WEBVTT - Good Urges vs Bad Urges 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:07.040 Life audio on today's episode of Timeless Wisdom. 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:10.240 The good urge cold a Hebrew Yates. The hutsov tove 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:14.880 means good yeats, there is will, and the Yates are Hurrah. 0:00:15.240 --> 0:00:18.439 Hurrah means bad. So the bad Yates their and the 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:23.000 good Yates their are in conflict right right, and we 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:27.440 all have it every day it happens. In fact, this 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.280 so shaped my life as a child when I learned it. 0:00:30.720 --> 0:00:33.160 I still think of it every day, all the time. 0:00:33.560 --> 0:00:36.319 This is what my good urge is saying, my good yeats, sir, 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:40.160 This is what my bad yates are saying. It could 0:00:40.479 --> 0:00:43.720 It doesn't even apply just to It always applies to 0:00:44.159 --> 0:00:46.959 ethical issues, but it could apply to do I have 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:52.160 that cheesecake? My bed yates? Their says, come on, what 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.520 the hell do you live? Once it's delicious? You're a nut? 0:00:56.280 --> 0:00:58.279 How are you going to forego that cheesecake? The other 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.320 one says, well, you're what, Dennis, Come on, Dennis, you 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:04.039 know what you know, you know what the enough cheese 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:04.800 cake's gonna. 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:04.880 Do to you. 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:10.080 That's coming off on Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Welcome 0:01:10.240 --> 0:01:14.400 to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager. Here thousands of hours 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:17.760 of Dennis's lectures courses in classic radio programs had to 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:22.360 purchase Dennis Prager's Rational Bibles. Go to Dennis Prager dot com. 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:31.839 Or not to be That is the question. Where was God? 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.240 Isn't God supposed to be good love us? 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:36.399 Does God want. 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:36.839 Us to supper? 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:38.320 Ten years? 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:39.520 You're not Dennis yet? 0:01:40.360 --> 0:01:44.080 Why did you do it? Come here? 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:45.720 Who are you? 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:47.960 Ruce? 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.200 I'm God? Bingo yazi? 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:53.920 Is that your final answer? 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:56.800 Our service has God. 0:01:56.720 --> 0:01:57.840 Bing ding ding ding ding ding ding. 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:00.720 Well, it was nice to meet you God, Thank you 0:02:00.760 --> 0:02:03.200 for the Grand Canyon and good luck with the apocalypse. 0:02:06.160 --> 0:02:08.880 Hi, everybody, welcome to the Ultimate Issues Hour. I'm Dennis 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:11.840 Praeger And every week at this time, the third hour 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:17.079 of my three hour show and on Tuesdays is devoted 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:21.200 to some great issue of life, and frankly, it's meant 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:26.280 to deeply affect you. It's an issue that deeply affected me, 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:29.320 and I'd like to affect you, touch you, influence you 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:33.680 with some insight into some great issue of life. This 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:39.959 one I completely owe to a man who has long 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:45.880 since left this realm of reality. He died, oh boy, 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:51.120 I'd say twenty five years ago. He was a distinguished 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:56.079 rabbi in the United States name was Wolf Kellman, father 0:02:56.160 --> 0:02:59.520 of a good friend of mine, and he was a 0:02:59.560 --> 0:03:02.160 major rabbinic figure in the United States. I went to 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:08.320 him in my late twenties for some advice, professional advice, 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.320 as it turned out, I guess, partially personal, but it's 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:15.200 hard to distinguish between the two sometimes anyway. I don't 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:20.440 even remember why I went to him, but in other words, 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.720 what the issue was. But I remember what he said, 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:28.480 and I remember one thing that he said. It has 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:33.120 stayed with me, and I have recounted it endless times 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:38.800 in speeches and in personal conversation, said Dennis. And in 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:40.960 order for me to explain this, you have to understand 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.280 a basic Jewish concept. It's a very simple one, so 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:47.960 you don't have to have any theological or Jewish background. 