Jocko Underground: Can You Be Politically Neutral? The Path Is Lonely. How to Talk to Different Types of People.

It's lonely on the path. Can you behave politically neutral? How to modulate your communication style for different types of people. Jiu Jitsu in a life or death situation. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/jocko-podcast/exclusive-content

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jocko Willink?

  This is the Jocko Underground Podcast, number 10, with Echo Charles and me, Jocko Willink.

• 0:09Jocko Willink?

  Good evening, Echo.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  Good evening.

• 0:10Jocko Willink?

  Alright, so today, we have some Q and A, some Q and A, some questions that are specifically from members of the Jocko Underground that are on board for the big win. And part of the reason we set up the JacoUnderground.com was so that we could hone down the number of people that submit questions and get to more of them. So that's what we're doing here. So Echo Charles, what do we got? Let's get to it.

• 0:37Speaker 01

  First question.

• 0:40Speaker 01

  Alright, so loneliness on the path, alright. Um, I'm not sure if we should say their names, so as of right now, we're not gonna...

• 0:47Jocko Willink?

  Yeah, I would say do not say their names, just in case.

• 0:51Speaker 01

  Privacy. Thanks. Okay, how do you do?

• 0:54Jocko Willink?

  Maybe like a first name, possibly.

• 0:56Speaker 01

  Possible. Yeah, we'll sort it.

• 0:58Jocko Willink?

  Lately, I've been calling all example people either Fred or Bill.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  Okay, yeah, Bill, that's, yeah, that's a guy, for sure.

• 1:07Jocko Willink?

  Okay, Fred's not a guy?

• 1:08Speaker 01

  Well, I have not heard you use Fred in the past.

• 1:12Jocko Willink?

  Really? I use Fred, well, I guess mostly on EF Online, and when I'm talking to clients, if I've got to talk about Fred over here.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, I know Bill, for sure.

• 1:20Jocko Willink?

  Bill, definitely.

• 1:21Speaker 01

  Maybe, I mean, it's vaguely ringing a bell, how about that?

• 1:23Jocko Willink?

  Alright, we'll go with it. So what's Fred's question here, or Bill's?

• 1:27Speaker 01

  Okay, how do you deal with loneliness on the path? And yes, I do grappling, I'm a metal, in a metalcore band, I have a girlfriend and enough friends, but no one of my, no one of my peers is getting after it, or none of my peers is getting after it, because no one wants to be uncomfortable and not even close.

• 1:48Speaker 01

  So it's lonely.

• 1:49Jocko Willink?

  Well, it sounds like somebody might be a little bit uncomfortable being alone on the path.

• 1:59Jocko Willink?

  Right? That's basically what's going on here. And look, that's, that's a funny way to look at it. Legitimately, you've got someone that's saying, "Hey, I'm alone and I don't like it, I want other people to be on path with me." They're not here because they're uncomfortable, they don't like being uncomfortable. You're uncomfortable and you don't like it either, that's why you're begging for other people to join the path with you. So I got news for you. The path is lonely. That's the, those are the facts. And the higher you get up the mountain, the less people there are. The higher you climb, the less people there's gonna be up there with you. So what are you gonna do? Are you gonna, are you gonna complain about it?

• 2:37Jocko Willink?

  Is it, does it make you uncomfortable? You gonna climb back down the mountain? You gonna get off the path? So I think what you have to do is, and I know what I do, is you kind of lower your expectations of other humans.

• 2:51Jocko Willink?

  And when I say that, I'm not talking about doing that in an I'm superior kind of way. Right? But you, because you gotta, you gotta recognize that what's important to, to me, might not be as important to other people for whatever reason. All right, what do we got?

• 3:09Speaker 01

  In the British Army, there has been a rise in right wing views and support, to the point where soldiers are being counseled and in a few cases sacked for their views.

• 3:21Jocko Willink?

  That's fired. I will translate that from British.

• 3:25Speaker 01

  As service members, when in uniform, we're supposed to be politically neutral. Is it impossible to maintain this position in today's climate?

• 3:35Jocko Willink?

  Okay, so, good question. And first of all, in, well, speaking of the American military, this idea that you can be an extremist of any kind is not okay. You're not allowed to, according to the Pentagon, military personnel must reject participation in organizations that espouse supremacist causes, attempt to create illegal discrimination based on race, creed, color, sex, religion, or national origin, advocate the use of force or violence, or otherwise engage in efforts to deprive individuals of their civil rights. So that's a very comprehensive list. That means you can't be in any, basically in any kind of gang.

• 4:19Jocko Willink?

  Cause, cause you know, you're not allowed to use force or violence. That's what gangs do. You're not allowed to, the one that's really a catchall is deprive individuals of their civil rights. You know what that means? You committing crimes against anyone. So if you're part of a criminal gang, you're not allowed to be part of a criminal gang and you're not allowed to be part of any kind of a supremacist organization.

• 4:42Jocko Willink?

  And you're not allowed to do that in the American military and I'm sure it's the same in the British military and guess what? Yeah, good. We don't want people in the military that we have to serve with that are criminals or associated with criminal gangs or they're extremists or they're racist.

