The most important thing we can do is empower ourselves and others

November 19, 2013

Writer

Tonight on TV, Glenn opened the show discussing a personal epiphany he had over the weekend. While TheBlaze will continue to be a daily source of news and information, Glenn said that the network and his show would also be a place for empowerment. Sometimes that means personal empowerment, and other times Glenn and TheBlaze will provide viewers, listeners, and readers with the tools to empower others.

Glenn specifically looked to Jesus as an inspiration, especially if you look at the story of Jesus through the eyes of the people who lived during his time on Earth. During Jesus's time on Earth, he didn't focus on politics or economics or anything else - he focused on helping others and empowering them, and that is the approach that Glenn plans to take going forward as well.

WATCH:

You know, some of the things that we have done in the past, I want to talk to you about, because you’re going to find these things honestly, you’re going to “duh,” but for me, it’s been kind of a big deal and has been really hard. It’s been a hard four years for me because I haven’t understood exactly what I was doing or what I was supposed to do, and in the coming weeks I’ll explain it a little bit.

Maybe we’ll just do a show just on this, but I haven’t understood because quite honestly I was overthinking things. And you know, when we first started this network, we did Being George Washington. And I did that, and I did that with, you know, my son. And we took it seriously, but I have to revisit that myself. And I want to talk to you about some of these things.

This network and this show, we’re going to be a source of information and news and everything else, but the most important thing we can do is empower people, for me to empower myself, empower you, and you to empower yourself and others.

I think you’ve seen this kind of coming in a way. We’ve had Srinivas Rau on, Malcolm Gladwell, Mike Rowe, and if you’ve been paying attention, you notice that the theme has been for the last month or so that don’t believe all the old posters of the past, you know? Everything that you think you knew is not true anymore, and don’t believe anyone who tells you that there are giants you cannot defeat, that Goliath is too big for you.

If I asked the world who is the biggest revolutionary in the world, I guess Americans might say it was Thomas Paine or Sam Adams. Some might think of Che, but I’d fall closer into the categories of MLK and Gandhi and mainly the one they based their lives on, the original revolutionary, I think, the one who really changed the world.

If you go back, and you look, and this is where I’ve been in the last month. I’ve really been trying to look at some things from the point of view of the people who lived it at the time. And if you go back to those original revolutionary days, the people in ancient Israel expected a warrior king. If you look at the Middle East, Muhammad was a warrior, you know, riding on his horse and riding into battle. If you look at the Middle East even now, all the biggest icons are warriors.

That’s why the revolutionary, forget about all the Bible stuff, just as a person, that’s why the Jesus character is so important, because he stands alone as the oddball. But the people of his day expected him to be a warrior, and I think that’s why some of them were shouting for his death because they knew he wasn’t going to do it. He wasn’t going to be a warrior king.

It’s easy to read his story now and see him from the perspective of what we now understand or what the writers of the Scriptures even said, but I don’t want you to look at him that way. I want you to look at him through the eyes of the people back then.

I wrote this, in fact why don’t you bring the camera in here for a second. I wrote this this weekend, and I want to show you this. What was he really all about? He did not worry about politics. He never worried about the economy. He never worried about his popularity, ever. The regional politics, it was like the Democrats and the Tea Party today.

The people who were poor, yeah, there were people who were poor, and they were sick. You don’t think people worried about their health care coverage? What do you think the pools of Bethesda were? But I don’t see any words where he’s talking about high taxes or politics or popularity or poles or reelection or anything. He never talked about you know, if I say this, is this going to hurt my business? He never talked about politically correct stuff, none of that.

So what did he do? He empowered people, empowered people. And one of the things he said that strikes me because everybody skips it, you know, paraphrasing here, he says, you know, hey, you know, I’ve seen some pretty cool stuff, huh? Right? Greater things than these you will do. What’s he saying? He’s empowering everybody around him. He is telling them you have the power.

I made a list of these things this weekend, and the things that he did and didn’t do, the things that we’re always talking about every day. He never talked about people, about anything that we are doing. Here’s what he did talk about. He loved his enemies. He taught truth. He lived truth. He helped others to live peaceful lives. He empowered others. He spoke only of what his father told him to tell you. He comforted. He lifted up. He mourned, and he healed others.

