In which we discuss virtue and what it means to signal our values and principles.
Recorded March 13 2025.
Please continue the conversation with us!
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@doyouhaveaminutepodcast/videos
Email: doyouhaveaminuteconversations@gmail.com
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Show notes and links:
Ash Wednesday 2025 | The First Day of Lent | Catholic Answers Tract
Why Do Hasidic Jewish Men Have Side Curls?
Magnificent Obsession – Wikipedia
Flywheel Film – Kendrick Brothers
Everything You Need to Know About India’s Caste System and How it Hinders Education
Transcript:
Jump to end
[clip] I’m remembering reading about that too. And maybe
my idea of what virtue signaling is, is a little
bit off based on that definition. Like maybe
I’m not signaling my virtue by doing my work
in public on the laptop and letting people see
and hiding my entertainment. Like I’m not, I
work in public, but I also work in private a
lot too. And it’s work. It’s not, I’m not doing
it and then living a completely different life
behind the scenes. [conversation] I’m going to start with a
story that has nothing to do with what we’re
talking about. I just want to share it with you
is all. Oh, okay. So it won’t record. You don’t
have to worry about this recording. Yeah, but
I’m going to, I might leave it in. I don’t know.
Put it where it goes. All right. I’m all ears.
So my pipe band is planning a trip to Canada
for a competition this summer. And it’s a competition
that they’ve attended in the past, and everybody
loved it so much. But I’m not looking forward
to the trip. I think it’s stupid that we’re going.
I mean, that’s my personal opinion of it. I don’t
want to go. That’s the gist of it. I suppose.
We’re planning to go to the world championship
next year in Scotland and also the year after
that. And so I think it’s stupid that I have
to spend $500 on a flight to Canada this year
when I have to spend $2 ,000 next year and the
year after that. And I spent $500 on flights
last year to go to Chicago. And so I just…
I don’t know if I want to be a part of a group
that’s traveling so frequently, I guess. I mean,
the travel that I’ve been accustomed to has been
mainly nearby states, and I’m okay with that.
But now we’re flying everywhere. You can drive
for eight hours. You don’t want to fly across
the world. How many of the band actually goes
to those trips? Probably three -quarters of the
band, and most of the people that don’t go are
on instruments that they can do without. Like
they we have a lot of pipers. And so you can
you can do without five of them if they just
don’t want to go. You’re a tenor. So I’m a tenor
drummer and I’m one of five tenor drummers. And
I can’t just say, sorry, I’m not going to be
there because then my whole part is missing.
I don’t have the flexibility to just not go on
a trip. I was seriously considering not not going,
just saying, sorry, you’re screwed. Without me,
there’s just, you’re going to have to figure
out what to do. I mean, they’ve done this before.
Like one year during COVID times, we traveled
to games and I got sick right before and I had
to do a COVID test because they were doing no
people with COVID allowed on these trips at these
games, you know. So because it came up positive,
I didn’t go and they made do without me. So I
know that they can. They can just not have me
there. So I was going to say, sorry, I’m not
going on this trip. It’s crazy. I mean, if I’m
going to not go on a trip, I’d rather it be the
Canada one and not the Scotland one next year.
Is it because you don’t want to afford it? Maybe
I don’t want to afford it. I can afford it. I
know that I can afford it. I just maybe don’t
want to yet. It’s not in my… Not in my values,
maybe. I don’t. It’s not high enough in your
values to take this trip to Canada. Does it mean
enough to you to try to persuade them not to
go at all? Can you back out as a band? I’ve been
trying, you know, since the start of them planning
this. Like, I don’t think that it’s a good idea
that we go. I don’t think that we should go.
It’s not good to be traveling. I mean, it’s not
good for our group to be traveling. There are
groups, there are grade one bands that travel
like to three international places every single
year. And that’s just part of what they do. That’s
their values. But our values have never been
to be a traveling group. And now it’s kind of
shifting toward that way. And I wonder if it’s
still a place that I can be in because my values
don’t fit there. I don’t know. That’s identifying
the way the group wants to go. But I did end
up deciding last. A couple of nights ago, I decided
I’m going to go on this trip. I am going to Canada
with the band. I’m just going to buy my own flights.
I’ll get there when they need me to be there,
and I’m going to leave after everything is done.
But I’m in control of when I get there and when
I come back. So you’re not going to go with the
tour group with all of their flights. Right,
right. And all of their flights are going to
cost more anyway because in order to book a group,
set of seats, you kind of have to pay a premium
for that. My flight is a couple hundred cheaper
than everyone else’s. Anyway. And you’re going
to just take it on the day before or the day
after. On a Saturday, you’ll fly on Saturdays
instead of Tuesdays. Something like that. Yeah.
That’s the last time I flew. I just saw Saturday
is the best time to fly. Saturday into Sunday,
no one flies those days and you have to sit for
an hour in an airport for a day. I sat for a
day in the airport until something else happened,
but that was fine. I could do that for $200.
Which, it’s funny, with the flight I bought,
the tickets that I bought to get there, I have
to go east to get to Canada, but I’m flying west
first, and then I’m going to have a six -hour
layover, and then I get to fly from west over
to Canada. Yeah. They need to get me to a bigger
airport, I suppose, first. Yeah, for that cheap
flight into Canada. Yeah. That’s okay. Six hours
by myself in an airport might be the best thing
in the world. I think I’d love that. I’ve always
enjoyed time in the airport. I mean, it’s just,
you’ve got you and your book and your computer.
You can do whatever you want. I know. With laptops
these days, I mean, 10 years ago, I couldn’t
have imagined doing work at an airport. Like,
I mean, they would have computer hubs, I guess,
where you could go and sign in. Take care of
your stuff. But now we’ve got laptops. Our whole
world is right here in this device. Your world
is, yeah, wherever you are, you’ve got, you can
do everything. So that’s interesting. Oh, that
kind of segues into what I want to talk about.
So first off, let’s introduce, this is our, do
you have a minute conversation? Do you have a
minute podcast where dad and I just talk about
whatever is on our mind? And, you know, we, we
plan ahead of time, the general topic, but. Very
frequently it turns into not what we intended
six weeks ago when we wrote this down. There’s
always new information. Yeah. Sometimes when
I am sitting down kind of in the open with my
laptop on my lap and it looks like I’m doing
important things on my computer, like my screen
is there, I don’t have a privacy filter on it.
So it’s obviously like a document that I’m working
on or a spreadsheet or… like when I’m editing
the podcast, it’s very, very obviously audacity
that’s on my screen and not Facebook or YouTube
or any of these things, right? It’s obvious what
I’m doing. I’m working. I’m not playing. When
I’m working, I’m a little bit, I feel a little
bit more free to like let other people see what
I’m doing. If I’m playing, I kind of sit myself
in a corner and like, Don’t watch the videos
that I’m watching because this is my entertainment
time. Don’t watch Netflix with me. But if I’m
working on a spreadsheet, I’m like, hey, look,
everybody, look at what I’ve got on my computer.
I’m busy. I’m doing stuff. I’m productive. This
is my avocation. Yeah. In a way that that’s kind
of signaling to other people how good I am. I’m
doing good stuff. Right? That’s kind of how I
feel sometimes is, am I so open about what I’m
doing because I want people to see that I’m such
a good person, that I’m so productive, that I’m
important. I’m doing important stuff, so I am
important. And when you’re doing important stuff
that you value as important, you want people
to see, you want to get attention from the narcissistic
supply. You want the supply of their appreciation
that you’re a good person. Yes. Whether it’s
supply or whatever it is, they’re acknowledging,
you want them to acknowledge, hey, you’re a good
person. That looks like work. Yeah. I don’t want
them, I certainly don’t want them thinking I’m
an average person that just looks at their phone
everywhere they go. I’m just going to spend the
next six hours looking at Instagram. Yeah. And
find out what else it’s going with. Yeah, right.
Where could that, where could cat videos take
you? I mean, the book that I was reading suggests
that it could take me to the deepest, darkest
places of the internet. Right. Well, sure it
can, especially with cats. If you watch dog videos,
you can’t go that direction. Cat videos take
you to the deepest, darkest places. Dog videos
take you to obedience and everything good. That’s
right. Dogs are superior. They’re obedient. They’re
trainable. The word that comes to me to ask you
about, do you feel ashamed when you do scroll
the Internet, Instagram? Is there shame in that?
