Transcript: Episode 0084

WEBVTT

00:00:37.432 --> 00:00:39.712
<v SPEAKER_1>Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast.

00:00:39.712 --> 00:00:40.752
<v SPEAKER_1>I am Corey J.

00:00:40.752 --> 00:00:41.832
<v SPEAKER_1>Mahler.

00:00:41.832 --> 00:00:44.312
<v SPEAKER_2>And I'm still Woe.

00:00:44.312 --> 00:00:49.952
<v SPEAKER_2>On today's Stone Choir, we're going to be discussing land, places, and territory.

00:00:49.952 --> 00:00:53.192
<v SPEAKER_2>This is an episode about real property.

00:00:53.192 --> 00:00:56.032
<v SPEAKER_2>It's about the physical land beneath us.

00:00:56.032 --> 00:01:04.852
<v SPEAKER_2>Places are where the land, these locations become imbued with something particular to an individual or to a group.

00:01:05.332 --> 00:01:06.852
<v SPEAKER_2>And so, they become special.

00:01:06.852 --> 00:01:11.332
<v SPEAKER_2>So, the land is transformed by our experiences, and that's what we would call a place.

00:01:11.332 --> 00:01:18.732
<v SPEAKER_2>And then territory is where you have some sort of exclusive authority over a location, over the land.

00:01:18.732 --> 00:01:33.552
<v SPEAKER_2>And so, there are concentric rings of authority for territory and different groups, you know, the governments, the local government, individuals, you know, even if you only rent, you have authority over the territory of your apartment.

00:01:34.452 --> 00:01:50.452
<v SPEAKER_2>Today, we're going to be talking about how the physical property that we occupy and that is bestowed to us by God and that we maintain, and that blesses us through God's providence is fundamental to our lives.

00:01:50.452 --> 00:02:00.512
<v SPEAKER_2>It might sound like kind of a dry, technical, boring topic, but the reason for discussing this is that we want to make you think about it in a different way.

00:02:01.032 --> 00:02:16.592
<v SPEAKER_2>We want to make you see that the land beneath your feet, that the places that define your life, and that the territory that someone is responsible for protecting, whether it's you or it's someone above you, these are the things that make us human.

00:02:16.592 --> 00:02:20.372
<v SPEAKER_2>If you don't have any land, you can't be human.

00:02:20.372 --> 00:02:23.272
<v SPEAKER_2>What I mean by that is that we're on the planet Earth.

00:02:23.272 --> 00:02:26.312
<v SPEAKER_2>You need ground beneath your feet to exist.

00:02:27.032 --> 00:02:28.752
<v SPEAKER_2>Otherwise, you didn't want to float off into space.

00:02:28.752 --> 00:02:30.792
<v SPEAKER_2>No, you have to have some space.

00:02:30.792 --> 00:02:32.492
<v SPEAKER_2>We call it personal space.

00:02:32.492 --> 00:02:39.172
<v SPEAKER_2>The land beneath your feet, the couple square feet that you physically occupy, is a fundamental part of who you are.

00:02:39.172 --> 00:02:43.052
<v SPEAKER_2>It's not something we ever think about unless somebody runs into you.

00:02:43.052 --> 00:03:02.072
<v SPEAKER_2>If you're walking down the sidewalk and somebody else doesn't give way and you collide, or if someone is being belligerent and they invade your personal space, they start bumping chests with you or something, suddenly that couple square feet of space that's your land beneath your feet that for that moment is your sovereign territory becomes a very big deal.

00:03:02.072 --> 00:03:06.152
<v SPEAKER_2>And the fact that there's that encroachment also becomes a big deal.

00:03:06.152 --> 00:03:07.972
<v SPEAKER_2>See, it's just land, maybe it's just a sidewalk.

00:03:07.972 --> 00:03:10.372
<v SPEAKER_2>There's nothing particularly interesting about it.

00:03:10.372 --> 00:03:17.732
<v SPEAKER_2>But when it is invaded by someone with ill intent or hostile intent, then it becomes a big deal.

00:03:17.732 --> 00:03:21.912
<v SPEAKER_2>And so politics is all about all of these things.

00:03:21.912 --> 00:03:31.672
<v SPEAKER_2>It's about who governs the land, who determines whether these places that we love and cherish are protected, and whether the territory is enforced.

00:03:31.672 --> 00:03:37.852
<v SPEAKER_2>And so, once again, as in a couple of recent episodes, land, places and territory, they're basically synonymous.

00:03:37.852 --> 00:03:44.832
<v SPEAKER_2>And we're just focusing on those three facets of the concept because they have different applications in our life.

00:03:44.832 --> 00:03:48.772
<v SPEAKER_2>So land is created by God.

00:03:48.772 --> 00:03:54.692
<v SPEAKER_2>That's tautologically silly to say, but we believe that God is a creator of all things.

00:03:54.692 --> 00:03:56.892
<v SPEAKER_2>He put the land beneath our feet.

00:03:56.892 --> 00:03:59.112
<v SPEAKER_2>And he did it for a reason.

00:03:59.112 --> 00:04:05.452
<v SPEAKER_2>And one of those reasons is what is directly given to us in scripture.

00:04:05.452 --> 00:04:13.352
<v SPEAKER_2>In Genesis 1 to 28, and God blessed them saying, increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

00:04:13.352 --> 00:04:15.492
<v SPEAKER_2>This is the command that God gave to Adam.

00:04:15.492 --> 00:04:17.912
<v SPEAKER_2>And that command was reiterated to Noah.

00:04:17.912 --> 00:04:23.712
<v SPEAKER_2>After God wiped out all the land on the planet, incidentally, in the flood, there was no land for a while.

00:04:23.712 --> 00:04:24.992
<v SPEAKER_2>There was nothing but waters.

00:04:24.992 --> 00:04:27.212
<v SPEAKER_2>It was a complete reset.

00:04:27.212 --> 00:04:35.512
<v SPEAKER_2>Just as the waters of creation, which were divided to create the dry land, that was basically run in reverse and redone.

00:04:35.512 --> 00:04:40.852
<v SPEAKER_2>It was a reset of creation, quite directly, quite literally.

00:04:40.852 --> 00:04:48.892
<v SPEAKER_2>In Genesis 9, 1, God again says, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, increase and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over it.

00:04:49.432 --> 00:04:52.712
<v SPEAKER_2>It's exactly the same command that had been given to Adam.

00:04:52.712 --> 00:04:55.892
<v SPEAKER_2>And it specifically includes filling the earth.

00:04:55.892 --> 00:05:08.352
<v SPEAKER_2>And as we on Stone Choir point to many times, Acts 17, 26 very clearly says that God later on appointed the boundaries of our dwelling places, of each of the very races on earth.

00:05:08.352 --> 00:05:14.712
<v SPEAKER_2>And so when Noah and his sons came off the ark, all the land had been restored.

00:05:14.712 --> 00:05:20.152
<v SPEAKER_2>And personally, I believe that this is when Pangea was reset into the modern continents.

00:05:20.152 --> 00:05:27.652
<v SPEAKER_2>I think that when we look geologically, it's interesting, the Pangea theory, which makes perfect sense, like everything lines up directly.

00:05:27.652 --> 00:05:29.392
<v SPEAKER_2>Australia fits right in.

00:05:29.392 --> 00:05:33.332
<v SPEAKER_2>All the continents, if you push them together as a puzzle, it visually works.

00:05:33.332 --> 00:05:37.692
<v SPEAKER_2>You can see the mechanically, it was all one land at one point.

00:05:37.692 --> 00:05:41.352
<v SPEAKER_2>I believe that that was what was created at the garden.

00:05:41.352 --> 00:05:44.912
<v SPEAKER_2>I believe that Pangea was just the world before the flood.

00:05:45.412 --> 00:05:52.412
<v SPEAKER_2>I might be wrong, but I think it's the simplest explanation for what our lying eyes tell us versus what the Bible tells us.

00:05:52.412 --> 00:05:53.632
<v SPEAKER_2>There was a reset.

00:05:53.632 --> 00:05:56.312
<v SPEAKER_2>Everything got wiped out and then redone.

00:05:56.312 --> 00:05:58.832
<v SPEAKER_2>I think it makes sense that the land was moving around.

00:05:58.832 --> 00:06:03.632
<v SPEAKER_2>The mountains arose and the ark landed on Errat.

00:06:03.632 --> 00:06:04.572
<v SPEAKER_2>God pushed that up.

00:06:04.572 --> 00:06:06.692
<v SPEAKER_2>We don't know what was there before.

00:06:06.692 --> 00:06:13.772
<v SPEAKER_2>But I think that that's an explanation for when we look at the geological record and we look at the historical record.

00:06:14.172 --> 00:06:19.532
<v SPEAKER_2>I think you can easily make sense of it if you incorporate the flood as that moment.

00:06:19.532 --> 00:06:27.452
<v SPEAKER_2>Now, what's interesting about that is that when they came off the ark, all the land was reformed, but there were no places yet because no one had been anywhere.

00:06:27.452 --> 00:06:34.872
<v SPEAKER_2>As I said, for the purpose of this episode, when we talk about places specifically, we're talking about places that mean something to you.

00:06:34.872 --> 00:06:38.392
<v SPEAKER_2>So all the land was there, but no one had ever seen any of it.

00:06:38.392 --> 00:06:43.352
<v SPEAKER_2>The only living men on the planet were now on a planet where it was all brand new.

00:06:43.952 --> 00:06:49.172
<v SPEAKER_2>And so everywhere that they went, they would discover new places and they would become important to them.

00:06:49.172 --> 00:06:54.472
<v SPEAKER_2>And often as godly men traveled, they would erect altars.

00:06:54.472 --> 00:07:02.332
<v SPEAKER_2>They would name places specifically because of some encounter with God or a blessing from God or something, giving thanks.

00:07:02.332 --> 00:07:07.732
<v SPEAKER_2>Places became special because of the events that those men had in those parts of the land.

00:07:08.632 --> 00:07:15.172
<v SPEAKER_2>That total reset was amplified through what happened after the Tower of Babel.

00:07:15.172 --> 00:07:20.852
<v SPEAKER_2>After Noah and his sons came off the ark, they multiplied as god has commanded, but they did not disperse.

00:07:20.852 --> 00:07:23.312
<v SPEAKER_2>They didn't fill the earth as god had commanded.

00:07:23.312 --> 00:07:24.432
<v SPEAKER_2>So they did half of it.

00:07:24.432 --> 00:07:25.912
<v SPEAKER_2>I mean, they made lots of babies.

00:07:25.912 --> 00:07:29.252
<v SPEAKER_2>They had no problem doing that, but they didn't want to go anywhere.

00:07:29.252 --> 00:07:32.992
<v SPEAKER_2>And so humanity basically stayed in one place.

00:07:32.992 --> 00:07:38.572
<v SPEAKER_2>And the Tower of Babel was their monument to the unity of man, to one race, the human race.

00:07:38.572 --> 00:07:39.572
<v SPEAKER_2>I said, we're not going anywhere.

00:07:39.572 --> 00:07:40.492
<v SPEAKER_2>God said, fill the earth.

00:07:40.492 --> 00:07:41.632
<v SPEAKER_2>We like it where we are.

00:07:41.632 --> 00:07:44.912
<v SPEAKER_2>Look how glorious we are when we can combine all of our efforts.

00:07:44.912 --> 00:07:48.572
<v SPEAKER_2>We can have a united humanity in direct defiance of God.

00:07:48.572 --> 00:07:50.212
<v SPEAKER_2>And so God came down.

00:07:50.212 --> 00:07:53.172
<v SPEAKER_2>He disrupted their wicked plans and their disobedience.

00:07:53.172 --> 00:07:56.872
<v SPEAKER_2>He confused man's language, forcing us all to scatter.

00:07:56.872 --> 00:08:03.792
<v SPEAKER_2>And so once again, we have the record of human spreading forth from those parts of the world.

00:08:03.792 --> 00:08:07.432
<v SPEAKER_2>And we see very clearly from the archaeological evidence that those things happened.

00:08:07.432 --> 00:08:08.312
<v SPEAKER_2>What did man do?

00:08:08.312 --> 00:08:12.712
<v SPEAKER_2>Went to different lands and created new places by settling there.

00:08:12.712 --> 00:08:17.772
<v SPEAKER_2>And often the settlement was progressive simply by virtue of reproduction.

00:08:17.772 --> 00:08:19.012
<v SPEAKER_2>We see this everywhere.

00:08:19.012 --> 00:08:21.052
<v SPEAKER_2>We see in the Bible, we see it throughout human history.

00:08:21.052 --> 00:08:24.652
<v SPEAKER_2>You plant, you know, family someplace.

00:08:24.652 --> 00:08:26.112
<v SPEAKER_2>You have a few families.

00:08:26.112 --> 00:08:31.272
<v SPEAKER_2>And eventually as they grow up and grow up, there's simply not enough land for all of them to sustain themselves.

00:08:31.272 --> 00:08:33.272
<v SPEAKER_2>And so they have to disperse further.

00:08:33.272 --> 00:08:35.012
<v SPEAKER_2>And that was according to God's plan.

00:08:35.632 --> 00:08:38.992
<v SPEAKER_2>Here's a planet, fill it, and subdue it.

00:08:38.992 --> 00:08:41.472
<v SPEAKER_2>The land was put there for that purpose.

00:08:41.472 --> 00:08:53.872
<v SPEAKER_2>And part of the reason that land is so crucial is that one of the primary functions of land, in addition to simply being a place that you occupy, and you have to physically be somewhere on this planet.

00:08:53.872 --> 00:08:58.432
<v SPEAKER_2>For the sake of this episode, we're going to ignore space travel because it basically doesn't exist yet.

00:08:58.432 --> 00:09:02.632
<v SPEAKER_2>Whether it ever does is an interesting technological and theological question.

00:09:02.632 --> 00:09:08.032
<v SPEAKER_2>But as it stands today, you have to have some place on the planet to call your own.

00:09:08.032 --> 00:09:13.212
<v SPEAKER_2>Even if you're in jail, some people listening have probably been in jail, maybe in prison before.

00:09:13.212 --> 00:09:19.072
<v SPEAKER_2>Even there, you still had some land, maybe it was a 6 by 8, 7 by 12 cell.

00:09:19.072 --> 00:09:26.712
<v SPEAKER_2>That was still a few square feet that was yours, not exclusively, but it was still a refuge from everything else going on.

00:09:26.712 --> 00:09:30.952
<v SPEAKER_2>Everyone else had their places, their land, and you and your cell have your place.

00:09:31.952 --> 00:09:38.152
<v SPEAKER_2>Even in the lowest state of man in a despicable state, jails, prisons should not exist.

00:09:38.152 --> 00:09:44.092
<v SPEAKER_2>But even in that most degraded terrible state, there's still some place for you to rest your head.

00:09:44.092 --> 00:09:47.132
<v SPEAKER_2>There's also the matter of the production of food.

00:09:47.152 --> 00:09:54.392
<v SPEAKER_2>And this is why principally the expansion of mankind was driven throughout the planet, resources.

00:09:54.392 --> 00:10:04.692
<v SPEAKER_2>Limited resources, which are created by God, food, animals, all the things that we need to sustain life, require the land for their production.

00:10:04.692 --> 00:10:06.812
<v SPEAKER_2>They spring forth from the ground naturally.

00:10:06.812 --> 00:10:09.332
<v SPEAKER_2>All the plants that we cultivate, God made them.

00:10:09.332 --> 00:10:11.352
<v SPEAKER_2>And then we discover them, we're like, oh, this looks tasty.

00:10:11.352 --> 00:10:15.812
<v SPEAKER_2>And we start playing with it and doing some breeding and cross breeding and enhancing.

00:10:15.812 --> 00:10:19.712
<v SPEAKER_2>And pretty soon you have a viable food source and you can farm it.

00:10:20.332 --> 00:10:25.512
<v SPEAKER_2>And we know that some of the things that are said about the anthropological history are not true.

00:10:25.512 --> 00:10:28.452
<v SPEAKER_2>We know that Cain and Abel were farmers and herders.

00:10:28.452 --> 00:10:29.672
<v SPEAKER_2>That was the very first thing.

00:10:29.672 --> 00:10:33.212
<v SPEAKER_2>The whole hunter gatherer thing is nonsense.

00:10:33.212 --> 00:10:35.292
<v SPEAKER_2>Scripture says the opposite happened.

00:10:35.292 --> 00:10:42.612
<v SPEAKER_2>When people became hunter-gatherers, it was when they were spreading out and didn't yet have the ability to settle down on lands.

00:10:42.612 --> 00:10:46.172
<v SPEAKER_2>As they were going to settle here, we're going to grow and spread.

00:10:46.172 --> 00:10:57.072
<v SPEAKER_2>It's interesting when you look at the necessity of land for life in terms of food production, because there you need land for you to stand on, even if it's only a few square feet.

00:10:57.072 --> 00:10:59.752
<v SPEAKER_2>If you're a renter, you have a few hundred square feet of your own.

00:10:59.832 --> 00:11:04.492
<v SPEAKER_2>If you're renting a room in someone's house or you have a small apartment, that's still your space.

00:11:04.492 --> 00:11:10.992
<v SPEAKER_2>But there's also a lot more land on the planet that is dedicated to producing the food that you need.

00:11:11.032 --> 00:11:23.032
<v SPEAKER_2>I did a little bit of research just looking up historically before modern mechanical and chemical processes for cultivation of food, how much land was necessary.

00:11:23.032 --> 00:11:35.272
<v SPEAKER_2>I picked medieval Europe as kind of the benchmark for this part of the discussion, just because it was something that was sustained for many centuries by people who actually had the IQs to keep up with the stuff.

00:11:35.272 --> 00:11:36.372
<v SPEAKER_2>They were not hunter-gatherers.

00:11:36.372 --> 00:11:45.732
<v SPEAKER_2>They were able to plan season after season, but they didn't have a lot of mechanical advantage and they didn't have chemical advantages like we have today.

00:11:45.732 --> 00:11:57.992
<v SPEAKER_2>What we find when we look at Medieval Europe and its food production is that for the average household of say about five to seven people, it took about 30 acres to cultivate the food that would feed those people.

00:11:57.992 --> 00:12:01.312
<v SPEAKER_2>Now, that cultivation was going to principally just be grains.

