1 00:00:08,730 --> 00:00:10,590 Blair: Well, good afternoon and good evening, everyone. 2 00:00:10,660 --> 00:00:14,170 This is another episode of the Secular Foxhole podcast. 3 00:00:14,250 --> 00:00:16,080 It's actually episode 70. 4 00:00:16,450 --> 00:00:19,742 And today we're happy to have our friend 5 00:00:19,796 --> 00:00:22,250 Robert Begley is returned. 6 00:00:22,410 --> 00:00:24,750 Robert is a certified world class speaking 7 00:00:24,820 --> 00:00:29,894 coach, Och, who helps executives, entrepreneurs and thought leaders deliver more 8 00:00:29,932 --> 00:00:31,510 memorable messages. 9 00:00:32,010 --> 00:00:34,582 He has appeared on national television and 10 00:00:34,636 --> 00:00:39,606 spoken to an audience to audience acclaim across America, including Duke University 11 00:00:39,798 --> 00:00:43,430 Freer Future Fest and the Libre Institute. 12 00:00:43,590 --> 00:00:46,422 He also co hosted The Hero Show, a podcast 13 00:00:46,486 --> 00:00:48,758 that celebrates heroism. 14 00:00:48,934 --> 00:00:53,850 And Robert's here today to discuss a recent 15 00:00:53,930 --> 00:00:57,322 lecture he gave on Alexander Hamilton. 16 00:00:57,466 --> 00:00:59,754 The similarities between Alexander Hamilton 17 00:00:59,802 --> 00:01:04,798 and Ein Rand, but it's also a deeper thought or subject. 18 00:01:04,894 --> 00:01:06,260 Robert, how are you? 19 00:01:06,870 --> 00:01:08,766 Robert: I am fabulous, Blair. 20 00:01:08,878 --> 00:01:11,522 Thank you and Martin for having me on again. 21 00:01:11,656 --> 00:01:14,530 This is one of my very favorite topics. 22 00:01:14,870 --> 00:01:17,154 So let us jump in. 23 00:01:17,272 --> 00:01:17,714 Blair: All right. 24 00:01:17,752 --> 00:01:18,754 Martin: Dive in. 25 00:01:18,952 --> 00:01:20,690 And I will start Martin here. 26 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:27,382 And then not to give out everything because we want the listener to listen to the whole show, 27 00:01:27,436 --> 00:01:28,730 of course, and reflect. 28 00:01:29,070 --> 00:01:31,130 But why Hamilton? 29 00:01:31,630 --> 00:01:39,206 If you pick one of many and then, of course, the challenge to do a comparison with Rand. 30 00:01:39,398 --> 00:01:47,280 Robert: Yes. Well, one of the many things that I'm Rand, influenced me by. 31 00:01:47,650 --> 00:01:50,990 She has so much respect for America's founders. 32 00:01:51,410 --> 00:01:57,966 And one statement she makes is that America's founders were something that's somewhat 33 00:01:57,998 --> 00:02:03,870 unprecedented in history, where they are both thinkers and they're men of action. 34 00:02:03,950 --> 00:02:10,998 And that always appealed to me because in philosophy, we call this mind and body 35 00:02:11,084 --> 00:02:15,974 integration and thought and action should be together. 36 00:02:16,172 --> 00:02:22,054 And the founders, during the Enlightenment era, there was such an upheaval of ideas 37 00:02:22,102 --> 00:02:28,138 taking place, and this idea of liberty finally was coming to being for the first time in 38 00:02:28,224 --> 00:02:30,910 history on the scale that had never existed. 39 00:02:31,970 --> 00:02:33,706 And that always childhood. 40 00:02:33,818 --> 00:02:38,878 From my own childhood as an American, that always appealed to me. 41 00:02:38,964 --> 00:02:44,866 On a personal note, it was more the George Washington type of hero that stood head and 42 00:02:44,888 --> 00:02:50,322 shoulders for me, his leadership style, but the thinker side. 43 00:02:50,456 --> 00:02:56,574 Okay, like, who are the ones who wrote these documents and these lasting founding 44 00:02:56,622 --> 00:02:58,506 documents? Declaration of Independence. 45 00:02:58,638 --> 00:03:01,990 Martin: And even under a pen name, we will come back to that, right? 46 00:03:02,060 --> 00:03:11,130 Robert: Yes. What was their stature? And so for me, for much of my adult life, 47 00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:12,778 thomas Jefferson was the man. 48 00:03:12,864 --> 00:03:15,414 Declaration of Independence was the document. 49 00:03:15,542 --> 00:03:22,622 Life, Liberty, and pursuit of happiness to me, is still one of the most long lasting and 50 00:03:22,676 --> 00:03:28,666 expressive phrases in the English language and probably in world language. 51 00:03:28,778 --> 00:03:30,734 So Jefferson was a guy for you. 52 00:03:30,772 --> 00:03:33,630 Martin: Even have a paperweight now I interrupt you, Blair. 53 00:03:34,290 --> 00:03:39,394 Robert: Robert, I have a paperweight that I show in my presentation, which I bought in 54 00:03:39,432 --> 00:03:43,154 Monticello and for the longest period of time. 55 00:03:43,192 --> 00:03:46,242 And this love of Jefferson was something that 56 00:03:46,296 --> 00:03:49,160 I felt I bonded with my mother over. 57 00:03:49,610 --> 00:03:52,342 And Hamilton was the opposite in so many ways, 58 00:03:52,396 --> 00:03:54,402 he was the opposite of Jefferson. 59 00:03:54,466 --> 00:03:57,494 So I just had this aversion to who's this guy 60 00:03:57,532 --> 00:04:05,494 who stands for kind of a strong government and some kind of central banking. 61 00:04:05,542 --> 00:04:08,250 I don't want the bank to have anything to do with the government. 62 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:16,190 I just had this kind of eerie discomfort with Hamilton for much of my life. 63 00:04:16,340 --> 00:04:21,902 But what happened over time, gentlemen, was that I lived in New York City my whole life, 64 00:04:21,956 --> 00:04:25,050 and I'd go into Central Park and I'd see a statue of Hamilton. 65 00:04:25,130 --> 00:04:26,782 I'd go to Columbia University. 66 00:04:26,846 --> 00:04:29,794 Another statue of Hamilton museum of the City 67 00:04:29,832 --> 00:04:30,498 of New York. 68 00:04:30,584 --> 00:04:33,298 Hamilton is right outside that place. 69 00:04:33,384 --> 00:04:41,394 And then up in what is Hamilton Heights, Harlem, his Grange, which had a fourth statue, 70 00:04:41,442 --> 00:04:47,254 and not even George Washington has four singular statues in Manhattan I can't even 71 00:04:47,292 --> 00:04:48,422 call New York City. 72 00:04:48,556 --> 00:04:51,226 So I thought, I have to read about this guy. 73 00:04:51,328 --> 00:04:56,790 I need to look at him, his personality, his character, his impact. 74 00:04:56,870 --> 00:05:00,800 And it jumped out of me that, wow, I got this guy wrong. 75 00:05:02,770 --> 00:05:08,698 And then the other thing that jumps out of me is the heroism of all of the Founders. 76 00:05:08,794 --> 00:05:13,378 Nobody traveled a farther distance to become self made. 77 00:05:13,464 --> 00:05:20,450 I mean, he's born in the Caribbean, in this dirt poor island where slavery is rampant and 78 00:05:20,600 --> 00:05:29,810 no one wants to during the global wars that are happening at this point in the mid 17 79 00:05:29,890 --> 00:05:35,974 hundreds, between France and Britain and the Dutch and the Spanish, the Caribbean was 80 00:05:36,012 --> 00:05:44,346 incredibly important because of the sugar and molasses and different products coming out of 81 00:05:44,368 --> 00:05:44,746 there. 82 00:05:44,848 --> 00:05:47,706 And this is what Hamilton was born into, this 83 00:05:47,728 --> 00:05:48,822 kind of background. 84 00:05:48,966 --> 00:05:51,614 And he literally writes his way off the 85 00:05:51,652 --> 00:05:52,350 island. 86 00:05:52,690 --> 00:05:55,406 He describes a hurricane with such beauty when 87 00:05:55,428 --> 00:06:00,880 he's aged like 1415 years old, and they send him to the mainland America to study. 88 00:06:01,330 --> 00:06:08,466 And so it's the proverbial foreigner comes to America before it's even really America, and 89 00:06:08,488 --> 00:06:12,430 then rises to the top of society by merit. 90 00:06:12,590 --> 00:06:14,334 Okay, purely by merit. 91 00:06:14,382 --> 00:06:22,294 Not because he knew people, but it was ability to come in and carve out his own destiny and 92 00:06:22,332 --> 00:06:24,374 become what we call self made. 93 00:06:24,492 --> 00:06:26,854 So that was, like, one of the major things 94 00:06:26,892 --> 00:06:33,658 that shifted my thinking about Hamilton is that what kind of self made man he was that 95 00:06:33,744 --> 00:06:35,580 always jumped out at me. 96 00:06:35,950 --> 00:06:39,114 I tailor my life trying to be self made, and 97 00:06:39,152 --> 00:06:43,520 I'm like, what this guy did when he's 15, I still haven't done yet. 98 00:06:48,130 --> 00:06:49,982 So those were some of the things. 99 00:06:50,036 --> 00:06:53,778 But if we want to transition to specific 100 00:06:53,944 --> 00:06:59,906 topics so slavery and racism, this is something that he was completely different 101 00:07:00,008 --> 00:07:05,002 from several of the Founders on constitutionalism. 102 00:07:05,086 --> 00:07:10,130 He fought with the Founders with several Founders on business and finance, 103 00:07:10,290 --> 00:07:12,486 industrialism and foreign policy. 104 00:07:12,668 --> 00:07:17,506 Now, any criticism I give of the founders has 105 00:07:17,548 --> 00:07:19,370 to be with this context. 106 00:07:19,870 --> 00:07:21,994 They were all needed to create the United 107 00:07:22,032 --> 00:07:30,450 States of America and united in the the first place where they were united was in opposition 108 00:07:30,550 --> 00:07:31,850 to Britain. 109 00:07:32,010 --> 00:07:34,814 The tyranny that Britain was imposing on the 110 00:07:34,852 --> 00:07:36,170 13 colonies. 111 00:07:36,330 --> 00:07:40,094 And everyone will always, in my mind and my 112 00:07:40,132 --> 00:07:43,490 heart, will always have a special place. 113 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:46,674 But whereas I totally admired Jefferson early 114 00:07:46,712 --> 00:07:50,370 on in my life, I came to see a lot of differences. 115 00:07:51,750 --> 00:07:58,694 My evaluations of him has definitely gone down over the years, and it's for largely these 116 00:07:58,732 --> 00:08:04,646 different topics constitutionalism slavery and racism, business, finance, industrialism and 117 00:08:04,668 --> 00:08:05,462 foreign policy. 118 00:08:05,596 --> 00:08:08,630 And here's where I look at Hamilton and I say, 119 00:08:08,780 --> 00:08:15,110 iRant is in favor of all of these things in the 20th century. 120 00:08:15,470 --> 00:08:21,482 I don't think anyone any thinker has been as strong and consistent an advocate of those 121 00:08:21,536 --> 00:08:23,242 topics as I, Rand. 122 00:08:23,306 --> 00:08:26,442 So I thought, let me do a compare and contrast 123 00:08:26,506 --> 00:08:31,950 between Rand and of all of the founders I single out Hamilton. 