TRANSCRIPT
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The Rabbi Daniel Lapin Podcast
Episode: The Right Fights The Left. Populists Fight Elitists. Progressives Fight Conservatives. Here Is The Truth!
Date: 11/04/22 Length: 1:07:55
Daniel Lapin 0:01
Welcome, happy warriors. Welcome to this episode of The Rabbi Daniel Lapin show where I, your rabbi, reveal how the world. That's right really works. And one of the ways in which the world really works is that human beings, as you well know, are not tennis balls floating down the gutter of life shouldn't be at any rate. Unfortunately, you and I probably know people who are tennis balls floating down the gutter of Life. And here's a way to measure by the way, how close you come to that an enviable, Doom filled situation of being a tennis ball floating down the gutter of life. Do you know how to tell? One way is to measure how much time you spend in front of a screen during the course of a week. Now, if your work requires you to spend a certain amount of time in front of a screen, like me, I'm busy writing a book. So I do spend a certain amount of time in front of the screen, obviously. But how much additional time on so called entertainment and amusement? Do I spend a week in front of a screen and each person has to decide for himself. But happy warriors monitor that carefully? Because the larger that figure is, the closer you are to being a tennis ball floating down the gutter of life. It's a problem. There's no question about it. What should you be doing instead of screen time reading, reading a book. Please don't let anybody tell you it's the same thing. Reading a book uses your ears your eyes involvement is peripheral and tangential. But watching a screen. Secondly, reading a book engages your cognitive processes. It's like working out at the gym. Every time you read a book, every page you read of a book is like a gym workout for your mind. There is no way to overestimate the importance of reading for any happy warrior who has aspirations to move onwards and upwards for any happy warrior who has aspirations not to be a tennis ball floating down the gutter of life so, so please measure your entertainment screen time. Remember that the word amuse is an obscene word. Why is it an obscene word? I'll tell you. Because if you go back just a little bit in English, the word Muse means to think, to contemplate, to reflect, to employ mental creativity. That's what Muse means. Somebody might say I just need to muse on this for a few minutes. Susan Lapin writes a beautiful column every week that you can get just by going to RabbiDanielLapin.com and signing up for it. And it's called Susan's musings. Because to Muse is to think. Now, in English, the letter A in front of a word means to make it the opposite. So for instance, symmetrical means both sides are the same. Asymmetrical means it's not like that. Moral means moral. A moral means somebody without morals. Well guess what a muse means. Amuse, people in well, in me, I'm doing it for amusement, though. What a muse means is to stop your thinking. And if you think about it, there's a lot of truth in that. For many of us, thinking can be a little disturbing, maybe even painful. Maybe you're reflecting on failures. Maybe you're thinking about things you could be doing and haven't done, the less you actually think them all comfortable people often
Daniel Lapin 5:01
Aw. So let's all acknowledge that we each have agency in everything that we do. And that we are not tennis balls floating down the gutter of life. And neither are we billiard balls banging around on the table of life. And I mentioned this because so many people's lives are hurt. People's lives are seriously damaged. Because they have absorbed into themselves this idea that they are billiard balls. And the reason that they move in certain directions is because a cue stick hits them, and they bounce into another ball or another ball moving hits them and moves them, they are totally without agency. And whatever happens happens because of external vectors acting upon them, if you are able to rid yourself of that idea, and I don't just mean rid yourself intellectually over here, but read yourself over here from your heart as well. So is that in no part of you lingers, this idea that you are somehow an inanimate and passive object acted on by the forces of society. And I feel very strongly about this, because I actually know I know, people of my own faith. I know, Hebrews, who, who actually wake up in the morning, and say, well, there's hardly any point in getting out of bed, because anti semitism is going to obstruct everything I try and do. And I know people who used to say, racism is insurmountable, there is so much racism in America, I may as well not try to do anything, because whatever I try to do, will be doomed. And the people I know have risen above that they've overcome it. And they have escaped the prison of that kind of thinking. Because all that you and I actually need to do is to make sure that we are moving onwards and upwards, with our families, with our finances, without friendships, without fitness. And without faith. That's all you got to do. Now, that's not a simple prescription. There's a lot to be done there. What happens if you don't have a family? Well, the first thing before having a family is you have to get a spouse. And you have to make sure that that relationship is as well designed as possible, that you deliberately and purposefully sculpt the outlines of your marriage, so as to prepare yourself for the most fulfilling period of your life. Maybe you are married, and you're not entirely happy with the conditions of that marriage? Well, you need to work on that. And you need to either sit down with your spouse or if your spouse is not a, a really good sit down and talk communicator, it works really well to write your thoughts. And if none of that works, trying to have an intermediary, if there's somebody your spouse will listen to. And ideally, if you are a woman, it would be ideal if the person you selected would be a man. And meaning if if you feel your husband has to hear certain things that you're not feeling satisfied about. And then similarly, perhaps the other way around. But it's hard because today to find a marriage therapist, who has not bought into the secular worlds psychology beliefs, is hugely problematic. Because in many, many cases today, psychology is precisely the illness, which it claims to cure. Very often, you seek a marriage therapist, and you pay no attention to the marriage therapists belief system.
