch of thieves. They were thieves. And I used to say, you know, I have a license to steal literally. And I couldn't do it. I mean, the work it would take. Basically, you sit there at the phone book and you make 200 phone calls. And you just yell to go, hey, Joe, I want to make you money. So some people have thousand dollars to throw at you. And then when you made the money on an IPO, you turn around and put them in some other dummy company and you just play that game, you know, that shell game. And so you eventually, you know, it sounded paid off and he gave you some more money. And that's how you build a book and make your money and all this other kind of stuff. And if you're smart, you learn tax law and all that along the way. I had all my licenses and insurance licenses, but I just eventually I got out and just played music for a while. It was just ridiculous. So I voted for Reagan the first time. The second time I voted for Joe Biden in the primary in 88. But Dukakis won instead. And apparently Joe plagiarized somebody's speech. But that aside, I eventually became a Democrat and voted for Clinton. Then I got diagnosed with bipolar one depressive and had to move to where my parents were and lived there for a while. And what happened was, is I I got into the system. I got my access card. I got so I had like Medicaid and I was within a couple of weeks of making the choice to choose to get some help. I was in front of a psychiatrist. I got diagnosed. I was in front of a therapist. I was talking to people. Fast forward a few months later and Clinton had signed the Welfare Reform Act, you know, because, you know, Reagan said about welfare people, you know, welfare queens. You're they're all eating steak and lobster. No, they're not. I've been in food stamps to online and it just enough to get by. So I lost that. I lost my my health care, more of my mental health care. So like thousands and thousands of other people, I was left to do for my own. So I had parents who were going to help me. I had a pocket. I was able to see a therapist. I didn't. I was able to get some medication here and there. But, you know, I fell through the cracks like so many other people. So I was a Clinton loyalist there for the up until a few years ago. And then I realized that, you know, I couldn't defend that position because it hurt me and like so many other people. So now now you look at government and both sides, not to use that expression, both sides. But, you know, the lesser of two evils is still evil. Right. So it's all about money. It's like Joe Manchin. Oh, my God. Christian cinema pretending to be Democrats because that's what their demographic is in their states when they actually take more money and they're not up for election. And now they want to, like, ask the third party and mess it all up. So discovering social equality was the best thing that happened to me because I'm with Myers-Briggs type indicator. And I am an FMJ-A. I am a big thinker. I'm a humanist. I'm an optimist. I'm an idealist. I think big. I don't sleep. But, you know, that aside, too, is that there's a lot at stake. I have a kid in this world, a trans kid living in a red state. There's another reason not to sleep. So, you know, and in the last few years, too, during the last guy's regime, I like to use that word a lot. You know, I got started studying different philosophies. I've always loved philosophies. But Hannah Arendt, a great philosopher, wrote a book on authoritarianism. Dr. Jason Stanley wrote a book, How Fascism Works, How Propaganda Works. Ruth Ben-Ghia wrote Strongmen, Then and Now, Mussolini in the Present. And, you know, just kind of – you can see it. If you don't know about it, you – if you don't know what it is, you don't recognize it. So this whole destroying education, banning books – I mean, there's Republicans. I forget what state. We're literally banning books or boxes or books or whatever. I mean that's the dumbing down, getting you hot. Strongman plays victims, tries to use his body. There's a checklist like anything. I know checklists. You know, being – having a mental health disorder, there's a checklist. You run down the checklist and you start seeing a picture like, yeah, I know what this is. So – but it's creeping up. It's creeping up. And if Trump goes away, he goes to jail hopefully and all that. There's still these people out there ready to wipe their ass with the Constitution, screaming about revolution, talking about a civil war. But they don't really know the score because there's a lot more of us than them. That doesn't mean they can't do irreparable damage. The Constitution was written and developed by a bunch of white rich landowners for white rich landowners. The system is not broken. It was designed that way, and it was designed that way on purpose. James Madison, if you read Noam Chomsky's Requiem for the American Dream or watch the documentary or listen to the audio book, he'll go through it point by point. James Madison wasn't really cool on democracy. The only way it was going to work is have less democracy. They were afraid that the poor people would get together and take what is rightfully theirs, like voting rights and civil rights and equal rights, like all these things. We have to fight for them. Unions, everyone is striking right now. So it's not to live to fight another day. You've got to live and fight today because incrementally you give an inch, they take a mile, and then you find yourself without any shoes, run on, baby form, all that kind of stuff. Then they turn around and blame somebody else. So I guess I'm getting lost in the weeds here, but my point being is democracy, this experiment, maybe it doesn't work. Maybe it isn't working. It seems like to do a complete overhaul, like Citizens United, corporations are people. The Supreme Court is infected and toxic and not working and prejudiced. There's a new way, and unfortunately it looks like it might have to burn to the ground and we might have to scrape up the ashes and see what we can salvage and build anew. But here's two words I'm going to give to you. Direct democracy. But I guess if there's a way to vote for things and then even check on it, there's certain people who would say it's rigged or it's fake or whatever. At some point we have to be able to see what our vote carries, what it gets us, how it will move the needle. And with all the technologies, there's got to be a way. Everyone has a smartphone or a terminal or something where you can go check your vote. You can verify a time. You can date stamp it. There's – to quote Reagan, trust but verify. Yeah, right. But so we have to see the fruits of our labors, and our labor, one of them being voting, getting out. And we shouldn't just wait every four years to vote and expect things to change. That's not how it works. You've got to twill every day, not without labor. So that being said, I hope you enjoyed what I had to say or fresh insights or appreciate where I'm coming from. So like and subscribe and all that good stuff. Follow me, share it. I'll be sharing new and exciting stuff. More long form, more prepared, but I just want to put some stuff up so you got an idea of what I'm talking about. So peace, love, and understanding. What's wrong with that? I don't know. Let's get it on. Peace.