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Victor Davis Hanson | Nationalism Good and Bad: Lessons from History — Transcript

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0:00Finley's yumin please find your seats
0:05while you listen very well thank you
0:10welcome welcome to plaster auditorium
0:13isn't this a beautiful place I can't
0:21wait for you to see the chapel if you've
0:22not gone just to stand outside you have
0:26to do that it just takes your breath
0:28away not even going inside just the
0:30outside part unbelievable
0:32it is my pleasure to introduce this
0:34afternoon's speaker dr. Victor Davis
0:36Hanson dr. Hanson is the Wayne and
0:39Marcia bush ski to ski Distinguished
0:41Fellow of history at Hillsdale College
0:43he is also a senior fellow at the Hoover
0:45Institution and a professor of classics
0:48emeritus at California State University
0:49Fresno here in his BA at the University
0:52of California Santa Cruz and his PhD in
0:55classics from Stanford University in
0:572007 he was awarded the National
1:00Humanities medal and in 2008 he received
1:03the Bradley prize from the Lynde and
1:05Harry Bradley Foundation he's written
1:08for numerous publications including the
1:10Claremont Review of Books the New
1:12Criterion and the Wall Street Journal he
1:15is the author of several books including
1:17a war like no other how the Athenians
1:19and Spartans fought the Peloponnesian
1:21War and the Second World War the first
1:24global conflict was won or fought and
1:27won ladies and gentlemen please help me
1:29warm normally bring up dr. Victor Davis
1:31Hanson
1:42thank you very much for coming out this
1:45is the 16th year I've taught at
1:47Hillsdale and I live on a farm in
1:49central California I never tell anybody
1:51where I'm going so my wife said the
1:54other day one of our neighbors farmers
1:56said did he go to that weird place again
1:58and when does he come back so I have a
2:01kind of a stealth life here that nobody
2:03knows about have you ever asked herself
2:07if you were to describe yourself and can
2:11you imagine if you said I'm a
2:13nationalist compared to if you said I'm
2:16an internationalist what if your child
2:19came home instead of saying I major in
2:22IR international relations they said I
2:24majored in in our nationalist relations
2:28you can imagine the pushback you would
2:32get what I'm getting at is nationalism
2:34is not a good word at least until the
2:36last two years that's kind of peculiar
2:39because the word comes from the Latin
2:41not EO and it was considered even an
2:44antiquity a progressive idea that unlike
2:48the Greek city-state were people of the
2:52same language roughly the same
2:54traditions the same ethnic background
2:57were politically fragmented in Italy
3:01they came up with a new concept of
3:02unification and they thought that that
3:04would be a more equitable and successful
3:08way of solving rivalries between
3:10different people so what happened to the
3:13concept Woodrow Wilson remember went to
3:16Versailles in January of 1919 promising
3:21that people who spoke the same language
3:24and had the same ethnic background and
3:28mostly the same religion would get to
3:30have their own national destiny they
3:32would not be subject to imperial rule by
3:34others so what happened I think very
3:36briefly the answer is Germany until the
3:40French Revolution sort of gave a
3:43catalyst to the modern idea of
3:45nationalism the Congress of Vienna but
3:48the unification of Germany creating the
3:52largest country in Europe
3:56Warp the idea of nationalism because it
3:59was a little bit different than the
4:00other european countries and by that I
4:02mean it was involved in three wars the
4:05franco-prussian war of 1871 it invaded
4:08through Denmark Belgium and France in
4:111914 and of course it went into Poland
4:14in 1939 on September 1st and triggered
4:17World War two but it wasn't just people
4:20felt that Germany was aggressive but
4:22people felt that they had redefined
4:25nationalism by that I mean even before
4:29National Socialism of the 1930s there
4:33was a movement in Germany that said that
4:36Germans are going to be defined by Blut
4:41boater blood and soil and what that
4:44meant was you could live in Germany
4:47within the boundaries of Germany you
4:50could speak German you could be a sixth
4:51generation German you could be a
4:55Lutheran or Catholic but you would not
4:58be German if you didn't have a
5:00particularly sheíll ancestry and that
5:03goes back to the 19th century when
5:04writers said that and we're how did that
5:07happen in Germany and not France and the
5:09answer was that in antiquity Rome which
5:14was a multiracial society like her own
5:17had incorporated most of Western Europe
5:19and to some degree Northern Europe but
5:22not Germany the Romans felt that these
5:25people were very fierce they were beyond
5:27the Danube and the Rhine and they were
5:28going to be let be you read Tacitus is
5:31essay on ancient Germany the germani and
5:34he says there are very different people
5:36and what had been sort of deprecated ori
5:39in antiquity became was flipped upside
5:42down after the net the unification of
5:44germany is that we were better because
5:46we were never mongrelized and that sort
5:49of discredited the idea of nationalism
5:51because in Italy
5:53Mussolini's said we have La Raza with
5:56twosies kind of scary because that has a
5:58modern connotation and then funko wrote
6:01a novel General Franco in Spain called
6:04La Raza believe it or not and they both
6:06parroted the Nazi idea that you couldn't
6:09Spanish in Italian even if you spoke
6:11Italian or Spanish and you lived here in
6:13yet and unless you had a racial essence
6:15and by the way if you look at the
6:18Constitution of Mexico today it does
6:21says that immigration shall not impair
6:24the racial equilibrium of Mexico so what
6:27I'm getting at is there's a strain of
6:28nationalism that has polluted the
6:31otherwise positive view of nationalism
6:33and it's too bad because if you're going
6:37to organize people people are not born
6:39homogeneous there's not a homogeneity
6:41that's natural so if you're gonna
6:42organize different people under a
6:44political framework there's a limited
6:46amount of choices you can use force
6:49force of religion like the Caliphate of
6:52the 14th century or the Ottoman Empire
6:55Caliphate and force people to be Muslims
6:58of all different races and nationalities
7:00or you can be the the Soviet Union and
7:02say you may be Chechnya or Ukraine in
7:05but you're a Marxist Leninist first of
7:07all or yuccas Lobby as long as Tito is
7:10alive and says we're all communists
7:11we're not Serbs or Bosnia if you don't
7:14use that Imperial coercion then you can
7:18do what Wilson thought was a liberal
7:20idea you can allow people to create
7:22national boundaries based on their race
7:24and you can have several of them there
7:27can be an independent survey or Bosnia
