The Wise Dennis Prager

 I have often commented on how wise Prager is, but view again his November 22, 2017 5-minute video ws amazing and inspirational. 

Prager identifies gratitude as that attitude that delivers people access to happiness and goodness. Now, I have recommended that people are essentially depraved, and admit that a tragic view of life is necessary to knowing wisdom and happiness. However, it is a first glance, not the long view.

We are born in sin; the world is run by Satan and Lera; people are beasts filled with sin, low self-esteem, selfishness, violence, lust and passion. They run in packs and packs are where evil altruistically is centralized. Jordan Peterson piles on withhis gloomy view that life is suffering tainted by violence.

All of us are correct, and should be heeded, but this is not entirely how the world is constituted. But, there is hope, real hope.

This is where Prager comes in. If we are grateful, we can become good and happy; of we are grateful, we will count our blessings and build a better world from where we are at. Prager advocates that all that is good grows out of gratitude.

Attitude may not be everything, but it comes close. Prager warns that almost everythng bad flows from ingratitude. Ungrateful people are neither good nor happy, and they cannot find relief for their unhappiness and self-loathing. They do not take personal responsibility for their failures: rather they blame others, scapegoats, God, nature, even Being itself. As their hatred, resentment, anger and selfishness grow, so does their temptation to act out their frustration by taking their discontent out onto others, their victims, whom they are convinced are victimizing them, the aggressors and abusers.

Prager advises that none accept that they are victims, because once ungrateful and angry,  they will seek to hurt others.

We must not allow anyone, especially children, to be spoiled, feel entitled, to feel that they are victims because these roles make them ungrateful, unhappy, bad people, and thus evil grows in society.

It could be that feeling grateful, happy, at peace and good are captured by the word love, and feeling, cheated angry, ungrateful, unhappy and cruel are generally described as hatred.

Prager is onto something important here.