124 00:08:34,310 --> 00:08:37,374 Blair: Yeah, I have to say, I traveled a similar journey. 125 00:08:37,422 --> 00:08:39,602 I was a big Jefferson fan for a long time. 126 00:08:39,656 --> 00:08:43,906 And then I started reading about the others 127 00:08:44,008 --> 00:08:49,080 and sort of soured on Jefferson some. 128 00:08:49,450 --> 00:08:54,194 And then James Madison has taken the mantle 129 00:08:54,242 --> 00:08:55,046 for me. 130 00:08:55,228 --> 00:08:55,960 Okay. 131 00:08:57,290 --> 00:09:06,570 But also seriously in the last year because there's so much about Hamilton out that I 132 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:10,734 started delving into him. 133 00:09:10,852 --> 00:09:13,902 And then your speech came along to the local 134 00:09:13,956 --> 00:09:17,310 group here and I had to see that. 135 00:09:17,460 --> 00:09:21,710 So thank you for opening the door even further 136 00:09:22,290 --> 00:09:23,502 on Hamilton. 137 00:09:23,646 --> 00:09:24,802 Robert: Sure thing. 138 00:09:24,856 --> 00:09:28,494 Well, if we could go to Hamilton and Madison 139 00:09:28,542 --> 00:09:35,666 when Madison was young, he was very close to Hamilton in writing The Federalist Papers. 140 00:09:35,698 --> 00:09:47,506 If we jump into where the two of them were most successful as a pair was when after the 141 00:09:47,548 --> 00:09:53,242 Revolutionary War was over and America won, the question became, okay, now that we 142 00:09:53,296 --> 00:09:56,922 defeated the British, what kind of country will we have? 143 00:09:57,056 --> 00:10:02,960 And they had this agreement called the Articles of Confederation, which was this 144 00:10:03,970 --> 00:10:11,566 loosely based concept that the states are still free and independent, which is what the 145 00:10:11,588 --> 00:10:14,980 Declaration says 13 free and independent states. 146 00:10:15,670 --> 00:10:21,634 But both Madison and Hamilton realized that, no, we need to connect the state. 147 00:10:21,672 --> 00:10:23,700 We need to unite the states. 148 00:10:24,150 --> 00:10:28,374 And by having a constitution that will make it 149 00:10:28,412 --> 00:10:35,318 the law of the land, by having checks and balances, this will prevent there being one 150 00:10:35,404 --> 00:10:40,502 part of government that dominates over other parts of governments and more importantly, 151 00:10:40,566 --> 00:10:43,660 does not dominate the citizens lives. 152 00:10:46,430 --> 00:10:49,674 James Madison was incredibly important at this 153 00:10:49,712 --> 00:10:57,690 time while Jefferson was away in Europe, jefferson and John Adams, who was stellar 154 00:10:57,850 --> 00:11:03,954 during the Declaration of Independence era, they were both away when the Constitution was 155 00:11:03,992 --> 00:11:04,670 being written. 156 00:11:04,750 --> 00:11:07,742 And this was largely Madison and Hamilton 157 00:11:07,806 --> 00:11:13,874 working together because not only after the Constitution was written, it needed to be 158 00:11:13,912 --> 00:11:14,670 ratified. 159 00:11:14,830 --> 00:11:17,954 And between New York and Virginia, there was 160 00:11:17,992 --> 00:11:21,218 opposition in both states. 161 00:11:21,384 --> 00:11:24,198 Patrick Camry was largely against it, and he 162 00:11:24,204 --> 00:11:28,178 was a much better he was a more towering figure than James Madison. 163 00:11:28,354 --> 00:11:30,202 And in New York. 164 00:11:30,256 --> 00:11:31,206 So that was Virginia. 165 00:11:31,238 --> 00:11:39,674 And in New York, Clinton was the governor and he was very powerful, and he was against the 166 00:11:39,712 --> 00:11:40,418 constitution. 167 00:11:40,534 --> 00:11:42,794 So Hamilton came up with this idea of writing 168 00:11:42,842 --> 00:11:48,190 these Federalist papers, which totaled 85 of them by the time it was done. 169 00:11:48,340 --> 00:11:55,902 And the guys to know what the importance of writing these papers? 170 00:11:55,966 --> 00:12:02,146 85 papers, which they did in about six months while both men were lawyers feeding their 171 00:12:02,168 --> 00:12:06,550 families like running off law practices. 172 00:12:08,010 --> 00:12:13,110 But they would knock out these papers and they 173 00:12:13,180 --> 00:12:19,846 each specialized with different subjects, but written as Martin, alluded to not under their 174 00:12:19,868 --> 00:12:20,150 name. 175 00:12:20,220 --> 00:12:23,080 They used the name public. 176 00:12:23,530 --> 00:12:26,086 Yes, publius. 177 00:12:26,198 --> 00:12:29,386 And because they wanted the words to stand on 178 00:12:29,408 --> 00:12:34,154 their own, they wanted the reader to be objective and not say, oh, this guy Hamilton 179 00:12:34,202 --> 00:12:34,574 wrote that. 180 00:12:34,612 --> 00:12:37,822 I can't stand him, and just dismiss it without 181 00:12:37,876 --> 00:12:38,910 even reading. 182 00:12:39,330 --> 00:12:40,560 But it's interesting. 183 00:12:41,330 --> 00:12:48,590 Historians can tell one difference between the writing styles of Hamilton and Madison. 184 00:12:48,670 --> 00:12:56,154 Madison would use the term wild, W-H-I-L-S-T which is more of a current British expression. 185 00:12:56,222 --> 00:13:03,334 And Hamilton would use wild while and that was one of the ways that they figured out who was 186 00:13:03,372 --> 00:13:09,594 the author, because there was discrepancy afterwards, because the promise was not to 187 00:13:09,632 --> 00:13:13,530 publish, not to say not to identify the authors. 188 00:13:13,870 --> 00:13:21,806 And so Madison, for me, I definitely agree with you on his import. 189 00:13:21,988 --> 00:13:27,018 Certainly during the Constitutional Convention, he took the notes. 190 00:13:27,114 --> 00:13:28,666 He was the major notetaker. 191 00:13:28,698 --> 00:13:31,754 He summarized a lot of the material. 192 00:13:31,882 --> 00:13:39,860 And to me, as a Hamiltonian, I say that was my favorite era in Madison's life. 193 00:13:41,510 --> 00:13:47,046 Some of the differences in fact, I think in all of the other topics that I want to bring 194 00:13:47,068 --> 00:13:50,342 up, there are differences there. 195 00:13:50,396 --> 00:13:54,422 But if we bring in I'm Rand now, on 196 00:13:54,476 --> 00:14:04,374 constitution, one of my absolute favorite quotations from Rand is about, if a drought 197 00:14:04,422 --> 00:14:06,730 strikes them, animals perish. 198 00:14:07,790 --> 00:14:12,026 But man builds irrigation canals, and if a 199 00:14:12,048 --> 00:14:13,874 flood strikes them, animals perish. 200 00:14:13,942 --> 00:14:15,354 Man builds dams. 201 00:14:15,482 --> 00:14:19,818 If a carnivorous pack attacks them, animals perish. 202 00:14:19,994 --> 00:14:23,620 Man writes the Constitution of the United States. 203 00:14:24,550 --> 00:14:30,450 Wow, I get goosebumps just repeating that. 204 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:33,460 How precise is that? 205 00:14:34,150 --> 00:14:39,880 If we go to current day, can we agree we're being attacked by a carnivorous pack, 206 00:14:40,410 --> 00:14:47,126 particularly over these last few years, and the constitution is our only salvation in the 207 00:14:47,148 --> 00:14:54,426 United States, and I think even Martin over in Europe and Sweden, they could use a taste of 208 00:14:54,448 --> 00:14:55,020 this. 209 00:14:55,710 --> 00:14:57,610 If they had a taste of the US. 210 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:02,000 Constitution in its original form, they'd be better off. 211 00:15:03,410 --> 00:15:04,270 Blair: I agree. 212 00:15:04,420 --> 00:15:09,146 But let me just question you on that quote 213 00:15:09,258 --> 00:15:11,934 from Rand, wasn't it? She said, the Declaration, not the 214 00:15:11,972 --> 00:15:12,570 constitution. 215 00:15:12,650 --> 00:15:13,780 I could be wrong. 216 00:15:14,150 --> 00:15:17,218 Robert: No, I'm sorry, you are wrong. 217 00:15:17,304 --> 00:15:19,458 What Rand says about the Declaration, that's a 218 00:15:19,464 --> 00:15:19,874 different thing. 219 00:15:19,912 --> 00:15:21,662 She says men should kneel. 220 00:15:21,726 --> 00:15:28,786 If ever men should kneel, it would be in the presence of the Declaration of Independence. 221 00:15:28,818 --> 00:15:29,640 Yes, true. 222 00:15:30,090 --> 00:15:32,514 Which she does call the greatest political 223 00:15:32,562 --> 00:15:34,070 document ever written. 224 00:15:34,650 --> 00:15:37,262 Okay, so let's do a contrast. 225 00:15:37,426 --> 00:15:45,194 The declaration is the and I would agree with her in one sense, that of the importance of 226 00:15:45,232 --> 00:15:45,722 this. 227 00:15:45,856 --> 00:15:49,706 You needed this to get the country off the 228 00:15:49,728 --> 00:15:50,410 ground. 229 00:15:50,990 --> 00:15:53,278 The interesting thing is, at the time that it 230 00:15:53,284 --> 00:15:56,830 was written, it was simply a declaration. 231 00:15:57,170 --> 00:16:00,734 It wasn't a document for the ages because so 232 00:16:00,772 --> 00:16:03,518 many of those ideas were baked into the culture. 233 00:16:03,694 --> 00:16:09,810 And nobody john Adams thought it was average. 234 00:16:10,230 --> 00:16:12,398 He didn't think it was this towering document. 235 00:16:12,494 --> 00:16:18,486 We all properly think it is today, but that doesn't tell you tells you the purpose of 236 00:16:18,508 --> 00:16:21,910 government, but it doesn't tell you this is the law of the land. 237 00:16:22,060 --> 00:16:23,862 That is what the Constitution is. 238 00:16:23,916 --> 00:16:27,538 And that's why America didn't really exist. 239 00:16:27,634 --> 00:16:32,966 It was not yet united until the Constitution itself was ratified, because that is what lays 240 00:16:32,998 --> 00:16:34,730 out the law of the land. 241 00:16:34,800 --> 00:16:37,114 And the Federalist Papers, just coming back to 242 00:16:37,152 --> 00:16:43,326 that, is all the checks and balances of describing what the different parts of 243 00:16:43,348 --> 00:16:45,840 government would be and what their functions are. 244 00:16:46,770 --> 00:16:48,640 But Rand admired both. 245 00:16:49,170 --> 00:16:51,694 In fact, I'll say this, she actually had 246 00:16:51,732 --> 00:16:54,850 problems with the Constitution properly. 247 00:16:55,990 --> 00:16:56,740 Sure. 248 00:16:57,350 --> 00:16:58,100 Yeah. 249 00:16:59,350 --> 00:17:01,922 They wanted to get if we can move them now, 250 00:17:02,056 --> 00:17:04,820 kind of backtrack to the slavery issue. 251 00:17:05,290 --> 00:17:07,122 Hamilton was against slavery. 