YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → "Conservatism and American Greatness" - Larry P. Arnn

"Conservatism and American Greatness" - Larry P. Arnn — Transcript

by Hillsdale Digital · 9,249 words · 1,653 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00them.
0:01The common points are often true.
0:04And uh you know, if you do scholarship
0:07uh Martin Gilbert, the Churchill
0:08biographer, who was a teacher of mine,
0:10used to tell me used to say uh he he
0:12wouldn't let if you if you use the word
0:14perhaps,
0:15he would circle it and put perhaps not.
0:21And and he would say uh in the study of
0:2419th and 20th century history,
0:26there isn't really any room for the word
0:28perhaps.
0:29You can look it up.
0:31And uh you know, there's a guy in the
0:33press lately. I can't remember his name
0:36and it's probably good that I can't.
0:37He's a galvanizing popular population uh
0:41politician in the state of India.
0:43And uh he's been going around giving
0:45speeches about how Winston Churchill is
0:47like Hitler.
0:49And uh he is. They were both human
0:51beings.
0:53Um
0:55although Hitler almost fell below the
0:57standard of being called that.
1:00But one of the things Winston Churchill
1:02did was starve 3 million people in the
1:05Indian state of Bengal in the middle of
1:07the Second World War, he says. That's a
1:10common charge.
1:12But you know, you can go look that up.
1:14We're publishing the document volumes to
1:16the official biography of Churchill and
1:18there's just a lot in there about that.
1:21Because they are starving there. And you
1:23know, turns out
1:25they got much of their grain from
1:29the rice bowl, Thailand, Vietnam.
1:33And the Japanese had conquered that.
1:37Uh my wife's daddy was a
1:39camp commander of a Japanese POW camp
1:41for 3 years
1:43that he was taken during the course of
1:45that conquest.
1:47So,
1:48just go look that up, right? That's a
1:50really important fact cuz the why didn't
1:52they have anything to eat? Well, the
1:53answer is the enemy had the food and
1:56wouldn't give it to them.
1:58And you know, Churchill might have been
2:00at fault in this way or that, although
2:01he made serious efforts to get more
2:03grain to India in the middle of a war
2:04where transport was scarce.
2:07And
2:08on the other hand,
2:10you know, it's like did Churchill do
2:12enough to save the Jews? Well, you got
2:14to start with the fact that Hitler
2:15killed them.
2:17And
2:17and you know, Churchill killed Hitler.
2:20So
2:22good move, Churchill. Anyway,
2:24I admire that talk very much and you
2:26know, in this day and age one of the
2:28most important things we can do in such
2:30a divided time
2:32is we can become critical thinkers.
2:35We should when you read the news, you
2:36should read it. I I confess, I don't
2:38watch the news. I made a note to myself
2:40to do a Google alert for Sharyl
2:42Attkisson
2:43cuz there'll be lots of writing about
2:45what she says on TV and I'm
2:47extremely unlikely to watch the CBS
2:49Evening News,
2:51but I'll get to see what she says and
2:54that'll be happy for me.
2:57Uh and you can do that, too. And
2:58everybody you respect and then if
3:00there's somebody you really don't
3:01respect, read them, too, cuz
3:05it'll make you mad and give your day
3:06more liveliness.
3:13So, I have to talk about So, we're in
3:15the academic world, right? And so, my
3:17topic assigned to me is uh
3:19conservative and conservatism and
3:21American greatness in a conference on
3:23what is American greatness. What is?
3:27That's a Socrates question.
3:29T S D is the Greek. What is a thing?
3:33He wants to know
3:35what it is fundamentally, what it is in
3:36its essence.
3:38And in the academic world,
3:40it's always better to begin
3:41fundamentally.
3:43Fundamental is a fundamental word.
3:47It's cognate with the word foundation.
3:49It means the things at the base.
3:52So,
3:53I don't know, you were at some of you
3:54were at the first timers breakfast and
3:56it was absolutely delightful because
3:58the
3:59idea was inspired in me of asking
4:01Bridget
4:03and uh to come up there and she said,
4:06"Give a good talk." I'm on the way in.
4:08She's a student in the in my class right
4:10now in the college. A senior? A junior?
4:12She's a junior.
4:13And uh I said, "No, you give it."
4:19And so she did.
4:21And you know, she was awesome, right?
4:23But then I
4:24tortured her
4:26best I could and uh a young man that I
4:29also called up and I asked him what
4:31things mean.
4:32And that's hard, right? What is the
4:34good? That's the fundamental question.
4:37The TST question that Socrates asked the
4:39most is
4:41TX TST agathos. What is the good?
4:44It's hard to say what that is, but
4:46important to say. So, I've got three
4:48words and it'll get a little complicated
4:51defining them.
4:53So, I'm going to talk about a movie.
4:54That'll help.
4:55Um
4:56the three words are
4:58greatness, America, and conservatism.
5:02What do those words mean?
5:04So,
5:06greatness. I'll start with that and I'll
5:08start with that in part because this
5:10morning a man who just asked a question,
5:12where is that guy?
5:13wanted to know the relationship between
5:15good and great.
5:17Oh, there you go. Because there's a
5:17famous book by Jim Collins. It's an
5:19excellent book called Good to Great.
5:22Uh we read it around the college. It's
5:24uh it's one of those splendid pieces of
5:26common sense.
5:28And uh it's a big rage in the business
5:30world, which is a sign of health in the
5:31republic.
5:33And so he developed a doubt because of
5:35our talking about the good, whether
5:36there's
5:37any difference between the good and the
5:39great.
5:40So,
5:42first of all,
5:44what is good?
5:46You know, you have to be able to say and
5:47we talked about that a lot, so I'll just
5:48repeat it quickly this morning. If
5:50you're not here for the first time,
5:52you won't understand. But, uh
5:55So,
5:57what is a horse?
5:59How do you tell the difference between a
6:00horse and a Great Dane?
6:03Right?
6:04A pony and a Great Dane, right?
6:07How do you know?
6:09And look at us, we're all people.
6:12And yet, we all look different.
6:15And so, how do you know that we are what
6:18we seem to be? What is it about us that
6:20we notice, right? Do I have
6:24Yeah, I never have in a in a room like
6:26this, so many things are exactly like
6:28other things that it's hard to do. So,
6:29the people are the best thing, right?
6:31You got woman and woman, right? And if
6:33Patricia and Nina was the woman,
6:36this lady next to her, whose name I
6:37don't know,
6:38would not be a woman.
6:41So, there's something in common that
6:42they have
6:44that makes them that. That's why we can
6:46use common noun, which is exactly the
6:48essence of human rationality. It's what
6:51we do. It's why we can talk.
6:54Thinking and talking are the same thing.
