Speaker 1: Life Audio of today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: Do you play chess? And do you enjoy science fiction,
Speaker 2: either televised or written.
Speaker 3: I'm one of those happy atheist long time listeners. My
Speaker 3: question is, if you do believe in an eternity and
Speaker 3: if you believe in retribution from God for evil people? A,
Speaker 3: why bother punishing evil people? And B why be upset
Speaker 3: when someone dies there?
Speaker 4: If they're going right now, this is right?
Speaker 3: Think about our human life would be just a speck.
Speaker 1: In the ocean that's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager. Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here
Speaker 1: thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs.
Speaker 1: I had to purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bible. Go to
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager dot com.
Speaker 4: I you know how much I've gone your calls and
Speaker 4: your emails. But the nature of my show is that
Speaker 4: I set the topic each hour of the fifteen hours
Speaker 4: except this one. Whatever you want to talk about, from
Speaker 4: my favorite cigar or pipe tobacco, to the meaning of life, religion, sex,
Speaker 4: beauty and politics, the show anything. This is your chance
Speaker 4: to call in one eight Prager seven seven six one
Speaker 4: eight p R A g E R seven seven six,
Speaker 4: which translates digitally to eight seven seven two four three
Speaker 4: triple seven six. It's completely unhelpful what I just did.
Speaker 4: I have deep content to talk show hosts who give
Speaker 4: the number fast. The self loathing I'm engaging in now
Speaker 4: is difficult experience one eight seven seven two four three
Speaker 4: triple seven six. Yes, indeed, what is on your mind?
Speaker 4: And now let us find out what that might be.
Speaker 4: Let's go to Hopkins, Minnesota and Bud on the Patriot. Hello, Bud,
Speaker 4: Dennis Prager.
Speaker 5: Hi, Dennis, Hi. I recently read the fifth Commandment, Honor
Speaker 5: your father and mother, and occurred to me that that
Speaker 5: was teaching gratitude, which suggested to me that it was
Speaker 5: implying that God is commanding us to be happy. And
Speaker 5: I was wondering if you would come in.
Speaker 4: On that we are commanded to be happy very specifically.
Speaker 4: But and I will get to that in a moment,
Speaker 4: but that the example you gave isn't one of them.
Speaker 4: Honor your father and mother is not a commandment to
Speaker 4: be happy, It isn't. It is a commandment to exactly
Speaker 4: as it says, give honor to your father, and mother.
Speaker 4: And when I teach it, it is I explain that
Speaker 4: we are we are never commanded to love our father
Speaker 4: and mother because either we feel it or we don't.
Speaker 4: But we can't be commanded to because there may be
Speaker 4: parents that are unlovable, right and so, but whether they're
Speaker 4: unlovable or not, or lovable or not, we still have
Speaker 4: to honor them, just as I stand up. I will
Speaker 4: never forget when Jimmy Carter came into my studio once
Speaker 4: for the show following mine, and I stood up because
Speaker 4: he had been president. I think he was the worst
Speaker 4: president of American history. I have no respect for him
Speaker 4: as a public figure, but he was president of the
Speaker 4: United States and I stood up. And this was after
Speaker 4: he was president. Even so, there is honor that you
Speaker 4: give positions. Your father and mother have a position, and
Speaker 4: that commandment is protecting. But that position of father and
Speaker 4: mother that has to be honored. Now there is commandments.
Speaker 4: There are commandments then you shall rejoice during your holidays.
Speaker 4: For example, is the Psalm said you should worship God
Speaker 4: and happiness. There is a very deep element of that.
Speaker 4: In fact, I raised this issue last hour, which is
Speaker 4: why you're calling right there. I guess you hung up, okay,
Speaker 4: and I am. I am going to pursue that I
Speaker 4: would like to know from you folks. Do you think
Speaker 4: that your religion commands happiness? Because I don't want to
Speaker 4: I don't want to say it right now because it's
Speaker 4: not it's not my task. But I know that there
Speaker 4: were religious traditions that emphasize happiness over others. There's just
Speaker 4: no question in my mind. Alrighty, Let's go to Ottawa,
Speaker 4: the capital of Canada, and Howard. Hello, Howard Dennis Prager.
Speaker 6: Okay, Now I called about a serious subject, the where
Speaker 6: do you get your values right? And I'm genuinely seeking here.
Speaker 6: I don't have a strong point of view. I come
Speaker 6: to this as I'm a Jew. I was raised without
Speaker 6: too much religion. I've come to study it a bit
Speaker 6: more as an adult. I'm particularly interested in the Mussar
Speaker 6: tradition of ethics teachings in practice. But here's my here's
Speaker 6: my issues with you know, I would I think I
Speaker 6: would like to believe values derived from the Bible or
Speaker 6: good values derived from the Bible. But here are my
Speaker 6: two problems. One is many scholars. You know, you can
Speaker 6: look at the Bible and say it unambiguously teaches that
Speaker 6: murderers must be put to death, and other scholars and
Speaker 6: clergy can look at the Bible and draw the opposite concludion.
