Does narcissism and public education go hand in hand?

It's just a beautiful day to be alive in the greatest country on the planet. All right, we've got a history class today. We've got to finish our discussion yesterday. It's a discussion on narcissism, and we've got to get it finished, because I don't want to leave that discussion hanging. We've got to get that done.

We've got to get to Michigan. I meant to get to Michigan last week. There's some things happening here with this budget, this education bill. Republicans are saying that the education fund here in Michigan is going to be $30 billion in debt, and we have a Democrat governor that is just essentially handing out freebies and buying votes. There's this raging cell phone debate, which for the most part, the public schools and their teachers have been on board that cell phones need to go.

Not that they need to go and be gone forever, but that during the school day, the kids, they really need to be cell phone free. There's this pushback now. We are seeing some pushback out of all places in the state of New York. Are we surprised by that? No.

No, we're not. We are not.

We need to dive into that a little bit. First, my friends, today is the anniversary of the death of one of our best presidents. He's underrated. I don't think Ulysses S. Grant gets the love that he deserves, quite frankly.

I think he deserves more love than he gets. Today is the anniversary of his passing.

Here's what one of our favorite historians, Bill Bennett, has to say about it. 1884, Ulysses S. Grant, former General of the Union Armies and President of the United States, suddenly found himself penniless and humiliated. His brokerage firm, Grant and Ward, had collapsed with the discovery that his partner, Ferdinand Ward, was a crook. Ward had stolen investors' money.

62-year-old Grant, an honorable and beloved man, was devastated.

And it got worse. That fall, he consulted a doctor about a nagging soreness in his throat. The expression on the specialist's face told the former president the news was bad. Is it cancer? Grant asked.

It was, replied the doctor, and there was little hope of survival. Grant quickly made a decision. He had never wanted to write his memoirs, but he realized that would be the best way to provide for his wife, Julia, and his family. Thanks to Ward, the finances of the Grant family were destroyed. His former partner took it all.

The crook took it all.

So Grant decided, okay, I've got throat cancer. There's nothing we can do about it. I've got to write a book. I've got to put my memoirs to paper. If the book sold well, they would have some financial security.

when he was gone. His friend, Mark Twain, agreed to publish the work. So Grant started writing, in a race against death. My family is America and has been for generations in all its branches, direct and collateral, he began. The Grants moved to the Adirondack Mountains, hoping the mountain air would make him more comfortable.

Every day he sat on the porch, propped in a chair, barely even able to swallow, suffering from intense pain in his throat. But he wrote steadily. He wrote mainly of his military career, but also of his confidence that Northerners and Southerners would once again be fast friends. I cannot stay to be a living witness to the correctness of this prophecy he wrote, but I feel it within me that it is to be so. Grant finished the manuscript on July 18, 1885..

Five days later, on July 23,, Grant died. The personal memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant was a huge bestseller, providing large royalties for the general's widow. Written in clear, unadorned prose, it remains a classic of American literature.

Have you read it? Has anyone in here? You have not. Okay. Well, I say that maybe we.

start reading it. Let's read it. Let's read the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. What I am so intrigued about this story is the President's, Grant's, will to survive.

And he said, look, I'm going to finish this book because I've got to be able to provide for my family even after I'm gone. And the will to survive, the will of the human heart to.

move forward, move even in the face of death, to keep death at bay, to not give up, to realize I've got to finish this project. If I don't, my family will have nothing.

And he finishes the memoir five days later. Five days later, he decides, okay, all right, I can give up the ghost. I can go to my eternal rest. I can cash in my chips, as it were. I'm just so impressed by the human will.

I'm impressed by the human desire to, and I don't know, maybe I'm just thinking this way because I had a couple of funerals over the weekend. A couple of cousins passed away.

You know, it's just, I don't know, it's just interesting. But that's all. It's just, to me, the fight of the human spirit, the fight to survive,

the fight, the desire to press forward. And then, when you make that decision, that it's time to go, and then you, just, you go. You make the call.

