1
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000
Downloaded from
YTS.MX

2
00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000
Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

3
00:00:22,109 --> 00:00:25,025
[upbeat jazz music]

4
00:00:25,155 --> 00:00:27,288
JOHN WALKER:
A female colleague posed
the question recently,

5
00:00:33,946 --> 00:00:36,036
It got me thinking.

6
00:00:36,166 --> 00:00:38,603
Trusting to serendipity,
I stepped into my favourite

7
00:00:38,734 --> 00:00:40,736
bookstore where the muses
often guide me.

8
00:00:43,782 --> 00:00:46,872
After scanning the shelves,
destiny did reward me.

9
00:00:47,003 --> 00:00:48,961
Assholes: A Theory.

10
00:00:50,137 --> 00:00:51,964
I immediately took it to
the checkout counter.

11
00:00:55,707 --> 00:00:58,406
Within days I met with the
author Aaron James,

12
00:00:58,536 --> 00:01:01,626
philosophy professor and
life-long Californian surfer.

13
00:01:01,757 --> 00:01:03,889
I wanted to know what
inspired his book.

14
00:01:07,545 --> 00:01:11,114
AARON JAMES:
So while I was surfing here
I saw a guy surfing who was

15
00:01:11,245 --> 00:01:13,421
blatantly dropping in on
some of the other surfers,

16
00:01:13,551 --> 00:01:16,076
violating the rules of right
of way, and this person,

17
00:01:16,206 --> 00:01:18,252
when people would complain,
would get really angry and

18
00:01:18,382 --> 00:01:20,384
yell at them as a way
of getting waves.

19
00:01:22,734 --> 00:01:24,780
Surfers are definitely used
to having paradise spoiled

20
00:01:24,910 --> 00:01:26,782
by crowds and the asshole
spoils it in

21
00:01:26,912 --> 00:01:28,305
a particularly
pronounced way.

22
00:01:29,915 --> 00:01:31,961
When I'm thinking this
guy is an asshole,

23
00:01:32,092 --> 00:01:35,182
I'm not just venting feelings,
I'm classifying him as of

24
00:01:35,312 --> 00:01:37,401
a certain type of
moral personality.

25
00:01:37,532 --> 00:01:40,404
When you use that word,
you're thinking of a type

26
00:01:40,535 --> 00:01:42,711
and Philosophers get interested
in this kind of thing.

27
00:01:42,841 --> 00:01:44,930
But, then when I started
thinking it through the,

28
00:01:45,061 --> 00:01:46,497
about the asshole concept,
I thought,

29
00:01:46,628 --> 00:01:48,282
"Oh, well, can't you
define the term?

30
00:01:48,412 --> 00:01:50,022
Isn't that a definable
term?"

31
00:01:50,153 --> 00:01:51,894
At that point, I started
thinking ok,

32
00:01:52,024 --> 00:01:53,678
this really a general
type, you know,

33
00:01:53,809 --> 00:01:56,159
it's not just a surfer
asshole concept.

34
00:01:57,508 --> 00:02:00,381
[saxophone music]

35
00:02:05,603 --> 00:02:08,693
MAN:
There seems to be a lot more
assholes this year than any

36
00:02:08,824 --> 00:02:10,913
other year, especially
in the public eye.

37
00:02:20,705 --> 00:02:22,229
I'm not sure what's
going on,

38
00:02:22,359 --> 00:02:25,101
but we're overwhelmed
this year anyways.

39
00:02:31,325 --> 00:02:34,328
JOHN WALKER:
We're doing a film based on the
book, Assholes: A Theory

40
00:02:34,458 --> 00:02:35,938
and the author's saying,
you know-

41
00:02:36,068 --> 00:02:38,070
MAN:
It's just not a theory,
it's a reality.

42
00:02:38,201 --> 00:02:39,289
It's a reality?

43
00:02:39,420 --> 00:02:41,596
Oh come on now, it's out
there. It's reality.

44
00:02:41,726 --> 00:02:45,295
The asshole as I define it is
the guy who allows himself

45
00:02:45,426 --> 00:02:47,167
special advantages in
cooperative life out of an

46
00:02:47,297 --> 00:02:48,864
entrenched sense
of entitlement

47
00:02:48,994 --> 00:02:50,431
that immunizes
him against the

48
00:02:50,561 --> 00:02:52,172
complaints of other
people.

49
00:02:52,998 --> 00:02:56,132
AIMEÉE MORRISON:
It's a great word to say,
"What an asshole."

50
00:02:56,263 --> 00:02:58,961
He's the guy who cuts in line
at the post office,

51
00:02:59,091 --> 00:03:01,529
taking a special advantage,
in cooperative life.

52
00:03:01,659 --> 00:03:04,184
You know, people are waiting in
line and they'll allow someone

53
00:03:04,314 --> 00:03:06,011
in for if they have
an emergency

54
00:03:06,142 --> 00:03:07,839
or if it's a pregnant
woman, right?

55
00:03:07,970 --> 00:03:10,494
But this guy does it, takes
a special advantage

56
00:03:10,625 --> 00:03:12,192
for a different reason.

57
00:03:12,322 --> 00:03:14,411
You know, out of a sense
of entitlement.

58
00:03:14,542 --> 00:03:16,370
"Asshole," you can really
lean into it right?

59
00:03:16,500 --> 00:03:18,110
"That guy is such
an asshole."

60
00:03:18,241 --> 00:03:20,200
And it could be any sense
of entitlement.

61
00:03:20,330 --> 00:03:23,290
He thinks he's rich and his time
is more important than other

62
00:03:23,420 --> 00:03:26,423
people, or he thinks he's
especially smart or beautiful.

63
00:03:26,554 --> 00:03:28,338
The euphony of the
word, right?

64
00:03:28,469 --> 00:03:31,776
It just feels good to say,
it sounds good to say.

65
00:03:31,907 --> 00:03:34,301
And the upshot of his being
entrenched in that sense

66
00:03:34,431 --> 00:03:36,520
of entitlement is that he
won't listen to others

67
00:03:36,651 --> 00:03:38,740
when they complain.

68
00:03:38,870 --> 00:03:41,351
ROBERT HOCKETT:
It was especially nice when he
added the word "entrenched."

69
00:03:41,482 --> 00:03:42,961
An entrenched sense
of self entitlement,

70
00:03:43,092 --> 00:03:44,659
that this is an
abiding problem.

71
00:03:44,789 --> 00:03:47,052
That it is a sort of
deeply, it's very,

72
00:03:47,183 --> 00:03:49,925
it sort of goes down into the
bones almost of the person

73
00:03:50,055 --> 00:03:51,709
who has the problem.

74
00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:53,581
PAUL PURCELL:
It's generally somebody
who says,

75
00:03:53,711 --> 00:03:57,019
"Let's talk about my favourite
thing, me," generally, right.

76
00:03:57,149 --> 00:03:59,587
"Me, me, me, me."

77
00:03:59,717 --> 00:04:03,068
SHERRY BENSON-PODOLCHUK:
The entitlement that,
"I'm more important than you.

78
00:04:03,199 --> 00:04:07,159
What I do is more important than
you. Your feelings don't count.

79
00:04:07,290 --> 00:04:10,206
You don't count. Your
work doesn't count."

80
00:04:10,337 --> 00:04:13,644
Assholes also like to
take all the credit.

81
00:04:13,775 --> 00:04:16,778
There's a teaming asshole
ecosystem and in it there are

82
00:04:16,908 --> 00:04:20,172
many different species,
many different varieties.

83
00:04:20,303 --> 00:04:22,740
For example, the boorish
asshole,

84
00:04:22,871 --> 00:04:26,353
the smug asshole, the
self-aggrandizing asshole.

85
00:04:26,483 --> 00:04:29,051
There's drunk assholes,
arrogant assholes,

86
00:04:29,181 --> 00:04:32,315
smug assholes, narcissistic
assholes.

87
00:04:32,446 --> 00:04:34,274
Well you gotta kind
of be a narcissist

88
00:04:34,404 --> 00:04:36,014
to be an asshole
anyways.

89
00:04:36,145 --> 00:04:38,190
The sexist asshole,
the reckless asshole.

90
00:04:38,321 --> 00:04:39,844
At work, there's
the asshole boss.

91
00:04:39,975 --> 00:04:41,063
There's mumbling assholes.

92
00:04:41,193 --> 00:04:43,718
They'll do it behind the
curtains or they won't be

93
00:04:43,848 --> 00:04:46,416
an asshole to your face, but
they'll have no problem doing

94
00:04:46,547 --> 00:04:48,157
it to everybody else
when they're around.

95
00:04:48,288 --> 00:04:49,941
We have the cable
news asshole.

96
00:04:50,072 --> 00:04:53,118
With social media, we have the
Facebook asshole and you know,

97
00:04:53,249 --> 00:04:57,949
on the road of course, there's
the old guy driving a Porsche,

98
00:04:58,080 --> 00:05:00,735
swerving through three lanes
of traffic asshole as well.

99
00:05:00,865 --> 00:05:03,868
There's no shortage. Out of any
kind of person in the world,

100
00:05:03,999 --> 00:05:05,566
there's more descriptive
kinds for an asshole

101
00:05:05,696 --> 00:05:07,307
to a normal person,
really.

102
00:05:07,437 --> 00:05:10,832
So, we're blessed I guess
with many kinds. [laughs]

103
00:05:10,962 --> 00:05:13,182
KEVIN:
You are a fucking asshole,
Frank.

104
00:05:13,313 --> 00:05:15,619
FRANK:
That I am, never denied it.

105
00:05:17,142 --> 00:05:19,536
But at least I'm an
honest asshole.

106
00:05:20,711 --> 00:05:22,887
DARTH HELMET:
I knew it, I'm surrounded
by assholes!

107
00:05:23,627 --> 00:05:28,066
Sometimes in comedy behaving a
bit like an asshole can be

108
00:05:28,197 --> 00:05:31,113
funny, we can laugh at that,
because it's not really serious.

109
00:05:31,243 --> 00:05:32,984
[paper tears loudly]

110
00:05:34,638 --> 00:05:36,205
MICHAEL PALIN:
Dad, what are
you doing?

111
00:05:38,642 --> 00:05:40,731
MAD DOG:
You gutless yellow
pie slinger!

112
00:05:44,561 --> 00:05:46,171
MARTY MCFLY:
He's an asshole!

113
00:05:46,302 --> 00:05:48,348
LARRY DAVID:
Well, I'm going to
call the Police.

114
00:05:52,482 --> 00:05:55,616
JOHN WALKER:
Assholes in Aaron's book
and in the movies, yes,

115
00:05:55,746 --> 00:05:59,054
but I needed to investigate
their impact in the real world.

116
00:05:59,184 --> 00:06:01,361
So I hit the
streets of LA.

117
00:06:01,491 --> 00:06:03,058
JOHN WALKER:
Where are you from?

118
00:06:03,188 --> 00:06:04,755
WOMAN:
Mexico. I'm from Mexico.

119
00:06:04,886 --> 00:06:07,149
And do you have
assholes in Mexico?

120
00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:09,151
Yeah, of course we do.

121
00:06:09,281 --> 00:06:12,110
I believe that all countries
have assholes.

122
00:06:12,241 --> 00:06:14,635
I mean there's not one
country that you can say

123
00:06:14,765 --> 00:06:17,464
that there are not
assholes at all.

124
00:06:17,594 --> 00:06:20,728
WOMAN:
Privileged behaviour
is on the rise

125
00:06:20,858 --> 00:06:25,123
and people seem to think

126
00:06:25,254 --> 00:06:28,953
that it's ok to say and
do almost anything.

127
00:06:29,084 --> 00:06:32,304
They treat folks like
they're invisible

128
00:06:32,435 --> 00:06:35,917
and I think it's
so unfortunate.

129
00:06:36,047 --> 00:06:38,180
JOHN WALKER:
Have you had to deal
with assholes?

130
00:06:38,310 --> 00:06:40,704
MAN:
All the time. Everywhere
you go you have to.

131
00:06:40,835 --> 00:06:42,445
You have no choice.

132
00:06:42,576 --> 00:06:45,143
MAN:
There is assholes everywhere
like I told you.

133
00:06:45,274 --> 00:06:47,319
Yeah, every place.

134
00:06:47,450 --> 00:06:48,973
JOHN WALKER:
You ever come across any?

135
00:06:49,104 --> 00:06:51,149
Uhhh...Not today.

136
00:06:53,543 --> 00:06:57,547
MAN:
I work in construction so
everybody is a fucking asshole.

137
00:06:57,678 --> 00:07:00,332
WOMAN:
I had an asshole fiancé. Yes.

138
00:07:01,508 --> 00:07:04,119
He didn't appreciate
me, so.

139
00:07:04,249 --> 00:07:06,208
JOHN WALKER:
What did you do?

140
00:07:06,338 --> 00:07:07,775
I flushed him down the toilet.

141
00:07:07,905 --> 00:07:09,516
WOMAN:
Goodbye!

142
00:07:10,865 --> 00:07:13,215
JOHN WALKER:
You have to deal with this
behaviour yourself?

143
00:07:13,345 --> 00:07:16,044
Like have you come
across it?I'm a big black guy.

144
00:07:16,174 --> 00:07:18,525
Most people don't bother me,
you know what I mean?

145
00:07:18,655 --> 00:07:21,005
If I look just
without smiling.

146
00:07:21,136 --> 00:07:23,094
WOMAN:
Well I think that
starts at home.

147
00:07:23,225 --> 00:07:25,662
It starts in the
beginning.

148
00:07:25,793 --> 00:07:28,665
Today's people
think it's ok

149
00:07:28,796 --> 00:07:31,015
that they don't have to
listen to nobody.

150
00:07:31,146 --> 00:07:32,800
If they don't respect
their parents,

151
00:07:32,930 --> 00:07:34,366
they not gonna respect
anyone else.

152
00:07:34,497 --> 00:07:36,107
That's the way
I look at it.

153
00:07:38,283 --> 00:07:40,590
JOHN WALKER:
I met psychotherapist,
Suji Gelerman at home

154
00:07:40,721 --> 00:07:42,810
on a break from
her LA office.

155
00:07:42,940 --> 00:07:46,509
I asked her if LA was a
fertile ground for assholery.

156
00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:48,598
SUJI GELERMAN:
Where are the assholes?

157
00:07:48,729 --> 00:07:52,384
Well, Hollywood has a large
percentage of assholes.

158
00:07:52,515 --> 00:07:54,125
MIRANDA:
You're an asshole!

159
00:07:54,256 --> 00:07:55,866
JIM:
I'm the asshole?
She's the asshole!

160
00:07:55,997 --> 00:07:58,216
She never called me once
after we broke up.

161
00:07:58,347 --> 00:07:59,914
CARRIE:
That's because
you're an asshole!

162
00:08:00,044 --> 00:08:02,525
I think there's a higher
percentage of narcissists

163
00:08:02,656 --> 00:08:05,441
feeling like assholes because
they just don't consider you.

164
00:08:05,572 --> 00:08:08,792
And in the way that Aaron
would be talking about

165
00:08:08,923 --> 00:08:13,144
that you have a certain kind
of moral high ground

166
00:08:13,275 --> 00:08:15,277
that you're better
than other people.

167
00:08:15,407 --> 00:08:17,932
Narcissists don't even
know there are other people.

168
00:08:18,062 --> 00:08:20,761
Okay, so If they don't know,
there's other people how can

169
00:08:20,891 --> 00:08:24,939
they even really process the
fact that they're being mean

170
00:08:25,069 --> 00:08:29,683
to you or unforgiving,
or unkind, or negating.

171
00:08:29,813 --> 00:08:31,467
You don't really exist.

172
00:08:31,598 --> 00:08:33,600
JOEY:
Bitter self-righteous hag
who has no friends.

173
00:08:36,428 --> 00:08:38,996
KAT:
I guess in this society being
male and an asshole

174
00:08:39,127 --> 00:08:40,607
makes you worthy
of our time.

175
00:08:42,043 --> 00:08:44,785
The tyranny of assholdom, one
of the places that people don't

176
00:08:44,915 --> 00:08:47,527
talk that much about it is
body image for women.

177
00:08:47,657 --> 00:08:51,052
The tyranny of what it's like to
be a young woman in our society,

178
00:08:51,182 --> 00:08:54,882
an older woman an invisible old
women and how you're treated,

179
00:08:55,012 --> 00:08:57,885
how you're treated and people
treat you really poorly.

