Speaker 1: Life audio of today's episode of Timeless Wisdom.
Speaker 2: Why do people do bad?
Speaker 3: My personal belief is that the ultimate downfall of man
Speaker 3: individual or as a group is pride. And I think
Speaker 3: it goes back to what you were talking about before
Speaker 3: with the people that were in charge of the gangs.
Speaker 3: How they were so full of themselves, they had the
Speaker 3: best self esteem. I think it goes back to pride. Caesar,
Speaker 3: look at what he did, and most prideful man I
Speaker 3: think we ever had on this planet.
Speaker 4: Well, there's competition for that title, Megan, But so by
Speaker 4: pride meaning what filled with oneself?
Speaker 3: Yes, I think a total egotism. But then I think
Speaker 3: pride can be this big swirling depth. You know, as
Speaker 3: somebody that has roadbrake, maybe you know pride. How did
Speaker 3: that person cut me off or not signal or something.
Speaker 3: I think that's why people rape and murder and everything.
Speaker 3: It all comes back to pride.
Speaker 1: That's coming up on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of hours
Speaker 1: of Dennis's lectures, courses in classic radio programs, and to
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Speaker 4: All right, everybody, you're listening to the Dennis Prager Show.
Speaker 4: Let's crank it up there, Sean, this is the Ultimate
Speaker 4: Issues Hour. This is the hour devoted to the great
Speaker 4: questions of life. I have an hour each week on
Speaker 4: Friday devoted to the question of happiness. And this is
Speaker 4: to the great questions of life. Hi, everybody, the Ultimate
Speaker 4: Issue is hour. Here we are, I'm Dennis Prager.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Sean.
Speaker 4: The question today and this is really ultimate and ultimate question,
Speaker 4: an ultimate issue. Why do people do bad? And let
Speaker 4: me let me answer because a lot of you are
Speaker 4: already don't call in. Don't call in yet. Please don't
Speaker 4: know they're already calling in. Don't call it yet. Don't
Speaker 4: call it. Wait till I wait till I define bad.
Speaker 4: And let me tell you what I what I'm I'm
Speaker 4: asking about it because I want to be very precise
Speaker 4: or this thing will go all over the place. I
Speaker 4: I want to focus in like a laser on the
Speaker 4: question that I'm talking about. When I mean bad, I
Speaker 4: mean bad toward fellow human beings. I'm not talking about
Speaker 4: sin against God. Although everybody who believes in religion in
Speaker 4: any sophisticated sense knows that when you heard the human
Speaker 4: you were, you are sinning against God.
Speaker 2: But that's not my point.
Speaker 4: I'm talking when I say evil or bad, I'm talking
Speaker 4: about bad toward another human. And this is this subject
Speaker 4: is as much addressed to secular people as to religious people.
Speaker 4: It's not a religious question. And per se, you may
Speaker 4: have a religious answer. That's fine, that's your prerogative. But
Speaker 4: my question is why do people do bad things to others?
Speaker 4: And and I mean really bad things, whether it's blowing
Speaker 4: up a children and or people on on buses, or
Speaker 4: or wars of aggression to conquer, to conquer and enslave people,
Speaker 4: whether it is it is racism where you believe people
Speaker 4: of another group are are inferior, or or in daily
Speaker 4: life when now, when you when you cheat on a test,
Speaker 4: that's a bad thing. We'll call it evil. I'll call
Speaker 4: it bad. Bad is lesser than evil. That's how I'm
Speaker 4: using the term here. Why do people do bad things
Speaker 4: to other peoples deliberately hurt other people?
Speaker 2: Why? I'd like to offer you.
Speaker 4: Some some answers, And incidentally, I need to tell you
Speaker 4: that we're going to have an hour on why do
Speaker 4: people do good? Alan, if you'll put that down, I
Speaker 4: think the question of why do people do good is
Speaker 4: at least as complex as the question why do people
Speaker 4: do bad? People think that it's natural to do good,
Speaker 4: but folks, it is natural to do bad. It is
Speaker 4: more natural to cheat than to be honest. It is
Speaker 4: more natural to lie when it serves your purposes than
Speaker 4: to tell the truth. So, folks, it's the question of
Speaker 4: why do people do good? Is a very very real one.
Speaker 4: But I'm dealing this hour with the question that more
Speaker 4: people ask why more people ask why do.
Speaker 2: People do bad?
