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March 14, 2023 - Dennis Prager Show
01:07:00
Lie to Parents
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Dennis Prager here.
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Hey everybody, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show, coming to you from Miami, Florida, where I am this entire week.
And I can't believe it, I am not repulsed by the weather.
I actually dreaded coming.
Florida in the summer is difficult.
But for that matter, anything east of the West Coast in the summer is difficult.
That's the way it works in the United States.
And in much of the Northern Hemisphere.
Anyway, great to be with you, as always.
There is another story here out of Maryland now.
Breitbart reports, Maryland's school district requires assisting child gender transition and not telling parents.
Maryland's Montgomery County public schools are requiring teachers...
And administrators to both facilitate a child's, quote, gender transition and lie to that child's parents about it, according to district-wide guidance.
The school district also appears to promote a parent re-education plan for those who are non-supportive.
In other words, if your little kid says to you that your little boy says, I am a girl, You are supposed to say, of course you're a girl.
How can I support you in becoming a girl?
If your daughter says, I am a boy, you should do the same thing.
Imagine a parent about whom it was reported that the daughter said at, let's say, eight years of age, I am a boy, and the mother and or father, hopefully both, No, in fact, you're a girl.
God made you a girl.
Nature made you a girl.
Your biology is a girl.
And life's problems that you might feel do not come from your being a girl.
They come from other things.
And you should thank God or nature that you were made a girl.
If a parent were to say that, it would be so looked down upon by the authorities that if authorities were in fact informed of it, there is a real chance that Child Protective Services might take the child away.
We know already that in cases of divorce, where one parent says, no, you really are a girl, To a girl who says she's a boy will often lose custody of that child.
And they have decided in the world of Orwellian doublethink that we live, that you have one role, and that is to embrace what your child says.
Is there any other area of life where something of such staggering importance is decided by an 8-year-old or a 12-year-old, for that matter?
If you could decide that you are the other sex, why can't you decide whom to vote for?
Why don't we give the vote to any child at whose age we believe that they can make the decision on changing sexes, which is...
Not really possible.
You can live as if you are the other sex.
And if indeed you look like the other sex, take the other sex's name.
And we have no reason to assume otherwise.
Of course, you should be treated as what you appear and sound like and act like and have the name of.
I've told you a number of occasions.
One of the orchestras I conducted in My passion for music.
I have conducted a number of orchestras.
One time after a rehearsal, I mentioned to the permanent conductor of the orchestra how surprised I was to see a female timpanist.
Timpani are the drums of the orchestra.
Almost always, certainly then, they were males.
Even today, it's mostly men who are timpanists.
And he said, well, in fact, she was a man or something to that effect.
This is totally before the whole trans issue became a big issue.
And I didn't think twice of it.
She looked like a woman.
In fact, she looked like an attractive woman.
And I wasn't dating her, so intimacy issues would not have necessarily arisen.
And that was it.
I treated her as a woman.
I say her now, and I respect that.
And 99% of Americans, I think, feel as I do.
Nobody is going to inquire, what were you born?
But if you have a beard and wear a skirt, you are publicly announcing that there is no such thing as male and female.
And then I have the right to resist your attack on the most fundamental distinction in the human race.
Montgomery County employees are required to refer to a student by their preferred name and pronouns, the ones the student believes correspond to their chosen gender identity, As opposed to the name their parents gave them and the pronouns that correspond to their actual biological sex.
Despite that, the guidance makes clear that the references to what the student prefers should not be made when contacting parents.
Wow.
So we will call your daughter...
Give me a man's name here.
Sean.
No, that doesn't work.
It goes both ways.
Let's see.
Give me a contemporary.
David.
That's a good one.
So, they will call your daughter David at school, but in correspondence with the parents, use the original female name.
Because contempt for parental authority is the part of every cult and every totalitarian movement in history.
The first thing you do is knock out parental authority, and the other thing you do is knock out divine authority.
You have no parent on earth, and you have no parent in heaven.
Your parent is the state.
That's what it's all about, the state, the size and power of the state.
That's what the guns issue is about, the power of the individual versus the power of the state.
People who believe that people should, except in the rarest of instances, not own any guns, believe that all guns should be owned by the state.
If you trust that states will do Almost always good things.
It's not a bad idea.
If you know history, which most people who went to college do not, you will know that big states with all the arms committed the greatest amount of mass murder in the history of Earth in the 20th century.
These were all big governments.
First thing all of them did.
The Nazis and the far greater number of communist states would confiscate any guns that did belong to any citizens.
The gun issue is very much an issue of, do you trust the state?