00:12:01.312 --> 00:12:07.272
<v SPEAKER_2>There would also be a separate smaller amount of land for some of the animals that would go into their diet.

00:12:07.272 --> 00:12:11.052
<v SPEAKER_2>But in Medieval Europe, most people didn't have much animal protein in their diet.

00:12:11.532 --> 00:12:13.452
<v SPEAKER_2>There was some milk and there was a bit of meat.

00:12:13.452 --> 00:12:13.972
<v SPEAKER_2>There was fish.

00:12:13.972 --> 00:12:15.752
<v SPEAKER_2>There were things you could forage.

00:12:15.752 --> 00:12:20.932
<v SPEAKER_2>But in terms of what was being cultivated or husbanded, it was pretty limited.

00:12:20.932 --> 00:12:27.252
<v SPEAKER_2>And so, 30 acres for a household was pretty much the norm, more or less, in Medieval Europe.

00:12:27.292 --> 00:12:33.152
<v SPEAKER_2>And when you look at the reason that was sustainable is that in any given year, one-third of that would be fallow.

00:12:33.152 --> 00:12:37.712
<v SPEAKER_2>So they'd only have about 20 acres or so actually in use in a given year.

00:12:37.712 --> 00:12:39.312
<v SPEAKER_2>And the rest of it was just left.

00:12:39.852 --> 00:12:45.432
<v SPEAKER_2>Because when God describes the Jubilees in Scripture, it includes Jubilees for the land.

00:12:45.432 --> 00:12:48.852
<v SPEAKER_2>God commanded that the land be given a break every seven years.

00:12:48.852 --> 00:12:53.952
<v SPEAKER_2>That's not just some weird Bible command for the special people wandering around.

00:12:53.952 --> 00:12:55.852
<v SPEAKER_2>That's literally how creation works.

00:12:55.852 --> 00:12:59.452
<v SPEAKER_2>If you do not rest the soil, it will die.

00:12:59.452 --> 00:13:01.052
<v SPEAKER_2>You can kill soil.

00:13:01.052 --> 00:13:08.592
<v SPEAKER_2>And that's what modern farming has done today, is absolutely killed the soil, which is part of why I'm excluding it for the purposes of this math.

00:13:08.592 --> 00:13:11.752
<v SPEAKER_2>So 30 acres meant that you had about 20 under cultivation.

00:13:11.752 --> 00:13:14.472
<v SPEAKER_2>They rotate about every year.

00:13:14.472 --> 00:13:18.512
<v SPEAKER_2>30 acres is about 1143 feet on a side.

00:13:18.512 --> 00:13:25.912
<v SPEAKER_2>It's 0.22 square miles, almost a quarter mile, which kind of makes sense because it's 160 acres per square mile.

00:13:25.912 --> 00:13:30.652
<v SPEAKER_2>So 30 acres versus 40, you can kind of see it's pretty close to a quarter square mile.

00:13:30.652 --> 00:13:34.732
<v SPEAKER_2>That's not a lot of space, but it's still a lot more than most people have today.

00:13:34.732 --> 00:13:41.392
<v SPEAKER_2>But that was what was necessary to keep people alive prior to modern farming production methods.

00:13:41.392 --> 00:13:44.972
<v SPEAKER_2>Now that's important because that was sustainable indefinitely.

00:13:44.972 --> 00:13:47.112
<v SPEAKER_2>They didn't have any supply chains.

00:13:47.112 --> 00:13:49.012
<v SPEAKER_2>They didn't have any chemicals.

00:13:49.012 --> 00:13:51.092
<v SPEAKER_2>There is no petrochemical industry.

00:13:51.092 --> 00:13:53.072
<v SPEAKER_2>They didn't need anybody's permission.

00:13:53.072 --> 00:13:54.932
<v SPEAKER_2>They just grew what they had.

00:13:54.932 --> 00:13:55.832
<v SPEAKER_2>They saved some seed.

00:13:55.832 --> 00:13:57.592
<v SPEAKER_2>They replanted it the next year.

00:13:57.592 --> 00:14:07.432
<v SPEAKER_2>If we were to take the modern diet and put it back into those production methods, the modern American diet has way more animal protein and ingredients incorporated into it.

00:14:07.432 --> 00:14:31.232
<v SPEAKER_2>So between animal products, meats, dairy itself, which would include cheese, butter, milk, yogurt, the average intake of the American today, and cultivated food, so things that are grown, vegetables, fruits, things like that, today for our modern standard of living, per person, you are looking at about 12 to 21 acres, very roughly.

00:14:31.252 --> 00:14:41.232
<v SPEAKER_2>This is math I did with claude, so please don't quote me on these numbers without doing your own research, but they're plausible numbers that are ballparking accurately what I'm talking about here.

00:14:41.232 --> 00:14:49.152
<v SPEAKER_2>So in the medieval era, when there wasn't very much protein, there wasn't very much animal input in the diet, you're looking about 30 acres for a household.

00:14:49.152 --> 00:14:57.432
<v SPEAKER_2>With the modern diet, with the way we're used to eating, it would take probably 60 to 120 acres for the same five, six, seven person household.

00:14:58.532 --> 00:15:05.292
<v SPEAKER_2>So absent a supply chain, absent petrochemicals, that's about how much land it takes to keep you alive.

00:15:05.292 --> 00:15:11.172
<v SPEAKER_2>Now, thanks to the blessings of modern science, that amount of area has gotten a lot smaller.

00:15:11.172 --> 00:15:17.632
<v SPEAKER_2>It doesn't take nearly as much land to keep you fed simply because of advancements, but those advancements are fragile.

00:15:17.632 --> 00:15:28.232
<v SPEAKER_2>As I said, one of the worst things that we have done to the land very deliberately and consciously in this country is that the modern farming methods has completely denude the soil.

00:15:28.232 --> 00:15:37.692
<v SPEAKER_2>They basically just use the land as a place in a video game, like it's just a plot where it's just where you plant the seed and then you add whatever else you need.

00:15:37.692 --> 00:15:52.712
<v SPEAKER_2>You add the water, you add whatever chemicals you need for fertilizer because the soil has been so depleted of the natural resources that are never permitted to regrow, they're never permitted to be restored, and there's so many chemicals put down.

00:15:53.232 --> 00:16:05.272
<v SPEAKER_2>You have all the microbes in the soil that make it healthy, all the earthworms, all the things that naturally make the soil fit for growing food have been destroyed by what we're doing.

00:16:05.272 --> 00:16:10.532
<v SPEAKER_2>And so as a result, they have to keep dumping petrochemicals on top of it or they can't grow any food.

00:16:10.532 --> 00:16:20.252
<v SPEAKER_2>So while it seems like a modern miracle, it's also a modern horror because absent the supply chain, all that goes away and all those farm fields are worthless.

00:16:20.832 --> 00:16:25.432
<v SPEAKER_2>That soil is destroyed without all the chemicals that it takes to produce it.

00:16:25.432 --> 00:16:33.992
<v SPEAKER_2>So this math, the reason I'm using this medieval math, is that if you want to think about personal sustainability, that's kind of what you're looking at.

00:16:34.012 --> 00:16:36.892
<v SPEAKER_2>This isn't an advocacy for homesteading.

00:16:36.892 --> 00:16:40.292
<v SPEAKER_2>Specialization of flavor is another blessing from God.

00:16:40.292 --> 00:16:45.812
<v SPEAKER_2>The fact that we can all be good at different things, that some people can grow food for others is a blessing.

00:16:45.812 --> 00:16:49.172
<v SPEAKER_2>I don't want to undo or return to nature any of that.

00:16:49.732 --> 00:16:51.832
<v SPEAKER_2>We don't want to give up some of the benefits.

00:16:51.832 --> 00:16:58.812
<v SPEAKER_2>But the reality is whether you're growing your food or somebody else's, there's a lot of land that needs to be dedicated to feeding your mouth.

00:16:58.812 --> 00:17:02.272
<v SPEAKER_2>And if that land doesn't exist, you don't exist.

00:17:02.272 --> 00:17:04.172
<v SPEAKER_2>You have to have the land on your feet.

00:17:04.172 --> 00:17:06.772
<v SPEAKER_2>You have to have land to produce the food that you eat.

00:17:06.772 --> 00:17:10.592
<v SPEAKER_2>And absent that, you don't exist as a human being.

00:17:10.592 --> 00:17:27.812
<v SPEAKER_2>So the reason this is an important subject just to keep in mind is that as more and more of the land itself, the actual title to the land, the exclusive territory, we'll talk about at the end, is transferred from individuals to corporations, to Black Rock, to Bill Gates.

00:17:27.812 --> 00:17:29.712
<v SPEAKER_2>Do you think they have your best interests at heart?

00:17:29.712 --> 00:17:31.672
<v SPEAKER_2>Do you think they want to keep feeding you?

00:17:31.672 --> 00:17:40.372
<v SPEAKER_2>Do you think they won't jerk the chain and say, well, if you want to eat, you're going to have to eat this other thing that's been adulterated with these things you don't even know about?

00:17:40.372 --> 00:17:45.352
<v SPEAKER_2>The land and who controls it is a vital issue, vital in the etymological sense.

00:17:45.632 --> 00:17:47.572
<v SPEAKER_2>It is a matter of life and death.

00:17:47.572 --> 00:17:55.432
<v SPEAKER_2>Who has access to the land and what they do with it determines whether or not human beings can thrive as a species.

00:17:55.432 --> 00:18:07.252
<v SPEAKER_2>So it may seem like a boring, banal kind of esoteric topic until that goes away, until someone else, it turns out, is controlling all the land that produces the food you eat.

00:18:07.252 --> 00:18:11.692
<v SPEAKER_2>Someone else is controlling all the land that determines where you can live.

00:18:12.712 --> 00:18:16.332
<v SPEAKER_2>suddenly, you realize that we will have been turned into cattle.

00:18:16.332 --> 00:18:24.792
<v SPEAKER_2>And so these blessings from God that begin with the soil under our feet, it's not some theoretical thing, it's not just a theological thing.

00:18:24.792 --> 00:18:27.952
<v SPEAKER_2>This is what makes us human.

00:18:27.952 --> 00:18:46.372
<v SPEAKER_1>With regard to physical land, some of you on hearing about physical territory, actual land and the connection that people have with it, will have brought to mind certain theories and ideologies that were more common in past centuries.

00:18:46.372 --> 00:18:50.652
<v SPEAKER_1>That's not to say they were wrong, and so they fell away and were replaced by something better.

00:18:50.652 --> 00:18:58.852
<v SPEAKER_1>Rather, we in the modern world have disconnected ourselves from the land and from the reality of what land represents.

00:18:59.932 --> 00:19:06.392
<v SPEAKER_1>We could sum this up, of course, in two words that make people very uncomfortable in some cases, blood and soil.

00:19:07.412 --> 00:19:11.712
<v SPEAKER_1>Because in order to have a nation, you actually have to have soil.

00:19:11.712 --> 00:19:14.852
<v SPEAKER_1>You have to have that physical land.

00:19:14.852 --> 00:19:22.452
<v SPEAKER_1>Yes, to some degree, a nation can exist in exile, disconnected from the land.

00:19:22.452 --> 00:19:25.832
<v SPEAKER_1>However, that is a punishment from God.

00:19:25.832 --> 00:19:32.192
<v SPEAKER_1>You can see that very clearly in the pages of the Old Testament and in history, anywhere else in the world as well.

00:19:33.452 --> 00:19:37.472
<v SPEAKER_1>A people who are sent into exile are cursed.

00:19:37.472 --> 00:19:46.452
<v SPEAKER_1>In time, unless they are returned to their land or another satisfactory land, they will disappear.

00:19:46.452 --> 00:19:48.812
<v SPEAKER_1>They will cease to exist.

00:19:48.812 --> 00:19:57.752
<v SPEAKER_1>Because in order to have a nation, you have to have a people, a physical location, which is to say soil, and you have to have a national myth.

00:19:57.752 --> 00:20:02.992
<v SPEAKER_1>We're not touching on the national myth in this episode, so that's a topic for another day.

00:20:02.992 --> 00:20:05.892
<v SPEAKER_1>But necessarily, you have to have that soil.

00:20:05.892 --> 00:20:10.392
<v SPEAKER_1>It is insufficient just to have the people.

00:20:10.392 --> 00:20:12.152
<v SPEAKER_1>The people are necessary.

00:20:12.152 --> 00:20:19.192
<v SPEAKER_1>We can see a similar thing to this with regard to, for example, the human being.

00:20:19.192 --> 00:20:24.172
<v SPEAKER_1>As a human being, you are spirit and also flesh.

00:20:24.172 --> 00:20:29.772
<v SPEAKER_1>However, at death, your spirit is separated from your flesh for a period of time.

00:20:30.332 --> 00:20:33.192
<v SPEAKER_1>Until it is restored to you, and that's good news.

00:20:33.192 --> 00:20:37.932
<v SPEAKER_1>Or if you are an unbeliever, it's restored to you, and that's very bad news.

00:20:37.932 --> 00:20:41.652
<v SPEAKER_1>But you can exist without your body.

00:20:41.652 --> 00:20:48.752
<v SPEAKER_1>You are diminished by being separated from your flesh, because you are meant to be the combination of those things.

00:20:48.752 --> 00:20:50.352
<v SPEAKER_1>You are again a gestalt.

00:20:50.352 --> 00:20:53.512
<v SPEAKER_1>You are something that is greater than the sum of its parts.

00:20:53.512 --> 00:20:56.352
<v SPEAKER_1>The same thing is true of a people, of a nation.

00:20:57.332 --> 00:21:02.532
<v SPEAKER_1>You can have that nation, for a period of time, separated from the land.

00:21:02.532 --> 00:21:09.952
<v SPEAKER_1>But if that persists, if that separation continues for too long, the nation will cease to exist.

00:21:09.952 --> 00:21:21.512
<v SPEAKER_1>This is something that should be of the utmost important to us today, because when we look at the current state of the world, we see various nations, various peoples being dispossessed of their land.

00:21:23.032 --> 00:21:31.452
<v SPEAKER_1>In some cases, perhaps in many cases, this is a curse from God because of the sinfulness of those nations that are being dispossessed.

00:21:31.452 --> 00:21:44.832
<v SPEAKER_1>However, just because something is a punishment from God does not mean that you don't oppose it, because if you don't oppose a wickedness that is being imposed on you, you're welcoming it.

00:21:44.832 --> 00:21:57.732
<v SPEAKER_1>If you welcome foreigners, if you welcome aliens, to take the land that rightfully belongs to your people, you are not only inviting God's judgment on you, you are throwing your arms open and welcoming it.

00:21:58.792 --> 00:22:00.632
<v SPEAKER_1>That's wicked.

00:22:00.632 --> 00:22:12.252
<v SPEAKER_1>You should not welcome the destruction of your people, and that is ultimately what will happen with the destruction, with the taking away of the land that is necessary for a nation.

00:22:13.592 --> 00:22:21.132
<v SPEAKER_1>And just as individuals as well, we should have more of a connection to the land, more of a connection to nature.

00:22:21.132 --> 00:22:29.552
<v SPEAKER_1>As Woe said, we're not saying that you have to go back to homesteading, that you have to grow all your own food and raise all your own animals and all those things.

00:22:29.552 --> 00:22:30.952
<v SPEAKER_1>I'm not saying don't do some of that.

00:22:30.952 --> 00:22:32.352
<v SPEAKER_1>It's good to have some of that connection.

00:22:32.352 --> 00:22:40.532
<v SPEAKER_1>I own chickens because, well, I like to have good eggs for one, but it's also good to own some of your own livestock.

00:22:40.532 --> 00:22:44.272
<v SPEAKER_1>If you don't have space for that, that's understandable.

00:22:44.272 --> 00:22:47.572
<v SPEAKER_1>Would it be better if most men had their own space for that sort of thing?

00:22:47.712 --> 00:22:55.832
<v SPEAKER_1>I would say yes, but again, we're not saying you have to go and start a homestead and do everything for yourself.

00:22:55.832 --> 00:23:00.972
<v SPEAKER_1>You don't have to grow the flax and spin the material and make your own clothing and all those things.

00:23:00.972 --> 00:23:02.912
<v SPEAKER_1>Not what we're saying.

00:23:02.912 --> 00:23:09.332
<v SPEAKER_1>incidentally, today, if you have an interest in that, there is a wealth of resources on that.

00:23:09.332 --> 00:23:19.132
<v SPEAKER_1>I've looked into it and you can sustain someone on a modern diet on about 10 acres, which is the lower bound of what Woe was saying.

00:23:19.132 --> 00:23:27.192
<v SPEAKER_1>But that is using all of what we have learned about cultivation and the use of perennial crops.

00:23:27.192 --> 00:23:36.092
<v SPEAKER_1>That's a lot of information that was not available in the medieval era that requires a great deal of knowledge to have been built up.

00:23:36.092 --> 00:23:46.412
<v SPEAKER_1>And even then, that is only if you have decent soil, a decent climate, and you have the necessary knowledge and the ability to execute that sort of plan.

00:23:46.412 --> 00:24:05.052
<v SPEAKER_1>So at the absolute minimum, if you want a modern sort of diet, and we're not saying sugary cereal, all those things, we're saying a good modern diet that includes variety and includes a decent amount of animal protein, you need a minimum of 10 acres per person to sustain that.

00:24:05.052 --> 00:24:08.552
<v SPEAKER_1>Someone has to grow that food.

00:24:08.552 --> 00:24:20.752
<v SPEAKER_1>It doesn't matter if you're the one growing the food or if it's a farmer somewhere else, we could talk about how far we should be transporting food and whether or not localism is perhaps a little better and it is better.

00:24:20.752 --> 00:24:26.572
<v SPEAKER_1>You should have some connection with regard to where your food is being grown, where it's being raised.

00:24:26.572 --> 00:24:31.432
<v SPEAKER_1>It shouldn't be a totally foreign and disconnected thing, which is what we see today.

00:24:31.432 --> 00:24:36.672
<v SPEAKER_1>So take your children to a farm and have them at least see animals, see how these things work.

00:24:36.672 --> 00:24:39.912
<v SPEAKER_1>You don't just go to the store and buy a pork chop.

00:24:39.912 --> 00:24:41.492
<v SPEAKER_1>Someone has to raise the pig.

00:24:42.232 --> 00:24:43.572
<v SPEAKER_1>Someone has to slaughter the pig.