Speaker 4: Is a very interesting one, but that I'll put aside
Speaker 4: as well right now, because we discussed that issue on
Speaker 4: one of the ultimate issues hours, and that was the
Speaker 4: question of our people basically good, And of course I
Speaker 4: don't believe are basically good. I believe that we have
Speaker 4: good tendencies and bad tendencies, and it's very hard to
Speaker 4: vanquish the bad tendency. So let me begin my answer
Speaker 4: about why people do bad, and please hear me out,
Speaker 4: because the issue isn't to get everybody's opinion to be
Speaker 4: perfectly honest, and forgive me for even saying that that
Speaker 4: is not It is to try to clarify great issues.
Speaker 4: That's the purpose here. So I'd like you to react
Speaker 4: to what I'm saying. And if you have something else
Speaker 4: to say, of course it's welcome. But I need you
Speaker 4: to hear me in this case first. So don't call
Speaker 4: in yet, because I haven't even told you one answer,
Speaker 4: except that it's easier to do bad often than it
Speaker 4: is to do good, all right, In answering this question.
Speaker 4: In answering this question, I divide, as I so often do,
Speaker 4: between the macro and the micro, the personal and the societal,
Speaker 4: if you will, or the social. There are two. There
Speaker 4: are two authors of evil, the individual and the society,
Speaker 4: or if you will, in the In the societal, there
Speaker 4: is what I would call ideological reasons for evil. Let
Speaker 4: me tell you something. There is more evil done or
Speaker 4: certainly in the in the last hundred years, there has
Speaker 4: been far more evil done for ideological reasons than because
Speaker 4: of peoples, than because of people's sadism or cruelty. See
Speaker 4: when you hear about a kid, a child who's kidnapped
Speaker 4: and raped and and strangled, that's an active evil. Every
Speaker 4: I think everybody listening knows that that is an active evil.
Speaker 2: But those are relatively rare.
Speaker 4: The vast majority of real evil that has been done
Speaker 4: since the twentieth century began, at least, has been done
Speaker 4: for ideological reasons. When the Nazis did what they did,
Speaker 4: and the Communists did what they did, and the and
Speaker 4: the Islamic totalitarians jihadists do what they do, it's out
Speaker 4: of ideological reasons. There was torture in the name of
Speaker 4: the Nazi state, torture in the name of communist liberation,
Speaker 4: and torture in the name of Islam. I'm not here
Speaker 4: to argue whether that is real Islam, that is what
Speaker 4: that is the name they gave it. Would they would
Speaker 4: invoke Islam and then torture people. I am not indicting
Speaker 4: all of Islam, and it is not the subject whatsoever.
Speaker 4: My point here is solely that there is ideological evil,
Speaker 4: and then there is character and psychological evil. Now I
Speaker 4: am clear on this, and I need to convey it clearly.
Speaker 4: The two sources, the two big sources of evil are
Speaker 4: individual character slash psychology and social justification. Social justification comes
Speaker 4: from ideological evil, and that's worse because the people doing
Speaker 4: it think they're doing good. The Nazis thought they were
Speaker 4: doing good the Communists thought they were doing good, and
Speaker 4: the Islamic torturers think they're doing good. That is what
Speaker 4: you need to understand. These people think it's good. That's
Speaker 4: why it's Ideological evil is more frightening than individual evil
Speaker 4: because individual evil is done by people with sick character.
Speaker 4: There's six psyches or six psyches, not necessarily both, but
Speaker 4: and they are relatively rare. I mean, how many people
Speaker 4: are kidnapped and murdered. Now you have a fair amount
Speaker 4: of it. I mean gang violence. That's individual, that's not ideological,
Speaker 4: that is individual. These are human beings with no self restraint,
Speaker 4: who live the laws of a of a if you will,
Speaker 4: a moral jungle. That still is relatively rare compared to
Speaker 4: ideological evil. The number of people killed by Nazis and
Speaker 4: Communists in the twentieth century we approached one hundred million,
Speaker 4: actually exceeded one hundred million, and there people often thought
Speaker 4: they're doing good. I am advancing the proletariats revolution, I'm
Speaker 4: advancing a world of equality.
Speaker 2: You know what Lenin's.
Speaker 4: Phrase was for how he justified murdering non communists, murdering landowners,
Speaker 4: murdering people who did who engaged in business. You in
Speaker 4: order to make omelets, you have to break eggs, or
Speaker 4: he put it the other way to you have to
Speaker 4: break eggs to make omelets. See, so we're making beautiful omelets,
Speaker 4: so of course we're going to have to break some heads.
