How To Be Happy In A World That’s Falling Apart | Ep. 58

Is happiness just an illusion, or can we truly pursue it? In this powerful episode, former Navy SEAL David Rutherford takes you on a deep dive into the real meaning behind “the pursuit of happiness.”

Drawing from the wisdom of Jefferson, Locke, Mason, Cicero, Aristotle, and the Stoics, Rut explains why the Founding Fathers made this phrase central to American identity—and why modern culture has twisted it into a shallow chase for pleasure and material gain.

👉 You’ll learn:

• Why Jefferson chose happiness over property

• How Cicero and the Stoics connected happiness to virtue and wisdom

• The dangers of confusing happiness with materialism

• A practical challenge to live with courage, honesty, gratitude, and other timeless virtues

It’s time to reclaim the revolutionary spirit of happiness—rooted in virtue, sacrifice, and wisdom.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Is happiness just an illusion or is there something we
can actually do about it? Today on The David Rutherford Show,
Hello friends, I am extremely fired up about this episode because,
as usual, on my journey on the road this week,

(00:23):
I have had a considerable amount of time to contemplate
why America is so bummed out right now. And if
you spend as much time as I do on X
on substack, on Instagram, on YouTube as a result of

(00:44):
me trying to be aware of what the mentality or
the consciousness of our society where it's at, it's pretty
apparent that right now people are pretty bummed out. Now,
before we get into this, I just want to say
thank you so much for all your support. You've been incredible.

(01:04):
We just we love the overwhelming outreach of support we're
getting all over the place. Please like, subscribe, and share
the show. It makes huge impact for us in the
algorithm and our algorithm. The algorithm is finally starting to
pick us up. There's one clip that we have on
Instagram that's gone over four hundred thousand views. That's because

(01:28):
you all are sharing it, you're commenting on it, you're
liking it. If you could do that for us on
all the different platforms YouTube, x all the places that
we're offering our content and the show on X are.
The show is at d Rutherford Show on Instagram, It's

(01:50):
at David Rutherford Show. On YouTube It's David The David
Rutherford Show. Or you can follow me at Team frog
Logic on everything. We still, Jordy, we still got to
get my YouTube channel back up and going, don't we
We got to figure that one out. If you, if
you know anybody at YouTube or anything, have them reach

(02:10):
out and help us, because, for the life of me,
I cannot find the credentials that allow me to get
back into my YouTube channel after they throttled me back
in twenty twenty. But your ideational YouTube's purse and it's
going to your jail, but mine's in jail still. I
think I don't know. Maybe they just what they'll say

(02:31):
is you've lost your password, and I was like, oh
my god, give me a break. Anyways, we really appreciate it.
If you want to sign up for the newsletter and
get our weekly newsletter that has all different kinds of
things in it, go to David Rutherford dot com. You
can sign up for the newsletter there. We've got a
pretty robust group coming, We're going to start putting some

(02:51):
more articles in there. Also, if you're interested in any
of the motivational topics or ideas that I've been teaching
for the last thirty years, the ones that I share
around the country for all the various organizations that I
speak with, most particularly the asset management firm that I
work with, go check those out. Because I teach three

(03:14):
different courses. You can get them online for two hundred dollars.
Each one is learning to Embrace your Fears, the second
is learning to Forge your Self confidence, and the third
is learning to live a team life. Those courses are available.
They're fantastic. Their journal based as well as some activity
but we just think they would make a huge impact
for you. Also sign up for my new upcoming fictional

(03:37):
book called The Poet Warrior, or go to the our
merchandise page on David Rutherford dot com. And I have
a self help book about self confidence, and then I
sell to kids book one which is a fitness book
with my cartoon character Doc Frog. The other is a
anti bully operation book with Doc and four of his

(03:58):
buddies that you know create up the Anti Bully Brigade. Okay,
that's all I got to say about that. The pursuit
of happiness. As I said before, when I'm in the airport,
I'm always sitting there kind of contemplating what my next
show is going to be. And early this week, when

(04:19):
I took off early in the morning on Tuesday to
head out to Salt Lake City, I just noticed they're
the not a malaise, but there's a heaviness across society
right now. There's a heaviness in every aspect. I hear
the heaviness in my children, right My four daughters all

(04:40):
teenage girls, So I hear it out of high schools.
I hear it in friends and peers and people I know. Obviously,
we see it on the internet in multiple different capacities
at every different age group. Most especially, I think this
has been a punctual by Charlie Kirk's assassination, But this

(05:04):
is not just the beginning of this cultural war that's
been taking place for I mean, you can argue is
it's always underpinned to society. There's always some type of
ambitious ideology or pathocracy that em talked about. That's that's

(05:24):
trying to wage war against the other intrinsic structures of society, right,
these hierarchical pillars that separate different groups within the overall
group itself, right, And I think you know those There's

