Transcripts For CSPAN2 David Horowitz Mortality And Faith 20240714

You have so many books. A lot of people think of you mostly as a political conservative but in your book, radical son where you talk but your life story, you reveal the side of yourself i as a writer would say i would call a good writer. Youre not just somebody with great ideas but you write well, and in this book, im probably not the first one to call it it has beautiful tone to it, resume nations, obviously on mortality and faith. Thats the title. When you decided to write this book well, let me ask you a simple question. Why did you write this book . People might assume radical son is your story. That was the story of my political transformation from a leftist, somebody who described himself as a marxist revolutionary to a conservative. At what point did you stop describing yourself as a marxist revolutionary, what year roughly. Roughly 1974, when a woman that i had recruited to keep the books nor black Panther Party was murdered by the panthers. That really was the end of my career in the left when he realized i was among gangsters and people who support evidence gangsters. Supported gangsters. What hit me is all of my friends defended the panthers and blamed bettys death on the black the white power structure, which is sort of what they do today only the blame it on trump and his White Supremacy. A lot of people dont remember that period but the violence of those years, its interesting to me dish if you dont mine buff we get into the new book, mortality and faith which picks up your story, for those who arent familiar with your story and with your seminal book, radical son i want to ask you if you dont mind reprise that story to give us a running start. I was raid by cardcarrying communists. Literally. Literally. Our whole community wanted stalin to win the cold war. And to create a soviet america. Where were you raised and what was the community some. I was raised in sunnyside, actually, grew up on bliss street in sunnyside. In sunnyside queens. Yeah. Host most people think of sunnyside or queens, the Upper West Side of manhattan, yes, plenty cardcarrying communists it what colonialized with the communist party. I lift in a development of row houses. Eleanor roosevelt broke the ground there. And they were built like english row houses and then the backyards, they had a commons, and the interesting thing was when the 40year easement was lifted on that commons, everybody extended their backyards into the center, which shows human possessiveness and instincts which is what the left is always fighting, which i why they end up with the gulags and the firing squads. Its you literally were raised among carriedcarrying communists who were root for stalin. Yes. How so . Thats a facinating idea. One thing to be leftist, one thing to be a democratic. Youre talking about something a little different. What was this group and who were your parents that you found yourself in this situation . Well, we could get into that with mortality and faith. People have a need first of owl this book is not a politics in it but its not a philosophical level. This is might be the best book ive written on people who have read it certainly feel in the writing and soing for in the writing is very beautiful. Ive read parts of this book all the way through. Thats a joke. Read parts of this book all the way through but what i have read, it is very writerly and very beautiful. So youre right right, its not a political book. Lets begin with mortality. Were thrown in a world, and people have a great need to think of their lives as meaningful. The idea that were all going to disappear some day and be forgotten is very hard for people take. So they develop various kinds of faith and their faith because you cant know that god exists. You can know through the i mean, i quote pascal in the back who says you can know how to the heart, faith, but you cant know with your intellect. Nobody can prove that god exists and nobody can proof he doesnt exist, or she or whatever. Imager viewing you so ill get it go. Youre a man of religious affects issue understand. But this my perspective. Right. And so people develop a faith, it can be socialism is one kind of faith or communism. Social justice is another. Or you can have a faith in a divinity, and the way i describe it in the book, to believe in a divinity who will sort things out after were dead on the other side, for now we see through a glass darkly as the new testament said and then only face to face. Thats to me a healthy faith. But the if you dont believe in a divinity, you cant most people cant face the meaninglessness of our lives. It doesnt amount its dust in the wind as the kansas song goes. For those people, to get meaning in their lives they get what i call a crypto religious faith which is progressivism, leftism, social justicism and that is the world well be made into the kingdom of heaven on earth really. I always he once had an interview who said how do you live without an escaton. Isnt everything looking for the same thing . Even misguided radical communists, leftists, i would say theyre misguided but all looking for the same thing but disagree on how to get there and what the nature of that thing is what the nature of reality is, but does seem to me that people who are look who maybe believe life has no meaning but cant stand the idea so they want to create meaning. The meaning is created by you recreating the world. You act as god and you you have a Green New Deal and going rearrange thing e everything, and the only way to do that is through a Totalitarian Police state and then you cant do it anyway. You just shoot a lot of people as the soviet union taught us in the last century. This is not a book of idea because theres a lot of narrative and a lot out of my life lessons. When you go through life you have to deal with death. I had a daughter who had a burg defect that caused her to die in ner 40s. And i take lessons from these. I try to deal with the infirmities of age. Science people dont talk but this too much but People Living like 10 or 20 years longer than they did because of science. But they do that because you have parties of you removed by surgeons and so forth. Ive done some of that in the book. At each point i try to give whatever wisdom i have from my life experience. You do some of what in the book. I talk about i had Prostate Cancer and when that metastasized so i had sear jones reengineering of my body. Thats your original head. The almost in the most important thing. He everything is is negotiable but the head at least so far. Well go to a break because its the eric metaxasshow but well keep talking as long as you can stay here. Mortality and faith reflects on a journey through time. Stick around. Its the Eric Metaxas Show and were on booktv. Time talking to david here ritz but ohio book, mortality and faith. How many books have you bulletin you have written