Dennis Prager Show - Coronavirus is a Serious Challenge to Happiness⎜The Dennis Prager Radio Show
Aired: 2020-04-17
Duration: 09:08


=== Moral Obligation to Act Happy (06:32) ===

[00:00:00]  Alright, 1-8 Prager-776.
[00:00:02]  Is there a challenge to your happiness at this time?
[00:00:06]  And I'm sure there is.
[00:00:08]  There's a challenge to everybody's happiness at this time.
[00:00:14]  And I'd like to hear from you in that regard.
[00:00:19]  Or things that you've worked out.
[00:00:22]  Happiness and your isolation.
[00:00:24]  That's what this is about.
[00:00:26]  In the meantime, I will tell you...
[00:00:30]  How the major themes of my views on happiness are so, unfortunately, are so clearly right at this time.
[00:00:40]  So, for example, what is my basic theme?
[00:00:46]  That we have a moral obligation to others to act happy, right?
[00:00:51]  And that's...
[00:00:53]  That's it.
[00:00:56]  I mean, that's...
[00:00:57]  If I could talk to kids...
[00:00:59]  I mean, high school kids, let's say.
[00:01:02]  That is one of the most important things I could tell them.
[00:01:06]  I was invited to a very prestigious prep high school.
[00:01:12]  I'm one of the most prestigious in Southern California, a number of years ago.
[00:01:18]  The conservative kids, the handful of conservative students there, to their great credit, organized and organized.
[00:01:27]  And even raised some money for me to come.
[00:01:29]  It was not nearly what I normally charge, but they did raise something, and it was to their credit.
[00:01:34]  So I came.
[00:01:37]  My wife was with me.
[00:01:38]  She can testify to this.
[00:01:40]  So this young woman, bright, beautiful, I mean, really, just a terrific, terrific girl.
[00:01:48]  She greets me, and she says, So, Mr. Prager, what's your topic?
[00:01:56]  Because they worked so hard to finally get a conservative.
[00:01:59]  And I said, happiness.
[00:02:03]  And she and the others with her were clearly, I mean, they were very polite, but they were a little stunned.
[00:02:10]  We worked so hard to bring a conservative, and he is going to talk about happiness?
[00:02:19]  Of course, it turned out that it was the best thing I could talk about.
[00:02:22]  They told me, weeks later, it was the most talked about speech in the history of the school.
[00:02:29]  And I drove the liberal teachers crazy that I said, you have a moral obligation to act happy.
[00:02:41]  It so bothered some of the teachers that...
[00:02:46]  They started, at least one, I remember, just really laced into me.
[00:02:52]  I mean, not disrespectfully, but laced into the argument and how important unhappiness is.
[00:02:58]  That makes creativity.
[00:03:00]  Anyway, why did I choose that?
[00:03:03]  Because if I can get young people to understand they cannot act based on their feelings, they will be happier.
[00:03:15]  Better and less likely to fall into the trap of leftism.
[00:03:23]  Happiness, while I do not have a political agenda with the Happiness Hour, but it has inevitably a political ramification.
[00:03:36]  The moment you think your feelings don't matter, only your behavior does, you have left the left.
[00:03:42]  Anyway, so my point is, you're in quarantine, you're in isolation, almost all of you with someone. - Yeah.
[00:03:56]  If that someone acts moody, you're having a tough time.
[00:04:03]  Which brings me, that's number one lesson of what I've talked about all these years.
[00:04:08]  The moral obligation to act happy when around others.
[00:04:11]  You don't want to act happy when you're alone?
[00:04:13]  That's your business.
[00:04:15]  It's between you and your shower curtain.
[00:04:17]  That's fine with me.
[00:04:21]  Another one.
[00:04:24]  Candace Owens asked me on a fireside chat before the coronavirus.
[00:04:31]  She said, Dennis, you attended our, you know, it's a video question that she called in.
[00:04:36]  So, Dennis, you attended our wedding, my wedding.
[00:04:40]  And I didn't get a chance to talk to you much, so what is your advice to a young couple getting married?
[00:04:49]  And I said, be as easy to live with as possible.
[00:04:55]  That's my advice.
[00:04:58]  Easy.
[00:05:03]  You know what a blessing that is, to live with an easy person?
[00:05:08]  Now you really know.
[00:05:11]  Before this, you can get out of the house every day.
[00:05:14]  Or that person got out of the house every day.
[00:05:16]  Or you both got out of the house every day.
[00:05:20]  Now you're in the house together every single day, all day.
[00:05:26]  Easy is quite a virtue.
[00:05:30]  No, who talks about it though?
[00:05:35]  Or the moral obligation to be happy.
[00:05:37]  Who talks about these things?
[00:05:39]  It's so odd to me that such basic stuff in life is just not talked about.
[00:05:49]  Alrighty, everybody.
[00:05:53]  Are you pointing to the calls?
[00:05:55]  1-8-Prager-776-877-243-7776 One more.
[00:06:05]  If nothing's horrific, life is terrific.
[00:06:09]  Now a lot of you are thinking, wow, wow.
[00:06:13]  If only this didn't happen and I could be back to six weeks ago or four weeks ago.

=== Life Is Terrific (02:51) ===

[00:06:24]  Yeah, but four weeks ago, were you saying how terrific things are?
[00:06:28]  I was.
[00:06:30]  Because nothing's horrific.
[00:06:34]  I've never looked forward to great things to be happy.
[00:06:38]  Never.
[00:06:40]  I have been thrilled that nothing horrific was happening.
[00:06:47]  If nothing's horrific, then life is terrific.
[00:06:52]  That's right.
[00:06:55]  Maybe, look, I know a lot of you take what I say seriously, and I've earned that.
[00:07:01]  But I think people will take it a little more seriously as a result of how true things are or how clear these lessons have been now that people are living them.
[00:07:20]  All righty, everybody.
[00:07:22]  Let's go to Mark in Dallas.
[00:07:24]  Hello, Mark.
[00:07:26]  Hi there.
[00:07:27]  Hi.
[00:07:28]  Thank you.
[00:07:32]  I guess I'll just get straight to it.
[00:07:36]  Wait, hold on.
[00:07:38]  Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
[00:07:39]  I'm not hearing you clearly.
[00:07:42]  Yeah, it's muffled.
[00:07:44]  It's really muffled.
[00:07:45]  Are you speaking into the phone?
[00:07:47]  I'm speaking into the phone, yes.
[00:07:49]  Now you are.
[00:07:49]  Okay.
[00:07:50]  I'm 35 years old.
[00:07:52]  What was the last words?
[00:07:54]  Oh, you're 35 years old.
[00:07:55]  Go ahead, yeah.
[00:07:57]  I'm in a management position in Dallas, Texas.
[00:08:00]  And I suppose my struggle is we've had to decide—I've had to lay off a quarter of my team.
[00:08:08]  And I was discussing it with one of my colleagues, and we referred to it as survivor's remorse, where we took a pay cut, but we're still there, and our families are still being supported by the people that— We're laid off, and then there's going to be more furloughs.
[00:08:33]  What is the nature of your work?
[00:08:37]  I missed that word because of the muffled sound.
[00:08:40]  What is your work?
[00:08:42]  It's in the apparel industry.
[00:08:44]  Oh, the apparel industry.
[00:08:45]  Okay.
[00:08:47]  It's horrible.
[00:08:48]  Mark, it's horrible.
[00:08:52]  The first thing that one has to do in life, Whether the subject is happiness or anything else, is acknowledge life.
[00:09:01]  This is a terrible, terrible thing.
[00:09:04]  And you are in the midst of a terrible thing.