I don’t feel shame while I’m doing it. But when
I reflect on what I’ve been doing, I feel shame.
I feel ashamed that I wasted time and that I’m
just like everyone else, all of the other zombies
around me. I don’t. I don’t want to, when I’m
being mindful, when I’m inspecting my surroundings
and myself, I don’t like what I see in other
people. So I work at a gym and people on the
exercise machines are looking at their phones
like the whole time. They’re watching YouTube
shorts and Instagram reels. And I can see that
because all of the equipment is faced so that
when you’re on the running track, like you see.
everyone’s backs, and so you see their phones.
All of these zombies working out, but also completely
mushing their brains while they’re doing that.
With chewing gum, I had a conversation the other
day, you know, like music. Music is chewing gum
for the ears. Maybe that’s what scrolling is,
is just chewing gum. They’re not gathering any
data. And they’re in a private setting. So my
conversation the other day with one of your siblings
was… You know, music is something they listen
to all the time. And I said, well, that’s chewing
gum. When do you do that? When do you listen
to music? And you’ve got to listen to music when
you’re in public, when you’re at a construction
site, let’s say. And you can’t be listening to
a podcast or Joe Rogan. Because you’re interrupted
all the time. Or do you have a minute? You know,
you can’t dedicate your focus to that activity.
So you have to have music in that case. And he
said, yeah, that makes sense. You know, you can’t
really have something you’re going to have to
focus on. But I said, when you’re in your truck,
there’s no reason for you to listen to music
in your truck. You’re by yourself. You can think.
You have to use that time as your learning thinking
time and pick a podcast, pick a book, pick something
other than music. Music is what you use in public.
It’s just chewing gum if you’re alone and there’s
no reason for it. That’s my thought. Just it
may be wrong. Well, it makes sense. I mean, I
agree with it. Even if it’s wrong, it’s right
for me. And it feels like a virtue to you as
opposed to ashamedness. Yeah. When you’re doing
the right thing, when you know you’re doing the
right thing, that it feels like you’re being
virtuous and not sinful, I suppose. So your discussion
about is, is there anything wrong with signaling
that virtue? You feel a compunction to signal
that virtue. Yeah. And I think that’s a sin to
signal the virtue. Okay. So I did look up because
I know that there’s something in the Bible about
this. Right. Matthew 5 and 6. Right. The Sermon
on the Mount. Matthew 6 is the one that specifically
says. Yeah. So you looked that up. I did. In
preparation for this conversation. Don’t let
your alms be seen. Correct. When you pray. It
was just in your regular study. Yes, I was not.
On your regular daily study. I read the Bible
every day. See, and that would be a virtue signal.
I don’t know. Talking about it would. Yeah. Okay.
So verse five starts out. And when you pray,
you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they
love to pray standing in the synagogues and on
the corners of the street that they may be seen
by men. Assuredly, I say unto you, they have
their reward. But you, when you pray, go into
your room. And when you have shut your door,
pray to your Father who is in the secret place.
And your Father who sees in secret will reward
you openly. So that might be the verse that identifies,
don’t be so open about all the good things that
you’re doing. Right. And for what reason? That
verse tells you the reason to do it. If you’re
doing good things for… Let’s say good things
is the prayer of the hypocrites out on the corner
and openly in the synagogues and stuff. Their
reward is the accolades of men. Right. It’s the
signal. They sent the signal out to the room
and the room is recommending, you know, that’s
a good guy. He’s praying. I know he’s praying.
He’s got a cross on his face. So he is a good
Christian man. Right. But is that all of the
reward that they get? That’s the only reward
they’re going to get is the praise of men. That’s
the Ash Wednesday thing we just went through,
right? The Ash Wednesday? Is that what you said?
Yeah. Did you notice any of that? I didn’t notice
anything outside of it being on the calendar.
Even in the news? I mean, I saw it on… Of course,
when I browse Instagram, I don’t browse Instagram.
I browse YouTube. So I’ll sit there. But… I
don’t know that there’s anything bad about me
browsing YouTube, but if I have time, I’ll do
that. And I don’t necessarily feel bad when I
finish. So I don’t know that I’m ashamed of that,
but I don’t spend a whole lot of time on it.
But I noticed two of the videos on that Wednesday
had people with the ash on their forehead. So
it was interesting. They were signaling something.
Yeah, that’s the purpose, to signal that you
are entering this sacred season appropriately. But that’s an
appropriate signal they feel in their society.
You know, we’ve talked about which, in what place
it is right. It’s right for that community to
mark themselves on the forehead with black marker
and ash so that they know that they are that
class of people. But it is signaling to their
people and to everyone else. They don’t feel
like it’s a sin. They feel like it’s a religious
statement. Other ways. virtue signaling is among
the people that I affiliate myself with a little
bit, those who have left the LDS church. Virtue
signaling is a little bit cringy, gross. What
can I, how do I put it? We don’t like to see
it. We see it and we’re like, oh, yeah, we look
at, we see LDS members virtue signaling. Like
what? I mean, how do you know that an LDS person
is an LDS person? If they’re wearing garments.
Okay, so you can see under my shirt. Yeah, we
can see that. There’s a t -shirt. And naturally,
that t -shirt is not going to be just a normal
t -shirt. It’s white. It’s going to be garments.
Well, and here’s another signal. It’s not virtue
signaling if you’re unconsciously wearing a shirt
under your shirt and it just happens to be showing.
It’s virtue signaling if you’ve got like gym
shorts on and you’re just intentionally wearing
just a little bit shorter so that when you’re
running, people can see that you’ve got your
garment bottoms on, you know. Or one thing I
see a lot is women wear their garment tops, but
then they wear another top that’s so tight that
you could see like the edges. And you can see,
obviously, they’re wearing garments. So they
are a good person. That’s a Mormon right there.
Okay. And from the outside, it looks like a virtue
signal. What about from the inside? Would there
be a valid reason to do that? A valid reason
to signal that you’re virtuous? No. Could they
not be signaling? Could it be possible that the
person wearing the garments under their shirt
is not signaling? Maybe if they just had no control
over the clothing that they were able to wear.
Okay. And one of those things is the garment.
From the LDS structured environment, wear it
day and night. That’s it. You wear it day and
night in every activity. Yeah, but they could
choose another top. But if they couldn’t choose
a looser top, if they had to wear that tighter
top, then that would just be out of their control.
And I don’t know. I’m not a woman who does sports
activities. But perhaps you need that tighter
top to keep yourself intact while you’re doing
some certain activity. Okay. I don’t know. Everything
will just fall apart. You know, when I was a
teenager, chafing occurs. That’s a problem. If
your shirt is too loose, then you don’t want
chafing to occur inside your shirt. You need
to keep it. But that’s done with bras and holding
things tightly. It’s not necessarily done with
the outer shirt, but maybe there’s some reason
for an outer shirt to not be loose. Yeah, well,
and that would be giving people the grace to,
like, how is the best way to phrase that? You
give them grace. They do things because they
need to do things the way they do them and not
because they’re intentionally trying to signal
to you that they’re better than someone else
might be. Right. Let me let me give you an example.
In my life, I happen to be of that class of people.
Yeah. You affiliate yourself with those kind
of people. Right. The garment seems to be something
that I I adhere to. And it’s not that I want
to signal with it, but I determined. And as as
we discussed it, I can go swimming and I got
it. I’ve gotten a swimming shirt. So it used
to be that, you know, when you go swimming, you’re
not going to wear your garments. Because that’s
not, you know, you’re in trunks and that’s it.
You’re wearing trunks. And other than that, it’s
inappropriate to wear that in public that way
seen. But I’ve got a swimming shirt and my trunks
are long enough. So I’ve got long trunks and
a swimming shirt. When I go swim in the pool,
I can do that. And I’ve determined that I can
wear the garments while I’m swimming. There’s
no reason not to. But no one needs to know that.
And under my swimming shirt, you could probably
see it. People could probably look at it. But
if they do see it, it’s not that I’m trying to
impress them that I’m so ultra religious that
I’m wearing that. But I’m using the, well, it
is a religious thing. It’s the deepest held value.