(05:47):
a and also an idea that's constant. Is I think
people are saying to the sense, when are we going
to have some relief? When are we going to have
some that moment where you can wake up and you
can go pt out in your garage or go to

(06:08):
the gym early, get back, feed your kids or feed
yourself and then go to work. And on the way
to work, you're just listening to something that's making you laugh.
There's no heaviness into work, and work is doing great.
The economy's cranking, so your your job is viable. Your
organization you work for is increasing and generating more revenue. Right,

(06:34):
and there's you know, the world itself seems to be
in a stable position. Man. That That's what I think.
There's this underlying desire that people are looking for right now.
They want some semblance of order, or maybe not. It's
not ordered per se as much as it is that, oh,

(06:56):
we're not on the precipice of some catastrophe, Civil war,
World War three, financial collapse, whatever it might be. We
can have a place or a space and time which
most people say, you know, from nineteen ninety two to
two thousand, that time where we kind of can exhale

(07:22):
and just focus on the betterment of ourselves and our
communities and our families and our friends, and we don't
have this impending weight of destruction that surrounds us. And

(07:42):
you know, there's a group of people out there that
always seem to I don't know if it's challenged me
as much it is amaze me. And these are the
people that are like, oh, I don't watch the news
at all, and I'm not on social media. I don't
watch the news, and you know what, I'm better for it.

(08:03):
I live a more blissful life. I don't have this
impending doom that surrounds me all the time. And I
just I'm better. I feel better about my life, and
everything's just it's easier. I feel more happy. And to
a certain degree, I maybe it's not admire but I

(08:27):
certainly can acknowledge. Wow, that's a legitimate process or approach
to living your life where you can have some separation
from the turmoil or the dystopic future. That's you know,
right impending us outside your door, as you know is

(08:48):
tomorrow morning. And my outlook for that is, yes, you
are protecting your mental health. But there's another aspect of
it is that you're ignoring the reality of a societal
situation that if it continues to ascend and build and

(09:16):
grow or infect or metastasize or cannibalize the consciousness or
the conscious state of the world, the outcomes of that,
as we've already seen in our past, can be catastrophic.
And I think that's probably an understatement which which prevents

(09:39):
happiness in just about every way, shape or form. And
I think, you know, there's a reason why American culture
has absolutely integrated this quest or this pursuit of happiness.
I think it's built into American society. Why because it's

(10:01):
part of our foundation, right, It's part of the way,
it's part of the central idea that America was built
upon by our founding fathers and by those who actually
exited and left the tyranny of England in the sixteen hundreds.
They were seeking out a space of existence that could

(10:27):
they could be segregated from that tyranny that consummate impending
pressure of overreach or or the imposition of a particular
way of thinking or believing right, or the overreach of
a government's control in terms of taxation, or determining what

(10:48):
you could own versus not own, what is the governments
or what you lease? All of those components which drove
those pilgrims out of England. I think that's a part
of our foundational essence in America. I realize there are

(11:10):
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(11:32):
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(12:17):
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(12:40):
You heard that, correct, folks. For a free month. Just
type in my name Rutherford. That's Patriotmobile dot com forward
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Make the switch today. God bless America. Who Yah? And
you know, obviously everybody recognizes that the Declaration of Independence

(13:04):
is the defining document that generated an idea. The challenge
I believe now is that many of you have either
consciously or subconsciously detached yourself from that reference point that
it was the pursuit of happiness. It wasn't the guarantee

(13:27):
of happiness. Right. Happiness is one of the core eight emotions, right,
It's in there joy, right, and so but you have
to recognize, like all emotions, it's fleeting. As quick as
it comes, it can go, and in particular, if you
allow the external world to govern your interpretation or perception

(13:50):
of happiness itself. So how do we begin to contextualize
that from a historical perspective that roots us back in
what it when it actually meant what the author, Thomas Jefferson,
actually meant when he scribed that very famous phrase. Now

(14:10):
let's go back to the original, which was part of
Thomas Jefferson's Right Declaration of Independence that he kind of
co authored, if you will. He was the found the
focused offer in it, but did have help from John
Adams and others. But it was this iconic sentence that
really encapsulates the idea of what the American Revolution, more

(14:33):
so the culture of an American society was built upon.
And that's we hold these truths to be self evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these
are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now, you

(15:00):
got to recognize that the conclusion of that was was
was not kind of haphazard right. It was an intent.
It was intentional. Every single word was chosen with specific intention.
And what you need to understand is that the intention
was not shallow in its aspiration, but it had with

(15:24):
it a depth of thinking through Thomas Jefferson, through John
Adams that was much more tangible or viable maybe that's
not the right word, much more intentional then. I think,
how many of us imagine the phrase itself to mean today? Right?