a few books. Probably 20 that are worth reading. That are worth reading. What does that mean. Wrote quite few as a left e leftist that werent world reading. Host its funny tech think youyear a radical committed leftist. I did. This you werent playing at this. You were very seriously involved. Correct. And this its really the arguens of the vision in the book that to make our lives meaningful we live inside stories we tell ourses and the stories vary. They can be youll create a dynasty as one. All designed to give you hope or you are going back famous athlete and be in a hall of fame like in a thousand years anybody thats my story. It can happen. But i lived inside this story that i got from my parents, and my community, that we were going to change the world and my whole life was oriented around changing the world. Through communist revolution. Yes. Host in america. Yes. Threw communist revolution are thats what its supposed to do and ends we didnt have quite this litany but classes of racism, sexism, all going to be one big family. Thats the vision of progressives. United by . By this belief that in an earthly redemption. If you dont believe in that . If you dont believe in that, you get in the way. Know what happens the progressives killed 100 Million People in the 20th century. In the peacetime. So the progressive world view that youre describing is at odds with the American World view that we would call freedom or liberty. Thats at odds with human nature. Thats the big problem. Thats another story. Thats the key problem. Its like if you again look at the Green New Deal. They want to pay people who dont want to work. Thats an incentive to be lazy and to live off other people. The other people will resent that sooner rather than later. Those people then become problems. They become you identify them as racists or whatever you want to call them. People who disagree marginalized people. People who dont want to warm are merrillizeed and oppress. Its ridiculous. But theres millions of people who believe it and i would say ten or 15 of the 20 democrat candidates for the nomination also believe it. Let me ask you, because when you talk about we live inside stories, we create stories, because give our lives meaning and hope. But theres a couple of he illusion well its going to go on forever. Its so easy to forget that youre going to die. Its really very easy. Its a normal human denial. So this book really i talk about the stories. For example , juliet barnes, very a lot of jowlan barnes. Julian barnes, who wrote a number of i guess post modern novels. I cant think of the most famous one but what about im. A book called nothing to be afraid of, some is what didnt when he was a little okayed and was afraid of death. His friend said its nothing to be afraid of. And then the whole book is about this and the fact that as writer, famous writer, probably millions of people have read his books but he figures that in a generation or two, there will be nobody reading his books. Apart is his most famous book and most people dont remember it but it was quite a big book at the time. But so he sort of right about that, isnt he, that reading ways. So he called it our scratching on the walls of the prison, which is life, and this is a doesnt have a religious faith. Religious faith is a great consolation and thats why people are so passionately committed to ideas that have been proven to be incredibly die destructive like social justice and socialism and communism, because its such a consolation for the meaningless of our lives, and do you believe that life is meaningless . Im an agnostic, remember . I am an agnostic which is why im good witness on these issues. When you say that, when we were talking about communist radicalism, when you say that its at odds with reality, right . Is that what you said . With human nature. When you say its at odds with human nature, it seems to me youre saying that the american view is selfgovernment and liberty, what would say amore conservative view is not its odds with human nature. Correct. Well go to another break. When we come back i want to ask you because well talk but the coming up. Dont gory. Were october booktv talking with the author, thinker, David Horowitz this, muss book is mow at that time and faith, in this book were talking about the mean offeringlight. Youre talking about meaning of life and this idea that youre saying that your previous view, the communist view, the utopianist view, is at odds with human nature. Led to the murder of my friend and to the murder of 100 Million People in 20th 20th century and that story i lived inside was shattered. That is how i came to all these views, to look at it you only see a piece, there are people who are saving the planet and they get meaning out of that. But you dont look out that. You live inside it. Why . Because it gives your life meaning and if youre not saving the planet or the planet cant be saved, its probably even more likely, it shatters your personal peace. It takes away your consolation. You have to have seen that event in 1974 in a way as a severe mercy. Its took something that horrible to wake you up. I was clinically depressed for seven years. Seven years. Yes. At what point did you it . Wasnt an overnight shift. Well, how do you get out of that . Actually thats the subject of radical son. You put one foot in front of the other. You get involved. I had a writing partner, peter collier, and he for some reason well, he is a catholic and he had a faith and so why get interested in stories we did going to. We were journalists, and i had no interest in but i would follow him and because i had to support my children, i did that. And then put one foot in front of the other and of a while you get inside another story. At what point the life story now is i am going to save this country. I think this country is threatened by people who dont understand the founding. They dont understandy our freedoms come from. They have a contempt for the people who created our freedoms based on misreadings of history. So i understand this is a story and could be meaningless. Could be meaningless. Yes. Youre banking on the fact talk about being on the right side of history. History has no right side. Its not moving anywhere. Why do you say that . Well, its a classical view. In this book i talk about the romans and the greeks, they saw history as cyclical. Didnt everybody see history as cyclical until you get to the western christian biblical view of history. Everybody but the jews. Sen that true. Yes. Thats where the christians get it. I happen to know that. A lot of christians actually worship a jew. Always finding it out. Dont have to point it out to me. Its fact but i guess the question is, once the bible and the god of the bible enters history and creates at least in part, although mostly what we call the west and leads to what we have today in america, it is at odd wiz the idea that history has no right