Life is not worth living. You are very late. Take your seat. If you are my friend angie felt like i will call you out. I have to say we realize in new york city people tend to avoid the big subjects, the important things, god, whatever can make you squirm. Does god exist . What is the nature of reality. The kind of questions that people typically dont get into. We cover life, god and other small topics. In other words, everything is fair game at socrates in the city which you which means weve all kinds of different guests on all kinds of different subjects and to do encourage you, go to our website, socrates in the city and you can watch them. Latch we did a whole bunch of events in oxford, england, because a lot of our speakers are in oxford, england, and without why do we take socrates in the city there . We fight a wonderful time over the years. Before i was interviewing people, we would just have a speech at a podium like this everybody number of wonderful gifts do that as well. I think about six years ago we decided that i would be the guest at socrates in the city. Every six years i am about to do this. I cannot with about a bookie or so wouldnt do this every but what about my look and april 2010, i was the speaker at introduced myself. It was very met up, messes with your head. It messed with my head and i was the speaker and the host. I decided not to do that this time just because it is the taking. Fatigue. I have come up with another book and i thought this meets the socrates in the city requirements. Its on the big question, the stuff that we should all be thinking about probably. We would not pretend with all the answers, so we thought it would be appropriate to do this. My Publisher Viking has me represented here. Dont raise your hands, but they picked this date june 14 as the release date. I thought did they know that this is flag day . I write about flag day in the book and this day is very, very important to me. It turns out they didnt. They just happen to pick at june 14 as the day this book should come out. I wouldnt exactly call that a miracle but its a pretty good coincidence. Im thrilled as i said like it is important to be and its sort of the opposite of what happened in the books i will talk about that in a moment. Try to think of what else. Im not going to introduce myself big have a mentioned that . Im not going to. To do that would just be a slap in the face ever in the room as you already know i can be so not going to pretend i am not need. Before the start i just want to say i am stunned by how many people are here from different parts of the country. If you are not from new york, would you raised your hand . Unbelievable. What a bunch of rubes. Look at them. Its incredible. Im just so thrilled some refreshing texas to a number of friends i havent seen in many years. Im just so thrilled to see my friend justin, pat, a number of people who surprise me, in my mind. Thank you for coming and sharing this important event with me. I see france of all around the world. Thank you for coming. Let me turn to the subject at hand. The book i have just written is called if you can keep it. Im going to talk a few bits about and then open it up to q a. We will see what happens. Theres so much i want to say on the subject of the book. I hardly know where to start. Let me start with the title. Some people get the reference, and of the people didnt graduate high school. Just kidding. I would not have gotten the reference myself. Once you know something if you like everybody should know that, right . Here is where i get this from. In 1787, Benjamin Franklin was exiting the constitutional convention, Independence Hall in philadelphia. Part of the background everything im going to see is i didnt know this stuff. I got what i would consider a decent education, Public School. I went to a Good University but none of these places really seemed to communicate a lot of what im going to share tonight, which again forms the background of what i wrote this book and will act as such a burning passion to communicate these things. The story is that in 1787, things were not going so well for the United States of america. We had i was a genuinely miraculous they come into existence, when you know the details and i put them in my book, it is a staggering thing. We should not have succeeded it doesnt make much sense that washington was able to succeed. About of long island, i didnt put that chapter in my book, you can when my publisher. Its brians old. Paper is expensive. He couldnt pull that off. The point is theres so many miracles that happened that when you put them all together and you say this is remarkable. You dont have to accept it as gods hand or anything but it is nonetheless remarkable when you look at the things they came together to create this nation. At least for me it was remarkable. I would read these things and say this is staggering. It does seem that god has his hand on the creation of this nation. You dont have to buy into that project and nonetheless understand that it is remarkable that we are here. 1776 we come into existence rather miraculously. We win the war but in 1783 when hostilities cease, what happened with we had articles of confederation, we have a very weak federal government the the whole point was have a week of federal government. [applause] the tea party is here. Awesome. Thats the point of limited government. However, it is too limited then you have no government. We get that the you are looking for this incredibly fragile balance comment and all of the leaders, the founders, the framers understood it wasnt quite working. By 1787 they said weve got to go back to the drawing board and figure this out the they go to Independence Hall in philadelphia, spend about 100 days. The creation of the constitution itself seems barack just the again i say seems. Theres no proof there it was moroccos but the point is you go to the founders themselves and read what they wrote and ill say to try to find a compromise between this late stage in the free states, between maine and georgia on and on and on was essentially impossible. It was not working and they were despairing that this could ever work. Imagine that people who