I don't know why people would trust the state.
The state has no one to answer to.
Well, you say in a democracy they have to answer to the voters, right?
But what if they decide to transcend democracy?
To whom do they answer then?
And if you give people enough goodies, the government will always be stronger and bigger.
Most people, not all by any means, but at least half, vote.
on the basis of how many goodies they will receive from the candidate or party they vote for.
The guidance makes clear that the references to what the student prefers should not be made when contacting parents in an effort to hide the child's gender ideation and the school's facilitation of it.
According to the guidance, disclosing a student's transgender status to parents may violate federal privacy laws as it constitutes confidential medical information.
Wait.
There's confidential medical information aside from transgender that you hide from parents?
Would somebody decide to give me an example?
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AmericanFederal.com All right, everybody.
Dennis Prager here.
Hello, my friends.
Dennis Prager here.
I talk to you very frequently about the issue of what is being done to children in schools.
I don't know if the word obsessed is accurate, but I am preoccupied with it.
The child abuse, in the name of progressive ideas, it is pure, undiluted child abuse.
And by sending your child to schools like the one I mentioned in Maryland today and other states and cities the other days, you are facilitating the potential abuse of your child.
You don't want to.
You have very interesting and sometimes...
Important reasons why you can't take your child out of that school.
However, if your child is ruined by that school, you will kick yourself the rest of your life.
It is so interesting how we have adopted in this country the motto of better safe than sorry.
But that's not true with regard to our children.
People are far more likely to be better sorry than safe.
Better safe than sorry.
If you actually believe in that, take your child as soon as you can out of schools.
Was it a parent?
I don't think I knew, but somebody told me about a parent, sent their kid to some school just now, and had no reason to assume that their child was being indoctrinated.
And the kid came home and told the parents how wonderful Joe Biden is.
When I went to school, I don't recall a single teacher opining about a President of the United States.
I had no idea and no interest in my teachers' politics.
They actually were there to teach me math or history or science.
Or something that isn't taught anymore, penmanship.
Something that isn't taught anymore, grammar.
I'd be very curious to ask the average high school junior, what is an adverb?
You think most would know?
I don't.
You do wonder at times, what are they learning?
And the truth is very, very, very, very little.
You could see it by the English, the distortion of English.
In their tweets and in their self-descriptions of Facebook or elsewhere.
So that's why I am obsessed, and you should be too, with the state of children today.
Talking about children, I'd like to entertain a subject with you.
The subject of my column today, it's at DennisPrager.com and TownHall.com, and it'll go...
To the Daily Wire and American Greatness and Jewish World Review and many others.
But it's up at my website and up at townhall.com.
And my thesis is that when I was 12 years old, and not just I, my classmates and I at 12 had more wisdom This is a big claim.
I am certain that I and most of my classmates had more wisdom at the age of 12 than almost any professor in America today.
From Harvard to...
Anywhere else that you'd like to think about.
The professors have more knowledge, but I believe that the average 12-year-old at what I attended, a yeshiva, which is a religious Jewish education, half the day the Hebrew original sources, and half the day secular teaching.
So I went from 9 to 6 very often.
Always at least 9 to 5. It was a very long day.
And I learned an immense amount, both secular studies and religious studies.
And I give examples of things that I knew at 12. And remember, I take no credit for this.
Because here is a radical idea.
You are supposed to teach wisdom to children just like you teach math or language.
Or anything else.
The notion that you get wisdom from getting old is about 10% true.
90% not true.
The number of old fools is quite remarkably high.
Just look at our government.
The number of young fools is remarkably high.
And here's the kicker.
Young fools do not metamorphose into older, wise people.
Overwhelmingly, young fools become old fools.
You have to learn wisdom.
Somebody has to teach you wisdom.
There is no wisdom taught in our secular education system.
None.
At best, they teach a lot of facts.
They indoctrinate you into sick ideas.
America's systemically racist is a sick idea.
Color is important is a sick idea.
Sex slash gender is fluid, is a sick idea.
Secular education stinks.
Stinks.
But nobody talks about this.
Nobody.
By the way, not all Christian and Jewish schools are any better.
I fully acknowledge that.
Many of them have opted for the values of the secular society.
But, in the cases where they are true to their original task of teaching, biblical truths, they teach wisdom.
Remember, your child is not being taught wisdom at any secular institution.
Any.
1-8 Prager 776. The Dennis Prager Show.
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hi everybody in a nutshell that is what I have just been talking to you about is the is The origins of our crisis are the origins.
The non-teaching of wisdom.
Secular society has no wisdom.
It has knowledge.
