He was host of the Dennis Prager radio show and cofounder of Dennis Prager university, he is the author of several bestsellers, his most recent books hope why the world needs American Values to triumph and the 10 commandments still the best moral code. Arthur Dennis Prager, why did we invite you to be with us . Guest i have a connection with hildale which is not professional or monetary or employment. My connection is of the heart and mind. I have always admired this institution which takes no federal funds. I was reading yesterday, i did not know you would ask that, did not prepare a statement, my wife showed me last night the literature of hillsdale. It was founded in 1844 and one of the first universities in america to admit black women. It is considered conservative. A good example of how twisted our vocabulary has become, too many people that will sound odd a conservative institution, one of the first to admit blacks and women. Conservatives stand for you are a human person before you are a race or gender. I have this connection, i found that it five years ago and proud to say, 140 million this year. We are trying five minute courses with the finest minds in america, in the world, trying to do something, undo the damage universities are doing. We have a number of hillsboro professors including someone in the audience. Host lets stick with education. This is something you wrote in National Review last month. If you love america, among the worst things you can do is contribute to 95 of the country at universities. America would be better off if you burned that money. Guest i mean it literally. I wrote it with tears. I plead guilty to being an intellectual. The life of the mind from my earliest days has always been central to my life. I must own 5000 books. When i had no money, which is a good part of my life. I was influenced, i felt i was rich if i could get any book and any cd i wanted because music is my other love and that was the best. From high school on i 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. What i believe the left has done, liberals, i love this is not a lie which there is a huge difference between liberalism and the left, the left is taken over campuses and indoctrinate rather than educates and as a result, your kid will be taught for example, will leave college if they take any humanities courses, they will be be leaving the two greatest villains on earth are the United States and israel, two of the greatest countries in the world. That is so twisted, the moral compass is so broken, even intellectually broken, not just morally. I live in california, in los angeles, at ucla, you can get a ba in english without having read one shakespeare play because multiculturalism, the notion that all cultures are equal has taken over the university. Why would you concentrate on dead white european males . We have so much time, can i develop this more . I am very involved in Classical Music including periodically conducting orchestras inserting california. Anthony thomasine he, chief music critic of the New York Times, the 10 greatest composers. I didnt care who he wrote, i just wanted to know who he chose and was it similar to my choice . They were mostly similar but he didnt include handle and he didnt include heighten, only the father of the symphony, the father of the oratorio. The father of the Supreme Court, the father of the piano trio. He is a giant of giants. I know readers will ask why we didnt include xyz and the answer is i didnt want to take too many viennese german composers. Instead he puts bartok because he is hungarian. This is how they think. It is not a list of the 10 best composers, it is a list of diversity, not quality and that is what you get at university. You dont get quality, you get diversity. Why study shakespeare when there are guatemalan poets who have been neglected . There are any number of reasons but those two examples. Host is that the issue of Political Correctness . Guest entirely. Even as i point out to my radio listeners even Political Correctness is a politically correct term. It means not offensive to the left. Host what is the difference, Dennis Prager, between the left and liberal . Guest john f. Kennedy was a liberal, not a leftist. I was a little boy when he was inaugurated, he was a hero of mine, a little less heroic today, cant get rid of the sense of excitement when i see videos of him or pictures. Truman was a liberal, the great senator from washington state, the great senator from new york, Daniel Patrick moynihan, he was first to say we have a calamity on our hands. A democrat and a liberal. A major intellectual. And a serious crisis out of wedlock. A liberal would say that at that time. A leftist says you are a racist for pointing that out. That in a nutshell is a difference the has to do with truth. Liberals love truth which i may have disagreed with them but they loved truth. Leftist love leftism, not truth. It is a crisis, the out of wedlock birth rate much more than racist police. If you say that you are not considered a liberal, you are called a racist. Sexism, intolerance, it is all leftist needs to know, they dont need to debate you. What they do is label you one of those things, people are afraid of being labeled those things which i am not, as it happens. It shuts down. That is what Political Correctness means. That is the creation not of liberals but of leftists. Host in your book still the best hope why the world needs American Values to triumph you write leftism has become a religion. I believe the most dynamic religion, if you understand that you understand the world for the last century. In the last 100 years the most dynamic religion in the world is not christianity or islam or mormonism, leftism has taken over the worlds education, the news media, the entertainment media, it has taken over virtually everything so much so, i, i backed it up with facts, pope francis, catholic theology, the value system is leftism. He has deep antipathy to capitalism, the only thing that raised people, and said in the last month, this was mind blowing me sad, if we lose the catholic church, i dont mean catholics, a tremendous number of great catholics but if we lose the church, an Important Institution for 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. He said, i am paraphrasing but it is pretty accurate, look, in italy we have people baptized catholic who kill their girlfriends. Are we going to say catholics are killers . There is no issue, a man cuts throat of a priest, the same as the guy who happens to be baptized catholic and killed his girlfriend, this is from the pope of the catholic church. That is leftism, not catholicism. 