Speaker 1: Today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: Not only is the issue, this is the Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 2: Not only does the issue and I'm Dennis Prager, thank
Speaker 2: you for being with me. Not only does the issue
Speaker 2: try take three, not only does the How else can
Speaker 2: I interrupt myself? It's it's a little sad when you're
Speaker 2: not interrupted by others but yourself.
Speaker 1: That's coming off on Timeless Wisdom. But Dennis Prager. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 1: Thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures courses in classic radio
Speaker 1: programs had to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. Go to
Speaker 1: Dennisprager dot com.
Speaker 2: To be or not to be? That is the question?
Speaker 3: Where was God? Isn't God supposed to be good, supposed
Speaker 3: to love us?
Speaker 4: Does God want us to suffer ten years?
Speaker 3: You're not finished yet?
Speaker 2: Why did you go come here? Who are you?
Speaker 1: Rufs?
Speaker 2: I am God? Bingo yazi?
Speaker 4: Is that your final answer?
Speaker 5: Our surveyces God bingding mingingding dingdingding.
Speaker 2: Well, it was nice to meet you God. Thank you
Speaker 2: for the Grand Canyon and good luck with the apocalypse,
Speaker 2: and welcome everybody. This is Dennis Prager The Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 2: The hour each week I devote at this time to
Speaker 2: some great issue of life, and I am going to
Speaker 2: bring to you an issue today that explains a great
Speaker 2: deal about what is happening in society. And the topic
Speaker 2: for today is AUTHORI authority, the breakdown of authority. Now
Speaker 2: that's the issue. If you want, in a nutshell, what
Speaker 2: is ailing America, it is the breakdown of authority. Many
Speaker 2: of you have a big kick out of my interview
Speaker 2: with my father on his birthday, and I've asked him
Speaker 2: on a number of occasions on his birthday, and he's
Speaker 2: now eighty nine years old, so he's seen a lot
Speaker 2: of life. And I asked him, what is the greatest difference.
Speaker 2: In fact, one of you asked him, what is the
Speaker 2: max What is the greatest difference between the America you
Speaker 2: grew up with in an America today? And he says,
Speaker 2: and he said, authority, the breakdown of authority. And he's right.
Speaker 2: Think about it, folks, think about every area of life
Speaker 2: outside of government, interestingly, and we'll get to that in
Speaker 2: a moment, but every area of life authority has broken down.
Speaker 2: The authority of parents, the authority of teachers, the authority
Speaker 2: of God, the authority of religion, the authority of text,
Speaker 2: all of them. All of them have been attacked and undermined.
Speaker 2: You can now when I think about the ability of
Speaker 2: a child to curse a teacher, I hear that, in
Speaker 2: a sort of disbelief, there are kids who get up
Speaker 2: and curse teachers. I went to a school where you
Speaker 2: stood when the principal walked in. You actually stood up.
Speaker 2: And I didn't have any particular fondness or respect for
Speaker 2: this principle, but that was the principle, and you stood
Speaker 2: up and off issue teachers called by their first name.
Speaker 2: The moment teachers were called by their first name, authority
Speaker 2: began to be chiseled. There is a huge, a huge
Speaker 2: difference between or conflict between, I should say, authority and equality,
Speaker 2: because someone who is equal to you cannot have authority
Speaker 2: over you. So the rampant egalitarianism of our society has
Speaker 2: removed any concept of authority. If the teacher is my equal,
Speaker 2: dresses like me, talks like me, I called by her
Speaker 2: first name, she calls me, or he calls me by
Speaker 2: his or her first name, then we're all equals. And
Speaker 2: then that is, by the way, that is what has
Speaker 2: happened the age of stupidity, as I call it, ushered
Speaker 2: in by the baby boomer. Baby Boomer generation ushered in
Speaker 2: this age wherein kids were said to know as much
Speaker 2: as adults. The vote was changed from twenty one to eighteen,
Speaker 2: even though you and I know that the average eighteen
Speaker 2: year old doesn't know anything about how society should be governed.
