WEBVTT
00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:03.359
I was thinking about something the other day.
00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:07.679
And it probably says more about me than it should.
00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:11.039
That's always how these episodes start, isn't it?
00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:18.160
Normal people are thinking about vacations, retirement accounts, whether they remembered to put the garbage out.
00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:23.199
I'm sitting there wondering why most people don't commit murder.
00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:28.320
Not exactly the kind of thought that gets you invited to neighborhood cookouts.
00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:31.600
But the question stuck with me.
00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:40.719
Not why murder is illegal, not why people get arrested, not why prisons exist.
00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:43.679
Those answers are easy.
00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:48.000
What I found myself wondering was something much stranger.
00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:53.359
What actually stops people, and I mean really stops them?
00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:59.600
Because if you've been alive long enough, you've met some awful human beings.
00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:09.200
You've met liars, you've met cheats, you've met people who would sell out their own mother for twenty bucks in a coupon.
00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:14.799
You've met people who walk into a room and somehow leave it worse than they found it.
00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:19.760
Every one of us has had someone in our lives who hurt us.
00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.799
Maybe they betrayed us, maybe they humiliated us.
00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:27.120
Maybe they destroyed a relationship.
00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:31.439
Maybe they took something that mattered.
00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:37.439
They simply made our lives miserable for reasons only they understood.
00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:45.920
And at some point, if we're being honest, most of us have imagined a world without that person in it.
00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:51.760
Now, before anybody gets excited, I'm talking about thoughts.
00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:53.599
Everybody has thoughts.
00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:00.159
The brain is basically a drunk uncle trapped in a dark room throwing ideas at the wall.
00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:02.000
Most of them are terrible.
00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:05.439
Most never leave the room.
00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:11.280
The fact that a thought exists doesn't mean anything.
00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:13.919
What matters is what happens next.
00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:18.479
Because for almost everybody, the thought dies right there.
00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:20.560
It doesn't become an action.
00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:24.319
It doesn't become a plan, it doesn't become a crime.
00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:26.879
It becomes nothing.
00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:31.280
And that's what fascinated me.
00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:32.560
Why?
00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:36.879
When I was younger, I thought the answer was obvious.
00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:38.479
Fear.
00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:40.960
Fear of prison.
00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:43.280
Fear of getting caught.
00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:45.039
Fear of consequences.
00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:46.000
Simple.
00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:47.919
Case closed.
00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:53.120
Except the older I got, the less that explanation seemed to work.
00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:55.280
Because people do illegal things all the time.
00:02:55.439 --> 00:03:08.240
People speed, people cheat, people steal, commit fraud, lie on their taxes, people take shortcuts, people cut corners.
00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:14.800
Human beings are incredibly creative when it comes to breaking the rules.
00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:23.680
So if fear of punishment is keeping society together, we're doing a pretty shitty job.
00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:31.039
Which means there's gotta be something else going on, and I think that something else might be dread.
00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:35.680
Not fear dread.
00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.280
Different animal entirely.
00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:42.319
Fear is immediate.
00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:46.319
Fear is a guy pointing a gun at you.
00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:51.199
Fear is hearing glass break downstairs at three in the morning.
00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:58.000
Fear is finding out the thing you thought was a fart wasn't.
00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:01.280
Dread is different.
00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:04.560
Dread lives in the future.
00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:09.039
Dread is your brain running simulations.
00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:13.759
Dread is seeing consequences before they happen.
00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:18.399
Dread is your imagination becoming a prosecuting attorney.
00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:25.279
And unlike fear, dread doesn't need anything to actually happen.
00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:29.199
Your brain can manufacture it completely on its own.
00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:32.319
Let's say I came to you with an impossible offer.
00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:39.600
You could kill somebody, anybody, and I could guarantee you would never get caught.
00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:42.959
Not probably, not likely, never.
00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:52.639
No witnesses, no evidence, no DNA, no cameras, no prison, no punishment.
00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:54.480
Nothing.
00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:58.079
The act disappears from history.
00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:00.000
Most people still wouldn't do it.
00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:04.240
And I think that's the part that deserves our attention.
00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:10.480
Because once punishment is removed from the equation, what's left?
00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:12.879
You just you.
00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:15.839
And maybe that's the answer.
00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:21.360
Maybe the thing most people fear isn't prison.
00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:24.959
Maybe it's what happens afterward.
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:36.319
Maybe it's having to wake up the next morning and the next morning and the next one after that, knowing exactly what you did.
