Our Country Flies on the Balance of Two Wings—Both Left and Right. It Must Be Restored.

We all have a story that we tell ourselves. The problem with our country right now is we don't have a common story anymore. Our common story is the founding of our country and the Civil War and the civil rights and going to the moon and we can do anything. And after the second World War, we had the Berlin airdrop. We helped people, we were the most charitable. That's our story. That's what we tell ourselves.

That story has been broken by another story. We're nothing, but oppressors. We're oppressors that came and stole the land, killed people, never had any good intentions, enslaved a whole race of people. Even when we had the Civil War, there were no good guys. Abraham Lincoln was even an oppressor. We've only ever done anything for money. We're warmongers. We steal everything that we have.

That's the story that now half of America is telling itself every day, and it is being reinforced every single day.

Stories are really important.

The story in the first half of my life was, I'm a kid who nobody ever understood. And my mom was an alcoholic who committed suicide. My dad and mom got a divorce, nobody understands me. And yet, I have this talent, and I'm going to make it big. I'll show everybody. That was my story in my twenties, coupled with my family suffers with depression and alcoholism. I'm going to kill myself in the end, and I'm going to be an alcoholic. And what happened? By the time I was 30, there I was. Because stories are powerful.

When it comes to politics, who is better at telling stories? The left or the right?

The story that I tell myself every day now is the Jesus story. A guy who grew up with nothing, who taught people during three years of his life just to be honest with yourself, to be humble, to listen, to serve, to search for truth. That you're going to screw up and you should ask for forgiveness. Live those principles and die on those principles, if you have to.

So now that you know my story, what I've tried to base my life on, look what happens: In the last election, I saw a guy running for president who I didn't think lived any of the principles from that story that gets me up every morning. That's the story that I tell myself, that you don't even have to believe in redemption. You don't have to believe in Jesus. You don't have to believe any of it. I do. It's the story that keeps me from drinking and keeps me from imploding. I saw our country going towards a guy who I didn't think lived any of those principles. I was certain of what was going to happen, and tried to warn people and what happened? I imposed, if I may speak to my friends and the left, the tyranny of certainty. I stopped living my principles, mainly humility, because I was certain I didn't have to be humble. I knew the truth.

So people say to me, Glenn, you've got to stop apologizing. No, I don't. That's part of my story. If you make a mistake, as quickly as you discover it, go and ask forgiveness, try to make amends. If they accept it, they accept it. If they don't, they don't. I've done my part. I behaved the exact opposite of my story, which caused cognitive dissonance in me. And if cognitive dissonance lives in me, I know myself well enough, I'll start drinking, because I can't live that way as a split personality. I can't live two lives. I don't know how people compartmentalize their lives. I cannot.

Now we're telling ourselves another story. What I heard from a caller today is exactly what she doesn't like in me and doesn't like in the left. And that is, the tyranny of certainty. "How dare you tell me you're right." I'm working on that. It's really hard to do the job, where the leader of the industry is "on loan from God," and I'm supposed to have the answers, to share those, and remain humble. It's really hard. But you notice she said that the problem is, they think they know the answers --- and we're right.

I think I've been right on a lot of stuff. I just have to realize that my opinion is my opinion. But I also am wrong on a lot of stuff. I believe in eternal truth. I believe in truth from God. A lot of people don't believe that. Okay, then what's the other way of finding truth? Either scientifically proving it, doing a case study and actually proving it in a laboratory, or when it comes to living, you have to have a case study. Well, I don't really want to experiment with people. So we have to go back and look at history and ask: How did it turn out the last time? How did this turn out the last time it happened? What did the people choose?

Do you really believe that the politicians are going to solve health care? Does anybody really in the sound of my voice believe that they can solve health care? First of all, was health care better or worse before Obamacare? It sucked. It had its problems. It's like the United States of America. It is the worst best country on the planet. They all suck, but we're the best.

If you could show me a way to live, really show me a way to live and say, Glenn, here's proof, this is a better system, it makes people more free, it helps people be better. You're able to be yourself and be your better self. I'd do it in a heartbeat. I would surrender my citizenship today. I am not loyal to the flag. I am loyal to the idea of America, that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain rights, and nobody can take those rights.

My story that I tell myself is the greatest blessing of my life. Because it gives my troubles --- I don't want to say suffering, but use that word perhaps in your life or in the life of others --- meaning. It gives my pain, be it emotional or be it physical pain, meaning. No matter what has happened to me, no matter what the situation is, I can walk away from it and say, "Okay. Why did that happen?" Instead of saying, "I can't believe this person. I can't believe everything in my life sucks."

Everything in my life might suck right now, but what gives that suffering meaning? What gives that trouble meaning? Are we even looking for that anymore?