It has many nice people, many good people, no question.
Tell me a secular institution that provides wisdom.
I think there's wisdom at Yale.
Yale is one of the least wise places in the United States of America, and the competition for that title is intense.
Fools teach your children at Yale.
A fool runs Yale.
It took me a long time to realize this.
I knew wisdom begins with fear of God.
That is a famous statement from the Bible.
But it's not convincing to people who are not already religious, so it's not a line that matters to them.
But if you say the following, the most foolish institutions in the United States, colleges, high schools, and elementary schools, Are also the most secular institutions in the United States?
Whoa!
Then you can say only the following.
Correlation is not causation, or we're in trouble.
Those are your two choices.
But of course, correlation and causation in these instances are completely related.
It is not a coincidence that secular Institutions, Bible-free, God-free, are the stupidest places in the world.
That's it.
It's really important stuff for people to realize.
In my column today, which I hope you'll read, it's on my website and at thetownhall.com.
It's Tuesday, so it comes out Tuesdays.
I give some examples.
For example, you're guaranteed to be a fool if you believe people are basically good.
That is a guarantor that the rest of your thinking will be stupid.
Sorry.
You may be kind and fine and decent and moral, and I mean this.
I'm very precise in my words.
But if you believe people are basically good, everything else that follows will be moronic.
And that is what has exactly happened.
That is the belief ushered in by the French Revolution and the French Enlightenment from Rousseau on.
Noble savages were basically good.
So if we're basically good, well, one obvious consequence is you don't have to teach goodness.
Right?
Why would you have to teach a child to be good if the child is already naturally good?
Except no parent or very few parents actually live by that.
How many times have you told your child to say thank you?
10,000?
Probably.
Wouldn't a basically good child need once or twice to know you say thank you when someone has done you a kindness?
If you're basically good, why do you have to be told that?
Are boys basically pacifistic?
Are girls basically self-controlling?
I mean, please.
So that's one example of the lack of wisdom.
The lack of wisdom with regard to big government.
That's a lack of wisdom thing.
It's not left or right alone.
It's wise or foolish.
Power corrupts.
So why would you want to give people, flawed people, and that goes back to people being essentially flawed.
Why would you want to give flawed people all that power?
If people are basically good, no problem.
Give them all the power possible.
We'll have a benevolent dictatorship.
But if people are not basically good, then it's very dangerous to give people a lot of power, isn't it?
That's important stuff.
1-8 Prager 776. If you would like to talk to me, I will take some calls when we return.
Well, hello everybody.
I'm Dennis Prager.
It's great to be with you.
I've been talking about America's schools once again.
My fear that so many of your children or grandchildren or nieces or nephews will be hurt, perhaps permanently, by the takeover of education by nihilists.
People who believe in destruction.
And that's it.
Just destruction.
Everything that exists should be destroyed.
One of Marx's favorite lines, taken from the great work by Goethe, the great German poet and writer.
And those words are in Faust, which is about a man selling his soul to the devil.
The devil is Mephistopheles, and it is the devil that makes that line.
Everything that exists should be destroyed.
And that is the motto of the left, from Karl Marx to Vladimir Lenin to Mao Zedong to the contemporary American left as we know it.
It's not an impulse that I understand.
I admit it.
There are a lot of bad things I don't understand.
A lot of bad things I do.
I understand bank robbers.
I even understand most murderers.
I don't understand why people want to destroy everything.
And when you think of it, tell me what has not been ruined or destroyed by the left.
When I think of the U.S. military and what is happening, I read to you yesterday, That enlistments are at 40%, 60% down, or 60% under what is necessary.
Why would any people enlist today?
Especially tough, vigorous, masculine young men who, quite frankly, are the ones I most want to join the military.
And I know some terrific women in the military.
Probably they would agree.
If we knew we had an all-male, I'll prove it to you that even you agree.
If it could only be an all-male or an all-male, all-female military, which would you prefer?
Why isn't that, therefore, dispositive?
That the group we want most to join the military are young, strong, masculine, patriotic males.
If it doesn't matter...
Then you would be just as happy with an all-female military.
Would you be just as happy with an all-female police force as with an all-male police force?
Or an all-female fire department as with an all-male fire department?
If you go to college, you are asked to live in a make-believe world.
It's all make-believe.
It sounds right.
The sexes are indeed equal, but they're not the same.
Equal doesn't mean the same.
That's a great question you should ask.
I'm not sure I've ever posed it quite that way.
If it doesn't matter, would you be just as happy with an all-female military?
I should add that to my 32 questions that you should ask to find out if your brother-in-law...
Is a liberal or a leftist?
