
The Dharma Diaries
Welcome to The Dharma Diaries—the podcast where we find the humor in humanity’s awakening. Hosted by Christina Rusca, this laid-back, ad-free pod takes a playful approach to unraveling societal conditioning and expectations so we can become the most authentic versions of ourselves. No topic is off-limits, and no belief is sacred as we navigate the complexities of spiritual evolution in a refreshingly lighthearted and straightforward way.
The Dharma Diaries is a quirky blend of unrestrained narratives, anecdotes, and insights that challenge the status quo. If you're ready to question everything, laugh at the absurdities of life as well as at yourself, and enjoy some company on your path of spiritual awakening, welcome—you've found the spot.
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About Christina: www.christinarusca.com
https://christinarusca.as.me
Cover Art: Justin Wutzke, Graphic Artist
www.Wutzpossible.com
Music: DeLaurentis
Pavane – Time Variation
Disclaimer: All content is for entertainment purposes only. This podcast is not intended to provide medical, legal, or professional advice. Basically, don’t make major life decisions based on something I said into a microphone. Consult an actual expert for that.
The Dharma Diaries
Wisconsin Wall Street | Season 2 Episode 20
Romancing creativity. Nurturing ideas. Unsubscribing from capitalism. Recognizing the victim-villain-savior drama triangle. Navigating escalators. Glamping. Oscillating fans. Christina rambles about the mortgage industry and eventually arrives at a point. Summer talks about her super cool and iconic/deeply sad living situation and how it’s all about perspective and holding paradox.
www.thedharmadiaries.com
JOIN US ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/TheDharmaDiariesPodcast
About Christina: www.christinarusca.com
https://christinarusca.as.me
About Summer: https://linktr.ee/The.Summer.Channel
https://www.tiktok.com/@the.summer.channel
Cover Art: Justin Wutzke, Graphic Artist
www.Wutzpossible.com
Music: DeLaurentis
Pavane – Time Variation
www.thedharmadiaries.com
About Christina:
www.christinarusca.com
https://christinarusca.as.me
Christina@ChristinaRusca.com
Cover Art: Justin Wutzke, Graphic Artist
www.Wutzpossible.com
Music: DeLaurentis
Pavane – Time Variation
(upbeat music) - Welcome back to the Dharma Diaries.
- Hey guys. - Been a minute. - So I don't know how it's working out for y 'all, but I feel like this whole taking the the constraints off of ourselves and just doing what we want when we feel like it has really like bumped our up our Our moods our art are yeah our idea factory brains.
You know what I mean? Absolutely. Yeah I really do feel like taking all the restrictions off has helped us It's like taking the vice grip off of your creativity.
- Yeah. - Because when you start, because when you go towards anything, like creativity especially, and I've been, lots of people know about this. Everybody knows about everything that we talk about, by the way. Nothing that we say is new at all.
We're not experts, but it's like you almost have to romance your creativity. It's not you, it's another entity. It's presenting itself to you.
- Yeah. it's like, hey, I see you. You could translate me into the world and then and then we go, oh, cool, but like, uh, I'm scared and I don't believe that I can do it or whatever.
And we have this whole debate with that energy, that creativity, and that puts a fucking biscript around it. And then it's like, you're not fun. I'm going to move on to the next one because it reminds me of like how the whole thing with the pulling the ideas down.
It's a. a dance. Yeah, and I when when it feels really hard or when it feels like it when you Like it doesn't want you to place importance on it And then when I do place importance on it like it kind of dances out of your grasp and then it reminds me of like Giving a hamster to a three -year -old.
You know what I mean? Like then and you just you just crush it accidentally Accidentally because you love it so much. You really wanted to be what you wanted to be and then you just put all your Shit on it and it just disintegrates.
You know, it's like Everything is like that though. Yeah, that's what our what we do in relationships We get into relationships and we get we're attracted to that person's light and then we like try to make them fit into our Mold yeah,
because of course we do because we have a way that we want to live our lives And we like this new element, but it's like can you you know, can you contort yourself? Can you fit is that within your parameters to like?
To fit into my life. Well, it's the same thing with our creativity When we we try to negotiate with it. Mm -hmm. Oh, I freaking hate this part too because I can't tell you how many great ideas I've had that that I've been like,
oh, that's great, but that requires like full frontal nudity. And I'm not there yet, guys, and I appreciate you bringing me this idea and I,
you know, more power to you. And that's probably not me. Check the next house over, right? Yeah, it's like that kind of thing. Yeah. Well, and like, whenever we are talking about like cool things that we want to do.