Daniel Lapin 9:40
And you think that does matter. After all, do I care if my German car mechanic is a Catholic or a Protestant? Or maybe he's an atheist doesn't really matter. Not a whole lot. Not a whole lot because he's dealing entirely with physical reality? How about my dermatologist my skin doctor? How about with him? Does it matter what his belief system? Well now it's getting a little bit trickier see, because much of, of what else people on skin does depend on stress and attitudes. One of the reasons we call our free ebook The Holistic You, because it is quite possible that you are suffering from spiritual ills. And if your dermatologist is completely unaware and wants to treat your skin situation and your skin medical condition as purely a biological condition, that wouldn't work for me because I know that the skin does express things like stress, and other factors as well. And then when we move to the area of psychiatry and psychology, well, now the spiritual belief system of the practitioner becomes of supreme importance, because it's so easy for anybody, including psychologists and, and other mental health professionals, it's so easy for them to buy into the fundamental principles of the culture. So for instance, today, if you are trained as a psychologist or a therapist, you have been thoroughly conditioned to not only accept, but to buy into, and to regurgitate. The ideas that male and female are exactly the same. And all differences are just cultural projections of internal bias. So these are very real things. The idea that, if the wife outearns the husband, it makes it more difficult for the marriage to thrive not impossible. By the way, we have a recent Ask the Rabbi which if you haven't seen it, you'll enjoy it on the website at RabbiDanielLapin.com. From a a woman who dramatically our turns her husband, she said, you know, this is how we started our marriage. We both agreed she had but as time has gone by, I've seen that what you teach is is applicable and that ancient Jewish wisdom explains a lot of what's happening in our marriage now, do you think I should quit my job and my husband should start a business? And we answer that and explain what their situation really is. But these are all things that are dismissed by the current worldview of therapy and psychiatry and psychology. So yes, you do have to be very careful indeed, about the belief system of the people whose advice you seek in this area. But that, you know, that's just talking about family, finance, you've got to focus on finance, I have been talking to a young man who's been consulting me. He's 33. And he, he's a very interesting person with a very well developed mind, if anything, perhaps a mind that is almost too developed, because he overthinks things, a lot of us tend to do that you don't have to be specially brilliant to do that. A lot of us do tend to overthink things. And so there are times when we should be simply worrying about cash flow, not worrying, we should be doing something to improve our cash flow, we should be doing something to increase our revenue. There's not a lot of thinking to be done there. There's a lot of doing to be done there. And there are times when that has to be done. And it was very difficult trying to get through to this young man that everything is doing is very interesting. But he is neither married, nor does he have a a reasonable bank balance for somebody who's 33 years old. And that these are huge, significant setbacks to his progress in life, because there are five F's and one of them is finances.
Daniel Lapin 14:36
Faith, it goes without saying it is simply not really possible in order to to fully comprehend reality, if you don't have any spiritual awareness, because so much of what is truly important in life does not respond to a laboratory analysis. In other words, words, it's not physical, it is spiritual. And to have a zero faith relationship means it is difficult for you to accurately and effectively analyze those parts of your life in which the spiritual does impact and look how much of it there is in in the financial area. Sure, I mean, just take the fashion business, if clothing was just functional, then we'd all be wearing boiler suits, okay, I have two of those, I love them. You step into the legs, you shred the arms on, you do one big diagonal zip. And honestly, in about 22 seconds, I'm dressed, I'm dressed just great. If I'm going to be in the workshop, or in the engine room of the boat. It's wonderful clothing for that. But I wouldn't even go to work at the local coffee shop on my book, I would sometimes go to the coffee shop for two hours to just get two hours of writing done. I wouldn't do that in my boiler suit. Because clothing is spiritual. It's not just physical, if it was physical, if it covers you up and keeps you on, that's all you really care about. But that's clearly not what clothing is all about. That's why there are labels on clothing. And people proudly wear those labels because they are using the clothing to enhance their sense of dignity, dignity, there is a spiritual concept. And each of us is right to be concerned about our dignity. And even more importantly, we are obliged to be concerned about the dignity of our friends and family and Associates. People have a need for their dignity, and depriving somebody of their dignity is very costly to everybody, particularly to the relationship. And so there we are all of us trying to focus on our finances, on our families on our faith on our friendships, community involvement, right? Who doesn't know that human happiness depends on connection with other human beings. Who doesn't know that the number one reliable correlation for homeless vagrants who are living on the streets who are addicted to drugs and other things. Who doesn't know that the correlation is isolation. They don't have human connections. It's destructive, a complete lack of human connections not only makes one miserable it kills. And so everybody knows that you, you only have to read a little bit of Shakespeare to understand that Shakespeare got it. The fact that is 400 years old, makes no difference. This is something that wise people always have understood. But right now you got to be careful, you can encounter therapists who will tell you your happiness doesn't depend on anybody else. They will particularly tell women, you don't need a man to make you happy. And actually, in 99.9%, of cases of women, yeah, your ultimate happiness will come from a deep relationship with a man. And it's the other way around just as just as true. Men more easily confused themselves to believing that their need is for sex. But, but of course, anybody with real life experience knows that the sex is part of the deeper connection, standing by itself, it simply doesn't really work. And so women in general, tend to seek one man to fulfill their many needs. And men intuitively, are hardwired to seek many women for what they think is their one need. And so the good Lord created us with this.