7:29and you can have this ethnic state and
7:33as long as it treats its neighbors ok
7:36Luther Way Nia treats Estonia ok there's
7:38no problem usually that doesn't happen
7:40very often in history and there's a
7:42third alternative and it's very rare and
7:45that is to combine people of different
7:48races and ethnic backgrounds increase
7:50into one country and not use coercion
7:53the Rome pulled it off for a few
7:55centuries and nobody has except us and
7:58so what unites people in this audience
8:01that do not look like each other is a
8:04common national story the Constitution
8:08the Bill of Rights the 4th of July the
8:11Gettysburg Address and the notion that
8:13Faulkner or Stein book Steinbeck or the
8:17last of the Mohicans does not belong to
8:20any particular race or creed
8:22an American idea it's a melting pot and
8:25it has to be worked upon all the time
8:27because it's not a natural phenomenon
8:30it's a construct that we in the melting
8:33pot will unite people by ideas and that
8:35means that Americans can look like
8:37anyone none of you in this audience can
8:40go to Japan and say I am Japanese even
8:42if you're legally Japanese you'll never
8:44be fully accepted the same is true of
8:47China
8:48I don't think Condoleezza Rice could be
8:50Chancellor of Germany today I just don't
8:53think it's going to happen we're the
8:55only country that's pulled this off and
8:57the key to this net this benign are good
9:01nationalism is citizenship the idea that
9:04the American citizen is unique and I'm
9:06very worried because I think citizenship
9:08is eroding and it's becoming meaningless
9:12and with it nationalism is disappearing
9:14in the positive sense and it's happening
9:16in a very strange way on two levels I
9:19guess we would call some of us pre
9:22citizens in some of the most post
9:23citizen and what's common is we forgot
9:26who sit at how citizenry develop it it
9:30occurred for the first time in the
9:33seventh century in ancient Greece and
9:35you know the word Polat takes a citizen
9:37you get political policy even police and
9:40it was elaborated on and
9:42institutionalized in Rome as the kiwis
9:45the Civic a sidess Civic civil
9:50civilization and the idea is at a
9:52particular resident within these
9:55boundaries was not a subject of a king
9:58or dictator and he wasn't a wild
10:00tribesman up in Gaul or Scandinavia he
10:03was a unique person who could pass on
10:06property to his children he could vote
10:09he could make his own laws and he had
10:11the choice when and where to live and
10:14how long he was a free person in other
10:16words he that seems self-evident now it
10:18was a very rare there was nothing like
10:20it in the Near East
10:21nothing like it in Sumeria Egypt nothing
10:24like it in tribal northern Europe it was
10:26a unique idea nothing like it in the new
10:28world
10:29Aztecs no Mayans no but now what we're
10:33trying to do I guess in this country
10:35either by laxity or by intent is revert
10:38back to pre citizenship and it occurs at
10:40at three levels the first is we're
10:43blurring the line between a mere
10:45resident and a citizen we have about 60
10:48million residents in the United States
10:50largest number we've ever had that are
10:53not US citizens there's no problem with
10:5640 million because they have green cards
10:58and they're illegal even though that's a
10:59hard large number to assimilate
11:02intermarry and integrate into the body
11:03politic something we should watch what
11:06we have according to the Yale and MIT
11:08latest study about 20 million people who
11:11are here illegally and the strange thing
11:13about it is that the chief and
11:16ingredients of American citizenship that
11:19said an American citizen and only
11:21American citizen can leave or enter the
11:23country as he pleases or vote in an
11:27election as he wishes or stay
11:29indefinitely in the United States due to
11:32his legal rights has been completely
11:34blurred where I live in California if
11:36you're here illegally
11:37you can go back across the border as you
11:39wish in San Francisco if you're here
11:42illegally you can vote in school board
11:45elections and the same is true in some
11:46places in New England and as we learned
11:49with the daca and dreamer program you
11:51can live here indefinitely
11:53and it even is a little bit more extreme
11:57than just equality with citizenship
12:00sometimes it's mirror it's it's mere
12:05discrimination a person in California
12:07who's charged with a crime if the person
12:10is a resident rather than a citizen is
12:13not subject to federal immigration law
12:15to the full extent if you are I come
12:18into the Detroit Airport from overseas
12:20we do not have a passport we're going to
12:21be detained if you are in Fresno County
12:25and 500 other sanctuary city
12:29jurisdictions and you commit a crime and
12:31you're here illegally you're not going
12:33to be deported it's not going to happen
12:35you're given a privilege as it is if
12:38you're in California and you are here
12:41illegally you're going to get a license
12:44just like a citizen but not quite just
12:48like a citizen because the federal law
12:50says for you to travel you have to have
12:52proof of citizenship to get a proper ID
12:56for the federal transportation authority
12:59so that means that all the citizens in
13:01California have to turn in their
13:02driver's licenses
13:04next year and reapply with a passport in
13:07other words they have an extra burden to
13:08pay because residents had an advantage
13:11of not having to have the same type of
13:13ID for their for their version of
13:16driver's license
13:17so in some sense in many of our states
13:20it doesn't really matter whether you're
13:22a citizen or resident and you can see
13:24where that's leading people who come
13:25from different countries and they're
13:27here illegally they have no investment
13:29to the same degree as we do in our
13:33constitutional documents they don't
13:35really want to know part of the national
13:36story where I live people candidates
13:38from south of the border fly into the
13:41Central Valley of California campaign
13:42and people vote for them and they vote
13:45in the United States you can see the
13:47problem and fragmenting society because
13:49what the theme is that were of various
13:51different races and ethnic backgrounds
13:54and this is not normal in history and we
13:55have to make the extra effort but we're
13:57not making extra effort we're doing just
13:59the opposite but besides turning into a
14:01country of mere residents were also
14:04becoming a country of tribes and by that
14:08I mean the idea of multiracialism that
14:11we're all of different races but we
14:12share a common culture is eroding and
14:15now we're becoming many cultures and
14:18many races Stanford University you can
14:22determine the racial background of your
14:25roommate before you enroll the same as
14:27to a Claremont College there are places