I feel like part of the the well, I can only speak for myself But this is probably YouTube because we we do all this together What happens is like you get a really cool idea like a little nugget,
you know, and you're like, ah, that's cool but then I start Playing that tape so far forward that I'm like well,
that's not gonna work because this and this and this and this and then we're gonna have to do this and then we would you know we're and instead of just like nurturing the idea sitting with the idea just allowing it to sort of permeate us and be like you know like oh yeah that's that feels cool that feels true that feels exciting we or I immediately start to like try to jam it into the 3d And it's like we're
shifting. And so these ideas that are coming through aren't gonna fit in the 3D. So I'm gonna kill every one of them, trying to make them fit into something that we're leaving.
And that's where I keep stumbling is not just giving it space and time to just kind of unfurl.
unfurl you know it's like trying to get a flower to bloom faster like that bitch gone bloom when she's ready right you know and so it's fine to have an entire vase full of you know buds yeah there's actually a term called a bud vase probably for that I mean but like it's fine to have like a bud vase yes our bunches of different bud vases with all these little ideas Yeah,
and just keep Caring for those and watering those. Yeah, as opposed to like try to pick the damn pedals open You know what I mean? Like why I keep looking at pedals open girl and like pawing at them.
Yes I mean like when we think I'll be when are you gonna open? Yeah, can it be today? I know because that was what um, I mean you and I have been talking offline about Like my my realization that this whole,
I don't think of myself as a victim. Like I don't think that I'm victimized. I don't see myself that way. However, when I really started to think about the kind of victim villain savior paradigm that so many of us have been talking about,
struggle with because we were brought up that way. Like it was, we were brought up thinking, you know, that someone else is gonna come save you, someone else,
some leader, some guru, whatever. And it's so funny to like find your conditioning that way. You know, like when I'm considering all these things and I'm like,
yeah. still, even though I am like, you are a, you know, this is a closed circuit type system.
You came here with everything you need. Nothing outside of you is going to save you. I still am like,
maybe someone will come in, you know, fix it. our, our capitalism problem. Yeah. So maybe someone will come and fix our,
you know, flailing economy and shore it up or whatever. And it's like, no, like all of that stuff is dying because it's meant to be dying. And I just,
that is my biggest struggle right now is like. I feel like I have a foot in each world. And it's like,
you know, it's like whenever, like I'm afraid to step, like I know I don't want to step into the, just firmly into the 3D because I will die, which we've talked about.
Like I can't, I cannot operate in that, that's strict. confined way of being anymore.
- Yeah. - But then I'm also afraid to just like completely throw caution to the wind and be like, you know, I'm just gonna like go all in on this because it feels like I also will die. So I feel like as I'm straddling this like chasm,
I feel like Buddy on Elf, where he's trying to ride the escalator, you know, and he like puts a foot up there, and then he just, like does a split all the way up. I've probably used this before because it occurs to me a lot where it's just like,
I can't, I don't know what to do. Like I'm going to just rip myself in half trying to be in both places and you know, because and it's fear, it goes back to fear,
you know? Yeah. So, yeah, and that's, that's what we're all trying to navigate. navigate From different perspectives on the escalator.
Yeah, you know what I mean? Yeah, like I don't know I love that that image is really helpful to me. I can I see myself sort of like, you know, the how the alternating Thing would go down like you couldn't hold put hold on to the side because it was going right it was pulling it down Yeah,
I feel like I'm like Half my half my body is draped on the side side of the thing like if I can just hold this thing But it's dragging me back and yeah feet on the I'm upside down by the way I did fall backwards on an escalator at Hammond Square Mall Oh Lord 12 so I do have this real experience of what this energetically.
Yeah feels like Yeah, you're Wipe out on this escalator And I'm so now I understand autistic back then I just thought awkward and I love just stood up and like kept walking like nothing happened.
I think I was bloodied and everything. I feel like that's what you have to do. Well, what else are you going to do? Yeah, everybody's laughing anyway. So and I'll exit the scene now. Yeah. But yeah,
like I so I feel like the, you know, I did a crazy thing and I've talked about it before, but like I did a crazy thing. when I had recognition and awareness around the fact that I was so heavily conditioned to behave in a certain way and that it was not true to me,
and I really kind of, I mean, it was part of the awakening journey. You know, I was like, I can't. can't do this job anymore than I'm doing and And then like we've talked about too like Getting the confirmation from the universe that like doesn't really matter because the whole industry Fell to pieces,
you know, I mean and people are still in it Obviously and people are still successful and that's great and I'm not trying to take anything away from those people but I But it really got super hard right after I left.
And so that felt to me like confirmation, like, well, this thing is ending. You just walked out the door before it, you know, started to completely crumble into the sea.