That’s it, tell people love each other. Tell people to believe and believe in themselves. Tell people to have faith, hope, and charity. The reason why he was the biggest revolutionary of all is because he changed everything. And it dawned on me this weekend, what makes us think that that won’t work again?

If I may, Occupy Wall Street is paying off people’s loans. What do you think that is? The Golden Dawn Party is now buying people food. In Greece, they’re going door to door, providing food. Well, where do you think they got that idea? Why do they think that will work? Because it worked before. It works every time. But they will fail because their purpose is politics. That’s not what it’s supposed to be, and that’s not what our purpose can be or should be.

I wanted to take just a second before we get into the real show tonight to try to tell you that I’d like to take you on a journey with me over the next couple of months, and I don’t know where it’s going to take us. I don’t know, but I need to be a much better man than I am. I will tell you that I’m a shell of the man of who I need to be and who I want to be, and I will bet you that in your honest hours, you would say the same. I know I can do better. I know I can be better, and I know I have to.

The enemies of man’s freedom are doing everything they can right now to tell everyone you have to go through me. You’re incapable of doing things yourself. You need permits, and you need handouts. You need our help. We have to be the beachhead of the exact opposite message. That’s what I wrote in this journal. That’s it.

The world’s greatest revolutionary only empowered people. That is my goal. That has to be the goal of this show through education, information, through every means possible to empower ourselves, for us to empower you, and to remind you at all times that you hold all the cards. You hold all the keys. You have absolutely everything you need to accomplish whatever it is you set out to do, especially in today’s world, but people don’t understand that.

I spoke to…oh, I don’t even know. Joe, how many people were at that meeting on Friday? I bet there was 150 people there. They were all people from State Houses from all over the country, and I told them do you realize how freaked out the authoritarians are because of technology? That’s why they’re trying to grab it all. They know if they don’t control technology, they lose.

Just look at business. Business, you can print a T-shirt and sell it on the other side of the world, and you can do it that fast. Globally I can do whatever it is I love, and I can do business in my underpants in my mom’s basement if I have to. The world has changed. So have we. But we have to do more, and it begins with recognizing who we are, what we need to be, and empower ourselves and everyone else we know.

BLOG

CDC: Coronavirus outbreak in US is not a matter of if, but when

BLOG

Glenn Beck: Bernie Sanders and 'Bros' are more dangerous than we ever imagined

BLOG

VIDEO: Both Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama are radicals, but there's one HUGE difference

Biden backs yet another criminal justice policy with disastrous consequences

The number of people serving life sentences now exceeds the entire prison population in 1970, according to newly-released data from the Sentencing Project. The continued growth of life sentences is largely the result of "tough on crime" policies pushed by legislators in the 1990s, including presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Biden has since apologized for backing those types of policies, but it seems he has yet to learn his lesson. Indeed, Biden is backing yet another criminal justice policy with disastrous consequences—mandatory drug treatment for all drug offenders.

Proponents of this policy argue that forced drug treatment will reduce drug usage and recidivism and save lives. But the evidence simply isn't on their side. Mandatory treatment isn't just patently unethical, it's also ineffective—and dangerous.

Many well-meaning people view mandatory treatment as a positive alternative to incarceration. But there's a reason that mandatory treatment is also known as "compulsory confinement." As author Maya Schenwar asks in The Guardian, "If shepherding live human bodies off to prison to isolate and manipulate them without their permission isn't ethical, why is shipping those bodies off to compulsory rehab an acceptable alternative?" Compulsory treatment isn't an alternative to incarceration. It is incarceration.

Compulsory treatment is also arguably a breach of international human rights agreements and ethical standards. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) have made it clear that the standards of ethical treatment also apply to the treatment of drug dependence—standards that include the right to autonomy and self-determination. Indeed, according to UNODC, "people who use or are dependent on drugs do not automatically lack the capacity to consent to treatment...consent of the patient should be obtained before any treatment intervention." Forced treatment violates a person's right to be free from non-consensual medical treatment.

