And ellen book tv, we would like to highlight some programs from our archives with political, p. J. Orourke. Over the past 20 years, if youre in a book be close to 20 times. For supplement 2007 our Monthly Program in depth, p. J. Orourke discusses politics writing in white his humor to address political and social issues. Is a real picture of you. P. J. Yes pretty i was i would guess that was 1971. The point positive. I think abortion left would be the easiest way to summon up. I was a leftwinger. But i did not make enough sense to actually be a communist or anything of that. Statement. The transformation occur. P. J. Is gradual. I can just wrote about this. There is a book coming out from the over institution. They are backing this. As cold why i turned right. Its a story bunch of us why we came became salons tournament tell it. Luckily the short version. I was a radical leftist. Very much in favor of marxist socialist. In america. I get a job. Paying 150 a week. I was a messenger in new york. 150 in a week has a lot of money as far as i was concerned. It was in the lower east side. Can i was broke. With the pain every two weeks. I was really looking forward to that 300 bucks. And so is my landlord. In my drug dealer. In a of other people. I think a big first paycheck. It was like 178 or something. Supposed to be 300. But after federal taxes, state taxes city taxes Social Security. Retirement fund which i really cared a lot about in those days. I said wait a minute, i have been advocating socialism. Marxism pretty communism. For years. In demonstrating in the streets. And we already have it. They just took have my paint predict what is going on here. They just took have my pay. We have socialism. And thats when i started to step out of it. It took a while. Speech of theres somebody also made a switch and the politics was christopher hitchens. P. J. Much more recently. Host but in 1993, heres what he had to say about you pretty. Is another x leftist. Sixtys radical, we fondly what its like to be bummed out and paranoid in the 60s. Annies been in this chip ever since. And is terrific humorous. For his books and essays in one, the first was quite funny. It was called reptile the second one was called holidays and help. And much better than any of my books have ever done. Meat town for an heres my him predict, yes, i met him. I hung out with him in a bar. Hes running on empty with his joke about i know ive been a radical now i see how full it would be completely buttoned up button down the joke basically turns on satire political correctness. If people want to make a joke about dates or triples. P. J. Orourke will will. This quite funny but not quite funny enough. Always getting away with murder. I might get away with slander. Verbal assault. I dont think ive even gotten away with just a little physical assault. [laughter]. So think he overstates the case. Also of course, im long past the point where i can claim to be the young republican pretty pleasant juggernauts. Im an old republican now. Unlike most middleaged guys. Coral republicans even if we sometimes color so Something Else like democrat. Host holidays and, is another p. J. Orourke book. All of the trouble in the world, modern enters. First book. When is this put out. 1983 was the first original look of it. Knowing the rich was what wound up as being adam smith. I was simply puzzled and i didnt understand why some countries are rich in other countries are poor. So i started poking around going to rich countries and poor countries and trying to see if i can figure it out by this country was rich others inc. Was from that experience that toby monday, the editor of globe clinic in england who came up with this idea that a series of books. Books that change the world. And my book on adam smith is one and christopher has one also. Rights of man. And very good it is. It was because of adam smith and poking around that toby asked me to write on adam smith. Host mississippi, go ahead. Hello. New jersey, go ahead pretty. I am not sure why p. J. Orourke need to be taken seriously and all of this time in your show when a man who i suspect never wore a uniform and a suspect from hearing about his politics and that mirror wouldve do was then his darndest to avoid wearing the uniform pretty so utterly flippant about war. We have a war now that we should not of had and i happen to been in republican for 50 years voting three times for nixon and fought for ronald reagan. Thousands of americans and killed. Many iraqis have been killed in no useful purpose to be served by the score. I think its vulnerable that mrf ward find something amusing about it but the question i wanted to ask ms. , he talks about free markets. Does mr. P. J. Orourke have any conception of what we have things like minimum wage law financial laws and does he remember the condition that it existed in america before we had those laws. And the laborers were obliged to work 12 hour day 60 weeks pretty is that what mr. P. J. Orourke thinks is freedom. Host mr. P. J. Orourke we will get to the free market question that he had. I was on the democratic line actually. In your dedication to give war a chance. Heres what you write. Like many men of my generation i had an opportunity to be a work champ promptly chickened out. Went to might not physical in 1970 with a doctors letter about my history of drug abuse. The litter was born have pages long three have pages devoted to listing the drugs i abuse and i was shattered into the office an army psychiatrist, to at the end of a 45 minute interview with me, was shouting your fw dont belong in the army. On it was certainly right in the first count and maybe in the second anyway didnt have to go but that meant somebody else to go in my place. I would like to dedicate this book to him. I hope you got back in one piece hello. I hope you work were used to your platoon mates than i wouldve been. I hope youre rich happy now. In 197170 puts me in in the face for being a longhaired peace group. I hope that with you. I got a couple of nice letters from the dedication. And people who thought they made had punch me in the face. P. J. So the beginning of what the fellow the phone said. Ive never asked anybody to take me seriously. As to making fun of for. Lets put it this way. A bad situation and more as a really rotten situation. Like a bad disease. Like death itself. Is it changed by what if you make fun of it or you dont. We make fun of things because we approve of them. Because they are cuddly and cute. Make fun of things in order to cope with our own terror and our own unease and existential horror. Our anger at god. Our disappointment with ourselves, etc. And so forth. Humor is a defense mechanism. You drink, becoming a joke. You can take drugs. You can make yourself all pompous and pious. We can do all of those things at once. Whether i make fun of work or not make fun of war, it will make it better or make it worse. As to free markets and minimum wage and people working in coal mines and looking 49 hours a day, 90s weight and so on and so forth. Interesting when you say you are in markets, you immediately get that response from lots of people. His other personal what adam smith meant. What adam smith was talking about was keeping corporation out of life. And out of marketplace is only one aspect of keeping corporation of life. Wealthy nations, the essays that he worked very important book that he wrote the theory of moral sentiments which is about morality. All about making people rely upon persuasion and to give up brute force. It is the core morality. The core of a free society and of democracy even though adam smith was semis did not know that pretty lived in a pretty democratic era. He did not quite understand democracy at work but he did understand freedom at work. He was a moral and practical and justifying of sympathetic advocate of freedom. And through freedom is persuasion. The idea they want free markets, does not mean that you want markets ruled by force. It does not mean ruled by nr creek. It would cause a rule of law. And it implies that we are all equal before that law. It does not tell