Um, but it was, I feel like not.
not, it was not in keeping with my values and when I look at how many years I spent trying to make this mortgage origination job a good thing,
you know, like trying to convince myself that I was helping people and that I was taking care of people and that I was helping people reach their, you know, realize their dreams and and,
you know, my whole, like my tagline was I financed the American dream. You know, all of that. And again, like this is the world we live in. Like people get mortgages. Like nobody has,
you know, 500 grand to plunk down on a home. - Right. - But like, I would like to talk about now that I have a little distance, like why? You know what I mean?
Like why are we taking 30 years to pay for a roof over? our heads? Yeah, and why Are people benefiting to the extent that you know when you buy your you know 250 ,000 275 thousand dollar house you're gonna end up paying Three times that at the end of that 30 years.
Do you know what I mean? Yeah, like knowing that what I was doing Even though it's perfectly legal and even though it's the way that this country is so up.
It still felt like Running a scam on people a lot of the time not Just like whenever I would whenever I would have any like space or time to think about it Which was rare so it makes sense that I did this for 20 years Yeah,
you know because it's like I didn't ever have like down time and stuff because it's such a Oh all hands on deck all the time kind of industry. But like I was thinking about this the other day.
How I really wish like TicToc had been around or like reels or whatever, like some sort of information sharing that was yeah, more accessible to us back in the day.
Because you know like we're the analog kids that that then just like that then worked our way into digital. But like, yeah, and like we didn't have the internet, you know, like we do now,
like it was, you know, hard to access and you got kicked off constantly. And yeah, you know, you didn't it's like not like all your friends were there, like it was just little pockets of people.
And it wasn't like it is now where it's literally a worldwide web and we all can get in touch with each other. But like I remember remember talking about to people about when 2008 happened when you know the housing crash and it's like okay well if they had bought if anybody had bothered to talk to the people who were actually like processing these loans we all knew that that it was coming like we all knew that it
was unsustainable and that that the bottom was gonna fall out at some point because the way it was going was like, oh, and I don't wanna do a bunch of mortgage technical shit 'cause nobody cares about that,
I'm aware. But like, you know, like a loan officer, this is a true story, like this actually happened. A loan officer comes to my desk after she gets back from lunch and cocktails or whatever and hands me a napkin with a name,
a date of birth. a phone number, and a social security number scrawled on it. Y 'all. And it's like, oh, I got an application at lunch. First of all, bitch, no, you didn't.
Okay. That's not it. But anyway, that was how we were treated back then. It's just like, and I'm sure that that still happens to this day. You know, like, it's like, you know, yeah, let me give this to my little underling and they can do all my work because I'm,
I'm an important person. Like you were talking about. the other day, how crazy it was when you moved back here and you're like, why are mortgage lenders on a billboard? - Yeah, I was like, dude. - Like there's some celebrities or something.
And I mean, and full disclosure, like my ass has been up on a billboard, well, my face. - Not my ass. - When that idea came to you,
you said you won't have to check with a girl next door. - Yes. - Not on that one. - 'Cause I ain't, yeah. 'Cause I wasn't ready for full frontal either. - Not full frontal either. thank you. - But like, I've been on a billboard, I've sponsored events,
I've, you know, like, I mean, it's like, I've been on TV, you know, like all of that shit. And anyway, so I put this application together, not my job,
but I did it 'cause that's, you know, what we did back then. And so I collect all of this, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
buyers financial information, bank statements and tax returns and W2s and all of that stuff. And it's like, this person's trying to buy a second home in Florida and I can't even see on paper how he's affording his first home.
And so, and you know, I mean, the guy's like a janitor or whatever. And I mean, no shade, like, whatever. Yeah. Anyway, he just doesn't qualify. Right. So I tell this loan officer,
you know, hey, this isn't going to work. His debt to income ratio is like, you know, 89 % or some crazy shit with a second home at an end. And she was like, she's like,
Oh, well, what's his credit score? You know, and it was like, not great, you know, like 572 or something. Yeah. And then she's like, Oh, okay, well, we'll just take him no income, no add. Meaning-- - Explain what that means,
yeah. - Meaning you put all of the information on the mortgage application, you just don't put anything for the income and you don't put anything for the assets.
And that way, when the underwriter underwrites it, she's basically just underwriting the property and the credit score, right? 'Cause you don't have any income or assets on there. - Wow. - Yeah.
So, I mean, can you imagine that today? That's crazy, right? Well, it was fucking crazy then, too, because basically people who, you know, and that was the other thing, too, like these,
these programs initially were created for people who were not. Like they weren't showing all their income.
They had the income. They just weren't showing it. They said people like, I don't know exactly. They said people like doctors and attorneys and stuff because they write off so much of their expenses.
