Life is not worth living. You are very late. Take your seat. If you are my friend angie felt like i will call you out. I have to say we realize in new york city people tend to avoid the big subjects, the important things, god, whatever can make you squirm. Does god exist . What is the nature of reality. The kind of questions that people typically dont get into. We cover life, god and other small topics. In other words, everything is fair game at socrates in the city which you which means weve all kinds of different guests on all kinds of different subjects and to do encourage you, go to our website, socrates in the city and you can watch them. Latch we did a whole bunch of events in oxford, england, because a lot of our speakers are in oxford, england, and without why do we take socrates in the city there . We fight a wonderful time over the years. Before i was interviewing people, we would just have a speech at a podium like this everybody number of wonderful gifts do that as well. I think about six years ago we decided that i would be the guest at socrates in the city. Every six years i am about to do this. I cannot with about a bookie or so wouldnt do this every but what about my look and april 2010, i was the speaker at introduced myself. It was very met up, messes with your head. It messed with my head and i was the speaker and the host. I decided not to do that this time just because it is the taking. Fatigue. I have come up with another book and i thought this meets the socrates in the city requirements. Its on the big question, the stuff that we should all be thinking about probably. We would not pretend with all the answers, so we thought it would be appropriate to do this. My Publisher Viking has me represented here. Dont raise your hands, but they picked this date june 14 as the release date. I thought did they know that this is flag day . I write about flag day in the book and this day is very, very important to me. It turns out they didnt. They just happen to pick at june 14 as the day this book should come out. I wouldnt exactly call that a miracle but its a pretty good coincidence. Im thrilled as i said like it is important to be and its sort of the opposite of what happened in the books i will talk about that in a moment. Try to think of what else. Im not going to introduce myself big have a mentioned that . Im not going to. To do that would just be a slap in the face ever in the room as you already know i can be so not going to pretend i am not need. Before the start i just want to say i am stunned by how many people are here from different parts of the country. If you are not from new york, would you raised your hand . Unbelievable. What a bunch of rubes. Look at them. Its incredible. Im just so thrilled some refreshing texas to a number of friends i havent seen in many years. Im just so thrilled to see my friend justin, pat, a number of people who surprise me, in my mind. Thank you for coming and sharing this important event with me. I see france of all around the world. Thank you for coming. Let me turn to the subject at hand. The book i have just written is called if you can keep it. Im going to talk a few bits about and then open it up to q a. We will see what happens. Theres so much i want to say on the subject of the book. I hardly know where to start. Let me start with the title. Some people get the reference, and of the people didnt graduate high school. Just kidding. I would not have gotten the reference myself. Once you know something if you like everybody should know that, right . Here is where i get this from. In 1787, Benjamin Franklin was exiting the constitutional convention, Independence Hall in philadelphia. Part of the background everything im going to see is i didnt know this stuff. I got what i would consider a decent education, Public School. I went to a Good University but none of these places really seemed to communicate a lot of what im going to share tonight, which again forms the background of what i wrote this book and will act as such a burning passion to communicate these things. The story is that in 1787, things were not going so well for the United States of america. We had i was a genuinely miraculous they come into existence, when you know the details and i put them in my book, it is a staggering thing. We should not have succeeded it doesnt make much sense that washington was able to succeed. About of long island, i didnt put that chapter in my book, you can when my publisher. Its brians old. Paper is expensive. He couldnt pull that off. The point is theres so many miracles that happened that when you put them all together and you say this is remarkable. You dont have to accept it as gods hand or anything but it is nonetheless remarkable when you look at the things they came together to create this nation. At least for me it was remarkable. I would read these things and say this is staggering. It does seem that god has his hand on the creation of this nation. You dont have to buy into that project and nonetheless understand that it is remarkable that we are here. 1776 we come into existence rather miraculously. We win the war but in 1783 when hostilities cease, what happened with we had articles of confederation, we have a very weak federal government the the whole point was have a week of federal government. [applause] the tea party is here. Awesome. Thats the point of limited government. However, it is too limited then you have no government. We get that the you are looking for this incredibly fragile balance comment and all of the leaders, the founders, the framers understood it wasnt quite working. By 1787 they said weve got to go back to the drawing board and figure this out the they go to Independence Hall in philadelphia, spend about 100 days. The creation of the constitution itself seems barack just the again i say seems. Theres no proof there it was moroccos but the point is you go to the founders themselves and read what they wrote and ill say to try to find a compromise between this late stage in the free states, between maine and georgia on and on and on was essentially impossible. It was not working and they were despairing that this could ever work. Imagine that people who were not inside the convention were probably thinking okay, what are they going to do . When they give us some kind of limited monarchy . Imagination of the world that have been nothing but monarchy. And ive never been a republic like we have. Nothing like it and we forget. We think its normal. Ththe big it was it had never existed in the history of the world. So you have these people in this room doing something and the people outside the rule of god wanted whats going to happen . With a crease and limited monarchy . Whats it going to be . Benjamin franklin, the most, one of the most secular of all of the founders, exhorted the people in the room to pray. Do you realize how bizarre that is, Benjamin Franklin was one to do that . He exhorted them to pray and he said that god came to our aid in the formation of this country. Why would we doubt he would help us now . They were at an impasse. Things worked out. They created the constitution but many of those with their used the word miraculous. They said it really was simply astounding that this thing worked out. At the end of this Benjamin Franklin walked out of the building. He walks out of the building and a woman, a mrs. Powell of philadelphia confronting the he had been in philadelphia for 60 years since he was 17. He probably knew everybody so i can imagine had known since his aching comes up and says what have you given us, a monarchy or a republic . Benjamin ficus is a republic, madam, if you can keep it. Thats where this comes from, if you can keep it, right . [applause] the thing is its one of those things that maybe you heard it in history class or maybe you didnt but the point is it really is one of these odd quirks of history, the only reason we know about this exchange between mrs. Powell who is lost to history and franklin is because