so it or not going anywhere. I think were well, its what reagan said. Were a generation away from losing all our freedoms. We have to fight for it in every generation. If the islamists win, and theres no reason they shouldnt, theyve cleverly infiltrated our societies, they have a barbaric view of the world. Theyre jewhaters. Theyre christianhaiths and ya sidy haters and theyve win its back to the dark ages and its all gone. So i everything is fragile in that sense. Not as fragile dish dont want to be an extremist because i think america is a lot of resilience but i want to get to the pelagian heresy. Heres the fundamental divide. The judeochristian view is contained in the genesis, the first chapters of genesis,ed a familiar eve were given a paradise much bert than the Green New Deal or socialism or communism. But you didnt die with no pain in childbirth, the fruit fell from the trees, but one condition and that is remain in the gorden and do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and other veil. Didnt want to do evil. And adam and eve showed that they they defied god and ate of the tree. Human beings enjoy doing evil. Human beings have always we have inside us all these we have free will. Thats the basic judeochristian idea, that god can easily compel belief. Jesus could have risen all the cross and come back today and do miracles, but god gave us free will which means the freedom do evil as well as good. And that human corruption is the problem. The source of social problems, all social problem issue is not society which there is no such thing. Just a collection of who we are as individuals. Its us. We have bad ten desis tendencies and we fight it. Youre saying this is issue shirt agreeing with the biblical view. I definitely do it but people on the left are followers of pelagius. He was monk in the 4th century a d. A. And he believed that sin against human nature; that human nature left to itself is good. Ing to pelagius. So sinning is going against your nature so he believed if people were good christians, awe all they had to do is to want to be good. I hate to cut somebody off in discussing the pelagian heresy but well be right back. Yao just talk but peligian hersy so continue. If you nodder that the source of our problems is us, is the corruption inside every human being, that has to be fought off. Just our selfcenteredness and you can see it in the infants. If you put two twoyearolds in a room with a lot of ties and leave for five minutes youll hear screams coming from the room. Once you understand that, you understand that people in government are more dangerous than people who arent in government because they have more power. Theyre the same people that cause the problems, and we see this all around us today. This corruption is just epidemic in our government. And even worse are the i what i call the social redeemers. People who think they can redeem the world remember well save the planet. Through politics. You already have environmental radicals talking about putting people in prison if they dont believe in Global Warming and stuff like that. When the sleetors thinned Green New Deal they say well, world war ii globalization so well live under a military regime. Great. Host they say this is watch much as execs stenshall threat as the nazi. Way tenant it to be so they can get power, and that you real end up with a totalitarian state. How can you confiscate 257 million gasguzzling, gas cars in ten years unless you have a military dictatorship. This is what people thats what makes you conservative. Your view of human nate talk to. People 0 the left think people are born good and Society Makes them evil. Corporations make them evil. Patriot track si. Dick cheney. He is behind it all but trust me. He is in a bunker bee anything the earth. Were just his puppets. So this idea is something that obviously you disagree with but i want to good back in the 70s you had the shattering experience of somebody you knew was murdered by the black panthers. How long did it take for you realized, i was with the wrong story, with the wrong almost instantaneous. My closest friends when i told them that the panthers murdered betty, they said it was the white power structure, and we have this today, where i actually a set of a black panther,coats, big icon of the left on Race Relations says theres no such thing is a black on black crime. Its white people are behind it. Its crazy stuff, but publish d. It is fascinating. I know this book mortality and faith, and its about stories and we grab on to stories lately, people call it narratives, and that is the question, were not going to have time to get into is in this segment but when we come back, i want to talk to you about whether there is an overarching narrative thats consummate with reality and i want to get do into that. Were talk giving David Horowitz mortality and fought is the new book. This is the Eric Metaxas Show. Im talking to the author of a brand new book, mortality and faith, our friend David Horowitz. The subtitle. Mow tale and faith, reflections an journey through time. People who i admire have praises the book. Dennis prager says that hes never been so moved by davids writing as by this profound book. Norman pedoritz, its in tan and stanley fish, raving about it, and i have to say, david, youre writing tis particularly fine. Want to ask you, we talk earlier about your contention, which i think i agree with, that we have to grab on to stories or narratives and you were talking about how when this woman was murdered in 1974, a lot of people couldnt get out of the narrative. They had to rather than maybe missed something, they say, no, you missed something she was murdered by the white power structure or the power structure, the man did it. And isnt it kind of like being brain washed. It seems to me that youre talking about taking your thinking putting your thinking in line with what your calling reality and human nature and saying that people who are stuck on these other narratives arent willing to do that. Its very difficult. I describe a scene in radical son, which is two volumes when im in a book store, and its after this happened, and its a berkeley book store, called moes, it is thriving. And this in the 70s. Awful the books i see this science people into science fiction, into this and that, their whole worlds which are completely outside my world, but marxism was the key to it all. My books, whatever, probably 10,000 books in the book store, my books were the important ones. And when i realized it was just another story and it was a completely false one, as it turned out, i said, the the rom went black and was like inning a desert, completely and that no landscape and i realize it i was nothing. Thats terrifying. That do you mean, glory a book store in the 7s so in berkeley and you say you realize i realize that marxism was a false idea, a false set of ideas. Still people who millions who live thaw