WEBVTT NOTE What is Morally Right About Economic Freedom 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.760 I was a little worried that this particular time slot comes right after lunch and I had 2 00:00:05.760 --> 00:00:15.440 the vision of people sitting back for a post-lunch rest and it falls to me to somehow disturb 3 00:00:15.440 --> 00:00:23.720 the slumber and somehow, well, I immediately hit upon the only solution to this and that 4 00:00:23.720 --> 00:00:29.360 was I thought I would lead you all in a rousing rendition of that anti-Semitic classic Fiddler 5 00:00:29.360 --> 00:00:45.160 And anti-Semitic, of course, simply because there's no Jew on earth who would sing a song 6 00:00:45.160 --> 00:00:51.600 if I was a rich man. 7 00:00:51.600 --> 00:01:01.920 I don't know about you, but we sing when I am a rich man. 8 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:10.040 But apparently the enthusiasm everybody has for the work of the institute will make that 9 00:01:10.040 --> 00:01:14.120 painful song completely unnecessary. 10 00:01:14.120 --> 00:01:19.560 And still, I thank you all very much indeed for this opportunity and for this honor. 11 00:01:19.560 --> 00:01:26.680 And if I can also thank those, many of whom, or some of whom at least, are responsible 12 00:01:26.680 --> 00:01:33.160 for me being here, but more importantly, people from whom I've learned an enormous amount. 13 00:01:33.160 --> 00:01:39.040 And Lew Rockwell, of course, tops the list. I really appreciate the opportunity to be 14 00:01:39.040 --> 00:01:46.000 here. And also, all I've learned from you, Lew, over the years. Appreciate that. Walter 15 00:01:46.000 --> 00:01:54.580 Walter Block, there he is, so much, learned so much from Walter and he's done so much 16 00:01:54.580 --> 00:01:58.700 for me, so thank you very much indeed as well, I really appreciate that. 17 00:01:58.700 --> 00:02:06.560 Kurt Doolittle, is he here? Kurt Maked? Kurt doesn't seem to be here, but he's somebody 18 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:13.600 in that category. Sam Silver from Atlanta, who really was one of the first to expose 19 00:02:13.600 --> 00:02:18.560 who's me to the interface between religion and economics, drove me here from Atlanta 20 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:27.720 this morning. And needless to say, obviously, the spirit of Murray Rothbard hovering palpably 21 00:02:27.720 --> 00:02:38.360 in the room, I think. I think Murray used to enjoy being a rabbi to a rabbi. And for 22 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:42.840 my part, of course, I was very happy to sit at his feet and drink of the wisdom, which 23 00:02:42.840 --> 00:02:48.780 I did in good measure, so that was always a great pleasure and something that was very 24 00:02:48.780 --> 00:02:51.560 comfortable for me. 25 00:02:51.560 --> 00:02:58.740 One of the first things I did when Lew extended this invitation, and he didn't give me a lot 26 00:02:58.740 --> 00:03:00.560 of time to say yes or no. 27 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:05.440 I was ready to say yes right away, which I did before I even knew what was entailed. 28 00:03:05.440 --> 00:03:09.740 But the first thing I did was I went to see who are the people who have given this Lew 29 00:03:09.740 --> 00:03:12.240 Church Memorial Lecture in the past. 30 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:19.240 And I've got to be honest, I was immediately overwhelmed by an extremely uncomfortable inferiority complex. 31 00:03:20.740 --> 00:03:29.740 The list was one after the other, prominent economists, people who have published, in some cases, dozens of books, 32 00:03:29.740 --> 00:03:38.240 and I really, I thought I was going to have to come here with a paper bag over my head somehow and just do my thing. 33 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:42.240 But, you know, then I thought about it and I thought it's the Lew Church Memorial Lecture. 34 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:46.240 Lew Church made money. He was a businessman. 35 00:03:46.240 --> 00:03:50.240 And so it doesn't matter how many books you've published, 36 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:54.240 it matters how many books you've sold. 37 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:58.240 That's the way I looked at it. And so, 38 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:02.240 so we're, you know, I may not have published that many books, audio CDs, 39 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:06.240 but we are approaching a quarter million 40 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:26.240 I do believe passionately in the business system. I believe in making money. I do. And I believe in making money because my culture and religious background assures me that in a reasonably free market, I can make a lot of money. 41 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:33.240 I do, and I believe in making money because my culture and religious background assures me 42 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:41.240 that in a reasonably free market and in a world of honest transparency in interactions, 43 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:48.240 a world where I don't believe I have to pull a fast one over somebody else in order to make a dollar 44 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:52.240 because I don't think my dollar represents his loss, 45 00:04:52.240 --> 00:04:59.240 In such a world, making money is a certificate of good performance. 46 00:04:59.240 --> 00:05:03.240 It's a mark of virtue. That's exactly what it is. 47 00:05:03.240 --> 00:05:13.240 And so I began realizing a number of years ago that there was an area of research that needed looking at. 48 00:05:13.240 --> 00:05:21.240 And the area of research was very simple, which was why is it that Jews are disproportionately good with money? 49 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:29.360 Good with Money. Now I realized of course that if anybody tried to do this, anyone studied 50 00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:38.820 this who was not circumcised, they would be instantly demonized for bigoted anti-Semitism. 51 00:05:38.820 --> 00:05:45.480 How dare you even notice that Jews are disproportionately good with money? Well, Jews represent just 52 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:49.680 about 2% of the American population and in the Forbes 400 list that means there should 53 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:55.680 between 8 and 9, Jews maybe, and there's never fewer than 60, usually closer to 100. 54 00:05:55.680 --> 00:05:56.680 Stop that! 55 00:05:56.680 --> 00:06:05.680 It doesn't mean there are no poor Jews, it just means Jews are disproportionately good with money. 56 00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:10.680 And I realized that if this area of research was going to be done, it would have to be done by me, 57 00:06:10.680 --> 00:06:17.680 because I realized this is probably the only field in all of academia where removal of a small piece of skin 58 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:19.680 converts bigotry to research. 59 00:06:24.680 --> 00:06:26.680 Okay, it doesn't have to be that small. 60 00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:27.680 I mean, just a piece of skin. 61 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:28.680 All right, there it is. 62 00:06:28.680 --> 00:06:29.680 Okay. 63 00:06:29.680 --> 00:06:33.680 That's what does it. 64 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:39.680 And I thought we need to really study this and understand why is it that Jews have excelled. 65 00:06:39.680 --> 00:06:44.680 And I obviously looked at all the main myths and theories. 66 00:06:44.680 --> 00:07:01.680 One of them obviously is taken from the Oxford English Dictionary, where the word Jew appears as a verb, as in to Jew somebody, and I thought, well, you know, maybe Jews excel because they rip people off all the time, and there's no question about it that feeling free to rip people off all the time is a massive advantage in business for a limited period of time. 67 00:07:01.680 --> 00:07:09.680 So, I studied that and found that, in fact, by the way, I researched, particularly through the South, I really enjoyed that, 68 00:07:09.680 --> 00:07:15.680 because I found small town after small town, Natchez was one town in the South, 69 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:23.680 where there were Jewish people who had done business with non-Jews in the vicinity for years, decades. 