Territorialism: Final Episode 4

A personal investigation into the territorial instinct in man and animals.

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Carring me, Hello, and welcomeback to brain Boat. Today is well,
what are we on We're on thethird part, No, we're on
the fourth part of territorialism. Ibegan by saying territorial instincts in humans,

(00:22):
and then we change the titles backto the book, which is the Territorial
Imperative. This is inspired by abook by Robert Ardree and it's a personal
investigation into the animal origins of propertyand nations. About our territorial instinct in
that is, I guess, inall animals, not just mammals, but

(00:42):
it is presented differently in each species. And and even you know, within
the species of cats and dogs,the breeds have different territorial instincts. And
some of it has to do withlet's see the adaptability as and maybe like

(01:03):
some animals just have more of acuriosity and a wanderlust than other animals.
And the homing instinct, of courseis connected to two. Well, I
guess there's a lot to learn aboutthat. Well, let's begin with this
what is home? What is whatis home? Throughout history people have owned

(01:29):
property and claimed property, and thenthat has given them more of a right
to be there. Then let's saynomads who come and go, or transients
that come and go. Native Americansin in the United States, they there
were some that had civilizations and theyowned property and they were the most powerful

(01:53):
groups around, like in Chicago,they're in Indiana, they're they they grew
corn and they had kings and queensand they stayed there, and then they
had classes of people and much likeI don't know, just like a lot
of European civilizations, and in Mexico, you know, there were some civilizations

(02:15):
like the Mayans, but a lotof people have been nomadic throughout history,
and so that is going to makeI don't want to say there's no breathe
of people were all one species outof them. This is just starting to

(02:35):
be like kind of racist. Okay, So there are more nomadic people,
and then there were people that arelike they have something to call home,
and so then there's an inherent likethey inherit the land and the property and
it gives them more of a riteand people can't just come by and take
it. And if you don't ownland, then it's like, well,
you know, you don't have alot of power in society if you don't
own property. So Robert Audrey proposesthe idea that we posits the notion of

(03:05):
deterritorialism as being a psychological phenomenon thatleads to displacement and humans. So we
see displacement in cats. This iswhat I know about. I'm sure you
know all the animals, even raccoons, if they're displaced, they're gonna you

(03:27):
know, we haven't really studied it, so who knows. Nobody cares if
you take a raccoon from his wherehe was born and put him someplace else,
like who no one. I don'tknow if any studies like that,
but I just know from my ownpersonal experience watching my cat be displaced and
watching the behavior of other cats thathave been driven into the into the forest
and then had to you know,their brains just switched into like a wild

(03:49):
mode, like a survival mode thatwe would maybe see in some soldiers where
their brain just switches like that,and then they become combative and they look
around like everything is everything is apotential threat, and then there is a
danger that's either real or not real. But when you're worried about your life,

(04:14):
then the loss is it's always notworth it. Like okay, I'm
getting ahead myself, aren't I I'mdoing this again. I'm like stumbling over
myself. Okay, I want toget back to where I was, but
just for one minute, I gotto keep going in this direction. So
with my cat, I did.People were telling me, you gotta put
up a trap, you gotta putup a trap. Well, one of
the reasons why is because in thiswildlife fairy there's tons of like there's not

(04:39):
only indoor outdoor cats that would comebefore Obi, and so I would see
a pattern like, oh, he'slooking at other cats to see what's safe,
and he would show up, youknow, shortly after they would leave.
So I knew that was happening.But then I also saw that,
well, if I come by,he's probably watching me more than I realize.