180
00:08:58,015 --> 00:09:00,844
Or young girls who aren't
the perfect body type,

181
00:09:00,975 --> 00:09:03,107
how that goes.

182
00:09:03,238 --> 00:09:05,327
You know, how you're talked
to, how you're bullied,

183
00:09:05,457 --> 00:09:07,590
how you're bullied
by other kids,

184
00:09:07,721 --> 00:09:10,114
that to me is real asshole
behaviour.

185
00:09:10,637 --> 00:09:13,770
WOMAN:
Harvey Weinstein?
I think he's a perv.

186
00:09:13,901 --> 00:09:16,381
I think he's a perv and
an asshole, you know?

187
00:09:16,512 --> 00:09:19,602
I think he's been,
you know, again,

188
00:09:19,733 --> 00:09:24,215
it's when you got more money
than you think God has and you

189
00:09:24,346 --> 00:09:28,872
think you can treat people just
any way that you want to, yeah,

190
00:09:29,003 --> 00:09:30,526
I think that's sad.

191
00:09:32,397 --> 00:09:34,704
JOHN WALKER:
What kind of therapy do
you think Weinstein's

192
00:09:34,835 --> 00:09:36,401
going through right now?

193
00:09:36,532 --> 00:09:38,447
The pretense that I
read was, you know,

194
00:09:38,578 --> 00:09:40,144
he's got sexual addiction
problems.

195
00:09:40,275 --> 00:09:42,364
That's the least of his
problems is sexual addiction.

196
00:09:42,494 --> 00:09:44,496
I think he's just probably
licking his wounds

197
00:09:44,627 --> 00:09:46,977
and probably having people
around him who are willing to

198
00:09:47,108 --> 00:09:49,414
do what they always did,
which is suck up.

199
00:09:49,545 --> 00:09:52,243
I have worked with people and
the only reason the abuser's

200
00:09:52,374 --> 00:09:56,726
changed, was they truly saw
how it was created in them,

201
00:09:56,857 --> 00:09:59,207
what their behaviour was and
how destructive it was

202
00:09:59,337 --> 00:10:01,035
and wanting to change.

203
00:10:01,165 --> 00:10:03,428
Part of the asshole being
entrenched in entitlement is

204
00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:06,431
the idea that if they're a
proper asshole and not sort of

205
00:10:06,562 --> 00:10:10,958
borderline case, then that means
that I think it's extremely

206
00:10:11,088 --> 00:10:13,656
difficult for them to see that
there's a different, you know,

207
00:10:13,787 --> 00:10:15,615
maybe what they're doing
works for them,

208
00:10:15,745 --> 00:10:19,575
their deeply invested in it,
they're really are convinced.

209
00:10:19,706 --> 00:10:21,969
They really believe that
they're, you know,

210
00:10:22,099 --> 00:10:23,797
entitled and special
in these ways

211
00:10:23,927 --> 00:10:25,581
and that's very tough
to shake.

212
00:10:25,712 --> 00:10:29,803
ROBERT I. SUTTON:
I think that the reasons, at
least that assholes I think of,

213
00:10:29,933 --> 00:10:34,459
make us so angry, is that they
disrespect us as human beings.

214
00:10:34,590 --> 00:10:37,854
They take away our dignity
from us, at least for me.

215
00:10:37,985 --> 00:10:40,683
I mean sometimes they will do
objectively bad things from us

216
00:10:40,814 --> 00:10:45,079
like take away money but, it's
this notion that when people get

217
00:10:45,209 --> 00:10:48,430
upset, it's they don't feel
dignified and respected

218
00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:50,214
as a human being.

219
00:10:50,345 --> 00:10:52,042
[doorbell rings]

220
00:10:52,173 --> 00:10:55,089
[footsteps stomp]

221
00:10:55,219 --> 00:10:56,830
[door creaks]

222
00:10:56,960 --> 00:10:58,570
[animal growl]

223
00:10:58,701 --> 00:11:00,572
MAN:
Being an asshole
has a sort of

224
00:11:00,703 --> 00:11:02,749
like an edginess
to it, you know?

225
00:11:02,879 --> 00:11:06,317
Like when people say "Oh this
person is an asshole," it gets

226
00:11:06,448 --> 00:11:08,885
people thinking, it's like "Oh,
what's this person all about?

227
00:11:09,016 --> 00:11:10,887
Why is this person identified
as an asshole,"

228
00:11:11,018 --> 00:11:13,107
and it opens the door
to let other people

229
00:11:13,237 --> 00:11:14,804
get to know you,
you know?

230
00:11:14,935 --> 00:11:17,807
It really puts the attention
on you, you know?

231
00:11:17,938 --> 00:11:19,896
I'm an attention whore.
I love seeking attention.

232
00:11:20,027 --> 00:11:23,421
MAN:
What wants to make me want to
be an asshole is just seeing

233
00:11:23,552 --> 00:11:25,467
everybody else, seeing what
they're getting in life

234
00:11:25,597 --> 00:11:28,339
and then seeing what I've gotten
in my life not being one,

235
00:11:28,470 --> 00:11:30,167
it's a big difference.

236
00:11:30,298 --> 00:11:34,563
So, I've definitely learned from
my mistakes in that category

237
00:11:34,694 --> 00:11:38,480
and I've you know,
altered that, so.

238
00:11:38,610 --> 00:11:43,224
Yeah, I think that's why I'm
choosing to be an asshole.

239
00:11:43,354 --> 00:11:45,922
MAN:
I, I feel like anyone who
legitimately considers himself

240
00:11:46,053 --> 00:11:47,924
an asshole isn't really
an asshole.

241
00:11:48,055 --> 00:11:51,580
I think it's like a person who
got hurt in high school so they,

242
00:11:51,711 --> 00:11:56,019
you know, "Now I'm a dick
in traffic" or whatever.

243
00:11:56,150 --> 00:11:58,848
I think real assholes don't
realize they're assholes.

244
00:11:58,979 --> 00:12:03,897
An asshole is somebody who
ought to know better than to be

245
00:12:04,027 --> 00:12:07,204
as arrogant as he is and is
in some sense repressing,

246
00:12:07,335 --> 00:12:08,989
the information he has.

247
00:12:09,119 --> 00:12:11,948
In that sense, an asshole is
different from a prick who can

248
00:12:12,079 --> 00:12:13,733
know perfectly well
what's he's doing.

249
00:12:13,863 --> 00:12:17,475
The asshole tells himself it's
ok for one or another reason.

250
00:12:17,606 --> 00:12:20,783
That's one reason why for
example a five-year-old we might

251
00:12:20,914 --> 00:12:22,742
call a "little shit,"
but we wouldn't call

252
00:12:22,872 --> 00:12:24,526
a five-year-old a
little asshole.

253
00:12:24,656 --> 00:12:26,136
You can't be an
asshole 'til

254
00:12:26,267 --> 00:12:27,877
you're old enough
to know better.

255
00:12:28,008 --> 00:12:30,314
Maybe about 14 you become
eligible for assholism.

256
00:12:30,445 --> 00:12:32,055
JOHN WALKER:
Can women be assholes?

257
00:12:32,186 --> 00:12:33,970
WOMAN:
Absolutely. Oh, anyone
can be an asshole.

258
00:12:34,101 --> 00:12:37,104
I guess in a way my mother
was an asshole...

259
00:12:37,234 --> 00:12:41,151
and if you'd said what mistakes
do you think you've made,

260
00:12:41,282 --> 00:12:45,634
I think she would have said,
"I really can't think of any."

261
00:12:45,765 --> 00:12:47,897
WOMAN:
But I prefer to be
called a dick,

262
00:12:48,028 --> 00:12:50,378
because it sounds cooler,
it's got more gusto.

263
00:12:50,508 --> 00:12:52,989
It seems that among the
assholes they are,

264
00:12:53,120 --> 00:12:55,731
they tend to all group,
pile up on the male side

265
00:12:55,862 --> 00:12:57,733
of the gender divide.

266
00:12:57,864 --> 00:13:00,605
Oh yes, there's no question
it's mainly men.

267
00:13:00,736 --> 00:13:03,521
Assholes were by definition men,
but then I thought of certain

268
00:13:03,652 --> 00:13:06,437
examples, like Ann Coulter
for example.

269
00:13:07,525 --> 00:13:09,310
I'm sure there's others,
but I think

270
00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:11,268
it's 99 percent of
them are men.

271
00:13:11,399 --> 00:13:13,096
JOHN WALKER:
Do you have any
favorite assholes?

272
00:13:13,227 --> 00:13:14,837
Favorite assholes?

273
00:13:14,968 --> 00:13:18,536
I am the number one most
impactful artist

274
00:13:18,667 --> 00:13:20,364
of our generation.

275
00:13:20,495 --> 00:13:23,977
Kanye, Kanye West is
a pretty big one.

276
00:13:24,107 --> 00:13:26,762
I am Shakespeare in the
flesh, Walt Disney,

277
00:13:26,893 --> 00:13:29,199
Nike, Google.

278
00:13:29,330 --> 00:13:32,376
MAN:
Kanye West, he's a huge
idol of mine honestly.

279
00:13:32,507 --> 00:13:34,465
He just, he doesn't
work for anyone.

280
00:13:34,596 --> 00:13:37,207
MAN:
I really love the way Kanye's
outlook on the world.

281
00:13:37,338 --> 00:13:39,731
He's very well spoken
and does what he wants

282
00:13:39,862 --> 00:13:41,908
and doesn't care what
people say about him.

283
00:13:42,038 --> 00:13:44,693
Assholes are almost by
definition unhappy.

284
00:13:44,824 --> 00:13:48,001
There are people who say, "Oh
I'm an asshole and I have no

285
00:13:48,131 --> 00:13:50,655
"qualms about it and I,
this is how I get ahead

286
00:13:50,786 --> 00:13:52,396
and so on and so forth."

287
00:13:52,527 --> 00:13:54,485
When you hear somebody
say unapologetically

288
00:13:54,616 --> 00:13:57,271
"I'm an asshole," he's almost
never an asshole, he's a dick.

289
00:13:58,663 --> 00:14:00,317
BRUCE:
Well, I can be an asshole.

290
00:14:00,448 --> 00:14:01,841
JACK:
No, Bruce you can't.

291
00:14:05,845 --> 00:14:06,976
You gonna pick
that up?

292
00:14:07,107 --> 00:14:08,499
Yeah, I'm sorry!

293
00:14:08,630 --> 00:14:10,675
JOHN WALKER:
If someone admits to
being an asshole,

294
00:14:10,806 --> 00:14:11,938
they're not necessarily
an asshole,

295
00:14:12,068 --> 00:14:13,156
they're maybe a
temporary asshole.

296
00:14:13,287 --> 00:14:14,592
MAN:
Oh, I've been there.

297
00:14:14,723 --> 00:14:16,246
JOHN WALKER
We've all been there.

298
00:14:16,377 --> 00:14:19,119
I think I was there like
yesterday, or the week before.

299
00:14:19,249 --> 00:14:21,948
If you regret it later, or you
feel sorry, you know,

300
00:14:22,078 --> 00:14:24,733
then that's a sign that you're
not really entrenched in that.

301
00:14:24,864 --> 00:14:27,083
And now, but that's a
different thing than someone

302
00:14:27,214 --> 00:14:30,217
being an asshole to you first
and then you trying to answer

303
00:14:30,347 --> 00:14:33,437
and kind of now, if you think,
that guy's an asshole now

304
00:14:33,568 --> 00:14:36,440
I have permission to just sort
of let my inner asshole out,

305
00:14:36,571 --> 00:14:39,313
you know, then that's an
asshole move, right?

306
00:14:39,443 --> 00:14:42,794
The nice guy doesn't get the
girl and the asshole does.

307
00:14:42,925 --> 00:14:44,971
That asshole never
keeps the girl,

308
00:14:45,101 --> 00:14:47,321
it's always the nice guy
who keeps the girl,

309
00:14:47,451 --> 00:14:49,801
but definitely for a one-night
stand or hooking up,

310
00:14:49,932 --> 00:14:51,542
the asshole definitely
gets it.

311
00:14:51,673 --> 00:14:55,503
Our confidence is just, it
extrudes more than the average

312
00:14:55,633 --> 00:14:57,374
person because we're so
confident in our self

313
00:14:57,505 --> 00:14:59,159
and girls love that.

314
00:14:59,289 --> 00:15:01,857
MAN:
Me and my buddies have
competitions where we go

315
00:15:01,988 --> 00:15:05,208
downtown LA and just see who can
pick up the most girls' numbers

316
00:15:05,339 --> 00:15:09,256
and at the end of the night, I
mean it's up to you if you want

317
00:15:09,386 --> 00:15:12,476
to text them, but, I personally
only text about 75 percent,

318
00:15:12,607 --> 00:15:15,001
or 25 percent of those
because, I mean,

319
00:15:15,131 --> 00:15:17,438
I don't even find most
of them attractive.

320
00:15:17,568 --> 00:15:21,442
Girls don't want a little
12-year-old kid, you know?

321
00:15:21,572 --> 00:15:23,531
They want someone who's
like a douche bag,

322
00:15:23,661 --> 00:15:26,229
who you know, dresses
like he doesn't even care,

323
00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:28,057
but he looks good.

324
00:15:28,188 --> 00:15:31,626
Someone that, you know just,
is cool, is an asshole.

325
00:15:31,756 --> 00:15:33,541
Girls dig that.

326
00:15:33,671 --> 00:15:38,981
OTTO:
You pompous, stuck up,
snot nosed,

327
00:15:39,112 --> 00:15:44,987
English, giant, twerp, scumbag,
fuck face, dickhead, asshole!

328
00:15:45,118 --> 00:15:46,989
How very interesting.

329
00:15:47,120 --> 00:15:49,687
I always thought what I loved
about Canada is they

330
00:15:49,818 --> 00:15:51,298
never thought that they
were exceptional.

331
00:15:51,428 --> 00:15:54,040
You always get it
in old America,

332
00:15:54,170 --> 00:15:56,346
you hear about American
exceptionalism.

333
00:15:57,957 --> 00:16:01,395
It's four-year-olds believe
in exceptionalism, you know?

334
00:16:01,525 --> 00:16:04,311
They stand on the edge of
the pool and shout "Hey,

335
00:16:04,441 --> 00:16:08,445
daddy watch," and fall in the
pool and then come up as though

336
00:16:08,576 --> 00:16:10,317
they've invented a
cure for cancer,

337
00:16:10,447 --> 00:16:13,407
saying "Ahh look at me,
I fell in the pool."

338
00:16:13,537 --> 00:16:15,757
[organ music]

339
00:16:23,765 --> 00:16:26,550
I think Canadians in general
make terrible assholes because,

340
00:16:26,681 --> 00:16:28,161
you know, we're always
very nice,

341
00:16:28,291 --> 00:16:29,858
were always very agreeable.

342
00:16:29,989 --> 00:16:32,469
We always try and kinda
go along with the flow,

343
00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:36,212
you know, and not really impose
our presence onto situations

344
00:16:36,343 --> 00:16:38,388
and I think that's whack,
that's terrible.

345
00:16:38,519 --> 00:16:41,609
We don't think of Canada
as producing assholes

346
00:16:41,739 --> 00:16:44,699
and it's because you're not as
insanely mindlessly competitive

347
00:16:44,829 --> 00:16:46,788
as the Americans are.

348
00:16:46,918 --> 00:16:50,009
You actually understand how
to keep things in balance.

349
00:16:53,012 --> 00:16:55,666
JOHN WALKER:
Pesky, mean, asshole is
what you call a player

350
00:16:55,797 --> 00:16:58,234
like Brad Marchand when
he plays against your team.

351
00:16:58,365 --> 00:17:01,150
And a valuable player when
he's on your team.

352
00:17:01,281 --> 00:17:03,022
COMMENTATOR:
The penalty here
by Brad Marchand.

353
00:17:03,152 --> 00:17:06,460
MAN:
In hockey being an asshole is
kinda part of the game.

354
00:17:06,590 --> 00:17:09,637
Not everyone on the ice is an
asshole, but most people are.

355
00:17:09,767 --> 00:17:12,161
COMMENTATOR:
Just a little cross check and
then a turnaround spear.

356
00:17:12,292 --> 00:17:13,945
Right to the mid-section.

357
00:17:14,076 --> 00:17:15,773
COMMENTATOR 2:
Marchand's being
escorted out now.

358
00:17:15,904 --> 00:17:19,081
BRAD MARCHAND:
You know what, things happen in
hockey and I'm not really

359
00:17:19,212 --> 00:17:23,129
concerned how anyone really
feels outside of the room, so.

