Dennis Prager Is Mistaken

That is not something I accuse Prager of very often. He seems to me to be one of the wisest people in America. Ethically, I believe he is an altruistic conservative. People require traditional faith and values to guide them to be moral beings. He believes that people are naturally selfish, self-indulgent, driven by animal urges, and the self-esteem movement fails because it heightens these negative human traits. Prager would counsel that the self-esteem movement is a high-falutin psychological cover for hedonistic self-indulgence. These poor souls are deprived of that vital sense of duty to give back to society, to discipline and restrain the self for the greater good, and to serve a cause larger than the self. To love and give back to family, congreagation and community are what gives life purpose, worth and meaning. Ethically, my Mavellonialist philosophy is egoistic conservativism. People do need to rely upon, be trained in and practice traditional Western values and faith as handed down by our Judeo-Christian forebearers. I would add that the Greek ethical system of egoism and self-development in pursuit of personal happiness must be added to the caldron. Ethical conservatives are more inclined to believe in original sin. Ethical liberals believe human nature at birth is tabula rasa, either genetically benevolent or morally neutral. The twisting of the psyche of a good baby into an evil adult is envrionnmentally produced. Both ethical liberals and ethical conservatives likely espouse that the human will is free. By contrast, I think the human will is programmed by the milieu and that an evil milieu and corrupt basic human nature empower Satan to make us more evil, more destructive and crazier than we need to be. Life in many ways is a stacked deck, and much needless, senseless suffering is what we bequeath to each new generation. Humans are by nature and tabula rasa doomed to lead wicked, truncated, un-fulfilling lives. By contrast, once they are inculcated from birth with wholesome, egoistic self-love and self-appreciation, their wills become freeer and morally healthy. Enlightened self-interest or wholesome, logical, temperate eogism will make each person better, make the world a better place to live in, and pleases God immensely. Prager just needs to blend his standard moral philosophy of conservative altruism with my ethics of conservative egoism to come up with a superior life code that allows people to self-direct, self-appreciate and self-discipline in ways advantageous for society and the individual at the same time.