(05:00):
If I come by leave a trapand then an animal gets caught,
well I made lose his trust.And at that time, it was like
trying to establish trust with the wildanimal. You don't want to make any
mistakes like that because it's just likeone thing and then you can break their
trust and then that's it. SoI was trying to you know, this
was just an intuitive feeling that Ihad because you know, I have enough

(05:21):
time to spend time in the forest. Had squirrels grown up, you know,
I didn't have them, but theywere like, you know, friends
around the neighborhood, and I wouldspend time in feral cats too. I
would spend I would have to spenda lot of time trying to gain their
trust, and so I just didn'twant to do that with Obi and be
you know, the more the peoplethat had more expertise with it, they're

(05:43):
like, well, that's the onlyway you're going to get them, But
they didn't understand that in this areathere was a lot of wildlife and indoor
outdoor cats, and Obie would onlyshow up maybe once every ten days at
the most, and so I neverknew when he would show up. And
so you know, I was liketrapping all sorts of stuff, and I
was up all night. I hada live cam Wi Fi on my trail

(06:06):
camera, and I would just watchit because I don't want to you know,
when it's like one hundred degrees allday, all day, all night,
I don't want to be like trappingmuch stuff. So there's that,
But my main reason was that Ididn't want to break his trust. And
nobody would understand that, and sothis what's the point of that. The

(06:30):
point is like when when your brainswitches into a wild state, there's no
reasoning. Everything is irrational. Everything'sbased on oh my god, I might
die. And when you're in thatsay oh my god, I might die,
Well, then you're going to makedecisions based on fear. And whenever
you make decisions based on fear,sure, it may keep you alive,

(06:50):
and you may you know this thisinstinct in us, it's it's not it's
more good than bad because it keepsus alive. It's probably better to be
paranoid than to be all relaxed layingthere in the middle of the street and
you know when a bunch of coyotesare on you. So yeah, the
animals that are most likely to getin by a coyote are probably those indoor

(07:11):
cats that are very indoor outdoor catsthat are very relaxed, and they they
don't have a fear of dogs andthey're not looking around, they're not afraid
of stuff, whereas like the catslike my cat would have a higher chance
of not getting eat by coding becausehe's always looking out, always hiding.
And that's something I want. Iwant to I hope to educate people about

(07:34):
this brain shift because it occurs inpeople too, maybe not to such an
extreme extent. Like I said before, cats are kind of like frogs psychologically
where they are they just switch andthey they're very dramatic and they I don't
want to say mutate, but theyhave some kind of psychological variant that makes
them switch back and forth. Andit's probably because the way they evolved was

(07:57):
they would live half outside and halfinside, and so they would need to
be able to go back and forthand switch modes like that, and that's
you know, what their antswer withhow their ancestors survived. Whereas dogs,
dogs, you know, they forthe most part they would be human companions
that would sleep with them and eatwith us. And dogs actually evolved to

(08:22):
eat poop, and so they wouldthey would eat poop. They wouldn't be
eating mice, really human poop,that's what That's mostly what dogs grew up
eating, I mean, what theyevolved to eat. And then you know,
are scraps. But most species ofdogs aren't hunters, and there's always
exceptions, of course. Okay,so with that in mind, people,

(08:48):
some people are more able to surviveon their own and to adapt, and
you know, sure they're not asextreme in their dramatics of like PTSD and
like oh my god, I'm gonnadie, Like yeah, they could probably

(09:09):
handle themselves better. And I'm nottrying to make a judgment call. I'm
just trying to understand, you know, our histories because some humans and families
and cultures are just not as dependenton domestication. Okay, So there's like

(09:33):
a wild gene in people, andso it serves us if we're forced to
be in survival mode, it wouldserve people that are more wild. I
have this theory or hypothesis, whateveryou want to call it, that people
that have like autos made ADHD orwho are neurodivergent people like one good thing
about us is that we're creative andwe're innovative, and we can be on

(09:54):
our own and we can thrive bydeveloping new things instead of like you know,
a more domesticated way would be liketo do things the tried and true
traditional way, where you know,there's a hierarchy, a social hierarchy like
you would see in the like Mayansand with the the Chicago Indians that would

(10:18):
rule by you know, their dynastyand corn and all that. Okay,
so then you so then you havelike the nomadic types that were forced to
use their ingenuity and they survived bytheir wit and good luck. And then
there were those that were like theysurvived by their obedience and and they're they're

