American Exceptionalism, The Scorpion and the Frog Fable, and Zohran Mamdani (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_1014)
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Summary
Happy 250th Birthday to the greatest nation of all time, the United States of America! In honor of the occasion, I read a passage from my new book, "Suicidal Empathy," and discuss why the country needs to be very careful in order to celebrate the next 250 years with equal love of liberty and freedom and individual dignity, and so on.
Transcript
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Hi everybody, this is Gadsar. I wanted to begin by wishing the United States a wonderful 250th birthday.
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I still remember in 1976, it had only been less than a year since we'd moved from Lebanon,
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when it was the 1976 200th anniversary, and I had a soccer magazine where there was a soccer tournament
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in the united states to celebrate the 200th anniversary and i i wonder if i still have it
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somewhere and i'm not sure where it might be but in any case now we're celebrating the world cup
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and the 250th anniversary may the united states exist for another 250 years and infinitely more
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years and may it grow from strength to strength uh i won't do a clip today on why the united
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States is the greatest country in the history of the world although it is for many reasons but
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rather what I'd like to do is discuss why it needs to be very careful in order for it to be able to
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celebrate the next 250 years with equal love of liberty and freedom and individual dignity and so
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on. And I'm going to do that by first reading a passage from my latest book, Please Think
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About Going and Getting a Copy, Suicidal Empathy. On page 39 of the book, I start with a new
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section titled Unicornia, The Enchanted Land of No Risks. And so it's, I'm going to read
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you pretty much the entire page and then I'm going to link it to something that I saw from a
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politician in the United States and how he perfectly embodies the dangers that the United
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States faces if it doesn't right its ship. Fables are enduring because they communicate universal
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moral lessons that transcend time and place. Two of my favorites are The Scorpion and the Frog
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and the farmer and the viper, each of which teach a slightly different lesson. In the former,
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a scorpion asks a frog if it can hitch a ride on its back across the river. The frog is hesitant
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to do so given that it fears the scorpion's sting. The frog's fear is assuaged by the scorpion
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who confirms that it would be irrational to sting it as it would seal their demise. This convinces
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the frog and they proceed across the river. On their journey and to the frog's utter dismay,
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it feels the scorpion's sting. The frog asks the scorpion why it broke its promise, thus ensuring
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that they would both perish, to which the scorpion quips that it could not help but do so because it
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is in its nature. The lesson here is that we cannot live in a utopian world decoupled from reality.
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It would be nice to ascribe noble qualities to the scorpion, but ultimately it is going to behave
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in ways consistent with its evolved dispositional behaviors. In the second fable attributed to the
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ancient Greek fabulist Aesop, a farmer sees a viper freezing to death. In his bountiful kindness
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and feeling great pity toward the dying reptile, he places it in his coat to allow it to warm up.
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once the snake recovers, it bites the farmer. His beneficence did not save him from the snake's
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nature. Kindness, generosity, compassion, and empathy must be strategically offered.
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In a contemporary manifestation of this fable, a South African farmer named Marius Ells had
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rescued a young hippopotamus and raised it on his farm else dismissed the safety concerns of having
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a personal relationship with such a dangerous animal instead he argued that the young hippo
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was akin to a son to him well the quote son ended up killing his adoptive dad well as many of you
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know and has as has led to a justifiable furor from many many people uh Zoran Mamdani Mamdani
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the current mayor of New York City uh made an address on the 250th anniversary of the United
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States sitting on I think it's the George Washington desk or right and instead of posting
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something that said let me i'm going to read to you what i posted today on x
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happy 250th birthday to the greatest nation of all time my family is so proud and grateful
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to be moving to the u.s may the next 250 years be even better than the first 250 years and this is
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why i will be holding a distinguished visiting professorship at the university of mississippi
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at the Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom
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because I have internalized, I exemplified those values of American freedom.
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I am thankful and grateful that I will be in the United States living there,
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Well, Zoran Mamdani, you can go and watch the clip.
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it is so astoundingly offensive and insulting he is basically rubbing your nose in it he's saying
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i'm here i'm the scorpion you thought when you let me in to ride your back naive frog across the
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river please please let me in i love you and then once i come in all i do all day long is take
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positions that are antithetical to capitalism, to individual liberty, to every single foundational
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ethos that defines the United States. He exemplifies the antithesis of that, but yet
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because of the United States, forgive me for saying in this case suicidal empathy,
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he now runs the largest city in the united states that defines capitalism that that historically has
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been the center of jewish life outside of israel and yet he's not doesn't show gratitude he he
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became a citizen in 2018 his dad is a professor i think at columbia university who spews
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endless anti-american anti-this and anti-israel and anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism and
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anti-everything that makes the united states wonderful
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immigration policy is akin to the scorpion and the frog people stand there and go don't worry
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I love you I just want to be part of you and then once I come in and I sting you
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hey it's in my nature to do so so if you wish for our descendants to be experiencing the magic
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the majesty of the American experience in 250 years we better eradicate all of the parasitic
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ideas that have led to suicidal empathy, redress those issues, implement the autocorrective
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procedures in every possible way that they need to be implemented so that the same reality that
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the founders of the United States fought for, we can replicate those ideals for the next 250 years.
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happy birthday united states please don't assume that those freedoms and liberties
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are just the default values there are always endless nefarious characters that are trying
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to bring down this beautiful country don't allow it on your watch take care everybody