(15:45):
The pursuit of happiness? What makes us happy today? Right,
Having a certain level of material things, having a particular
financial health, having an oppert tunity that kind of generates
a sense of meaning, whether it's a job or your family,

(16:06):
a community, Right, these things that that's what it is.
But what Thomas Jefferson was trying to encapsulate in this
statement was much more sophisticated than I think most people
allow themselves to realize. Right, This was a deliberate choice

(16:26):
that was rooted in Enlightenment, Enlightenment philosophy, colonial colonial political thought,
and the specific context of the American Revolution itself. Right. Now,
that that's the thing that I think becomes a little
bit problematic intellectually or emotionally for people because this document

(16:49):
and that statements as what is what are our rights?
Is directly correlated to that our right are these inalienable rights.
But guess what we're willing to go toe to toe
with the greatest empire arguably in human history, the English Empire, right,

(17:11):
the monarchy of England. Remember that back then the sun
never set on the English Empire because of its naval fleet.
And it's a colonial ability to overwhelm certain areas around
the world that had huge natural resources and trade opportunities.
So the context of the pursuit of happiness is built

(17:34):
upon the essence of revolution itself. So, as you begin
to listen to my explanation of what this actually means,
think about this stuff that I'm telling you, allow it
to sync in as you're listening to me in your
car right now, as you're listening to me while you
work out this pursuit of happiness is contextualized by the

(17:56):
American revolution itself, all right now, the origins of the
phrase are quite interesting. Right when you think about the
pursuit of happiness in quotations, you know it traced back
to the confluence of intellectual traditions that shaped our founding

(18:16):
father's worldview, right. A primary influence at this time of
Jefferson was John Locke, right, who's eighteen sixty nine the
Second Treasty of Government outlined unalienable rights as life, liberty,
and a state or property right, and that was the
ability to own your own shit right, and that the

(18:39):
government or the aristocracy of the imperial man. Once you
purchased it or conquered it man, that was yours and
nobody was going to take it for you. And within
that sense of ownership where you could build a structure
that gave you enclosure and you could raise a family
and carve out in the wilderness, which they literally did,
a place for you to just exist and pursue this

(19:03):
happiness right. So John Locke was huge and a big
time admirer of Locke. Jefferson was big time and adapted
this triad. But here's the kicker. What did he substitute.
He got rid of the estate or the essence of
the pursuit of a state of property, and he put
in the pursuit of happiness for property. Now you know

(19:27):
this phrase, This overall general idea was more closely aligned
with George Mason's Virginia Declaration of Rights adapted on June twelfth.
Instead of July fourth, r eight weeks before Jefferson's draft,
and then in his he said, quote certain inherent rights,
namely the enjoyment of life, liberty, and with the means

(19:50):
of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness
and safety end quote. So it's interesting, he added. Mason
added the other thing, Right, he recognized that the initial
components and remember these go back to enlightenment thinking on
what enables the human soul to have that sensation of

(20:13):
strength or conviction or protection of their state of mind. Right,
because that's what all this is. It's like, this is
what gives you proper mental health. And when you look
at what the mental health crisis of what's going on
in America, what are the fundamental ideas? Right? Physical health
has been attacked through over prescription of drugs and pharmaceuticals,

(20:34):
the impact of our food. Right, keeping young kids encapsulated
indoors for eight hours a day, infecting them with a
particular desire that the only sense of meaning they're going
to have is if they go work for some mega corporation. Right,
that whole thing. So all these things are in a
front right to what we're doing now or implementing now

(20:56):
into our kids and in ourselves was kind of countering
too to what these these men were talking about. And
so Mason included that right now, you know, when Jefferson
was working on the Declaration in Philadelphia, he had access
to all these thoughts. Like when he's he's contemplating, he's

(21:16):
just not sitting there, you know, in some poetic kind
of stream of consciousness state. He's thinking about each word
and why it's important and where it comes from from
him philosophically. Now, Jackson also drew from a ton beyond
Locke and Mason, and from Scottish Enlightenment figures like Francis Hutchinson,

(21:38):
David Hume, Henry Home or otherwise known as Lord Kames,
and Adam Smith, who all discussed happiness here it is
as a moral pursuit involving virtue and reason. Now you
know what's interesting is Lord kames writings on moral philosophy

(22:04):
influenced Jefferson the frame happiness as the practice of virtue
in harmony with natural laws, right, the practice of virtue.
So the idea then immediately should be what comes to
the forefront of your consciousness while you listen is what
how do I practice virtue, or even more so, what

(22:28):
what what are virtues to me? Like? What aspect of
my life am I engaging in day in and day
out that's virtuous? Right? And then? And then is that
practice of virtue harmonious with what the natural environment offers me?
You know? And I don't think people are looking at

(22:50):
it like that. We've whatever, the powers that be have
stripped us in our consciousness, our philosophical pursuit away from
the court correlation of virtue and our integration into the
natural environments right now? What is virtue? Virtue is a
moral quality or trait considered to be good or desirable,