360
00:17:23,259 --> 00:17:26,784
I honestly could not give you an
answer on why you love assholes,

361
00:17:26,915 --> 00:17:29,222
it's just they're appealing
I guess. They're exciting.

362
00:17:29,352 --> 00:17:33,443
They're like, they give you,
it's almost like entertaining.

363
00:17:33,574 --> 00:17:35,750
There has been a serious
accusation from

364
00:17:35,880 --> 00:17:38,318
the Toronto Star, that
I use crack cocaine.

365
00:17:38,448 --> 00:17:43,149
I do not use crack cocaine nor
am I an addict of crack cocaine.

366
00:17:44,063 --> 00:17:46,935
Assholes are people
who do things and

367
00:17:47,066 --> 00:17:50,286
say things that we might
want to say or like to

368
00:17:50,417 --> 00:17:53,724
imagine ourselves saying,
but would feel inhibited,

369
00:17:53,855 --> 00:17:56,510
or guilty about saying
and, in that sense,

370
00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:59,687
there's a vicarious, I don't
want to say satisfaction,

371
00:17:59,817 --> 00:18:02,994
but interest in watching them
behave the way they do,

372
00:18:03,125 --> 00:18:06,128
which is why so many
of the characters

373
00:18:06,259 --> 00:18:10,263
who win our attention
are assholes.

374
00:18:10,393 --> 00:18:12,178
Yes, I have smoked
crack cocaine.

375
00:18:13,614 --> 00:18:15,224
REPORTER:
When sir?But no, do I?

376
00:18:15,355 --> 00:18:16,921
Am I an addict? No.

377
00:18:17,052 --> 00:18:18,662
Have I tried it?

378
00:18:18,793 --> 00:18:20,795
Probably in one of my
drunken stupors.

379
00:18:20,925 --> 00:18:23,363
JIMMY KIMMEL:
But I've realized is
Canadians are much,

380
00:18:23,493 --> 00:18:26,105
much weirder than any of us
had any idea they were.

381
00:18:27,715 --> 00:18:30,544
[audience applauds]

382
00:18:33,503 --> 00:18:35,679
JOHN WALKER:
Generally, Americans call
Canadians nice...

383
00:18:35,810 --> 00:18:38,204
and ignore them.

384
00:18:38,334 --> 00:18:41,685
But elect an asshole to run
their largest city and late

385
00:18:41,816 --> 00:18:44,601
night hosts like Jimmy Kimmel,
empower them with stardom.

386
00:18:49,432 --> 00:18:52,783
The Canadian Prairies, known
for cooperative farming,

387
00:18:52,914 --> 00:18:55,699
was the last place I thought
I'd find entitled assholes.

388
00:18:57,092 --> 00:19:00,443
Yet Sherry Lee Benson-Podolchu,
found a particular breed,

389
00:19:00,574 --> 00:19:03,620
when she joined The Royal
Canadian Mounted Police.

390
00:19:05,753 --> 00:19:09,365
SHERRY BENSON-PODOLCHUK:
It was very much inducted right
from the very start to go along

391
00:19:09,496 --> 00:19:11,672
to get along and it
was a group thing;

392
00:19:11,802 --> 00:19:14,327
everybody has to
think the same.

393
00:19:14,457 --> 00:19:16,459
We always support each other.

394
00:19:16,590 --> 00:19:18,418
The law is sacrosanct.

395
00:19:18,548 --> 00:19:20,594
Never lie.

396
00:19:20,724 --> 00:19:22,987
You follow your, the
detachment commander,

397
00:19:23,118 --> 00:19:26,426
whoever is your boss, whoever
is the senior officer without

398
00:19:26,556 --> 00:19:30,691
question and it's a systemic
problem of the going along

399
00:19:30,821 --> 00:19:32,649
to get along, protect
your own.

400
00:19:32,780 --> 00:19:37,132
If you don't follow this, then
you'll be considered "the other"

401
00:19:37,263 --> 00:19:41,789
and then you are a target for
bullying and harassment.

402
00:19:41,919 --> 00:19:46,010
JOHN WALKER:
So what, what do you call this
kind of behavior that ensued?

403
00:19:46,141 --> 00:19:49,144
SHERRY BENSON-PODOLCHUK:
This is called asshole
behaviour and I know my Grandma

404
00:19:49,275 --> 00:19:51,059
would say that nice girls
don't say asshole,

405
00:19:51,190 --> 00:19:52,756
but guess what Grandma?

406
00:19:52,887 --> 00:19:54,671
You didn't work for
the RCMP because

407
00:19:54,802 --> 00:19:58,371
there's a lot of assholes who
are wearing the Red Serge,

408
00:19:58,501 --> 00:20:00,286
who are pretending
to be leaders,

409
00:20:00,416 --> 00:20:02,331
when in fact they are
complete assholes.

410
00:20:03,724 --> 00:20:06,857
If way back in Tisdale when
a couple of officers thought

411
00:20:06,988 --> 00:20:10,121
it was funny to call me beaver
and raisin tits in the office

412
00:20:10,252 --> 00:20:12,472
and in front of everybody
and on the radio,

413
00:20:12,602 --> 00:20:16,389
if one other person would have
said "Hey man, shut the fuck up,

414
00:20:16,519 --> 00:20:19,087
don't talk to her like that,
you're just being an asshole,"

415
00:20:19,218 --> 00:20:21,220
it would have ended
it, but no,

416
00:20:21,350 --> 00:20:24,745
by not saying anything,
they allowed

417
00:20:24,875 --> 00:20:26,747
and condoned the behavior.

418
00:20:26,877 --> 00:20:28,792
What I needed from them,

419
00:20:28,923 --> 00:20:31,230
to trust them to protect
to help me,

420
00:20:31,360 --> 00:20:33,928
was saying, "Hey man, don't
call her those names."

421
00:20:34,058 --> 00:20:37,714
If you have a leader
who is an asshole,

422
00:20:37,845 --> 00:20:40,978
the message is clear, this
is an asshole organization

423
00:20:41,109 --> 00:20:44,591
and it just ripples down into
everybody and their behavior

424
00:20:44,721 --> 00:20:48,203
towards each other or anyone
considered the "other,"

425
00:20:48,334 --> 00:20:52,903
is that type of behavior and
if nobody says anything,

426
00:20:53,034 --> 00:20:56,167
and for all these years nobody
has been saying anything,

427
00:20:56,298 --> 00:20:58,039
it just continues.

428
00:21:01,042 --> 00:21:03,305
JOHN WALKER:
Sherry's trouble started
when she refused to lie

429
00:21:03,436 --> 00:21:05,612
in support of a
fellow officer.

430
00:21:05,742 --> 00:21:08,658
In a false statement, he
claimed his foot had slipped

431
00:21:08,789 --> 00:21:11,008
on the gas when he rammed
a citizen's car.

432
00:21:11,139 --> 00:21:13,141
She knew he had been
drinking on the job.

433
00:21:15,796 --> 00:21:17,972
SHERRY:
The retaliation was quick.

434
00:21:18,102 --> 00:21:22,063
I went to get my gun out of my
gun belt and someone had gone in

435
00:21:22,193 --> 00:21:25,719
there and I had a blue gym bag
and in the blue gym bag

436
00:21:25,849 --> 00:21:29,897
were my personal things and
there was a dead prairie chicken

437
00:21:30,027 --> 00:21:32,421
with blood dripping all over
my personal things.

438
00:21:33,814 --> 00:21:36,469
When you know that there's
people in the organization that

439
00:21:36,599 --> 00:21:39,994
are willing to cross that
line, it's very scary.

440
00:21:41,300 --> 00:21:43,606
I decided that, you know,
just trying to handle this

441
00:21:43,737 --> 00:21:45,913
in-house isn't working.

442
00:21:46,043 --> 00:21:48,698
I have a leader who is
a complete asshole,

443
00:21:48,829 --> 00:21:51,875
totally ineffective and would
rather side with the bullies,

444
00:21:52,006 --> 00:21:54,922
the assholes, than stand
up for what is right,

445
00:21:55,052 --> 00:22:00,275
which was one woman and
several male officers.

446
00:22:00,406 --> 00:22:03,757
That was one of the pivotal
moments that I decided

447
00:22:03,887 --> 00:22:07,935
that I have to say something
and make a formal complaint.

448
00:22:08,065 --> 00:22:10,546
Yeah, it was
life changing.

449
00:22:12,243 --> 00:22:15,421
JOHN WALKER:
Sherry's sexual harassment
complaint enraged the RCMP.

450
00:22:15,551 --> 00:22:18,293
And it completely
disrupted her life.

451
00:22:18,424 --> 00:22:21,470
SHERRY:
I thought if I work
one more day,

452
00:22:21,601 --> 00:22:24,081
and I didn't know how
it was going to happen,

453
00:22:24,212 --> 00:22:27,258
but I just thought, if I go into
that building one more time,

454
00:22:27,389 --> 00:22:29,391
I just wouldn't,
I would die.

455
00:22:34,614 --> 00:22:38,008
They are actually willing to
commit criminal behaviour.

456
00:22:38,139 --> 00:22:41,577
They're willing to turn a blind
eye to violence against their

457
00:22:41,708 --> 00:22:45,059
coworkers just to protect
that workplace culture,

458
00:22:46,974 --> 00:22:49,977
and I left and I went
on medical leave

459
00:22:50,107 --> 00:22:51,892
for quite a while
after that.

460
00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:56,549
Not everybody has that
sober second thought.

461
00:22:56,679 --> 00:23:00,770
I was lucky I did, but there's
many officers I know that don't,

462
00:23:00,901 --> 00:23:02,859
and they kill themselves
with their own gun

463
00:23:02,990 --> 00:23:06,167
because they are bullied,
they're working with assholes,

464
00:23:06,297 --> 00:23:09,300
the assholes don't care about
them and it's all about

465
00:23:09,431 --> 00:23:11,302
protecting the image and
protecting the way,

466
00:23:11,433 --> 00:23:13,087
'well, we've always
done it this way,

467
00:23:13,217 --> 00:23:16,090
this is the way we're
going to keep doing it.'

468
00:23:16,220 --> 00:23:20,442
JOHN WALKER:
With no one listening and aware
she might not be the only one,

469
00:23:20,573 --> 00:23:24,446
Sherry went public with her
cause, the first to do so.

470
00:23:24,577 --> 00:23:28,407
SHERRY:
After my book came out, I was
out having lunch with another

471
00:23:28,537 --> 00:23:30,539
RCMP officer and he said,
"Well, you know Sherry,

472
00:23:30,670 --> 00:23:32,411
"the RCMP hate you.

473
00:23:32,541 --> 00:23:35,675
"You know, your book didn't make
much of a scream in the press

474
00:23:35,805 --> 00:23:38,417
"and they were waiting to
see if anything happened,

475
00:23:38,547 --> 00:23:41,202
"and nothing did so now they
want to destroy you,

476
00:23:41,332 --> 00:23:43,509
"either ruin you financially
or drive you to suicide."

477
00:23:43,639 --> 00:23:46,599
And I took that as a
legitimate threat.

478
00:23:46,729 --> 00:23:49,036
SHERRY BENSON-PODOLCHUK:
Would they have done
something?

479
00:23:49,166 --> 00:23:51,604
I didn't know, but at
the time I felt that

480
00:23:51,734 --> 00:23:54,041
it was always a
possibility.

481
00:23:54,171 --> 00:23:56,347
They don't obey the law.

482
00:23:56,478 --> 00:23:59,176
The two things
I was told to do.

483
00:23:59,307 --> 00:24:03,311
Never lie and always
follow the law.

484
00:24:03,442 --> 00:24:06,227
Well, they had violated
that all the time.

485
00:24:06,357 --> 00:24:09,099
Why wouldn't I think they could
do something to harm me?

486
00:24:09,230 --> 00:24:11,145
Force me off the road?

487
00:24:11,275 --> 00:24:14,453
So it was a legitimate
feeling.

488
00:24:20,197 --> 00:24:22,809
JOHN WALKER:
After 20 years of no response
from government,

489
00:24:22,939 --> 00:24:25,942
media or fellow officers, the
flood gates finally open.

490
00:24:27,596 --> 00:24:30,773
A class action suit with over
3000 women's signatures

491
00:24:30,904 --> 00:24:32,688
is filed against the RCMP.

492
00:24:35,212 --> 00:24:37,606
Two years later the Federal
Government appoints

493
00:24:37,737 --> 00:24:39,347
the first female head
of the force.

494
00:24:47,616 --> 00:24:49,836
[baby coos]

495
00:24:50,924 --> 00:24:52,403
[drink gulps]

496
00:24:52,534 --> 00:24:54,057
[man belches]

497
00:24:56,973 --> 00:24:58,497
[baby belches]

498
00:25:00,063 --> 00:25:04,503
I think human beings,
while very kind,

499
00:25:04,633 --> 00:25:07,201
many of them have a
tendency always

500
00:25:07,331 --> 00:25:09,769
to see how much they
can get in the world.

501
00:25:09,899 --> 00:25:12,336
I mean you see this with
toddlers who are like,

502
00:25:12,467 --> 00:25:14,425
you have to teach a
toddler to share

503
00:25:14,556 --> 00:25:16,079
because toddlers don't
want to share.

504
00:25:16,210 --> 00:25:19,430
They, "it's me, it's me, it's
me, it's the thing that I want"

505
00:25:19,561 --> 00:25:23,347
and we train our young humans
out of this behaviour

506
00:25:23,478 --> 00:25:27,177
as they age and then there's
this, another stage when people

507
00:25:27,308 --> 00:25:29,528
are teenagers when they become
assholes again and it's

508
00:25:29,658 --> 00:25:31,878
developmentally appropriate just
the way it was for toddlers,

509
00:25:32,008 --> 00:25:34,881
where everyone wants what they
want and they want to have it

510
00:25:35,011 --> 00:25:37,318
and they don't much care for
other people's feelings.

511
00:25:37,448 --> 00:25:40,234
FILM NARRATOR:
Teenagers themselves are in
a natural state of change.

512
00:25:46,066 --> 00:25:48,285
Adults are astonished
and bewildered by

513
00:25:48,416 --> 00:25:51,071
the more outlandish of
today's teen fads.

514
00:25:52,333 --> 00:25:54,204
Almost categorically teenagers
are assholes.

515
00:25:54,335 --> 00:25:57,207
They're discovering
assholism, as it were.

516
00:25:57,338 --> 00:26:00,123
JOHN WALKER:
And we try to train
them out of it.

517
00:26:00,254 --> 00:26:04,171
Yeah, we do, we do try to train
them out of it or to teach them

518
00:26:04,301 --> 00:26:07,000
to repress it, more to the
point and some manage to

519
00:26:07,130 --> 00:26:09,176
do that or manage to repress
those impulses.

520
00:26:09,306 --> 00:26:11,526
Others never
quite make it.

521
00:26:11,657 --> 00:26:14,616
Most teenagers flirt with kind
of an asshole phase.

522
00:26:14,747 --> 00:26:17,532
They're not really an asshole
in a sense of a

523
00:26:17,663 --> 00:26:19,273
stable trait of character.

524
00:26:19,403 --> 00:26:21,275
Some teenagers are going,
they're gonna graduate

525
00:26:21,405 --> 00:26:24,147
to being a proper asshole
as it were and others are,

526
00:26:24,278 --> 00:26:27,455
it's just a passing phase and
they're gonna grow out of it and

527
00:26:27,586 --> 00:26:29,675
ok, you know, the spell
breaks, you know, they,

528
00:26:29,805 --> 00:26:31,851
I don't know, go to
college and they're,

529
00:26:31,981 --> 00:26:36,203
have a sense of sort of peer
camaraderie and equality

530
00:26:36,333 --> 00:26:37,813
and there's some accountability
there and

531
00:26:37,944 --> 00:26:39,510
"Ok, maybe my parents
weren't so bad."

532
00:26:41,904 --> 00:26:44,515
JOHN WALKER:
As Aaron says, some teenagers
get over their sense

533
00:26:44,646 --> 00:26:47,693
of entitlement, others graduate
into the workforce with it.

534
00:26:48,824 --> 00:26:50,913
At Cornell, an Ivy League
University,

535
00:26:51,044 --> 00:26:54,177
I met Jonathan Gilmore, a
student and ex-marine

536
00:26:54,308 --> 00:26:56,310
with a keen sense of
empathy for others.