these disproven and stupid ideas. Youre suggesting they being important. Thats what the youre suggesting i have to face my own mortality and nothingness, and that was difficult a thing as you can possibly have to do. You talk about that in the new book, mortality and faith. But youre suggesting that you are going along for a ride and at some point you woke up and realized i was going in the wrong direction. Was a lie. I had written maybe ten books at that time on as a marxist. Had devoted my life. I was 35 years old. I had devoted my life to this false idea, and very destructive one and evil idea. And thats how i know who people are still marxist, like obama, because they didnt the first thing wanted to do is scream it out and say warn other people against falling into this trap. And the people who dont do it, the obamas, the valerie jarretts, the David Axlerods theyre still communists. All brought up that way. And they never detached themselves from it. But they were now probably turn off half the audience, all of the progressives. I think let me i just want to go back to is there a grand narrative . Seems know me as an agnostic youre suggesting that you think there might be but you dont know that there is. Correct. A grand narrative that actually not only happens to be correct but that is true on a deeper legal. Youre saying that you have spent the last decades working with another narrative but youre not entirely convinced its true. You just think it might be true. Give me the book and ill ready you the passage where i fess up to this. I write mozart who was an incredible miracle. Wrote all this music from the time he was six. And then he wrote a letter in his 31st year, 31 years old. And he wrote a letter to his father, and it said, as death is the real purpose of our life, for several years i have become closely acquainted with this true and best friend of our life, so that its image is not only no longer terrifying to me but rather something very soothing and comforting. And i thank my god for affording me in his grace the opportunity of realizing that he is the key to our real happiness. He meaning death. He meaning god. Death is the door to god. According to mose saturday. A mozart. This is me, generous through from a miraculous soul. I wish the faith of this great and gifted young man, he was dead for years later after this letter were mine as well. I wish it wore mine as well. Wish i copulates my trusts the hands of a creator. I wish could i look of my life and he live odd me children and all i have loved and see them as prelude to a better world but try as i might i cannot and so i am left to ponder the pointlessness of our strivings on this earth and to ask impossible questions and receive no answers. So thats my plight. But i do yes, marxism is a religious faith, and its very comforting to be a marxist. Its very comforting to be an environmental radical saving the planet, but its just faith, and youre saying its a false faith. It is a false faith. Because it strikes me you cant save the planet. Science is very limited. Science is an amazing thing. Its got all this college we double it every ten years or whatever it is, scientists have in idea how the universe began and no idea how life began. How do you get out of these minerals, animal life. Can i give you a stint in you dont. Its not possible. Im just saying our knowledge is so limited. Theres a lot of in the book about dostoevsky and other writers like saul bellow, and he has a saying we have three dimensional minds but we live to fourdimensional universe and thats saying we see threw glass darkly and thats with come in my view. Thats the first humility is to understand the limits of our knowledge. Its interesting, the when adam and eve were in the garden in the first chapters of genesis, they were seduced into wanting to know evil by the serpent and what did the serpent say . If you eat of that tree you shall be as god and that is the leftists thinks theyre gods and i they can rearrange the world and solve our problems and do it in ten years. If they have enough power and can compel you, and that arrogance is what causes the death of 100 Million People in the 20th century. Its interesting that people on the left always mock people who pray. What is prayer do . The first thing it does is it humbles you there are powers and mysteries beyond you that you can never get ahold of. They have to be given the answers. Youre not going to find them. Its interesting, you say all these things because in many ways you talk like a man of faith and you dont sound like someone who is a nihilist, you accept the idea that life is meaningless and everything evolved out of the primordial soup by accident and then you can hardly fault anyone for doing anything because why shouldnt they do anything because there is no truth, theres no right and wrong. Well be back with David Horowitz. The new book mortality and path issue its the Eric Metaxas Show. Talking to David Horowitz. The book is mortality and faith. We just talk about the idea you say that some people latch on to a narrative, and its almost like theyre inside a dream and they dont want to wake up from the dream. You woke up from the dream but that seems to imply theres such a thing as a world outside the dream world which is to say a real world. Theres human nature and theres real. You bad behaved that we but you get u. N. Uncomfortable White Supremacy people talk but. I was born up in a believing house sold so its comfortable for know live that way. Life my whole life youre right. Thats called the way religious people do. Theres consequences to my actions and theyre meaningful. I try to be as good a person as i can. But then of course, why . Its built into thats what we call in the business a cheap dodge. Im not letting you get everybody with that. You realize that i mean i would argue here that you dont believe what you just said. Youre base you dont know the answer and youre saying, well issue think its because but the fact your too thoughtful and been through too much to dedicate your life to pointing out lie is of you dont believe theres truth. Youre absolutely right but have ive been burned in one church. The church of marxism. And i see all churches as human institutions. And im wary. All right. Thats good. I dont want to surrender my intellect. Now youre in the church of ware wariness. Yes. Ahha. Youre writing the wariness humility train. Im in the lab rink. I dont see the exit. Just to be whats the word devils ad a very cat. Dont want to get too conceptual. Isnt that theres no way out of that loop, i guess. When you say now i figured out it. I was too radical. Too sure of myself. Now ill be more humble and less sure. Youre asserting something. Youre asserting the idea of humility. The idea of facts that work against this narrative, and youre doing what youre doing more gingerly but asserting the very idea of doing thing respectfully and humbly and well