Speaker 2: In fact, there are people in the California Legislature who
Speaker 2: would like to extend the age to fifteen. By golly,
Speaker 2: why not eleven. The notion of authority has been attacked
Speaker 2: the most severely of all the notions, and it causes
Speaker 2: a terrible breakdown in society. For whatever reason, people don't
Speaker 2: like it, although ironically they're very happy with it in
Speaker 2: the form of the government. The government's authority is okay,
Speaker 2: but no other authority is okay. I gave you the
Speaker 2: example of teachers. You call a teacher by his or
Speaker 2: her first name, kids can say anything they want. Teachers
Speaker 2: have lost their authority in the classroom. And next let's
Speaker 2: go to parents. Parents too have lost their authority in
Speaker 2: our culture. Look at the movies. In the way parents
Speaker 2: are so often depicted in these films is as boobs
Speaker 2: as dummies? Is the kid is the wise one. By
Speaker 2: the way, I must tell you every movie I see
Speaker 2: where little kids utter these brilliant phrases, they're witty and
Speaker 2: so on, I immediately I am turned off to that film.
Speaker 2: So it's not real. There's no sense of reality to it.
Speaker 2: And it is a way of saying kids are wiser
Speaker 2: than parents. They're not. They're not. Overwhelmingly they are not.
Speaker 2: And so and parents themselves have too often colluded in
Speaker 2: this in allowing their authority to break down, with society
Speaker 2: helping them all along the way. Other adults, I mean
Speaker 2: my God, other adults authority, adults as authority figures. Every
Speaker 2: adult is known by their first name. That was an
Speaker 2: immediate drop in a authority. Who are you to tell
Speaker 2: me what to do? That notion to another adult, You're
Speaker 2: not my parent? Who are you? Who are you to
Speaker 2: tell me what to do? And so other parents certainly
Speaker 2: have lost their authority, So parents and teachers. God has
Speaker 2: lost authority. God God has lost authority in two ways. One,
Speaker 2: there are many many more secular people and God, and
Speaker 2: for many many people, God is not an authority figure.
Speaker 2: God's a lover. God is love. A lot of religious
Speaker 2: people say that, well, then where is the authority. Love
Speaker 2: is not authority. Love is love. God. God is your pal.
Speaker 2: God is the guy. God is you know who you
Speaker 2: have a relationship with, which is fine, that's fine. I'm
Speaker 2: not against a relationship with God. But the rhetoric of
Speaker 2: our time, even in the religious world, is undermining of
Speaker 2: divine authority. Religion is presented today, or God is presented
Speaker 2: as a as a sort of Palin Heaven, My Palin Heaven,
Speaker 2: Hello be thy name, and so Palin Heaven doesn't make demands.
Speaker 2: Religion is is a place to make you comfortable. Church,
Speaker 2: synagogue is a place to make you comfortable. It's not
Speaker 2: a place to hear about the authority of this is
Speaker 2: right and this is wrong. I'll never forget One clergyman
Speaker 2: was spoke about God not being judgmental many years ago
Speaker 2: in a newspaper column that I had read, God is
Speaker 2: not judgmental. God doesn't make moral judgments. That was It
Speaker 2: was one of the great moments of my life that
Speaker 2: this this, And it was a woman clergyman. And I
Speaker 2: say that because it's not It's not odd. Women are
Speaker 2: more of the of the compassion variety of the religion
Speaker 2: should should be comforting and healing that rhetoric, than then
Speaker 2: the masculine rhetoric of this is right and this is wrong.
Speaker 2: That's masculine rhetoric. In the feminization of society and religion
Speaker 2: that has taken place. Masculine rhetoric of right and wrong
Speaker 2: has been replaced with how do you feel about it?
Speaker 2: I'm not comfortable with it? So the all authority has
Speaker 2: broken down except for government. And by the way, you
Speaker 2: must know this, since without authority there is utter chaos.
Speaker 2: The human being needs authority. The more you break down parental, teacher,
Speaker 2: and religious authority, the more strong you build up. The
Speaker 2: more strongly you build up government authority. You must know
Speaker 2: that this is rarely pointed out. Government increases in its
Speaker 2: domination of societal life as the other elements decrease their power.
