Dennis Prager Sketches the Future of Western Civilization

I have a very deep connection to ISI anti-national review that I'd like to tell you about and it would be unknown to any of you in the case certainly of National Review the ISI is newer my first article that I ever had published was published by William Buckley in National Review I'll bet you didn't know that you did know it no there would be no way you would I was 21 years old and I contacted William Buckley and it gives you it's by the way 100% to his credit that he published me I was an unknown completely unknown but he so wanted to give young people a start it was to his credit my article incidentally was awful no no no I I'm not happy to say this but I could prove it to you because this is what it was my field of study I was at the time at Columbia and I was at the Russian and Middle East Institute's of the School of International Affairs so my chief area of study was communist countries communism Russian and so on so I was thinking another trip to Eastern Europe and that's how I contacted him I mean how many conservatives are going to to Poland in you know East Germany and Romania and so on so he said sure you know you know writer so what is it on I said well I was in I was in Poland and I'd like to write will gierek survive now none of you probably remember Garak there's no reason you would he was the Polish communist leader for about ten years even more than 10 years this was 1970 and I wrote the article will gierek survive he did another 10 years so in effect I was right because I predicted his downfall so that's why I really do believe it is the most embarrassing piece that I ever wrote and God bless William Buckley who might then had a chance I brought him out to California I was in my 20s ahead of an educational institute there and I have to tell you I measure more than anything else this is very autobiographical I could spend the whole talk on this but it's not what you invited me to speak on I since I was a child I have felt and I am certain of this brains are wildly overrated in their significance wildly what and in fact I don't even find brilliant people interesting unless they're good there are people who find brilliant bad Peter stting I don't goodness interests me more than brains and it was always the case obviously everyone knows how brilliant Buckley was but I picked up immediately what a decent truly decent man he was and that's what fascinated me I spent the day with him and a day I will never forget and and the way he treated me much younger than he and you know no big deal but it was it was something I'll never forget he was an extraordinary human being so I have very wonderful long ties and I've been out as well each week my column has published among other places at National Review and I I loved being published there because of the number of readers the quality of the readers and the beautiful work that they put into every single piece it's a real credit the editing which thank God is not too severe because I already go I go through Allen estrin whom you've met and my wife who do the severe editing in advance but the also the beautiful art and photo work it's just it's it's a terrific page and it's so it's great to be affiliated great to see you Jonah and to be speaking in front of you and all of you who were here from national review and as regards is I well I I've come to know you better and better promoting is I on my show which was great for you which made me very happy because he do such great work and I'll just give you a little example of something that you do that's so good and that I had a little role in and that was a book that was just published the myth of the Andalusian paradise now that's not bestseller 'dom oriented because Andalusian is not an everyday term for most people even National Review readers but of course Andalusia was the part of Spain from about the 9th to the 14th centuries governed by Muslims and there is this huge myth that Islam is a truly tolerant religion and it isn't and it never was and that's not anti Muslim may I add Christianity in the Middle Ages was not intolerant religion either it's but but I hate lies I hate I have a visceral hatred for lying and the yeah I do I really do and I can't stand the lies that are perpetrated today perpetuated and one of them being this really it's tolerant and something happened it was never tolerant it's Dolph had abandon all Islam the war the house of war in the house of Islam and that that's just the way it is anyway is I published this book by a professor of Portuguese and Spanish Studies at Northwestern I got the book in the mail thank God is I sent it to me I would not have known about it as much as I try to know what's being published and I knew this guy wrote a gutsy book and I had them on for an hour and I am happy to tell you this is I am is happy for is I and the author as I am for my show the book went we have fought we took photos Alan and I took photos of Alan is also the producer of my show as well as the founder and he says I'm co-founder but it's not sure he founded it and I said okay and that was it but anyway we took photos of the amazon.com page of this book before he came on the book was listed at thirty eight thousand seven hundred and after the show it was at seven hundred eighty seven so I felt great about the show but I felt great about my listeners that they would go and buy such a book and of course for ISI for publishing such a book because it's so important so to be invited well I'll say