70 00:07:23.680 --> 00:07:30.680 The relationships were long and durable and warm and positive and friendships were part of the business relationships. 71 00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:42.680 and I found this to be standard across the country. It's not possible to have long-term friendly relationships with people you're doing business with if the theory and governing principles of those people is rip them off. 72 00:07:42.680 --> 00:07:54.680 So I had to reject that theory and there were a number of other such theories. One of them, of course, is the well-known racial theory that the Cossacks killed off all the poor Jews, leaving the rich ones to pass the money gene down in their sperm. 73 00:07:54.680 --> 00:08:03.180 And needless to say, modern medical sciences yet fail to identify this mysterious gene. 74 00:08:03.180 --> 00:08:19.680 And in any event, if there was such a thing, you wouldn't find the popular phenomenon of usually third or fourth generation of wealthy dynasties frittering it away and somehow or another being populated by scions and heirs with zero economic capacity whatsoever. 75 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:30.680 So the notion that somehow rich Jews managed to save themselves and pass this on, that just made absolutely no sense, and neither did any of the other theories. 76 00:08:30.680 --> 00:08:39.680 Leaving only one explanation for why it is that Jews are disproportionately good with money. 77 00:08:39.680 --> 00:08:46.680 The primary main explanation has to do with Roger Bannister. 78 00:08:46.680 --> 00:08:53.280 Roger Bannister was the first human being in history to run a mile in under four minutes in the year... 79 00:08:54.800 --> 00:08:57.800 You're good. You are good. Have you noticed that? 80 00:08:57.800 --> 00:09:02.800 People who are into economics are into reality. They're people who know things. 81 00:09:03.920 --> 00:09:08.560 How many... Now, you know, most... You go to a college audience... 82 00:09:08.560 --> 00:09:14.640 Nobody knows. May 1954. Anyway, there it is. May 1954. Does the mile in four minutes. 83 00:09:14.640 --> 00:09:18.140 Anybody know how many people ran the mile in four minutes the next year? 84 00:09:18.140 --> 00:09:22.140 Approximately one, ten, hundred, how many? 85 00:09:22.140 --> 00:09:28.140 Yeah, actually a few dozen. And how about in the last five years? 86 00:09:28.140 --> 00:09:32.640 Hundreds, right? Thousands probably. I don't know the exact number, but it's limitless. 87 00:09:32.640 --> 00:09:37.640 Well, if it's so easy to run a mile in four minutes that thousands of people have done it since May 1954, 88 00:09:37.640 --> 00:09:44.140 how come nobody did it in January 1954 and they could have got all the fame and fortune? 89 00:09:44.140 --> 00:09:51.140 It's one very simple thing. It's the same reason that last year hundreds of people went up Everest, 90 00:09:51.140 --> 00:09:58.140 but when Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay did it a year earlier in 1953, it was astounding. 91 00:09:58.140 --> 00:10:02.140 Now, I'm not saying I could do it, and I couldn't run a mile in four minutes either, but it's totally doable. 92 00:10:02.140 --> 00:10:08.140 You know why? Because we now know that it can be done. 93 00:10:08.140 --> 00:10:17.140 That makes all the difference, because we are predominantly spiritual creatures with a physical outfit. 94 00:10:17.140 --> 00:10:24.140 We are not physical creatures with a spiritual dimension. We are not people with a soul. We are souls with a body. 95 00:10:24.140 --> 00:10:36.140 That's how important your mental state is. That's how important it is in health. When people speak about holistic health, we're talking about the ability of the mind to impact the body. 96 00:10:36.140 --> 00:10:46.140 Lewis Thomas writes engagingly about the ability of the human mind to get rid of warts, using placebos. 97 00:10:46.140 --> 00:10:52.140 It's astonishing we can do anything with our minds as long as we believe in it. 98 00:10:52.140 --> 00:10:56.140 You've got to believe it can be done, you've got to believe it's worth doing. 99 00:10:56.140 --> 00:11:04.140 And ladies and gentlemen, the single most important reason why Jews have excelled in business over the years 100 00:11:04.140 --> 00:11:11.140 is because they have believed, implicitly, without a shadow of a doubt, 101 00:11:11.140 --> 00:11:16.140 that making money is in and of itself a good thing. 102 00:11:16.140 --> 00:11:23.140 That when you make money, you are de facto doing something good. 103 00:11:23.140 --> 00:11:28.140 You do not have to give it away afterwards in order to validate your virtue. 104 00:11:28.140 --> 00:11:31.140 You don't have to be the modern equivalent of the ancient pirate 105 00:11:31.140 --> 00:11:35.500 who raped and plundered all his life and then built a palace and a church for the 106 00:11:35.500 --> 00:11:40.260 bishop in order to acquire legitimacy and respectability and prestige in the 107 00:11:40.260 --> 00:11:46.180 community. Not like that at all. If you became wealthy and were not a 108 00:11:46.180 --> 00:11:54.300 charitable person, you've still done good. It's reprehensible, but you've certainly 109 00:11:54.300 --> 00:12:04.300 and certainly still done good. And so, for Jews, it's a perfectly natural phenomenon. 110 00:12:04.300 --> 00:12:10.300 By the way, I wish what I was saying were true, for all Jews. 111 00:12:10.300 --> 00:12:17.300 But, you know, I can't mislead you without stating clearly that, unfortunately, 112 00:12:17.300 --> 00:12:23.300 somewhere between 60 and 75% of the people who identify as Jews in the United States of America 113 00:12:23.300 --> 00:12:29.300 would happily stone me for almost everything I am saying today, because they don't believe it. 114 00:12:29.300 --> 00:12:36.300 That's one of the reasons that you do not find quite the same level of Jewish entrepreneurship 115 00:12:36.300 --> 00:12:39.300 in the community that you used to find a few generations ago. 116 00:12:39.300 --> 00:12:46.300 So there have been serious and tragic changes, and I'll probably have a minute or two to sort of explain 117 00:12:46.300 --> 00:12:48.300 how and why that has come about. 118 00:12:48.300 --> 00:13:06.300 But if you think about the generation of Jews that came over and were peddlers, my grandfather, a peddler, in Judaism an honorable calling, an honorable calling, traveled from town to town, welcomed wherever he went. 119 00:13:06.300 --> 00:13:19.300 Now, today, most people think, peddler, you're going to knock on somebody's door, you're bothering them, you're disturbing them, that's not what used to happen to Grandpa Lapin. 120 00:13:19.300 --> 00:13:28.300 They used to like it when he used to knock on the door. So, I will give you through a Jewish lens what life was like for Grandpa Lapin. 121 00:13:28.300 --> 00:13:34.300 And I'll save all the disappointments and I'm going to compress a long and grueling day into the next 60 seconds. 122 00:14:04.300 --> 00:14:09.800 They load it up on the wagon and Grandpa Lappen trundles off with their table. 123 00:14:09.800 --> 00:14:15.800 At this point, if we did a quick financial statement on this family, they are better off by how much? 124 00:14:15.800 --> 00:14:16.800 Ten dollars. 125 00:14:16.800 --> 00:14:20.300 Ten dollars, okay. On most campuses they say five. 126 00:14:24.300 --> 00:14:28.300 So, this is fun. 127 00:14:28.300 --> 00:14:36.300 Grandpa Lappen stops at the hardware store, spends a dollar on some paint and a few nails, knocks on the next house. 128 00:14:36.300 --> 00:14:41.300 Again, I'm leaving out all the people that weren't home, the people who didn't want anything, we're just moving along quickly here. 129 00:14:41.300 --> 00:14:47.300 Knocks on the next house, say, hey, anybody here want a table? And the woman says, well, just a moment, my daughter's getting married in two weeks' time. 130 00:14:47.300 --> 00:14:52.300 Agatha? Agatha comes right up, she says, do you need a table? She says, well, we're actually going to buy a table at Ethan Allen. 131 00:14:52.300 --> 00:14:56.300 My grandpa Lappen says, how much are you going to pay for it? She says, $20. 132 00:14:56.300 --> 00:14:59.300 He says, well, I got one on my wagon you can have for $10. 133 00:14:59.300 --> 00:15:04.300 Now, mind you, it had some scratches and one leg was loose, but I put some nails in, gave it a new coat of paint. 