(23:14):
reflecting ethical excellence and righteousness. It often involves attributes like honesty, courage, capassion,
or justice, which guide actions towards the greater good. In philosophy,
virtues are habits or dispositions that enable a person to
live a morally good life, often balancing extremes example Aristotle's

(23:39):
Golden Mean. Different cultures and systems emphasize specific virtues like
the cordial virtues prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, or in
Western thought or Confucian virtues like benevolence or propriety. All right,
so when I put in you know, hey, groc, give

(24:01):
me a list of all the virtues. This is what
it pumped out, right, And I watch you in your mind.
Let's take thirty seconds right now in your head to
think of as many virtues as you can right while
you're sitting there. You got this in your head. I'm
gonna give you thirty seconds to think about it, all right. Dude, udeoo, dude,

(24:28):
do doo doo doo doo doo. God, I hated that,
all right, think about it. Don't just think wait for
me to say it. Actually come up with at least
three or four virtues. And see how many of them
you come up with that that meet this list? All right?

(24:49):
Ten more seconds five, four, three two one? All right,
here we go, Jordy, go ahead, give me your list. Courage?
Wait did you look it up? Did you type it in?
Why I was doing that? I saw your little fingers
moving over there. I was not you. Okay, okay, good,

(25:11):
Then go for it.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Let me hear what you came up with them, all right, go,
I would say, first and foremost is the courage, yep, Honesty,
all right? Discipline, oh love it good. That's a good,
good place to tell that's good. All right, I dig it,
that's good. Good job, that's those are good one. All right,
here we go. You're ready.

Speaker 1 (25:34):
Courage, wisdom, justice, temperance, compassion, honesty, humility, patience, kindness, integrity, gratitude, forgiveness, forgiveness, prudence,

(25:55):
it is, prudence, charity, hope, fortitude, loyalty, respect, diligence, chastity, generosity, peacefulness,
and sincerity. All right, How often are you thinking about
one of those concepts in depth? How often are you

(26:17):
teaching one of your children those concepts on how to
manage their behaviors. So they're pursuing a particular skill set
or idea or relationship with generosity integrated into that, with
peacefulness integrated into that, with gratitude, forgiveness, kindness, hope integrated

(26:42):
into that pursuit of those activities, right, Because that's what
it is. You have these things in our lives that
give us fulfillment. Educating ourselves, engagement with our peers and friends,
engagement with family members, right, the intimacies in those relationships,

(27:04):
the adventure that's out in front of us, right, because
that's a huge part of that pursuit, right, the pursuit
of happiness should include the adventure of going to experience
new endeavors. But how are you going to do it?
What's the formula? What's the structure of your belief systems
that I talked about before, Well, these are the words

(27:26):
that you should use to formula to formulate these intentions
in your life right now. This list covers virtues from
various traditions including you know those classical cardinals, right, Christian
theological virtues, other global ethical systems, right, a wide variety.

(27:50):
These are things that the reality is. These are the
things that human beings have been fortifying throughout human hitting,
right from that first moment of that first what is it,
that revelatory awakening of human consciousness? Whenever that took place,

(28:11):
whether it was a singular act, like, I believe that
at one point there was this immaculate conception of consciousness
within a particular being that then began to spread through
the evolution of that particular piece Homo sapiens or whatever

(28:32):
came before that, right, and perhaps maybe the consciousness was
different in those other groups. I mean, obviously some races
and groups out there have neothan what is it a
Neanderthal DNA and them and all that stuff. But there
was a moment obviously that took place. That was the
crossover where all of a sudden, like you're like, oh, whoa,

(28:57):
I'm aware, I'm self concent that I can think about thinking, right,
that I can plan out. I can concoct a plan
that keeps me alive from the natural realities of the world. Right,
those things that want to kill me, poisoning me, the

(29:21):
environmental effects that want to erase me, you know, all
of these external things. Now what I can do is
I there's someone else, there's another being that has that
capacity for consciousness too. We can figure out how to
interact through whatever means it is to formulate a plan
together which exponentially increases our ability to survive and thrive. Right.

(29:45):
So that's how long this is because what happens each
iteration of that behavioral component, those those those tied together
actions generates what over time, the more we do things
that are iterable for the benefit of our our survival,
those generate what a virtue. Out of that iterable behavior

(30:09):
comes something that we hold true, and that's a virtue.
That's one of these virtues. So then what we can
do is if we get our tribe, culture, subculture, societies
to all buy in to those iterable virtues. Now we
have a system that we can emerge to another level,

(30:30):
in another level, in another level. And what we've seen
throughout history or recorded history we have is that when
these societies begin to move away from these core virtues
that are integrated into pretty much every existing society or
civilization throughout history, which keeps them going. When we move

(30:50):
away from those core virtues and implement another line of
virtues or moral relativism that the individual themselves constructs, whatever
their virtuous nature is, you know, there's a whole other
side of that which is detrimental towards the continued reciprocal
game that's being played that oh, if I do it,

(31:12):
you'll do it. If we do it together, we survive
and thrive. But there's that one person who comes in
and says, now I'm not playing a game. I want
what I want, I get what I get, I desire
what I desire, I want it at any time, to
hell with you, And that breaks up the system. It
causes the chaos, which then degrades into violence, evil, destruction,

(31:34):
the whole thing. Right, So, when you start to think
about the creation of virtue. Right. It really is is
this goes back to classical antiquity. And when you look
at the great thinkers of our time, right, you had
Aristotle with his initial concept of you to ammonia, right
or ood ammonia, which is human flourishing through virtuous living. Right.