Speaker 4: No, they can't. They can't that that. I fully acknowledge
Speaker 4: that there are areas open to interpretation. But nobody reading
Speaker 4: the the first five books of the Bible, known as
Speaker 4: the Torah, can say that they are that it is
Speaker 4: opposed to capital punishment for murder. It's the only law
Speaker 4: in all five books of the of the Torah. The
Speaker 4: only law that is in all five books is that
Speaker 4: murderers be put to death. It's stated by God. Whether
Speaker 4: you believe in God or not, God is quoted as
Speaker 4: saying that.
Speaker 6: How do you account for you know, clergymen, nuns and
Speaker 6: so on that show up at these visions for murderers
Speaker 6: on the night before.
Speaker 4: I'll tell you exactly how I account for it. Because
Speaker 4: I have said frequently that secular values have made more
Speaker 4: inroads into religion than religious values have made into secular society.
Speaker 4: These are very often people with secular values who wear
Speaker 4: religious clothing. Yeah, and it is very sad to me.
Speaker 4: The secular left is a very real problem to me.
Speaker 4: But the religious left is an oxymoron to me. It's
Speaker 4: a self contradictory statement to take the Bible seriously and
Speaker 4: be a leftist.
Speaker 6: Okay, but the fact remains that I guess it's very
Speaker 6: dangerous in the sense that you one must study a manual.
Speaker 6: The Bible is not as clear as say the instruction
Speaker 6: manual for your flash.
Speaker 4: Do it this, that's right. That's why it has to
Speaker 4: be you do that's.
Speaker 6: Right, with danger to interpret it learning.
Speaker 4: You're right. That's why I have devoted my adult life
Speaker 4: to teaching the Torah. I teach it verse by verse.
Speaker 4: I have about one hundred and fifty tapes on it.
Speaker 4: You are welcome to sample one through my website. But
Speaker 4: it is very painful to me that those insights are
Speaker 4: not made relevant to a lot of people, even by
Speaker 4: much of the religious community. I'm Dennis Prager. This is
Speaker 4: the yeah I started wrong. This is Dennis Prager. This
Speaker 4: is the hour where you, in fact make the set
Speaker 4: the agenda here and it is one A Praguer seven
Speaker 4: seven six. I'll go back to Ottawa in a little while, Howard,
Speaker 4: I want to get some other calls. In the meantime,
Speaker 4: let's go to anonymous we rarely do this, but she
Speaker 4: doesn't want to say anything since her husband might in
Speaker 4: fact hear her. So Anonymous, you're on the Dennis Prager Show.
Speaker 7: Hey, Dennis, Hi, how are you?
Speaker 4: You don't even want to say your city?
Speaker 7: No, I'd rather not. Okay, my husband listens to your.
Speaker 4: Show, buddy might know your voice.
Speaker 7: I'm taking that chance.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 7: What would be your suggestion for somebody who their husband
Speaker 7: doesn't want to go to marriage counseling and you think
Speaker 7: that if you pressure or push even more that he's
Speaker 7: going to leave, Well.
Speaker 4: If your husband. If a husband will leave because the
Speaker 4: wife wants to work on repairing the marriage, then he
Speaker 4: has decided to leave. If I it's pretty self evident.
Speaker 4: I have told men. It is not always men, but
Speaker 4: it is more often men than I think. Wives who
Speaker 4: resist going to marital counseling. That is, in every case
Speaker 4: that I know of, the resistance of one for long
Speaker 4: enough period of time led to the end of the marriage.
Speaker 4: In every case that I know of, not know of
Speaker 4: an exception of somebody resisting and over long time the
Speaker 4: marriage just worked itself out.
Speaker 7: I'm going on my own right now. You don't think
Speaker 7: that's sufficient, Well.
Speaker 4: It's sufficient if you are the primary source of the problems,
Speaker 4: and that that could be there are I don't believe
Speaker 4: it's always fifty to fifty, but I believe.
Speaker 7: That's what he thinks, is that it's mostly my fault.
Speaker 4: Well, then let him hear that from then. Fine, then
Speaker 4: let it be vindicated at the counseling session.
Speaker 7: It has been. He did go one time with me,
Speaker 7: and and he thinks that the counselor's on my side.
Speaker 4: No, no, then he wasn't vindicated. I say, he thinks
Speaker 4: it's primarily you're the problem, right, but when he went
Speaker 4: it turned out that that's not what the counselor said.
Speaker 4: Then say, you know what, honey, let's find a counselor
Speaker 4: that you trust. That's fine. That sometimes happens. I think
Speaker 4: that there are I think that there are therapists who
Speaker 4: are biased in favor of the wife more than there are.
Speaker 4: I think many many therapists are not biased. But when
Speaker 4: there is bias, I think it is often in favor
Speaker 4: of the wife because she is more. Generally, women are
Speaker 4: more explicit about their more eloquent, more verbal about their problems,
Speaker 4: and the guy often sits there just with his arms folded.
