I have always admired this institution which takes no federal funds. I was reading yesterday, and this i did not know, i didnt know you would ask that, i didnt prepare a statement but my wife showed me a literal group last night founded in 1844, i believe, and one of the first universities in america to admit black women. It is considered conservative but it is a good example of how, the best word i can use, is how twisted our vocabulary has been found. It was a conservative institution and the first to admit africanamericans and of course because that is what it stood for. You were human before you were a race, gender or class. I have this Organization Prager university which i founded 40 years ago and has a million views this year. We are trying to do fiveminute courses with the finest minds in america and the world, really. We are trying to undue the damage our universities are doing to be honest. We have a number of Hillsdale College professors or at folsom who will be on your show. Host the other america, among the iowas thing you can do, is contribute. America wb would be better off if you burn that money. Gues guest i bleed pleguilty to being an intellectual. The life of the mind from my earliest days has been my life. I must own 5,000 books. When i had no money, which was a good part of my life, i was never money preoccupied. I was influenced preoccupied wanting to touch peoples lives but i didnt care about money. I felt i was rich if i could get any book i wanted and that was the best. From high school on, i just bought books. To this day when i hear so and so is a professor of history i cant help but think wow. It is my first reaction. Wow. What i believe the left has done, not liberals, i love liberals and i mean this is not a line. There is a huge difference between leftism and liberalism. The left is indoctrinated people and as a result your kid will leave thinking the United States and israel are the villains and that is twisted. The moral compass is broken intellectually and morally. At ucla you can get a ba in english without having read one shakespeare play. Multiculturism, the motion that all cultures are equal, has taken over so why would you focus on dead, white european males . Can i develop this thought more . So i am very involved in Classical Music including condu conducting orchestras. Two years ago, a piece from one of the greatest composure, i wanted to know who he would chose and if it was similar moo tie choices. They were mostly similar but he didnt include handle or hiding and hiding is the father of the symphony and the father of the cor tet. I know readers will ask why why didnt include him he said and the answer was i didnt want to take too many german vietnamese composures. This is how they think. It is not a list of the ten best composers. It as a list of diversity not quality and that is what you get at universities. Why should we study shakespeare when there are guatemalans who have been ignored. Host does that go to the issue of Political Correctness . Guest entirely. Even as i point out to radio listeners, Political Correctness, what is politically correct mean . It means not offensive to the left host what is the difference, dennis prage, between the left and liberal . Guest John F Kennedy was a liberal not a leftist. I was a little boy who he was inaugurated. He was a hero of mine. He is a little less heroic but i cannot get rid of the sense of excitement when i see videos or read about him. Truman was a liberal. The great senator from washington state, henry jackson. The great senator from new york, Daniel Patrick moin han. He was the first to say we have a calamity on our hands. A democrat, liberal, and Major Intellectual and was serious the point out the serious crisis in the black lives and that is when it started. But a liberal would say that at that time. A leftist says you are a racist for pointing that out. Liberals love the truth. And i may disagree with them wut they love the truth. Leftist love leftism not the truth. Out of wedlock birth rate is a crisis more than racist police. But if you that you are not considered a liberal. You are called a racist. I have this acronym six herb. That is all they need to know and they dont need to debate you. They label you one of the things in the acronym and people are afraid of that. I am not as it happens. Therefore it shuts down. Whaz thought Political Correctness means and it is a creation of leftist. Host in your book, still the best hope you write leftist is becoming a religion. Guest i believe the most dynamic religion i think you understand the world of the last century and in the last hundred years the most dynamic religion is not christianity, mormonism or islam. It is leftism. It has taken over virtually everything. So much so that i believe and i wrote this and backed it up with facts, i think. Pope francis has catholic theology but his value system is le leftism. He said last month, mind blowing because if we lose the Catholic Chuch we lost an Important Institution to the left. Pope francis said on his airplane to a reporter for a french Catholic News Service he was asked about the priest who had his throat slit in france. It had just happened. And he said look, i am paraphrasing but it is pretty accurate, look what happened in italy . We have people baptized catholic that kill their girlfriends. There is no issue that haman saying allah akbar slits someones throat. That is leftistm. Host what is your definition of conservatism . Guest you wish to conserve the best of the past. That is the broad definition that transcends the United States. Within the United States it is an affirmation of the american trinity which is found on every coin and bank note. If you conserve those three you are conservative. Host is there a libertarian streak . Guest streak but not dominant characteristics. Libertarians are secular. I am sure there are religious libertarians but a part of