537
00:27:00,662 --> 00:27:03,273
Did you run into any asshole
behavior in the Military?

538
00:27:04,579 --> 00:27:06,233
JONATHAN GILMORE:
Yeah, oh yeah.

539
00:27:06,363 --> 00:27:08,322
HARTMAN:
Are you about to call
me an asshole?

540
00:27:08,452 --> 00:27:09,584
JOKER:
Sir, no sir!

541
00:27:09,715 --> 00:27:12,413
I mean day one, like you get,
so boot camp's like,

542
00:27:12,543 --> 00:27:15,590
you know, three months of
dealing with the biggest

543
00:27:15,721 --> 00:27:17,331
assholes you've ever
met in your life.

544
00:27:17,461 --> 00:27:19,028
I don't like the
name Lawrence!

545
00:27:19,159 --> 00:27:21,030
Only faggots and sailors
are called Lawrence!

546
00:27:21,161 --> 00:27:23,554
I mean these guys are
screaming at you,

547
00:27:23,685 --> 00:27:25,644
calling you faggots, calling
you, you know,

548
00:27:25,774 --> 00:27:28,647
every name in the book
that's derogatory,

549
00:27:28,777 --> 00:27:31,650
and you know, physically
hurting you.

550
00:27:32,825 --> 00:27:34,609
The Marine Corps is a
brotherhood, right?

551
00:27:34,740 --> 00:27:37,133
It's like a lot of people
would say it's arguably

552
00:27:37,264 --> 00:27:39,266
like the largest frat
in the United States.

553
00:27:39,396 --> 00:27:42,835
And so I figured, ok, if I go to
Cornell then what would be

554
00:27:42,965 --> 00:27:45,620
like the best decision? It
would to be join a fraternity.

555
00:27:45,751 --> 00:27:47,796
I could have a brotherhood
again and I could

556
00:27:47,927 --> 00:27:49,624
connect with other people.

557
00:27:49,755 --> 00:27:52,671
So I was just like kind of
mingling around and figuring out

558
00:27:52,801 --> 00:27:54,716
which fraternity I would
vibe with the best,

559
00:27:54,847 --> 00:27:58,285
and it was just like this,
you know that like,

560
00:27:58,415 --> 00:28:02,245
that just like super over macho
man masculine kind of like

561
00:28:02,376 --> 00:28:05,422
ugh, like you gotta poke your
chest out and like you gotta

562
00:28:05,553 --> 00:28:07,642
talk like this and like,
"What's up, bro."

563
00:28:07,773 --> 00:28:09,818
It was just this like
the film Animal House.

564
00:28:11,298 --> 00:28:12,778
[glass smashes]

565
00:28:12,908 --> 00:28:17,130
[rock music]

566
00:28:17,260 --> 00:28:19,698
When I'm your older brother,
when I'm your big brother,

567
00:28:19,828 --> 00:28:22,309
I'm gonna belittle you, at
least for that first semester,

568
00:28:22,439 --> 00:28:25,138
you're gonna be my little bitch
and that to me just,

569
00:28:25,268 --> 00:28:27,183
that seems like huge asshole
behavior especially because

570
00:28:27,314 --> 00:28:30,491
they're like 18, 19-year-old
kids and they get just a little

571
00:28:30,621 --> 00:28:33,581
bit of power and of course
they're gonna run off with it,

572
00:28:33,712 --> 00:28:36,889
you know? Women are objectified
they're sexualized.

573
00:28:37,019 --> 00:28:39,979
It's the focus of the attention
is for all of the guys

574
00:28:40,109 --> 00:28:42,546
in the fraternities to get
as much sex as possible.

575
00:28:42,677 --> 00:28:44,810
Women are never main characters,
they're always pushed off

576
00:28:44,940 --> 00:28:46,986
to the side and that's
fraternity life now.

577
00:28:47,116 --> 00:28:49,945
We were driving down the road,
it was a pretty dark night,

578
00:28:50,076 --> 00:28:52,818
there was a girl puking
on the side of the road

579
00:28:52,948 --> 00:28:55,168
and some guy was like
holding her hair back.

580
00:28:55,298 --> 00:28:58,562
As we went by, the guy in the
front seat, one of the

581
00:28:58,693 --> 00:29:01,348
fraternity members, he said, you
know, "Don't let me around her."

582
00:29:01,478 --> 00:29:03,567
Bad, like something like
"Don't let me around her,

583
00:29:03,698 --> 00:29:05,178
bad things will
happen to her."

584
00:29:05,308 --> 00:29:07,093
And I just thought
in my head,

585
00:29:07,223 --> 00:29:10,705
it kind of like set me back
a little bit and I just thought

586
00:29:10,836 --> 00:29:13,229
"Wait, is this guy saying that
he's gonna rape her

587
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,363
or like have sex with her?"
and so I asked him that,

588
00:29:16,493 --> 00:29:18,974
I was like, "Did you mean
that you're gonna sleep

589
00:29:19,105 --> 00:29:21,977
with the girl that's literally
puking on the side of the road?"

590
00:29:22,108 --> 00:29:24,545
And then he said something
like, "Well I would do

591
00:29:24,675 --> 00:29:26,765
what any other guy would
do in that circumstance."

592
00:29:26,895 --> 00:29:28,854
And I was just like
"No fucking way",

593
00:29:28,984 --> 00:29:31,770
and I asked them to pull over
and I got out.

594
00:29:31,900 --> 00:29:33,989
That's what really set me
back about fraternities

595
00:29:34,120 --> 00:29:36,992
in general cause I just felt
like, how is this so ok?

596
00:29:37,123 --> 00:29:39,081
How are people so ok
with this behavior?

597
00:29:39,212 --> 00:29:42,215
I mean you can't report that,
like what am I gonna do,

598
00:29:42,345 --> 00:29:45,348
call the cops and say "Hey,
this person said he might rape

599
00:29:45,479 --> 00:29:48,090
someone," but like what's worse
is that everybody around him was

600
00:29:48,221 --> 00:29:51,224
totally ok with it and that to
me I think what even,

601
00:29:51,354 --> 00:29:53,922
cause you can have one asshole,
but then you've people

602
00:29:54,053 --> 00:29:56,185
supporting them and I think
those are almost like,

603
00:29:56,316 --> 00:29:58,187
that's like worse. Like
you know it's there.

604
00:29:58,318 --> 00:30:00,929
You know that guy's gonna do
that and you guys

605
00:30:01,060 --> 00:30:03,845
won't do anything about it and
it's just like boosting his ego

606
00:30:03,976 --> 00:30:05,934
once again and that
guy's gonna get out

607
00:30:06,065 --> 00:30:08,241
and think that that's ok
and he'll find friends.

608
00:30:08,371 --> 00:30:10,547
They'll find plenty of people
who are totally accepting

609
00:30:10,678 --> 00:30:12,288
and willing to have
discussions like that.

610
00:30:13,899 --> 00:30:18,033
SHERRY F. COLB
They have, you know, lists of
the women they've slept with,

611
00:30:18,164 --> 00:30:21,950
that they write on the wall
and things like that and so

612
00:30:22,081 --> 00:30:26,041
I think a fraternity is
definitely a place where

613
00:30:26,172 --> 00:30:31,438
that sort of behavior can
be spread and made worse

614
00:30:31,568 --> 00:30:34,963
and maybe the thing to do
about it is for schools

615
00:30:35,094 --> 00:30:37,400
not to be affiliated
with fraternities.

616
00:30:37,531 --> 00:30:39,968
I think of those students
at Yale University,

617
00:30:40,099 --> 00:30:43,406
who, from a fraternity who
marched to the woman's dorm,

618
00:30:43,537 --> 00:30:48,890
Chanting, "no means yes,
yes means anal."

619
00:30:49,021 --> 00:30:54,330
And after the, uh, the
university disciplined them

620
00:30:54,461 --> 00:30:56,898
and so on, people were writing
this was an attack

621
00:30:57,029 --> 00:30:59,161
on free speech and
so on and so forth

622
00:30:59,292 --> 00:31:03,383
and an astonishing way
to approach this.

623
00:31:03,513 --> 00:31:05,733
If it had happened
30 years earlier,

624
00:31:05,864 --> 00:31:07,430
nobody would have
of countenance it.

625
00:31:07,561 --> 00:31:09,693
They just would have been
out on their ear,

626
00:31:09,824 --> 00:31:13,349
not because of the
anti-feminism,

627
00:31:13,480 --> 00:31:15,134
just because of the
vulgarity of it.

628
00:31:15,264 --> 00:31:17,832
[water crashes]

629
00:31:19,747 --> 00:31:22,750
JONATHAN GILMORE:
These kids are gonna graduate
and they're gonna go out into

630
00:31:22,881 --> 00:31:25,318
the world and they're gonna
take what they learned from

631
00:31:25,448 --> 00:31:27,320
this fraternity and they're
gonna, put it wherever

632
00:31:27,450 --> 00:31:29,496
they have, or wherever they,
you know, work at.

633
00:31:31,628 --> 00:31:33,892
These are like people who have
been attending these

634
00:31:34,022 --> 00:31:37,069
fraternities since, you know,
like early, like late 1800's and

635
00:31:37,199 --> 00:31:40,072
the money within them, like
especially at the top frats.

636
00:31:40,202 --> 00:31:42,813
I mean it's millions and
millions and millions

637
00:31:42,944 --> 00:31:45,468
of dollars that these people
are kind of like coming into.

638
00:31:46,992 --> 00:31:49,777
And I think because of that
power, that it's nearly

639
00:31:49,908 --> 00:31:53,085
impossible to change,
not even just change,

640
00:31:53,215 --> 00:31:55,957
but to like obviously get rid
of the system in general.

641
00:31:56,088 --> 00:31:58,699
These are rich white dudes that
have been running these things

642
00:31:58,829 --> 00:32:00,788
for years and years
and years and years

643
00:32:00,919 --> 00:32:03,182
and I don't think that's gonna
change anytime soon.

644
00:32:03,312 --> 00:32:08,535
I had a student and he was
very disrespectful,

645
00:32:08,665 --> 00:32:11,190
disruptive and so I just
stopped calling on him.

646
00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,497
So he came to my office hours
which I knew he would do

647
00:32:14,628 --> 00:32:18,110
and he said, "I'm really upset
because you don't call on me,"

648
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:21,896
so I said "I don't call on you
because I don't appreciate

649
00:32:22,027 --> 00:32:25,639
your interventions in the
classroom." And he said,

650
00:32:25,769 --> 00:32:29,469
"I think you're just put off
because I'm a very manly man."

651
00:32:29,599 --> 00:32:31,471
So I said "No, that's
not it."

652
00:32:31,601 --> 00:32:35,040
So I said, "What I'd like you to
do is when you have something

653
00:32:35,170 --> 00:32:37,346
"useful to say, raise
your hand and say it.

654
00:32:37,477 --> 00:32:40,871
If you have something petty and
annoying to say, don't,"

655
00:32:41,002 --> 00:32:44,179
and, you know we sort, I sort
of went through it kind of,

656
00:32:44,310 --> 00:32:47,313
and I had no hopes that this
would have any effect.

657
00:32:48,618 --> 00:32:52,187
Starting the next day, he
became a model student

658
00:32:52,318 --> 00:32:54,885
and he ended up getting
an A+ on the exam.

659
00:32:55,016 --> 00:33:00,065
It was just amazing and he came
to my office after the course

660
00:33:00,195 --> 00:33:04,286
was over and he said, "I just
want to thank you because no one

661
00:33:04,417 --> 00:33:09,204
had ever told me that what I
was doing was a problem."

662
00:33:09,335 --> 00:33:12,686
I think many of us figure
what's the point.

663
00:33:12,816 --> 00:33:16,081
Like why bother, but if we
bother then this person

664
00:33:16,211 --> 00:33:18,344
is likely to hear it more
than once, right?

665
00:33:18,474 --> 00:33:20,476
If they, if they're
abusive.

666
00:33:20,607 --> 00:33:22,739
If someone tells them and
someone else might

667
00:33:22,870 --> 00:33:24,654
tell them too, maybe they
start thinking,

668
00:33:24,785 --> 00:33:27,440
"you know, maybe, you know,
maybe they've got a point."

669
00:33:27,570 --> 00:33:33,011
He was well on his way to being
that CEO who was abusive to

670
00:33:33,141 --> 00:33:35,665
everybody and thought that
anyone who objected was just,

671
00:33:35,796 --> 00:33:38,581
you know, didn't like his
manliness or whatever it was.

672
00:33:40,453 --> 00:33:51,855
[clock tower rings]

673
00:33:51,986 --> 00:33:53,814
JOHN WALKER:
Cornell Law professors
like Sherry,

674
00:33:53,944 --> 00:33:56,208
are concerned about
asshole behavior.

675
00:33:56,338 --> 00:33:58,862
They monitor their
students and have adopted

676
00:33:58,993 --> 00:34:01,822
a 'no asshole rule' when
hiring in their department.

677
00:34:01,952 --> 00:34:05,043
PROFESSOR:
I assume everybody doesn't
like assholes.

678
00:34:05,173 --> 00:34:08,524
JOHN WALKER:
Today's conference is on how
the law can play a role

679
00:34:08,655 --> 00:34:12,093
in governing assholery, from
Washington to Wall Street.

680
00:34:12,224 --> 00:34:15,314
SAULE OMAROVA:
The financial services industry
in my view and I don't think

681
00:34:15,444 --> 00:34:19,535
I'm alone here is a
quintessential asshole industry.

682
00:34:19,666 --> 00:34:25,237
Well, when you think about that
pervasiveness of systematically

683
00:34:25,367 --> 00:34:30,198
asshole type behavior in
a particular social venue.

684
00:34:30,329 --> 00:34:34,637
For example, the financial
services industry, right?

685
00:34:34,768 --> 00:34:41,209
Then the problem of managing
assholes becomes a structural

686
00:34:41,340 --> 00:34:46,823
problem in which law can
potentially have a lot of say.

687
00:34:46,954 --> 00:34:50,305
So if we make certain types of
asshole behavior systemically,

688
00:34:50,436 --> 00:34:55,049
unprofitable for example,
irrational,

689
00:34:55,180 --> 00:34:58,531
something that is not rewarding,
then that behavior

690
00:34:58,661 --> 00:35:03,492
will naturally kind of fall away
and overall the system

691
00:35:03,623 --> 00:35:07,888
will become less prone to being
overtaken by a bunch of assholes

692
00:35:08,018 --> 00:35:11,152
that continue to pursue their
own private goals,

693
00:35:11,283 --> 00:35:13,850
their own insatiable appetites
for private gain

694
00:35:13,981 --> 00:35:17,202
at the expense of the rest of
us, the rest of the society.

695
00:35:17,332 --> 00:35:20,509
You know the people who were
over-speculating on Wall Street

696
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:24,252
in the 1920's, just as those
before 2008 were acting in

697
00:35:24,383 --> 00:35:27,951
individually rational manners,
but that individual rationality

698
00:35:28,082 --> 00:35:30,563
kinda morphs into a
kind of assholery.

699
00:35:30,693 --> 00:35:33,174
The only way to deal with a
collective action problem

700
00:35:33,305 --> 00:35:35,655
of this sort, is through an
exercise of collective agency,

701
00:35:35,785 --> 00:35:37,396
right? You need a
collective agent.

702
00:35:37,526 --> 00:35:40,225
I think of this as a sort of
orchestra conductor, right?

703
00:35:40,355 --> 00:35:45,099
Somebody who sort of oversees
and takes measures that makes it

704
00:35:45,230 --> 00:35:48,189
no longer individually rational
to do the asshole thing.

705
00:35:48,320 --> 00:35:51,236
The Central Bank is that
collective agent.

706
00:35:56,328 --> 00:35:58,460
JOHN WALKER:
Colleagues, Robert and
Aaron share a concern

707
00:35:58,591 --> 00:36:00,506
about asshole capitalism.

708
00:36:00,636 --> 00:36:04,205
After the 2008 financial crisi,
Robert was an organizer

709
00:36:04,336 --> 00:36:06,207
of the Occupy Wall Street
movement.

710
00:36:06,338 --> 00:36:08,296
Sleeping at night under a
blanket at headquarters

711
00:36:08,427 --> 00:36:10,603
in Zuccotti Park.

712
00:36:10,733 --> 00:36:13,127
In the morning, he walked
across the street

713
00:36:13,258 --> 00:36:15,608
to his day job at the New York
Federal Reserve.