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:53.280 But it's this Judaism holds that the human being is 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:59.800 born with, as it were, two wills, two urges if 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:02.000 you will, a good one and a bad one. The 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.640 good one tells you, uh, I don't know, to give 0:04:05.680 --> 0:04:08.720 their right to give extra change back. If you've gotten 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:12.520 too much change you got you got the wrong check 0:04:12.600 --> 0:04:16.120 you you return it the the batter, it says eh 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.760 who's going to miss the money? You know, you're lucky. 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.840 You you got it. Seemi film, by the way, one 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:24.600 of the videos that I made. In fact, that's how 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.200 Alan and I met h called For Goodness Sake and Alan, 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:29.560 wherever I go in the country, somebody tells me they've 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:33.559 used it in schools or whatever. And Uh, anyway, Uh, 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:35.880 you should you should see For Goodness Sake, the best 0:04:36.040 --> 0:04:40.760 film on goodness I've ever seen. Uh, and uh. In it, 0:04:41.040 --> 0:04:44.440 there was a great scene with Jason Alexander where he 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:48.719 is getting uh, you know, some electronic device at a 0:04:48.760 --> 0:04:52.680 store and the guy gives him guy is the clerk, 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.400 is is harried, and he gives Jason Alexander the top 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.640 model when he didn't pay for the top model. He 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:02.480 paid for the middle of my And there were two 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.279 voices in Jason Alexander, one saying, come on, man, you 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:08.920 didn't pay for that. You just you have to return 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.400 it for the one you paid for, and the other 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:14.600 voice saying, what don't you an idiot? Who's gonna know 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:17.800 the difference? And anyway, they made the mistake. You didn't, 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:21.720 you didn't steal it. That's a perfect example of the 0:05:21.720 --> 0:05:24.720 good urge called a Hebrew, yeatesh huts ov tove means 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:29.039 good yeats. There is will and the yeats are hurrah. 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.800 Hurrah means bad. So the bad yatesah and the good 0:05:32.920 --> 0:05:37.440 yeats their are in conflict right right, and we all 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:41.880 have it every day it happens. In fact, this so 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.440 shaped my life as a child when I learned it. 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.320 I still think of it every day all the time. 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:50.480 This is what my good urge is saying, my good yeats, sir, 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:54.400 This is what my bad yates are saying. It could 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.920 it doesn't even apply just to it always applies to 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.120 ethical issues, but it could apply to do I have 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:05.400 that cheesecake? My my bed yates? Their says, come on, 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.679 what the hell you live? Once? It's delicious? You're a nut? 0:06:10.480 --> 0:06:12.480 How are you going to forego that cheesecake? The other 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:16.599 one says, you're what, Dennis? Come on, Dennis, you know 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:18.480 what you know? You know what the enough cheesecake is 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:21.920 going to do to you? Right? I mean that it's 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.520 it's we have it. I think it's a terrific way 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:26.719 to raise a kid. By the way, tell them that 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:29.720 they have these two voices in them at all times, 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:33.719 and they are at all times over every issue, absolutely 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:39.599 every issue personal and ethical and uh and moral, you 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:44.840 