And then because of the way that the mortgage industry was, like you can't add all of those back, but they are depreciating office equipment and stuff like that. So it's just, I think it was like a shortcut 'cause it's like,
okay. okay, we know these guys have money, you know, they have like four or five practices in six different counties or whatever. - Yeah. - You know, like we know that they're good for it.
- Right. - We just need to figure out a way to make it okay on paper. That's how they, that's what they were conceptualized to be. And then what happened was all of the, like the loan officers learned about these products and then it was just like,
well, why are they just for doctors and lawyers? And so what they would do was change people's like, try to just be stealthy a little bit about people's employment.
- Dude. - So like this guy was a janitor for like a local school. I think he worked at two different schools, but he was a janitor. - Yeah. - And so. so she rebranded him,
you know, like a waste engineer or something like that. No fucking way. And yeah, and then just had no income, no asset. And so it's like, and I'm saying as the processor, I'm like,
yeah, I get what you're saying. Like, I understand how to structure an application too. I mean, I'm doing your job for you 80 % of the time. Let's be honest. However, like the issue here is that this man cannot afford this home.
home. And part of my job, everybody's job, who's in mortgage, allegedly, clearly this isn't the case, so the whole shit wouldn't have burned to the ground, right? But we're all supposed to be looking at risk and protecting the lender,
right? 'Cause we all work for the lender. So I'm like, okay, well, this guy's not gonna be able to pay for this, obviously. And then she's like, oh yeah, but his uncle Frank is moving on. in with him from Texas or whatever and he's gonna stay there.
And it's like, it's just a bunch of bullshit. - It's just a bunch of bullshit. - And then they're, you know, so it's like they're closing all these, so those of us who were like in the trenches like processing all these loans are like,
this is all bad paper. Like this is all shit. You know, it's not worth the paper it's written on. It's lying.
You're like, it's all lies And so then whenever the whole like thing burned down and was like this massive, you know Like bank bailouts and mortgage companies going out of business and these mass layoffs and people's homes being foreclosed and you know All this stuff.
It's like well if you'd have asked anybody like who was boots on the ground at that time Anybody could have told you like well. Yeah, this isn't this is not this isn't sustainable like we can't just everybody shouldn't have to and three and four houses and not have any way to pay for them.
But it also illustrates to me how, you know, that benefited the wealthy, the people who were, you know, stroking the checks. It's like if they wanted to make home ownership,
make a path of two home ownership available to just the general public. they absolutely could. We already have that ability. It's just that,
but no, because we have to fleece people and charge them 75 % more than what their home costs over the course of 30 years, that's what we do.
And so that's, I know that I might sound like like some kind of hippie weirdo at this point, but it's like, I don't want to be a part of that.
And it isn't even, I don't want to be a part of mortgage. Obviously, that's not hard. I just friggin rolled out. It's that I don't want to be a part of this toxic parasitic,
like draining people's life essence to keep them. the machine going. Like they're plugging into us 'cause we're the power source,
but like we're almost, you know, if we was an iPhone battery, we would be at 3%. - Oh man, that's the truth. - And so it's like, how are we gonna recharge?
Like how are we gonna get, 'cause we're not, it's not like reciprocal, like we're not recharging from the system. The system is only using us as battery power. (upbeat music) So where do we go to recharge?
And I think we go to each other and I think we go to nature and I think we start having these conversations that again,
seem like I'm some sort of socialist, hippie, crazy nut job, but it's really like, well, okay, but we all got here on this earth that was so beautifully designed to support our life experience while we lived here.
But then certain people started co -opting raw materials or whatever and saying that in land and saying like, "Well, this is mine, this is ours,
"like we're gonna take this and we're gonna divide the earth "up into different land masses and each system, "each government is gonna own however big a piece "we see." stake our claim to or whatever.
And then we're going to fight wars about whose land is what. And in the meantime, like, we're going to also take. The raw materials that the earth provides,
and we're going to. Lay claim to those. And then we're going to sell them back to these people. And we're also going to charge them taxes to live here. It's just like fucking gross.
It's gross. gross. - You know, it's gross. And I'm like, I don't wanna be a part of that at all. I don't wanna be a part of that system. But also, I do want to do things like sleep in a bed and eat food,
you know what I mean? - I do. - It's just this circular argument where it's like, okay, but I don't wanna participate in that, but there's no way for me to live without participating in that.
And I do wanna live. live But not if it means participating in that so it's just like I feel like I'm just I just keeps You know swirling around this same fucking argument well over and over and over again Maybe when you get next time to the part where you can't live unless you're a part of this system When that thought starts to come up That's where I've found some room to negotiate with myself on this because
it's like, is that really true? Because what you really need is shelter and food and water. Okay? Yeah. Like, let's just strip it all away.