the crisis in conservatism is the greatness and they are great. Use them for videos, bring them on my show, i advocate their work and read them and learn from them. But the great majority of tythinkers today are secular. Conservative thinkers if i were an atheist i would be saying this. America will not survive without god and not because god will crush america but you cannot have small government without a big god. People will either be responsible for their behavior to god and religion or to the government because people are not basically good which by the way is the fundamental difference or a fundamental difference between left and right. We on the right understand people are not basically good. People on the left are naive and believe people are basically good. The most foolish belief a human can hold post20th century blood bath. We understand how are you going to have a good Society Given the flaws of human nature . People will either be responsible to their behavior to god before i was born, throughout American History, the highest compliment you could pay to a woman or man was this is a godfearing man or woman. If you said that to a college kid they would not know what you meant. Godfearing . What the hell does that mean . Either you are godfearing or governmentfearing. The founders including jefferson or franklin knew that and therefore they understood without religion making People Better the government will get bigger and bigger and american liberty will die. That is what is happening. Host before we get too far from education since we are here at Hillsdale College in michigan. This is from think for a second time students bribe students with monetary and nonmonetary rewards, placement on the deans list, generous scholarships and all kinds of academic awards. Guest i wrote that . Host you wrote that. Guest i am kidding. That is the truth. I dont mind it by the way. I dont know how you raise kids without bribes. I am totally in favor observation bribery. Read the version and i will give you 20. I am okay with that. Host it goes to the question what should a College Student know after four years of college . Is there something mandatory . Guest for example, i dont know if it still exists at columbia universities, but there was a western civilization course that was necessary. Essentially knowing athens and jerusalem. That is what formed the west. Athens and its reason and its attitudes toward politics and jerusalem for its morality, ethics and god. That combination made the west. I truly believe if i said to a junior at harvard what does it mean to say athens and jerusalem they would think i was a tour agent. You take the tour of athens and then fly to tel aviv and take a bus to jerusalem. There is no sense of what are the pillars of our civilization or that it is better. See, western civilization has been morally superior. You cant say that on a campus today. You cant say that anywhere in the left. What do you mean better . That is racist as if the claim has anything to do with race. Then they will say what about nazism . Yes, that rejected western civilization. It was an attempt to undo it. Hitler and the nazi blamed the jews for christianity which they hated. That most germans followed hitler was a disgrace but doesnt mean nazi was pr prochristianity. It was proswastica not procross. When and was in tokyo, i went to a performance of baytoven. I got the last seat and i will never forget. The gentlemen new a Little English and he looked at me and said sir, you are a little rocky. You know the best interpreters today for bock bach are japanese. The best interpretation is recorded by a japanese man. If you asked the japanese what is the greatest music they will not say japanese but bay and bach. Whether i like them, dislike them, or they all happen to be white, look at the trivia we have preoccupied ourselves with. Guatemala didnt produce what austria did. I am a jew saying this. The United States of america became the greatest country and it was founded by protestants. Not catholics, not jews, not musl muslims, not atheists it was founded by christians. If we get rid of christianity we will get rid of america. They were the five books of m z moses and the bases of everything the west was founded on. The creation story, adam and eve, noah, moses, the Ten Commandments it all comes from the torah. I am glad you asked because i am feverishly working on a project to write an explanation of the torah and why it is relevant to everyone even people born in tibet. It will be at least a thousand pages. I am working on it every free moment of my life. It is those five books are from where we get love your neighbor as yourself as an example. I am deal with the hard part. It says if you have a rebellious son bring him to a court and they will stone him. Everybody looks that assaying you believe in this nonsense. It is not nonsense. That verse said to parents you cannot kill your child. Until then you could do whatever you wanted to your child. It took it out of the court and gave it to the people. Host your book on the Ten Commandments says it is the best moral code. Are they transcendent . Guest before the Ten Commandments are given it said these are the words god spoke. If god doesnt say do not murder murder is not wrong. I have spent my life explaining that. Every atheist i have debated says that is true. Ethics are subjective if there is no god. Host what are the Ten Commandments in order . Guest i will give the jewish order. The jewish and christian order is slightly different. I am the lord of your god, do not have other gods. Do not, and i explained, it is not do not take gods name in vein but dont carry it in vein. Keep there sabbath, honor parents, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness and do not take what belongs to your neighbor. Host what is the explanation . Guest on the third one . Host yes. Guest people have this completely wrong and that is