252 00:17:07,266 --> 00:17:12,310 He started the New York Manumission Society, 1785, and he wanted to eradicate it. 253 00:17:12,380 --> 00:17:14,934 Eventually was in New York. 254 00:17:15,132 --> 00:17:19,002 But I think if we look at history, it was too 255 00:17:19,056 --> 00:17:22,330 soon for slavery to be eradicated. 256 00:17:23,550 --> 00:17:25,178 It was kind of an either or. 257 00:17:25,264 --> 00:17:31,386 Either we start a brand new country, which has never been done of this type in human history, 258 00:17:31,568 --> 00:17:37,614 and we deal with the issue of slavery as soon as we can, or we're at a stalemate over 259 00:17:37,652 --> 00:17:43,086 slavery, and we're not going to have this Constitution because the Southern states, they 260 00:17:43,108 --> 00:17:44,482 were not budging on that. 261 00:17:44,536 --> 00:17:47,154 And this is where Hamilton agreed it's more 262 00:17:47,192 --> 00:17:49,118 important to start the ball rolling. 263 00:17:49,214 --> 00:17:52,686 And if I could give a plug for Brad Thompson, 264 00:17:52,878 --> 00:17:56,390 brad's book on the revolutionary thinkers. 265 00:17:57,210 --> 00:17:58,722 He makes his ball statement. 266 00:17:58,786 --> 00:18:07,030 Before the two American documents, 1776 and 1787, slavery existed everywhere on the globe 267 00:18:07,390 --> 00:18:08,540 throughout history. 268 00:18:09,230 --> 00:18:12,486 Those documents did more to eradicate slavery 269 00:18:12,518 --> 00:18:13,914 than anything else. 270 00:18:14,112 --> 00:18:17,398 And so, again, I'm going back to although I'm 271 00:18:17,414 --> 00:18:20,960 going to criticize certain founders for certain things. 272 00:18:21,410 --> 00:18:27,870 Whoever got both of those documents, kudos to the sky. 273 00:18:28,370 --> 00:18:35,022 Blair: Sure. Now, I think, again, as far as the issue of slavery, I think the founders 274 00:18:35,086 --> 00:18:41,266 thought it was more important to establish the political concept of individual rights that 275 00:18:41,288 --> 00:18:43,314 had never been heard of before. 276 00:18:43,512 --> 00:18:47,526 So you have to get that started, and then you 277 00:18:47,548 --> 00:18:50,118 deal with the slavery issue. 278 00:18:50,284 --> 00:18:53,126 Unfortunately, it took, what, 70 more years or 279 00:18:53,148 --> 00:18:55,814 60 more years for that to happen. 280 00:18:55,932 --> 00:19:00,378 Robert: Hamilton predicted he saw this, he saw that issue. 281 00:19:00,544 --> 00:19:06,122 Hamilton predicted that at some point there will be a civil war and it would be the 282 00:19:06,176 --> 00:19:15,130 Northern industrial Hamiltonian north, free north that would defeat the south. 283 00:19:15,210 --> 00:19:20,926 But he said it would come at a steep price, which we still in America are suffering that 284 00:19:20,948 --> 00:19:31,300 price to this day in a lot of the issues that we have, sadly, mostly that revolve around 285 00:19:31,910 --> 00:19:33,198 race and slavery. 286 00:19:33,294 --> 00:19:37,538 But the thing is, we have to be realistic. 287 00:19:37,634 --> 00:19:47,618 How can you expect some group of men to eradicate an age old institution that has been 288 00:19:47,644 --> 00:19:53,818 around forever, and now they're going to start a brand new country and eradicate slave at the 289 00:19:53,824 --> 00:19:57,340 same time? I think it's too much to ask for. 290 00:19:58,110 --> 00:20:04,606 So, yes, I dare any other country to do what America did. 291 00:20:04,708 --> 00:20:05,070 Right. 292 00:20:05,140 --> 00:20:08,462 I'll just put it and sadly, if we go to 293 00:20:08,516 --> 00:20:14,814 education, particularly the backwards indoctrination that happens in America, you 294 00:20:14,852 --> 00:20:16,794 would think America invented slavery. 295 00:20:16,842 --> 00:20:19,602 It didn't exist even before, right? 296 00:20:19,656 --> 00:20:20,306 Blair: Yes. 297 00:20:20,488 --> 00:20:21,406 Robert: Built on slavery. 298 00:20:21,438 --> 00:20:21,954 Well, guess what? 299 00:20:21,992 --> 00:20:26,742 Brazil imported ten times the amount of slaves than America, so they should be ten times 300 00:20:26,796 --> 00:20:27,234 richer. 301 00:20:27,282 --> 00:20:27,494 Right? 302 00:20:27,532 --> 00:20:33,430 If we go with that logic, if America was built on slavery, but not so. 303 00:20:33,500 --> 00:20:39,318 In fact, if you want that's a perfect segue to the next topic. 304 00:20:39,494 --> 00:20:44,266 Next Hamiltonian topic, which is industrialism, because Brazil never had the 305 00:20:44,288 --> 00:20:49,050 industrialism, and only Britain had industrialism on a scale. 306 00:20:50,670 --> 00:20:56,026 They opened the door for America with this idea of industrialism. 307 00:20:56,218 --> 00:21:01,610 And there's a place called Patterson, New Jersey, probably from where you are, Blair, 308 00:21:01,690 --> 00:21:03,874 maybe 90 minutes drive. 309 00:21:03,992 --> 00:21:06,834 It's about 15 miles west of New York City. 310 00:21:06,952 --> 00:21:12,180 And Hamilton, there's this great 75 foot waterfall there. 311 00:21:13,670 --> 00:21:16,214 Here's the reason why I love this man so much. 312 00:21:16,332 --> 00:21:18,262 They're fighting the Revolutionary War. 313 00:21:18,316 --> 00:21:19,720 America is on the run. 314 00:21:20,570 --> 00:21:23,910 The Washington, Lafayette Hamilton. 315 00:21:24,250 --> 00:21:25,974 They're camped out in this place. 316 00:21:26,012 --> 00:21:28,146 The British have already taken over New York 317 00:21:28,188 --> 00:21:33,126 City, and they're taking a break, and they see this waterfall. 318 00:21:33,158 --> 00:21:34,842 And Hamilton points to it. 319 00:21:34,976 --> 00:21:37,626 He says, after we win this war, we have to 320 00:21:37,648 --> 00:21:39,020 harness that power. 321 00:21:40,770 --> 00:21:45,006 Just what kind of vision is that if you're a 322 00:21:45,028 --> 00:21:49,866 betting man, okay, and you say, what are the ODS of America? 323 00:21:49,898 --> 00:21:55,398 First of all, winning this war, it's like 99 to one odds. 324 00:21:55,514 --> 00:22:01,854 Then turning around and building, making an industrial center when most of the founders 325 00:22:01,902 --> 00:22:03,086 are agrarians. 326 00:22:03,198 --> 00:22:06,674 And these free farmers, and they don't like 327 00:22:06,712 --> 00:22:11,302 industrialism, they don't like banking, which will be the next topic we'll cover. 328 00:22:11,436 --> 00:22:13,302 And Hamilton is envisioning this. 329 00:22:13,356 --> 00:22:15,798 He's like, we have to harness this power. 330 00:22:15,884 --> 00:22:24,506 We have to exploit the Earth for all of its resources and build it to our comfort so we 331 00:22:24,528 --> 00:22:26,362 could have this incredible standard of living. 332 00:22:26,416 --> 00:22:29,046 And there's a beautiful plaque in Pasaic 333 00:22:29,078 --> 00:22:34,894 Falls, and it says, alexander Hamilton envisioned this great potential power of these 334 00:22:34,932 --> 00:22:37,738 scenic falls for industrial development. 335 00:22:37,834 --> 00:22:42,110 And again, he differs from the other founders 336 00:22:42,630 --> 00:22:45,780 on this because they were more thinking. 337 00:22:46,150 --> 00:22:49,998 Most were southerners who had this agrarian 338 00:22:50,094 --> 00:22:54,334 feudal lifestyle that they largely wanted to preserve. 339 00:22:54,462 --> 00:22:58,914 And even the northerners, even like John Adams and the New Englanders, they were somewhat 340 00:22:58,962 --> 00:23:01,030 mixed on industrialism. 341 00:23:02,170 --> 00:23:05,158 They didn't envision the way Hamilton did. 342 00:23:05,244 --> 00:23:11,690 And now, if we tie this into iront, who is a greater proponent of the Industrial Revolution 343 00:23:12,590 --> 00:23:15,660 as a writer, as a thinker, than I'm read. 344 00:23:16,510 --> 00:23:19,706 She just glorifies it in her novels and in her 345 00:23:19,728 --> 00:23:22,202 nonfiction, Capitalism the Unknown Ideal. 346 00:23:22,266 --> 00:23:24,346 And she has an article, The Anti Industrial 347 00:23:24,378 --> 00:23:33,330 Revolution, where she shows the damages that come out of living in an anti industrial 348 00:23:34,310 --> 00:23:35,326 society. 349 00:23:35,518 --> 00:23:36,114 Blair: Yeah. 350 00:23:36,232 --> 00:23:36,900 Martin: Yes. 351 00:23:39,350 --> 00:23:41,502 Blair: Similarities are very striking. 352 00:23:41,566 --> 00:23:46,040 I'll tell you what about now. 353 00:23:46,890 --> 00:23:52,550 Let's go back and touch on the self made aspect of the young Hamilton. 354 00:23:54,010 --> 00:24:03,754 It was very young, as you said, I guess he was self taught, but he wrote that letter that 355 00:24:03,872 --> 00:24:08,666 other people just recognized and said, well, he's not going to learn anything here, we 356 00:24:08,688 --> 00:24:11,310 should send him to the colonies. 357 00:24:11,730 --> 00:24:14,270 Robert: Yes. Self taught. 358 00:24:14,690 --> 00:24:17,406 Yeah. I would say when his mother died, so his 359 00:24:17,428 --> 00:24:23,646 father left, his father abandoned him and his younger brother when he was ten years old. 360 00:24:23,748 --> 00:24:28,094 And then a couple of years later, his mother, both him and his mother got sick. 361 00:24:28,222 --> 00:24:30,222 They're puking up a storm. 362 00:24:30,366 --> 00:24:33,246 He falls asleep and wakes up and she's lying 363 00:24:33,278 --> 00:24:35,380 in bed dead next to him. 364 00:24:37,430 --> 00:24:37,950 Yeah. 365 00:24:38,040 --> 00:24:39,634 Then he moves in with his cousin. 366 00:24:39,682 --> 00:24:41,090 The cousin commits suicide. 367 00:24:41,170 --> 00:24:43,986 I mean, all this is in the Hamilton musical. 368 00:24:44,018 --> 00:24:46,098 It's all covered in the opening song. 369 00:24:46,194 --> 00:24:54,234 I credit Lin Manuel Miranda for synopsising the man's 1st 20 years in an excellent five 370 00:24:54,272 --> 00:24:55,338 minute piece. 371 00:24:55,424 --> 00:24:57,626 But when his mother dies, she leaves him these 372 00:24:57,648 --> 00:24:58,246 books. 373 00:24:58,358 --> 00:25:03,434 Alexander Pope livies the lives of Plutarch 374 00:25:03,562 --> 00:25:05,706 and Hamilton's reading about these heroes. 375 00:25:05,738 --> 00:25:08,110 And he just has this glorious vision. 376 00:25:08,450 --> 00:25:16,046 And he wanted to be kind of like an Achilles, to lead this glorious but short life, to die 377 00:25:16,078 --> 00:25:19,678 on the battlefield, to make a name for himself. 378 00:25:19,854 --> 00:25:23,458 In doing this, he wished there was a war. 379 00:25:23,624 --> 00:25:25,794 That was like his statement to his best 380 00:25:25,832 --> 00:25:28,654 friend, I wish there was a war when he's like twelve years old. 381 00:25:28,792 --> 00:25:33,446 And so the confluence of events with him coming to the United States and then he 382 00:25:33,468 --> 00:25:33,842 studied. 