"Everybody has this innate desire to be a part of something much bigger than themselves. I think that's why they join religions. I think that's why they join gangs. I think that's why they join political parties and movements. Because you feel like this little microscope dot in the universe, but, what's the meaning of life?" — Randy Gage
Why do we resort to tribalism in politics, religion, and our views about wealth and prosperity?
From religion to politics to our views on prosperity -- so many of our choices are influenced by our programming which may or may not have pushed us into making our “tribal” choices without true critical thinking.
Curt Mercadante interviews Randy Gage, a thought-provoking critical thinker who will make you approach your business — and your life — in a whole new way. Randy is the author of 14 books translated into 25 languages, including his recent worldwide best seller, Radical Rebirth.
He has spoken to more than 2 million people across more than 50 countries and is a member of both the Speakers Hall of Fame and the Direct Selling Hall of Fame. When he is not prowling the podium or locked in his lonely writer’s garret, you’ll probably find him playing 3rd base for a softball team somewhere.
This episode originally aired in February 2020.
FULL RAW TRANSCRIPT OF THIS EPISODE:
[00:00:00] Randy Gage: Everybody has this innate desire to be a part of something much bigger than themselves. I think that's why they joined religions. I think that's why they joined gangs. I think that's why they joined political parties and movements because you feel like this little microscope mic microscopic.in the universe, but, uh, what's the meaning of life.
[00:00:30] Curt Mercadante: Hey there. This is Curt Mercadante. With another edition of freedom media network. We are here with prosperity guru, Randy Gage of prosperity factor. He's working on his 14th book two times, New York times bestseller keynote speaking hall of fame, Randy. Thanks so much for joining us. Great to be on. Hi, Randy.
[00:00:47] So this is the freedom media network. I have a t-shirt that I'm gonna give to you a little bit later, but the, the only set question I ever ask my guests is this the word freedom. what does the word freedom mean to you? [00:01:00]
[00:01:00] Randy Gage: Choices, I think is what comes to mind and what, what freedom gives you choices. . So if you're free, you can go where you wanna go.
[00:01:10] You can go to school where you want shop, where you want travel, where you want, uh, vote, who and what you would want. If we talk about financial freedom, then you have the choices of the kind of home you wanna live in the, where you'd send your kids to school. Uh, it's always gonna come. Ultimately I think it always comes down to choices, choices, having choices.
[00:01:34] Curt Mercadante: It's interesting. I told someone recently, You know, we're, we're bringing along this freedom media network. And first thing out of his mouth was, oh, is it a right wing thing? I said, well, no. Why? Well, cuz it's got the word freedom. Why do you think that is all of a
[00:01:46] Randy Gage: sudden that I think they've been very effective at hijacking that word.
[00:01:52] Interesting. They've been able to hijack freedom and religion. yeah. You know, they have a trademark on God, [00:02:00] Jesus. Right, right. You know, morality, you know, they they've done a good job with their tribe. Uh, kind of co-opting those issues, I think. And every,
[00:02:13] Curt Mercadante: when I say effective, I'm about to use the word effective.
[00:02:16] I don't, I'm not making a value judgment of whether they're doing good, any effective tribe. Does something
[00:02:22] Randy Gage: similar though, right? Yeah. You've got to, uh, you've gotta create some kind of a, a movement that is everybody has. My belief is anyway that everybody has this innate desire to be a part of something much bigger than themselves.
[00:02:41] I think that's why they joined religions. I think that's why they joined gangs. I think that's why they joined political parties and movements, uh, because. you feel like this little microscopic mic microscopic.in the universe, but right. Uh, and what's the meaning of life [00:03:00] picking the kids to soccer practice and I'm paying the bills and binge watching something on Netflix and what is my life all about?
[00:03:07] And now when somebody comes along and says, Hey, you could be in the gang or you could be in the cult or you could be in the religion. It, it gives people a sense of.
[00:03:19] Curt Mercadante: when can that be good? And when does it get dangerous?
[00:03:23] Randy Gage: Well, it's always a double edged sword, always. And, and, you know, the. When you say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts.
[00:03:32] Absolutely. There's might not be any truer words spoken since the Earth's crust cooled, right? Lordon yeah. It's just because that's like, if you look at where we're at in the United States right now, we're at that point where most democracies start to blow. Hmm. Uh, they seem to have a run of a little over 200 years and then they have [00:04:00] evolved or devolved into a two party system.
[00:04:03] So, uh, call it liberal conservative, Republican Democrat. Doesn't matter. The labels are irrelevant. They. Democracies evolve or devolve into two parties, and then you have a party in power. Yeah. And they wanna stay in power. So what they've gotta do is promise things, give things. So they're gonna say, okay, we're doing free education.
[00:04:28] Now you have a party who's not in power and they desperately want to regain power. So they say, okay, we're gonna give free education and free. He. and then the other party say, okay, we're doing free education, free healthcare and free prescriptions. And then the other one has to be free education, free healthcare, free prescriptions and Disney plus and Netflix.
[00:04:50] right. Yeah. And because, you know, the, the, the only free cheese is in the mouse trap, but [00:05:00] everybody's always looking for free cheese. Yeah. And what happens with. Tribes and cults and, you know, you've read my blog, you've read my books. You know, I see religion and cults as one and the same, and they use those same kind of tactics and then the inclusion and the exclusion.
[00:05:20] And it can be a really positive thing. If, uh, you look at what the Mormons do when there's a hurricane or a earthquake or something, and they just drop their lives, they jump in their cars, they travel to whatever the area is and they just go and rebuild houses and bring food and provide medical care and do amazing, you know, beautiful stuff.
[00:05:43] That's the good side of being in a religion. Yeah. And then the bad side is the people who give up their critical thinking ability, give up their identity. Develop all the worthiness issues. Think they're born a sorry, sin, or, you know, whatever the limiting belief of that [00:06:00] particular, um, uh, faith is. So it's always a double edge sword.
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