Speaker 7: Okay, what do you do in that case? When he
Speaker 7: sits there with his arms folded that.
Speaker 4: You say, then let's go. We'll keep going till we
Speaker 4: find one that works. And if he says no, then
Speaker 4: he doesn't want to repair it. I mean, it becomes
Speaker 4: self evident. It's painful for me to say this to
Speaker 4: you because I but what other conclusion can one draw
Speaker 4: if if your toilet isn't working and you don't want
Speaker 4: to call a plumber, it means that you're prepared to
Speaker 4: live with a broken toilet.
Speaker 7: He thinks it's working, and I think it's.
Speaker 4: Not well that but marriages have to be thought of
Speaker 4: as working for both. It's not. There's no objective truth
Speaker 4: to the to that sort of thing. Both have to
Speaker 4: think it's working for it to work. And and and
Speaker 4: a session is a good place. It's a safe place
Speaker 4: to let everything out because there's a there's a person
Speaker 4: you both trust. If you don't both trust, you've got
Speaker 4: to find somebody else.
Speaker 7: And if he's petrified of the whole idea.
Speaker 4: In general, why is he?
Speaker 7: Because feelings are very difficult.
Speaker 4: That's right, and it's very painful for me to hear.
Speaker 4: But then then you know. That's why I'd love to
Speaker 4: talk to him. I go often. It takes a guy
Speaker 4: to convince a guy on these matters.
Speaker 7: Well, you're about the only one he'd probably listen.
Speaker 4: Well, I would be happy to I'm not kidding. I
Speaker 4: really would. And if you happen to uh, if you
Speaker 4: can send me an email, I'll even write it out
Speaker 4: to him.
Speaker 7: Would you really?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I would?
Speaker 7: All right, then I will.
Speaker 4: Okay, thank you, You're welcome. God bless you to thank you.
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 4: Alrighty, let's go to I believe it's Chris in the
Speaker 4: Cleveland on WCCD. Is that right, Chris? Yeah? Hi, Yeah.
Speaker 6: You frequently mentioned that you've lectured on all seven continents,
Speaker 6: including an Antarctica, and I had a picture of you
Speaker 6: in front of the penguins, and I was wondering exactly
Speaker 6: what it was you were lecturing.
Speaker 4: To them about. That's a fine question. Was why it
Speaker 4: took your call? There is an answer to that, and
Speaker 4: it's a little embarrassing. I spoke to them primarily about monotheism.
Speaker 4: ID how did they take it?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 4: If you look at the picture, you will notice maybe
Speaker 4: there are a hundred penguins, only one is actually looking
Speaker 4: at me. So I just it was a humbling experience.
Speaker 4: But Chris, it was the only way I could honestly
Speaker 4: say I had lectured on all seven continents, because while
Speaker 4: I did lecture on the ship off the coast of Antarctica,
Speaker 4: that's true. On Antarctic itself, there's nobody to lecture to,
Speaker 4: so I have to choose penguins. Okay, you're a good man,
Speaker 4: You're a good man. I really appreciate the question. Let's
Speaker 4: go to Los Angeles, California, k r l A, Greg
Speaker 4: Dennis Prager.
Speaker 3: Hi, Dennis, Hi, honor to speak with you, long time listen.
Speaker 4: Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: I'm one of those happy atheist longtime listeners. I have
Speaker 3: to say, with all due respect to you and your listeners,
Speaker 3: I just I find religion completely irrational, akin to perhaps
Speaker 3: telling a child that Santa Claus actually really does exist.
Speaker 3: That's why we inculcate children so early. How are that?
Speaker 3: That's really not my question. My question is if you
Speaker 3: do believe in an eternity, and if you believe in
Speaker 3: retribution from God for evil people, A why bother punishing
Speaker 3: evil people? And b why be upset when someone dies
Speaker 3: if they're if they're going right now, this is think
Speaker 3: about our human life would be just a spec in
Speaker 3: the ocean.