grab an idea and thats a little too generous. I agree with everything you said except i devoted my life to fighting evil i was born into, i which is progressivism. And ive written over 20 odd books. I have series of nine volumes called the black book of the american left. So i fight that battle with conviction because i was lived it and i want to prevent other people like me who are radicals today from going through the misery i went through. But its limited. Im comfortable with the limitedness and the position of agoniesickism and i dont thick would be uncomfortable embracing a faith a religious faith and a divinity, tempting as it is, i thats funny. Thats funny. God is devilishly tempting you to accept him. Look at the comforts. But were talking about something bigger than religion. Were talking but truth and strikes me youre still trying to figure out what is truth, and it seems youre positing the idea that a humble attitude toward knowing is part of truth. I think its the way you approach its the way you begin the search for truth. I was always uncomfortable with astronomy when i was a young man. Astronomy. Astronomy. You dont mean astrology. Astronomy because the university is so unfathomable. Big and mysterious and scientists, despite all their advances they dont know the most basic the answer to most basic questions and thats a prelude to a religious view that, yeah, god created the universe and created life, but it also is a door to kind of im going to be wary. Well, its interesting. Ive never engaged in my story, which is my battle with this delusion that human beings, without a divinity, can redeem the world. I see that as the most destructive ideology in human history, and thats the ideology of progressives and thats a big enough battle for me. I get it. But it still means you believe there are battles worth fighting because you fought hard. Just fight slightly differently thanout might have in your previous incarnation. I want to get back to your book. You talelet of stories in the book and its volume 2 you said of your autobiography, that whether where do you pickup story in this book, what area. Radical son was published in 1997. I real where wrote it a little earlier. It pick ill tell you where this book began. Began after 9 11. Its interesting. Actually now we always want to pause on an interesting note. Well be right back. Talking with David Horowitz but mortality and faith. Talking to david here witness but his book, mortality and faith. David, you were just telling us that it was around 9 11 that you the year 2001. Two things happened in that year. One is 9 11, which i think america was insulated from a lot of the evils of war in particular, since the civil war. We just felt very safe in america, and the 9 11 attacks changed that. And knowing that availability of nuclear weapons, it would cause you to think about final things, and then i was diagnosed in right after 9 11, with the Prostate Cancer, that brought it thome and i figured i should write about these what were for me end times. I was interested in it. What were my feelings as i grew older and as things happened to me, which i described throughout the book. Various illnesses, various losses, particularly my daughter. And i thought it would be i dont know. It attracted me to write about that, and that is caused a lot of people to say, think im dying all the time. Arent we . We are. Thats the way the book begins, my father telling me, we begin to die the day we are born, which its a little bit pessimistic. Its really the day we were conceived to be even more pessimistic. I its one thing to think but our own mortality and we can be flippant about the meaning of life and death but when we think about loved ones, you mentioned youre daughter dying young, when you love someone and they die, particularly when they die young, that to me militates much more strongly against the meaninglessness of life than the prospect off our own death. Did you find that in losing your daughter. In my daughter was an observant jew she believed in the rolling of the souls which not in a reincarnation but a reincarnation of the spirit, her spirit is inside me. I wrote other book about here called a cracking of the heart. Which i deal with this. I think youre absolutely right about that. With horrifying, her death. And i write about it here a little bit. I say that my life entered a winter from which it can never recover. But like i say, im very not always satisfied with the books i write but this one in because i think theres a lot of wisdom in it, and consolation for people, and its life my father always liked put it on his tombstone, a saying of marx, life is struggle. Life is struggle. Marx go some things right, didnt me . Yeah. Well, the german word for struggle kind of took a hit when hitler wrote mein kampf and its hard to speak about the original german. But theres something about love, when you talk about your book about your daughter dying, the cracking of a heart. Theres something if youre looking for clues to the meaning of life, seems you have some clues there, that theres something about love and an attachment to someone that says, it doesnt seem possible that life could be meaningless. Theres a whole passage here about one morning my wife and i my wife had been looking at on the laptop, pictures of my daughter, after she died, and she came to me and said, lets go out. We went to a kind of dish dont know with a run by jus but like a jewish deli. In california. In california, and i was sitting at the table and there was a plate, a stiff paper plate, and it lift off the table hit me in the stomach and it was no wind. Its completely inexplicable. My wife was sure it was my daughter communicating with us. But i offer erred as an example, again, im did it strike you as miraculous, even if you dont know i am. Cant explain it. You were there it and was at least extremely strange. Yes. But i thats where i leave it as aning nose stick. I didnt as an agnostic. I dont believe you for a bet. You dont believe it was zeus or nothing. You pretend just because we hold things lightly and just because were not cook sure radicals doesnt mean we cant believe things, and it seems to me that though youre unwilling to say so there are certain beliefs which arent Worth Holding ton and there are some which might be Worth Holding on to. Im fascinate bid shows, show called the seatbelt psychic and this is a guy who drives picks people up and drives them places. And they just get into his cab. Now of course you never know whats going on behind the camera, but he does things that are he uncanny. Nose bows the people and their love lines and people who died. Take an agnostic view of. That im not at all prepared to dismiss it, eve tow throw there are psychics who are fakeers but im not prepared to smith dismiss it and the same thing with my daughter. Wish this was a communication from my daughter. When somebody dies, it leaves all the