134 00:15:04.300 --> 00:15:06.300 She says, let me take a look at it. She comes down and takes a look. 135 00:15:06.300 --> 00:15:08.300 She says, yeah, this will do for a starter table. 136 00:15:08.300 --> 00:15:12.300 And they carry the table in and they give Grandpa Lapin $10. 137 00:15:12.300 --> 00:15:17.300 Now, how much better off does the financial statement of the second family show they are? 138 00:15:17.300 --> 00:15:24.300 Also $10. So now we're better off on aggregate. The village is better off by $20. 139 00:15:24.300 --> 00:15:28.320 Well, no, you forgot the dollar in the till of the hardware store, and you've also forgotten 140 00:15:28.320 --> 00:15:29.320 the arbitrage. 141 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:32.120 How much has Grandpa Lapin got in his pocket? 142 00:15:32.120 --> 00:15:34.200 Four dollars still. 143 00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:39.320 And there's always somebody in an audience, not an audience like this, but at a university 144 00:15:39.320 --> 00:15:43.120 audience, there's usually somebody who thinks this is smoke and mirrors, and that I've somehow 145 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:46.240 played fast with the figures here. 146 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:47.240 I haven't. 147 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:48.240 It's very, very simple. 148 00:15:48.240 --> 00:16:00.240 I'm about to give you the finest economic definition of one of the most successful companies on the internet that made money from day number one I'm referring to, eBay. 149 00:16:00.240 --> 00:16:08.240 The best definition of eBay is 70,000 grandpa lapens working simultaneously. 150 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:12.240 That's all it is. It's the greatest peddler in the world. 151 00:16:12.240 --> 00:16:17.920 all it does is finds people who want to rather get some money instead of the 152 00:16:17.920 --> 00:16:21.920 whatever it is that they've got sitting in their garage so they're better off at 153 00:16:21.920 --> 00:16:26.240 the end of that transaction and then it finds somebody who wants to give money 154 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:30.520 in exchange for that particular thing because it's exactly what they want and 155 00:16:30.520 --> 00:16:35.580 it makes them better off and guess what there's an arbitrage eBay's got a few 156 00:16:35.580 --> 00:16:39.880 dollars in their pocket as well just like Grandpa Lapin that's how it works 157 00:16:39.880 --> 00:16:48.960 Works, and so there is this deep conviction that by engaging in commerce, you're doing 158 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:53.040 something good and you're doing something wonderful and you're doing something helpful 159 00:16:53.040 --> 00:16:55.120 for people. 160 00:16:55.120 --> 00:17:00.120 And so it was no surprise to Grandpa Lapin and to his descendants that when he knocked 161 00:17:00.120 --> 00:17:06.640 on the door to offer a transaction, people responded warmly and enthusiastically because 162 00:17:06.640 --> 00:17:13.640 Well, somehow mysteriously, after he had passed through, everybody felt better off, because 163 00:17:13.640 --> 00:17:17.160 they actually were. 164 00:17:17.160 --> 00:17:18.160 Exactly so. 165 00:17:18.160 --> 00:17:26.140 When you do something for another human being, and there is an exchange that takes place, 166 00:17:26.140 --> 00:17:31.660 everybody is better off, that is not a hard thing to understand. 167 00:17:31.660 --> 00:17:40.200 And this thing is rooted within the morality of the biblically-based Judeo-Christian system. 168 00:17:40.200 --> 00:17:45.740 And that's why it is, both in the Lord's language, which is Hebrew, which was well known to most 169 00:17:45.740 --> 00:17:52.760 of the founders of our country, was well known to most of the colonial clergymen, one of 170 00:17:52.760 --> 00:17:58.460 whom Cotton Mather used to refer to Yale as our New England Batemidrash, Batemidrash is 171 00:17:58.460 --> 00:18:01.460 House of Study 172 00:18:01.460 --> 00:18:14.460 They were very, very familiar with these texts, very familiar, and I do believe that had a lot to do with the United States of America becoming the world's greatest engine of prosperity and freedom. 173 00:18:14.460 --> 00:18:23.460 You don't really have to say prosperity and freedom for people in the know because people in the know know those two always go together. 174 00:18:23.460 --> 00:18:37.460 And so it's no wonder because within Hebrew, and by the way it's been retained in English, we use exactly the same word for how to treat a customer as how to worship God. 175 00:18:37.460 --> 00:18:49.460 This past weekend you might have attended a worship service, and if you go to Seattle, or maybe you don't have to go as far as Seattle, but you go somewhere where there's a Nordstrom store and you buy a pair of shoes, 176 00:18:49.460 --> 00:18:58.760 You will find that as you want to try on a pair of shoes, without feeling that he's engaging in anything menial whatsoever, 177 00:18:58.760 --> 00:19:06.460 the salesman does this in front of you, right here, and he's down on his knees changing your shoe. 178 00:19:06.460 --> 00:19:16.260 That's called customer service, because if you please one of God's children, 179 00:19:16.260 --> 00:19:20.020 Then you're obviously pleasing God as well. 180 00:19:20.020 --> 00:19:23.300 Now, my wife and I have been blessed with seven children, 181 00:19:23.300 --> 00:19:28.500 and so we've experienced something over the years that most of you probably are, 182 00:19:28.500 --> 00:19:31.780 your families are immune to, our family's just been really rough on this, 183 00:19:31.780 --> 00:19:35.940 and that is bickering and squabbling between siblings when they're little. 184 00:19:35.940 --> 00:19:40.500 And one of the great delights of watching them get a little bit older 185 00:19:40.500 --> 00:19:45.460 is when that fades away and they start taking care of one another. 186 00:19:45.460 --> 00:19:57.460 And it's really it's hard to measure the joy as a parent when you see your children relating to one another with with closeness and compassion and consideration. It's wonderful. 187 00:19:57.460 --> 00:20:12.460 And so for me it's no mystery that in the same way that as a father I'm thrilled when all my kids take care of one another that our father in heaven should be thrilled and delighted and get a great big smile on his face when he sees somebody take care of a customer in a store. 188 00:20:12.460 --> 00:20:17.820 Well, yeah, that makes sense. And somebody might say, well, he's doing it for profit. 189 00:20:20.020 --> 00:20:23.900 Again, in the culture of the Torah, 190 00:20:24.900 --> 00:20:31.760 actions trump intent. Our belief is that only the good Lord himself knows what lies inside the hearts of men. 191 00:20:32.540 --> 00:20:38.060 How can I possibly attribute a motive to you when I barely know why I do things myself sometimes? 192 00:20:38.060 --> 00:21:08.060 And so the notion that I can discredit the virtue of your action, because your motive might be selfish, well you only have to ask yourself, would you rather have a next door neighbor, who deep in his heart really, really loves you, but he keys your car and kicks your kids and kills your cat, but he really, really loves you, or would you like a next door neighbor, who deep in his heart is not really sure how he feels about Jews or Southerners, 193 00:21:08.060 --> 00:21:16.060 or academics or whatever you are, but my goodness, for the last 15 years, what a great neighbor you've got, what would you rather have? 194 00:21:16.060 --> 00:21:28.060 Actions trump intentions and so if somebody is taking care of you in the store and yes, he's hoping to get a tip, he's hoping to make a profit or whatever it is, what's that got to do with anything? 195 00:21:28.060 --> 00:21:34.060 The action is taking care of another one of God's children. 196 00:21:34.060 --> 00:21:41.980 And so we've got to understand that what's going on is a recognition that the process of economic 197 00:21:41.980 --> 00:21:50.540 interaction is deeply linked to the process of relationships between human beings. And our 198 00:21:50.540 --> 00:21:57.580 understanding there is that we live in a world that somehow or another appears to have been created 199 00:21:57.580 --> 00:22:06.860 somehow for the purpose of bonding and connection. The Good Lord creates a world 200 00:22:06.860 --> 00:22:12.940 with about 110 elements, a little more than that as of last weekend, they keep 201 00:22:12.940 --> 00:22:19.280 cropping up, but basically 110 elements. And you look around you today and I would 202 00:22:19.280 --> 00:22:25.940 bet that there is probably not a single element that has played a useful part in 203 00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:28.820 in your life today or yesterday. 