(10:39):
more domesticated. So I think ADHDis just like the general blanket for all
of this neurodivergence wild this these wildvariants. That's what That's what I think.
But okay, so with that beingsaid, I want to get back
Tobert Argerie's book. So he talksabout what is home exactly. If you

(11:03):
are a nomadic type, then whereveryou are your home like home is where
the heart is that cliche, whereveryou feel like you are the master of
your domain may not be where youwere born. A lot of people that
are neurodiversion, they wind up leavingtheir hometowns in search of something where they

(11:26):
you know, they have a calling, or they go someplace and they feel
like they're more home some you know, someplace else where they fit in.
But you know, when you're accepted, when you're around people that and you're
accepted and you accept yourself, wellthen that's home. Home is inside you
for the for the more wild people, and what is home for people that

(11:48):
are more domesticated, I would sayis where they grew up, wherever their
family is and families before them beforethem. There is that home territory advantage
that alleviates a lot of stress andanxiety. Just knowing that you are in

(12:09):
your home turf reduces anxiety a lot. And so with people that are more
wild, there's gonna be excitement withleaving because there's more wanderlust, There's more
hey, what else is out there? You know, there's that creative spark
that's like imagining something other than whatthey know, seeing some ideal or wanting

(12:33):
to change things. This is aneurodivergency, a wild variant that I that
I suggest not sure, but thisis this is what I've been thinking for
a long time. So I'm gonnajust say that, and of course,
you know I'm gonna think about itmore. This is philosophy. This isn't
like an exact science. I've neverdone an experiment and I don't know anybody
who has done experiments on the wildgene or ADHD. And if there's that

(12:58):
kind of connection, if we wouldhave to trace families and histories and you
know, psychoanalyzed people, which isthat's that's there haven't been any studies about
that, although there's plenty of scientificliterature that says that autistic people have more
Neanderthal DNA, and so the Neanderthalswere less of a cast type of hominid.

(13:31):
They they were more on their own, and they weren't there's a lot
of false beliefs about them, likethey're these you know, like primitive cavement
and the Chromagnan were so much moreadvanced. That's not true that the Nanathal
were actually more intelligent and emotion hadhigher, better emotional intelligence. They were

(13:54):
having veris burial ceremonies before Chromagnon andchromagan was like a war, a warlike
type of ancestor to humans. Sowhen you get this like someone on their
own and they're not grouping together,they're not banding together, and they're just
like isolated and they're doing their ownthing, they may be cooperating like exchanging

(14:18):
like okay, here's this craftsman,here's this person who's you know, not
person, but okay, the earlypeople because eventually the Neandothial and the chromagnet
intermingled so much that everybody has somene NFL DNA in them. I think
I'm pretty sure. I know thatI have about two percent NEANDOFIL DNA,

(14:39):
which is like according to twenty threemeters, it's like ninety seven percent more
than the rest of their customers.So two percent could account for a lot
in genetic variants like that, especiallylike those wild variants and domestication when you
have like the chromagnet that was awarrior like type of creature that they would

(15:01):
band together and they would have tohave a hierarchy, because that's how you
have order, that's how you haveyou know, have when that's how you
conquer. If you can get awhole bunch of people together to go strike
out and you know, obliterate thiswhole species, then they're going to be
the ones that are going to bereproducing, and hence they're here we are
right now. So so this domesticatedgene is is within all humans. But

(15:28):
then you get two percent, let'ssay, of this variant of the these
mutations, and it's going to stirup. I mean, two percent is
the difference between you know, usand chimpanzees. So even though it's not
a lot. It's enough to toto to create a neuro a neurodivergence.