383 00:25:33,906 --> 00:25:37,314 So he wanted to go to what would be called 384 00:25:37,452 --> 00:25:38,710 Princeton University. 385 00:25:38,790 --> 00:25:42,906 He wanted to do a rapid, like, two year 386 00:25:42,928 --> 00:25:44,890 course, cover everything briefly. 387 00:25:45,950 --> 00:25:49,578 And Aaron Burr, his nemesis, was at school at 388 00:25:49,584 --> 00:25:52,142 the time, and they said, no, you can't go that fast. 389 00:25:52,196 --> 00:25:53,806 And James Madison, too. 390 00:25:53,988 --> 00:25:56,766 So he got turned down from Princeton and went 391 00:25:56,788 --> 00:26:01,546 to King's College, which is now known as Columbia University. 392 00:26:01,578 --> 00:26:05,554 And Hamilton and John J. Were the ones who renamed it after America won the war. 393 00:26:05,592 --> 00:26:13,090 They took out a lot of the regal names of streets and institutions. 394 00:26:15,530 --> 00:26:21,190 But at King's College, he was excellent student, loved to write. 395 00:26:21,260 --> 00:26:28,122 He was writing pamphlets when he's like 1516 years old, during the revolutionary era, and 396 00:26:28,256 --> 00:26:34,166 long documents, going again back to writing them anonymously. 397 00:26:34,278 --> 00:26:39,514 And at one point they found out, they're like, it's a collegiant, this guy is he's in 398 00:26:39,552 --> 00:26:43,914 college? And when the war broke out, they closed King's 399 00:26:43,962 --> 00:26:44,270 College. 400 00:26:44,340 --> 00:26:47,786 And Hamilton was a captain of a unit. 401 00:26:47,978 --> 00:26:55,690 He was drilling the militia and so, yeah, these are all self made elements. 402 00:26:55,850 --> 00:27:03,300 Player this is like I'm thinking, again, I'm using myself as a contrast, and I'm like, Man, 403 00:27:05,190 --> 00:27:11,720 I'm sorry, I want to shine this guy's shoes, but I'm not the self made type that he is. 404 00:27:13,210 --> 00:27:19,494 And if we go, even if we think of Iranda, what she experienced in her youth with the Russian 405 00:27:19,542 --> 00:27:25,594 Revolution, the upheaval there and that she survived that and then wrote her way, the both 406 00:27:25,632 --> 00:27:35,886 of them kind of wrote their way out of this real, depressing, disgusting early years of 407 00:27:35,908 --> 00:27:37,226 their lives misery. 408 00:27:37,338 --> 00:27:40,474 And they just had this global this global 409 00:27:40,522 --> 00:27:44,178 vision, this heroic vision of what life could be. 410 00:27:44,344 --> 00:27:50,420 So I think that's about enough on the self made aspect that I can. 411 00:27:50,950 --> 00:28:00,514 Blair: Okay, let's touch on his tenure as George Washington's aide. 412 00:28:00,562 --> 00:28:04,386 Camp yeah, he was brilliant. 413 00:28:04,418 --> 00:28:06,950 Strategist I believe I read. 414 00:28:07,100 --> 00:28:10,390 Robert: Yes, he was in fact Hamilton. 415 00:28:11,050 --> 00:28:14,630 So all he did, he butted heads with Washington 416 00:28:14,710 --> 00:28:17,626 because he wanted to fight, not write. 417 00:28:17,728 --> 00:28:20,070 That's kind of the way he wanted to be on the 418 00:28:20,080 --> 00:28:20,634 battlefield. 419 00:28:20,682 --> 00:28:23,134 And Washington is like, no, you are way too 420 00:28:23,172 --> 00:28:23,760 important. 421 00:28:26,210 --> 00:28:29,406 He could think the way Washington could think, 422 00:28:29,508 --> 00:28:34,850 and he could write letters, dozens of letters every week asking for supplies. 423 00:28:36,790 --> 00:28:43,762 And Hamilton came up with this idea because Washington fought for the British military and 424 00:28:43,896 --> 00:28:51,254 they had this old world form of fighting where you line up on each side, both sides line up, 425 00:28:51,292 --> 00:28:55,202 they count down, and then they shoot at each other and the soldiers die. 426 00:28:55,346 --> 00:29:00,506 And all the generals are off limits because they're going to have tea parties during the 427 00:29:00,528 --> 00:29:01,738 winter when you don't fight. 428 00:29:01,824 --> 00:29:06,154 So it was like a completely different type of 429 00:29:06,352 --> 00:29:06,886 battle. 430 00:29:06,918 --> 00:29:09,466 And the French on the American continent, the 431 00:29:09,488 --> 00:29:15,166 French and English had done this for 150 years, the final one being the French and 432 00:29:15,188 --> 00:29:16,942 Indian War, 1760. 433 00:29:17,076 --> 00:29:22,378 Like, I think 59 to 64 was that war. 434 00:29:22,564 --> 00:29:27,220 And Washington fought during that war. 435 00:29:27,910 --> 00:29:30,434 And Hamilton said, no, we need something 436 00:29:30,472 --> 00:29:31,010 different. 437 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:34,146 Instead of taking them head on, we would get 438 00:29:34,168 --> 00:29:37,186 slaughtered because they outman us. 439 00:29:37,208 --> 00:29:39,598 They outgun us and they out think us. 440 00:29:39,704 --> 00:29:42,722 So what we need to do is take advantage of the terrain. 441 00:29:42,866 --> 00:29:44,294 We need to pick them off. 442 00:29:44,332 --> 00:29:46,502 We need to have what is kind of today called 443 00:29:46,556 --> 00:29:55,158 guerrilla warfare and fight long enough to bankrupt them, to bankrupt the British bank, 444 00:29:55,254 --> 00:29:58,060 the bank of England, which is funding this war. 445 00:29:58,510 --> 00:30:04,814 And then also where even the English would say, you know, why are we still fighting that 446 00:30:04,852 --> 00:30:09,726 war across the Atlantic Ocean? We got our own problems over here. 447 00:30:09,828 --> 00:30:11,742 And that's precisely what ended up happening. 448 00:30:11,796 --> 00:30:15,506 So that was one of Hamilton's strategies that 449 00:30:15,528 --> 00:30:17,890 he persuaded Washington about. 450 00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:19,380 He wasn't the only one. 451 00:30:19,750 --> 00:30:23,300 But that wasn't Washington's initial plan. 452 00:30:23,670 --> 00:30:26,662 His initial plan was fighting a European war, 453 00:30:26,796 --> 00:30:30,630 European style, and Hamilton persuaded him otherwise. 454 00:30:31,530 --> 00:30:33,320 Blair: Okay, yes. 455 00:30:35,850 --> 00:30:42,282 Now, I agree with Hamilton again about because 456 00:30:42,336 --> 00:30:48,122 of the debt situation, a bank should be formed what can you say about that? 457 00:30:48,256 --> 00:30:55,646 Robert: Yeah. So let's set the context here that America wins the war and they are 458 00:30:55,668 --> 00:30:56,346 bankrupt. 459 00:30:56,458 --> 00:31:00,282 And the 13 colonies, there are border 460 00:31:00,346 --> 00:31:00,922 disputes. 461 00:31:00,986 --> 00:31:02,838 There are currency disputes. 462 00:31:03,034 --> 00:31:09,474 Some states will take the Continental, which was this printed worthless currency, and other 463 00:31:09,512 --> 00:31:10,660 states would not. 464 00:31:11,110 --> 00:31:15,438 And this is again where Hamilton realized we 465 00:31:15,464 --> 00:31:21,170 need to unite these states and we need a central currency where everyone agrees. 466 00:31:21,250 --> 00:31:24,946 And guess what? That currency needs to be backed by precious 467 00:31:24,978 --> 00:31:27,026 metals, by gold and silver. 468 00:31:27,218 --> 00:31:29,898 Even argued with Benjamin Franklin, who was a 469 00:31:29,904 --> 00:31:35,834 printer and kind of wanted to print money to deal with this issue. 470 00:31:35,952 --> 00:31:40,150 But also Jefferson and others were like, we have a new country. 471 00:31:40,240 --> 00:31:41,722 We forget about the debt. 472 00:31:41,786 --> 00:31:43,280 Let's just start all over. 473 00:31:43,890 --> 00:31:50,666 The debt was so high to European nations and to people like Robert Morris, wealthy 474 00:31:50,698 --> 00:31:53,394 businessman who had financed the war. 475 00:31:53,592 --> 00:31:57,426 And Hamilton said, first of all, morally, we 476 00:31:57,448 --> 00:32:02,226 need to pay off the debt, okay? There's a moral obligation and there's a 477 00:32:02,248 --> 00:32:04,210 sanctity in contracts. 478 00:32:07,690 --> 00:32:08,614 That's one thing. 479 00:32:08,652 --> 00:32:14,774 And then secondly, financially, if we pay the debt, we will establish our credit with the 480 00:32:14,812 --> 00:32:15,878 rest of the world. 481 00:32:16,044 --> 00:32:19,146 And because we uphold individual rights and 482 00:32:19,168 --> 00:32:24,822 freedom, we will leapfrog over these countries because we have these incredible resources 483 00:32:24,966 --> 00:32:32,554 here in the colonies that if we go with my industrial system, we are going to surpass 484 00:32:32,682 --> 00:32:35,070 these countries within a couple of decades. 485 00:32:36,050 --> 00:32:37,840 A lot of people knew that. 486 00:32:38,210 --> 00:32:39,600 They actually knew that. 487 00:32:40,210 --> 00:32:44,002 Some Europeans feared that America would 488 00:32:44,136 --> 00:32:45,442 leapfrog over them. 489 00:32:45,496 --> 00:32:48,562 And Spain in particular, they were really 490 00:32:48,616 --> 00:32:50,990 jealous of the rapid ascent. 491 00:32:51,150 --> 00:32:54,946 So several of the founders just wanted to 492 00:32:54,968 --> 00:32:55,854 forget the debt. 493 00:32:55,902 --> 00:32:57,966 They were like, no, let's just wash our hands 494 00:32:58,008 --> 00:32:59,270 and startle over. 495 00:32:59,420 --> 00:33:01,446 So Hamilton had to persuade them that and he 496 00:33:01,468 --> 00:33:07,394 comes up with this idea of the bank of the United States, which was a privately run bank, 497 00:33:07,522 --> 00:33:14,778 but it was chartered to exist for 20 years for the purpose of paying off the debt, and then 498 00:33:14,944 --> 00:33:17,066 it would dissolve after that. 499 00:33:17,168 --> 00:33:19,846 Servicing the debt is the banking term. 500 00:33:20,038 --> 00:33:21,234 And he fought. 501 00:33:21,382 --> 00:33:23,566 He fought with Madison, he fought with 502 00:33:23,588 --> 00:33:24,202 Jefferson. 503 00:33:24,266 --> 00:33:26,970 And this is where it gets a little bit blurry, 504 00:33:27,130 --> 00:33:30,362 particularly whether it's objectivists or libertarians. 505 00:33:30,426 --> 00:33:36,882 They want a sharp line divided between state and economics, and there should not be one 506 00:33:36,936 --> 00:33:38,610 inch of crossover. 507 00:33:39,030 --> 00:33:41,266 But I've talked a lot with my good friend 508 00:33:41,288 --> 00:33:44,450 Richard Salzman about this, and we think it's impossible. 509 00:33:46,070 --> 00:33:47,586 I can't call it a good theory. 510 00:33:47,698 --> 00:33:49,570 That doesn't work in practice. 511 00:33:49,650 --> 00:33:51,270 I don't even think it's not possible. 512 00:33:51,340 --> 00:33:52,354 Even in theory. 513 00:33:52,482 --> 00:33:53,794 The two overlap. 514 00:33:53,842 --> 00:33:55,554 It's called political economy. 515 00:33:55,602 --> 00:33:57,746 And there is an overlap there. 516 00:33:57,868 --> 00:34:01,194 And Hamilton's idea was we have this bank, we 517 00:34:01,232 --> 00:34:08,886 service the debt, we get the country off the ground, and in 20 years it dissolves precisely 518 00:34:08,998 --> 00:34:10,380 what ended up happening. 519 00:34:11,090 --> 00:34:13,774 But before then, there are just two other 520 00:34:13,812 --> 00:34:15,546 quick things here, Blair. 521 00:34:15,658 --> 00:34:18,398 Before then, the first bank was called the 522 00:34:18,404 --> 00:34:23,026 bank of Philadelphia, which robert Morris, the America's first wealthy banker and 523 00:34:23,048 --> 00:34:31,954 businessman, who, as I said, funded the he largely funded the 90% of bullets that were 524 00:34:31,992 --> 00:34:39,030 shot during the war came from the bank account of Robert Morris. 525 00:34:41,130 --> 00:34:47,506 In a few senses, he was kind of like Hamilton's forefather in coming over from 526 00:34:47,548 --> 00:34:51,430 Britain and becoming incredibly successful and wealthy. 527 00:34:51,510 --> 00:34:59,270 So he had the same idea of having this bank and funding the debt and then dissolving. 528 00:34:59,350 --> 00:35:05,630 And in fact, Washington went to morris was the superintendent during the war. 529 00:35:05,700 --> 00:35:08,090 He was the Superintendent of finance. 530 00:35:08,250 --> 00:35:10,622 And he got tarred and feathered, almost 531 00:35:10,676 --> 00:35:11,162 literally. 532 00:35:11,226 --> 00:35:14,366 In fact, Ben Franklin said, be prepared. 533 00:35:14,478 --> 00:35:20,514 Every blood sucker is going to come and call you names that you wouldn't believe, which is 534 00:35:20,552 --> 00:35:21,710 what happened to Morris. 535 00:35:21,790 --> 00:35:25,618 So when George Washington approached him and 536 00:35:25,624 --> 00:35:29,758 said, can you be the Secretary of treasury to run our finances? 537 00:35:29,854 --> 00:35:31,542 Morris said, no, thank you. 538 00:35:31,596 --> 00:35:33,846 But you have a guy on your own staff who could 539 00:35:33,868 --> 00:35:34,262 do it. 540 00:35:34,316 --> 00:35:35,730 That's Alexander Hamilton. 541 00:35:35,810 --> 00:35:42,326 So another thing, Blair and Martin during the war, hamilton is lugging around these massive 542 00:35:42,358 --> 00:35:44,326 volumes of economics books. 543 00:35:44,438 --> 00:35:45,146 Okay? 544 00:35:45,328 --> 00:35:46,106 Blair: Really? 545 00:35:46,288 --> 00:35:50,594 Robert: Yeah. And he's reading them and he's corresponding with Morris. 546 00:35:50,742 --> 00:35:57,854 And one of the things was this famous expression, a debt is a blessing, if not 547 00:35:57,892 --> 00:35:58,778 excessive. 548 00:35:58,954 --> 00:36:00,720 That's the main clause there. 549 00:36:01,410 --> 00:36:08,260 And the idea of credit and debt was not really understood back then. 550 00:36:09,110 --> 00:36:14,878 The idea of credit meant you lend money and you will get paid. 551 00:36:15,064 --> 00:36:20,582 So you're making money kind of work for itself and your reputation is what allows, you know, 552 00:36:20,636 --> 00:36:26,098 is what allows this credit to be something valuable. 553 00:36:26,274 --> 00:36:30,426 But a lot of people were old fashioned and they didn't understand this concept, and they 554 00:36:30,448 --> 00:36:35,642 just thought money and banks were swindlers and all they did was move other people's money 555 00:36:35,696 --> 00:36:36,300 around. 556 00:36:36,750 --> 00:36:40,486 We could see in the 220, 30 years we haven't 557 00:36:40,518 --> 00:36:44,926 advanced that far because that's still kind of the perception of banks today. 558 00:36:45,028 --> 00:36:51,870 But also Hamilton himself founded the bank of New York 1784, which got New York itself. 559 00:36:52,020 --> 00:36:58,706 It was burned out after seven years of fighting during it was British occupied it and 560 00:36:58,728 --> 00:37:00,142 it was kind of their headquarters. 561 00:37:00,286 --> 00:37:02,882 And it was all burned out after the war. 562 00:37:03,016 --> 00:37:07,906 So Hamilton started bank of New York, which got the city itself off the ground. 563 00:37:07,938 --> 00:37:12,374 It was actually the first capital of the country as a result. 564 00:37:12,492 --> 00:37:19,258 So he had a lot of experience, but he had to explain to the Madisons and the Jeffersons who 565 00:37:19,344 --> 00:37:23,450 said, no, there's nothing in the Constitution that says you could charter a bank. 566 00:37:24,030 --> 00:37:27,978 That's not the purpose of government here. 567 00:37:28,144 --> 00:37:32,382 And what is the purpose of government? 568 00:37:32,436 --> 00:37:35,370 That's a that's a broader you know, that's a broader category. 569 00:37:35,450 --> 00:37:43,134 Is it something so if if we want to I want to go back to a term that what Hamilton calls 570 00:37:43,182 --> 00:37:44,818 energetic government. 571 00:37:44,984 --> 00:37:47,346 And this is why libertarians in particular 572 00:37:47,528 --> 00:37:53,326 hate him and I think objectivists who don't like him buy into the libertarian argument, 573 00:37:53,438 --> 00:37:53,954 which is. 574 00:37:53,992 --> 00:37:55,720 That government. 575 00:37:57,370 --> 00:38:00,070 It should only do a few things and nothing else. 576 00:38:00,140 --> 00:38:02,054 And that part I agree with. 577 00:38:02,092 --> 00:38:06,114 But when Hamilton says energetic, meaning, 578 00:38:06,162 --> 00:38:10,314 yes, we need a police force, yes, we need a military, and we'll cover that. 579 00:38:10,352 --> 00:38:14,234 He founded the Coast Guard and wanted a military at West Point. 580 00:38:14,272 --> 00:38:18,966 That was his conception and objective laws. 581 00:38:19,078 --> 00:38:19,974 He was a lawyer. 582 00:38:20,022 --> 00:38:21,262 He wrote this in. 583 00:38:21,316 --> 00:38:23,578 And he wanted sanctity of contract. 584 00:38:23,674 --> 00:38:27,674 All of these things that I ran herself in her political philosophy. 585 00:38:27,722 --> 00:38:34,254 Advocates follow up there. 586 00:38:34,452 --> 00:38:35,986 Blair: No, I was just agreeing with you. 587 00:38:36,008 --> 00:38:36,354 Martin: Go ahead. 588 00:38:36,392 --> 00:38:36,642 Blair: Sorry. 589 00:38:36,696 --> 00:38:39,582 Robert: Okay. Yeah. So just wrapping up with the bank. 590 00:38:39,726 --> 00:38:45,086 So it does what Hamilton wanted it to do and then he dies. 591 00:38:45,118 --> 00:38:45,854 He gets killed. 592 00:38:45,902 --> 00:38:48,290 18 four in the duel with Aaron Burr. 593 00:38:48,370 --> 00:38:54,486 And then 1812 rolls around and America and Britain are at war again and they have no 594 00:38:54,508 --> 00:38:56,934 money to fund this war. 595 00:38:57,052 --> 00:38:59,898 So Madison and Jefferson jefferson is the 596 00:38:59,904 --> 00:39:00,460 president. 597 00:39:01,150 --> 00:39:02,090 No, I'm sorry. 598 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:06,074 Jefferson handed it over to Madison at this time. 599 00:39:06,272 --> 00:39:14,478 And they're like, even though Hamilton is dead, his idea of having a bank, we need a 600 00:39:14,484 --> 00:39:14,810 bank. 601 00:39:14,890 --> 00:39:19,040 So they founded the Second National Bank and 602 00:39:19,410 --> 00:39:21,406 it financed the war. 603 00:39:21,588 --> 00:39:24,494 And so precisely the reason that Hamilton 604 00:39:24,542 --> 00:39:32,222 wanted it came to fruition to the arch opponents of his idea of having this bank. 605 00:39:32,366 --> 00:39:40,754 And so I think that's a short case that could I would yield now to my friend Richard Salzman 606 00:39:40,802 --> 00:39:43,558 on anything deeper on this idea. 607 00:39:43,724 --> 00:39:47,362 But the thing to keep in mind, privately run, 608 00:39:47,516 --> 00:39:55,002 gold backed so this idea that Hamilton's National Bank was a precursor to the today 609 00:39:55,056 --> 00:40:00,218 central bank and Federal Reserve, that is as opposite as can be. 610 00:40:00,384 --> 00:40:05,600 The two have nothing to do in common except they both have the word government in it. 611 00:40:08,210 --> 00:40:09,600 I don't buy that case. 612 00:40:09,970 --> 00:40:12,990 Martin: Robert, I have a commentary, you said about the Spanish. 613 00:40:13,070 --> 00:40:19,186 He also discussed about how we should set up monetary regarding if it would be like 614 00:40:19,208 --> 00:40:24,050 decimals or tens or whatever, or in these eight pieces, the Spanish. 615 00:40:24,470 --> 00:40:30,326 So that was funny when he mentioned the Spanish were afraid of it. 616 00:40:30,428 --> 00:40:37,606 And then also as interesting in coin collecting and so on and silverstacker, you 617 00:40:37,628 --> 00:40:44,298 could say, have you seen coins that he have minted, in a way, or come up with this idea of 618 00:40:44,464 --> 00:40:45,606 a mint? 619 00:40:45,798 --> 00:40:48,522 Robert: It's interesting, Martin, that you bring that up. 620 00:40:48,656 --> 00:40:50,418 Actually, that was Jefferson's. 621 00:40:50,534 --> 00:40:51,710 Jefferson's. 622 00:40:52,530 --> 00:40:53,626 So they both served. 623 00:40:53,658 --> 00:40:55,754 Jefferson was Secretary of treasury. 624 00:40:55,882 --> 00:41:00,334 And while Hamilton was Secretary no, I'm sorry, jefferson was Secretary of State while 625 00:41:00,372 --> 00:41:02,314 Hamilton was Secretary of treasury. 626 00:41:02,442 --> 00:41:06,142 And so it was actually Jefferson's job to mint 627 00:41:06,286 --> 00:41:06,846 the coins. 628 00:41:06,878 --> 00:41:08,862 And Hamilton wrote about it and praised 629 00:41:08,926 --> 00:41:12,894 Jefferson for his ideas, his design of the coins. 630 00:41:12,942 --> 00:41:16,414 There was definitely some overlap, but he wanted Americans on it. 631 00:41:16,472 --> 00:41:24,386 Hamilton did not want royalty, which was on all coins, all currency before America. 632 00:41:24,498 --> 00:41:29,574 Pretty much it was royalty, I think every country. 633 00:41:29,692 --> 00:41:35,786 And if we look at denominations of American currency, hamilton was on more different 634 00:41:35,968 --> 00:41:36,806 currencies. 635 00:41:36,918 --> 00:41:39,686 I have a picture in my presentation showing 636 00:41:39,718 --> 00:41:44,400 all the different kinds of currencies that he was on the face of. 637 00:41:44,850 --> 00:41:49,914 And of course this reminds me if we go to Ein Rand herself, one of my absolute favorite 638 00:41:49,962 --> 00:41:52,454 articles called The Money Making Personality. 639 00:41:52,602 --> 00:41:55,506 And she says wealth is a product of human 640 00:41:55,608 --> 00:41:56,590 intellect. 641 00:41:56,750 --> 00:42:00,978 And again, this is Hamiltonian because he saw 642 00:42:01,064 --> 00:42:08,646 industrialism comes from the mind, okay, it's taking natural resources that stood under the 643 00:42:08,668 --> 00:42:11,058 natives bare feet forever. 644 00:42:11,234 --> 00:42:14,694 And he's like, no, we need to utilize this by 645 00:42:14,732 --> 00:42:20,618 thinking and by using our thought and labor and putting it to use. 646 00:42:20,784 --> 00:42:26,662 So again, here's the parallel I see between Rand and Hamilton. 647 00:42:26,726 --> 00:42:33,594 And if we look at Wall Street, wall street was born out of Hamilton's idea of having a stock 648 00:42:33,642 --> 00:42:42,462 exchange and allowing traders to speculate on money and make your money work for you. 649 00:42:42,596 --> 00:42:47,218 And of course, there's a famous picture of Iron Rand standing on Wall Street and you can 650 00:42:47,224 --> 00:42:49,806 see the statue of George Washington in the background. 651 00:42:49,918 --> 00:42:56,594 And Hamilton, who was effectively the founder of Wall Street, was died and is now buried on 652 00:42:56,632 --> 00:42:58,750 Wall Street at Trinity Church. 653 00:42:58,830 --> 00:43:02,630 So I think it's a bit of there's another 654 00:43:02,700 --> 00:43:04,774 overlap there between the two of them. 655 00:43:04,812 --> 00:43:08,498 So between Iron's money making personality and 656 00:43:08,524 --> 00:43:15,174 Hamilton's total pro business, pro finance approach, there's overlap there that I can't 657 00:43:15,222 --> 00:43:20,890 say there is with another founder in America's founding era. 658 00:43:21,390 --> 00:43:27,054 Martin: Okay, Robert, I will do before I continue and then also wrap up about I mean, 659 00:43:27,092 --> 00:43:33,838 this is so it's historical, but you really hear back of a history here what's going on in 660 00:43:33,844 --> 00:43:36,820 the world today, especially foreign policy. 661 00:43:37,270 --> 00:43:39,666 But I wanted to have a call to action here 662 00:43:39,768 --> 00:43:47,718 middle and then also on a good note, so I would envision that Alexander Hamilton, if he 663 00:43:47,724 --> 00:43:55,318 would see like Bitcoin and trade and forex trading and others and he could really support 664 00:43:55,404 --> 00:43:55,750 that. 665 00:43:55,820 --> 00:44:00,586 So I will say if you like this value and this 666 00:44:00,688 --> 00:44:07,626 conversation so far, you could send digital telegram a boostogram and send Satushis, for 667 00:44:07,648 --> 00:44:17,134 example, with a symbolic number like 1776 around I think one $2 in fiat currency at 668 00:44:17,252 --> 00:44:18,446 today's date. 669 00:44:18,628 --> 00:44:22,874 So really interesting to hear with Robert. 670 00:44:22,922 --> 00:44:28,802 And yeah, we have his foreign policy and military academy left. 671 00:44:28,856 --> 00:44:32,498 And then, of course, Blair, if you have something but I wanted to put that in because 672 00:44:32,584 --> 00:44:39,206 it's so interesting with fascinating with the history and ideas in action and what he did in 673 00:44:39,228 --> 00:44:42,982 a short time period because he didn't live for so long. 674 00:44:43,036 --> 00:44:51,866 He was a so called like this gentleman to be in duel and ending that too soon. 675 00:44:51,968 --> 00:44:54,006 So that's in a way sad. 676 00:44:54,038 --> 00:44:54,666 But yeah. 677 00:44:54,768 --> 00:44:55,738 So please continue. 678 00:44:55,824 --> 00:44:56,582 And blair. 679 00:44:56,646 --> 00:44:57,980 And okay. 680 00:45:00,350 --> 00:45:00,774 Robert: Blair. 681 00:45:00,822 --> 00:45:01,434 I'm sorry. 682 00:45:01,552 --> 00:45:02,618 Blair: No, go ahead. 683 00:45:02,784 --> 00:45:04,334 Robert: A couple of quick things that Martin said. 684 00:45:04,372 --> 00:45:08,890 First of all, call to action, please support this program, Secular Foxholes. 685 00:45:08,970 --> 00:45:11,774 It is awesome work that the two of you are doing. 686 00:45:11,892 --> 00:45:21,650 I gather it cost maybe a bitcoin, I don't know, put some of my money where my mouth is 687 00:45:21,720 --> 00:45:29,214 and have you get more resources and preferably more reach with the good work that you're 688 00:45:29,262 --> 00:45:29,714 doing. 689 00:45:29,832 --> 00:45:32,626 But we come back to this Bitcoin. 690 00:45:32,658 --> 00:45:36,118 What hamilton thing? One thing I forgot to say was so when he's a 691 00:45:36,124 --> 00:45:42,498 kid in the Caribbean, he works for this import export company, Beekman and Kruger. 692 00:45:42,594 --> 00:45:48,106 In downtown New York, there's a famous street, Beekman, which I'd always whenever I go there 693 00:45:48,128 --> 00:45:52,330 as a kid, I would like that word, but I didn't know this was the guy who had the import 694 00:45:52,400 --> 00:45:53,322 export company. 695 00:45:53,456 --> 00:45:55,454 And they would leave Hamilton for six months 696 00:45:55,492 --> 00:45:56,062 at a time. 697 00:45:56,116 --> 00:45:59,022 They would leave this 1314 year old kid for 698 00:45:59,076 --> 00:46:02,666 six months at a time running while they go to the colonies. 699 00:46:02,778 --> 00:46:08,994 He's running the business and he's cursing out older men who come in with cattle that are 700 00:46:09,032 --> 00:46:13,486 like bone, they're like bony and they're ready to die. 701 00:46:13,518 --> 00:46:18,146 And he's like, compounder what you've just done, this mistake you've just made, and he'd 702 00:46:18,178 --> 00:46:25,366 fatten them up by giving them a lot of water and then trade them up, the value of them. 703 00:46:25,468 --> 00:46:30,886 But one thing if we go to currency so in his head, he had to calculate the exchange rates 704 00:46:30,918 --> 00:46:34,250 of Spanish ducats and Dutch. 705 00:46:35,070 --> 00:46:36,374 I should know, Florence. 706 00:46:36,422 --> 00:46:40,454 I think he had to make these calculations in his head. 707 00:46:40,512 --> 00:46:46,826 So international currency, what you're talking about here, Martin, is this is what Hamilton 708 00:46:46,858 --> 00:46:49,006 is doing, age 13, 1415. 709 00:46:49,188 --> 00:46:52,094 And again, when it came time for United States 710 00:46:52,212 --> 00:46:56,194 and Secretary of treasury, he wanted to unite all of those things. 711 00:46:56,312 --> 00:47:06,280 Now, my last thing on Bitcoin is that I should know more about it by now, which I am 712 00:47:06,650 --> 00:47:09,926 ignorant, more ignorant than I'd like to be. 713 00:47:10,028 --> 00:47:14,994 But I guess my one question is in Hamilton's 714 00:47:15,042 --> 00:47:18,214 idea of currency, it is backed by something. 715 00:47:18,412 --> 00:47:21,206 And that's the part that I tend to be. 716 00:47:21,228 --> 00:47:24,406 If you can explain this to me, I'm open to persuasion. 717 00:47:24,518 --> 00:47:29,894 I mean, I see the value of it because people are using it and the value goes up and down. 718 00:47:30,032 --> 00:47:36,990 But in Hamilton's mind, the currency must be backed by something tangible and objective. 719 00:47:38,050 --> 00:47:41,040 That's where I can't say 100%. 720 00:47:41,410 --> 00:47:43,954 I can't speak to that. 721 00:47:44,152 --> 00:47:47,970 But then again, I'm not that knowledgeable. 722 00:47:48,310 --> 00:47:51,666 Either way, we'll link you that in. 723 00:47:51,688 --> 00:47:56,654 Martin: Show notes when we had the guest dave, Wexler, about explaining about Bitcoin. 724 00:47:56,782 --> 00:47:57,586 Robert: Okay? Yeah, I know. 725 00:47:57,608 --> 00:47:58,866 Dave yes. 726 00:47:58,968 --> 00:48:02,358 Martin: So thanks again for that because we haven't been fought about that and we say we 727 00:48:02,364 --> 00:48:09,882 are newbies also, but to get that AHA moment and then, of course, think about it and learn 728 00:48:09,936 --> 00:48:10,538 from the history. 729 00:48:10,624 --> 00:48:12,330 So, yeah, please continue. 730 00:48:12,400 --> 00:48:13,878 And thanks for that note. 731 00:48:14,054 --> 00:48:14,442 Robert: Sure. 732 00:48:14,496 --> 00:48:17,386 Blair: Blair you have all right, well, thank you. 733 00:48:17,488 --> 00:48:24,074 One thing I'll quickly say about Bitcoin is I think the most attractive aspect about Bitcoin 734 00:48:24,122 --> 00:48:26,350 is it's a decentralized currency. 735 00:48:27,410 --> 00:48:31,006 It's a peer to peer, one person to another 736 00:48:31,108 --> 00:48:33,222 without government interference. 737 00:48:33,386 --> 00:48:41,298 And I think I have the originators some of his 738 00:48:41,384 --> 00:48:46,050 crucial documents that he published, but I haven't gotten to them. 739 00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:49,250 I'm slowly reading through a compilation. 740 00:48:51,030 --> 00:48:51,358 Robert: There. 741 00:48:51,384 --> 00:48:55,798 Martin: You have a good connection, Blair, and you will continue because think if we would 742 00:48:55,884 --> 00:49:03,834 read what they read wrote in these federalist papers and so on and get it the same thing as 743 00:49:04,032 --> 00:49:10,250 Satushi when you see that document or get it explained for somebody who knows a bit more 744 00:49:10,400 --> 00:49:12,894 and explain it for a layman and you get it. 745 00:49:12,932 --> 00:49:14,126 That's the AHA moment. 746 00:49:14,228 --> 00:49:19,674 Same thing when you're reading rant's work and as you have done here, Robert, I mean, it's 747 00:49:19,722 --> 00:49:26,962 amazing to compare and contrast it and then do it in a nice presentation, including that 748 00:49:27,096 --> 00:49:30,754 you're in train of thought and we are interrupting you whole time. 749 00:49:30,792 --> 00:49:32,580 But of course, it's our show. 750 00:49:35,530 --> 00:49:40,326 Robert: One topic, gentlemen, that there's dispute about it. 751 00:49:40,428 --> 00:49:42,230 I totally agree with Blair. 752 00:49:43,610 --> 00:49:45,670 If I could just add one other thing. 753 00:49:45,740 --> 00:49:51,574 So there are two reasons for my caller mistake. 754 00:49:51,622 --> 00:49:53,190 I have not gotten involved with bitcoin. 755 00:49:53,270 --> 00:49:55,590 One was not backed by something concrete. 756 00:49:55,670 --> 00:49:59,958 And two, I totally love the idea of decentralized. 757 00:50:00,054 --> 00:50:01,142 Decentralization. 758 00:50:01,286 --> 00:50:03,418 My fear is the government's going to find a 759 00:50:03,424 --> 00:50:07,034 way to come in and shut this damn thing down because that's all they do, is destroy 760 00:50:07,082 --> 00:50:08,062 everything they touch. 