You know, we've seen it happen time and time again. We have watched it. We have watched it transpire.

And it's just, I don't know, I don't know. It's just intriguing to me. That's all. All right, so here's what's on the docket today. We've got, well, what's that?

Oh, yeah, Biden has, that's true. Now there's, okay, so Biden has stepped down. But you know what is most, all right, before we get to narcissism and our students and all of that, I think I need to, what I am super intrigued with, I mean, just is this whole idea. I mean, the coverage that we're getting of the assassination attempt,

and, by the way, the coverage from the mainstream is crickets. But what we're getting from these individuals throughout social media, that?

the analysis that we're receiving, the sound, the sound analysis of the shots, and the determination, even based on the sound analysis, that there's more than one shooter.

That there's at least two, possibly three.

You know, are we ever going to get the truth? I don't know. We haven't got the truth of JFK. All right, well, that's true. But, as one guy was saying, I was listening to one guy the other day, and he was talking about how we didn't have this type of analysis.

We didn't have this type of capability when JFK was assassinated. He said, well, we're analyzing this right now in real time. I mean, we're watching this unfold, and we're doing our own analysis. Back then, we didn't have it. We had to rely on the federal government to tell us what they determined.

Well, those days are done. Those days, yeah, have you seen the clip, right, of the FBI agent, or whoever he is, on top of the building, power washing, scrubbing the evidence? I just, you know, what's coming out and what people are saying? I mean, these are smart people. They're not, you know, it's not Uncle Billy Bob out there with just his opinion.

These are smart people. And there are determinations being drawn. There are conclusions being drawn, being made, inferences being made by smart people.

I just, I mean, we'll see. I know. We're going to see. We're going to see what's to come of it. And then, you know, the race to take over for Biden, that's very interesting.

You know, I'm looking at Gretchen here. So, I mean, she's on the short list. She has been for a while. She was on the short list to be his running mate, you know, back in 2020..

I'm looking at her smiling as she's signing this bill that will allow Michigander High School graduates to attend community college tuition free. Now, there's an age limit to that. I think it's 21.. So, you're not going to, you're just going to come out of college and go for free.

You've got to be 21.

. But why? I mean, here's the question. Why not just make it free for everybody? You've got these 18-year-olds.

who, you know, are going to leave college and then they're going to go pay for two years at community college. When, if they were just wait until 21,, they could get it for free. So, I wonder. I wonder what's going to happen. What kind of, how is this going to change the collegiate landscape in Michigan?

Because, of course, they're telling us that the purpose of this bill is to encourage more,

you know, more Michiganders to go to college. But if you're 18 and you graduate high school and you're thinking, hmm, I think I might go to the community college down the road,

would you say to yourself, I'm going to go now, I'm going to pay the tuition, or, yeah, maybe I'm not going to go. Maybe I'm going to wait until I'm 21 where I can get the tuition for free. I mean, you know, it's what, you know, two, three years away. I might just wait. I might just go get a job.

I might just, and then life might happen. And will they even end up going? This is the question. This is the thing. So, this is part of the 2025 budget here in Michigan, the initiative.

It's part of Michigan's efforts to advance education and advance the goal that 60 percent of working age adults in Michigan have a skills certificate or college degree by 23.

. So, the point is, let's get, you know, let's attract these individuals who are, you know, 21 and older, who maybe didn't go to college or maybe don't have a skill set. Maybe they'll want to go back for free. All right. Okay.

But if somebody wanted to go and get a skill,

don't you think that that skill would be more valuable to them if they worked for it, if they paid for it? We've got these two different mindsets here. I mean, one mindset, which, okay, I mean, I get it. You want to reach out and you want to help people. You want them to, you want to encourage them to come and get educated, because education's the thing.

That's all true.