204 00:22:28.820 --> 00:22:32.980 Anything that's played a useful part in your life has always been a mixture of elements, 205 00:22:32.980 --> 00:22:34.260 a bonding of elements. 206 00:22:34.260 --> 00:22:36.500 The very air you breathe is oxygen and nitrogen. 207 00:22:36.500 --> 00:22:39.700 The water we drink is hydrogen and oxygen. 208 00:22:39.700 --> 00:22:45.180 Iron is an element, but it's not good for much more than making cast iron lawn ornaments. 209 00:22:45.180 --> 00:22:47.180 If you want to build a machine, you need steel. 210 00:22:47.180 --> 00:22:49.220 Steel is a big complicated compound. 211 00:22:49.220 --> 00:22:51.620 It's a mixture of everything. 212 00:22:51.620 --> 00:22:55.920 And so we go all the way to something as simple as salt. 213 00:22:55.920 --> 00:22:59.880 Salt was something that played a role in the sacrifices in the temple. 214 00:22:59.880 --> 00:23:03.360 That is why, by the way, that in the Western tradition, this is not true in Africa, it's 215 00:23:03.360 --> 00:23:07.760 not true in Asia, but in the Western tradition, we put salt on the table, and this is how 216 00:23:07.760 --> 00:23:11.000 it's been since the very beginning of Western thought. 217 00:23:11.000 --> 00:23:12.600 Salt on the table, why? 218 00:23:12.600 --> 00:23:16.640 Our bodies need all kinds of minerals, but nobody says, excuse me, could you pass the 219 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:17.640 iron filings, please? 220 00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:19.600 Your body needs iron. 221 00:23:19.600 --> 00:23:20.600 Your body needs potassium. 222 00:23:20.600 --> 00:23:22.560 Can anybody see the potassium flakes, please? 223 00:23:22.560 --> 00:23:24.920 Could you pass them down to the center of the table? 224 00:23:24.920 --> 00:23:30.720 No, because all the minerals you need, you get from the food you eat, and that's true for salt as well. 225 00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:33.400 Any doctor will tell you, you don't need to add salt. 226 00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:38.080 So why do they put salt on the table? Because there was always this understanding that the table 227 00:23:38.440 --> 00:23:44.480 was a miniature altar. It was a place where people got together, not just to feed their bodies, but to also 228 00:23:45.520 --> 00:23:48.760 partake of a soul-expanding experience. 229 00:23:48.760 --> 00:23:53.400 And if it's going to represent the old altar in the temple, then it needs salt as well, and that's what they did. 230 00:23:53.400 --> 00:24:01.400 Why did salt play a role? What's the point of salt? Well, salt is a perfect example of God's blueprint of connectivity, 231 00:24:01.400 --> 00:24:09.400 where you can take two toxic substances like sodium and chlorine, each on its own, a real problem. 232 00:24:09.400 --> 00:24:15.400 I mean, you know, you might say, why don't we just put shakers on the table labeled sodium, chlorine? 233 00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:21.400 And then you could say, when your chicken soup comes, you could say, pass the chlorine, I'm on a low sodium diet. 234 00:24:23.400 --> 00:24:30.400 The trouble is it would kill you, because chlorine is as toxic as sodium is. 235 00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:37.960 But mysteriously, with the alchemy of relationships and the alchemy of bonding, even toxic things 236 00:24:37.960 --> 00:24:40.820 become tasty and benevolent. 237 00:24:40.820 --> 00:24:51.360 So it is possible to take a toxic thing like a single male, bond him to a single female, 238 00:24:51.360 --> 00:24:56.580 And all of a sudden you've created something benevolent, which is why it is that God during 239 00:24:56.580 --> 00:25:00.500 the beginning of Genesis appears to be a very good natured deity, I mean everything is good, 240 00:25:00.500 --> 00:25:03.880 whatever he makes is good. 241 00:25:03.880 --> 00:25:09.140 And the very first time he turns grumpy is when he says, not good for what? 242 00:25:09.140 --> 00:25:16.220 Not good for man to be alone, because we're in a world where things depend on bonding 243 00:25:16.220 --> 00:25:19.520 and Things Depend on Connectivity. 244 00:25:22.320 --> 00:25:25.720 Does God want us to have great sex? 245 00:25:27.220 --> 00:25:30.720 Well, I cannot pretend to really know 246 00:25:31.720 --> 00:25:35.320 the inner workings of God's mind when it comes to these matters. 247 00:25:35.320 --> 00:25:36.320 I really don't know. 248 00:25:36.320 --> 00:25:43.720 But it doesn't surprise me as somebody who believes in a kind and loving God. 249 00:25:43.720 --> 00:25:53.720 It doesn't surprise me one little bit that since God does want a man and a woman to be married to one another 250 00:25:53.720 --> 00:26:03.720 and to be dedicated to one another and to their children, that he should provide as a blessing or as a benefit 251 00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:10.720 to those who fulfill his wishes in that area, that he should provide them with a blessing of great sensual pleasure. 252 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:13.720 It doesn't shock me. This doesn't surprise me in any way at all. 253 00:26:13.720 --> 00:26:16.720 Does God want us to be rich? I have the same answer. 254 00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:20.720 To tell you the truth, I can't say with any certainty on that subject. 255 00:26:20.720 --> 00:26:25.720 However, I do know that God does want us to be obsessively preoccupied 256 00:26:25.720 --> 00:26:28.720 with the needs and desires of other people, 257 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:31.720 whether they're your clients or your customers, 258 00:26:31.720 --> 00:26:33.720 whether they're your vendors or your employees. 259 00:26:33.720 --> 00:26:38.720 Be obsessively preoccupied with the needs of other people. 260 00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:43.840 and it shouldn't surprise anybody who believes in a loving deity that the 261 00:26:43.840 --> 00:26:51.040 result of that is the great blessing of prosperity and wealth. Surely the ultimate 262 00:26:51.040 --> 00:26:56.000 way to achieve prosperity become obsessively preoccupied with the needs of 263 00:26:56.000 --> 00:27:01.440 other people. Do not insist on making buggy whips while Henry Ford is building 264 00:27:01.440 --> 00:27:06.320 a car down the road because now you're not focused on what other people need or 265 00:27:06.320 --> 00:27:14.000 want you focused on what you want to do and this is again one of the principles 266 00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:20.320 that has been very helpful to Jews over the years and that is recognizing that 267 00:27:20.320 --> 00:27:24.680 the advice you sometimes get when you're graduating high school when you're 268 00:27:24.680 --> 00:27:28.660 graduating college or at different stages of your life people sometimes say 269 00:27:28.660 --> 00:27:34.280 to you the important thing in life is to find a job that you really love go and 270 00:27:34.280 --> 00:27:38.720 and work in an area that you've really got passion for. 271 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:41.040 Wrong. 272 00:27:41.040 --> 00:27:43.800 Sounds very nice, but it's wrong. 273 00:27:43.800 --> 00:27:45.640 It's wrong because it's selfish. 274 00:27:45.640 --> 00:27:50.460 What it's saying is, I want to make a living doing what I like doing. 275 00:27:50.460 --> 00:27:51.460 You're missing the point. 276 00:27:51.460 --> 00:27:52.820 This isn't about the money. 277 00:27:52.820 --> 00:27:55.760 It's about your relationship with other people. 278 00:27:55.760 --> 00:28:00.720 You've got to find what other people need and want and then learn how to get passionate 279 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:03.560 about supplying it. 280 00:28:03.560 --> 00:28:06.340 The passion follows what needs doing. 281 00:28:06.340 --> 00:28:10.300 You don't need to do what you're already passionate about. 282 00:28:10.300 --> 00:28:15.260 For those few lucky people who are able to synthesize from day one, that's a blessing. 