761 00:50:08,196 --> 00:50:11,326 So I have stayed away while this value has 762 00:50:11,348 --> 00:50:13,140 gone up and up and up and up. 763 00:50:16,230 --> 00:50:24,226 That's my short history of bitcoin and what I 764 00:50:24,248 --> 00:50:28,146 like about it and what I'm not sure about it and why I did. 765 00:50:28,328 --> 00:50:30,262 Martin: And thanks again and for the green room. 766 00:50:30,316 --> 00:50:36,214 You gave an offer there how to present it in a good way, to ask about how to support work, 767 00:50:36,332 --> 00:50:43,318 but also to present it so you could say the fellow individual listener understands it. 768 00:50:43,404 --> 00:50:48,042 And there you have your skills and expertise with leopard and others to do that. 769 00:50:48,096 --> 00:50:53,998 So that got me thinking it has to explain in a good way. 770 00:50:54,164 --> 00:50:54,590 Yeah. 771 00:50:54,660 --> 00:50:56,798 So I really have been thinking of it myself 772 00:50:56,884 --> 00:51:03,566 and Robert Blair was introducing me to, for example, services like Swan, Bitcoin and 773 00:51:03,588 --> 00:51:09,102 others, that you could do it in in a safe way and and so it's a development. 774 00:51:09,166 --> 00:51:13,380 So again, you have to get it and then grasp it and then apply it. 775 00:51:16,410 --> 00:51:25,894 Blair: All right, Robert, we're approaching an hour and there's just a few more things you 776 00:51:25,932 --> 00:51:27,234 say in your notes. 777 00:51:27,282 --> 00:51:30,166 You have book comma myth about Alexander 778 00:51:30,198 --> 00:51:31,900 Hamilton, question mark. 779 00:51:32,510 --> 00:51:33,420 Robert: Oh, boy. 780 00:51:33,790 --> 00:51:35,180 There's one book. 781 00:51:36,030 --> 00:51:36,442 Yeah. 782 00:51:36,496 --> 00:51:39,770 What is it, the myth? 783 00:51:40,610 --> 00:51:43,194 Martin: It's my comment during the presentation. 784 00:51:43,242 --> 00:51:49,982 You have these myths about Alexander Hamilton and you took out of your bookshelf book that 785 00:51:50,036 --> 00:51:52,030 explained all these different myths. 786 00:51:52,630 --> 00:52:01,266 Robert: Yeah. So one of the things about Hamilton was because he was an outsider and 787 00:52:01,288 --> 00:52:04,906 here's again with Rand, here are so many parallels with Rand. 788 00:52:05,038 --> 00:52:11,238 He was always the smartest guy in the room and he was brash and I'm Rand, check and check. 789 00:52:11,404 --> 00:52:12,120 Okay. 790 00:52:13,530 --> 00:52:17,682 As far as Rand goes, they were very 791 00:52:17,836 --> 00:52:23,478 Domineering persuasive or aimed to be persuasive. 792 00:52:23,654 --> 00:52:28,646 And this rubbed people the wrong way in many cases. 793 00:52:28,838 --> 00:52:37,834 And because Hamilton's life was cut short, died age 47 in 18 four, and his enemies 794 00:52:37,882 --> 00:52:46,206 outlived him by 20 to something 28, the two most prominent being John Adams and Thomas 795 00:52:46,238 --> 00:52:49,714 Jefferson, who both died July 4, 1826. 796 00:52:49,912 --> 00:52:53,666 And they had a chance to kind of rewrite the 797 00:52:53,688 --> 00:52:57,886 history and say these things about Hamilton. 798 00:52:57,998 --> 00:53:00,106 And I've seen the same thing with Iron Rand. 799 00:53:00,158 --> 00:53:05,734 If someone says, Well, I was in a room with Iron and she said, A, B, and C, we have no way 800 00:53:05,772 --> 00:53:07,160 to verify that. 801 00:53:08,110 --> 00:53:12,762 A lot of this in the book about the myths of 802 00:53:12,816 --> 00:53:19,466 Hamilton is the author goes through that, all of these things, and he debunks so many of 803 00:53:19,488 --> 00:53:21,678 these myths about him. 804 00:53:21,844 --> 00:53:25,678 And that's kind of one of the problems. 805 00:53:25,764 --> 00:53:29,742 And that's where I appreciate the work that Ron Chernow did. 806 00:53:29,796 --> 00:53:33,102 First of all, Hamilton's wife outlived him by 50 years. 807 00:53:33,236 --> 00:53:44,142 And she saw his stature, his legacy being twisted by a lot of these opponents of his. 808 00:53:44,276 --> 00:53:51,734 And again, rewriting history and making it all about only the Declaration and not about the 809 00:53:51,772 --> 00:53:52,710 Constitution. 810 00:53:57,050 --> 00:54:01,820 This definitely had an impact in his life of 811 00:54:03,550 --> 00:54:06,460 what did he do? What did he not do? 812 00:54:09,550 --> 00:54:15,614 Alexander Hamilton and The Persistence of Myth is the name of the book which, as I said, I 813 00:54:15,652 --> 00:54:16,560 highly recommend. 814 00:54:18,130 --> 00:54:21,354 I met the author, Stephen Knott, and chatted 815 00:54:21,402 --> 00:54:23,558 with him about I wish this book came out on audio. 816 00:54:23,594 --> 00:54:24,514 That's what I asked him. 817 00:54:24,552 --> 00:54:25,998 Because I love audiobooks. 818 00:54:26,094 --> 00:54:26,962 I read it. 819 00:54:27,096 --> 00:54:29,646 Martin: You're reading my mind now, Robert. 820 00:54:29,678 --> 00:54:33,202 And I like audiobooks also because the time 821 00:54:33,256 --> 00:54:35,566 and you could do the same thing with podcasting. 822 00:54:35,598 --> 00:54:39,814 But I understand the value of reading a hardcover book. 823 00:54:39,852 --> 00:54:45,638 And I've written a blog post about that with Tim Sanders that talked about love cat and how 824 00:54:45,804 --> 00:54:46,594 your library. 825 00:54:46,642 --> 00:54:49,002 So when I saw your library, I could definitely 826 00:54:49,056 --> 00:54:51,990 say, oh, Robert, he knows the thing to have a library. 827 00:54:52,070 --> 00:54:57,306 But do you have any tip of that? The Federalist Paper like Audible and 828 00:54:57,328 --> 00:54:58,374 audiobooks. 829 00:54:58,502 --> 00:55:00,486 Robert: Yes, I have papers. 830 00:55:00,518 --> 00:55:02,566 And Carrie Ann and I, the first thing we wrote 831 00:55:02,598 --> 00:55:07,070 for the objective standard was a celebration of the Federalist Papers. 832 00:55:07,650 --> 00:55:11,566 When I used to write regularly for the Objective Standards, it would always be kind 833 00:55:11,588 --> 00:55:13,380 of like on this day in history. 834 00:55:14,710 --> 00:55:16,862 And one was on the celebration. 835 00:55:16,926 --> 00:55:22,610 October 1787, I think was The Federalist number one written by Hamilton. 836 00:55:23,670 --> 00:55:24,242 But, yeah. 837 00:55:24,296 --> 00:55:27,654 So I think between the two of them, their 838 00:55:27,692 --> 00:55:28,994 legacies were diminished. 839 00:55:29,042 --> 00:55:32,840 Their impact was diminished partially because 840 00:55:34,330 --> 00:55:39,414 they had very strong characters that didn't mind clashing. 841 00:55:39,542 --> 00:55:51,102 I ran with the conservatives in the 1940s, particularly some of whom could have been her 842 00:55:51,156 --> 00:55:55,226 defenders, maybe Von Mises and Henry Haslett. 843 00:55:55,258 --> 00:55:57,534 On the economic side, there were no 844 00:55:57,572 --> 00:56:03,730 philosophers in her lifetime who were really prominent philosophers who were with her. 845 00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:11,234 And Hamilton had the same thing, the same pattern, where he clashed with all the 846 00:56:11,272 --> 00:56:18,454 Virginians except for George Washington, and he persuaded Washington over time to free his 847 00:56:18,492 --> 00:56:19,138 slaves. 848 00:56:19,234 --> 00:56:22,546 Okay, here's the impact of Hamilton where none 849 00:56:22,578 --> 00:56:29,126 of the Virginians freed their slaves, they all died with their slaves intact. 850 00:56:29,238 --> 00:56:34,650 And Washington, through the efforts of Hamilton, ended up doing that. 851 00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:39,174 And so he clashed on industrialism, he clashed on banking. 852 00:56:39,222 --> 00:56:41,194 He clashed we didn't even get to foreign policy. 853 00:56:41,312 --> 00:56:43,130 He clashed on foreign policy. 854 00:56:43,280 --> 00:56:45,406 They didn't even want there to be an army, a 855 00:56:45,428 --> 00:56:49,326 standing army in his lifetime because they thought that would lead to war. 856 00:56:49,428 --> 00:56:55,220 And Hamilton was like, no, we need not only an army, but we need a military academy to train 857 00:56:56,150 --> 00:56:57,262 soldiers. 858 00:56:57,406 --> 00:56:58,498 And guess what? 859 00:56:58,584 --> 00:57:03,522 West Point, where we fought this battle and Benedict Arnold betrayed us, that's a good 860 00:57:03,576 --> 00:57:04,126 spot. 861 00:57:04,238 --> 00:57:08,294 And also we need a Coast Guard to protect our 862 00:57:08,332 --> 00:57:09,110 shores. 863 00:57:12,570 --> 00:57:14,626 This is tying in again to Iron Ram. 864 00:57:14,738 --> 00:57:22,758 When we look at her famous speech to the graduates at West Point, there dovetails 865 00:57:22,934 --> 00:57:31,946 perfectly with one of my favorite quotes that she says is that West Point has given America 866 00:57:31,978 --> 00:57:35,642 a long line of heroes, known and unknown. 867 00:57:35,786 --> 00:57:38,442 And one of those heroes is Alexander Hamilton. 868 00:57:38,506 --> 00:57:40,014 She might not know, I don't think. 869 00:57:40,052 --> 00:57:42,926 To my knowledge, her favorite founder asked in 870 00:57:42,948 --> 00:57:47,150 the Q and A was Jefferson, and it was only because of the Declaration of Independence. 871 00:57:47,230 --> 00:57:48,014 To my knowledge. 872 00:57:48,062 --> 00:57:50,594 I don't know how much she knew about the other 873 00:57:50,632 --> 00:57:57,874 founders, their personalities, and for much of Hamilton's life and career you asked about in 874 00:57:57,912 --> 00:57:58,162 school. 875 00:57:58,216 --> 00:57:59,974 When I was in school, I didn't know anything 876 00:58:00,012 --> 00:58:00,374 about him. 877 00:58:00,412 --> 00:58:04,646 He's on the $10 bill and he's on the verge of 878 00:58:04,668 --> 00:58:08,982 getting kicked off the $10 bill because they wanted to put a woman on it about seven, eight 879 00:58:09,036 --> 00:58:09,494 years ago. 880 00:58:09,532 --> 00:58:12,266 But it was the musical that came in and kind 881 00:58:12,288 --> 00:58:14,778 of gave this gave him a second life. 882 00:58:14,944 --> 00:58:17,914 And unfortunately, he's not going to be taken 883 00:58:17,952 --> 00:58:19,580 off currency now. 884 00:58:19,890 --> 00:58:23,006 I think Andrew Jackson is in danger of being 885 00:58:23,108 --> 00:58:25,760 booted off the currency at some point. 886 00:58:26,530 --> 00:58:28,926 Those are a couple of other things that I 887 00:58:28,948 --> 00:58:35,646 think are important in Hamilton, distinguishing him from the other founders. 