If my value is to be as obedient as possible,
then I’m going to try to do that. I’m going to
buy a swimming shirt. Well, if you were Jewish,
you would be wearing your cap. Everywhere you
go, even in the pool. Whatever that thing is
called. Yarmulke. Yeah, that’s on. Maybe. I don’t
know. Yarmulke. Something like that. So your
head is always covered. That’s a way that you
show your religious devoutness. And they’re not,
yeah, they’re not necessarily signaling. Or the
Hasidic Jews who have the curls in the front.
They’re not necessarily virtue signaling. You
know, I’m better than you. It’s just, this is
my practice. And I am practicing this. I can
think of a reason why you would not want to wear
your garments swimming is because of, you know,
what the pool is, what the chemicals in the pool.
Like, I mean, there are the baking soda swimming
pools that it’s what salt, salt water kind of.
Brine salt water, stuff like that. Right. But
then there are the other pools that use chlorine
to keep them clean. So that would not be good
to always be putting your. On fabric? There’s
specific types of, I mean, swimwear is made out
of specific types of fabric. It’s not made out
of cotton. It’s made out of like polyester and
nylon and spandex, things like that. And they
actually don’t last very long anyway because
of the chemicals in the pool. But they’re made
to dry quickly. Your garments aren’t going to
dry as quick as, especially if you’re wearing
two layers of clothing. If they’re cotton. Yeah.
Yeah, if they’re cotton. So it’s just not made
to be swimwear is what I think. All right. So
you buy the one that is made to be swimwear.
I don’t know. I’m sure there are polyester, but
that’s all. That’s a tangent. So unintentional
virtue signaling. Yeah, it’s probably not a problem.
What if somebody is intentionally virtue signaling?
They’re signaling like me and my laptop in a
public place. doing work. That’s kind of intentional,
even though I don’t go into it thinking that
I want everyone to see I’m a good person. What
I do when I’ve been at a restaurant or somewhere
that I needed to do spreadsheet stuff and I needed
to work, so I take my laptop into a McDonald’s.
I remember a time that I did that. I was going
to be there. Or I’ll do it at the hospital. The
last time I was at the hospital up in in a town
near me. I had my computer with me, but I didn’t
turn it, I didn’t face the wall so that everyone
could see what’s on my screen. I mean, but I
did kind of know I’m here working on my computer.
I didn’t try to hide it, especially, but I didn’t
know that I was pointing out. When I was in the
McDonald’s, what I’m thinking, I did have the
screen turned so anyone that was ordering food
at the desk could see that on my screen there
was spreadsheet materials, not just pictures,
scanning. Yeah. Did you intentionally do that,
though? I remember thinking about it. I didn’t
intentionally say, you know, here, I’m going
to sit this way and make sure I’m in this chair.
But I remember I thought about it that day. I
said, they’re going to see, but they’re going
to see that I’m not doing anything strange. So
I’m okay with them seeing it. I think that’s
what my thought was. I’m okay with them seeing
my screen rather than I want them to see. Or
should I hide it? There’s a lot of… creepy
weirdos out there that do use public networks
to do their shameful internet use. Have you run
across anything like that? Have you seen it?
I haven’t seen it directly, but I’ve been a third
party in a situation where somebody did get someone
else in my area, found someone doing that in
a public place, and I didn’t see it, but I was
there. I don’t know. That is something else,
I guess. I wanted to say, okay, the scripture
you brought up, Lloyd Douglas wrote the book
Magnificent Obsession. Are you familiar with
that work? Magnificent Obsession? Obsession,
yeah. Okay. Lloyd C. Douglas, he wrote The Robe.
He was writing about Christ’s life and things
in The Robe. But this Magnificent Obsession is
how Dr. Hudson, there’s stories. It’s a good
series of information, but this talks about that
specific verse. He says on this one page, you
had a page ripped out of a Bible and it changed
his life by saying that. What you’re doing, the
things you do, do in secret. Don’t let everyone
think you’re doing this so that the God, the
Father which seeth in secret shall reward the
open. So how I tied that to this virtue signaling,
you don’t want to signal because then you have
your reward. Your signal is your reward. And
that’s what they say, because they have their
reward. The other thing that ties to is Emerson.
Lloyd C. Douglas, he says they have a, what did
he call it? It’s a journal. So you keep track
of what you do, but so that no one can read it.
They wrote in cryptic sound. My reasons for doing
this in cipher will be made plain as you proceed.
So he kept his journal in cipher of the good
things he was doing in secret. between him and
God. And as he did good things and charitable
events through the city and his philanthropy
was done that way. And based on that, based on
giving it out and not having anonymously assisting
people, everything came back to him. His business
thrived, everything thrived. You want your business
to thrive by being a good person. But if you
let people know that you’re the one being a good
person, that you are, who is it that has their
foundation that wants to be seen? Bill Gates.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they want
the world to know all the good things they’re
doing. It’s named after them. It’s a big thing.
And it’s a big thing for them. And so if you’re
out there with the world, that is your reward.
If you’re quiet about it, then the Father can
reward you openly, who seeth in secret. So you
don’t want anyone to know the things you’re doing.
That’s depending on which rewards you want. Like,
I want… I want public rewards, so I’m going
to do this in public. I’m going to do it publicly.
But if I want God rewards, then I better keep
it secret. That’s assuming that there is a dichotomy
between those two, that God is not in public.
Emerson said it this way. Let me read this. Maybe
this will answer that idea too. In his work,
Compensation, there is a third silent party to
all our bargains. The nature and soul of things
takes on itself a guarantee of fulfillment of
every contract. So he’s talking about this, the
father or God or the third silent partner. So
that honest service cannot come to loss. If you
serve an ungrateful master, serve him the more.
Put God in your debt. Every stroke shall be repaid.
The longer the payments are withholden, the better
for you. For compound interest on compound interest
is the rate and usage of this exchequer. It does
take some thought to parse that out. But anything
you do, if you’re serving someone who’s not recognizing
your service, it’s virtue signaling and they’re
not recognizing that it’s a virtue what you’re
doing, but you know it’s a virtue in your heart,
it’s your highest value. Do it all the more.
Putting God in your debt, and he uses the term
directly God, the Father in the scripture. Magnificent
Obsession says, he who seeth in secret will reward
thee openly. And that’s what it is. He that seeth
in secret shall reward thee openly. And so Emerson
put it that direct way that you’ll receive compound
interest on compound interest and payback. It
may not be immediate, but it’s going to come
from the world. It’s not going to come from some
spiritual feeling. You’re not looking for a feeling
when you’re working with God. You’re looking
for your business to thrive. for the money to
show up that can buy you that plane ticket. Still,
God pays you in worldly rewards? Right. Exactly.
Worldly rewards. Because that’s the only… But
what about after -death rewards? I mean, can’t
you… Why would Emerson be saying… Is it Emerson?
Or… Yeah. Yeah. Why would he be saying that
God is going to reward you here in your life
if there is an eternity after this life that
he should actually be rewarding you in? Because
God rewards happen after you’re dead. How do
you know that? See, there you go. And that’s
what Lloyd C. Douglas was battling against too.
He was battling against the idea in Emerson,
battling against the idea that God’s rewards
happen after death in the eternities in heaven.
You’re going to get your rewards in heaven. That’s
not even what this scripture says. I wonder if
they’re saying that to make people feel better.
Like, it’s okay. You can have your rewards now.
You don’t have to wait. Your rewards will come
before your mortal life is over. Do your good
now because you’re going to get rewards now.
You’ll be able to see them here before you die.
That’s what they’re saying. And is that not what
this just said? The scripture that you just read.
We now pray, go into thy closet, do it in secret,
so that the Father which seeth in secret, thy
Father which seeth in secret, shall reward thee
openly. It doesn’t necessarily state. I guess
you could interpret that to say openly in the
future, openly in heaven, openly after you’ve
lived your life. You live in hell while you’re
here on earth. And then when you get to heaven,
it’ll be heaven because you’re going to get the
open reward from God because of all the good
you did. But you have to do all your good and
live through hell. Here’s one problem I see with
that, thinking that you’ll get rewards here on
earth, is bad things happen to good people. Darling
little children die when they’re five. And if
they can’t have rewards here on Earth, then why
does anybody get rewards here on Earth? All of
the rewards would make sense that the reward
comes after you die. Because good people suffer.