Speaker 2: The less power that God, religion, and parents have, the
Speaker 2: more power the government will have. Lines are full already,
Speaker 2: and how have you announced the number? I guess a
Speaker 2: lot of you have either questions or thoughts on this
Speaker 2: is a very big ultimate issue, the question of authority
Speaker 2: one eighth Praeger, seven seven six. In case you can
Speaker 2: get in one eight pr Ger seven seven six. A
Speaker 2: number of years ago I wrote a column for the
Speaker 2: for the Los Angeles Times on the subject that it
Speaker 2: is not belief in God that divides people's values, it
Speaker 2: is whether or not they believe in a divine text.
Speaker 2: Jews and Christians who believe in a divine text, I'll
Speaker 2: have far more in common than Jews who believe in
Speaker 2: a divine text have with Jews who don't believe in
Speaker 2: a divine text, or Christians who believe in a divine
Speaker 2: text have with Christians who don't believe in a divine text,
Speaker 2: because only divine texts have authority. Man made texts have
Speaker 2: no authority. Thank your calls, and much more to offer
Speaker 2: you on this edition of the Ultimate Issues Hour on
Speaker 2: the Dennis Prager Show.
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: We'll continue right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show, and every week
Speaker 2: at this hour, I have the Ultimate Issues Hour, an
Speaker 2: hour on some great issue of life, and this one
Speaker 2: is on authority. The breakdown of authority is the breakdown
Speaker 2: of society, and that is what we are seeing in America.
Speaker 2: Parental authority, teachers, authority, police authority. I didn't mention that
Speaker 2: one earlier, the contempt with which police are held in
Speaker 2: many places. They should be feared police. Sorry, folks, they
Speaker 2: should be feared. By the way, so should parents in
Speaker 2: a certain way. When you're young. It's good for a
Speaker 2: kid to say if I did that, my father would
Speaker 2: kill me or my mother would kill me. I want
Speaker 2: kids to to say that. They need it terribly. Now,
Speaker 2: if that's the only emotion a kid has to a parent,
Speaker 2: that's not good. But we've gone way, way, way, way
Speaker 2: overboard in the other direction. Parental, teacher, police, Where is
Speaker 2: my list here? What else did I say? Oh? Of course?
Speaker 2: And God and religion and text? So the you know,
Speaker 2: and the reason And that's the key here. What is
Speaker 2: the reason? Because people don't like to have any authority.
Speaker 2: The human being rebels against authority. We want to do
Speaker 2: what we want to do. Like the Swedish woman that
Speaker 2: I interviewed and played you the interview I played it
Speaker 2: for you. You believe in any religion? No, you believe
Speaker 2: in God?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 2: So where do you get your notions of right and wrong?
Speaker 2: My heart? That's it. Her authority is her heart. Doesn't work, folks,
Speaker 2: it doesn't work. Let's go to your calls here and
Speaker 2: we begin in Evergreen, A, Colorado, and Yvette, Yvette Dennis Prager,
Speaker 2: thank you for calling.
Speaker 7: Thank you, Hi, I was calling about your authority issue.
Speaker 7: We have two children who we have raised to address
Speaker 7: adults as mister or missus. Many times the adults will
Speaker 7: respond by saying, oh no, please have your child call
Speaker 7: me Kathy or Tom.
Speaker 2: I know, and there's nothing. There's nothing you can do?
Speaker 7: Then really, oh no, Actually we've come up with an answer.
Speaker 2: People, what is your answer? I'm very curious.
Speaker 7: We say to them, I'm sorry. I don't mean to
Speaker 7: be disrespectful to you, but we are trying to teach
Speaker 7: our children that time has not made them equal to
Speaker 7: you and that your life experiences are valuable.
Speaker 2: Do you actually say that to these people?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 8: Yes?
Speaker 2: Do they stay friends?
Speaker 8: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 7: And you know, it's funny because many other parents that
Speaker 7: we spend time with also share these views. But very
Speaker 7: often we'll run into people who either I work with
Speaker 7: or my husband works with, or even people who don't
Speaker 7: have kids have never really given much thought to these issues.
Speaker 7: And the comment that we often hear from them is, oh,
Speaker 7: it makes me feel old, And I.
Speaker 2: Say, you know, that's right.
Speaker 7: Two years old. You're old.
Speaker 2: That's right exactly.
Speaker 7: You're older than my nine year old.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'll never forget. Thank you well said you Vet.