name it. It's these are two competing things, all right, That, 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:47.200 by the way, is worthy of another ultimate issues hour 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.880 how important it is to go through life because if 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.000 you can distinguish the two voices, you know, you won't 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:57.520 always listen to the right one, but you will you 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:01.880 will be cognizant of that battle in yourself. And it's 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.160 a very good thing to raise a child with. What 0:07:04.200 --> 0:07:07.400 does your bead, your bad side say, what does your 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:12.800 good side say? Okay? Fine? Having said all that, on 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:18.440 behalf of understanding existence through the prism of the good 0:07:18.520 --> 0:07:21.720 yates air and the bad yates there. This is what 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.320 this Rabbi Kellman said to me when I was twenty 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:29.160 seven years old. So, Dennis, let me tell you something. 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:33.640 By and large, I have my bad yates their under control. 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:40.400 And most good men, most mature men or women do, 0:07:41.480 --> 0:07:44.200 by and large, we do have our bad yates are 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:48.680 under control. And you know, whether it's sexual matters, or 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:53.000 it's financial matters, or what have you. I believed him. 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.040 He you know, he was a good man. Everyone who 0:07:57.120 --> 0:08:01.760 knew him felt that. So here's what he said, my friends, 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.119 And this is the lesson for today, which is overwhelming 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:11.680 in its significance both macro and micro. Said Dennis, by 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.680 and large, I have my bad Yates air under control. 0:08:16.640 --> 0:08:20.200 It's my good Yates hair that always gets me in trouble. 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:29.480 That is the subject for today's Ultimate Issues Hour. That 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.920 it's your desire to do good and our collective desire 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:38.160 to do good that gets us often into more trouble 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:45.560 and does more harm than our bad desires. And that 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:51.360 was a statement of great wisdom. The fact that your 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:56.760 good nature or the good side of your nature wants 0:08:56.840 --> 0:09:03.440 to do something doesn't make it right. The fact that 0:09:03.520 --> 0:09:06.440 it comes from the good urge and not the bad 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:17.440 urge doesn't mean it's good. This is where life's problems start. 0:09:18.559 --> 0:09:23.320 They're not because we listened to the bad urge. That happens. 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:25.920 Of course, that happens. There is evil that has done, 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:32.480 bad things that people do that emanate from their bad desires. 0:09:33.520 --> 0:09:39.920 But more likely and certainly on a macro level, it's 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.280 the stuff that comes stuff that comes from the good 0:09:43.480 --> 0:09:48.640 desires cause more harm and more devastation and more evil 0:09:48.760 --> 0:09:53.160 even than the stuff that comes from the bad desires. 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:02.120 The number of people slaughtered, tortured, and enslaved in the 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:07.839 twentieth century on the basis of values or systems that 0:10:09.840 --> 0:10:13.320 appealed to the good side. To the good yeatsir is 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.200 far greater than that which appealed to the bad yatesir. 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.040 More people have been murdered by people thinking they were 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:25.520 doing something good than by people who were just sadistic 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:32.400 and cruel. You hear me. More damage has been done 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:40.880 by idealists than by selfish bad types. There were a 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:46.880 lot of idealistic communists. There were a lot of idealistic Nazis, 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.200 people who thought they were doing good for the fatherland 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:58.320 or the motherland, or the or equality or the working class. 