(15:48):
Okay. So I got something interestingto share with you. It's about the
origins of the the You know thephrase the elephant in the room. Well,
I learned it from this book actually, And he's talking about like he's

(16:11):
trying to this. When this bookwas published in nineteen sixty six, it
was it was the only book thatwas dedicated to to our territorial instincts in
animals and in humans. So hebrings up this play. I'm just gonna
go ahead and read this. It'snot that long, but okay. He

(16:34):
was a playwright, Robert Ardrey wasa playwright. And some of his friends
who knew a great deal about humannature, they were also playwrights, and
you would have to know a lotabout psychology to direct people actors on stage,
and to write, you have toget into their heads. So he

(16:55):
was just like a natural scientist andhad a natural curiosity, went to Africa
and stuff, studied, studied animalsfor fun, Like how nerdy is that
right? How neuroed verse is that? Okay? So he says, when
I was a young fellow in andout of New York Theater. A giant
musical comedy opened at the old NewYork Hippodrome. It was a circus spectacle,

(17:15):
and its name was Jumbo. Didyou guys ever hear of Jumbo?
Dumbo? Heard of Dumbo? Ihave never heard of Jumbo? Okay?
So, and its two most spectacularstars were an elephant and that ageless miniature
of a demented man, Jimmy Durrante. And there came a moment in the
show when Durrante had a line worthrecalling now as we think of the green

(17:38):
turtle, the Alaska fur seal,the sciences, and even of ourselves.
The moment came a moment which aplaywright might be tempted to describe technically as
the obligatory scene. When Durrante stolethe elephant. He entered from the shadows
upstage, tiptoeing, making shushing soundsat his vast companion, And when all

(18:00):
seemed well, he encountered a policemanDeronte shrink. The policeman glowed, Where
did you get that elephant? Growleda policeman. Deronte looked all about blank
disturbed. What elephant? He said? And then the crowd breaks up in
laughter. What elephant is the Harryhalf demented reply of the sciences these days

(18:21):
when you ask them how animals findtheir way home? I wonder is he
the first person to say this?I mean, because we say it all
the time, like it's like theelephant in the room. But it came
from this, you know, thisfunny scene in a play Jumbo and he
he's he throughout this book. Heafter he describes this, which I assume

(18:45):
had not been a saying before that. He he, he says, the
homing instinct people just kind of disregarded. Like now, I've witnessed throughout my
life the homing instinct in cats andin dogs, because like I said,

(19:11):
when I was a kid, youknow, I've had that. I've had
somebody my parents take my dog away. And also I've had cats when we
would move, they would go backto their old house. So I know
that the homing instinct is there.The question is, though, why why

(19:36):
don't they use it all the time? I would I imagine that. I
imagine that when there's a risk factor, when they're weighing, well it's not
worth it to go back, ormaybe whatever drove them away from their home.
They no longer can trust going backthere because it seems too dangerous.

(19:57):
It's just, you know, wecan't compare species as species. We can't
compare cats to salmon, for example, or eels. Supposedly they all go
back to this one place in SouthAmerica and they and they give birth there.
Butterflies do the same thing. Likesome animals just migrate and risk they're

(20:19):
risk extinction for this instinct. Andso not all animals are willing to risk
everything just to go if they're notprogrammed like that, like they have more
I don't even know what it is. And then this is what he says,
well, and they don't know whatit is. They just say,
well, let's just forget about becausenobody knows what it is. Nobody could

(20:41):
really explain, like why do thebirds how do they know there's They did
all these experiments, and people eventoday they think, well, cats can
smell, you know, they cansmell their way home. I don't think
that's what it is. I don'tthink that dogs are smelling their way home
or anything like that. I thinkthere's something I don't know if they're like
if there's some kind of magnet magneticknowledge or if it's an instinctive knowledge of

(21:07):
like where you are, maybe welost this ability to know where we are.
I was reading about this, thisthis group of people I think I
think it was South America. Well, anyways, they just intuitively know where
they are, what direction they areall the time. I mean, can
you imagine that, like, youknow, north, south, east,

(21:27):
west, Like it's just it's it'sjust like it's something that they just know.
It's like looking at a color.They just know the direction of where
they are. And they're hunters andgatherers, one of the last groups of
hunters and gathers. I can't rememberthe name of the where they're from,
but okay, so they're one ofthe last groups of hunters and gatherers and
they have a perfect ability to havea direction of the where they are,