conversations unfinished. You think of all the things you should have said, but i leave it for what i is. Were going to another break. Well be right back with David Horowitz. Talking to david here witness about mortality and faith. Are you a big bee gees fan . Queen. Big queen fan . Mark november her. Mark november her. Hes a little leftist. They all are. The other guy with sorry i guess the mixed one with steely dan, spark mark and i cant think of his name. Never mile per hour its kind of funny. You have chosen to settle and in california. As somebody who is in the common arch conservative, politically youre not in a place where most people share your world view, and people in the media tend to be radically on the left side of things. Do you have in the theories why that is . No. I moved to california in 1959 when i was still a leftist. But california is not a serious place. Its not like new york. If i was in new york i couldnt walk into a room without being assaulted verbally. For what you believe. I would be embattled all the time. Up a thought of that. California, is very easy to avoid. I actually now i can go on a campus because of leftists decided to shut down conservatives entirely. Not only have they been burned from the faculties but you cant let them in the door for a visiting lecture. Very dangerous if people like you are in a College Campus, somebody i cant go to a College Campus without a body guard and now the administration is so supportive of these campus fascists they just turn my speech into into a circus. To obstruct it. I find it very easy in california. People in california are interested in their bodies and their careers, unless youre in San Francisco, and i moved out of the bay area. About when i voted for reagan, that was the year i moved out of is that right . Move out of the San Francisco bay area where everybody all they talk but is relationships. My gosh. Its funny to think of you living on the left coast with the views you have. With this book mortality and faith, i guess you make it sound it has a tone. Do you see this as a final statement . Youre not exactly on your death bread. As i say i actually inspire people to act on the idea that im dying and this is years ago. Your farewell tour. Well, it is. I wrote it that way. At the end of the book is about a dear friend, ed snyder, created created created the Philadelphia Flyers and very wealthy man, very generous man. And he had cancer at the same time i did when i had my but he opted not to do the surgery. But he was just a wonderful spirit in this life, and when he died, of course people come out of the woodwork and they tell the things he did for them, and you kind of lose him again. Forgive me. Want to hear the rest of the story but we have to end this hour. If you want to hear the rest of this, go to met taxas. Com. Were on youtube to watch this as a tv program. So well continue the story but that ins this hour, david, thank you. Thank you. Its the eric met taxas show. Im sitting here having a wonderful conversation with david here witness. This new book is mortality and faith reeker flexions on a journey through time. What this book we talk about before this book . You were here a few months ago. I wait. Want to fan issue my story pout ed snyder. The man who created the Philadelphia Flyers. Created the Philadelphia Flyers. And many other things around sports, all those Spectrum Sports shows. But when i was suffering from this cancer i that this major operation and he comforted my wife, and then he insisted that i would have nurses around the clock, which he paid for. I wanted to i was very reluctant to accept such a gift and then i knew this guy, i didnt want to hurt his feelings. So i took it and it was a great help to me. And then when he died, he was in incredible pain, and he his son told the story at the Wells Fargo Center where the flyers played when they did the memorial for him, that his last words, which were excruciating. Were, i want to thank the flyers for what they did for my family. Which i could see im getting emotional, but i said this i felt ashamed by this guy because i wanted to be a person like that but i didnt live up to quite that standard. And all the flyers loved him because he was like a father to them. I went to a lot of the game width him. He was like even though i had been watching flyers games for 40 or 50 years, whatever it is, he was like a 122yearold at his first game a 12yearold at his first game. Got very upset when things didnt go well and always go down to the locker room even when they lost and encourage them. What is his name again. Ed snider in philadelphia. We go out and they somehow argue against. Obviously its interesting because thats how you respond emotionally as though 70 who is really cynical of scientistic strict material but im saying if 70 were, the only reason you respond that way is because evolution has inadvertently programmed in the making argue with for that, somehow evolution has favored those who have genes thinking life has meaning but it doesnt mean high because meaning. Theres lots to think about. That such a presumption. I dont agree with it but it was interesting. I am not that person. This is probably a legacy for my amazing parents even though they believe what is false it seems a little cynical. Its not about idea, the question is what do you believe in. Your parents were passionate people. They did not know. My father was a weak man, and communism made them strong. Personally. His father was very weak. But his political faith made him powerful. He was very articulate. What did he do for living . He was a high school teacher. He passed away before your conversion know he would never really understood it. I wrote together and it was the front page. It was not about the economic crisis. And he said to me did you read about the rockefellers, it is boring. And it was a bestseller then. [laughter] i want to talk to about the nature of reality, if it was right and power crab is applicable conservative, both of us would say, yes because human nature is not good, we need to have checks and balances on power and anytime power approves, its about thing so we do what we can structurally to work against that. You seem to me one thing founders did not plan for was the kind of power that we have today in corporations like google and something has happened and they have to regulate it. It makes the conversation really willynilly, and they cannot have a national teste testimony. In the wall street journal, where he talked about this, because he has been fiercely censored. Because its so effective. Its tremendously effective. I think the left is organized which for anything that mccarthy ever did is in greatest danger to american democracy right now. Thats of course facebook, google and twitter and also color of change, media matters in the whole left is organized to suppress and destroy and conservatives. The Progressive Left is a