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.600 The fact that's something, the fact that something emanates from 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:08.760 the good part of you, the sincere idealistic good part, 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:16.520 doesn't mean manure from cheyenne. It means nothing in terms 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:22.760 of whether it really will do good. Nothing. I'm told 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:26.480 all the time, for example, that my generation, the baby boomers, 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:31.480 you know, they were very idealistic. As if that means anything, 0:11:32.679 --> 0:11:39.080 so what so what? I will give you example after example, 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.560 both in the way we raise children, in the way 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:44.720 we act in our daily lives, and in the way 0:11:44.760 --> 0:11:48.640 we construct social policy, all of which come from the 0:11:48.679 --> 0:11:55.680 good yates air, which are bad news do bad. This 0:11:55.840 --> 0:11:59.280 is life changing stuff. One aide Praeger seven seven six 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.320 The Ultimate Shoes Hour on the Dennis Prager Show. 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:08.040 This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this. 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:20.040 Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.960 Dennis Prager here the Ultimate Issues Hour. Every week at 0:12:24.960 --> 0:12:27.240 this time I devote an hour to some great subject. 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:31.600 If you actually take the conclusions that I will draw 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:34.959 seriously from this, it will it will be life changing, 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.040 unless you've already come to these conclusions, in which case 0:12:38.040 --> 0:12:42.040 it's just reinforcing. But most of us had to learn this. 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:43.959 I did. I had to learn this. I was lucky 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:48.480 that I learned it early. And it was this comment 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:52.880 made to me, and I explained the context that most 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:56.120 of the trouble in this world doesn't come from the 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:58.640 will to do bad, but from the will to do good. 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:04.560 Good intentions don't mean anything. This. We live in the 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.800 age of reliance on the heart, and that is part 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.160 of the reason that we that I am not optimistic 0:13:12.280 --> 0:13:16.559 for the world, because heart based stuff is a is 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:19.800 a problem. Now why is it? Now? Let me let 0:13:19.840 --> 0:13:23.200 me talk to you about what the conclusions need to 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:28.679 be I'll give you examples. This is so important. I 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.880 would say that most of you get in more trouble 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.280 from not all of you, most of you from your 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.959 will to do good than your will to do bad. 0:13:40.679 --> 0:13:44.440 An example there are. It's both micro and mackerel. Start 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:49.240 with the micro the personal parents who give their kids 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:54.720 a lot, who make no demands on their kids, who 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:57.240 say yes far more often than they say no. It's 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:00.680 often out of love, it's often out of feeling I 0:14:00.720 --> 0:14:03.240 want my kids to have what I didn't. That's part 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.880 of the reason the Baby boomers grew up so spoiled, 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.960 because the parents who lived through World War Two, their 0:14:10.000 --> 0:14:12.560 motto was I want to give my kids everything I 0:14:12.640 --> 0:14:14.839 didn't have. They grew up in the depression, they grew 0:14:14.880 --> 0:14:17.120 up in World War Two, so they were they were 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:21.880 preoccupied with giving their children an effortless childhood, and they 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:28.960 often spoiled them. Rotten and so and so the kids 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:32.600 grew up that is my generation a lot terribly foolish, 0:14:32.760 --> 0:14:37.200 terribly destructive in their in their values. But they're all 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:39.800 meaning well, you know they if they'd say make love 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.240 not war, they thought that they were genius. You seek 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:45.960 the people with a bumper sticker. You know, war is 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.320 not the answer. You think they mean what bad. They 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.640 don't mean bad, they mean good good. You know they 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:54.440 hate war, they hate the suffering that war entails, the 0:14:55.480 --> 0:14:58.880 staggering amount of death. Of course they mean well, but 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:03.800 it's a it's aarticularly foolish, particularly foolish comment. Yeah, war 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:05.600 is not the answer if the question is what is 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.080 the square root of ten? But if the question is 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:09.720 how do you get rid of a lot of evil? 