It's a useless endeavor, anyway, because studies have shown that it doesn't improve outcomes in reducing drug use and criminal recidivism. A review of nine studies, published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, failed to find sufficient evidence that compulsory drug treatment approaches are effective. The results didn't suggest improved outcomes in reducing drug use among drug-dependent individuals enrolled in compulsory treatment. However, some studies did suggest potential harm.

According to one study, 33% of compulsorily-treated participants were reincarcerated, compared to a mere 5% of the non-treatment sample population. Moreover, rates of post-release illicit drug use were higher among those who received compulsory treatment. Even worse, a 2016 report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health found that people who received involuntary treatment were more than twice as likely to die of an opioid-related overdose than those with a history of only voluntary treatment.

These findings echo studies published in medical journals like Addiction and BMJ. A study in Addiction found that involuntary drug treatment was a risk factor for a non-fatal drug overdose. Similarly, a study in BMJ found that patients who successfully completed inpatient detoxification were more likely than other patients to die within a year. The high rate of overdose deaths by people previously involuntarily treated is likely because most people who are taken involuntarily aren't ready to stop using drugs, authors of the Addiction study reported. That makes sense. People who aren't ready to get clean will likely use again when they are released. For them, the only post-treatment difference will be lower tolerance, thanks to forced detoxification and abstinence. Indeed, a loss of tolerance, combined with the lack of a desire to stop using drugs, likely puts compulsorily-treated patients at a higher risk of overdose.

The UNODC agrees. In their words, compulsory treatment is "expensive, not cost-effective, and neither benefits the individual nor the community." So, then, why would we even try?

Biden is right to look for ways to combat addiction and drug crime outside of the criminal justice system. But forced drug treatment for all drug offenders is a flawed, unethical policy, with deadly consequences. If the goal is to help people and reduce harm, then there are plenty of ways to get there. Mandatory treatment isn't one of them.

Lindsay Marie is a policy analyst for the Lone Star Policy Institute, an independent think tank that promotes freedom and prosperity for all Texans. You can follow her on Twitter @LindsayMarieLP.

BOMBSHELL: 'It wasn't just Hunter,' Rudy Giuliani says Joe Biden was target of Ukraine corruption investigation — and he has the evidence to prove it

President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani joined Glenn Beck on Tuesday's radio program discuss the Senate's ongoing investigation into former vice president Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and reveal new bombshell documents he's currently releasing.

Giuliani told Glenn he has evidence of "very, very serious crime at the highest levels of government," that the "corrupt media" is doing everything in their power to discredit.

He also dropped some major, previously unreported news: not only was Hunter Biden under investigation in 2016, when then-Vice President Biden "forced" the firing of Ukraine's prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, but so was the vice president himself.

"Shokin can prove he was investigating Biden and his son. And I now have the prosecutorial documents that show, all during that period of time, not only was Hunter Biden under investigation -- Joe Biden was under investigation," Giuliani explained. "It wasn't just Hunter."

Watch this clip to get a rundown of everything Giuliani has uncovered so far.

Use code GLENN to save $10 on one year of BlazeTV.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn's masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution and live the American dream.

Revealing Bernie’s dark side — one 1980s quote at a time

For most Americans, the 1980s was marked by big hair, epic lightsaber battles, and school-skipping Ferris Bueller dancing his way into the hearts of millions.

But for Bernie Sanders — who, by the way, was at that time the oldest-looking 40-year-old in human history — the 1980s was a period of important personal milestones.

Prior to his successful 1980 campaign to become mayor of Burlington, Vermont, Sanders was mostly known around the Green Mountain State as a crazy, wildly idealistic socialist. (Think Karl Marx meets Don Quixote.) But everything started to change for Sanders when he became famous—or, in the eyes of many, notorious—for being "America's socialist mayor."