14:29on university campuses called safe
14:31spaces that are reserved for particular
14:33people and of a particular race there
14:36are themed houses and dorms where people
14:38segregate according to their race there
14:43was a reason
14:44did anybody ask herself why for years
14:46Elizabeth Warren and other politicians
14:48had railed against white privilege if
14:52that were true why would Elizabeth
14:55Warren choose to be a Native American
14:56that
14:57culturally-appropriate a another
14:59identity which according to her own
15:01logic would put her at a disadvantage
15:03giving the ubiquity of white privilege
15:05and the answer is that we have returned
15:08to the one-drop rule of the old south
15:10that one drop 1/16 allows you to become
15:14in a minority so the reason that she
15:16said she was a Cherokee person a member
15:18of the Cherokee Nation is she wanted a
15:20careerist advantage over someone else
15:22who chose not to play that game and
15:25Harvard was only happy to comply because
15:27the law school bragged that she was
15:29their first minority a Native American
15:31faculty member and so what you can see
15:34is a retry belies a ssin of America at
15:38the expense of citizenship I went to
15:40school in a grammar school that was
15:43about 90% mexican-american and maybe it
15:46was culturally insensitive
15:48maybe the melting pot got too hot but we
15:51took people from all over Latin America
15:54and we made them into American citizens
15:56and I've noticed I'm 66 that when I see
16:00some people that I went to kindergarten
16:02at first grade that be they went from
16:04Wanda Johns and they dropped the accent
16:07on their last name now in their 60s
16:09they're back to wanna gay and they've
16:11added accents and - nations to their
16:13name and what would be the purpose of
16:15that the purpose is they get a general
16:17impression from the society at large
16:20that there's an advantage not to
16:21identify just as a plain old American
16:24that you have to be a tribal a member of
16:27a particular tribe the LGBT community
16:29the asian-american community the black
16:32community and you can see where this is
16:34going 70% of the country's self
16:37identifies as white and the last thing
16:39you would want would be 70% of the
16:41country to start identifying as white it
16:43would be the worst thing in the world to
16:45happen but that's the logic of tribalism
16:47that leads something to something like
16:49Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia or what
16:53we saw in Iraq so we have to be careful
16:56of people blurring the line between a
16:59citizen and a resident and an American
17:03and a tribal member there's another
17:05there's another phenomenon it's just as
17:07scary that's going on and
17:10theme a pre citizenship America was
17:14based on the viability of a middle class
17:16if you read the essays of Jefferson he
17:19said you know when we pile up everybody
17:21into the cities and they're no longer
17:23farm owners then we'll have two classes
17:26wealthy and poor if you read st. john
17:29dickricker Crevecoeur or you read Alex
17:31de Tocqueville the theme is the same
17:34that a solid property owning middle
17:37class has advantages over the poor
17:40because they're invested in a particular
17:42place they showed a sobriety of judgment
17:44to save their money they're stationary
17:46people they're sober judicious they do
17:48not look to government to the same
17:50degree as the poor and unlike the
17:52wealthy they don't have the power or
17:54leverage to effect government to act in
17:57the interests of a small clique so there
17:59was this romance and it was easy to do
18:02because 90% of the country as I said
18:04were agraria we survived the Industrial
18:07Revolution the middle class did I should
18:09say and it was transmogrified into the
18:12American ideal that everybody would own
18:14a home and they would have a job that
18:17would open a pathway to upward mobility
18:20and they'd have an avenue to go to
18:22college for self-improvement and out of
18:24that matrix they would be independent
18:26and autonomous people and all of us the
18:29in the middle class then could tell the
18:32poor we're not gonna redistribute money
18:33and we could also tell the very wealthy
18:36and you're not going to be a crony
18:37inside capitalist what's happened though
18:41we've psychologically deprecated the
18:44middle class or elites say that the
18:46middle class lacks the culture of the
18:48wealthy with our snowmobiles and SUVs
18:52and jet skis and Winnebagos and we don't
18:55have the romance of the distant poor and
18:57that reflects something that in actual
19:00terms the middle class is threatened
19:02homeownership peaked right before the
19:05collapse in 2008 at 71% it's down to
19:08about 62% but unfortunately that doesn't
19:11tell the whole story the percentage of a
19:13family budget that goes to housing has
19:16gone from about 14% in the 1950s to 44%
19:21so people to the degree that they can
19:24buy a house are spending nearly half
19:26their income wages until two years ago
19:30had been frozen for ten years the middle
19:33class didn't really see an increase in
19:35their wages for tenure it's gone up
19:37three percent under Trump but until then
19:39it had not gone up and when you talk
19:41about college and upward mobility and
19:43this is a very apropos topic here at
19:46Hillsdale because the purpose of this
19:49wonderful gala is to raise money to help
19:51defray the cost of tuition but we have
19:54an aggregate 1.6 trillion dollars in
19:59student debt I don't think we're getting
20:02much returned from most colleges if you
20:04look at the level of education that a
20:07recent graduate shows but more
20:09importantly there were certain
20:11attributes about the middle class
20:12allowed citizens to be traditional and
20:15to be participants in the American story
20:18and one was of course people got married
20:22quite early in the 20s the average age
20:24until 1952 was 22 some of you got
20:27married at 21 or 22 until just 2000 the
20:31average number of children is it was
20:33about 2.1 it's now about 1.7 people are
20:37an average getting married about 29 now
20:39I mentioned housing going down in middle
20:42class of wages and student debt was
20:45about 5% of students had student debt in
20:48the 50s and so think what we're doing
20:52we're telling young people you're really
20:55not going to be able to buy a house and
20:57you're an indentured servant to your
21:00former college that you have this
21:02$200,000 debt and they say I'm not I
21:05can't afford to get married I'm not
21:07going to have children I can't go to the
21:09suburbs I don't want to live in a town
21:11like Hillsdale I want to live in a farm
21:12I want to be a hipster in a urban
21:14environment and get and that's pretty
21:16much the ingredients of what you see on
21:18the news with an T fall that's the
21:20profile so the destruction of the middle
21:23class and turns you into a nation of