james mckenna, the 30 for your delicate, happen to overhear this and went home and wrote all this in his diary. It wasnt like a speech given by Benjamin Franklin. Think of the import of those words, if you can keep it. He understood and all the founders understood what they created was utterly unprecedented. As a proud greek under the greeks invented democracy but yes, we did. [laughter] and a lot of stuff, okay . But the point is that the greek city states were very small and democracy just flourish for a tiny, tiny period. Here we have 13 colonies, a couple million people. The idea of bringing this idea of selfgovernment to a nation, it simply had never been done. The founders and the framers as they were in that room, they understood what they were going to do has never been done and probably rationally should not be possible. If something can be done for millennia of history, why would you think would be possible now . Everyone of us, the reason i wrote the book, we pretty much take this for granted. A deal, of course it works. Now. They really thought for this to work, first of all, the constitutionist bmx tour that document, which is, that it requires the people to keep it. They said if you dont keep it coming goes away. Evaporates. The National State of affairs is not civil republic and democracy. This is not normal. Whats normal is people cutting each other. They got that out a lot of the other clubs in town. Thats one always take this club. Basically franklin was not sent to slightly. He was saying if you can keep the company which its up to you. We create the constitution but now it is up to the people. We create something that is an outlier, a bizarre anomaly in history where is going to be up to the people to do it to continue. And if they dont it goes away. As we know the people did it. It worked and it continued and continued. I think we forgot about the idea of keeping it. I submit to you again its why i put the book. For the last 40 or so weve forgotten what it takes to keep and we have forgotten how important it is for us to keep it. I think we have come to replace where we are in trouble. We are not keeping it basically. We are on fumes. Its like a cut flower. It looks nice but it is dead. In two weeks it will not look for a nice because it is divorced from its roots. I think thats where we are. Its not the kind of thing you would notice. Everything looks fine but i really think to be a people you have to know who you are as a people. You have to know your stories. And the last 20 years or so, sorry, in the last 40 years, since the 60s, a negative narrative has taken hold. If you focus on what we did to the native americans but africanamericans, we are right to know about those things, and to focus on those things because those are bad things we need to acknowledge and repent of. But if you get stuck and you keep saying we are back and we did this, George Washington was a slave owner, if youre in this cycle and you dont ever celebrate who you are and the fact you abolish slavery in fact you do with a bright and the fact we are always struggling to do this kind of stuff, if you seek to be patriotic in that sense of patriotic, something goes wrong. But the greek proverb that i quote in the book that if you dont boast about your house, it will fall down and crush you. In other words, theres something fundamental come intended to being human to be proud of her family, to be proud of the village, to be proud of your island, to be proud of your nation, your city. Theres something fundamental about that. We all have been schooled and how that can go wrong. We know when nationalism goes wrong it becomes jingoistic, chest thumping. Weve seen where that can go wrong, okay. But we also have to understand that not having a proper, healthy self regard pride in who we are can also go wrong. I think thats where we are. We tried 40 or so years of not really teaching kids you need to love your country. I think were at a place for most americans, anybody my age and younger, and i just turned 32 [laughter] i didnt . Called me a liar. Anybody my age and younger really probably didnt get this in school. I didnt. It never hit me until i was in this room listening to a man speak from this podium. It was awesome guinness. He would a book called the free people since i. Some of you are familiar with that book. He gave, we have as a speaker at transit and he spoke about that from your. Much of what he said, and he is from england. I thought to myself sitting here, i went to good schools. How can i never heard what hes talking about . It was basic stuff but a part of the whole thing was what he called the Golden Triangle freedom. This is what really struck me. The Golden Triangle freedom. He said all the founders were unaware of this andy schleck, they were. Use of the Golden Triangle freedom was simply this. Freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faith and faith in turn requires freedom. Got that . Now. Freedom requires for cheaper of the end of heard that. What does it mean . I spoke out of school in texas indicators saying we know freedom requires virtue. Like they know. Dictating that in the school so sensible are teaching us but i never this. You will never see on tv. Virtue is like a dirty word. We talk about competence but we dont talk about character and virtue. What does this mean . And i thought its basic. Freedom which is selfgovernment requires that the people govern themselves. Think about that. Self government wants people to govern themselves. It means you have to govern yourself. Its not just about we govern ourselves but every person has to govern himself. In other words, you dont need a lot of cops. Self government means that people will pretty much govern themselves most of the time to if they are virtuous we know that they will do that. I dont feel, not that im afraid of being caught or thought that the dungeons of saddam, i dont see because i feel it is wrong to steal. If you have people who are virtuous, Self Government becomes possible. The founders understood that the they understood it will not be possible unless you people who can handle it, who will govern themselves. So freedom requires virtue. The freedom were talking a requires virtue of some kind. Its a basic idea and the founders understood this and wrote about it and i quote them in the boat. They all got this stuff. Freedom requires virtue. Virtue requires faith. That everyone who is a person of faith is virtuous and the as well as virtuous is a person of faith. However, the founders knew practically speaking when they saw a community that was serious about its faith, they tended to be selfgoverning and virtuous. Ill talk about with you in a minute, George Whitfield, but when it would see the effects of the prescient George Whitfield in the colonies, those places, the crime would drop. Its an extraordinary thing. Where there is robust expression of faith, you have people generally speaking who are generally speaking virtuous who are generally speaking able to govern themselves. They understood that freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faith and faith in turn requires freedom. What does that mean . Faith in turn requires freedom. In other words, any kind of faith cannot be forced. If you force faith its not real. If you force somebody to believe something or go to a Certain Church or whatever, you know endless they do it voluntarily its just a game. Why are they going . Unit many countries in europe around the world basic this is the official church. You have to go to that church. There are a lot of people going to say i dont bide but im going to because i dont want to go to jail. I dont want to go to jail. You have to have real freedom for faith to flourish, otherwise the faith of any kind of faith. We all know this in america. We get this you have to have a free market of ideas. Peoples im going to go to this church because i choose to go to this church. Not because the Government Forces me. Or i go to no church