And oxygen and sex, no. Right. Right. Nobody needs to help me out with the sex part. I got it. I got it. Self -sufficient.
-sufficient. (laughing) - Yeah, I'm not taking any application. - No applications, do not call us. But-- - I really was just trying to set you up to say don't call me,
so yeah, you did it. - Don't call me. (laughing) Thank you. So, I've had that, you know, I've been doing that battle myself with myself about this because right now I've made a lot of dramatic choices.
We talked about this yesterday where-- where, 'cause we talk like 97 hours a day. - Yeah, yeah. - And so it's like-- - It's my favorite. - In one of the 97 hours where the conversations we were having, we were breaking down how mindset,
like use my life as an example of how different one little mindset shift can make on how you view your life and what your narrative structure is for your life because I live in a shed behind my sister's house.
and that could either be super cool and iconic. Yeah, or like deeply sad. But I mean,
yes, I do. And it's both. And yeah, that is true. It's a holding paradox. It's both. But I'm also like so the way where I live with it is in the iconic and awesome part because I really do enjoy a small space.
It's my autonomy. I love how it forces me. me, you know, like I don't have a bathroom. So I have to go into the main house to say main house, like it's not a thousand square feet into the into the house to use the bathroom and have to share that space with my sister.
And it just is the mechanism through which I get to experience life. Because if I was, honestly, I can see how easy it would be for me to just have one of those reclining chairs.
that was like had a toilet in it and like you just, you know, like for mediocrity. Yeah. Yeah. Like I can see how easy and seductive it would be to just like completely let myself upload my brain to,
you know, to the cloud. Yeah. And and let the the systems that be take whatever they need for me. As long as I'm comfortable,
as long as I don't need, you know, like all of that. I get it. I get it. I'm like I battle with addictions on different fronts Constantly, you know, right now. I'm like in a major head -to -head with my sugar demon my sugar dragon Who is like at peak capacity right now?
I'm like starting to weenim. Yeah, like I know and you said yesterday like I think I'm gonna cut back on caffeine like maybe not four or five. Yeah, caffeinated beverages the day I know I'm like maybe two and this is how I work with myself because I know if I just I've done all of the OK,
that's it, ultimatums with myself. I've done all of the cold turkeys. I don't have those available anymore. So now I have to really work with my own inner state, like I'm working with a recalcitrant child,
honestly, and be like, OK, like I kind of coax myself into doing these things. So anyway, back to the conversation about what do we need and can we have to we have to participate in that system in order to survive it it's like our favorite content creator jessa reid she's starting to do follow her on tiktok if you aren't already for sure she's doing micro dosing anarchy micro dosing anarchy and i'm for it i'm here
for it this is a micro dosing anarchy moment because what it is is looking at that experience that narrative that we have all have, that conditioning that we cannot survive unless we participate in the system,
which keeps us locked in. So if we take that one thought, and we start to micro dose anarchy on that, and go, is that true? Really? Like, do I enjoy myself whenever I go camping,
for example, and I'm, and I'm, you know, maybe not everyone is like a, we might be glampers, you know, I mean, but that's a small space. Like you and I, we went camping at, where was it? - Get away, get away in Homichita National Forest.
It was a little bit of, I don't know, my gosh, it was precious, y 'all. - It was precious. - We had a great time. I mean, I got food poisoning and almost died, and then Summer tried to kill me by cranking that heat up as far as it would go, and I thought I had fever,
but I was just in this little hot box. - I didn't realize. - And that's when we discovered Summer's not really nursing material. - Well, neither one of us really. - She was like, oh, you sick, I'm a turnist, I'm a crank this heat up to 85 degrees and leave you.
"I hope it works out for you." No, it was hilarious, it was so funny. But yeah, that was, and I am more of a glamper than I camper. And I think about that too, like, I fuck myself up constantly 'cause I'm like,
"Well, if the shit hits the fan, "I mean, other than this bag of rice in a fireplace, "I don't know what I would do." Like, I have no, I don't grow things. Like, it would be cool too,
but you know what I mean? Like, I guess I would just, sit in this recliner with the toilet. Yeah, maybe. No, but seriously, that's an option. Yeah.
And, you know, all things, you know, we're, we're a part of one big ball of consciousness that's experiencing itself, right? So somewhere we're sitting on our very own recliner with a toilet seat attached to it,
and we're having a great fucking time. So I don't want to discount that life, right? Yeah, yeah. We don't seem to be on that trajectory right now. So what I'm suggesting is like, if we're going to microdose this anarchic concept of we need to,
in order to survive, we need these things, like, let's take the example of glamping for, you know, as, as a perfect way to, to take that argument down, because what is glamping really,
but shelter, water, running water, right, and like, basic facilities. facilities to cook your food and refrigerate your food. That's not too much to ask from the earth. The earth has has ways to provide that to us that are not directly connected to parasitic systems.