That would be question number 33. Okay, let's see here.
Let's go to a teacher in your Belinda and my Belinda, California.
Dennis.
Wow, Dennis.
Hi.
Thank you.
You mentioned before, are teachers teaching anything?
I believe something to that effect during the last hour.
I was a high school teacher in California for 36 years.
A teacher is evaluated every two years per their contract.
And in that evaluation, we are never asked, did we ever teach anything?
In my 36 years, I was never asked, did I teach anything?
There's five or six standards that we're evaluated on.
Are we developing as an educator?
Do we keep decent records?
Do we put lessons together?
But we are never asked, did I ever teach anything?
I was never asked that.
And in 36 years, I got a perfect evaluation every single time.
That is fascinating.
I certainly didn't know that.
And did you hear the call from the teacher or the man who said he was a teacher, and I believe him, in Fresno?
I did, middle school.
Yes.
He may be a fine and wonderful teacher, and he may be doing an excellent job, but it does not matter.
He does not have to teach anything.
And after two years in the classroom, that teacher is tenured, and they have to be fired for cause.
And the for cause is in that evaluation, and not one thing in there asks, did you teach anything?
You cannot be fired for not teaching your course.
What did you teach?
American government, economics, U.S. history, world history, social sciences.
Mostly American government and economics.
Right.
So, you may not be able to answer this, obviously.
This has to do with English.
But do you think that...
Was this high school?
I assume it was high school?
Yes.
Do you think that the average junior in the high school...
Do you still teach there, or are you retired?
I just retired, 36. Okay.
Do you think that the average junior in that school, as of when you were still teaching, could define an adverb?
I heard you say that earlier, and I believe the answer to that question is yes.
I believe that there are many teachers that are doing an excellent job.
There are some that are doing a horrible job.
They have no business being in the classroom.
But they could define that adverb.
They are reading Shakespeare.
They are reading all sorts of great literature.
In fact, I know they do that every year.
So I would believe the answer to that question is yes.
Well, it certainly goes to your credibility that you gave an answer that differed with my perception.
And by the way, I hope I'm wrong.
Let me put it to you that way.
Do you think that this is true in major metropolitan areas as well?
I mean, your Belinda is in Orange County.
It's generally perceived as a somewhat conservative place.
Is that not correct?
Absolutely correct.
I taught for about 15 years in an L.A. county school, a very low-income, heavy urban school, in quotes.
And at that school, I would not respond to the adverb question, yes.
In that school, the answer would probably be no.
Those are second language learners.
Their parents are not high school graduates at the very least.
They're not elementary school graduates at the least.
What about in inner-city schools where you have mostly black students?
I couldn't say that.
I couldn't say.
Except that from my experience in an L.A. County urban school, it would probably be about the same.
Once again, the teachers do not have to teach anything.
Their contract does not require it.
Right.
It's a very intelligent point.
I used to tell my students, if you have wonderful teachers, you thank God if you have a God to thank, if you believe that there's a God to thank.
On the other hand, your teachers do not have to teach anything.
And after two years, they're tenured.
By the way, those teachers that you're chatting about with the American Federation of Teachers, every teacher can quit their union.
I did.
It was one of the best decisions I ever made.
It's very simple.
All the teacher has to do is just write them a note that says, I quit, and you are out.
You're still protected by the contract because you're an employee of the district, but you do not have to let them use your money.
For activities that you abhor.
You're a good man.
I appreciate it.
Very informative call.
I do appreciate it.
I asked about schools in heavily black areas.
Would the adverb question be, or my adverb theory, be appropriate in those schools, which would be no reflection on the students, but a reflection on what is taught?
But I would like to test that.
I believe that about the Yorba Linda School, where Dennis taught.
I still wonder, though, in the country at large.
An adverb, for those of you who don't know, is a word that modifies an other adjective or a verb.
Something that modifies a noun is an adjective.
So a big house, big, is an adjective.
The modifying of a verb is an adverb.
Back in a moment.
Hello everybody!
It's so apropos, given that I have been talking about schools again.
How could I not?
Kids spend more time with their teachers than they do with their parents.
It's an amazing thing that people have decided that the state should raise their children.
It's so antithetical to the values that I was raised.
It is really the parents' job to raise their children and educate their children.
Obviously, there are areas where you just can't.
I couldn't teach my kids algebra.
I admit it.
But that's a technical thing.
But about life, about what matters, you want the state to do that?
You trust the state?
And then it gets worse in college.
Brand new book coming out, actually.
Let's see.
Hey, holy crow, I really hit the jackpot.
It is coming out today.