because i choose not to go to church. We are not forcing anyone to go to church, not forcing anyone to go to any particular kind of church. It is utterly free. The founders all understood freedom of religion has to be at the very heart of the United States. If people dont choose themselves what they want to worship, whether they want to worship, ottawa to worship, where, it doesnt work. They want a robust expression of faith and they said this form of government will not work unless by and large the are a lot of people of faith. That faith must be utterly free. So they enshrined religious liberty in the constitution at in fact they had been a practicing religious liberty for most of the 18th century. Its the universal but basically america got this kind of stuff. I remember in sixth saint it from this republican and im thinking this is crazy. He has just told how much of it works and has worked for 230 plus years, and i never really thought about this. I was deeply embarrassed and i realized most of the people have not heard about this. And i felt really good about myself because i heard about it first. But it really thought something is wrong. This is very strange. Why dont i know about this . Then one day i guess my daughter was about seven, shes right here. Shes no longer seven. Put the cigarette out of your mouth. Stop about. [laughter] and i found out i dont know if you know those dover catalogs we get all kinds of books and stuff and i found a paper model of the paul revere house. For some reason it appealed to me. Its like that moment in the surprised by joy. Something about the timing is a bit of euros to so i i thought that would be a nice thing to do with my daughter. I get the thing and we are building this old house and then i realized the poem, paul reviews paul leaders right. I never really read that poem. When i went to yoga, homes that rhymed were sneered at. Only stupid people would want homes to run. Most people wont really elliptical obtuse poems that mean nothing and you never read them. So i picked up the poem and i started reading it. Most of you know little snippet of it. Listen my children and you shall hear of the Midnight Ride of paul revere. On the 18th of april in 75, hardly a man is now alive remembers that famous day and year. I started eating at a realized i had not gotten past that much. As a red i thought i have heard this. It was so beautiful and so moving that i was stunned i was absolute stunned by the beauty of the poem and i thought to myself why have people sneered at this poem . This gets where we have been as a culture. Its corny, Norman Rockwell is an idiot, right . So i said to my daughter, why dont we see we can memorize this . Do you think we can pull this off . We decided to memorize it. My daughter being seven or eight at the time with a fresh brain was able to memorize it slightly more quickly than her father but we memorize it together. And as we were memorizing it i thought to myself, i never felt one in feeling right now. Im getting these feelings of patriotism that are breaking my heart. Theres a line in the poem about, theres a chapter in the book on this poem, but it says, there was one asleep in his bed who at the bridge would be first to fall. Fsoc about lexington. And so hes evoking the image of a man asleep in his bed at the bridge would be first to fall. So a few hours from now this man will get up and go and hes going to be pierced by a british musket ball and die. It just tears me to read this because i thought i may father. At 57 maybe this isnt going to do much but when youre older these things mean something to you. I was so moved by this i thought the sacrifice, i never thought about this. You dont hear about this on tv really. You dont hear about this. You certainly dont hear about this in the ivy league. God forbid they Say Something patriotic. Wed memorize the poem. The one i remember is about this old patriot, you know, who wants to die. He served his country, whatever. And as my father was reading the lines to me in greek, he would get choked up. And i would get with embarrassed. You know, when youre 12, 13, you feel inadequate when your parents get choked up. But i realize now he was experiencing exactly what i was exheernsing with my experiencing with my daughter in this poem. When youre older, you understand sacrifice, death, what people have gone through for our freedoms. A healthy culture celebrates that, right . In Greek Culture we dont talk about, oh, who are we. No, they know greeks are better than anybody on the planet [laughter] if you dont believe me, ask my cousin john. Hes right here, hell straighten you right out. We were proud of our greek heritage. We didnt say, oh, we dont get into that, you know . But its interesting, because i was also raised in a home where we were proud of being americans. My father and my uncle were very patriotic americans. They came to this country in the 50s, and they knew that this was a great country. So when somebody would Say Something against america, theyd come after em. Because they said who the hell are you . Do you know, i mean, have you been to other countries . Do you understand what we have here . We better be grateful for what we have here. Is america perfect . Of course not. But if you dont appreciate what we have, youre a fool. Its something that we need to appreciate. Now, youve got to put everything in context, right . You dont want to be a ginning goistic, chestbeating fool, but to not appreciate what we have is sick, its wrong, especially when its the United States of america. So reading that poem and a number of things made me think were living in a really advantage time. Because kids strange time. Because kids dont learn these poems. If this there were 80 or 90yeas in this audience, i bet their memorized paul reveres ride. A people in order to be a people needs to know the stories and poems and songs that make you a people. Otherwise you break down into red state, blue state, monsters beating each other over the head. You have to have something in common, and what we had in common was that kind of history and all of those stories. Everyone, liberal, conservative, we all understood this kind of thing. We all understood that paul revere was a hero. Nathan hale died for his country at age 21, this was a noble man. When you came to america, you were forceed to learn this stuff. You were forced to learn a little bit about the history of the country. People didnt say, oh, we dont want to harsh your mellow and start telling you about American Culture because youre from another country. We dont want to do that. So my parentings learned this stuff. Parents learned this stuff. People would buy into something. Why . Because america is not defined by ethnicity. Every ethnicity exists in america. Its not defined by religion. Every religion exists in america. Were the only country in the history of the world that was created and defined by an idea. And or, therefore, in order to keep the republic as franklin enjoined us to do, we must know those ideas, we must understand those ideas, we must buy into those ideas, and we must live them out. Otherwise america ceases to exist because it is an idea. As i said, the more i looked around the more i thought, we really dont know these ideas anymore. Weve not been taught them. I was not taught these ideas. These ideas are not popular on tv. The idea of loving your country, its just not frowned upon. What has happened . Are we becoming america in name only . Are we becoming america and not america . Be americas an idea and we dont understand these ideas, it seems to me that thats what happens. American exceptionalism doesnt mean that we are inherently better, god forbid, okay . Im a christian, i know that everybody has an equal amount of original sin. We all stink. We dont deserve anything, and everything we have a gift from god. So i dont think were better than other people by didnt of where we live dint or better than other people. Look, were better than the french, but