Daniel Lapin 19:25
Asymmetry there's that word again, between men and women, in order that the ultimate fulfillment of human growth comes about through a deep connection with a totally different kind of human being. A deep connection for a man with another man just doesn't do it. It doesn't extract the greatness that lies there in it doesn't force him to grow and adjust and to expand. But a woman attached to a man experiences the potential for deep happiness and And the other way around. And so these are all things that we learn. And these are things that I talk about constantly. And I try and encourage you to not be distracted. And to remain focused on your five F's, and do a regular weekly reckoning of how you're doing on each of the five F's compared to where you were the stage last week, should all be doing that. Right. That's, that's what this notebook here is for. Right? That's what I use this little notebook for every single week, there's a follow-up and a reckoning. And I look to see, you know, how did I do last week, I better focus more this coming week on family aspects, I better focus more on faith aspects. So these are really important things that I can't stress, how emphatically I urge you to keep them in the very forefront of your mind. And so what are some of the obstacles? What are some of the challenges? Well, perhaps one of the most compelling challenges at this time is the struggle that is going on between two different groups. And this is true in Israel and in the United States. And it's true in Spain, just three countries I was recently in. And it's true in most of Europe, and it's true in much of Africa.
Daniel Lapin 21:30
What am I talking about? Well, you can call it different things. It's the struggle between conservatism and liberalism. It's the struggle between capitalism and socialism. It's the struggle between the left and the right. It's the struggle between elitist and populist. It's the struggle between globalists and nationalists. And in all these cases, I am talking about exactly the same struggle just with different labels. And so what I would like to do in an attempt to be helpful to you, is to lay out the foundations of the larger cultural struggle going on about you. Because if you can identify its primary characteristics, I think there'll be easier for you to rise above them, and to be able to push them to the side, to be able to decide if there's anything you need to do to protect your family and your finances and your faith, and your community and your physical health, from things that are pushing against you coming from this cultural struggle that's going on knowing exactly what the topological contours of the struggle look like, make it a lot easier to defend yourself. And so I'm going to identify for you five primary characteristics. And whether as I said, you call it between nationalists and globalists, or socialism and capitalism, or the right and the left and concert, it doesn't matter. I'm going to define it in absolute terms as the struggle between civilization and barbarism. That's right, that's what it all is, civilization and barbarism. Now, the one thing I have to tell you that if you've had a university background, and it's not in the areas of science and technology and engineering and mathematics, then the odds are that every microscopic molecule in your body will be trying its hardest
Daniel Lapin 23:52
to defeat this idea, and to prevent its entry into your soul. That is what is going to be trying to that is what's going to be happening. Because my function here, as your rabbi is not only to reveal how the world really works, but in practical terms, revealing how the world really works, means dispelling the clouds of superstition, and ignorance and wrong thinking, that impede your ability to understand how the world really works. And the extent to which things that I am going to be telling you fly in the face of what people are being taught in universities, as I speak to you cannot be overestimated. And so, intuitively, there is a lot of what I'm going to say that if you are below a certain age, you're going to come on that's old fashion. That's how people thought in the 1950s today We're more modern. And my response to that is that in basic and fundamental things we haven't changed. Well we do have is advanced technology. That is true, I grant you that, but advanced technology, only camouflage us how little things have really changed. In the final analysis, there is a very complicated relationship between males and females in escapable. That has not changed, and it's not about to change. If it could change, then by now, after 60 years of feminist reeducation, you would have thought that by now, half the marriages would happen, because a man says to a woman, would you accept this ring and make me the happiest man in California, and half of the marriages would take place? Because women would go down on one knee and say to a man, would you please accept this Rolex watch and make me the happiest girl in California? It doesn't happen that way. Because no matter how much modernity, you experience, no matter how much psychological propaganda is put out there, you don't have to believe it. Just because it's cited by experts, or just because it emerges from studies. You don't have to accept it. It's okay to use your own god given understanding, to weigh it up and to ask yourself, which sounds more accurate, which one more reliably, defines how the world really works? What Rabbi Daniel Lapin tells you, or what your local university psychology department tells you, you have to weigh that up for yourself. Right? I'm not going to bludgeon you, and I'm not going to yell and scream about it. Because my job is only to make it available in the hope that you will take it, weigh it up and say to yourself, yeah, you know what, this, this sounds more plausible. Or on the other hand, you might say, you know, what, he's he's talking through his hat doesn't make any sense. I, the world has changed modernity as applied. No, look, human beings still have to go to the bathroom and relieve themselves. And human beings are just as uncomfortable about doing that in public today, as they were 1000 or 2000 years ago, that's again, going back to the idea of human dignity, right?