(31:58):
And so's that's pretty fun are back, man, I mean,
that's that's that's that's that's old, right. Other people like
Cicero epic epic eighties, epic eighties, Marcus Aurelius with his stoicism, right,
and it's all this lifelong quest for self improvement and
ethical conduct rather than mere pleasure. And I think what's

(32:24):
happened is that our society, modern society, as things have
gotten easier, right with supermarkets and Amazon and liquor stores
around the corner and whatever else, you need to uh
anesthetize yourself from the reality of those who seek ultimate
control of your own sovereignty. As you ignore that, that

(32:48):
pursuit of happiness becomes almost a numbing effect. You're you're
you're seeking to numb yourself from the reality that this
is a consummate fight, the pursuit of happiness. It's revolutionary
in nature. So One of the guys that I think
really had the most impact as I was doing research

(33:10):
on this was if you looked at who Jefferson was
deeply into in the seventeen seventies, and that was a
person named Cicero, an ancient philosopher, and he wrote this
one these series of books called the Tusculine Disposition or Disputations,

(33:31):
which links happiness to wisdom and tranquility. All right, wisdom
and tranquility. So we've seen happiness connected to the pursuit
of living a virtuous life. Now Cicero talks about wisdom
and tranquility. So think about what it takes to become
wise life, experience, adventure, multiple failures, relationships, understanding what's good

(33:58):
and bad in a relationship. And through that that exposition
or that exploration, as at the end result of that
arduous you know, path, right, that path of righteousness or salvation,
we can find some momentary tranquility that we think we
understand the world around us through the lens of these virtues,

(34:20):
and that I've this exercise or this ambition, or this
this this combat against mere pleasure, right, that's what begins
to give us. Ah. Now I'm I'm I'm I have
a tranquility about my effort right now when you look
at these overview of these five books, and I'll go
through this pretty quickly, right right, What the purpose of

(34:43):
these books was, uh uh? Cicero was aiming to provide
practical philosophy for Romans, synthesizing Greek through primarily Stoic and
Epicurean and peripatetic influences, to address emotional distress and guide
readers towards virtuous and a tranquil life. Now, this dialogue

(35:07):
pretty much he began this in forty five BCE, right,
So that's what I want you to really think about that.
Human beings have been thinking about what this means the
pursuit of happiness for thousands of years. And it's not
like you know, where we have deep thought is you
take a twenty minute break while you're on the shitter

(35:30):
from scrolling and you hear you see something in depth
by someone you follow, and you sit back and you're like,
oh wow, that's heavy, right, and then twenty minutes later
you're backing to the monotony of the material pursuit of happiness.
These people would sit around for years, I mean, how
many years did they cart go into the woods? Ten years?

(35:52):
That dude try to figure out his philosophical ideation. Right,
So when you think about you know this, you know
and these are dialogues between Cicero and a narrarator, a
narrator interlocator. Often I'm named in a Socratic style that
he did in his tusculin Villa. All right. The core
thesis in this is happiness demands on inner virtue and wisdom,

(36:16):
not external circumstances, and tranquility is achieved by mastering emotions
and fear through reason, all right, book number one. And
this is fascinating on the contempt on the contempt of
death right, and that's overcoming the fear of death to
achieve tranquility. Now, this was really what set me forth

(36:36):
in my quest to become a Navy seal and keep
carrying a gun, was that I had this bizarre, unrealistic
fear of death right. I was afraid of it. Like
why and why was I afraid of it? I think
partially because in my childhood I hadn't experienced any hardship
or real trauma or toughness. Was I mean, I grew

(36:57):
up in boke Ratone. My parent my dad would as
an attorney. I you know, went to great schools. I
didn't have any worries at all, and so I moved
into this place of pleasure, if you will, intellectually and
didn't want to be challenged. But that didn't get me.
So it got me to a point. Was like, when
I started to become a man, I had no real
concept of what that masculinity or manhood was like, or

(37:20):
what the intention behind it, or what I was supposed
to do with it, how I was supposed to figure
it out. And so, you know, part of his key
arguments in this is death is not an evil. It
is either annihilation which is no suffering, or a transition

(37:40):
to the afterlife, which is potentially better. Now, I fundamentally
believe that my death will open up a space for
heaven in the afterlife with Christ. So but in order
to get there, what do I have to do? I
have to pursue this revolutionary happiness, virtual endeavor, this pressure

