June 5, 2021 - Dennis Prager Show
07:04
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| Time | Text |
|---|---|
| I resolved to be happy. | |
| I was about a junior in high school. | |
| It's very easy to be unhappy and don't take the easy way out. | |
| I combined the two. | |
| It was a good moment. | |
| It takes no effort to be unhappy. | |
| That's the default position for many people. | |
| Life is work. | |
| When you know that, you're halfway there. | |
| Whatever it is you want, you've got to work out, including happiness. | |
| That's why I have a happiness hour. | |
| Today's subject is a biggie. | |
| Most of them are biggies. | |
| I never said I had a smallie for a topic. | |
| That is, why are so many young people unhappy? | |
| Now, I've addressed this in passing, but now I'm going to devote an hour to it. | |
| There are micro and macro answers to the question of why are there so many unhappy young people. | |
| I mean, college age in particular. | |
| Everybody knows a moody teenager. | |
| Moody teenagers are a dime a dozen. | |
| But why, even getting into college, why are there so many unhappy? | |
| I'm going to offer you some responses, and then I want to hear you both react to mine and give me yours. | |
| But here's something that I have been thinking about for, I don't know why, but I've been thinking about... | |
| In the recent past, that I do believe has been a contributor. | |
| And it's not the number one, even though it's the first one I'm mentioning. | |
| It's only because it's in the micro, and I want to start with the micro reason. | |
| I think a lot of parents made a big mistake in not wanting to be their children's parents, but their pals. | |
| And I don't think that that contributes to a child's happiness. | |
| A child wants a parent because parents, as opposed to pals, give security. | |
| And they give you something to aim for. | |
| A parent as a model is a very powerful force in a child's life. | |
| Where else are they going to get these models? | |
| I mean, they do. | |
| They can get them on TV. They can get them anywhere, theoretically. | |
| But the most logical area to find a model is in a parent. | |
| But this notion of, I want to be my child's friend when they're eight. | |
| If you want to be your child's friend when the child is 40, that's a separate issue. | |
| But when the child is 8, they can have a lot of pals, but they only get one crack at parents, or two cracks at parents. | |
| And I think that that does, in fact, add to a child's happiness over the long term. | |
| Having parents who have played a parental role in their lives. | |
| The power of parents in people's lives is really staggering when you think about it. | |
| You know, Bernie Madoff just died a couple of weeks ago. | |
| One of his adult children committed suicide. | |
| And it is not uncommon among disgraced parents that a child will become profoundly depressed and even commit suicide. | |
| You don't want your parents to be shameful. | |
| It's bad if your child... | |
| Does bad things, but it doesn't have the same devastating effect as a parent doing bad things. | |
| The foundations of your life are not rocked by a bad child as they are by a bad parent. | |
| The power of parents is really, it's almost unfair, because you're very lucky. | |
| Nobody gets perfect parents, by the way. | |
| That's why I find a lot of complaining about parents to be immature. | |
| We'll see how you do as a parent. | |
| By the way, it's one of the reasons I'm convinced parents love when their kids have kids. | |
| They're far more accepting of the parents. | |
| One of the most common sentiments that a new parent has is... | |
| My parents did all this for me? | |
| After you get up, you know, 3 a.m. | |
| for three months for a crying child and change a diaper at 4 a.m. | |
| Yeah, wow, my parents must have done that for me. | |
| I remember when I was a parent thinking one day, wow, I really should be grateful for my parents that I have all my limbs. | |
| Just for that! | |
| Somehow, they were able to protect me from permanent injury. | |
| So, the role of the parent is a huge one. | |
| Here's another factor, I believe, in the unhappiness of many children. | |
| They have nothing to live for. | |
| Nothing. | |
| Nothing fills their lives with meaning. | |
| The poisonous, destructive, nihilistic left has ensured that their lives have been emptied of all that is good and meaningful. | |
| Religion, love of country, marriage, family. | |
| Happiness Hour, Dennis Prager Show. |
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