Daniel Lapin 27:38
That hasn't changed. The fact that we still need to extract a living from an often reluctant earth through what we call work. That hasn't changed. It's different kinds of work. It's not as grueling. If you're sitting in front of a computer, as opposed to working in a coal mine. It's different work. But what you're doing is the same thing, you're trying to put bread on the table, that hasn't changed very much at all. And so it is technology Oh, look at all the changes technology has brought about. Actually, it hasn't brought about that many changes, there was always cutting-edge technology. And there were certain periods where they were more of a more from the 1750s for the next 50 years. And there was an extraordinary amount of breakthrough in terms of not only steam engine and steam power, but even textile manufacturing. Because don't forget, it was only about 50 years earlier, there Thomas Malthus was saying that we're looking at a time in the near future where the majority of people will die of cold because we cannot produce clothing at enough speed to clothe the growing number of human beings. And he was right on the basis of how clothing used to be made you now textiles used to be made. People would spin in their homes. And then they would bring that to some central place and get paid. Right women usually were making wool and textiles in their homes with a loom or with a spinning wheel. And along comes the 1750s the Industrial Revolution. And all of a sudden, not only is there enough clothing for every human being on Earth, but the cost of clothing in terms of hours of work of an average employee keeps on dropping to the point where I know people and they're not. I'm not talking about upper-scale people. I'm talking about normal working people have a business trip and they find it less expensive to just buy new T-shirts and jeans instead of looking to laundry in a foreign city, especially laundry in a hotel. The costs come very close to just replacing the clothing. That's where we're at today. But there was a period of amazing technological breakthrough. And we've seen periods like that as well, you could say that since about 1980. Right? The last 40 years or so, tremendous progress in electronics, in the digital world, all right, and then there's going to reach a point where it's going to slow down and there'll be another time it'll start up again. But this idea that all artificial intelligence threatens our world and machines are going to take over, come on, you're watching too many movies, like I said, at the beginning, stop it. It's, I'm not saying you've got nothing to worry about. I'm saying that for sure is not one of the things you've got to worry about really not. Elon Musk is an absolutely fascinating individual, a fascinating businessman, it's almost always interesting to see what he's up to. But that doesn't mean that every one of his pronouncements is correct or wise or true. He's only a human being an unusual one, but he's a human being like all of us. And none of us are 100% right 100% of the time. And so let's think about the threats that come from this struggle between civilization and barbarism. And let's also recognize, and as I said, this is going to be tough to swallow. But that civilization is an outcome of the Bible. Don't for a moment believe that civilization is an outcome of the early Greeks. Clearly, people like Aristotle had much to contribute, there's no question about it. But Plato, for the most part, Plato gave us the blueprint for communism.