00:24:43.572 --> 00:24:46.032
<v SPEAKER_1>Someone has to butcher the pig.

00:24:46.032 --> 00:24:51.172
<v SPEAKER_1>All of these other things, depending on how that particular supply chain works in your area.

00:24:52.952 --> 00:24:59.812
<v SPEAKER_1>The modern world has given us a sort of delusional disconnect from the actual natural world.

00:24:59.812 --> 00:25:12.532
<v SPEAKER_1>There are many who live in large cities in particular and think that their food comes from the grocery store, or it comes from a food delivery service, which those are very popular these days.

00:25:12.532 --> 00:25:16.932
<v SPEAKER_1>But we no longer have that connection to the land.

00:25:18.852 --> 00:25:32.312
<v SPEAKER_1>One of the fundamental problems that we have with the way things are constituted presently in the modern world is that we have this disconnect from what it means to be an actual person.

00:25:32.312 --> 00:25:38.292
<v SPEAKER_1>And so many go through life with no real connection to any place, any territory.

00:25:38.292 --> 00:25:40.492
<v SPEAKER_1>You could become a rootless cosmopolitan.

00:25:41.512 --> 00:25:42.672
<v SPEAKER_1>You could travel the world.

00:25:42.672 --> 00:25:47.212
<v SPEAKER_1>You can see all sorts of interesting things and have all these experiences.

00:25:47.212 --> 00:25:57.972
<v SPEAKER_1>But if you have no connection to any place, if you have no connection to any land, you are missing out on what God designed us to be.

00:25:57.972 --> 00:26:02.532
<v SPEAKER_1>Because fundamentally, human beings are creatures of the earth.

00:26:02.532 --> 00:26:09.692
<v SPEAKER_1>That doesn't mean that we're contained on the earth and that I'm saying we can't explore space or whatever.

00:26:09.692 --> 00:26:11.932
<v SPEAKER_1>I think those things are possible.

00:26:11.932 --> 00:26:15.932
<v SPEAKER_1>But it means that we are connected to the soil in a very real way.

00:26:15.932 --> 00:26:24.432
<v SPEAKER_1>And if you don't have that connection, if you don't cultivate that connection, you're missing a part of what it means to be a human being.

00:26:24.432 --> 00:26:37.872
<v SPEAKER_1>And not only that, but when we have this vast chunk of the population with no connection to the soil, with no connection to the land, that's how we wind up with a lot of the problems we see today.

00:26:39.152 --> 00:26:44.152
<v SPEAKER_1>If you don't have a connection to the land, you aren't going to respect the land.

00:26:44.152 --> 00:26:48.872
<v SPEAKER_1>If you don't have that connection, you're not going to care about pollution as much.

00:26:48.872 --> 00:26:51.992
<v SPEAKER_1>You're not going to care about conservation as much.

00:26:53.452 --> 00:27:00.092
<v SPEAKER_1>That's part of the reason we no longer have certain species in our territory.

00:27:00.092 --> 00:27:02.752
<v SPEAKER_1>In the United States, we eliminated a number of species.

00:27:03.252 --> 00:27:08.692
<v SPEAKER_1>Now, some of them, yes, that was fine to do, at least to tamp down the population.

00:27:08.692 --> 00:27:13.832
<v SPEAKER_1>For instance, you don't want grizzly bears wandering around in the cities, in California, perhaps.

00:27:14.972 --> 00:27:24.212
<v SPEAKER_1>But we did this with animal species that were a key part of the ecosystem and are necessary to the fruitfulness, to the fertility of the soil.

00:27:24.212 --> 00:27:25.792
<v SPEAKER_1>One of the big examples would be the beaver.

00:27:25.792 --> 00:27:29.132
<v SPEAKER_1>We virtually wiped out the beaver in the United States.

00:27:30.472 --> 00:27:34.052
<v SPEAKER_1>We've started restoring that population in some places.

00:27:34.052 --> 00:27:39.232
<v SPEAKER_1>It has recovered in some places, but it's nothing like what it used to be.

00:27:39.232 --> 00:27:44.172
<v SPEAKER_1>And part of the reason we were able to do that is that we didn't have any real connection to the land.

00:27:44.172 --> 00:27:51.332
<v SPEAKER_1>We didn't feel like we were invested in this as part of our past and part of our future.

00:27:51.332 --> 00:28:01.292
<v SPEAKER_1>Part of what it means to give an inheritance to the next generation is to pass on the land to them in the same condition you received it or in better condition.

00:28:02.712 --> 00:28:06.352
<v SPEAKER_1>That has not been done for centuries at this point.

00:28:06.352 --> 00:28:10.352
<v SPEAKER_1>Certainly the past century has been an intensive version of it.

00:28:10.352 --> 00:28:22.012
<v SPEAKER_1>But with this diminished connection to place, this diminished connection to physical place, to land, you cease to truly be human.

00:28:22.012 --> 00:28:24.132
<v SPEAKER_1>You lose something that is essential.

00:28:25.092 --> 00:28:31.552
<v SPEAKER_1>As Christians, we should certainly look at the fact that God didn't just make Adam.

00:28:31.552 --> 00:28:35.952
<v SPEAKER_1>God could snap his fingers and everything came into being.

00:28:35.952 --> 00:28:38.612
<v SPEAKER_1>If he were so inclined, he could have done that.

00:28:38.612 --> 00:28:41.972
<v SPEAKER_1>He spoke most things into being.

00:28:41.972 --> 00:28:44.752
<v SPEAKER_1>That's what we see in the pages of Genesis.

00:28:44.752 --> 00:28:48.412
<v SPEAKER_1>That is not what God did with Adam.

00:28:48.412 --> 00:28:51.812
<v SPEAKER_1>God formed Adam from the soil, from the dirt.

00:28:53.712 --> 00:28:59.272
<v SPEAKER_1>He formed us in a very different way from how he formed much of creation.

00:28:59.272 --> 00:29:02.892
<v SPEAKER_1>Because we have more of a connection to the soil.

00:29:02.892 --> 00:29:05.552
<v SPEAKER_1>We have more of a connection to the earth.

00:29:05.552 --> 00:29:10.112
<v SPEAKER_1>This isn't in some new age or green party sort of sense.

00:29:10.112 --> 00:29:11.772
<v SPEAKER_1>That's not what I'm saying.

00:29:11.772 --> 00:29:17.652
<v SPEAKER_1>I would say I'm an environmentalist, but in a certain sense of that term, and it's a discussion for another time.

00:29:19.392 --> 00:29:28.852
<v SPEAKER_1>But as human beings, God designed us to have a connection to the physical world, to the soil, to the land.

00:29:28.852 --> 00:29:32.612
<v SPEAKER_1>Part of that is because we are stewards of creation.

00:29:32.612 --> 00:29:38.932
<v SPEAKER_1>It's not just that we are supposed to subdue the world and bring it under our thumb, as it were.

00:29:38.932 --> 00:29:42.692
<v SPEAKER_1>Because yes, we were told to subdue the earth.

00:29:42.692 --> 00:29:50.212
<v SPEAKER_1>But in addition to subduing the earth, we are to act as stewards of God's creation.

00:29:50.212 --> 00:29:54.372
<v SPEAKER_1>God created a good world for us.

00:29:54.372 --> 00:29:58.412
<v SPEAKER_1>God created many wonderful things in nature.

00:29:58.412 --> 00:30:10.072
<v SPEAKER_1>Yes, now things are fallen and there are various insects that like to bite us and diseases and all these other problems, but most of creation is still good in a fundamental way.

00:30:10.072 --> 00:30:17.812
<v SPEAKER_1>Not in the way that it's untainted, because everything is tainted by sin, but in the sense that the fruit of the ground is still there for us.

00:30:17.812 --> 00:30:20.012
<v SPEAKER_1>Trees still yield fruit.

00:30:20.012 --> 00:30:21.632
<v SPEAKER_1>Animals still reproduce.

00:30:21.632 --> 00:30:26.912
<v SPEAKER_1>We have food and air and water, and all these good gifts from God still exist.

00:30:28.172 --> 00:30:44.252
<v SPEAKER_1>We should not only exercise our dominion over the earth, but we should exercise it in the sense of being stewards of these things, to preserve them not just for ourselves and also for future generations, but because that's part of our duty to God.

00:30:44.252 --> 00:30:52.672
<v SPEAKER_1>It is what we are supposed to do, given the office that he has given us as a species with regard to his creation.

00:30:52.672 --> 00:31:00.532
<v SPEAKER_1>That has to start with this connection to the soil, with this connection to the physical world, to the natural world.

00:31:00.532 --> 00:31:11.372
<v SPEAKER_1>If you do not feel like you have some connection to the land, when you look out your window and you see that land, if you have no connection to that, no feelings for it, it's just, it exists.

00:31:11.372 --> 00:31:12.712
<v SPEAKER_1>I happened to be here today.

00:31:12.712 --> 00:31:15.052
<v SPEAKER_1>I could be somewhere else tomorrow.

00:31:15.052 --> 00:31:22.512
<v SPEAKER_1>If that's the way that you look at it, you are never going to properly execute your office as a steward of creation.

00:31:22.512 --> 00:31:42.072
<v SPEAKER_1>You are never going to develop that full sense of self and family and community and nation that requires as part of its bedrock, this connection to the soil, this realization that you are not actually separate from creation, you are part of creation.

00:31:42.072 --> 00:31:53.512
<v SPEAKER_1>This is one of those things that we see cropping up in a certain way to a certain degree in many Christian groups and in certainly many other groups.

00:31:53.512 --> 00:31:58.712
<v SPEAKER_1>But there's separation of mankind from the rest of the physical world.

00:31:58.712 --> 00:32:01.252
<v SPEAKER_1>Yes, we are made in the image of God.

00:32:01.252 --> 00:32:04.492
<v SPEAKER_1>Yes, we are more intelligent than the animals in most cases.

00:32:05.492 --> 00:32:14.372
<v SPEAKER_1>Yes, we have all these various gifts and things that God has given us that set us apart to some degree from the rest of the natural world.

00:32:14.372 --> 00:32:19.972
<v SPEAKER_1>But at the same time, we are connected to it in such a way that we are not separate from it.

00:32:19.972 --> 00:32:21.892
<v SPEAKER_1>Because man is an animal.

00:32:21.892 --> 00:32:23.092
<v SPEAKER_1>You are a mammal.

00:32:23.092 --> 00:32:25.092
<v SPEAKER_1>So are most of your pets.

00:32:25.092 --> 00:32:28.152
<v SPEAKER_1>I have to breathe air to continue living.

00:32:28.152 --> 00:32:29.552
<v SPEAKER_1>So does my dog.

00:32:29.552 --> 00:32:32.132
<v SPEAKER_1>I have to drink water to continue living.

00:32:32.132 --> 00:32:33.012
<v SPEAKER_1>So do my chickens.

00:32:34.472 --> 00:32:38.892
<v SPEAKER_1>Many of the things that the animals have to do, we have to do to survive.

00:32:38.892 --> 00:32:44.432
<v SPEAKER_1>We are reliant on these natural systems in the same way that they are.

00:32:44.432 --> 00:32:51.572
<v SPEAKER_1>That doesn't mean that man is just another animal, but it does certainly mean that man is an animal.

00:32:51.572 --> 00:33:07.652
<v SPEAKER_1>And that connection to the land, that respect for the land, that realization that we are not separate from and above this system, but rather we are reliant on and part of it, is a fundamental part of becoming an actual, fully human being.

00:33:07.652 --> 00:33:21.072
<v SPEAKER_1>Because otherwise, you disconnect yourself from all these things, and you attempt to live as if you are something else from what God made you, and from what God intended you and wants you to be.

00:33:21.072 --> 00:33:30.272
<v SPEAKER_2>The beaver is a particularly interesting creature in terms of soil amendment, because it is the fundamental reason that North American soil quality was so great.

00:33:31.032 --> 00:33:52.112
<v SPEAKER_2>The beaver dominated the entire continent before Westerners showed up, and we hunted them nearly to extinction, which was a tragedy, because as people were moving west, they got annoyed seeing these beavers creating dams and swamps and blockages, and creating wetlands in places where they wanted to have dry soil.

00:33:52.112 --> 00:33:57.552
<v SPEAKER_2>Because there are other places where there was great soil, great, high quality farmland.

00:33:57.552 --> 00:34:07.432
<v SPEAKER_2>What they didn't realize at the time, I don't think they did, they certainly didn't care, was that the very reason that the soil was so high quality was that the beavers were constantly moving around.

00:34:07.432 --> 00:34:12.952
<v SPEAKER_2>And the very act of flooding the land was what was restoring the soil.

00:34:12.952 --> 00:34:16.052
<v SPEAKER_2>So forget about, you know, a god-ordered jubilee.

00:34:16.052 --> 00:34:31.512
<v SPEAKER_2>If beavers move into an area and dam it up for 10 years, and it gets saturated, and all those microbes move in, you have fish appear and all sorts of things, and they're naturally going through their life cycles, then dying and decaying.

00:34:31.512 --> 00:34:35.132
<v SPEAKER_2>All that settles down into the soil and completely rejuvenates it.

00:34:35.132 --> 00:34:43.612
<v SPEAKER_2>And so all the places where there was great farmland, it wasn't because the beavers hadn't ruined it and made it swampy, it's because beavers had already been there.

00:34:43.612 --> 00:34:49.672
<v SPEAKER_2>And so what's being done today with modern farming practices is the absolute opposite of what should be done.

00:34:49.672 --> 00:34:59.792
<v SPEAKER_2>We should have 500 million beavers running wild, and we should treat them as sacred animals, because they preserve the thing that keeps us alive.

00:34:59.792 --> 00:35:00.812
<v SPEAKER_2>Now, you got to manage.

00:35:00.812 --> 00:35:12.552
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm obviously not actually calling for half a billion beavers to be set free just doing whatever they want, but the quality of the soil is not a function of how many petrochemicals you pour onto it.

00:35:12.552 --> 00:35:15.672
<v SPEAKER_2>It's a function of nature working as God created it.

00:35:16.432 --> 00:35:21.612
<v SPEAKER_2>And as Corey was saying, we've lost all connection with the soil from which God made us.

00:35:21.612 --> 00:35:23.292
<v SPEAKER_2>And it's also where we return.

00:35:23.352 --> 00:35:25.752
<v SPEAKER_2>That's how God describes our connection.

00:35:25.752 --> 00:35:27.532
<v SPEAKER_2>It's not incidental.

00:35:27.532 --> 00:35:34.192
<v SPEAKER_2>And we were created to have that sort of love and understanding and relationship with the soil.

00:35:34.192 --> 00:35:42.352
<v SPEAKER_2>Just the arbitrary, fungible, functional soil, not even a particular place, which is the next part of this discussion.

00:35:42.352 --> 00:35:47.212
<v SPEAKER_2>When whites came to North America, it was a wilderness.

00:35:47.212 --> 00:35:51.812
<v SPEAKER_2>There was nothing that we would consider to civilization, not by modern standards.

00:35:51.812 --> 00:35:59.212
<v SPEAKER_2>The people that we found were exclusively Stone Age demon-worshipping savages.

00:35:59.232 --> 00:36:06.332
<v SPEAKER_2>And within not very many years, God directly wiped out 90% of them with plague and pestilence.

00:36:06.332 --> 00:36:09.132
<v SPEAKER_2>They were killed by diseases that the West brought.

00:36:09.132 --> 00:36:15.352
<v SPEAKER_2>And while we're told today, oh, that was one of the original sins of Europeans, that we accidentally killed all these people with disease.

00:36:15.352 --> 00:36:31.772
<v SPEAKER_2>Well, if you believe that God is actually a part of the universe and that he does things, when Christians show up and demon-worshipping savages start dropping dead by the millions through disease, the Christian view is that God did that for our benefit.

00:36:31.772 --> 00:36:34.572
<v SPEAKER_2>So there's nothing there for us to feel bad about.

00:36:34.572 --> 00:36:38.012
<v SPEAKER_2>So effectively, when we came here, there was nothing.

00:36:38.012 --> 00:36:38.812
<v SPEAKER_2>There was just wilderness.

00:36:40.172 --> 00:36:50.312
<v SPEAKER_2>As we moved west and we conquered more and more lands, in large part simply by showing up, sometimes there had to be a lot of vicious battle to achieve it.

00:36:50.312 --> 00:36:52.932
<v SPEAKER_2>The land became places for us.

00:36:52.932 --> 00:37:02.972
<v SPEAKER_2>You know, when my ancestors got off the Mayflower and they got off the boat in Jamestown in 1608, I am descended from someone who survived that first winter.

00:37:02.972 --> 00:37:07.312
<v SPEAKER_2>And I had five ancestors here by 1623, you know, over four centuries ago.

00:37:08.032 --> 00:37:19.212
<v SPEAKER_2>When those people got here to this land, I am certain that everyone got down on their knees on the soil and thanked God that they had survived that incredibly arduous trip.

00:37:19.212 --> 00:37:30.652
<v SPEAKER_2>And then they begged for God's mercy to continue to keep them alive in this God-forsaken wilderness, where they were surrounded by demon-worshipping savages who were trying to murder them almost continuously.

00:37:30.652 --> 00:37:33.892
<v SPEAKER_2>I have numerous ancestors who were murdered by Indians.

00:37:33.892 --> 00:37:41.152
<v SPEAKER_2>When the first colonists landed in Plymouth and they landed in Virginia, those became places.

00:37:41.152 --> 00:37:49.952
<v SPEAKER_2>They gave them names, they dedicated them to God, and they became places in the sense that it actually had a very personal, particular meaning for them.

00:37:49.952 --> 00:37:57.612
<v SPEAKER_2>Not only because it was the very beginning of the land that they were carving out on this continent, because this was the place that they had chosen, that they had settled on.

00:37:57.612 --> 00:38:06.672
<v SPEAKER_2>Those ships went up and down the coast looking for some place that wasn't just a miserable swamp, that wasn't just completely infested.

00:38:06.672 --> 00:38:12.352
<v SPEAKER_2>They were looking for some place that looked like it might be able to actually sustain them, because that was their goal.

00:38:12.352 --> 00:38:17.032
<v SPEAKER_2>They were unlike the conquistadors that went to the South America and to Florida.

00:38:17.032 --> 00:38:18.432
<v SPEAKER_2>These were men, women and children.