• 5:01Jocko Willink?

  So, good. Right on. Now, it might just be the wording of your question and I'm assuming that what you're talking about is more along the lines of sort of the cancel culture type situation that is going on in the world. And in some cases, people are being counseled or fired for things that are not wrong.

• 5:33Jocko Willink?

  And then that's different. So if, you know, the way the question is worded is like, oh, there's been a rise of right-wing views and if that's right-wing views, okay, but if it's right-wing extremist views or racist views, it's like, okay, well, yeah, you're not allowed to be in the military. You have the right to have those views, but you don't have the right to be in the military. Now, if it's like, oh, you have some conservative views and now people are getting counseled for it and that's what we're talking about, yeah, okay, I get it. Or if you're a super liberal person and you have some beliefs that are a little, a little bit outside what's normal and you're getting counseled for it, well, yeah, that's wrong.

• 6:13Jocko Willink?

  Now, most of, I would say, most of the cancel culture right now is aimed at conservative people. So, this is what's happening, not just in the military, but in the whole world right now. And here's the thing, I just did an unraveling podcast about, well, it's not directly about this, but it's about a, an event that is reflective, I would say. So Daryl Cooper and I just did a podcast about the witch hunts in Salem, Massachusetts and it's, it's not, I don't think it's out yet, he's still editing, but... There's also witch hunts throughout history and they, many of them have the same kind of,

• 6:57Jocko Willink?

  it's a similar arc of the story. So here's what happened in Salem. I mean, just you can listen to that podcast when it comes out, but the witch hunts in Salem were started by two little girls, one that was nine and one that was 12. And what they figured out is they could get people in serious trouble by accusing them of being witches, by accusing them of bewitching. So they would, they would act crazy and scream and yell and throw stuff around the room and then point at someone and say, "That person possessed me." And actually, the first person that they did it to

• 7:41Jocko Willink?

  was, was a slave that they had, this, this woman named, I think her name was Tituba. And they blamed her for their actions. And so she gets accused as a witch and, and little girls are like, who knows what they expected, but then all of a sudden they see that they have, what do they have? They have powerless little nine-year-old and 12-year-old girl, all of a sudden they have power. And then what happens? So it starts to expand. They start accusing other people. And by the way, and again, you can compare this to cancel culture, if you defend a witch, what are you? You're a witch too. You're a witch. No, you're a witch. Yeah, you're a witch. So then

• 8:20Jocko Willink?

  it spreads. And then what happens is that the only way to be safe from being accused as a witch, do you know how do you defend yourself? Accuse other people of being a witch. You can see where, you see where this is going? This is, this is where the term witch hunt comes from. So this, this runs wild and it becomes a mob mentality. And that's what happened in Salem. And, and hundreds of people were imprisoned, 20 people were executed, executed because of a nine-year-old and a 12-year-old. And actually, what's, what's crazy is other little girls got in on the act.

• 9:03Jocko Willink?

  Other little girls got in on the act and this is what you have to remember about mobs. Mobs are very destructive, but they end up destroying themselves. So they're like this, this burning fire that they, they will burn themselves out. And that's what happened in Salem. The, the accusations kept going. And eventually they started accusing people that were either of a little bit more of more, uh, social power. Cause let, let's face it, when they accused Tituba the slave, no one really cared. Right. But then they started accusing non-slaves and then they started accusing, they, they went up the social hierarchy.

• 9:45Jocko Willink?

  And eventually they got to a point where they were accusing people and they said, and we're not listening to you. So they literally just started, oh, shut up. Like where they started ignoring the girls and the girls, now that they weren't getting the attention anymore, guess what they did? They stopped doing it.

• 10:00Jocko Willink?

  They stopped doing it. And then everything settled down and that was it. And it was kind of, it just kind of ended. It just kind of happened and ended. Now it's scary because there was some serious damage, you know, people were executed, but it ran its course and that was that. Now, I would love to give you some advice. Some, you know, super hyper aggressive advice about stand your ground and you gotta do this. But, but look, there's a mob happening. There's a mob happening. And when there's a mob happening, the, you, you have to recognize and understand that the mob is going to destroy itself. If you get wrapped up in the mob, you're, you could get destroyed too.

• 10:45Jocko Willink?

  So that is a little excerpt of what we are doing on the Jocko Underground Podcast. So if you want to continue to listen. Go to JacoUnderground.com and subscribe and we're doing this, we're doing this to mitigate our reliance on external platforms. So we are not subject to their control and we are doing this so that we can support the Jocko Podcast, which will remain as is free for all, as long as we can keep it that way. But we, but we are doing this so we don't have to be under the control of sponsors and we're doing it so we can give you more

• 11:26Jocko Willink?

  control, more interaction, more direct connections, better communications with us. And to do that, we are, we're building a website right now where we'll be able to utilize to strengthen this legion of troopers that are in the game with us. So, thank you. It's JacoUnderground.com. It costs $8.18 a month. And if you can't afford to support us, we can still support you. Just email [email protected] and we'll get you taken care of. Until then, we will see you mobilized underground.