us exactly how to conduct the exact rules. It tells us that there should be rules and all of a the roles. But it does say exactly what those rules are. On the wealth of nations, adam smith actually tries to lay down some rules. He tries to take his theories and make them prescriptive and actually give us political policy. He becomes a policy on. Its interesting. Its the one failed book. There are five books in the wealth of nations. What adam smith turns into a policy, becomes as foolish as the rest of us do we do that. I think that in this white house and likely will have this congress. So to the very angry caller. I would just like to say this. First i have no idea why three hours should be wasted on me. Because you have certain ideas about how freedom should be conducted may well be right and i respect those ideas and theyre worth arguing about. They may not be same ideas as i have pretty been told just because you want to limit the freedoms in the market, you may be and may be the correct thing to do to limit those freedoms. But, to be smug about your desire to limit freedom. Everybody wants to limit freedom from those who desire to be human slavery to the telamon. Two people who are in favor of minimum wage laws. Everybody is smug about their desire to limit human freedoms. Now some human freedoms really need to be limited. With that does not make you a good person recognizing that pretty or wise person or assuming. You deserve no smugness and you dont deserve to vent your anger foolish humorous. Just because you have some desire to limit so there. P. J. Orourke has appeared on book tv close to 20 times over the past 20 years. Im next he provides it an attribute to the american automobile. Driving like crazy. This event was held at the Peterson Automotive Museum in los angeles. In june of 2009. Host how shall we put this, sayonara to the american car. Megan automobile companies, gm and ford and chrysler, they will live on as a ghost dragging their chains and taxpayers expense. The fools in the corner officers and it unions they will retire to the vacation homes in palm beach and st. Petersburg prospectively. The trolls under the capitol dome in washington do. But, i pity the poor american car in congress and the white house get through with it. A lightweight vehicle, a small Carbon Footprint using alternative energy. In a sustainable way. When i was a kid we call the schwinn. [laughter]. s been a great and ten years. A great run, hundred ten brother since the brothers built the First American automobile. Similar megan company, defendant admitted success, springfield, massachusetts maybe todays motor city full of abandoned houses, drug dealing, Violent Crime and racial tensions. Which is it so happens, springfield, massachusetts is full of anyway. But, we owe the american car, a lot more than that entertaining spectacle of the fallen mayors. Many people my age we were very existence to the car. To the cars backseat. Where if you check out our parents wedding anniversary with our birthdates and combine them, a little too close to comfort, thats probably where we were conceived. There was no pre marital pretty true. You cannot sink a girl into the rec room a farmhouse, patient almanac, they do have a car so they can commute so they were to accommodate working on the farm. Here farmhouse didnt have a rec room because recreation had not yet been discovered due to all of the farm work. So the saturday night you can take a grande in the buggy but it was hard to get her into the mood to let you bust into her corset because you were to facing behind in the horse. Just kind of spoils the atmosphere. So the car let us out of the barn. Mother car was at it, it destroyed the American Nuclear family anyone who is headed in the American Nuclear family. And that was a relief to all concerned. And then america became paved. There much worse things they can do to a country and favorite. Ive always wondered whenever her thank you are thanks, allamerican paved from those kids in the body cast whom skateboard all of the time. The word of thanks. Cars provided america with an immutable standard of living. You cannot get a steady job with high wages in Health Benefits and working on the general Stock Corporation summary line putting unders on cows. Just can it be done. And i think that the american car was a source of intellectual stimulation. Think of the innovation. The invention. The sheer genius that transformed in 1908 model t ford into the 1968 shelby cobra gt500. In the course one single human lifetime closefitting tickets. Compare this to the progress in the previous mode of transportation. Ours production, horse design, unchanged for thousands of years. And when it comes to creativity with the horse. I actually did a Little Research on this when i was writing about the stuff really looked it up. Nobody thought to put mr. Up, nobody to hang a start from the saddle. Until about 580. Mr. Was invented. People have been riding horses for thousands of years and took them until 582 and fit this prayed where were they putting their feet. If automobile design and engineering have proceeded at the same pace as horse design and engineering, we would be powering ourselves down the road like Fred Flintstone with his feet in the floor of the car. Although can come to that in 2010 of the obama on mobile. Also important at all, was cars fulfilled the ideal of americas founding fathers. Of all of the truths we hold to be selfevident, of all of the unalienable rights in which we are in down pretty which one is most important to the american dream. It is right there, front and center flat in the name of the declaration of independence, freedom. Freedom to get out of town. Freedom to get out of here pretty king george, can i have the keys. Thats what the declaration of independence says. Not that tell you, the saga of the Work Incorporated some abstract matter to me. This is no subject of fanciful theories. Now nancy pelosi, she may think she was transported home from the Maternity Ward on pink fluffy clouds. So carbon sarah phone. But i know is the car coming tomorrow am. My grandfather jacob orourke. He was born in 1977. He was more than a farm about the size of this podium here. And im city, ohio, which is not a city. Didnt even have any line. Bernie is only accomplished aside from the tempers as anyone on the corn shuck stuffing up the poor mans roulette wheel the only thing that varney ever compass his life was he trained a pair of old nags to call him home dead drunk with drunk would fall out of the tavern, pass out in the wagon and horses would bring them home. That is what he accomplished in his life. Grandpa jake, he left home armed with a fifth. Education heading for the bright lights of toledo, ohio. He went to work as a buggy mechanic and then one day over swiss buggy pulled up at the shop and grandpa so that insult the future and he fixed that too. It didnt take grandpa long to realize cleaner hands were to be had in more money was to be made selling things instead of repairing them and also grandma and grandpas wedding anniversary were a little too close for comfort. So anyway he got into the car business and by the time i came along in the 1940s we had old work the weekend grandpa and my uncle owns a dealership in my father was a Sales Manager in dads younger brother drove it around and used car lot and my brother jack was a salesman. I ran the Parts Department and all the aunts and the girl cousins worked in the office and all the boy cousins worked out on the car lot cleaning and waxing the cars. Our soninlaw would go on to run the ohio Car Dealer Association and i would go on to do whatever it is that i do in this book writing about cars and stuff. Ill tell you even these dark days and the odd american automobile i wish this day would have taken over. Really to be on the the late night tv local car dealership ads, i got this whole idea that i wanted to do pirate pats Treasure Island buick and come up with a parrot on my shoulder and one of those big hats and eyepatch. One down the pirates patched Treasure Island where prices walk the plank. Dont miss