Charlie Kirk is the author.
Charlie Kirk has reached that status of doesn't need an introduction.
But in case you didn't know, he's the founder of Turning Point USA, which is truly a miracle.
The staggering number of students in colleges around the country who are members of TPUSA, it's sort of like a sister organization to PragerU, and they...
The other side doesn't like either of us.
Charlie Kirk is the founder and author of the book.
It's out today.
Charlie, congratulations.
The College Scam.
Thank you, Dennis, and thank you for having me on.
I have to say that you played the biggest role that gave me the courage to write this book.
As you know, I've listened to every one of your fireside chats.
I sometimes can finish your sentences when we hang out together.
But you said plainly, you know, many times, do not send your kids to college.
And I always believed that, you know, at least.
2013-14, right when I was getting Turning Point started.
But as I was thinking about what book really should I write and what argument needs to be made, I thought about my own life.
I didn't go to college and made some things happen.
And I think some people really are too afraid to go after colleges.
And we need to be forthright and blunt in our criticism of it.
That's what I do in this book, The College Scam.
People can find it at collegescam.com.
But Dennis, you played a very big role.
You made my day.
Thank you, Charlie.
It means a lot, actually, coming from you.
Well, I mean it.
I know you do.
That's why I really appreciate it.
So tell me what you think in this regard.
Conservative parents are as avid to send their children to college as apolitical and left-wing parents.
Why is that?
Do they think that their kid is immune to what is going on there, or they just don't know what is going on there, or both?
No, I think that parents are, some of them know the risk, some of them ignore it, but I talk about this in the book, and it's not an easy topic to tackle, but the parent's ego plays a tremendous role in whether or not a child goes to college.
Parents are deemed to be a failure in upper-middle-class suburban society if little Johnny doesn't go to college.
It's very difficult for some parents to stomach the social stigma that comes with having to turn to a relative or a neighbor and say, you know, my son is going to become a carpenter or my daughter is going to start a business.
Instead, it's much easier to say that my son is going to the University of Texas, Austin.
Has become an atheist, non-binary, hates America, is now a vegan, and has now dedicated their life, because you can't even say his or her life, to climate change activism.
That's actually acceptable in upper middle class society.
That's understandable.
But God forbid that your son or daughter goes into the trades, into the muscular class, earns $100,000 a year, debt-free, gets married, has children, has a strong moral compass, believes there is a God.
That's a tougher argument to make.
It's much easier to say that your child has a meaningless piece of paper than is actually filled with strong values.
God, was that brilliant.
I tell you, I smile.
You can't see me.
Well, you can, actually, if you watch the broadcast, not just listen.
But anyway, I was smiling the whole time.
That's right.
You'll love this.
It's painful to me, but you probably heard me say this.
In light of how much you've listened to me, which I'm very honored by.
So I always tell this as a joke about my fellow Jews who fulfill exactly the description you just said.
And I say, you know, people come over to me all the time.
At airports, for example, get a selfie just to say hi, restaurants.
And I said, I don't know if it's a Jew or a non-Jew, except in one instance.
If they immediately tell me what college their kid goes to, I know I'm talking to a Jew.
And Jews crack up when I say it, because they recognize themselves.
So how are you, Charlie?
Oh, great, you know, my daughter's at Dartmouth.
That's the first piece of information you might get.
That's right.
Of course, it's not only true about Jews.
That's why I was smiling.
The accuracy of what you just said, my son, the dichotomy you described was perfect.
By the way, his book is The College Scam.
It is up at DennisPrager.com.
You just told me, TheCollegeScam.com, or of course you get it from Amazon, or wherever you buy books.
It is out today.
I'm delighted that...
You're on my show the day it is coming out.
But that dichotomy, so you have a wonderful child who shares your values but never went to college, but that doesn't give you as much pride as the kid who went to some quote-unquote prestigious university and has rejected all your values.
That's the painful truth.
And that's what you described there.
So you answered, so my first question was why do conservative parents send their kids to college if it's not for STEM, science, technology, engineering, math?
By the way, in light of that, do you have an answer?
I don't.
Do parents have a choice if their kid does go into science, technology, engineering, or math?
Well, I mean, if they have a choice of whether or not to go to college, it's...
Far more difficult.
There are better technical schools.
I say start regionally or locally or at a county level.
Those tend to be less radical, especially the technical schools that have corporate partnerships, for example, all throughout the state of Michigan.
There are technical schools about how to master the auto mechanic trade, obviously.
It's a huge industry throughout the state of Michigan.
And those haven't become too radical yet.
But I do push back in the book a little bit, Dennis.