Speaker 4: And so that was the understanding because of the beautiful
Speaker 4: omelet that communism would be making. So you kill some
Speaker 4: and in the case of Stalin, who went to between
Speaker 4: twenty and forty million, you killed. But after all, you
Speaker 4: make a beautiful omelet. Of course, the irony is that
Speaker 4: the beautiful omelet was didn't exist either. They broke eggs
Speaker 4: in order to break eggs, and all they had was
Speaker 4: broken eggs. There are two sources then, for evil, bad
Speaker 4: ideology and bad character, or bad character and bad psychology both.
Speaker 4: I will talk about the bad character of bad psychology.
Speaker 4: And now I'll take your calls. One eighth Prager seven
Speaker 4: seven six. That's eight seven seven two four three triple
Speaker 4: seven six eight seven seven two four to three triple
Speaker 4: seven six. This is the ultimate Issues hour on the
Speaker 4: Dennis Prager Show. Why do People Do Bad Things?
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, Dennis Prager here, this is the Ultimate
Speaker 4: Issues Hour, the Hour on the Great Questions of Life,
Speaker 4: every Tuesday at this hour. I have this subject today
Speaker 4: is why do people do bad things? I mean really
Speaker 4: bad things. I don't mean little bad things, although little
Speaker 4: bad things. In other words, as an example, why do people,
Speaker 4: for example, why will they park diagonally and take up
Speaker 4: to parking spots. I mean, you know, that's bad, that's
Speaker 4: not evil, but it is part of a continuum. Now
Speaker 4: I'm not saying that somebody who does that is going
Speaker 4: to be a torturer, but it's part.
Speaker 2: It's part of a continuum.
Speaker 4: And remember that what I have done here is I've
Speaker 4: divided between ideological evil Nazism, evil done in the name
Speaker 4: of religion, communism, where you have an ideological justification to
Speaker 4: not only do evil, but to think you're right when
Speaker 4: you do it, versus individual evil stealing, murder, et cetera,
Speaker 4: that you will do individually, and that emanates from character
Speaker 4: flaws and psychopathology. Now, I don't believe that evil is sick.
Speaker 4: Evil may in fact be. It's a very difficult question.
Speaker 4: Is evil is all evil sick? Can of psychologically healthy
Speaker 4: person commit evil, and in my opinion, the answer is yes,
Speaker 4: my opinion, in fact, I'm certain of it. Not everybody
Speaker 4: who does evil is sick, and not every sick person
Speaker 4: does evil, but sometimes psychopathology causes you to do bad things.
Speaker 4: All righty, let's see what you have to say, folks
Speaker 4: in light of what I have just said. One eight
Speaker 4: Praguer seven seven six and we go to Cleveland and Charles, Hello,
Speaker 4: Charles Dennis Prager.
Speaker 5: Well, thank you, Dennis. I'm looking for the next time
Speaker 5: you come to Cleveland on the will D. But yeah,
Speaker 5: I think there's only one root cause, and it's the
Speaker 5: It's the failure to put uh any restraints on impulses,
Speaker 5: and it's the nationalization for that. I treated sexual offenders
Speaker 5: for five years. I've you know, I've been acting politically
Speaker 5: and and and like you love love history and in
Speaker 5: each case, and you're right, they don't have to be
Speaker 5: as sick of the sense of being, you know, some
Speaker 5: kind of you know, psychiat psychiatic disorder. Kids learned that
Speaker 5: on a micro level. Kids learn that they can get
Speaker 5: away with things, and they do it, and they develop
Speaker 5: an ideology that says, uh, there the world is divided
Speaker 5: into smart people and suckers, and on the macro level,
Speaker 5: people learn that we can achieve certain things, and they have.
Speaker 5: They have different nationalizations, but the core behaviors isn't that different.
Speaker 5: Stylent isn't that different from a gang leader, as a
Speaker 5: matter of fact. But in the study of so called
Speaker 5: self esteem, the highest feeling in the kids country of
Speaker 5: the that's.
Speaker 2: Right, that's right. That is so good.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Charles, and I'll be announcing when I come
Speaker 4: to Cleveland, I will be that is exactly right. I
Speaker 4: had a number of people on my show over the
Speaker 4: course of years who noted, and I've always believed that,
Speaker 4: but I had scholars who work in this field say it,
Speaker 4: and perhaps it would give it more authority than my
Speaker 4: theorizing about it that a lot of bad people have
Speaker 4: very high self esteem. This notion you give kids high
Speaker 4: self esteem and you will therefore be well on your
Speaker 4: way to stopping anti social behavior is nonsense. A lot
Speaker 4: of criminals have extremely high self esteem. That's why they
Speaker 4: think they can do what they do to other people.