But it's a different mindset than encouraging somebody to work for something and encouraging somebody to,

if they want to better themselves, to get a part-time job, pay for the tuition, pay for the betterment, and feel differently about themselves than getting.

a handout, getting a freebie. Oh, Dean, that's so callous. Look, I get it. If I'm 21,, I'm probably going to take it. I mean, who isn't?

Who isn't going to go and say, yeah, sign me up. I'll take it. I'll take free college or I'll take advantage of it.

I'm not speaking negatively about that. I'm speaking to this idea where.

you know, getting something for free starts to erode away. It starts to diminish a work ethic. Now, you know, they're going to go to college. They're going to work for their education academically. So is that actually going to erode away a work ethic?

Somewhere,

yes, in my opinion, that the work ethic is being chipped away. Somewhere. Somewhere. there's some element of this where you don't. I don't know.

I don't think I'm bitter about it. I mean, I did work my way through college. I didn't, you know, there wasn't a handout. It wasn't like, you get to go here for free. I don't know.

I don't know. Maybe it's just me. Is it just me?

The fiscal 2025 budget here in Michigan totals $82.

5 billion. It includes a school aid budget of $19 billion.

It was approved on party line basis. Democrats, of course, have control of both chambers. So this was a Democrat deal.

Critics of the governor's budget expressed concern that it places too much emphasis on spending and expanding government programs, as opposed to saving for rainy days, with state Republicans expressing concerns over increased spending after surpluses have run dry. We know that's happening. We absolutely, absolutely, it's happening. Republicans said in a statement specifically related to the education part of the budget that they opposed the school aid and higher education portions, which they said were jammed through the legislature along party lines, which they were. That's true.

A GOP state rep, David Preston, here's what he said. By raiding the teacher pension fund, Democrats are betraying retirees who have dedicated their lives to our kids. Putting former educators at risk in a time of heightened economic volatility is reckless and dangerous. Oh, so, what do you mean? raiding teacher pension funds?

Well, shouldn't we take a closer look at that? What would you mean? you're, oh wait, so you're going to pay for this free college tuition program for 21 and older through teacher pension funds? Where have we seen this before? Where have we, oh, okay, where?

this is reminiscent of of the auto industry. I mean, this is classic. This is right from the auto industry playbook. Let's raid the pension funds. We've got all this money sitting here in pension funds.

We'll give it back. It's just a loan, but you don't have to worry. We're going to give the money back. I mean, it's like social security 101, right? Let's just, let's raid that fund over there and let's use it for our pet projects.

Superintendents, this is GOP rep, Dave Preston, continued by saying superintendents, teachers, and staff called all day to let me know that this budget is bad for their schools. It's bad for their colleagues.

Okay. All right. So there are some teachers who are, their eyes are opening up to this. Oh, now, see the teacher's union. I mean, we know this.

We know that the teacher's union is in, they're in the pocket of the Democrat. They're in the pockets. We know this. We've talked about this, but apparently, apparently, the eyes of some teachers and administrators are awakening. All right.

So let's, let's look at the budget. Key allocations to K-12 education here in Michigan include $589 million to offset retirement costs,

$133 million for student mental health and school safety, $200 million to provide universally free breakfast and lunch to 1.

4 million public school students, and $130 million for expanding free pre-K to every four-year-old in Michigan. So that's right. We're doing, we're doing free preschool now, every four-year-old in the state. So preschool was something that you used to have to pay for. Not anymore.

No, Gretchen has, has made it free, which, you know, okay, that's great. Is it, is it great though? I mean,

portions in higher education include a one and a half percent ongoing and a 1% one-time increase for university and community college operations. All right. $30 million to expand the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, ensuring tuition-free community college for high school graduates, $52 million to continue Michigan Reconnect, offering tuition-free pathways for adult learners 21 and over, and $14.5 million for North American Indian tuition waiver. All right. So there's a, there's a lot going on here.