00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:45.199
I think modern culture has this weird idea that murderers are all these cold blooded monsters walking around without feelings.
00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:46.160
Some are.
00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:48.639
Absolutely.
00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:53.120
Psychopaths exist, but a lot aren't.
00:05:53.600 --> 00:06:00.720
A lot are ordinary people who made an extraordinary decision, a terrible one.
00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:07.360
And if you read enough case histories, something starts showing up over and over again.
00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:15.040
They drink, they isolate, they become paranoid, they can't sleep.
00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:17.680
They replay the event.
00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:22.720
Some even confess years later when nobody even suspects them.
00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:24.079
Think about that.
00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:26.319
Nobody is looking.
00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:29.360
Nobody knows, nobody is coming.
00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:31.600
And yet they turn themselves in.
00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:32.240
Why?
00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:37.519
Because maybe getting away with something and escaping it are not the same thing.
00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:40.959
That's one of the great lies we tell ourselves.
00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:43.759
That time erases things.
00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:44.560
It doesn't.
00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:45.519
It buries them.
00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:48.000
Different process entirely.
00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:54.319
You ever notice how some memory from twenty years ago can suddenly come back like it happened yesterday?
00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:57.120
Maybe something stupid you said?
00:06:57.920 --> 00:06:59.759
Maybe somebody you hurt?
00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:02.720
Maybe a chance you didn't take.
00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:05.040
Maybe a phone call you should have made.
00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:14.560
You could be standing in line at the grocery store buying cereal and suddenly your brain decides to remind you of something from 1997 while you're staring at a box of fucking cornflakes.
00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:16.480
No warning.
00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:18.000
No reason.
00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:20.319
Just that damned rooster.
00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:26.879
Apparently, humiliation has a loyalty program.
00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.199
Now, imagine that with murder.
00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.959
Imagine carrying that memory around.
00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:34.720
Not for a week.
00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:36.560
Not for a month.
00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:38.319
For decades.
00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.680
Knowing there's no undue button.
00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:44.399
No apology big enough.
00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:47.279
No explanation sufficient.
00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:49.040
No second chance.
00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.839
Just the memory.
00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:54.160
The knowledge.
00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:55.920
Just you.
00:07:57.759 --> 00:07:59.600
Maybe that's the thing.
00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:04.639
Maybe conscience isn't some religious concept.
00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:06.959
Maybe it's not philosophy.
00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.560
Maybe it's not mort maybe it's not mortality.
00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:14.160
Maybe it's simply the price of being self-aware.
00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:18.800
Because once you understand what you've done, you can't unknow it.
00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:22.160
The receipt has already been printed.
00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:24.720
The transaction is complete.
00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.079
And now you own it forever.
00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:29.040
That's heavy.
00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:31.759
That's heavier than most people realize.
00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:37.519
Maybe heavy enough that the average person never takes the first step.
00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:44.720
You know, for all the conversations people have about crime, prisons, policing, and punishment, I think we overlook something important.
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:49.919
Civilization may depend less on laws than we think.
00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:55.279
It may depend on the fact that most people possess a functioning imagination.
00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:58.399
Most people can see tomorrow.
00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.440
Most people can see next year.
00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:10.000
Most people can imagine living with something terrible, and because they can imagine it, they choose not to do it.
00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:14.159
Maybe that knot in your stomach is not weakness.
00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.360
Maybe it's the last safeguard we have.
00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:28.799
Maybe dread is the thing standing between anger and violence, between resentment and tragedy, between thought and action.
00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:35.120
And if that's true, then the people we should worry about aren't the ones who feel guilt.
00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:36.559
They're the ones who don't.
00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:43.600
Because the dreadful truth might be this most people don't avoid murder because they're afraid of prison.
00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:51.120
Most people avoid murder because they're afraid of becoming the kind of person who could commit one.
00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:54.720
And that is the dreadful truth.
00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:03.359
I was thinking about something the other day.
00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:07.679
And it probably says more about me than it should.
00:00:07.839 --> 00:00:11.039
That's always how these episodes start, isn't it?
00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:18.160
Normal people are thinking about vacations, retirement accounts, whether they remembered to put the garbage out.
00:00:18.719 --> 00:00:23.199
I'm sitting there wondering why most people don't commit murder.
00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:28.320
Not exactly the kind of thought that gets you invited to neighborhood cookouts.
00:00:29.039 --> 00:00:31.600
But the question stuck with me.
00:00:31.839 --> 00:00:40.719
Not why murder is illegal, not why people get arrested, not why prisons exist.