were not inside the convention were probably thinking okay, what are they going to do . When they give us some kind of limited monarchy . Imagination of the world that have been nothing but monarchy. And ive never been a republic like we have. Nothing like it and we forget. We think its normal. Ththe big it was it had never existed in the history of the world. So you have these people in this room doing something and the people outside the rule of god wanted whats going to happen . With a crease and limited monarchy . Whats it going to be . Benjamin franklin, the most, one of the most secular of all of the founders, exhorted the people in the room to pray. Do you realize how bizarre that is, Benjamin Franklin was one to do that . He exhorted them to pray and he said that god came to our aid in the formation of this country. Why would we doubt he would help us now . They were at an impasse. Things worked out. They created the constitution but many of those with their used the word miraculous. They said it really was simply astounding that this thing worked out. At the end of this Benjamin Franklin walked out of the building. He walks out of the building and a woman, a mrs. Powell of philadelphia confronting the he had been in philadelphia for 60 years since he was 17. He probably knew everybody so i can imagine had known since his aching comes up and says what have you given us, a monarchy or a republic . Benjamin ficus is a republic, madam, if you can keep it. Thats where this comes from, if you can keep it, right . [applause] the thing is its one of those things that maybe you heard it in history class or maybe you didnt but the point is it really is one of these odd quirks of history, the only reason we know about this exchange between mrs. Powell who is lost to history and franklin is because james mckenna, the 30 for your delicate, happen to overhear this and went home and wrote all this in his diary. It wasnt like a speech given by Benjamin Franklin. Think of the import of those words, if you can keep it. He understood and all the founders understood what they created was utterly unprecedented. As a proud greek under the greeks invented democracy but yes, we did. [laughter] and a lot of stuff, okay . But the point is that the greek city states were very small and democracy just flourish for a tiny, tiny period. Here we have 13 colonies, a couple million people. The idea of bringing this idea of selfgovernment to a nation, it simply had never been done. The founders and the framers as they were in that room, they understood what they were going to do has never been done and probably rationally should not be possible. If something can be done for millennia of history, why would you think would be possible now . Everyone of us, the reason i wrote the book, we pretty much take this for granted. A deal, of course it works. Now. They really thought for this to work, first of all, the constitutionist bmx tour that document, which is, that it requires the people to keep it. They said if you dont keep it coming goes away. Evaporates. The National State of affairs is not civil republic and democracy. This is not normal. Whats normal is people cutting each other. They got that out a lot of the other clubs in town. Thats one always take this club. Basically franklin was not sent to slightly. He was saying if you can keep the company which its up to you. We create the constitution but now it is up to the people. We create something that is an outlier, a bizarre anomaly in history where is going to be up to the people to do it to continue. And if they dont it goes away. As we know the people did it. It worked and it continued and continued. I think we forgot about the idea of keeping it. I submit to you again its why i put the book. For the last 40 or so weve forgotten what it takes to keep and we have forgotten how important it is for us to keep it. I think we have come to replace where we are in trouble. We are not keeping it basically. We are on fumes. Its like a cut flower. It looks nice but it is dead. In two weeks it will not look for a nice because it is divorced from its roots. I think thats where we are. Its not the kind of thing you would notice. Everything looks fine but i really think to be a people you have to know who you are as a people. You have to know your stories. And the last 20 years or so, sorry, in the last 40 years, since the 60s, a negative narrative has taken hold. If you focus on what we did to the native americans but africanamericans, we are right to know about those things, and to focus on those things because those are bad things we need to acknowledge and repent of. But if you get stuck and you keep saying we are back and we did this, George Washington was a slave owner, if youre in this cycle and you dont ever celebrate who you are and the fact you abolish slavery in fact you do with a bright and the fact we are always struggling to do this kind of stuff, if you seek to be patriotic in that sense of patriotic, something goes wrong. But the greek proverb that i quote in the book that if you dont boast about your house, it will fall down and crush you. In other words, theres something fundamental come intended to being human to be proud of her family, to be proud of the village, to be proud of your island, to be proud of your nation, your city. Theres something fundamental about that. We all have been schooled and how that can go wrong. We know when nationalism goes wrong it becomes jingoistic, chest thumping. Weve seen where that can go wrong, okay. But we also have to understand that not having a proper, healthy self regard pride in who we are can also go wrong. I think thats where we are. We tried 40 or so years of not really teaching kids you need to love your country. I think were at a place for most americans, anybody my age and younger, and i just turned 32 [laughter] i didnt . Called me a liar. Anybody my age and younger really probably didnt get this in school. I didnt. It never hit me until i was in this room listening to a man speak from this podium. It was awesome guinness. He would a book called the free people since i. Some of you are familiar with that book. He gave, we have as a speaker at transit