Written by Dear Listener/Reader,
I recently endured a pang of guilt, and I write to relieve myself of this burden.
I appreciate tremendously your assistance with this relief. So, before I unburden myself, I’ll start with a small token of this appreciation. Whether you have never paid me a cent, or whether you are a subscribing member right now, I invite you to get your next three months of a SurrealPolitiks member subscription for free.
If you are already a member, you may cancel your subscription from the my account page, and then sign up for a new one. If you are not a member yet, just go to https://SurrealPolitiks.com/shop and purchase a monthly membership subscription. When you do this, use code 3free33 at checkout. This will reduce your first three months of subscription payments to zero, and you will not need to enter any payment information at checkout. If you do not enter payment information at the end of three months, and we have not worked out some other arrangement, then your subscription will be suspended and you may take from this whatever you will.
This code will expire in 7 days to prevent abuse. If you’re a loyal reader/listener and you miss the window, talk to me and we’ll work something out.
If you are not sure what the benefits of this membership are, I’ll explain them after I unburden myself.
This audience has had a growth spurt here and there, but most of you have been with me a very long time. This means a great deal to me. I have never spoken to most of you, but when I get the occasional email from someone who says he or she has been around since Some Garbage Podcast, or this or that YouTube video, I really try to put myself in your shoes. I try to imagine what it was like to watch this amazing journey that we have endured together.
I do this in part because I know you have done this for me. You try to imagine what it was like to go through the things I went through. Those of you who have contacted me have often done so sympathetically, or praising of what you describe as my sacrifices for our shared values.
I view it somewhat differently. I consider this opportunity that you have provided to me to be the most unique of privileges. It obviously has not always been easy, but better men than I have sacrificed more with less recognition, and less reward.
James Fields comes to mind, whom I do not know much about, except that he is an innocent man. I know that he was convicted in a sham trial and sentenced to life plus more than 419 years in prison. I know that he was then threatened with execution by the federal government on top of this, and that to save his own life, and to spare his mother the pain of watching him die by lethal injection for a lie, he pleaded guilty to a crime he did not commit. I know that, as part of his plea agreement, he is prohibited from making exculpatory statements. Should he do so, his plea agreement will be revoked, and his admission of guilt made to secure this agreement will be used against him at a trial, the certain result of which would be his murder at the hands of the government that should have been protecting him, and all of us, on August 12th, 2017.
And so, James Fields cannot speak. To tell the truth would be to commit suicide, and I do not know Mr. Fields to take any pleasure in lying. So, we do not hear much from him, and consequently, he does not get nearly enough attention drawn to his plight.
I would like to think so highly of myself as to say that I’d have endured all that I had, even without your help, but I would curse myself for a liar if I said that, and I certainly take no pleasure in lying nor in cursing myself. I would have given up a long, long time ago, if it wasn’t for you.
And I would have hated myself for it.
I’d be doing donors a tremendous disservice if they did not get some special attention in this. Without them, it would literally have been impossible. My will and the moral support of thousands is of little utility absent financial resources. I could write many, many paragraphs about that, but I will beg them to pardon my brevity in the moment because I have a different purpose in mind for this message.
It happens from time to time that I will be contacted by a listener who expresses remorse for his or her inability to support the show financially. If you are one of those people, know that you are not alone, and I am not calling you out today.
I know all too well what it is like to consider an extra $10 to be an aspirational goal. I hated that feeling, and I am tremendously grateful that I do not endure that feeling today, thanks to some very generous people.
Knowing what it feels like for those of you who endure this, the idea that I am causing you to feel guilt on top of that, just tears me apart. I do not want to do that to you, dear listener. If I have ever done this to you, please, I am begging you to accept my apology. You do not deserve this.
Sometimes this even happens with people who have kids. The idea that I would compete with your child is, in my mind, absolutely preposterous. I should hope this would be obvious.
In order to generate the financial support that makes the show possible, I have to ask for money, but if you are someone who considers $10 a difficult economic decision, consider yourself excluded from these solicitations. I have much more important messages for you, and we’ll get to those momentarily.
You should not feel any guilt about financially supporting my work. If you do, know that you visit this burden on me twofold.
If you are in a position to do send financial support, and it will make you feel good, great. I hope you succeed to the point where being generous to others is a thing that causes you no hardship, that only brings you joy, and that I can be a recipient of the generosity that brings you such satisfaction.
But if I am doing my job well, my work should not be negatively impacting your life, and I know all too well how feelings of guilt can negatively impact a person’s life.
Please know that I am grateful for the time and attention you devote to considering the things I have to say.
Please know that you do not even owe me this much.
Please know that I consider it a very unique honor, privilege, and awesome responsibility, to receive the generosity of your time and attention.