something again autobiographical I have found after 33 years of radio a very big lesson and I one day I'd like to write lessons that I've learned from doing radio for so long the more people know about you the more they trust you that's true in private life and it is true in public life the opaque are not trusted so I took a very big gamble from the beginning and I just open up to people and it is paid off because when you know what people say to me the most when they meet me like the TSA agent today in Phoenix for some reason TSA agents love my show I have no idea why I what I say about public government employees I can't believe they listen and then but my wife is a living witness she's with me tsa agents in every city oh oh in fact wait I don't want to lose my spread but it was a great moment with the with the TSA agent then I'll tell you about the autobiographical thing in a moment so I this is a problem of being a public figure you just must know especially if you are respected for who you are not just what you say so the other day in Minnesota there was ridiculously long law in the pre check line that's the line you're supposed to have a short line in and it was ridiculous Italy too wrapped around you know like like a snake and so I walked over to the head TSA guy and I was sir why is there only one line here for pre-check it goes dennis prager and I just remember I didn't curse that I didn't I wanted to make sure that while I was annoyed I didn't do anything that might ruin my image in this man's mind it is a problem when you are you have to be very careful you can't give dirty looks to drivers and none of these are real as a different world anyway so the autobiographical statement is about this is proof about how much I admire ISI and National Review it is exceedingly rare that I speak on a Friday night because I am an observant Jew and Friday night and Saturday are sacred to me otherwise I would by the way I would be in an insane asylum if people ask me how do you stay happy and sane given all the terrible news you report every day and I answer the Sabbath that is my answer I don't listen to radio I don't watch television I don't even read the newspaper I leave the world for 24 hours and it is my sanity but on rare occasion I think something is so morally significant that I sort of break my Sabbath and I did in this case just so you'll know that's the proof of how much I admire you and what you're doing so I just wanted you I just wanted to Renova so when they offered me earlier crab with the BLT I explained it's not my check Leviticus it is because we all know it's everybody's regular airplane reading Leviticus anyway you've got to meet you got to meet Alan Estrin today who presented the pretty University people came over told me how good he was I know how good he is believe me I think that God sent him and my wife to me and I do call them my two spouses he Alan has the spouse of the opposite sex as well but I that is how close we are and he's he is a gift beyond the beyond description so you had a chance to meet him and see what we're doing now I was asked to speak I love these large topics I was not asked to speak on the myth of Andalusian Islamic tolerance I was asked to speak on the future of the Western world but you know they and then they said can you do that in about eight minutes no I'm not an issue I'm used to speaking between commercial breaks but now they didn't say the eight minutes but I that's fine with me it's a very important topic so let me let me answer you I've thought about this my whole life and let me give you some of my my answers I have two there were two sections here first is to understand which is not taught today at all our universities have deteriorated terribly it's part of the reason for pessimism over the West incidentally I have a theory that there were two major sea changes in American life that produced a sort of moral and intellectual deterioration or enfeebled and of the American mind and they both took place after World War two one is television which did profoundly enfeeble American culture if there were no television we would be much better off and people say well isn't there anything good on TV it's like when when people will call my show and say you know Dennis you really attack the left a lot isn't the left of anything good and I honestly answer them there is nothing in history that has not done any good it doesn't exist the question is meaningless it's like asking well you know this guy it's true he raped three girls and two boys murdered four of the five but there's a good side to everybody well the mean it doesn't mean anything there is that we all have moral bank accounts and if they're deeply in the red that deeply in the red the moral bank account of television is is a bankruptcy and there was one other development widespread college attendance it in hasn't feeble the American mind just as much with it but what much more dangerously because people who watch TV don't assume they are brilliant but people who get a PhD do think they're brilliant and they're not in fact I have a I have a an ongoing policy on my show when someone calls and says something particularly stupid I then say I'm just curious what graduate school did you attend and then they will say that people fall and it's like it's beautiful I feel like a straight man it works out beautifully and then they say well how do you how do you know I went to graduate school and I said well I'm it's not meant to insult you because I never insult callers or guests