Let's say you want to go into science.
I mean, you've covered this better than anybody else I can think of.
Science is not immune to wokeism or politics.
I mean, science is now where this debate is raging more than ever.
It's really not a debate.
It's more kind of a colonialist takeover of wokeism taking over what used to be called, you know, the scientific method or biology.
You know, these things are now that used to be immune to politics are more political than ever.
Engineering still is a little bit walled off.
But the idea pathogen that stems from the humanities departments has infected almost every single vertical of the American Academy.
I will say, though, there is more use in the job market for a science, technology, engineering, and math degree than there is in the humanities.
All right.
Let me talk to you.
Hold on.
Keep that in mind.
Remember the words the other part.
You'll remember.
But I want to talk to you about people hiring.
Will they hire the non-college grad?
The book is The College Scam.
important book. To be...
Or not to be.
That is the question.
Where was God?
Isn't God supposed to be good?
Isn't he supposed to love us?
Does God want us to suffer?
Ten years, you're not finished yet?
Morty!
Why did you do this?
Who are you?
Bruce?
I'm God.
Bingo!
Yahtzee!
Is that your final answer?
Our survey says God!
Bing-bing-bing-bing-bing-bing-bing!
Well, it was nice to meet you God.
Thank you for the Grand Canyon, and good luck with the apocalypse.
This is the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager Show, the third hour every Tuesday.
It's because people did not get ultimate issues taught, did not get it straight, that we have a big part of our crisis in America.
You might say that this is the Wisdom Hour, but I didn't name it the Wisdom Hour because it would sound pompous, but that's what it is about, about wisdom.
Wisdom is no longer taught in most schools.
Ultimate Issues are not addressed, except in some deeply religious Christian and Jewish schools.
But it's really the ultimate stuff of life.
Ultimate Issues Hour.
I'm Dennis Prager.
Today's Ultimate Issue is a very interesting and provocative one.
I spoke the first hour, and my column today, by coincidence, Tuesdays are Ultimate Issues Day and my column day.
20 years of columns is about a thousand columns.
They're all up on the internet.
And you might want to peruse the titles and see what intrigues you.
Today it is about my belief that I had more wisdom when I was 12, and I think most of my classmates had more wisdom when we were all 12, than almost any college professor in America today.
Let alone college student.
I take no credit.
I was taught wisdom.
So I have a very provocative question for you, and I will offer my own answer in the opening segment.
Other than the question of God's existence, or God's will, or anything to do with God.
Okay?
Dropping the God issue.
What do you think the most important question, if you think there is a most important question, or subject, if you will, is in attaining wisdom?
I have an answer.
I don't expect most of you to have answers because it's not a question that most people would have thought of, even very deep and intelligent people.
But it is a very, very important question to answer.
What is the most important single subject in offering wisdom to people?
When you hear me give the answer, and some of you will guess the answer, but when you hear it, you might think, hmm, good point.
You might think, no, there's an even more important or equally important question to answer.
Or subject to discuss.
It doesn't have to be phrased as a question.
And that is, is human nature intrinsically good?
Or bad?
Or neither?
But most important is the first one.
Are people basically good?
To put it as simply as possible.
I think that's the most important question aside from the issue of is there a God?
And again, don't call in with any God-related answer.
What do you think the single most important question that needs to be addressed or subject that needs to be addressed in offering wisdom to young people?
And if we don't offer wisdom, we're ruined, which is exactly what it is, what the situation is today.
The chaos, the confusion, the belief in ridiculous ideas, the age of absurdity that we live in.
Why do I think this is the most important question?
I'll give you the number, by the way.
Prager 776 or 877-243-7776.
Now, it's very possible you haven't thought this through.
I don't think I've thought it through quite in these terms myself.
That's the beauty of writing.
Writing forces you to see your own mind.
Writing is the mirror of the mind, as I have often put it, but it is also the stimulus of the mind.
So, when I said that kids are not being taught wisdom today in my article, I had to give examples, and I gave three.
The first is, are people basically good?
Why is that so important?
Now, I'm not going to discuss...
The reasons for belief that people are not basically good.
I've done that on a number of occasions.
Probably do it again one day.
But that's not my subject.
My subject is why is it so important?
Because based on your answer to that question, the rest of wisdom, the rest of life unfolds.
If you believe we're not basically good, then you have to spend your life battling your nature.
If you think you're basically good, you don't have to battle your nature.
That's the most important thing in life.
Do I battle my nature?
The left believes you don't battle your nature, and the left is dominant in every single arena of life.
Elementary school, high school, college, Hollywood, news media, sports, arts, sciences.
