 Now, I want to talk about self-esteem because there's this perspective that self-esteem is a bad thing that, indeed, Harvey Weinstein had self-esteem and he had the power and that's what led him to do this, but that is not self-esteem. So, I want to talk about what self-esteem really is and I want to talk about this notion that I've heard that you shouldn't care about self-esteem. And the problem with that is that the left, our culture has turned self-esteem into something that it's not, into a mockery of itself, if you will, into a real mockery of what self-esteem really is. So, self-esteem is not getting praise from your parents or from your teacher or from your community. Self-esteem is not about getting a ribbon. Self-esteem is not about, you know, being treated the same as everybody else. Self-esteem is not about everybody patting you in the back and saying nice things to you. You don't get self-esteem from other people. And there was a YouTube video on Prager University about creating this straw man of what self-esteem is, all this nonsensical, you know, subjectivist, collectivistic view of self-esteem. And it said, well, if that's self-esteem, you shouldn't want it. You shouldn't have it. You shouldn't have low self-esteem. You just shouldn't care about self-esteem. That's absurd because self-esteem is a legitimate concept. And I would say one of the most, maybe the most important value that you have, you should strive for great self-esteem. And somebody with great self-esteem would never do what Weinstein did, would never abuse his power. So, when we get back, I'll define self-esteem and we'll talk about what real self-esteem is like and why you should have it, and seek to have as much as you can, right after the break. All right, so we're talking about Harvey Weinstein. We're talking about personal responsibility and self-esteem. And let me just say, some of you, I'm sure, want to blame the women, at least somewhat. And yeah, some of what the women did is certainly not honorable and some of them succumbed to what Harvey Weinstein was doing. Some of them knew when they went up to his room what his intentions were. But look, you can't make those equivalent. There's no equivalent between those. This guy is a creep. He's a monster. He's a bad, bad guy. Some of these women were weak and lack self-esteem as well. And as a consequence, succumbed to his advances. But he is immoral. Now, what he did, in some cases, might not be illegal because he didn't use force, maybe. But it's clearly immoral to use his position to extract sexual favors. And it's illegal if he used force than this. It seems like there's evidence that he did use force in certain occasions. Certainly by groping women, maybe even by raping them. We'll see how this all plays out. But don't go after the victim. There is clearly somebody here who has a predator and he needs to be called on as a predator. Alright, let me tell you what I think self-esteem is. Or what Ein Rand thought self-esteem was. What I think self-esteem is, not just what we think it is. Self-esteem, as she defined it, is the certainty that your mind is competent of thinking. And that you, as a human being, are worthy of happiness. Worthy of living. So, fundamentally, self-esteem is this notion that I'm worthy of living. I'm worthy of being happy. And I'm capable of living and being happy, which means I'm capable of thinking for myself. This is the exact opposite of how the left views us, as we talked about with regard to healthcare. The left views us, and many on the right, as incompetent, as incapable, as not capable of taking care of ourselves. So this is the connection between self-esteem and personal responsibility. The idea is you should take on personal responsibility and know that you can take on that responsibility. That your mind is competent to take care of yourself. You can choose your own health insurance. You can choose your own doctor. You can choose what procedure to take. You are not some bubbling idiot. You're not irrational and motivated just by your emotions. You have a mind and you are competent enough to use it. And, most importantly, you are worthy of it. And I know this goes up a little bit against a lot of the religious teaching out there. You're not worthy. You're a sinner. You have original sin. No! I don't buy any of that. Any of that. Every human being born is born worthy of happiness, worthy of living. Every human being born has a mind capable of leading him towards happiness and success. There's no such thing as original sin. How can you have sinned before you're born? How can you have sinned before you've acted? This life is not for suffering and for being miserable and for feeling guilty. This life is to be enjoyed, to be embraced. This life is to make the most of it, to flourish. You only got one shot at this. Make the most of it. And that knowledge. Hey, I can live. I can live a good life. I can achieve happiness. I have all the tools I need to do that. That's real self-esteem. And if