714
00:36:18,219 --> 00:36:23,006
After the crash in 2008, they
admirably started to worry

715
00:36:23,137 --> 00:36:25,748
about group think
inside the Fed

716
00:36:25,879 --> 00:36:28,360
as regulators and so they
decided that they wanted to

717
00:36:28,490 --> 00:36:32,190
bring in somebody who would sort
of be a contrarian voice and

718
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:34,757
help them identify, you know,
mistakes they were making

719
00:36:34,888 --> 00:36:38,283
or new things they can do
and so they brought in Bob.

720
00:36:38,413 --> 00:36:40,110
There was a consensus, a
regulatory consensus

721
00:36:40,241 --> 00:36:42,983
here in the States in the
lead up to the crisis,

722
00:36:43,113 --> 00:36:45,246
that you can't really spot a
bubble developing when

723
00:36:45,377 --> 00:36:47,074
it's developing and some
people were saying

724
00:36:47,205 --> 00:36:49,381
there isn't a bubble. They
just can't exist, right?

725
00:36:49,511 --> 00:36:52,210
That seems to me was dead
wrong. Dead wrong that they

726
00:36:52,340 --> 00:36:54,734
can't exist, to say that. Of
course they occur, right?

727
00:36:54,864 --> 00:36:56,866
The next thing I thought
is you can

728
00:36:56,997 --> 00:36:58,477
actually spot them
in develpment.

729
00:36:58,607 --> 00:37:01,567
This is not a very controversial
position now, but at the time,

730
00:37:01,697 --> 00:37:04,047
of course, it was very much
against the consensus view.

731
00:37:04,178 --> 00:37:05,745
Like all these recursive
collective actions problems,

732
00:37:05,875 --> 00:37:07,137
they're sort of self-augmenting,

733
00:37:07,268 --> 00:37:09,009
there's a snowball like
character to them.

734
00:37:09,139 --> 00:37:11,272
They make themselves worse
until the credit runs out.

735
00:37:11,403 --> 00:37:14,188
That's what was going on
in the lead up to 2008.

736
00:37:14,319 --> 00:37:17,409
That was going on in the
lead up to 1929, as well.

737
00:37:17,539 --> 00:37:20,629
It's nonsense I think to say you
can't spot that sort of thing

738
00:37:20,760 --> 00:37:22,065
happening in advance.

739
00:37:22,196 --> 00:37:24,285
Unfortunately, many American
regulators in the lead up to

740
00:37:24,416 --> 00:37:26,896
2008 did think that you couldn't
spot them in advance.

741
00:37:27,027 --> 00:37:31,249
The Feds failure to understand
its role as a collective agent

742
00:37:31,379 --> 00:37:34,774
meant to sort of orchestrate
doings on Wall Street.

743
00:37:34,904 --> 00:37:37,777
To act as a kind of a
conductor of Wall Street.

744
00:37:37,907 --> 00:37:43,870
In the 1920's, almost directly
brought us the calamity that was

745
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:46,307
the Second World War, the
calamity that was the Nazi

746
00:37:46,438 --> 00:37:48,309
rise to power in Germany.

747
00:37:48,440 --> 00:37:50,659
The calamity that was the
Holocaust and the like.

748
00:37:52,226 --> 00:37:55,577
It's a very tight
direct link.

749
00:37:55,708 --> 00:37:58,363
I actually think if there hadn't
been the bubble and bust

750
00:37:58,493 --> 00:38:01,235
in this country in the
20's, I don't think that

751
00:38:01,366 --> 00:38:03,498
the Nazi party ever would
have become anything more

752
00:38:03,629 --> 00:38:05,848
than a fringe party in Germany,
in that time.

753
00:38:05,979 --> 00:38:08,590
There's certainly no reason to
think that it would have been

754
00:38:08,721 --> 00:38:10,505
because, or would have
done, because it,

755
00:38:10,636 --> 00:38:13,856
there was never any sign of its
getting out of the fringes until

756
00:38:13,987 --> 00:38:16,555
the crash and until the German
economy plummeted too because

757
00:38:16,685 --> 00:38:18,600
it was so completely dependent
on the American economy,

758
00:38:18,731 --> 00:38:20,472
in the 1920's.

759
00:38:20,602 --> 00:38:23,388
AARON JAMES:
I don't know what it is, but
something about this

760
00:38:23,518 --> 00:38:25,085
place makes me think
of assholes.

761
00:38:25,215 --> 00:38:27,130
ROBERT HOCKETT:
Yeah, I know what you mean.

762
00:38:27,261 --> 00:38:28,915
There's a distinct
air of it here.

763
00:38:29,045 --> 00:38:31,091
Yeah, a very poignant
sort of pungency to it.

764
00:38:33,528 --> 00:38:37,271
The most foul mouthed people
are the investment bankers

765
00:38:37,402 --> 00:38:41,536
and I'm sure that when you
go see things like Wolf,

766
00:38:41,667 --> 00:38:43,756
what is it, the
Wolf of Wall Street,

767
00:38:43,886 --> 00:38:46,498
you know, that language is
typical of the language

768
00:38:46,628 --> 00:38:48,500
they actually use
all the time.

769
00:38:48,630 --> 00:38:51,546
Very vulgar. Very harsh.

770
00:38:51,677 --> 00:38:55,333
Very assertive.

771
00:38:56,769 --> 00:38:58,336
JORDAN:
It was like mainlining
adrenaline.

772
00:38:58,466 --> 00:39:01,426
STOCKBROKER:
Yeah fuck face, look at where
the stocks at today, huh?

773
00:39:01,556 --> 00:39:03,558
STOCKBROKER:
Pick up the cock sucking phone!

774
00:39:03,689 --> 00:39:04,820
JORDAN:
Sorry.

775
00:39:04,951 --> 00:39:07,040
I would describe that
a Hedge Fund as the,

776
00:39:07,170 --> 00:39:09,434
as an asshole factory.

777
00:39:09,564 --> 00:39:12,567
You know, just churning them out
in large numbers because

778
00:39:12,698 --> 00:39:15,831
once you've got a horrible
group of people together,

779
00:39:15,962 --> 00:39:18,530
then all they want to do is
choose other horrible people

780
00:39:18,660 --> 00:39:20,706
to join them. You see
what I mean?

781
00:39:20,836 --> 00:39:23,578
So that when you get an asshole
culture they're in trouble

782
00:39:23,709 --> 00:39:26,189
because inevitably they're gonna
flourish more and people are

783
00:39:26,320 --> 00:39:29,018
gonna become asses because they
think it's the right to do.

784
00:39:29,149 --> 00:39:32,326
I think there are some people
who almost make the choice

785
00:39:32,457 --> 00:39:35,329
and over a long period of
time become assholes

786
00:39:35,460 --> 00:39:37,766
when they probably didn't
start out as them.

787
00:39:37,897 --> 00:39:41,248
They play a shell game with
money and lawyers and all the

788
00:39:41,379 --> 00:39:45,383
strange stuff and, you know,
it's like the mortgage crisis.

789
00:39:45,513 --> 00:39:47,950
They were just packaging stuff
and selling little pieces of

790
00:39:48,081 --> 00:39:50,431
crap and smashing them together
and calling them Triple A.

791
00:39:50,562 --> 00:39:52,302
It's like, and I'm
not saying that

792
00:39:52,433 --> 00:39:54,130
there aren't assholes
everywhere,

793
00:39:54,261 --> 00:39:56,089
they're just a special
kind of asshole.

794
00:39:56,219 --> 00:39:58,570
MARK:
We don't create shit.
We don't build anything.

795
00:39:58,700 --> 00:40:00,267
No.

796
00:40:00,398 --> 00:40:03,575
He thinks he's getting shit
rich, which he is, on paper.

797
00:40:03,705 --> 00:40:07,056
But you and me, the brokers,
we're taking home cold hard cash

798
00:40:07,187 --> 00:40:09,189
via commission motherfucker!

799
00:40:09,319 --> 00:40:11,539
Right.

800
00:40:11,670 --> 00:40:14,890
It is completely legitimate
and normal

801
00:40:15,021 --> 00:40:20,113
and not a sign of weakness to
really worry and care about

802
00:40:20,243 --> 00:40:23,682
those amongst us who are less
fortunate and who need help

803
00:40:23,812 --> 00:40:26,772
and if you remove that
kind of notion from

804
00:40:26,902 --> 00:40:30,036
the collective consciousness,
then you would encourage people

805
00:40:30,166 --> 00:40:32,560
to adopt this other extreme
where, 'you know what,

806
00:40:32,691 --> 00:40:36,608
I'm only going to care about
myself' and frequently the

807
00:40:36,738 --> 00:40:39,437
rationalization that comes with
it is that well that's because,

808
00:40:39,567 --> 00:40:44,093
you know, I'm owed more
than anybody else

809
00:40:44,224 --> 00:40:45,878
or at the very least,

810
00:40:46,008 --> 00:40:48,315
I don't care what other
people get in the bargain.

811
00:40:48,446 --> 00:40:50,230
It's their own problem.

812
00:40:50,360 --> 00:40:53,102
We don't give two shits
about how technology works

813
00:40:53,233 --> 00:40:55,453
because all we care about
is getting fucking rich.

814
00:40:55,583 --> 00:40:57,672
And so if all we
care about

815
00:40:57,803 --> 00:41:01,633
is just individual
self-interested success,

816
00:41:01,763 --> 00:41:05,680
if we assume that if everybody
pursues their self-interest,

817
00:41:05,811 --> 00:41:08,509
without any restraints,
somehow automatically then

818
00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:10,729
our society will always
be better off,

819
00:41:10,859 --> 00:41:14,472
then we will have a society
in which that notion will morph

820
00:41:14,602 --> 00:41:17,562
into this monstrous
idea of, you know,

821
00:41:17,692 --> 00:41:20,434
"We don't care what
happens, we're rich,

822
00:41:20,565 --> 00:41:22,871
"we're entitled to a better life
and we don't care

823
00:41:23,002 --> 00:41:24,873
about anybody else."

824
00:41:25,004 --> 00:41:29,835
DONNIE:
22 million dollars in
three fucking hours!

825
00:41:29,965 --> 00:41:31,793
Can you believe this shit?

826
00:41:41,194 --> 00:41:42,761
[timer ticks]

827
00:41:42,891 --> 00:41:44,893
[thunder crashes]

828
00:41:45,024 --> 00:41:48,418
BILL EMMOTT:
I think that when you elect an
asshole to run your country,

829
00:41:48,549 --> 00:41:50,899
what you get is someone who
frames everything around their

830
00:41:51,030 --> 00:41:52,684
own needs, around their
own desires

831
00:41:52,814 --> 00:41:54,773
and their maintenance
in power.

832
00:41:55,643 --> 00:41:57,950
You basically elected
someone whose there

833
00:41:58,080 --> 00:42:01,780
to preserve themselves,
to protect themselves,

834
00:42:01,910 --> 00:42:06,872
to enrich themselves and thinks
of the world as being one that

835
00:42:07,002 --> 00:42:09,614
operates according to the degree
to which you can enrich others

836
00:42:09,744 --> 00:42:12,355
who will support your
power, not the public,

837
00:42:12,486 --> 00:42:17,012
but your supporters and by all
of its instruments that give

838
00:42:17,143 --> 00:42:21,103
rise to equality, particularly
the Rule of Law that might

839
00:42:21,234 --> 00:42:24,890
otherwise impinge on that
selfish person's instincts,

840
00:42:25,020 --> 00:42:28,676
get undermined, bit by bit,
steadily, steadily, steady.

841
00:42:28,807 --> 00:42:31,592
And that's what happened
with Silvio Berlusconi,

842
00:42:31,723 --> 00:42:34,726
in particularly his second and
third times in Government.

843
00:42:34,856 --> 00:42:38,033
[Silvio Berlusconi
speaks Italian]

844
00:42:38,164 --> 00:42:40,558
JOHN WALKER:
Despite scandals of
widespread corruption,

845
00:42:40,688 --> 00:42:42,647
use of underage prostitutes,

846
00:42:42,777 --> 00:42:45,214
and a prison conviction
for tax fraud,

847
00:42:45,345 --> 00:42:49,305
Silvio Berlusconi, media
tycoon, football team owner

848
00:42:49,436 --> 00:42:51,830
and former Prime Minister
has dominated

849
00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:54,702
the Italian imagination
for over 30 years.

850
00:43:01,448 --> 00:43:03,624
Would Berlusconi be a good
example of an asshole?

851
00:43:05,147 --> 00:43:07,062
EDOARDO ALBINATI:
Ah, yeah, sure, yes.

852
00:43:08,194 --> 00:43:12,372
A very, good example and
an exceptional one,

853
00:43:12,502 --> 00:43:19,074
so, a real great, nice asshole
for many reasons.

854
00:43:19,205 --> 00:43:24,993
Assholes are so often admired by
others and they are leaders,

855
00:43:25,124 --> 00:43:32,087
they are the funniest people
in your class and I had,

856
00:43:32,218 --> 00:43:39,007
I remember the funniest people
in school were the assholes.

857
00:43:39,138 --> 00:43:41,923
The good people
usually are flat,

858
00:43:42,054 --> 00:43:49,409
I'm sorry to say that, but it's
also like this in cinema,

859
00:43:49,539 --> 00:43:55,850
or movies, or in life, to
the example of Berlusconi

860
00:43:55,981 --> 00:43:58,244
is again a perfect one.

861
00:43:59,680 --> 00:44:01,900
JOHN WALKER:
Berlusconi burst onto
the public stage,

862
00:44:02,030 --> 00:44:04,946
as the owner of the first
private network of TV stations

863
00:44:05,077 --> 00:44:06,513
throughout Italy.

864
00:44:10,386 --> 00:44:13,433
Filmmaker and activist
Lorella Zanardo considers

865
00:44:13,563 --> 00:44:16,305
Berlusconi's seductive
television and media empire

866
00:44:16,436 --> 00:44:18,481
the source of his
rise to power.

867
00:44:21,049 --> 00:44:23,225
LORELLA ZANARDO:
At the beginning of the '80's,

868
00:44:23,356 --> 00:44:27,186
Berlusconi's TV started
to broadcast,

869
00:44:27,316 --> 00:44:30,363
[Lorealla speaks Italian]

870
00:44:30,493 --> 00:44:33,018
and TV changed completely
because

871
00:44:33,148 --> 00:44:37,239
they started to offer
programs where the focus

872
00:44:37,370 --> 00:44:41,940
was on beautiful and
very feminine girls,

873
00:44:42,070 --> 00:44:45,770
nearly naked, but
never naked,

874
00:44:45,900 --> 00:44:49,861
which is very Italian
and men, older,

875
00:44:49,991 --> 00:44:54,039
much older than these girls,
telling the stupid stories,

876
00:44:54,169 --> 00:44:58,608
laughing with the camera
always on part of the bodies

877
00:44:58,739 --> 00:45:02,003
of these girls and these girls
were many, many girls

878
00:45:02,134 --> 00:45:07,705
with the idea was that with
these girls, you at home,

879
00:45:07,835 --> 00:45:12,013
had, could, have no problems
in life because it was fun,

880
00:45:12,144 --> 00:45:16,583
they were so erotic,
so nice, so ready

881
00:45:16,714 --> 00:45:20,326
to accept man with
no problems.

882
00:45:20,456 --> 00:45:26,593
[Italian music]

883
00:45:26,724 --> 00:45:31,163
LORELLA ZANARDO:
Statistics say that
Italians, have two to three

884
00:45:31,293 --> 00:45:36,168
TV sets in every house
in the Northern part

885
00:45:36,298 --> 00:45:39,519
and in the Southern part
they have never a job,

886
00:45:39,649 --> 00:45:42,740
three to four TV set
in every apartment,

887
00:45:42,870 --> 00:45:47,483
so these programs were entering
not every house, every room.

888
00:45:48,746 --> 00:45:52,488
So, it was quite powerful and
that period we didn't have,

889
00:45:52,619 --> 00:45:57,537
computer or smart
phone, internet,

890
00:45:57,667 --> 00:46:01,759
so every room had this TV set
with Berlusconi entering

891
00:46:01,889 --> 00:46:06,024
and telling the story, telling
all these wonderful world,

892
00:46:06,154 --> 00:46:13,379
made of wonderful, nice girls
ready to love Italian men.

893
00:46:14,728 --> 00:46:18,863
Nine years ago we had the
horrible scandal of Berlusconi

894
00:46:18,993 --> 00:46:22,518
and his dinner party
with girls and Ruby

895
00:46:22,649 --> 00:46:24,782
and everybody was saying
"Oh, it's horrible!"