our pieces at the car lot. Free chocolate doubloons for the kiddies. Grandpa died in 1960 honors from the rotary and kiwanis and lions club and moose lodge. My family without the car we couldnt. Them we wouldnt have food and stuff rid our history begins at the beginning of the american car hand by now some orourkes some of us have even gone to college. We didnt go far in college and we didnt do very well but thats where we went so i take the demise of the american car, i take this personally. Im looking around for somebody to blame but i am mad you know. I want to blame somebody like ralph nader. What fun it would be to jump on ralph nader with both feet and send a big marxist is this out of this cracked egghead. We should do that even though we were 75 and clearly insane but it took more than one man and his ignorant and ill written book on safe at any speed to wreck the most important industry in the nation. That was the corvair the ralph was attacking at unsafe at any speed and ralph was wrong about the corvair because my High School Growth in connie had the corvair and connie was the worst driver in the world. And one of the fastest and if connie couldnt get herself killed in a corvera couldnt be done so ralph was all right. The pundits are telling us theres plenty of blame to go around for the death of the american car card im not sure about that either. Now its true that the car executives are knuckleheads. Not all executives are knuckleheads. Look at bill gates. If you were worth a gazillion dollars wouldnt you go to a Barber College and get a decent 5dollar haircut . The mean come on. Labor Union Leadership is maddening but its one thing to be mad at the union labor leaders and its another thing to expect those Labor Union Leaders to be in the uaw hall standing on a chair yelling we demand less money from the bosses. Thats just not going to happen. Car workers make 600 an hour or so im told but every time a camel far too than the opec meeting may be their pay is too high. Not like they are getting that pay so i think to understand what doomed the american automobile we had to give up on economics and we have to turn to melodrama. You see politicians, journalists financial analysts and theyll be other purveyors of the banal have been looking at cars as if a convertible were business. Fires it the nbas and the fate of detroit is not a matter financial crisis of foreign competition corporate greed and union intransigence energy costs are measuring the shoe size of the foot rent carbon. To traffic romance. So tragic romance that unleashes passions titanic clashes lost love and wild horses especially wild horses. We have opened up our archives to look at other programs with p. J. Orourke the author of 19 books. 2010 he appeared at the Cato Institute of washington d. C. Where hes a senior fellow to offer his thoughts on politicians and the federal government. I will not be satisfied until every seat in the house and senate is filled by a regular person. A regular person who quite reasonably hates being there. I want government to be like jury duty and not jury duty for some exciting crime like the o. J. Simpson murder. I want government to be like jury duty for a long boring complex confusing trial concerning tax law. In fact let me suggest and guiding our federal tax code just for starts. Its nothing but fraud. I want government to be dull and onerous responsibility like attending a Parent Teacher conference, something to be undertaken with weary reluctance because good citizenship requires it. I want every congressman, every senator every president every Supreme Court justice to be wishing longing begging to go back to his or her real job in real life could i want them hoping and pleading to be allowed to return to the private interest and personal applications. I want them yearning to be sitting in front of the tv with a beer watching ed crane lose money on this world series that. I want our elected officials to say that they intend to spend more time on their families and mean it. We will now when we have won an election. We will now when we have won an election. With every single candidate who is voted into Office Begins his or her victory stage by saying oh [bleep] [laughter] now im working in this new book on a new theory of Political Science and instead of basing my theory on the work of deep political figures such as john locke and john payne John Stuart Mill and ed crane im basing my theory on a game played at an allnight giggle session and girls boarding schools. Games called the girls pick three men and they go around the room and every girl has to decide which one of the three she would kill, which one she would screw in which one she would settle down for life within raise a family. Example my wife gave into his tell me about this was her example is conan obrien David Letterman and and leno. Im laughing but then it struck me thats politics. Thats how we pick the president of the United States. Take his example 1992 president ial election george h. W. Bush bill clinton rosborough. Ross perot we could hardly avoid bill clinton and we very kindly old george h. W. Bush be the outcome of the game is not always a foregone conclusion. The case of the 2000 president ial election america was evenly divided about whether to screw george w. Bush get screwed by al gore and we all agreed on killing ralph nader paid that wont venture any of the examples from more recent elections for fear of attracting attention from the secret service as hard as that sometimes seems to be in the Obama White House but anyway it got me thinking. The game works on the parts of government too. You kill the Postal Service get in a housing and married the armed forces. The same for policy is correct mary Social Security and Health Care Reform kills us. Kills for america. Its a great lyrical analysis because in a Free Democratic country politics is a threelegged stool. Politics balanced upon a tripod of power freedom and responsibility. We live in a free and democratic country, less democratic than it was before last night which is fine with me. Also kill screw mary is a great tool of lyrical analysis because we are so passionate about our politics and how do passionate affairs and . The end a passion usually in a crime of passion sometimes and occasionally they turn into stable permanent legal arrangements which is to say the endless peevish coral known as marriage. How do we approach the Political Institutions of our free and democratic country collectively overthrow them with violence . Do you we screw around cheating on them while they screw around cheating on us or do we old something that is lasting, worthy and annoying marvelously virtuous and at the same time dreadfully stifling. How are freedom and responsibility kill screw mary. When i first began to think about politics when mastodons roamed the earth i was obsessed with the freedom, the screw part of kill screw mary and i have a messy idea for freedom back in those days. I had it tidy idea that freedom was the central issue of politics. I love politics prevent met many young people. Kids could scott spota means of gain without merit. This may be the reason that politicians retained a certain youthful zest. Ted kennedy was the boil right down to his last moment that i was wrong about the lovable nature politics but i was sure i was right about the preeminent place freedom should have in a political system but there are lots of definitions of free. 36 definitions of free in websters Third International dictionary. Plenty of people are theoretically in favor of freedom. We are all but overrun with theoretical allies at freedoms cause. We have got collaborators in the fight for freedom that we dont even want. The proletarians have nothing to lose but there can. The second to last sentence of the Congress Manifesto and theres a creepy echo of it in the frame of chris kristoffersons may end my bobby mcgee. Letting 100 flowers bloom in a 100 schools of thoughts. 