Daniel Lapin 31:51
And communism is not a brand new topic. Communism wasn't invented in the Russian Revolution in 1917. Communism wasn't invented in the French Revolution of 1789. No, communism goes back way early. And if you haven't yet heard my teaching, called Tower of Power, Decoding the secrets of Babel, then you need to do it, go to the website, Rabbi Daniel lapin.com. And download yourself a two-hour program we'll have study guide, you'll get a PDF of a study guide, and find out where communism actually originates. And it is almost it's almost an irresistible, seductive appeal to the hearts of mankind. The extent to which deliberate and forceful injection of counter energy is needed to stop a society's drift towards socialism. Really, it's not easy. Let's see what have I noted here? Okay. I'm going to identify for you the five foundational cornerstones of civilization. And I'm going to show you that in spite of the fact that in the United States of America, President Barack Obama, and President Joseph Biden, they kind of look like civilized guys, they dress nicely, they, they just for the most part, they speak well, they seem pretty civilized. At the same time, they are both and many others around them focused on the destruction of civilization. And I'm not saying that they're Adolf Hitler, they're Joseph Stalin or anything else like that. I'm saying that in how each and every one of us conduct ourselves, we are either strengthening the structure of human civilization, or we are hindering it, harming it and contributing to its destruction. But white Rabbi Lapin there's lots of civilizations? No, there's really not that I told you, I was gonna say things that were going to bother you deeply. But you know, already, if you've been part of this show, for for more than a few weeks, you know, that I have never, ever seen my task as massaging you with warm butter, telling you the things you already believe and insisting that everything you think is absolutely right. No, I don't do that for myself. Why on earth? Do you think I would do it for you? I don't let myself get complacent about my beliefs. I challenge my beliefs. I challenge the things I think and think I know, all the time. And I encourage other people to challenge them. I welcome that in conversation. I have certain friends who I depend upon, to not take what I say at face value, but to force me to defend it and argued and sometimes I have to retract it as well. But the stuff I'm telling you today is really pretty basic. There's really not a lot of civilizations if there were Then today there would be mass migration in many different directions. People would be trying to migrate to Muslim civilization. They'd be trying to migrate to African civilization. But they're not the direction of illegal immigration in the in the entire world is only in the direction of what we call Western civilization. Now, as well as Western civilization, flawless, what about slavery? Yeah, slavery was actually ended by Western civilization be aware of that. Outside Western civilization, slavery continued. So what about colonization? I have I'm yet to be demonstrated or shown or proven that colonization was bad for the countries that were colonized. I'm not sure I see that. There is a distinct difference in the life standards and the living conditions of people in countries that were colonized by the British, as opposed to countries that were never colonized at all. So I'm not at all sure I again, I know that out there, the modern view is, oh, colonization was terrible, and absolutely horrible. Yeah, I'm not sure that so I haven't, I've seen no evidence that that is the case. And so Western civilization, no more perfect than made up of human beings who were not perfect. But an attempt to provide the best way for the majority of people to live. No question about John Rawls was a I think he was at Harvard, he was a
Daniel Lapin 36:42
philosopher, maybe a philosopher, somebody who tends to overthink things, but in, in, in general, he had something interesting that sort of lay up be the centerpiece of his thinking, which was that if you're trying to devise a system under which human beings should live, what you need to do, is come up with a system. And be aware that in this thought experiment, you are not able to predict where in society you will fit. So you'd better come up with a system that is the best for the maximum number of people. So obviously, a slavery system wouldn't be very good, because you might be among the slavers, slaves instead of slave owners, you a system of socialism, well, you know, if you are part of the knob and Cateura [sp], part of the upper group that enjoys all the luxuries of the world, while everyone else suffers in equality, and, and poverty, or equal poverty, you don't know where you're going to end up. And so following his idea that try and design a system that will be good for everyone, even you even though you don't know where you're going to end up. Well, Western civilization comes closer than anything else. We've, we've, we've since come up with. So what are the five foundational principles of Western civilization?
Daniel Lapin 38:15
Number one, economic and technological development. And those go hand in hand. They always have the, you know, the human being who discovered fire was way ahead of his fellow tribes. And I'm just, I'm just joking about that, because I don't think that's how it happened. But on this on the sort of basis of evolutionary development that these early Neanderthals, one of them suddenly discovered fire, well, that was as much of a breakthrough as the as the microchip, you know, with billions of transistors on it all you know, the size of your fingernail. That was his breakthrough, just as big. And obviously, he had huge advantages. And similarly, the steam engine comes along, right. The places that employed the steam engine had huge advances in economic productivity. Before that, there was the waterwheel an early form of mechanical advantage, but places that employed it again, there was no waterwheel anywhere in Africa. So civilization arrived, there wasn't nobody came up with a waterwheel didn't exist anywhere in Africa. How about countries where it did come? Well, mostly countries of Western civilization had the waterwheel and and prospered. So one of the the first foundational principles these are not in any order of importance, but the first foundational principle is technology and economic progress. In other words, people serving one another people finding new ways to serve one another through technology, whatever technology is of that age, that is something that tends to happen in a civilized environment. We've just, I just wanted to make sure that I'm not leaving out anything. There's a lot of things I know that that I wanted to tell you. But, but that's the basic idea. If a place is operating on a very primitive economy, and there's not a capital market, and there's not technological development, that place desperately needs more civilizational input desperately. sounds so simple, because it used to be said that, oh, we can make the whole world civilized. Because these days, we can send capital to everywhere we can send information to everywhere. Unfortunately, that's not all that's needed. And the proof is that we live in the age of the internet, the most remote tribe on earth has access to all the information that mankind has the internet, and capital. Today, capital follows opportunities across borders anywhere. And so you have people in Finland coming up with, with new apps, you got people in, in Russia, Estonia, it doesn't matter, because capital and information can go anywhere.