896
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:27,741
Why it's horrible?

897
00:46:27,872 --> 00:46:30,700
It's exactly what we watch
every day since 30 years.

898
00:46:31,963 --> 00:46:33,921
Like a Fellini dream, ah?

899
00:46:34,052 --> 00:46:35,793
LORELLA ZANARDO:
Berlusconi, he made
it real.

900
00:46:39,274 --> 00:46:42,103
You will remember
Anita Ekberg,

901
00:46:42,234 --> 00:46:45,454
when she enters the
fountain Trevi.

902
00:46:45,585 --> 00:46:47,935
It's the Italian dream.

903
00:46:48,066 --> 00:46:53,201
Big breasts, blonde, there
for you, smiling,

904
00:46:53,332 --> 00:46:55,987
LORELLA ZANARDO:
"Marcello", she says,
"come here."

905
00:46:56,117 --> 00:46:58,076
Life is easy. It's a dream.

906
00:47:03,081 --> 00:47:05,866
Berlusconi made it real and
he understood in a way

907
00:47:05,997 --> 00:47:09,522
that Italians wanted
this dream.

908
00:47:14,744 --> 00:47:17,747
TIM PARKS:
Italy's immensely
open to assholery.

909
00:47:17,878 --> 00:47:22,013
There is a desire for
a protective figure.

910
00:47:22,143 --> 00:47:25,973
There's a desire for what
the Italian's call a "Baroni",

911
00:47:26,104 --> 00:47:28,715
a person in charge, the person
who decides everything,

912
00:47:28,846 --> 00:47:31,109
a Godfather, head
of the family.

913
00:47:31,239 --> 00:47:35,417
There's a desire for
a figure who will,

914
00:47:35,548 --> 00:47:39,682
you know, find you a job, keep
you in a job, make things ok.

915
00:47:39,813 --> 00:47:43,425
TIM PARKS:
Make it so that you don't
have to worry

916
00:47:43,556 --> 00:47:46,994
and Berlusconi has very ably
presented himself as that

917
00:47:47,125 --> 00:47:49,301
and I'm sure he actually
feels the emotions

918
00:47:49,431 --> 00:47:50,868
of the person in
that role.

919
00:47:53,218 --> 00:47:55,394
BILL EMMOTT:
I think Berlusconi was
the original populist

920
00:47:55,524 --> 00:47:57,570
at least in a European
context.

921
00:47:57,700 --> 00:48:00,834
He got to power
and built up

922
00:48:00,965 --> 00:48:04,272
his support by essentially
promising to feed the

923
00:48:04,403 --> 00:48:08,842
inner-selfishness of all sorts
of groups in Italian society

924
00:48:08,973 --> 00:48:13,629
showing his own entrepreneurial
business success,

925
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:18,939
his wealth, his girlfriends, his
parties and so forth as proof of

926
00:48:19,070 --> 00:48:22,769
what you can achieve if only you
let your selfishness fly free.

927
00:48:22,900 --> 00:48:25,815
So he promised all
sorts of goodies

928
00:48:25,946 --> 00:48:30,864
to those people who supported
him and under that cover,

929
00:48:30,995 --> 00:48:34,215
having put himself in power,
managed to enrich himself.

930
00:48:34,346 --> 00:48:38,306
We will remember this horrible
period of life

931
00:48:38,437 --> 00:48:43,529
not for the bad people, but
people who are considered good

932
00:48:43,659 --> 00:48:45,879
but they were silent.

933
00:48:47,794 --> 00:48:52,146
So, Berlusconi's an asshole?
Yes. We too.

934
00:48:54,366 --> 00:48:56,542
It's a country of assholes.

935
00:48:56,672 --> 00:48:58,805
Why people haven't
stopped him.

936
00:48:58,936 --> 00:49:01,939
Why people haven't,
why politician haven't,

937
00:49:02,069 --> 00:49:05,855
done a law in order
to stop him?

938
00:49:05,986 --> 00:49:08,641
What has happened
to us, witchcraft?

939
00:49:08,771 --> 00:49:11,296
I mean 60 million people.

940
00:49:11,426 --> 00:49:13,863
JOHN WALKER:
At least one person
tried to stop him.

941
00:49:13,994 --> 00:49:17,041
Supreme Court judge
Piercamillo Davigo,

942
00:49:17,171 --> 00:49:20,609
who famously said "The
politicians haven't stopped

943
00:49:20,740 --> 00:49:23,482
stealing, they have stopped
being ashamed."

944
00:49:56,994 --> 00:50:00,345
I think that the big effect of
having assholes in charge is to

945
00:50:00,475 --> 00:50:03,826
kind of numb, anesthetize,

946
00:50:03,957 --> 00:50:08,005
the sensitivity of the body
politic to behaviour,

947
00:50:08,135 --> 00:50:12,574
to bad behaviour such
that, criminality,

948
00:50:12,705 --> 00:50:17,275
theft, simple selfishness
becomes norm,

949
00:50:17,405 --> 00:50:21,018
normal and indeed I think
the great terrible thing

950
00:50:21,148 --> 00:50:24,238
that happened in Italy was
a shrugging of our shoulders

951
00:50:24,369 --> 00:50:27,024
and saying, "Cusci van tutti."

952
00:50:27,154 --> 00:50:28,590
"Everyone is doing
this and therefore,

953
00:50:28,721 --> 00:50:30,114
well, it can't
be that bad."

954
00:50:33,769 --> 00:50:36,816
JOHN WALKER:
Nostalgia for the past seems to
be the script Populist leaders

955
00:50:36,946 --> 00:50:38,426
like Berlusconi follow.

956
00:50:39,819 --> 00:50:43,127
Setting back the clock, ignorig
shifting social values,

957
00:50:43,257 --> 00:50:46,130
selling asshole behavior as
the triumphant way forward.

958
00:50:50,134 --> 00:50:54,138
But we don't all act like sheep
for example, Vladimir Luxuria.

959
00:50:54,268 --> 00:50:59,882
VLADIMIR LUXURIA:
I remember when I was at school
once, the teacher asked me,

960
00:51:00,013 --> 00:51:06,411
"Do you like men or do you like,
or do you prefer women?"

961
00:51:08,065 --> 00:51:13,200
And since I was sincere I said I
like men and he said come here

962
00:51:13,331 --> 00:51:17,378
and I went next to him, in
front of all the other students

963
00:51:17,509 --> 00:51:22,253
and he had a stick and he beat
the stick on my hand

964
00:51:22,383 --> 00:51:25,778
as a punishment so that
anyone could see.

965
00:51:26,213 --> 00:51:31,000
Now it would be considered
illegal, but,

966
00:51:31,131 --> 00:51:35,614
when I was a child it was
considered so normal, so normal.

967
00:51:36,832 --> 00:51:40,662
To be a man at least in the time
in which I was educated,

968
00:51:40,793 --> 00:51:43,709
was to show that you
are not a woman,

969
00:51:43,839 --> 00:51:46,755
to show that you are not a
girl. Don't be a girl.

970
00:51:46,886 --> 00:51:51,108
Don't be girlish, in
sport, in whatever.

971
00:51:51,238 --> 00:51:53,458
Also, don't cry,
you're not a girl.

972
00:51:55,068 --> 00:51:57,026
EDOARDO ALBINATI:
Football is not a
sport for girls...

973
00:51:59,855 --> 00:52:02,380
but the problem is that
the male identity,

974
00:52:02,510 --> 00:52:05,818
this kind of identity,
traditional one has not been

975
00:52:05,948 --> 00:52:07,472
substituted by
anything else

976
00:52:08,951 --> 00:52:13,521
and so the old model
is collapsed,

977
00:52:13,652 --> 00:52:17,612
but there is not a new
model of a man.

978
00:52:17,743 --> 00:52:24,228
Especially at school, all the
time I had people insulting me,

979
00:52:24,358 --> 00:52:29,755
writing bad words about
me on the books,

980
00:52:29,885 --> 00:52:36,370
pissing on my shoes in the
gym hour, but at that time,

981
00:52:36,501 --> 00:52:41,375
they led me to think that they
were right and I was wrong.

982
00:52:41,506 --> 00:52:45,988
So many act of violence,
of aggressiveness,

983
00:52:46,119 --> 00:52:53,082
including rape I think I tend
to interpret them as a sort of

984
00:52:53,213 --> 00:53:00,264
trying to restore the old
order, the old regime.

985
00:53:00,394 --> 00:53:06,574
Only when I was 16-years-old and
for the first time I went to

986
00:53:06,705 --> 00:53:10,622
a big city, a big town in Milan
and I went to a gay discotheque

987
00:53:10,752 --> 00:53:15,801
and I saw people like me having
fun, drinking, dancing.

988
00:53:15,931 --> 00:53:20,109
I realized that no,
there is another opportunity.

989
00:53:20,240 --> 00:53:23,417
You can be what you are and
be happy at the same time;

990
00:53:23,548 --> 00:53:25,376
have fun.

991
00:53:25,506 --> 00:53:31,251
So I began to think, so, these
people were not the right people

992
00:53:31,382 --> 00:53:32,948
they were assholes.

993
00:53:33,079 --> 00:53:35,081
Because they were trying
to ruin my life

994
00:53:35,212 --> 00:53:42,131
and so from that time
I decided not to obey to

995
00:53:42,262 --> 00:53:45,396
what they were saying
but to fight them.

996
00:53:46,571 --> 00:53:48,964
[parliament applauds]

997
00:53:49,095 --> 00:53:55,841
VLADIMIR LUXURIA:
I was elected in the Italian
Parliament in 2006 until 2008.

998
00:53:55,971 --> 00:53:58,974
I remember Berlusconi.

999
00:53:59,105 --> 00:54:06,243
Berlusconi, he was closing
all his reunions,

1000
00:54:06,373 --> 00:54:12,727
you know, in the squares,
saying this as the last words,

1001
00:54:12,858 --> 00:54:18,733
"Do you want that in Italy
people like Vladimir Luxuria

1002
00:54:18,864 --> 00:54:21,432
would be elected into
Parliament?"

1003
00:54:21,562 --> 00:54:26,437
And all his fans were shouting
"No!" but I was elected.

1004
00:54:28,613 --> 00:54:31,659
JOHN WALKER:
Well into Berlusconi's regime
the Economist magazine decided

1005
00:54:31,790 --> 00:54:33,879
to challenge his outrageous
governance.

1006
00:54:34,009 --> 00:54:36,838
Bill Emmott was the
chief editor at the time.

1007
00:54:38,100 --> 00:54:41,408
Yes, it was worth that attention
because of the potential of

1008
00:54:41,539 --> 00:54:44,063
the same behavior moving
into other countries,

1009
00:54:44,193 --> 00:54:47,066
into France, into Britain, into
the United States into

1010
00:54:47,196 --> 00:54:49,286
all over the Western world.

1011
00:54:49,416 --> 00:54:54,639
So it became a kind of case
study, in what could happen

1012
00:54:54,769 --> 00:55:01,080
in a new mediatic world where
assholedom could be amplified

1013
00:55:01,210 --> 00:55:05,737
and sadly we have seen it
spread into other countries.

1014
00:55:05,867 --> 00:55:10,307
Had he come to political
maturity at the time of Twitter,

1015
00:55:10,437 --> 00:55:12,134
of social media.

1016
00:55:12,265 --> 00:55:14,746
I think he would have used
Twitter and social media

1017
00:55:14,876 --> 00:55:18,445
because again, as subsequent
characters have shown us,

1018
00:55:18,576 --> 00:55:21,840
it provides a way to give
a direct communication

1019
00:55:21,970 --> 00:55:26,061
to the people unfiltered by
the rest of the media.

1020
00:55:27,672 --> 00:55:30,631
JOHN WALKER:
The free flow of information
has always been the US mantra.

1021
00:55:31,850 --> 00:55:34,766
It's given American tech
companies an unregulated

1022
00:55:34,896 --> 00:55:37,856
freedom to profit from
addictive software,

1023
00:55:37,986 --> 00:55:40,641
abuse of our privacy and
corporate monopolies

1024
00:55:40,772 --> 00:55:42,208
with unprecedented power.

1025
00:55:43,296 --> 00:55:45,646
Silicon Valley is really
interesting.

1026
00:55:45,777 --> 00:55:49,781
It's breeding a so to speak
a new variety of asshole.

1027
00:55:49,911 --> 00:55:54,829
People who believe that in
virtue of having accumulated

1028
00:55:54,960 --> 00:55:59,007
enormous amounts of money or in
virtue of being on the cusp

1029
00:55:59,138 --> 00:56:01,140
of accumulating enormous
amounts of money,

1030
00:56:01,270 --> 00:56:06,232
they're entitled to ignore the
ordinary sanctions that attach

1031
00:56:06,363 --> 00:56:08,060
to behaving in
certain ways.

1032
00:56:12,934 --> 00:56:16,024
MARK ZUCKERBERG:
We're all here because we're
optimistic about the future.

1033
00:56:17,156 --> 00:56:19,593
We have real challenges
to address,

1034
00:56:19,724 --> 00:56:23,380
but we need to keep that
sense of optimism too.

1035
00:56:23,510 --> 00:56:26,208
AARON JAMES:
Zuckerberg is, you know,
another case in which,

1036
00:56:26,339 --> 00:56:29,777
you know, 'move fast and break
things,' was a slogan for

1037
00:56:29,908 --> 00:56:32,824
a while and he explains it as,
well he doesn't want his

1038
00:56:32,954 --> 00:56:34,869
creative people to be tied
up with perfectionism,

1039
00:56:35,000 --> 00:56:36,958
you know, they should
be free to fail

1040
00:56:37,089 --> 00:56:38,960
and sort of move on
to other things.

1041
00:56:39,091 --> 00:56:41,049
Not following the herd
or being, you know,

1042
00:56:41,180 --> 00:56:43,008
completely opposed to
everything that came before

1043
00:56:43,138 --> 00:56:45,750
and you can see how that
would lead to assholery, right?

1044
00:56:45,880 --> 00:56:47,621
It really does, It
sort of says,

1045
00:56:47,752 --> 00:56:49,754
"Dude, you don't care what
other people think.

1046
00:56:49,884 --> 00:56:52,583
"You don't care about the way
that it's always been done.

1047
00:56:52,713 --> 00:56:54,802
"You know, you're charging
forward towards the future and

1048
00:56:54,933 --> 00:56:57,326
the future is going to break
everything from the past."

1049
00:56:57,457 --> 00:56:59,372
I mean it sounds like
a rampaging toddler.

1050
00:56:59,503 --> 00:57:01,287
If a consequence of Facebook,
'moving fast

1051
00:57:01,418 --> 00:57:03,855
and breaking things,' is that it
breaks democracy or democracy

1052
00:57:03,985 --> 00:57:06,771
becomes a shell and the
historic march of democracy

1053
00:57:06,901 --> 00:57:10,992
is ended and we have a
resurgence of authoritarianism

1054
00:57:11,123 --> 00:57:13,995
and sort of papered over
formality democracy.

1055
00:57:14,126 --> 00:57:15,867
That's not something
that can be undone.

1056
00:57:15,997 --> 00:57:18,130
That's not something that
further technological change

1057
00:57:18,260 --> 00:57:20,524
is going to repair
or fix, you know?

1058
00:57:20,654 --> 00:57:24,789
It's not something that
would ever justify,

1059
00:57:24,919 --> 00:57:26,617
you know, Zuckerberg's,
you know,

1060
00:57:26,747 --> 00:57:29,750
aggressive growth policy and,
you know, lack of care.

1061
00:57:29,881 --> 00:57:33,058
MARK ZUCKERBERG:
It's clear now that we didn't
do enough to prevent these

1062
00:57:33,188 --> 00:57:35,190
tools for being used
for harm as well.

1063
00:57:35,321 --> 00:57:37,976
And that goes for fake news,
for foreign interference

1064
00:57:38,106 --> 00:57:40,500
in elections and hate speech
as well as developers

1065
00:57:40,631 --> 00:57:42,241
and data privacy.

1066
00:57:42,371 --> 00:57:44,417
Each apology seems very
sincere, right?

1067
00:57:44,548 --> 00:57:47,289
He really means it. I mean he
knows how to apologize.

1068
00:57:47,420 --> 00:57:50,205
That's not something assholes
usually know how to do, right.

1069
00:57:50,336 --> 00:57:53,644
But, you know, it's the same
really good apology over and

1070
00:57:53,774 --> 00:57:56,429
over again without, you know,
sort of the action you would

1071
00:57:56,560 --> 00:57:58,300
think if the previous ones
really were sincere.