There's a lot in it. Education is our greatest engine for economic and personal achievements, says the Lieutenant Governor. And I agree. I agree with the Lieutenant Governor that education is our greatest engine for economic and personal achievement. I think what I disagree with him on is the type of education, the type of education that's being delivered.

I think if, if a proper education were given and we're focused at the, at the K-12 level, then it would be our greatest engine for economic and personal achievement. But currently the education that's being provided at the K-12 level is not the greatest engine. That's not an engine at all.

It's not an engine at all. You know, that's the way I feel about it. Because it's not a, we're not focused on the things we should be focused on. We're not, we're not focused on the virtues. We're not expanding upon the virtues.

We're not teaching the virtues. No, no, we're not. We're, we're teaching other things that don't include the virtues.

Republicans characterized the new school funding priorities as a dramatic change of policy.

They said it would remove $670 million from going into the state's retirement fund for teachers, adding the state has a history of failing to make payments to that fund, which has led to increasing debt.

A total state budget of over $81 billion, said state Senator Ed McBroom. It seems inconceivable that we would be failing to increase per pupil funding to make a debt payment into a fund that's $30 billion in debt. So when we've got this, this education war being waged here in Michigan, and we got Gretchen, you know, signing this, this, this giveaway program. And I, I just wonder, is she signing this to, to, to get herself in the, I don't know, in the favors of the, of the union bosses? Because, look, the, the union bosses, they don't care if, they don't care if the retirement fund is being plundered.

They, they don't care. All they look and see is giveaway. They see giveaway, giveaway. And, and the more the Democrats give away, then, you know, the better their chances are of becoming president, I guess. I mean, that's what they're, that's what they think in their mind.

I mean, look at Newsom. I mean, he's on the, he's on the list. He's on the short list. He is. He's on the short list.

And if they, if, if their focus, if their, if their focus of, in the words of the Lieutenant Governor, education is our greatest engine for economic and personal achievement. If their focus was on a true, actual, robust education, I don't know, maybe I wouldn't be so, I don't want to use the word anti, but I don't know, maybe I could get on board. I just, I think they're misguided in their, in their direction. I think they're misguided in what type of education they're giving to provide this wonderful engine. So I started this article yesterday, speaking of what type of education is being given.

I started this article yesterday. The title of the article is, we tend to grow out of narcissism, but today's children may have a harder time. And the article talks about how we all have some sort of narcissistic tendencies. And as adults, we tend to grow out of them. We tend to, you know, we tend to mature.

We tend to grow up a little bit and we leave the narcissism behind. But the point of the piece written by Matthew Little is that, yeah, today's kids, they're going to have a harder time shaking the shackles of narcissistic behavior and tendencies. Why in the world would they shake the shackles? Or how come they can't shake the shackles of narcissistic tendencies?

And his point is interesting. He says, we may not be all that aware of some of these least desirable traits. We're becoming less and less self-aware, is his point. How is it that kids are becoming less and less self-aware? Oh, all right.

We will get into that. We will get into why, but I'm looking at the clock. Okay. I see that I'm up against the break, and this is good. This is good because now I can give myself more time on the other side to actually finish an article that I've started.

Of course, I didn't start it today. I started it yesterday, but you get the point. All right. So let's pause here for a break. We will jump into this narcissism on the other side.

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So again, this article is written by Matthew Little. I started this yesterday. The article is entitled, We Tend to Grow Out of Narcissism, But Today's Children May Have a Harder Time. They're going to have a harder time. I can tell you that right now.

He says, while narcissists are better known for their grandiose sense of self and inflated self-importance, these qualities are attempts to compensate for a deeper sense of self-doubt and shame. All right, so I want to focus on this for a second. Narcissists are known for their grandiose sense of self and inflated self-importance. And that's just on the surface. That's only what we're seeing on the surface.

Underneath, underneath, that surface, Little says. these, these surface qualities are attempts to compensate for what's happening underneath. And underneath is a deeper sense of self-doubt and shame. So it's all a facade. It's all a, it's an act.

