0:07

I'm Dave Rubin

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and joining me today is the Baroness at the

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UK House of Lords and the CEO

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of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship,

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also known as ARC, Baroness Philippa Straud.

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Welcome to the Rubin Report.

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Thank you so much, Dave. Really great to join

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you. Well, I'm very happy to

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have you because I will be joining you guys

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at the ARC conference in London

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in about a week and a half or two weeks or so.

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And I thought we could just chat for a few minutes about what

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the conference is all about, sort of how this

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originally came from the, I think I

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can say the great mind of Jordan Peterson, what

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the genesis of all of this was and what

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the intentions are. So I'd love to talk

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to you about British politics, but I think we have to focus

0:46

on that. So can you talk about what

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ARC is, how Jordan got to you

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and where you want to go

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with this thing? Yeah, thanks,

0:55

Dave. So ARC is really

0:57

a movement of people who

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are basically saying that we've

1:01

had enough of a declinist, permacrisis,

1:05

polycrisis type way of thinking.

1:08

We actually believe that there is a better story,

1:10

a better way forward and a more hopeful

1:13

narrative. And because we so believe

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in story, because it shapes who

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we are and it shapes our direction

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of travel as societies, we actually

1:22

want to come together to develop a better

1:24

story for our society. But

1:26

actually, when I think back to how

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it all started, I had invited

1:31

Jordan to come and do

1:34

a talk at the think tank that I led

1:36

in London. And we

1:39

had a fantastic time with him. The whole time

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we were focused on freedom of speech

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and higher education and how we restored

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freedom of speech and academic freedom back to

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our universities. And at the end of

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it, he went on his way, did

1:53

a big tour around Eastern Europe. And

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halfway through that tour, he rang me and he said, Philippa,

1:58

everywhere I go,

2:00

there are people, fantastic

2:02

leaders, but they're so isolated and

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they're doing amazing work. What would

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happen if we brought them all together to do a conference?

2:11

I thought great story and at the end of it he

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just said to me, so would you know this chap called

2:15

Paul Marshall? I said yeah, great friend of mine. So

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I pinned an email and said hey

2:20

Paul, Paul meet Jordan, you're going to love each other. Next

2:23

couple of days Paul rings me and says, you

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know this conference that you and Jordan are doing? I'm

2:27

in and I said what conference?

2:30

Anyway, it kind of just snowballed from there

2:32

and you know when an

2:35

idea's time has come, it just has momentum

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behind it and people wanting to get on board

2:40

and make it happen, that's

2:41

what arc has been like from beginning

2:43

to end. I have to say just on a personal note,

2:45

as you know I toured with Jordan in 2018 and 19, about 120 shows,

2:49

I think 20 countries and what you just described

2:51

there of all these great people coming

2:53

up to him after the show, political leaders,

2:56

politicians, celebrities,

2:58

thinkers, authors, Bob, everyone was like we've got

3:00

to do something so I'm so thrilled for this thing, I really

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can't wait. But do you find it strange,

3:04

you mentioned stories and obviously that Jordan

3:07

has been a great explainer of why stories

3:09

are important, you can't just give people policy.

3:12

Do you find it odd that the West, which

3:14

has come up with so much great you know

3:16

movie making and books and literature

3:18

and all of the stuff that our culture

3:20

is made of, we somehow didn't tell a story

3:23

to defend ourselves. Does that seem

3:26

like a strange dichotomy to you?

3:29

Yeah and it's like our stories got so

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fragmented, so one of

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the questions we're going to be asking at arc

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is what can we draw from

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our history? What is the narrative,

3:41

the story that can unite

3:44

us as we go forward? And we're

3:46

asking like what story can be drawn

3:48

from our liberal democratic history and

3:51

what story can be drawn from

3:52

our Judeo-Christian history? Are there

3:54

stories that actually can be foundational

3:57

to who we are that can take us forward?

4:00

And obviously, so much of

4:02

our story is built on the hero's journey

4:04

of overcoming obstacle.

4:05

And yet everything in society today

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is telling us, you know, conflict's not okay.

4:11

You know, challenge is not okay. We've got to be safe. We've

4:13

got to be, like, prevented from

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having challenges. But actually,

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it's a challenge that enables the human spirit

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to grow and to overcome.

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So there are lots of different themes like

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this that we're going to be exploring

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at AHRQ as well.

4:26

Right. And the conference is, it's four days,

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if I'm not mistaken. Is it four full days?

4:30

Yeah, it starts on Sunday the 29th,

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and then it's going through the 30th,

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31st and 1st of November. So

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Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in London. Great.

4:39

So we're going to link to it down below because obviously

4:42

portions of it, at least, are open to

4:44

the public, and we want people to be there and all

4:46

of that. What other

4:48

types, is it fair to call it sort of a counter

4:51

to the world economic forum, sort of a bottom-up

4:54

way of looking at the world as opposed to a top-down

4:56

version of looking at the world?

