Ideas and Values— Dennis Prager
7 takeaways from his fireside chats
Dennis Mark Prager is an American conservative radio talk show host. In 2009, he founded PragerU, an American non-profit organization that creates videos on various topics from an American conservative perspective.
I first heard of him when my mom recommended I try out his fireside chats. In his fireside chats, he discusses life topics and current events from his home study and answers viewers questions. Up to date he has ~200 chats, worth your while!
Here are some lessons I learnt from him:
1) Life should be lived to the fullest, not the longest
“Don’t play life safe”. If you do choose to play life safe, you wouldn’t get married nor have kids. There are real risks in getting married and having kids. You can get divorced etc..
Many times he gives the example where people tell him they would love to visit Israel, but prefer to wait until it’s safe. Basically if you wait for safe, that will mean never.
Another example is with the Corona virus. An extreme emphasis was placed on safety, at a very heavy price. Even youngsters without any risk factors were living in fear and going to extreme measures to remain safe.
2) Marriage and children VS career
Fewer people are marrying and having children than ever before. For the first time in history, there are more single Americans than married Americans.
One of Prager’s top 10 books is Victor Frankel’s Pursuit of Meaning. The main thesis of the book is that man cannot live without meaning. For most of history, getting married and having a family was a built in purpose and gave people meaning. Today, many have made career their purpose.
Very few careers, however, will fill that hole in you that wants meaning and purpose. 99.99% of people are not going to find the cure to cancer. The best thing most people can do for society is marry and raise honorable, happy good members of society. What can be more important than that?
I wrote a separate post on his book on Happiness, which includes further insights of his on purpose and meaning.
3) You must find kindred spirits in life-
He repeats often the importance of having good friends in life. A friend is someone who you can be most yourself with and who shares similar values to you. With real friends you should be able to talk freely and say what is on your mind.
According to Prager and many viewers, it seems being a conservative in america can make you lose your friends. “Don’t stay in the conservative “closet””, Prager says, “you'll sleep better at night”… When you are open about what you think and who you are, you’ll find others around you who are similar to you, “kindred spirits”.
4) Always ask, “what is the price?”-
One of the most important questions any thinking person needs to always can ask in life is what is the price. What is the price of getting married? Staying single? Having children? Not having children? Everything in life has a price. No decision is with no price. Being an adult means being able to ask this question honestly.
The most important one he discusses a lot is — what is the price of secularism? Before “buying” into secularism like many Americans do today, they should ask what is the price. According to Prager, the price is very hefty- it costs us our happiness, meaning, objective morality and even, he claims, our freedom.
6) Why are Jews on the left?
Most American Jews are not religious, and they seem to “substitute” their religion with secular “religions”. The democratic party is the main party for the secular religions that substitute Judeo-Christian religions. These include: feminism, leftism, environmentalism, humanism, socialism...Many Jews want to do “tikkun olam” (=world change), but omit the second part of the sentence, “Bmalchut Shadai”=under god’s kingdom.
“… Utopia is ingrained in our DNA, to strive for a better world… Jews are Utopians, so they are “suckers” for Utopian societies” ~Rabbi Berel Wein
Growing up in the democratic party himself, he talks in one of the chats about his becoming a republican. Ronald Reagan’s common-sensical sentence influenced him tremendously — “government is not solution, it is the problem”. United states, according to Prager, was founded under the value of limiting government power.
7) Blaming “society” for your misery-
Life is inherently challenging. Life confronts us with personal failure, loss, disappointment and unhappiness.
In america if you are faced with challenges, you have a choice- you can take on these challenges and look inward, or you can blame society/America for your misery. You can blame- whites, men, your parents, America. He claims that when you blame others, this causes you to be less happy.
So, then, if you are an unhappy American woman, you can work on yourself, or you can blame sexism and patriarchy. If you are an unhappy black American, you can work on yourself and your life, or you can blame systemic racism and whites for your unfulfilled life.
Religious Jews and Christians are taught to look inward: What have I done wrong? What can I change in my self or my life to solve my problems?
“Everything in life is a choice… Being happy is a choice…What happens to you is not a choice. If you get hit by a drunk driver, get cancer… You didn't choose that.” ~Dennis Prager