but you had to go to graduate school to say something that stupid and that I mean that by the way you have to have gone to college to believe men and women are basically the same my grandmother who didn't graduate elementary school understood men and women better than most PhDs in women's studies I mean that literally I do not mean that hyperbolically they don't understand anything if you get a PhD in the liberal arts I assume you're foolish there are exceptions of course there are I'm not foolish but they are exceptions and it's like getting a PhD and howdy-doo T all right but nobody who gets a PhD and howdy-doo t thinks they're brilliant but if you get one from college or from university you do think that these two developments have been horrific widespread college attendance because I remember I'll never forget when I was a my late teens early 20s so I guess I was already at college I was having a meal at my parents house and there was a another another couple there with their child something to that effect anyway the child was yelling at the parents and I don't mean disrespectfully but what was he so to speak yelling at the parents look dad you just you just don't understand you didn't go to college the father was entirely right about what he was saying but he was intimidated because his son went to college and so his son who had been already indoctrinated into the very opposite values of his father never have so many people paid so much money to have their children become alienated from their values their this has never occurred in the history of mankind until modern American society I would say a Western European but the Western Europeans are not traditional so they don't feel that their kids are being alienated from their values they're just being reinforced these two developments have been horrific oh we truly do believe our intent when we give a reading material and by the way Jonah has done some work for Prager you as well there's a lot of symbiosis here we intend to provide reading lists and so eventually and not in the far distant future I will be able to say under penalty of perjury that you will do you will learn more about life going to prea University for free than going to Stanford University for $50,000 and by the way we I only say Stanford because we just got a letter from a graduate of Stanford who said that to us I learned more in Prager University than in four years at Stanford that's if you care about wisdom obviously I'm not going to learn more math or physics or botany at Prager University I think you would learn more of you if you read if you read national reviews website than if you went to college it's not just us why that's happened is the subject part of the reason for pessimism for the Western world so I don't want to say a word about pessimism I am pessimistic I am also the happiest pessimist you will ever be so how is it possible to be happy and pessimistic now you may or may not know I've devoted a great deal of time to the subject of happiness I wrote a book that is sold very well happiness is a serious problem it's touched a lot of lives apparently and my happiness hour on my radio show which I have never cancelled it's the second hour on Friday I broadcast my happiness hour of the week of 9/11 that was a Tuesday if I recall correctly and on Friday I still did my happiness hour and I made the point the whole point of a happiness hour is how can you be happy in light of how much suffering there is to have cancelled the happiness hour would have been would have given in then I have nothing to say if the whole points why I titled my book happiness is a serious problem HarperCollins hated the title they said it was a downer and I'll never forget my discussion with them I said I just want to know is it true yeah of course it's a serious problem thank you that's the title and that remained the title but I had to fight for it because it was a downer but it's true anyway it's true because the world is in terrible shape it's always been in terrible shape except there was reason for optimism and now there isn't much reason for optimism because the good guys are losing we're losing the most important country for goodness ever invented the United States of America and the Western and Western Europe is essentially lost but it's been lost essentially since World War one it gave up on itself after World War one America gave up on itself I guess after college and and the Vietnam War and we're just trailing a Europe by about a generation but most intellectuals think Western Europe is a great place so here is my argument virtually everything good in the human species has come from Western civilization incidentally just for the record I am well aware of a lot of evil that has taken place in Western civilization I wrote a book which is now in its third edition with Simon & Schuster coming out its third edition I think next week or last week don't recall why the Jews the reason for anti-semitism I know how Jews have been treated in Western civilization I wrote a book on it as it happens so I am NOT oblivious to the amount of evil that has taken place in the West however evil is ubiquitous evil is universal the only question mature people which disqualifies most professors and I don't mean that as a throwaway line it does disqualify them they stay in that profession because colleges are kindergartens the only difference between kindergarten and college is the age of the kinder that is the biggest single difference and so mature people don't ask well or