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:15.640 War is the answer. And so this is a problem 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:20.720 that confronts people. I was just mentioning, in fact, in 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:23.440 a different context, how important the word no is to 0:15:23.520 --> 0:15:26.880 raising children. It's more important than the word yes. But 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:30.440 it's hard because our will to do good, it'll be loved, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.320 and to love tells us say yes, give in to 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:38.280 your kid. If that doesn't come from the remember this 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:41.440 division that I'm making that I got from Judaism, this 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.880 division of dividing between the goodwill and the bad will. 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.600 This stuff all comes from the good side, the good willed. 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:52.320 I want to love my kid, I want my kid 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:56.480 to feel loved, and so on. Are those people who 0:15:56.600 --> 0:15:59.600 enable a spouse, or enable a child, or enable a friend, 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.400 giving money to people, to to your your adult kid 0:16:03.440 --> 0:16:08.840 who has no job and doesn't seek one. You don't 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:10.960 do that out of the bad side of your of 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:15.720 your of your conscience, or of your mind or your heart. 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:17.440 You do it out of out of love and out 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:22.680 of the good side. Therefore, since good can lead to 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.800 so much, good intentions lead to so many lead to 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.440 so many bad things. The number one number one, you 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:35.240 can't rely on good intentions for good results. You can't. 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:38.840 So just know that at the outset, the fact that 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:44.680 you mean well doesn't ensure anything anything. It doesn't ensure 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:48.320 what matters, which is good results. So there are two. 0:16:48.600 --> 0:16:53.240 There are two spectacularly important conclusions to draw from what 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.800 I'm saying. Number One, you know something is good by 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:04.040 its results, not by its intentions. Okay, that's number one. 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.320 I much prefer here. For example, I'll give you a 0:17:07.359 --> 0:17:10.520 guy who I'll give you an example of somebody who, 0:17:10.560 --> 0:17:14.399 even from perhaps selfish motives, does a lot of good. 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:19.680 Let us let us say that somebody wants to get 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:24.399 the Nobel Prize in medicine, and that is the primary 0:17:24.480 --> 0:17:27.560 thing that motivates him, and he discovers the cure for 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:31.720 pancreatic cancer. Do you give a hoot that he was 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:36.040 motivated by selfish desire for the Nobel Prize in medicine? Right, 0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:40.800 You couldn't care less your loved one has pancreatic cancer. 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.800 You bless this guy, who may be a true a hole. 0:17:44.359 --> 0:17:48.960 You don't give a hoot what you care about. What 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.720 you care about is did he do good? Not did 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:58.840 he mean good? You don't have to marry him. You 0:17:58.920 --> 0:18:01.560 just have to take his men us And for pancreatic cancer. 0:18:04.920 --> 0:18:08.160 What if somebody gives money for some for hospital wing 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.240 to be known? Primary desire is to be known. That's 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:20.160 why I've always i've always, always always had no patience 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.800 for those who argue, oh, I'm against all these people 0:18:22.880 --> 0:18:27.199 naming having these things named after themselves. You know, the 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:33.120 this wing or this this hall or this building. Oh 0:18:33.160 --> 0:18:36.480 really well, if it weren't for that person's desire to 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:38.840 have their name on that building or that wing, you 0:18:38.840 --> 0:18:43.920 wouldn't have that building or that wing. Idiot. If if 0:18:43.960 --> 0:18:46.760 I am peeing at at the you know, the the 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:53.440 O'Brien urinal I bless O'Brien, I just I can't. I 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:57.520 don't understand it. It's all part of this nonsense that 0:18:57.720 --> 0:19:03.200 intentions are what we judge and results. I bless everybody 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.600 who has donated a building to a hospital, a wing, 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:15.239 a toilet. I bless them, and God blesses them. The 0:19:15.400 --> 0:19:18.840 last thing I have an intention to do, desire to do, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.639 is measure their intention that they want to be in. 