Speaker 4: I am so terrific. I think so highly of myself
Speaker 4: that I can rob a bank. You suckers out there,
Speaker 4: you play by the rules, but not me. Ha ha,
Speaker 4: I take what I want. So the battle against bad
Speaker 4: is huge because it's so it's so easy to do it.
Speaker 4: It's so easy and so tempting. I remember the difficulty
Speaker 4: I had telling young kids that you can't download music
Speaker 4: that you didn't pay for.
Speaker 2: Why not?
Speaker 4: Everybody does it? Everybody does it. That ends the issue.
Speaker 4: Everybody does it. The roots of bad are are so enormous,
Speaker 4: but I have really divided them into two categories ideological
Speaker 4: evil and personal evil, or personal bad and under personal.
Speaker 4: I have psychological reasons and character flaw reasons, chieving, lying,
Speaker 4: stealing for personal gain, murder for personal gain. See the
Speaker 4: movie Crimes and Misdemeanors. Despite the fact that it was
Speaker 4: made by Woody Allen, is one of the most brilliant
Speaker 4: moral films ever made, if not the most brilliant. One
Speaker 4: eighth Praguer seven seven six, and we go to Henry
Speaker 4: with the opposite view. Hello Henry, Los Angeles, Dennis Prager, high, Hey,
Speaker 4: good morning.
Speaker 6: All right, Well my opinion is it is self loathing.
Speaker 6: I mean, you take the dictators of the world, Adolf Hitler, Mussolini, Stone,
Speaker 6: they were all very short men with horrible families. I
Speaker 6: mean these guys, they were consistently picked on and they
Speaker 6: kind of flash back. And a lot of times people
Speaker 6: reason people do things is that they feel alienated and
Speaker 6: they want they need something attention or something that don't
Speaker 6: make them feel good. Like the crook that does steal,
Speaker 6: he steals it because it makes them feel like, hey, man,
Speaker 6: I robbed the bank. Hey I'm pretty badass. I'm sorry
Speaker 6: I shouldn't surround the radio. Sorry about that, Craiger, I'm
Speaker 6: sorry about that. But a lot of guys feel that
Speaker 6: they have to go out of the way to make themselves,
Speaker 6: you know, have a feeling of self worth. Also, people
Speaker 6: who talk people are hurt or torture people are something
Speaker 6: from a pain inside.
Speaker 4: Well yeah, no, I'm listening. I heard every word. Why
Speaker 4: do you say then to the argument that was just
Speaker 4: offered by Charles, which I supported that a lot. That
Speaker 4: when they ever they do assessments of gang leaders and
Speaker 4: a lot of the worst people in society, they have
Speaker 4: high self esteem.
Speaker 6: Well they seem to be have high self esteem because
Speaker 6: but they went out and did that because they had
Speaker 6: now self esteem.
Speaker 2: Well no, maybe they did it.
Speaker 4: Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait, maybe they did
Speaker 4: it because they have such high self esteem, they don't
Speaker 4: think that the rules that apply to suckers like you
Speaker 4: and me apply to them.
Speaker 2: Uber mentioned.
Speaker 4: You see, you know what this is why, this is
Speaker 4: why you could make the argument this self. That's why
Speaker 4: I never attributed to the self esteem notion quite these
Speaker 4: moral significance. It's good to have self esteem and it's
Speaker 4: also to have a good dose of self doubt.
Speaker 2: Both are good.
Speaker 4: So it's some of the best people I know suffer
Speaker 4: from self esteem problems. So it's a tough call on
Speaker 4: self esteem. But yes, I think that there is something
Speaker 4: to what you say. But the idea that you know
Speaker 4: Stalin was mistreated as a youth, I don't recall that
Speaker 4: he may have been. I don't recall that. I've read
Speaker 4: a number of biographies about him, but I never took
Speaker 4: particular interest in his childhood. I don't even know if
Speaker 4: we know much about his childhood. And with Hitler, I
Speaker 4: mean he was the loss of his mother. I don't
Speaker 4: know as if if he was raised well with poor
Speaker 4: with poor self esteem, or or hurt by his parents.