21:25peasants as we see in California we're
21:28almost 1 out of 1 out of 5 and we're
21:31getting close to 1 out of 4
21:32lives below the poverty line and yet we
21:34have the largest number of zip codes of
21:36people who were in the most affluent
21:39counties in the country we have the
21:41highest number of billionaires but if
21:43you drive up to Stanford University on
21:45any given day you'll see people living
21:47in Winnebagos right out in front of
21:49campus can't afford to buy a home and
21:51they're working for Google or Facebook
21:53or Yahoo or Apple with a market
21:56capitalization of four trillion dollars
21:58I I submit to you that that's not a good
22:01way to create a stable American
22:04nationalist patriotic country when
22:07you're destroying the middle class so we
22:10don't want to be mere residents or
22:13tribes people or peasantry but I'd like
22:17to suggest that on the other end of the
22:19scale there's on the elite side there's
22:23just as much danger to nationalism as in
22:26citizenship our elite tend to believe on
22:30the coast that they're not citizens so
22:32much of the United States as citizens of
22:34the world they like to be called
22:37international store globalist they do
22:38not want to be known as nationalists
22:41they have more faith in the Paris
22:44climate Accord or the Kyoto agreements
22:46than they do their own government
22:48they're ashamed of the Second Amendment
22:50when they go to Europe they feel the
22:53trans-pacific trade is much better than
22:56negotiating individual trade deals
22:58there's they love the World Bank they
23:01love the International Monetary Fund
23:02they think the UN Commission on civil
23:04rights or human rights has more
23:06authority than does the US House of
23:08Representatives
23:09and out of that it's an old idea out of
23:13that comes a transnationalism that just
23:17as globalization took american free
23:20market capitalism and spread it around
23:22is seven billion people and gave us
23:24instant communications instant travel
23:27almost anybody can get on a phone and
23:30call any of the other 7 billion people
23:31in the world almost quite easily but
23:34what did not follow was American
23:37constitutional government most people
23:39said that is too strange it's too weird
23:41we don't want it and by that they meant
23:44they don't like the second
23:46they've been Western Europeans and most
23:48of the world
23:49they have no problem with late term
23:51abortion they feel the government should
23:54intervene and restructure radically the
23:57economy on the theory of manmade global
23:59warming and so there's a lot of ideas
24:04out in the globalized world that are
24:07antithetical to Americas and we have a
24:09lot of people in the country who in the
24:12progressive movement feel that we have
24:13to move beyond Americanism enjoying the
24:17world just as we have economically and
24:18culturally there's a second thing that's
24:21happening with post citizenship and
24:23that's a formal assault on the US
24:26Constitution by the elite classes by
24:29that I mean we've now had a second
24:32election in which as the framers
24:35envisioned from time to time the
24:38candidate who won the popular vote might
24:42not win the electoral college it
24:44happened with George W Bush and Al Gore
24:46too happened with Hillary Clinton and
24:48don't keep from unfortunately both in
24:51both cases progressives lost and given
24:54the Trump trajectory people are very
24:57angry and they think the answer to it is
24:59to change either the Constitution or the
25:01accepted custom and practice of the last
25:04hundred years we mentioned sanctuary
25:06cities I would just say that Noah
25:08focaccia is a very common Creed now in
25:11the United States but it's only goes one
25:13way you can nullify federal immigration
25:14law but believe me if the people of
25:18Provo Utah decide that within their
25:20jurisdiction they want to nullify
25:22federal handgun registration they're not
25:24going to be able to do it if people in
25:26Bakersfield say the Endangered Species
25:30Act does not apply in Kern County
25:31they're not going to be able to do it
25:34it's a one-sided asymmetrical view sort
25:37of like South Carolina in 1832 and three
25:40when they nullify federal law and said
25:42tariff policy doesn't apply it's a road
25:46to perdition as we know from 1861 and
25:48yet it's getting more and more common
25:50that a particular jurisdiction can defy
25:53and legally so the US Constitution
25:57people want to return to FDR's
26:00half-baked plan of packing the court I
26:02don't know if they think they're gonna
26:05get away with it FDR didn't but if you
26:07look at court decisions after the court
26:09packing scheme of the late 30s you could
26:13make the argument that justice tend to
26:15be a little bit more progressive in fear
26:17that they might either have more
26:20justices or face mandatory retirements
26:22so there's an effort at least to suggest
26:24we're going to change the nature of the
26:26court and even if we can't that's a
26:28message to you conservative people to
26:29shape up or else there's an idea that as
26:33you know every single candidate that I
26:35know of that I've heard my check today
26:37is in favor of abolishing in the
26:39electoral college people don't
26:42understand what it was for it was for to
26:44give equal representation to people
26:46outside big cities and follow the
26:50Republican model of Rome and not the
26:54quite scary 51 percent get what they
26:56want in any given day plan of ancient
26:58Athens and yet that's very common in
27:03preparation for this talk I did a lot of
27:05research I didn't realize how common it
27:07is the progressive anger at the US
27:10Senate and a common refrain as the
27:13people of Wyoming have two senators each
27:16represents two hundred and forty-five
27:18thousand people we in California have
27:21two sinners each represents twenty
27:24million people that's not fair let's
27:26make senators proportion on the
27:29population as House members and I think
27:32we'll see some of that in short there's
27:35a formal assault on the Constitution
27:38because it hasn't given the expected
27:41results and because the aims of the left
27:43are so exalted and noble they feel that
27:46any means necessary are justified and
27:49finally there's an informal effort to
27:53create something like a post citizen
27:56that doesn't have to abide by the
27:57Constitution
27:58have you noticed we have still have a
27:59Second Amendment but what does it mean
28:01if you're in a rural part of the United
28:02States and you go to Walmart and they
28:04can't sell you immune
28:06in other words social justice warriors
28:09that cancel culture social media
28:12Hollywood the foundations the
28:14universities that all of them can put
28:16such pressure on people that they can't
28:19fully exercise their constitutional
28:21rights even though the rights day yury
