Name: Douglas Murray Clarifies the Idea of Being "Lucky"
Uploaded: 2022-04-22T17:48:51.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Douglas Murray Clarifies the Idea of Being "Lucky"' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-04-22. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Douglas Murray Clarifies the Idea of Being "Lucky"' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2022-04-22. Transcript available.

the Joe Rogan experience you must get this a lot of people people say things
like I know oh I do that I do this in a kind of self-deprecating way I often
say
well I've been lucky and this yeah and you know very well that some you know a
lot of life is luck for sure some of life is luck a lot being in the right
place at the right time being able just being able-bodied but then a lot of it
is and it's underplayed is is you also work hard yes like and I realize
some time ago that I use because I'm born in Britain I I have that natural
tendency to like under place and then well I'm just lucky in that and somebody
said we should you shouldn't do that you know you do work very hard and I
thought
yes but like saying what I've been lucky in that is a nice way to say to other
people oh I haven't really had any input and you don't need to particularly I
it's
a sort of it's an it's a flattering thing to say to somebody else and which ignores
which ignores what something I say I quote at the end of the book wonderful
phrase
of Branch Ricci I came across we said luck is the residue of design mmm luck is
the
residue of design like what a lot of what we call luck it has come about
through
through something other than chance like so I used to say you're lucky to be
born in
America and on one level that's true which is like you could have been born in
in the
great pool things you could have been born born in Mogadishu and be a lot worse
but
but there's also something it covers up which is the luck is is that people
before you made good
choices that meant that you are in a situation which is more optimal and it's
not simply luck
that you have in America the right to freedom of speech like that's not simply
luck it's luck in that
you were born here as opposed to Mogadishu but it's not luck that America ended
up with that situation
it is it is the residue of design it's the consequence of men and women making
good decisions
prudent decisions like not being crazily short termist setting up a state well
you know there's a great
description in a novel by Hilary Mantel about the French Revolution in the
first days of the meeting
the parliament after they've killed the king and she says you know they wanted
to talk about rights
she said she says I'm paraphrasing she says something like this was the day to
talk about
laws but rights were more attractive to talk about so they put off the
discussion of laws for another day
you know and that's how you get what you got in the terror and everything else
and this is the thing is
that what you we have to find a better way to understand what we often mean by
luck you have
luck in your life sometimes because other people have made good judgments that
are effectively for you
before your time yeah you know your politicians your family and others it's not
just it's not just some
wild whirligig it's also make prudent decisions make wise decisions work hard
and a lot more
and you'll find that you are what we call lucky or luckier don't do any of that
stuff put everything off
all the time be lazy be um unmotivated um you know blame other people all the
time uh for things that are
things you could correct yourself and you will find you are the type of person
that is described as
unlucky it's it's it's it's and it's the same with countries there are
countries we describe as
unlucky like venezuela was like they weren't just unlucky they had the people
are fucking unluckiest
people in the world at the moment practically but like it became a and what we
would call an unlucky
country because politicians made catastrophic decisions you know they have yet
they have the same energy
sources uh same energy resources as norway it's it's better to be in norway
than in venezuela
and there's a reason which is the people made better decisions and we we're
very
unwilling to identify what those decisions are and what it is that leads to a
good outcome or a bad
outcome which is really strange because american exceptionalism was always predicated
on the idea
that you work hard and you can make something in this country there was a big
part of the motto of what
what it meant to be an american yeah