Transcript [00:00] There's a particular problem in the [00:01] Islamic world which people don't really [00:02] talk about very much, but it's this, [00:05] that the Quran is meant to be the final [00:06] revelation of God to man, the final [00:08] revelation. There's none after it. And [00:11] all the revelations that come before in [00:13] the Abrahamic religions are part of [00:14] Islam. If you are the recipients of the [00:17] final word, and you are the followers of [00:20] that word, and the followers of that [00:22] prophet and that God, why is your [00:24] society not working? And why are other [00:26] societies working? I think this is a [00:28] deep psychological problem within much [00:31] of the Muslim world. [00:32] >> Hey everyone. So, Douglas Murray sat [00:36] down with Patrick Bet-David. This This [00:38] interview is actually from about a year [00:40] ago, but I came across this recently. [00:43] And he said something that I think is [00:44] one of the most important insights I've [00:45] heard on the whole West versus the [00:48] Islamic world question. [00:50] And he says it almost as an aside. It [00:52] was like a 2-hour interview. I'm just [00:53] going to play you a small clip of it, [00:55] about 7 minutes of it. Uh I'm going to [00:57] stop it in a number of places [01:00] and show you why what Douglas is [01:01] describing here lines up almost exactly [01:04] with something that I've been working on [01:05] for the last couple of years, and I'm [01:07] writing about it now. [01:08] Um and it has to do with the difference [01:10] between a civilization that can take [01:13] responsibility and say, "We got this [01:15] wrong." And one that structurally is [01:19] incapable of doing so. Okay? And you'll [01:21] see what I mean as we go. Let's get into [01:22] it. Here we go. [01:24] Here is the clip. [01:26] >> is there's a [01:29] there's a deep [01:30] failure of recognition of what it is in [01:32] our societies that's worked. [01:36] And I think we're at risk of killing the [01:38] golden goose [01:39] by saying the gold isn't golden enough. [01:43] And [01:45] the things that work in our society [01:49] are [01:51] very fundamental. [01:53] What the framers, the founders [01:55] the the of the Constitution [01:57] realized [01:59] um I mean you know maybe the only [02:01] successful revolution in the world. [02:03] um [02:05] They realized that things like freedom [02:07] of conscience, freedom of speech were [02:09] absolutely the bedrocks. [02:11] And that if you didn't get them then the [02:13] rest could not follow. [02:19] >> Okay, um [02:20] that line we're at risk of killing the [02:22] golden goose by saying the gold isn't [02:24] golden enough. I mean that's the whole [02:25] video right there, but I want to make it [02:27] less abstract than he does. The golden [02:29] goose that he's talking about [02:31] um [02:33] is not just western values in some [02:35] generic sense. It's much more specific [02:36] than that. Freedom of conscience, [02:38] freedom of speech [02:39] that protected that have to be protected [02:41] first and and most diligently before [02:44] anything else [02:46] because the people who built this system [02:47] understood something very precise about [02:50] human beings. [02:52] That we get things wrong [02:54] uh individually and collectively and we [02:57] constantly do and that's okay. That's [03:00] because we're human being. That's part [03:01] of that's a feature not a bug of [03:04] humanity. [03:05] Um and this is something that I'm like I [03:07] said I'm writing about this. I'm writing [03:08] about kind of like the deep deep core [03:11] differences between how we view the [03:13] world, how we view humanity and between [03:16] and how [03:17] uh Islamic theology views it. Um and the [03:21] founders didn't invent this insight. [03:25] Uh [03:26] they inherited it. The whole idea of [03:28] freedom of speech and freedom of [03:29] conscience they inherited it and it's [03:31] really a a biblical concept. [03:34] And and this emerges from the fact that [03:36] the founders came out of a Bible [03:39] literate culture, a reformation shaped [03:41] culture, a culture that had spent [03:43] centuries arguing about a book that puts [03:46] human failure, failure of kingdoms, [03:48] failure of prophets, even Moses who's [03:51] called the greatest of all prophets is [03:52] has makes mistakes. Entire nation's [03:55] failing. [03:56] And that's at the center of the story. [03:58] Keep that in mind because Murray [04:00] is about to explain Douglas Murray is [04:02] about to explain exactly why that [04:05] matters. [04:06] And then without fully [04:08] naming it [04:10] um [04:11] he talks about why it might be missing [04:12] somewhere else. So, let's take a look at [04:15] uh [04:16] at this next clip here. [04:19] >> Um [04:21] if you don't believe in freedom of [04:22] expression, freedom of belief, freedom [04:24] of worship [04:26] a whole set of other problems come. [04:29] They essentially, as I see it, fall down [04:31] to [04:32] the fact that if you are in error [04:35] you cannot correct it. [04:38] >> If you are in [04:38] >> In error, you cannot correct it. [04:42] >> Unpack that. [04:44] >> So, this is what John Stuart Mill, for [04:45] instance, [04:46] one of the great philosophers of liberty [04:48] um [04:49] unpacks [04:51] in one of his most famous works, On [04:53] Liberty. [04:53] >> Mhm. [04:55] >> The the free speech [04:57] the necessity of free speech in a [04:58] society comes about in part because [05:03] if you are wrong you need to know you're [05:06] wrong. [05:07] >> Mhm. [05:07] >> So, if if you're doing the economy, if [05:09] you're running the economy and it's not [05:11] working [05:12] >> Mhm. [05:12] >> instead of keeping on allowing it to not [05:15] work [05:16] >> Mhm. [05:17] >> you have to have your ears and eyes open [05:19] for a system that works. [05:20] And it's one By the way, one of the [05:21] interesting things I find about market [05:23] guys in in general is their ability to [05:25] pivot. [05:26] >> Mhm. [05:26] >> In a way, by the way, just go back [05:28] slightly to the politicians issue. [05:30] My [05:31] one of the reasons I'm interested in the [05:32] way in which market people think is that [05:34] it's very, very different to the way [05:35] that politicians think. Politicians can [05:38] see a wall and they drive towards it at [05:41] the same speed or faster and you say [05:43] wall, wall, wall and then they hit. [05:46] >> Yeah. [05:46] >> A market guy, you say wall and they [05:49] move. [05:50] This is a very, very different instinct. [05:56] >> Okay. Um [05:58] this is the core of what he's saying [05:59] here. [06:00] That if you're wrong, you need to know [06:02] you're wrong. Now, we don't necess- you [06:04] know, this is why I made this video that [06:06] we don't think of that [06:09] as like a pillar of Western values, [06:12] of biblical values, but it actually is. [06:16] The entire justification [06:18] for free speech, and he's right. It It's [06:21] not a nice to have. If you take it away, [06:24] the whole our whole system stops being [06:26] able to fix itself. And what he's saying [06:28] here, when he brings up the market guys, [06:30] is that it's not just like, "Oh, you can [06:32] correct mistakes." Is that that's what [06:33] drives success. [06:37] I go one step further than he does, [06:40] because [06:41] it's not just like good for a healthy [06:43] society and you'll have more prosperity, [06:45] which is true. If you can This ability [06:47] to self-correct, which is predicated on [06:49] the ability to be wrong, to accept that [06:51] you're wrong, and hearing other voices, [06:54] free speech is a necessity for that. [06:56] But I believe that this is a theological [06:58] posture, or a tradition that believes [07:03] Like the biblical tradition believes [07:04] that a prophet [07:06] can stand in front of the king and say, [07:08] "You're wrong and here's why." And [07:10] that's and he's allowed to do that and [07:11] he does it. Happens all the time in the [07:13] Bible. [07:14] That that is a self-correction [07:17] mechanism. [07:19] That even the most powerful person in [07:20] the society can be publicly called out [07:22] and told he's wrong. That's the entire [07:24] biblical narrative. It It It's [07:27] Honestly, it's the biblical narrative is [07:29] a record of Israel getting it wrong, [07:32] being told that they're getting it wrong [07:34] out loud and publicly. [07:36] And [07:38] you don't get the Constitution without a [07:40] few thousand years of [07:42] of [07:44] of biblical thinking [07:47] being trained into people. [07:50] Uh so, I want to go back further than [07:51] the prophets. [07:53] Even even further than the prophets, [07:55] than prophets calling out kings. Go back [07:56] to the beginning of the Bible. [07:59] In the second and third chapters of [08:01] Genesis, where Adam and Eve are created [08:03] and eat of the fruit. [08:05] And here's the deep a detail that people [08:08] miss is that God's reaction to the sin [08:12] is a question. [08:15] Where are you? It's a call to [08:16] introspect. [08:19] Right? And then he says, "Who told you [08:21] that you were naked? [08:23] Have you eaten from the tree?" He's he's [08:25] inviting him to give an accounting. He's [08:27] inviting him to take responsibility. And [08:29] what do we get back? Adam says [08:31] essentially, "Oh, the woman you gave me, [08:33] she gave me the fruit." So, he blames [08:34] the woman and while he's at it, he's [08:35] blaming God for for giving him the [08:38] woman. And Eve turns around and she [08:40] blames the serpent. No one in the scene [08:42] says, "I was wrong." and takes [08:45] responsibility. The Torah puts the [08:47] failure to take responsibility right [08:49] into the first sin, in the first [08:52] chapters of human history, right right [08:54] there. Uh [08:56] It's not it's on purpose. It's not an [08:58] accident of the narrative. Right, that [08:59] is the that's the core of that of that [09:02] what's called original sin. [09:04] It's not just that they they they did [09:06] the sin, that they refused to take [09:07] responsibility. In the rest of the [09:08] Bible, you see it again with Cain and [09:10] Abel. The whole issue of responsibility [09:12] is front and center. [09:15] Right, the whole Bible is a is a long [09:19] project of teaching human beings [09:21] to take responsibility. [09:24] To admit error. [09:26] So, by the time you get to the prophet [09:28] Nathan telling King David to his face, [09:30] "You are that man." or David writing, "I [09:33] know my transgression I I my [09:35] transgressions, my sin is before me [09:37] always. [09:38] You're watching a civilization train [09:41] itself generation after generation in [09:44] the discipline of self-accountability. [09:48] It's a theme in the Bible. [09:50] Major theme in the Bible. Again, starts [09:53] with the opening scene of of humanity. [09:56] And that's what lies beneath John Stuart [09:59] Mill that he mentions here. The [10:01] founders, the everything that Douglas [10:04] Murray's calling what works. The [10:07] free speech, free press, checks and [10:09] balances. It's all down That's all [10:12] downstream [10:13] of [10:15] of what happened a few thousand years [10:16] earlier, which is the idea that a human [10:18] being [10:19] even a king, even the first human being [10:21] who ever lived has to answer for what he [10:23] did, has to own the the mistakes. [10:27] And that that's not weakness. [10:30] But that is what drives human creativity [10:33] and productivity and and success. [10:37] And this market guy politician bit that [10:39] you saw there about You say wall and the [10:41] market guy moves and the politician [10:43] drives into it. That's funny, but it's [10:45] the same it's the same idea. [10:48] Right? [10:50] Can you hear the words you're wrong [10:53] and and react to them? Okay, let's let's [10:56] go on. Let's watch a little bit more of [10:58] this. [10:59] >> Now, but to go back to this. [11:01] The the ability to correct yourself if [11:03] you're in error is absolutely key. [11:06] The [11:07] the lack of information that has been [11:10] available in not all, but much of the [11:12] Islamic world for many centuries has [11:14] caused a deep stagnation. [11:17] A deep stagnation in those societies. [11:20] And as I see it, the oil-rich countries [11:24] like Qatar [11:26] and Saudi [11:28] Although Saudi's interesting in pivoting [11:29] at the moment. Uh very successfully in [11:32] really. [11:33] Um, the they are in the they have been [11:36] in the same situation that European um [11:39] uh, monarchies were like in [11:43] let's say the 14th, 15th, 16th [11:45] centuries. [11:46] >> [snorts] [11:46] >> Which was they could not grow the [11:48] economy. There was no such concept, [11:51] really. [11:51] >> Mhm. [11:52] >> You had resources. [11:54] In those days, sheep and [11:57] and and crops. [11:59] Uh, as today the [12:01] Gulf countries have oil. [12:04] Um, but that money was held by um [12:08] a small number of people. And there was [12:10] just no other way of squeezing money [12:12] from them other than squeezing them [12:13] further in some form of taxation or [12:15] invading a neighbor and taking their [12:16] stuff. [12:19] Um [12:20] much of the Muslim world, I think, has [12:23] failed to grow in the way that the West [12:25] has succeeded in growing in the last few [12:27] centuries. [12:28] >> Mhm. [12:30] Okay, let's talk about that. [12:32] The European monarchy comparison is a [12:34] good is a good one. [12:36] No concept of a growing economy, a fixed [12:38] pool of wealth. [12:40] I said the only thing you can do is [12:42] squeeze harder or take your neighbor's [12:44] stuff. [12:47] But I don't think this is only an [12:48] economic story. I I I I don't think that [12:50] Douglas Murray fully