283 00:28:15.260 --> 00:28:16.260 That's wonderful. 284 00:28:16.260 --> 00:28:23.860 For most of the rest of us, prosperity is the result of building relationships first. 285 00:28:23.860 --> 00:28:27.620 And that of course is the answer to one of the big questions, which is Abraham was a 286 00:28:27.620 --> 00:28:29.380 pretty cool guy. 287 00:28:29.380 --> 00:28:59.380 I mean, to this day we speak of, you know, the monotheistic religions, that flows from Abraham, it's very nice, and, but how come the children of Israel, Israel is just another name for Jacob, Abraham's grandson, but how come the people, the Jewish people or the Israelites, how come they didn't start with Abraham? We could have been the children of Abraham, we could have been the Abrahamites, it's just a neat name, what's wrong with that? What do we have to be the Israelites for? Well, because God wasn't ready to start a people with Abraham. 288 00:28:59.380 --> 00:29:03.980 Abraham, there was a little bit of a problem there. One of the problems was that Abraham 289 00:29:03.980 --> 00:29:10.820 was not able to convey the sense of dedication and obsession with what your brother or sister 290 00:29:10.820 --> 00:29:17.860 need to his own children. Isaac and Ishmael had slight misunderstandings along the way. 291 00:29:17.860 --> 00:29:22.900 Well, Abraham had at least one great son. Isaac, why don't we have the Jewish people 292 00:29:22.900 --> 00:29:27.100 starting off with Isaac? No, it didn't work either because Isaac also had two sons, Jacob 293 00:29:27.100 --> 00:29:30.620 Benesor, slight disagreement there over his transaction, by the way. 294 00:29:30.620 --> 00:29:36.100 One of them thought a contract meant a contract, the other didn't. 295 00:29:36.100 --> 00:29:44.020 Jacob purchased the birthright solemnly by means of a contract for the payment of some 296 00:29:44.020 --> 00:29:45.300 food. 297 00:29:45.300 --> 00:29:48.820 And later on, Esau said, I didn't know you meant it for real. 298 00:29:48.820 --> 00:29:52.900 Well, pal, that's what a contract means. 299 00:29:52.900 --> 00:29:57.700 That's why the Old Testament is filled with contractual relationships, because contracts 300 00:29:57.700 --> 00:29:59.460 are wonderful things. 301 00:29:59.460 --> 00:30:03.420 They make relationships between people thrive and flower. 302 00:30:03.420 --> 00:30:06.940 They're good things. 303 00:30:06.940 --> 00:30:08.060 Didn't work with Isaac. 304 00:30:08.060 --> 00:30:10.340 Now we come to Jacob, whose other name was Israel. 305 00:30:10.340 --> 00:30:13.740 Now Jacob has 12 sons, one of whom is Joseph. 306 00:30:13.740 --> 00:30:21.020 Joseph upsets his brothers for a variety of reasons, and the brothers gather to kill him. 307 00:30:21.020 --> 00:30:29.420 And they're about to slaughter him when main son, Judah, after whom the word Judaism comes, 308 00:30:29.420 --> 00:30:32.300 Judah makes this profound statement. 309 00:30:32.300 --> 00:30:35.660 He gathers the men around and he says to his brothers, hey, wait a sec, we're just about 310 00:30:35.660 --> 00:30:40.340 to kill Joseph, but help me understand this again, how do you make a buck from selling 311 00:30:40.340 --> 00:30:43.100 your brother, from killing your brother? 312 00:30:43.100 --> 00:30:47.900 In Hebrew, where's the prophet, meaning monetary prophet in killing our brother? 313 00:30:47.900 --> 00:30:50.660 So all the brothers sit around saying, well, let's see, who can we get to pay us for the 314 00:30:50.660 --> 00:30:51.660 carcass? 315 00:30:51.660 --> 00:30:52.660 I guess nobody will do that. 316 00:30:52.660 --> 00:30:53.660 Wait a second! 317 00:30:53.660 --> 00:30:54.660 I got it! 318 00:30:54.660 --> 00:30:57.660 Instead of killing him, why don't we sell him? 319 00:30:57.660 --> 00:30:58.660 Oh yeah! 320 00:30:58.660 --> 00:31:02.260 That's how you make a profit off your brother! 321 00:31:02.260 --> 00:31:08.620 So they sell him, and everybody's happy, except Joseph, of course. 322 00:31:08.620 --> 00:31:11.340 As time goes by, Joseph becomes ruler of Egypt. 323 00:31:11.340 --> 00:31:16.300 The brothers come down in a famine to buy bread, they don't know who this guy is, and 324 00:31:16.300 --> 00:31:22.700 He recognizes them, gives them all the bread they want and then instructs his officers to do what? 325 00:31:22.700 --> 00:31:26.620 Some of you may remember, put the money back in the bag. 326 00:31:26.620 --> 00:31:31.860 The brothers that night arrive in a hotel, they open their bag to see they've got enough food to take home to dad 327 00:31:31.860 --> 00:31:36.060 and everyone sees his money on the top of the bag, total terror. 328 00:31:36.060 --> 00:31:39.300 We're being set up, they're going to accuse us of theft. 329 00:31:39.300 --> 00:31:43.340 The brothers didn't get the message. You know what the message is? 330 00:31:43.340 --> 00:31:46.660 It's not about the money idiots, it's about the relationship. 331 00:31:46.660 --> 00:31:50.540 We've got to fix you guys up. You thought relationships are there to be 332 00:31:50.540 --> 00:31:52.860 squandered in the name of profit 333 00:31:52.860 --> 00:31:59.420 and you don't understand it's the other way around. Relationships produce profit. 334 00:31:59.420 --> 00:32:02.060 And so we're going to have to show you it's not about the money, it's about the 335 00:32:02.060 --> 00:32:03.380 relationships. 336 00:32:03.380 --> 00:32:06.740 And it's not until the brothers catch on to that, 337 00:32:06.740 --> 00:32:09.940 that we're able to actually reach the point 338 00:32:09.940 --> 00:32:14.960 where Jacob is finally able to come to Egypt and be reconciled with all his sons and to 339 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:20.180 give a blessing to his grandsons, and there begins the children of Israel, and that's 340 00:32:20.180 --> 00:32:23.260 exactly how it worked back then. 341 00:32:23.260 --> 00:32:29.620 Because relationships depend on the uniqueness of every human being. 342 00:32:29.620 --> 00:32:33.220 Do you understand what I'm saying? 343 00:32:33.220 --> 00:32:37.700 I mean, if you've got a friend, a friend is really nice. 344 00:32:37.700 --> 00:32:43.100 You have a friend, and if nothing else, you can tell that friend a joke, because it's 345 00:32:43.100 --> 00:32:48.300 just fun to tell people jokes, that's all there is to it, particularly if they laugh. 346 00:32:48.300 --> 00:32:54.020 But if all of us were identical, and your friend is identical to you, that means we're 347 00:32:54.020 --> 00:32:58.780 just clones of one another, as soon as you tell him a joke, his answer is, hey, stop, 348 00:32:58.780 --> 00:33:02.380 I've already heard that one, I know it, in fact, I was going to tell it to you, oh, okay, 349 00:33:02.380 --> 00:33:06.460 how about this one, no, no, that one also, I'm the same as you, remember? 350 00:33:06.460 --> 00:33:10.920 Not only could there be no joke-telling among people who are not unique, there would also 351 00:33:10.920 --> 00:33:11.920 be no trading. 352 00:33:11.920 --> 00:33:18.380 There can be no commerce among people who are identical to one another. 353 00:33:18.380 --> 00:33:24.080 If people are not unique, no trading, no telling jokes. 354 00:33:24.080 --> 00:33:31.760 It is only through our uniqueness, it is only because I would rather have a pair of sneakers 355 00:33:31.760 --> 00:33:36.280 with a red light in the heel that flashes when I walk than $20. 356 00:33:36.280 --> 00:33:41.240 And if you're the shoe store in the mall, you'd rather have $20 than your inventory 357 00:33:41.240 --> 00:33:44.080 of a pair of sneakers with a red flashing light. 358 00:33:44.080 --> 00:33:49.240 But if we were identical, and that's one of the reasons, you never see dogs trading with 359 00:33:49.240 --> 00:33:50.240 one another. 360 00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:53.040 No dog says, well, I see we both want this bone. 361 00:33:53.040 --> 00:33:57.680 Tell you what, why don't you take the bone now and then you can do something else for 362 00:33:57.680 --> 00:33:58.680 me tomorrow. 363 00:33:58.680 --> 00:34:00.240 No, because we are dogs. 364 00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:01.560 We both want the bone now. 365 00:34:01.560 --> 00:34:02.560 It's all we see. 366 00:34:02.560 --> 00:34:05.800 The world is just one big bone taking up our total eyeballs. 367 00:34:05.800 --> 00:34:08.740 That's all there is. 368 00:34:08.740 --> 00:34:12.320 It is precisely the uniqueness that makes it possible. 