00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:43.679
Those answers are easy.
00:00:43.920 --> 00:00:48.000
What I found myself wondering was something much stranger.
00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:53.359
What actually stops people, and I mean really stops them?
00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:59.600
Because if you've been alive long enough, you've met some awful human beings.
00:01:00.640 --> 00:01:09.200
You've met liars, you've met cheats, you've met people who would sell out their own mother for twenty bucks in a coupon.
00:01:09.359 --> 00:01:14.799
You've met people who walk into a room and somehow leave it worse than they found it.
00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:19.760
Every one of us has had someone in our lives who hurt us.
00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:22.799
Maybe they betrayed us, maybe they humiliated us.
00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:27.120
Maybe they destroyed a relationship.
00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:31.439
Maybe they took something that mattered.
00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:37.439
They simply made our lives miserable for reasons only they understood.
00:01:37.599 --> 00:01:45.920
And at some point, if we're being honest, most of us have imagined a world without that person in it.
00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:51.760
Now, before anybody gets excited, I'm talking about thoughts.
00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:53.599
Everybody has thoughts.
00:01:54.000 --> 00:02:00.159
The brain is basically a drunk uncle trapped in a dark room throwing ideas at the wall.
00:02:00.319 --> 00:02:02.000
Most of them are terrible.
00:02:02.799 --> 00:02:05.439
Most never leave the room.
00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:11.280
The fact that a thought exists doesn't mean anything.
00:02:11.599 --> 00:02:13.919
What matters is what happens next.
00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:18.479
Because for almost everybody, the thought dies right there.
00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:20.560
It doesn't become an action.
00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:24.319
It doesn't become a plan, it doesn't become a crime.
00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:26.879
It becomes nothing.
00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:31.280
And that's what fascinated me.
00:02:32.080 --> 00:02:32.560
Why?
00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:36.879
When I was younger, I thought the answer was obvious.
00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:38.479
Fear.
00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:40.960
Fear of prison.
00:02:41.439 --> 00:02:43.280
Fear of getting caught.
00:02:43.599 --> 00:02:45.039
Fear of consequences.
00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:46.000
Simple.
00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:47.919
Case closed.
00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:53.120
Except the older I got, the less that explanation seemed to work.
00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:55.280
Because people do illegal things all the time.
00:02:55.439 --> 00:03:08.240
People speed, people cheat, people steal, commit fraud, lie on their taxes, people take shortcuts, people cut corners.
00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:14.800
Human beings are incredibly creative when it comes to breaking the rules.
00:03:15.360 --> 00:03:23.680
So if fear of punishment is keeping society together, we're doing a pretty shitty job.
00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:31.039
Which means there's gotta be something else going on, and I think that something else might be dread.
00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:35.680
Not fear dread.
00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.280
Different animal entirely.
00:03:40.319 --> 00:03:42.319
Fear is immediate.
00:03:42.879 --> 00:03:46.319
Fear is a guy pointing a gun at you.
00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:51.199
Fear is hearing glass break downstairs at three in the morning.
00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:58.000
Fear is finding out the thing you thought was a fart wasn't.
00:03:59.520 --> 00:04:01.280
Dread is different.
00:04:01.919 --> 00:04:04.560
Dread lives in the future.
00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:09.039
Dread is your brain running simulations.
00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:13.759
Dread is seeing consequences before they happen.
00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:18.399
Dread is your imagination becoming a prosecuting attorney.
00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:25.279
And unlike fear, dread doesn't need anything to actually happen.
00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:29.199
Your brain can manufacture it completely on its own.
00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:32.319
Let's say I came to you with an impossible offer.
00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:39.600
You could kill somebody, anybody, and I could guarantee you would never get caught.
00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:42.959
Not probably, not likely, never.
00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:52.639
No witnesses, no evidence, no DNA, no cameras, no prison, no punishment.
00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:54.480
Nothing.
00:04:55.279 --> 00:04:58.079
The act disappears from history.
00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:00.000
Most people still wouldn't do it.
00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:04.240
And I think that's the part that deserves our attention.
00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:10.480
Because once punishment is removed from the equation, what's left?
00:05:10.800 --> 00:05:12.879
You just you.
00:05:13.839 --> 00:05:15.839
And maybe that's the answer.
00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:21.360
Maybe the thing most people fear isn't prison.
00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:24.959
Maybe it's what happens afterward.
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:36.319
Maybe it's having to wake up the next morning and the next morning and the next one after that, knowing exactly what you did.