6:56And we think and talk in common nouns,
6:59fundamentally. Proper nouns only make
7:01sense because they are instances of a
7:04common noun.
7:06And so,
7:07that's a bottle.
7:09And if you cut the bottom and it's a
7:11good one, it works, right? Look, it's
7:12upside down, it's not leaking. I can get
7:14the top off reasonably easy. It'll be
7:16good to drink from cuz it's narrow up
7:18here at the top, and I won't slobber all
7:19over myself.
7:21Right?
7:22If you cut the bottom off, it won't be
7:24any good anymore.
7:26You could carry it like this, but every
7:28time you set it down, it'd fall over.
7:32Not such a good one.
7:35But, if you take the top off,
7:37then what it would be really good for
7:38would be a funnel.
7:41As it loses the good of the bottle,
7:45it either becomes nothing or it gains
7:47the being and good of something else.
7:51And so the philosopher says, the good
7:53and being are convertible terms. And if
7:55you want to think about this, which is
7:56I've thought about it as you might be
7:58able to tell for many years now,
8:00I just enjoy that question to death. And
8:03and and I make the students
8:05suffer.
8:08But
8:09just think about that. When you want to
8:11know what good is and you want to know
8:12what being is, remember that they're
8:15synonyms.
8:16And construct a sentence and put one in
8:18and then put the other in and you'll see
8:20that it works.
8:22Right? That's good.
8:24What's great?
8:26Uh great comes from a old word that
8:28means bigger, thicker, coarser, larger.
8:32Right? And it
8:34forever meant that.
8:35But if you look in etymological
8:37etymological dictionaries, I don't know
8:39if you do that or not, but there's
8:40there's one that's free called the
8:42online etymological dictionary. And I
8:45read a story about the guy who does it.
8:47He's a cranky old guy and he's just
8:48given his life to this and it's a great
8:50service.
8:52Because what it is is the history of
8:53words. What words do they come from? And
8:56how do they develop? The great source
8:57for that is of course the Oxford English
8:59Dictionary, which you can also look up
9:01on the internet. I think you have to
9:02pay, but I'm not sure.
9:04Uh the online etymological dictionary
9:07tends to be the first result. If you
9:09just put in an etymology good,
9:12that's what will come up as the first
9:14result on Google. I do it all the time.
9:17Well, great. And it also tells you how
9:19the word It's a Dutch, German, Northern
9:22Europe word, right? It's not a romantic
9:24word. It's not from Latin or Greek.
9:27It's from Northern Europe.
9:30But then this online etymological
9:32dictionary tells us that in 1848,
9:37the first use that can be found of it to
9:39mean
9:40excellent.
9:42Not just large.
9:44Excellent.
9:46Uh
9:48more of the good.
9:51The good elevated, the good intensified.
9:56There's a phenomenon in uh
9:58classical philosophy that uh
10:01there's a word that's sort of above the
10:02word good and kalon or kalos is the word
10:07and it translates one good way to
10:09translate it is beautiful.
10:11Noble is also
10:13a good way to translate it.
10:15And the beautiful or the noble, that's
10:17not just good, that's better.
10:20Best even, see? And so
10:24greatness of America
10:28would be
10:30if America was a good kind of thing
10:34and if it was
10:35excellent or the most excellent at being
10:38that kind of thing.
10:40So, that's what those words mean, I
10:43think.
10:44And that sets you out thinking well,
10:45because to know I just said the good of
10:47a thing, you have to know the being of a
10:48thing and that means you can't talk
10:50about American greatness till you
10:51identify what America is.
10:55And come to find out in this
10:56controversial time
10:59uh
11:00the source
11:01of the deep controversies
11:04is a difference about what America is.
11:07And there are two stories to tell. I'll
11:10try to tell them as stories cuz they'll
11:11be easier to understand.
11:15How many people have seen the movie
11:162001?
11:18A lot. I'll tell you a little bit about
11:20it, but I urge you to go watch it cuz
11:22although it's
11:25what is it like? It's
11:28weighty and
11:29vague and compelling, you know?
11:32But, there's a story in it.
11:35And it actually is the view of the world
11:38from the point of view of modern
11:39liberalism.
11:41At the beginning of the story,
11:43uh
11:44there's some apes
11:46and they're uh
11:48grunting and
11:51fighting with the
11:52ape tribe next door and
11:55fighting with the panther who eats one
11:57of them.
11:58And it's a lot of grunting and a lot of,
12:00you know, it's kind of savage,
12:02stark-looking.
12:04And then they get up one morning and
12:06there's this monolith.
12:08And you know, there isn't anything in
12:09nature that's got perfect animal uh
12:12angles and smooth sides and this
12:14monolith is perfectly shaped and simply
12:17undistinguished. It's black
12:20and a perfectly smooth surface.
12:22It just doesn't look like it goes there
12:24at all. It has to be artificial, that is
12:27to say, made by some purpose, not
12:29natural, cuz nature doesn't, at least in
12:32our world, produce things like that.
12:35And this thing streaks at them, this
12:37monolith.
12:38And the next thing, you know, one of the
12:40apes picks up a stick
12:43and hits the panther with it.
12:46Now,
12:47the ape can pick up the stick because
12:50the ape has an opposable thumb.
12:53And in the liberal or modern
12:55understanding of human being, that's
12:56really crucial.
12:58Because we human beings are tool users
13:00and makers.
13:02We use implements and weapons and and
13:06and
13:08we And and and so he picks up the stick
13:10and he kills the panther one of them and
13:12then they have a fight with the tribe
13:14next door and they just kick the crap
13:15out of them cuz now they're waving these
13:17sticks around hitting people with them.
13:19And then in the last stage,
13:22before it cuts away to something I'll
13:23tell you about,
13:24in In stage, there's a whole flurry of
13:28animals
13:30getting whacked in the head and falling
13:32over dead.
13:34These apes are eating really well now.
13:37And that's not good for the other
13:38animals.
13:40It changes nature.
13:43And it changes the apes.
13:46Nature is changed in the modern liberal
13:49understanding.
13:51In the last scene about the apes, one of
13:53the apes throws the stick way up in the
13:54air and it goes up like that.
13:57And then the picture resolves. It's It's
13:59a very good movie, by the way. It's very
14:01well shot, although it's kind of hard to
14:03figure out, especially at the end, what
14:04the devil it means.
14:06But um
14:07But then the next thing you know,
14:10there's a modern woman
14:12and she turns out to be a stewardess on
14:14a spaceship
14:16and she's walking around in zero gravity
14:18and she's beautiful. And she's not like
14:20the apes, she's erect.