Yeah, there just are like you could make a root cellar you can get a solar oven you can like like literally there are well known decades old probably centuries old definitely in many cases centuries old technologies that we have.
literally been trained, not or been taught not, not to look at. Yeah. And not to investigate or to discount because we have these all these new technologies.
Yeah. And I'm not I think solar and like, yeah. And like, I really, I don't, I mean, again, I mean, I don't mean to sound like a spoiled brat because I mean, I do enjoy things like having a car to drive and having my iPhone and,
you know, all that stuff. And so it's like, I just don't. feel like I should have to trade my life force to get it. Right. No, that's right. I don't think I should have to toil away for some corporate fucking monolith to have a good experience here in this life.
And that's what I'm like, divesting from, detaching from. And I think that that's where the scariness is coming from, because it's like, OK, well. Well, there.
they're, you know, like, it's not like there's something else to jump onto, but there is. I just, I still have conditioning there.
So it's that tunnel vision where it's like-- - It's obscured. - 'Cause like we were talking about where when you do manage to like divest from this conditioning and this programming and you take the time I'm just like,
okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, well, I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, I'm just like, okay, well, question and like, "Oh no, this is just a construct. "This is just conditioning and everything." It's like
more options than become available to you and then they just multiply. So like in this strict paradigm that we live in, it's like you have, you know,
three options or four options to choose from. And if they're all equally shitty, you're just like, "Well, I guess I'm just fucked." Then, you know, but then if you can say like, "Okay, but I don't have a choice." to do things this way because this is just a construct,
you know, money is just a construct, all of this is just made up. And so then you have access to like hundreds of options because all this shit is made up and you can just do whatever.
- Exactly. - Yeah. - It's so when you're impossible to see /remember that when you're in the, when you're operating. with it. Yeah, like I had a job interview this morning and I Like I liked the people,
you know, if I get offered the job I'll probably take it but there was a period after the interview where like I was corresponding with you and I was like I really don't want this job. Yeah, because Because I don't want to get that tunnel vision again I don't want to forget what my goal is here because that is the slippery slope And I don't want to forget what my goal is.
that's what makes it so difficult and that's why I feel so out of sorts trying to straddle like we talked about in the beginning because it's like it's so easy to get sucked back in where you're just like this is just the fucking way things are you know and it it sucks but you know like I'm one person like what the fuck am I gonna do whereas when you're getting free of it and you're and you're walking that path,
you're you're more like, yeah, no, like I am one person, but I am an autonomous sovereign being with a spark of divinity. So like I can do mad cool shit.
Yep. I don't need that bullshit, you know, right. So but then you just kind of flip flop back and forth. And so that's fucking fun. Yeah. Yeah. Ugh, yeah.
The oscillation being between that despair and all of this hope. - Yes, that is what it is. - Yeah. - Yeah,
and so like, and that's, I feel like that's how my days go. I am one of those little oscillating fans. - Yeah, dude. - And it's like, I am good and then I'm not good and then I'm good.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah. - But I think that's beautiful. I mean, that's something, that's information, it's knowledge about yourself you probably didn't have. I didn't know I had those kinds of,
that's why meditation is kind of cool. Not like it's the end all be all. Like you don't wanna be a meditator at the end of your life. You wanna have, you know, be a fully realized and actualized whoever you are.
But meditation will show you who those are. Yeah, I'll give you clarity around it, which is how you figure out what is conditioning, what isn't. Mm hmm. Oh, and it's crazy. Like, I feel like I catch it much sooner now than I ever used to.
I'll just be having a thought and then I'll just be like, no, that's not. That's not a requirement, actually, because that's someone else's made up bullshit rule.
You don't, you know, you don't. have to subscribe to that way of thinking for sure. Because that's somebody else's made up bullshit rule, you know, exactly. And that's why I think that it's so fun to create because it's like,
you know, when you and I sat down yesterday to work on our application for like a um, a like kind of like business incubator kind of thing that we weren't interested in.
It's like, and it was so fun and it, and it's so cool and it's going to be so cool. But we had the, I mean, I had the thought like I'm trying to like package it.
And then I recognize like, okay, but like really what I want to tell these people and what I think we should say from jump and what we're after discussing, we're going to say from jump. is like, we're not trying to,
like if this is a thing where you give us some sort of a framework or a blueprint to build a business around the scaffolding that all of the other businesses of this type have been built around,
like that's not what we're trying to do. Like we're not trying to do, remake something that's already been made and just put our stamp on it. Like we're making something that isn't here yet.