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:24.080 First of all, I don't know they want to be known. 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.000 Maybe there was their way of saying to the world, look, 0:19:27.040 --> 0:19:28.960 this is what you should do with your money, build 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.959 hospital wings. How do we know? How do we know 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.440 what their intention? We don't know. First of all, let 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:36.480 me tell you something about why it is so bad 0:19:36.600 --> 0:19:39.520 to measure intentions. There's no way to know them. In 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:42.199 most cases, you don't know your own I don't know 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:44.280 my own all the time. That's why people go to 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.160 psychotherapies to figure out what's going on inside of them. 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:50.760 We don't even know our own intentions all the time. 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.320 We are going to now start measuring other people's intentions. 0:19:55.320 --> 0:20:04.040 Intentions don't matter, They do not matter. What matters is 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:08.600 the results of what you did. That's what's what matters. 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.000 There is a second conclusion from all of this, the 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:16.760 utter irrelevance by and large of intentions, and I will 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:19.000 tell you what that is when we come back on 0:20:19.040 --> 0:20:21.680 the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager Show. 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.959 This episode of Timeless Wisdom will continue right after this. 0:20:33.480 --> 0:20:49.160 Now back to more of Dennis Prager's Timeless Wisdom. 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:51.560 All right, everybody, you're listening to the Dennis Prager Show, 0:20:51.560 --> 0:21:01.480 the Ultimate Issues Hour. Good intentions generally mean nothing, and 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:06.000 it's good results that matter, good actions that matter, not 0:21:06.080 --> 0:21:11.240 good intentions. And often selfish intentions end up or sometimes 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.360 they can end up with better results, like the selfish 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.480 scientists who just wants awards and ends up finding a 0:21:17.520 --> 0:21:22.240 cure for some illness. We have been led astray by 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:28.320 idealism in our lives. Don't say no to your children 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:33.320 because you just want them to enjoy life and to 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:36.600 hurt them in the process. The trick in life is 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:42.560 to know what is good rather than to intend to 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:46.119 do what is good. And it is hard to know 0:21:46.160 --> 0:21:50.280 what is good. That takes wisdom. There is no wisdom 0:21:50.320 --> 0:21:56.160 at our universities, at our high schools. There are courses, 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:00.800 and there is a tremendous emphasis on feelings, but there 0:22:00.840 --> 0:22:07.879 is precious little wisdom, and that's why we are in decline. Alrighty, 0:22:08.040 --> 0:22:12.199 let me now take some of your calls here. And 0:22:12.240 --> 0:22:15.000 by the way, that's why we have started Prager University, 0:22:16.880 --> 0:22:19.880 and I beg you to go there. It's free. Our 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:22.320 motto is, you give us five minutes, we'll give you 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:26.920 a semester. And the intent is to give out wisdom. 0:22:27.280 --> 0:22:30.960 So there were two videos out now, one on America's 0:22:31.040 --> 0:22:35.840 values and the other on happiness. We have more being 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:45.639 made and that's our intent with Prager University. Okay, since 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:48.560 I started with a rabbinic quote, I'll go to a 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:51.840 rabbi calling in from San Diego. It's Ysrael. How do 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:54.000 you do Rabbi Hi. 