That's what I tried to say with Elon Musk or with George Washington Carver, most of the great inventions of the world came from hardship. You think somebody would have invented the car if we all had flying carpets? No. We had an ox and a cart. We had to shovel the crap from behind them all the time. I mean, you want to talk about gases, okay. Live around some cows for a while. Plow your field with a cow or an ox or a horse. Not fun. So somebody invented a tractor. It's not like the fields were plowing themselves. You know what we should invent? Something I can sit on and plow this field. There's meaning to what's happening in your life. And you can either grab it and figure it out and use it to make your life better, or we can use it to be angry. We can use it to be depressed. We can use it to lose all hope and let somebody else fix it for us. Or we can do it ourselves.

When I say let's come together, I don't mean with the extreme right or the extreme left. I have nothing in common with them. I really don't, besides my humanity. I don't have much in common or much to talk to with people who want to shut everyone else up. But I don't know when this country has ever decided we don't need two wings of our eagle, both the left and the right. I don't know when the eagle said, "I can fly with just one wing."

There's balance to that eagle. Just as much as there is --- and I hate to say this, what an oppressor I am --- there is importance for both a man and a woman. We don't speak the same language. Women, at times, drive me nuts. I'm sure I drive my wife and my daughters crazy. My son and I, we understand each other. It's the women. And the women, they understand each other. Two wings of an eagle, you need both. How stupid would it be for me to say, "You know what we need, you know what would make this planet better? No women." And yet, there are women and progressive groups that say men are useless. It is a lie. It is a lie just as much as I don't need my liberal friends or they don't need their conservative friends.

Together, we can fix this. Together, we will find our way out. But only if you have an honest, open and willing mind and heart.

The West is dying—Will we let enemies write our ending?

Harvey Meston / Staff | Getty Images

The blood of martyrs, prophets, poets, and soldiers built our civilization. Their sacrifice demands courage in the present to preserve it.

Lamentations asks, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?”

That question has been weighing on me heavily. Not just as a broadcaster, but as a citizen, a father, a husband, a believer. It is a question that every person who cares about this nation, this culture, and this civilization must confront: Is all of this worth saving?

We have squandered this inheritance. We forgot who we were — and our enemies are eager to write our ending.

Western civilization — a project born in Judea, refined in Athens, tested in Rome, reawakened in Wittenberg, and baptized again on the shores of Plymouth Rock — is a gift. We didn’t earn it. We didn’t purchase it. We were handed it. And now, we must ask ourselves: Do we even want it?

Across Europe, streets are restless. Not merely with protests, but with ancient, festering hatred — the kind that once marched under swastikas and fueled ovens. Today, it marches under banners of peace while chanting calls for genocide. Violence and division crack societies open. Here in America, it’s left against right, flesh against spirit, neighbor against neighbor.

Truth struggles to find a home. Even the church is slumbering — or worse, collaborating.

Our society tells us that everything must be reset: tradition, marriage, gender, faith, even love. The only sin left is believing in absolute truth. Screens replace Scripture. Entertainment replaces education. Pleasure replaces purpose. Our children are confused, medicated, addicted, fatherless, suicidal. Universities mock virtue. Congress is indifferent. Media programs rather than informs. Schools recondition rather than educate.

Is this worth saving? If not, we should stop fighting and throw up our hands. But if it is, then we must act — and we must act now.

The West: An idea worth saving

What is the West? It’s not a location, race, flag, or a particular constitution. The West is an idea — an idea that man is made in the image of God, that liberty comes from responsibility, not government; that truth exists; that evil exists; and that courage is required every day. The West teaches that education, reason, and revelation walk hand in hand. Beauty matters. Kindness matters. Empathy matters. Sacrifice is holy. Justice is blind. Mercy is near.

We have squandered this inheritance. We forgot who we were — and our enemies are eager to write our ending.

If not now, when? If not us, who? If this is worth saving, we must know why. Western civilization is worth dying for, worth living for, worth defending. It was built on the blood of martyrs, prophets, poets, pilgrims, moms, dads, and soldiers. They did not die for markets, pronouns, surveillance, or currency. They died for something higher, something bigger.

MATTHIEU RONDEL/AFP via Getty Images | Getty Images

Yet hope remains. Resurrection is real — not only in the tomb outside Jerusalem, but in the bones of any individual or group that returns to truth, honor, and God. It is never too late to return to family, community, accountability, and responsibility.

Pick up your torch

We were chosen for this time. We were made for a moment like this. The events unfolding in Europe and South Korea, the unrest and moral collapse, will all come down to us. Somewhere inside, we know we were called to carry this fire.

We are not called to win. We are called to stand. To hold the torch. To ask ourselves, every day: Is it worth standing? Is it worth saving?