1072
00:57:59,867 --> 00:58:03,349
We didn't take a broad enough
view of our responsibility and

1073
00:58:03,480 --> 00:58:08,180
that was a big mistake and it
was my mistake and I'm sorry.

1074
00:58:08,310 --> 00:58:11,313
You know, if things really
do go for the worse,

1075
00:58:11,444 --> 00:58:14,186
as bad as they can go
now for the U.S.

1076
00:58:14,316 --> 00:58:17,755
and for other countries
then Zuckerberg what?

1077
00:58:17,885 --> 00:58:19,757
"Oops," You know?

1078
00:58:19,887 --> 00:58:23,587
It's like "oops", you know,
it's not excusable, right?

1079
00:58:23,717 --> 00:58:25,719
It's not just an innocent
mistake.

1080
00:58:25,850 --> 00:58:28,635
LESLIE MILEY:
The fact of the matter is,
we've been putting assholes

1081
00:58:28,766 --> 00:58:30,855
in charge of companies
for the last 25 years

1082
00:58:30,985 --> 00:58:33,118
and very young assholes.

1083
00:58:33,248 --> 00:58:36,469
20-something-year-old,
privileged, for the most part,

1084
00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:39,472
white men who don't know
their behavior is

1085
00:58:39,603 --> 00:58:41,996
the behavior of an asshole.

1086
00:58:42,127 --> 00:58:45,260
BETHANYE MCKINNEY BLOUNT:
If you work in Silicon Valley
and you have never dealt with

1087
00:58:45,391 --> 00:58:49,438
an asshole, you've probably
never done anything that's

1088
00:58:49,569 --> 00:58:51,876
that hard and you're
probably a white guy.

1089
00:58:52,006 --> 00:58:54,661
Like those two things are
probably true at the same time.

1090
00:58:54,792 --> 00:58:56,968
Nothing against being
a white guy, that's,

1091
00:58:57,098 --> 00:59:00,101
but I think you need to have
both those things be true

1092
00:59:00,232 --> 00:59:03,365
for you to be like "Oh no, I've
never dealt with an asshole

1093
00:59:03,496 --> 00:59:05,367
in Silicon Valley."
Really? You haven't?

1094
00:59:05,498 --> 00:59:07,195
Mmhmmhmm, I don't believe you.

1095
00:59:07,326 --> 00:59:09,328
Tech is, from a cultural
standpoint,

1096
00:59:09,458 --> 00:59:13,071
is still stuck in
the brogramming,

1097
00:59:13,201 --> 00:59:15,943
you know, me, me,
me, me culture.

1098
00:59:16,074 --> 00:59:17,597
JOHN WALKER:
You said brogramming?

1099
00:59:17,728 --> 00:59:19,730
Brogramming is this
concept of guys,

1100
00:59:19,860 --> 00:59:21,645
you know, particularly
men, males,

1101
00:59:21,775 --> 00:59:25,170
young males getting together to
create the next big thing.

1102
00:59:25,300 --> 00:59:28,913
I would explain to people
that I was a woman,

1103
00:59:29,043 --> 00:59:32,003
but I had, also if you were
going to compare me to

1104
00:59:32,133 --> 00:59:34,353
the various types of nerds
you wanted to overlay,

1105
00:59:34,483 --> 00:59:37,008
I was like "no, I'm basically
like the bare-footed,

1106
00:59:37,138 --> 00:59:39,750
"neck beard guy in the corner
with five monitors who doesn't

1107
00:59:39,880 --> 00:59:42,404
"talk to anybody and works
all night. Like, that's me

1108
00:59:42,535 --> 00:59:45,146
That's who I am. I just
don't look like that guy."

1109
00:59:45,277 --> 00:59:47,192
So there's always
been some like,

1110
00:59:47,322 --> 00:59:51,283
"you're not enough" exclusivity
that's been cultivated.

1111
00:59:51,413 --> 00:59:53,198
I've always been fascinated,

1112
00:59:53,328 --> 00:59:57,942
that the great inventors
in IT are nerds.

1113
00:59:59,291 --> 01:00:01,859
Because why would you want
to spend all your life,

1114
01:00:01,989 --> 01:00:04,557
you know what I mean, fiddling
around with little bits of,

1115
01:00:04,688 --> 01:00:06,385
and see what's happening
on the screen,

1116
01:00:06,515 --> 01:00:08,648
probably 'cause you don't
terribly much enjoy

1117
01:00:08,779 --> 01:00:10,476
other people's company.

1118
01:00:10,607 --> 01:00:13,653
So, I, it's terribly great
that we have these people,

1119
01:00:13,784 --> 01:00:15,568
and that they make these
great discoveries,

1120
01:00:15,699 --> 01:00:18,397
but I think the great mistake
is to listen to them

1121
01:00:18,527 --> 01:00:21,269
when they start telling
us how we should live.

1122
01:00:21,400 --> 01:00:24,577
And let's be honest, If you
give a 24-year-old 10 million,

1123
01:00:24,708 --> 01:00:26,710
20 million, 50 million, a
hundred million dollars

1124
01:00:26,840 --> 01:00:29,451
in funding, do you really expect
them to have good behavior

1125
01:00:29,582 --> 01:00:32,106
all the time? Do you
not expect to change

1126
01:00:32,237 --> 01:00:35,588
who and what they are and
how they approach things?

1127
01:00:35,719 --> 01:00:37,634
You've just given somebody
who's really done nothing

1128
01:00:37,764 --> 01:00:40,201
in their life, like their entire
life, they've done nothing,

1129
01:00:40,332 --> 01:00:41,986
now they have a hundred
million dollars,

1130
01:00:42,116 --> 01:00:43,814
that's just going to enable
bad behavior.

1131
01:00:43,944 --> 01:00:46,120
I think that the effect
of the platforms,

1132
01:00:46,251 --> 01:00:50,995
Twitter, Facebook and other
social media platforms on us is

1133
01:00:51,125 --> 01:00:55,695
to basically give vent to the
worst aspects of our nature.

1134
01:00:56,827 --> 01:00:58,872
It gives us a platform
to be bigoted.

1135
01:00:59,003 --> 01:01:00,874
It gives us a platform
to be prejudiced.

1136
01:01:01,005 --> 01:01:03,485
It gives us a platform to
sound off on people.

1137
01:01:03,616 --> 01:01:05,444
It gives us a platform
to abuse people.

1138
01:01:05,574 --> 01:01:08,273
Now, we had those already,

1139
01:01:08,403 --> 01:01:11,189
they were called bars and we
said what we thought about

1140
01:01:11,319 --> 01:01:14,322
people in bars, but the point
about social media is that it

1141
01:01:14,453 --> 01:01:18,413
gives the potential to amplify
those voices on a huge scale.

1142
01:01:18,544 --> 01:01:20,415
And that's a new phenomenon.

1143
01:01:20,546 --> 01:01:24,071
The New Yorker had a cartoon
in the '90's you may remember.

1144
01:01:24,202 --> 01:01:27,031
LESLIE MILEY:
It was two dogs at a
computer and it said,

1145
01:01:27,161 --> 01:01:29,163
"On the internet, no one
knows you're a dog."

1146
01:01:30,599 --> 01:01:33,211
[Leslie laughs]

1147
01:01:33,341 --> 01:01:36,040
So, it is so appropriate
to today

1148
01:01:36,170 --> 01:01:41,262
and I do think that the
ability to launch an attack,

1149
01:01:41,393 --> 01:01:44,265
an anonymous attack
against people

1150
01:01:44,396 --> 01:01:47,834
has kind of like really lowered
the expectations of behavior.

1151
01:01:47,965 --> 01:01:51,838
Probably the strongest assholes
in contemporary world

1152
01:01:51,969 --> 01:01:54,188
are the social haters.

1153
01:01:54,319 --> 01:01:55,929
JOHN WALKER:
Trolls.

1154
01:01:56,060 --> 01:01:58,932
Haters, I think I prefer
haters, yeah.

1155
01:01:59,063 --> 01:02:01,979
So, it's a way of, it's the
easiest way of hate.

1156
01:02:03,371 --> 01:02:10,335
I had the opportunity with an
Italian TV program, Le lene,

1157
01:02:10,465 --> 01:02:13,555
to meet one of
my assholes.

1158
01:02:16,428 --> 01:02:19,474
JOHN WALKER:
Mary Sarnartaro is a renowned
stand-up comedian

1159
01:02:19,605 --> 01:02:23,304
and host of Le Iene,one of
Italy's most popular TV shows.

1160
01:02:23,435 --> 01:02:24,958
MARY SARNARTARO:
Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

1161
01:02:26,264 --> 01:02:28,440
JOHN WALKER:
Her job, is chasing
after assholes.

1162
01:02:30,268 --> 01:02:36,230
For the program Le lene,
I try to...assholes.

1163
01:02:36,361 --> 01:02:37,884
JOHN WALKER:
Squish?

1164
01:02:38,015 --> 01:02:39,843
Squish assholes, yes.

1165
01:02:39,973 --> 01:02:41,670
JOHN WALKER:
You're hunting assholes?

1166
01:02:41,801 --> 01:02:43,411
Yes, si, si.

1167
01:02:58,252 --> 01:03:06,260
If you have a camera for them,
it's as you have a gun.

1168
01:03:06,391 --> 01:03:11,048
A man who was writing
to me all the time,

1169
01:03:11,178 --> 01:03:15,792
"I want you to hang, I will
give you the rope.

1170
01:03:15,922 --> 01:03:18,142
"Why don't you kill yourself?

1171
01:03:18,272 --> 01:03:20,057
"I will give you the gun.

1172
01:03:20,187 --> 01:03:21,885
"You are a fag.

1173
01:03:22,015 --> 01:03:25,453
You're not a man, or
you're not a woman."

1174
01:03:25,584 --> 01:03:27,281
All the time, all the time.

1175
01:03:35,899 --> 01:03:39,598
I was in the car,
they cheated him.

1176
01:03:41,600 --> 01:03:44,864
VLADIMIR LUXURIA:
The TV program say that it was
going to meet another person

1177
01:03:44,995 --> 01:03:47,432
of the TV even though
it was me.

1178
01:03:51,653 --> 01:03:53,133
[Mary speaks Italian]

1179
01:03:54,656 --> 01:03:57,442
[both speak Italian]

1180
01:03:57,572 --> 01:03:59,357
MAN:
Vladimir Luxuria?

1181
01:03:59,487 --> 01:04:02,316
He became pale, he
began to tremble,

1182
01:04:02,447 --> 01:04:05,842
he didn't know what to say and
I said, "You know who I am?"

1183
01:04:05,972 --> 01:04:08,757
And he said, "Oh, yes, I know,
you're Vladimir Luxuria."

1184
01:04:08,888 --> 01:04:11,978
"No, I am the person
who should hang.

1185
01:04:12,109 --> 01:04:14,328
I am the person who should
kill himself."

1186
01:04:34,740 --> 01:04:39,788
VLADIMIR LUXURIA:
At the end of the story,
I understood that this,

1187
01:04:39,919 --> 01:04:46,273
this boy was just, in
Italian we say "sfigato",

1188
01:04:46,404 --> 01:04:51,975
he's just a poor guy,
miserable and not,

1189
01:04:52,105 --> 01:04:54,368
he doesn't, he does not
have a girlfriend,

1190
01:04:54,499 --> 01:04:59,286
he, problems in the family,
problems at school.

1191
01:04:59,417 --> 01:05:02,115
I had pity on him, you know,
I would say,

1192
01:05:02,246 --> 01:05:07,816
so, I'm sure that all the
people who are asshole,

1193
01:05:07,947 --> 01:05:10,907
actually they have
their own problems,

1194
01:05:11,037 --> 01:05:12,909
you know, they have
their own problems.

1195
01:05:15,128 --> 01:05:18,218
JOHN WALKER:
Once you've exposed a troll,
are they finished?

1196
01:05:18,349 --> 01:05:19,959
Continue to be a troll?

1197
01:05:20,090 --> 01:05:21,656
Uh, no, they continued.

1198
01:05:21,787 --> 01:05:23,267
JOHN WALKER:
Ah.Yes.

1199
01:05:23,397 --> 01:05:24,921
Sometimes they
finish, sometimes,

1200
01:05:25,051 --> 01:05:27,924
but, more times
they continue.

1201
01:05:28,054 --> 01:05:30,491
It's almost impossible to stop
terrible behavior online because

1202
01:05:30,622 --> 01:05:33,364
as soon as you block
a troll, right,

1203
01:05:33,494 --> 01:05:36,367
another one springs up and
as soon as you try to enact

1204
01:05:36,497 --> 01:05:38,195
a structural means of
blocking trolls,

1205
01:05:38,325 --> 01:05:41,067
where you say like some kinds
of speech are acceptable and

1206
01:05:41,198 --> 01:05:44,157
some are unacceptable, there are
whole mobs will rise up yelling

1207
01:05:44,288 --> 01:05:46,812
"Free speech, free speech,
liberty!"

1208
01:05:46,943 --> 01:05:50,207
Now imagine if all you are
doing is talking to

1209
01:05:50,337 --> 01:05:53,862
your Alt-right friends, or
your white supremacist friends

1210
01:05:53,993 --> 01:05:56,909
and you're only sharing articles
and you're only sharing

1211
01:05:57,040 --> 01:05:59,085
information and you're only
sharing the things that

1212
01:05:59,216 --> 01:06:01,435
you believe in and that
inflame your passions,

1213
01:06:01,566 --> 01:06:05,135
and you do this for days and
weeks and months at a time.

1214
01:06:06,658 --> 01:06:08,747
You're going to feel
very emboldened.

1215
01:06:08,877 --> 01:06:11,532
You know, you, you know, we talk
about the radicalization,

1216
01:06:11,663 --> 01:06:13,665
it was like "How was this
person radicalized?"

1217
01:06:13,795 --> 01:06:16,755
I mean it's not just Islam where
people get radicalized, right?

1218
01:06:16,885 --> 01:06:19,366
It's white supremacists
get radicalized.

1219
01:06:19,497 --> 01:06:21,325
It's, you know,
anti-abortion people get,

1220
01:06:21,455 --> 01:06:22,979
you know, become radicalized.

1221
01:06:23,109 --> 01:06:24,806
Radicalized? Yeah,
radicalized.

1222
01:06:24,937 --> 01:06:27,287
You know, even Black Lives
Matter people get radicalized.

1223
01:06:28,593 --> 01:06:31,465
They all do if they stay
in that echo-chamber.

1224
01:06:31,596 --> 01:06:35,339
Well, I think we do need to do a
lot of work on that right now,

1225
01:06:35,469 --> 01:06:37,776
yeah...

1226
01:06:37,906 --> 01:06:47,655
because all the media we
have invites us to feel

1227
01:06:47,786 --> 01:06:53,792
extremely righteous and to be
utterly sure of our own position

1228
01:06:53,922 --> 01:06:58,449
and not to pay too much
attention to the other guys

1229
01:06:58,579 --> 01:07:01,626
and to allow ourselves to
be led towards showdowns

1230
01:07:01,756 --> 01:07:05,630
which are clearly not in
anybody's interest.

1231
01:07:05,760 --> 01:07:08,285
It's frightening that we had
an entire group of people

1232
01:07:08,415 --> 01:07:11,070
think that, a population of
people that think that Obama

1233
01:07:11,201 --> 01:07:14,421
was born in Kenya based
upon social media.

1234
01:07:15,988 --> 01:07:19,165
I mean it's like, I hate to
give, you know, anybody credit,

1235
01:07:19,296 --> 01:07:21,515
but alternative facts
are real, right,

1236
01:07:21,646 --> 01:07:23,387
and wow, there's
a statement,

1237
01:07:23,517 --> 01:07:25,737
alternative facts are real,
they're real for some people

1238
01:07:25,867 --> 01:07:28,914
and how do you combat
that? I don't know.

1239
01:07:29,045 --> 01:07:33,527
I mean, I really hope that
Reddit and Facebook and

1240
01:07:33,658 --> 01:07:36,922
Twitter get a handle on it and
Google gets a handle on it

1241
01:07:37,053 --> 01:07:41,970
because if people don't know
what's real they're only gonna

1242
01:07:42,101 --> 01:07:44,799
evoke their emotions and
they're never gonna vote and

1243
01:07:44,930 --> 01:07:49,065
they're never going to engage in
a conversation that can be moved

1244
01:07:49,195 --> 01:07:52,981
forward because it's not based
on fact and that's where,

1245
01:07:53,112 --> 01:07:55,027
that's the world we're
living in right now

1246
01:07:55,158 --> 01:07:57,247
which is a world increasingly
not based upon fact

1247
01:07:57,377 --> 01:07:59,858
and that should
concern us all.