Speaker 4: That's right, well and well. To the truly religious, it
Speaker 4: probably is a speck in the ocean. But to the
Speaker 4: atheist it's also a speck in the ocean. Either case,
Speaker 4: it's a spec. It's just for the atheist it's the
Speaker 4: only speck. But for both well, right, wait, for both
Speaker 4: the religious believer and the atheist, life is a spec
Speaker 4: in the ocean. The difference. The difference is the atheist
Speaker 4: believes it's only a spec and it just dissolves into
Speaker 4: the ocean, whereas the religious believer believes that there is
Speaker 4: something beyond the spec. But all right, fair enough, but
Speaker 4: so so the spec part is not relevant because we
Speaker 4: both believe that. But your question is a powerful one,
Speaker 4: and it is the reason I believe that when religions
Speaker 4: over emphasize the afterlife, people do in fact not act
Speaker 4: the way they ought to. I could not agree with
Speaker 4: you more in your supposition. I have spoken about it,
Speaker 4: I have written about it. I believe deeply there's an afterlife,
Speaker 4: but I also believe that concentrating on that can have
Speaker 4: a negative effect on the way people act, where you
Speaker 4: become very fatalistic, and there is a certain fatalism for
Speaker 4: example an Eastern religion. Look, I'm coming back in the
Speaker 4: next life, and you know whatever I come back, I'll
Speaker 4: come back now. Of course, they believe that you come
Speaker 4: back depending on how you act in this life, So
Speaker 4: there really is a reason to do good. I need
Speaker 4: to be absolutely honest here, but look at the Islamic
Speaker 4: militants and their belief. Oh my god, if you know
Speaker 4: you blow up enough innocent people, by golly, you'll have
Speaker 4: seventy two women service you when you arrive. I never
Speaker 4: quite understood what the women get they when they blow
Speaker 4: up themselves. But theological question will lead an answer to
Speaker 4: I have asked my whole life, why is the Torah
Speaker 4: silent on the afterlife? I'm a big believer in the Torah,
Speaker 4: and I have concluded that it wants us to be
Speaker 4: preoccupied greg with this life, even though there's no doubt
Speaker 4: in my mind that if there was a God, there
Speaker 4: was something after this life. It's just it's axiomatic. But
Speaker 4: you are right to pose that question, because I have
Speaker 4: seen that happen where people get so preoccupied with the
Speaker 4: next life they ignore a lot of what happens here
Speaker 4: and go to Dallas, Texas on case Guy, it's Tom.
Speaker 4: Hello Tom, Dennis.
Speaker 8: Prager, Hi Dennis, how are you doing all right?
Speaker 4: Thank you?
Speaker 8: The question I had was, in recalling your past radio shows,
Speaker 8: you mentioned several different times I guess that you had
Speaker 8: studied communism. You'd measured in Soviet studies.
Speaker 4: That's right, and I was real.
Speaker 8: Curious about actually three things. First of all, why you
Speaker 8: chose that study in the first place, and how you
Speaker 8: felt about it as you were going through the studying
Speaker 8: process at the time, And how your own attitude and
Speaker 8: thoughts have evolved toward what you studied, you know, by
Speaker 8: the experiences that you had in your political thought.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a very good question, and I imagine some
Speaker 4: others might have won the same thing. First, you need
Speaker 4: to know I was never pro Soviet or pro communist.
Speaker 4: I always thought that both were evil. Why I studied
Speaker 4: it was because I thought it was incredibly important to
Speaker 4: understand the greatest threat to liberty at the time, which
Speaker 4: came from communism. I wanted to understand what made them
Speaker 4: think and why were so many in the West, especially
Speaker 4: among the intelligentsia, attracted to a doctrine Marxism that had
Speaker 4: led to so much evil.
Speaker 8: Did I ask you what you concluded about why the
Speaker 8: intelligency is so attracted to this insanity?
Speaker 4: Yeah? The fundamental the fundamental problem, I believe, and it
Speaker 4: hit me then and it was life changing, was the
Speaker 4: fact that they are radically secular and they want a religion,
Speaker 4: but they don't want it to be based on God,
Speaker 4: and so their religion became Marxism and that's that or
Speaker 4: some Marxist offshoot. People don't like to live without a
Speaker 4: methodology for understanding life, and if it will not derive
Speaker 4: from Christianity or Judaism, then it will derive from another
Speaker 4: religion or from a secular religion, and Marxism is a
Speaker 4: secular religion.
Speaker 8: Would it not also have to do with their sense
Speaker 8: of metaphysical and moral egalitarianism to make everything all values equal.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but they don't really hold that, They hold that
Speaker 4: their values are better. But yes, egalitarianism is also more
Speaker 4: equality has trumped liberty for the left. That is correct.
Speaker 4: That is one of the major differences between the Left
Speaker 4: and others is that equality is the god of the
Speaker 4: left right.
Speaker 8: Okay, thank you so much, Thank you, Dennis.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. By the way, my majoring in that,
Speaker 4: specifically at the Russian Institute at Columbia University at the
Speaker 4: School of International Affairs, was in fact the whole all
Speaker 4: the travels I did to communist countries. My study of
Speaker 4: totalitarianism has awakened me to so much of what happens
Speaker 4: on the left in non tootalitarian states. The efforts of
Speaker 4: the left in California right now to remove a little
Speaker 4: cross from the seal of the County of Los Angeles
Speaker 4: is to me the classic leftist totalitarianism. We wish to
Speaker 4: obliterate the Christian history of America. Whether your pro or
Speaker 4: anti Christian shouldn't even matter. You should be afraid of
Speaker 4: the fact that there are people who want to erase
Speaker 4: our history. Now it frightens me because it's also an
Speaker 4: erasure of values that I believe in. Even though I'm
Speaker 4: not Christian, I'm Jewish, but I believe in the Judeo
Speaker 4: Christian values that permeate this country. And I am afraid
Speaker 4: of anything that will substitute for anything.