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. Pick up your torch. If you choose to carry it, buckle up. The work is only beginning.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Stop coasting: How self-education can save America’s future

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

Coasting through life is no longer an option. Charlie Kirk’s pursuit of knowledge challenges all of us to learn, act, and grow every day.

Last year, my wife and I made a commitment: to stop coasting, to learn something new every day, and to grow — not just spiritually, but intellectually. Charlie Kirk’s tragic death crystallized that resolve. It forced a hard look in the mirror, revealing how much I had coasted in both my spiritual and educational life. Coasting implies going downhill. You can’t coast uphill.

Last night, my wife and I re-engaged. We enrolled in Hillsdale College’s free online courses, inspired by the fact that Charlie had done the same. He had quietly completed around 30 courses before I even knew, mastering the classics, civics, and the foundations of liberty. Watching his relentless pursuit of knowledge reminded me that growth never stops, no matter your age.

The path forward must be reclaiming education, agency, and the power to shape our minds and futures.

This lesson is particularly urgent for two groups: young adults stepping into the world and those who may have settled into complacency. Learning is life. Stop learning, and you start dying. To young adults, especially, the college promise has become a trap. Twelve years of K-12 education now leave graduates unprepared for life. Only 35% of seniors are proficient in reading, and just 22% in math. They are asked to bet $100,000 or more for four years of college that will often leave them underemployed and deeply indebted.

Degrees in many “new” fields now carry negative returns. Parents who have already sacrificed for public education find themselves on the hook again, paying for a system that often fails to deliver.

This is one of the reasons why Charlie often described college as a “scam.” Debt accumulates, wages are not what students were promised, doors remain closed, and many are tempted to throw more time and money after a system that won’t yield results. Graduate school, in many cases, compounds the problem. The education system has become a factory of despair, teaching cynicism rather than knowledge and virtue.

Reclaiming educational agency

Yet the solution is not radical revolt against education — it is empowerment to reclaim agency over one’s education. Independent learning, self-guided study, and disciplined curiosity are the modern “Napster moment.” Just as Napster broke the old record industry by digitizing music, the internet has placed knowledge directly in the hands of the individual. Artists like Taylor Swift now thrive outside traditional gatekeepers. Likewise, students and lifelong learners can reclaim intellectual freedom outside of the ivory towers.

Each individual possesses the ability to think, create, and act. This is the power God grants to every human being. Knowledge, faith, and personal responsibility are inseparable. Learning is not a commodity to buy with tuition; it is a birthright to claim with effort.

David Butow / Contributor | Getty Images

Charlie Kirk’s life reminds us that self-education is an act of defiance and empowerment. In his pursuit of knowledge, in his engagement with civics and philosophy, he exemplified the principle that liberty depends on informed, capable citizens. We honor him best by taking up that mantle — by learning relentlessly, thinking critically, and refusing to surrender our minds to a system that profits from ignorance.

The path forward must be reclaiming education, agency, and the power to shape our minds and futures. Every day, seek to grow, create, and act. Charlie showed the way. It is now our responsibility to follow.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Glenn Beck joins TPUSA tour to honor Charlie Kirk

Joe Raedle / Staff | Getty Images

If they thought the murder of Charlie Kirk would scare us into silence, they were wrong!

If anything, Turning Point will hit the road louder than ever. On Monday, September 22, less than two weeks after the assassination, Charlie's friends united under the Turning Point USA banner to carry his torch and honor his legacy by doing what he did best: bringing honest and truthful debate to Universities across the nation.

Naturally, Glenn has rallied to the cause and has accepted an invitation to join the TPUSA tour at the University of North Dakota on October 9th.

Want to join Glenn at the University of North Dakota to honor Charlie Kirk and keep his mission alive? Click HERE to sign up or find more information.

Glenn's daughter honors Charlie Kirk with emotional tribute song

MELISSA MAJCHRZAK / Contributor | Getty Images

On September 17th, Glenn commemorated his late friend Charlie Kirk by hosting The Charlie Kirk Show Podcast, where he celebrated and remembered the life of a remarkable young man.

During the broadcast, Glenn shared an emotional new song performed by his daughter, Cheyenne, who was standing only feet away from Charlie when he was assassinated. The song, titled "We Are One," has been dedicated to Charlie Kirk as a tribute and was written and co-performed by David Osmond, son of Alan Osmond, founding member of The Osmonds.

Glenn first asked David Osmond to write "We Are One" in 2018, as he predicted that dark days were on the horizon, but he never imagined that it would be sung by his daughter in honor of Charlie Kirk. The Lord works in mysterious ways; could there have been a more fitting song to honor such a brave man?

"We Are One" is available for download or listening on Spotify HERE