It's all a game. It's, it's all, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to put this out there.

And I'm just going to see if, you know, if I can get, if I can convince people to, to buy it. I'm going to see if I can convince people to buy the act. I'm going to, I'm going to, underneath, though, underneath, there's a lot of, there's a lot of self-doubt. Underneath, there's, there's a lot of shame.

But, you know, I got to put this out there.

And, and he continues by saying narcissism exists on a spectrum from extreme cases that meet the threshold of a diagnosis to everyday arrogance, hiding, insecurity. nearly everyone will experience. Right. So we all, you know, have our own insecurities and we all attempt to over overcome these insecurities.

But, but the threshold of a diagnosis of a true narcissist is, this is somebody who's not really overcoming these insecurities and they're just masking them.

He says, in some ways, it's hard to escape this dynamic. We live in a world that values appearances and superficial successes. And this is why it's hard to, to get over this, because

this is, this is where we live. The focus is on our superficial successes.

And this comment here of narcissists being known for a grandiose sense of self and inflated self-importance. While, you know, these superficial qualities are really compensating for something deeper, something that they're trying to mask, reminds me of the robber cave experiment that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. This article on the robber cave experiment describes how the research has indicated and has looked at two different types of pride.

What. one type is what they call authentic, authentic pride. And the second type of pride is hubristic. And they have distinct effects on interpersonal relationships as well as mental health. So, all right, so I'm going to, I'm going to look at these two side by side, because back to the narcissistic article with an article on narcissism, the,

it says that, coincidentally, this kind of behavior is one reason narcissists have poor relationships.

And a particular type of pride also has distinct effects on interpersonal relationships as well as mental health. And I think there's a connection here. There's an interesting connection here. Authentic pride is rooted in a genuine self-esteem. It's not a grandiose, it's not self-inflated.

It is genuine. Authentic pride is rooted in genuine self-esteem and it correlates positively with social connection and mental health. It is exemplified by thoughts like I did well because I worked hard. It reflects a sense of accomplishment based on one's efforts and abilities, fostering positive relationships and well-being. I did well because I worked hard.

I achieved something because I worked hard. Now this takes us back to the conversation on Gretchen.

And there's something, there's something that happens in the psyche of an individual and therefore the psyche of society, when we start to take away the ability to work. And maybe that's not the right way to say it. Maybe the incentive to work. When we start to remove the incentive,

there isn't much of an incentive for someone to go get a job part-time and then work their way through college to achieve something. If they can just go to college and get it for free. Now you might ask that how, Dean, how does that tear away or rip away or chip away at a work ethic? I mean the student is still going to college and they're still working. I mean yeah, there's truth to that, but there's this also this erosion.

This erosion over a period of time that takes place.

I mean you can look at the welfare state. When the great society was enacted, when Lyndon Johnson said yes, we're going to do this. You can go back and you can chart and you can see how it has been destructive. It's not been helpful. It's been destructive.

It's created.

single-parent households almost single-handedly. Because the incentive to work has been removed in the name of providing a safety net. There's nothing wrong with a safety net, but there's two different ideas on who should be providing the safety net. So should somebody be providing the, or should you be taught how to provide the safety net for yourself?

And it comes right back down to the Michigan lieutenant governor's statement that education is our greatest engine for economic and personal achievement. The lieutenant governor is spot on, but there's two different ways to go about this. I mean there's probably more than two, but there are two chief opposing points of view.

And one point of view says I'm going to give you a fish and I'm going to feed you, and then you are going to expect a fish from me tomorrow. so come back, I'm going to give you another fish tomorrow. I'm going to give you more fish and chips. You know there's that point of view where the person keeps going back to the government dole, the government handout, the government trough. And there's no incentive to work.

There's no desire to learn. There's no true education happening. But if you bring that person down to the creek bank and you say here here's the rod and the reel. I'm going to show you how to cast. I'm going to show you how to fish.