00:38:18.432 --> 00:38:20.952
<v SPEAKER_2>These were families coming to settle here.

00:38:20.952 --> 00:38:24.692
<v SPEAKER_2>They were not simply military expeditions.

00:38:24.692 --> 00:38:29.272
<v SPEAKER_2>And so, being able to be a permanently sustained community was a part of it.

00:38:29.272 --> 00:38:53.092
<v SPEAKER_2>And so, they named these places, they consecrated them to God, and as they expanded and they discovered new places, I think one of the mistakes that we made when we were settling this continent was really not taking seriously enough that all of the places that we were discovering and saying, this is now, you know, for God's glory, this is going to be where we live.

00:38:53.092 --> 00:39:08.992
<v SPEAKER_2>I don't know to what degree they didn't take seriously, but we can tell looking back and looking today to what degree they failed to exorcise those places from the demons that had been consecrated by the worshipers of that evil before us.

00:39:08.992 --> 00:39:11.712
<v SPEAKER_2>Because those demons are roaring back today.

00:39:11.712 --> 00:39:17.772
<v SPEAKER_2>If you exorcise a demon and send it away from a place, it's not free to return, not unless it's invited.

00:39:17.772 --> 00:39:31.032
<v SPEAKER_2>So the fact that these demons are returning means that we have, our ancestors, and we have failed to say, this is a Christian land now, this is a Christian nation, and these places are God's places.

00:39:31.032 --> 00:39:35.712
<v SPEAKER_2>That's different than land, because a place is connected to the people.

00:39:35.712 --> 00:39:39.492
<v SPEAKER_2>As Corey said, that terrifying phrase, blood and soil.

00:39:39.492 --> 00:39:44.472
<v SPEAKER_2>When those two things are connected, then you have a true nation, a sustainable nation.

00:39:44.472 --> 00:40:01.332
<v SPEAKER_2>The import of places is that they are land that we define in terms of our experiences, and then there becomes a symbiotic relationship where those places in turn define us, and it's a mutually reinforcing thing.

00:40:01.332 --> 00:40:06.172
<v SPEAKER_2>And there are a couple different kinds of places to help explain what it is I'm talking about here.

00:40:06.172 --> 00:40:12.232
<v SPEAKER_2>I mentioned this story before on X, and I shared it on another podcast I was on, but I'll reiterate here because some of you haven't heard it.

00:40:12.232 --> 00:40:19.072
<v SPEAKER_2>I think it's a prime example of an incidental place that can have very particular meaning to an individual.

00:40:20.292 --> 00:40:34.472
<v SPEAKER_2>At the end of my second to last year at Apple, right after we finished shipping the second to last OS I worked on, and going through a review process, I had my pretty much annual blowout argument with my boss.

00:40:34.472 --> 00:40:43.632
<v SPEAKER_2>He was a hotheaded Irishman and I was me, so we really liked and respected each other, but every once in a while, we would just butt heads about things that were beyond our control.

00:40:43.632 --> 00:40:44.852
<v SPEAKER_2>It was never personal.

00:40:44.852 --> 00:40:53.232
<v SPEAKER_2>We were both just each aggravated with circumstances beyond our control, and we would yell at each other instead of yelling at the problem.

00:40:53.232 --> 00:40:57.172
<v SPEAKER_2>It wasn't acrimonious, but it was inevitable it happened about once a year.

00:40:57.172 --> 00:41:03.192
<v SPEAKER_2>I had this blowout with my boss and it wasn't a big deal, but I was really aggravated in the moment.

00:41:03.192 --> 00:41:07.372
<v SPEAKER_2>And so this was a Thursday, I believe, Thursday, early afternoon.

00:41:07.372 --> 00:41:08.992
<v SPEAKER_2>I went back to my office.

00:41:08.992 --> 00:41:12.192
<v SPEAKER_2>I sent an auto reply for my email saying I'm leaving.

00:41:12.192 --> 00:41:17.332
<v SPEAKER_2>I sent an email to my team and to my peers and said, I'll be back Monday.

00:41:17.332 --> 00:41:18.092
<v SPEAKER_2>I'll be offline.

00:41:18.832 --> 00:41:22.592
<v SPEAKER_2>And I went home, I packed an overnight bag and I left.

00:41:22.592 --> 00:41:24.672
<v SPEAKER_2>I left the area.

00:41:24.672 --> 00:41:26.012
<v SPEAKER_2>I had no destination in mind.

00:41:26.012 --> 00:41:28.112
<v SPEAKER_2>I knew I was going to go north.

00:41:28.112 --> 00:41:28.712
<v SPEAKER_2>That was it.

00:41:28.732 --> 00:41:29.792
<v SPEAKER_2>I just had to get away.

00:41:29.792 --> 00:41:40.592
<v SPEAKER_2>I needed a physical break from the place that I was because I was in a bad place mentally due to the stress in the corporation, the cultural changes and things.

00:41:40.592 --> 00:41:42.492
<v SPEAKER_2>So I just drove up Route 1.

00:41:42.512 --> 00:41:46.632
<v SPEAKER_2>And when I told the story on X earlier this year, I thought that I was in Oregon.

00:41:47.132 --> 00:41:57.892
<v SPEAKER_2>I actually found another copy of the picture that I'm going to refer to in a minute that said it was Mendocino, which is not too far from the Oregon border, but it's basically the same territory.

00:41:57.892 --> 00:42:01.572
<v SPEAKER_2>So it's a slight amendment to the previous version of the story.

00:42:01.572 --> 00:42:05.772
<v SPEAKER_2>I was driving along up Route 1, which is an absolutely beautiful road.

00:42:05.772 --> 00:42:08.812
<v SPEAKER_2>It's right along the Pacific Coast for most of it.

00:42:08.812 --> 00:42:15.092
<v SPEAKER_2>And so as you're driving north, on the left for much of it, you have just the Pacific Ocean, nothing for thousands of miles.

00:42:15.612 --> 00:42:16.672
<v SPEAKER_2>It's incredibly beautiful.

00:42:16.672 --> 00:42:19.132
<v SPEAKER_2>It gets to be rocky terrain.

00:42:19.132 --> 00:42:20.912
<v SPEAKER_2>I needed that physical break.

00:42:20.912 --> 00:42:22.292
<v SPEAKER_2>I needed to see different land.

00:42:22.292 --> 00:42:25.532
<v SPEAKER_2>I needed to find hopefully some place of respite.

00:42:27.132 --> 00:42:34.632
<v SPEAKER_2>After driving for a few hours, I noticed off to my left, I saw there was this little secluded beach, which was exactly what I was looking for.

00:42:34.632 --> 00:42:38.892
<v SPEAKER_2>There were some other beaches that had signs and stuff, but there were people there.

00:42:38.892 --> 00:42:40.032
<v SPEAKER_2>I needed seclusion.

00:42:40.032 --> 00:42:42.492
<v SPEAKER_2>I needed, I was running away.

00:42:42.492 --> 00:42:48.972
<v SPEAKER_2>I was running away from my problems and from what was stressing me out, I needed some place to decompress and think with nobody else around.

00:42:48.972 --> 00:42:50.752
<v SPEAKER_2>So I glanced on my left.

00:42:50.752 --> 00:42:55.512
<v SPEAKER_2>It was a deep, it was probably 50 feet or so ravine down to this little beach.

00:42:55.512 --> 00:43:01.152
<v SPEAKER_2>So I had to wind my way a couple miles back to find where that was, got to it and I was correct.

00:43:01.152 --> 00:43:04.092
<v SPEAKER_2>Thankfully, there's nobody there.

00:43:04.092 --> 00:43:09.132
<v SPEAKER_2>And I walked out to the seashore and there was this kind of little rocky outcropping.

00:43:09.132 --> 00:43:12.912
<v SPEAKER_2>It was a pretty place, but it wasn't certainly the most beautiful place on the Pacific Coast.

00:43:13.252 --> 00:43:14.472
<v SPEAKER_2>It wasn't anything special.

00:43:14.472 --> 00:43:17.252
<v SPEAKER_2>If you looked at it, you wouldn't think, oh yes, this is it.

00:43:17.252 --> 00:43:22.952
<v SPEAKER_2>There are probably 50 more places that were more scenic if you just wanted to like gawk.

00:43:22.952 --> 00:43:24.772
<v SPEAKER_2>But I needed seclusion personally.

00:43:24.772 --> 00:43:26.532
<v SPEAKER_2>That was what I was craving.

00:43:26.532 --> 00:43:33.052
<v SPEAKER_2>So this was perfect because it was kind of enclosed on both sides with these high rock walls and the sea was coming in.

00:43:33.052 --> 00:43:36.052
<v SPEAKER_2>But to actually see the ocean, it was out in the distance a little bit.

00:43:37.452 --> 00:43:38.612
<v SPEAKER_2>So I looked at this and thought this is great.

00:43:38.612 --> 00:43:42.832
<v SPEAKER_2>And I walked out to the edge of the water and hopped up on some rocks.

00:43:42.832 --> 00:43:45.392
<v SPEAKER_2>They're rough rocks just kind of sitting there.

00:43:45.392 --> 00:43:46.292
<v SPEAKER_2>They hadn't been eroded.

00:43:46.292 --> 00:43:49.592
<v SPEAKER_2>They're clearly beyond the water line.

00:43:49.592 --> 00:43:54.952
<v SPEAKER_2>And I got out on the rocks near where the ocean was and just perched there.

00:43:54.992 --> 00:43:59.192
<v SPEAKER_2>And I squatted, I stood, I sat there.

00:43:59.192 --> 00:44:03.292
<v SPEAKER_2>It seemed like half an hour, so it might have been 45 minutes, might have been 15 minutes.

00:44:03.412 --> 00:44:03.952
<v SPEAKER_2>I don't know.

00:44:03.952 --> 00:44:06.932
<v SPEAKER_2>It seemed like a fairly long time.

00:44:06.932 --> 00:44:15.292
<v SPEAKER_2>While I was there, you know, on this land that to me was not yet a place, it was just, you know, here's a location where I can have my peace and quiet.

00:44:15.292 --> 00:44:19.752
<v SPEAKER_2>In my mind, I was working through all the permutations of the problem I was facing at work.

00:44:19.752 --> 00:44:26.652
<v SPEAKER_2>There was basically cultural changes, management, changes above my boss's level.

00:44:26.772 --> 00:44:33.172
<v SPEAKER_2>I could see that there was a certain inevitability of things happening that I fundamentally disagreed with.

00:44:33.172 --> 00:44:36.072
<v SPEAKER_2>And I was trying to figure out how could I navigate this?

00:44:36.072 --> 00:44:37.392
<v SPEAKER_2>How can I win?

00:44:37.392 --> 00:44:38.612
<v SPEAKER_2>How can these things happen?

00:44:38.612 --> 00:44:44.712
<v SPEAKER_2>And how can I still come out where I'm happy with the results for me personally, for career-wise?

00:44:44.712 --> 00:44:54.872
<v SPEAKER_2>And as I sat there perched on that rock, iterating over and over through every possible permutation of how these things could go, I was only finding losing scenarios.

00:44:54.892 --> 00:44:59.112
<v SPEAKER_2>And after a while it dawned on me that the tide was coming in.

00:44:59.912 --> 00:45:06.092
<v SPEAKER_2>I kind of had a sense it was when I went out there, so I didn't go too far under the rock and the water, because I didn't want to get trapped behind me.

00:45:07.712 --> 00:45:12.912
<v SPEAKER_2>So as I was focusing, I was looking at the water and looking at the rocks, but I was really not paying attention.

00:45:12.912 --> 00:45:15.612
<v SPEAKER_2>I was paying attention to my problems in my head.

00:45:15.612 --> 00:45:18.952
<v SPEAKER_2>I started to notice the water coming in more and more.

00:45:18.992 --> 00:45:29.332
<v SPEAKER_2>And as my focus shifted from what was going on in my head to what was going on around me, I paid attention to the tide coming in.

00:45:29.332 --> 00:45:52.112
<v SPEAKER_2>As I watched the waves creep up the shore, a few inches each time coming a little bit closer, starting to surround me, starting to rise on the rock I was on, I started thinking about tidal forces and thinking about the size of the ocean and thinking about how much power it takes for water to flow uphill, which is really what's happening when the tide comes in.

00:45:52.652 --> 00:45:55.812
<v SPEAKER_2>Water is actually coming uphill because the moon is pulling it.

00:45:55.812 --> 00:45:59.912
<v SPEAKER_2>That is power that Awesome doesn't even begin to describe it.

00:45:59.912 --> 00:46:08.152
<v SPEAKER_2>And as I was watching the inextricability of the tide roll in, it dawned on me that it was the same problem that I had at Apple.

00:46:08.172 --> 00:46:17.972
<v SPEAKER_2>I was up against the same inextricable forces with what was happening culturally, that I was with on that rock with the tide rolling in around me.

00:46:17.972 --> 00:46:20.492
<v SPEAKER_2>And I remember if I laughed or not, I probably did.

00:46:21.052 --> 00:46:27.292
<v SPEAKER_2>But I certainly laugh about it now when I think back to it, because in that moment, I realized I lost.

00:46:27.292 --> 00:46:34.052
<v SPEAKER_2>The problem that had driven me away from the office, driven me hours away from where I was, I realized that I had lost.

00:46:34.052 --> 00:46:35.092
<v SPEAKER_2>And I was suddenly happy.

00:46:35.092 --> 00:46:38.092
<v SPEAKER_2>I was totally relieved because I wasn't annoyed about winning or losing.

00:46:38.092 --> 00:46:41.332
<v SPEAKER_2>I was annoyed about not knowing what was going on.

00:46:41.332 --> 00:46:43.592
<v SPEAKER_2>I didn't have a solution to the problem.

00:46:43.592 --> 00:46:54.532
<v SPEAKER_2>And so I only tell this story because as soon as it dawned on me that, like, okay, the tide rolling in and the cultural changes in my workplace, it's the same problem.

00:46:54.532 --> 00:46:55.832
<v SPEAKER_2>This is inexorable.

00:46:55.832 --> 00:46:58.072
<v SPEAKER_2>There's nothing I can do.

00:46:58.072 --> 00:46:59.672
<v SPEAKER_2>It's not even about losing with honor.

00:46:59.672 --> 00:47:01.072
<v SPEAKER_2>I just, I got nothing.

00:47:01.072 --> 00:47:02.252
<v SPEAKER_2>It's going to happen.

00:47:02.252 --> 00:47:03.812
<v SPEAKER_2>I can scream and shout all I want.

00:47:03.812 --> 00:47:05.492
<v SPEAKER_2>I can't change anything.

00:47:05.492 --> 00:47:10.532
<v SPEAKER_2>It'd be no different than those rocks trying to resist the tide coming in.

00:47:10.532 --> 00:47:16.512
<v SPEAKER_2>I enjoyed the scenery for a minute and then turned around and hop back off that rock while I could still get to shore without getting soaked.

00:47:17.192 --> 00:47:20.852
<v SPEAKER_2>And before I left, I got a few feet from the rock that I had been perched on.

00:47:20.852 --> 00:47:22.432
<v SPEAKER_2>I turned around and took a picture.

00:47:22.432 --> 00:47:24.512
<v SPEAKER_2>We'll link in the show notes if you happen to care about the picture.

00:47:24.512 --> 00:47:25.972
<v SPEAKER_2>It's kind of a pretty scene.

00:47:25.972 --> 00:47:27.832
<v SPEAKER_2>I took a really nice panorama.

00:47:27.832 --> 00:47:28.972
<v SPEAKER_2>That was an early iPhone.

00:47:28.972 --> 00:47:29.772
<v SPEAKER_2>It was a work phone.

00:47:29.772 --> 00:47:34.452
<v SPEAKER_2>I haven't had my own for almost 20 years now, but I had a work phone on me.

00:47:34.452 --> 00:47:36.732
<v SPEAKER_2>And so I took a nice panoramic shot of the whole thing.

00:47:36.732 --> 00:47:38.652
<v SPEAKER_2>So you can see the bridge that I had come on.

00:47:38.652 --> 00:47:39.552
<v SPEAKER_2>You can see the ocean.

00:47:39.552 --> 00:47:42.792
<v SPEAKER_2>You can see the rock I was perched on.

00:47:42.792 --> 00:47:45.112
<v SPEAKER_2>This became a place for me in that moment.

00:47:45.672 --> 00:47:46.832
<v SPEAKER_2>There's nothing special about it.

00:47:46.832 --> 00:47:48.052
<v SPEAKER_2>If you look at it like, okay, that's nice.

00:47:48.052 --> 00:47:55.352
<v SPEAKER_2>It's some rocks, you know, the Oregon Coast, Mendocino, Northern California Coast is very pretty, but nothing special.

00:47:55.352 --> 00:47:59.952
<v SPEAKER_2>There are hundreds of places just like that, many far prettier than that one.

00:47:59.952 --> 00:48:03.012
<v SPEAKER_2>To me, they're all interchangeable, but I wanted the seclusion.

00:48:03.012 --> 00:48:10.752
<v SPEAKER_2>And so after I had that revelation, like, okay, I went out on that rock, not knowing what was going on, not knowing what I was going to do.

00:48:10.752 --> 00:48:16.872
<v SPEAKER_2>I came off that rock knowing that my career was over, knowing there was no way for me to continue as things stood.

00:48:16.872 --> 00:48:21.632
<v SPEAKER_2>And so 370 days after I took that picture, it was my last day at Apple.

00:48:21.632 --> 00:48:24.892
<v SPEAKER_2>I went for another year and that was when I quit.

00:48:24.932 --> 00:48:26.052
<v SPEAKER_2>I was happy after that.

00:48:26.052 --> 00:48:30.292
<v SPEAKER_2>I mean, it became stressful in that last year because things kept getting worse and worse as I knew they would.

00:48:30.292 --> 00:48:37.512
<v SPEAKER_2>But that place became a place for me personally when I turned around and took that picture because it was something special.

00:48:37.512 --> 00:48:39.712
<v SPEAKER_2>Something special happened to me.

00:48:39.712 --> 00:48:42.512
<v SPEAKER_2>And so one aspect of places is precisely like that.

00:48:42.952 --> 00:48:45.272
<v SPEAKER_2>We all have places like that where something happened.

00:48:45.272 --> 00:48:48.412
<v SPEAKER_2>Maybe it was something very good, maybe it was something very bad.