28:24are still in existence if you're a cake
28:27maker and you don't want a particular
28:28theme of a sexual orientation you can
28:31can be coerced if your cartr page and
28:35you're innocent but you represent an
28:37unattractive candidate or campaign you
28:39can be leveraged by a prosecutor or if
28:42you're Michael Flynn you can plead be
28:45pled guilty ninety 90 percent of all
28:47federal prosecutors when their cases to
28:51all cases of federal prosecutors do so
28:54we have to be very careful that we're
28:56not creating a situation while it's we
28:58still have these personal freedoms
29:00protected by the Constitution
29:02we can't exercise them I know as a
29:04professor and fellow at Stanford I speak
29:08to a lot of students and I will
29:09guarantee you that if you were students
29:11now at Stanford I would not say the
29:13following because I wouldn't get I
29:16wouldn't get to the end of the speech if
29:18I said I'm very skeptical about abortion
29:21but I especially do not like the idea of
29:23eight thousand instances of infanticide
29:26we've got to stop it
29:27half would walk out at that the other
29:30half would come to the podium and who
29:32didn't come the podium would come when I
29:34said I don't believe that I do believe
29:36that climate changes but I either don't
29:38believe that we're responsible for it or
29:40if we were responsible it justifies the
29:42radical transformations in the economy
29:45that people are calling for I don't
29:47think I could finish that either and if
29:50I said I live in a farmhouse where I
29:53inherited twelve different guns I'm very
29:55proud of them I don't think that would
29:57go over in other words there is a
29:58freedom of speech but if you were to try
30:00to say that if you don't believe me you
30:03wouldn't be able to but you don't
30:04believe me if you all put on red Magga
30:05hats and walk into Detroit see what
30:07happens to you
30:08and so there's cases where we have these
30:12constitutional freedoms but a minority
30:15of the population that has so much more
30:16influence and resources is able to
30:20created culture of shame where we don't
30:21dare exercise them and then de facto
30:24it's almost the same result as the
30:26people formally and legally trying to
30:29invalidate the Constitution or you know
30:33if people don't want to go out and vote
30:34in California because they're afraid to
30:35go to the polls it has the same effect
30:37as a federal judge overturning a club a
30:39site that happened in two cases with gay
30:42marriage let me just finish by saying
30:44what happened what causes this you talk
30:47to people overseas in Asia or Africa
30:49they call it the Western disease and
30:52what they're referring to is a clearly
30:54defined mentality in the ancient world
30:57you can read it in Plato and Aristotle
30:59you can see it especially in Roman
31:02nihilistic literature Tacitus Petronius
31:05metolius that suggests that too much
31:07affluence too much leisure creates a
31:10laxity and luksus the Romans called it
31:13or if you don't have an existential
31:14threat then perhaps you have the margin
31:18of error to indulge and ideas that are
31:21detrimental to yourself even suicidal
31:23notions note that a country like Israel
31:25is Western to the core but it's not as
31:28advanced because it knows if it were to
31:30experiment with either pre-modern
31:32citizenship or postmodern citizenship
31:35it's mortars would be overrun that would
31:36cease to exist because Italy it lives in
31:38a sea of enemies unlike us and most of
31:41Western Europe that's part of it but I
31:43would just end by suggesting that a lot
31:45of it is our educational system because
31:48the people who are crafting our laws the
31:52judges who are overturning plebiscites
31:55the lawyers who are advancing these
31:57legal theories the professors who are
32:00teaching our children all come from a
32:04asymmetrical system and by that I mean
32:07they feel that they have reached a point
32:10of wisdom and affluence and leisure and
32:13comfort and that it's permissible or
32:17indeed it's it's desirable or necessary
32:21to explain to people how unhappy how
32:25miserable they are and
32:28that they must change the system and the
32:31more that they change the system you can
32:33see what's happening whether it's
32:34homeless people in San Francisco
32:37juxtaposed to people in Nob Hill or
32:41Pacific Heights right next to them as
32:42they walk across it there's an asymmetry
32:45that we in the university live one life
32:48tenured affluent leisure and we tell
32:51indebted students you have to do this
32:53with no ramifications of the ideology
32:56affecting ourselves and so I think that
32:59we could leave by thinking there's
33:01nothing better that we all could do than
33:03to support colleges that protect the
33:06Constitution they advocate for the
33:10middle class they make a distinction
33:12between residents and citizens and
33:15they're not just skeptical but they're
33:17adamantly opposed to anybody who wants
33:20to change the US Constitution the last
33:22great hope for mankind and the only
33:24thing that saves not just the United
33:25States but the world at large thank you
33:28very much
33:46I don't know if we have to question you
33:50dr. Manson
33:50we now time for a few questions if you
33:52have a question please up come up to the
33:54microphones
34:01I hope I didn't scare you if you have a
34:04question please come up to a microphone
34:11first of all thank you very much amazing
34:15we enjoy you both in your articles and
34:18on television what is your feeling about
34:22the last 10 days about this so-called
34:26whistleblower issue whistleblower issue
34:39well my wife called me said what are you
34:41going to speak on and she said you're
34:44not gonna speak on that are you and and
34:49then she sighed and said of course you
34:51will be stupid enough to talk well very
34:54quickly
34:56this latest psycho drama is it has it's
35:01in a series isn't it the moments act the
35:0425th amendment
35:05stormy the voting machines Mueller so
35:09it's part of a series that to overturn
35:12not just a 2016 election that but
35:15preclude that 2020 in its in its in a
35:17vain at which which I just talked about
35:19it's an effort to change the
35:22Constitution as it were but there is I
35:24think what Nancy Pelosi has done by
35:26going forward before she even had read
35:29the transcript of the call or the
35:30whistleblower complaint was tactically
35:33very smart because Trump has already
35:36gone down two points we have we
35:38everybody's forgot the UN speech he gave
35:40very good speech and then strategically
35:44very stupid because it accomplished all
35:47at once four or five things that she I
35:49don't think anticipated number one it
35:51took out for all practical purposes the
35:55leading candidate Joe Biden and you
35:58cannot mention Ukraine you can be you
36:00can rail about Trump on Ukraine but at
36:02some point you have to mention Jill
