[February 22, 2024] I’m a big fan of Dennis Prager. He is a common sense conservative radio talk show host and writer. I like him because he can give the average man and woman an easy but accurate description of the problems we have in America. Dennis Prager recently wrote an article in Townhall that caught my attention. Titled Why Young Americans Are Not Taught about Evil, it gives us insight into the moral failure of our public school system.
Dennis Prager is brutal as he writes about the ineptitude of our schools.
“Most of our schools teach almost nothing of importance, and nothing is more important than the study of good and evil. In the United States today, nearly all schools, from elementary through graduate, concentrate on teaching about racism, sexism, preferred pronouns, homophobia, transphobia, LGBTQIA+, climate change, diversity, equity, inclusiveness and white guilt. In other words, most of our educational institutions, including the most prestigious, do not educate.”
He quickly zeros in on the problem of not teaching evil.
“When it comes to evil, the ignorance is enormous, often almost total. For example, according to Pew, about half of Americans ages 18-39 cannot identify Auschwitz or any other Nazi death camp. And there is every reason to assume that much fewer than half could identify the Gulag Archipelago (20 million-plus murdered); the Ukrainian forced famine (5 to 6 million murdered in a little over a year); Mao’s Great Leap Forward (about 60 million murdered); or Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge (about one in every four Cambodians murdered).”
And we know nothing about world history and how it directly impacts us today. He hypothetically asks why students don’t know about evil.
“The first reason is that nearly all the genocides of the 20th century were committed by communists, and the Left, which runs virtually all educational institutions, has always had a soft spot for communism.”
“Another reason is the foolish notion that people are basically good.”
“A third reason follows from the second. With the exception of the mass murder of the Armenians (which was committed by Muslim Turks), the genocides and the other horrors of the 20th century were committed by secular regimes.”
If we desire to make the world more moral, we must begin with the study of evil.
“If you want to make a more moral world, you must begin with the study of evil. But, for the reasons enumerated here, the Left is not — and cannot be — interested in fighting real evil. So, the Left fights made-up evils: American systemic racism, transphobia, capitalism, carbon emissions, sexism and former President Donald Trump, to name a few. This is why young people know almost nothing about evil. The Left doesn’t want them to know about it. Because knowledge of evil inevitably leads directly to rejection of the Left.”
A few years ago, I asked, Can we distinguish between good and evil? My answer was “no.” Since then, I have written several articles, mainly focusing on evil leaders. But this is important: evil knows no bounds and is not restricted to evil leaders. Evil passes through the hearts of all people.
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Dennis Prager is a gem of a man. Love his thoughts. He makes a lot of sense.
In the book “Evil in Modern Thought,” from 2002, Susan Neiman traces philosophy’s struggles with evil over several hundred years. The book is structured around two events that Neiman considers the “central poles” of the modern era, both of which threw philosophers’ understanding of evil into confusion: Lisbon and Auschwitz. In 1755, at the dawn of the Enlightenment, an earthquake destroyed Lisbon, then one of the major cities of Europe. In the era before that disaster, evil was thought to come in three varieties—natural, metaphysical, or moral—and inquiry into the concept of evil was dominated by theodicy, which is the attempt to reconcile a good and omnipotent deity with evil in the world. As Neiman shows, theodicy never really recovered from the tremors. Such vast, meaningless destruction made it much more difficult to think of natural and metaphysical calamities as acts of God. Few but religious fundamentalists would continue to use the morally inflected word “evil” to describe natural disasters.
https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/what-do-we-mean-by-evil
Thanks Ken for alerting us to the New Yorker article. I note that the New Yorker is a very progressive, anti-American magazine so be careful when you read them because they possess an agenda that is not good for average, normal people.
Thanks Gen. Satterfield for bringing up this topic. I agree with others who have asked that you try to give us your thoughts on evil, more in depth. thanks for your consideration. 👀
“If you want to make a more moral world, you must begin with the study of evil. But, for the reasons enumerated here, the Left is not — and cannot be — interested in fighting real evil. So, the Left fights made-up evils: American systemic racism, transphobia, capitalism, carbon emissions, sexism and former President Donald Trump, to name a few. This is why young people know almost nothing about evil. The Left doesn’t want them to know about it. Because knowledge of evil inevitably leads directly to rejection of the Left.” – Dennis Prager WOW
Indeed, powerful. We need more to speak up about evil. And, how do you measure evil or can it be measured rather than just identified? 🤦♂️
Great question, docwatson. I was thinking the same thing.
I would like to see Gen. Satterfield tackle this idea of evil. I think from what I’ve read that the idea of evil has progressed over the centuries, or should I say changed. We no longer see natural disasters as evil because that is nature, despite having just as much or more destruction, death, violence, horror than those who were evil in the 20th century like Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, etc.
Love this Dennis Prager. Here is his website, highly recommended by ME!
https://dennisprager.com/listen247
Excellent article, Gen. Satterfield. You’ve also written on evil. Perhaps it is time for a short series on evil. Thank you sir.
https://www.theleadermaker.com/?s=evil
Excellent article by Ashley. In order to fully understand what evil means you need to know about it’s origin. Evil comes into picture when the devil was kicked out of Heaven with all his falling angels when He says he wanted to like as a god ., another spirit son of God, rebelled against the plan’s reliance on agency and proposed an altered plan that negated agency. Thus he became Satan, and he and his followers were cast out of heaven.
Dennis Prager nails it once again. I’m a fan of his and read as much as I can and listen to his podcasts. It’s a great way to understand evil in ALL its manifestations, like Joe Biden.
Yep, and whenever evil raises its ugly head, liberal progressive democrats go running to it to stand with that evil against all good.