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 as i have called it, the american trinity is found on every coin and banknote, liberty, E Pluribus Unum, in god we trust. If you preserve those three are a conservative. Host is there a libertarian streak and conservatism . Streak but not dominant characteristic. Libertarians are as secular, this is part of a crisis of conservatism, they are great. Bring them on the show, and learn from them, the great majority of conservative thinkers today are all secular. They dont realize the indispensability of god. I dont speak as a man of faith here. If i were an atheist i would say what i am saying. America will not survive without god, not because god will crush america. I dont believe in that. It will because you cant have small government without a big god. People will either be responsible for their behavior to god and religion for the government because people are not basically good. A fundamental difference between left and right. We on the right understand people are not basically good. People on the left are naive, they believe people are basically good, overwhelmingly most foolish believe a human can hold post 20th century. How do you have a good Society Given the flawed human nature . People will either be responsible for their behavior to god. Before i was born throughout American History, the highest compliment you can pay to a woman or man was this is a godfearing man, godfearing woman. If you said that today to a college kid, they wouldnt know what you are talking about. They would think you were popped out of the movie set for time capsule. Godfearing . What the hell does that mean . That was understood. Either you are godfearing or government fearing. The founders including jefferson, including franklin knew that and therefore they understood without religion, making people better, government will get bigger and bigger and american liberty will drive. Host before we get too are from education, we are in Hillsdale College in michigan, this is from your book, think a second time. Schools recognize their general inability to cultivate love of learning, they bribe students with monetary and nonmonetary reward, placement on the deans list, generous scholarships and academic awards. You wrote that. Guest that is the truth. I dont mind it. Dont know how you raise kids without bribes. Im totally in favor of bribery. Read the tempest, that will give you 15. It is a great deal as far as i am concerned. I am okay with that. Host what should a College Student know after four years of college . Is there something mandatory . Guest dont know if it still exists, there was a western course that was mandatory. If you didnt know the basis of western civilization basically essentially knowing athens and jerusalem is what formed the west. Athens and the region, attitude toward politics, jerusalem for its plurality and ethics and that combination, they dont know anything, i truly believe, athens and jerusalem, they would think i was a tour agent, you take a tour of athens, you dont fly to jerusalem, they wouldnt know what i am talking about. There is no sense of what are the pillars of our civilization or that it is better for western civilization has been morally superior, you cant say that anywhere in the left. What about better . That is racism, has anything to do with race. What about not see them . They rejected western civilization. It was an attempt to undo it. Most christians in germany follow hitler is a disgrace but doesnt mean not theism was prochristianity. It was proswastika, not cross. We dont teach this any longer. People dont know the greatness of western civilization. When i was in tokyo i went to beethovens night. Got the last seat. I will never forget because the sales guy knew Little English and he looked at me and said sir, you are very rocky. The reason i remember, i got the last seat in the place. The greatest interpreters today tend to be japanese. The greatest series of bok, hundreds and hundreds has been done by tsuzuki, it is the greatest interpretation of bok because the japanese said what is the greatest music, they wont they japanese music. They will say beethoven, bach. I dont have a vested interest in germans and austrians having written the greatest interest, it is just true. Whether i like them or dislike them or they all happen to be white, look at the trivia we have preoccupied ourselves with. Guatemala didnt produce what wall street produced just like i can say this because i am a jew so you cant yell at me for selfaggrandizing, the united dates of america became the greatest country and was founded by protestants, not catholics or jews or muslims or muslims or atheists, it was founded by christians. That is a fact. If we get rid of christianity we get rid of america. As a jew who goes to synagogue every saturday host what is the torah . Guest the 5 books of moses, the basis of everything the west is founded on. The creation story, adam and eve, noah, the patriarchs, moses, the 10 commandments all comes from the torah. Glad you asked because im feverishly working on the end of my 35 your project, to write an explanation of the torah. It is relevant to