ill leave it at that. [laughter] but the point is we are not better than anybody. So anybody who thinks americas better, its not that americas better. American exceptionalism refers to these ideas which are basically a gift from god, and if you dont think theyre a gift from god, theyre certainly a gift from history from the founders to us. We did not come up with these ideas, we did not create everything that we have. Its a gift. And so when youre given an incredibly valuable gift, you have to know the value of it. Imagine somebody gives you an expensive laptop and you use it as a frisbee. Its not like its yours, do whatever you want with it. The person who gave it to you would be annoyed. They could have saved themselves some money. What we have is an exquisite treasure, and we dont appreciate it anymore. We dont know what it is, we dont know how it works, and its not easy to keep the republic. If you think democracy is easy, try sprinkling a little bit of that on iraq and afghanistan, see how that turns out. The people have not been prepared over decades and decades and decades to know how to use with it. We were prepared in this country, why . Because we had a generation we had centuries of british law going back to the magna carta. We were biblically literate, we understood the ideas of virtue. In other words, we were prepared in a way that was extraordinary. And i have to say that the most extraordinary thing of all when i read about George Whitfield, i was utterly astounded was i realized because i realized that George Whitfield came to this country, theres a chapter on him in the book. He was one of the oddest figures in history, a 21yearold crosseyed evangelist who was if thats my wife, im not here. [laughter] oh, she [laughter] he was a phenomenon, okay . He makes billy graham and the apostle paul look like loser atheists, okay . [laughter] he a basically preached four times a day, nonstop for decades. Now, this is true. I mean, he was a man on a Mission Unlike Anything thats ever existed. He came to these shores in 1738 at the invitation of john and Charles Wesley who were starting an orphanage in georgia, and he was a preaching maniac. And what was he preaching . Was he preaching everybody come to the Congregationalist Church . Everybody come to the catholic church, Orthodox Church . No. He was preaching you must be born again. In other words, he was not saying to people youve got to worship this way or this way, he was saying the most basic gospel message about jesus and about grace. Imagine going to a church where theyre preaching morality and theyre telling you what a jerk you are, and youve got to try harder. And this man comes and tells you and says, yes, youre a coal minor or a fish wife, youre a liewlzer or a failure, and god loves you and wants to pour out his love on you, and you are no different than the duchess or the duke or the king. God loves you equally. That really upset the duchess, the dukes and the kings [laughter] now, im not going to go into this too much, but the point is hes preaching a message of egalitarianism that people are buying into. Thats true. Were all knead the image of god, and made into the image of god, and this hire. Arthel key began to create an hierarchy began to creating up and down the colonies that by the time it was over 80 of the people in the 13 colonies had herd had heard him in person. Now, you may remember there were no tvs in those days. If you were lucky enough, youd have to use a rabbit antenna and go up on the roof and all that stuff. [laughter] try to imagine how much this man preached, and when he preached, thousands would come to hear him. Over and over and over. By the time he was done, he was basically the patron saint of america. Americans loved him. He was the only celebrity known from maine to georgia. Everybody knew of whitfield, everybody bought into his thinking. And he also basically said if you are infinitely valuable in gods eyes, no one can rule over you. So if theres a tyrant ruling over you, you say to the tyrant, be gone. You dont have to submit to this kind of thing because youre infinitely valuable. If quick george iii king george iii is acting like a jerk, you can get rid of him. He didnt put it that way, but these were radical ideas that come right out of the gospel. So you have two things happen. First of all, you have all of these americans kind of uniting around the person of whitfield, and you have many, many people becoming very serious about their faith. And so revival breaks out all over, and people became more virtuous. This is why Benjamin Franklin, who was not an orthodox christian, loved George Whitfield. They were friends. He said wherever he goes, the people become virtuous. He dies in 1770, suddenly the people are uniquely prepared to govern themselves. So when the founders go into this room and they create this government, they can hand it over to people who will keep it, who have a better chance of keeping it than anyone in the history of the world. So i say that without whitfield, we would not exist. Now, you know, who knows . But the point is that seems to be the case. So when i understood all this, i thought to myself its kind of scandalous we dont know this, we dont know how fragile our government is, our government sorry, our way of life, our culture, everything that we have, this republic. And if we dont get serious about keeping it, whatever that means, it is game over. And i really do think that its as serious as what we faced in the revolution or in the civil war. Its an existential crisis. If we are facing john bull or johnny reb, you know, you can pull out a gun, and you can fight that fight. You get that crisis. You see it in front of your eyes. But this is a crisis which has been, like, termites silently hollowing us out from the inside so that nobody really sees any threat. But if we become america in name only, if we become a hollow shell of america in quotes where america actually used to be, we will cease to have selfgovernment. And its already happening. In other words, you dont have to be this book is not for democrats or republicans or liberals or conservatives. This is a book for all americans that we all sense that some things arent going well. Selfgovernment is, and liberty are being challenged in a host of ways whether its clamoring for an extremely strong leader, we know that that can go wrong. And it comes with problems. Or where its clamoring for a judiciary that legislates from the bench in a way that is fundamentally unconstitutional. The point is what we have is very fragile, you can screw it up almost any way you like because its so percentage jilt jill. Now fragile. Now, when longfellow wrote paul reveres ride, he wrote the poem because it was 1860, and he knew america was facing an existential crisis, and he wanted america to wake up and to see that they had to rise to to occasion and that hay had to fight. So they had to fight. So he wrote this poem. And i realize that poems and stories and books, these are the things that can galvanize us, that can make us see where we are and what we need to do. To some very small extent, i hope my book fulfills that kind of a role. I wrote it hoping that we could get a conversation started in our culture, a bipartisan conversation on this subject because i really do believe that theres a huge existential threat, that we could shortly cease to exist. You wont notice it, everything will look the same, you know . Theyre not going to burn our manageses, it doesnt work mansions, it doesnt work that way. At least not yet. I really think its something we have to take seriously. My publisher has graciously offered to give a number of copies to members of congress and another person who i will not name, hes in the boom, walter kurt, hes right there [laughter] to donate a number of books because i would love every member of congress to get a letter from me with this book and say what do you think about this . This is not written for democrats or republicans, this is