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Aug. 20, 2022 - Lionel Nation
13:01
Teaching America to Withstand the Pain of Thought
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I can only speak for me, obviously, in telling you that most of the stuff that I hear on various social media platforms, especially when it comes to news analyses, is complete and total crap.
I mean, it's not even worth the electrons expended to even listen to it.
It's unimaginative.
It's really not important.
It's base.
It's petty.
It's mocking.
It's mean-spirited.
It's great if you're five years old, but there's no depth.
I'm sorry, but it's true.
And I was thinking about something.
It's like, okay, Mr. Big Shot, what do you think is important?
What would you want to teach people?
What would you want people to understand?
If you really wanted to stop this, if you really wanted to, especially if somebody who's younger, somebody of the younger generation says, I want to understand the world.
I want to, you know, teach me something.
Well, here's three things.
First, remember this one line.
And it's one of the greatest quotes ever.
And there isn't a day that goes by.
Almost.
Where I don't say it.
And Tolstoy said history would be a wonderful thing if only it were true.
Whether it's Doris Kearns Goodwin or David McCullough or anybody.
Especially the noted presidential historians.
So much of it is absolute garbage.
It's anecdotal.
Accepted, verified truth.
Kind of a consensus.
You know what I mean?
But this idea of history, it's mythical.
As Napoleon said, history is a myth that men agree to believe.
Someone said it might have been Hindenburg or Churchill.
I don't know.
History is written by the winners.
It's incredible.
War criminals are losers.
Terrorists are the other guys.
Religious fanatics are the other guys.
It's relative.
So that's important.
History would be a wonderful thing if only it were true.
Never forget that.
It's a great line.
The second important thing to understand.
And you'll hear many more of these.
But the second, which I absolutely love and never, ever forget.
And again, I think to myself, there's rarely the day when it goes by or something goes by.
I don't think about this.
But F. Scott Fitzgerald said, listen to this carefully.
The test of a first-rate intelligence.
Is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
Let me say that again.
And I'm reading it exactly.
I don't want to miss a word of this.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
And I'm going to add a third little piece of this, a twist, a twist to it.
And it goes back to my generation, those who grew up when I did.
We remember Ed Sullivan.
And Ed Sullivan was Sunday night.
And Ed Sullivan was a wonderful hodgepodge of variety acts that had nothing to do with each other.
That's a beautiful thing.
It was this weird Ed Sullivan, right here on our show.
Tonight.
Anna Maria Albregetti, the Missouri Dial Tone, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Turbo Gigi, you know, it was just what?
One afternoon that made no, no, the Harlem Globetrotters, Bertrand Russell, St. Francis of Assisi, greatest show ever.
And the guy that I remember the most, his name was Eric Bren.
I found out later on.
I don't know.
I didn't know at the time.
And this was a guy who had plates that he would spin and bowl simultaneously.
Bowls and plates.
And they'd play the saber dance or the flight of the bumblebee or something like this.
And he'd have to keep all these things going at the same time.
And invariably they would slow down and start to wobble and I would say, oh my god, it's going to fall!
What is it?
Made out of what?
Semtex or something?
No, Plastique?
C4?
It's a plate!
But we thought that if it fell, well, it would be a catastrophe.
We'd fly into the sun and that would be the end of humanity.
And that became...
A perfect analog metaphor for what we have to be able to do today.
If you want to take this job seriously, I don't care who you are, especially if you're brand new, take it from me, guy who's been around.
If you really want to get good at this, I mean really, really good, be able to handle 50 to 75 topics simultaneously.
Now let me tell you what's going to happen.
First, people will hate you.
They will think that you're being desultory and discursive and elliptical and you're veering and you can't keep on this subject.
No!
You're hitting them with everything.
To the trained mind, to the inquisitive mind, this is the only way to think.
It's simple.
A bunch of them.
And then there's this.
Because that's what life is.
That's what's going on right now.
Multiple issues.
Multiple subjects.
Simultaneously.
Sometimes interwoven.
Sometimes interconnected.
You've got to be able to do this.
And America, because of our educational system, the amount of cannabis and medication that we're on, by virtue of the...
Just the...
Again, the lack of critical thinking skills.
And the intellectual torpor and, you know, ennui.
We just can't do it.
And you're missing so much.
I was fascinated by how much time and attention there was on news programs, social media, YouTube-esque news programs, making fun of Brian Stelter.
This was the depth.
This was the level of it.
Or somebody who considers Bruce, Bill Maher, Bruce, Bill Maher to be the Spinoza, the Schopenhauer of our time.
Or, you know, a Dave Chappelle routine as really, really nailing, you know, getting into the gravamen of something.
Or Jordan Peterson on lobsters, you know, really.
The depth!
And I'm thinking, my God!
People are yearning for complexity.
They're yearning.
They want to.
At least, they're paying lip service to wanting to be able to handle, you know, multiple topics and the like.
But they don't.
And they won't.
And they can't.
Because of what we have.
I mentioned history at first, and I can't say this enough.
If you have no frame of reference, if you have no frame of reference, not only will you not be able to understand things, you won't be able to appreciate it.
You cannot, especially to my dear friends who enjoy hip-hop, hip-hop, and the rap music started by Lawrence Welk.
Most people don't know, and I kid, of course.
But if you've never heard Gil Scott Heron, if you don't...
And even going back, if you don't listen to Cab Calloway, and if you don't understand any kind of historical reference to syncopated references of Hank Snow in country music, you realize, wait a minute!
And by the way, the unforgotten, or the forgotten, the forgotten shantoose of sorts, Debbie Harry, who really started this up.
And I give this as an example.
You don't understand something.
So, History?
Being able to handle a lot of things simultaneously.
And remembering Eric Bren, the guy with the plate.
Spinning plates.
Here's a new plate.
And what he would do is, and here's the analogy, he would talk about this plate, this subject, go to the next one, and then when he would see that that first plate was about to fall off, he'd go back and have to spin it.
So he has to go back and keep them all moving.
But like I said, I'll never forget, there was a...
I had a program director years ago.
You're veering!
No, I said, you just don't understand it.
This is not something you're used to.
You don't think like this.
These are program directors, by the way.
Those who can do and those who can't are program directors in any event.
And those who can't program direct, program hot talk, which is a different story.
I'm going to leave you now.
Don Quileone, I'm going to leave you.
And I just want you to think about this.
And I have been saying for the longest time, and I know this will drop like a thud.
No one will care about this.
This will make no sense to you.
I know what I'm saying, but I'm going to say it nonetheless.
We need a boot camp for people.
We need to teach people how to think.
We need to teach people how to think.
And one of the reasons why we don't know how to think is the reason why people can't read.
Kids can't read it because you're used to things being thrown at you.
You open up your phone, you open up your tablet, your device, and somebody's throwing something at you.
You don't ever delve into a particular subject.
You don't explore, intellectually spelunk, if there is such a thing.
You don't do that.
It's thrown at you.
That's why kids can't read today.
Because their eyes don't know how to track.
Because their whole world is things being thrown at them like in an avalanche.
I'm going to leave you right now.
I don't hit you too, too much, but I want you to think about what I'm saying, and I know I'm right.
And I want you to think about this.
And I want you to think about this, and maybe put this aside, come back later and think about it.
And when it hits you, when that epiphany light turns on, you'll see, that guy was right.
And I know I'm right.
Believe me.
Because I may not always be right, but I'm never wrong.
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