Every single arena of life.
And the message is unified.
You don't have to battle yourself.
You have to battle, well, it depends what group you are.
If you're black, you have to battle white supremacy.
If you're a woman, you have to battle patriarchy and misogyny.
If you're gay, you have to battle homophobia.
You don't have to battle yourself if you're any of those groups.
You're terrific.
God, the thought to walk around thinking I or my nature is terrific.
Forget the hubris.
It's just stupid.
It's ridiculous.
That's the great dividing line in a truly religious Jewish or religious Christian education on the one hand and a secular education on the other.
If you're a serious Jew or Christian, you know you have to battle yourself your whole life.
I don't think there was a day in my yeshiva education that I was told I had to battle America.
Or even anti-Semitism in America.
I was raised in a traditional Jewish educational network, meaning, well, As a phrase that every single kid at 12 years old, that's why I used 12, probably earlier, knows, probably in Hebrew.
So I'll tell it to you in Hebrew.
I don't usually do that.
Who is the strong man?
The one who conquers his urge, his will.
The one who conquers his nature.
Ah, so that's what I was taught as a kid.
I had more wisdom than the average professor at Harvard knowing that.
Because if you don't know you have to battle yourself, how can you possibly attain wisdom?
How could you possibly be a good person?
Or quality person?
Let alone a courageous person.
How could you become that if you don't battle you?
That's what I think is the single most important question in achieving a world that has wisdom in it.
1-8 Prager 776. I'm not having an easy time getting this up, Sean.
There we go.
There we go.
All right.
The people who believe people are basically good think that the only thing you have to give your child is love. - Love.
It's almost impossible to overstate what a serious error that is.
It's wonderful to give your child love.
It's more important to give your child moral guardrails.
The price they will pay for the latter is even greater than the price they will pay for the former.
Thank you.
For most generations, parents did not shower love on their children.
Now we have a lot of loved kids who are lost.
So, I'm asking a question.
Since wisdom is everything, or nearly everything, You can't do good in this world without wisdom.
You could have all the good intentions and sweetheart possible.
Wisdom is almost not taught any longer, as we have become more and more secular.
It's the theme of my column today at townhall or at dennisprager.com.
So I have a question, and don't call in with a God answer, because I acknowledge the most important question for wisdom is, is there a God?
So we'll leave that aside.
What is the most important question, period, in attaining wisdom?
What is the most important subject?
And that is human nature.
Is it good or not?
And it's not basically good.
And if you think it is, I don't see how you can come up with any wise answers about life.
Because the essence of life is battling your nature.
For everyone.
How many children have been raised in the last 50 years to battle themselves?
I would say a fifth.
I have no proof whatsoever.
I acknowledge it.
I'm sure there is no study with regard to it.
Secular professors wouldn't even think to study it.
But that's the question.
Almost everything is predicated today on the belief that I'm okay, you're okay, America stinks.
Not America's pretty damn good, and it's my nature that stinks.
That's the key question, isn't it?
All right, so what do you think the most important question might be?
Okay, Katie in Greenville, it's about God.
I love God, I believe in God, but God is not our subject, so I'm going to let you go.
As I have said, please do not give a question with regard to God, because that's, I acknowledge, the most important.
I want to know what even secular people should discuss.
And to me, it is human nature.
By the way, there are people who believe in God who believe that people are basically good.
Not everybody who believes in God is wise.
To say the least.
I wish it were true.
But it isn't true.
By the way, you might want to watch my debate with a rabbi.
Sweet guy, by the way.
And in this regard, I couldn't believe.
I couldn't believe.
I was so upset by the fact that an Orthodox rabbi would write a column that people are basically good, that I... Invited him to debate me, and to his great credit, he said yes.
You can watch the debate.
It's up on YouTube.
I guess just are people basically good.
The Prager debate, or the great debate, whatever it was called, you can easily find it on YouTube.
You should watch it.
You should have your kids watch it.
You should talk about it with your kids for the next six months.
A honey.
A bud.
You think you're basically good?
Your nature is good?
Think human nature is basically good?
Do you ever fight yourself?
Say, uh-oh, I can't do that?
Or I need to do that?
All right, let's see.
Fort Worth, Texas.
Marie, hello.
Hello, how are you today?
Thank you, well.
That's good.
I agree.
So it's really love.
Love is the answer, and I may be an old hippie, but with love, you find tolerance.
With that, you find forgiveness.
I was raised Catholic in a Jewish neighborhood, but if you take all that away, it's really we just have to love one another and be tolerant and find a way all to live together.