(38:03):
to constantly be righteous in my existence. Right, don't forget
that list of virtues, because that's what the pursuit is.
And if I do that, then I'll have some what
what will emerge in that wisdom? And that's understanding deaths
inevitability and irrelevance to happiness, drawing on Stoic and Platonic ideas. Right,

(38:28):
certainly I understand the pursuit and the presence of death
if you exist within special operations. It's the whole thing
is a death culture, right. Everything surrounds the eventual confrontation
between a warrior or terrorists, or evil, good and evil,

(38:49):
wherever you want to look at it. It's that pursuit
of confronting the thing that ultimately will destroy the pursuit
of happiness for my tribe. Right. So you know, he
also refutes fears by arguing the soul's immorality, and that's
from Plato or alternatively, the non existence is not to

(39:13):
be feared, which is the Epicurean view. Now, in linking
this to happening, fear of death disrupts tranquility. Wisdom dispels
this fear, enabling a calm life focused on virtue. So
if you pursue this virtuous life, right, you know, depend
upon where you look at If you're a Christian, have
faith in the afterlife. Man, you're going to do the

(39:34):
things that you need to do that you know you'll
be welcomed into eternal existence and for me through my Christianity. Right.
And the other is, if it is annihilation, that's it.
It's over, it's done. You know you've pursued this thing,
this reward of being virtuous to the people you care
most about, and to give that presence which creates what

(39:55):
tranquility in the chaos that is otherwise life itself. All right.
The second one book was Enduring Pain, and he says
the theme of this is pain is not an insurmountable
evil and can be endured through mental strength. Key arguments
pain is a body sensation, but its perception is magnified
by the mind's weakness. Now I pitch this all the time.

(40:17):
This is a core understanding of all of the frog
logic concepts. Right, pain is an inevitability. Suffering and pain
are imbued in life, no matter way which one. Even
if the existence of knowing you're gonna die, that's going
to infuse pain. But as you see others suffering around
you from drug addictions, overdoses, through bad health, mental health, trauma, abuse, neglect,

(40:43):
all these things that seem to be a component of
those who lack the ability to pursue happiness, or virtuousness
and only seek pleasure, right, or don't push themselves to
develop that the armor of virtuousness or righteousness, if you will. Right,
what happens that pain overwhelms them and then they lack

(41:04):
discipline and they lack this tranquility, and so that infects
the environments around them. So pain is a part of it.
It's how you perceive it. So I always talk when
I talk to the teams that I work with, man,
part of your training should be implementing positive pain. That's
what they did to us and Seal program. Right. It
was the application of positive pain that derived that drive

(41:27):
the evolution of our team life or our culture. Our
our team culture, and that team culture was built on
the willingness to sacrifice for those you love most, to
accept the harsh pain of existence on the battlefield as
a component of the virtuousness that makes us strong together
and that brings our happiness. That's the happiness they're talking about.

(41:50):
Book three talks about grief and emotional distress all right, now,
Alleviating grief and emotional disturbances is very difficult because it's
emotions like grief arrive from false beliefs about the importance
of external goods like wealth, status, whatever it might be,
and so often we grieve in that part. Right, we

(42:12):
have emotional distress because we don't feel like we have enough.
We don't rate against our neighbors. Hell, I live in
a place that's completely inundated with high net worth people.
I'm surrounded by it. Even my job is all about
high net worth people. And so I'm constantly bearing witness
to that. As the arbitrator of happiness. If you can

(42:35):
retire at fifty five, you've got a lake house and
all this other stuff, And that's the aspiration of happiness,
which distorts rot the pursuit of happiness that's based on
what ch efforts and is trying to implement through all
these other people. Right, So get in touch with that understanding,
right that you know he rational self control and philosophical

(42:57):
reflection that helps you ocome the distress of all these
other ideas or material ideas that distract you from pursuing
this virtuous philosophy. Right, All right, the book number four
on other emotional disturbances, right, and this is managing all
your passions. Right. Fear Anger desires to achieve what he

(43:22):
calls a balanced soul. Now, This has been a huge
part of the self help moving which really I think
emerged in the late nineteen sixties. And you know in
a way that it is today right through humanistic psychology
and all of what now is positive psychology and all
these other things, right, the pursuit of this happy state, right,

(43:44):
And that's what you know, yolo and all these other
ideas like that have emerged in our social consciousness right right,
because emotions are disorders caused by irrational judgments, and that's
per the stoic doctor. And what I see is young
people who are in this emotional distress that they don't

(44:06):
have safe spaces. They you know, the words are violence,
all this crap that's just permeating across so many different
levels of our society and demographics and age groups. It's
it's it's ridiculous. Since when in human history has has
this been a reality? And it's not. And what it is,

(44:28):
it's a hyper need to protect themselves against what the
harshness of life itself. And you can't continue to create
safe spaces. It's just an impossibility. There's no such thing
as a safe space. And it's illusion that people who
want to manipulate other people have created for them to believe.

