Dennis Prager Show - Too Few Voices Asking, 'What is the Price'
Aired: 2020-04-03
Duration: 08:52


=== The Soul's Direct Line (08:06) ===

[00:00:00]  The calming role that the familiar has.
[00:00:05]  And I've told you about the power of the voice over sight.
[00:00:09]  It somehow enters the soul more directly.
[00:00:13]  Well, whatever it is, I am with you, and you are with me.
[00:00:20]  And the bad news today, aside from the death toll, which is bad enough, is the six...
[00:00:29]  6.6, is that it?
[00:00:31]  Million?
[00:00:35]  People who are seeking unemployment benefits.
[00:00:42]  It's exactly twice last week's number.
[00:00:49]  And my heart breaks for all of you.
[00:00:54]  It has broken so much that I have asked from the beginning, is the price too great?
[00:01:05]  And it is so interesting.
[00:01:07]  To ask the question is to be regarded as irresponsible by many.
[00:01:17]  It's not even an issue to me, of course, I'm asking the question.
[00:01:20]  Who wouldn't ask the question?
[00:01:21]  What?
[00:01:22]  What thinking person will just say, of course, of course we wreck untold numbers of people's lives, cause an immense increase in addiction and opioid use and overuse.
[00:01:38]  Of course we create havoc in people's lives.
[00:01:43]  Now maybe that's true.
[00:01:46]  I have not said it is not true.
[00:01:48]  I am asking the question.
[00:01:51]  Two of the letters, I get so much mail now, and I try to go through it.
[00:01:55]  I really devote time.
[00:01:56]  Your feedback and your condition.
[00:01:58]  85-year-old woman wrote me living alone, and she's just grateful.
[00:02:03]  And another woman is taking a ballroom dancing in her own either home or apartment.
[00:02:11]  I don't recall if she mentioned.
[00:02:16]  It would be fascinating, fascinating.
[00:02:20]  To do a study on what people will have done during this period of time.
[00:02:27]  And I salute those of you who are alone.
[00:02:31]  You should obviously make use of every technological innovation that we have to stay in touch with people you care about.
[00:02:44]  I've certainly been true in my life, and I have a house full.
[00:02:52]  All of whom are moodless.
[00:02:54]  Thank God.
[00:02:57]  I was talking to a long-time friend who has truly magnificent children.
[00:03:01]  Truly.
[00:03:03]  But he was telling me that, you know, there's no day that goes by that someone isn't yelling at somebody.
[00:03:13]  That, I admit, would somewhat drive me crazy.
[00:03:19]  I know...
[00:03:20]  You have to know yourself.
[00:03:22]  I find people yelling at somebody very disconcerting.
[00:03:27]  It troubles me.
[00:03:30]  I'm very, very calm and I'm very stable.
[00:03:33]  And that is sort of a weakness in me.
[00:03:40]  To be around people yelling at people.
[00:03:44]  So anyway...
[00:03:46]  It's a mixed bag, obviously, for what people are going through.
[00:03:51]  And yes, I got other mail.
[00:03:55]  I got two, actually.
[00:03:56]  I don't want to overstate it.
[00:03:58]  Most of the mail is, God bless you, thank you for being there, and similar.
[00:04:04]  And I'm very grateful for that.
[00:04:07]  I got two pieces of mail from people saying they will no longer listen to the show.
[00:04:14]  And they...
[00:04:15]  And they sounded sincere, that they've been big admirers of me for my wisdom.
[00:04:21]  I think they both used that term.
[00:04:23]  I should have brought the letters in.
[00:04:25]  It was a mistake.
[00:04:27]  But now, they can't listen anymore.
[00:04:34]  And I don't remember what I responded, but I didn't attack them.
[00:04:40]  But it's, I have to be true to me.
[00:04:45]  I have never, ever been governed by what will lose me listeners or what will endear me to listeners.
[00:04:56]  I think that's a major reason that I have some credibility in most people's eyes is there is an awareness that He is saying what he does believe.
[00:05:13]  He is not asking what will make him loved or hated.
[00:05:18]  And that's true.
[00:05:20]  I was going to say that would be prostituting myself.
[00:05:26]  And this is not meant as a joke.
[00:05:28]  I don't like using prostitute as the epitome of wrong.
[00:05:37]  I have a certain...
[00:05:41]  Sympathy for prostitutes.
[00:05:44]  I don't think they embody evil.
[00:05:47]  But anyway, selling yourself is a bad thing.
[00:05:52]  That's the famous story of Dr. Faustus and Mephistopheles, the doctor selling his soul to the devil.
[00:05:59]  You know, since you're going to be watching movies during this period, there's an unsung movie.
[00:06:06]  What is the one, Alan, that I really love where the guy does sell his soul?
[00:06:10]  To Elizabeth Hurley in the remake and the other gorgeous woman many years ago.
[00:06:21]  It's Bedazzled, yeah.
[00:06:23]  Bedazzled is a very good movie.
[00:06:25]  Both, by the way, the original and the remake are both terrific.
[00:06:29]  You should see it.
[00:06:31]  They really do.
[00:06:35]  They have such a powerful message.
[00:06:37]  The two of them, the same message.
[00:06:41]  But people do sell their souls to the devil.
[00:06:44]  You do when you ask questions like, what will I do in order to do X? Not in order to be right or truthful or good, but in order to make another dollar.
[00:06:59]  You know, it's interesting.
[00:07:01]  I get copy for ads.
[00:07:04]  Almost never is it from the actual sponsor.
[00:07:07]  It's by an ad agency.
[00:07:10]  I adore my sponsors.
[00:07:12]  If you think that what we are doing on radio is important, please do purchase the goods that the sponsors, the services and goods that sponsors are offering you.
[00:07:27]  They keep radio alive.
[00:07:29]  And radio is very important.
[00:07:33]  Really, you can't overstate how important talk radio is.
[00:07:39]  But I will get a copy, and a word is inserted, and it just isn't true, so I drop it.
[00:07:49]  But it is so common that people, you know, they just don't pay attention.

=== Definitely Ambivalent (01:00) ===

[00:07:59]  So answering these two, and others I'm sure who feel like them, what am I supposed to say to you?
[00:08:05]  Yep.
[00:08:07]  It is worth crushing the economies of the Western world with consequences that cannot even be predicted, but there are always social consequences.
[00:08:25]  I'm totally on board.
[00:08:27]  Is that what you would like me to say, those of you who are annoyed with me?
[00:08:37]  What?
[00:08:38]  Is that it?
[00:08:39]  Is that...
[00:08:40]  Oh, yes.
[00:08:41]  This is definitely...
[00:08:43]  You don't know it's definitely the right thing.
[00:08:46]  I'm ambivalent.
[00:08:47]  I acknowledge that.
[00:08:49]  But there are too few voices.