The Right Side of History
The Right Side of History by Ben Shapiro was originally reviewed and posted to YouTube on April 12, 2021, but you can watch it on Rumble now or listen to it on PodBean.
So, I don’t agree with everything Mr. Shapiro says, but I do feel he has been very unfairly maligned by whackadoos on both the extreme right and the extreme left, and I am utterly fascinated by how fast his mind works, so I wanted to see what he had to say in book form.
At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of this book. I was pretty sure it was going to be a god lecture based on the first couple of chapters, and I was a little leery of that, because zealots make me twitchy. And while Mr. Shapiro has never been shy about broadcasting his faith as an orthodox Jew, I never saw him as a zealot, so I got a bit twitchy. But when I shifted to the realization that this is more of a broad overview of history, which by any metric includes the Judeo-Christian belief system, it became an easier read for me.
And from the perspective of a broadly written history book, it was a fast read. He starts by explaining that the two schools of thought that helped shape western civilization are Judeo-Christianity, and the philosophical schools in Ancient Athens. Which is accurate as far as that goes. That is the lovely thing about history, is that it truly is set in stone, no matter how much people may try to re-write it through the lens of modernity.
And there are a lot of people trying to rewrite what happened to be worse than it was. Which is interesting because the bad that happened, like slavery, was plenty bad without trying to make it worse. But Mr. Shapiro makes a pretty passionate defense of his ideas regarding how the West was built. He then goes on to explain the philosophies that began our degeneration to where we are now. Which is no where good. The complete insanity that encompasses the political extremes are completely detrimental to logic and reason.
No joke, when I listen to someone on the alt-right rant about how Jews own the banks or the left screech about check your privilege, I blank out and look at them like “Ohhhhh…. you’re a moron!” Which is an unhelpful response. Logic and reason should be able to pull people back to the center where reality dwells. But damn I do not have the energy to argue with stupid people. And they are not interested in logic and reason anyway.
So, back to the book. Mr. Shapiro does an admirable job breaking down when exactly logic began to falter, and how that failure in reason has gained steam in the 20th and 21st centuries. But he doesn’t just leave us in a downward spiral of depression. He does point out that returning to logic and reason, by way of God (you know God had to come into it somewhere) was the path out of the darkness.
And I think he has a point. I am not a Christian. I haven’t been for a very long time. But I went through a period in my life where I was deeply agnostic. And I was genuinely unhappy that way. Belief in SOMETHING is better for me than belief in nothing. So, I am working my way back to faith, back to belief. And I am a happier person for it.
Largely the points he makes have to do with personal responsibility and community responsibility. He identifies four traits that make one happy. 1. The Necessity for Individual Moral Purpose. 2. The Necessity for Individual Capacity. 3. The Necessity for Communal Moral Purpose. 4. The Necessity for Communal Capacity.
So, let’s take each of these for a quick review of what he means.
1. Individual Moral Purpose. We all have value as individuals. That value is meant to be extended to those around us, by way of connection to a Creator. Basically, by not believing in individual moral purpose by way of connection to the divine being, then our own self-interest would drown out the rights of others. What I want (say, free healthcare) would trump the rights of the doctors to get paid for their services, making slaves of the doctor. Slavery, being inherently evil, has no place in the hearts of an individual with moral purpose.
2. Individual Capacity. The belief that we can succeed at what we set our minds to. That with hard work and intent, we can succeed. That is individual capacity.
3. Communal Moral Purpose: the knowledge that the community we surround ourselves with have the same morals, the willingness to allow us to help-ourselves, without suborning our needs to theirs.
4. Community Capacity. Mr. Shapiro says this best” When government is both strong enough to protect against anarchy and limited enough to check its tendency toward tyranny.”
With those thoughts in mind, can you see where we are breaking down, as a society? Morality is fast fading. When everything becomes a right, then rights lose value, as the mobs move to suborn the freedoms of others to their collective purpose.
Schools have been teaching victim mentality for decades, and the stronger your hand in victim poker, the less individual capacity you are meant to have. You are a victim. You don’t have to have capacity or ability. Moral purpose: people no longer support the rights of others, fully encompassed in the phrase “I believe in free speech but….” Community capacity: well…we are fast walking the road to tyranny.
No wonder we are all so angry with each other. Our country is crumbling, and everyone blames everyone else, when really, you need only look in a mirror.
