
with Brian Marren, Greg Williams
Listen & Watch
In this thought-provoking episode of The Human Behavior Podcast, hosts Brian Marren and Greg Williams delve into the pervasive influence of ego on human behavior, particularly in "Ego Driven Operations." Greg kicks off the discussion with a captivating personal story of nearly falling victim to a sophisticated Hollywood scam that cunningly exploited trust within his professional network, highlighting how the allure of opportunity and shared connections can override critical thinking.
The conversation expands to analyze how our inherent ego, coupled with confirmation bias, often blinds us to manipulation, leading us to believe we are uniquely special or exempt from deception. They explore historical precedents through the lens of P.T. Barnum's legendary hoaxes, demonstrating how master manipulators have long capitalized on human curiosity and the desire to belong. Brian and Greg critically examine "the death of expertise" in the age of social media, where loud, often uninformed opinions gain traction over genuine knowledge, fostering tribalism and intellectual laziness.
The hosts emphasize the crucial distinction between mere education and practical, scenario-based training, arguing that many societal issues stem from a lack of effective training that prepares individuals for real-world complexities. They advocate for a "left of bang" approach – proactive strategies that address the root causes of problems, rather than reactive, ego-driven responses. Ultimately, Marren and Williams underscore the importance of self-reflection, critical analysis, and robust training to navigate a world increasingly shaped by emotional reactions and superficial solutions.
Personal ego, confirmation bias, and the inherent trust placed in one's social and professional network are powerful tools that manipulators exploit, often making individuals susceptible to scams and misinformation.
In today's digital landscape, the volume of social media voices often overshadows genuine expertise. People's desire to fit in and react quickly can lead to the widespread acceptance of oversimplified narratives and "fake news," hindering critical thinking.
From P.T. Barnum's hoaxes to modern-day scams, manipulating public perception, ego, and the need for identity has consistently proven effective in swaying behavior and driving actions.
True preparedness for complex issues requires more than just knowing what is right (education); it demands practical, scenario-based training that prepares individuals to react effectively in real-world, high-stakes situations.
Addressing societal and individual challenges effectively means adopting a "left of bang" mindset – focusing on understanding and mitigating root causes through comprehensive strategies, rather than implementing reactive, short-term fixes that cater to immediate emotional responses. ---
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. I'm Brian, I'm the host of The Human Behavior Podcast. You're going to be watching the video version of our audio podcast. Please, guys, if you like the video, like it, subscribe to the channel. There's going to be more content on there if you're already a subscriber, and a better way for us to get you guys some more stuff. If you have any questions or comments, go ahead, leave them below. Check out our links down below to get a hold of us and to actually find out more places where you can get more information about this. Please like and subscribe. Follow us on Facebook at HBPRNA. Remember, all these cases that we discuss and all these discussions that we have are through the lenses of what we call Human Behavior Pattern Recognition and Analysis. So, please like it, share it, tell your friends about it, and we hope you enjoy the show.
I don't even know... well, we're live, so that's fine. We'll go ahead and get started. All right, Greg, let's go ahead and get started here. Just for anyone listening, we are recording this on the morning of Friday, June 5th. It is Aloha Friday. I am dressed accordingly. It does not look like you are, but I am not. That's okay. So, we're going to start with a little story today about how Brian, myself—you know it's good when I'm speaking in the third person—almost got catfished, scammed. I don't know how to describe it.
So, if anyone listening or watching has heard in the news recently, or an article came out about a whole bunch of folks in kind of like the Hollywood biz, movie technical business, slash kind of like the Heidi Fleiss thing... Were you a hooker?
No, I never got paid for any of those acts.
But, what happened was... yeah, we're live, though. So, we—sex trafficking matter. Here's what happened. Sorry, folks, if you're listening, I had some technical difficulties. Make sure I had to get straight.
So, I get a call a few months ago from a good friend I've known a long time, and he goes, "Hey, do you want to—hey, I've got this person who reached out to me through so-and-so. They're a big-time Hollywood producer. They did like Avengers and this other thing. They're looking for technical support guys who are—who have a tactical background and all this stuff." "Yeah, I'll take a phone call. I don't care." It's like, "Oh, okay. They're going to call you. Is it cool if I send you their details, whatever?"
So, they call me, and I'm on this awkward, weird, like, 10-minute phone call where they're asking me a bunch of different questions about a little bit about background and what I could do in Hollywood and all this stuff, and I'm like, "Okay." Yeah, whatever. We're just going back and forth. I was like, "Yeah, this is what—okay, we're looking for people as technical advisors, maybe do some stuff in front of the camera." I'm like, "Okay." It was kind of awkward, weird, but they're like, "All right, well, when we get back to Los Angeles, we'll set up a meeting in person." I was like, "Okay, you got my contact info. Great."
And then I called back my buddy, George, who's actually watching live right now. Perfect. And I'm like, "Hey, brother, that was kind of odd. This is weird. Like, what's this about?" He's like, "Yeah, I don't know. Like, they talked to me for like a half hour or did all this stuff." I'm like, "All right, well, whatever, put it on the back burner."
Called up another friend I know who does work in Hollywood. He's actually on some TV shows right now. He's a SEAL, and he's like, "Explain the story." He's like, "Did the same thing out." He goes, "That sounds really weird." He goes, "But at the same time, I've heard of stranger things in this town, so you know, just use your best judgment." Never heard anything back. Nothing.
So, come to about a week or two ago, I'm talking to my buddy, Lick, down in Texas, and he's like, "Hey, keep an eye out. There's this scam thing going around." And I was like, "What?" So, he tells me, and then I tell him the story. And then the next morning, I get a text message with a link to an article that the guy that I had called, Ryan, who's up in Hollywood, who does work on actual movies, sent me. He's like, "Sound familiar?" Question mark.
And it was a whole article about this whole big scam, and what these people were doing was the same thing: this Hollywood thing and then security work, and they actually got people to a lot of money. Anywhere from some people were putting like ten thousand dollars to like a hundred thousand dollars. All this money. Somehow they said, "Hey, you have to pay us upfront for this, for these expenses, but then we'll reimburse you here," like all this stuff. But this one guy got picked up by a limo, taken to the airport, flown overseas. So, he's thinking like, "Okay, this is legit."
So, that's kind of the background of the story. But the reason why people go, "Oh, how do you fall for this?" or "How would someone actually, you know, how do you not see all the red flags popping up?" And my thing was like, this is a genius scam because they use your friends to scam you without realizing it. So, you're a trusted person, and you say, "Hey, Brian, I talked to so-and-so, and this is what's going on." I'm automatically going to think that it's legitimate if you're telling me and I trust your opinion. So, that's why I—just my big takeaway from that whole situation was, "Holy crap, that's such a great way to rope people in, just through their network of friends." And then what happens once they crack that network of guys with a tactical training background or former military? Well, who else do they all know? All their guys with the same background. So, it just goes in this loop. And then the more people that you know have heard about it, the more legitimacy it gains before they get scammed. So, I think it's easy how humans fall into that where, you know, we can just immediately go along with the story. So, I wanted to start with that story, Greg. So, let's talk, let's talk science, Brian. Let's talk science. And if we were going to call this an episode, if we had to come up with the title, which I'm sure we do to some point when we testify to the FAA, it will be "Ego Driven Ops."
Because what happened is, you got hooked by the oldest scam in the book. It's just updated for current times, is that our egos—confirmation bias steps in—and we think of our own egocentric view of the world, and we think, "Of course, of course they reached out to me." And if you would have asked yourself, if you'd have taken the time to step back—and this is what I wrote to myself because I'm the biggest egotist bastard in the face of the planet—"Who are you? They're calling you. Okay, does that pass the smell test?" That was my response because immediately...
Yeah, I know. Yeah.
But you flip the script and go, "Of course they're calling me!" That was my watch. It was a Saudi Arabian video. So, because I hear you, but because of like the—you know, Catholic guilt slash horrible low self-esteem that I have—I'm going, "No one's calling me asking me for that kind of stuff," which is why you were roped into it. We get phone calls all the time from people, you know, in the middle of something, but nothing like this. And I'm going, "Well, who the hell am I?" But I love that because I wrote down, "Ego Driven Ops." Exactly.
That's...
I want you to think of this: Marren and I are in Saudi Arabia. What a great team of friends.
A couple of idiots.
Some things, yeah, in a couple of years. So, it's all right. Our legal team—wait, your dad's our legal team. So, we're on this tarmac, and all of a sudden, these helos (helicopters) come flying in. The helos circle, and they drop paratroopers out of the helos. So, the para-flares light up their ankle smokes, which must have been interesting, and they're burning in with their orange smoke, which is a custom KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) color. They land on the tarmac to these Audis and BMWs that are going well over 100 miles an hour, which rooster-tail and flourish and spin out while the occupants—each door and windows—hit an MP5 (submachine gun) out, firing as just as many rounds as they could. A bus comes up chasing another bus, and on the second bus, there are these SWATs (Special Weapons and Tactics teams) with ropes surfing the second bus. The buses split up and pass the third bus that's parked, and the guys swing from the ropes off of the buses in through the windows of the buses. A bunch of flashbangs go up, and we—I was applauding, everybody was applauding, we were crying. But it was a Bollywood movie. It was horrible. It was like a Chuck Norris movie. Okay, look, I love Chuck Norris, and now you're getting your ass flipped because he's going to beat you. He's probably in your house already, just so you know. So, Brian gets knocked off.
But the idea was that it was so nonsensical, but they had to learn it somewhere. So, one time, a civilian contractor that was a cop for five years, you know what I'm saying, and some agency that was close enough to a big city that he could say, "Hey, I was Kansas City!" Well, actually, it was, you know, 72 miles outside. But I knew a guy from Kansas City, and what happens is the story grows, Brian, and grows, and it grows. So, you expose your jugular. So, I—I'll give you one jugular expose, and I should have known better.
So, walking through the court building, and you know, you always got to make a good felony arrest, you got to testify the next day, get all the stuff going. And a cop comes up and he goes, "Hey, they need you on this caper." And I'm like, "Nah," you know, "I didn't even get subpoenaed." And they're like, "No, no, you're—you wrote a companion report. They need you right now. Can you get on the stand?" Should have known it was a hustle. Should have known right away. Had no idea what was going on. And the guy hands me the report as I'm going up, and the judge is swearing me in, and I look at the bottom of the page. It says, "As I look through the back window with the flashlight, I can clearly see a crack pipe." And I go, "Okay, I got it from here."
So, I sat up, and my big ass ego, I'm sitting up on the stand and the prosecutor and the defense attorney are going back and forth. "So, you saw the crack pipe?" "Yes, I did." "You saw the crack pipe?" "Yeah, I'm sure I did. If I wrote it in a report, I saw a crack pipe." "Well, have you had a chance to read your report?" "While I was reading it on the way in." And all of a sudden, the guy hands me the second page, and it said, "crack pipe poker." The crack pipe poker got me to look at something else. They got me to look at something else. And all the cops in the back of the room are dying because now I just perjured myself and looked like an idiot on the stand because they didn't give me any of the prep. Now I have to recant and back up and go, "Well, you're on—and now based on this new and incoming information..." Why do we think, Brian, that we can wing it? Why do we think that we're always the subject matter expert that somebody is looking for? Why?
So, that goes back to your "Ego Driven Ops." Right? So, this—this is what happens with a lot of these is because I wanted to get to the point of I think someone wrote a book titled it, "The Death of Expertise." Right? So, we—because we live in a world of influencers now, those influencers are louder and have more say or more voice than the experts. And that's—that's tough, because whether you have a real problem or a perceived problem, it's a problem. And whether something you believe something to be true that isn't true, if enough people believe that it is, then that's now an issue we have to deal with. We did a whole podcast on flat-earthers. Right? Yeah. You know, that's now a problem we have.
I'm a member, by the way, now.
Yeah, where we have—where we—we have to put up with people that think the earth is flat, and that's—that's awful. But this goes into how we get swept up into going along with what everyone else is doing. Right? So, you know, I—I obviously saw that this was a scam or didn't—or saw that it was weird, right up front. Had this odd phone call, and was like, "Okay, that's odd," and just continued on. But some people do—the point was the article—some people who are intelligent human beings fell for this scam. That happens all the time. Bernie Madoff scammed some of the smartest people, richest people in our country, out of a ton of money. So, this goes into, it's easy to get influenced, and once that starts to happen, I think we lose some of our critical thinking ability the larger that crowd goes, because I don't want to miss out on it now. Right? I don't want to—I don't want to be the guy that doesn't make millions off of this—off of this Ponzi scheme, not knowing that it was a Ponzi scheme. Right? So, that comes into that "Ego Driven Ops." Right? So, a lot of this is about us, not really about the other person or the situation that we're in. Right now, to characterize that...
Yeah, you're exactly right. And for those that are listening in today, it is Aloha Friday, but Brian and I had a business meeting just before this. And even though it's live, I want you to understand, we're building this plane in flight. So, we literally, as he was doing the live stuff, said, "Hey, here's our topic for today." But, I believe in the topic, and I think that we can still get some valid takeaways. And Brian, yeah, you were—you were so clever, you came up it was a scam right at the beginning. But let's see how scams work.
So, one of my favorite people in the whole world, Brian, you know this because we've been friends for a very, very long time, is P.T. Barnum. Got an extra nickel out of a lot of people's pockets by having a sign saying, "See the Egress." And everybody goes, "Hey, they haven't seen one of them!" And they walk outside because it's the exit, and the door locks behind them, and they've got to go all the way around and buy a new ticket. So, P.T. Barnum was the master of social media of his age, Brian.
I think the important story, what happens is, he comes up with the Cardiff Giant and a mermaid. The mermaid was the chest cavity of a monkey that was decayed, some parts of a fish, and all this stuff. So, that worked so well, "See the Mermaid," that he made a ton of money. The Cardiff Giant, what he did is, he took some Portland cement, took some elk bones, took some bones from different animals, and displayed them. So, it was this massive humanoid, actually, feature where part of it was revealed and part of it wasn't, and then there was some hay from the excavation. So, what he did, unbeknownst to everybody else, he went out and he got this guy that had a lot of drunken gambling debts, but he had bonafides as a Ph.D. And he said, "Hey, be part of this. You'll be a millionaire." Then he went to a couple of other people and said, "Hey, remember you dug this up with me? Remember we were out in those fields in Cardiff, England, or Wales, rather?" Everybody, "Yeah, yeah, we got it."
And what he did is, he shipped this box of "horseshit" (which was nothing) over to the Americas. Started on the East Coast, Brian. It was the biggest attraction. He couldn't stop making money. Everybody had to come in, and they were saying, "Listen, this is the missing link! This is the difference between apes and humans! A Cardiff Giant! It's clearly whatever!" Now, what he understood is, when you put the rock in the pond, the ripple goes out. Right? He knew exactly how long it took to get to St. Louis. He knew exactly how long it took to get to San Diego. So, what he did is, he rode that wave as the information and the news services were printing how amazing this was. Guess what he kept doing? He kept moving. He kept traveling west.
Yeah.
He stayed ahead of that curve. And what happened is, he didn't get caught until he said, "Okay, I can't outrun the curve and go all the way around the world again. I'm going to let you in on something: it's horse crap. The mermaid was horse crap." And you know what he did five years later, Brian? He came out with another one, and everybody got in line.
We want an expert to tell us what to do. If you're the ShamWow guy—hell, we put Marty Wulfe on our broadcast with some clients because we know they want to ShamWow. They want to hear that foreign accent. The minute they do that, they open up their wallets. There is credibility. For example, there's a difference between Special Forces and Special Operational Forces. Most average human beings—and that's not a bad thing, saying that you're average, I'm kind of average, although I'm very good looking—but the idea is...
Average weight, I would say.
But the idea is, there's a few things that are not fighting me, pal. So, I want you to understand that the distinction is very different but not to most people. So, if the person says, "Hey, you know, I knew somebody was in the Army!" Immediately, everybody listens up, you know. And even me, Brian, I wasn't an MP (Military Police), nothing against MPs, but I was a bona fide card-carrying member of the law enforcement community and I was a soldier. And then when I say that, what do I say? I say, "Well, I was in the Army, and I was in the military, and I was a policeman," but not a military policeman, because I don't want to conflate those issues. I want to make sure people know what it is I'm commenting. So, I think maybe the overarching theme then for this talk will be "Ego Driven Ops."
I like that, because that—that touches on everything. So, you brought up the P.T. Barnum example and, yeah, that as an early form of social media, right? He was a—he was the master at it, at marketing and kind of promotion and psychological manipulation, aka lying. But what now today we still have that, right? So, it's still just food in front of us, and I would say Barnum was an influencer. Right? I mean, he wasn't a subject matter expert on the—the exhibits or the animals or the things that he brought. He wasn't a social anthropologist.
No, no, no.
He wasn't an archaeologist, but he just needed—he made it sexy. He made it—he made people want to come in and watch and get everyone in. So, and I think that's a—that's a good analogy for a lot of what happens on social media today, and how it is "Ego Driven Ops." Right? So, if I look at a lot what I've seen, people posting different stuff on everything that's going on around, and it's—it's almost sad to see some of it because, you know, you can tell that it's—they were influenced to put this on. Someone got in their head and said, "You like"—they didn't come up with this on their own. They said, "Oh, I'm going to share this because everyone else is doing this now." That's normal, right? We mimic human behavior. That's—I mimic human emotions because I don't have any, but...
But we all had a soul, you know what we were talking about. All of them, all of your friends that have a soul, they know. But you're the only one that's left out. But as humans, that's how we learn and fit into our environment because it's all about fitting in. One, to satisfy our ego.
Right, you're right on.
But it's—it's the identity of fitting in. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? It's—it's fitting in and retaining a part of the identity that you are a part of the group. That's where people don't go far enough, Brian. Sorry. So, how many times have you seen somebody that says, "Hey, I want to be a Goth because I want to fit in, but I want to be different. I—I want to do my hair in a Mohawk." "Well, I want to stick out from the crowd, but I want..."
That's a very important distinction.
Yeah.
Because that's actually, when people do that, it was like when I was in high school, it was kind of when the whole "Trench Coat Mafia" thing was going on. Right? And people were saying, "Oh, you're so young!" "I want to be different. I want to not be like everyone else on this," which is a normal part of society. We all have that. But, in my argument would be, those people, in fact, need to fit into a group more than anyone else because they actually need that identity more than the kid who just kind of keeps to himself or minds his own business or has different social groups that they hang out with. Right? Those of us who, yeah, "I want to fit in." They feel—they have that need, that desire to fit in more than anyone else, and so they're more likely to repeat what they've heard before or share something that they saw.
Exactly right. And you know that. If you know that, like P.T. Barnum knew people, Brian, if you could read that, then you can pull that thread and you can use that person to manipulate because people already know me, and they know that I'm a psychological and sociological manipulation expert. So, if I am involved, they're going to be suspect. But if Brian goes, "I know a guy, and he's the resident expert and this and that and the other," then all of a sudden, they assume immediately that it's credible. And then Brian says, "Well, you know who else said it? Greased Up Deaf Guy." Greased Up Deaf Guy said it. And then the next thing you know, somebody wants to—to chime in and be a part of it. And then what do we couple with ego, Brian? We couple either, "I'm going to have sex," or, "I'm going to make money." If we add any of those to that, people go, "How in the world did you not know that that person on the side of the street making arrests in the—in the sex trade industry wasn't a cop?" "How did you know?" "Because you didn't want to believe it." Why did you show up at a 15-year-old's house with a rape kit and a kidnapped kid? Yeah. And that guy, whatever that [expletive] guy is that made that TV show about it. Yeah, why do people do that? Your ego is so inflated during those moments that even though somebody goes, "It's a trick! It's a lie! It's a trap!" even though he comes out and goes, "Hey, I'm so-and-so," people don't believe it at first, do they, Brian? They're in denial at that first phase because you so bought into the illusion.
Yeah, of the reality. Oh, yeah, it did not. And that's another great example: one of denial, but of that everyone, remember, if anyone has watched the show Dateline NBC's To Catch a Predator—that's where—and these guys all show up and you're going like, "How do you walk into this and still some are still sitting there going like, 'No, no, it's cool, like, I'll sit down!'" Like, something you can immediately tell like, "Oh, something's up," and they're out of here or they're trying to leave, right? Where the others come in and like, "Yeah, no, what are you talking about? No, we were just going to hang out and talk." And you're going, "And that's a great point of 'Ego Driven Ops'." Right? We're so egotistical, all of us as human beings. Right? We—we all are. But, actually, my buddy—my buddy George, shout out to him, who's actually watching us on Facebook Live right now—was the one who introduced me to this thing that turned out to be a scam. Same thing. He was never selected to the final phase of targeting for these people either. Like I wasn't, you know. But what he asked a good question, he said, "Do you guys think that it's a lack of identity?" Meaning...
Yeah, yeah. So, let me speak what drives one person to need to fit into that group more than others. So, and this guy's name is George, and George, great to virtually meet you. And that's an excellent question. That's the right question to ask. Listen, the reason COVID bothers us so much is because it's changed our programming. We—we're creatures of habit. Human Behavior Pattern Recognition and Analysis comes from the pattern. So, we couldn't do the last two if we didn't have a pattern. And so, we love our patterns. We don't want to expend one extra calorie doing something. Now, all of a sudden, our daily regime is shaken up, and we can't do the things that we like to do. What's the worst insult of it? Is that we have to surrender our identity now by wearing a mask. We have to put a mask on, and that does the Heisman to our emotions and to how we read people. And, you know, I walk around all day going, "I'm smiling back here so they know that I'm not a threat," because here's Lothar the Giant coming after them. The idea is, your identity, your ego is so fragile, and you need to try to protect it in all circumstances. So, that's why people stay in domestic violence situations too long because they stay there and they go, "Yeah, I'm getting beaten, but it's only Thursday and Friday. The rest of the week he's nice to me." You're saying, "No way that can happen!" That happens every day in America. Well, then our identities are so fragile, we have to—we have to prop them up. Okay?
Because that goes into a lot of the ways we cope with things. You just brought up that specific example of a domestic violence situation or an abusive relationship where someone stays in. Right? And part of—part of that is they may see some, like you just said, "Well, yeah, but it's only Tuesdays and Thursdays." So, they're at such a level that they actually can see a light at the end of the tunnel. And this group goes into why we face some of the issues that we face today in our country. Right? So, compare the United States to like, let's say, living under like a brutal dictatorship in some of the places that we've gone and played in. Right? Yeah. The people there, no matter what's going on in their life, no matter what they're dealing with, whether that's their own personal issues, family issues, social issues, they have someone to blame it on. Right? They can—they can go, "Yeah, but if—if—if it wasn't for this guy in charge, you know, we would be able to be free, and I would be able to do this, and he's the reason for all of this." So, that does two things for me. One, I have someone to direct all of my anger, rage, frustration, and everything at. Right? I can project any—even my own personal issues—out of that person, and guess what? Everyone's going to agree with me because I'm living in a legitimate situation where this person is a horrible individual, and they're brutal in my society. And it gives me this—it gives me the light at the end of the tunnel. It gives me hope because I can go, "Well, if once they get rid of this guy, all of my problems are going to go away."
So, here's the issue now: what if you're—you still have all the same issues that person's dealing with in this situation, but you're not living under a brutal dictatorship, and some of those issues are fixable, you know, through your own hard work and diligence? You get what I'm saying? Right now, a little bit, because a lot of it comes from, I—we have to direct it towards somewhere. Right? That fragile ego system, the "Ego Driven Operations," I have to direct it, and I'm certainly not going to stand in front of the mirror and give myself a good look down and say, "Maybe I'm the problem." Right? You can't do that, Taylor Swift.
You cannot. And so, here—here's a way to—to couch that. My response, again, through science and through example. So, in a domestic violence situation that shows up at work, everybody's known of one. If you don't read the news, do your homework, but there was a rash of them all in a row when you and I were still traveling that happened at nail salons, just three or four in a row. And people were saying, "Is it the nail salon? It's the oil! He hates the oil cans!" or "the jerk Steven!" But no, what it is is that lack of control and that lack of identity. So, she or he said, "No, we're through. We're done. I'm out of here." And then that person that now was wrong—the—the violator, the bad person in that relationship that's beating her up and psychologically attacking her—says, "Okay, well, I've lost my identity because our roles are, you know, you have to cower, or it doesn't make sense that I'm punching you." So, the idea is that now that I've decided, "Well, I'm going to blow my brains out, but I'm going to kill you. And where am I going to kill you? I'm going to do it in front of your friends at work."
School shooters, same thing. School shooter doesn't go to somebody else's school, goes to their own school. You remember the rash of shootings in malls that lasted a couple years where every few months you saw the mall shooting? Why? Because, "I'm running with my friends at the mall, and I pull out a gun and look at all—hey, I'm in an arena! You know, people are looking at me! If I do that on the street, I might get shot, but if I do that at the mall, man, I'm grandstanding!" Grandstanding is an American thing. Other countries have it, but it's more of a Western cultural—it's very Western cultural. So, right now, not to take away from anybody that's involved in the protests across our nation, and the law enforcement that's doing the best they can, and the people of color that are saying, "You know, this is just another example." What's happened here is any pundit, anybody that—that is a feel-good, any "spilled milk" types (remember those "spilled milk" types? Fine, they got their ass—they're out or they're retired). Right? They're everywhere. But all of a sudden, they go, "Hey, remember me? Remember me when I had my 15 minutes of Andy Warhol-inspired glory? I'm going to come back and I'm going to jump on this!"
Brian, do you know that I'm against drowning? Drowning is a bad thing. And I will tell you another thing that AIDS, it's got to go, Brian! I'm done endorsing AIDS! It's got to—and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome for babies, and joking, I'm against that, too, Brian. I think that—that—that's horseshit that you're going to step up to get that platform to ride on somebody else's coattails and make a name for yourself. That's "Ego Driven Ops." And Brian, the opposite of "Ego Driven Ops" is "Ops Driven Ego." So, the news media actually fits in by—by stoking the flames because nobody's going to tune in to watch another cat food commercial, you know?
Well, the—you know, in this, I guess that that overarching theme of "Ego Driven Ops" can lead to, you know, "The Death of Expertise," or people looking for, "Hey, who's got the best ideas for this?" And it becomes who's the loudest one in the room. But we see that time—we just said, and those—those voices get quieted when someone else comes in, and those—those change. And then—and then the people that were there working on the issues all along are—are still there working on all the issues while the crowd and—and—and the attention goes somewhere else. But then how does that change, you know, how does this fit into what—what social media has shown us? Right? Because...
Oh, no, that's a great—that's a great question that—that is so spontaneous coming out of you because you're the social media guy, and you know, I don't know [expletive].
No, no, you know you don't know how to use it, and I—I keep telling you to stay away from it, clearly. But—but only because of your—it gives you a different perspective on it, and I would rather have that perspective of what you have of not knowing how this works and what it is so that's a new fight because that—because that gives you—it allows you as a human behavior subject matter expert to take a look at it objectively rather than going, "Well, when I'm on there, I do this." Like, no, you're going to have to literally figure out what the hell it is while the rest of us have just been glued to our phones for years, so we already—I have been in on the game for a while. So, what is it?
I'm the village idiot from a very small village, just so you know. I have no idea what LinkedIn is or how it works, although I have 5,000 people on it that are my members and follow it. I don't have a Facebook page, but apparently Arcadia does because we're live streaming on it, and it's best I stay off because I'll just break something.
But the idea is this, Brian, I would ask you this. For example, there are 10 million arrests in our country every year, at least, probably over that number, well over that number. Now, why do some come up to the top? Well, it's not unlike what I've seen when you introduce me to these social media concepts where you see something go viral. This is how old I am, folks: the last thing I saw go viral was "Gangnam Style," and I can still do the flip and dance, right?
Yeah.
So, and somebody had to show me that on their shoe phone. Yeah, but yeah, you've dealt with things in your life that have—that have gone viral. I—I've had certain viral things that I've had to get a paste or a save for, which is not fun, I might add. That's also streaming. But I want to tell you this: the quickest way for something to stream or go viral used to be that it was the expert in a room. So, you get a president or a leader or a doctor or somebody, right? A learned, sage, gray beard that would step up and go, "The one thing to remember about..." And people would come out with their notebooks. Okay. Now, it doesn't matter who you are, if you got a phone, if you got the Thunberg (reference to Greta Thunberg), if you walk out and stare at the sun for 15 minutes, somebody else films you, it's going to go viral because what people want now is distraction because they're tired of the—look, look at the average. I haven't watched news now in, I don't know how many—it's 11 weeks because I can't stand that there's a scroll across the top, scroll across the bottom, everything is in red, even the weather. Holy [expletive], it's going to rain tomorrow! And, you know, everybody's sitting in the back of their chairs. If you continue at that pace, you're going to die early because the amount of stress and anxiety that's built up in that, Brian, it comes from the social media. So, the—the balance has shifted, and they figured out now that the algorithm is the more outlandish, the more crazy, the more stupid that it becomes, the more people are going to watch it. And then when they talk about fake news—its existence or not—because both sides say it's there, and then both sides say it's not.
Yeah, that's all fake news. It's—it's driven ops. Fake news just seems to be anything people disagree with, is that...
Exactly. Exactly. But, but think about it, it's the ultimate definition of "Ego Driven Ops." Right? Alternatives. Our dear friend, Hillary Clinton—and Hillary, I—I love you, you should have stayed in politics. I've read everything that Hillary Clinton read or wrote, and a bunch of stuff that people wrote about her. But her European comment with the guy with the grenade and security team coming off the airplane. Yeah. And she turned and said, "It was a willful misrepresentation of the truth." Okay, greatest line by a human being acknowledging that they were talking out their ass, ever. And you remember, I think it was Brian Williams (newscaster) where the RPGs were flying. Oh, yeah. Okay, listen. I've been known not to let facts get in the way of a perfectly good story. Okay. But everybody knows, if—if we're coming out and we're telling tall tales that the fish is getting bigger, but those "Ego Driven Ops" are the reasons that people tune in. Do you think somebody tunes in to see what the other half is talking about? No, not unless you're a political analyst. You want to get in there and you want somebody to confirm your [expletive] opinion. That's why these insane television shows are out there about some goofy, you know, theory that somebody else has, and people are eating the popcorn watching it. Are you, Collier, going to get pissed if you're talking? By the way, my life has been threatened twice—my life has been threatened twice—about my Bigfoot and UFO things. Both about Bigfoot, never about UFO. But my latest trend is, if you watch the ghost hunting thing—ghost hunting is like coming out, but they get close. And you know what? They look at Jim's reaction, and Jim's going, "I'm scared crapless!" And they go, "Well, that's all the proof you need!" That's all. So, Brian, today, in my "Ego Driven Op," I'm going to come out against automobile fatalities. I think they're wrong. I—I don't think people should die in auto fatalities. Now, I'm not going to propose a solution. I'm not a member of the auto industry. I'm certainly not a subject matter expert on hazardous driving, but I'm against it. I'm against poisoning, too, in all its forms.
Well, and this is baby harp seals. So, sort of to circle back to kind of what social media has shown us is that it is exactly what it is. It's pure ego. And so, you have an emotional reaction to everything. And that's—that's what it's going to cause, which then—which means you have an emotional reaction to nothing.
That's what happened. That's what happened. You can't have it all because once you get it all, then you lose the other side of the coin. So, if you're going to be emotional about this and that and the other thing, then you might as well be emotional about nothing because it—it dampens the scales, Brian. And now we no longer have scales of justice. We no longer have empathy. We no longer have a true human emotion. What we have is, no matter what you say because you're on the wrong side of the aisle or the wrong side of the issue as I see it...
Well, and everything. Yeah. So, so that can break down into kind of, you know, how fast. Yeah, but it's basically group identity and tribalism and how we form these opinions, how they become solidified, and we lose some of our critical thinking ability. You know, it's always the—it's the Taylor Swift analogy I always use. But, you know, it's always I always try to look at, is maybe I'm wrong, or maybe I'm the problem, or maybe everything I thought on the subject was completely wrong. "Hey, Tyler, we'd love to have you on the show!" And then he goes back...
Huge fan, huge fan of T-Swift, by the way.
But that goes into then how we look at all the information. If you don't take the time to look at and go, "Well, wait a minute, what's the other side saying?" or "What am I wrong?" But what is also happening now, Greg, is—and we—we've talked about this before because it leads back to the other theme of this—this talk is "The Death of Expertise," where we all get an opinion, we all get a say, which is our rights under the Constitution. But—but not everyone's opinion is weighted equally. And one of the things that's come out of this is that people are saying, "Hey, if you don't get engaged or if you don't do this, that means you're this." So, yeah, you can't do that, which is look...
No, no, no. I don't know, but hang on real quick because I kept it general like that. It says, "Well, if you don't do this, that means this." All right? So, I'm keeping that very general so you can fill in whatever words you want into there.
You're right on.
But now that we call that—that's a quantum leap of logic. You can absolutely assume that I'm a racist because I didn't reshare your social media posts, and that's wrong, and that's intellectually [expletive] lazy, and stop doing it. And that's the issue. The second part of that. Okay, Turner Classic Movies last night, Brian, played Cabin in the Sky. I absolutely love it. It's a musical if you haven't seen it, but Turner Classic played it. So, did I buy into an accidental racial stereotype because I watched it and enjoyed it? Or was Turner Classic trying to promote a supremacist agenda? You know, I can't think that hard anymore. Holy [expletive]. I went down to my neighbor, Lanny—everybody knows I love my neighbor, Lanny, right down the hill—and I had a skin tag, and it changed colors recently. So, instead of going to a doctor, I figured, hell, you know, he's got a cell phone, I asked him what he thought. That's "The Death of Expertise." That's what we're doing right now is—is we're saying, "Well, this guy's cousin's uncle's brother," yeah, and we're going to devote the next half an hour to hearing what the hell he's got to say. Didn't we get into the habit of electing officials based on their knowledge? No, it's not. It's a popularity.
Yeah, but it can't be.
It can't be if we want our great nation to continue because we have thoughtful writers and artists and everybody in this—this, you know, we recently heard that again about the, "Oh, well, if this training is going to go anywhere, it's got to have a cultural component because when we go overseas..." Hey, listen, we've been war zones all over, and people understand a lot more than you think. And humans are humans wherever we go, and there's right and there's wrong, and there's gray areas, and you've got to avoid those. And there's certain terminology that—that is—it's closer to nature, and you've got to avoid those. So, come on, we're just...
And actually, I think some of the stuff in the U.S. would be better articulated as cultural differences versus skin color differences. I—I think. But that again isn't—is an easy way to simplify it, and that's the issue, is that that's not what we're trying to do.
No, no.
And that's what I mean, that's what I'm saying is that I think everyone's oversimplifying some of the issues that we're dealing with. They're heavily nuanced and complicated. So—so you can't then put blame on other people or say you—you're taking the same logic that the people that you're speaking out against are using, and you're using it yourself. And—and that's where the hypocritical thinking it comes into play that—that I can't stand. But the issue with all this, because I'm surrounded by it, right? I always tell people with social media, and whether you're on Twitter or Instagram or whatever, I hear people go, "Oh, it's so vile, it's this," and people are always saying the worst things about each other, and it's instant reactions. And I'm like, "Well, who the hell are you following on Twitter?" Because I go on there and I laugh my ass off all day long.
Well, that's it. Yeah, that's changed. That's changed now to—now I can't avoid it, and I'm—I'm like, can't even get on the phone and look at that stuff because people are having one—I—I think we're playing, as you would say, "loosey-goosey" with some of the terms we use. Right? Apparently, you know, people forgot the meaning of what a racist is. You and I have seen real racism before in some foreign countries where because you—you were a different ethnic group or you praised the same god but differently than I did, we're going to cut your jugular wide open in front of your whole village. So, we've seen what real racism is, and so—so I think we use these terms get—get diluted. Right? There's too much turbidity. Right? The water is nice, but anger is okay.
Yeah, it is okay.
But anger is absolutely necessary, Brian. If the tea kettle is on the stove and the tea kettle ramps up, it's going to whistle. The only way to get it not to whistle is remove the whistle.
Okay, whistler thing. Yeah, yeah, you can take that. Turn down the heat.
Yeah, so—so that two methods, that brings me to—to what I was getting at with everything that's out there, is—is how do we cope with it? Right? Meaning, like you just said, how do I turn the heat on? Because what some people will do when that teapot is whistling is they pull the whistle off. But the water's still boiling.
Right. Now...
Exactly. Just like these—but that's what you brought that up, is that, "Listen, you disagreed or you did this, so I'm firing you." And then they wait for the next response. Wait, wait a minute, that—that doesn't fix what was broken. Leadership is hugely responsible for almost every poor decision, which then leads into culture. Right? But leadership...
So, right, yeah.
Right, but leadership followed by training. We learned for the last 35 years that check-in-the-box training is a thing. We even call it check-in-the-box training, and Brian, not only has it been around forever—okay, Ooglak and Muktar were carved into a stone tablet, right? But the idea is that we even consider it a thing. It's like your rant on, "Think outside of the box." I want everybody to come back with these...
I did.
Yeah, and we both share this hate and this antipathy and this—this distrust of people that use these platitudes. Well, I've met—I've met like three people in my life that I think, "Yeah, that guy can think outside the box," because he's mastered everything else. You get what I'm saying? And most of the people that I know that think out of the box are masturbating idiots that are walking through, you know, knee-deep [expletive] singing and staring at the side. "Why do you care what I do?" What I do in my own personal time is my goodness. What I'm trying to say is, if you did nothing for the last 10 years about this issue, and this is where you drew the line, shame on you. If you said that my message of hate or death or fear is now out there for everybody to read, or I'm going to jump on the bandwagon because I haven't been heard from for a while, Corey Feldman, the idea is, shame on you. Okay? And I'll tell you what, I'll shame on you. Shelley, our CEO, her parents are—are still back in Michigan, and they're in their late 80s. Okay? And a mile from—from where Shelley grew up and from their house, there was looting and rioting and everything. And they were calling on the phone and they were crying. That's not fair. Bullies. Intellectual bullies, political bullies, any bully, any bully—cop bullies, okay? I was a cop for 27 years, shame on you if you are going to say, "This is how I'm going to live my life and everybody else be damned." That's an "Ego Driven Op," and it's wrong. It's the wrong approach. You got to step back and sociologically take a look at what you said or what you didn't say. The culpability is for all of us. If we look the other way, we're all counted, we're all responsible.
But, and that goes into, because that's my biggest issue, too, with some of this. Like, I've only been playing in this arena of—of human behavior and training and de-escalation strategies for like a decade. So, you've been doing it for like three-plus decades. So, one of the things is like, "Hey, hey, welcome to the party. The water's warm, the beer is cold. We've been here a while." Right? So, what happens is—is some of the issues get conflated, and we look at it. But what I did want to get to, what you started going on the path, was then, how—how am I supposed to cope with this? How am I supposed to sit there and go through a social media feed because—because I'll be honest, man, like, I—there's certain things that keep me up at night that shouldn't. And I'm sure you're the same way because we care and we're emotional about these things. I've had some conversations with a number of people who were also "in the fight," so to speak, especially, I mean, Shea Stadium, right? Of what keeps us up at night because we know we can—we know we're—we're all better than this, and we know what the answer is, and we know what training is, and we know what the real issues are. And it's—it's getting that across is very difficult because they're so—it goes back to the classic signal-to-noise ratio. Every problem in life is a signal-to-noise ratio. There's so much [expletive] noise out there. So, how do I vector in on the signal? And this brings me into the—to the question here: is how do I vector in on what that signal is that I should be listening to? But really what I'm saying is—is how do I cope with this? How do I—how do I deal with that? How do I understand and sense-make so that I'm not walking around stressed out because of the situation that's happening?