36:03Biden even to say well it doesn't apply
36:04to Joe Biden there that in itself is so
36:09I think that he's taken out and he had
36:11the best chance of defeating don't from
36:14second the whistleblower and the people
36:19who put the whistleblower up and I say
36:21that because I read very carefully the
36:23whistleblowers complaint it's not
36:25written by a normal whistleblower it's a
36:27legal document and - you cannot impeach
36:31the president itíd States based on a
36:34whistleblowers complaint worth nine
36:37times he or she says I was told or I
36:41heard it's all hearsay
36:42I know the Inspector General said there
36:44was some first-hand knowledge I read it
36:46four times I couldn't find any
36:47first-hand knowledge and third you can
36:50impeach the President on anonymous
36:52sources they don't identify those
36:54so-called staffers who heard this call
36:56and of course even if they did hear the
36:58call press the United States can bluster
37:00cajole barter horse bar that's what they
37:03do and can you imagine the phone call
37:05about Barack Obama and the nocturnal
37:07transfer of 400 billion dollars to Iran
37:10I don't want to hear about it but it's
37:12it's his right to do that and so what
37:16I'm getting at is the whistleblower
37:17we're gonna learn who the /
37:19whistleblower is and people are gonna
37:21ask the whistleblower have you ever met
37:23Adam Schiff did you ever have a lawyer
37:25did you know that the whistleblower
37:28statute was changed to allow hearsay
37:30shortly before you filed this have you
37:32communicated with anybody in the DNC
37:34those are gonna be questions under
37:36penalty of perjury and then finally I
37:38think Nancy Pelosi thought that the news
37:41cycle is is predictable you go into
37:45impeachment it makes sense Trump might
37:47when the elections stop it now but it's
37:49not it's volatile and by that I mean
37:51there's too many known unknowns there's
37:54Michael Horowitz with maybe a criminal
37:57indictment of Andrew McCabe there's
37:59Michael Horowitz maybe with the criminal
38:02indictment about the abuse of the FISA
38:04Court there's John Huebner who's going
38:06all over the world trying to find who
38:08interfered against Trump not for Trump
38:11and then you have John Durham is doing
38:15the same thing so you have three
38:16prosecutors who are looking at things
38:18we've never looked at who knows what the
38:20news will be like that we've only had
38:22three a bit is it twelve we have nine
38:24more of these debates I mean every time
38:26there's a
38:27Trump goes up by two points so you and
38:34so what I'm getting at is that going
38:37after and trying to appease a president
38:39on anonymous sources and hearsay while
38:43you have three prosecutors loose and you
38:46have debates going on with the new Green
38:48Deal advocacy and reparation it's not a
38:51good formula I think and I think the
38:53result will be after about three weeks
38:55she'll start to see that and then it'll
38:58be an impeach impeachment inquiry and
39:00not a true impeachment if they were to
39:02vote on it and I think the Republicans
39:04very much want them to vote 30 or 40
39:08House representatives were going to lose
39:10their seats because where we are in
39:12California they some of them won my
39:14district our Republican candidate lost
39:17by 600 votes he won the election by
39:196,000 and then voter harvesting by
39:23Christmas he lost by 6 and he's running
39:25again and according to the McClatchy
39:27poll he's 12 points ahead and he's
39:29really hammering this and against the
39:31Democratic incumbent thank you very much
39:33the question
39:34[Applause]
39:40dr. Anson it's a supremacist see you I
39:44left Los Pinos California about six
39:47years ago and when I left the city of
39:5135,000 the Ford dealership had cuz I the
39:55Mustang had had was down to four
39:58mechanics and they all left at noon you
40:03said in your book Mexifornia in 20 that
40:06you're out I believe in 2003 203 you
40:10said this state cannot figure out
40:12whether it has become a promised land
40:14based on cheap immigrant labor or a
40:17looming nightmare of unassimilated
40:20third-world ISM now the reason I think
40:24that's so critical and I'd like to have
40:26more comment on that from you is because
40:29as you say in your book what's happening
40:32there is coming to the rest of us
40:41that was a funny book because the person
40:43who asked me to write the article from
40:45which the book came 20 years ago said
40:47can you write how wonderfully illegal
40:49immigration is and I said I can write
40:53about it but it won't be wonderful so I
40:56think what we saw in California in 2002
41:003 when I wrote that is happening all
41:03over the country and it's based what
41:06changed and by that I mean we all have
41:10this I guess in our business we all have
41:13this bloodsport where we go back and
41:14look at YouTube comments if you've seen
41:16John Kerry Hillary Clinton Bill Clinton
41:18blasting illegal immigration you should
41:21do it there's a great one with Barack
41:23Obama says I'm not a king I can't I
41:25can't give amnesty 22 times he said that
41:28so what changed and what changed is
41:31people said that in the Democratic Party
41:33when there were two four and six million
41:35but when you have 20 million and you
41:38have a second generation already that's
41:40at voting age of another 10 or 15
41:42million of US citizens then that's a
41:44powerful constituency and they look at
41:46California and they say wow this was 32
41:50years of Reagan Pete Wilson that masion
41:55Schwarzenegger never gonna happen again
41:57super majority in both legislatures we
41:59went down from 53 congressional seats to
42:037 Republican so they look at Nevada
42:06flipped New Mexico's flip blew Texas and
42:11Arizona and Colorado we're next and
42:13that's a demographic shift so the
42:15Democratic Party is for open borders
42:17because they find a lot of advantage the
42:22only thing that's going to save us is
42:24what we talk about citizenship that we
42:27appeal to people who were coming
42:29hopefully legally hopefully with skills
42:32hopefully the America attic process
42:34hopefully in a diverse manner so they're
42:37from all over the world and we say to
42:38them you left your country you don't
42:41like Oaxaca you may think you like
42:43Oaxaca
42:43you may put a Mexican flag on your car
42:45but you're here so that tells me you did
42:47not like it there so we're here to help
42:49you
42:50we're here to integrate you and
42:51assimilate you in
42:53and become one of us and if Trump can
42:57make that argument and he can also make
42:59economic argument I have got he could
43:01say I got the lowest unemployment in the
43:03history of the Mexican American
43:04workforce it's true and for someone who
43:08lives in that area it's just absolutely
43:10astounding to hear people come up to you
43:13and say I was on the wolf they're paying
43:17me $19 an hour