14:25And she's serving a guy who's
14:28ballpoint pen floats off in the air,
14:31right? So, we've cut from the monolith
14:33changing the ape and it's using tools to
14:37the next stage. And the next stage is
14:39us.
14:41And
14:43we look different,
14:45right? Our physical appearance has
14:48evolved significantly.
14:50We're still bipeds and we're still
14:52upright and because we're upright vision
14:54is still our chief sense,
14:56but you can just see, they're thinking,
14:59once you start using these clubs,
15:03the next thing you know, you're going to
15:04the moon.
15:07It stops in the middle and I'll
15:08interject this now cuz it's really good.
15:10It's a picture of modern government.
15:12They uh stop at the internet at some
15:14space station and they change
15:16spaceships, I guess.
15:18And uh and a bunch of international
15:20bureaucrats sit around and talk.
15:24And uh they talk just like bureaucrats
15:26talk. It's all very civil and polite.
15:29And they're asking each other questions
15:31and nobody's giving anybody any
15:32information.
15:34And it's all very civil and it's all
15:36very obscure.
15:38And then uh they get up to the moon
15:42and come to find out up on the moon
15:44they've discovered this another monolith
15:47up there.
15:48And I'll cut to the chase. The point is
15:50apparently these alien beings who make
15:52these monoliths
15:54they planted one to get us started on
15:56the Earth
15:57and they planted one up on the moon for
15:59us eventually to uncover. And when it
16:01gets uncovered it sends a signal to
16:03Jupiter where these beings apparently
16:04are located.
16:06And that tells us
16:08them
16:09we're here and we've got this far.
16:12And now it's time for us to make
16:14contact.
16:16And if you just think about that story
16:17for a minute it means that it's a story
16:20of evolution.
16:21Of change.
16:23And they're going to meet a different
16:25kind of being. You you don't ever really
16:27get to see that kind of being. It seems
16:29to have power this other kind of being
16:31on Jupiter. Uh it's in later books in
16:34this series
16:36it's it's emerged that this other being
16:38is strong enough using these monoliths
16:40to create other moons
16:42and maybe planets.
16:44And it's also strong enough to
16:48age us and then
16:50reverse our age.
16:52Cuz one of the astronauts becomes a very
16:54old man and then he becomes in the last
16:55scene a little baby floating up in the
16:58heavens somehow.
17:00So
17:01it's a story of change.
17:05And the story of change involves us
17:08using tools to effect the change and
17:12change ourselves and nature.
17:14And in addition
17:16it's a story of science,
17:19which comes from the Latin word to know,
17:21but which doesn't really mean knowing
17:23anymore. Now it means sophisticated use
17:27of tools to affect change.
17:31These tools are invented by what we call
17:33the scientific method, which is you just
17:35control everything,
17:37set a a chain of events in in in motion,
17:40observe what happens, see if it confirms
17:43what you'd speculated at the beginning,
17:45and then do it over and over again, and
17:47that's the only way to learn.
17:49But if you learn, you can grow very
17:51great power.
17:53And of course it is a fact that that
17:54works.
17:55And it is a fact that that is remaking
17:58the world all the time. This fake news
18:00stuff, right?
18:02What that used to be like 100 years ago
18:04was uh
18:05there used to be
18:07uh
18:09at least two newspapers in every town,
18:11and at least two of them would be
18:12affiliated with a political party and
18:14carry that in its title.
18:17So it was easy to figure out,
18:19you know, which one you'd like the
18:21better. And also it's easy to figure out
18:23how to read them both and make sure you
18:25get both arguments, right? But today
18:27it's
18:28coming from everywhere at incredible
18:31rates all day. Did you know, I know and
18:33you probably don't, that Speaker Ryan
18:35has announced he's not going to seek
18:36re-election this year?
18:38And that probably happened 15 minutes
18:40ago, and I
18:41found it out probably 2 minutes after
18:43that,
18:44right? Well, it just changes everything
18:47if the pace and the quantity are so
18:50different. And I said at the beginning
18:51that this scholarship is actually how
18:54you sort this stuff out, but Lord,
18:55there's a lot to sort out now.
18:58And that means that you are required
18:59more than you used to be required
19:02to make priorities and figure out what's
19:04important and focus on understanding
19:07that.
19:08Cuz you can't understand everything
19:09anymore. Can't follow everything
19:11anymore.
19:14This new
19:16uh
19:17understanding of America, what's great
19:18about America,
19:20what America is,
19:21it's the greatest country in the world.
19:23My many American liberals think that.
19:27I mean, they also are very impatient
19:28with it, too, cuz it's hidebound in
19:30certain ways.
19:31But right there in the beginning,
19:33the principle of change was the key
19:35principle. It was open to radical
19:39development.
19:40And it could become whatever it wanted
19:43to become.
19:44The argument for the living
19:46Constitution,
19:48you know, by the way, I believe in the
19:49living Constitution. I believe it's
19:51still the law of the land. But the
19:53living Constitution, meaning whatever
19:55the devil we want it to mean today, that
19:57is the explicit basis of that expression
20:00in many famous Supreme Court opinions,
20:02right? It just means what we see it to
20:05mean today, given all of our conditions.
20:07Everything changes, see?
20:09And the greatness of America is that.
20:12Now, if you think about that one step
20:14more and think about that movie,
20:17the difference between the ape and that
20:19woman that you see next
20:21is a very big difference.
20:24And the implication is
20:26the next difference you see
20:28will be a very
20:29big difference, too.
20:32And that means the ape and the woman
20:34have something in common.
20:36They're both way stations on a journey.
20:41They're changing.
20:43The process of change is sovereign.
20:46Our dignity, such as we have it, is that
20:48we can maybe get control of the process.
20:52But that means
20:55you could do
20:57just about anything to that woman.
21:01Just like was done with that ape.
21:06That's one view of America and its
21:08greatness.
21:11The other view is different in kind.
21:14It's not different in degree, it's a
21:15different kind.
21:17It's a different principle.
21:19It's a different beginning point and way
21:21of thinking.
21:23Uh
21:24modern liberalism doesn't really start
21:25with nature.
21:27It starts with change and converts
21:29nature into change.
21:32Uh
21:33The American Revolution
21:35and classical thought at this level of
21:37abstraction is the same.
21:40They start with nature.
21:42And what does nature mean? It's a very
21:44pregnant word. It's a great word.
21:47It means uh
21:48it's it starts out meaning birth. It's a
21:50Latin word for birth.
21:53Or it means more generally the process
21:54of begetting and growth by which living
21:56things come to be.
21:58So, plant an acorn, oak tree comes.
22:02Plant a pine nut cone, pine tree comes.
22:06Uh
22:07And and that and you know
22:11two people get married, I mean formerly
22:14of the different genders,
22:16then
22:19you know, you
22:21they're going to make human children if
22:23they make any children at all.