100 Million People died in the definition of freedom we should probably keep in mind the original definition of the word free in english is not in bondage. The most meaningful thing about freedom as mankind has a sickening history of slavery. Here in america we have freedom because we have rights. The same way we can get mixed up about freedom we can get mixed up about our rights. Two kinds of rights political scientists call them positive rights and negative rights. Sometimes we call them opportunities and privileges. I call them get out of here right and give me rights. Our visions are telling us about our give me rights especially the politician we have in the white house right now. If me some health care insurance. We have the bill of rights. Those dont mention any if me rights. Our bill of rights is all about our freedom to say i have got god guns in a big down mouth and that the jury finds me guilty the judge will hold my bill. This is a get out of here right our right to be left alone are freedom from interference uses from government but also from our fellow citizens when they want us to sobro quit yelling at the gun down and go back to the trailer. Politicians dont like it. They only like give me rights. They do not like to get out of here right and they dont like get out of your rights because for one thing all legislators are being invited to get out of here and for another thing strict inheritance strict adherence would leave little scope for legislation something that legislators dearly love to do. Give me rights much more politically alluring and this is how we find herself tented was the right to education and the right to housing a right to a living wage and the oil spill beach cleanup and highspeed internet connection. Politicians show no signs of knowing the difference between get out of here and give me rights and blinded by the dazzle of anything that makes them popular they honestly may not be able to tell but there is evidence that a the confusion of these rights was originally presented to the public with malice of forethought. President Franklin Roosevelts four freedoms appeared to be at first glance as natural as well matched it as tidy as competition is those Norman Rockwell illustrations for them. Freedom of speech freedom of religion freedom from want and freedom from fear but notice how the beggar number three freedom from want has slipped in among the more respectable members of the freedom family. Want to what we ask that saying is roosevelt did that we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms and one of these freedoms is the freedom from want. This is not an expression of general city from roosevelt. Declarations like freedom from want are never expressions of generosity. There were 6 million in europe who wanted nothing but a save lace to go and where was roosevelt there . When rights consist of special privileges and positive benefits rights kill freedom. Ron wright said the source of abusive lyrical power. This is years before i realized, years after he first got interested in politics before i realized the central issue of politics is power not freedom, kill not screw and only in idiot would assume this and i was one. I wasnt alone. Liberals moderates and even some conservatives considered the sweeping give me rights created by half a century of social welfare programs to be extensions of freedom and the opportunity right sense. People are given the opportunity to not starve to death and its not a purely evil way of looking at things. Not all the social welfare programs were bad but the electric the candidate and may fail to properly scrutinize social welfare programs. Its not that we failed to examine whether the programs were needed or unneeded or well or poorly process that will likely fail to look at was the enormous power being taken from people and given to politics. We let freedom be turned into power. Politicians are careless about policy rights and they are cynical about delivering them and give me rights and turned are up certainly expandable or the government gives me the right to get married or this indicates ive are right to a good marriage otherwise why bother giving that right to me . My marriage is made a lot at or by my childrens right to daycare so the brats out of my face all day, being deprived of their right to nurturing developing environment. Every child has the right to a happy childhood so i have the right to happy children. Richer children are happier. Give me some of angelina jolies. Expensive rights makes politicians happy. They get to do the spending. But give me rights require no and that money and money is the least of their costs. Every one of such rights means the transfer of goods and services from one group of citizens to another. The first group of citizens loses those goods and services but all citizens lose the power that must be given to a Political Authority to enforce that transfer. We didnt want to understand that power. This is particularly true of people my age of the babyboom and it was obvious in the way we reacted when politicians attempted to use their power to limit our freedom by drafting us into the war in vietnam. We fought the establishment by growing our hair long addressing like circus clowns. A pathetic bunch. You are watching booktv on cspan2 and we are taking a look at other programs with political satirist p. J. Orourke. Former editorinchief of national lampoon. In 2014 effort a critique of the baby boom generation is one of the over 70 million boomers and reflected on his relationships with his parents and children. We are at the generation that changed everything. All they garrisoned epics of america are says one that made the biggest impression on ourselves. [laughter] thats an important accomplishment because we are the generation that created the self and made the firmament of the self. Divides the likeness of the cell from the darkness of the self and said let there be self. [laughter] if you are born between 1946 and 1964 you may have noticed yourself. This is not to say we are selfish generation. Selfish means too concerned with the self then we are not. Self is a word concerned with. We are self and pay for us self was without form and void like our parents in their dumpy clothes. Then we came along and now the personal and the political. This so personal as a socioeconomic and the personal is the religious and the secular science in and the arts in the personals everything that creeps upon the earth of a kind. At the babyboom has done one thing its too to gather personal university and our policies for anyone who happens to personally interpret it. He said self is kind of like fish proverbially speaking. You give a man a fish and you have fed them for a day and you teach a man to fish and he turns into a dry fly catch and release angling fanatic pestering trout with a threepound test line on a 1000dollar graphite rod. His life partner is just glad to have them out of the house. [laughter] here we are in the babyboom cosmos formed in her image personally tailored to our individual needs and predetermined to be eternally fresh and novel. We saw that it was good, or pretty good. Good luck to anyone who tells us they have lost it. Its too late now we were stuck with ring described as exploding. Maybe the time we have splattered ourselves all over the place for the baby room to look at and think what made us who we are and what caused us to act the way we do and what the [bleep]. [laughter] the truth is if we hadnt decided to be Young Forever we would be old. [laughter] [applause] the youngest baby boomers born in the last year when anybody thought it was hip to like lyndon johnson. Our turning 50 and we would be said about getting old if we were busy remarrying younger wives and reviving careers that hit glass ceilings when children arrive and renewing prescriptions for drugs that keep us from being said and we never retire. We will never retire. We cant pay their mortgages underwater and we are in debt up to the rogaine College Education and it serves us right because we are the generation who insisted the passion for living should replace working for one. [laughter] still its an appropriate moment for us to weigh what we have wrought and tally what we have added to and