And with that, I'll get the wisdom for the right and wrong and what to do, what not to do, the positions I have to take, whether I'm in favor of them or not.
But, you know, because it's not...
One and zero.
Oh, that's interesting.
So you like my take as well?
Well, of course, human nature.
And I think in our human nature, we do have that good sense, that love that comes from just the way that...
So you feel human nature is basically good?
Oh, yes, yes, yes.
Well, that's the way the big guy made it.
And I know we're not allowed to talk about that.
And I'm sorry.
Your show is great.
I've never called him before, but I've got to go.
I'm at the airport waiting to pick up.
That's fine.
Okay, well said.
Okay, good luck at the airport.
Well, it's a sweet woman with whom I obviously differ.
An older hippie.
That's how she described her old hippie.
Wisdom doesn't begin with love.
Wisdom doesn't begin with love.
Wisdom leads to love, but it doesn't begin with love.
It begins, actually, in the life of a child with discipline.
I'll take a child who's been disciplined a lot over a child who's been loved a lot.
By the way, they're not mutually exclusive.
Ideally, a child has been loved a lot and disciplined a lot.
Wisdom leads to love.
Love doesn't lead to wisdom.
Love as the central issue leads to a lot of silliness.
Make love, not war.
That was a big theme in my generation, the baby boomers.
Make love, not war.
I remember thinking, really?
Never?
Basically, what it really meant was have as much sex as possible and don't sacrifice yourself for anything.
That's really what it meant.
Make love, not war.
It was up there with a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle.
A lot of truly stupid ideas from the 60s.
Never trust anyone over 30. And I knew all of them were stupid at a very young age because I had been taught wisdom.
I had gone to a religious school.
Not a secular school.
So, what do you think is the most important subject in teaching wisdom?
We'll return, Ultimate Issues Hour, Dennis Prager Show.
That's fun.
Three presidents, you know.
Probably very little about.
Incredibly insightful stuff.
Just five minutes each at PragerU.com.
A tremendous number of our videos are just teaching.
But the left doesn't even like them.
Because we're not teaching people to hate Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover.
Just actually to understand them.
Anyway.
Welcome back.
Ultimate Issues Hour every Tuesday.
My column this week is about wisdom again.
Wisdom that I had more wisdom when I was 12 than the vast majority of college professors today have.
I believe that.
I believe it's true of most of my fellow students.
We were taught wisdom.
Almost nobody is taught it today outside of religious circles.
So I have a question.
And don't answer with the God question.
I said that God's existence is the first and most important question.
Agreed.
But I want your answer not God-centered.
What is the most important subject, if you believe there is one, in attaining wisdom?
I have my answer.
Are people basically good?
Because once you understand that we're not basically good, you understand that everything must be directed toward battling your own nature.
Your psychological health, and certainly your moral health, your depth, everything about you changes when you understand you have to battle yourself.
The narcissism at the root of the left is you don't have to battle yourself, you have to battle...
White supremacy.
You have to battle misogyny.
You have to battle homophobia.
You have to battle America.
But you don't have to battle yourself.
That is the root of its moral sickness.
So that is my first choice.
The last caller said love, but I'm not sure why that leads to wisdom.
Wisdom leads to love, but love doesn't lead to wisdom.
That's my take.
I'm glad she called, though.
Let's go on to Jerry in Chula Vista, California.
Hello.
Hi, Dennis.
How are you?
All right.
Thank you.
Yeah, hey, listen.
I remember the debate with the rabbi, and I wanted to tune into that.
I haven't found it yet, but I'm troubled by this question because I think you have to define good.
I don't know what you mean by good or bad in terms of human nature.
So maybe the question is not answerable outside of a religious context.
Maybe not.
Well, most secular people, at least until very, very recently, had the same definition of good as religious people did.
Right.
You didn't have to believe in God to understand love your neighbor as yourself.
Absolutely, I agree.
Okay, so I think we do understand what good is.
Good is desisting from deliberately hurting people.
Okay.
Well, there's a lot of cultural dynamic involved in that as well.
Some cultures will recognize that, some will not.
That's right.
So I'm really addressing our culture.
I agree with you.
In Asian culture, doing good means not sticking out from the group.
Right.
It's a shame.
It's defined by shame.
Western definitions of good are different from most others.
Most other cultures are shame cultures.
Much of Arab culture is a shame culture.
Much of Asian culture is a shame culture.
It's not the issue, was it objectively good or bad, what you did, but did it bring you shame?
That's why people can kill their child who brought their family shame.
Not all do, of course.
I'm not talking, but at least one understands where that comes from.
Dennis Prager here.
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