written for every american, secular, religious, it doesnt matter. These are fundamental ideas. We used to buy into them for 20046 plus years. No 200plus years. Not only are we no longer buying into them, were pretty much ignorant of them. We have to teach our children what we stand for. And is so i hope that those books will be sent soon, and then i can get on my Radio Program and shame these congressmen into reading them and saying, hey, i got a letter from so and so, he read it. People ask me what can i do . You can contact your congressman in about a months time and ask him if he got the book and if he read it. I think if the people will be the people and we will hold our leaders to account, something can be done. Im not one of these people who says its game over, its hopeless. God forbid, okay . Im not permitted to lose hope. Our job is to do what we can do, to be hopeful, and the rest is in gods hands. Ill leave it at that. We have a few minutes for q a. How are we going to do that, i guess from the podium . Anyway, that concludes the entertainment portion of the evening, thank you very much. [applause] thank you. All right. Were going to [applause] i would love to thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. I would love now, if you dont mind, my daughter and i have prepared a duet which wed love to sing for you. Sweetie, come up. She knew i was going to do. This no, im kidding. She knew i was going to do this. Ill sing alone then. I would love to have a few minutes for your questions. I ask you to put your question in the form of a question. [laughter] okay . So im not interested in any statements or anything about, you know, the history of your family. But i would love to know if youve got any questions. Speak loudly [inaudible] oh, youve got a microphone . Okay. Well, if somebody raises a hand, you can ask me anything. And by the way, ill tell you up front i prefer true or false questions. [laughter] it doesnt matter what it is. Find whoevers got their hand up. I see a hand up right here. [inaudible] oh, youve got to im sorry. You have to go to the microphone. And im sorry to say up front, please be brief because i was, im hoping that we can get to a lot of questions. Itll be fun. Peter martin, welcome to socrates in the city. Eric metaxas, welcome to the Union League Club. Yes if i had a thunderbolt in my hand right now [laughter] i want to ask the significance of lady liberty on your cover. At every event we begin this club with a pledge of allegiance, and being flag day, might we do that . No. [laughter] not gonna happen. All right. I actually were its so sweet, peter, i wanted to resent you, but i cant. I dont mind doing that, but itll shock some people watching on cspan. Itll freak them out. Here here. Just dont do the nazi salute, because that really gets them. Just okay . Yeah. Lets its flag day. Wheres the id love to do that, what a great idea. And peters our host, so even if i thought it was a bad idea, i would have to do it. All right. Ill start i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [applause] wow. What a great idea. What a great idea. Put your brown shirts on, and were going to start marching right after this is over. [laughter] but its so funny because i went to school and i grew up in new york, any kind of patriotism even makes me uncomfortable. I dont know, do we do that . Well, when i go around the country, i was someplace and they were singing god bless america, and i got tears in my eyes, and i thought, why dont we do thisesome are we ashamed of our country . Your question was about the cover of my book, and im glad you asked. Is that the question . It is. What does lady liberty mean as the symbol on the cover of your book . We were just looking for a cheap graphic that didnt have any rights attached to it. [laughter] basically, one thing i didnt say in my speech just now which is at the heart of the book as well is that the reason its okay for us to talk about american exceptionalism, the reason its okay for us to be extremely proud of our country is because from the beginning this nation was always a nation for others. We do not exist for ourself. And this is a fundamentally biblical idea. In the early pages of genesis, abraham is talking to god x god says that you are blessed to be a blessing. In other words, if god ever chooses you or blesses you, its so that you can bless others, not so that you can heap it onto yourself. The jews didnt say, hey, were the chosen people, isnt that great . Haha. No, if youre chosen, its an awesome burden. Its a thing that should make you tremble. And in some ways lincoln called this nation the almost chosen people. I quote him in the book. He says theres Something Special about this country because we have been used to touch others around the world. I mean, when theres an earthquake, we send we dont ask questions. We dont say, you know, lets see the money first. Now, during a trump administration, of course, we will say that. [laughter] youve got to understand, we need to see the money, and then well send the medicine. I dont think thats true. That was a joke, mr. Trump, i apologize. The but the point was we have always been generous. Weve been generous not just with our treasure, but with our blood, okay . We have shed blood on foreign fields. Why . Not only for our selfinterests. Anybody who says we did it for oil, now, those things enter into it, but if you dont understand that american lives have been given for freedom around the world, we have done the right thing around the world when it cost us, you know, shame on you if you dont know that or if you cant admit that or youre so cynical you dont believe that. Its a simple fact that we have done that. And we have not simply acted in our selfinterests. We have said that as we go, the world goes. And as the world goes, we go. And our boys died in vietnam. You know, whether we were right to be there or not, the point is, the idea was that were not just an island and we want to just exist here and have everything we have and everybody else can go to hell. Thats never been the american way, folks, and that kind of attitude is fundamentally unamerican. Weve always said were here for others. So the statue of liberty to me is this example, and actually i write about this in the epilogue of the book that there was a moment in i think it might have been, im pretty sure it was late 2001, so it must have been two months after the attacks. We were, we were on a speed ferry going to new jersey, 34th street dock. You get on a speed ferry, and we two the highlands in new jersey to visit my inlaws. As youre going on the speed ferry, i was always on the upper deck, i looked over, and we went really close to the statue of liberty. And i got really choked up. Why . Because im thinking of 9 11 and calls because im thinking about the fact and also because im thinking about the fact that look at this country. In other words, we were attacked by evil men who wanted to do us harm, but we still managed to keep a posture of welcoming to the other world. I mean, were the only country that we would be attacked by radical muslims, and one of the first things we would worry about is that muslims would be attacked by our people so that our president comes out and says, you know, basically trying to say dont do that, folks. Like, thats the normal, natural thing to do is to, colleague, kick the butt of some people who you think are affiliated with. Dont do that. Thats not the american way. We have always struggled with that, how can we be welcoming to the foreigner, to the exile . Thats a fundamentally biblical idea. Now, you can take that too far, and you can be really sloppy like Angela Merkel saying everybody come on in. Thats pure guilt for what happened 80 years ago, right . Theyre trying to redeem themselves. Their not thinking theyre not thinking rationally. The point is we have to think rationally, we have to form our policies rationally, but we know, we all know that we are, indeed, a nation of immigrants, and