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless wisdom will continue right after this.
Speaker 3: Dennis Jennis Jennis, Dennis Prager.
Speaker 1: Do you have a question you've always wanted to ask
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager. Well, now it's your opportunity for upcoming Ask
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Speaker 4: All right, let's go to your calls. This is the
Speaker 4: hour of the week where you set the agenda. I
Speaker 4: said it fourteen hours of the fifteen a week. Now
Speaker 4: you said it. Whatever is on your mind, anything that
Speaker 4: you want to ask, anything, anything, think about it. You
Speaker 4: ever curious about something about me or about life, from
Speaker 4: the meaning of life to my shoe size. I will
Speaker 4: take anything. If you think it's silly, you have a
Speaker 4: better chance to get on. But we will alternate everything. Ahlrighty,
Speaker 4: ladies and gentlemen. We go over to Cleveland, Ohio and John.
Speaker 4: Hello John on WCCD. Dennis Prager, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2: How are you doing to day, mister Preger?
Speaker 4: Thank you, sir, thank you.
Speaker 2: I've always wondered two things. Do you play chess? And
Speaker 2: do you enjoy science fiction? Either televised or written?
Speaker 4: That's so interesting, because I don't particularly enjoy either.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 4: I feel terrible. It was painful for me to say
Speaker 4: I do play chess. Now let me explain why. For
Speaker 4: the science fiction. There is no good reason, because science
Speaker 4: fiction is great stuff. I am just here is Listen. John.
Speaker 4: I may I may be lowered in your esteem as
Speaker 4: a result of this, but I'm going to take the risk.
Speaker 2: I'm picking the phone.
Speaker 4: I know you are believe me, you think you know.
Speaker 4: I was thinking, should I tell John, oh my god,
Speaker 4: I love this stuff, or should I tell him the truth?
Speaker 4: So John, hold on, wait, I think I'm going to
Speaker 4: gather a little you'll be able to put some of
Speaker 4: your face back up. Okay, okay, the problem is not
Speaker 4: science fiction. The problem is fiction. I had to make
Speaker 4: a decision earlier in life, given the fact that I
Speaker 4: only have twenty four hours in a day, that where
Speaker 4: will most of my reading take place? And by definition
Speaker 4: it has to be in nonfiction.
Speaker 2: Okay, you're taking one for the team.
Speaker 4: I'm saying, what, You're taking one for the team.
Speaker 2: You're sacrificed.
Speaker 4: I am, I'm taking one for the team. That is correct.
Speaker 4: That's very kind. That's correct. I good. Now, as regards chess,
Speaker 4: it's a little more complex. When I was in high school,
Speaker 4: I actually bought chess magazines. Yes, and I would play
Speaker 4: some of the great matches. Really, but this is what
Speaker 4: I concluded in high school. He's already not happy. I
Speaker 4: concluded the following. The amount of brain effort it is
Speaker 4: taking me to play this game. I could probably learn
Speaker 4: Japanese and Chinese during that time, and somehow or other,
Speaker 4: I think that knowing Japanese or Chinese will bring me
Speaker 4: greater use in the in the in the mission that
Speaker 4: I have for my life than mastering the Sicilian in defense.
Speaker 2: Okay, but one day we have to play, because I
Speaker 2: must add you to my to my expensive, to.
Speaker 4: Your expansive list of those you've defeated. I assure you
Speaker 4: that I will be on that list. Oh, there is
Speaker 4: no question. However I do beat my eleven year old.
Speaker 2: Well that's well, that's good, and I actually I use
Speaker 2: a Reagan esque attack on people that tends to shake
Speaker 2: him up.
Speaker 4: Is that a new move in chess, the reagan esque offense.
Speaker 2: Well, actually, it's something I came up with during his
Speaker 2: deployment of the persing Nissiles in Europe.
Speaker 4: I see, I like that John's Reagan pershing defense. I
Speaker 4: like that. Well, if you want to write it up, John,
Speaker 4: send it to me. I'll play it on my board. Ones.
Speaker 4: All right, sounds like a woman. You're a great guy.
Speaker 4: Thanks a million.
Speaker 2: You're welcome a million.
Speaker 4: Hye bye bye. No, that is I gave. I gave
Speaker 4: it to totally level with him. I actually wanted a
Speaker 4: master chess, and I am asked. I know I could
Speaker 4: never master it, but I mean, really, you know, be
Speaker 4: good at it. So I would play these games, and
Speaker 4: then after I devoted all that energy to figuring out
Speaker 4: why the bishop went to Kingsrook six or whatever it was,
Speaker 4: and I think, well, what did I accomplish here? It's
Speaker 4: a game now, it's good to do. It sharpens the
Speaker 4: mind and all that, and I have nothing. Let me
Speaker 4: say something to be clear, there are a lot of
Speaker 4: things I don't do, but I deeply respect those who
Speaker 4: do it. The fact that I don't do it is
Speaker 4: not a reflection on my belief that it is not worthwhile.