369 00:34:12.320 --> 00:34:13.320 The uniqueness is what? 370 00:34:13.320 --> 00:34:18.880 Well, that's what being created in God's image actually means. 371 00:34:18.880 --> 00:34:22.640 It means each and every one of us is as unique, monotheism. 372 00:34:22.640 --> 00:34:28.460 We recognize God as this unique being, and so similarly, if we're created in the image 373 00:34:28.460 --> 00:34:32.440 of God, then each and every one of us is unique, and there's one other similarity. 374 00:34:32.440 --> 00:34:41.180 We are also able to create things just like God. We are able to create. I always resented 375 00:34:41.180 --> 00:34:48.000 when we were called consumers in the textbooks. I'm not a consumer. And if we were all consumers 376 00:34:48.000 --> 00:34:53.280 there wouldn't be roads, sewerage systems and museums. Those things only exist because 377 00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:58.140 we create more than we consume. So we are net creators, not consumers. This is not a 378 00:34:58.140 --> 00:35:12.740 a Validation of Confiscatory Rates of Taxation and so we find invariably invariably in societies 379 00:35:12.740 --> 00:35:19.980 that are capable of building and creating wealth those societies also are committed 380 00:35:19.980 --> 00:35:25.260 to the idea of the uniqueness of the human being by the way another way of saying the 381 00:35:25.260 --> 00:35:31.180 The uniqueness of the human being is freedom. The freedom to each and everybody to be unique, 382 00:35:31.180 --> 00:35:39.040 to be your own person with your own desires and drives and goals. Conversely, those societies 383 00:35:39.040 --> 00:35:48.480 that are incapable of creating wealth, the socialist model invariably insist that all 384 00:35:48.480 --> 00:35:54.720 human beings are the same. Have you ever seen what government housing looks like? Whether 385 00:35:54.720 --> 00:35:58.400 Whether it's in Moscow or Chicago makes absolutely no difference. 386 00:35:58.400 --> 00:36:02.760 You will all stay in exactly the same type house and don't you dare think of painting 387 00:36:02.760 --> 00:36:07.600 your front door purple, you'll have the government on you. 388 00:36:07.600 --> 00:36:14.080 Have you noticed that folks who subscribe to the world view of zero wealth creation 389 00:36:14.080 --> 00:36:20.560 but just moving wealth around, they like public transport, they hate the motor car and they 390 00:36:20.560 --> 00:36:26.840 are furiously and ferociously and stubbornly insisting on getting every American into a 391 00:36:26.840 --> 00:36:31.280 bus or a light rail system, regardless of the fact that in virtually every major city 392 00:36:31.280 --> 00:36:36.040 in America you can take a look at light rail systems going by empty with not a soul inside. 393 00:36:36.040 --> 00:36:37.040 It doesn't matter. 394 00:36:37.040 --> 00:36:40.340 You will learn because we will make the alternative impossible. 395 00:36:40.340 --> 00:36:46.040 You are all identical to one another. 396 00:36:46.040 --> 00:36:54.720 Which brings us to the point that there really are only two models for human organization. 397 00:36:54.720 --> 00:36:57.400 I'm not counting tribalism. 398 00:36:57.400 --> 00:37:00.080 It is true that tribalism is a way you can live. 399 00:37:00.080 --> 00:37:03.680 It's not exactly a way of organizing because nobody organizes tribal societies. 400 00:37:03.680 --> 00:37:09.160 They just are extended families and so three and a half thousand rulers and bureaucrats 401 00:37:09.160 --> 00:37:14.160 and political power brokers in Saudi Arabia are all cousins of one another. 402 00:37:14.160 --> 00:37:20.320 The tribal system, by and large, has not yet figured out how to build a bicycle. 403 00:37:20.320 --> 00:37:25.100 And so I discount the tribal system as a really great way of organizing human beings. 404 00:37:25.100 --> 00:37:31.960 But that leads to two ways of organizing human beings that really do work. 405 00:37:31.960 --> 00:37:35.000 One of them is the Abramidic model. 406 00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.920 And that is the model subscribed to by the founding fathers of the United States of America. 407 00:37:39.920 --> 00:37:46.080 The idea that there are two aspects of life, the unchangeable and the must change. 408 00:37:46.080 --> 00:37:54.320 There is the system of immutable values within which framework it is possible to generate 409 00:37:54.320 --> 00:38:00.080 the kinds of behaviors and characteristics that create wealth. 410 00:38:00.080 --> 00:38:05.480 And then there's another set of lives, there's another aspect of life in which things must 411 00:38:05.480 --> 00:38:06.800 change all the time. 412 00:38:06.800 --> 00:38:09.320 Think of it as the spiritual and the material. 413 00:38:09.320 --> 00:38:14.540 Schumpeter's Creative Destruction, the idea that yesterday's economic model, if it doesn't 414 00:38:14.540 --> 00:38:19.600 get destroyed today, it'll get destroyed tomorrow, it is going to go, it's painful for everyone 415 00:38:19.600 --> 00:38:29.160 when it happens, but it gives birth to a completely new beginning, it is the caterpillar going 416 00:38:29.160 --> 00:38:40.080 in to the cocoon and the butterfly coming out. That particular understanding that our 417 00:38:40.080 --> 00:38:47.280 fundamental values underpin and provide a matrix of security for an economic system 418 00:38:47.280 --> 00:38:51.660 that depends on the principle that everything must change constantly and the faster you 419 00:38:51.660 --> 00:38:57.840 change and the faster you adapt the more you will be blessed with reward, monetary reward, 420 00:38:57.840 --> 00:39:04.600 Prosperity and Wealth, that's the idea, but it only works within a framework of the unchangeable. 421 00:39:04.600 --> 00:39:09.040 And then you've got the other version, you've got the socialist version, that's the other 422 00:39:09.040 --> 00:39:17.940 way of organizing human society, and that model has an enormous advantage because it 423 00:39:17.940 --> 00:39:24.320 seems to imply a moral system wrapped up within the economic system. 424 00:39:24.320 --> 00:39:31.400 And so the evil is camouflaged and obscured by the terminology of for the people and caring 425 00:39:31.400 --> 00:39:35.720 about people and compassion and it's for the poor and so on and so forth. 426 00:39:35.720 --> 00:39:41.240 And here you've got these two models presented very clearly in the 11th chapter of Genesis. 427 00:39:41.240 --> 00:39:44.360 It's the story of the Tower of Babel. 428 00:39:44.360 --> 00:39:54.120 And there again there are several very important points that are just a part of a traditional 429 00:39:54.120 --> 00:40:24.120 biblical understanding of human life and the organizing of human life and the story and the point in a nutshell is very simple imagine if you would that we pause and we carry on with the program and then later on this evening I get as many of you as I can to cluster around and I say hey everybody I saw there's a Home Depot store not that far from here come on tonight when the program's done let's go to the Home Depot store and buy a whole bunch of two by 430 00:40:24.120 --> 00:40:34.120 Come on, look at each other, the sun getting to the sky, what's with him? 431 00:40:34.120 --> 00:40:40.640 But how about if instead of that I said, hey everybody we've got an evening clear before 432 00:40:40.640 --> 00:40:49.240 the program reconvenes in the morning, why don't we build an extra room for the Institute, 433 00:40:49.240 --> 00:40:52.360 they're out of space, let's build them another room, let's work through the night and just 434 00:40:52.360 --> 00:40:54.880 Let's make this happen, the sun's going to come up, there's going to be another one, 435 00:40:54.880 --> 00:40:57.760 you're all going to look at me and say, interesting, how do we do it? 436 00:40:57.760 --> 00:41:00.880 I say, no problem, we're going to go down to Home Depot, buy a whole lot of lumber, 437 00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:03.440 and then we'll work through the night and somebody will go and get beer that we can 438 00:41:03.440 --> 00:41:07.720 keep ourselves refreshed, and this is going to be a lot of fun, and there's a possibility 439 00:41:07.720 --> 00:41:10.800 I actually might get a few of you to join me doing that. 440 00:41:10.800 --> 00:41:14.760 But only if I tell you what the goal is before I tell you how you do it. 441 00:41:14.760 --> 00:41:20.000 If I tell you about the doing, you know, let's go get lumber, I haven't fired your spirit, 442 00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.160 I haven't excited your imagination, there's nothing there. 