we all know that we have to have a posture or that says welcome. And weve always been that way. The statue of liberty to me symbolizes that. And, of course, its particularly touching for me because both my parents passed the statue in a ship in the 50s. I remember asking my mother about that a year ago, and she said it was five a. M. , and they were woken up in the bowels of the ship, and they ran up and there it was. She says it was very emotional. Now, why is that emotional for people coming to this country . Because they know this is real. Like, this is not some cynical idea and, oh, yeah, america. Americas really great. They know america really is great. They know that americas going to give them a fair shake, an opportunity to work hard, to send their kids to college, that i live the american dream. My parents understood that. They came from another place. And so to me, thats at the heart of who we are as a people, and so thanks for the question because its very important to understand that if you really exist to bless others, you know, thats a different kind of exceptionalism, right . Weve sent missionaries around world. There are all kinds of people around the world who have heard about freedom, have herald about god loves them have heard about god loves them, who have gotten economic freedom, religious liberty introduced. Why . Because these ideas are not ours to keep, theyre to share with the world. We want the whole world to become like america. We dont want to keep these things for ourselves. Thats why the statue of liberty is on the cover of the book. And the reason shes fading is because the question of if you can keep it, its a pointed question, it was a pointed statement in 1787 in philadelphia, and its a pointed statement now. I dont think were keeping it. I think that liberty is receding. You can still see the torch is still in focus, so i think i dont think its lost, but i think were losing it. And so this book, for me, is something that i wrote,s this is my last this is my best shot at trying to wake understand to what we have and wake us up to what we have and to try to start a movement of some kind that we would take this seriously. I really think our election right now is a symptom of this, everything thats going bad is a symptom of this. We the people have to be the people, we have to love our country, understand our country, and great question. Thank you. Hope we have got another question. Before i leave, the last word on the statue of liberty was delivered by chauncey depew, probably americas greatest speech writer, who preceded the president of the United States in his ultimate great address. So i and you didnt have that put that just so you could gesture to it. [laughter] we change it when the speakers change. So i suggest all of you look up chauncey, and youre ever at an afterdinner speaker and dont hear one of his quotes, you are due at least a 50 refund. [laughter] thats right. Well, peter has told me that this club has very, very much to do with the statue of liberty coming to america and so on and so to forth, so we have the Union League Club to thank for that as well. All right. Yes, sir. I love your intent to be bipartisan, getting the book out. I should tell you im a reagan democrat. And our parties increasingly have radically different world views. People, many people remember that god was shouted down in 2012 election. There are people who will watch this on cspan who will actually resent the fact that we recited the pledge of allegiance. Oh, i know. So what are your look at em. Yeah. [laughter] what are your thoughts on bridging that increasing divide . Again, thats another one of the fundamental reasons i wrote the book. I said there are people heres the thing. There will always be idealogues on both sides. There are people for whom being reasonable is not acceptable, right . And they are, they have a takenoprisoners attitude. I didnt write this book for those people. I wrote this book for the people in the middle. Now, when i say the people in the middle, i dont mean ideologically in the middle. They can be on left or the right. These are the people who are open to reason, and when they read about this they may say, oh, i dont agree with every little thing but, basically, yes, i get this. Basically, when i watch mr. Smith goes to washington, my heart is touched. Yes. I feel a love for my country. We really have to be rational about this, and we have to reach out to people who are willing to be rational. People have read book this book and praised it who are secular liberals. I wanted to write this book for everybody. This is for reasonable people. I think we have to understand that, you know, to argue with people on those fringes is to cast pearlses before swine. We ought not to do it. We ought not just let them think what they want. I would submit to you that there are plenty of americans across the political spectrum, across the faith spectrum who would say, yes, theres something here. Theres something beautiful about teaching our kids the Great Stories of these heroes, that there is sump a thing a as a there is such a thing as a hero. Were not all bums. People have cardiffed their sacrificed their lives so we can have what we have. Not teaching that has harmed us. Were not going to go back to 1920, but we have to understand that we have failed, things have not gone well. And im convinced there are people as i say, most people who read books, most people in this country, they get this. This is not something that may please the people, you know, who were Editorial Board of the nation or, you know, on the john birch society. I really dont care. I think that this is, again, this is for all americans. And if you understand that were in a tough spot, you understand this is something that must be taken seriously, so thank you. Thank you. We have a final question . Ill take more questions. These are nice questions. [inaudible] yes. Hi. Would you be more specific about what things you see as threats to america and why you say were losing, losing the idea of america would i be more specific . Yeah, more specific no. And about not going to happen. You need to sit down. No more specifics about [laughter] yes being virtuous of not following the constitution or well, i think there are a number of problems. Heres the thing. We dont talk about virtue anymore. When i was reading, particularly some of the stuff from the colonial era but also up into lincoln, the things that they said and the language they used, it was remarkable. They talked about honor and duty. We dont talk about that kind of stuff anymore. Now, thats a very odd development. What has happened that we are a afraid to talk about honor, duty, patriotism, love of country . We have to ask ourselves what has happened and why do we think its okay to let that stuff evaporate . What do we think, what will happen exactly . I think be youre not talking about virtue and not teaching virtue in schools, if youre so afraid to teach virtue or right or wrong which we seem to be, youre raising amoral people. I mean, if you think about it, when i say to somebody racism is bad, right . Youll hear that. In other words, theres certain things youll hear, but they dont really get into why. You know . We ought to be able to have discussions on what we believe, what is right, what is wrong. What just happened in orlando is the classic case, right . In other words, if i was a knew hi list, i would say who cares what happened in orlando . Why do i care . What difference does it make . Well, if you have a world view that says people are created in the image of god and theyre infinitely valuable and every american, everyone in the world has value and ought to have dignity and so on and so forth, if you believe that, then you try to create a society where people respect people with other points of view. But we have to get into that conversation. And really where we are right now is in, its the politically correct sound bites. I mean, we dont actually its one of