say look at all the evil they say why is there any good good is the outlier not evil slavery was universal child sacrifice was universal human sacrifice generally was universal poverty was universal so the only mature question is why did any place abolish human sacrifice why did any place abolish slavery why did any place create wealth that's what you should ask but nobody asks that it is a non-college asked question evil is universal so let's let's discount it the question is why is there good not why is there evil as the norm that is why I am convinced the question that I asked to find out if speaking to a fool even intelligent and kind you can be intelligent kind and foolish just for the record is I asked them if they believe people are basically good if they do and some of you might and I don't mean to offend you in that regard you are a fool and why people choose to believe something so patently absurd is beyond me I am very involved among other things in Jewish life to the extent that Jews tolerate me being a conservative but it's hard not to because I wrote a very very widely used introduction to Judaism and I have spoken it's the thousand synagogues so it's it's or not two thousand eight hundred and and so it's hard to ignore me in Jewish life I'm a columnist for the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles which has a big presence on the Internet and I wrote a column when I started as a columnist why did you think people are basically good which is part of the reason Jews are on the left because if you think people are basically good you tend to go leftward and there are many answers to that but the amount of hate mail that that column received was fascinating they hated me for writing people are not basically good this is a generation after Auschwitz Jews still believe that people are basically good as do liberals generally so we're not and that's why good needs to be studied and analyzed not evil for every book on evil there or let's put it this way for every thousand books studying human evil there might be one maybe one I doubt it I don't think the ratio was even one 2001 to fifty thousand books on why people are good I have read every book I know of on rescuers of Jews in the Holocaust I am sure there are under 20 there are thousands of books about Nazi evil and there might might be twenty books on analyzing the people who save Jews that to me is a much bigger riddle I understand my people torture murder go with the herd why do people stand up to the herd is an infinitely more important question it would strike me so Western civilization have evils like every other civilization every other but it have unique good human rights Western concept universal human rights Western uniquely Western these are jut not just Western they're uniquely human equality all people are equal Western democracy Western abolition of slavery Western the greatest music the greatest art the greatest architecture Western now people will say oh please that is so dismissive of other music art and architecture but it isn't it's a statement that those people believe asked Japanese what's the greatest music ever written they'll say ba the gray I'm I'm very involved in classical music so that's the art that I will use I conduct orchestras in Southern California this is very serious pursuit of mine in my life so I will tell you the greatest edition of the Bach cantatas the greatest it is generally universally acknowledged was done by an N mein Suzuki and he just finished his like 300 CD just the last year Suzuki and they're all Japanese singers the greatest interpreters above I'll never forget when I was in Tokyo in my 20s I went to hear Beethoven's ninth Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and I was there I was travelling alone the way I traveled prior to getting married is a great way to travel you really are forced to interact with people anyway I went to the guy and obvious I don't speak Japanese he spoke a little English said anything he said how many I said one and he looks at me we have one you are very lucky and I'll never forget that Haruki I was to get the last seat for Beethoven's 9th and the people went crazy there they're crazy about Beethoven none of them argue that Japanese classical music is as good as Western classical music it's and it's no insult I mean what I argue Jewish music is as good as as Western music I mean I have to be deaf to make such an argument uh but you can't say this at any university there is no better there is no better wealth only the West produced wealth modern science came from the West a universal God came from the West basically everything good came from the West there were horrible people in the West they were beautiful people in the East and in the South but that's a fact and we are dismissing Western culture despite everything that I just listed all the good stuff it comes from the West now here is where I am sort of lonely and it was the subject of my last column which got a good play of National Review and elsewhere because I am always curious to see how many shares and how many comments and it's very interesting I wrote a open letter as it were to my fellow conservatives who are secular and I said I don't care if you're secular or religious but I do care if you dismiss the indispensable significance of God and judeo-christian religions to America's possible survival this and there are many secular conservatives and they are terrific I remember I won't say his name the only thing you'll know about him as it is a he