The Philosophy of Robin Hood 

HORSES STORE: horses.land/

"In the forest of fortune, the true archer is not he who hoards the golden arrows, but he who aims to share the bounty with those who have none." - some guy living in a forest...

On my recent trip to Japan I came across the grave site of Nakamura Jirokichi aka Nezumi Kozō (The Rat Kozo). He was the "Robin Hood" of Japan. After being caught, he confessed to burglarizing over 100 samurai estates worth over 30,000 ryō (yen at the time) in a span of 15 years. When Nezumi was arrested, very little money was found on him making the daiymo believe he gave his taken treasures to the poor. Prior to being caught, Nezumi Kozō served his wives divorce papers to save them from perishing from the same kind of persecution and punishment, as devreed by the law of the time. He was tied to a horse, a true spectacle as he was paraded around town, and was eventually beheaded at the Suzugamori execution grounds. He is revireed as a folk hero and his exploits have been dramatized in Kabuki theater for years and years. I guess people frequently take pieces of his grave stone because I saw signs specifically stating how it is a crime to do so, I suppose people want some of Nezumi's luck/skill with them?

Horses casually selling a sword named "deathbringer" in his merch shop is exactly the correct amount of insanity

hi mr horses. i suffered a loss on my family and these past few days have been horrible. this video was able to make me focus on something else for a while. thank you for providing me some minutes of distraction from my grief.

This channel is pure gold. Thank you for the visual, audible and philosophical treat.

I take issue with the counter-examples proposed at 10:30. The Robinhood philosophy does not need to mean "steal everything from the rich until they are poor" but "steal enough from the rich to redistribute to the poor until all are equal". So the example of a doctor killing one person to save 5 feels like the result of a slippery slope when the Robinhood approach could actually be better interpreted as "take a kidney from one person to save the life of another" now both people have one working kidney. In this case then, the correct thing to do to save those 5 people is to find 5 donors that can give what they can without themselves dying. An extreme case might be a heart transplant in which case it would not make sense to trade one person's life for the other when they're supposed to be valued equally. That whole thing sounds like some economists slippery slope fallacy as to why we can't have universal healthcare.

A big factor that led to the rise of gangs and squatters doing "robin hood" activities were the introduction of enclosure acts and the phasing out of the open field system during this period, which led to many being uprooted from the land their families had spent generations on and many having to leave and become day laborers or starve. It becomes a lot easier to decide to try and make it as a thief and outlaw living outside the system than toiling for pay.

He's selling a f**king sword😭😭😭✨✨✨✨

on the commentary at the end about reductiveness in the folklore - i believe truly mythic memes that stick around for centuries like this aren't reduced, but distilled. there's a core essence that appeals to us, and the historical-contextual details of the original story are essentially boiled away through time and repetition. the result is something like a nugget of wisdom in story form, but it also acts as a pointer referring us back to the historical context that created that story so we can understand that wisdom more fully

A new Horses video AND it's about philosophy? Today's a good day!

This topic has fascinated me since I was a kid watching the anthropomorphic Robin Hood. Ty for making this

Hey man, I just wanna say that I appreciate the hell out of these videos. You're an essential part of my schedule and I watch your videos before work. Thanks man

best merch I've seen from any youtuber hands down

He stole from tax collectors and gave back to the taxed. I think the depression is when it really started getting heavy handed into “stole from the rich, gave to the poor”.

The plaque at 9:15 is located in a little village called Fulking, in West Sussex, UK. It’s about 20 minutes from my house and is right next to a very nice pub 😊

How does this only have 74k views? I am basically writing this and hitting like, which I never do, in support of this quality.

I've been in a book study, discussing civic disobedience and morality, and this video is serendipitously relevant. Love your content!

I love your videos. Thank you for continuing to be amazing. I'd love to pick your brain with a convo someday.

it’s been amazing to see you grow dude never stop

just sliding in to say the new thumbnail is so sick

im from nottingham and fairly into history so ive done a fair bit of research into it and william of collingham does also have a fairly local link in that he's named for a village 15 or so miles east of nottingham on the trent river which was essentially a major trade highway for river boats in the medieval period meaning word of him would've easily gotten around

I was lookin for a proper deep dive into Robin Hood just last month and came up short. This is lovely, thank u

37:43 those two "o"s perfectly align with the eyes *chef's kiss

It is "Thou shall not murder" not just kill, that is a bad translation as hebrew has two words for "killing" like we have. An unlawful one "retzach" (murder) and a lawful one/more general term "horeg"(kill). And it is definitely retzach in the original hebrew text. Just wanted to clarify as many gets it wrong. Sorry for rambling 😂 superb video, I really the liked style and quality sir 👏❤

Reminiscin', this-'n'-thattin' Havin' such a good time Oo-de-lally, oo-de-lally golly, what a day

always spectacular work. happy to be here!

You're a real one for using the Disney art for the thumbnail

One of your best ones yet:) Thank you so much,great topic idea,great execution! Again,thank you!

I’m completely committed to watch all your work it is extremely entertaining

I almost scrolled past this until I thought, "That seems like a videos Horses would upload..."

I love your videos so much, thanks for putting them out!

Can’t get enough of your channel

We have our own Robin hood in mongolia aswell

Excellent. Great balance between long form and short form content.

I have been obsessed with Robin Hood since I was little and saw the Disney movie.

Mf really juat dropped a sword with their first merch drop. Most epic RU-vid Channel of all time!!!