the reasons i started socrates in the city, to have some of these conversations to introduce people who have, you you know, written books about these things to think about them more deeply. We really dont do that anymore. Wheres the guy who asked me the question . Im totally unnerved. Hes over here someplace. There you are. We have to be able to talk about these things, and weve been afraid to. We dont do that. I think you see examples in the culture. Theres a breakdown of culture. I dont want to go into it, but i would say in terms of morality, absolutely that theres, there are real problems. I mean, theres cheating scandals, theres all kinds of things where if youre amoral, you say, hey, i need to do what i need to do to get ahead. Well, what about teaching kids that is wrong . Like thats not okay . We dont get into that. I mean, the whole idea of ethics, where do you get your right and your wrong . We have to have those conversations. Were afraid to have those conversations. I guess because were afraid were going to offend someone. And thats what concerns me. We have to have these conversations about what am i to believe. You know, if my religion teaches me that sex outside of marriage is wrong or that the homosexual lifestyle is not not one that i want to follow, how do i exist in a culture like this, right . Well, in america we say you can have all the differences you wallet, but we have to respect each other. But there are other places in the world where they say if you disagree with somebody, you can kill them. You can treat them as subhuman, as inhuman. That is what radical islam does, and it strikes me as odd too that we dont even have a language to talk about like, we get uncomfortable talking about radical islam. Do you know how they treat gays, how isis treats gays . They throw them off tall buildings. They kill them. We need to have these conversations about what do we believe as americans. And i just think that we have completely avoided it. Except in a very shallow, as i say, pretty createcollect politicallycorrect way. I also think as people cease to govern themself, the government steps in basically. The government will grow if the people dont govern themselves. So you have strange things happening like even roe v. Wade, even if you agree with the decision, the way the court got there is bizarre. I mean, how do you find in the constitution a right to samesex marriage or the a right to abortion that even legal scholars say it feels like judicial activism. In other words, their job is to interpret the constitution, and its the job of the people in the states to vote. Thats democracy. But in a way, the natural course is for a government to grow and grow and grow, and to usurp those rights of the people. So again, you see it from the judiciary, you see it with a stronger executive. We saw it under bush, we see it under obama. And its the people who have to say, no, thats not the way we do things here. In this country the people are the government, and were not going to allow people to rule over us. But i do think that that is beginning to happen. I dont think theres any doubt, and i dont really i dont want to go on any longer. But i see all kinds of examples of it. I hope i write about some of them in the book, and ill want to think about this more because its, im sure its a great question, and i dont have more than that. Jojo starbuck, the olympic skater. Hi, eric. Thank you so much for what youve brought to us tonight. I really do hope that you are starting something in our country with this book and all of us here. Kind of wish you were running for president. What do you mean you kind of wish . I am. [laughter] [applause] i cant get any press. Bernie sucks the oxygen out of the room, its unbelievable. [laughter] so heres my question. If freedom requires virtue and virtue requires god, what are we going to do . I mean, it is politically incorrect to talk about god and to have it in our schools yeah. On cspan you can just do it. Our children need to hear, have a moral compass and without some kind of god heres the thing. I think when people say, well, its politically incorrect, heres my question. So what . Right . Actually, it was my dear friend dick cabot who couldnt be here today who says if that will offend some people, the response should be, okay, so what . I think one of the most wonderful things about American Culture is our desire to please everyone. We worry about offending people. Theres something healthy and beautiful about that. But it can go too far, and it can become a flaw. I think it has become a flaw for us. I mean, the idea that were changing policy, you know, the transgender bathroom thing is such an odd even if you kind of think its a good idea, its still another one of these odd things that we are bending over backwards for, you know,. 01 of the people. I think its gotten to a point where your average american says something is out of order here. We really need to reassert ourselves, and we need to talk about god and faith and virtue. Now, if people are going to do it in the wrong way, theyre going to do it in the wrong way. I hope ill do it in the right way n a civil way, and we all have the ability to do it in a civil way. I talk about this because i think americans have to rise are up and begin doing this rise up and begin doing this. I think that were all responsible for having these conversations. Its not me or, you know, there are going to be some leaders who can model it, but we all need to say so what, you know . Oh, you think im racist . Well, aye got news for you ive got news for you, im not. Lets move on. I think, again, weve given so much power to the crazy voices, i mean, the people on University Campuses who are, theyre insane. Theyre in this tiny academic bubble. Theyre crazy, and the academic leaders or i should say the college administrators, are so cowardly that they cannot stand up to these tiny maniacs who theyve allowed to be there on the campus. Its an extraordinary thing. But, again, it shows you that if you dont have a robust sense of right and wrong, youre going to back down when people scream. And i really think weve got to you know, most americans are, i think, at a point you see in this election that theyre saying, look, weve kind of had enough. Like, we have real problems. And lets talk turkey, right . Lets talk. Weve got to stop being so easy offended. Its just ridiculous. So i i think the first thing we can do is to say, look, tough luck. Like, i definitely dont mean to offend anybody, but if all youre going to be is so to thinskinned that we cant have a conversation, thats your choice, but im going to keep talking. So thank you. Thank you. Yes, sir. So, eric, youve touched on the theme of education in the role of vir chu. Virtue. My wife and i chose a classical christian school, but some would argue where youre abandoning the Public Schools. Right. Just touch on some specifics around how we can, regardless of where our children go to school, engage in the Public School system it depends. Everybodys called to do different things. Im not going to send my daughter to a school so i can, you know, make a political statement while her brain is ruined, you know what im saying . I think at first we have to take care of our own, and if it means sending your kid to this school or that school, you have to do that first. But you are right to the extent that we can be voices in the Public Square and in the Public Schools, we should be. I agree. The Public School situation has gotten out of hand, and its part of why were here i dont mean the Union League Club, i mean this conversation and why i wrote this book. The teachers unions and so on and so forth, theyre not beholden to the free market, right . Theyre in there, and theyre saying tough luck. You hear over is and over and over again teachers teaching things that they have no business getting into, right . Schools are supposed to be in local [inaudible] in other words, the most basic idea of freedom is that i can raise my