this happened many years about 25 years ago on a plush apartment in Manhattan I had dinner at these people who had one of the leaving he's a name every one of you will know don't try to guess it's it's a silly game but but it's just very very in person I'm sure you wouldn't even care he's now deceased not sure I'm sure he wouldn't even care if I said it cuz I'm not saying anything bad but I'm very very serious about people's dignity so it's not important but he's huge he made and he made a great impact morally great impact on the country but I was a little stunned when we had a debate we got I don't know how it happened maybe he said so what are you talk about or write about I don't remember how it happened and we got into a debate about whether or not you could have objective good and evil if there's no God and every atheist I debated this at Oxford and the the atheist I debated the first thing he said was mr. Prager is right if there is no God there was no objective good and evil it's all subjective and I remember I it's in print this debate and I said I just want to say it is such a joy and honor to debate an intellectually honest person with whom I differ and I meant it sincerely every virtually every atheist philosopher acknowledges if there's no God that ethics are subjective what do you think is good is good for you what I think is good is good for me but he didn't he didn't MIT that said you don't need God to have objective good and evil and I thought this is one of the most important conservatives in America and he's arguing that that was my first realization that a lot of secular conservatives don't understand how significant the god issue is I don't care if they believe I care if they understand how important God is I don't care if you're an atheist it's your business I care if you understand that the founders were not idiots and understood that America cannot survive godlessness just as Western Europe cannot survive godlessness it is a dead place it is soulless I have been to how many of their 40 50 European countries have been terribly won except for and I'm visiting those for this year by the way this is my one brag the only time I ever brag is I've been to 115 countries I just have to say that it is irrelevant to any I'm about to make but I am so proud of it I just have to get it into every speech that's it annex that subject I'm yes I did by the way people say because there we said Prager in the bio it says he's lectured on seven continents why you lectured in Antarctica well I did but I have to say just for the record I I was on a ship in which I lectured all right off Antarctica but in order to say on Antarctica I did go out and there's a picture on my website at me speaking to about 150 penguins and it's one of the great moments I spoke to them about ethical monotheism and I they were as attentive as some of my other audiences have been actually now that I think of it so I don't care again if you're atheist but the founders knew let me let me just read to you one perfect example John Adams okay John Adams because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion by the way see they knew they understood people are not basically good that's the point human passions unbridled they were afraid of human passions something's got to control human passions either the government will or what will answer religion our Constitution was made only only for a moral and religious people it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other a secular conservative who does not understand that differs with the founders every one of whom every single one of whom spoke of the critical nature of God and religion and Bible not all were Orthodox Christians that is true not all believe in the Trinity all believed however in in this guy even Jefferson Jefferson and Franklin designed or had design had someone designed the Great Seal of the United States you know what it was the Jews leaving Egypt two guys who were considered quote/unquote deists incidentally a reading Franklin's autobiography I realize I remember when I read this to my wife Franklin and I have identical theologies identical and to call him a deist is an absurdity he believed that God judges every human being that's not a deist these days God created the world and then checked out not one of the founders believe that as a result of the rejection of the judeo-christian religions that made the West what they are and that this is the West that is uniquely good or has produced unique amounts of goodness what happened when judeo-christian religion died specifically Christianity in Europe you've got Nazism and communism people don't stop believing in religions when God based religion dies they just develop other religions we have more religions in the United States that are secular than we have that are religious feminism environmentalism egalitarianism humanism I mean it's just you know the isms are there because people as Chesterton said when people stop believing in God they don't believe in nothing they believe in anything that's exactly what has happened what are some of the consequences of this godlessness religion free secular America and West the demise of marriage the end of the will to fight evil moral confusion no personal borders I'll explain all of these in a moment people don't even have children the will to survive is dead every time I get a call from a young person who mentions that they have children I say I assume you're religious is that correct oh yeah what are you one of four things