common dance left, no relation to the democratic left. Democratic socialism is an oxymoron. You cannot take away the private sector and give all power to the government and have a democracy. And the fact that these people, for all their deviousness, elizabeth is not a stupid woman, she has not learned a single thing from the misery of the 20th century in the atrocity. It is scary. What i was going to say earlier about google in social media, you have two things going on, first of all you have ahead of those hugely powerful corporations, not only being radically being leftist but using their power if you have any respect for american pluralism, when i was a left, it has gotten worse and worse since the 60s. When i was a left in the 60s, i went over here when our opponents are saying it would make me a better radical, everyone here wanted to destroy you. To me that the first part but the second part, the one thing i think the founders could not foresee is the idea of social media in their something putting aside the biases of the heads of google and other powerful organizations and so forth. But putting that aside, there is something in the nature of social media, its accrual or aggregation that works like a mom, another, you can have the Electoral College work against that structurally during election and in terms of the culture generally, social media seems to behave like a mob in the way that we get away with everything and publicize everything. And clearly the founders try to create something that would work against that. That is a different they understood of our problems unless they distrusted the people. They were very brilliant. They put the sovereignty in the hands of the people because you dont on the other hand they did the checks and balances. We want to end on an exciting note. Dont go away. Hey there folks, were talking with David Horowitz, mortality and faith, some are watching on cspan book tv, you can watch the whole interview on youtube or wherever you can find my name, were talking about social media, speaking of which, youtube, google, the aggregation of power but he wanted talk about checks and balances, if you do not foresee social media, what is there in our constitution that can help us work against what we see redefined public utilities, then using the internet i am not a lawyer. That the first part of the problem, in other words, if google is censoring people, we need they are, thats not a question. What about the larger issue that they are having national conversation, a different consciousness as a result of social media and the internet that did not exist 20 years ago, something has happened by twitter and so forth where ideas move what are the Biggest Tech Companies are only part of the problem. Msnbc, the news media is so corrupt that people they care absolutely false and clearly politically not organized. You dont think that the free market is helping us see that in other words because of the existence of alternatives. That has been helpful but its less and less hopeful in google. Was on msnbc and cnn, there were 251 Mass Shootings issue. That was already in america. And i think that is absurd. When i went to google i think it was on the second page and found an article which knew the sources and it said it doesnt give the number for the mass shooting. Something is happening in the culture that is a part biased is a possible question it cannot happen . The New York Times if your public figure, you can say anything about me. Its protected by the First Amendment. And just calling trump a racist is continued by the First Amendment more than it should be liable. Did we ever have liable laws . What year was that. The Supreme Court decision in york times versus solomon made us so liable in this country, not in england but in this country. It sounds like your racist is a factual statement but its an opinion. But when you have one media which is semi free, people say fox is instrument of White Supremacy. And not to mention Chris Wallace and others on fox. Democracy is theres no referees. And that is a problem and that has to be some institutions that have a standard of some status. It did not always used to be this way. It was about 10 15 years of this life. Im a believer in the premarket and i would assume your believer in the free market of ideas. Not in a religious way. Conservatives im a practical person. I see the threat from google and facebook and twitter. I cannot put up an image of my book cover because it instituted some algorithm. So despicable, just hearing this. People arent in jail, and thats what Michelle Obamas lawyer was running. Come on. We are on book tv, there are people out there, i think slowly some people are waking up to this, its taking a long, long time but i agree or have a different perspective. What is more rapid . I voted for reagan in 84, and i felt like a voice crying in the wilderness for the next 30 years, the people were very nice to me on the right. But they were calling these people hang on we have to go to another break. Well be right back talking to David Horowitz. Hi folks talking to David Horowitz talk about mortality and faith, you said its moving more quickly than that you think people are waking up you think finally in america . Inequities in iniquity. It started with obama. And they began to see how radical these people were. Conservatives were uncomfortable with talking about the left, the left is really malicious. Nothing of destroying people. And why, im at the top as one of the ten top in america. , i mean to black, and reeses, written three books, and theyre all, even a teenager reading them could see them based on the founders vision this goes back to the meaning of life, it seems youre suggesting that folks on the hard left dont have transcendent values and dont really think lying to get in power is wrong. Im saying its their world and our world, that our worlds are different. That suggest that one view would be more believing and transcend all values, and marxist does not. The other one says theres no meaning, theres no power. That is true but its also true that people on the right understand that human beings why. We have to fight that, its a natural tendency. People do all the time and social situations but we have to fight it, we have to understand. I did not think we would get to martin, kentucky to David Horowitz what other literary figures to touch upon . Theres a passage of a short story about his mother dying of cancer and when he goes and has an inventor, a sexual adventure. Andy talks about thinking life is a turntable but were not moving in age direction. Of course were heading out, when he gets back, its inverse and humiliating that the prostitute steals his close. He comes back and realizes that his father is mad at him for what he did to her. He was on the turntable and we dont see were always progressing towards the end. And the force of mortality. And he was a poignant and moving figure. And, wonderful theological, because he understood the flight and this book has been collectef faith that you can know although he also did have a night of fir can you talk about that, i read about that very recently and ive never seen that. He believed that he had a lot of brilliance to insight. He had a night where he felt like he was visited by the god of jacob and that is whatever it would be. But he also talks about the hitting god, this is another thing that leftist dont understand. And the problem today in christian belief, god gave us free will to do evil as well as good, where leftist think we are prisoners with racism and sexism, we dont choose what we do. Theres a fatalism, when you say leftism, especially the recent generation capitalist exploiting workers and stealing from them basically because it was already discredited in his lifetime. They transferred that to what . They transferred it to race, transgender, and sexual orientation. Then they talk about people being marginalized. If you put a ring through your nose and you were born male and came to be a woman, of course youre gonna be a marginal figure, not the people marginalize you, is not going to change attitude of 6 billion people, is ridiculous. They have a firing squad as an alternative and people say, you are right. We just have a few minutes left, do not go away, David Horowitz is my guest, mortality and faith, reflections on the journey through time, their previous book we have a copy, dark agenda, the word to destroy christian america, well be right back. Hello folks, talking to David Horowitz, mortality and faith, the previous book to destroy christian america, somebody who holds truth and meaning lightly and hold them and you seem to be a warrior for what you believe is true in at least a warrior of what you know to be false. I think as my friend Dennis Prager who is jewish, youre much better defender of what we call christian values. What he supposes . Because itll have steak and the answer. If your believer and you believe jesus christ as our savior, then your defending that, theres a lot of things that are prior to any argument. I have no stake in that. But i have a clear idea of the way this country was created and that leftist claim to enjoy that we all enjoy, all christian ideas, the founders were christians, the settlers, 98 were christians, theyre all christian ideas and one to understand them and understand where they come from, you have to know where you get your freedoms and i began, it occurred to me that w we can hae liberty in life because theres no god, its given by the likes of beto orourke or delivering or Elizabeth Warren will take them away from you when you look crosslegged at them. You will not come to terms with the fact that without a judeochristian viewing the world, that means all the good things in america, freedoms in particular. To me its a pragmatic approach, thats why its effective. We will not get into that. I written to, if you can keep it and i wrote martin luther, in both of those books i saw first time how it is in fact the bible interpreted correctly and gives us what we defined in america. I have not seen that before, we have to ask you a really shallow question, the current crop of candidates on the democratic side, which one or two you think might end up being our nominee . All of them. Nonetheless. I am appalled that we have a Political Party that is gotten off the rail. Here is my theory, they will continue its like the jackals will go after the elephant and they will all be bloodied and i think the mandarins, people like Michael Moore and said none of these people can win, but my theory is when everybody is bloodied in the water and nobody can beat him out of the weeds to save america will come hell or clinton, she will pretend to be dragged to be the nominee and she will be the nominee. You cant even respond. [laughter] honestly such a pleasure to have you. So much. Thank you for having me. Tonight on what to be, at nine, 10 00 p. M. Eastern, our interview attorney and author in her book she details becoming the first death blind graduate of Harvard Law School and how she maneuvers through this world. Students go to school and expect the teachers to teach them. I cannot do that. I had to think about what might be missing. And how can i find those unknowns. In all my life, the process of trying to identify unknowns and come up with solutions. At 10 00 p. M. On after words, American University professor talks about his book had to be an antiracist. He is interviewed by princeton professor. Even people who are trying to be part of the movement recognize really the history, and genesis were classified as racist and they said im not racist in the segregation were charged being racist, they said im not racist, today even white nationalists are saying im not racist, no matter in the white house are planing the next mass shooting. At 11 00 p. M. , former defense secretary jim mattis recounts his military career and his thoughts on leadership in his book false on chaos, learning to lead. Watch tv every we can on cspan2. Booktv originally visited the Richard Nixon president ial library in yorba linda, california where republican senator tom cotton of arkansas spent his time in the old guard which provides services at the cemetery. All those missions take up the funerals. Ceremonies can be pushed they were in the day, rescheduled they can be declined in the Capital Region if thats what it takes to make sure it for family has a funeral scheduled and going to the cemetery that the old guard is on time and performing at a new standard which is perfection, even on 9 11 that was the case. If youre in the cemetery on the morning of 9 11, people day, skyblue, and at 9 00 oclock, funerals began probably four, 56 funerals were being conducted at 9 00 a. M. And 937, a plane flew not from north to south or south to north, as usually happening, but the western phase of the pentagon, American Airlines flight 77, and that pentagon is maybe 100 yards, 200 yards of our international cemetery, imagine what it wouldve been like to perform the funerals or lane to rest your father or your grandfather and to hear that explosion into see the smoke rising in the air and the soldiers continued their mission until the funerals were over. And then they started exactly on time, the 11 00 oclock mission. The rest of the soldiers who are not dedicated to funerals dropped everything and put on their combat close. His latest book is a duty. To watch the rest of the talk, visible booktv. Org and search for his name or the book books e in the search box at the top of the page. [applause] good afternoon. I am the chairman of National Dominance of humanity in behalf of my colleagues who welcome you to the building we are funded. Before we start, could we just acknowledge the wonderful work, the congress the staff. [applause] and it is my honor to have the chairman to have her with