00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:45.199
I think modern culture has this weird idea that murderers are all these cold blooded monsters walking around without feelings.
00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:46.160
Some are.
00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:48.639
Absolutely.
00:05:49.040 --> 00:05:53.120
Psychopaths exist, but a lot aren't.
00:05:53.600 --> 00:06:00.720
A lot are ordinary people who made an extraordinary decision, a terrible one.
00:06:00.879 --> 00:06:07.360
And if you read enough case histories, something starts showing up over and over again.
00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:15.040
They drink, they isolate, they become paranoid, they can't sleep.
00:06:15.680 --> 00:06:17.680
They replay the event.
00:06:17.839 --> 00:06:22.720
Some even confess years later when nobody even suspects them.
00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:24.079
Think about that.
00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:26.319
Nobody is looking.
00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:29.360
Nobody knows, nobody is coming.
00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:31.600
And yet they turn themselves in.
00:06:31.839 --> 00:06:32.240
Why?
00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:37.519
Because maybe getting away with something and escaping it are not the same thing.
00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:40.959
That's one of the great lies we tell ourselves.
00:06:41.600 --> 00:06:43.759
That time erases things.
00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:44.560
It doesn't.
00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:45.519
It buries them.
00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:48.000
Different process entirely.
00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:54.319
You ever notice how some memory from twenty years ago can suddenly come back like it happened yesterday?
00:06:54.560 --> 00:06:57.120
Maybe something stupid you said?
00:06:57.920 --> 00:06:59.759
Maybe somebody you hurt?
00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:02.720
Maybe a chance you didn't take.
00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:05.040
Maybe a phone call you should have made.
00:07:05.199 --> 00:07:14.560
You could be standing in line at the grocery store buying cereal and suddenly your brain decides to remind you of something from 1997 while you're staring at a box of fucking cornflakes.
00:07:15.279 --> 00:07:16.480
No warning.
00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:18.000
No reason.
00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:20.319
Just that damned rooster.
00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:26.879
Apparently, humiliation has a loyalty program.
00:07:27.120 --> 00:07:29.199
Now, imagine that with murder.
00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:32.959
Imagine carrying that memory around.
00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:34.720
Not for a week.
00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:36.560
Not for a month.
00:07:37.360 --> 00:07:38.319
For decades.
00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:41.680
Knowing there's no undue button.
00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:44.399
No apology big enough.
00:07:44.879 --> 00:07:47.279
No explanation sufficient.
00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:49.040
No second chance.
00:07:49.360 --> 00:07:51.839
Just the memory.
00:07:52.879 --> 00:07:54.160
The knowledge.
00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:55.920
Just you.
00:07:57.759 --> 00:07:59.600
Maybe that's the thing.
00:08:00.560 --> 00:08:04.639
Maybe conscience isn't some religious concept.
00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:06.959
Maybe it's not philosophy.
00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:10.560
Maybe it's not mort maybe it's not mortality.
00:08:10.879 --> 00:08:14.160
Maybe it's simply the price of being self-aware.
00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:18.800
Because once you understand what you've done, you can't unknow it.
00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:22.160
The receipt has already been printed.
00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:24.720
The transaction is complete.
00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.079
And now you own it forever.
00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:29.040
That's heavy.
00:08:29.199 --> 00:08:31.759
That's heavier than most people realize.
00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:37.519
Maybe heavy enough that the average person never takes the first step.
00:08:37.759 --> 00:08:44.720
You know, for all the conversations people have about crime, prisons, policing, and punishment, I think we overlook something important.
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:49.919
Civilization may depend less on laws than we think.
00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:55.279
It may depend on the fact that most people possess a functioning imagination.
00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:58.399
Most people can see tomorrow.
00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:01.440
Most people can see next year.
00:09:01.759 --> 00:09:10.000
Most people can imagine living with something terrible, and because they can imagine it, they choose not to do it.
00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:14.159
Maybe that knot in your stomach is not weakness.
00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.360
Maybe it's the last safeguard we have.
00:09:17.519 --> 00:09:28.799
Maybe dread is the thing standing between anger and violence, between resentment and tragedy, between thought and action.
00:09:29.519 --> 00:09:35.120
And if that's true, then the people we should worry about aren't the ones who feel guilt.
00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:36.559
They're the ones who don't.
00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:43.600
Because the dreadful truth might be this most people don't avoid murder because they're afraid of prison.
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Most people avoid murder because they're afraid of becoming the kind of person who could commit one.
00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:54.720
And that is the dreadful truth.