Catholic Mormon evangelical Orthodox Jew they're the ones that were having children and they're the ones who are getting married earlier and that's it to meet a secular 20 year old or a 35 year old with five children I have never I have not met one I'm sure such a person exists but and I'm sure a fewer mistakes but deliberately to have five or more children if your secular I don't know any such human being religious people are believe it's worth preserving the society and having more children so demise of marriage you have to understand something marriage and children are values we don't realize that there was a song which many of you know because of a later adaptation of the song for a television series love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage that's what people believed in the 1950s 40s 30s 20s 19th century 18th century 17th century 16th century and as long as there were horses and carriages but it's not true love and marriage go together if you affirm a religious outlook not if you're secular they don't go together at all it's all a matter of values and if you don't have those values there's no case to be made there is no secular case for anything here here's an example what's the secular case against public nudity it's not a riddle there is none I assume all of you oppose public nudity I mean in the streets I don't care you're not forming about a private beach right you don't have a single secular argument in San Francisco have this debate the City Council actually debated whether or not to drop bans on public nudity this happened two years ago and it they lost it the the dropping of the bands lost by one vote I think was 8 to 7 San Francisco City Council so in other words within a year or two they will drop the ban and new public nudity will be allowed in San Francisco do you know what the argument was because I was shocked eight people voted to keep laws against public nudity in San Francisco the the quintessentially secular place and the argument they gave was it isn't sanitary that's it that was the argument it's not sanitary so of course there's a response station and naked people will have to carry a towel and when they sit on a park bench they will have to sit on the towel and I think that that ends the problem of the sanitary argument the only argument the only argument against public nudity is that human beings are created in God's image and have sanctity animals are naked humans are clothed the first thing God does in Genesis the first thing God does for Humanity after humanity leaves the Garden of Eden or begins to leave by eating of the Tree of Knowledge is make them clothing but it's a book nobody reads anymore nobody reads the Bible except for a handful of religious Americans the most widely read book in American history I believe I truly do believe and I intend by the way to to prove this I'm going to go to some of these colleges I was just at Stanford but I didn't get a chance to ask this but I intend to spend a few days at some prestigious colleges and I don't give a damn if ecologist prestigious it means nothing to me but it will mean more to the people to find this out for example what if more than half of Harvard seniors cannot identify Cain and Abel correctly and I would bet that more than half cannot that's Cain and Abel folks okay this is not difficult stuff this was every third grader in America knew this a hundred years ago who Cain and Abel were the ignorance is profound Guatemalan lesbian poets are well known at Harvard but the genesis zilch so it's all the consequences of secularism are is the most important subject of all and very few people or addressing it the end of the will to fight evil look at Europe they demonstra member how much they demonstrated against Pershing's in europe when ronald reagan wanted to put them in remember how well ronald reagan was excoriated by the secular left with regard to were calling the soviet union an evil empire the will to fight evil dies in the Western world when God dies another one of the marriage dies children die having children dies moral confusion the moral confusion well this I knew from when I first started speaking in my early 20s and it is it has not changed example most American students David Brooks wrote about this in the New York Times I was very happy that he did write about it and he quoted a secular professor I believe at Notre Dame and he was quite upset the professor that there is no moral literacy among young Americans they all believe that morality is what you think what you feel we live in the age of feelings how do you feel about it do you know that Jewish kids that I have talked to with Jewish schools not Orthodox schools but not Orthodox schools and I'm not Orthodox or I wouldn't be doing this but I but I am serious Jew but I'm not Orthodox and but anyway at speaking and non-orthodox schools I would say so do you think the Nazis what the Nazis did to the Jews was wrong and of course they all think it's wrong so then I said well wait a minute I know you think it is wrong but they thought it was right so are you still prepared to say they were wrong or only that you think they were wrong and almost all the Jewish students Jewish students this would certainly hold true for non Jewish but I want to make the point even more strongly say it's a matter of opinion the Nazis thought they were right we thought they were wrong but who's to say that is almost universally now accepted among Americans of the last generation and certainly the latest generation there is nothing