Speaker 2: Your kids are lucky. I will never I wrote this
Speaker 2: up actually about twenty years ago. Who was the it was?
Speaker 2: It was a great uh what was the Boston Celtic
Speaker 2: star bird, Larry Bird? Larry Bird? It was by just
Speaker 2: cheer coincidence. I just remember is Larry Bird mentioned once
Speaker 2: when he was still a player that some kids said
Speaker 2: mister to him, and he felt so odd that a
Speaker 2: child would say mister because it meant he was older,
Speaker 2: and so on. It's this my generation has not wanted
Speaker 2: to grow up. I'm not I'm not picking on Larry Bird,
Speaker 2: who you know, supposedly a terrific guy in many ways,
Speaker 2: but or a terrific guye period. But I just happened
Speaker 2: to remember that particular quote that I cited one eight
Speaker 2: Prager seven seven six one eight p R A G
Speaker 2: E R seven seven six. My friends, I say this
Speaker 2: about many of these ultimate issue subjects. There is none
Speaker 2: more important. There may be some that are as important,
Speaker 2: but there is none that are more important than the
Speaker 2: question of authority. I want you to ask about your
Speaker 2: own life? What has authority over you? What do you
Speaker 2: recognize you have a religion that has authority over you?
Speaker 2: Do you have a god that does? Do you have
Speaker 2: a teacher that does? You have a parent who does?
Speaker 2: Or is it only the government? Is that it? One
Speaker 2: eighth pr A g Er seven seven six run in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, Dennis Prager.
Speaker 6: Hi, Hi Dennis, how are you today?
Speaker 2: I'm well, thank you, Dennis.
Speaker 6: When I was many years ago as a young professional CPA,
Speaker 6: I was given a huge amount of responsibility, but because
Speaker 6: it was not an owner in the company, I was
Speaker 6: not given the corresponding authority, and I realized that to
Speaker 6: have responsibility without authority is really really tough, and I
Speaker 6: think that directly applies to the issues you're speaking of today.
Speaker 6: How so well, I think parents, teachers have the responsibility,
Speaker 6: but like you say, their authority has been taken away.
Speaker 2: Oh, it doesn't work. You mean, the responsibility can't be
Speaker 2: lived out if you don't have Yes, that's.
Speaker 6: Right, exactly, the teacher can't, that's right, correspondent.
Speaker 2: Well said Ron, It's exactly right. A teacher can't do
Speaker 2: a job without without authority nobody or parent. A parent
Speaker 2: can't do his job or her job without authority. But
Speaker 2: the age of egalitarianism has and the age of stupidity
Speaker 2: have coincided to make what I am talking about possible.
Speaker 2: That there is no more authority, And frankly, I much
Speaker 2: rather have people have have multiple authorities than just the government.
Speaker 2: It's very scary to me that the government has all
Speaker 2: the authority in a human's life. I wish that there was.
Speaker 2: I wish that there had been a more religious authority
Speaker 2: in Nazi Germany might not have had the catastrophes of
Speaker 2: World War two on the Holocaust. Oh, okay, let's go
Speaker 2: to Sarasota, Florida and Lyle. Hello, Lyle Dennis Prager.
Speaker 5: Question that I have. I was brought up a very
Speaker 5: stretch household. I don't know if you're familiar with the
Speaker 5: men in I background or not.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes I am.
Speaker 5: You know father's father is the law, second of command.
Speaker 5: But my mom also taught us to ask questions, to
Speaker 5: question authority, not to follow blindly. What age do you
Speaker 5: do you say, like, as my wife and I are
Speaker 5: starting a family, what age do you start telling your child?
Speaker 5: As Okay, to question authority, still give the respect.
Speaker 2: But well, I want before I answer you. I am
Speaker 2: very curious. Do you like the type of adult you
Speaker 2: have become?
Speaker 5: Yes, I think that I'm that I'm a well rounded adult, right,
Speaker 5: I don't follow blindly, you know.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, that wasn't my question at all. I just
Speaker 2: want to know. See, a lot of people who are
Speaker 2: raised in strict homes may have had various painful experiences,
Speaker 2: but they end up often liking the way they turned out.