(44:50):
There is no safe space. Right, there's no space space
in your own mind. The contemplation of your meaning or
value that pursued a virtuous that's pressure that can cause
emotional distress if you don't have something to aim at,
something to focus on. Right, and that whole thing right,

(45:11):
wisdom as rational control of passions, creates a tranquil mind. Right,
it's the essential for lasting happiness. Now people want to
imagine again, this thing is about right. If I can
feel happy, if I feel that sense of elation, then
that's my pursuit. That's an illusion. Happiness comes from the

(45:32):
fact that when you're surround, when you're in the storm
of life, your boat, your ship, your proverbial metaphorical ship
of your mind, the mass doesn't crack, and if it does,
you don't freak out, or you don't lose your rudder.
And if it does, you don't freak out, or the
whole cracktion, you don't freak out, or you go into
water on your whatever. You don't freak out. You can

(45:53):
maintain the sense of what. The pursuit of happiness, the
pursuit of those virtues that control everything, is not the end.
Everything is not dystopia, incarnate the world. The sky isn't

(46:15):
falling every fricking minute. Why because you have the wisdom
to recognize, you know that which does not kill you
only makes you stronger. Quote a little Nietzsche. And the
last book is on the sufficiency of virtue for happiness.
Virtue alone is sufficient for a happy life, he says,

(46:36):
regardless of external circumstances. He defends the stoic view that virtue, wisdom, justice, courage,
temperance is the sole good ensuring happiness even in its adversity.
He engages with other schools, the Epicureans who prioritize pleasure
and parapatetics who include external goods and happiness, which is

(46:59):
we as we know know a distraction from that pursuit. Right,
If I have this Rolex watch, I'm happy. If I
own this home, I'm happy. If I have the top
paining job, I'm happy. And that's what gets us distracted.
And that's what this whole thing has been conjured at

(47:20):
what it's done. Right and now, because we're we have
so much access to information and there's so many choices
to pursue, people are overwhelmed because they're not focused on
those virtues to guide them in their ambitions, right all right?
You know, I think as you go through, you know,

(47:44):
Cicero actually argues that happiness is attainable through wisdom and virtue,
which enables tranquility by freeing the mind from fear, pain,
and emotional disturbance. Each book addresses a specific obstacle to happiness,
offering philosophical tools to overcome it. Again, if you want
to understand the length of which, go back. Read some Cicero,

(48:05):
read some Marcus Aurelius, read some Plato, Socrates, And it's
not to adapt their genuine nature of philosophical ideas, but
it's to understand that this is a journey that humans
have not stopped. There has not been an interruption in
this pursuit since the dawn of our consciousness. So what

(48:25):
are you doing with your consciousness? Are you pursuing this happiness?
You know, when you when you go back in and
you really look at why Jefferson incorporated this instead of
the property clause as the as the ultimate idea in
that you know, it was intentional and multifaceted. You know,

(48:49):
I think what he says is while Locke focused on
material estate, as a right. Colonial documents like Mason's treated
property and happiness as separate. Property involved acquisition and possession,
while happiness encompass broader flourishing. The distinction avoided equating rights

(49:10):
solely with ownership, which could have implement implications with the
whole slavery thing at the time. Right, And I think
Jefferson was a parent even though he was a slave owner,
sleeping with one of his slaves, having children with one
of his slaves. He was aware of that distinction that
needed to be made, that it was not about the

(49:32):
possession of property and more about the possession of this
happiness or virtue as that which will make human beings
amidst the grandeur of suffering and pain, that will give
them that sensation that their life has meaning. Therefore, they're
actively participating in the pursuit of good deeds, of being

(49:53):
good men and women. You know, this made it more
aspirational and inclusive, appealing to a diverse colonial audience seeking
justification for independence. Again, I go back that revolutionary spirit, right,
and that revolutionary spirit is what should be. I know
it's taking place in many of you. I know you're

(50:16):
having that. I think there are many people that are
fomenting this aggression against each other at pretty high degree
right now. And that's what you know. Whatever the opposite
side is, whatever the anarchists or the communists or the
Marxists or the socialists or whatever want, they want to
tear down the framework of virtue within us that pursue.

(50:39):
What they say is you'll be happy when you owe nothing,
and you'll like it. That's what it is. We will
give you everything you need to be happy, which is
essentially anesthetizing or impeding or muting or cutting out the

(50:59):
very things in side you philosophically that are driving you
to become the person you've always wanted to be, which
is righteous in a place where salvation will accept you
because you've been virtuous and you have healthy relationships, and
you have deep meaning because you sacrifice yourself for your tribe,
your clan, your your culture, your sub sect of society,

(51:22):
your communities, your churches. Hey, that's giving you that deeper
sense of purpose. You know when you think about that
list of virtues, this has been incorporated throughout time. I mean,

(51:42):
you know, one of the great thinkers of that time
also was Benjamin Franklin, you know, and you know He
had these thirteen lists of virtues that if you adhere
to them, you would have this this sensation of happiness
in you. It would give you that tulity or that wisdom,
It would give you that sense of righteousness and being.

