Are you better off now than you were eight years ago? Gauge it by your general happiness, your relationships, where you devote your time.
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"Look at the number of people who have rooted themselves in something deep. I've prayed like I've never prayed before. I've served like I've never served before. People are becoming heroic in many ways over the last eight years. Never seen that before in my life," Glenn said Monday on his radio program.
This may be the toughest time we've experienced in our nation's history, but will we remember it that way?
Read below or listen to the full segment for answers to these peachy questions:
• What does Glenn consider one of the best times in his life?
• Would it be a good or bad choice to rob Kim Kardashian to pay the mortgage?
• Is Glenn more of a sick twisted freak than even he thought?
• Why is it so easy for Stu to judge Jeffy?
• As a nation, is there a difference between doing good and doing well?
Listen to this segment from The Glenn Beck Program:
Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:
GLENN: Why do we say the ends justify the means? And why do we say it's wrong? The ends justify the means usually is said by people who is, "Well, we got to get there. Somehow or another, we got to get there. Right? So it doesn't matter what you do." But why do we say that's wrong? Why is it wrong that the ends justify the means?
PAT: Well, because the means are sometimes untenable for us. Sometimes the means are -- the ends justify the means, means that when you get where you want, everything that you did in between was fine. Well, that's not necessarily the case.
STU: Right. Everyone has to pay their mortgage. But if you rob Kim Kardashian at gunpoint and steal her jewelry to do it --
PAT: That's probably not good.
STU: Yeah, yeah, it's not worth it.
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: And you could probably pay everybody's mortgage several times over for a very long time.
STU: And that might feel great. But, again, you don't do it because the way you did it is --
GLENN: I have a different -- because that's the way I always looked at it. And I have a different -- I had a different thought yesterday, and I want to share this.
Let's start here. Are you better off today than you were eight years ago?
PAT: In what way?
GLENN: Oh, good question. In any way?
PAT: Let's see, financially --
STU: I'm being set up. I feel like I'm being set up. They're always setups.
GLENN: No. This is just a -- I am going someplace obviously, but I don't necessarily the answers. I know my answer, but you guys might find flaws in it.
So are we better off than we were eight years go?
PAT: On an individual basis, you're talking about? Or are you --
GLENN: Or as a nation. Individual. Any way.
PAT: As a nation, certainly not. No. Absolutely not.
JEFFY: But a number of people individually are.
PAT: Yeah. A number of people are also worse off.
JEFFY: A lot worse.
PAT: Including many blacks.
GLENN: Are you? Are you?
PAT: I would say no. Uh-uh.
STU: Yeah. I mean, you go back to eight years ago, we were just about to hit the cliff of the financial crisis eight years ago today.
GLENN: Correct. Correct.
STU: So that was a terrible era financially for the economy. And, you know, while we've -- you know, we've -- we don't need to go into the details of it. You're not looking for a detailed financial answer. You know, it's changed.
GLENN: Yeah. Right.
So yesterday, I just made some notes -- just having some stream of consciousness, just wrote some stream of consciousness notes. And I think I disagree with what I answered last night in my notes. I wrote: As a nation, no, clearly. But I'm not sure that's even true.
PAT: As a nation, we are worse off, you mean?
GLENN: Yes. Yes.
JEFFY: Oh, yes.
PAT: And you're note sure that's true?
GLENN: I'm not sure that's true. And listen. Just hear me out here for a second.
PAT: All right.
GLENN: Are you better as a man or a woman or a mom or a dad -- as a family, are you better off as a family than you were eight years ago? Are you a better man than you were eight years ago?
Wow, you guys can't answer that?
PAT: I don't know. I don't like to do that kind of introspection. It's way too challenging for --
STU: I like to judge Jeffy, instead of judging ourselves.
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: I am -- I am more of a freak than even I know. I know I'm a freak.
STU: I just don't like -- that's hard to judge.
PAT: Yeah. I don't --
STU: I try. I mean, you try to be a better person.
GLENN: Oh, my gosh. Come on, guys. You're much better than you were. You're much better than you were. Absolutely.