1248
01:07:59,988 --> 01:08:04,080
MAN:
Modern assholeness is a failure
of communication.

1249
01:08:04,210 --> 01:08:07,300
It's very making
communication one sided

1250
01:08:07,431 --> 01:08:11,261
so there's not like a
dialogue going on.

1251
01:08:11,391 --> 01:08:16,135
It's very top down
kind of like,

1252
01:08:16,266 --> 01:08:17,745
you are speaking down
to everyone,

1253
01:08:17,876 --> 01:08:19,530
like it's sort of like...

1254
01:08:19,660 --> 01:08:22,533
I was about to say being an
asshole is sort of like

1255
01:08:22,663 --> 01:08:24,752
bullying, but I mean I
guess it is bullying,

1256
01:08:24,883 --> 01:08:26,580
like it's the same thing.

1257
01:08:26,711 --> 01:08:30,062
Like I said, I have a lot of
followers and I live my life

1258
01:08:30,193 --> 01:08:32,325
by "If you don't have
anything to benefit me,

1259
01:08:32,456 --> 01:08:34,458
then I most likely
won't talk to you."

1260
01:08:34,588 --> 01:08:38,331
I have a lot of people reach out
to me to either like be my

1261
01:08:38,462 --> 01:08:41,943
friend or like work with me and
stuff and I always look at their

1262
01:08:42,074 --> 01:08:44,903
following or just who they're
surrounded with and if I don't

1263
01:08:45,033 --> 01:08:49,168
think that they can benefit me,
I 100 percent won't talk to you.

1264
01:08:49,299 --> 01:08:52,084
It's about eyeballs, right and
if you keep people engaged in

1265
01:08:52,215 --> 01:08:54,478
your platform, you're not gonna
do something to stop them.

1266
01:08:55,653 --> 01:08:58,395
I can, I am going to make
a very bold statement

1267
01:08:58,525 --> 01:09:00,223
backed up with no
facts whatsoever.

1268
01:09:00,353 --> 01:09:03,095
Facebook could eliminate 90% of
their fake news tomorrow.

1269
01:09:04,923 --> 01:09:07,143
It would hit their revenue
in such a way

1270
01:09:07,273 --> 01:09:09,362
that it would send their
stock price crashing.

1271
01:09:09,493 --> 01:09:11,321
What do you do?

1272
01:09:13,410 --> 01:09:15,107
That's the dilemma.

1273
01:09:15,238 --> 01:09:17,544
The same thing with Twitter.
Same thing with Google.

1274
01:09:20,721 --> 01:09:24,203
I think those organizations
have a responsibility

1275
01:09:24,334 --> 01:09:26,031
that they have abrogated.

1276
01:09:27,946 --> 01:09:30,601
JOHN WALKER:
Silicon Valley's freedom to
break things without regard

1277
01:09:30,731 --> 01:09:33,038
to its' social impact,
may come to an end.

1278
01:09:34,300 --> 01:09:36,476
When Washington calls on
CEO's like Zuckerberg

1279
01:09:36,607 --> 01:09:39,175
to face inquiries, it's clear
they are concerned.

1280
01:09:41,916 --> 01:09:44,615
Google's CEO on the other
hand, refused to attend

1281
01:09:44,745 --> 01:09:47,400
his government's inquiry,
sending lawyers instead.

1282
01:09:50,534 --> 01:09:54,320
The European Union took action,
suing Google 5 billion dollars,

1283
01:09:54,451 --> 01:09:56,453
for anti-trust violations.

1284
01:09:56,583 --> 01:09:59,064
It remains to be seen,
if US regulators

1285
01:09:59,195 --> 01:10:00,979
will follow the
European lead.

1286
01:10:02,285 --> 01:10:05,940
Why is it happening in Europe
and not in Washington?

1287
01:10:06,071 --> 01:10:09,161
Well, of course these are
American companies

1288
01:10:09,292 --> 01:10:12,208
and therefore, European
regulators are a bit more

1289
01:10:12,338 --> 01:10:13,861
inclined to push back
against them,

1290
01:10:13,992 --> 01:10:17,691
but also they are not subject to
the same political donation

1291
01:10:17,822 --> 01:10:22,566
influence that the Washington
authorities are.

1292
01:10:22,696 --> 01:10:25,569
Google has become the biggest
campaign finance donor

1293
01:10:25,699 --> 01:10:30,574
in congressional elections in
the latest couple of cycles.

1294
01:10:30,704 --> 01:10:32,793
Facebook is also a big donor.

1295
01:10:32,924 --> 01:10:35,187
The European commission
is immune to such

1296
01:10:35,318 --> 01:10:37,537
direct financial influence.

1297
01:10:38,843 --> 01:10:40,627
JOHN WALKER:
Regulating this corporate
entitlement

1298
01:10:40,758 --> 01:10:43,500
with Silicon Valley or Wall
Street companies is a challeng.

1299
01:10:45,458 --> 01:10:48,244
Here at Baird, a multinational
wealth management

1300
01:10:48,374 --> 01:10:50,550
and equity firm with
client investments

1301
01:10:50,681 --> 01:10:52,857
of 77 billion dollars.

1302
01:10:52,987 --> 01:10:54,902
Their philosophy is carved
into the woodwork:

1303
01:10:56,687 --> 01:11:01,213
trust, teamwork, respect,
and a 'no asshole rule.'

1304
01:11:01,344 --> 01:11:03,171
Literally the day I got here

1305
01:11:03,302 --> 01:11:05,043
I put into place the
'no asshole theory.'

1306
01:11:05,173 --> 01:11:06,871
One: not going to hire 'em,

1307
01:11:07,001 --> 01:11:11,267
or tolerate anybody who puts
himself ahead of the firm,

1308
01:11:11,397 --> 01:11:15,271
or the clients and we're
going to only do business

1309
01:11:15,401 --> 01:11:17,055
with people who are high
integrity.

1310
01:11:17,185 --> 01:11:19,100
When I'm recruiting people,
I tell everybody this,

1311
01:11:19,231 --> 01:11:22,016
I say "If you're an asshole,
don't come. You'll be fired."

1312
01:11:22,147 --> 01:11:25,455
JOHN WALKER:
So where did you come up,
like the use of the word.

1313
01:11:25,585 --> 01:11:27,761
Can we talk about the
use of the word?

1314
01:11:27,892 --> 01:11:31,112
I don't know, I just did because
I kept calling all these bad

1315
01:11:31,243 --> 01:11:33,289
people at Kidder, Peabody
assholes and I'm not

1316
01:11:33,419 --> 01:11:36,204
gonna work with those people
anymore and one of the reasons

1317
01:11:36,335 --> 01:11:39,382
that I came to Baird, with a
smaller firm, was to get away

1318
01:11:39,512 --> 01:11:41,035
from that to be
perfectly honest.

1319
01:11:41,166 --> 01:11:42,689
LESLIE DIXON:
It was controversial.

1320
01:11:42,820 --> 01:11:46,954
There was some conservatives
in the firm who were like

1321
01:11:47,085 --> 01:11:49,305
"Oh my gosh you can't
say that out loud",

1322
01:11:49,435 --> 01:11:52,395
and then there was others that
you can tell just loved it.

1323
01:11:52,525 --> 01:11:56,486
It is what it is and, and we
talk about it openly and some

1324
01:11:56,616 --> 01:12:00,664
people will temper it to the "no
jerk rule," but a lot of people

1325
01:12:00,794 --> 01:12:03,580
have gotten use to just
saying "the no asshole rule."

1326
01:12:03,710 --> 01:12:06,060
It begins with the respect
of every individual

1327
01:12:06,191 --> 01:12:10,630
and that is the core value is
every person, what they do,

1328
01:12:10,761 --> 01:12:15,331
what they accomplish, what they
add to the enterprise is core to

1329
01:12:15,461 --> 01:12:19,117
our success and every individual
is important and when you have

1330
01:12:19,247 --> 01:12:22,729
that basic respect, then
you can build trust

1331
01:12:22,860 --> 01:12:25,776
and our business is all about
trust and if you build trust,

1332
01:12:25,906 --> 01:12:28,561
you'll get, and you do that long
enough then you've built

1333
01:12:28,692 --> 01:12:31,912
a certain pride that
creates an energy

1334
01:12:32,043 --> 01:12:35,742
and dynamic of its own but the
foundation is the respect for

1335
01:12:35,873 --> 01:12:38,832
the every single individual
in the firm.

1336
01:12:38,963 --> 01:12:42,923
When we interview people, we ask
our receptionist who meets them

1337
01:12:43,054 --> 01:12:47,537
all, what they thought of that
person as they were waiting for

1338
01:12:47,667 --> 01:12:52,716
five minutes and we'll hear the
stories of "Wow, they were rude,

1339
01:12:52,846 --> 01:12:57,111
they were condescending," and
we have said no to people.

1340
01:12:57,242 --> 01:12:59,853
Yeah, look I can't tell you
the number of conversations

1341
01:12:59,984 --> 01:13:02,639
where I said "You're right
Joe, you're really special.

1342
01:13:02,769 --> 01:13:04,771
You're so special, you need
to work someplace else."

1343
01:13:05,903 --> 01:13:08,732
And you mean that and when
you do, people cheer you

1344
01:13:08,862 --> 01:13:10,734
because the greater
good prevails

1345
01:13:10,864 --> 01:13:13,171
and it's a winning
strategy for us.

1346
01:13:14,520 --> 01:13:17,349
JOHN WALKER:
The strategy is working so
well, they are number four

1347
01:13:17,480 --> 01:13:20,091
on Fortune's 100 Best
Companies to Work For,

1348
01:13:20,221 --> 01:13:23,137
and the top financial
firm on the list.

1349
01:13:23,268 --> 01:13:26,576
The firms that are in the
top 100 great places to work,

1350
01:13:26,706 --> 01:13:29,230
outperform their peers two and
half, to three, to one,

1351
01:13:29,361 --> 01:13:30,841
in terms of returns.

1352
01:13:33,409 --> 01:13:36,455
PAUL PURCELL:
This difficult behavior
by Wall Street oriented,

1353
01:13:36,586 --> 01:13:39,980
larger firms is a
huge plus for us

1354
01:13:40,111 --> 01:13:42,679
because we're very different.

1355
01:13:42,809 --> 01:13:45,769
Here at Baird, two out of three
people are shareholders.

1356
01:13:45,899 --> 01:13:48,511
So, what, what we say to
people is, "It's your firm,

1357
01:13:48,641 --> 01:13:52,863
behave accordingly,
protect your firm."

1358
01:13:52,993 --> 01:13:55,256
It is a very powerful message.

1359
01:13:55,387 --> 01:13:58,825
You're an owner, protect
your franchise

1360
01:14:00,087 --> 01:14:01,524
and you make people
accountable.

1361
01:14:04,483 --> 01:14:06,224
It's that long-term
orientation that is,

1362
01:14:06,354 --> 01:14:07,878
that's missing from most
of Wall Street.

1363
01:14:09,140 --> 01:14:11,795
[office chatter]

1364
01:14:11,925 --> 01:14:15,015
You know, in 2008 and 2009, one
of the beautiful things that

1365
01:14:15,146 --> 01:14:17,496
we were able to do, was not
lay anybody off.

1366
01:14:18,976 --> 01:14:21,108
And they were throwing
thousands, tens of thousands

1367
01:14:21,239 --> 01:14:26,418
of people out between September
of '08 and March of '09 and

1368
01:14:26,549 --> 01:14:29,682
that we kept our trust with
all of our associates

1369
01:14:29,813 --> 01:14:32,206
and then we came out of the
downturn just roaring.

1370
01:14:32,337 --> 01:14:34,644
But it goes back to
how you were raised

1371
01:14:34,774 --> 01:14:36,472
when it was all
said and done.

1372
01:14:36,602 --> 01:14:38,691
You know, were you raised
in a family

1373
01:14:38,822 --> 01:14:41,172
and with really good
core values?

1374
01:14:41,302 --> 01:14:44,001
People go, "Oh, it can't
be that simple." It is.

1375
01:14:45,959 --> 01:14:49,659
You either have it or you don't
and you can't drift.

1376
01:14:49,789 --> 01:14:52,226
You can't drift.

1377
01:14:52,357 --> 01:14:53,880
In the asset management
business,

1378
01:14:54,011 --> 01:14:55,969
we call it style drift.
We cannot drift.

1379
01:14:56,100 --> 01:14:59,364
We need to stay back and every
time there's a big issue

1380
01:14:59,495 --> 01:15:02,149
we need to, we go but does
this, is this consistent

1381
01:15:02,280 --> 01:15:04,891
with our core values and
if it is you do it.

1382
01:15:05,022 --> 01:15:06,502
If it's not, you don't.

1383
01:15:09,200 --> 01:15:13,247
It's really pretty simple, but
it takes a lot of discipline

1384
01:15:13,378 --> 01:15:17,513
and a lot of focus because,
you know, like

1385
01:15:17,643 --> 01:15:20,559
"Well, just this one time,"
right and you're like "No!"

1386
01:15:20,690 --> 01:15:23,344
You can't do that, and
then, 'cause if you do

1387
01:15:23,475 --> 01:15:24,955
then people won't trust you.

1388
01:15:28,262 --> 01:15:31,701
JOHN WALKER:
After grasping the destructive
impact of asshole behavior,

1389
01:15:31,831 --> 01:15:35,531
and the courage it takes
to push back, I asked Aaron

1390
01:15:35,661 --> 01:15:38,229
if he felt anything had changed
since he wrote his book.

1391
01:15:39,796 --> 01:15:42,363
The asshole explosion was
something I never would have

1392
01:15:42,494 --> 01:15:46,324
guessed would ever happen when
I started thinking about,

1393
01:15:46,454 --> 01:15:48,892
I mean, I sort of described
it in abstract terms,

1394
01:15:49,022 --> 01:15:52,504
but if you'd have told me
that our country was headed

1395
01:15:52,635 --> 01:15:54,854
towards something like that,
I would have been shocked.

1396
01:15:54,985 --> 01:15:57,770
I mean at the time I thought
we were on the precipice,

1397
01:15:57,901 --> 01:15:59,380
right and then what
happened was,

1398
01:15:59,511 --> 01:16:02,035
we just you know,
went all in

1399
01:16:02,166 --> 01:16:05,299
and, you know and now it's
really sort of our fate's,

1400
01:16:05,430 --> 01:16:07,693
you know, unclear.

1401
01:16:07,824 --> 01:16:09,956
JOHN WALKER:
Are you worried?

1402
01:16:10,087 --> 01:16:11,871
Yeah, yeah, I'm worried,
yeah. I am worried.

1403
01:16:12,002 --> 01:16:21,489
[soft piano music]

1404
01:16:21,620 --> 01:16:24,971
JOHN WALKER:
I have Aaron to thank for his
warning of the rising tide

1405
01:16:25,102 --> 01:16:28,845
of assholery and for a journey
that leaves me hopeful about

1406
01:16:28,975 --> 01:16:30,760
the resilience of
human decency.

1407
01:16:34,938 --> 01:16:39,899
You know, if you walk and you
see somebody being an asshole

1408
01:16:40,030 --> 01:16:43,599
with someone, with a woman,
with a girl, with a dog,

1409
01:16:43,729 --> 01:16:45,818
with a gay, with a transgender,

1410
01:16:45,949 --> 01:16:49,561
with an old people, with
a foreigner, whoever,

1411
01:16:49,692 --> 01:16:53,434
and you decide just, you
pretend you haven't seen,

1412
01:16:53,565 --> 01:16:58,483
then you are the same
asshole like him.

1413
01:16:59,745 --> 01:17:03,836
If you decide to react,

1414
01:17:03,967 --> 01:17:06,273
then you are doing
something really big.

1415
01:17:07,753 --> 01:17:12,410
Like a little stone, you know,
in a pool of indifference.

1416
01:17:12,540 --> 01:17:17,807
Little rings that go wider
and wider and wider

1417
01:17:17,937 --> 01:17:21,506
can reach longer distances.

1418
01:17:21,637 --> 01:17:36,434
[soft piano music]

1419
01:17:36,564 --> 01:17:44,660
[soft piano music]