Why do good people suffer? That’s the question.
And they suffer their whole life. People in third
world countries have… difficult lives and they
die when they’re 20s and maybe they’re super
supportive of their family. They work hard. They
they don’t do anything considered sinful and
they still have a very difficult life. Why would
us white people in America be receiving godly
rewards on Earth? You know, it does. Yeah. What
do you say? So that’s a bigger. You’re looking
at the big picture. And right now in Syria, there
was just news articles about that and the genocides
that are occurring there still. The Hamas in
Israel and how they killed people, took over
societies, 1 ,200 people or some thousands of
people that they just slaughtered. You know,
those people didn’t do anything bad. They were
just in their house on a Tuesday afternoon or
whatever day it was. Armed insurgents come in
and slaughter the house. You can get killed in
your house for no reason. Someone was being evil.
You’re trying to prove, did that person do something
bad? Somewhere else in the scripture says, who
sinned, this man or his parents, that he was
born blind? He says none, but that the glory
of God can be made manifest was the answer Christ
gave to that question. How come this guy’s blind?
He’s blind so that God can… Show everyone how
good he is? He can signal his virtue? God can
signal his virtue. The glory of God can be made
manifest, which may mean that. There are miracles.
As miracles have occurred, that is kind of a
virtue signal, isn’t it? Is a miracle a virtue
signal? There’s something good here happening.
And how we talked about miracles, magic and miracles,
they’re just something you don’t understand yet.
There’s some misunderstanding as to why you think
it’s magic or why you think it’s a miracle. So
it looks like a miracle to us. But in reality,
it’s a, maybe from Emerson’s statement, it’s
just a compensation. That person deserved to
have his sight restored or to have his sight
taken. There might be the belief that people
that live in third world countries deserve the
hardships that they have to endure. From a different
perspective, would there be a perspective that
says that person living in… malnutrition in
Africa. And we’ve seen those pictures with the
kids that are stomach bloated and very skinny,
no muscle at all, and flies all over them. I
mean, you’d hate to live in that condition. Is
it possible that that person loves to be alive,
even though flies are all over him and he’s very
hungry and malnourished? Is the love to be alive
a reward from God, though? I mean, it’s not whether
they like their life or not. It’s that it seems
kind of unbalanced. the rewards to the people
in first world countries that are doing their
prayers in secret and all of that, the rewards
from God seems a little bit unbalanced compared
to those who would do their prayers in secret
in third world countries. And the question would
be whether the third world country even cares
about prayers in secret or public. So they deserve
their… their lower rewards because they just
don’t care about praying. Because they don’t
know God, so God doesn’t know them. That’s picayunish.
That’s not right. It feels like none of it is
right. Right. It could be mythology, right? It’s
just a myth. If you choose to agree with it,
you choose to live it. And you attribute all
your successes to God because… He cares about
you. There’s just an example of three people.
I mean, someone put God. I mean, certainly the
scriptures, the Bible, Matthew was written with
a belief in God. Both Lloyd Douglas and Emerson,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, believe in God because they
stated it that way. The other film we talked
about before, Flywheel, how it says you’re going
to receive benefits in this life. You remember
the movie Flywheel from the Kendrick Brothers?
I don’t think I’ve seen it. He was an auto dealer.
in a town and was going out of business. Everything
was lost. And he was worldly, putting out, you
know, trying to rip people off and things. The
story is good. We’ll have to reference it here,
but Flywheel is a story. He started studying
the scriptures and saying, you know, now I believe
in God, but how has God gonna help my business? And
he determined the things to do. You’ve got to
treat others right. It’s the golden rule and
it’s everything else. So he decided to not rip
people off anymore in the cars he was selling.
Then it turns out they went through, he and his
wife were working through the budget and there
was an amount that they came up with that that’s
the money they had available after all of the
bills were paid. And this is what’s available
right now. And he said, tell me that number again.
And he was just looking through the files to
see, he was identifying in the last year, how
many people he’d ripped off and what amount he
charged over a reasonable price. And they were
at the exact same number. He says, that’s a sign
from God. I’ve got to give all that money back.
And so he did. He went and gave all the money
back and the bank was going to foreclose on him
that Friday. And some news, what, there was a
guy came into work for him that it got out on
the news. He was a undercover news reporter reporting
on why, how car dealers rip people off. And he
came and worked for him. And the news article
came out that this guy is honest about his business.
He’s trying to do things right. And he has this,
you know, a lot full of cars. So that next day
after the news report went out on the news. you
know, hundreds of people came and bought them
out in one day. And the banker came that afternoon
and said, what’d you do with the cars? You know,
I came here to close out your loan for clothes.
He says, well, I’m going to pay it off. We just
got, we were blessed. And so that was the idea
is that in that story and really in all of Kendrick’s
films is that you trust in God and God will reward
you openly in this life right now, facing the
giants in football games. you do the right thing,
you’re going to get blessed to be able to play
the championship game. Yeah. Unless you live
in Africa or… Unless you don’t know any of
these rules. Yeah. Unless you’re not operating
under those rules. So the people in Africa, I’m
only assuming they don’t have the scripture in
front of them. They’re not trying to do anything
but survive. Third world can think about these
myths and these ideas, and they can scientifically
try to prove it to be true or not. In a first
world country, you can do that. In a third world
country, you can’t do anything but try to find
your next grasshopper to eat. Yeah, and none
of that sounds wrong to you? That God would withhold
blessings from somebody that can’t even do anything
about it? From the different perspective, how
valuable is it to have a life? If, in God’s perspective,
you need your body, the plan of happiness as
it’s talked about. That’s a blessing in itself,
right? Even having a body? The fact that you’re
alive, whether you’re alive in pain or whether
you’re alive in darkness or in silence. Who was
it? The blind deaf girl? Helen Keller. Helen
Keller. She could have just lived blind and deaf
in an orphanage her whole life. But someone helped
her understand, you know, Ann, what was her last
name? I don’t know. Her teacher. I don’t know
what her last name is. Ann somebody. Helped her
to understand. And she lived a very fruitful
life, even though she never heard or saw. Plenty
of people live lives that are in pain, but it’s
still a life. And some, like you said, are taken
at five. Yeah, I don’t disagree with that. I
don’t disagree that being alive is a blessing
in itself. But what I don’t like is that… And
this is completely not all about virtue signals,
apparently. We’ve evolved into a completely different
discussion here. But what I don’t like is that
people living good lives to their highest capability
in third world countries are not receiving blessings
galore from God like people in first world countries
are supposedly receiving. Blessings galore. Blessings
they can handle. Let’s call it that way. Okay.
You wouldn’t give a buffet meal to someone who’s
malnourished. That it wouldn’t work. Right. But
you would give them a farm. You would give them
animals. You would give them a place to live
that is more comfortable than… And who’s you?
God. God would lift up the whole community to
make it better and better and better. Right.
And is that not happening? The reason we have
that picture of the person in Africa, and this
was 40 years ago we had these pictures of kids
in Africa. Today, that picture must be different
because the angels that are alive on the earth
today that are helping, doing God’s work, and
that’s Peace Corps. That’s their whole, their
role. They’re a God -fearing people. They’ve
been there for 50 years or 80. You know, they’re
continuing to benefit and bring them nutrition.
And that’s what Bill and Melinda Gates are doing
publicly. Let’s bring nutrition and vaccinations
to Africa so they can survive. You know, and
they don’t have to all be killed by AIDS. Let’s
stop some of the bad stuff that’s happening in
the world that we can see. And so that is happening.
There’s not a people that we’re ignoring as a
world economy. I don’t believe that we’re saying,
just let them die out. They don’t deserve to
even be talked to. They’re untouchables. I guess
in India, you have that untouchables idea. I
don’t even know if that concept still exists.