Speaker 5: Yes, I think that I've become mature adult. You know,
Speaker 5: I'm happy with the way that I was.
Speaker 2: Okay, good, No, I just wanted a note. I mean,
Speaker 2: you know, it may have been too strict for my taste,
Speaker 2: but you came out all right. Anyway. The answer to
Speaker 2: me is questioning is not a problem. Defying is a problem, definitely.
Speaker 2: And that's what I think a lot of people have
Speaker 2: confused on both sides of the issue. I take there.
Speaker 2: I take my lead from the Bible. Abraham challenged God,
Speaker 2: but he didn't defy him. We'll be back in a moment.
Speaker 2: You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show.
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: Hi, everybody. This is the Ultimate Issues Hour the Dennis
Speaker 2: Prager Shows, and it is an hour each week devoted
Speaker 2: to some great issue of life. Authority is the issue.
Speaker 2: And you can almost define the problems of society today
Speaker 2: by the breakdown of all authority except government, teachers authority,
Speaker 2: parents authority, God's authority, religion's authority, scripture's authority, police authority.
Speaker 2: They're all they have all been undermined systematically. So and
Speaker 2: the reason for it is to a increase governmental authority
Speaker 2: and b to enable one to have to listen to
Speaker 2: no one but one's own self. That is the general
Speaker 2: human desire. I want to be accountable to nobody, just
Speaker 2: my own heart. All right, let's take some more of
Speaker 2: your calls. One eighth Prager seven seven six and Ethan
Speaker 2: in prosper Texas. Hi, Ethan, Dennis Prager.
Speaker 8: Hi, Dennis, thanks for taking my call.
Speaker 2: Thank you for calling.
Speaker 8: I wanted to talk to you talk from the perspective
Speaker 8: of a teacher. I've moved to Texas, but I'm a
Speaker 8: transplant from LA where I taught in several private schools
Speaker 8: in West Los Angeles. And of all the private schools
Speaker 8: that I taught at, one of them did have the
Speaker 8: students address their teachers by the first by their first name,
Speaker 8: and I found that the students' respect for authority was
Speaker 8: by far the lowest in that school.
Speaker 2: It's it's inconceivable otherwise. Can you imagine in the in
Speaker 2: the military, instead of saying a general, you said Fred.
Speaker 8: Well, you know, and it's just a it's just such
Speaker 8: a basic opportunity to uh, to give children a chance
Speaker 8: to respect authority. I use a title, you know. And
Speaker 8: you had a caller earlier that was talking about how
Speaker 8: she wants her children to call other adults by surnames
Speaker 8: outside of school, and we don't do that, but we
Speaker 8: do require our children to use a title. So you know,
Speaker 8: our neighbors are miss Audra and mister Greg and mister
Speaker 8: Chris and miss Ashley.
Speaker 2: Well, what I mean, you don't, so you do require it.
Speaker 8: We require that they use a title. We don't require
Speaker 8: them to use the surname.
Speaker 2: The important Oh, I see, it would be like doctor
Speaker 2: Bob right.
Speaker 8: Well, no, no, no, no, no no. When they go to the doctor,
Speaker 8: they they I'm just talking about like neighbors.
Speaker 2: So if the neighbor is a doctor, it's doctor Bob right.
Speaker 2: I understand, Okay, that's a big help. Anyway, that's a
Speaker 2: big help. I'll tell you what else has even been dropped.
Speaker 2: Uncle and ant. That's so, you know, you call your
Speaker 2: uncle and ant by their first name and say instead
Speaker 2: of you know, instead of of of uncle, Jim, it's
Speaker 2: it's just Jim. I never called any of my uncles
Speaker 2: or aunts anything but uncle this or aunt that. Never
Speaker 2: never maybe later in life, and even then both for
Speaker 2: the most part, I would give them the honorific of
Speaker 2: of you know, uncle Murray, but not anymore because that's
Speaker 2: that's you see, that separates. It's not an equal. The
Speaker 2: moment I give you a title, I'm no longer your equal.