Yeah, so, since 1979, I've been saying, "Training changes behaviors." And I've been doing training everywhere that would have me that can put up with my egotistical fat ass or pay—or pay. Yeah, and trust me, there's a lot of ones that—that we did for "duty, honor, country" that nobody ever paid a dime for. Yeah. And the idea is that when you're out there and you have a job that other people like—like—like suicide, Brian. People say, "Why does a chiropractor, orthodontist—they gotta put some braces on—why does that person have a higher suicide rate than somebody else?" Because all that person does all day long is give somebody else pain. People don't come back with their great smile and go, "Look what you did for me!" People would rather say, "This hurts, this hurts!" And after a while, it gets to you, Brian. The same with being a soldier. You can't say, "I got PTSD because I survived COVID." Kiss my ass because there are scenes out there—there are people that Brian and I know—that you know, that folks that know us know that are non-functioning humans anymore because their emotional toll is full. They're full. They—they can't even function as an emotional human being anymore. And—and—and that's wrong. And we brought it to that state because with all of the advancements, what we haven't understood is that this area hasn't been allowed to advance, and if we allow that to catch up to where we are, Brian, by my calculations on the shoe phone, it'll take 1.8 million years of evolution for us to catch up to it. So, what's happening to us, Brian, is we're saying that we want to spearhead efforts without doing the research. We want to spearhead efforts without finding the answer.
I would say to you that this is what I would do: I would sit down and say, "I'm not going to take my own opinion on this. I'm going to research and study." Then I'm going to say, "If I'm going to research and study, I'm going to look at the greatest minds that are wrapped around this." For example, you're going to look at Monterey. Now, stop for a minute because Monterey has always voted red on an issue, and you're thinking green. Stop those. Take all those—those personal impressions out of it and say, "What's the bottom line?" And the bottom line of this issue and many companion issues is a lack of training. Is that I do not want to spend the money to train my personnel to be better, and I'm not going to give them a wage that's higher so they'll think better. Understand, people are saying that, and people are coming out. I know it's—so, you're going to get the hate, fear, and discontent all over the TV and social media, but even The New York Times is putting out this morning some actual numbers and facts about what cities have been doing this already and how well it's worked, meaning like with de-escalation strategies and training and all that stuff. But we always say, "Training changes behavior." And then we always—people are spouting off on the news because now it sucks, as we've been saying that for a long time. That's what we do for a living. But now it's an issue, but now everyone's talking about training, but I don't think everyone knows what that means. So, for everyone watching and listening, explain what you mean by training because education and training are two different things, too.
Distinctly. So, here's the education—here's the education, and Brian, I'm going right down to the street. We don't have the time on this broadcast, maybe on future broadcasts, but I'll tell you, I'm going to go right down to the street. So, the education part is, it's wrong because of a person's color, or their race, or where they live, or how much money they make, or that they're out of work, or that they're homeless. It's wrong to be a bully to that person and take advantage of that person and mean to them. That's wrong. That's education. Everybody should have that basic moral and ethical baseline as their education.
Now, training is putting somebody in a situation where you actually test that. So, now somebody comes up to you, and you put the people—we'll spitball this off the top of my head—put somebody at a kiosk. I'm standing there, Brian, I'm going to put you up there, and I'm going to come up, and I'm going to be the disgruntled, smelly hobo that's going to go, "Hey, I want to do..." Now, listen, if you haven't encountered that situation and you don't have a chief strategist that says, "Here are three ways to de-escalate the situation," and you haven't done it part task, which means this discussion that we're having right now about the different facets that would fall in, and then prac-app it (practically apply it) where you actually do it—you actually have that situation. You know, we were in law enforcement training 35 years ago, and there were shootings, and I would say, "Listen, you always got to try to render aid." "What are you talking about? I just shot the guy!" "Yeah, but you got to try to render aid, and you got to make sure that the person's handcuffed because if he can still fight, and you got to make sure that you get EMS on there, and you got to talk on your radio because nobody else knows what you know." I was doing those things, and everybody said, "You know what? You're an alarmist. It's hyper-paranoid." Now that's how training is done, Brian. So, so, so in the late '70s, when I was spouting this stuff, nobody was listening, and now everybody—that's how their model is. So, we have to get back to true training: the experiences that you're likely to encounter, not all of them, okay, but have them templated and prototypical enough that it's similar to one. So, when that situation happens on the ground, you go, "Holy crap, this is almost like scenario 5B!" Okay, where everybody's bailing out of the car, and the car is still rolling. Do I chase the subject, or do I stop the car before it kills somebody? And I want to...
So, yeah, the—the idea is that like we—our motto, "Training changes behavior," but education is important, and there's a lot of important, but it doesn't go far. There's a difference between education and training. I think a lot of people, what they think is they're putting into a training program is really just an education program. It really is because there are a lot of platitudes and lip service, and that's what I—I hate about what we're seeing with a lot of people getting on board with this. Look, everyone right now, your anger or frustration, all of that is completely legitimate. You have every right and reason to feel that way and be pissed. Absolutely. And so—so I get that. Trust me, I'm a—I am a walking case study on mental health. So—so I understand all of that.
That's so true.
But—but and a few other things. But where that—where that gets into is that is where do we direct it then? Because if that's all I'm doing, and that's all I go through with my Facebook or Instagram feed and see all this and see that, how do I not have that emotional reaction? Where should I direct all that to? Because I learned a lot about the right question. So, a lot of what I look at this—at it as, too, is it's the—it's the, when I've said it on here before, it's the person when you're waiting for your flight, and your flight's delayed, who's standing up there yelling at the gate agent because how is it his fault that your plane is delayed? Right? It's that same—that same anger. Right? So, because now I can tell you why that person's doing it: they're upset because their—their flight's delayed. They had other plans, they're going to miss those, they're going to miss some connecting flight. It's going to change their whole trip. And where—where do they have to do it? They have to direct that anger somewhere, so it's the closest representation I have of who's—of why I'm going to—this is the guy in front of me saying, "Back, back, back!" Or it's the person at the kiosk where in the brand...