subtracted from existence. We have reached the age of accountability to the world is our fault. We are the generation that has an excuse for everything. One of our greatest contributions to modern life but the world is still our fault as a matter of power and rivage demography. Anything that happens anywhere somebody over 50 signs the bill for it and the babyboom conceded as we are at the head of wives table generation x generation y in the millennials all saying check please. [applause] i also heard a couple of paragraphs and do we need her reading glasses here . Yes. This is near the end of the book had been of the summing up. You can see sort of where p. J. Lands with this. From their to turn the page, got it. And yet we are the best generation history which goes to show history stinks. [laughter] but at least we are fabless by historical standards. The babyboom was a carefully conducted scientific experiments with empirical results are us and you take the biggest generation and the most important country and to put them into excessively happy families and give them too much affection extravagant freedoms and responsibility, plenty of money paper fusion of opportunity and the collapse of traditional social standards and to get better people. [laughter] well not that are really you take it one by one we are as mad and knowingly smug the way people live have been but we are better behaved and better behaved isnt the right way to put it either. We are indulgent title but we are still swell. [laughter] [applause] this book has an interesting structure. The chapters are essay length and you blend in the realm and why are style about your life along with a lot of broader thinking about baby boomers and how we got this way. You start by as we all know i think the babyboom started in 1946 and lasted the last year the babyboom in 1964. P. J. You were born on one of spectrum and i on the other although it is a defining characteristic of baby boomers that we all look the same age. [laughter] about 18 by a rough estimation. But he described the babyboom experience as seniors juniors sophomores and freshmen and you were in the senior class. Im and the senior class. Its me Sharon Hillary clinton and bill and cheech. [laughter] my speech to seniors this forage fix for nation exploration but we were tethered closely behind their parents the greatest generation. We got dragged under the boat. We wound up a little soggy in no as Financial Advisers with tongue studs and trotskyites trying to start tea partier protests. C your senior class which was really on the vanguard of so many things including vietnam and drug taking and and by the time the freshman class came along i think in my case i was the youngest of four. I watched my three older siblings do all of these things and it scared me witless and i did none of those things. Younger baby boomers are more cautious. I say in the book they embraced, drugs and rock n roll with the deep this philosophical underpinnings. Who wouldnt . They have seen the older baby boomers in the action and they knew what works in general doesnt always work when the bong sets fire to the beanbag chair. [laughter] its better behaved as it goes along. One delightful aspect of this book is that you start i describing what sounds is a very early memory in toledo, ohio where you are watching the world through the familys brandnew house. Im standing there too young to go to school and im watching the bigger kids go to school. This is the silent generation. They were yelling and screaming and it just seemed like you know theres a moment in the book that all generations of kids have wanted to be grownups except us. We wanted to be eager kids. Thats about way of kind of caps. You make an observation about childhood that really struck me. You say children, babyboom children were in control of their own childhood or their parents worked as children or children worked like eniac and yet we were a generation, our generation of childhood. It was like get out of the house. Get out of the house, its a beautiful day. Come on, its raining. They said it was a beautiful day. Get out of the house. Ive never quite figured out the parenting style. We take a lot of grief being helicopter parents but our parents they were strange. They could be so cautious and so fearful of things like dont get to know people, not from europe. [laughter] that would be scary and on the other hand the 4th of july would come around and dad would hand out the mads. [laughter] heres some explosives that should probably take a license to own. Everybody has got the uncle, uncle mikey mike. Actually this was more my businessman uncle. He would give us the firecrackers at the cottage on the lake to blow up on the 4th of july and he gives us each a lead cigarette. [laughter] those were the days. Not to smoke them. It was a safe way to light firecrackers. And then of course they drank. They were strict all day long until about at 6 30. I know im only 10 but can i take the car sure. In 2017 p. J. Orourke published a book on the 2016 election entitled how the hell did this happen . In march of that year he spoke at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco to provide his thoughts on President Trump and the reasons for his victory. Heres a portion. How could a person like donald trump possibly become president . Maybe its just a matter of what the great political satirist mencken said. Makin said the democracy is the party of the people who know what they wanted and deserved to get it good and hard. More likely its part of something larger because here in the United States we are not alone in having a political awkward moments. We seem to be in the midst of a revolt against the political elites. The political elites who created the postworld war Ii International order and who for the past 70 years have been running everything. Running everything into the ground as far as a lot of ordinary voters are concerned. Internationally we are seeing a rise in xenophobia jingoism and authoritarianism and it ranges from the comic spectacle of the European Union in shambles to the deeply sinister activities of Vladimir Putin and xi jinping taking measurements for a new iron curtain. Now you would thank this would seem worse to ordinary voters than a mere standard issue political elitism of the jeb bush or Hillary Clinton at the political elites did in part create their own problem rate over the past for generations the hallmark of the political elites has been the expansion of political power. Political power has expanded in size and expense. One third of the worlds gdp is now by the politicians in government throughout the world. One out of every three things you make is if your cat has three kittens one of them is a government agent. Political powers expanded in scope. Politics casts its net over every little aspect of life. Nothing is so private that it isnt tangled up in politics. Transgender bathrooms, we knew that politics is and now we find out where we take when theres a political issue. And i have to say to the political elites when you guys going to realize, guys and gelzer, going to realize that politics is a twoway street . Elite politicians have spent for generations creating a powerful huge unstoppable monster truck of a government and then those same politicians get all shocked and weepy when a politician who they do test gets behind the wheel turns the truck around and runs them over. We need to make the truck smaller. Make the truck smaller. The engine and the foot pedals. But the government to kidney car so the worst that happens is that tank is in the shins. People over the world are saying we are sick of the elites. We are tired of the experts predict how would the deep thinkers that think we should have better than we do and while they are at it are grabbing everything we have got. We see this revolt against the elites for example in the brexit vote could we see it in the rise of alternative Political Parties in europe on both ends of the political spectrum. For greens on the left and nationalists on the right. Brazil were almost every politician in the country