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.679 Dennis, thank you for taking my call. I agree with 0:22:56.840 --> 0:23:00.320 most of what you said, but I'd like to give 0:23:00.359 --> 0:23:04.760 a quote from Rabbi Schneerson, the Levavice Rebi, and I'd 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:07.919 like to say he writes the Yates a horror. The 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:12.160 evil impulse is called an animal soul, not because it's 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:16.720 necessarily a brute animal, maybe a fox, but it may 0:23:16.760 --> 0:23:20.800 close itself in the garb of an earnest, straightforward, humble, 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:27.399 righteous person, possessing fine traits of character. In other words, 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:32.800 this desire of idealism is not from the good inclination, 0:23:33.240 --> 0:23:35.640 but it's from the evil inclination. 0:23:35.920 --> 0:23:38.000 Oh very good, so well, and. 0:23:37.960 --> 0:23:42.679 There's not my words, and God bless you for quoting him, 0:23:42.720 --> 0:23:45.320 but this is the the I did make that point 0:23:45.560 --> 0:23:49.120 in a different way by saying that we don't even 0:23:49.280 --> 0:23:50.800 know our real intentions. 0:23:50.840 --> 0:23:55.359 So it's even sillier to rely on intentions because I 0:23:55.400 --> 0:23:58.160 don't know what I think is a good intention may 0:23:58.160 --> 0:23:59.320 in fact be selfish. 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:03.080 So here the rebe says, a culte like this. Take 0:24:03.160 --> 0:24:07.399 this as a general principle, and remember it always any 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:12.760 matter that is effective towards or actually leads to actual service, 0:24:12.920 --> 0:24:16.840 good service, and is confronted with opposition of any sort, 0:24:17.320 --> 0:24:21.280 even the most noble. That opposition is the scheming of 0:24:21.359 --> 0:24:24.080 the animal soul. There you go, and he adds off 0:24:24.080 --> 0:24:27.760 by saying, until then, I had not known that there 0:24:27.800 --> 0:24:31.359 could be a pious animal soul, let alone, even a 0:24:31.480 --> 0:24:33.080 Hasidic animal soul. 0:24:33.320 --> 0:24:36.399 Right, a pious one. Excellent, thank you. We are in 0:24:36.440 --> 0:24:40.119 complete agreement, as it happens. And that's why I said. 0:24:41.040 --> 0:24:45.439 It's another reason that intentions should not be judged. I mean, 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:47.600 there were times you have to you know, an attempted 0:24:47.680 --> 0:24:50.480 murder or whatever I mean I'm not talking about courtrooms, 0:24:50.480 --> 0:24:56.159 but in our lives intentions. You know, as this rabbi 0:24:56.240 --> 0:25:01.119 correctly points out, the bad urge may cloak itself is 0:25:01.160 --> 0:25:03.000 a good urge. So we don't know. We don't know. 0:25:03.160 --> 0:25:06.159 That's why good is what is done. It is what 0:25:06.359 --> 0:25:12.040 is achieved, not what is intended. You mean well with 0:25:12.200 --> 0:25:15.680 your social policy X or social policy Y. I don't 0:25:15.760 --> 0:25:19.560 care if you mean well. I want to know if 0:25:19.600 --> 0:25:25.119 it will work. Will it work? That's the only moral question. 0:25:25.800 --> 0:25:32.119 Does it increase goodness welfare of the human being on earth? 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:37.399 That is what matters. Does it sound good or what 0:25:37.560 --> 0:25:41.560 have you? San Antonio, Texas, Patrick Dennis Prager, Oh. 0:25:41.760 --> 0:25:42.760 How are you doing good? 0:25:42.840 --> 0:25:43.199 Thanks? 0:25:43.400 --> 0:25:46.439 Good? I would just like to say, well, I'm coming 0:25:46.480 --> 0:25:50.800 from the perspective of a Christian, and I would say 0:25:50.840 --> 0:25:55.760 that listening to your comment that good intentions don't amount 0:25:55.800 --> 0:25:57.920 to the will of beings they don't mean anything, would 0:25:57.920 --> 0:26:01.600 be misleading, at least coming from a Christian, because they 0:26:01.600 --> 0:26:06.560 do have incredibly significant significance, has great significance as to 0:26:06.560 --> 0:26:09.040 whether a person would be saved or not. A person 0:26:09.480 --> 0:26:12.600 could do all the good in the world and have 0:26:12.720 --> 0:26:18.480 bad intentions, could have self righteous intentions and ungodly intentions, 0:26:19.000 --> 0:26:21.800 and all the good at that person does does not 0:26:21.960 --> 0:26:24.720 amount to anything as far as that person salvation. It 0:26:24.800 --> 0:26:26.200 might amount too good for the world. 0:26:26.800 --> 0:26:29.240 Well I'm okay, but I'm only talking from a worldly 0:26:29.320 --> 0:26:33.200 point of view. I never I'm not talking theology. I'm 0:26:33.240 --> 0:26:38.199 talking practical goodness and ethics. The scientist who finds a 0:26:38.240 --> 0:26:43.199 cure for cancer, who I assume you rather go to 0:26:43.920 --> 0:26:48.720 a physician who was an atheist, but who was if you, 0:26:48.800 --> 0:26:52.199 God forbid your wife, if you're married, had cancer. I 0:26:52.240 --> 0:26:55.399 suspect you would choose the atheist who was a genius 0:26:55.440 --> 0:26:59.600 at surgery than the believer who was mediocre at surgery. 0:27:00.760 --> 0:27:04.480 Well, that is true. I would rather go to a person, yeah, 0:27:04.720 --> 0:27:07.360 who has qualified him with That's right exactly. 0:27:07.400 --> 0:27:10.440 So I'm only talking about from an earthly perspective, how 0:27:10.480 --> 0:27:13.760 God judges us as God's business. I've always said that, 0:27:14.400 --> 0:27:17.199 and I do feel that because God knows things about us. 0:27:17.240 --> 0:27:20.879