closes the loop [12:52] here, either. [12:54] He's about to, though. Uh [12:56] we'll see what he's going to say next, [12:58] but the real question isn't just why [12:59] didn't the economy grow? [13:02] It's [13:04] why didn't it change? Why didn't the [13:06] civilization change? [13:09] Well, you know, let's just get to what [13:10] he says next and I'll everything [13:12] everything I'm saying will make more [13:13] sense. Okay, this is [13:15] this is the key. [13:16] >> And this causes many things. One of them [13:19] is a deep resentment. [13:22] And one of the most [13:24] I think one of the most important [13:26] insights I've ever [13:27] stumbled upon in my life in relation to [13:30] that is [13:32] there's a [13:33] particular problem in the Islamic world [13:35] which people don't really talk about [13:36] very much, but it's this. [13:39] that [13:40] that the Quran is meant to be the final [13:41] revelation of God to man. [13:44] The final revelation. [13:46] There's none after it. And all the [13:48] revelations that come before in the [13:50] Abrahamic religions are part of Islam. [13:54] If you are the recipients of the final [13:57] word [13:59] and you are the followers of that word [14:01] and the followers of that prophet and [14:03] that God, [14:04] why [14:05] is your society not working? [14:09] And why are other societies working? [14:12] I think this is a deep [14:14] psychological problem within much of the [14:16] Muslim world. [14:18] Which is we thought we were meant [14:20] we were the winners theologically. We're [14:23] the ones who got the final revelation. [14:27] And I think by the way that much of the [14:28] anti-Americanism, [14:31] the anti-Zionism [14:34] and anti-Westernism in much of the [14:37] Muslim world falls down to this fact [14:40] somewhere at its root. [14:42] Which is how come they're doing better [14:44] than us when we were told that we were [14:45] best? [14:47] And I think it causes [14:49] serious [14:50] um cognitive dissonance. [14:53] It's one of the reasons why the Muslim [14:55] world is so vulnerable to conspiracy [14:58] theory. [15:00] It's why it's it's why when a [15:04] when a shark attack happened at Sharm El [15:06] Sheikh 10 years ago, [15:09] the uh local authorities said that the [15:11] shark that had eaten the bather at the [15:13] most popular tourist resort [15:15] in uh Egypt uh had been sent by the [15:17] Zionists. [15:20] This is This is like [15:23] the the hand of the [15:25] Sorry guys about our earlier [15:26] conversation. Seeing the hand of the [15:27] West in other things is an explanation [15:29] for why the things are not doing well [15:31] there. And in country after country, [15:32] whether it's Egypt, which is doing [15:34] comparatively well compared to some of [15:36] them, [15:37] um or Iran, [15:39] the immiseration of the people, the [15:40] inability to unleash talent, and much [15:42] more comes back to this small number of [15:45] people benefiting and having no idea how [15:48] to unleash talent underneath. That and [15:50] political and personal and religious [15:52] freedom, including freedom of speech and [15:53] freedom of worship, are the absolute [15:56] prerequisites. And that is why I cannot [15:58] understand the suicidal anti-Westernism [16:00] within our societies in our time. [16:05] >> Okay, let's cut it there. [16:08] Um [16:09] This is the This [16:12] This is the main event of this of this [16:14] clip. [16:16] If you are the recipients of the final [16:20] word, [16:22] not a [16:24] a a sacred prophecy, but the final word, [16:27] the last revelation God is ever going to [16:29] give, [16:31] and your society's not working, and [16:32] other societies that that [16:35] that [16:37] were supposed to be over and done with, [16:40] they're not [16:41] carrying the final word of God. They are [16:44] working. [16:45] That's not a small problem. That's [16:48] it's an identity level [16:51] contradiction. [16:53] And Douglas Murray's insight that a huge [16:55] amount of what looks like politics, the [16:57] anti-Americanism, the anti-Zionism, the [16:59] conspiracy thinking that is rampant in [17:02] the Muslim world. I mean, there's crazy [17:05] conspiracy thinking that goes on there. [17:07] The thing he said about the sharks, that [17:08] really happened. [17:12] This is all downstream of [17:15] of the of this issue that he raises that [17:18] they believe that they have the final [17:19] word and their society is not working. [17:22] This is why the the fall of the [17:23] caliphate [17:25] when the Ottoman Empire fell was such a [17:26] massive crisis [17:28] for the Muslim world. [17:32] And they don't have the ability to go [17:33] inward [17:35] and say [17:36] "What are we doing wrong?" Because [17:38] theologically there it doesn't it [17:40] doesn't fit [17:43] with their belief that they just have to [17:45] adhere to the final word. [17:48] So this is where it connects to what [17:49] I've been writing about. [17:52] And I'm working on a book. It's still a [17:54] few months away. [17:56] If you put Douglas Murray's observation [17:59] line it up hold it up next to Marxism [18:01] for a second, cuz what I've been writing [18:02] about is [18:03] the a certain common threads between [18:06] Islamism and Marxism. [18:11] There's a kind of rhyming of their ideas [18:14] more than people realize. [18:17] Marxism also claims to be the final [18:19] word. [18:21] Not the final revelation from God, [18:22] they're atheists, but a but but a this [18:25] >> [laughter] [18:26] >> it's more sign this reading of history, [18:28] the last ideology, the one that solves [18:30] everything, the one that supersedes [18:31] everything. [18:33] And everything that comes before must be [18:36] must be torn down and removed because [18:38] this is the way forward. This is the way [18:40] things are supposed to be, the way. [18:44] And when Marxist societies fail, and [18:46] they always fail, every single time, [18:50] they have the exact same escape hatch, [18:53] the plausible deniability, [18:55] that [18:56] religious [18:58] that that Islam has, which is it's not [19:01] that our belief system is wrong, [19:03] it's that it wasn't applied purely [19:05] enough or the or someone else sabotaged [19:09] it. That's really what they resort to. [19:10] Someone else sabotaged it, the [19:12] capitalists. [19:14] The enemy. [19:16] The failure can never be evidence [19:19] that you did something wrong. [19:22] You know, it's interesting in in in [19:24] Jewish thinking in the in biblical [19:26] thinking, [19:27] if the nation of Israel gets conquered [19:29] and sent into exile, [19:31] it is the result of our own sins. [19:35] It is our own doing. Even though there's [19:37] there's clearly enemies who were there [19:39] who attacked and persecuted us, but it's [19:42] always comes back to it's our fault. [19:45] It's all about we take responsibility. [19:50] But when you have a if you believe that [19:52] you have the final revelation and you're [19:53] supposed to be triumphant and and [19:55] ascendant, and that's the only option, [19:58] then when your system is failing and the [19:59] systems you were supposed to have [20:01] replaced or defeated are [20:03] succeeding, you have a big problem. [20:08] So, the Marxists have the same problem [20:10] as the Muslims do. When their when their [20:12] implementation of their societies fails, [20:16] they just lash out and blame [20:19] whatever it is they've been trying to [20:20] replace. [20:22] Capitalism, tradition, [20:25] Christianity, Judaism, whatever it is. [20:28] This is the actual mechanism behind what [20:30] people call the red-green alliance, the [20:32] Islamism and the Marxism, [20:34] which shouldn't have anything to do with [20:35] each other on paper. [20:37] On paper, [20:38] they should have I mean, [20:40] like one of them is uh [20:42] is atheistic and one of them is like [20:44] obviously intensely theocratic. [20:47] What binds them is structural. It's not [20:49] doctrinal. It's structural. [20:52] Both are closed belief systems that [20:53] cannot produce the sentence, "We were [20:56] wrong." [20:58] And both therefore need an external [20:59] villain to carry the blame for their own [21:01] failure to thrive. [21:04] Now, Now one more piece to this, [21:07] finality, you know, this final word trap [21:11] that Douglas Murray does not get into [21:12] here. [21:13] And but it's a very [21:15] sharp version of this of this same [21:18] problem. So I I want to talk about it. [21:20] It's not only Islam that has a God is [21:23] finished with what came before us and [21:25] we're the new way forward doctrine built [21:27] into it. Classical Christian theology, I [21:29] say classical Christian theology, which [21:31] means was the the dominant Christian [21:33] theology for most of the last [21:35] years [21:37] taught something called supersessionism, [21:39] the idea that the church had replaced [21:41] Israel, that the Jews broke or forfeited [21:43] the covenant. [21:45] Um and that the promises made to the [21:47] people of Israel in the Bible now belong [21:49] to the church. Okay, Islam has its own [21:51] version of this [21:52] that Jews and Christians had real [21:54] revelations, but they've been corrupted [21:56] and they're and they're now closed [21:58] chapters and Muhammad and the Quran is [22:00] the final and perfect word that [22:02] supersedes both. [22:05] So it's a different but it's but has [22:07] obviously a it's very similar, same [22:09] shape. [22:10] That God is done with the Jews, the [22:12] relationship is over. [22:14] Now if you hold that claim up against [22:16] reality [22:18] and you have the Jewish people who [22:20] they they should have gone the way of I [22:24] mean if you're if that is right, then [22:26] the Jewish people should have gone the [22:27] way of every other ancient ancient land [22:29] or ancient people, sorry, that lost [22:31] ancient nation, that lost its land [22:34] and lost its sovereignty. The Moabites, [22:36] the whatever. [22:38] In other words, they should have they [22:39] should have just dissolved into the [22:41] surrounding population when they were [22:43] sent into exile within a few centuries [22:45] and become a footnote [22:47] in history. Instead, 2,000 years of [22:51] exile, expulsion, pogroms and genocide [22:54] later [22:55] the Jewish people came back and not just [22:57] came back, revived their language and [23:00] and and you know, that had been only [23:02] used for liturgy and study. They revived [23:05] their language, [23:07] built a sovereign state, built a first [23:09] world economy and a powerful military. [23:13] And meaning [23:14] their irrational belief that that both [23:17] the classical Christian supersessionists [23:19] and the Muslims said those you know that [23:22] the the nation of Israel's done, they're [23:23] never going back. Yeah, in the old in [23:25] the old covenant it says that they had a [23:27] covenant but that's over with and here [23:28] they are coming back. [23:32] This is not a minor inconvenience for [23:34] their theology. [23:37] If you have a theology that says that [23:39] the nation of Israel, the Jewish people [23:40] do not have a covenant anymore, this is [23:42] not a minor problem. [23:45] Okay, it's a walking living breathing [23:48] sovereign thriving contradiction of [23:51] their doctrine. [23:52] And I think that's a huge part of why [23:53] the rage against Israel is so wildly out [23:56] of proportion to the actual [23:58] political issues as they look on paper. [24:04] You [24:05] you don't get that level of rage, this [24:07] the fixation on the Jews and Israel if [24:10] it's just about geopolitics. And it's [24:11] not like the enemies of Israel gain from [24:13] their hatred for Israel. [24:15] If they would all lay [clears throat] [24:16] down their weapons and make peace with [24:17] Israel they would have a much more [24:19] prosperous and and [24:22] and and successful future. [24:25] It's it's a suicidal fixation. [24:31] Meaning the the thriving [24:34] Jewish people in the land of Israel is a [24:36] massive theological problem for them. [24:40] Now, I want to be honest here. This is [24:42] what is going on in Christianity. A lot [24:44] of Christians today, especially in the [24:45] evangelical world, have explicitly [24:47] rejected supersessionism. And some of [24:49] the strongest support I mean the [24:51] strongest support for Israel all over [24:52] the world comes from Christians who have [24:55] rejected that theological [24:57] position. [25:00] But historically and in much of the [25:02] Muslim world doctrinally today, [25:05] the hard version of this supersessionism [25:07] is very much alive. [25:10] And every time Israel wins a war it [25:11] wasn't supposed to win or the desert [25:12] blooms or or Tel Aviv is a capital of [25:15] technology, [25:17] this becomes a more [25:19] a bigger and bigger problem for them. [25:22] You know, the Houthis slogan [25:25] the slogan of the Houthis [25:27] You may have heard about this before, [25:29] but the Houthis have a slogan they have [25:30] a flag. [25:32] And [25:33] on the flag [25:36] Let me pull up this image here. [25:40] Um [25:47] Is this it? [25:50] No, that's not it. [25:52] I don't know where this is. I had a I I [25:54] uh [25:56] Anyway, if you [25:57] the Houthis have a flag and it has a it [25:59] has a slogan There's a slogan on their [26:01] flag. [26:03] Um [26:06] which kind of which you here let me let [26:08] me find it. It it has it [26:11] it says four things on it. [26:13] Okay, it has it has four [26:15] it has four statements written on it. [26:19] Um here. [26:26] Uh it doesn't matter. You know what? I'm [26:28] just going to tell you what it says. It [26:29] says God is great, death to America, [26:32] death to Israel, curse on the Jews, [26:35] victory to Islam. Okay? [26:38] That's it. God is great, [26:40] death to America, death to Israel, curse [26:43] on the Jews. I mean, think about that. [26:44] That is the slogan of their [26:47] of their entire movement. [26:49] Which means that the [26:51] which means that the hatred of Israel [26:53] the hatred of America, the hatred of [26:54] Israel is not just like one thing. It's [26:57] not a geopolitical, you know, issue that [26:59] they're dealing with. [27:01] It's the core of their being. [27:03] They have to reject us because we are a [27:06] we're a living walking contradiction to [27:09] one of their core tenets of their belief [27:10] system. [27:15] Now, on the other side of that ledger of [27:16] the of of the of the Islamists [27:20] is [27:21] the is the biblical tradition. [27:24] Specifically, the Jewish story [27:26] built from day one on the premise that [27:28] the that a record of failure [27:31] is not a threat to your identity. [27:34] And that the relationship with God, the [27:36] covenant, doesn't get revoked because [27:39] you mess up. [27:42] Okay, this is this is this is not a [27:44] minor theological issue. The issue of of [27:46] responsibility it it runs very deep. It [27:49] has a lot of implications. [27:51] And that's what's breaking down here. [27:53] You know, so when you have uh [27:56] you know, like the shark attack, an [27:58] actual shark attack at a beach resort, [28:00] and the official explanation by the [28:03] Egyptians at the time was that the was [28:04] that the Israelis were behind it. [28:08] I mean, it sounds insane, like some [28:10] weird [28:12] Babylon Bee punchline, [28:14] but it's exactly what we've just we're [28:17] talking about here. [28:20] When you [28:21] when the story that you have to believe [28:23] about yourself is that you can't be [28:25] wrong, everything else has to be a [28:28] conspiracy or an enemy, [28:31] and it's all their fault. [28:35] So, [28:36] let me sum this up. [28:39] Go back to Genesis. The whole biblical [28:41] project starts by showing us a man and a [28:43] woman who can't take responsibility. [28:46] And then the rest of the Bible is [28:49] about people who are messing up and [28:51] taking responsibility and and [28:54] and in that relationship with God. [28:56] The ability to say I was wrong. [28:59] The ability to self-correct, it drives [29:02] innovation, it drives an economy. How [29:04] does that work? It sounds a little bit [29:05] disconnected, but it's not. That's why [29:07] that that funny little anecdote he gave [29:10] or [29:11] image he gave of the difference between [29:13] politicians and market guys. That market [29:15] guys can pivot. The ability to [29:17] self-correct [29:20] actually drives [29:22] innovation and prosperity. The ability [29:24] to take responsibility. [29:27] The ability to say I was wrong is the [29:28] golden goose he's talking about. [29:33] So, when you have a societal system [29:36] that closes off the ability to take [29:38] responsibility, that blames everyone [29:40] else. [29:42] Again, Marxism and Islamism both they [29:44] they have anger [29:46] at at the system [29:48] when they fail. [29:51] At the outsider, they have anger. That's [29:53] where when their society fails, when [29:55] their system fails, [29:57] it's the fault of the oppressors, the [30:00] Jews, the Christians. [30:06] If you have a If your explanation for [30:08] failure is always outward, [30:11] then you're never going to improve. [30:17] So, the actual danger right now isn't [30:19] that it you know, [30:22] it's not just a civilization getting [30:24] stuck, [30:26] our civilization. [30:27] It's that our own kids are being trained [30:29] to be ashamed of [30:32] of everything good about Western [30:34] civilization. [30:37] And the freedom to say a thing is wrong [30:39] and change it, [30:41] which is what gets you out of being [30:42] stuck. The freedom of of admitting [30:44] mistake. [30:46] Uh that's [30:48] that's the key here. [30:51] So, if listen, if [30:53] I hope this wasn't confusing. I hope it [30:54] made some sense. I am working on a [30:56] longer version of what I'm saying right [30:58] now. It's a it's a piece of this book [31:00] that I'm writing. And I'll have more [31:01] information on that uh in the coming [31:03] months as I get further into it. So, you [31:05] can let me know what you think of this [31:07] in the comments. And uh [31:10] And uh yeah, if and if you like this, [31:12] please uh you know, let me know. If you [31:13] didn't like it, let me know. [31:15] And uh please share it. Please subscribe [31:17] to the channel. There's a lot more uh a [31:18] lot more to talk about in the days to [31:19] come.