(21:52):
and they you know, they couldnavigate by the stars too, of course,
because maybe they could see him.I don't know, like, why
don't we have that. I amthe worst at this, and I'm sorry,
I know, you know, likemy ex husband is, he's like
a genius when it comes to he'sa pilot and so he's like he knows

(22:14):
where he is all the time,and he and it's embarrassing because like he
knew the way around the way aroundChicago better than I did it. I
have to go by numbers, Okay, north is it goes You go more
north when the numbers get higher,and more south when the numbers get lower,
and then vice versa. And thenwhen you're going south, when the
numbers get higher, you're going moresouth. That's all I knew because everything's

(22:37):
like on a grid and it's alllike planned out and stuff, and so
I just I wouldn't look up atthe sky and like try to figure out
what time and direction everything is.I would just go by numbers. So
some people do have a better senseof direction like that, but I don't

(22:57):
know this homing instinct is. Andso this is something that he's trying to
figure out, like what is home? And why do some animals like risk
their whole species, you know,to extinction to swim up stream to go
lay it, you know, becausethat's what they did before them. And

(23:18):
so I'm just gonna leave it therebecause there's no answer to that in the
book or that I've ever heard ofyet. And we don't know how do
dogs find their way back home?And why, like when I was a
kid. Why did my dog walkfifteen miles through all these like terrible neighborhoods
to get back to me? AndI was I was going to school,
you know. I my parents mademe keep him in the basement. He
wasn't like he had a great life. I fed him alpo whatever, you

(23:41):
know, like not even I wasa little kid, I could but he
but he loved me, and Iloved him, and we connect it,
and I I I must have beenhis home, maybe the only home he
had, or I saved him ata time, and am he imprinted on
me somehow? And and so yeah, I just I don't even like thinking

(24:06):
about that. I don't like thinkingabout animals being displaced. Like I never
thought about this stuff before, butnow I'm thinking, Oh, man,
people do this all the time aroundhere. They take the same creek that
Obi they took Obi to, Theytake raccoons and they think it's humane.
And I guess it is because theycould easily just poison them, but they're
think, oh, I'll just takethem to this nice creek. And I

(24:29):
mean that must be traumatic for thoseanimals also because they have to go into
an you know what it feels liketo go into like a new work when
you're working and you go into thisand they try to be welcoming when you
go into a new office or whatever, you know, because everybody knows that
it's you know, it's hard beingnew. Well, in the wild,

(24:52):
it's like, man, you thinknineteen eighties kids were bullies. No,
animals are like way worse. Theyare much more territorial. Robert Audrey also
talks about how he thinks that theaggressiveness that males have is something that has
to do with territorialism, not somuch as well, I guess, I

(25:18):
don't know, I didn't remember.It's he was saying, it's it's just
like a natural instinct and not somethingthat is necessarily makes them immoral, but
quite the opposite, because territorialism issensed as justice and right righteousness. It's

(25:38):
like, no, this is mine, this is my property. You don't
touch my property. And we allhave this agreement, don't touch their property,
don't don't invade their space. Butwe're, you know, in our
modern times, we're living so closetogether that never before throughout you know,
most of our history, this isthe first time in you know, just

(26:00):
recently where we kind of all gathertogether. Really, if you know,
if you go, if you whenyou fly across I don't know where you
live, but any and I says, when you fly across the country,
almost well most of it is justland and there's not people living there,
and you don't see cities yet.Everyone's just congregated into like the cities,

(26:21):
and we're all bunched up on eachother and there's all these like I think
that creates a lot of unnecessary problems. There are some birds he was talking
about in here that they seem tothrive off of this kind of fighting for
territory. They just said, likemy dog, she looks out the window

(26:44):
and just barks at people. There'ssomething about that too, where it's almost
like a sport, and sports arethat also. The sports are basically like
territory drama maybe, And he usesthat sporting arena metaphor over and over again