As mayor, Sanders' radical ideas were finally given the attention he had always craved but couldn't manage to capture. This makes this period of his career particularly interesting to study. Unlike today, the Bernie Sanders of the 1980s wasn't concerned with winning over an entire nation — just the wave of far-left New York City exiles that flooded Vermont in the 1960s and 1970s — and he was much more willing to openly align himself with local and national socialist and communist parties.

www.youtube.com

Over the past few weeks, I have been reading news reports of Sanders recorded in the 1980s — because, you know, that's how guys like me spend their Saturday nights — and what I've found is pretty remarkable.

For starters, Sanders had (during the height of the Soviet Union) a very cozy relationship with people who openly advocated for Marxism and communism. He was an elector for the Socialist Workers Party and promoted the party's presidential candidates in 1980 and 1984.

To say the Socialist Workers Party was radical would be a tremendous understatement. It was widely known SWP was a communist organization mostly dedicated to the teachings of Marx and Leon Trotsky, one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution.

Among other radical things I've discovered in interviews Sanders conducted with the SWP's newspaper — appropriately named The Militant (seriously, you can't make this stuff up) — is a statement by Sanders published in June 1981 suggesting that some police departments "are dominated by fascists and Nazis," a comment that is just now being rediscovered for the first time in decades.

In 1980, Sanders lauded the Socialist Workers Party's "continued defense of the Cuban revolution." And later in the 1980s, Sanders reportedly endorsed a collection of speeches by the socialist Sandinistas in Nicaragua, even though there had been widespread media reports of the Sandinistas' many human rights violations prior to Sanders' endorsement, including "restrictions on free movement; torture; denial of due process; lack of freedom of thought, conscience and religion; denial of the right of association and of free labor unions."

Sanders also traveled to Nicaragua and met with socialist President Daniel Ortega. He later called the trip a "profoundly emotional experience."

Comrade Bernie's disturbing Marxist past, which is far more extensive than what can be covered in this short article, shouldn't be treated as a mere historical footnote. It clearly illustrates that Sanders' brand of "democratic socialism" is much more than a $15 minimum wage and calls for single-payer health care. It's full of Marxist philosophy, radical revolutionary thinking, anti-police rhetoric, and even support for authoritarian governments.

Millions of Americans have been tricked into thinking Sanders isn't the radical communist the historical record — and even Sanders' own words — clearly show that he is. But the deeper I have dug into Comrade Bernie's past, the more evident it has become that his thinking is much darker and more dangerous and twisted than many of his followers ever imagined.

Tomorrow night, don't miss Glenn Beck's special exposing the radicals who are running Bernie Sanders' campaign. From top to bottom, his campaign is staffed with hard-left extremists who are eager to burn down the system. The threat to our constitution is very real from Bernie's team, and it's unlike anything we've ever seen before in a U.S. election. Join Glenn on Wednesday, at 9 PM Eastern on BlazeTV's YouTube page, and on BlazeTV.com. And just in case you miss it live, the only way to catch all of Glenn's specials on-demand is by subscribing to Blaze TV.

Justin Haskins (Jhaskins@heartland.org) is editorial director of The Heartland Institute and editor-in-chief of StoppingSocialism.com.

Candace Owens blasts leftist cancel culture: 'Godless', 'societal atom bomb'

Candace Owens, BLEXIT founder and author of the upcoming book, "Blackout," joined Glenn Beck on Friday's GlennTV for an exclusive interview. available only to BlazeTV subscribers.

Candace dropped a few truth-bombs about the progressive movement and what's happening to the Democratic Party. She said people are practically running away from the left due to their incessant push to dig up dirt on anybody who disagrees with their radical ideology. She explained how -- like China and its "social credit score" -- the left is shaping America into its own nightmarish episode of "Black Mirror."

"This game of making sure that everyone is politically correct is a societal atom bomb. There are no survivors. There's no one that is perfect," Candace said. "The idea that humanity can be perfect is Godless. If you accept that there is something greater than us, then you accept that we a flawed. To be human is to be flawed."

Enjoy this clip from the full episode below:

youtu.be

BlazeTV subscribers can watch the full interview on BlazeTV.com. Use code GLENN to save $10 off one year of your subscription.