PAT: I think in some ways, we're more aware, certainly. We're more --
GLENN: Yes. You're more educated. Probably not you -- not Pat. Pat was like -- Pat knew the Constitution before, you know --
STU: Before it was cool.
GLENN: Before it was cool.
PAT: Before 2008, yes?
GLENN: Yes, he knew the Constitution.
STU: No, I mean, I think we've tried to improve ourselves in those ways.
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.
PAT: Yeah, we have.
STU: I feel like sometimes -- you know, I feel more -- less optimistic about the world, and I don't like that about myself.
GLENN: Yes, yes.
STU: And so that makes me --
GLENN: But in all of the ways that really count -- when you're talking about -- because, look, our house, our finances -- all of that stuff -- and I know I'm going to say this, and people are going to roll their eyes, going, "Well, that's just a guy who's got money saying that."
No, this is a coming from a guy who's lost everything in his life. I lost everything in my life.
And my kids always make fun of me. They're like, "Dad, will you stop saying, 'Enjoy it while it lasts?'" And I've done it for years. "Enjoy it while it lasts."
STU: I say that all the time.
GLENN: Right. And they say to me, "Dad, why do you say that?"
Because you never know what's going to happen tomorrow. I could lose my job tomorrow. You know, the world could blow up tomorrow. Whatever.
It just -- it could be like this for the rest of our lives, in this special moment, but enjoy the moment and don't worry about tomorrow.
Whatever comes tomorrow, we'll enjoy that moment. I didn't have that perspective, totally, eight years ago because I didn't know what was important eight years ago.
Eight years ago, I hadn't done the introspection on, "What are you willing to live for, really live for?"
Everybody was like, "What are you willing to die for?" Yeah, okay. "I don't know if we all know what we're willing to die for, until they put the gun to your head." You know what I mean? You don't know what -- you don't know who you are. You don't really know what you'll do until that moment.
So what are you really willing to live for and dedicate yourself and risk losing it all?
I know that. I didn't know that eight years ago. I thought I did. In theory, I did. But I'm -- I am -- and I contend, almost everyone in this audience is better as -- in some form of their life -- we immediately say, are you better off than you were eight years ago? We immediately go to finances or whatever.
PAT: Yeah. And say no.
GLENN: And we say no.
Why is that our immediate -- because we have made everything in our life about politics. And in the end of our days, we won't think about politics for a second. Unless we're thinking this: "Why did I waste all of that time and energy on that?"
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: Pat said to me, forever, "Glenn, you got to find joy." I'm trying to. I'm trying to learn all this stuff. But, you know what, I'm just starting to find joy, even in all the learning of all the stuff I don't want to learn.
PAT: Hmm.
GLENN: You got to -- we -- let me ask you this: I want you to right now think of the best time in your life. The time that you think, "Those were the days."
Did those days that you just thought of revolve around success and money, or did they revolve around happiness? And I would venture a guess that most people's best times were in the hardest struggle. Is that true for anybody? Yes, Jeffy?
JEFFY: Oh, yes. Yes.
GLENN: Pat.
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: In the best -- in the biggest struggle -- I wouldn't want to go back to those days. I don't want to go back. But those were -- and why were those your best days? Because you found out who you were. You -- you conquered something. You stretched -- they were so hard because you -- you might have -- I mean, one of the best times of my life -- I think of a few best times of my life: The first one best time of my life was when I moved to Washington, DC. I had never lived in a place without mountains. So I couldn't even get around. I was so lost without mountains because I had no direction. I had no internal compass. And I would get lost all the time in Washington, DC. Not a place you want to get lost in.
I was completely alone. No one -- no one in my family lived past the Rocky Mountains on the western side. I'm out by myself, 18 years old, at one of the biggest radio stations in the country. I don't know a soul. I'm making very little money. I live in this apartment building that I don't know why I always live like elderly people. But I think it was almost like a nursing home that I moved into, I found out afterwards.
PAT: It was affordable.
GLENN: Yeah, it was affordable. There's no one my age. There's -- there's nothing. I had a box, an apple crate box. If anybody from the West remembers Peaches record store, they would sell the record box in peaches. And so I had a Peaches' crate, a small little 12-inch black-and-white television set, a chair, and beer in my refrigerator.