443 00:41:24.160 --> 00:41:29.640 With that as background, you'll probably be astonished to hear that in those mysterious 444 00:41:29.640 --> 00:41:34.080 nine verses in chapter 11 of Genesis, and again, you've got to realize, I mean, this 445 00:41:34.080 --> 00:41:37.200 is a book that lies at the heart of Western civilization. 446 00:41:37.200 --> 00:41:41.040 In the middle of the 15th century, when Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press, you 447 00:41:41.040 --> 00:41:45.400 know, he didn't run off as his first venture, the Düsseldorf Telephone Directory. 448 00:41:45.400 --> 00:41:48.280 I mean, it was the Bible. 449 00:41:48.280 --> 00:41:51.040 This was the center of Western civilization. 450 00:41:51.040 --> 00:41:55.420 The words were studied and poured over for meaning and people understood. 451 00:41:55.420 --> 00:41:58.520 This wasn't just a narrative about long forgotten people. 452 00:41:58.520 --> 00:42:01.460 This was a blueprint to existence. 453 00:42:01.460 --> 00:42:06.060 It was a comprehensive theory on the totality of all reality. 454 00:42:06.060 --> 00:42:08.840 And so they really looked at this section and they said, oh, wait a second, this is 455 00:42:08.840 --> 00:42:09.840 very striking. 456 00:42:09.840 --> 00:42:10.840 This is very amazing. 457 00:42:10.840 --> 00:42:14.400 Do you know what it actually says in Chapter 11? 458 00:42:14.400 --> 00:42:16.900 It says that the people gather together and say, 459 00:42:16.900 --> 00:42:19.700 Hey everybody, let's make bricks! 460 00:42:19.700 --> 00:42:23.400 Wow! Let's make bricks! 461 00:42:23.400 --> 00:42:26.000 And everybody says, Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's go make bricks! 462 00:42:26.000 --> 00:42:27.300 And then afterwards they say, 463 00:42:27.300 --> 00:42:28.200 Now, what will we do with the bricks? 464 00:42:28.200 --> 00:42:31.100 Well, we'll build a big city with a tower that goes all the way up to the sky 465 00:42:31.100 --> 00:42:33.700 that Bruegel can make a painting of this and everything is fine. 466 00:42:33.700 --> 00:42:39.000 So, well, why didn't you tell us what you wanted to do first? 467 00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:42.300 I did. You missed the point. 468 00:42:42.300 --> 00:42:45.980 The essence here is the bricks, not the tower. 469 00:42:45.980 --> 00:42:49.820 You see, there are two building materials available out there. 470 00:42:49.820 --> 00:42:52.780 One is stones, and the other is bricks. 471 00:42:52.780 --> 00:42:57.220 And there's two fundamental differences between stones and bricks. 472 00:42:57.220 --> 00:43:01.420 Stones are made by God, and each and every one of them is unique. 473 00:43:01.420 --> 00:43:05.060 Bricks are made by people, and they're all absolutely identical to one another. 474 00:43:05.060 --> 00:43:09.220 That's the whole point of bricks. 475 00:43:09.220 --> 00:43:12.720 And that was what the Tower of Babel was all about. 476 00:43:12.720 --> 00:43:17.120 It was a model of, let's make bricks out of everybody. 477 00:43:17.120 --> 00:43:20.320 You're all going to be treated as if you're identical to one another, 478 00:43:20.320 --> 00:43:23.920 and this is going to be a creation of man. 479 00:43:23.920 --> 00:43:27.120 And what will come out of it? Yeah, it will be a tower and so on and so forth. 480 00:43:27.120 --> 00:43:29.720 And it's not going to last very long, but that doesn't matter, 481 00:43:29.720 --> 00:43:36.020 because the important thing is to turn all human beings into bricks, not stones. 482 00:43:36.020 --> 00:43:42.020 That is very central to this understanding. 483 00:43:42.020 --> 00:43:45.380 The tower was led by a man called Nimrod. 484 00:43:45.380 --> 00:43:49.480 The guy he hated like poison was a guy called Abraham. 485 00:43:49.480 --> 00:43:54.540 And there was this eternal struggle between the two competing visions of how to organize 486 00:43:54.540 --> 00:43:55.540 society. 487 00:43:55.540 --> 00:44:00.140 The Abraham model, which is what built the United States of America. 488 00:44:00.140 --> 00:44:04.020 It's also what built ancient Israel. 489 00:44:04.020 --> 00:44:11.660 Then you've got the Nimrod model, the centralized control from the center tower where everything 490 00:44:11.660 --> 00:44:17.260 is controlled and everybody is forced to be exactly like everybody else. 491 00:44:17.260 --> 00:44:23.780 And it is not hard in that matrix to recognize the difference between moral and immoral, 492 00:44:23.780 --> 00:44:27.300 between right and wrong, between freedom and tyranny. 493 00:44:27.300 --> 00:44:31.140 There are not halfway measures. 494 00:44:31.140 --> 00:44:41.100 And let me do something at this point that I enjoy doing because one of the key things 495 00:44:41.100 --> 00:44:47.780 about the Abrahamic model is that it is based on giving. 496 00:44:47.780 --> 00:44:49.560 It is not based on taking. 497 00:44:49.560 --> 00:44:55.180 It is based on creating and making, not on consuming and taking. 498 00:44:55.180 --> 00:45:01.120 The Abrahamic model is based on figuring out how can I bless other people? 499 00:45:01.120 --> 00:45:05.640 What can I do for other human beings? 500 00:45:05.640 --> 00:45:15.800 I alluded earlier to the fact that my work is based on writing on a lot of this material, 501 00:45:15.800 --> 00:45:20.440 producing ancient Jewish wisdom in formats that make it accessible to each and every 502 00:45:20.440 --> 00:45:23.400 person in the United States of America. 503 00:45:23.400 --> 00:45:34.480 And what I would like to do, if I may, is perhaps express my appreciation by the process 504 00:45:34.480 --> 00:45:36.600 of perhaps doing the following. 505 00:45:36.600 --> 00:45:41.400 Let me ask this, who has traveled the furthest to be here today? 506 00:45:41.400 --> 00:45:43.400 Well, I guess that would be me, Seattle. 507 00:45:43.400 --> 00:45:45.600 Well, thanks very much indeed. 508 00:45:45.600 --> 00:45:46.600 Where did you come from? 509 00:45:46.600 --> 00:45:48.920 I came from Honduras. 510 00:45:48.920 --> 00:45:49.920 Oh my goodness. 511 00:45:49.920 --> 00:45:53.620 Does Honduras, do I hear anything higher than Honduras? 512 00:45:53.620 --> 00:45:57.820 Oh, come on, you came to this conference from Sydney, Australia? 513 00:45:57.820 --> 00:46:00.520 No, did you come here from Honduras for the conference? 514 00:46:00.520 --> 00:46:05.820 You did? 515 00:46:05.820 --> 00:46:08.020 And you're here for the conference? 516 00:46:08.020 --> 00:46:11.220 And now when are you going back? 517 00:46:11.220 --> 00:46:15.820 Oh my goodness. 518 00:46:15.820 --> 00:46:19.820 Really, Guatemala, Honduras, and Germany, where about? 519 00:46:19.820 --> 00:46:33.820 Really? Well, come up here. Really? Well, that's very generous. You come up here anyways. Come up here because I would like to give you this. 520 00:46:33.820 --> 00:46:46.820 This is a package of some of the products that we make available. I'm not going to take time to tell you about them now because they're all here, but this is the one that we're discussing tonight, Thou Shall Prosper. 521 00:46:46.820 --> 00:46:50.020 And this one on the top I see here is called the perils of profanity. 522 00:46:50.020 --> 00:46:54.700 This is very helpful for people who find themselves using bad language 523 00:46:54.700 --> 00:46:59.660 and realize how it impacts their money-making ability, 524 00:46:59.660 --> 00:47:04.260 how damaging it is to use language that is profane and destructive. 525 00:47:04.260 --> 00:47:11.260 Have you ever used any bad languages? 526 00:47:11.260 --> 00:47:13.580 Do you want to just tell me some of the things you really say? 527 00:47:13.580 --> 00:47:16.580 No, no, no, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. 528 00:47:16.580 --> 00:47:18.200 Thank you very much. 529 00:47:18.200 --> 00:47:20.000 It's a pleasure to meet you. Enjoy. 530 00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:22.000 There you go. 531 00:47:22.000 --> 00:47:37.940 And so, what we see are two fundamental models, an Abram model and a Nimrod model. 532 00:47:37.940 --> 00:47:44.840 And what we see is a Nimrod model is based on taking from people, treating them as disposable, 533 00:47:44.840 --> 00:47:51.840 Nothing but Bricks, an Abraham model that recognizes the creative power of every single individual human being. 