00:48:48.412 --> 00:49:07.152
<v SPEAKER_2>Many of you, if you've met your spouse in a particular place, or you got engaged or got married, those are very happy moments where just one among many locations, all sorts of land, all sorts of restaurants, all sorts of beaches become a place when something really personal happens.

00:49:07.152 --> 00:49:16.892
<v SPEAKER_2>Places are a vital part of what it means to be human because it's another part of what Corey was talking about early with our connection to the land.

00:49:16.892 --> 00:49:25.652
<v SPEAKER_2>It's not enough simply to treat the land as a fungible economic unit that is a source of your sustenance and your livelihood.

00:49:25.652 --> 00:49:26.312
<v SPEAKER_2>Those are good things.

00:49:26.312 --> 00:49:30.112
<v SPEAKER_2>Those are blessings from God, not denigrating that in the slightest.

00:49:30.112 --> 00:49:32.592
<v SPEAKER_2>But it's still not the complete human experience.

00:49:32.592 --> 00:49:44.032
<v SPEAKER_2>If you do nothing but rise and toil and rest with no appreciation for anything around you with no connection to any real places, you're not a full human.

00:49:44.032 --> 00:49:47.232
<v SPEAKER_2>That's a tragic thing that should be avoided.

00:49:47.232 --> 00:49:50.112
<v SPEAKER_2>And sometimes it's just as simple as paying attention.

00:49:50.112 --> 00:49:56.812
<v SPEAKER_2>But as I said, a lot of these places become such because of the experience that we have.

00:49:56.812 --> 00:50:02.412
<v SPEAKER_2>The reason that this matters is that those places then become things that we should guard and protect.

00:50:02.412 --> 00:50:08.852
<v SPEAKER_2>You know, I think an example that's shared would be the national park system and the state park systems.

00:50:08.852 --> 00:50:22.492
<v SPEAKER_2>The fact that this land is set aside, where it's effectively owned by no one, there's no exclusive economic use of it, it becomes the opportunity for people to go to those parks and create their own places.

00:50:22.492 --> 00:50:29.152
<v SPEAKER_2>You know, there's going to be some place that you visit that becomes a place for you personally, because of what happens there.

00:50:29.152 --> 00:50:37.712
<v SPEAKER_2>Maybe it's a little alcove in the woods where you teach your sons to start fires, teach them how to pitch a tent, some place where you go fishing.

00:50:37.712 --> 00:50:40.092
<v SPEAKER_2>It doesn't have to be a park, it can be anything.

00:50:40.092 --> 00:50:45.052
<v SPEAKER_2>The land becomes a place when you love it, and you love it because what happens there.

00:50:45.052 --> 00:50:53.052
<v SPEAKER_2>The love that we have for places is because of the human connections we have with each other and that we have with whatever moments occur in those places.

00:50:53.052 --> 00:50:54.012
<v SPEAKER_2>And that's vital.

00:50:54.012 --> 00:50:58.892
<v SPEAKER_2>It's necessary for our human identity, for those connections to exist.

00:50:58.912 --> 00:51:08.992
<v SPEAKER_2>And we have to think about this stuff because if you don't have any of those places, you're just wandering through life aimlessly.

00:51:08.992 --> 00:51:15.052
<v SPEAKER_2>It's one of the principal arguments against living completely virtual lives where everything only happens on the internet.

00:51:15.052 --> 00:51:16.532
<v SPEAKER_2>There's no place there.

00:51:16.532 --> 00:51:18.792
<v SPEAKER_2>There are conversations, there are upsides.

00:51:18.792 --> 00:51:25.992
<v SPEAKER_2>It's not that it's all downside, but the virtualization strips you away from human connections that are vital.

00:51:25.992 --> 00:51:29.032
<v SPEAKER_2>I think one of the simplest examples of a place is the dinner table.

00:51:29.752 --> 00:51:46.092
<v SPEAKER_2>When I was a kid, when cable and satellite TV was just beginning to encroach on family life, when the internet was just barely brand new in the mid late 90s, the family dinner table was something that my parents guarded jealously.

00:51:46.092 --> 00:51:48.232
<v SPEAKER_2>Like, you're going to come down here, we're going to have dinner.

00:51:48.252 --> 00:51:50.572
<v SPEAKER_2>I'd whine about it because I wanted to go play video games.

00:51:50.572 --> 00:51:52.012
<v SPEAKER_2>I wanted to be an idiot.

00:51:52.012 --> 00:51:57.012
<v SPEAKER_2>I didn't want to participate in the places that were the connection for the typical family unit.

00:51:57.432 --> 00:52:01.572
<v SPEAKER_2>Like, the family gathering place of the dinner table is vital.

00:52:01.572 --> 00:52:04.512
<v SPEAKER_2>It's always been a vital part of human connection.

00:52:04.512 --> 00:52:09.012
<v SPEAKER_2>Eating together is a fundamentally intimate human experience.

00:52:09.012 --> 00:52:13.692
<v SPEAKER_2>And the dinner table is not special because it's furniture.

00:52:13.692 --> 00:52:17.212
<v SPEAKER_2>And it's not even special because the food, maybe the food is very poor.

00:52:17.212 --> 00:52:19.852
<v SPEAKER_2>Maybe you're very poor and the food is meager.

00:52:19.852 --> 00:52:29.512
<v SPEAKER_2>The dinner table is still special because God is providing your sustenance and you're surrounded by people who love you and you're in it together in good times and bad.

00:52:29.512 --> 00:52:38.872
<v SPEAKER_2>And so the dinner table is a place in our lives because of that, because of the blessings that are there and because of the connections we should be having in places like that.

00:52:38.872 --> 00:52:44.432
<v SPEAKER_2>It's just furniture, you know, every dinner table, everyone has ever eaten at was just some furniture in a store.

00:52:44.432 --> 00:52:45.412
<v SPEAKER_2>It was like land.

00:52:45.412 --> 00:52:46.012
<v SPEAKER_2>It was nothing.

00:52:46.012 --> 00:52:47.252
<v SPEAKER_2>It was fungible.

00:52:47.252 --> 00:52:58.612
<v SPEAKER_2>When it comes home and it's given that particular place in your house and becomes a place where you gather, then that intimacy that makes those connections so human is engendered.

00:52:58.612 --> 00:53:00.512
<v SPEAKER_2>That is where it occurs.

00:53:00.532 --> 00:53:08.072
<v SPEAKER_2>And so we should be conscious of the fact that as we move through our lives, those places are going to naturally emerge.

00:53:08.072 --> 00:53:12.492
<v SPEAKER_2>And sometimes they're static places like a dinner table.

00:53:12.492 --> 00:53:17.472
<v SPEAKER_2>And sometimes they're ephemeral like that beach in Mendocino, which would mean absolutely nothing to you.

00:53:17.472 --> 00:53:20.392
<v SPEAKER_2>But to me, because of what happened, it means something.

00:53:20.392 --> 00:53:21.272
<v SPEAKER_2>I'll never see it again.

00:53:21.272 --> 00:53:21.672
<v SPEAKER_2>I don't care.

00:53:21.952 --> 00:53:23.592
<v SPEAKER_2>I only need to go back and visit it.

00:53:23.592 --> 00:53:30.012
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm glad I have the picture of the memory, but it served its purpose and therefore it has some connection.

00:53:30.012 --> 00:53:39.052
<v SPEAKER_2>The dinner table and the other places where we connect to each other on a more regular basis have a different kind of sustaining benefit to us.

00:53:39.052 --> 00:53:40.672
<v SPEAKER_2>And again, it's symbiotic.

00:53:40.672 --> 00:53:52.252
<v SPEAKER_2>The places where we gather, the places where we have connections to the land and to each other become mutually reinforcing because those become definitional of who we are as people.

00:53:53.792 --> 00:53:59.872
<v SPEAKER_1>By way of example, your wife is probably not particularly special.

00:53:59.872 --> 00:54:08.352
<v SPEAKER_1>And if you're a woman, your husband is probably not particularly special because that's just how statistics works.

00:54:08.352 --> 00:54:12.852
<v SPEAKER_1>By and large, the average person is precisely that, average.

00:54:14.672 --> 00:54:18.912
<v SPEAKER_1>Your wife is special because she is your wife.

00:54:18.912 --> 00:54:23.232
<v SPEAKER_1>Your husband is special because he is your husband.

00:54:23.232 --> 00:54:26.992
<v SPEAKER_1>The same thing is true with regard to places.

00:54:28.732 --> 00:54:39.392
<v SPEAKER_1>Any particular place along the coast, whether it's a beach or it's rocky or what have you, isn't necessarily special in any particular way.

00:54:39.392 --> 00:54:48.632
<v SPEAKER_1>There are parts of the world that are exceptionally beautiful, and virtually the entire human species collectively agrees on that fact.

00:54:48.632 --> 00:54:50.972
<v SPEAKER_1>But most places are not like that.

00:54:52.032 --> 00:54:54.652
<v SPEAKER_1>But they may be special to you.

00:54:54.652 --> 00:55:07.672
<v SPEAKER_1>If you're a hiker or a camper, this will immediately resonate with you, because undoubtedly there is some particular place that is your favorite hike or is your favorite place to camp.

00:55:07.672 --> 00:55:11.012
<v SPEAKER_1>And it may not even be somewhere that most people would consider beautiful.

00:55:11.872 --> 00:55:25.412
<v SPEAKER_1>It may just be somewhere that you camped dozens of times as a child, or you had a particularly great experience on one hike, or as Woe said, perhaps you proposed to your spouse there.

00:55:25.412 --> 00:55:30.732
<v SPEAKER_1>There's a reason that it became a place for you.

00:55:30.732 --> 00:55:35.292
<v SPEAKER_1>Human beings also do this with a variety of things.

00:55:35.292 --> 00:55:45.252
<v SPEAKER_1>For instance, the pen that I'm using to take notes as we record, may very well not be special to anyone else.

00:55:45.252 --> 00:55:48.872
<v SPEAKER_1>To me, it is to some degree, because it's a pen that I've carried for many years.

00:55:48.872 --> 00:55:55.932
<v SPEAKER_1>In fact, I almost always have one of these in my shirt, regardless of where I am.

00:55:55.932 --> 00:56:03.212
<v SPEAKER_1>But as human beings, we do attach meaning to things, and this does extend to places.

00:56:03.212 --> 00:56:06.292
<v SPEAKER_1>At least it certainly should extend to places.

00:56:07.472 --> 00:56:21.252
<v SPEAKER_1>We shouldn't just think of all territory, of all physical land, not to confuse the terms, we're using them in this episode, but to recognize that they are to a degree interchangeable terms, deliberately so.

00:56:21.252 --> 00:56:30.132
<v SPEAKER_1>But we need to recognize that land is not just, it doesn't matter where I am, it's all the same, it's all soil, it's all just plants, whatever.

00:56:30.132 --> 00:56:38.092
<v SPEAKER_1>No, that's not how we are supposed to live our lives as human beings, because you have a connection to a place.

00:56:39.172 --> 00:57:09.712
<v SPEAKER_1>In fact, one of the most jarring things that can happen to a person, one of the worst experiences, would be having a particular place like that, some particular place where you went hiking or camping or whatever it happens to be, that was truly special to you, that over a course of years or even decades, you developed this sentiment toward that place, this connection with that place, and then at some future point you go back there and it's been fundamentally altered.

00:57:09.712 --> 00:57:16.952
<v SPEAKER_1>Perhaps they clear cut the forest and built track homes, whatever it happens to be.

00:57:16.952 --> 00:57:20.052
<v SPEAKER_1>That's a terrible experience to have as a human being.

00:57:21.112 --> 00:57:35.532
<v SPEAKER_1>And incidentally, it's one reason that we should have this sort of connection to the land so we have concerns with regard to development, so we don't just destroy the natural world in order to throw up as many cheap houses as possible.

00:57:36.592 --> 00:57:38.952
<v SPEAKER_1>We should truly consider these matters.

00:57:38.952 --> 00:57:40.872
<v SPEAKER_1>They are matters of wisdom.

00:57:40.872 --> 00:57:43.792
<v SPEAKER_1>We should use the land wisely.

00:57:43.792 --> 00:57:48.512
<v SPEAKER_1>We should not just destroy places as we please.

00:57:48.512 --> 00:57:52.092
<v SPEAKER_1>It should not just be a matter of the profit incentive.

00:57:53.552 --> 00:58:00.052
<v SPEAKER_1>This sort of butts up against the ideas, the twin ideas of the Tragedy of the Commons and the Tragedy of the Anticommons.

00:58:00.592 --> 00:58:09.092
<v SPEAKER_1>And if you're unfamiliar with those, I would say perhaps read briefly on them to get sort of a grounding in some of the issues in this area.

00:58:09.092 --> 00:58:12.752
<v SPEAKER_1>I'll put a link to each of those in the show notes.

00:58:15.712 --> 00:58:32.652
<v SPEAKER_1>But as stewards of creation, and as indeed human beings, hopefully, we should have these places in our lives that have taken on meaning beyond what they have intrinsically, because they have a meaning for us.

00:58:32.652 --> 00:58:35.592
<v SPEAKER_1>It is something particular to us.

00:58:36.852 --> 00:58:44.252
<v SPEAKER_1>We recognize this readily with regard to certain artifacts, with regard to certain physical things.

00:58:44.252 --> 00:58:48.632
<v SPEAKER_1>You may have a family heirloom that has been passed down for many generations.

00:58:48.632 --> 00:58:52.112
<v SPEAKER_1>Objectively, it may have very little value.

00:58:52.112 --> 00:58:55.832
<v SPEAKER_1>In some cases, it may be very valuable, but in others, it may be worthless.

00:58:56.772 --> 00:59:00.972
<v SPEAKER_1>I have a watch that was passed down to me from my great-great-grandfather.

00:59:03.332 --> 00:59:14.252
<v SPEAKER_1>It's not worth very much, objectively speaking, because it was not a very expensive watch then, and it would certainly not be a very expensive watch now.

00:59:14.252 --> 00:59:28.472
<v SPEAKER_1>But the reason that it has meaning, that it has value to me and to my family, is because it was carried by my ancestors for decades, used by them for many years.

00:59:28.472 --> 00:59:34.912
<v SPEAKER_1>The same thing happens with various things, it will pass down to our children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces.

00:59:37.232 --> 00:59:42.832
<v SPEAKER_1>These things have meaning above and beyond what they have intrinsically.

00:59:42.832 --> 00:59:49.412
<v SPEAKER_1>The same thing takes place and certainly should take place with regard to physical locations.

00:59:51.352 --> 01:00:07.192
<v SPEAKER_1>We have less of this today, because so many people move around so much, too much, quite frankly, because as human beings we were not designed to be on the move constantly, to relocate all the time.

01:00:08.392 --> 01:00:13.212
<v SPEAKER_1>Yes, this obviously is a significant problem for certain occupations.

01:00:13.212 --> 01:00:16.932
<v SPEAKER_1>Military families undoubtedly will recognize the toll that this takes.

01:00:18.552 --> 01:00:25.852
<v SPEAKER_1>But there is something inhuman about moving around all the time, because it severs you from the land.

01:00:25.852 --> 01:00:35.952
<v SPEAKER_1>It makes it impossible for you to create these sorts of places, for you to build this sort of meaning and attach it to those places.

01:00:35.952 --> 01:00:39.672
<v SPEAKER_1>Because every time you move, you're really starting over.

01:00:40.952 --> 01:00:52.212
<v SPEAKER_1>You no longer have a favorite spot to watch the sunset, a favorite spot to watch the sunrise, a favorite part of the coast where you like to watch the tide come in or go out.

01:00:52.212 --> 01:01:09.252
<v SPEAKER_1>Whatever it happens to be for wherever you happen to live in the world, and at this point we have listeners all around the world, those places have meaning for you because you have developed that meaning and that connection over time.

01:01:09.252 --> 01:01:11.372
<v SPEAKER_1>And these things take time.

01:01:11.372 --> 01:01:16.892
<v SPEAKER_1>Part of the reason your wife is special to you is because all the time you have invested in that relationship.

01:01:18.132 --> 01:01:21.352
<v SPEAKER_1>It took all of that time to create that.

01:01:21.352 --> 01:01:22.732
<v SPEAKER_1>There is no shortcut.

01:01:22.732 --> 01:01:25.872
<v SPEAKER_1>There is no way you can do it faster than you did it.

01:01:25.872 --> 01:01:28.092
<v SPEAKER_1>You can't speed it up.

01:01:28.092 --> 01:01:31.532
<v SPEAKER_1>The same thing is true with regard to place.

01:01:33.072 --> 01:01:39.632
<v SPEAKER_1>Because in a very real sense, how some of these places develop is generationally.

01:01:39.632 --> 01:01:57.512
<v SPEAKER_1>It may be that the favorite place for you with regard to camping is because your father took you there when you were young, and his father took him there when he was young, and so on and so forth back dozens of generations or hundreds of years, in some cases even longer.

01:01:58.852 --> 01:02:04.652
<v SPEAKER_1>That's not something that you can simply rebuild in a single generation.

01:02:04.652 --> 01:02:07.952
<v SPEAKER_1>Certainly not in a year after you move to a new location.

01:02:09.472 --> 01:02:26.772
<v SPEAKER_1>And so when we don't respect this connection that we have to the soil, that we have to physical place as human beings, we sever ourselves from these connections, from this ability to connect to the natural world, as God clearly designed us to do.

01:02:27.852 --> 01:02:35.532
<v SPEAKER_1>You don't have a favorite place to watch the sunrise because you're unusual, you're quirky, or there's something wrong with you.

01:02:35.532 --> 01:02:38.092
<v SPEAKER_1>That's how God designed us.

01:02:38.092 --> 01:02:44.852
<v SPEAKER_1>He designed us to have preferences, to have things that we prefer over and above other things.

01:02:45.952 --> 01:02:54.032
<v SPEAKER_1>That isn't just something that occurs with food or drink or your favorite pen, if you happen to like writing instruments.

01:02:54.032 --> 01:02:58.452
<v SPEAKER_1>It is something that also occurs with place.

01:02:58.452 --> 01:03:05.812
<v SPEAKER_1>And in order for that to occur as it should, you have to have roots in that place.

01:03:05.812 --> 01:03:11.732
<v SPEAKER_1>You have to have a connection to that place, and preferably it is a generational one.