you don't have that sense, then you'll never be happy. You'll never really be successful. Successful not in terms of money, not in terms of rank, not in terms of position, but in terms of living, in terms of what it means to be a human being, in terms of happiness and flourishing and fulfillment. So self-esteem is that, you know, again, I quote Iain Rand. This is about self-confidence, which is related to self-esteem. The man of authentic self-confidence is the man who relies on the judgment of his own mind. Such a man is not malleable. He may be mistaken. He may be fooled in a given instance, but he is inflexible in regard to the absolutism of reality in seeking and demanding truth. There's only one source of authentic self-confidence, reason, and, you know, that fits into the question we're going to deal with after the next break, the efficacy of reason. So not only is self-esteem required for happiness. Self-esteem is required for living. Self-esteem is required for being successful in life. Self-esteem is a must. It's not a choice. And in the end of the day, you either have high self-esteem or low self-esteem, or pseudo self-esteem. Sudo self-esteem is when you project confidence, and I'm in this world and I know what's going on, but it's nothing there. It's empty. Harvey Weinstein and many of these women have pseudo self-esteem. And many of them just have low self-esteem. That's what leads people to do horrible things. And the worst is when you have really bad self-esteem to the extent that you not only hate yourself, but you hate the world. And I talked a little bit about the Las Vegas shooter and other shooters like that. I think those are people who hate the world, hate reality, hate reason, hate life, hate themselves. But it's not just themselves that they hate. They hate existence out there. They hate the world. And that's why they're willing to destroy, not just commit suicide. You know, I have no problem with them committing suicide. They hate their life, commit suicide, fine. I don't believe in laws against suicide. But it's the fact that they want to kill other people. People they don't know. People just listening to music concert. That hatred is a hatred of existence. Somebody with self-esteem doesn't have that. They love the world. Now, how do you get self-esteem? Not by convincing yourself you have it, but by achieving things in life, by actually succeeding, by being competent in living, which means being competent in using your mind. You don't have to be a genius to have self-esteem. We're not talking about great achievements in science. It just means within your own capacity, you know that you can make a living for yourself. So for example, giving people welfare destroys their self-esteem because then you're telling them you're not competent to take care of yourself and accepting that and they stay on welfare. To get self-esteem, proper self-esteem, you have to work for a living. You have to prove to yourself, yep, I can put bread on the table. I can keep a roof above my head and my family's head. That's where you get self-esteem. From the knowledge of your competency, but how do you know you're competent? How do you know your mind is efficacious? How do you know reason? Your reason can help you survive in this world by doing it and achieving and succeeding. And that's why giving everybody a ribbon destroys self-esteem. It doesn't give the opportunity for people to succeed. And you know what? Sometimes failure is necessary for self-esteem. Sometimes we need to fail, fall flat on our face and say, okay, that didn't work. I need to learn from that. I need to do better next time. When you give everybody a ribbon, you take that possibility away from them because they don't fall. So they don't know they failed. But to be successful, you have to know that there's the option at least of failure. Our modern system takes that away. Everybody's a winner. Everybody's good. No, not everybody's good. Not everybody's a winner. Not everybody plays basketball the way Michael Jordan did. Now, you have to have challenges. You have to achieve. And if you don't achieve, you don't deserve the self-esteem that comes from actually achieving. So self-esteem is crucial to your life. It's what makes acting in life, acting in life in a rational, competent. It's what makes possible taking on new achievement, new challenges, new things. So not only is it something you shouldn't avoid, it's something... Now, you don't focus on it. You don't say, I need self-esteem. What can I do? But the way you get self-esteem is by challenging yourself constantly. And when you achieve something, recognize that you did it. This is the importance of pride. You've got to be proud in your achievements. You've got to pass pride. Real pride. You've got to pat yourself on the shoulder. You've got to recognize your own virtue. And if you do that, if you achieve, objectively achieve things, and recognize your own virtue, you will get self-esteem. Okay, we're going to take a quick break.