43:19for the first time in my life Victor a
43:21guy came over and got out of his car and
43:23said I'll pay you 23 if you get off that
43:25roof and go on my roof and he said they
43:27want me now and so what we forgot in the
43:29Republican Party that the essence of
43:31dignity is a job and when you get the
43:33unemployment rate down to 3.7 and you
43:36have employers begging for workers that
43:38worker calculates that and thinks I have
43:41dignity now I have leverage and I want
43:43to I I have some gratitude to the person
43:46who did that so wouldn't that be ironic
43:49that through economics and a new
43:54approach to mexican-american voters one
43:56based on citizenship and become one of
43:59us
43:59the Democratic Party would lose what
44:03they need to win and because they've so
44:06alienated the working classes especially
44:09the white working-class they cannot
44:11afford to lose 40 percent the Hispanic
44:13vote or even 15 percent of the black
44:15vote and yet I think there's a good
44:17chance they'll do both
44:27questions since your book carnage and
44:30culture and what's happened today if you
44:34were to go back or to look at what you
44:37wrote then and what is happening now
44:39what are the underpinnings in your
44:42opinion being a student of culture that
44:45gives us foundation or perhaps a way or
44:49a path back to culture that will remain
44:54as strong as our Constitution intended
45:03well when you say the West Western
45:06culture were really we have to be
45:07specific we're talking about North
45:09America Canada in the United States and
45:11we're talking about Britain's and its
45:15former Empire in most part Australia
45:19Canada New Zealand and we're talking
45:21about continental Europe and then we're
45:23now talking about westernized states
45:25such as South Korea or Taiwan or Japan
45:27that are more or less accepted the
45:30paradigm and out of you know seven
45:32billion people there's about two billion
45:34that are on that page and so that that's
45:37helpful but what is worried to me is
45:40that while globalization and
45:43westernization has swept the globe so if
45:46I go to the Ukraine or I go to Bolivia
45:49people have jeans they have a cell phone
45:51they're on Facebook they seem dumb
45:54they're almost quasi Americans that
45:56diffusion has really weakened the West
45:58and by that I mean people think the West
46:01is that x-men movie I saw or the West is
46:05that cellphone as I said or it's that
46:08particular rap song it's not it's a menu
46:11of constitutional government free speech
46:15due process the protection of private
46:19property the right to bear arms and that
46:22menu is I think I don't want to be too
46:27too fanatical or too paranoid but I
46:30think that menu is almost gone in Europe
46:32as I see it today and and you can see
46:34what's happening in brexit today when
46:36people
46:37had a pleb site we do not want to be
46:39part of this continental system it's
46:41different than we in Britain it's not
46:43the anglo-saxon Langan tradition the
46:46Atlantians Atlantic it's different we
46:48don't want it anymore
46:49it's anti-democratic it's against the
46:51traditions of Britain and they can't get
46:53out because their own elites have joined
46:56the Continental System so what I'm most
46:59worried about when I wrote about carnage
47:00and culture I use that word the West and
47:03I know that there's been bifurcations
47:05during World Wars but what's really
47:07scary is that we're going to an
47:09Orwellian sameness in the West and the
47:14United States is not completely against
47:18it half of the United States agrees with
47:21the trajectory that Europe is in and
47:23they like the European Union and they
47:26like the idea that somebody in Brussels
47:28can tell a Greek that that's not a
47:29banana because it's not six inches long
47:31or you can't go to your beach because
47:33one of our inspectors saw a plastic
47:35bottle so we shut it down they liked
47:37that control because they feel that a
47:40special a special educated affluent
47:44class mostly on the coast of the United
47:46States and Europe and the big cities
47:48knows far better than the average person
47:51what's good for them and to the degree
47:53that they're wrong they have a parachute
47:55by their own influence and wealth that
47:57their bromides will never apply to them
48:00themselves and that's what's really
48:02scary because the United States is built
48:04on this middle class match word with
48:06deed and I always want my mother was the
48:09the first female Superior Court judge in
48:12California I mean in Fresno County and a
48:15second female appellate court judge and
48:18I had a grandfather that mortgaged his
48:21ranch with very little money
48:23little tiny farm and put all his
48:26children to college and to in the 1940s
48:28for graduate undergraduate Stanford I
48:31remember her going to the farmers market
48:33when she was a pellet court judge
48:35peddling pears and plums with us on
48:38Saturdays out there with a you know an
48:40apron on and I'd say well Wow
48:43judge Hanson's out here making fun of my
48:45mother and she said it's very very
48:47important to remember that
48:48in America the elite get their hands
48:50dirty and I'm elite only in title I'm
48:53not part of that and that was very
48:55important that we realize that physical
48:57work has dignity and that people who
49:00work with our hands and are in the
49:02middle class or the the bulwark of this
49:04country they have a common sense that is
49:07invaluable to this country we forgot
49:10that and almost forgot that until 2016
49:13and when I I'm not gonna get political
49:16but when Trump for the first time said
49:18our workers our vets our I like the word
49:21our when he went to I mean he was
49:23ridiculous he went to West Virginia and
49:26Hillary had said we're gonna shut you
49:28all down and have to make solar panels
49:30essentially and he said I love big
49:32beautiful coal so what I'm getting at is
49:36that I don't see that I see a Marxist
49:41paradigm between workers and then
49:44capitalists in Europe but what I see in
49:46America was always a reverence for the
49:49working-class just right from Jefferson
49:51from the beginning of the Constitution
49:53and we've really got to get back to the
49:55idea that none of us are above the idea
49:58of physical work when you have somebody
50:00build your roof or mow your lawn that's
50:04just as important as what we're doing up
50:06here in this stage and we really have to
50:07get that dignity and respect back for
50:09muscular labor in this outsourcing
50:12offshoring globalist economy we forgot
50:15that and I think we've been saved at the
50:16last moment
50:27should we invite a thousand Venezuelans
50:30to live in each one of our congressional
50:32districts to remind us of the
50:34alternative did you hear the question to
50:47invite I think we don't need them we
50:49have enough professors
50:57and look for how we are in time