Daniel Lapin 41:29
But if that's the case, how come they're still places that have nothing? If information is available, and capital is available everywhere. Why are these places so many places not prospering? What's that about? And that has to do with additional aspects of the five principles, the foundational principles of civilization. It's not just money and information. There is also internal discipline, structure, ability to impose restraints on Appetites. Because the paradox is that whenever societies succeed, and achieve civilization, at exactly the same time that civilization erodes the foundational structures that made it possible in the first place, people start becoming self indulgent, people stop being strong. People even lose the ability or the desire to physically defend themselves. Violence is evil. They say, No, it's not. Violence is very, very good if it's used correctly. Because there's trouble is the bad guys always use violence in the world. And if you're not willing to deploy it, in defense of your family, or your finances, how terrible would that be? And so we must be careful to not accept all the little slogans that come out of civilization, such as Oh, violence is never the solution. Sometimes it is the only solution. world war two ended only with the infliction of huge violence, nothing else was going to end the war. So that brings us to the second of the foundational principles of civilization. And that is the normative family. And again, you know, you're you're going to be told the opposite by elitist by university professors, by psychologists by all kinds of people are going to tell you, the normative family is a it's an art, it's hierarchical, and it's old fashioned and it's, it's oppressive. Okay, you know, it's important that, you know, there's another viewpoint and the other viewpoint is, it's none of those things. It is a huge blessing that makes civilization possible. And normal family life, that's what makes it possible. That means a man married to a woman and them being devoted not only to one another, but to the children, they bring into the world, upon that civilization rests. And without it, civilization is threatened. The One only has to today look at who is causing the havoc in American society. And you'll see it is people who, mostly males, but not exclusively, who never knew what living with a father and mother is like, and amazingly enough, the huge percentage of Americans of a certain age who have never sat down and enjoyed what we call a family meal. Can you believe that, but it's true. And those are the elements that imperil society, in peril, civilization. And so those of you happy warriors, who are nurturing your marriages, and building families, and raising wonderful children, upon you. civilization will depend entirely, and don't think you're going to get praised for it. And don't think people will thank you for it, you will be seen to be perpetuating an old fashioned way of human life, certain things don't change, they just don't change. One of the things that don't change is that most men, overwhelming majority of men want exclusivity over their wives. That's what they want. So much so that it's a deal breaker. Men
Daniel Lapin 46:06
generally are worried when men go out with somebody, and they're thinking about marrying a woman and they're, they're dating her. One of the things that the back of their mind that worries them is they want to know what her body count is, in other words, how many people she had sex with, they want to know that. The trouble is they know it's not cool to ask. And they believe that it's primitive, and, and caveman like to even worry about that they should be above that it shouldn't mean anything. It actually means a whole lot. Because as some of you will remember from earlier podcasts that we've shared, is that when a woman sleeps with a man, it is actually constituting a marriage. Shocking, isn't it. Now, it's not a legal marriage. But it's a marriage in the deepest spiritual sense. And it leaves an indelible mark. And most of them deep in their hearts know that they do, then stand that? Well, you would have thought by now, after 60 years of MIS education, and false propaganda, the left would have succeeded in curing men of this primitive quality. Now, nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. And it won't ever change. Because these are fundamental realities that the good Lord built into human beings. They're, they're not mutable, they're not changeable. They all what they are. And you can either fight them and waste your life and be miserable. Or you can know what they are, and sculpt your life to fit in with these realities. That's what we do in all other parts of life. You know, nobody jumps out of the top floor windows of buildings and say this gravity is immorally. We've had it around long enough. It's old-fashioned, we've really got to find it. No, people live with it. People organize their lives around the reality of gravity. people organize their lives around the reality of a lifespan. That's not changing dramatically. Right? I mean, I know there are billionaires who speak about changing it's don't waste a lot of your energy on this not happening. The bottom line is that there's a human lifespan. And if you want to know what the investment industry, if you really want to understand at the root, what the investment financial services industry is all about. It is how to acute how to store up the work of your youth. So is that when you reach older age, you'll be able to draw from that how do you store up work? That's the whole question. Well, God gave us a solution. It's a miracle. It's called money. And you have to protect it. Because if you're careless with it, not you but if your government is careless, they destroyed value. It's called inflation. If you can even imagine a government doing such an immoral thing as destroying the value of money, but yes, that's it's a reality. We're dealing with a reality. It's a reality that that has to do with human lifespan. And so we have to we have to be aware of, of how that works, okay. lifespan, it impacts a lot of decisions and we work with it. You know, we don't wave a defiant fist at it. Well, so it is with all other aspects of human reality such as marriage. Rage and the centrality of what I call the normative family unit for the perpetuation of civilization. And don't forget, your family stability depends on civilization lasting, your finances depend on civilization lasting, one of the, one of the indicators of a declining civilization is loss of value of the money, you can see that that with the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, you can see it with the decline and fall of the pound sterling, as the British Empire came to an end in about 1950. It's always like that it's an indicator of impending extinction, losing the value of money. And so yeah, if I care about my money, and I care about the safety and stability, and security of my family, I want to see civilization and the abandonment of law and order.
