Dennis Prager Show - Ultimate Issues: Micro vs. Macro Values
Aired: 2020-01-07
Duration: 08:19


=== Macro vs. Micro Values (08:19) ===

[00:00:00]  Ultimate Issues Hour is the destination.
[00:00:05]  Maps give you no wisdom.
[00:00:08]  They give you spectacular knowledge.
[00:00:10]  Here is exactly where you are, but they don't tell you where you should go.
[00:00:16]  That's what the Ultimate Issues Hour is about.
[00:00:18]  The big stuff.
[00:00:19]  Where to go.
[00:00:21]  So, everybody, I'm Dennis Prager, and I thank you for being with me.
[00:00:26]  New York Times had a very, very long article on Prager University and me just on Sunday.
[00:00:35]  And one of the things that they noted about me was that I have always been preoccupied with great ethical, moral issues and think that it's far more important to raise a good child.
[00:00:55]  Than a child who gets into a prestigious college.
[00:01:01]  Or even, you know, a good child rather than a brilliant child.
[00:01:07]  And yet, I support President Trump.
[00:01:12]  And how is that possible?
[00:01:14]  And they say, well, he separates micro and macro values.
[00:01:18]  And a lot of commenters commented on that in the New York Times.
[00:01:24]  What kind of guy am I? Is this Prager?
[00:01:28]  And here, I'll give you one example in a comment.
[00:01:33]  I thought Prager considered moral values, marital fidelity, religiosity, respect, honesty, and the like, to microvalues.
[00:01:44]  Considered moral values, I don't know what the two is for, microvalues, and as important as macrovalues, whatever that means.
[00:01:54]  Seems as though he is speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
[00:01:58]  Alright, so that was a comment on me in the New York Times.
[00:02:03]  So I decided, maybe I'll explain.
[00:02:06]  This will help a great deal in understanding the complex question of how do you assess a human being, morally speaking.
[00:02:17]  We are almost two separate beings, we humans.
[00:02:22]  Our micro and our macro selves are not the same.
[00:02:27]  Ideally, and this is important, ideally both are good.
[00:02:33]  We have good micro values, that is how we treat people in our daily life, and we have good macro values, the values for society.
[00:02:50]  That we have good in both.
[00:02:52]  Very often, people have not had both.
[00:02:59]  There were people in the South who supported slavery, who were honest and decent and generous and kind in their daily life.
[00:03:12]  Alright, there's an example of a bifurcation between macro value and micro value.
[00:03:22]  There were people who wanted to get rid of slavery.
[00:03:25]  They had a great macro value.
[00:03:28]  And they were awful toward the humans in their lives.
[00:03:33]  They had terrible micro values.
[00:03:37]  I don't know why this is so...
[00:03:39]  Well, I do know why it's complex.
[00:03:41]  It's complex because people don't learn any wisdom anymore.
[00:03:45]  They learn specialized knowledge.
[00:03:50]  They don't even get much knowledge anymore.
[00:03:52]  They get knowledge in one arena.
[00:03:55]  The arena that they specialize in.
[00:03:59]  But this is just common sense, what I said.
[00:04:04]  I learned it because I went to religious school, but it is also common sense.
[00:04:09]  There's just a difference.
[00:04:14]  When it comes to the president, it's a good example.
[00:04:17]  Now, I'm not of the school that he is terrible in his micro-life, but obviously quite flawed.
[00:04:26]  Not even quite.
[00:04:27]  Obviously flawed.
[00:04:29]  Right?
[00:04:31]  We understand that.
[00:04:32]  He has sinned in his micro life.
[00:04:36]  But his macro values seem to be superb to me.
[00:04:41]  Now, people who hate him think his micro and his macro are awful.
[00:04:47]  Okay, that's fine.
[00:04:48]  I'm not here to defend the president.
[00:04:50]  I do that other hours.
[00:04:52]  I am here to make clear how we assess ourselves and others In the moral sphere.
[00:05:02]  That's all.
[00:05:03]  So to me, a president's macro values are way more important than his micro values.
[00:05:12]  Because he gets to put into effect his macro values.
[00:05:19]  Most of us don't.
[00:05:21]  I do because I have a fairly large constituency.
[00:05:28]  So my macro values matter, not as much as a president's, but they matter because I affect others in the macro, not just in the micro.
[00:05:37]  How I treat my wife, how I treat my friends, how I treat my business associates, how I treat a waitress.
[00:05:44]  Okay, those are all the micro arena.
[00:05:48]  Most people do not have a place to express their macro values, or at least, well, they have a place, the voting booth, social media, micro...
[00:06:03]  Most people today, unlike the past, really do have a vehicle for macro values.
[00:06:09]  But of course, not like a president.
[00:06:14]  Therefore, in assessing a president, I am infinitely more interested in his macro values than micro values.
[00:06:23]  Correct?
[00:06:25]  That is what...
[00:06:29]  People reading the New York Times piece on me and Prager, you did not pick up.
[00:06:34]  And I don't blame the writer, because as it is, it was a very long piece.
[00:06:39]  They're not going to explain all of my views.
[00:06:41]  I understand that.
[00:06:44]  But I read to you a typical comment.
[00:06:47]  I thought Prager considered moral values...
[00:06:52]  Like microvalues, as important as macrovalues, whatever that means, seems as though he's speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
[00:06:59]  Obviously, this person doesn't understand what I mean.
[00:07:01]  I'm not blaming them.
[00:07:02]  I'm just stating it as a fact.
[00:07:05]  They don't understand.
[00:07:05]  But it doesn't take long to explain, right?
[00:07:11]  I mentioned this in passing.
[00:07:14]  I mentioned a few times that I'm just finishing this very long book.
[00:07:19]  About the man who was most responsible for giving the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union, to Stalin.
[00:07:25]  Klaus Fuchs, a German scientist who left Germany when Hitler came to power.
[00:07:32]  He was the second leading scientist.
[00:07:36]  He was indispensable to the creation of the atom bomb in England and America.
[00:07:43]  Indispensable.
[00:07:44]  He's a brilliant, brilliant scientist.
[00:07:47]  And in the very beginning of the book, in passing, the author writes about how decent a human being he was.
[00:07:56]  And I have no doubt about it.
[00:08:00]  He was loyal to friends.
[00:08:02]  He was not a mean person.
[00:08:05]  He was extremely responsible.
[00:08:08]  He was not lazy.
[00:08:10]  He worked hard.
[00:08:11]  Whatever trait you want.
[00:08:14]  But...
[00:08:15]  His macro values were awful.
[00:08:17]  He believed in communism.