22:26And that's nature, right? And think
22:28about it you
22:29it is it's so much is implied in that
22:31word.
22:33Because if it means begetting and
22:35growth,
22:37growth is a troublesome term.
22:39Because
22:42our children, you know, like Bridget
22:43this morning, she just was spectacular
22:45this morning and I was very impressed. I
22:48I expected to be I have her in class
22:50right now, but uh
22:51but more than I expected, right? Cuz
22:54she's grown up,
22:56right? And that means at that kind of
22:58thing she did this morning,
23:01Bridget is better at that than she would
23:03have been 5 years ago.
23:04And you know, then you think about this,
23:06not as good as she will be in 5 years.
23:09She's still growing.
23:11But, you know,
23:12living things all end up the same way.
23:16Dead.
23:19And also, declining.
23:22And so, to define growth is a little bit
23:25complicated.
23:26Cuz how do you know when it stops
23:28growing and it starts decaying?
23:31You know, compare Bridget with me, and
23:33at least physically physically, she's on
23:36the way up.
23:37I'm not.
23:39Right?
23:40Now,
23:42how do you know that? Because, you know,
23:44Bridget and I, by the way, are going to
23:46end up in exactly the same condition.
23:49Indeed, exactly the same condition as
23:51the oak tree.
23:52We're going to rot, you know.
23:56So,
23:59when does the growth stop
24:01and the decay begin?
24:03And the answer is,
24:04it's probable that
24:06I, at least, and all of you,
24:10in your essential human characteristics,
24:12are still growing.
24:14And the time is likely to come, if you
24:16live a very long time, when that will
24:17stop, when you become physically weak in
24:19ways that prevent you from growing.
24:23But, if you can
24:24teach a class, and argue with the young,
24:26and come to this conference,
24:28we're still growing.
24:30But, what that growing means is that in
24:33those respects, although not physically
24:35physically,
24:37we are becoming more fully like
24:39ourselves.
24:41We are becoming better human beings.
24:44What Mark Antony says of Brutus, not
24:47long before he killed him,
24:49he was the
24:50noblest Roman of them all.
24:53He was sanguine, and the elements were
24:55all were so mixed up in him that all
24:58nature could complain could could
25:00proclaim this was a man.
25:04Right, fully a man having all the
25:06elements of the man that requires being
25:08mature. And mature not just in body but
25:11in character.
25:13And And In other words, he's calling
25:16Brutus a great man.
25:22You can't be a great man unless you're
25:24grown. Have to be big enough to be a
25:26man, fully a man. But that's not
25:29decisive. The decisive things are
25:31the development all of the qualities
25:33that amount to excellence.
25:36And that's it contained in that idea of
25:38that little seed and that growth. And
25:41then if you think beyond that just one
25:42more step, you find out that there's
25:44lots and lots of things that have
25:45natures that grow. And each of those
25:48things is different. And so nature comes
25:50to mean Yosemite Valley, right? The
25:53arrangement of all of the living things.
25:56And then because the whole cosmos moves
25:58in a pattern,
26:00nature means the whole order and way of
26:02nature. Think what a word that is. And
26:05if you put in the Declaration of
26:06Independence, the laws of nature and of
26:09nature's God, that's a whacking big
26:11statement. Right? And think how they
26:14deploy those words.
26:16They They are saying to the King of
26:18England, who is the most powerful human
26:20being on Earth,
26:22and they don't even have an army. Well,
26:24they do have an army. It's a pitiful
26:25little thing. And they've appointed uh
26:28George Washington to head it. And he had
26:30never in his turned out to be one of the
26:33greatest people who ever lived, but you
26:34couldn't tell that for sure at that
26:35time. What you did know is that
26:38neither he nor anybody else who's on the
26:41side of independence had ever moved a
26:43large army from one place to another.
26:46And that was one of George Washington's
26:47very early failings.
26:49Right? That he at
26:51the Battle of uh New York, right? He
26:54just couldn't get his army. He could He
26:56didn't actually couldn't figure out very
26:58well where it should go.
26:59He got better at that. But, having
27:01figured out where it should go, he
27:02didn't know how to get it there.
27:05And all these British generals, they
27:06just grew up on that stuff, right? And
27:07they just were just adept and tremendous
27:11and just overwhelmed him for most of the
27:13American Revolutionary War. So, isn't it
27:16a crazy thing for them
27:19to write this thing to the king upending
27:23all he understood to be his authority?
27:26And they needed something big to do
27:28that.
27:29And the big thing was the laws of nature
27:31and of nature's God. And they are
27:33grounded
27:35in this idea of the good that we have,
27:37right? Because
27:38they're saying to him in the Declaration
27:40of Independence, what does human
27:41equality mean?
27:43Right? It can't mean we're all the same
27:45size. It can't mean we're all the same
27:48smarts.
27:49It can't mean we're all the same sex.
27:53Can't mean we're all the same industry.
27:56Everybody knows that. Nobody's ever
27:58really been seriously confused about
28:00that.
28:02It means that we're all the same kind of
28:04thing.
28:06And that includes the king.
28:08And so, when you, king, want to rule any
28:11other person, and it doesn't matter if
28:14your family is old and you ride in a
28:16golden carriage and the armies respond
28:19to you,
28:21what it means is you can't do anything
28:24to us without our permission.
28:27That's nature.
28:29And you see how differently that regards
28:32us?
28:33Right?
28:34It means that cussed and stubborn and
28:37awful as we are,
28:40we may not be governed without our
28:42consent.
28:44However willful we may be in our animal
28:47nature to want things. It is wrong for
28:50us
28:51to take something that rightly belongs
28:53to another person.
28:55The The idea of equality that's common
28:58to that other view
29:00is that since everything is changing
29:02including us and since we are going to
29:05use science and sophisticated tools to
29:08control that process, we can actually
29:11have a goal to make equality mean we all
29:13come out the same.
29:15But of course that has to be engineered.
29:18Which is
29:19the purpose of higher of modern
29:21education and also why schools are so
29:24boring.
29:26Cuz it's a stupid undertaking and when
29:28you get in the middle of it, nobody
29:29likes it, especially young people who
29:31don't know any better.
29:33Old people can see it as a way to
29:36manipulate and engineer upon other
29:38persons, which is how the schools are
29:40organized today. It's the reason most of
29:42its employees don't teach.
29:45Most of its employees, it's hard to tell
29:48what they most of them do because it's
29:51very artful. You know, we have this
29:52wonderful transparent and accountable
29:54government.
29:55And um
29:57I guess uh Frank Luntz is teaching me to
29:59use the word accountable now, not
30:01transparent.