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Where we decide as a virtue to no longer prosecute wrongdoers, and criminals. Well, that is a blow against civilization. And it makes it more difficult for us to defend our families and our fortunes, and our finances and everything else. So economic and technological progress are one foundational principle, the second one is norburn of family life. And this is one of the reasons that those that are determined to destroy civilization, do everything they can to drive a wedge between parents and children. And so this whole idea that children should be able to have sex change operations without parental supervision or permission or awareness, that's part of it. Even the death tax is part of it, to make it no longer possible for a person to pass along his assets when he passes on to his children. No, they must go to all the people in society through a death tax assets on which income tax has already been paid thoroughly immoral, but it's part of the barbaric project, because it drives a wedge between parents and children. Inheritance is one of the beautiful things that builds relationship between parents and children.
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And third thing, and that the we focus on the individual, not the tribal, we focus on spiritual connections, not blood connections. Civilization never coexists with tribalism. And not surprisingly, those who are exerting barbaric forces on the culture in order to destroy civilization, follow the Marxist rule of dividing people up into tribes, rich and poor, black, white men, women, etc, etc, as many different tribes as you can come up with, the easier it is to destroy civilization. Why would anybody want to destroy civilization? Because if you are in power, if you are an elitist, if you are on top, if you are a ruler, not a ruled, it's actually a lot of fun working in living in a barbaric environment, because you really get to do whatever you like. And everyone is in such disarray, that they can't even do anything about it. In civilization, there are checks and balances, there is a free press, there are restrictions on what governors and rulers can actually do. But the more barbaric the society, the better it is, for those at the top. Think of John Rawls, again, you can't predict where you're going to end up. But these people these elitist Oh, they do know exactly where they're going to end up, they're going to end up exactly where they are now on top of the heap. And as long as that heap is not civilized, but barbaric. There is almost no limit to their powers. And so so we've got economic and scientific progress, no, but a family, individual, not tribal, which also means that we focus very much on spiritual associations, marriage, marriage is not a blood relationship. It's a spiritual relationship to strangers say, we're going to devote our lives to one another and to the children who bring into the world. That's a statement of commitment and promise, totally spiritual. It's not it's not tribal. It's not it's not blood. It's not a blood-based relationship. That's one of the reasons that the good Lord prohibits us from marrying our sisters and our cousins. incest is prohibited, not because we can't solve genetic problem. incest is prohibited, because it's a blood relationship, instead of a spiritual relationship and that's tribalism, not favored in the Bible, not favored in God's view of how human beings should function. business relationships, by the way, financial relationship purely spiritual. One of the proofs for that is that my pet gorilla doesn't have a clue what's going on. If I sit down with my friends for a meal, he gets that he likes eating also. But if before the meal, we say a grace, that party doesn't yet my pet gorilla can understand biological and physical processes, he cannot understand spiritual. So any financial transaction leaves my pet gorilla, completely baffled, you should see the looks of worry that come across his forehead, he doesn't get it.
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He doesn't get marriage, and he doesn't get financial transactions. Those things happen in a, in a civilized society, they tend not to happen in a barbaric society, much less marriage in a barbaric society, and much less individual economic enterprise. Item number four foundational principle number four is nationalism, not globalization. Nationalism, not globalization. It's interesting, but one of the there's an interesting verse in Genesis chapter 10, verse five, I'm going to read to you the English in and in my Bible.
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By these were the isles of the nations divided in their lands, everyone after his tongue, after their families in their nations. The Hebrew is a little bit more precise, from these were separated the islands of the nations. And let's see is that what I said in English, sort of, it's not bad. Some English translations get that very wrong, each according to their land, each according to their language. And this is one of those places where the Bible emphasizes, well, essentially the federal system, that God decided it would work better for human beings, if there was not a world order, if there was not a one world government. Now, there has never yet been a United Nations Secretary General, that hasn't dream, delicious, wet dreams, every night of the United Nations becoming accepted as the world government. That's what they dream of that everything they do, is focused on bringing them closer to that dreamed of reality. But it's not how it works. Well, we do much better with separate nations, islands of nations, each with their own language and their own cultures. You know why? Because we can learn from one another that way. There's variety. And that's good. And people will move in between the various nations and learn things from here, and they move them there. And sure enough industrial and economic development, from the 15 1400s, from the 15th century onwards, was best and most noticeable among nations that connected with other nations, nations that isolated themselves did not do well, the islands of the nation. So nationalism is a good thing. By the way, have you noticed how the university based culture the university political axis, tends to make the idea of nationalism evil, absolutely evil and horrible. It's not loving your nation as a good thing. So again, you know, don't let anybody think and don't let anybody tell you that nationalism is the problem with this world, people. And that's only if you believe in an internationalism, and you believe in a globalism, well, then I guess people who love their own nation more than other nations are bad, but it's even considered bad by many intellectuals, to love your own children more than you love other children. Right. And there are philosophers and intellectuals who actually do believe that and who promote that you mustn't love your children more than other children. Peter Singer, by the way happens to be there's many I could give you many names. And they really do believe that you don't owe more to your child than a starving child in Biafra. Right? That's people believe that? Because they reject the biblical notion of a hierarchy of obligations. I owe more to my family than I do to strangers. I owe more to strangers in my own City, then strangers in other cities, I owe more to fellow citizens of my country than I do. If you can't handle that idea of hierarchy, you don't have the faintest clue of what a civilization is all about.
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And finally, morality is based on the individual, again, not global. Now, what is regarded as immoral in a secular barbaric worldview, violating climate change protocols? Environmentalism, it used to be not recycling, and not being in favor of wind windmills. Well, now as Europe goes cold and dark, because they've they shut down so many coal and gas and nuclear power stations, they're rethinking that one. It's wonderful, you know, they say a conservative is a liberal, that's been mugged by reality. Well,
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I'm a very, very big exponent of reality. And I believe being in touch with reality is the cure for so many things. And when I say my job is to reveal how the world read, that's what I'm talking about exposing reality. And so a civilization is based on people having an internal and individual moral sense. In other words, there are things that I must do in terms of honoring my parents and giving charity and taking care of my children. All of all of these things are the real bastions of civilization. It's not fighting for the planet. It's not trying to cut back global warming. And it's no surprise that that young Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, who foolish adults prostrated themselves before and who accepted her wisdom as supreme. Well, now she's sort of moved onwards from climate change, how dare you, and she's moved on to essentially the destruction of civilization. She calls it the destruction of the capitalist system. But remember, that foundational principle one of civilization is an economic and technological, progress based system. And so yeah, she's trying to destroy civilization now. So are our five foundational principles, what makes us civilization, economic and technological progress, normative family, and number three, individual, not tribal affiliations based on spiritual, not biological reasons, marriage business, and so on. Number four, nationalism, not globalization. We don't want a one world government. We don't want internationalism, we don't believe in John Lennon song. If you know, if only there were no borders, none of that is true. And even John Lennon rejected that eventually. And then five, finally, that there are moral codes that individuals have to follow, that have to do with individual behavior, not all national and international and global. No, those are five foundational principles of how civilization works. And so in order to help civilization in your own particular corner of the world, wherever you are, you should do everything in your power, that you are helping civilization by strengthening the normative family, and by advancing economic and technological process, progress, and that you understand that associations based on individual spiritual factors, as opposed to tribalism are important. I don't link with another person just because they're white. I don't link with another person because they don't have a lot of hair on their heads. No, I don't make biological linkages. I make spiritual linkages, and I associated with people who share my values, not my skin color. Number four, I'm against globalization, I'm for nationalism. I do everything I can to help my country. It doesn't mean I'm immune to the concerns of other countries. It doesn't mean I'm indifferent to the fate of other countries, I might well do what I can, but my priority is my country. And finally, morality and religiosity. Again, that's that faith connection. And it's interesting how these tie in to the fundamental five F's that we work on to move our own lives forward, onwards and upwards. I will leave you to make those correlations I think you'll see them quite clearly. So that's been a lot to say wallow in in in one long show today. But I didn't see how to sort of really break it up. I wanted to give you a picture of what's going on and that no matter how you label the conflicts out there, no matter how you label the culture was out there, capitalism, socialism. progressivism, traditionalism, whatever you label them at root, they are they all one thing, a struggle between civilization and barbarism. And here's hoping that civilization wins, and that you and I, in our small
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parts of the world are able to do our part. Because if we're pushing forwards on family and faith, if we're pushing forwards on finance and friendships, and we're taking care of physical fitness, well, then you know, that we are doing everything we can to help civilization as well. It's not at all selfish to be worrying about your five F's, because in so doing, you are making life better for a whole lot of other people around you in so many different ways. So pay a visit to the website Rabbi Daniel Lapin.com, you will find much of value there and it will give me pleasure to know that you are extracting value from my work. Stay in touch. Let's hear from you. If you're not yet joined as a happy warrior will do so because we all gain strength through association and affiliation. So why not actually become a happy warrior? And do that at the website called wehappywarriors.com. So become a happy warrior in reality, not just mind. Do that and join the rest of us on our exciting journey onwards and upwards with our five F's. Thank you for being part of the Rabbi Daniel Lapin show. I am your rabbi till next time. God bless.