why i am so adamant about getting this commentary out on the torah. People think the commandment is do not take gods name in vein. It ends because god will not forgive who does this. It is the only commandment god will not forgive. Lots of people think it means if someone says oh, my, god what a crappy day at the office. Or oh, my, god, did you see what that shortstop just did . They think they are violating this commandment and if they are serious god will not forgive them. He will forgive murder though. Let me offer an upsetting thought god has commonsense. This is a complete revolutionary thought to many religious people who the have most crazy ideas about what god actually believes. God cares if you say oh, my, god what a home run. You think he is bugged by that . I know torah hebrew like i know english. It means do not carry gods name in veain. Therefore, that is the only sin god will not forgive; doing evil in his name. Host from your book, the Ten Commandments today we have as many false gods as the ancients did. What does that mean . Guest well, we do false gods is a touchy subject. People say name a false god and people say money. No one contends the worship of money is good people may live for it but no one says it is worshipible. You want a false god i will give you one. The earth, nature. Nature is a false god. People today worship nature. The whole point of genesis 1 is that god is the author of nature. God is to be worshiped not author. The whole point of chapter one in genesis and we are to conquer nature because if we dont nature will conquer us. Nature is not wonderful. Animals kill animals. Cancer spreads. Earthquakes all around. We have to subdue nature to make a good life. There was a silly article about giving up air conditioning, live in basements where it is cooler and we will not wear much. I have been to 20 africanamerican countries and have a deep affection for african. If you ask one of them would you take air conditioning knowing what a Carbon Footprint you are producing . He will laugh you out of his house and i would laugh him out with you and we would sit in comfortable in air conditioning. The whole southern renaissance in the United States was made possible because of air conditioning. But godess earth. I am not an environmentalist and environment environmentalism is a religion. The environment in the christian world was created for man. Host back to the Ten Commandments. The history of the human race has not been morally impressive. Guest that is right. It is only ignorance that could lead you to another conclusion. Take slavery. Every society we know of had slaves. People believed i have the right to own you, use you, whip you, do whatever i want with you. Every society had that until really the Judeo Christian west fell apart women were the most stifled. This is just a little of it. Torture, rape, mass murder. How many people know about slavery in the islamic world which was as bad as the western world. It doesnt go along with what universities teach which is the west is the worst and undo the truth of the west is the best. Here is what i say to students. The question is not who had slaves but the question in history is since everybody had slaves it tells you nothing about a society. Tells you something about human nature but not society. What tells you about society is who stopped slavery. Same thing with poverty. The question in history is not who is poor . Everybody was poor. The question is did anything ever uplift people from poverty . The answer is yes, the west and what in the west . Capitalism. Nobody gets rich from socialism. Socialism spends what capitalism makes. Host good afternoon and welcome to booktv on cspan2. We are live at Hillsdale College in michigan talking with author, radio talk show host and professor dennis prage. He is our guest on this months in depth. This is a chance for you to get to know one author, and to callin, textin with your questions. Dennis prage is the author of the nine questions people ask about judeaism is the first book. Think a second time from 1996. Happiness is a serious problem, 1998. And why the jews, the reason for anti sematic. And why the world needs American Values to triumph came out in 2012. And his recent book, the Ten Commandments still the best code. If you want to participate there are several ways. 2027488200 in the east and central time zones. 7488201 in mountain and pacific time. You can text in a question, this is only for text, 2028386251. You can go ahead and text in a question or comment. If you would, put your city and first name. A couple ways to get ahold of us. Booktv cspan. Org is our email. Facebook. Com booktv and finally twitter booktv is our twitter handle. We will hear from the audience here at Hillsdale College as well especially students. We have a microphone here. Once you get a question, come up to the mic and we will work you right in. Dont be shy about that. We will begin those in just a little while. Mr. Prager, august, 1969, a train in finland. What happened . Guest well, wow, you did read my stuff. I was 21 years old. I was beginning my intense travels. It is the only thing i boast about. I have been to 128 countries. It was a dream of mine since high school that i want to see every country in the world. I am on my way. Anyway, before i married i traveled alone which is in and of itself a fascinating thing. Although it is much more pleasant to travel with my wife there is a uniqueness to traveling alone that is subjected to far more actually funny experiences because you have to interact with the culture. What happened was it was the weekend of my birthday i remember and this is what happened. I have to give you a little background about my religion. I was raised an orthodox jew and went to an intense learning from 95 p. M. Every day and in one school that included sunday. That is how intense it was. Half the day is in hebrew, jewish studies, and half