Speaking with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Monday about a new Wall Street Journal poll finding that patriotism, belief in God, and having children rated far lower as priorities for young Americans than they did 20 years ago, Daily Wire Editor-In-Chief Ben Shapiro stated, “I think the people are eventually going to find that the hedonistic, self-fulfilling attempt to please yourself, your subjective perceptions is not going to be as fulfilling; they are going to look to something beyond themselves. In fact, I think they’re hungry for that now; it’s leading to a lot of depression and upset.”
MacCallum started by quoting the numbers from the poll, then turning to Shapiro and asking, “What do those numbers say to you?”
Shapiro answered:
They say a lot of the common social institutions and philosophies around which the country was formed and has continued to progress are dissolving. If you get rid of patriotism, an innate belief that the country and the principles it was founded on are wonderful; you get rid of religion, which is the main social institution that has been upholding a free society for the last couple of hundred years here in the United States, and then you get rid of even a care for the future, meaning people don’t care about parenting or having children as much, the question becomes: what exactly are the ties that are supposed to bind us together other than watching the Super Bowl on TV once a year together?
MacCallum suggested taking the issues one at a time, asking Shapiro to what he attributed the decline in patriotism.
Shapiro responded:
I think there are two stories about American history that have been told about America: one is that America was founded on eternally good, true and wonderful principles, we’ve not always lived up to those principles, but the story of America is an attempt to fulfill those great principles and is essentially a story of triumph over both the odds and over our inner demons as well. That’s story number one.
Story number two is that America was rooted fundamentally in evil: slavery, sexism, racism, bigotry, homophobia, and that all of our institutions are rife with these things, so why should you be patriotic about these institutions that are so thoroughly corrupt? Seems like that latter narrative is winning the day these days, and that’s what you’re seeing with younger folks.
MacCallum noted, “That’s the Beto O’Rourke campaign it sounds like that you just encapsulated.” Speaking of religion, she posited that the “Me” generation had seemed like a passing phase, but had become a way of life now. She asserted, “When ‘Me’ is at the center of everything, I don’t think that you need to go out of yourself and ask God to save your soul or anything along those lines, so I don’t see how you put that genie back in the bottle unless people are ultimately dissatisfied with that life.”
Shapiro commented, “I think that’s right; religion is about fulfilling duty to other people, fulfilling duty to God, duties that lie beyond you. The same poll shows that a disproportionate share of younger people see self-fulfillment as a top goal. Well, those two are in direct conflict. I think the people are eventually going to find that the hedonistic, self-fulfilling attempt to please yourself, your subjective perceptions is not going to be as fulfilling; they are going to look to something beyond themselves. In fact, I think they’re hungry for that now; it’s leading to a lot of depression and upset.”
After noting that hard work continues to rank highly as a value, McCallum pointed out the high value ascribed to tolerance for others. She asked if that was a value worth striving for.
Shapiro answered, “I think that if by ‘tolerating other people’ we mean tolerating people in a free society doing what they’re doing so long as they don’t hurt others, of course that’s something that we should be striving for, but I think that young people don’t actually mean that when they say ‘tolerance.’ I don’t think a lot of young folks mean, ‘I’m going to tolerate viewpoints I don’t like’; I think what they mean is ‘If you judge me in any way you’re being intolerant because I’m not judging you except if you’re judgmental in which case I judge you and I’m intolerant.'”
He continued, “Tolerance itself is not a value; tolerance is of value; it’s a strategy to use when you are talking about what is acceptable behavior in a free society, and it seems that young people are espousing a strategy above an actual value.”
Turning to the last of the three issues under discussion, McCallum remarked that having children was linked to the other issues, adding, “You have to give of yourself to someone else.”
Shapiro said, “It’s expensive; it’s difficult; it’s a giant pain in the ass; it’s the most fulfilling thing that you will ever do, but why would you exactly walk through those thorns to get to the occasional rose? It’s very difficult. The fact is that you have to be committed to something beyond yourself before you have kids or there’s really no purpose to having kids in the first place.”
Video below: