 So I want to talk about two things. One is, do soldiers sacrifice? Well, it depends. I don't think soldiers have to sacrifice. I think a soldier who knows why he's fighting, that he's fighting for a cause, a cause that is essential to his own life, a cause that is crucial to his own life, a cause that he would rather not live if he didn't fight for. A cause that if he lost, he wouldn't want to live. The cause of freedom, the cause of his own freedom, of his family's freedom, of his friend's freedom, of the freedom of people he loves and cares for. Then it is not a sacrifice. Then he is fighting for freedom. He's fighting for liberty. He's fighting for an abstract idea. He's not committing suicide, but he realizes that if he doesn't fight, then who will? And that liberty and freedom are worth risking one's life for. And that is not a sacrifice. That is fighting for a supreme value. So soldiers don't have to sacrifice. Now if they're sent into war with their hands tied behind their backs, yes, they're being sacrificed. And it's that Judeo-Christian tradition, by the way, particularly the Christian tradition, that sacrifices them, that makes it impossible for them to fight full-on, to protect themselves. So it's Christianity's view of turning the other cheek, loving your enemy, loving thy neighbor like yourself, all of that crap that leads us to sacrifice some for the sake of others. In this case, our soldiers for the sake of civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan or elsewhere. So the second question is a question of patriotism. Now I consider myself an American patriot. I'm an immigrant to this country. I chose to come here. But I'm an American patriot in the sense of what I think America means. I'm not a patriot of particular borders or a particular nation, but what the nation represents, and in America's case, what the nation represents in its founding documents. As the founding documents become less relevant, as America ceases to represent those American values, I am less patriotic. As I see the people who claim to be great patriots and great lovers of America, the so-called conservatives, or the conservatives, not so-called, the real conservatives, turning away from the founding, you should read some of the criticism at the conservative magazines of Brad Thompson's book on the Declaration of Independence, as they turn away from the founding, as they reject our founding fathers, as they reject the Declaration of Independence, as they reject the very ideas that made America America. And these are the conservatives we know the left has rejected all that long ago. What is left of this country to be patriotic about? As I see the sense of life of Americans whittled away, except being locked away because of a virus. Not, I'm not talking about New Yorkers who really were threatened, but I'm talking about people all over America where this virus represented an insignificant threat to their lives. And yet, they calmly, acceptingly locked themselves at home and accepted checks from the government to bail themselves out. And not a peep out of them, a few demonstrations here, a few demonstrations there, demonstrations weren't particularly American in my view, but a few demonstrations here, a few demonstrations there, but acceptance of authoritarianism. In that sense, I did a show, I can't remember what it was, and I said a while back, can't remember the name of the show was this, but in that sense, we're all China now. We're all China now. You know, they locked down the Chinese city, nobody said a word, everybody said, yes sir, how can we help? And it's not that the virus is not a threat, I completely recognize the virus as a threat, and I am completely against people who try to minimize the threat that is a virus. It's the idea of shutting down, of closing up, of locking people away, of mandating that they do that, even in places where the threat was minimal. And it's not even that, it's the fact that people just accepted it, not a peep. Then where's the American sense of life? So what does it mean to be patriotic today about America? Almost nobody knows what the founding principles are. The people who claim the conservatives to be for the founding principles don't believe in them anymore and are moving us closer and closer to authoritarianism, or at least they would like to, whether they're successful or not, it's a different story. And the American people, those people that I loved so much that I loved so much, because of their sense of life, their unmitigated love of freedom and liberty, seems to have faded. You know, Leonard Peacock gave an amazing talk right after 9-11, it must have been 2002, called Americans versus America. How Americans have turned against the ideas of America. How Americans don't represent America anymore and how the sense of life of Americans is dying. And that's hard to be patriotic. So my patriotism is about the memory of America. But America, what America used to be, what America can still be, I think, but about the idea of America, which I would like to see resurrected somewhere in the globe at some point in time. And of course, you know, we romanticized the past, but World War I was in the past and many, many Americans supported that war and many, many Americans went to their death quite happily it would seem to fight in that war. And many, many Americans romanticized war and romanticized World War I. And if you read stories of that period, you can see that. And yet, it was not a war for America. It was not an American war, it was not a necessary war. It was just slaughter for no reason. So, you know, there were problems in America in the past as well. But America always came through and seemed to always rebound and re-engage with those founding principles, re-engage with that American sense of life. And let's hope that it happens this time too. Let's hope that 9-11, the financial crisis, the coronavirus have not dwindled the American sense of life so much that there's nothing to come back to nothing to come back for. Let's hope there's somebody still keeping the flame of those ideas alive. Suddenly, that is my hope and that is what I try to do. You know, you could talk about the fact that I'm an objectivist and the ideas that I'm preaching are iron-ran. But really, the ideas that I'm advocating for are American ideas. They're ideas of the founders. Yes, I don't agree with them on everything and they suddenly, who knows what they would have thought of my ideas and suddenly they were more Christian than I would like them to be and they were more religious than I'd like them to be. But far less Christian, far less religious than conservatives are today than Americans are today. So I view myself as a defender of the American founding and defender of Americanism. And in that context, wait a minute, it's right here. Here's the book, right? This is what is worth fighting for. This is what patriotism should mean. It's the love of Americanism, a love of America as represented by the idea that it was founded on. And here, iron-ran articulates her vision for what America is, what it should be, what it can be, to some extent what it was. The America that the founders founded, not the America of pseudo-ignorant intellectuals of today who value their Christianity more than they do, this great and amazing country. So I encourage everybody to pick up a copy. It was edited by Jonathan Honing, who was on the chat before. It's got an essay of Iron Hands that you can't find anywhere else. And it's got an essay of mine, somewhere here. I think I wrote something here. Yes, I did. And a number of others. I mean, there's some terrific stuff here that I highly recommend. There's iron-ran's textbook on Americanism where she articulates her vision of what America is. There's American political philosophy. So what is American political philosophy? By Uncle Garten, which is an excellent article. Jonathan Honing has an essay here on property rights. And, you know, a lot more. And then there's more of Iron-Ran, some never-released, you know, some text of her workshop on ethics and politics, which is just gems, just amazing content. My essay is about bringing it up to today, Textbook of Americanism today, some issues that one needs to address if one addresses America today. And then Brad Thompson has an essay on Americanism and the Spirit of Liberty. So some really, some really excellent stuff in the book. I highly recommend it. It is a great book to purchase on Memorial Day. You should go now to Amazon and get your copy. It's a great book to read anytime and to remind yourself of what this country is because you won't find this kind of definition of America anywhere. Unfortunately, I spent the day today reading some... journal articles by a variety of different conservatives and it's very depressing. It's very depressing. The American right is either bankrupt or completely and utterly corrupt. It's been corrupted by the alt-right in ways that I never imagined when I first did a show on the alt-right four years ago. The alt-right has been mainstreamed. Anyway, we'll do a show on that. I was preparing for a show but then I decided to talk about Memorial Day. So patriotism is wonderful, but not for a piece of land, not for a border, but for a vision of what is possible, for a country that represents a vision and America was that vision, did represent that vision and that is fading and that is sad and Memorial Day is a time to remember what's worth fighting for in America, the freedom, the liberty, before it disappears. All right. What we need today, what I call the new intellectual, would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism and impotence and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and the role of the collectivist brought. Using the super chat and I noticed yesterday when I appealed for support for the show many of you step forward and actually supported the show for the first time so I'll do it again. Maybe we'll get some more today. If you like what you're hearing, if you appreciate what I'm doing then I appreciate your support. Those of you who don't yet support the show please take this opportunity go to youronbrookshow.com slash support or go to star.com youronbrookshow and make a kind of a monthly contribution to keep this going. I'm not showing the next...