Speaker 2: You're my aunt or you're my uncle. This if I,
Speaker 2: if I had to give one show to summarize the
Speaker 2: the the great divide in America, it's it's between those
Speaker 2: who wish to abolish all of these authority labels and
Speaker 2: all of these authority sources of authority, and those who
Speaker 2: want to retain them. Yep, this is this is this
Speaker 2: is the big one. This is the big one of
Speaker 2: the ultimate issues. To understand what's happening, and that's part
Speaker 2: of the hatred against again religion se Why is it
Speaker 2: about conservative religion that divides it from liberal religion. I'll
Speaker 2: tell you the answer is authority. Liberal religion is of
Speaker 2: the heart. Conservative religion is of authority. There's divine authority,
Speaker 2: whether you agree or not. And I don't always agree
Speaker 2: even but still at least there is the concept this
Speaker 2: is a sin, this is not a sin, this is right,
Speaker 2: this is wrong. God said do this, God said don't
Speaker 2: do that. People know that. Instead, it's toll in your heart.
Speaker 2: It's what you feel is right. And then you apply
Speaker 2: to the religion and everybody's happy. Authority has been broken down.
Speaker 2: Now this isn't to say that all authority is good,
Speaker 2: my friends, of course not. There have been terrible authorities,
Speaker 2: terrible or authority has been used terribly. There are parents
Speaker 2: who abuse their children. There have and are religious teachings
Speaker 2: that inflict terrible a cruelty. Yes these are true. But
Speaker 2: the answer to bad authority is good authority, not no authority.
Speaker 2: But if you went to graduate school, that may have
Speaker 2: been a little too profound. We'll return in a moment
Speaker 2: one to eight Praguer seven seven six The Dennis Prager Show,
Speaker 2: The Ultimate Issues Hour.
Speaker 1: This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this,
Speaker 1: now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.
Speaker 2: Doesn't get more important than this. I know I say
Speaker 2: that often and I always mean it. Not only is
Speaker 2: the issue this is the ultimate Issues hour. Not only
Speaker 2: does the issue and I'm Dennis Prager, thank you for
Speaker 2: being with me. Not only does the issue try take three?
Speaker 2: Not only does the how else could I interrupt myself?
Speaker 2: It's a little sad when you're not interrupted by others
Speaker 2: but by yourself. Who do you get annoyed at? Not
Speaker 2: only does the issue of authority explain how much is
Speaker 2: gone awry in our society, it also explains and this
Speaker 2: is maybe worth doing a Happiness hour on, because if
Speaker 2: I am convinced, if you didn't grow up with authority,
Speaker 2: you're not going to be happy. Life will be chaotic. See,
Speaker 2: because the heart is a lousy guide. A lousy guide.
Speaker 2: Somebody had to be an authority in your life. A
Speaker 2: teacher if not a parent, a clergyman if not a teacher, somebody,
Speaker 2: somebody God if not any of them. But you need
Speaker 2: some authority or you are going to go crazy. And
Speaker 2: we have broken them all down here, folks. All that
Speaker 2: and the notion of question authority is fine. But the
Speaker 2: people who put that bumper sticker up really don't mean
Speaker 2: question authority. They mean DeFi authority. I'm all for questioning authority.
Speaker 2: It's a very healthy thing. Your children, I think, can
Speaker 2: question you. They just have to know that your answer
Speaker 2: is the final answer, and sometimes you should change your
Speaker 2: mind if in fact there is a good argument. But
Speaker 2: that ends it. That ends it, okay. One to eight
Speaker 2: Prager seven seven six Slinas, California. Danny, Hi, Danny, Dennis Prager,
Speaker 2: A little bitter, Yes, sir.
Speaker 3: How are you doing, sir?
Speaker 2: I'm well, thank you.
Speaker 3: I've been listening to you for a long time and
Speaker 3: one of my greatest accomplishments is getting my daughters to
Speaker 3: listen to you.
Speaker 2: Oh that's terrific. How old is she?
Speaker 3: Well, I have four daughters.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, you have any sons? Do you have any.
Speaker 3: Sons grown up? Except one twelve year old at home?
Speaker 2: So which which one did you get to listen?
Speaker 3: My oldest and the other ones listened periodically, But my
Speaker 3: oldest is the one that she's made me a grandfather,
Speaker 3: so she's really appreciated the many of the topics you've
Speaker 3: had in your.
Speaker 2: Program, wonderful, All right, go ahead by friend.