01:03:12.892 --> 01:03:21.832
<v SPEAKER_1>And one of the ways that that can be destroyed is with unrestricted and unregulated growth, development so-called.

01:03:21.832 --> 01:03:38.752
<v SPEAKER_1>When you're simply clear cutting and changing things and modifying them to the point where you're severing these connections that have been built over many years, over generations, you're destroying the ability for people to connect to the land.

01:03:40.012 --> 01:03:43.772
<v SPEAKER_1>And you are destroying the connections that were made in the past.

01:03:45.212 --> 01:03:51.952
<v SPEAKER_1>We see this happening at a breakneck pace all over the country today.

01:03:51.952 --> 01:04:07.292
<v SPEAKER_1>Part of that is because so-called immigration, we have had an influx of tens of millions of people who should not be here, and are putting strains on all of our systems, particularly on our infrastructure and our housing market.

01:04:07.292 --> 01:04:12.292
<v SPEAKER_1>And so these places are being destroyed, and people are being severed from the land.

01:04:12.292 --> 01:04:15.332
<v SPEAKER_1>That's part of the goal, of course.

01:04:15.332 --> 01:04:25.472
<v SPEAKER_1>Because if you can be severed from the land, if you no longer have this connection with regard to place, then you don't have the investment with regard to that land.

01:04:25.472 --> 01:04:38.832
<v SPEAKER_1>You don't have any reason, you don't have the necessary warrant to want to defend it, because you don't feel connected to it, which is something that we see all throughout history and all over the world.

01:04:38.832 --> 01:05:01.572
<v SPEAKER_1>Those who do not have a particular connection to a place, to a particular plot of land, to a particular region, to a particular country, those who lack that connection, that relationship to the land, are more willing to destroy it for the sake of profit, or to sell it out to foreigners for the sake of profit.

01:05:01.572 --> 01:05:10.432
<v SPEAKER_1>They are willing to do things that someone who has that connection will not do, would never do, virtually regardless of price.

01:05:11.912 --> 01:05:28.472
<v SPEAKER_1>One of the best examples of this, if you look at those who have owned a big chunk of land for a very brief period of time, they are more willing to sell to developers than those who have inherited a farm that has been in the family for centuries.

01:05:28.472 --> 01:05:48.252
<v SPEAKER_1>If you have a farm that your ancestors built with their own hands back in the 1600s or the 1700s, you are going to be much less likely to sell that to a developer who will come in and destroy it, than if you just bought a chunk of land 10 years ago.

01:05:48.252 --> 01:05:53.852
<v SPEAKER_1>There's less of a connection to something where you don't have those deep roots.

01:05:53.852 --> 01:06:06.592
<v SPEAKER_1>We've gone over this in many other episodes with regard to how many of these problems and necessarily solutions are generational in scope, are generational by their very nature.

01:06:06.592 --> 01:06:10.292
<v SPEAKER_1>And that is certainly the case with regard to place.

01:06:10.292 --> 01:06:23.332
<v SPEAKER_1>But you have to have the places, the potential places in order for these things to be built, in order for these connections to be made and then maintained and reinforced and passed down.

01:06:23.332 --> 01:06:38.192
<v SPEAKER_1>And so, if you don't protect your land, if you don't protect your territory, you can't have places, because you've destroyed the very possibility of those things existing, of those connections being made.

01:06:38.192 --> 01:06:41.552
<v SPEAKER_1>And that is, of course, what we see happening today.

01:06:41.552 --> 01:06:52.952
<v SPEAKER_1>A great deal of it is deliberate, because, again, if you can disconnect people from their land, from their territory, then you can get them to do things they otherwise would not do.

01:06:52.952 --> 01:07:00.412
<v SPEAKER_1>Or, at the very least, you can get them not to care when you do things to which they would otherwise object.

01:07:02.112 --> 01:07:11.432
<v SPEAKER_2>Before we finish with the import of protecting territorial sovereignty, as Corey is getting into there, I want to give two last examples.

01:07:13.852 --> 01:07:21.212
<v SPEAKER_2>I want to give two last examples of places that are or should be vital to us today.

01:07:21.232 --> 01:07:23.832
<v SPEAKER_2>And these are competing examples in modern life.

01:07:23.952 --> 01:07:30.312
<v SPEAKER_2>One is your church, and the other is a sports stadium.

01:07:30.332 --> 01:07:42.492
<v SPEAKER_2>In centuries past, in Christendom, the cathedrals and even the regular old churches that were built in medieval towns, sometimes they took centuries to build.

01:07:42.492 --> 01:07:48.512
<v SPEAKER_2>It literally took men multiple generations to construct something.

01:07:48.512 --> 01:08:02.372
<v SPEAKER_2>A man, a workman, an artisan, may well labor on a portion of a church for his entire lifetime, knowing that his grandson would still not live to see its completion.

01:08:02.372 --> 01:08:05.832
<v SPEAKER_2>And yet they did that, not simply because they were bored.

01:08:06.292 --> 01:08:09.152
<v SPEAKER_2>It wasn't simply make-work projects.

01:08:10.272 --> 01:08:19.192
<v SPEAKER_2>This was done because they understood that the place of the church itself, where God's elect gathered together, was vital.

01:08:19.192 --> 01:08:21.212
<v SPEAKER_2>It was vital for their spiritual health.

01:08:21.212 --> 01:08:23.052
<v SPEAKER_2>It was vital for their community.

01:08:25.112 --> 01:08:34.292
<v SPEAKER_2>The work, the effort, the passion that they put into that, the sheer artistry that is unparalleled today, there are things that were done in the past that we could not recreate.

01:08:34.732 --> 01:08:38.012
<v SPEAKER_2>We've lost the ability to make things with our hands.

01:08:38.012 --> 01:08:42.852
<v SPEAKER_2>They were so common that it was just like whoever is nearby is going to work on this.

01:08:44.012 --> 01:08:52.892
<v SPEAKER_2>Their connection to the land that made them so proficient at working in those various materials helped to create those places.

01:08:52.912 --> 01:09:02.872
<v SPEAKER_2>And the reason that I contrast, you know, particularly the medieval cathedral or the medieval church with the modern stadium is that they serve the same purpose.

01:09:02.872 --> 01:09:17.532
<v SPEAKER_2>The same amount of resources are poured today into the construction of these multi-billion dollar sports mega complexes that we used to pour into the place where people gathered around Word and Sacrament.

01:09:17.532 --> 01:09:20.612
<v SPEAKER_2>And for the same reason, that is where worship occurs.

01:09:22.372 --> 01:09:33.512
<v SPEAKER_2>That which is most highly desired and prized, that to which you provide the greatest interest and the greatest amount of resource devotion is your God.

01:09:33.532 --> 01:09:36.772
<v SPEAKER_2>And we see this in many lives today.

01:09:36.772 --> 01:09:39.192
<v SPEAKER_2>I used to drive every day between two graveyards.

01:09:39.192 --> 01:09:43.852
<v SPEAKER_2>There was a Catholic graveyard on one side and a Protestant graveyard on the other.

01:09:43.872 --> 01:09:48.192
<v SPEAKER_2>And I could tell that the one side was Catholic because I had a bunch of Mary statues.

01:09:48.192 --> 01:09:52.192
<v SPEAKER_2>I could tell that the other was Protestant because there were a number of graves.

01:09:52.192 --> 01:09:53.452
<v SPEAKER_2>Well, there were no Mary statues.

01:09:53.452 --> 01:09:54.712
<v SPEAKER_2>I could tell the difference.

01:09:54.712 --> 01:10:10.572
<v SPEAKER_2>But it was only in the Protestant grave site that there were a number of headstones that were lovingly curated and maintained throughout the seasons by living members of the deceased family with sports pennants.

01:10:10.572 --> 01:10:15.672
<v SPEAKER_2>Whatever their favorite team colors were, some were college, some were pro sports.

01:10:15.672 --> 01:10:17.912
<v SPEAKER_2>That was the confession that they took to their grave.

01:10:18.672 --> 01:10:32.012
<v SPEAKER_2>The affinity for some sports ball team was so definitional to those people who are now dead, that their living memory is of their devotion to whatever team it was.

01:10:32.012 --> 01:10:36.652
<v SPEAKER_2>And you can tell that because the colorful pennants are maintained in season and out.

01:10:37.912 --> 01:10:40.712
<v SPEAKER_2>That is a confession of religion.

01:10:40.712 --> 01:10:43.172
<v SPEAKER_2>Now, there's nothing wrong with sports per se.

01:10:43.172 --> 01:10:45.152
<v SPEAKER_2>It's they shouldn't be competing religions.

01:10:45.852 --> 01:10:51.292
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm not setting athletic activity against being faithful Christians.

01:10:51.292 --> 01:10:56.172
<v SPEAKER_2>Both should be occurring, although not exactly the same time, at least not the worship service.

01:10:56.172 --> 01:10:59.132
<v SPEAKER_2>You shouldn't have Sunday events.

01:10:59.132 --> 01:11:00.892
<v SPEAKER_2>Leave that stuff for the rest of the time.

01:11:00.892 --> 01:11:02.872
<v SPEAKER_2>Let Sunday be for church.

01:11:02.872 --> 01:11:06.032
<v SPEAKER_2>And then there would be a lot less of a problem.

01:11:06.032 --> 01:11:12.752
<v SPEAKER_2>But the fact that there are people who never have any church home, they have no place of church where they have a community of fellow believers.

01:11:13.292 --> 01:11:19.412
<v SPEAKER_2>But they have a place that's Soldier Field, or Wrigley Field, or Candlestick Park, which is now gone.

01:11:19.412 --> 01:11:26.112
<v SPEAKER_2>These places that their names echo down through the generations for however many decades they're erected.

01:11:26.112 --> 01:11:30.192
<v SPEAKER_2>Because unlike the Cathedrals of old, they're capitalist.

01:11:30.192 --> 01:11:36.652
<v SPEAKER_2>They're erected and destroyed to pursue greater profit in the next calendar year.

01:11:37.872 --> 01:11:40.992
<v SPEAKER_2>The reason those places are vital is that they're institutions.

01:11:41.512 --> 01:11:45.492
<v SPEAKER_2>They're places that are locations where people pour their passion and their energy.

01:11:45.492 --> 01:11:47.192
<v SPEAKER_2>And the church is a good place.

01:11:47.192 --> 01:11:52.272
<v SPEAKER_2>The church is a place where you should gather together with your community of fellow believers.

01:11:52.272 --> 01:11:53.452
<v SPEAKER_2>And you should do the church stuff.

01:11:53.452 --> 01:11:55.792
<v SPEAKER_2>You should do family stuff, community stuff.

01:11:55.792 --> 01:11:59.972
<v SPEAKER_2>And that should be the group of people that are an important part of your life.

01:11:59.972 --> 01:12:02.732
<v SPEAKER_2>Not exclusive, but an important part of it.

01:12:02.732 --> 01:12:04.772
<v SPEAKER_2>Sports would be fine if it weren't a substitute.

01:12:04.772 --> 01:12:07.852
<v SPEAKER_2>But what we see today is almost exclusively that.

01:12:07.852 --> 01:12:09.812
<v SPEAKER_2>I look at some pastors' timelines on Sunday.

01:12:09.912 --> 01:12:11.512
<v SPEAKER_2>They don't say a word about God.

01:12:11.512 --> 01:12:14.492
<v SPEAKER_2>They will tweet all day on Sunday about sports.

01:12:14.492 --> 01:12:16.812
<v SPEAKER_2>It's football all day on Sunday.

01:12:16.812 --> 01:12:18.692
<v SPEAKER_2>It's not the Lord's Day in their heart.

01:12:18.692 --> 01:12:20.912
<v SPEAKER_2>And it's not that they want to unwind.

01:12:20.912 --> 01:12:25.532
<v SPEAKER_2>I have said before, I have no problem with pastors needing to unwind and do something.

01:12:26.732 --> 01:12:37.612
<v SPEAKER_2>But if you're going to scream at Stone Choir for not having enough gospel, when lots of people hear enough gospel to become Christians, you should just shut up about football on Sunday.

01:12:37.612 --> 01:12:38.952
<v SPEAKER_2>Spare me the sanctimony.

01:12:41.752 --> 01:12:44.972
<v SPEAKER_2>These places are definitional in our lives, for good or for ill.

01:12:44.972 --> 01:12:49.812
<v SPEAKER_2>And that's why identifying which places are our places is so vital.

01:12:49.812 --> 01:13:03.652
<v SPEAKER_2>Because if you find that a sports stadium has more pull on you spiritually than any place where you gather with your family or your church community, you might have a problem that you should examine.

01:13:03.652 --> 01:13:07.452
<v SPEAKER_2>So part of the reason for highlighting this stuff is its diagnostic criteria.

01:13:07.872 --> 01:13:15.732
<v SPEAKER_2>Just examining, in yourself and in others, what's their true religion, as we kicked off the beginning of this year's podcast series.

01:13:15.732 --> 01:13:21.412
<v SPEAKER_2>True religion is that which you fear and love the most, that which has your greatest zeal.

01:13:21.412 --> 01:13:23.392
<v SPEAKER_2>And for many people, it's sports ball.

01:13:23.392 --> 01:13:26.592
<v SPEAKER_2>In Christianity, there's just be some you tack on.

01:13:26.592 --> 01:13:33.932
<v SPEAKER_2>It's something you can say to your holier than thou whenever moral issues come up, but you don't know how to articulate what's moral.

01:13:33.932 --> 01:13:35.232
<v SPEAKER_2>That's a disaster.

01:13:35.232 --> 01:13:37.272
<v SPEAKER_2>Spend less time worrying about sports scores.

01:13:37.812 --> 01:13:39.952
<v SPEAKER_2>And more time studying the word.

01:13:39.952 --> 01:13:41.652
<v SPEAKER_2>If you can get both right, fine.

01:13:41.652 --> 01:13:45.232
<v SPEAKER_2>But if one is going to lose, let's make sure it's not God.

01:13:45.232 --> 01:13:48.152
<v SPEAKER_2>That seems like table stakes.

01:13:48.152 --> 01:13:51.692
<v SPEAKER_2>The last part of this is on territorial sovereignty.

01:13:51.692 --> 01:13:54.412
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm sure Corey will give a better legal definition of this.

01:13:54.412 --> 01:13:59.972
<v SPEAKER_2>But basically, territory, as we're talking about it here, is beyond land.

01:13:59.972 --> 01:14:00.932
<v SPEAKER_2>It's beyond places.

01:14:00.932 --> 01:14:05.932
<v SPEAKER_2>Territory is that which has an exclusive domain.

01:14:06.372 --> 01:14:11.632
<v SPEAKER_2>You have exclusive authority in a territory where you is going to be whoever has the authority.

01:14:11.632 --> 01:14:19.152
<v SPEAKER_2>So for the continental United States, it's the federal government, has the exclusive domain over this territory.

01:14:19.152 --> 01:14:28.992
<v SPEAKER_2>They have the right, they have the duty, and they have the obligation to preserve this territorial integrity against all invaders and against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

01:14:28.992 --> 01:14:32.592
<v SPEAKER_2>incidentally, something that literally does not exist today.

01:14:32.592 --> 01:14:33.932
<v SPEAKER_2>The exact opposite happens.

01:14:34.392 --> 01:14:42.872
<v SPEAKER_2>The last thing any of us can imagine is this federal government raising a finger to oppose an enemy, foreign or domestic.

01:14:42.872 --> 01:14:48.332
<v SPEAKER_2>They're inviting them in, they're hauling them in, and they're erecting them against us.

01:14:48.332 --> 01:14:56.472
<v SPEAKER_2>And so they're abrogating their duty to protect this territory that's theirs, designated as our government to do so.

01:14:56.472 --> 01:14:59.492
<v SPEAKER_2>But the authorities still rest with them because the territory matters.

01:15:00.432 --> 01:15:07.452
<v SPEAKER_2>So, territory is an interesting concept because there are concentric circles involved.

01:15:07.452 --> 01:15:11.212
<v SPEAKER_2>So the federal government has the territory of the entire United States.

01:15:11.212 --> 01:15:17.072
<v SPEAKER_2>Each of our state governments has the territory of, you know, within its state boundaries.

01:15:17.072 --> 01:15:28.812
<v SPEAKER_2>And then you have local subdivisions of counties, cities, towns, hamlets, you know, there are all sorts of subdivisions with different names in different parts of the country that are all basically talking about sovereignty.

01:15:29.492 --> 01:15:35.292
<v SPEAKER_2>There are things that, you know, from without, the feds will worry about certain things.

01:15:35.292 --> 01:15:37.452
<v SPEAKER_2>There aren't federal laws again, things like murder.

01:15:37.452 --> 01:15:39.692
<v SPEAKER_2>There's no federal law against murder per se.

01:15:39.692 --> 01:15:41.252
<v SPEAKER_2>That's a state matter.

01:15:41.252 --> 01:15:44.672
<v SPEAKER_2>And then local matters have other jurisdictions.

01:15:44.672 --> 01:15:50.532
<v SPEAKER_2>And so the jurisdiction of a territory is where there's a monopoly on violence.

01:15:50.532 --> 01:15:52.272
<v SPEAKER_2>That's the typical libertarian definition.

01:15:52.272 --> 01:15:53.832
<v SPEAKER_2>It's spot on.

01:15:53.832 --> 01:15:57.892
<v SPEAKER_2>A territory is where a specific entity has a monopoly on violence.

01:15:58.472 --> 01:16:08.732
<v SPEAKER_2>They are called upon to enact violence wherever there's violation of the laws and to prevent violence, which is often the same thing, or at least it should be.

01:16:08.732 --> 01:16:13.412
<v SPEAKER_2>And then as we get down to the smallest concentric circles, we have our own territories.

01:16:13.472 --> 01:16:16.452
<v SPEAKER_2>I own my property free and clear.

01:16:16.452 --> 01:16:20.372
<v SPEAKER_2>Of all the things that I used to have, really the only thing I have left is the property that I own.

01:16:20.372 --> 01:16:24.612
<v SPEAKER_2>And frankly, it's one of the reasons I was able to begin Stone Choir with Corey.

01:16:24.612 --> 01:16:35.292
<v SPEAKER_2>I don't have a creditor that can kick me out of my house for being a neo-Nazi podcaster, which is defamatory, but it's what people want to say because that's how you hurt someone today.