Speaker 4: I mean, I fully acknowledge that I don't get into poetry,
Speaker 4: but I at the same time know it's my lack.
Speaker 4: It's my fault. Poetry is great, Dennis isn't for not
Speaker 4: loving it. I acknowledge that. So I don't walk around
Speaker 4: thinking because I don't play chess, Chess is not worth playing.
Speaker 4: For what I wanted to use my brain matter for.
Speaker 4: I preferred to learn and I didn't learn Japanese or Chinese,
Speaker 4: but I learned Russian, and in high school I started
Speaker 4: teaching it to myself. So the time that I would
Speaker 4: have learned, as I said, you know, a greater defense
Speaker 4: or some you know, was it the roy Blast tactics?
Speaker 4: You know, I used to know a lot of them.
Speaker 4: I could have learned a language. And as it turned
Speaker 4: out in life, knowing the languages that I've learned has
Speaker 4: has been a great, massive blessing in my life, not
Speaker 4: to mention, in my single days, a great vehicle to
Speaker 4: social success. Okay, we'll leave that point there for now,
Speaker 4: But that was that was true.
Speaker 1: This episode of timeless Wisdom will continue.
Speaker 4: Right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to more of Dennis Prager's timeless wisdom.
Speaker 4: All right, let's go to more of your calls, Walnut, California. Jerry,
Speaker 4: Dennis Praguer, Hello, Jerry.
Speaker 9: Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening.
Speaker 4: Yes, sir, yes, sir.
Speaker 9: My question for years, why does a symphony need a conductor?
Speaker 9: I understand the music's already written down, the musicians know
Speaker 9: their parts. Why do we need the conductor up there?
Speaker 4: Well, as it happens, on certain pieces, you don't really
Speaker 4: need a conductor. There are, in fact conductor less orchestras. Yeah,
Speaker 4: they do exist. But having conducted myself and lived a
Speaker 4: lifetime with music, first of all, there's somebody needs somebody,
Speaker 4: even if it's the first violinist has to set the tempo.
Speaker 4: I mean, how many how fast will we do the
Speaker 4: beats to the measure? Will it be one, two, three
Speaker 4: four or one and two and three and four? Somebody
Speaker 4: has to keep the beat.
Speaker 9: You're not saying that a conductor is a glorified.
Speaker 4: No, of course not. No, he's not a glorified metronome.
Speaker 4: But well he is in one sense that there is
Speaker 4: a lot of glory. And now let me tell you
Speaker 4: the glory part. The glory part, aside from the fame
Speaker 4: and stuff, is that, for example, I remember, I mean,
Speaker 4: and I'm hardly I'm I'm not even in the realm
Speaker 4: of the great conductors, but I at least I know
Speaker 4: some of the things that they have to do. For example,
Speaker 4: when I conducted a local orchestra in southern California, I
Speaker 4: would say, you know what, in this measure, can I
Speaker 4: please hear the horns a little more loudly? I like
Speaker 4: the theme in the horns, so violins, please please subdue
Speaker 4: it a little bit, would you? Then there is the
Speaker 4: emotion I want to extract out of the orchestra the
Speaker 4: most passionate playing that they can have. And so that
Speaker 4: is fifty percent or more. Of what a conductor really
Speaker 4: does is bring out the best from the musicians that
Speaker 4: they care about the piece, that they're not just going
Speaker 4: through the motions. That's the biggest, single thing. That's why
Speaker 4: some conductors are greater than others. They can all keep
Speaker 4: the beat, but some I remember the greatest compliment I
Speaker 4: ever received, because there's so much more that professional conductors
Speaker 4: know that I do. But the orchestras that I worked
Speaker 4: with said to me, you know what, you got the
Speaker 4: folks to play their best because it was so clear
Speaker 4: how much I loved the music and cared about it,
Speaker 4: how it wasn't me as an egotist, but in service
Speaker 4: of Heiden or Mozart or Tchaikowsky and whatever it was.
Speaker 4: And that's what a leader does. You bring out the
Speaker 4: best from those those that are following you. So there
Speaker 4: is a huge amount that a conductor does, and to
Speaker 4: the extent that I could tell Jerry often within two
Speaker 4: minutes of a piece, is this a great conductor or not?
Speaker 4: In fact, that's my favorite thing to do, is to
Speaker 4: hear a piece, not knowing the conductor and then say
Speaker 4: whether I liked it or not, great question. That's exactly
Speaker 4: what I like. Alrighty, let's go to some more of
Speaker 4: your calls, whatever it might be. On Chris in Los
Speaker 4: Angeles on eight seventy Carol like Dennis Prager.
Speaker 10: Hello, I love to hear your talk. Dennis.
Speaker 4: Thank you. It's a good thing because if you didn't,
Speaker 4: I'd be out of a job.
Speaker 7: True.