- Yeah. And so if you have some like cool ass people who just want to think outside the box with us, who also have some business acumen, but understand like we're rewriting this,
we're not writing it in the style of, then like that's what we're looking to do. Because we don't want to be another fucking cookie cutter thing in capitalism.
- Exactly, because all... these little, these entrepreneurial businesses end up doing to be called successes, mind you, is to fucking build it up to a position where it gets bought and consolidated.
And it's like, how is that what we consider success now? Like, we don't, all we care about is just getting paid out from a thing. And I'm not saying I am not subject to this.
We talk about it because we, like with the podcast, you know, we don't do, ads specifically because we don't want to violate this, this sacred space that we've created with the people who are listening here.
Yeah. And I personally find ads so abhorrent and like so abhorrifying. And like people are fast forwarding through those things anyway. So like what is the fucking point?
Well, the point is they don't care because it's like if you hear one little tiny 10 seconds or five seconds of it, it still hits you. your subconscious and it starts to fuck on you. And that's they understand psychology.
Yeah. So they don't care. It's just like any little chance they can get into like get a fucking knife of an idea behind your veil or your filter. Yeah. I'm opposed to that.
And I just think it's interesting that at least from this perspective, what looks like success on the landscape of capitalism is to sell out.
- Yeah. - To sell out to a big corporation that's going to run it into the ground. Do you remember back like Richard Geer, pretty woman where he was like kind of the bad guy 'cause he would come in like a hostile takeover.
- Yes, and gut. - Like a corporate raider. - Corporate raider, that's who's in charge, y 'all. - And has been the whole time. - And has been the whole time it's just been more and more like dirty raiders.
like people who with less and less consideration. - Because I think that they used to have some sense of, or maybe they didn't and it just took this period of time for it to all fucking,
you know, come-- - For it to cannibalize itself. - Right, because it's like, I feel like used to be, at least, yeah, you weren't having lavish vacations on your fucking yacht or whatever as a middle -class American.
Right, but you also were you know, you could afford to live Yeah, and you could afford to retire at some point and then enjoy the rest of your life Whatever it was left of it or whatever and then it's just like more hours and the concept of overtime And you know like oh we have this five -day work week like who the fuck came up with that?
The people who need us to work all the fucking time came up with that Yeah, none of us were like I love my job so much. I just want do it five days a week, eight hours a day." That's bullshit. - That was after a battle,
by the way, because wasn't it the ACLU or one of the unions that even got us frickin' two days off a week? - Yeah. - We should be going down to three days of work a week,
four days off, that would be better. - It's just, it's so disgusting that it's like this whole, all of the,
we already have if if we even believe in money at all which I mean I don't but say you do say you're like money makes the world go round or whatever the fuck and that's that's something that you subscribe to like there's plenty of money right there's plenty it's just all blood clotted up at the top yep you know what I mean like it's not if money is currency currency flows current is the root word of currency.
So it flows, and so like the money isn't flowing. - You even said like-- - But we're constantly, yeah, but we're constantly like talking about, you know, like, oh, we need more, more, more, more, more, more, more,
more, and no we don't, we have plenty, we just have some assholes at the fucking top of the pyramid who are just keeping it for what? For what, are you, I just wanna ask those people like,
are you, do you use it to light your fire? fires? Are you burning it? Right? Do you like bathe in it? Like what are you doing with all of that? Like what do you think's gonna? What do you think it's gonna get you?
I know you know like it is so gross it's just so gross because it's like people are suffering and and then it's like Taken that it's taken it even further.
It's like. Oh, we we monetize and and pedestalize certain career choices or certain things that people do.
And it's like just everything is cool as fuck. Everything is cool as fuck. And those types of things, what career you choose and what behaviors you choose to do over and over and over again to me should not mean that you get more things.
It's just like, oh, you're really enjoying what you were. passion project is. You know, like, I don't know why we started saying competition,
I guess, I don't know. That's the thing that's so crazy to me is that like, everything feels so dumb. Like, the rules are so stupid and I'm just like,
maybe all we, arbitrary, like maybe all we need to do is all, all. and be like, well, that's dumb. Like I'm just not gonna do that. That is arbitrary. And like, I'm not gonna. - Right.
- I'm not gonna do that. - I'm not gonna participate. - I think that we just have to like unsubscribe. And it feels really fucking scary out here because I'm like,
I'm unsubscribing, but like that means I could die because the world is still what it is. Do you know what I mean? - Yeah. - Yeah. - And so it's like, when larger portions of us,
of the population who are being taken advantage of basically and farmed for our output and treated like servants or whatever, slaves. - Worse than indentured servitude.