I'm going to show you which lures to use. And every day there's a different lesson. Every day this person is learning something more about the art of fishing.

The lures are different. Perhaps we're going to fish at a certain time of day. Perhaps we learn about fish behavior at particular, are they out more at dusk or dawn, or in the heat of the day, or whatever. And there's this full blown education that starts to happen. And not only does the person not have to come back to the government dole to be fed, but the person has learned something.

The person understands something. The person knows something. And then that creates this hunger to know more. And the human spirit is quickened. The human spirit becomes alive because the human spirit truly wants to learn.

Look at a child. They want to know things. That's why they ask you a bajillion questions. You know the famous? why is the sky blue question.

That's why you get it because the child wants to know. There is this innate desire to understand and to learn and to grasp.

And it's authentic.

And so we have these two ideas here. Authentic pride is rooted in genuine self-esteem and correlates positively with social connections and mental health. It's exemplified in thoughts like I did well, because I worked hard. I worked for it. I went after it.

It's authentic. It's not grandiose. It's not self-inflated. And because it's authentic, then there is not a level of self-doubt underneath. There's not a level of shame underneath.

because the person worked to achieve something. On the flip side of hubristic pride stems from an inflated sense of self-importance. What? That sounds like narcissism to me. This hubristic pride and narcissism go hand in hand.

They are both known for their grandiose sense of self and inflated self-importance.

Hubristic pride is illustrated by thoughts like I did. well, because I'm great.

This type of pride is pernicious. It leads to aggression. This type of pride leads to poor relationship quality. This type of pride is attached to insecurity and trade anxiety. This is the type of pride that is attempting to mask this deeper sense of self-doubt and shame.

Hubristic and narcissism go hand in hand.

Authentic pride. Back to the article. Authentic pride is associated with positive moral behavior, such as cooperation, fair play, acknowledging others' contributions.

In contrast, hubristic pride leads to cheating. It leads to deception. It leads to undermining others. It's driven by arrogance and egotism. It's the opposite of moral behavior.

So now we're getting to the crux of the matter. We're getting to the heart of why a particular type of moral education is so important.

When Jefferson and the others said religion, morality, and knowledge needs to be forever linked with education,

he didn't say that because he wanted to proselytize. His objective wasn't to convert the Indians or whoever to Christianity. Jefferson knew that a moral foundation was paramount to a child's education. And why is that? Because this authentic pride being built upon this positive moral education creates behavior such as cooperation, fair play, and acknowledging others' contributions.

You cannot have a society without these things. You can't have a society without cooperation. You can't have a society without fair play. You can't have a society without acknowledging others' contributions. Now, what if you just had a society of the opposite, of cheating, deception, and undermining others?

I mean, we started today's program describing what happened to President Grant and his partner, Ward, who was a cheater, who was deceptive, who undermined others through his arrogance and egotism. He bankrupted the company by stealing and cheating. And he left Grant penniless and in financial trouble, financial disaster. Now, there wasn't a safety net.

Grant didn't collect Social Security. He couldn't say, well, honey, you get that Social Security, you're going to get that because I was president, you're going to get my presidential pension. That wasn't a thing.

Grant had to use some ingenuity on his deathbed. Grant had to use some ingenuity to truly put some thought to how he was going to take care of his family after he was gone. What was he going to do? His money was gone because of immoral behavior by his partner, who cheated him out of everything.

And Grant said, I'm going to write my memoirs. Grant didn't want to. He didn't want to write his memoirs. But he called up Mark Twain and said, I'm going to write them. Will you publish it?

And Twain's like, yep, we'll do it. We'll take care of your family. But it was through work. It was through. now, this authentic, authentic pride that Ulysses S.

Grant possessed. He finishes the work, finishes the memoir, and five days later, he goes to eternal rest because he can. He has this authentic pride that stems from this thought that I did well, because I worked hard. I didn't really want to. I didn't really want to write my memoirs, but I realized this was it.