As always, quality content. Keep up the good work.

Absolutely love your editing, narration, and scripts. It's inspiring to see how you make so few assets interesting to watch

One of the only RU-vidrs out there that keeps my attention the whole time 👏🏾

Oh wow, another great unexpected topic. Good stuff man 😎

its always my fav day when u post

WTF WHY DOES YOUR MERCH GO SO HARD? LOVE THE GRUNGE AESTHETIC

In a Australia we have our own Robin Hood, a man called Ned Kelly. all completely factual and a real man who's deeds, both good and bad, are notorious. In modern day Australia he is mostly a notorious villain of the people who held power, or a hero for the working class and poor. Would love to see an essay done on him, his life and philosophy was incredibly interesting, and is still to this day an incredibly iconic name in Australia.

Your videos are so amazing and informative

I just hit the bell so I'll always see your video essays!

Good content! Keep the insane quality

Great video. Im sick at home right now and just rewatched a lot of your content! So good. 😊

You have such an amazing channel! I love your videos❤

That's not a horse

New Horses video? Hell yes.

new merch, baby!

Just the color choice on the thumbnail and then the mask to boot are so evocative

Horses, your descriptions of the violence in ballads of that time call to mind the brief scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when Sir Robin's minstrel went into gruesome detail what could happen to his liege. Good to know they were historically accurate.

you are a master of aesthetics my friend

i love your channel. keep it up

another banger from Horses

This is the best Chanel on RU-vid

Is it wrong that I have the urge to google every line in this essay after the James Somerton debacle?

this guy's voice... so relaxing

excellent stuff. thank you.

Superb video!

Remember when this channel only had like 30k subscribers. Glad it’s grown massively recently.

Woooooo Horses uploaded

Love any vid you do with literary stuff

Such a cool and informative channel 😊

You are one of the reasons I'm relearning english. You are great storyteller.

In my opinion, utilitarianism is best used as a tool in a belt of moral ethics. The belt itself can be your own subjective moral code, which is influenced by the weight of different ethical “tools.” For instance, I tend to consider it for certain decisions and let my own sense of virtue ethics - which mostly lines up with my own morality - inform on those which it is best employed, as well as how it is employed. I like to think that real people don’t necessarily follow one strict ethical philosophy, as is often portrayed in discussion and tales like these, or by philosophers themselves, but that we draw on a multitude to inform our decisions (whether or not we have studied ethics). And that subjective multitude is informed by things like culture, experience, and education. It has been many years since I studied ethical philosophy, so forgive me if any of this sounds ignorant. Just wanted to add some thoughts on the subject. Feel free to rebut my position or laugh at my weak analogy 😅 I can already see ways to write it better, but I think you’ll get my point.

out of curiousity why is your channel named horses?

I just came from History Buff's review of the 2010 Ridley Scott directed Robin Hood movie. What luck 😂

great vid, thanks.

I got an end sem tomorrow but Horses + one of fave folktales bruuuhhhhh

Waking up to a Horses video? Has Christmas come early??

Masterpiece

So, Robin Hood is more of a Chaotic Neutral kind of guy (instead of the Chaotic Good type we often hear about).

youre the first non sword/blacksmith channel ive seen sell a fkn sword. respect, thats cool as hell.

Gotta finish your Robin Hood video still but will your video on Madame X and John Singer Sargent be back up again?! Brilliant work!

HORSES IS ART!

Love your stuff 🫶

No justice, no peace

Every time I see this channel's name, a little song plays in my head that somehow self-references how I feel about that same song snippet. It's from Bullet For My Valentine's song 'Curses,' but it goes like "There's horses lurking in my head and I don't understand it..."

we dont steal from rich people in these parts, we just eat them

I seem to recall taxes being something of a driving force . . .

RIP the Disney thumbnail

@11:12 there was no middle class during this time period... if anybody wants to debate, let's GOooo- great video so far :) Robin Hood is an Icon for me! Who knows... one day... we may pass the Robin Hood Act and force the Rich to share the wealth

Man your video style choices from the thumbnail to editing is veryyy impressive! like how did you learn to do this?

babe wake up new Horses video just dropped

Robin Hood justice would be a dope shirt…just sayen….nudge, nudge, wink, wink….kiss,kiss

Ah, I see Prince John (Disney) noticed Robin (Horses) stealing some artwork and Robin decided that discretion is the better part of valor.

Hello Mr. Horse. Have you considered releasing audio versions of your episodes so I can listen to them on my podcast app while I go for walks?

Love your videos You should really do a collab with Russell Walter. You two have very similar editing styles and themes. He does interviews. Maybe you two could have a discussion.

I'd love to see a subsequent video about the philosophy of the Wee Free Men. Fightin', Drinkin', and Stealin'! But never from the poor; they never have anything worth the effort.

shaping up well thus far

Shirts look dope, can’t believe you selling a legit sword tho 💀

I swear Ave Maria was playing in the background when the video started 😂❤❤❤

Groovy man

You assume there is a “moral” way to amass riches. I do not believe there is and therefore redistribution is always just. Nobody gets a billion dollars ethically and should not be considered innocent while others starve around them.

“Two wrongs don’t make a right, but it damn sure makes us even!” - Onyx

There’s a triforce in the side of that building at 20:51

Can you please do a video on Plato's Allegory of the Cave??? You would be the perfect youtuber to go really in depth on it