Speaker 4: I don't he was hurt by the death of his mother,
Speaker 4: whom he loved. But you know the number of people
Speaker 4: who lost their parents in history at an early age
Speaker 4: is so large, and none of them ended up advocating
Speaker 4: a genocide. We continue, why do people do bad things?
Speaker 2: Have a whole host.
Speaker 4: Of different thoughts from around the country. But again I've
Speaker 4: given you my to the ideological. That's why that's the
Speaker 4: one I fight the most. We'll be back in a moment.
Speaker 4: 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 4: You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show. This is the
Speaker 4: Ultimate Issues Hour. Every week at this time, I devote
Speaker 4: an hour to the great questions of life? Why do
Speaker 4: people do bad things? And I'm not asking why do
Speaker 4: people sin? That's a theological question and that's not my question.
Speaker 4: Now bad is sinful, but that's a separate issue. But
Speaker 4: why do people hurt other people? Why do they do
Speaker 4: bad things? Whether it is little bad things like a
Speaker 4: cheating on a test or huge bad things like murdering
Speaker 4: innocent people. But why do people do bad? And why
Speaker 4: do people do evil? And there's a gradation that from
Speaker 4: bad to evil? Obviously, I mean that's the way I'm
Speaker 4: using them. These are not scientific terms. I don't mean
Speaker 4: them to be, but they are helpful for the question
Speaker 4: that I am posing. I consider it a riddle, by
Speaker 4: the way, about why do people do good things? And incidentally,
Speaker 4: the answer to why people do good things is the
Speaker 4: same as to why people do bad things. But we'll
Speaker 4: have a separate.
Speaker 2: Hour on that.
Speaker 4: But remember I'm dividing between ideological evil and personal evil.
Speaker 4: Doing evil and for because an ideology told you to
Speaker 4: do so. Nazis were told it's a good it's a
Speaker 4: good thing to to kill Jews. And let's see those
Speaker 4: who those who enslave blacks were told it's a good thing.
Speaker 2: People need slaves.
Speaker 4: Blacks are not fully human anyway, so you can do that.
Speaker 4: That's ideological evil. That's why you could have people who
Speaker 4: after a day, you could have Nazis, after a day
Speaker 4: of guessing Jewish families go back to their family and
Speaker 4: and and talk to you know, play with their kids.
Speaker 4: And and that's why you could have had people who
Speaker 4: engage in the slave trade and watch watch the suffering
Speaker 4: on the on the Transatlantic crossing, and then and then
Speaker 4: have h then go back to their families after their
Speaker 4: after their crews. That's ideological evil. That's where the human being,
Speaker 4: his conscience is perverted. That's the most dangerous because it's
Speaker 4: it's well, it's the most dangerous because it happens on
Speaker 4: the largest level of numbers. That's where you have basically
Speaker 4: decent people taught that bad is good. We have that
Speaker 4: today with with people who murder in the name of Islam.
Speaker 4: They think they're doing good. It'll usher in a full
Speaker 4: period where the world will be ruled by Shariah. They
Speaker 4: they think they're doing good. Then there is individual evil,
Speaker 4: and sometimes they're together where the ideology reinforces your psychopathology.
Speaker 4: But there was individual where it's just weak character and
Speaker 4: a and a broken psychology, a broken psyche. One eighth
Speaker 4: Praguer seven seven six. We go to Dallas, and in Dallas,
Speaker 4: it's Megan. Hello, Meghan, Dennis Prager.
Speaker 3: Hi, Dennis, pleasure to speak with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Is it Megan or Megan?
Speaker 3: It's Meghan? Actually, Okay.
Speaker 4: I always like to know, Okay.
Speaker 3: I My personal belief is that the ultimate downfall of
Speaker 3: man individual or a group is pride. And I think
Speaker 3: it goes back to what you're talking about before with
Speaker 3: the people that were in charge of the gangs. How
Speaker 3: they were so full of themselves, they had the best
Speaker 3: self esteem. I think it goes back to pride. Look
Speaker 3: at what he did and most prideful man I think
Speaker 3: we ever had on this planet.
Speaker 4: Well, there's competition for that title, Megan. But but so
Speaker 4: by pride meaning what filled with oneself?
Speaker 3: Yes, I think total egotism. But then I think pride
Speaker 3: can be this big swirling depth. You know, as somebody
Speaker 3: that has road rake maybe you know pride. How did
Speaker 3: that person cut me off or not signal or something.