Speaker 3: Well several years ago, I guess, well, the last time
Speaker 3: the Cincinnati Reds won the World Series. The following year,
Speaker 3: they came to visit the San Francisco and I took
Speaker 3: my kids and my oldest daughter, she was about nine
Speaker 3: at that time. We got there early watch batting practice,
Speaker 3: and when when the balls were being shagged by the
Speaker 3: catcher at that time, it was the starting catcher, the
Speaker 3: kids would go crazy and start calling him by his
Speaker 3: first name. And I remember that I began to call
Speaker 3: him by his last name, but I always begin with mister.
Speaker 3: I can't remember his name. But he immediately caught his attention,
Speaker 3: and he threw the ball in my direction, which my
Speaker 3: daughter got really excited, and she grabbed my arm and
Speaker 3: we missed the ball, and and so I said, well,
Speaker 3: you know the great t you know. She just looked
Speaker 3: at me and she's saying, oh, daddy. Well, the next
Speaker 3: ball that got hit to him, he came around, grabbed
Speaker 3: the ball, open up the back door of the back
Speaker 3: there with a fence, I guess the home run fences,
Speaker 3: walked around up to the bleachers and handed me to
Speaker 3: hand me the ball, No kidding, in front of my daughter. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and he signed it too, and it was a great.
Speaker 2: When Barry Bonds hits his what.
Speaker 3: I was older than that catcher too.
Speaker 2: When Barry Bonds hits another home run, what to do
Speaker 2: is mister Bonds, mister Bonds, you know what.
Speaker 3: That's that's all it takes. Everybody wants a little bit
Speaker 3: of respect.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's very good. Thank you very much, Daddy. That's
Speaker 2: that's true. It doesn't happen much. Folks. I want you
Speaker 2: to ask yourselves this question. What are what do you
Speaker 2: recognize as authorities over yourself? Everybody will say the government
Speaker 2: except anarchists. Can you name another one? Police? And that's right,
Speaker 2: that's a that's a that's a hand of the gun,
Speaker 2: arm of the government. But it's very it's very interesting.
Speaker 2: Kids should be asked this question, and adults should be
Speaker 2: asked this question. Okay, and let's go two Glendale, Arizona
Speaker 2: and Jack. Hello, Jack, Dennis Prager.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's me Jack and Glendale. Okay, anyway, yeah, mister Prager,
Speaker 4: thank you very much for taking my call.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Notice how it's all become, mister Prager this hour.
Speaker 2: It's very cute.
Speaker 4: Well, no, that's how I'm from old school. I do
Speaker 4: that anyway, But you are, I tell you, one of
Speaker 4: the few public figures that I really respect so deeply.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I try to earn that thank you.
Speaker 4: Yes, sure you do.
Speaker 8: Anyway.
Speaker 4: What I was talking wanting to talk to you about
Speaker 4: is an insight if I may be so bold as
Speaker 4: to say, as I told your screener about this idea
Speaker 4: of authority and how the left al was accused of
Speaker 4: the right of wanting to force our values on them,
Speaker 4: and you know what authority do you have? How dare you?
Speaker 4: And all this? And it confuses us because we feel like,
Speaker 4: wait a minute, we're not trying to force our values
Speaker 4: on you. You're and force your values on us. And
Speaker 4: I realized that it's not that they feel we're telling
Speaker 4: them what to do, even though they say that they
Speaker 4: don't even know that. They don't even understand their own minds.
Speaker 4: What they're objecting to is us telling them what not
Speaker 4: to do. That's why they want to take the Ten Commandments.
Speaker 4: It says, thou shalt not thou shalt.
Speaker 2: Well, let me let me try. Let me intervene for
Speaker 2: a moment here, Jack, and thank you for your call.
Speaker 2: I think we need to all be very very honest
Speaker 2: on this. I think we need to be very honest
Speaker 2: on every issue. The right wants many of its values imposed,
Speaker 2: and the left want many of its values imposed. I mean,
Speaker 2: that's just the way it is, and it's perfectly understandable.