51:11I very much enjoyed your speech whatever
51:16presentation you mentioned that the idea
51:21of maybe their senators having the same
51:25representation as representatives now
51:28about six to eight months ago there was
51:31a writer and I think it was a Wall
51:32Street Journal that predicted the
51:36Democrats would have a difficult time in
51:38the future ever getting the Senate back
51:41and I don't remember the logic and I was
51:44wondering if you would read that article
51:46or know why he made that assertion I
51:56mean we don't want to be pull off a FERS
51:59but there is a mentality behind all this
52:02if you think about it so if the
52:05Democrats don't have when they are in
52:09the minority of course when they're in
52:12the majority they don't want filibusters
52:14filibusters are archaic and disruptive
52:16when they're in the minority they want
52:17to bring them back
52:18if believe me if Donald Trump wins the
52:22popular vote and Elizabeth Warren wins
52:26the electoral college electoral college
52:28will be the greatest thing since sliced
52:30bread and the same thing with senators
52:32if tomorrow we have a hundred Democratic
52:39senators and they're going to say this
52:40is the best system the founders ever
52:42came up on so what I'm getting at is
52:44that I don't really take the left at its
52:46word I don't think they have a
52:47consistent philosophy other than we
52:51believe in equality of result we're
52:54morally superior because we have greater
52:56empathy and therefore because we're
52:58morally superior creatures to you any
53:01means necessary any inconsistencies is
53:05allowable because our aims are so much
53:07greater than your greedy individualist
53:11profit-mongering selfishness and that's
53:14how they operate and therefore when we
53:17look at this impeachment circus and I'm
53:21talking about people my own family
53:23when you talk to them the details don't
53:25matter what all that matters is these
53:27are people who are out to help people
53:28and they're trying to oppose people who
53:31are selfish and therefore anything that
53:33goes on is justified and that's been the
53:36that's been the story of progressivism
53:38and lept ISM since antiquity we have
53:43time for one more question
53:53thank you very much you've been a
53:56historian and studied history over the
53:58millennia not your millennia but there
54:01was plenty yeah can you is there any
54:04other comparable time in other
54:06civilizations that went through what
54:08we're going through now and their
54:11outcome and how would you foresee the
54:14United States in ten years compared to
54:16how additional ization have worked out
54:18these problems you know I think the
54:26greatest treatise that's ever been
54:27written on politics is Aristotle's
54:30politics because he transcends the
54:34particular case studies that he adduce
54:37isn't what he just assumes is there's
54:39always going to be class struggle or
54:42political struggle between different
54:45groups and if I could reduce that to a
54:49banality it's there's some people who
54:51believe in a equality of opportunity and
54:55some believe in a state-mandated
54:58equality result the people who believe
55:00in the quality of opportunities say this
55:03unfortunately we weren't all born
55:05equally some of us have more talent some
55:08of us have better health some of us have
55:10better luck some of us had a rich
55:12grandfather life is unfair but let us go
55:16and do our thing and then we will have
55:18social pressures like you people here to
55:21give back let me go make a lot of money
55:23and then let me choose to help support
55:25Hillsdale I will do that are not a
55:27greedy person there's only so hot that
55:30my shower can get my BMW only goes so
55:32fast I can't spend all that I'm gonna
55:35make up but I want to do it for a
55:37variety of reasons and that that group
55:39is usually attacked by people who for
55:42various reasons in the Plato and
55:45Aristotle were no dummies they talk
55:46about psychological reasons that people
55:49get envious envious
55:51envy and jealousy he's easy etcetera the
55:54two of the most powerful emotions we
55:56have the other people say we can't trust
55:58those people they don't give in a way
56:00that's it's that's rational or moral so
56:03we want to take what they have
56:05and distribute it to the more noble
56:07people and that dichotomy is the story
56:10of Western civilization and when it
56:12works we keep it within the boundaries
56:15and we have certain ground rules that
56:18you shall not resort to violence
56:20you shall relegate politics to a
56:24secondary level and you will absorb it
56:26with nationalist pride and collective
56:29patriotism but every once in a while
56:32Rome in the first century when we had a
56:36terrible civil war or the status at
56:39Coursera and Thucydides or two or three
56:43times before the Civil War but
56:46especially during the u.s Civil War or
56:48during the 60s I can remember being at
56:51UC Santa Cruz and a lecture just like
56:53this in 1971 and Jasper Rose a
56:56distinguished art historian was
56:58lecturing to people ran up and tore his
57:01the the exhibits he had down and stepped
57:04on and said we don't want FF your Bush
57:07was ER at certain times we've had these
57:09people who did not want to play by the
57:11rules and sometimes on both sides and
57:13it's incumbent upon all of us to say
57:15whatever our disagreements are about
57:18this ancient divide we want to instruct
57:21you while you're wrong and we want to do
57:23it through persuasion and love and the
57:27people who don't want to do that
57:29unfortunately are gonna have to pay a
57:31price and human nature being what it is
57:34most people don't have very much courage
57:36so believe me if we had courageous
57:41university presidents outside of
57:43Hillsdale and we had courageous Police
57:47Chief and the first time a 94 protester
57:50went up on stage and hit somebody these
57:52people are not rebels believe me there
57:54are upper middle class kids that have
57:56all the career ambitions of anybody else
57:58if you charge him with a felony assault
58:00and that was on his record that would be
58:02the last time he ever did that there is
58:04such a thing as deterrence but what
58:06we've had now is we've allowed this
58:08ancient debate to get way beyond the old
58:11parameters and it's starting to get
58:13violent and it's starting to get absurd
58:15and started to get nasty because we
58:17don't have
58:18people who were courageous enough to
58:20step in and say that you're not going to
58:22do that anymore there's a role of law in
58:24the Constitution until we return to that
58:26it's going to spiral out of control and
58:29we just need one or two honest people to
58:31stand up and say no more so far we
58:34haven't found them thank you very much
58:35[Applause]
59:06[Music]
59:17[Music]
59:28[Music]
59:42[Music]

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