(52:05):
And so these were his right temperance, eat and drink,
and moderation, Avoid excess silence, Speak only with only what
benefits others or yourself. Avoid idle chatter, order, keep things organized,
Let each item have its place. Resolution, stick to your
decisions and goals. Frugality, spend money wisely only on what's worthwhile.

(52:30):
Interesting that he was one of the foundation of our government. Right,
and what are we right now? Thirty eight trillion dollars
in debt. I guess they've thrown fugality for gality out
the window. And what's going to happen as result? Chaos? Right? Industry,
Stay productive, don't waste time on trivialities. What's your screen
time right now? Look it up today while you listen

(52:51):
to this after I finished, get on what's your screen
time for the last three weeks? What could you have
been doing productive in that time? About fortifying your virtues? Sincerity,
be honest and fair, avoid deceit. I mean, lying is
the serpentine of all societies. Corruption, right, justice, don't harm others,

(53:12):
do what's right, Moderation, avoid extremes, keep a balanced approach, cleanliness,
maintain personal and environmental hygiene, Tranquility, stay calm, don't sweat
the small stuff, chastity, practice restraint in sexual matters.

Speaker 2 (53:28):
Man.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
That goes all the way back to Sodom and Gomorrah.
And look at what we're seeing right now. Look at
where we're seeing the aggressive violence emerge out of certain
communities that are absolutely going after prudence or chastity, if
you will, and those concepts humility, imitate Jesus and Socrates,

(53:51):
be modest. You know, when you think about Jefferson's intent
and reasons for including this right, he never explicitly explained
the phrase, but its survival through the edits by John Adams,
Benjamin Franklin, and the Committee of Five in Congress indicate

(54:12):
on its meaning. This is what I want you to
pay close attention to. He intended it to underscore that
Britain's tyranny violated natural rights, justifying revolution. By including it,
the Declaration framed independence as a moral imperative for enabling

(54:34):
human potential linking personal virtue to republican governance. Personal virtue
to Republican governance, not democratic governments. And I'm not talking
about in terms of our political parties. Both political parties,
in my opinion, have been sacrificing the pursuit of virtue

(54:57):
at a very high degree in order for his law.
As I can remember paying attention to politics, right, whether
you want to go back to Iran contra, whether you
want to go back to taking us off the gold
standard or the induction of the Fed and income tax.
I mean, how we went to war for two two

(55:17):
to three percent sales tax on tea? Well, how much
you paying at taxes now? Right? Or a war on
traditional family values or the war in Iraq, or unconditioned
bombing against American civilians overseas, or whatever it is, our
own the Patriot Act and our own violation of our
own liberties. Can you imagine what our founding fathers would

(55:39):
say if they were to be able to look at
what we've concocted for ourselves and these distractions towards the
pursuit of these virtues that were at the base revolutionary
in nature. You know, this is not just some ifeat

(56:04):
elite land owning person that just was like, Oh, I'll
just throw this out. It sounds so poetic. My prose
are significant. Now, these were people that were breaking with
the most powerful organization in the world, and their lives
were in danger. Every one of those people who concocted,

(56:26):
in particular Thomas Jefferson, would have been hung in public
squares for writing these words. You have to let that
seek in because you have to understand that's what was
at stake. When people no longer adhere to the pursuit

(56:51):
of happiness, the pursuit of virtue, the pursuit of wisdom
and tranquility, the pursuit of a structure of salvation and
righteousness right based on these God given inalienable rights. When
we stop doing those things, then what happens We get

(57:16):
to a place like we're at right now. We get
to a place where we're unsure of what's going to
happen tomorrow. So my ask of you as we wrap
this up, is to pursue those virtues. Pick two or

(57:37):
three or one a month for the next year and
focus on those virtues. In fact, what we're gonna do,
Jordan and I are going to put out a little
challenge on the Frog Logic Institute, a little one month challenge,
all right. Actually, we're going to take each virtue and
we're going to build those out for one per week

(57:58):
for how I remember, however many weeks, and we're going
to give you a little assignment for that, all right,
So we'll let you know when that's up and out
for that little virtue challenge. Because what I think we
all need to do more of is not be fixated
on the material items or the feeling of ignorance that's

(58:18):
going to give us this symbiotic or utopic state of existence,
because it's just not the way life works. It's just
not reality. And so what we want you to do,
what I want you to do is I want you
to get focused on the pursuit of happiness by redefining

(58:40):
the virtues that make you feel good. And they might
be painful, but I'm telling you there's a revolution in
your heart that needs to take place in your pursuit
of your faith and your belief systems and what this
great country represents. Oh yeah,