01:16:35.292 --> 01:16:42.032
<v SPEAKER_2>And so if I didn't own this territory that I live on, I might not have started this because I would have lacked that security.

01:16:42.032 --> 01:16:46.912
<v SPEAKER_2>Maybe, maybe, I don't know, but it's certainly something that was part of my conscious calculus.

01:16:48.172 --> 01:17:08.272
<v SPEAKER_2>Even if you are not blessed to have land or blessed not to have a mortgage, even if you're a renter in an apartment, and even if you rent a bedroom in somebody else's house, that is still your territory in the sense that you have exclusive claims over it for most purposes.

01:17:08.292 --> 01:17:14.872
<v SPEAKER_2>And this is crucial because that becomes a place for you, a place of sanctuary.

01:17:14.872 --> 01:17:16.632
<v SPEAKER_2>A man's home is his castle.

01:17:16.632 --> 01:17:19.652
<v SPEAKER_2>That's an ancient term that's used.

01:17:19.652 --> 01:17:31.332
<v SPEAKER_2>That expression reflects the fact that rich or poor, inside a man's four walls, under his roof, even if it's only a room in somebody else's house, that is still your domain.

01:17:31.332 --> 01:17:33.072
<v SPEAKER_2>That's your territory.

01:17:33.072 --> 01:17:34.912
<v SPEAKER_2>And this is reflected in the laws.

01:17:34.912 --> 01:17:36.452
<v SPEAKER_2>It's reflected in leases.

01:17:36.452 --> 01:17:56.792
<v SPEAKER_2>Even if you have a landlord, even if you have someone who owns the property that you live in, so you don't properly have land of your own, while you're leasing someone else's property, you have exclusive rights over it, except for the limited purposes that your landlord has to preserve your enjoyment of that place.

01:17:56.792 --> 01:18:00.312
<v SPEAKER_2>So your landlord can't just walk in as though it's his house anymore.

01:18:00.312 --> 01:18:01.952
<v SPEAKER_2>He sells that right to you.

01:18:01.952 --> 01:18:04.992
<v SPEAKER_2>He exchanges it for the money and the lease.

01:18:04.992 --> 01:18:18.492
<v SPEAKER_2>And in return, he does have a limited right to come with pre-agreed conditions to repair things, to inspect, to make sure that he's maintaining the property up to the standards by which he sold it to you, he was leasing it to you.

01:18:19.812 --> 01:18:30.832
<v SPEAKER_2>So even if you have the sort of lowest station of property ownership, where it's a territory that you're just leasing temporarily, you still have territory, you still have rights.

01:18:30.832 --> 01:18:36.532
<v SPEAKER_2>Your landlord can't violate it, the state can't violate it without just cause.

01:18:36.532 --> 01:18:47.272
<v SPEAKER_2>And the trick when you're talking about territory is that with these layers of concentric circles, as you go up, there will be greater authority to do certain things, but it's still circumscribed by the law.

01:18:48.232 --> 01:19:00.852
<v SPEAKER_2>So because no one can kick me out of this place, the only way I could lose this land would be if I were to commit some crime that would cause the land itself to be indicted and handed over.

01:19:00.852 --> 01:19:09.312
<v SPEAKER_2>For example, if I started a meth lab, which I'm not going to do, stupid, illegal, disgusting, that sort of thing is how you lose your property.

01:19:09.312 --> 01:19:18.832
<v SPEAKER_2>Or if I stopped paying my very owner's property taxes, then the town would be able to say, well, you know, you didn't pay your property tax, the title reverts to us.

01:19:18.832 --> 01:19:25.792
<v SPEAKER_2>They'd take the property from me and they'd sell to somebody just to settle their tax bill, which would be small.

01:19:25.792 --> 01:19:33.092
<v SPEAKER_2>But absent that, I can do what I want with it within the limits of whatever the local laws are.

01:19:33.092 --> 01:19:35.412
<v SPEAKER_2>You know, and there are various laws to maintain.

01:19:35.412 --> 01:19:39.932
<v SPEAKER_2>Some are for good order, some are busy bodying, and that varies by place.

01:19:39.932 --> 01:19:50.012
<v SPEAKER_2>But those territorial limits, they're a part of life, and they're something that we have to recognize because when they're not being preserved, then we have a real problem.

01:19:50.012 --> 01:19:56.312
<v SPEAKER_2>I want to give an absurd example, as I often do, just to illustrate what I'm talking about with regard to territory.

01:19:56.312 --> 01:20:05.192
<v SPEAKER_2>Because this ties a little bit into last week, where we were talking about so-called immigration, about treason, about traders bringing foreign armies onto our soil.

01:20:07.612 --> 01:20:14.352
<v SPEAKER_2>Territorial sovereignty means that I can't just show up to your house and do what I want.

01:20:14.352 --> 01:20:18.472
<v SPEAKER_2>You know, say some of you like me, you might have me over for dinner.

01:20:18.472 --> 01:20:20.012
<v SPEAKER_2>I would be there as a guest.

01:20:20.012 --> 01:20:22.292
<v SPEAKER_2>You would invite me into your home as a guest.

01:20:22.292 --> 01:20:24.592
<v SPEAKER_2>I would eat what you place before me.

01:20:24.592 --> 01:20:27.412
<v SPEAKER_2>I wouldn't go into rooms that you didn't want me to go into.

01:20:27.412 --> 01:20:34.212
<v SPEAKER_2>I wouldn't make myself a home apart from within whatever rules you set as the exclusive owner of that territory.

01:20:34.932 --> 01:20:40.032
<v SPEAKER_2>And as long as I play by the rules of the house, I would be a welcome visitor for a time.

01:20:40.032 --> 01:20:51.832
<v SPEAKER_2>If, on the other hand, I start breaking the rules, you know, I start pawing around, I start messing with things that don't belong to me, I start, you know, get into your liquor and making rude comments, well, suddenly I'm not an invited guest anymore.

01:20:51.832 --> 01:20:54.472
<v SPEAKER_2>suddenly, I am someone who needs to be sent away.

01:20:54.472 --> 01:20:56.552
<v SPEAKER_2>And you're going to physically remove me.

01:20:56.552 --> 01:21:02.052
<v SPEAKER_2>You know, you might be sad about, you know, in the case of, you know, me personally, like, I'll be bizarre and out of character.

01:21:02.052 --> 01:21:02.812
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm not like that.

01:21:02.932 --> 01:21:09.892
<v SPEAKER_2>But for someone to behave that way, you might be sad that they let you down by being a scumbag, but you're not going to be sad about removing.

01:21:09.892 --> 01:21:11.932
<v SPEAKER_2>And like, well, you got to go.

01:21:11.932 --> 01:21:15.052
<v SPEAKER_2>You've overstayed your welcome by becoming an unwelcome guest.

01:21:15.052 --> 01:21:17.312
<v SPEAKER_2>You have to leave my territory now.

01:21:17.312 --> 01:21:22.812
<v SPEAKER_2>And then at that point, if the belligerent in this scenario, it's like, no, I don't think I'm going anywhere.

01:21:22.812 --> 01:21:26.372
<v SPEAKER_2>Then it becomes an adversarial situation.

01:21:26.392 --> 01:21:31.152
<v SPEAKER_2>And you have the absolute authority to make sure that I'm removed.

01:21:31.152 --> 01:21:37.212
<v SPEAKER_2>Doesn't mean you have the absolute authority to go straight to lethal force or any sort of wild over reaction.

01:21:37.212 --> 01:21:52.492
<v SPEAKER_2>But if you say, I'm not welcome in your house anymore, I'm now trespassing, I'm now in violation of the law, which means that generally what should happen if I won't listen to you, and you don't feel like physically removing, you call the cops and they drag me out if I won't leave.

01:21:52.492 --> 01:21:55.432
<v SPEAKER_2>That's perfectly reasonable because it's your territory.

01:21:55.432 --> 01:21:58.472
<v SPEAKER_2>You get to say what happens under your roof.

01:21:58.472 --> 01:22:05.592
<v SPEAKER_2>Even if it's a room in someone else's house and that's all your leasing, you still have the territorial dominion in that place.

01:22:05.592 --> 01:22:12.112
<v SPEAKER_2>And if someone's a guest, they're only a guest to the extent that they're welcome according to your whims, whatever they are.

01:22:12.112 --> 01:22:15.772
<v SPEAKER_2>You can't do anything more to them than ask them to leave.

01:22:15.772 --> 01:22:19.052
<v SPEAKER_2>You can't invite me over and then conduct medical experiments.

01:22:19.052 --> 01:22:26.032
<v SPEAKER_2>Like that's the fact that I'm in your presence doesn't give you authority over my body, but it means you can make me leave if you're tired of me.

01:22:28.192 --> 01:22:35.372
<v SPEAKER_2>Another aspect of this would be if, you know, there are a few listeners that certainly make a lot more money than I do.

01:22:35.372 --> 01:22:38.932
<v SPEAKER_2>And say one day I got really envious of that and said, you know what?

01:22:38.932 --> 01:22:40.512
<v SPEAKER_2>I want a better life.

01:22:40.512 --> 01:22:41.792
<v SPEAKER_2>I know where I can get a better life.

01:22:41.952 --> 01:22:42.932
<v SPEAKER_2>I know this guy.

01:22:42.932 --> 01:22:48.232
<v SPEAKER_2>I don't know anyone's names or where any of you live, but say for the sake of argument, like, hey, I know this guy.

01:22:48.232 --> 01:22:49.532
<v SPEAKER_2>He likes the show.

01:22:49.532 --> 01:22:54.192
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm going to show up at his house and I'm going to have a better life living with him because you have better food than me.

01:22:54.272 --> 01:22:58.012
<v SPEAKER_2>You got a bigger house, bigger TV, whatever.

01:22:58.012 --> 01:22:59.132
<v SPEAKER_2>I show up, I say, you know what?

01:22:59.132 --> 01:23:00.532
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm here for a better life.

01:23:00.532 --> 01:23:06.252
<v SPEAKER_2>Invite myself in, sit down, start eating your food, living like it's mine.

01:23:06.252 --> 01:23:14.052
<v SPEAKER_2>This is an absurd example because you're not even going to let me in the door and you're going to deal with me pretty harshly, pretty quickly because I'm uninvited.

01:23:14.072 --> 01:23:21.652
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm acting envious and you have every right to jealously guard your property, the things that God has blessed you with.

01:23:21.652 --> 01:23:24.592
<v SPEAKER_2>If I show up and say, hey, I like this, I want a piece.

01:23:24.592 --> 01:23:28.852
<v SPEAKER_2>Okay, well, that's a very interesting theory, but I need to leave.

01:23:28.852 --> 01:23:30.772
<v SPEAKER_2>If I don't, you're going to deal with it.

01:23:30.772 --> 01:23:35.452
<v SPEAKER_2>There's never going to be thought in your mind, well, he's sojourning, maybe I should welcome him in.

01:23:35.452 --> 01:23:37.692
<v SPEAKER_2>He's a podcaster, those are special people.

01:23:37.692 --> 01:23:40.132
<v SPEAKER_2>Maybe he's chosen to do this.

01:23:40.132 --> 01:23:42.212
<v SPEAKER_2>No, absolutely not.

01:23:42.212 --> 01:23:48.072
<v SPEAKER_2>The second somebody shows up acting entitled, they get dealt with like someone who's hostile.

01:23:49.272 --> 01:24:02.612
<v SPEAKER_2>The reason this is important is because your territorial sovereignty in your house, on your land, under your roof, is absolute to the extent that it excludes me or anyone else from doing anything you don't want done.

01:24:02.612 --> 01:24:05.192
<v SPEAKER_2>And that extends to the nation.

01:24:05.192 --> 01:24:09.092
<v SPEAKER_2>The national level, a country has exactly the same rights.

01:24:09.092 --> 01:24:15.612
<v SPEAKER_2>We have territorial rights to say, this group is us and that other group is not us.

01:24:15.612 --> 01:24:29.992
<v SPEAKER_2>And even if someone is welcome as a guest temporarily, which is fine, travel is fine, vacationing is fine, when it turns into invasion, when it turns into envy, which is where someone says, oh, I want a better life, I know where I can get it.

01:24:29.992 --> 01:24:31.752
<v SPEAKER_2>I can get a better life in the United States.

01:24:31.752 --> 01:24:33.172
<v SPEAKER_2>They got a bunch of stuff.

01:24:33.172 --> 01:24:34.992
<v SPEAKER_2>They have nicer stuff than I have.

01:24:34.992 --> 01:24:38.252
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm going to go there and take their stuff because I want it.

01:24:38.252 --> 01:24:52.492
<v SPEAKER_2>The only difference between the example where you would kick my butt and throw me out on the street if I tried to do it, and when the Haitian or the Guatemalan does it is that I'm white, and you know that it's BS if I try it.

01:24:52.492 --> 01:24:57.352
<v SPEAKER_2>suddenly, if somebody has an accent and they have a different skin color, like, oh, wow, I'm so confused.

01:24:57.352 --> 01:24:58.272
<v SPEAKER_2>I don't know what's going on.

01:24:58.272 --> 01:25:00.072
<v SPEAKER_2>Maybe I have to let them in.

01:25:00.072 --> 01:25:01.632
<v SPEAKER_2>This is insane.

01:25:01.632 --> 01:25:04.352
<v SPEAKER_2>This land is our land.

01:25:04.352 --> 01:25:05.852
<v SPEAKER_2>God gave it to us.

01:25:05.852 --> 01:25:11.232
<v SPEAKER_2>This is our territory that we protect because it's given to us for that purpose.

01:25:11.232 --> 01:25:14.952
<v SPEAKER_2>The way we treat our country is the way we would treat our house.

01:25:15.372 --> 01:25:18.972
<v SPEAKER_2>There is literally no difference.

01:25:18.972 --> 01:25:26.792
<v SPEAKER_2>The diffusion of responsibility that's concomitant with democracy is a disaster, but it doesn't change the obligations.

01:25:28.092 --> 01:25:30.832
<v SPEAKER_2>People can't just show up and do whatever they want.

01:25:30.832 --> 01:25:34.352
<v SPEAKER_2>Even if someone is invited as a guest, they can't do whatever they want.

01:25:34.352 --> 01:25:42.912
<v SPEAKER_2>And the second they become a burden, the second they break into your liquor cabinet and start drinking and eating things that don't belong to them and acting rude, they get sent home.

01:25:43.652 --> 01:25:47.872
<v SPEAKER_2>And if they have to get sent home by the scruff of their neck, fine.

01:25:47.872 --> 01:25:51.872
<v SPEAKER_2>That is well within the rights of the territorial sovereign.

01:25:51.872 --> 01:26:03.792
<v SPEAKER_2>And see, we built up to this point talking about land and talking about places that are special to us, because when push comes to shove, if there's no such thing as territory, all the rest is lost.

01:26:03.792 --> 01:26:16.832
<v SPEAKER_2>If I don't have an absolute right to kick you off my property when I'm done with you, not beyond the scope of the law, but if I don't have the right to say, you got to go now, it's not mine.

01:26:16.832 --> 01:26:18.192
<v SPEAKER_2>It's not mine at all.

01:26:18.192 --> 01:26:21.512
<v SPEAKER_2>If I have no territorial claim, I have no land.

01:26:21.512 --> 01:26:24.072
<v SPEAKER_2>And if I have no land, I can't have any places.

01:26:24.072 --> 01:26:28.412
<v SPEAKER_2>And if that is the case, I have ceased to be a full human being.

01:26:28.412 --> 01:26:29.692
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm a prisoner.

01:26:29.692 --> 01:26:32.232
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm a prisoner with nothing.

01:26:32.232 --> 01:26:47.932
<v SPEAKER_2>And the fact that whatever blessings God has given me are being legally ripped away and socially ripped away from all these lying clerics and all these lying politicians saying, oh no, no, you got to do this because they're poor and we got to let them all in.

01:26:47.932 --> 01:26:50.412
<v SPEAKER_2>Well, there's clearly no end.

01:26:50.412 --> 01:26:54.812
<v SPEAKER_2>And it's clear that the purpose of those things is to destroy the good that we have.

01:26:54.812 --> 01:26:56.672
<v SPEAKER_2>It's not about spreading the wealth.

01:26:56.672 --> 01:27:00.932
<v SPEAKER_2>If that were what we're about, we could send money to them, but that's not what's going on.

01:27:00.932 --> 01:27:10.792
<v SPEAKER_2>They are violating our territory, the country that belongs to us and saying, we're just going to chop this up into pieces and give it away to foreigners.

01:27:10.792 --> 01:27:12.752
<v SPEAKER_2>Let them devour it.

01:27:12.752 --> 01:27:20.092
<v SPEAKER_2>If you wouldn't do it in your house, you cannot permit it to be the policy of a country because you don't have a nation.

01:27:20.092 --> 01:27:23.512
<v SPEAKER_2>I'm using those terms differently, advisedly.

01:27:23.512 --> 01:27:32.252
<v SPEAKER_2>The death of a nation is when the territorial sovereignty is wiped away by foreigners not being expelled when they need to be.

01:27:32.252 --> 01:27:36.252
<v SPEAKER_2>For whatever reason they came here, that's completely immaterial in the moment.

01:27:36.252 --> 01:27:42.412
<v SPEAKER_2>And when they're coming in more and more and more, and you can't even make the territorial claim, hey, this is my land, not yours.

01:27:42.412 --> 01:27:44.532
<v SPEAKER_2>You need to leave.

01:27:44.532 --> 01:27:58.172
<v SPEAKER_2>The fact that you can say that to me if I break into your house, but we're told that you can't say that to someone when they break into your country, illustrates the absurdity and the wickedness of the lies we're being told.

01:27:58.172 --> 01:28:07.292
<v SPEAKER_2>If you don't have territorial sovereignty, if you don't have the absolute right to kick people out to determine the terms of people being present on your land, you have nothing.

01:28:07.872 --> 01:28:11.352
<v SPEAKER_2>And that's the scenario that we're being reduced to today.

01:28:13.372 --> 01:28:21.772
<v SPEAKER_1>The core issue philosophically or politically when dealing with territory is sovereignty.

01:28:21.772 --> 01:28:30.092
<v SPEAKER_1>Now, I'll leave aside for the sake of this discussion, the sake of the episode, the issue of a suzerain perhaps.

01:28:30.092 --> 01:28:32.872
<v SPEAKER_1>It doesn't really play into this directly.