Oh most nothing that they value that we valued 70% according to Pew of Millennials don't believe in free speech or as they constantly say oh we believe in free speech just not hate speech which of course is an absurdity because they determine what hate speech and then it's not free speech of the the end of borders in personal conduct there is now a movement in the Liberal Party in Sweden the independent and other places in England just reported this a movement by young Swedes in the Liberal Party to legalize incest brothers and sisters over 15 who wish to have intercourse should be allowed to it is none of the country's business whether they do so or not and they're right the only argument there to is religious and please don't give me the health argument that incest produces mental retardation it doesn't accept after many many generations okay so there is no scientific argument against it anyway with amniocentesis and abortion that the problem is certainly obviated there was only a religious argument against incest when the Hebrew Bible was written it decided to completely desexualize God and completely desexualize the family both of which had been thoroughly sexualized and still are in nearly all of the non-western world or the non really Anglo Western world or over Western European world that is an Anglo but in South America sex with relatives is extremely common as as in many other places in the world the D sexualization of the family was a Western construct emanating from the Hebrew Bible nowhere else did nowhere else ancient Egypt glorified incest so that's the that's the story now you know why I'm pessimistic if there is no if there is no revival of the American Trinity it's a I have coined this term but it is not my content that is only my term Christianity has a Trinity and America has a Trinity American Trinity is on every coin and every banknote e pluribus unum Liberty in god we trust' that's it that's our triad that's our tripod you knock out one of the legs it's over we have knocked out in god we trust' the left is not that out they want a godless secular place it is knocked out a pluribus unum in favor of multiculturalism we're not one we're African American and Hispanic American and black and white and and etc etc and Liberty has been expunged in favor of material equality so the left is the antithesis of the American Revolution and this is what conservatives need to understand we need to fight for all three so let me answer my question from the beginning and then open up to you for questions or comments I am one of the few speakers that I know welcomes comment so they have to be brief but I do welcome comments if you don't want to ask a question you just want to make a statement that's fine but I want to answer the question how do you stay non-depressed how do you stay off antidepressants if you have this bleak view of what is happening so here is what I tell my listeners all the time because they hear me speak about what's happening bad all the time happily I stay funny because otherwise I'd go nuts and so there's a lot of laughter on my show that helps I have a happiness hour but here is the biggest answer that I give and I give it to myself because people say you know then it's just I feel despair I don't think it's worth fighting so I tell them and it's the it's the God's honest truth you know what stops me from not fighting forgetting even religion and forgetting my values and everything you know what stops me Normandie if you visited Normandy Beach I found that one of the handful of times in my life that I was I felt overwhelmed philosophically not just emotionally the guys who were stormed the Omaha Beach Normandy Beach generally I don't think they were very optimistic they ran onto the beach seeing their their best friends torn in half by Nazi bullets but they went on anyway the idea that you only fight when you think you'll win is a little silly you don't have to fight if you think you'll win then you'll win it's it's exactly the time the fight is exactly when you don't think a win then you're thin your fighting is most necessary so off could this isn't it's to me it's a non sequitur oh I'm not I'm pessimistic so I'm not going to fight I don't even understand its cipher it's somewhat narcissistic I'll only fight from optimistic sorry sorry a lot of people gave up their lives for this country I'm not asking anybody to give up their life I'm just giving them say dedicate your life don't give it up continue to have great times but fight and that's that's my answer to the whole question of well that's the you know it looks bad yes it looks bad it does look bad what am I going to lie to you do you want to go to a pathologist is look great mr. brown let me tell you something here what do we care about the third stage cancer here at the happy Institute doesn't mean a thing you're doing great you'll drop dead you want somebody who says this is what you have and this is what you have to do that's the difference this is we are there is a corrosive disease it's called leftism and part of it by the way is aggressive secularism but it's not all there is and we have to fight it and I don't want to I want on my tombstone here lies Dennis Prager he fought evil not carbon emissions thank you very much

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Keywords: conservative, conservatism, Western civilization, western culture, future western civilization

Id: ORmW68YmLM4

Length: 48min 0sec (2880 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 21 2016