leftright or middle has been charged with corruption for the simple reason that they are guilty of it. Now on the case of Brexit Britains political elite, to Business Elite and its elites were all opposed to brexit and thats to save the people who supported the iraq war plus the people who cause the 2008 Global Financial crisis was the people and nationalize the British Automobile industry, they were a in unprecedented agreement on one issue and they told the voters they couldnt go wrong voting on this trifecta. There was a similar case in colombia. Colombias elites five years negotiating a peace treaty with the starving ramble of communist guerillas who had been marauding in the hinterland since 1964. The previous side was held to ratify that agreement causing colombias voters to ask, what . After 52 years of murder kidnapping trafficking in narcotics the guerillas are getting Retirement Benefits . The even the Dark Politics of australia have been in turmoil. The politics in australia are so dull that the name of the conservative party is the liberal party. [laughter] but australia has had five primitives are since six years in this last election nearly resulting in a hung parliament. A hung parliament, i suppose its hanging legislators as a moral and illegal to accept in queensland if the parliamentarians are caught chasing sheep. [laughter] politics in canada even duller than the politics of australia and get in canada they have a premier who is a completely inexperienced and dashing young celebrity named justin. I havent googled canadian politics because who would . The im assuming justin ms. Bieber. And of course here in america obviously we saw the revolt against the elites and the ridiculous rise of donald trump. Im thinking okay hi and to stand the shake things up at wide trump of all people . Well, trump may be a rich guy and maybe he is a member of the 1 like he says he is but theres nothing elite about him, for sure. Theres nothing elite about the way he sounds sounds like a rest of us except he sounds like the rest of us after we have had six drinks and he doesnt even drink. Hes a jerk. The guy is a jerk but you can imagine playing a round of golf with him. He cheats that satellite. Imagine a round of golf with Hillary Clinton. She has 20 harvard graduate caddies who. All the books about golf but ive never been one the links. Based spent the whole match telling you, not her but what club to use in the secret service is there to make sure you take hillarys advisers suggestions that he hid from the fairway with the sand went and the cup in the pen get moved closer to hillarys lie and appropriate term to use and the scorecard mysteriously winds up on hillarys personal email server. Of course on the other hand i dont know if i could stand and dont know how id last golfing with donald trump. But anyway the revolt against the elites. In many ways its a little puzzling. I didnt really feel the power of this myself while i was reporting on this and in certain ways the beginning of the 21st century it seems like an odd time to be having some sort of are pulled against elites especially in a country like ours where things have gone at least fairly well. We are not in desperate financial straits. The Great Recession of 2008 i know with pain phone there was a certain amount of waking up on friends couches after somebody took the house you know but everybody in america has had a divorce that we have been through that before. If there were any bread lines during the Great Recession they sure werent handing out loaves of love the taste than slim. Americas obesity survives. We are broken up long war. More than 7000 american combatants have died during the 15 years in the war on terror grades 7000 foreign in americans died at the battle of gettysburg. Streets are not filled with protesters now. Hippies arent sticking daisies in drones. We are culturally and politically polarized in america these days but not in a way that would startle an oldschool history professor and chilled him awake from his nap in the faculty lounge. The year 1861, that was polarized. Fort sumter isnt taking any and coming up the moment as far as i know. And yet the American People are fearful. They blame their fears on the political elite. One of the reasons for this is the political lead of done a lousy job dealing with certain problems or the middle east for example demons have been unleashed in the middle east. The elites fail to address the problems that caused the demons to be unleashed. Indeed elite seemed to have been breathing demons in the kennels of the elite geopolitics in the lead military strategy and then those elites turned these demons loose in the middle east as it demons have ever been an endangered species in the region as it their elite were trying to reintroduce demons. One result has been marred her all over the world. How much further away from the hatred of the middle east could a person gets that to be at lat night in the night club in orlando, florida. Another result of this mishandling of the middle east is the refugee crisis in europe and the europeans are going what do the elites care . The refugees arent crowding the steroids in the corridors and jostling the elites in the halls of the European Parliament in brussels. The refugees are building shantytowns on the Tennis Courts at the elites private country clubs. To elites immigration means my new ethnic restaurants. Elites dont seem to be able to see any similarity between the wall but donald trump has promised us and the gated communities in which the elites live. Another problem that the elites cause for themselves is elites have promised that politics can fix everything. When you promise to do can fix everything then everything that is broken is your fault. Political elites say that politics can fix Climate Change than i want to see bill clinton shoveling my driveway. Yeah i know he has heart trouble but tanks to Global Warming my driveway only had a few inches of snow this winter. So what we are seeing in this global revolt against the elites is elites getting blamed for everything whether or not its their fault including getting blamed for the fact that we live in a time of rapid change. And nevermind much of that change is good change. Member people worldwide living in extreme poverty living on less than a dollar a day. That is then reduced by half since the year 2000. Its amazing and yet also despite some recent tax lighting there is then an overall growth in liberty over the past 30 years definitely since the 1989 fall of the berlin wall. To be fair to the elites rapid change creates problems for them too. Transformation and social mores economic norms and political givens confuse everybody especially those who thought they were leading the mores and norms in the parade. Mankind no longer has to march in lockstep or. People are becoming individual persons instead of masses on review and this is great but certain difficulties arise on the Parade Ground when the stride is broken, when the band breaks up it can lead to a pure bond. The fellow with the base from sitting on the curb playing the solo from anagoge devita the trombonist using the coronet player and nobody love to play the glockenspiel. The elite drum majors wearing a goofy hat and waving a stick. Swift improvements in transport and communications and in technical capabilities have combined to produce this thing called globalization. Thats great sometimes. We love having everything from everywhere brought right toward door except when we dont. If you love going to Yellowstone Park but how much do we love having the herds of bisons the trees announced in tourism bears in our rec room . Do we will need to clean the carpet and then we go to work in the morning find out they buried our jobs. Did this make the political elites think it would make the smaller world would make everyone get along . Strike with your kids with them in a small place such as the backseat of your car. Now take them to see the world. Take them too for example Yellowstone Park from say new jersey. How are your kids getting along quite i guess political elites