01:28:32.872 --> 01:28:39.492
<v SPEAKER_1>But when you speak of territory, the central question is who is sovereign.

01:28:40.772 --> 01:28:53.872
<v SPEAKER_1>The sovereign is the entity, the person who has the supreme authority with regard to a given territory, with regard to a given land, a physical place.

01:28:53.872 --> 01:29:20.292
<v SPEAKER_1>And so, in the case of the United States, that is the United States government, in the case of France, that is the French government, in the case of colonies, for instance, I will comment briefly on the issue of suzerainty, with regard to a colony that is both the local government, to a certain degree, and then ultimately the colonial government, the overlord that exercises that ultimate sovereignty.

01:29:22.672 --> 01:29:28.392
<v SPEAKER_1>If you do not have sovereignty, then you don't have territory.

01:29:28.392 --> 01:29:37.852
<v SPEAKER_1>As Woe was saying, if you do not have the right to eject others from your property, then it isn't your property.

01:29:39.172 --> 01:29:41.232
<v SPEAKER_1>That is the baseline of all of this.

01:29:41.232 --> 01:29:44.212
<v SPEAKER_1>That is the foundational principle.

01:29:44.212 --> 01:29:56.212
<v SPEAKER_1>If you cannot exercise exclusive control over a given chunk of land, then it is not your property, because you are not sovereign with regard to it.

01:29:59.112 --> 01:30:18.532
<v SPEAKER_1>When you have competing claims of exclusive control, of authority over a given chunk of land, and those are between states, that's called war, or at the very least a diplomatic incident, usually devolves into war.

01:30:18.532 --> 01:30:24.352
<v SPEAKER_1>With regard to neighbors, that would be a matter of a civil suit, or historically something perhaps a little more violent.

01:30:25.212 --> 01:30:27.372
<v SPEAKER_1>Today, hopefully, that goes to the courts.

01:30:29.152 --> 01:30:32.332
<v SPEAKER_1>But you have to have sovereignty.

01:30:32.332 --> 01:30:41.332
<v SPEAKER_1>But one of the core aspects of sovereignty is that exercise of exclusivity, of the exclusive control over it.

01:30:41.332 --> 01:30:47.512
<v SPEAKER_1>There are many examples we could give in order to compare this to other parts of life that are perhaps more comprehensible.

01:30:49.232 --> 01:30:52.812
<v SPEAKER_1>Your wife is your wife because you have exclusive ownership.

01:30:54.532 --> 01:30:58.132
<v SPEAKER_1>She would cease to be if you did not.

01:30:58.132 --> 01:31:00.572
<v SPEAKER_1>That's just how that works.

01:31:00.572 --> 01:31:05.152
<v SPEAKER_1>The same thing is true with regard to territory.

01:31:05.152 --> 01:31:12.212
<v SPEAKER_1>You must have exclusive ownership, which means the right to eject others, or you do not have control.

01:31:15.072 --> 01:31:24.312
<v SPEAKER_1>With regard to a nation, this is territorial sovereignty, and it is exercised over the national territory.

01:31:24.312 --> 01:31:32.152
<v SPEAKER_1>That is, the geographic area over which this given state exercises exclusive control.

01:31:32.152 --> 01:31:38.292
<v SPEAKER_1>And that's going to include land and territorial waters, adjacent sea to the territory.

01:31:38.292 --> 01:31:41.032
<v SPEAKER_1>That gets into international law, but that's a separate matter.

01:31:42.272 --> 01:31:57.152
<v SPEAKER_1>There's a very good reason that early on in this episode, we mentioned what it means to be a nation, what the requirements are to be a nation, blood and soil, again, leaving aside myth for another day.

01:31:59.632 --> 01:32:16.392
<v SPEAKER_1>If the soil is taken away, if the property is taken away, if the exclusive occupation of that soil by those of that blood is taken away or destroyed, the nation will inevitably cease to exist.

01:32:17.692 --> 01:32:37.292
<v SPEAKER_1>And so when you look at the current state of the world, and you look at the so-called immigration or immigration crisis, sometimes called, recognize it for the reality of what it is, recognize it for the reality of what is being achieved, of what is being done with it.

01:32:39.732 --> 01:32:41.912
<v SPEAKER_1>Immigration is a weapon.

01:32:41.912 --> 01:32:43.752
<v SPEAKER_1>It is meant to destroy.

01:32:43.752 --> 01:32:48.692
<v SPEAKER_1>That is what it does, fundamentally speaking, because it is not immigration.

01:32:48.692 --> 01:32:50.672
<v SPEAKER_1>It is an invasion.

01:32:50.672 --> 01:32:53.132
<v SPEAKER_1>It is a punishment from God.

01:32:53.132 --> 01:32:56.732
<v SPEAKER_1>It is destruction wrought by our wicked rulers.

01:32:58.152 --> 01:33:01.652
<v SPEAKER_1>Because what, again, is the ultimate outcome?

01:33:01.652 --> 01:33:03.992
<v SPEAKER_1>It is the destruction of the nation.

01:33:06.052 --> 01:33:20.592
<v SPEAKER_1>If you cannot defend your nation, if you cannot bring yourself to care for your nation more than you would care for the stranger or the alien, then not only are you not a Christian, as we've covered previously in many episodes, but you're not even human.

01:33:20.592 --> 01:33:22.812
<v SPEAKER_1>You're not a man.

01:33:22.812 --> 01:33:39.732
<v SPEAKER_1>That is so fundamentally alien to what it means to be a human being that you cannot possibly have loves and a sense of duty and desires that are so inverted from what is natural for a human being and retain your humanity.

01:33:41.212 --> 01:33:48.092
<v SPEAKER_1>You necessarily sink to a lower level to something that is subhuman at the absolute best.

01:33:49.492 --> 01:33:55.872
<v SPEAKER_1>We can also turn to scripture for some of these things, and of course, we always do that, and we'll do that here.

01:33:58.312 --> 01:34:02.972
<v SPEAKER_1>I want you to think about the promises in the Old Testament.

01:34:04.092 --> 01:34:08.012
<v SPEAKER_1>What is it that God promised to Abraham?

01:34:08.012 --> 01:34:11.232
<v SPEAKER_1>What is it that God promised to the Patriarchs?

01:34:11.232 --> 01:34:15.252
<v SPEAKER_1>What is it that God promised to the nation of Israel?

01:34:15.252 --> 01:34:23.052
<v SPEAKER_1>Now, of course, there were promises with regard to the Messiah, with regard to Christ, who would come from that line, from the line of David.

01:34:25.912 --> 01:34:32.252
<v SPEAKER_1>But temporally, physically, they were promised a land.

01:34:32.252 --> 01:34:39.232
<v SPEAKER_1>God said, I will give you a land, a rich land, flowing with milk and honey.

01:34:39.232 --> 01:34:43.492
<v SPEAKER_1>The promise was to make them a great nation.

01:34:43.492 --> 01:34:45.812
<v SPEAKER_1>In fact, that's exactly what God said to Abraham.

01:34:45.812 --> 01:34:48.792
<v SPEAKER_1>I will make of you a great nation.

01:34:48.792 --> 01:34:49.872
<v SPEAKER_1>How can you do that?

01:34:49.872 --> 01:34:51.112
<v SPEAKER_1>How can God do that?

01:34:52.832 --> 01:34:54.792
<v SPEAKER_1>He had to give them a land.

01:34:54.792 --> 01:34:57.232
<v SPEAKER_1>He had to give them a physical place.

01:34:57.232 --> 01:35:02.552
<v SPEAKER_1>He had to give them territory over which they had exclusive control.

01:35:03.632 --> 01:35:09.592
<v SPEAKER_1>But it was contingent, because those things, those blessings are always contingent.

01:35:09.592 --> 01:35:13.072
<v SPEAKER_1>They are contingent on faithfulness.

01:35:13.072 --> 01:35:31.412
<v SPEAKER_1>And now you'll get some modern so-called Christians, dispensationalists, who will claim that this territory, these promises to Israel, were above and beyond and particularly special and absolutely not, because it is the exact same promise God gives to every nation.

01:35:32.772 --> 01:35:36.192
<v SPEAKER_1>Because what does Scripture say about the nations?

01:35:36.192 --> 01:35:39.612
<v SPEAKER_1>It is God who sets their borders and their times.

01:35:39.612 --> 01:35:44.452
<v SPEAKER_1>And so that is the promise of a land that God has given to every nation.

01:35:44.572 --> 01:35:52.832
<v SPEAKER_1>And a nation is just a group of related families, an extended family, often named after the patriarch historically.

01:35:55.732 --> 01:36:11.692
<v SPEAKER_1>The promises of a land to the various other sons, grandsons, great-grandsons, so on and so forth of Noah, are not lesser and are not greater than those given to the sons of Israel.

01:36:11.692 --> 01:36:13.432
<v SPEAKER_1>Because it is God who sets the borders.

01:36:13.852 --> 01:36:15.552
<v SPEAKER_1>It is God who sets the times.

01:36:15.552 --> 01:36:21.112
<v SPEAKER_1>It is God who has given that exclusive control to certain territories, to certain peoples.

01:36:22.872 --> 01:36:32.212
<v SPEAKER_1>And when a wicked government or when wicked third parties attempt to take that territory away from you, you have duties.

01:36:32.212 --> 01:36:34.492
<v SPEAKER_1>You have very real duties.

01:36:34.492 --> 01:36:38.372
<v SPEAKER_1>Because that is evil and it must not be tolerated.

01:36:38.372 --> 01:36:41.892
<v SPEAKER_1>When you tolerate these things, you bring the evil on yourself.

01:36:41.932 --> 01:36:44.912
<v SPEAKER_1>If you bring greater judgment on yourself.

01:36:46.232 --> 01:36:51.512
<v SPEAKER_1>Because with regard to this sovereignty, do not take it as an absolute.

01:36:51.512 --> 01:36:56.232
<v SPEAKER_1>Sometimes in some places, historically and legally, it has been taken too far.

01:36:57.412 --> 01:37:02.672
<v SPEAKER_1>And it is taken too far when we do not recognize that there are also duties.

01:37:04.032 --> 01:37:05.452
<v SPEAKER_1>You can take the small example.

01:37:06.272 --> 01:37:17.212
<v SPEAKER_1>Your family, as the father of the household, you have sovereignty with regard to your household, with regard to your land.

01:37:18.392 --> 01:37:19.912
<v SPEAKER_1>But it is not unlimited.

01:37:19.912 --> 01:37:21.792
<v SPEAKER_1>It is not absolute.

01:37:21.792 --> 01:37:32.372
<v SPEAKER_1>If you beat your wife and mistreat your children, the magistrate is empowered and it is his right, it is his duty to come in and stop that, however necessary.

01:37:34.912 --> 01:37:39.472
<v SPEAKER_1>The magistrate has control over a local territory.

01:37:39.472 --> 01:37:50.072
<v SPEAKER_1>He has duties with regard to that territory, and he has rights with regard to that territory, particularly legal rights, in order to execute his duties.

01:37:50.072 --> 01:37:56.272
<v SPEAKER_1>If he exceeds the bounds, he must answer to the higher magistrate.

01:37:56.272 --> 01:37:59.472
<v SPEAKER_1>The lesser magistrate answers to the superior.

01:37:59.472 --> 01:38:00.832
<v SPEAKER_1>That is how the system works.

01:38:02.492 --> 01:38:16.652
<v SPEAKER_1>The magistrate who is at the top, the godly prince, the godly king, the ultimate earthly sovereign, he must answer to God, and God will certainly judge him.

01:38:16.652 --> 01:38:24.092
<v SPEAKER_1>He will certainly receive a stricter judgment, because he has been given greater duty, greater authority by God.

01:38:25.272 --> 01:38:28.812
<v SPEAKER_1>From the one to whom much has been given will much be demanded.

01:38:30.272 --> 01:38:33.092
<v SPEAKER_1>Scripture is abundantly clear about that.

01:38:33.092 --> 01:38:43.212
<v SPEAKER_1>The things that God has entrusted to your care, you will be made to answer for how you used them, or how you squandered them, or failed to use them.

01:38:43.212 --> 01:38:51.572
<v SPEAKER_1>And that most certainly includes the land that God has given you, whether it is your land as a person, as an individual man, or as a nation.

01:38:53.572 --> 01:39:04.492
<v SPEAKER_1>I've said this before, and I would recommend it again, but go and look at the instances in scripture where God speaks to the nation of Israel.

01:39:04.492 --> 01:39:12.572
<v SPEAKER_1>There are many instances where God speaks to the nation of Israel as if the nation of Israel were a single man.

01:39:12.572 --> 01:39:24.512
<v SPEAKER_1>There are a million of them at this time, two million, two million men, millions of people constituting this nation, and God speaks to them as if they were a single man.

01:39:25.532 --> 01:39:31.272
<v SPEAKER_1>Because in a very real way, a nation is an entity in and of itself.

01:39:32.692 --> 01:39:38.372
<v SPEAKER_1>It is comprised of individuals, but the nation is a gestalt, the same as you are.

01:39:38.372 --> 01:39:45.292
<v SPEAKER_1>It is a sum of the individual members that is greater than that sum.

01:39:45.292 --> 01:39:55.752
<v SPEAKER_1>If you take away part of what is necessary for the future of a nation, you have committed an act more heinous than murder.

01:39:55.752 --> 01:40:04.652
<v SPEAKER_1>Because as Woe said previously, there is a reason destroying a nation is seen as such a heinous crime.

01:40:04.652 --> 01:40:08.932
<v SPEAKER_1>There is a reason that treason is seen as such a heinous crime.

01:40:08.932 --> 01:40:18.712
<v SPEAKER_1>Because when you commit treason against the nation, what you are doing is murdering every single man, woman and child in and of that nation.

01:40:20.072 --> 01:40:23.552
<v SPEAKER_1>You are committing an act of genocide.

01:40:23.552 --> 01:40:25.132
<v SPEAKER_1>It is an evil.

01:40:26.612 --> 01:40:31.172
<v SPEAKER_1>There is no greater evil, except of course treason against God.

01:40:33.472 --> 01:40:41.172
<v SPEAKER_1>Treason, betrayal of your nation, is the greatest earthly evil that you can commit.

01:40:41.172 --> 01:40:49.932
<v SPEAKER_1>And that is exactly what we see being done by so many Western and other governments these days, because they are bringing in hostile aliens.

01:40:49.932 --> 01:40:59.992
<v SPEAKER_1>They are bringing in incompatible foreigners in order to subvert and destroy the Native population, in order to destroy the nation.

01:40:59.992 --> 01:41:02.112
<v SPEAKER_1>That is black letter law genocide.

01:41:03.572 --> 01:41:07.932
<v SPEAKER_1>It is certainly a rejection of the blessings that God has given us.

01:41:08.992 --> 01:41:13.132
<v SPEAKER_1>And as Christians, we should absolutely not be complicit in that sort of evil.

01:41:14.092 --> 01:41:23.252
<v SPEAKER_1>We have to recognize that the territory that God has given us is a necessary component of what it means to be a nation.

01:41:23.252 --> 01:41:34.012
<v SPEAKER_1>If we give up that exclusive authority, that exclusive exercise of ownership over that territory, we will ultimately lose everything.

01:41:34.012 --> 01:41:39.172
<v SPEAKER_1>We see this in the pages of history, and we see this in the pages of Scripture.

01:41:39.172 --> 01:41:42.052
<v SPEAKER_1>If you lose your land, you cease to be a nation.

01:41:42.472 --> 01:41:45.072
<v SPEAKER_1>There is no other outcome.

01:41:45.072 --> 01:41:49.412
<v SPEAKER_1>That is the destruction of everything that you should hold dear.

01:41:49.412 --> 01:42:00.512
<v SPEAKER_1>And it is what we see being done actively, deliberately, intentionally today, without control over your territory.

01:42:01.832 --> 01:42:07.852
<v SPEAKER_1>You lose the ability as a people to make those connections of place.

01:42:07.852 --> 01:42:21.192
<v SPEAKER_1>When you lose the ability to make those connections with regard to place, you lose any real meaning, any tether that ties you to a particular part of land, to a particular piece of land.

01:42:21.192 --> 01:42:26.792
<v SPEAKER_1>And when you ultimately lose that land, because that's the next step, then you lose everything.

01:42:29.072 --> 01:42:30.992
<v SPEAKER_1>Man is of the earth.

01:42:30.992 --> 01:42:53.392
<v SPEAKER_1>And without that connection to the earth, without having your feet firmly planted on that soil, on which your fathers and your grandfathers and your forefathers stood, you cease to be a man, and ultimately you will cease to be anything at all, because your nation will pass into the pages of history, and it will not continue into the future.

01:42:54.712 --> 01:42:56.992
<v SPEAKER_1>That is what we are facing today.

01:42:56.992 --> 01:42:59.132
<v SPEAKER_1>And that is why land matters.

01:43:00.172 --> 01:43:04.352
<v SPEAKER_1>Land is not just something that you look out the window and you see.

01:43:04.352 --> 01:43:40.112
<v SPEAKER_1>Land is something upon which you stand, something for which you stand, something as a man you should be willing to defend, something upon which you rely for your future, for a meaningful future, for your ability to be a full and complete human being by developing connections with it, extending those connections with regard to your neighbor, with regard to your cousins, with regard to the other families that constitute your nation, and together exercising that territorial sovereignty, whether it's embodied in a godly prince or some other ruler.

01:43:40.112 --> 01:44:00.972
<v SPEAKER_1>May God give us a godly king, but regardless of the sovereign in which it is embodied, it is incumbent on that sovereign to exercise defense over that territory, for the good of those who have been entrusted to his care, which is to say the nation, not foreigners, not aliens, not those who have come here to steal and rape and kill.

01:44:02.512 --> 01:44:23.812
<v SPEAKER_1>It is his duty to exercise his office, his authority, the power that God has given him on this earth, to protect those entrusted to his care, those to whom he owes duties, not foreigners, not aliens, his family, because ultimately that is what a nation is.

01:44:25.172 --> 01:44:47.812
<v SPEAKER_1>And as Christians, we should be willing to defend our nation and the territory on which it rests, at least as vehemently, at least as staunchly, and at least as uncompromisingly as we are willing to defend our own home and our own family that God has given us and entrusted to our care.

01:44:49.052 --> 01:44:51.732
<v SPEAKER_1>It is our duty as men to do nothing less.