30:02And um
30:04um
30:05transparent, that's an old word, too.
30:08Um
30:09So, he but but they don't keep the data
30:13so that you can know. Sorry, I have to
30:16shut that up.
30:17So that you can know what all the people
30:19do. They're just grouped into huge
30:20category other.
30:22And you know, that's half the staff of
30:25the public schools and you just it's
30:26very difficult to find out what they're
30:28actually doing, but you do know that a
30:29significant number of them are in the
30:31business of telling teachers what to do
30:33so they can tell students what to do.
30:37So this old idea of equality stops all
30:39this and this old idea has two
30:41characteristics that I have to mention
30:43and one of them is it's incredibly
30:45stubborn.
30:47You can watch this the movie 2001 all
30:49you want to.
30:51But if they took out that woman
30:53that handsome woman who was a
30:56serving on the spaceship
30:59and they did something cruel to her
31:01everybody would think that was wrong.
31:04Or in our constitution reader cuz we try
31:07to teach people to be scholars which is
31:09careful thinkers.
31:12Uh we have we we we produced the Alabama
31:15slave code.
31:16It's a really great document to read,
31:18right? And
31:20what it does is it
31:23is rules
31:24about the slaves and about all the free
31:27white males have to ride posse once a
31:30month looking for runaways.
31:32Because as we know from the doctrines of
31:35the Confederacy slavery was very popular
31:38among the slaves.
31:40Except for this embarrassing fact that
31:42they kept trying to get away.
31:44And uh
31:45but the rules are like this. Uh
31:48slave can't be off the plantation
31:51without written permission for more than
31:533 hours, I think it is. You can't have a
31:56slave in a dwelling not on the
31:59plantation without written permission
32:00for more than 30 minutes.
32:03Um
32:04slaves can't gather in groups larger of
32:08three for more than 30 minutes
32:11without the master or his representative
32:13present.
32:15Right? Just think what kind of life that
32:17is. Living under rules like that, right?
32:21You can't like four of you show up, well
32:23you got to look around and see if you've
32:24been there too long.
32:26But then in that Alabama slave code and
32:29I'm telling you it's just a organized
32:31system for treating people like animals.
32:34There's an exemption to these gathering
32:37rules.
32:39And that's an exemption when the slaves
32:41are meeting with the preacher.
32:46Isn't that interesting?
32:48Now,
32:50there are laws in the in countryside in
32:53America today and were then about how
32:55you have to fence your animals in.
32:58Or else they'll get out and eat somebody
32:59else's stuff.
33:01Or get in the way of the road, right?
33:04Those laws about those animals don't
33:06include any exemptions about unless the
33:09animals happen to be going to church.
33:13Or as Lincoln said famously one time,
33:15Douglas says if he can take his hog and
33:17his buckboard in Nebraska and the
33:19federal government protect his property
33:20in it, why can't he take his slave? And
33:23uh Lincoln said, "Good question. If
33:25there's a difference between the hog and
33:26the slave, but down south they don't
33:28pass laws making it illegal to teach
33:30hogs to read."
33:35We see things
33:38and we have this gift. We recognize what
33:40they are. And it's very stubborn. It's
33:43hard to drive it away.
33:45In the Wannsee Conference,
33:47where the Nazis had a big conference and
33:49planned the final solution factories to
33:52put people on cattle cars and take them
33:54by railroad to a factory to kill them en
33:56masse. And they did kill several million
33:59that way.
34:01They They took careful notes.
34:04And they let everybody take up
34:06one set of notes to study for a month
34:09with a promise to destroy them. And they
34:11kept records of everybody who got them,
34:13made them sign a book.
34:15But
34:16why destroy the notes?
34:19Right? They were embarrassed.
34:22These are not in fact cattle. These are
34:24people.
34:25Stubborn, right? And the same kind of
34:27thing about
34:29America
34:30in its original meaning. Because this uh
34:35liberal understanding of the beginning
34:36of America that what's distinctive about
34:38it is that it's open
34:40is of course an obvious and willful
34:43misreading
34:45of the American Revolution.
34:47Partly the misreading was done out of
34:48charity. They wanted to admire it.
34:52But
34:53they had to take out that part about
34:56you can never rule me except by my
34:59consent.
35:01That's a fixity, right? And then because
35:03we're animals, too, we're going to
35:05require to have rules. But those But the
35:08people who live under those rules,
35:10they're animals just like us.
35:12They can't have absolute power. They are
35:14constrained first by consent,
35:17but also by representation and
35:19separation of powers and all that stuff.
35:21And that, to say Woodrow Wilson, for
35:23example, that just gets in the way of
35:25the scientific enterprise. That's
35:27written like the world was still
35:28understood in terms of Newton. He writes
35:30this explicitly.
35:32You know, as far as I know, I see Ed
35:34Erler back there, he probably know
35:35better than I do, but um
35:38they I don't know that
35:40Newton never comes up.
35:42But
35:43now we have Darwin, he says.
35:46Everything changes, see.
35:48So, the old way is stubborn, but also
35:52the old way pushes
35:54tremendous energy.
35:56Right?
35:57Why do you work?
36:00You got to eat.
36:02Do you work better
36:04when you get to build something
36:06and keep it?
36:08You see,
36:09the energy and hope that comes from the
36:12principle of equality and the
36:14understanding of nature that are the
36:15correct ones and the undeniable one by
36:18the witness of our own eyes,
36:22they have remade the world. They have
36:24actually the thing that did that.
36:27And if you just study the story of
36:28America,
36:29it is unique. It is obviously
36:33one of the greatest
36:35and best things that ever happened.
36:38Because it starts from nothing.
36:41Settle along the seaboard.
36:43Getting these big pretensions about
36:45being government governed by their
36:46consent.
36:48And
36:50we've settled the continent.
36:52And spread free and representative
36:55government across the continent step by
36:58step and without any interruption.
37:01And we have the stain of slavery. Every
37:04human society we have other stains, too,
37:05plenty of them. But every human society
37:08has stains.
37:09Those stains are they trouble us
37:13because in our Constitution reader John
37:15Wright John Jay writes a great letter
37:18to head of the English manumission that
37:21freed the slaves society. And he says,
37:23"You know what's going on over here?" He
37:24says,
37:25"We've There's always been slavery
37:27around.
37:28And nobody thought about it very much.
37:30You know, north and south it was, too.
37:33But he said, "Under the influence of
37:36this thing we have done,
37:38we are waking up and we are starting to
37:41get rid of that. And I expect that
37:43process to go on."
37:46I'll tell you what interrupted it, by
37:47the way, is the first American version
37:50of this progressive history.
37:53The first American version of the
37:54progressive here history was in the
37:56Confederacy and it was on the right. The
37:58modern ones are on the left.