If you win the lottery tomorrow, if that long shot crypto bet pays off and you bail out Elon Musk on this Twitter fiasco, if you become a big time movie star, or the next president of the United States, and you give me a just a couple of hours of your time each week to hear what I have to say, then you have given me more than I imagined was possible when I started doing this gig, and far more than I think I deserve on most days.
If you introduce just one other listener to this work of mine, then you have really gone above and beyond the call of duty so far as I am concerned.
And yeah, obviously, the people who pay for the thing, they have really been just absolute blessings to me and to everyone else who listens. I long for a day when we have been successful enough politically that I can thank them by name in public without risking their livelihoods.
But the whole point of them paying is so that I can keep on reaching you, and more people like you. Please keep that in mind. None of this happens without the reader and the listener. Nobody is paying me for a private audience.
Though, as I write this, it occurs to me that perhaps I should make that offer. More on this another day…
Those of you who are going through difficult times know that I can relate to this part of your experience even if I do not know the details. Outside of taking your calls on the shows, I cannot listen to each of your problems individually, and if your problems are not of the sort you should discuss publicly, then I am likely not the person you need to be talking to.
But whatever your challenges may be, I will give you some very broad, general advice.
Whatever it is you are going through, own it.
It is entirely your responsibility to organize your affairs in the way most likely to secure your satisfaction with life, and your ability to succeed, and to benefit others.
In all my years of media and activism and trials and tribulations, this is my most important lesson. Politics has a nasty habit of focusing people outwards. We rightly see our political opponents as causing all manner of trouble, and we want to use the force of the State to stop them.
While this is a worthwhile pursuit, nobody should trust us with political power if we are not happy successful people first. This comes from mastering your own mind, your own body, and your own life.
From the fact that you listen to me, I can tell that you already know that you have much broader obligations than financially supporting a podcast. Your race and your nation are on the line, and you cannot be of any benefit to those very high values unless you have your life in order, and the people closest to you secured.
If you listen to nothing else that I say, take this instruction: Pursue relentlessly your own self improvement, meaningful relationships, and professional success. If you do those things, financial contributions to my work will be the least of the good that you do in this world, I am quite certain.
In pursuit of these goals, I’ll make a few more specific suggestions.
Some of these will prove helpful to women as well, but some of the titles make obvious that they are geared toward men. I’ll make an earnest effort to try to be more helpful to women in the future, and I want to send a special thank you to my female readers and listeners. I ask you to understand that as much as I value you and want to help, I think the best I can aspire to most days, given my frame of reference, is to help men better themselves. If you can help me aspire toward being more directly helpful to the fairer sex, I’ll listen intently to all that you have to say.
That said, please find and listen to these audiobooks. If that means you have to skip a few of my shows, then please do. It is in our mutual best interests that you learn what these things have to offer.
These are very easy to get a hold of for free if you are familiar with Bit Torrent, or if you have a library card, and the Libby app for your smartphone. Failing this, they should all be available for purchase on Amazon.
- Win Bigly – by Scott Adams
- Models – Atttact Women Through Honesty – by Mark Manson
- Influence – by Robert Cialdini
- No Excuses – The Power of Self Discipline – by Brian Tracy
- 21 Secrets of Self Made Millionaires – by Brian Tracy
- 21 Ways To Stay In Love Forever – by Brian Tracy
- The Power of Branding – by Brian Tracy
- The 48 Laws of Power – by Robert Greene
- The Attractive Man – The Ultimate Guide to Texting Girls
I have listened to all of these. Some of them I have listened to more than once, they are just that good.
I have read and listened to many more great books, but these, after much consideration, are those which I think will benefit you the most.
I think all the Brian Tracy stuff is great, and he has a lot more material out there.
You might also check out Tony Robbins, John Maxwell, and Dave Ramsey.
As for the membership thing, we do a live video conference every Wednesday at 9:30pm US Eastern time. Once you’re a member, you can join us here https://surrealpolitiks.com/member-chat/
You do not need to enable your camera or your microphone to participate. If you want you can listen and send text messages in the live chat, or you can just unmute your mic and we can speak by voice. During the public shows I tend to keep calls somewhat brief and keep the content moving with the listener in mind. During the member sessions, it is more about your participation and this gives subscribers more direct and less limited access to your humble correspondent.
If you miss it, you can catch the archives here https://surrealpolitiks.com/category/membersonly/
There are also exclusive member only discounts at https://SurrealPolitiks.com/shop. The last of the Radical Agenda gear is going fast, and you can only see the deep member discounts after you have already become a member. Once you are logged into your member account the discounted price will appear to you as the only price you see.
If you have any questions, you can just reply to this email or use the contact form on my site.
If you are in a position to support the show financially, I try to make this easy to do at https://surrealpolitiks.com/donate/