Speaker 3: I think that's why people rape and murder and everything.
Speaker 3: It all comes back.
Speaker 4: To pride, so which is related to the notion of
Speaker 4: the high self esteem in bad people. Absolutely, Okay, very good, Megan,
Speaker 4: thanks so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Okay, and let's go to Cypress, California. Darren, Hello, Darren,
Speaker 4: Dennis Praeger.
Speaker 7: Hi, Dennis, a pleasure to speak with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 7: I believe that I haven't developed to the ideolog ideological
Speaker 7: level yet, but I believe that at the micro level,
Speaker 7: it is all related to your ability to sympathize with others,
Speaker 7: and I think that it's instilled at an early childhood stage.
Speaker 4: That's brilliant. That is absolutely right. I wish I had
Speaker 4: noted it. You're absolutely right. Is there empathy or enough
Speaker 4: right and.
Speaker 7: Your ability to develop that early on and how you
Speaker 7: relate to humanity.
Speaker 4: And that is why ideological evil. What it does is
Speaker 4: it breaks down your ability to empathize the other. The
Speaker 4: black can be enslaved, the Jew could be gassed, The
Speaker 4: Tutsi is not real. We'll be back in a moment.
Speaker 4: You're listening to the Dennis Praeger Show.
Speaker 1: Are you enjoying timeless wisdom? We'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: Call eight seven seven two four three seventy seven seventy
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Speaker 2: I'm Dennis Prager. I welcome to you back.
Speaker 4: This is the Ultimate Issues Hour, the hour each week
Speaker 4: devoted to the great questions of life? Why do people
Speaker 4: do bad? The last caller hit on something huge, empathy.
Speaker 4: Some people have it and some people don't. That goes
Speaker 4: under remember my two headings, ideological evil and personal evil
Speaker 4: or personal bad. It's usually more, but both exist and
Speaker 4: under the personal there are psychological reasons. There are people
Speaker 4: who are just so unhealthy that it leads them into
Speaker 4: hurting other people, almost without even realizing it. And there
Speaker 4: are those with simple character flaws. One eighth Prager seven
Speaker 4: seven six What happened to my ah bummer? The guy
Speaker 4: with the with his with his uh expensive car. I
Speaker 4: had a guy calling in who said he's a good guy.
Speaker 4: I guess he thinks a good guy. He takes two
Speaker 4: spaces parking spaces acrosses parks diony because he doesn't want
Speaker 4: his car bumped. And I wish I was, you would
Speaker 4: be it would have been my next call. It's too
Speaker 4: bad and and it's there. There would have been a
Speaker 4: good example. And I appreciated so much your calling. But
Speaker 4: here's a perfect example of the ability to justify what
Speaker 4: is wrong. And that is what we call rationalize, the
Speaker 4: ability to use reason. That's why you can't use reason
Speaker 4: alone to know what is good. Reason is not enough.
Speaker 4: Good is higher than reason. Reason is is necessary but
Speaker 4: not sufficient. The answer if you have an expensive car
Speaker 4: is not to park diagonally. Is either don't get an
Speaker 4: expensive car and therefore hog up two spaces because you
Speaker 4: had the money for an expensive car, or park elsewhere.
Speaker 4: I me, it's just that's really a sense of self esteem.
Speaker 4: You see, there's a perfect example. I have a great car,
Speaker 4: an expensive car, so I unlike you, nothing's out there
Speaker 4: who are driving ford escorts. I with my expensive car
Speaker 4: can take two spaces. But you, you, the wretched of
Speaker 4: the earth, who drive regular cars, you have to take
Speaker 4: one spot. It's too bad you didn't stay on. I
Speaker 4: would have loved to have that discussion with you, folks.
Speaker 4: It is so easy to do bad. It is so
Speaker 4: easy because of the psychological reasons, because you don't even
Speaker 4: know you're doing bad, because of your rationalization of doing bad,
Speaker 4: because of ideological justification of doing bad. That it's it's
Speaker 4: very easy. That's why good is more of a riddle
Speaker 4: to me than bad. It's so easy to do bad.
Speaker 4: One eighth Praguer seven seven six is Reverend Jamie and Parma, Ohio.
Speaker 4: Hello Reverend Jamie.
Speaker 8: Dennis Prager, Hello Dennis, Hi, Hi, you know what, I
Speaker 8: just love listening to your show, and I love your
Speaker 8: ultimate issues. So many times I've wanted to call you
Speaker 8: on the Opman issues. Thank you, thank you, But I
Speaker 8: got your answer to the root and being a reverend.