and he spoke about that from your. Much of what he said, and he is from england. I thought to myself sitting here, i went to good schools. How can i never heard what hes talking about . It was basic stuff but a part of the whole thing was what he called the Golden Triangle freedom. This is what really struck me. The Golden Triangle freedom. He said all the founders were unaware of this andy schleck, they were. Use of the Golden Triangle freedom was simply this. Freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faith and faith in turn requires freedom. Got that . Now. Freedom requires for cheaper of the end of heard that. What does it mean . I spoke out of school in texas indicators saying we know freedom requires virtue. Like they know. Dictating that in the school so sensible are teaching us but i never this. You will never see on tv. Virtue is like a dirty word. We talk about competence but we dont talk about character and virtue. What does this mean . And i thought its basic. Freedom which is selfgovernment requires that the people govern themselves. Think about that. Self government wants people to govern themselves. It means you have to govern yourself. Its not just about we govern ourselves but every person has to govern himself. In other words, you dont need a lot of cops. Self government means that people will pretty much govern themselves most of the time to if they are virtuous we know that they will do that. I dont feel, not that im afraid of being caught or thought that the dungeons of saddam, i dont see because i feel it is wrong to steal. If you have people who are virtuous, Self Government becomes possible. The founders understood that the they understood it will not be possible unless you people who can handle it, who will govern themselves. So freedom requires virtue. The freedom were talking a requires virtue of some kind. Its a basic idea and the founders understood this and wrote about it and i quote them in the boat. They all got this stuff. Freedom requires virtue. Virtue requires faith. That everyone who is a person of faith is virtuous and the as well as virtuous is a person of faith. However, the founders knew practically speaking when they saw a community that was serious about its faith, they tended to be selfgoverning and virtuous. Ill talk about with you in a minute, George Whitfield, but when it would see the effects of the prescient George Whitfield in the colonies, those places, the crime would drop. Its an extraordinary thing. Where there is robust expression of faith, you have people generally speaking who are generally speaking virtuous who are generally speaking able to govern themselves. They understood that freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faith and faith in turn requires freedom. What does that mean . Faith in turn requires freedom. In other words, any kind of faith cannot be forced. If you force faith its not real. If you force somebody to believe something or go to a Certain Church or whatever, you know endless they do it voluntarily its just a game. Why are they going . Unit many countries in europe around the world basic this is the official church. You have to go to that church. There are a lot of people going to say i dont bide but im going to because i dont want to go to jail. I dont want to go to jail. You have to have real freedom for faith to flourish, otherwise the faith of any kind of faith. We all know this in america. We get this you have to have a free market of ideas. Peoples im going to go to this church because i choose to go to this church. Not because the Government Forces me. Or i go to no church because i choose not to go to church. We are not forcing anyone to go to church, not forcing anyone to go to any particular kind of church. It is utterly free. The founders all understood freedom of religion has to be at the very heart of the United States. If people dont choose themselves what they want to worship, whether they want to worship, ottawa to worship, where, it doesnt work. They want a robust expression of faith and they said this form of government will not work unless by and large the are a lot of people of faith. That faith must be utterly free. So they enshrined religious liberty in the constitution at in fact they had been a practicing religious liberty for most of the 18th century. Its the universal but basically america got this kind of stuff. I remember in sixth saint it from this republican and im thinking this is crazy. He has just told how much of it works and has worked for 230 plus years, and i never really thought about this. I was deeply embarrassed and i realized most of the people have not heard about this. And i felt really good about myself because i heard about it first. But it really thought something is wrong. This is very strange. Why dont i know about this . Then one day i guess my daughter was about seven, shes right here. Shes no longer seven. Put the cigarette out of your mouth. Stop about. [laughter] and i found out i dont know if you know those dover catalogs we get all kinds of books and stuff and i found a paper model of the paul revere house. For some reason it appealed to me. Its like that moment in the surprised by joy. Something about the timing is a bit of euros to so i i thought that would be a nice thing to do with my daughter. I get the thing and we are building this old house and then i realized the poem, paul reviews paul leaders right. I never really read that poem. When i went to yoga, homes that rhymed were sneered at. Only stupid people would want homes to run. Most people wont really elliptical obtuse poems that mean nothing and you never read them. So i picked up the poem and i started reading it. Most of you know little snippet of it. Listen my children and you shall hear of the Midnight Ride of paul revere. On the 18th of april in 75, hardly a man is now alive remembers that famous day and year. I started eating at a realized i had not gotten past that much. As a red i thought i have heard this. It was so beautiful and so moving that i was stunned i was absolute stunned by the beauty of the poem and i thought to myself why have people sneered at this poem . This gets where we have been as a culture.