And we're not raising this type of generation. This is the point of the.

author's claim. We're not raising this type of generation.

This hubristic pride is what we're developing in our kids. It's a pride that leads to cheating, deception, and undermining others. It's driven by arrogance and egotism. They explicitly boast about their abilities and accomplishments, but are internally dissatisfied, feeling socially uncomfortable, anxious about relationships, and insecure about being liked. Why is anxiety on the rise in young people today?

Why are they anxious? Why do they get up and just feel anxious? Is it because we've not given them a moral foundation? Is it because we've not instilled in them the virtues? I mean, take courage, for example.

To me, courage is the opposite of anxiety, and that's probably not.

. They're going, well, what do you mean? courage is the opposite of anxiety? But if you're courageous to go in and accomplish a task or go in and face down a challenge, there really isn't any room for anxiety to crop up in regard to that challenge or in regard to what you're about to face. There's no room to be anxious because you have the courage and you get up and you say, I'm going to go after it.

I mean, Grant had every reason in the book to be anxious, but instead, he let some ingenuity and some creative thinking take place, and he had the courage to sit down, go to the Adirondack Mountains, go out into the peaceful air, sit on that front porch, and write like a madman.

And that's what this type of education creates in us.

Inwardly, the article says, inwardly, when people with hubristic pride see things associated with themselves, and this is interesting, the regions of the brain that would normally show a pleasurable response do not light up the same way. That, to me, is extremely intriguing. There's this disconnect where people are trying to work their way towards high self-esteem or pretend their way towards it, but they're falling short because they're missing an actual positive attitude about themselves. It's all pretend. What does that sound like?

I mean, we live in this pretend world where Johnny can be Janie if he wants, and the adults feed into that. You know, Johnny, you want to use the women's restroom? You go right ahead. I mean, we've got these individuals in the Biden administration that show up to work every day, and he's a man, and he shows up to work in a dress and looks like a woman.

This is a pretend world. This is a pretend world that we're living in. Talk about a disconnect. Talk about people trying to work their way towards high self-esteem, or pretending their way towards it, but falling short because they're actually missing an actual positive attitude about themselves. This is it.

I mean, friends, we're living in it. We're watching it unfold.

Backer is the researcher in this article that's being interviewed. He suggests that these divergences of pride, authentic versus hubristic, can manifest in broader group dynamics and similarly result in positive or negative consequences. We watch this unfold in larger group dynamics every single day in the Democrat party.

Humans naturally exhibit a cognitive bias that favors things associated with themselves. This is what Backer says. Within 300 seconds, he says, the brain is categorizing my group versus your group. For instance, he says, if a pencil bears your name, you naturally start to notice things about that pencil and view it more favorably just because it's associated with you.

Similarly, noticing commonalities with another person or group allows one to view them more favorably, recognize other people's importance, and foster a sense of broader pride. Mr. Backer suggests this characteristic is indicative of authentic pride.

And this is where this is the education that our kids are not getting. They're not getting an education filled with authentic pride. Instead, they're getting hubris, a hubristic, prideful education, being indoctrinated into them. And it's creating this grandiose sense of self and inflated self-importance.

And it's superficial. And underneath, there's this deeper sense of self-doubt and shame. And we are creating without even realizing it. And maybe some people do realize it, but we're creating.

in a generation of people, perhaps, this inability to shake off the narcissistic tendencies as they grow older, because they're so used to this pretend world. You're so used to playing in this pretend game. Oh, my friends, I mean, this is a big deal. This is a big deal. It tells us how important an actual classical education is.

It's very important. All right. I will link these articles in my show notes, and you can review them. I encourage you to research it and look at it. Dive into it.

Dive into it for yourself. All right, my friends, that's all the time we have. We are up against it. Thank you for joining me. Encourage your friends and family to get on the Dean's List.

Let's unite to renovate the age.