kids the way i want to raise my kids. And so i dont have time to teach my kids, so were going to create a school, and were going to pay taxes so that somebody else can do what i want them to do. Theyre going to be paid, and theyre going to teach our kids. Now, the idea that those teachers then say, well, were going to do what we want to do is fundamentally unamerican and undemocratic. It just doesnt make sense. So the idea that we have schools teaching our kids, Public Schools teaching our kids things that are not what we would want them to be taught is just fundamentally crazy. And so thats why you have to have school choice. Thats one thing im very happy to say that trump has been talking about school choice. [applause] because the idea that i have to send my kid to get indoctrinated by some crazy people who arent afraid of losing their jobs, that is fundamentally unamerican. It is wrong. My mother left communist germany when she was 17 years old by herself because of this issue. She was having communist garbage poured down her throat every day in school, and she said i couldnt take it. I had to get out of there. Because it was indoctrination. And so, you know, she chose not just to go to another school, but to leave east germany. And i think that we have to understand that we have freedom. I mean, if somebody says to me, for example, if i had my kids in a Public School and they said, oh, yeah, tomorrow we are going to whatever, were going to teach third graders about how they can choose their own sexuality, some parent in that school needs to contact all the other parents in that school and say heres what were going to do. Were going to keep our kids home until the maniacs stop teaching things that we dont want them to teach our kids. You have to be willing to keep your kid home. You have to i mean, the montgomery bus boycott rosa parks started, for a year africanamericans didnt ride the buses because they said that is wrong, and were not going to put up with it. I really think that if some people think that they can bring the way they think to bear on our kids in that kind of way, we see, heres the thing. Americans are nice. I said this before. Were so nice, we dont get angry. You have to say, no, youre not going to do that. My kids not going to go to school. What are you going to do, put me in jail . Its not norway yet, right . Were not this is america. And i really think people have to, they have to get involved. Its what i, you know, i mean, its what it means to be we the people, right . That we have to get involved in these things, and we have to be willing to make a fuss. Because the schools, they simply dont have this right. But if they do it and we allow them to do it, we have ourselves to blame. So i really think that, you know, were kind of at a point where the craziness is getting peoples attention, but we need leaders. We need, you know, crazy immigrants like me or people who have been raised in a way where they think its okay to get upset rather than, oh, i dont want to upset anybody. We have to if somebodys doing that to your kids, you you know, at some point you have to act. Anyway, probably time for just one more question. Hi. I appreciate the way you contrasted kind of in this robust belief in original sin with the virtue that was present at the time and also in the founders. Did i do that . [laughter] you did. [laughter] ill take the compliment, thank you. So Benjamin Franklin, for instance, in walter isaksons biography is really in this kind of genius he donist and here donist, and not all the founders were absolute saints. Whats been the turn in virtue in america that has been kind of walked away from . I dont think its very easy to pip point it. Pip point it. I think roughly speaking it started in the of 0s, basically 60s, basically, but its a trickle down from the 20s and 30s. Elite schools like yale already turned the corner in the 30s, basically. And europe turned this corner as a result of world war i, that they had seen the twin authorities of church and state basically let them down and, you know, they had lost lives, and they really turned against those authorities in a way. And i think that the same kind of thing happened, it was like a loss of confidence in authority to begin with and a kind of cynicism or a nihilism or something. But i really dont think it reached us until the 60s and the 70s where it really became codified, it became part of, you know, the way we function. And so its nothing you can put your finger on, but i think you do see the media typically tend to be uncomfortably secular. Even though theyre talking to a nation where most people have some kind of faith, you typically dont get that. In other words, you dont have that kind of a free market operating in the media. The media typically is people that theyre, you know, secular l. A. People or secular new york people. They dont get that. So they speak a different kind of language. And i think that, you know, the market always corrects itself, but it doesnt necessarily do it right away, you know . The truth will out eventually, but, you know, we had 70 years of soviet communism before that wall fell down. So these things can last a very long time, and i would say for a long time about 50 or so years weve had in this, you know, hollywood basically created antiheroes in the 60s. All the films you had before that, i mentioned mr. Smith goes to washington, suddenly they were seen as corny or Something Like that. And its part of the culture, the drinking water. The ivy league, where i went to school, its part of the way people begin to see things, and then thats the club you belong to. Thats how people think. And i really think that the gatekeepers, the people in media, you know, people in teachers unions, people in politics, generally speaking a lot of them are those kinds of idealogues. Your average american is not really there. But over time its affected america, you know . So i do think i think were at a tipping point. I really think were very close to the edge. So for me theres hope, but i say this with a level of desperation as well. I think we must take this seriously. This is not something that it cannot go on. So this you have it. Well, folks, thank you so much for coming. [applause] i appreciate it very much. So many of you have come from out of town. What were going to do thank you. [applause] i appreciate that. Let me just say what were going to do is let the party continue, and you can happening around as long hang around as long as you want. Ill be signing books as long as there are people who want books signed, and im happy to do that just to hang out. Please do tell your friends about socrates in the city. Please do read the book. Please do if you dont want to read the book, i dont care, but at least buy several copies, if you dont mind. [laughter] well leave it at that. God bless you and god bless america. [applause] [inaudible conversations]ussed u can fine them on our web site, booktv. Org. [inaudible conversations] good morning. Welcome, i am president of aacc, National Capital region, and i welcome you today. On behalf of the chapter, i think i can speak for everyone here about exactly how excited and how honored we are to have Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg and former solicitor general, ted olson here with us today. [applause] i also want to thank so much james williams, who is a former member of our board of directors. Jim veil los angeles our vp for programming, and eileen reed our executive directyear for all of the work they put into this event and they deserve a round of applause. [applause] , with that i want to turn things over to james and he will do the introductions. Thank you. Thank you for those very kind words. Its a tremendous honor to be here today to introduce our guests, and its always difficult when we have guests of this caliber to find the right superlatives and adjectives and terms to describe them. A few come to mind. Titans, dedicated, principled, dynamic, engaging,ll