534 00:47:51.840 --> 00:48:03.840 And these two models flow from how we answer the three fundamental and transcendent questions of life. 535 00:48:03.840 --> 00:48:09.840 And if you don't know what the three transcendent questions of life are, just go on an airplane ride, 536 00:48:09.840 --> 00:48:13.840 particularly one that has lots of delays which sort of and it's frustrating and 537 00:48:13.840 --> 00:48:17.160 they don't have beverage service pretty soon you start talking to your neighbor 538 00:48:17.160 --> 00:48:19.680 you start off grumbling and complaining to each other pretty soon there's 539 00:48:19.680 --> 00:48:24.760 communication going on and you find the same questions being asked all the time 540 00:48:24.760 --> 00:48:28.960 particularly if you're sitting next to a child and the question is always the 541 00:48:28.960 --> 00:48:34.560 same where are you from where are you going and what do you do how do you help 542 00:48:34.560 --> 00:48:38.000 your fellow human beings what do you do for them I'm not nosy I don't want to 543 00:48:38.000 --> 00:48:43.500 I'm not just saying how do you make a living, how do you make money, I'm saying, gee, what do you do for your fellow human beings? 544 00:48:43.500 --> 00:48:45.500 And those are the three basic questions. 545 00:48:45.500 --> 00:48:49.500 The three basic questions lie at the heart of the entire human experience. 546 00:48:49.500 --> 00:48:52.500 The three questions are, how did we get on this planet? 547 00:48:52.500 --> 00:48:56.500 And there really are only two answers to that. 548 00:48:56.500 --> 00:48:59.000 And the answers have real implications. 549 00:48:59.000 --> 00:49:05.500 The two answers are, number one, the good Lord created us in His image and put us here. 550 00:49:05.500 --> 00:49:35.500 and a whole lot of people follow that view and that is a belief but don't forget all the major decisions in our lives are made on the basis of beliefs not knowledge when you get married you believe she's fantastic and you'll live happily ever after or vice versa it doesn't guarantee it there are no facts what's more statistics I hate that phrase alright well people know I think that folks who try and obtain all the facts by living together before 551 00:49:35.500 --> 00:49:37.900 for Marriage, which seems to make all the sense in the world. 552 00:49:37.900 --> 00:49:40.820 Would you buy a car without driving it around the block, they say. 553 00:49:40.820 --> 00:49:45.300 But paradoxically, the marriage statistics for folks who actually try and get all the 554 00:49:45.300 --> 00:49:50.500 facts are not good, because there are certain major actions in life we do on the basis of 555 00:49:50.500 --> 00:49:52.060 belief and it works better that way. 556 00:49:52.060 --> 00:49:56.940 You invest on belief, you do diligence, you find out everything you can, but if you actually 557 00:49:56.940 --> 00:50:02.140 had all the facts, there wouldn't be any profit left, that's how the market works, it's belief. 558 00:50:02.140 --> 00:50:06.660 And so people either believe that humans are on this planet because the good Lord created 559 00:50:06.660 --> 00:50:10.820 us in His image with each and every one of us, with a capacity to create and with a capacity 560 00:50:10.820 --> 00:50:13.560 to be unique, and He put us here. 561 00:50:13.560 --> 00:50:17.940 The only other way I'm aware of answering that question is that by a lengthy process 562 00:50:17.940 --> 00:50:24.020 of unaided materialistic evolution, primitive protoplasm turned into Bach and Beethoven. 563 00:50:24.020 --> 00:50:28.380 Oh, don't laugh, it's really rude to laugh at people's religions. 564 00:50:28.380 --> 00:50:34.860 So, do you know the third way? The only third way I know is little green men in spaceships 565 00:50:34.860 --> 00:50:38.000 came and put us here, but that only postpones the question, doesn't it? Where did they come 566 00:50:38.000 --> 00:50:42.220 from? So, that doesn't really help. And so it is with the question of where we're going 567 00:50:42.220 --> 00:50:46.800 to end up and the question of what we're doing over here, but this fundamental question of 568 00:50:46.800 --> 00:50:54.860 are we here by a process that renders us nothing but sophisticated animals or are we here as 569 00:50:54.860 --> 00:50:58.500 as unique beings touched by the finger of God. 570 00:50:58.500 --> 00:51:01.020 It's very, very important. 571 00:51:01.020 --> 00:51:04.260 Because if we are here only as a process 572 00:51:04.260 --> 00:51:06.020 of unearthed materialistic evolution, 573 00:51:06.020 --> 00:51:07.780 then I am nothing but a primate. 574 00:51:07.780 --> 00:51:10.500 I have less hair than many other primates. 575 00:51:10.500 --> 00:51:12.180 You didn't have to laugh at that one. 576 00:51:12.180 --> 00:51:16.100 You know, I don't have as good eyesight. 577 00:51:16.100 --> 00:51:17.140 I can't run as quickly. 578 00:51:17.140 --> 00:51:19.420 But I'm basically an animal. 579 00:51:19.420 --> 00:51:22.420 I happen to have a brain that other animals don't 580 00:51:22.420 --> 00:51:23.300 have the same. 581 00:51:23.300 --> 00:51:30.100 But that's all I am. If that's the case, then it is only right and appropriate that 582 00:51:30.100 --> 00:51:40.720 I should be taken care of by a zookeeper or a farmer in the great belt way. That makes 583 00:51:40.720 --> 00:51:46.400 all the sense in the world. Because if I am an animal, and that makes me the same as all 584 00:51:46.400 --> 00:51:51.700 my other animals, and that is, a farmer or a zookeeper does exactly what he has to do. 585 00:51:51.700 --> 00:51:55.940 If he gives all the cows the same amount of food, comes back a few hours later and finds 586 00:51:55.940 --> 00:52:00.300 that one cow has accumulated most of it and all the other cows have nothing left, he'll 587 00:52:00.300 --> 00:52:07.460 do what any smart farmer does, he'll redistribute the food, it's the moral right thing to do. 588 00:52:07.460 --> 00:52:14.340 And so, through this mechanism it becomes apparent that if indeed our vision is one 589 00:52:14.340 --> 00:52:21.000 without any shred of spirit and without a shred of moral foundation, then I would have 590 00:52:21.000 --> 00:52:27.240 have to conclude that socialism is the default position for good and decent people, barbarism 591 00:52:27.240 --> 00:52:32.000 and maybe tribalism is the default position for people who don't have the act together. 592 00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:39.040 But if you strip away the foundations of faith and the belief system by means of which the 593 00:52:39.040 --> 00:52:45.420 human being is something unique and wondrous and special, then you also have stripped away 594 00:52:45.420 --> 00:52:52.420 The foundations of a system that says freedom is more important than equality. 595 00:52:52.420 --> 00:52:55.340 Because for animals, equality is more important than freedom. 596 00:52:55.340 --> 00:52:56.920 The two don't go together. 597 00:52:56.920 --> 00:53:00.620 And for human beings, freedom trumps equality. 598 00:53:00.620 --> 00:53:03.100 That's really what it's all about. 599 00:53:03.100 --> 00:53:08.680 And so we ask the question of what's right about the free market economic system. 600 00:53:08.680 --> 00:53:10.860 The answer is almost everything. 601 00:53:10.860 --> 00:53:16.900 In and of itself, you mustn't make the mistake of thinking that it is a moral system as well. 602 00:53:16.900 --> 00:53:22.620 It's an economic system, but it's an economic system that is held up and propped and maintained 603 00:53:22.620 --> 00:53:26.520 by the existence of a spiritually based moral system as well. 604 00:53:26.520 --> 00:53:30.000 And that is an unbreakable combination. 605 00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:36.900 It's one that is endured and it is one that has created for us all here the greatest model 606 00:53:36.900 --> 00:53:43.740 of Prosperity and Freedom that the world has ever seen in all of our time. 607 00:53:43.740 --> 00:53:49.460 Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you all so much for being part of the Mises Institute. 608 00:53:49.460 --> 00:53:53.860 I thank you all for being here and I particularly thank you for the kind reception you've given 609 00:53:53.860 --> 00:53:55.020 me this afternoon. 610 00:53:55.020 --> 00:54:00.500 I hope that the rest of the program is uplifting and exciting and thrilling and inspiring and 611 00:54:00.500 --> 00:54:06.460 helps us all spread the message of freedom across the United States in perhaps its greatest 612 00:54:06.460 --> 00:54:13.460 is an hour of need for that in our lifetimes. Thank you.