Speaker 2: People want their values involved. The idea that I am
Speaker 2: a politician and I have a value, but I don't
Speaker 2: want the society to live by that value is a
Speaker 2: little absurd to me. I don't even understand that. Imagine
Speaker 2: someone in the Democratic Party. Look, I personally think that
Speaker 2: racism is wrong, but I have no desire to impose
Speaker 2: on the society my belief that racism is wrong. You're
Speaker 2: perfectly free to run a racist restaurant. If you don't
Speaker 2: want blacks in your restaurant, go ahead. That that would
Speaker 2: not be said the left. The left imposes values all
Speaker 2: the time. The right imposes values all the time. And
Speaker 2: I think there are more imposed from the left. But
Speaker 2: they both impose, and that's perfectly legitimate. That's that's exactly
Speaker 2: what we don't want is personal necessarily personal religious ones.
Speaker 2: When Catholics tended not to eat meat on Fridays, a
Speaker 2: Catholic politician who ban meat meat restaurants on Fridays. Obviously
Speaker 2: that would be over the line, but that's not an issue.
Speaker 2: We'll be back in a moment. Final segment here of
Speaker 2: the Ultimate Issues Hour. I hope you've taken this in
Speaker 2: because this is the great dividing line in the civil
Speaker 2: war of our country. This is the the great determiner
Speaker 2: of how a civilization will proceed. This is the Ultimate
Speaker 2: Ishoes Hour. Each week, this one has been devoted to
Speaker 2: authority and the breakdown and the vehemence of the attacks
Speaker 2: on authority. Parental teacher, God, religion, texts. The breakdown of
Speaker 2: these authorities has resulted in the society we have today.
Speaker 2: You may like the breakdown, you may not like it,
Speaker 2: but you have to acknowledge that that's what has happened.
Speaker 2: There are many reasons for it. One is that there
Speaker 2: is a natural human proclivity to hating authority. You're not
Speaker 2: going to tell me what to do. You're not going
Speaker 2: to tell me I'm right or wrong. Right, that's the
Speaker 2: natural human inclination. I am my own authority, have a
Speaker 2: nice day. That's what moral relativism is. What's right for
Speaker 2: me is right for me, and what's right for you
Speaker 2: is right for you, there's no moral authority over any
Speaker 2: of us to which the religious person answers, or at
Speaker 2: least the religious ones deeped in the religions of America
Speaker 2: and some other places has been that there is a
Speaker 2: God who says thou shalt and thou shalt not. That's
Speaker 2: why the Ten Commandments is such a huge issue to me.
Speaker 2: It all boils down to the Ten Commandments, not because
Speaker 2: there aren't other commandments, but because that is the statement
Speaker 2: of there is an authority or not in your life
Speaker 2: that is higher than you. The great dividing line is
Speaker 2: that question. But if the Ten Commandments are just suggestions
Speaker 2: of an archaic system written all by men with no
Speaker 2: authority over anybody else, then that's a very different view.
Speaker 2: But I will tell you that putting the religion part aside,
Speaker 2: the breakdown of parental authority and the breakdown of teacher
Speaker 2: authority is a major These are major factors in the
Speaker 2: chaos in which we live. Why children are out of
Speaker 2: control and they know it, and while they seem to
Speaker 2: love it, they don't thrive on it. They're not happier,
Speaker 2: they're not healthier, and they don't grow up into better adults.
Speaker 2: Kids need love is all we have heard, and that
Speaker 2: is true. Kids need love, But I'm coming around to
Speaker 2: the belief that kids may need authority even more than
Speaker 2: they need love, and that was a long time coming
Speaker 2: in my own realization in life. Always amazes me that
Speaker 2: no matter how many years I live, I keep learning
Speaker 2: huge lessons. I thought in my twenties that I had
Speaker 2: learned all the huge lessons there were to learn, and
Speaker 2: that I'll learn little lessons from then on. That was
Speaker 2: a big mistake, which is good for you and good
Speaker 2: for me. Otherwise my show wouldn't have much to teach you,
Speaker 2: wouldn't The Ultimate Issues hour on the Dennis Prager.
Speaker 1: Show tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 2: Why do I do this every week? I do this
Speaker 2: every week because happy people make the world better.
Speaker 1: Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager. This has been Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 1: Visit Dennispragger dot com for thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses,
Speaker 1: and classic radio programs, and to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles.