Showing posts with label PRAGER. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PRAGER. Show all posts

Saturday, June 13, 2020

The Four Horsemen Of America’s Apocalypse - PRAGER

PRAGER: The Four Horsemen Of America’s Apocalypse

•
   DailyWire.com
•

Photo by David McNew / Staff via Getty Images
It takes a lot to build a civilization, and though it is much easier to destroy a civilization, it takes a lot to do that, too.
But now we have four roots of evil that are guaranteed to do so.
 No. 1: Victimhood.
The first is victimhood. The more people who regard themselves as victims — as individuals or as a group — the more likely they are to commit evil. People who think of themselves as victims feel that, having been victimized, they are no longer bound by normal moral conventions — especially the moral conventions of their alleged or real oppressors.
Everyone knows this is true. But few confront this truth. Every parent, for example, knows that the child who thinks of him or herself as a perpetual victim is the child most likely to cause and get into trouble. And criminologists report that nearly every murderer in prison thinks of himself as a victim.
That millions of black Americans regard themselves as victims — probably more so today than at any time in the past 50 years — can only lead to disaster for America generally and for blacks specifically. While victims generally feel free to lash out at others, they also go through life angry and unhappy.
No. 2: Demonization.
The second of the four ingredients of this civilization-destroying witches’ brew is demonization — demonizing a group as inherently evil.
That is being done now with regard to the white people of America. All — again, all — whites are declared racist. The only difference among them is that some admit it and some deny it. The notion that whites are inherently evil has long been associated with Louis Farrakhan. But it has apparently migrated out from his relatively small following to many blacks, even those who might consider Farrakhan a kook. Former President Barack Obama, hardly a Farrakhan follower, described America as having racism in its DNA. That is as close to inherently and irredeemably evil as it gets; you cannot change your DNA.
In that sense, not only are whites demonized, but America is, too. Unlike traditional liberals, the left regards America as a moral cesspool — not only racist but, according to The New York Times, founded to be so. The New York Times has created a history of America that declares its founding not in 1776 but in 1619, when the first black slaves arrived. The American Revolution was fought, according to this malign narrative, not merely for American independence but in order to preserve slavery, a practice the British would have interfered with. This “history” will now be taught in thousands of American schools.
The combination of victimhood and demonization alone is dangerous enough. But there are still two more horsemen galloping toward the looming apocalypse.
No. 3: A Cause To Believe In.
Most Americans throughout American history found great meaning in being American and in being religious — usually Christian. Since World War II, we have lived in a post-Christian, post-nationalist age. Until very recently, Americans would have found the expression “for God and country” deeply meaningful; that term today, on the left, is risible and execrable.
But people need something to believe in. The need for meaning is the greatest human need after the need for food. Leftism, with all its offshoots — feminism, environmentalism, Black Lives Matter, antifa — has filled that vacuum. In Europe, communism, fascism and Nazism filled the hole left by the demise of nationalism and Christianity. Here it is leftism and its offshoots.
No. 4: Lies.
The fourth and most important ingredient necessary for evil is lies. Lies are the root of evil. Ironically, slavery itself was made possible only because of the lie that the black was inferior to the white. Nazism was made possible thanks to the lie that Jews were not fully human. And communism was built on lies. Lenin, the father of Soviet Communism, named the Soviet communist newspaper “Truth” (“Pravda”) because truth was what the Communist Party said it was.
The New York Times, CNN and the rest of the mainstream “news” media are becoming our version of Pravda.
Objective truth doesn’t exist on the left. The universities have already declared “objective truth” as essentially an expression of “white privilege.” See what happens to a student who says in class, for example, that “men cannot give birth.”
The public self-debasement demanded of anyone who differs with the left — like New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees just did when he said not standing for the national anthem desecrated the flag and those who have died for it — happens almost daily. The only difference between this and what dissidents underwent during Mao’s Cultural Revolution is that the self-debasement here is voluntary — thus far.
Last week, when this Jew saw a store in Santa Monica with a sign reading “black-owned business” so as to avoid being destroyed, it evoked chilling memories.
That’s how bad it is in America today.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in May 2019, is “The Rational Bible,” a commentary on the book of Genesis. His film, “No Safe Spaces,” came to theaters fall 2019. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

The Four Horsemen of America’s Apocalypse - Prager

The Four Horsemen of America’s Apocalypse

Dennis PragerJune 9, 2020


It takes a lot to build a civilization, and though it is much easier to destroy a civilization, it takes a lot to do that, too.
But now we have four roots of evil that are guaranteed to do so.
No. 1: Victimhood.
The first is victimhood. The more people who regard themselves as victims—as individuals or as a group—the more likely they are to commit evil. People who think of themselves as victims feel that, having been victimized, they are no longer bound by normal moral conventions—especially the moral conventions of their alleged or real oppressors.
Everyone knows this is true. But few confront this truth. Every parent, for example, knows that the child who thinks of him or herself as a perpetual victim is the child most likely to cause and get into trouble. And criminologists report that nearly every murderer in prison thinks of himself as a victim.
On a societal scale, the same holds true—and being on such a larger scale, the chances of real evil ensuing are exponentially increased. One of the most obvious examples is Germany after World War I. Most Germans regarded themselves as victims—of the Treaty of Versailles; of a “stab in the back” German government; of the British, Americans and French; and, of course, of the Jews. This sense of victimhood was one of the most important factors in the popularity of the Nazis, who promised to restore German dignity.
That millions of black Americans regard themselves as victims—probably more so today than at any time in the past 50 years—can only lead to disaster for America generally and for blacks specifically. While victims generally feel free to lash out at others, they also go through life angry and unhappy.
No. 2: Demonization.
The second of the four ingredients of this civilization-destroying witches’ brew is demonization—demonizing a group as inherently evil.
That is being done now with regard to the white people of America. All—again, all—whites are declared racist. The only difference among them is that some admit it and some deny it. The notion that whites are inherently evil has long been associated with Louis Farrakhan. But it has apparently migrated out from his relatively small following to many blacks, even those who might consider Farrakhan a kook. Former President Barack Obama, hardly a Farrakhan follower, described America as having racism in its DNA. That is as close to inherently and irredeemably evil as it gets; you cannot change your DNA.
In that sense, not only are whites demonized, but America is, too. Unlike traditional liberals, the left regards America as a moral cesspool—not only racist but, according to The New York Times, founded to be so. The New York Times has created a history of America that declares its founding not in 1776 but in 1619, when the first black slaves arrived. The American Revolution was fought, according to this malign narrative, not merely for American independence but in order to preserve slavery, a practice the British would have interfered with. This “history” will now be taught in thousands of American schools.
The combination of victimhood and demonization alone is dangerous enough. But there are still two more horsemen galloping toward the looming apocalypse.
No. 3: A Cause To Believe In.
Most Americans throughout American history found great meaning in being American and in being religious—usually Christian. Since World War II, we have lived in a post-Christian, post-nationalist age. Until very recently, Americans would have found the expression “for God and country” deeply meaningful; that term today, on the left, is risible and execrable.
But people need something to believe in. The need for meaning is the greatest human need after the need for food. Leftism, with all its offshoots—feminism, environmentalism, Black Lives Matter, antifa—has filled that vacuum. In Europe, communism, fascism and Nazism filled the hole left by the demise of nationalism and Christianity. Here it is leftism and its offshoots.
No. 4: Lies.
The fourth and most important ingredient necessary for evil is lies. Lies are the root of evil. Ironically, slavery itself was made possible only because of the lie that the black was inferior to the white. Nazism was made possible thanks to the lie that Jews were not fully human. And communism was built on lies. Lenin, the father of Soviet Communism, named the Soviet communist newspaper “Truth” (“Pravda”) because truth was what the Communist Party said it was.
The New York Times, CNN and the rest of the mainstream “news” media are becoming our version of Pravda.
Objective truth doesn’t exist on the left. The universities have already declared “objective truth” as essentially an expression of “white privilege.” See what happens to a student who says in class, for example, that “men cannot give birth.”
The public self-debasement demanded of anyone who differs with the left—like New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees just did when he said not standing for the national anthem desecrated the flag and those who have died for it—happens almost daily. The only difference between this and what dissidents underwent during Mao’s Cultural Revolution is that the self-debasement here is voluntary—thus far.
Last week, when this Jew saw a store in Santa Monica with a sign reading “black-owned business” so as to avoid being destroyed, it evoked chilling memories.
That’s how bad it is in America today.

Thursday, October 31, 2019

'Your Past Is Terrible, And Your Future Is Terrible': What the Left Tells Young Americans

'Your Past Is Terrible, And Your Future Is Terrible': What the Left Tells Young Americans

Dennis Prager
|
Posted: Oct 29, 2019  






Here are some of the messages the left has been giving America's young people:
-- Your past is terrible, and your future is terrible.
The American past is a story of genocide, slavery, racism, patriarchy and colonialism. You should be ashamed of it.
As regards your future, your very existence is in jeopardy. You may well die at a young age unless society completely shifts from fossil fuels to wind and solar power. In fact, your future is so bleak you should probably not consider getting married and having children.
-- If you are a girl, you should know that American society has contempt for you. You will be paid less than a man for the exact same work and exact same number of hours of work. You will have between a 1 in 4 and 1 in 3 chance of being sexually assaulted if you attend college. There is a glass ceiling that will prevent you from professional success. And professional success, not marriage and family, is what you should concentrate on.
That none of the above is true is irrelevant to the left. What is relevant to the left is that these messages make young women leftists -- because they make them angry (virtually all leftists are angry), sad (there are happy liberals and happy conservatives but very few happy leftists) and lonely (singles are overwhelmingly on the left).
-- If you are a young black, the most important thing for you to know is that this country loathes you -- that racism is "part of our DNA," as President Barack Obama put it -- and that just being black gets you suspended or expelled from school, shot by police, denied the vote whenever possible and disproportionately imprisoned.
Again, almost none of that is true. But a happy black -- let alone a black grateful for being an American -- is much less likely to support the left.
-- If you are a young Latino, know the white majority is so xenophobic that if it could, it would expel you from the country.
-- If you are a white male, you are the recipient of unearned privilege, and you are a racist.
-- Boys and girls, you need to know from as young an age as possible that there is actually no such thing as "boys and girls." That is why your teachers have been told not to refer to you as "boys and girls" but only as "students."
-- Young people, you should know that there is no God. So don't look to God or religion for meaning. They are for the emotionally handicapped and for intellectual lightweights. For meaning, look to social action.
-- Christianity, the religion of the great majority of Americans since America's founding, the religion of nearly all your parents or grandparents, justified slavery, the slaughter of Native Americans and the persecution of gays. And in our time, most people who call themselves believing Christians are bigots and hypocrites. Whatever good was achieved was done so by believers with secular Enlightenment values, not Judeo-Christian values. Islam, on the other hand, has always been a religion of peace.
-- Western civilization is nothing for you to be proud of. It is neither culturally nor morally superior to any other civilization or culture. And in many ways, it is worse: It is largely a record of persecution and genocide. That's why you will no longer celebrate Columbus Day but rather Indigenous Peoples Day.
-- Columbus Day will not be the only national holiday we will either erase or minimize in importance. Whereas Americans have always had meaningful holidays to celebrate and enrich their lives, you will have few or none (aside from Halloween). Previous generations found great meaning in Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays. You won't. Their birthdays are no longer celebrated. Throughout American history, July Fourth meant a great deal to nearly all Americans. They celebrated it with patriotic marches, parades and speeches. No longer. Anyway, America wasn't founded in 1776: According to The New York Times, it was founded in 1619, when the first slaves arrived. As for Memorial Day, this once solemn day in which Americans placed flowers at the graves of those who died to preserve our freedoms, is just another day off. And most of the deceased probably died in vain anyway.
-- You have few American heroes.
Hey, kids, America's founders, known as heroes to every generation until the present one, were not heroes at all. They were rich white men who believed in patriarchy, the suppression of women and slavery. They were all racists, and some were rapists. In short, as an American, you have few, if any, heroes.
Only when one understands that the left -- the left, not liberalism -- has always and everywhere been a destructive force can one begin to understand what is happening to America. And the left has damaged no group more than America's youth. Leftists speak about "the children" -- but they care about "the children" as much as the communists cared about "the workers."
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His latest book, published by Regnery in April 2018, is "The Rational Bible," a commentary on the book of Exodus. His film, "No Safe Spaces," comes to theaters fall 2019. He is the founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
Dennis Prager's Latest Book The Rational Bible: Genesis is a #1 Best Seller on Amazon

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

We All Wanted to Love the Women’s Soccer Team

We All Wanted to Love the Women’s Soccer Team



But the team, led by foul-mouthed Megan Rapinoe, disgraced itself.
For the first time in my life, I did not root for an American team. Whatever the sport, I have always rooted American. And if those who called in to my radio show were representative of my audience, many millions of Americans made the same sad choice.
It takes a lot for people like me not to root for an American team. But Megan Rapinoe, the foul-mouthed star of the team, and her fellow players made it possible.
 The U.S. women’s team disgraced itself. Either its members were cowed into submission by Rapinoe or they agreed (or, at least, never disagreed) with her attacks on the president, her reference to the White House as the “f—ing White House,” her refusal since 2016 to participate in the national anthem, and her repeatedly shouting during the team’s parade in New York City, “New York, you’re the motherf—ing best!”
For example, Rapinoe said, “Every member of the team that I have talked to would not go” to the White House.
Rapinoe is a great soccer player. 
Other than that, she is unimpressive. 
She comes across as arrogant, a fool, and a lowlife.

Why a fool? 
Because she thinks she has something important to say to the American people and that we need to hear it because she is a great soccer player. She is not alone in this conceit. Tom Steyer and other billionaires think the same thing about themselves: that because they are better at making money than almost everybody, they must be wiser than almost everybody.
People who excel in one thing are tempted to think they are smart about everything, but that is almost never the case. There is no reason at all to assume that people who excel in anything (other than wisdom) are wiser than anybody else. And here’s the kicker (no pun intended): People who think they are wise because they excel at something unrelated to wisdom are fools.
And why is Rapinoe a lowlife? 
What would you label any adult who constantly used the F-word in public (especially during events when children are expected to be present or watching)? Or does being a star — like the foul-mouthed Robert De Niro — make you less of a lowlife?

The American women’s soccer team is unified in protesting on behalf of “equal pay for equal work.” They regard their team as a perfect example because its members receive less money than members of the U.S. men’s soccer team — despite the fact that the women have a much better record.
But there is a reason the male players earn more. Among other things — such as the women’s team’s vote for financial security in the form of guaranteed salaries rather than revenue share — men’s soccer generates far more money than women’s soccer.
According to the Los Angeles Times: FIFA’s “2018 financial report said it earned revenue of $5.357 billion from the men’s tournament in Russia. … Forbes estimated the Women’s World Cup will generate about $131 million for the four-year cycle ending in 2022.”
So, unless people should be paid according to gender (which they now are in Norway) rather than according to revenue and profits, male soccer players will earn more money than female soccer players.
There are only two ways 
to equitably ensure male and female players earn the same amount of money. 
One is to pool all the money earned by both teams and then distribute an equal amount to all the players, men and women. 

The other is to end sex-based teams: Men and women compete to play on one team (composed of both men and women), and any woman who makes the team is guaranteed the same income as any man on the team.
Until then, the women’s soccer team and the Left want to have their cake and eat it, too. (Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, for example, tweeted this non sequitur: “Here’s an idea: If you win 13-0 — the most goals for a single game in World Cup history — you should be paid at least equally to the men’s team.”) They want women to have their own soccer teams — because biology has made it impossible for almost any woman to successfully compete with men in sports — yet earn the same amount as men do. But the reality is more people will watch men play soccer, just as more people watch major-league baseball than minor-league baseball — which is why major-league baseball players earn more money than minor-league players do. But if we applied the equal-pay-for-equal-work principle to baseball, minor-league and major-league players would be paid the same amount.
5
With their politicization of their victory, their expletive-filled speech, and their publicly expressed contempt for half their fellow citizens, the women of the U.S. women’s soccer team succeeded in endearing themselves to America’s Left. 
But they earned the rest of the country’s disdain, which is sad. We really wanted to love the team.
What we have here is yet another example of perhaps the most important fact in the contemporary world: Everything the Left touches it ruins.