- Then maybe that's whenever it all breaks down because maybe we just say-- - It's like I feel like a tipping point. - Yeah, like maybe we just are like, well, we're not gonna do the money thing anymore. We're like money. dumb.
And so we're just gonna barter. And then when we do that, maybe that's when, you know, like you can have, you can have your billions and billions of dollars.
Like what the fuck you wanna do with them? - Right, exactly. - 'Cause we don't want it anymore 'cause we figured out how to like, you know, oh yeah, like I can give you shelter and you give me food or I give you food and you give me,
you know, like art. What art? Whatever the fuck it is, do you know what I mean? And then maybe we just, maybe that's the whole hack. Maybe it's just enough of us to do that and then the billionaires can just, they can go ahead and burn their money for warmth and sleep in it and kiss it and make love to it.
- All of that, all of it. And I'll go even further to say, I think we could all stand to do far less than we're doing. I think the answer is gonna be us going forward.
like, we're done, our bodies are done. That was my situation is I just, my straight up got burned out. - Yeah. - And I literally cannot engage in that level of stress without sending myself into a physical illness.
- No, and you just tried to do it. - Just to circle back and see if that was still the case and it is. - And it is still the case. - You like really went like, you got-- - I got all spun up.
- Yeah, and then it started to, to it started to it started to take me down. Yeah, you started to have like physical. Yeah, symptoms. Yeah. Of burnout. And that's because we have worked like we got the fucking memo.
Yep. And we went forth to conquer the fucking corporate landscape and we both did it. Yeah. Like we're talking about we are mid forties.
Um, we have made the six figure. figures, we have drunk the wine, we have driven the fucking BMWs, we have bought the houses, like we did the damn thing and then we're like,
"Where damn, this is not at all the pinnacle of success feeling that I expected. This is actually kind of depressing." - It's terrible.
- Yeah. - Yeah. - And I don't know if I don't, maybe we should get into this in like another episode, but I wonder too about how the split works, like with gender politics too,
because I had a boss whenever I was, like during the 2008 crisis, I worked in insurance, but I worked in the arm of the insurance company that managed the investments.
So it was like an investment firm. - Yeah. - I'd be like working for Wall Street. Street, but in Wisconsin. So I can't say Wall Street. Yeah. So my boss was like a senior VP managing the traders,
the day traders and we were right outside of the trading room whenever like the stocks crashed and they were like yelling and it was just crazy. Yeah. But I remember talking to him about career advice and at that time I was probably like late 20s.
And he said it's so funny because you work really hard in your early career and then the longer you're working, of course he's a white man, he was speaking from his place. He said,
you know, it's like you do less and less, but then like you just get paid more and more. And I was like, that sounds awesome. I'm gonna like look forward to that point in my career and it did not happen, except I will say there is some element of that that I think is true in my experience from the point of view of like,
you just, you. gain so much experience that you get shortcuts. You understand the shortcuts. You know how to maneuver. - Yeah. And I just feel like why isn't the,
why is the reward for that? More work. - More work. - Yeah. - For women. - Well, yeah, 'cause it's just like, I don't know, it just doesn't make any sense. Like if you're a CEO and you've done all these amazing things in your career,
so now you don't have to work hard in your career, so now you don't have to work hard. You just play golf and like make make millions of dollars. Like that seems fucking not a great plan.
No, you know, no, it's all built on this assumption that it will be that way. But that's not. Yeah, like true for most people. So yeah, I guess we can wrap up the this this podcast on the death of capitalism.
So yeah, yes, we're we hope that. that you feel really buoyed by this. Yeah. By this listen. And at least, you know, you're not the only one. Yeah. You're thinking these things.
Yeah. And, you know, we're still out here, some of these waters. We got to do what we got to do. But, you know, as much as we can. But we don't like it. I don't like it. And I'm trying to stay on my surfboard.
Y 'all, I mean, like this is the thing. Like if I am if this if in the victim villain, save your paradigm. that is falling apart and it doesn't matter like what part you play in that it's like we can we can all when we realize when we recognize our autonomy and our sovereignty like we can choose to get off the hamster wheel and that's what I'm saying is just like if enough of us do it and help each other out
like we are the leader that we're weight that we've been waiting for like to save us or whatever Like I remember like back in the Obama administration, it was like, he's gonna be the one, you know, he's gonna turn the ship around and,
you know, then he got into the office and it was a big fucking cluster and he had to bail out the banks and everything, which I still feel like is a mistake or was a mistake, but it's that sort of thing. Like we're not, we need to stop waiting on a CEO or a fucking politician or a federal judge or whatever the fuck to help us out.
Like we're just gonna have to take the reins and do it. because we're bad asses. - We are, and we can do it. - We can do it. - We can do it. - All right, well, we love y 'all, bye. - Love you, bye.