dont take family car trips that i guess political elites dont even fly economy class. Then there is of course where it is thats going on with the internet about which i would be the wrong person to ask i finally got myspace figured out only to discover the only person in myspace is me. Incidentally concerning the internet whose bright idea was it to make sure that every idiot in the world is in communication with every other idiot . But i take it on trust that the digital revolution would change everything and for all we know its done so already. I think this to be bookstore next to hey worded sears go . Im glad i can comparison shop for richard on line and buy any brand that exists and have it delivered the next day with Free Shipping but the kenmore repairman at sears he has an listed as a foot soldier in americas opiate addiction attack and how do i get my refrigerator into the ups drop rocks when the icemaker quits working . All the changes disruptive. All change is scary. Changing a diaper, change of life any change of the order of law prefer preferred the people asking for spare change on the street. You got to love that here. Think contemporary social and economic change are combined with contemporary distrust of political elites a distrust that in some cases was earned the results can be very disturbing. Russias ugly new nationalism comes from Vladimir Putin harnessing popular art reached at the incompetent kleptomania political elites who took possession of russia after tara strike up. Neomaoism makes use of the popular anger all the tea in china scale of corruption among chinese elites. Indeed their antielite aspects to a fanatical interpretation of jihad. Isis terrace they hate elites so much that they have suicide squads of other leads that go around killing themselves. The modern world is a scary world and fear is a bad schoolmarm. Its the monster at the black ward and people in the democratic countries learn even the one plus one fundamentals of democracy when all they can think of is its its slimy and scaling has tentacles growing out of his head he what happens is the pupils in that class turned for help to the big stupid bully at the back of the classroom and that is donald trump. In the look at satirist p. J. Orourke posner programs concludes with a discussion of his most recent book, none of my business which looks into the history of currency and his thoughts on finance. One reason that the concept of money so often violates common sense is that governments do so many not sensible things without money. Another reason that money violates common sense is that we dont have to use real commodities of money. We can use written promises to deliver those real commodities, paper money. This is fiduciary money from the latin word but do show meaning to trust and to not need to quit to do so. Trust but verify said one of the president s, the only president we have had that even possessed some libertarian inclinations. Actually paper money has libertarian origin. The freemarket invention at least in europe could paper money was built is changed. Among italian merchants and receipts given byte goldsmiths to whom Precious Metals have been entrusted for safekeeping but it did not take long for political authorities to do steal the idea that for the government for duscher money in the west was first. In sweden. Traditional swedish commodity money came in the form of copper plates bus in sweden a large fortune was a large fortune and in 1656 the stockholm debacle issued more convenient paper notes in the bank issued too many notes in the swedish government went broke. In 1716 scotsman john law help the french government established the bank royale issuing notes backed by the value of frances landholding west of the mississippi. Bank royale issued too many notes and the french government went rogue. Most extensive. Modern experiment with fiduciary money happened right here in america in 1775 come the Second Continental Congress not only created paper money but passed a law against refusing to it sets it to the Continental Congress issued too many notes and a pattern begins to emerge. All for duscher money is backed by prodigy of net the bankers are lying about that amount the commodities. Historically the most common commodity is being gold by the 19th century the major currencies of the world for based on gold that the most major volvos currencies were the british pound. This was a period upon a true stability and not coincidentally great economic growth. Some people think we should go back on the Gold Standard not all of whom live in art compounds in idaho. Money should be worth something and gold seems as good as whatever but the high value of gold is a social convention, habit left over from the days when bright and blemish things people included were rare. Gold may go out of fashion and the generation may some longer regards gold is gross and immoral the way of millennials regard feel. And gold as a product. We may discover huge new amounts of it. This afternoon the spanish when they conquered the new world they had tons of gold or through the melted it down and send it to a meant. Never occurred to the spanish that they were just creating more money and not creating more things to buy with it. Between 151600 prices in spain when a i4 hundred . Presented with the vast wealth of americas oceans fields and forests spain to the goal. It was somebody rob the bank and stole nothing but deposit slips. So gold is not an absolutely perfectly rational basis for currency but the real problem with fiduciary money from the government standpoint is not that its irrational but that its inconvenient for currency that can be converted into a commodity limits the amount of currency that can be. The government has to have a least some of that commodity or the world makes a laughingstock out of the banknotes. With fiduciary money government slymack about having Precious Metals to deem Paper Currency and the governments People Holding fiduciary money can wake up the way they did on april 5, 1933 when fdr signed the executive order 6102 banning the ownership of gold. People could wake up and find out that word gaming Paper Currency for the law says is worth is against the law. So the government can lie and steel to support its currency then why can the government y about and steal everything, everything to do with this currency and thats exactly what all governments have done. Instead of passing a law saying 1 dollar equals x amount of gold are government has passed a law saying 1 dollar equals 1 dollar. This is fiat money aladdin word for a binding edict also from an italian word for a cheap and not very reliable car. Fiat money is backed by nothing but faith that the government wont keep printing money until rude using it in places more importance such as toilet paper which is what companies do in venezuela. Its not just by and means of venezuelan boulevard. No currency value is involved in any fiat money. Its just a pronouncement of existentialism from Government Central banks. Trillions and trillions of dollars,yearolds pounds a yen are singing we are here because we are here because we are here because we are here which was a popular term in the trenches of rope or one consequently when fiat money came into general use spread out the money in the world today is fiat money. We got up because the government said we have got to fiat is worth what i call the lousy parent reason the frustrated and inept government tells us likely frustrated and inapt parents tell their children, because i said so. So cryptocurrency the answer . Thats one of those im glad you asked that question legend. As politicians for running from this is what they are saying what they mean is i have no idea what the answer is. As labor terion i want a medium of exchange that kind of money that is adhering to libertarian principles. Actually money that appears to one of the libertarian principles would suffice as far as im concerned in this is the privacy principle. What i do that does not physically harm anyone else is none of anyone elses business period. Businesses conducted