4:58

Yeah. So it is a gathering

5:01

of leaders in

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London,

5:04

but it's also really

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profoundly built around the principle

5:08

of subsidiarity. So what am I

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responsible for as an individual? What

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is my family responsible for? What

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is my community responsible for? And

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then what is my nation responsible for? So

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instead of hiding away somewhere

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and coming up with these big decisions and imposing

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them on society and pushing them down, it's very

5:27

much coming up from the principle of responsibility

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at every level, including

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the individual. And then

5:34

on the night of the 1st of November, Jordan's

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throwing open the doors at ARC at the O2,

5:39

huge place where anyone can book a ticket. It

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takes 20,000 people, ARC, and

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it's literally open to anyone who can get a ticket.

5:47

They're going very fast if they haven't already gone.

5:50

Right. And what are some of the

5:53

categories that you're going to be talking about? So

5:55

I think people understand sort of broadly what you're talking about,

5:57

but this is going to be about science. It's going to be about tech,

5:59

media, et cetera. It's going to be sort of

6:01

across all disciplines.

6:03

Yeah. So the big question

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we're asking is what is the better story?

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But within that too,

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it's like what is the better story for

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family and the social fabric? What

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is the better story for business? What

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is the

6:16

better story for energy and the environment?

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So asking right across the board all

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these like what is the better story and all

6:23

of these different aspects of life?

6:26

The same that we want to platform. But

6:28

I think it's going to take you two, three, four

6:31

to platform

6:31

the door. But it's

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all going to be framed around that lens of the better story.

6:37

And is the plan then, I assume so,

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but the plan will be, okay, we're going

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to come up with sort of specific stories

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that can lead us to policies. And then we're

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going to find the people that might be in the House of

6:48

Lords or in the United States Congress or elsewhere. And

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we're going to try to implement some of this stuff.

6:53

Absolutely. And what's really

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exciting too is that

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we've got at least half

6:59

the shadow cabinet from Australia coming, three ex-Australian

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Prime Ministers are coming. We've got two

7:04

congressional delegations coming from

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the US. We've got over 100

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different MPs from

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different parts of the world coming.

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So we have some people of real influence,

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but we also have 200 business leaders, 200,

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another 200 kind of ideas and influences as well.

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So

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I mean, it's going to be a very rich, rich

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audience.

7:26

Do you think there's anyone in the world that could

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have pulled something like this off other than Jordan?

7:31

Like when I first heard about this, I was like,

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oh, this is what Jordan was supposed to do. It

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just seems so obvious to me in a way.

7:39

I mean, he's a remarkable, you know this,

7:41

he's a remarkable individual.

7:44

And I love working with him. I

7:46

think he is an extraordinary man. But

7:49

what's been really great in the art conference

7:51

is the ability to gather other like-minded,

7:54

extraordinary people too. We've

7:56

got over 90 speakers

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who are going to be platformed.

8:00

people wanting to come and be

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on the stage and contribute.

8:05

And I think, you know, this sort of change,

8:07

Jordan, would be the first person to say, it can't

8:10

be through one person, it has to be through

8:12

a movement of people. But, oh

8:15

my word, he's been the most extraordinary catalyst.

8:18

Does it also feel to you that the timing is

8:20

kind of right, not just because of what's been

8:22

happening in the world for the last couple of years, obviously,

8:25

but really even the events of the last 10 days or

8:27

so really have the West feeling

8:29

very shaken? I mean, I'm seeing the, obviously

8:31

the protests that are happening in London, but they're happening

8:33

here in New York City and other

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places here as well.

8:37

Yeah, I would really

8:40

agree with you, Dave. I think one

8:43

of the questions that we're asking

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is, where did we lose our confidence

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and how did we lose our values

8:50

in the West? And would these events

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be happening if we had more

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confidence in who we are as people,

8:58

more confidence in our values?

9:01

And I think we've got,

9:03

you know, fantastic historians like Neil Ferguson

9:06

who are going to be joining us. We're

9:09

hoping that we will have

9:10

some extraordinary spokespeople,

9:12

even from Israel, who are able to join

9:15

us that aren't announced yet. And obviously,

9:17

for obvious reasons,

9:19

may not be able to join us. But

9:21

I think this is a moment

9:23

for us to really ask

9:25

ourselves some difficult questions and say,

9:27

actually, we've got to strengthen ourselves.

9:29

We've got to have more courage. We've got to have a

9:32

better story to tell.

9:35

I think actually we should leave it there

9:37

so that people will hear a small

9:39

bite. And then of course we're going to be recording

9:42

everything and there'll be all sorts of videos that'll

9:44

get out. I'm going to try to do some interviews on the ground,

9:46

even if I've got to do it from an iPhone. We'll

9:49

chat with everybody there. And I just

9:51

want to thank you for putting this together and working with Jordan on

9:53

this. Links to the tickets to the,

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or link to the tickets to the O2 event are

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right below. Do you have any final thoughts

10:00

I let you go.

10:01

No, I just can't wait to welcome you to London, Dave.

10:03

I know. I can't wait, thank you so much.

10:12

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10:14

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