Yeah, there’s still tribes that… forests that
were trying to preserve their culture by not
even flying planes overhead you know oh yeah
that’s possible it’s it’s weird but important
well like that that movie the gods must be crazy
yeah i remember that one african and or whatever
that something fell out of the sky a bottle fell
out of the sky i think i can see a little bit
how how a believer in god would would recognize
the works of their fellow humankind towards people
in poverty could be God working through them,
right? And if it wasn’t for God, then maybe none
of that would be happening, right? That’s the
supposition. We would still be feudalistic and
killing the neighbors like they are in Syria
and Hezbollah. We’d still be that type of society,
and that type of society is still on the earth,
and that’s what’s crazy. I don’t understand that.
It’s how they can still think that we can kill
the neighbors and we’ll take over their country
by killing them. Well, you’re forgetting. It
doesn’t make sense. You’re forgetting something
else about Earth. You’re forgetting Satan. He’s
still here. There’s God, but there’s also Satan.
And he’s inciting hatred in the hearts of whoever
he can, whoever isn’t, you know, God -centered.
OK, so let’s let’s pull this back to the signaling
thing. Is Satan signaling? Yeah. So I was actually
thinking about that, too. I put my tattoos on
my arms specifically kind of intentionally so
that people could see them. I didn’t do them
in secret. I know a couple of people who have
secret tattoos like they they’re not secretive
about their tattoos, but they’re not visible.
They’re not in places that would be visible if
they were wearing regular clothes. Right. my
tattoos are visible. And that’s kind of a virtue
signal toward the people that appreciate tattoos.
It’s not the opposite of virtue signal, like
as far as praying in public and donating money
in front of people and talking about it. It’s
the same thing. I’m signaling another group’s
virtue to them. And so people who are killing,
In Syria or Gaza or all of these places, they’re
signaling, like these individual people participating
in this thing that they believe in, they’re openly
signaling their virtue to their group. The thing
they hold is their highest virtue. So their virtue
may not be my virtue. It’s their highest value
and they’re signaling that openly. They want
people to see. If they didn’t want people to
see, then they’d stay behind an anonymous username
on Facebook and YouTube and Reddit. And they
would try and do their work from then, from there.
But if you’re out there in the protests or in
the mobs, you’re in there kind of signaling that
you’re a part of this and you want people to
know. You want people to know you. Yeah. Maybe.
But most of those, you know, I saw some reports
on the Palestinians. Every Palestinian that they
interviewed, kids, everyone wants to kill the
Israelis because the Israelis took over their
land. They were given that land inappropriately.
The Palestinians feel like this is our land.
Israel needs to disappear from the face of the
earth. That’s their feeling. Yeah. Revenge. They
want to take their place back. And they think
if we kill them, we can have our place back appropriately.
Instead of living peaceably in a community together,
they want to eradicate a race of people like
the Russians wanted to do, or the Germans and
the Russians. They wanted to eradicate a different
race of people. That’s happened time and again.
Their virtue signal was we are the Arian innate
culture needs to survive, and that’s the best
culture, and we’re going to eradicate any other
culture. For some people, the intent might be
to signal their virtue, but for other people,
it’s like a deep -seated desire for vengeance,
for the right, which they believe is the right
thing to happen. Right. Well, we’re not talking
about those people. We’re talking about the people
that signal virtue just because they want to
be seen as virtuous. The way I read it, read
that, virtue signaling. Virtue is the good, and
this is how I wrote it, the good based on the
perspective that you were pandering to or that
you’re working within, your community. The virtue
is what your community says, either if it’s the
zeroth tier, it’s just you, or if it’s your family,
or if it’s your community, your church. Your
virtue is identified by the community you’re
a part of, and that’s the perspective you go
through to identify the virtue. And we talked
about that. Maybe if you’re on Satan’s side,
then Satan’s the virtue. If you’re on a side
of a cult, that cult is your virtue. To signal
it, so what my online search was, signaling is
someone who says, I am this way, but then they’re
hypocritical in that they don’t actually. If
you’re virtue signaling, then you’re showing
the world that you’re this type of person. You
know, I’ve got the black on my forehead, but
I have no idea what Lent means. And I don’t care,
but I just want to signal that I am part of the
group. I’m in the in crowd because this is my
community. That’s what I kind of think that Democrats,
the protests right now, I ran across a couple
of them in a couple of towns I was in. And you’ve
probably seen them on the street in your town,
right? And they’re out there chanting and saying,
honk for this. And they have their signs, you
know, this is democracy is dead and just fancy
things. And they’re flying the flag upside down.
They’re holding their flag. the American flag
upside down is in distress, that this is a distressful
situation. I went and talked to one of the groups.
I had some time. So I parked my car and walked
over and talked to them. I was surprised that
one of the ladies actually is thinking about
what she’s doing. I think she’s in the wrong
place. I don’t think anyone can stand out there,
hold those signs and chant if they’re not just
virtue signaling. So I think that’s all a virtue
signal. They’re following the talking points.
And so that’s what I was trying to, I got into
a conversation a little bit. She said, she’s
thought about this and she believes that all
this stuff is actually true. She’s hated Trump
for the last 30 years and has never had any change
in that feeling. So nothing he’s done has ever
changed on her virtue. So the virtue to her is
that that’s a bad side. No matter what they do,
it’s going to be bad. But she apparently is thinking
it through. I thought everyone was just following
the talking points and just virtue signaling,
not taking action. You must think that protests
aren’t actually effective. I think a lot of people
think protests are effective. They think it’s
an effective way to make change. Okay. And who
are the a lot of people that think that? The
people that go and do protests. Those are the
ones that… And that’s what I’m saying. I don’t
believe it’s the people that do the protests.
Because the signs in these two different cities,
hundreds of miles apart from each other. Probably
130 miles apart, not hundreds. In these two cities,
the signs were exactly the same. The process
was exactly the same. They’re still following
the exact same talking point and procedures.
There’s an organization that’s making it easier
to protest. Yeah, the procedure was handed out
and said, across the country, these are the signs
you’re going to use. These are the words you’re
going to use. Pick which sign you want to put
out, but you’re going to go use these signs because
these are the effective way to do it. And so
they’re doing that. The other reason I stopped
by is I saw a white bus that’s typical of the
buses that bus people in in this town. And so
I was wondering if they all came in that bus,
if the bus dropped them off. From another place.
They didn’t. They said, yeah, we just came from
work. We’re just here. And they all went back
when it was over. They went back into their cars
and drove away. They didn’t go back to the bus.
So I had assumed incorrectly that they were shipped
in to be this protest. And then they would all
get in the bus and go back to. Chicago or wherever
they came from. I don’t know. Wherever the Democrats
are all rallied together and making trouble for
all the Republicans. Making all these plans.
So the signaling, I think, is that it’s not acting.
They’re not activists. They’re not actually doing
anything. They just want to look like they’re
activists. I think most of the people in the
protests have no idea what they’re really doing
there. They go protest for two hours and then
they get back to their regular life and watch
Instagram and… eat their Cheetos and just wait
for the next protest to come up, right? I had
that experience when I was in high school. There
was, well, the Ayatollah Khomeini. I mean, there
was things happening in Iran that in my little
small town, 2 ,000 people in town, a high school
of 100 kids, maybe it was 300 kids, but a protest
was organized and the news got word of it and
they came and, you know, I guess we invited the
news. You know, we have this little… kids walking
down the street, high school kids, with our signs
about Iran. We had no effect, no reason to even
think about Iran. We didn’t even know where it
was. None of us knew where it was. The guy that
organized it probably didn’t even know where
it was. But he said, here’s an idea. I want to
get notoriety. I want to be seen of men. So let’s
create a protest. And the protest was just a
signal. It was just virtue signaling. It’s always,
you know, we’re good people caring about this
issue. We didn’t even know. I, at least, knew
nothing about it. Yeah, well, 90 -something percent.
This is a statistic that I’m making up right
now, but I’m certain that 99 % of high schoolers
know nothing about what’s going on outside of
their city, outside of their high school. Out
of their clique. It’s just their friend group
that they know about. Right. You just don’t think
about other things when you’re in high school.
You think about your marching band competitions
and your football rivalries, and that’s it. That’s
all that matters. Yeah, that’s your whole world.
And then if your football team happens to be
like, okay, we’re going to do a game where we
honor those people who fought in the Afghanistan
war. Then suddenly you care about that for that
night, but then who cares about it after that?
The idea of signaling, though, is that you’re
not doing anything. You’re not really there.