Speaker 8: This has nothing to do with theology or religion in
Speaker 8: any way. It covers your ideological as well as your
Speaker 8: private or personal evils. The root is selfishness and self centeredness.
Speaker 8: Selfishness and self centeredness is in all its degrees and
Speaker 8: forms and variances. It's very subtle and it can be
Speaker 8: very profound. I mean, you throw, Dennis, throw anything at
Speaker 8: me that you think is an evil or bad or
Speaker 8: the malady of our society, and I will be able
Speaker 8: to show you why it's selfishness or self centeredness. That's
Speaker 8: bottom line.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's a good point. So which is built
Speaker 2: in right right now?
Speaker 8: How far do you want to go with this? Is
Speaker 8: it selfish and self centered to want to breathe? Because
Speaker 8: if I don't breathe, I won't live.
Speaker 2: No, No, here is the question.
Speaker 4: You're a thinker, obviously, here's the question of what is
Speaker 4: selfish or not? I'm in other words, with people starving
Speaker 4: in the world. Am I selfish for buying a house
Speaker 4: rather than living in an apartment.
Speaker 8: Hm, that's I would think at that point we were
Speaker 8: talking about more of an ideological question rather than a
Speaker 8: personal question.
Speaker 2: No, well, it's a moral question. I have the answer.
Speaker 2: I think.
Speaker 4: I think there's nothing wrong in your living in a house,
Speaker 4: and I have a lot of answers for that, and
Speaker 4: I and by the way, you're right, and that's that's
Speaker 4: a great answer.
Speaker 2: That's right. See, selfishness is built in that's why. Uh.
Speaker 4: It's one of the reasons that I believe in good religion.
Speaker 4: And I've always said that well before the problems we
Speaker 4: have with whatever percentage of Muslims we have problems with.
Speaker 4: I've said this for so long. There's bad religion and
Speaker 4: good religion. I've always said I believe in good religion,
Speaker 4: just like I believe in good psychotherapy. There's a lot
Speaker 4: of bad psychotherapy. Most psychotherapy stinks. Most therapists are not competent.
Speaker 4: Every single therapist I've interviewed has said most therapists are
Speaker 4: not competent. But good religion makes people better and bad
Speaker 4: religion makes people worse. But in any event, we need
Speaker 4: good religion because our nature isn't good. We are born selfish,
Speaker 4: We are not born empathetic kids hoard at the party,
Speaker 4: at a birthday party, they hoard those cookies. Half of
Speaker 4: the joy is not only that they'll have all the
Speaker 4: cookies because they can't eat them all. They'll have the
Speaker 4: stomach pumped if they eat them all, is that they're
Speaker 4: depriving the other kids from it. I got more than you.
Speaker 4: Look ahead me. He thank you, Reverend Jamie. That's exactly right.
Speaker 4: By the way, my answer in the question of whether
Speaker 4: it is okay to buy a house and when you
Speaker 4: can live in an apartment, whether it buy a nicer
Speaker 4: car when you could drive a cheaper car, the cheapest car,
Speaker 4: because there are people starving, you should send your money
Speaker 4: to Africa is a It's not going to help the
Speaker 4: people of Africa if you do that, and it's going
Speaker 4: to hurt our country if you don't buy a house,
Speaker 4: because then everybody who builds houses will be unemployed, impoverishing yourself.
Speaker 4: Everyone has to give charity, that's that's obvious. But impover
Speaker 4: giving away your money isn't going isn't going to help.
Speaker 4: And aside, you're not going to work. The human being
Speaker 4: there are almost no human being will work as hard
Speaker 4: when all the money or nearly all the money that
Speaker 4: he earns or she earns is then going to be
Speaker 4: given away or taken away and taxes or given away,
Speaker 4: even even voluntarily. So you see, folks, the battle the
Speaker 4: good is natural. That's what I've been trying my whole life.
Speaker 4: I've talked about this subject well before I had radios lecturing,
Speaker 4: and I would say.
Speaker 2: That's the battle. The battle is with yourself.
Speaker 4: That's the difference between in my opinion, my religious upbringing
Speaker 4: and the secular liberal upbringing. My upbringing said, the biggest
Speaker 4: battle in Dennis Prager's life is Dennis Prager. Today kids
Speaker 4: are taught that the biggest battle in their life is
Speaker 4: global warming, or racism or sexism, in other words, something
Speaker 4: outside of themselves.