Speaker 10: Before I ask my question, I wanted to tell you
Speaker 10: months ago you talked to somebody by the name of
Speaker 10: Sergei who is from Russia, and you said that Russian
Speaker 10: was your favorite accent mine too.
Speaker 4: It is the best. It is absolutely the best. There
Speaker 4: is nothing that is not close to Russian.
Speaker 10: They don't have a word for a and or the,
Speaker 10: so I go to a store.
Speaker 4: That's right, they don't. That's correct. But you know what
Speaker 4: a lot of languages don't. Hebrew doesn't either. Okay, no, No,
Speaker 4: Hebrew has the it doesn't have a. It has the,
Speaker 4: but not a and. That's true. Russian doesn't have V
Speaker 4: or A. That is an interesting point, right, Okay, go.
Speaker 5: Ahead my question.
Speaker 10: I have a friend who has a bought a Saint Bernard.
Speaker 10: She named her Hannah said the name is built the
Speaker 10: same forward r H A N N H right, and
Speaker 10: what is the word that what your your vocabulary is
Speaker 10: so good.
Speaker 4: Yeah. The word for a word that is the same
Speaker 4: backwards and forwards is palindrome.
Speaker 8: P A L I N D O M E palandrome.
Speaker 10: Yes, thank you, thank you very much.
Speaker 4: Now wait before you hang up, I will give you
Speaker 4: a whole sentence. That's a palindromes. Madam, I'm adam, all right, okay,
Speaker 4: it's clearly boulder away it boulder over. It is clear.
Speaker 4: That was about as unexcited irresponse as I have ever received.
Speaker 4: With the build up that I gave, I have to
Speaker 4: there was a humbling moment for me. I thank you
Speaker 4: because I can use it as I guess a lot
Speaker 4: of people can. Riverside, California is another great one. KR.
Speaker 4: Let's see Caro LH Or is that k Ti? It's
Speaker 4: k THI yeah, k Ti of course. Hi Terry, Hi.
Speaker 11: Dennis, just wondering what is what are your feelings? Or
Speaker 11: better yet, have you studied the ancient practice of astrology?
Speaker 4: This is gonna bother half my listeners. I do not
Speaker 4: dump on astrology. I do not live by it. I
Speaker 4: do not tend to consult it. But I have read
Speaker 4: about it, and I do not utterly dismiss it, and
Speaker 4: I do not believe that it takes away from God's
Speaker 4: governance of the universe. To believe that it may be true.
Speaker 4: I'm agnostic on astrology. I am not a rejector of
Speaker 4: its possibilities, and I believe that it is wrong to
Speaker 4: say that it takes away from God's governance of the universe.
Speaker 4: In fact, to me, if there really is an influence
Speaker 4: of the constellations, because of what constellation I was born under,
Speaker 4: that argues for there being a transcendent God to begin
Speaker 4: with that, because not everything is then explainable just by
Speaker 4: you know, genes and environment. So I don't have a problem.
Speaker 4: I find the stuff. I find it interesting, but you know,
Speaker 4: but it will not compel the way I live my life, right,
Speaker 4: and I.
Speaker 11: Don't see it as evil as some people. You can
Speaker 11: see anything as evil.
Speaker 4: That's correct, and anything could be used for read's that's
Speaker 4: well said. And did I surprise.
Speaker 7: You you did?
Speaker 4: Yeah? I thought so, I thought.
Speaker 11: Yeah, But I'm very happy with you with your opinion.
Speaker 11: Your opinions, Well.
Speaker 4: That's very sweet, Terry. I'm delighted to hear from you.
Speaker 4: We are to do an hour on astrology. We really should,
Speaker 4: because I'd like to answer some of the objections that
Speaker 4: I think and that I respect, but I don't agree with.
Speaker 4: We'll be back in a moment.
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 4: All right, everybody, this is Dennis Prager, and this is
Speaker 4: the hour that you set the agenda. Let's go to
Speaker 4: as many calls as possible. We'll go back to Ottawa
Speaker 4: now and Howard Dennis Prager.
Speaker 6: High, Oh, I'm back. Yes, here's my other question. I'm
Speaker 6: I'm an agnostic Jew. I would like to I would
Speaker 6: like to believe in God, but I can't help thinking
Speaker 6: when I look at the tore laws, not the not
Speaker 6: the sanctification laws about you know, don't mix wool and linen,
Speaker 6: I mean the laws of men to men, like don't murder,
Speaker 6: don't steal, and so on, I can't help thinking. Look,
Speaker 6: couldn't it have been that some wise sage or sages
Speaker 6: of the past just looked at the world and said,
Speaker 6: you know, if I steal, even if I can get
Speaker 6: away with it, what if everyone did that, society will
Speaker 6: will decay? And they recognized from reason that that it
Speaker 6: doesn't make sense to steal, and why.
Speaker 4: Didn't people recognize from reason that it was wrong to
Speaker 4: sacrifice their children? It was universal till the Torah came along.