with money cryptocurrency would seem to be the private kind of money libertarians want. Its private in the two most important senses of privacy prefers cryptocurrency is not public therefore is not subject to government Public Policy. It ever meant Public Policy would as much as the issue that the governor feels like issuing it. Government treats it like a stalker of posting things on your facebook page. The original rant didnt have much value in the subsequent rantings are increasingly worthless but unfriended the government is very difficult. Second cryptocurrency and chris transactions. What you are buying or selling has not revealed to a nosy snoop and that nosy snoop being once again the government. Im a fairly lawabiding guy. I always wait for the walk sign and i dont cheat on my taxes any more than federally mandated taxing polls require me to do. I wouldnt use cryptocurrency for any criminal scheme. Well, maybe but no matter how legal the purchase i make are i dont like those private purchases being on the Public Record with sales receipts and credit card records available to who knows who and who knows what, the snoop Government Agency and i dont like other peoples purchases being on the Public Record either. Somebody buys a plastic inflatable anatomically correct minnie mouse doll for intimate relations in the privacy of their home come i dont want to know about it. And i dont want the government to know about it either for fear that the epa may impose in danger plastic rodent regulations on all of those are maybe some highminded epa functionary will leak the information deputed causing the inflatable mouse doll store to be vandalized while my car is parked nearby within a tossing. P. J. down this morning, i checked is been having lately around 7000. But, if you want to divide, i have all of those banged up station wagons. I got them for my teenaged is a big of summer. Do me one big point for all of us station wagons, i would tell you to bite me. It is because i am ignorant. Im confused by the mathematical intricacies to perform the computer programs like change that underlie crypto currencies. Im confused about a lot of things. Im confused by women. But it didnt stop me from marrying a joyful one. I flying airplanes i have no idea about how the takeoff are how they land prevented particularly in confused by the internet. Look at it and i think, this bright idea was it to make sure that every idiot in the world is in touch with every other idiot. [laughter]. Its an enormous hacking Industry Service quite a small global interconnected computer network. The somehow crypto currencies about log nurse who weapon eyes people math club. Right now some are saved 15 yearold bringing those you pajamas is in his bedroom with horror coveted empty stickers wrappers. Logging on to make himself a billionaire on the darknet of walgreens accepts crypto currency for acne cream. To some money is through delivering terry elisabeth anybody is a confused but money is insane. And the karen confusion is probably not the Antipsychotic Medication that is given. We worry about money and we pray about our medium of exchange. And if it collapses, our society will collapse. Subject a number of years ago, i thought about this that may be with a way to understand that worry about society collapsing is because things work society has collapsed already. 1992, i went to somalia. To cover the u. S. Military mission there to save somalia. Nationally from famine. Actually from total anarchy. The pause for a moment and talk a little bit about anarchy. Because we libertarians are often confused with or accused of being anarchists. This just isnt true pretty libertarians believe in social structure. We believe the social structure the protect individual liberty, polls dignity and ensures individual responsibility. This is very different from believing in those social structure at all. And in somalia, they had no social structure itself. Somalia was true anarchy. The bishops dictators who have overthrown is always celebrated their independence by choosing each other. Fighting broke out everywhere. It was a traditional african tribal warfare. The small he is all belong to the same tribe. But the tribes at six flags of the six concept hundreds of sub plans and he said plan is divided into infinite murder disputes. This malaise on each other with rifles, machine guns, cannons and wads of filth. But in the old town, not one stone stood among on one another pretty everything had been built on the concrete and the concrete had been blasted back into piles of aggregate rebar importance met. Theres no water or electricity and at night the only limitation was tracer bullets pretty retrieved bush had been snatched for fire word. Sewage will look through the pavement through what pavement was left. Mounds of sand loose in the streets. Rubbish was dont about wreckage and goats graze their predict everything that comes can accomplish, and achieved. So i signed on as a radio reporter with abc news. An abc and managed by the hubble mentioned, then hired a 40 man army of somali mercenaries to protect this compound. In some 20 some of us porters, campers, producers protect people. We are all housed in this compound. We were bedded down in chips. While our security as is molly mercenaries like to be called, our security cant in the courtyard. It is impossible for us to go outside of this compound without a truck full of the security. And even with art gunman along there were always people messing up to bag and theme in hands tugged at while pockets and hispanics and headbands. No corner could even move without a hornets nest of people. And these young men leaving ak47 assault rifles push month the crowds, precedented to the trucks with the mets welded to the best sputtered around and predatory barons. So another abc reporter, i will call him leon. He admitted somalia for six months. And leon offered to take me to market. And nobody show. Listen sure, wanted to see there was a market in mogadishu. It was market, what the heck were they buying and selling. Goods that on the wheel as turns out. I learned an important lesson on Medium Exchange in the market in mogadishu. I learned that there will always be a medium of exchange. The currency may not be what you expect, but no matter how totally society collapses, there will be a form of currency so we are traveling with an arm somali forever and translator. In this requisite truck full of armed security. But even so, when we get into the market, my friendly and gets out of the car and he pulls out a 9 millimeters glock. Anyway sent over said in a dramatic gesture and rex bullet into the chamber. And im looking at them and leon looks at me and grinning like a maniac and he said, i call it the visa card of the future. [laughter]. If you miss any of these other programs with p. J. Orourke 40 want to watch them in their entirety, you can visit our website, tv. Org braided and access archives for using the box the top of the page. Insert p. J. Orourke. Youre watching the tv, on cspan2. Every weekend the latest nonfiction books and authors. Cspan2, created by americans Cable Television company as a public service, and write you today by your television provider. Weeknights this month featuring quick to be programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan2. Tonight starting at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, we begin with an examiner for new face of socialism. Then stacy abrams, former democratic candidate for governor of georgia. Kessinger blueprint to end voter suppression. Later fox news chris wallace, providing industry of the lead up to the bombing appear summa in august 1945. Enjoy book tv on cspan2. Virtual event. [inaudible]. We can share ideas. Even if that means i like to thank samantha and her openness of this conversation. For viewers who want to watch this broadcast in captioning we recognize this page. To enable the captioning. Push the video player button braided will be available for watching. [inaudible]. Townhall is adding podcast everyday. Upcoming
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