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: Why do people do bad?
Speaker 4: That's the subject of this the Ultimate Issues hour, this
Speaker 4: hour of the week, on the great question. If I
Speaker 4: have left you with anything, I hope it is at
Speaker 4: least two things.
Speaker 2: One, how natural bad is.
Speaker 4: The Remember we live in the age of stupidity, emanating
Speaker 4: from the secularization of society and the lack of wisdom
Speaker 4: and the belief that people are basically good. Human nature
Speaker 4: is entirely a mixed bag. There's good and there's a
Speaker 4: lot of bad. Very few people are born empathetic. Very
Speaker 4: few people are born anything but selfish. So hard to
Speaker 4: teach kids, so hard to teach them the right thing
Speaker 4: in so many instances. Why shouldn't I cheat on a test?
Speaker 2: Dad?
Speaker 4: All the other kids do? Why shouldn't I download songs
Speaker 4: I didn't pay for dad? All the other kids do.
Speaker 4: Why shouldn't I X y Z? Why shouldn't I? Why
Speaker 4: shouldn't I? Why shouldn't I? Everybody does? Selfishness is built
Speaker 4: in now. There has to be an level of selfishness.
Speaker 4: You have to take care of yourself. But you all
Speaker 4: know what I mean by that. Linda Philadelphia, Dennis Prager High, Linda, Hi,
Speaker 4: How are you Hi?
Speaker 9: I think it has a lot to do with narcissism,
Speaker 9: both on a personal level and on a global level.
Speaker 9: If you're an extremely narcissistic person, you don't even have
Speaker 9: to stop and consider anyone else. If your religion is narcissistic,
Speaker 9: it only it doesn't need to examine itself.
Speaker 4: Yes, you are. You are one hundred percent right. I've
Speaker 4: dealt with narcissism a lot. I don't mean in my
Speaker 4: personal life, I mean on the show. And you are
Speaker 4: so right. I think we have though, And thank you well, Linda. Jessica,
Speaker 4: you called back. You're the one with the car. Yeah,
Speaker 4: oh good, okay, go ahead quickly.
Speaker 10: In Chicago, Yes, I we park into parking spots, typically
Speaker 10: far away where it's not just courteous to other people,
Speaker 10: but to protect our car because you know, other people
Speaker 10: that open their door too hard and ding your car,
Speaker 10: they don't care and they don't leave a number to
Speaker 10: fix it, and then you're stuck with the bill to
Speaker 10: fix your car, and that's not fair.
Speaker 2: Well, but it's not it's also not fair to take
Speaker 2: two spots.
Speaker 10: Well, that may be true, and we typically try to
Speaker 10: take two spots that is far enough away, will walk
Speaker 10: the extra distance where it's not going to bother anybody
Speaker 10: else where nobody else is parking in the back of
Speaker 10: the lot or something like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, if in fact there really isn't any other But
Speaker 4: remember that, you always hear, Jessica, because there's.
Speaker 2: So little time.
Speaker 4: Here's a very important thing to ask before you do anything.
Speaker 4: The rule of thumb about deciding whether something is right.
Speaker 4: What if everybody did what I do? People with cheaper
Speaker 4: cars also don't want their cars deemed they have to
Speaker 4: pay to get it repaired. To why shouldn't everybody take
Speaker 4: two spots? This has been the Ultimate Issues hour on
Speaker 4: the Dennis Prager Show. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: Tomorrow on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Speaker 2: If you had to.
Speaker 4: Offer your opinion on what is the biggest no no
Speaker 4: in a marriage?
Speaker 7: I think I have the answer to that question.
Speaker 8: The answer is the failure to communicate. And by this
Speaker 8: I mean the unwillingness to listen and or to voice
Speaker 8: your opinion.
Speaker 11: The thing that I have found that will destroy any
Speaker 11: relationship is lying. If you cannot trust that other person
Speaker 11: and have the audacity to lie to you, then how
Speaker 11: can you trust them in the future.
Speaker 4: Well, I'm sure you have something in mind. Give it,
Speaker 4: Give me the example that's in your mind.
Speaker 1: Join us tomorrow to hear more on Timeless Wisdom with
Speaker 1: Dennis Prager. Visit Dennisprager dot com for thousands of hours
Speaker 1: off Dennis's lecturous courses in classic radio programs and to
Speaker 1: purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. We want to take just
Speaker 1: a second to thank the team at life Audio for
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