And you're exactly right. Listen, you can't say "Airplane!" enough, Brian. Old reference if you know what I'm talking about. And here's—here's the problem with this. Folks, we—we charge a lot of money, but—but it's worth it. It's a lot more fun than these podcasts, apparently. But we—we go into an agency and, you know, an average like even a security check now from places anywhere from 18 grand to 50 grand depending on how deep they want to get and all this stuff. And you go in there, and the very first thing that strikes me, because I—I don't do the cameras and all that other stuff, I do mental health issues underground from the perspective of human behavior and human performance. And everybody will say, "Do you see that sign? You know what that is? That's our mission statement! Got to have a mission statement!" So, I'll go up to the janitor that's working on the third floor and I'll go, "Hey, what's our mission?" Back in the day, do you know what I'm saying? I say, "Hey, do me a favor, recite me the—the top three tenets of the business's mission statement." And nobody knows. You cannot fix this with old methods. Do you remember when, speaking of airplanes, do you remember when we went to a certain organization and then we gave them the breakdown of their own company logo and no one had any idea of that's what they all asked, "Where—where did you find that?" And it was like, "Well, that was on your website, the history of your agency." Exactly. And—and those are the types of things that I'm saying, Brian, look, you can't fault a person for doing a move that they've been taught in the academy, and they've done on the road for 15 years, and now in this one situation that something happens, you—you—you can't fault—and now, listen, okay, you can say you were wrong, and—and you can stay, are you accountable for your actions? And because you're accountable for everything that you do and everything. But that's a two-way street. But unless it's criminal, you can't say it's a crime. Now, maybe criminally negligent, but we're not talking about that. What we're talking about is, you see that and let's let this guy out of the car. Now, everybody gets a pass. Everybody gets a free ticket for what's going on. There's been thousands of arrests that are going on that have nothing to do with the protest. People are still tuning up their old lady or their husband. People are still committing homicides, and it's terrible. Yeah. And a lot of that is carryover from the COVID, and a lot of that is because people are out of work. Brian, we're out of work. Okay, we're doing our best. Training: the lights are going (out). Do you get what I'm trying to say? But we understand the frustration, and I'm not trying to diminish how the emotional toll is, but I'm saying if you don't have a plan that's "if-then," the scientific method. If I have to decide, I'm deciding with this. And don't just pay for an issue. Don't just send money to the Red Cross because of what's going on, or to a police agency. If you're going to have money and you're going to put it together, say, "I am going to bestow this amount of money, but I want it used for police training." And don't—don't say that you want a specific type of training. Say that you want de-escalation training and use-of-force training. Those are very, very important things. What are the grants for, Brian? Because there's 50,000 people dying on the roadways because of drunk driving. You can get a grant for any drunk driving program. You can get a grant for any seatbelt program. Yeah. How—how come somebody didn't come from one of them picket lines and say, "We want a grant program for the training for our agency"? And somebody's going, "Yeah, we have that." Yeah, you have that for liquor enforcement, but do you have that for de-escalation and use of force? If you're starting at bang, Brian, you're starting too late.
Well, that—that's what we fall back on, too, and that's our whole thing: is the whole "Left of Bang" mindset and thinking. But when we look at these issues, right, we go, "Okay, how do we fix that right there?" And—and then we go, "All right, well, because like everyone's like, 'All right, every police agency is saying, All right, well, we're no longer doing these neck restraints, and we're no longer doing this, and we're going to change the way that...'" But that's still—you're still looking at it at the incident. And what we're saying is, you have to take an entirely different approach. Come back that approach, come back, step back and look at all of the contributing factors that lead this and then—and then get all the—get all the big-brain researchers. Now, it's going to be next month, next year.
Well, yeah.
That's what I'm saying is, you're looking at—they're looking at tactics, techniques, and procedures, and what we're saying is, you have to change the way you actually understand and look at the situation as a whole and get farther left on that timeline before the incident. And then I even say then, because—because there's people that go even farther left than we do. Meaning, "Hey, you need to—we need better education starting at the first grade," and first...
Yeah.
Because that's where it starts, and we're going, "Yes!" Exactly. The farther left you go is where it starts, and if you don't have that strategy upfront from all the way back then, where that person is this tall, or just starting at the police academy, or just starting with—if you don't start it there, you're never going to—you're always going to have these incidents. No institutional memory, no culture, no compassion.
Brian, you know my—my close personal connection with Fulton County, Georgia, and you know, Fani Willis is running for the—the prosecuting attorney down there. And—and they've had a recent scrum where the officers did things, and the chief of police rightly stepped in and—and—and fired those folks. But then the next day, they were criminally charged, and the chief of police came out saying, "Wait a minute, I understand the firing, but I don't understand the criminal charge. Let's not politicize this." How many issues are issues because they're political issues that were coming into election? Stop that. You're not doing anybody any favors, and these big knee-jerk, big muscle motions to get things done, we're only going to weaken the fabric of our nation. This is not our first rodeo. We've been trying this before, but we can't use these old, dark-tested methods. And that's why our education system blows. That's why, you know, fluoride might be good for you and it might not. We have to look to the future and say, "How are we going to—what do we want that to look like?" The future we want for our children. And Brian, the old methods haven't worked. Historically, they've been laboriously slow, but we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. There's some of the methods that work perfectly here, here, and here.
That's like, so I obviously used to think that way when I was a lot younger, right? Being, "Oh, this is all [expletive] up. We got to completely change this, you know, this is so good." And it's like, "Wait a minute, you're throwing out all of the lessons learned."
Yes. And now you're 35, and you're going, "Hey, my parents are still alive, and look, I'm still living in their basement!" You can't do that. You—because that's just another way of you showing that it's ego-driven.
Oh, actually, one of the—one of the guys, Anthony, who's—who's following along on the Facebook Live, because, you know, I was just about to say, it is his—he put it, "Temporary fix is not permanent." And I always think it's—that's true, or offering—we're offering short-term solutions to long-term problems. That's what we do with suicide. Listen, we're doing the same thing with suicide. We're saying, "Hey, we need an intervention." But we're not going over here to do the intervention, we're doing the intervention at bang. And that's okay. That's like an AED. That's like teaching your kid the Heimlich. That's needed right now. That's not going to help anything in the long run, and it's not going to shape the future. You're going to say, "Less people will die because we have the Heimlich maneuver." Yeah, but it's not going to stop people from overeating and taking a big chunk of salad—or salad. Like, I eat salad, but you get what I'm trying to say?
You're always—you're always choking down kale salad. Right? Listen, you know there's a new thing on your phone where it says the cognitive approach to this and that, any other. Listen, at the bottom of it, it says, "As long as you do a balanced diet and exercise." We know what's best for us. We know smoking is bad. We know being fat is bad for your heart, yet we continuously choose outside advice that—that says, "Well, maybe it's not that bad." Why? "Ego Driven Ops," Brian. We have to stop doing it. We have to identify the problems and—and create a solution, and that solution has to include training.
Yeah, I—I think, I know we've got another wicked smart psychologist coming on—coming out in 30 minutes.
Yeah, about 45 minutes.
And—and we'll—we can do that. But for everyone listening to the recording of this, I—I think we can—can kind of bring it in for a little bit of a landing. And that overarching theme of "Ego Driven Ops," right, is—is a great way to look at this. Is a lot of our operations, or for—for the layman's term, I guess, outside of the training world, a lot of our behavior, right, is ego-driven. Right? So, we're very ego-fragile individuals. I don't care who you are or how "Billy Badass" you think you are and what you're doing, you—we—we all fall into that. And so, we—we get this emotional reaction to things that we likely shouldn't.
But I'm sure you're not a contributing factor. Make sure that you're not a contributing factor. I think that's kind of a good spot to bring it in for a landing on. But if you're—if you're watching us on Facebook Live right now, we actually will be back on in 45 minutes with someone a lot smarter than me, that's Fox Martin on both of us put together. So, we'll have Fulton County vote for Fani. We'll—we'll get—we'll get her opinion on a few things. But other than that, I think that's a good place to wrap. Don't forget that training changes behavior.