888 00:58:35,758 --> 00:58:41,122 And then a couple of centuries later, Ein Rand distinguished from other intellectuals in her 889 00:58:41,176 --> 00:58:46,370 era, and their message is largely bastardized. 890 00:58:49,030 --> 00:58:53,126 How often do you see an article on Iran where 891 00:58:53,148 --> 00:58:57,106 they get everything wrong about her and it's usually on purpose? 892 00:58:57,218 --> 00:58:58,102 Blair: Far too often. 893 00:58:58,156 --> 00:58:58,760 Yeah. 894 00:58:59,550 --> 00:59:04,266 Robert: And it's kind of the same thing with this persistence of myth with Hamilton as 895 00:59:04,288 --> 00:59:11,806 well, where they say these things about him and his ideas that just are not grounded in 896 00:59:11,828 --> 00:59:12,400 fact. 897 00:59:13,010 --> 00:59:18,286 Martin: But thanks to you, Robert, and others, you could go to the source and do you want to 898 00:59:18,308 --> 00:59:21,662 end on that? Because your presentation really made an 899 00:59:21,796 --> 00:59:27,842 impact and how you could have really, in a positive way, stamp something into your head, 900 00:59:27,976 --> 00:59:29,410 but voluntarily. 901 00:59:31,990 --> 00:59:33,662 Robert: That was a perfect setup. 902 00:59:33,806 --> 00:59:35,986 In baseball, Martin, we call that a hanging 903 00:59:36,018 --> 00:59:36,870 curveball. 904 00:59:39,770 --> 00:59:40,760 Blair: That's right. 905 00:59:41,370 --> 00:59:45,030 Robert: Yes. So the stamps so Hamilton is on the stamp. 906 00:59:45,690 --> 00:59:50,198 In 1957 was 200th anniversary. 907 00:59:50,294 --> 00:59:52,678 So he's on the $3 stamp. 908 00:59:52,774 --> 00:59:56,490 And in the 1980 $3 stamp. 909 00:59:56,910 --> 00:59:57,866 Did I say $3? 910 00:59:57,888 --> 00:59:58,106 I'm sorry. 911 00:59:58,128 --> 00:59:59,046 $0.03. 912 00:59:59,238 --> 01:00:00,140 Thank you. 913 01:00:01,970 --> 01:00:02,720 Sure. 914 01:00:03,730 --> 01:00:06,286 $3 stamps are coming probably, right? 915 01:00:06,468 --> 01:00:07,614 Blair: Yeah. Really? 916 01:00:07,812 --> 01:00:09,274 Robert: I still use proudly. 917 01:00:09,322 --> 01:00:11,806 I still use stamps, I still write letters, I 918 01:00:11,828 --> 01:00:13,220 still card. 919 01:00:14,230 --> 01:00:17,234 I definitely advocate that older way of 920 01:00:17,272 --> 01:00:18,206 communication. 921 01:00:18,398 --> 01:00:22,526 But in the 1990s, I took part in a letter 922 01:00:22,558 --> 01:00:30,118 writing campaign because my sister worked at Minkus Stamp department and she gave me a 923 01:00:30,124 --> 01:00:32,002 magazine that had an article. 924 01:00:32,146 --> 01:00:34,626 Here's something by you, that Lady Anne Rand 925 01:00:34,658 --> 01:00:35,142 that you like. 926 01:00:35,196 --> 01:00:36,950 Martin: Do you have that read meals? 927 01:00:37,770 --> 01:00:39,334 Robert: Why? I like stamp collecting. 928 01:00:39,382 --> 01:00:43,450 And I'm like, wow, what an awesome story. 929 01:00:43,520 --> 01:00:45,062 Because she's looking for heroes. 930 01:00:45,126 --> 01:00:48,106 And this was something I would bond with my mother over. 931 01:00:48,208 --> 01:00:51,578 I said there should be a stamp about her. 932 01:00:51,664 --> 01:00:55,694 And sure enough, and I think it was 1997, it 933 01:00:55,732 --> 01:00:57,786 was passed 33 cent stamp. 934 01:00:57,818 --> 01:01:00,954 So Hamilton's on the three cent and ran eleven 935 01:01:01,002 --> 01:01:01,358 times. 936 01:01:01,444 --> 01:01:02,078 Is it? 937 01:01:02,164 --> 01:01:04,702 And this beautiful art deco. 938 01:01:04,846 --> 01:01:05,250 Blair: Yes. 939 01:01:05,320 --> 01:01:11,938 Robert: Beautiful type painting of her wrapping this up. 940 01:01:12,104 --> 01:01:14,260 It brings up this idea. 941 01:01:14,630 --> 01:01:17,474 They both made a stamp, they made a statement 942 01:01:17,522 --> 01:01:22,962 with their lives, and they've inspired me to make different kinds of statements. 943 01:01:23,026 --> 01:01:27,914 I don't know if my letter writing ended up having an impact, but I took some kind of 944 01:01:27,952 --> 01:01:28,630 action. 945 01:01:28,790 --> 01:01:31,114 And that's what I think. 946 01:01:31,152 --> 01:01:35,638 If there are takeaways for your audience, don't be the passenger. 947 01:01:35,814 --> 01:01:38,380 Don't be the passenger in your life. 948 01:01:38,830 --> 01:01:41,514 What kind of stamp do you want to make in your 949 01:01:41,552 --> 01:01:44,222 life? And I think the two of you with this program, 950 01:01:44,356 --> 01:01:47,040 there's an opportunity this will outlast you. 951 01:01:47,650 --> 01:01:50,670 What can we do that, first of all, that we can 952 01:01:50,740 --> 01:01:54,242 enjoy during our lifetime? That's kind of the first thing. 953 01:01:54,376 --> 01:01:56,994 But the second thing is what will outlast you. 954 01:01:57,032 --> 01:02:00,066 And I'm always personally striving for that in 955 01:02:00,088 --> 01:02:01,140 my own life. 956 01:02:02,230 --> 01:02:06,006 I think for your listeners, I think that's a 957 01:02:06,028 --> 01:02:08,280 good goal to aim for. 958 01:02:09,610 --> 01:02:10,482 Blair: Outstanding. 959 01:02:10,546 --> 01:02:11,794 Thank you so much, Robert. 960 01:02:11,842 --> 01:02:12,214 Thank you. 961 01:02:12,252 --> 01:02:13,714 Martin: Thank you very much, Robert. 962 01:02:13,842 --> 01:02:17,042 Blair: All right, well, we've been talking with Robert Begley. 963 01:02:17,106 --> 01:02:20,810 He is an entrepreneur himself, a speaking coach. 964 01:02:21,230 --> 01:02:23,674 And Robert, thanks again. 965 01:02:23,712 --> 01:02:24,778 We hope to have you back. 966 01:02:24,864 --> 01:02:27,866 And thanks for manning the Foxhole with us. 967 01:02:28,048 --> 01:02:31,660 Martin: Yes, that's good. 968 01:02:32,430 --> 01:02:35,326 When you are in the Foxhole and if you have 969 01:02:35,348 --> 01:02:40,606 internet connection or some other, how could listeners reach out to. 970 01:02:40,628 --> 01:02:45,538 Robert: You and find my website? Robert@begley.com is my email website. 971 01:02:45,624 --> 01:02:46,798 Robert Begley. 972 01:02:46,814 --> 01:02:49,170 Begley.com. 973 01:02:49,240 --> 01:02:50,514 You could google me. 974 01:02:50,552 --> 01:02:51,234 I'm out there. 975 01:02:51,272 --> 01:02:57,202 I'm in the process of kind of revamping all that material. 976 01:02:57,266 --> 01:03:02,982 But I have tons of writing, tons of speaking out there, have upcoming presentations coming 977 01:03:03,036 --> 01:03:05,160 up and coaching all the time. 978 01:03:05,850 --> 01:03:11,194 My goal is I help presenters to wow their 979 01:03:11,232 --> 01:03:11,930 audience. 980 01:03:12,670 --> 01:03:15,850 Sadly, I think too many speakers do not know 981 01:03:15,920 --> 01:03:21,258 the import and how to be very effective on stage. 982 01:03:21,354 --> 01:03:28,958 And that's one of the things I aim to help and often do help presenters, whether it's on the 983 01:03:28,964 --> 01:03:32,110 boardroom or on a national stage. 984 01:03:33,350 --> 01:03:34,194 Blair: Very good. 985 01:03:34,312 --> 01:03:34,980 Awesome. 986 01:03:36,230 --> 01:03:37,838 All right, that's a wrap. 987 01:03:38,014 --> 01:03:39,266 Martin: Yeah. Thanks. 988 01:03:39,448 --> 01:03:40,210 Robert: Thank you. 989 01:03:40,280 --> 01:03:45,586 Blair: All right, ladies and gentlemen, we are planning to air this on July 4, america's 990 01:03:45,618 --> 01:03:48,066 247th birthday. 991 01:03:48,258 --> 01:03:50,310 Happy birthday, America. 992 01:03:51,930 --> 01:03:59,138 I speak for myself when I say I'm so grateful to our founders and I'll never apologize for 993 01:03:59,324 --> 01:04:01,020 what they did for us. 994 01:04:02,990 --> 01:04:05,306 But that's our plan for this episode with 995 01:04:05,328 --> 01:04:05,782 Robert. 996 01:04:05,846 --> 01:04:07,402 Robert, do you have anything to add? 997 01:04:07,536 --> 01:04:09,462 Robert: Yes, I would go a step further. 998 01:04:09,526 --> 01:04:11,774 Not only never apologize, I will always be 999 01:04:11,812 --> 01:04:14,030 grateful for everything they did. 1000 01:04:14,100 --> 01:04:19,214 Every July 4, I hold a zoom based reading and 1001 01:04:19,252 --> 01:04:24,286 celebration of the Declaration, which flair you and I did this in Connecticut. 1002 01:04:24,398 --> 01:04:25,220 Blair: Oh, yes. 1003 01:04:25,750 --> 01:04:26,898 Robert: Or so ago. 1004 01:04:27,064 --> 01:04:29,506 And we also make it a point. 1005 01:04:29,608 --> 01:04:36,710 After we go around the room reading paragraph by paragraph, then we end the reading by 1006 01:04:36,780 --> 01:04:38,674 naming all of the signers. 1007 01:04:38,722 --> 01:04:40,786 Because there were so many names that we don't 1008 01:04:40,818 --> 01:04:41,254 know. 1009 01:04:41,372 --> 01:04:41,702 Yes. 1010 01:04:41,756 --> 01:04:42,086 Thank you. 1011 01:04:42,108 --> 01:04:42,914 Thomas Jefferson. 1012 01:04:42,962 --> 01:04:44,230 John Hancock. 1013 01:04:45,290 --> 01:04:47,030 Benjamin Frank Franklin. 1014 01:04:47,550 --> 01:04:51,754 But there are others, and they deserve that merit as well. 1015 01:04:51,792 --> 01:04:55,562 So celebrating American independence is a global thing. 1016 01:04:55,616 --> 01:04:58,214 Martin does it in his own way in Sweden. 1017 01:04:58,342 --> 01:05:03,326 And Iran called this the greatest document in 1018 01:05:03,348 --> 01:05:04,320 political history. 1019 01:05:05,810 --> 01:05:07,566 So let's celebrate it. 1020 01:05:07,748 --> 01:05:09,374 Martin: And thanks for that. 1021 01:05:09,412 --> 01:05:12,510 And as an American spirit, I really am 1022 01:05:12,580 --> 01:05:15,042 interested to be part of that also. 1023 01:05:15,096 --> 01:05:16,194 We could talk about that. 1024 01:05:16,232 --> 01:05:24,930 Robert and I have my proposal to have a new holiday, and that's December 16 for 1025 01:05:25,080 --> 01:05:27,370 celebrating the Boston Tea Party. 1026 01:05:27,550 --> 01:05:30,120 That we could talk for some other time. 1027 01:05:30,810 --> 01:05:37,142 And I thank the Industrial Revolution and entrepreneurs and others, and the Hero Show 1028 01:05:37,196 --> 01:05:37,830 that you have. 1029 01:05:37,900 --> 01:05:40,346 If everything goes according to plan, it will 1030 01:05:40,368 --> 01:05:47,514 be published on July 4 on Independence Day, when we are recording this on June 24. 1031 01:05:47,552 --> 01:05:52,080 So, again, you could have a hat tip and thank you. 1032 01:05:52,690 --> 01:05:53,726 Thank you, guys. 1033 01:05:53,828 --> 01:05:54,142 Yeah. 1034 01:05:54,196 --> 01:05:54,526 Blair: All right. 1035 01:05:54,548 --> 01:05:55,562 You're welcome, Robert. 1036 01:05:55,626 --> 01:05:55,740 Thanks.