38:00You see? But just think what it how it
38:03liberates.
38:05You know why our college is so good? I
38:06mean, it is really good. Come and see
38:08it. But I I'll tell you why it's so
38:10good. You know, I'd like to tell you
38:12it's my personal brilliance.
38:14It come to find out and it is. No. But
38:17come to find out it's cuz we all do it.
38:22Right? Every day, everybody's working on
38:24it. You know,
38:26many of us have bad days pretty often,
38:27right? But everybody
38:30is after the same thing because we
38:32agreed to be.
38:35And you know, you want to get into
38:36Hillsdale College,
38:37go make a perfect score on the SAT
38:40and then come and sit in the admissions
38:42office and tell them that you're not
38:43sure you want to come. See if you get
38:45in.
38:46Right? Whereas somebody who makes 80th
38:50percentile, and I think our numbers run
38:51in the mid-90s now,
38:54and they just come in and they just say,
38:55"You're good." Somebody I woman said
38:57this to me with Jeff Lantus, who's here,
38:59the former admissions director now
39:01does
39:02athletic stuff.
39:04He's an old jock. Um
39:07um
39:09This this girl said to me, I'd known her
39:11since she was little and she didn't have
39:13a very good academic record.
39:15And she said, "You" Look in my office,
39:17demanded to get in my office. And she
39:19said, "You are going to let me in here."
39:25And I did, you know.
39:33So, do you see
39:34we have a fight between two things that
39:36are incompatible
39:39and they regard us in an entirely
39:41different light.
39:43Right?
39:45And the indignity of the intellectual
39:48classes in America
39:50at the
39:51rudeness
39:53of
39:55the mid- the Midwest and the South and
39:57the
39:58rural areas,
40:00their displeasure at the current
40:02president of the United States because
40:03of his
40:04rudeness and
40:06clumsiness and unwillingness to play the
40:08game.
40:10Right? And you know,
40:11he does seem to be
40:14looser with women than a fellow ought to
40:15be, you know.
40:17And I don't like that, right? But
40:22you got to have got to admire his
40:23enemies for him for his enemies, right?
40:26And uh
40:27and he doesn't seem to be afraid of
40:28them.
40:30And they and and and the point is I
40:32think their indignation is real and
40:35heartfelt because they believe in this
40:38vision that we can remake everything,
40:42right? And to thwart that is to thwart
40:45the highest duty.
40:48Whereas
40:49people like me and you, probably,
40:52what I think is
40:54the most beautiful thing that ever
40:55happened in politics is the American
40:57Declaration of Independence
40:59and the career of the people who wrote
41:01them and the fact that it produces
41:04people like us. And what are we except
41:07ordinary people who get a chance to live
41:09a great and fully human life.
41:22That means this is a conflict of
41:24principle.
41:25And it means it's not going to go away.
41:28It has to be decided one way or t'other.
41:31And I'll just say one thing about
41:33conservatism.
41:35Uh cuz I I guess I was supposed to talk
41:36about that, but I don't know.
41:41Conservatism at its best means the love
41:45of that strain that produced the United
41:48States of America, which reaches, by the
41:49way, back through the great books and
41:51the great civilizations.
41:55It's divided, conservatism.
41:57It's got more than one strain of thought
41:59in it.
42:00Uh practical situations like the current
42:02political situation tend to divide the
42:05conservatives.
42:07But just think about conservatism. If
42:08you have a conservative disposition, it
42:10means you kind of like to preserve
42:11things.
42:13But, you know, the past is like the
42:14present.
42:16There's a lot ugly back there.
42:18You know,
42:19you know what they say is the oldest
42:20profession, right?
42:21I don't actually think that's true. I
42:23think the oldest profession is farming.
42:25But, uh
42:28But, that other profession has a certain
42:31notoriety, right? And you wouldn't want
42:33to conserve that.
42:35Well,
42:36some people would, I guess. But, um
42:39So,
42:41we're living here
42:44It's not just true that the greatness of
42:46America is at stake.
42:49There alternative views of what that
42:51greatness constitutes.
42:54And they can't both be right.
42:57One of them has got to derive from the
43:00real goodness of America, its actual
43:03identity. And only that one could be
43:07great.
43:09And so, I would suggest that we organize
43:11our lives to try to perpetuate that.
43:14Thank you.
43:25Take a few questions, please.
43:27Okay, we have time for questions. Again,
43:29please wait for the microphone. They may
43:30be moving a little slowly because we're,
43:32as I said, a little cozy in here, but be
43:34patient and the microphone will be
43:35brought to you. So, questions, please.
43:49Uh Jeff Myers from Summit Ministries.
43:51Can you expand a little bit on the
43:53comment you made about progressive
43:55action in the 1800s interrupting the
43:58movement against slavery? Can you expand
44:00on that?
44:01So, uh do you know who John C. Calhoun
44:03was?
44:05A- And you you can't understand Lincoln.
44:07that's like uh
44:08Miss Atkinson's point, right? You can't
44:11understand Lincoln if you don't read
44:12Stephen Douglas and John Cal- Calhoun,
44:14right? Cuz
44:15And John Calhoun's a little tedious, but
44:18uh
44:19he was a he graduated from Yale
44:20University and he was a student of
44:22Friedrich Hegel.
44:24He fancied himself an Aristotelian, but
44:26I have arguments why I don't think that
44:27works.
44:28And he's the one most prominently and
44:31early declare slavery a good thing.
44:34And uh why was it good? Because
44:38they're in a different condition than we
44:40are.
44:41Their humanity is not the decisive thing
44:43if they've got it. They're a different
44:45kind of thing and it would be an
44:47abomination
44:48to live with them as equal citizens.
44:52And because we are superior to them,
44:56we all become aristocrats.
44:59And then there can be harmony in the
45:01society.
45:03You see? And that is many other people,
45:06not so much Calhoun, but say Alexander
45:09Stephens, the vice presidency vice
45:11president of the Confederacy,
45:13they ascribe these differences to
45:14evolution.
45:15A development, a change, right?
45:18Uh Calhoun is a kind of scientific
45:20utopian. He wrote this book called the
45:22Disquisition on Government and it's uh I
45:25once I'm so proud of myself about this
45:27in the college, I once messed up my
45:30syllabus.
45:32And you know, we read the great
45:34documents from American history in our
45:36introductory politics course on the
45:38Constitution of the United States. We
45:39start with Aristotle
45:41and we read through, you know.
45:43And that means you're reading a lot of
45:44the great documents. Well, the whole
45:46book is 800 pages long, I think.
45:49And uh the disquisi- dis- disquisition
45:52on government is about that long and I
45:54messed up my syllabus and I I assigned
45:57the reading of it all.
46:00And they did.
46:03And I And I was At first I was
46:05horrified.
46:07And I told them and they you know they
46:08were horrified. I said, "Well, well
46:10done. Good job."
46:12But there's a line in it.
46:14It would be This is an exact quote, I
46:16think. It would be impious, let's say,
46:20failure of respect toward God to believe
46:23that God would give us the powers of
46:26natural science and permit us to use
46:28them for evil.
46:31So you see, whatever exercise of human
46:33power there is, that's okay. That That's
46:37the exercise is what makes it right.
46:40And that means, you know, using an
46:41atomic bomb on
46:43the village in northern England where my
46:45wife grew up, that would be, you know,
46:48I guess that would be okay.
46:50So, that's the point. And that comes in
46:53through German historicism.
46:56And you know,
46:57human civilization is an old story
47:01and there are many controversies
47:04amidst them.
47:05And if you read that story and try to
47:07learn about it, first of all, it's a
47:08lifelong task and you'll never get it
47:10done.
47:11But a second thing is, it makes your
47:13opinions more moderate.
47:17Because, you know, what's good about
47:19America? Well, one huge thing about it
47:22is
47:23we leave each other the devil alone.
47:26Right?
47:27And we should do that, you know. I don't
47:29like
47:30the way all kinds of people live in
47:33America. And
47:35I would rather not have to do with them.
47:37And if I try to dictate how they live,
47:38I'll end up having to do with them and
47:40that'd be bad.
47:42And I also don't want them trying to
47:43dictate to me.
47:44That's a kind of moderate solution to
47:46the problem of politics. And when we get
47:48these utopian things, politics become
47:50extreme.
47:52Like controlling
47:54everything that's said in the news.
47:58What kind of What What Mr. Atkinson
48:01Atkinson just described is an attempt to
48:04control what people say.
48:09Do you know why Winston Churchill knew
48:10Hitler was weak
48:12and could be beaten? He might not be
48:14beaten, but in principle he could be
48:16beaten.
48:17He says,
48:18"What are they afraid of?
48:20Words.
48:22They cower.
48:24Right?"
48:25Churchill was really good with words.
48:28That's why he was able to beat him.
48:34Dr. Arnn, I am
48:38I have a big belief that God was
48:40involved in the creation of two
48:42countries in this world. First one was
48:44Israel, where he gave Israel to the
48:47Jews, his chosen people.
48:50And the second one was bringing together
48:52some of the greatest minds who
48:54uh
48:55gathered in one room
48:57to create America. I'd like your
48:59thoughts on that.
49:01Yeah, I think uh
49:03God was heavily involved in both those
49:05things and a bunch of other stuff, too.
49:12I think he I think he's a very
49:14meddlesome God, but uh
49:17but I think he blessed those two things
49:20in particular. But, you know, there
49:23Think of uh
49:26Think of the burst of philosophy in
49:28Athens.
49:30And uh that was a great thing. Think of
49:33uh
49:34Elizabethan England.
49:36Shakespeare, right? Elizabeth the First.
49:40The uh
49:42the the advance
49:44of limited government that was made
49:46possible by this
49:48little country
49:49that just by accident had two features.
49:52It was cut off by sea from everybody
49:56else.
49:57And therefore it it and then that gave
50:00rise to the second feature. Because it
50:02didn't need a big land army,
50:04the king was weaker.
50:07And so the House of Commons kept winning
50:09arguments with the king over 400 years
50:12and cutting off his head sometimes.
50:15And then the second thing was
50:17they got really good at the sea cuz
50:19they're all surrounded by the sea and
50:21the seas there are very stormy to use
50:23the topical phrase today.
50:25And um
50:28And and so they were great sailors,
50:30right? And that meant once you get out
50:32on the sea, you can go anywhere. And so
50:35that spread all over the place, see? So
50:37I see the hand of Providence in more
50:40things than just those two, but surely
50:42those two.
50:44We have time for one more question.
50:49I'm Jeremy Mollison from Denver. I
50:51recently saw the movie The Darkest Hour,
50:53which I understand you uh helped to
50:55consult on. And I was hoping I could
50:57hear you talk a little bit about the the
50:58movie itself. Um I've heard a lot of
51:01good feedback on the movie, but I
51:03specifically heard some people criticize
51:05it because they say that it portrayed
51:07Churchill as being too weak. And I was
51:09hoping you could speak to that
51:10specifically in your remarks.
51:13Yeah. You seen the movie?
51:15Yeah.
51:16Well,
51:17I I love the movie and I
51:20a weird feature of my life is that I
51:21have known Gary Oldman for a few years
51:23and I've known his producer and manager
51:25of his career for 30 years. And I like
51:27them both a lot and they set out to make
51:29a very great movie.
51:31Uh it's a
51:33it's a one of the greatest dramatic
51:34demonstrations of the importance of
51:36human choice ever put together. And the
51:40reason is that event that it depicts.
51:43See, what what was Hitler's claim?
51:45Hitler's claim was just like John
51:46Calhoun's claim, just like Joe Stalin's
51:48claim. History is on our side and it's
51:51irresistible.
51:53And we're going to found the third third
51:55thousand-year Reich, right? You know, it
51:59lasted 12 years.
52:01But
52:02you know, he was like
52:03optimistic he was.
52:05But he thought it was irresistible.
52:07And you know, he nearly won. And the
52:10reason England didn't get out of the war
52:12is because on the 28th of May 1940,
52:15Winston Churchill walked in a room and
52:16gave one of the greatest speeches
52:17anybody ever gave.
52:19Hard to think anybody else could have
52:21given that speech. It's known that there
52:23wasn't anybody else in the room who
52:24wanted to.
52:25And he talked them out of it and that's
52:26what that film is about. Now, it's a
52:29fact that the screenwriter, whom I met,
52:33good guy, you know, right young man.
52:37I'm old now, so I think of everybody
52:38that way.
52:39Um
52:42he had the theory that on the 27th of
52:44May, when this cabinet crisis going on
52:47about whether to accept a offer of peace
52:49mediation from Mussolini,
52:52not the nicest guy in Europe.
52:54Um
52:57that Churchill himself weakened and
52:59wanted to quit.
53:00And he's published a book called Darkest
53:02Hour in which that claim is apparently
53:04made, although I haven't read the book.
53:06And he asked me about it.
53:08And I said, he said, "Do you think
53:12Churchill had this moment in May the
53:1527th he wanted to quit?"
53:17And I said, "No."
53:19And he said, "Why not?" I said, "Well,
53:22you know,
53:23I I don't know of any It's hard to prove
53:25a negative, right? But I don't know of
53:27any evidence for it. And I know a lot of
53:29evidence that he didn't."
53:32"What evidence?" And I said, "Well,
53:35Churchill wrote stuff down.
53:37Huge amounts.
53:39And people around him wrote stuff down.
53:42Well, he claims to see in the diary of
53:45Lord Halifax some basis for that.
53:47And so,
53:49there's a a Churchill who's
53:52weary and tired, but that point never
53:54gets made. And that's because there were
53:57a lot of good people around that movie
53:58not wanting that point made cuz it just
54:00didn't seem to be true.
54:03And uh
54:04but
54:06it it it doesn't bother me too much that
54:08even that that on that day that uh
54:11I don't like it that they showed
54:13Churchill drinking all the time.
54:15Cuz he did drink all the time, but he
54:16was never drunk.
54:18And it was a point of pride with him. He
54:20he drank uh
54:22he he first drank in his life when he
54:23was a soldier in India. And what they
54:26would do in India, and I don't
54:28even know if it's
54:29fake news or junk science, but they when
54:32they drank water, they would pour a
54:33little bit of whiskey in it to think
54:35maybe it would kill the
54:38organisms living in it, right?
54:40And so, he developed a taste for that,
54:42very weak.
54:43And he drank that all day. And he did,
54:45you know, starting about 10:00 in the
54:47morning. If you made him a strong drink,
54:49he would pour it in the fireplace.
54:52And uh now, he did drink
54:55a fair amount of champagne and wine with
54:57lunch and dinner.
54:59But
54:59I always say, you know, he was in
55:01politics for 55 years, including the
55:03three two greatest wars in history and
55:06the Great Depression.
55:07And whilst he did all that, he wrote 50
55:10wonderful books.
55:11And about 9,000 closely printed large
55:14pages of speeches all himself.
55:17If he was drunk, I'm going to take up
55:19the practice.
55:27Oh, and if you think about that,
55:30what what was what was it like on the
55:3127th of May?
55:3428th of May?
55:36Mussolini's offering pre peace.
55:39The French are getting ready to
55:41surrender.
55:42The French army is broken up, didn't
55:44fight very well.
55:47The British army
55:48is running to the sea.
55:51It was just nature asserting itself. The
55:53The two armies were joined.
55:55You know, the
55:57uh
55:57up in
55:58northeastern France
56:01in Belgium and
56:03both sides of the Belgian border.
56:06And the Germans came around behind
56:09and they in in 1914 in the famous
56:13Schlieffen Plan, they'd swept to the
56:15right.
56:16Well, they didn't do it that time. They
56:17went through the
56:19Ardennes Forest and mountain tracks and
56:21got tanks through it. Nobody thought
56:22they could do it. And so these two
56:24armies are here and their communication
56:26between them and Paris, their
56:28communications are disarranged and cut
56:31off and everything is chaos.
56:34And
56:35the two armies start moving. And you
56:37know, the people in command only half
56:38know where they are. And the French,
56:40just by automatic inclination, start
56:43moving toward Paris and the British
56:45start moving to the sea.
56:47They're a marine people, see. And and
56:49they get to Dunkirk beach.
56:52And all that's going on.
56:55And the British army is like 20
56:56divisions, something like that, maybe
56:59eight divisions, I can't remember. And
57:00the German army is several hundred.
57:04And they're going to be alone.
57:06What are they to do? And then
57:08these people in the cabinet with
57:10Churchill
57:11are more popular than Churchill.
57:14He hadn't become the greatest man in the
57:15world yet. Or I argue he already had,
57:18just nobody knew it yet.
57:20But you know, after these days in 1940,
57:22after the year 1940, for the rest of his
57:24life, everybody he met treated him like
57:27he was the greatest man in the world,
57:28even though they might hate him and
57:30resist him. But they did it that way now
57:32because wow, you know.
57:34And and so if you know, it stands to
57:37reason he'd be down.
57:39And he did write
57:41that he would uh
57:42you know, they have this
57:44uh
57:45scene in the subway where these British
57:47people
57:48and he didn't go down in the subway and
57:49have that.
57:50But I love that scene and I love it in
57:54part because
57:56Churchill says that he would uh he
57:58writes in the Second World War his
57:59memoir of the first of the Second World
58:01War. He writes that uh
58:04um
58:05I would drive along
58:08and see people on the street and in the
58:10bus queues
58:11and I would see the resolution on their
58:13faces and I would see the cheer on their
58:16faces
58:17if they would uh
58:18sight me.
58:21He said the island was suffused in a
58:23quiet glow.
58:25The British were the lion
58:28and I was called upon to give the roar.
58:33Isn't that great, you know? I mean
58:34that's it. And so they showed those
58:37people on the subway giving him words to
58:40say.
58:41You know, one boy says, "Never."
58:44Right? And then the West Indian
58:48British subject, right? Marcus might
58:50have been his name. I think it was and
58:52that's a Roman name, right?
58:54And so Churchill sights this thing that
58:56he memorized when he was a little boy.
58:58You want to hear about Winston Churchill
58:59cuz Winston Churchill was very great.
59:01Yeah.
59:03When he was a little boy he had a he was
59:04a a a poor student and a great student
59:07in alteration, depending on what he
59:08wanted. And uh
59:10so one day they have a recitation
59:11contest and he's reciting at Harrow
59:13School
59:14Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome
59:17and he starts reciting
59:19and he just keeps going.
59:21And everybody starts stirring around and
59:22looking and then one of the dons gets up
59:24and goes over to the shelf and gets the
59:26book off and finds the page and
59:28Churchill's still going.
59:30And then people look at him and the guy
59:32looks up and he's following it down and
59:34he goes
59:35you know.
59:36Right?
59:37Tremendous memory. And so one of his
59:40very favorite things
59:42Out step brave Horatius, the captain of
59:45the gate.
59:46In every life every man to every man
59:49born on this worth death come earth
59:51death cometh sooner or late.
59:54But how can man die better than facing
59:56fearful odds for the ashes of his father
1:00:00and the temple of his gods?
1:00:03And they have Marcus reciting that with
1:00:06Churchill in the background and that is
1:00:09specifically Churchill's point.
1:00:13Churchill believed in freedom and
1:00:15representative government among other
1:00:17reasons because he thought that was
1:00:19braver
1:00:21than these despotisms.
1:00:23And that hard virtue
1:00:25we get a chance to exercise because we
1:00:28are responsible for this thing.
1:00:31And that means by the way what Churchill
1:00:33will teach you. If you think that these
1:00:35odds are overwhelming and they cannot be
1:00:37faced, you should get up in the morning
1:00:39and think that is the situation for
1:00:42which I was made.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of "Conservatism and American Greatness" - Larry P. Arnn by Hillsdale Digital, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 9,249 words across 1,653 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.