JEFFY: That's good living right there.
GLENN: That's good living, right? I remember that as one of the best times of my life.
Now, what the hell is -- what -- do you remember what that was like?
No. I don't. What I remember is, I conquered it. It was new. It was discovery. It was freaky terrifying. But I made it, and I discovered who I was. This is -- those are the times. The times we struggle. I promise you this: Should you choose, this will not only be remembered as one of the best times of your life -- right now -- but should you choose, it can be one of the best times of your life right now.
If you have the longer term perspective. I haven't even -- I haven't -- man, I have three pages, and I just have the first two bullet points. This might take us all day to get through. But I think you're going to like the perspective. I think you're going to -- because it ends with a new answer, for me at least, on why the ends don't justify the means.
[break]
GLENN: We have so much to talk about today. But let me -- let me just start where we started. Why do we say it's wrong to believe that the ends justify the means? Are we better off than we were eight years ago?
I -- I believe that we are. But not in anything having to do with politics. It is that moment in your life where you really struggle. You have money pressure. Fear, loneliness, desperation.
But unless you become something that you're not, unless you become a thief, unless you become something that you're not, you will look at those times with favorable eyes. The times when you really struggled, because you made it, even though you thought you couldn't.
But if you become those things that you're not, if you said, "I'm going to take the easy -- I'm going to steal," you will look at those times -- I don't know why I gestured towards Jeffy on that.
STU: I noticed that.
JEFFY: Is there an amount?
GLENN: You will look back at those times as the worst time of your life, because you made a tragic mistake.
Next question: Does God need America? I used to believe, in some ways, yeah. If not us, who? But does God need America?
PAT: No, it's the other way around.
GLENN: Yeah. It's absolutely the other way. But a lot of people will say, "Yes, he does." Why?
Well, to do good. Who is there to do good?
But based on how you answered the first question, "Are you better off than you were eight years ago?" If you said, "No," as your knee-jerk response, then your focus is really on doing well rather than doing good. Your knee-jerk reaction was, "No, we're not better off because look at our finances," instead of saying, "Are you kidding me? Look at the number of people who have -- who have rooted themselves in something deep. I've prayed like I've never prayed before. I've served like I've never served before. And I've seen service, and I've seen people. People are becoming heroic in many ways over the last eight years. Never seen that before in my life."
If your knee-jerk reaction was that, then, yeah. Then, yeah. We are a nation that does good. But right now, we're a nation that says we do good because we send our military. In other words, we do good by proxy. Or we send our money. We do good by proxy.
Right now, we live in a nation that is concerned with doing well and not doing good. And you know it. Because how many people say, "I deserve it. It's owed to me? If I can take it, it's mine. They won't even notice if it's gone." How many people are willing to live off of the -- the sweat of the brow of someone else? How many people are just willing to take it?
I saw a video this weekend. A guy put -- did a social study. Put a cell phone down. And he would go to park benches and picnic tables and in cities. And he would just put his cell phone down. And he would lay his head down on the picnic table. Or he would set it a little bit away from him. And then he would pretend he was falling asleep. You wouldn't believe the nay number of men, women, black, white, Hispanic that just came and took his cell phone.
PAT: Really?
GLENN: I mean, I was just -- I was shocked at how many people would just come up -- a sleeping guy, and just take it. And normal-looking people.
JEFFY: They don't know if the phone belongs to that guy.
STU: You know it doesn't belong to you.
GLENN: Yes. You know it doesn't belong to you.
STU: Not to mention stealing something with a GPS device in it is never a good idea.
PAT: I know. I was thinking that. What a dumb --
JEFFY: Real dumb. Real dumb.
STU: What are you going to do with it? Make free phone calls?
(laughter)
GLENN: So how can a nation do good with the attitude of, "I've got to do well?"
We can't. We can't.
STU: You can do both, can't you? Yeah, you can't do good and do well?
GLENN: Oh, you can. You can. But not if your attitude is, "I've got to do well. Ends justify the means."
Featured Image: Peaches record crate