(27:07):
throughout this book, where he talksabout when the males are competing for territory,
they have arenas and everybody witnesses it, and people stand around they watch
them fight, and so everybody's awitness and they're like, okay, now
we know who won. There's nolike lying about it afterward. It's like

(27:27):
once you win, then there's themorality of like, Okay, I'm gonna
I'm not gonna fight with you.I'm going to back down. I know
my place. You're higher. Youdeserve to have all the females continue on
with our gene pool through you,and they they don't rape, and they
don't like try to do nefarious thingsto undermine the natural order. So yeah,

(27:55):
I thought that was interesting, theelephant in the room and the homing
instinct, and even today we don'treally kind of just gloss over it like,
oh, it's like that's a coolthing, like how do they how
do animals sense an earthquake? Howdo they have a homing instink? Oh,
that's interesting, but let's just moveon. I think that that needs
to be investigate more. Do youever feel like you're not home and you

(28:18):
want to go home, like there'ssomething else out there? Do you think
that that could be the the sparkof wanderlust? What impels us to go
out and adventure and seek something likenew land and new opportunities and romances and
all that. I don't know.I wonder about why do neuro diverse people

(28:48):
why do Okay, there's this there'sthis website. It's called Wrong Planet is
one of the first websites dedicated toautistic people, and it was universal amongst
that, Yeah, we all feltlike we're aliens from another planet that don't
belong here and we want to gohome. So they called it wrong Planet.

(29:11):
And it's interesting that neurodiverse people havethis. I want to get out
there, I want to move.I want to change this. I got
to invent this. I want tocreate something new, we do something completely
different. I want to I wantto like my home. I don't know
where my home is. I needto go to find my home. I'm
an alien. And actually the firstpsychologists were called alienists because that's what they

(29:36):
called crazy people. They call themaliens because they were alienated from society and
they also felt displaced in like aliens. So that's just something to think about.
I don't know if you if maybelike my sister, she never wanted
to leave. She's like, no, I just want to live here forever,
and that's it. And I thinkit reduced anxiety in her to like,

(29:59):
this is where I am, thisis where I'm from. My niece
is also like that and she's like, no, I'm a Chicago that I
never want to leave, doesn't wantto leave. It doesn't mean that if
you want to leave your necessarily likeneurodiversin all that. I mean, you
could have wander less and be completelynormal. It could just be like a
time, a stage. Like alot of people they before they go to

(30:19):
college, you know, it's customaryto travel, or before you get married.
You know you want to like sowyour oats, so you know,
so, yeah, it's there.There are people that are just more adventurous
than others, and it has todo with probably fears and anxiety. Could

(30:40):
be imagination. It could just belike a calling. I don't know.
Some people are everyone's everyone's different.You know. Some people are know where
they're supposed where they're supposed to be, and they are accepted and they feel
like they belong. That could beit too, Like if you feel like
you belong somewhere, that's your home. If you feel like you're an outsider,
well then yeah, that doesn't feelthat won't feel like home so much
like if you're the like an omega. Omegas often leave because they want something

(31:08):
better. Alpha's stay. So ifyou're the golden child. Chances are you're
gonna want to stay in your placebecause you don't want to give up your
position. If you are the leastranking person in your family, well then
yeah, there's a lot of incentiveto get out there and do something different.
My cat, he was the oldest, he had a seniority. I

(31:33):
gave him. He was the king. And so while he did like being
out and he could be sewing hisoats right now, you know, even
though he was displaced, he mayhave been like, oh this is kind
of cool, this is kind ofinteresting. He didn't seem really scared non
turial camera, to be honest,Like I've seen other cats, they look
skittish and frightened, geting, seemhungry, you just and then when I
saw him in person, he wasjust sitting there like like showing no fear.

(32:00):
So I'm not I'm not really thatworried about them. But I miss
him, and I don't think heshould have to have gone through that.
But anyways, if if he ifhe was like one of those and and
okay, if he was one ofthose cats where you know, like I

(32:20):
get out of here cat like noObi was like our sacred animal, like
he had like a real kashmere blanket. I treated him like the freaking Egyptians
used to treat well, I shouldn'tsay that. Okay. The reason,
okay, I'm going I'm going ahead. A lot of people think that Egyptians
revered their cats and they worship thembecause you know the story of how the
Romans conquered them. It's because theEgyptians would hold their cats to them and

(32:44):
and no, no, I'm sorry, the Romans would hold the Egyptians cats
and the Egyptians refused to kill himbecause they believed that the cats were gods
reincarnate it. So it's while partof that's true, they didn't want to
kill a cat in order to killa Roman, there was this very it's

(33:07):
kind of saying. I don't alwaysto tell you guys this. They used
to do some cult is occult typeof stuff with cats, and they would
they they believe that they were incarnatingother deities or spirits, and that these

(33:29):
these spirits would would help them indifferent ways. But then in order to
get some kind of cast, somekind of big spell, they would they
would kill a cat. So thecats only lived to be like five years,
and then they would perform a ritualisticsacrifice on them. It's so stupid

(33:51):
and I uh yeah, So whenI read about that, I was like,
oh man, I just don't Thisworld is just so dumb sometimes.
I mean, all the suffering thatgoes on. I mean it makes me
want to just go be a hermitand like not know it. But then
it's kind of like it's kind oflike you don't want to work in a
shelter because there's too much suffering,or you don't want to work in a

(34:13):
hospital there's too much suffering. Butit's like really like, how could you
How could you just turn your backon it. It's sometimes it's like,
well, at least if you're seeingit, it's right there and you're doing
something, and then you go homeand it's like, Okay, well I
did something. If I wasn't there, then you know, then there wouldn't
have been that little bit of animprovement I could have made. So all

(34:37):
right, I am going to finishthis up and then I think I'm done
with this with his subject on territorialism, I am going to read jeb,
which he says is his favorite playthat he wrote. It was one of
the plays for the social reform movementin the sixties, and then there's a

(35:02):
few other plays. I think it'sgoing to be an interesting read. It's
probably gonna take me a while toassimilate all this information, but what I
found, what I'm looking for tofinding out is like, so okay,
So you know, like in thebeginning of a reform period, there's this
idealism and passion and it's like thisrighteousness. It's based on emotions and stuff

(35:27):
like that. So it begins likethat, and then we start to see
how the extreme emotions play out tobe vices, and it's kind of like
a circular I don't know if I'mexplaining this right. It's okay, So
the circular pattern of the evolution ofreform, it ends with anarchy and then

(35:53):
it starts with idealism, like tosay, like the Romantic period was this
idealism. But then it it's verylike and I don't know, like when
you are engrossed and you get youget like this these blinders in this tunnel

(36:13):
vision. Then you start to likebecome enamored with your own voice, almost
right, and the ideals are justit's kind of like what we're seeing with
like with a left woke movement.It's like it starts off as like,
yeah, that's it's a good idea, you know, like we do want
equality and being nice and coolition,but then it gets to the point where
it's like, oh, now there'slike this like self righteous morality that's being

(36:35):
shoved down your throat and it's it'sbecoming a new form of corruption. I
don't know if you agree with that, but that's the way I see it.
And so and so in every everyreform period, you see that same
thing. So Robert Ardrey was oneof these these intellectuals who started off with
the reform and like the nineteen youknow, sixties, and then he starts

(36:57):
to see and which we all canlook back in hindsight and say, like,
yeah, like the end of thesixties beginning of the seventies, we
went from a culture that was likeshocked by corruption, shocked by somebody getting
murdered, shocked by rape. Andthen it's like, oh, right around
the block for me, there werea whole family, five people died and

(37:22):
there was it was a murder suicide, and it's like nobody even knows about
it. Somebody down the block.Father, you know, all this stuff
happened. Nobody even talks about iteven it's like we are we it's like
we are censored from even knowing orit's I don't know what it is.