Speaker 6: Perhaps I don't know, Maybe maybe it was universal, Maybe
Speaker 6: it wasn't it was.
Speaker 4: It was it was trust me, I mean, if I'm
Speaker 4: not going to lie to you, it was every in
Speaker 4: every ancient society that we have throughout the world. There was.
Speaker 4: So that's a good example of obviously reason didn't lead.
Speaker 4: And I have a chapter in my first book, the
Speaker 4: book Got I wrote on Judaism, the nine questions people
Speaker 4: ask about Judaism exactly on why reason is not sufficient?
Speaker 4: And I'll give you one example, And since you're a Jew,
Speaker 4: I think it'll strike you as particularly strong. There was
Speaker 4: no rational reason for a non Jew to save a
Speaker 4: Jew during the Holocaust in Europe. Reason alone would have
Speaker 4: suggested not to risk one's life for a total stranger.
Speaker 4: And it took the risking of a life to save
Speaker 4: a Jew in the Holocaust. If the Nazis found you
Speaker 4: hiding a Jew, they killed you. Now, why is it rational?
Speaker 4: And the people who did it? And I have studied,
Speaker 4: I've read every book on survivors that I know exists,
Speaker 4: not on survivors, on rescuers. Not one ever gave the
Speaker 4: answer why did you do it? Well, that was the
Speaker 4: rational thing to do. It was the right thing, It
Speaker 4: was the good thing, it was the religious thing. I
Speaker 4: thought I was doing what God wants, whatever it was,
Speaker 4: but it wasn't reason. Reason doesn't tell a kid who
Speaker 4: is in a classroom where ninety percent of the kids
Speaker 4: are cheating on tests not to cheat. There's no great
Speaker 4: rational reason when everybody else is cheating for you not
Speaker 4: to cheat. There are moral reasons, the reasons of character.
Speaker 4: They are a whole host of reasons. Oh God, I
Speaker 4: would love to spend a lot of time talking about
Speaker 4: this with you. Howard it is. But I'll tell you
Speaker 4: I've written and I've given talks on exactly these issues,
Speaker 4: and only because they're not free, I feel funny recommending
Speaker 4: them to you. But God, I beg you to avail
Speaker 4: yourself with some of that stuff. Thank you for your.
Speaker 1: Call tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 4: This is the Ultimate Issues Hour. Every week, this hour
Speaker 4: is devoted to some great issue of life. It is
Speaker 4: an extremely important subject. Hence it qualifies for the Ultimate
Speaker 4: Issues Hour. So what is it? Political correctness is? And
Speaker 4: I'm giving my own understanding of it. If you have
Speaker 4: a different one, you are certainly welcome to offer it.
Speaker 4: But it is essentially the inability to state certain things,
Speaker 4: certain truths. See, that's the key thing here, certain truths
Speaker 4: because they may offend certain people or certain groups or
Speaker 4: there are two elements to political correctness. It might be
Speaker 4: deemed offensive by some members of some groups. And the
Speaker 4: other definition is it might be painful for some people
Speaker 4: to recognize. There are two separate categories. They may be related.
Speaker 4: One is hurtful, the other is or offensive if you will,
Speaker 4: and the other is just painful. And I will give
Speaker 4: you examples. Please understand that political correctness must entirely be
Speaker 4: a matter of truth that can't be said. Lies that
Speaker 4: are offensive, lies that are painful, can't be said not
Speaker 4: because they're offensive, not because they're painful, but because they're lies.
Speaker 4: All right. That's the issue here, and that is instrumental
Speaker 4: to the whole discussion. It's going to be a difficult
Speaker 4: hour to do because by definition I am going to
Speaker 4: offend certain sensibilities. My intent, let me say, at the
Speaker 4: outset is zero to offend. Why would I want to
Speaker 4: do that. It's pointless, it is, It just increases tension.
Speaker 4: I have no desire for it, not the way I
Speaker 4: conduct my life or my show. But it is inevitable
Speaker 4: to talk about political correctness that if you give examples,
Speaker 4: somebody who is politically correct will be offended. So let
Speaker 4: me tell you in advance, that is the last thing
Speaker 4: I wish to do. I gave an example. We talked
Speaker 4: about this once when I spoke about stereotypes. So the
Speaker 4: issue about there are two issues about stereotypes, not whether
Speaker 4: they're offensive, whether they are true, and whether you apply
Speaker 4: it to every member of that group. All right, that's
Speaker 4: the question. And number one is it true? And number
Speaker 4: two is the general Is the generalization true? But number two,
Speaker 4: do you apply it to every member of the group.
Speaker 4: That's totally wrong. That's totally wrong. That's the reason you
Speaker 4: can live with stereotypes and not be a bigot. You
Speaker 4: can say in ja general X or Y about a group,
Speaker 4: but that doesn't mean that every time I meet a
Speaker 4: member of that group that applies. That's everyone is an individual.
Speaker 1: Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with
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