You’re hypocritical. Yeah. OK. I am. I’m remembering
reading about that, too. And maybe my idea of
what virtue signaling is is a little bit off
based on that definition. Like maybe I’m not
signaling my virtue by doing my work in public
on on the laptop and letting people see and hiding.
My entertainment. Like I’m not, I work in public,
but I also work in private a lot too. And it’s
work. It’s not, I’m not doing it and then living
a completely different life behind the scenes.
Right. So if you signal, if you’re actually doing
something, is that really virtue signaling or
is it? Just being virtuous. Is it bragging? Is
it bragging? Being virtuous, but bragging about
it. So there’s a difference. Is it conceit? You
know, I want you to see that I’m doing all this
good stuff. I’m actually doing good stuff. I’m
not signaling that I’m doing good stuff. I’m
doing good stuff. So it’s not virtue signaling.
It’s just conceited. It’s egocentric, narcissistic,
perhaps. Maybe. We’re still reading the Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People book. And sometimes
I have to read it in public because that’s where
I am. And I know that I need to get so many pages
in per day to finish it by the time we’re going
to talk about it. By next week. Yeah. We have
a deadline. We have a deadline. So this book,
I am okay with people seeing that I’m reading
it. If I’m reading Game of Thrones, then I have
it on my e -reader so no one can see the cover.
I don’t want people talking to me about Game
of Thrones, but I do want them talking to me,
seeing that I’m reading this and talking to me
about Seven Habits. I mean, it’s just, there’s
certain genres of books where I’m like, I don’t
care. for anybody to know that I’m reading this.
Have you had a conversation open based on that?
No, not about the book. Someone asked me what
I’m reading because they noticed that I was reading,
but they didn’t talk about… Nobody ever talks
to me about what I’m reading. They didn’t have
an opinion. Nobody has an opinion, which I think
is another thing that I look for. I’m like, someone’s
going to ask me about this book that I’m reading,
but nobody ever does. It’d be great. I mean,
that’s why we’re in this conversation. We’re
hoping that someone else will open that conversation.
If I ever had, I did note one of the things we
talked about with someone because they told a
story that one of these conversations we have
matched. And I said, you know, we came up to
the same idea, same conclusion. And with that
conclusion, so I introduced it. But in the conversation,
you’ll come up, we were talking about other things
anyway. Things always connect to me, but I’m
trying to think if there’s something that connected
to them and it spurred their story. What I was
reading spurred their comments. I don’t recall
that any time. I mean, I spent a fair amount
of time on buses in my life reading books and
no one on a bus has ever approached me that I
can recall. Yeah. You know, when I see someone
else reading a book, even though I might want
to talk to them about that book or ask them about
the book. I think if I was reading a book, maybe
I would not want to be bothered. I brought this
book here for a reason, so I could read it, not
so I could talk to people. Even though I think
it would be so cool if somebody asked me about
a book, I’m really hesitant to ask anyone else
about what they’re reading. Yeah. I don’t want
to be intrusive. We talked about that before
about being on airplanes. You’re in close proximity
for three or four hours at a time, and you pick
up your book. You can either talk about the book
you’re reading or they’re reading, or you can
just live in your own little seat. And usually
I’m more comfortable living my own little seat,
not even talking to the people. And you prepare
yourself for that. You’re going into this experience
with the expectation that you’re going to get
some stuff done or you’re going to listen to
so many podcasts while you’re on this plane.
And sitting in the airport, you know, for a day,
12 hours, six hours. At the airport, you don’t
necessarily want to talk to people. You’re going
to cordon yourself off in a seat and be steady,
be studious. One thing I came across while I
was watching some videos on virtue signaling
was the opposite, which is not not virtue signaling.
The opposite, one opposite would be vice signaling,
where you might signal to a group that you’re
with something surprising about you. Like you
could say you’re in a business meeting, but then
you just mention that you were, I don’t know,
playing Starcraft or something like that. Like
talking about how you do something that somebody
stereotypically in your position would not be
doing. And so you signal to them your vice and
somehow that breaks expectations and makes them
think about you differently. So that’s the purpose
of that signaling your vice is to change what
people are thinking, I guess. Change your relationship
with them? Maybe, yeah. Let them see that you’re
not just a stuffed shirt, that you actually do
something fun every now and then? Yeah, that
would be one way. And it would be a signal. It
wouldn’t be because it naturally came up in the
conversation. It’d be like, I’m purposely telling
you this for a reason because I want you to know
that I’m not. as you would expect, you know?
Yeah, you mentioned some game. Is that a game?
StarCraft. StarCraft, that’s an actual thing?
Yeah, it’s an actual thing that a lot of people
do spend a lot of time on, and generally those
people don’t get a lot of other stuff done because
StarCraft is so prevalent in their life. Okay,
so it’s like Dungeons & Dragons. Well, Dungeons
& Dragons is… is more social. It’s, it’s, I
mean, what you could say it’s a game. Yeah. Dungeons
and dragons is a game, but you get together with
a bunch of people for dungeons and dragons. That’s
usually in person and you’re very creative and
everything like that. And Starcraft is a video
game that you play on your phone or your computer.
And you’re just, you’re probably, you know, communicating
with people through a headset and stuff, but
it’s, it’s about the game. It’s about the game.
Yeah. I’ve never played it. I just know from
other people who are maybe married to StarCraft
players. It’s one of those things that isn’t
necessarily a virtue that you would want to be
ashamed of and hide from the public if you were
doing it on your phone because of its time demand,
inappropriate time demand. It depends on the
group you’re with, though. If you’re in a business
meeting with people that you want, they expect
a certain level of productivity from you. then
maybe signaling your vice of StarCraft could
potentially harm your business relationship,
but maybe that’s what you want. You want something
switched in these people’s brains so that they
stop thinking of you as such a professional go
-getter, you know? Because you don’t want the
raise. or the advance in the company, you want
to just be left alone. There might be other reasons.
I don’t know. It’s a made -up scenario that maybe
I didn’t think through. Right, right. No, and
maybe that is right, because I don’t want to
be added to the think tank group that you’re
talking about doing. I play StarCraft in all
my spare time, and I want to keep my spare time
as maximum as possible. If I can work eight out,
six hours here for my eight hour shift, I’d be
happy to do that. And I’ll give you the reports
that you need. I’ll do everything that you require,
but I’m going to get it done in six hours. And
when my contract, when I met the requirement
for the day, I want to go home because I’ve got
things to do. And I’m a StarCraft guy. It’s just
who I am. You can’t fire me because you don’t
have anyone else hired yet to cover the things
I’m doing. Yeah. And I’m not going to play it
at work. I’m just going to leave work early.
When I finish my daily tasks, don’t give me any
more tasks. I think that’s the way most people
think about work anyway. That’s what they say.
If you hate your job, if it’s a rut, if your
work is a rut, that’s the way you’re thinking
about it. I want to get into my life. I’m sorry
I have to be here, but I’m here cleaning these
toilets. I’m here because I have to and not because
I want to, which is my attitude about this trip
to Canada. I’m going because I have to, not because
I want to. If I had the choice, I would totally
stay home. If I felt like I had a reasonable
choice that honored everyone else involved in
the band, then I would totally stay home. And
maybe we bring this idea up again when we talk
about the book next week. That certainly directly
applies. That situation is a direct situation
to your habits. Well, and I’ve already purchased
my flights and they’re non -refundable, so…
I have to come to the conclusion that it’s a
good idea that I go. And it’s going to be one
of the best trips you’ve ever taken. It better
be. Because that’s your proactivity, your intentionality
is that it’s going to be. You’ll probably even
have great conversations while you’re there.
Different than you would have if you were in
your own hometown at practice. Here’s, let me
finish out the God idea. Now, you do have…
a God conversation on our calendar for in a few
weeks from now. Is there anything that you want
to save for that or we’re going to? This concept.
So one concept is that we, that we covered is
that you do your, you expect that God’s going
to reward you. Okay. I just want to share a poem
that, that I may have shared before. It seems
like I have, but if you’re, if you’re asking
for what work you should do and how, how I, what
virtue should I follow? Whether you signal, if
you’re signaling, you’re not actually going to
follow the work. But if you’re going to do work,
what do you choose? The poem is, Father, where
should I work today? And my love flowed warm
and free. The Lord pointed to a spot and said,
tend to that for me. I said, oh no, not that,
not that little spot. For no one will ever see,
no matter how well my work was done, not that
little place for me. And then it’s, dear child,
search that heart of thine. Art thou working
for thee or me? For Nazareth was little place,
and so was Galilee. So that’s the whole poem.
But indicating that the Savior’s work, you know,
potentially the greatest person on the whole
earth and the God of the universe, went to a
very small town to do his work. And no one really
saw him. There were a few people in the town
and people from neighboring communities. That
whole work was done, if it was the most magnificent
work of the universe, was done in private. with
just 200 people around it. So are you working
for the or me? So that’s the direction. If you’re
going to have virtue, you want to identify where
your virtue is based. If the virtue is based
in a God and you’re doing the work for the God,
it doesn’t matter where you do your work or who
sees it. If you’re working for the people, for
your ego, and you need everyone to see what you’re
doing, then that’s your reward. You’re not working
for the God above your virtues. What you do is
also what you want to do. You do what you want
to do. And we’re going to be talking about wants
in the future too. So I want to just identify
this. It comes from Henry David Thoreau. He says,
if you follow your dreams, he’s talking about
the, it’s in Walden. It’s one of the concluding
phrases of Walden. He says, you’ll have success
unexpected in common hours. He describes it a
little more flowery about following your dreams.
If you pick a dream and identify it and work.
consciously toward it, you will find that you
have success unexpected in common hours. So in
normal time, you’re not going to have to work
extra for it. You’ll be blessed is the general
idea there, the concept. It’s that blessing.
It’s that compensation that Emerson talked about.
All of this is that if you’re actually virtuous,
rather than just signaling virtue, it should
benefit. You should receive the benefit from
that, which brings up your challenge. Do you
think it matters what virtue you’re virtuous
with? What group you’re virtuous to? It seems
like half of the world is, well, the Palestinian
Muslim thing, Hamas, the people who are supporting
terrorism and that type of thought. Half of the
world is still following that virtue. Iran and
Russia, I don’t know who you could apply on that
side that still thinks that you can kill the
other people and take over their land. So that
idea is still a virtue that people promote. And
are they receiving successes and compensation?
I mean, they’re receiving their rewards, right?
Whatever rewards they’re receiving, they’re receiving
them. Maybe they’re not godly rewards, right?
Because whoever’s on the right side, whoever’s
on the God side is receiving God rewards. Are
you rewarded? And that’s why you take God out
of the picture and just say it’s the universe,
it’s karma. Karma, you know, instant karma. Of
course, they’re getting rewards, whether you
put God on the other end of it or if it’s just
a circumstance, a circumstance and a consequence.
Yeah, consequence. But it’s just a consequence.
Karma, God did it. Yeah. Well, and sometimes
karma is instant and sometimes it’s years. Delayed.
Yeah. And from Emerson’s statement, sometimes
it’s years with interest on compound interest
and you get a lot bigger than what you actually
put into it. I think the problem is the signaling.
That’s what I was more impressed with on this
topic than what virtue. We talked a lot about
what virtue you follow. It doesn’t matter what
virtue you follow. It matters if you’re signaling
it or if you’re actually acting it. I agree with
that. There’s no walk behind the talk, right?
Let’s use an example. I want to use the example
of the tariffs and Donald Trump. So President
Trump using the tariffs. Is he signaling with
those tariffs? Tariff signaling. He keeps delaying
the implementation of the tariffs that he’s saying
he’s going to impose. So he’s using them. So
could you call that a signal? I don’t follow
politics very well. So this is my understanding
is that he’s threatening with tariffs and then
somehow he’s able to delay them because Mexico
is like, oh. hold on, let’s talk about this.
Or Canada’s like, I’m going to impose a tariff
too. If you’re going to, then we’re going to
as well. Yeah. And that type of thing would be
a trade war. Trade wars that they’re afraid of
happening. If it actually puts into place. Yeah.
So if they never had a chance of going into place,
if they’re just a negotiation tactic, then they’re
signaling. But I think all negotiation tactics,
if you’re negotiating with someone and you’re
throwing out a straw man, you’re throwing out
a, you know, this is what I expect we will do
if you do that. Or boundaries, set up a boundary.
Those are all signals. Signals are valid, I believe.
It’s valid to signal. You want to signal this
is, the tariff is going to be 200 % on whatever.
Just because I, you know, if you don’t, if you
don’t do this, your tariff is going to be, your
penalty will be that. So you’re signaling that
penalty. And it does take some guts, some grit.
You have to have something about you to actually
do the task, to place the tariff in place. Courage,
maybe. Courage, yeah. We’re now enacting this
tariff. And that’s what the markets had a problem
with trying to decipher in everything that Donald
Trump’s doing with the tariffs. That’s why it’s
in flux right now. It’s down. And then people
are saying, well, that’s because Donald’s a bad
guy. President Trump’s a bad guy. And so the
market’s falling and it’s going to crash and
we’re going to go to depression. And, you know,
they’re just trying to signal, they’re trying
to signal fear into the people. Yeah. And it
is scaring some people, though. That’s the thing.
There is fear out there. There is fear. And that’s
why the protests are building up, because they
have people who don’t know what to do. And they
say, here’s an action. This is all bad that they’re
doing. The action you can take is stand in front
of the courthouse with these signs. And so they
do it. Yeah, I’m happy to do something. But they’re
just virtue signaling. They’re signaling that
this is the right path. Again, I was surprised
the one lady that I did talk to had some thought
behind it. I would think that none of them would
have had any thoughts behind what they’re doing.
Yeah, you made an assumption and then you tested
it and found out that it wasn’t accurate. I was
surprised that it wasn’t accurate, but I was
only surprised with one. I mean, the other city,
I didn’t have time to stop, and all the people
that were there didn’t look like they had a thought
in their head. Well, that’s your assumption,
though. Did this lady look like she had a thought
in her head before you talked to her? Actually,
she was dressed much better than everyone else
in the group. Oh, okay. Yeah, she did look professional.
And that’s probably why she agreed to talk to
me. The other people, and I’ve seen the videos,
people who actually don’t have a brain in their
head won’t talk to you. They’ll say, you know,
and put their signs up, you know, that people,
interviewers, I watched a recent one trying to
interview one of the protest groups. And they
just, no, no, no, no, we’re not going to talk
to you. Why are you having people not talk to
me? I’m just a person. Huh. Maybe you would experience
that here. So I kind of expected that. I wondered
maybe they would just shut me down and try to
kick me out. Say, just leave. We don’t need you
here. You’re asking the wrong questions. You’re
not part of our group. Yeah, protests are kind
of leaning toward the signaling part of virtue
and not the action part. I found out about this
app or website. I only saw it just for a little
bit, but it’s… sets up a template for you to
write to your representatives about issues that
you want them to know that you care about. And
so it sets up the template email, and then you
can edit the text. And then it says, who do you
want to send this to that can actually do something
about it? Like you pick the issue, and then you
have the text, and then it tells you who you
actually send it to. Like, because some issues…
You try and send it to your mayor, but your mayor
can’t do anything about it. There’s someone else
that can actually do something about it. So that’s
who you should be sending this, your concerns
to, you know. So this app tells you who is it
that you should be talking to. In regard to that
issue. Yeah. And it has a list of issues that
you can select from. And then you check box and
it sends out an email for you. Like it sends
your text. either the template text or whatever
you’ve added to it, and it shoots it off to those.
And you can do that. You can send them the same
thing over and over again so that their aides
recognize there’s a lot of emails coming in about
this issue, and so people are really concerned
about it. And so their staff, their aides look
at it. They gather all of that data. Well, that’s
all that they can, like, there’s no way that
the senator of this area. Is there two senators
for this state? I don’t know. States have multiple
senators, right? Every state only has two senators.
They have multiple representatives. Okay, yeah.
So there’s no way that the senator, one of the
two senators of the whole state, would actually
read his own emails, you know? So it’s the aides
that compile it. And likely, likely it’d never
get back to you. Or if you get a letter back,
it’ll be a form letter back from the office of,
thank you for your concern. But those form letters
most likely don’t even get a return acknowledgement.
I mean, if you formed up your own email and sent
it from your personal email address, then all
those groups are doing is just creating statistics.
There’s this number of people that did it. They
probably don’t even read the letters or the comments,
but they identify from this system is set up
to create statistics. It’s like a poll of some
sort. I kind of think it’s like the protests
where you get up. You get up in the morning and
you send out your emails to your representatives,
and then you don’t have to think about that for
the rest of the day. No more concern. I’ve done
my part. Done my civic duty. Yeah. Do you answer
surveys? I mean, are surveys that same way? You
feel like you’ve done your duty. You’ve answered
the survey. The survey is just gathering data
from you. And you voiced your opinion. And supposedly
they share it with the right people. Yeah, you
voiced your opinion on that survey. So is that
a virtue signal? I answered a survey yesterday
and all of the questions, the questions were
stupid. I told her they’re stupid, but you have
nothing to do with that. You’re just reading
it. I mean, the person was just reading this
thing. So I framed and slanted to one way or
the other. I don’t remember what the specific
question was that got me to say that directly.
It started with a lie and it came up with two
options that were completely, you know, you’re
thinking they’re diametrically opposed. They
both happened at the same time. Just something
between state and federal governments doing one
thing. So they’re both going to do it at the
same time. It’s not a dichotomy. It’s not one
or the other. But that’s not an option. You can’t
say other than these two options. Yeah. And that’s
right. And so she said, choose one. I said, okay.
So I chose the state. I said, I’d rather be local,
more local. And that’s my vote. But it’s not
a dichotomy. It’s not one or the other. And you
had no place to record anything like that. I
think my signal, your signal is just a straight
yes, no answer. You can only signal with that.
You can’t act on that. But I’ve acted on it because
I talked to you about it. I talked with my wife
about it. We discussed what the issue was and
why it was there. Actually, it was on health
care. It was on whether they should not have,
since I brought it up, should the states limit
the use of bad materials in foods? Or should
the federal government do it? Or should the federal
government waive, you know, should it be the
state doing that or should it be the federal
government? They said they’re both going to do
it. It doesn’t matter. But yeah, let’s, I don’t
mind if the states do it. Let the states do it.
Would you support the state limiting the manufacture
of goods with these bad chemicals? Trying to
gauge the world, the country’s view of the health
care initiatives, you know, the chronic diseases
and trying to make things better. But I was just
fully surprised on the way that they were phrased
and what they thought was true to start with.
I’ve opted out of surveys in the middle of it
because it seemed like it was trying to make
me think something about something. And that’s
the way this one was. It was trying to push you
to the right opinion. I said, I’m of this opinion.
Don’t worry about that. So you opted out of virtue
signaling. You didn’t want a virtue signal for
that group because it was pushing your opinion
in a certain way. Yeah, I guess that’s right.
I mean, I’ve done that before. I opted out of
virtue signaling. I don’t think that I thought
that it was virtue signaling. Maybe I was signaling
my virtue to the survey taker, the survey giver,
I guess, by saying, I actually decline. How I’m
using the virtue signal, your answers to the
survey are only a signal. They have no action.
So you opted out of signaling. Say, I’m not going
to signal on your survey because I think it’s
not of the right stance. It’s not where I want
my virtue to sit. It’s not where I want to signal.
It’s not unbiased is what it was. I think it
just felt like it was very biased. And so I didn’t
want to take that survey because then I would
be forced into saying something that I didn’t
really think, right? Like what you were saying.
Yeah. Right. So this is battling against that
first statement that you made that you believe
virtue signaling is a sin, is not right. It’s
a sin. You’re always signaling, and you get to
choose where you signal your virtue. Yes. Okay.
I think that’s the meat of it, is everyone is
virtue signaling everywhere. But if it’s just
a signal and there’s no action behind it, then
it’s… Then it’s a sin, right? Then it’s the
typical virtue signaling. If you’re actually
signaling your actual virtue, then you’re virtuous.
Virtuous or virtue signaling. Right. There you
go. But it’s a signal. It’s still a signal. You’re
not going to be virtuous in a survey because
you can’t input how to write that survey, how
to rewrite that question, so it’s not leading.
And they led it on purpose. They wrote it that
way. Virtuous. Ideally, we would all just be
virtuous in our own values and our own communities
and not signal to the people that we’re with
that we’re virtuous, but not actually be virtuous.
And that comes out in the book we’re going to
discuss next week, too, directly. It’s independence.
Independent to your own virtues and values, your
highest values. So it means independent. Not
depending on someone else’s value in trying to
signal that you’re part of that group. That group
is who I am. I want to signal that I’m with this
group, even if I have no idea what their real
tenants are. I’m just with the group. I was born
in it. I’m American. I think Americans are starting
to feel what America is now. I mean, instead
of just living in the country, if you’re signaling
that you’re an American, you really don’t have
any heartfelt… values tied to American culture
or constitutional law. Yeah. Is there a difference
between being a citizen of this country versus
being an American? Like, I’m just, I’m living
here because this is where I was born and this
is where, I mean, I haven’t made any effort to
leave. So I’m a victim of… Of the country.
Of the country. I’m just here. I’m just here.
I have to go with whatever is going on, you know?
versus I really believe in this country. This
is where I live. I choose to live here. I am
not leaving because this is my home, and I’m
going to make it better, or I’m going to love
it how it is, but this is where I live. I am
an American. And I’m going to do my civic duty.
I’m going to answer the surveys that come my
way and make my voice heard when I have the opportunity.
If they have a town meeting. about some issue
downtown, I’m going to take my time to go to
it and leave my opinion. I’m going to vote in
the elections that come up where I have the right
to make my voice heard. I want my voice to be
heard. So I’m an American. I believe in the country.
Or you say, I’ve not voted, never voted. I don’t
pay my taxes because I make all my money under
the table. What else to be said about virtue
signals or vice signals or just… Just virtuous.
I guess we’ll be talking next week about how
you can just be genuinely virtuous and avoid
the signaling part. And that’s in the book, as
a response to the book, right? Yeah, because
it’s everything. It’s all of it. All of it. Being
a good person, fixing your character, fixing
your… Yeah, we’ll identify the overall story
of that book. first. It’s going to be an interesting
conversation. I think we’ll be able to pull it
together. Even though we’ve talked about it for
the last two months on these conversations, we’ve
said the little snippets all the way along. We’re
not necessarily going to be so involved in the
snippets. I think we’re going to do an overview
of what it is. Yeah. If we did the snippets,
it would take, what, seven weeks just talking
about each habit, right? Yeah. Each habit. We
don’t want to read the book. We’re not going
to read the book. It’s not going to be that.
It’s going to be an overview of why it’s important
and why it’s a classic. That’s going to be my
overall question. Why is this a classic? What
makes it that? Yeah. Well, I better get to reading
because I’m only halfway through the book. You
better get to the end. You’ve got one week. I’ve
got one week. And don’t skimp on the last chapters
because those may be the best. If they’re anything
like the first half of the book, we’re going
to have to fit two months of reading into one
week. Well, actually, the public victories do
go faster than the private ones. Private ones
took two -thirds of the book, actually. Public
victories are smaller, but they’re more concise
because you already have the base of understanding.
It was getting that understanding first. Yeah.
[outro] All right. Shall we wrap it up? Are we ready?
Shall we talk about that next week? Yeah, that’s
our next week thing. I think we’ve come to a
conclusion. Go ahead. Close us out here. We certainly
didn’t talk about everything about virtue signals.
And I know that if we have any listeners, those
listeners are going to have some opinions about
it too. So we’d really love to talk more about
this with anybody that would like to share their
thoughts. So find our contact information in
our show notes. on wherever you’re listening
to this on. There should be show notes there
with our contact info. And you can find us on,
we have a website, doyouhaveaminutepodcast.com,
which I worked really hard on. It’s really good,
you know. It’s being built, and it’s going to
be amazing when it’s fully functional. It’ll
never be finished, but when it’s functional,
yeah. When it’s functional, that’s what it is,
yeah. Yeah. So that’s all for today. I believe.
All right. Well, thank you. Have a good night.
Good night.
Do you have a minute? 
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