(37:45):
It's like, oh, we're notsupposed to just let's just not talk about
that. Okay, let's just glossover that. It's like the elephant in
the room. What elephant, Well, that's not happening. But yeah,
there was a time when it waspeople were shocked that there was a murder,
or they were shocked that somebody wouldscam somebody. Now you know,

(38:07):
you hear, oh yeah, Iget scammed, like people trying to scam
me twice a week, and it'syour fault if you get scammed. It's
like, no, that used tobe illegal, Like it used to be
illegal, an illegal practice in businessto lie and to cheat and to take
someone's credit card number. It's like, it shouldn't just be your fault that
somebody stole something from you. Butthat's the way it is now. It's

(38:29):
like, well, you know,survival of the fittest. If you're too
naive, well then you deserve tobe taken advantage of. So what happened
in the sixties is like there wasthis this patriarchy sort of oppression and and
a lot of racism happening at atime, and so there's these intellectuals that

(38:52):
are like, oh, let's talk, you know, talk about like warmongers
and racism and all this stuff.And so then they come out and it
all seems very beautiful. But thenhe starts to see the what would he
cause de territorialism? That's what heHe kind of left it. He didn't
really he doesn't really get in that. He's going to get into it when

(39:14):
I read job and then I'm goingto follow up with with with them more
of his writing. So I'm goingto kind of be focusing on Robert Ardrey
for probably, you know, thenext few episodes. At least. I'm
reading a lot of cool stuff rightnow. I'm also reading Stephen King said
the best short story he's ever readis probably from Arthur Mackin. It's called

(39:40):
The Great God Pan. I justgot to finish reading it, and oh,
I have a lot to say aboutthat. From a feminist perspective and
a historical perspective, it's just likeand also from a religious perspective, the
way they demonize Pan, I couldcheez. I can go on and on

(40:00):
about that for a long time,and I promise you I won't. But
it's the book. The story waswritten in the late eighteen hundreds. He
was born in eighteen sixty. Andonce again, this is Arthur Mackin.
He's an awesome writer. It's justit's just it's really good, but it's

(40:22):
you know, it's from a differentera and he's English books. Takes place
in London and everyone is shocked bythe indecence. It was actually banned this
book for the indecency that was justinsinuated that there was sex outside of marriage.
Yeah, okay, I don't wantto get into that too much.

(40:43):
It's an exciting read and I wantto go over that a bit with you
as well. I like because Ilike Gothic literature, and this one I
wonder if it inspired Mary Shelley becauseit has a lot of similar a lot
of ideas or subjects, mostly aboutlike the the what is that like when

(41:10):
a scientist has this? What wasthe downfall of doctor Frankenstein? It was
the I'm sorry, okay, I'mgoing to finish this up now. The
Doctor Frankenstein was his his his majorflaw was that he was too ambitious,

(41:31):
and so he he was his emotionswere so high after his wife died that
he just wanted to invent a wayto bring back the dead and without thinking
things through. That's why she calledit Prometheus so unbound, because if he
had forethought, but he didn't haveafter a thought or all of the thought,
which would be Epimetheus, a twinbrother of Prometheus. So when Prometheus

(41:55):
is just allowed to do whatever hewants, he's just gung ho. He's
just vicious forward forward, you know. And so the things that happened was,
you know, it wasn't the righttime, and and when he created
his creation, he you know,turned into a monster that basically got him

(42:15):
in the end. Now, thisbook, The Great God Pan it's very
similar. So I can't wait tohave that podcast. But that that's gonna,
you know, be a little bitin the future, because I do
want to go over this. Iwant to go over more of Robert Ardrey.
All right, you were listening toYour Spring by your Own Courts,

(42:37):
and I've been playing this song forthe whole Territorialism episodes. This is gonna
be I'm gonna you know, endthis right here for the territorial imperative instinct,
and we're going to move on tosome social reform in the next episode.
Thanks so much for being here withme again on Brainbow, and I

(42:57):
hope to see you next time.