everyone including people born in tibet. It will be an explanation of the greatness of those 5 books, at least 1000 pages, i am working on it every free moment of my life and those 5 books where we get love your neighbor as yourself as an example but i will deal with the hard part. Everyone looks at a sentence like that, this 3000yearold nonsense, 3000 years old but not nonsense. I will answer that verse. That verse for the first time in Human History said you cant kill your child. It was actually brilliant because do whatever you wanted to your child. It took it out of the hands of parents, no jewish court in history did this. Your most recent book was on the 10 commandments, the 10 commandments still the best moral code was are they transcendent . And their source, you split ultimately, i explain that, the book is out, i explain ultimately it says right before the 10 commandments are given these are the words that god spoke. If god doesnt say do not murder, murder is not wrong. I have spent my life explaining that philosopher i have debated including oxford has acknowledged that is true. Ethics are subjective if there is no god. Was are the 10 commandments in order . I will give the jewish order. The jewish and christian order are slightly different. I am the lord your god, i brought you out of egypt, you will have no god but me, it is not do not take gods name in vain, honor your parents, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness. What is the explanation . The third one . That is one of the reasons i am so adamant about getting this commentary. People think that the commandment is do not take gods name in vain. An ends, god does not forgive who takes his name in vain, the only commandment he wont forgive. A lot 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 the shortstop did . They think they are violating this commandment and if they are serious that god will not forgive them. He will forgive murder but not if you say oh my god. Let me offer a very upsetting thought to fellow religious people. God had common sense is this is a complete revolutionary thought too many religious people who have the most crazy ideas about what god actually believes. God cares if you say oh my god about a home run, doesnt mean that. The hebrew, i know hebrew like i know anxious english. It means do not carry, do not carry gods name in vain. It has nothing to do with saying it in vain. It is carrying it and who carries trent brown who carries gods name to give the person who acts religious, that is the only sin god will not forgive, doing evil in his name. From your book the 10 commandments still the best moral code, today we have as many false gods as the other nations did. Guest we do. False gods are a very touchy subject because you dont like to mess around with peoples god. People think they were false gods. Money is not a false god. No money, no one pretends the worship of money is good. It may be a god but nobody believes it is a god. People may live for it but nobody contends it is worship. It is not a false god. It is a terrible value system to live just for money but it is not a false god. You want a false god i give you a false god. The earth, nature. Nature is a false god. People today worship nature. The whole point of genesis numb i is god is the author of nature. God is to be worshiped, not nature. The whole point of genesis chapter numb i in genesis, and we conquer nature because if we dont nature will conquer us. The notion that nature is wonderful and we humans are a blight on it, nature is not wonderful. Animals kill animals routinely. Cancer spread. Earthquakes are all around which we have to subdue nature to make a good life there was just an article in the New York Times about how we should give up airconditioning and live in basement where it is a little cooler, dont wear much. I have been to 20 african countries and particular affection for africa. If you ask one african, let me ask you something, would you take airconditioning knowing what Carbon Footprint you are producing if you have airconditioning in your home . He would laugh you out of his house and i would laugh you out of his house and we would both sit in comfort in his airconditioned room. We would laugh in comfort. The whole southern renaissance in the United States was made possible because of airconditioning. But people, gaia, goddess earth come of people believe the stuff. The whole im for protecting the environment that im not an environmentalist. Environmentalism is the name of a religion. I dont believe in the environment. The environment in the judeochristian world, the environment was created for man. In the secular environmentalist world man is a blight on the environment. That is they are doing it again, dont have more than one child. Host back to the 10 commandments still the best moral code, the history of the human race has not been morally impressive. Host guest that is right. Only ignorant or Wishful Thinking that could lead you to any other conclusion. Take slavery. Slavery was not just ubiquitous but universal. Every society that we know of, people believes i have the right to own you, use you, with you, do whatever i want with you, you are chattel. Every society had that. And the vast majority of society until the judeochristian west, women were close to chattel. This is a little of the torture, rape, mass murder, how many people know about slavery in the islamic world which was as ubiquitous as slavery in the western world . You are not taught it because it doesnt comport with what universities want to teach which is the west was worse and undo the truth that the west is best. Heres what i say to students. They all know the founders had slaves, the question is not who had slaves. The question, everybody had slaves, tells you nothing about a society. Told you about human nature but nothing about society. What he tells you about society is who stopped slavery . Sam