Glenn welcomed a number of college students to the Dallas studios Monday night for some unorthodox teaching. While the conversation took a number of different turns, they all came back to the next generations responsibility to restore man’s freedom. For the first time in history, people are empowered to directly connect with one another regardless of geographic location. It is cheap and easy to make your voice heard. But with that power comes the responsibility to use it wisely. Here’s what Glenn wants every college student to understand.
WATCH:
Glenn: It used to be a big deal to make a long-distance phone call. When I was a kid, I remember getting a person-to-person long-distance phone call. You know what that is? That’s when you would call the operator. Because it was so expensive, I didn’t want to pay for that call unless I got somebody on the phone that I was looking for. So, I would call the operator and say I’m trying to call Peter in Texas. The operator would say okay, hold please. Then they would find Peter, get him on the phone, and they’d say, “Peter, Glenn, Glenn, Peter. You’re connected.” And then they charge you for it. That’s how crazy things were.
Now, you can FaceTime anybody around the world.
With Periscope, you are the journalist. I don’t need CBS News to go out with film canisters. When I was your age, they used to have to go out with film canisters, have somebody there, film it, go into a dark room, develop it, edit it, put it on, so we had a 5:30 newscast. That’s insane. You have all the power, and you know it, and so do the people that want to push this scale that way.
When you look at Facebook, and it says post, replace that in your mind, with publish. You are Thomas Paine. You’re a publisher now. You are somebody who can say your views to anyone in the world. All men are created equal. It doesn’t mean all men have something equal to say. So, it’s going to depend on whether people like your opinion and you can figure out exactly the best way to present your opinion to get more people to watch or to listen or to read, but you’re a publisher. You’re a videographer. You’re a filmmaker. You’re everything.
You don’t need the middleman anymore. That’s why government is terrified. That’s why politicians are no longer listening to you. They can only listen to each other because they’ve got to hold onto their power because you’re about to take it from them. And that’s a good thing.
We’re about to experience freedom unlike we’ve ever had at any time in the history of mankind if you can keep it. It’s the Ben Franklin after the signing of the Constitution—'Mr. Franklin, what did you give us?' 'A republic, man, if you can keep it.' It’s up to us to educate. History is never—the entire timeline of America is a blip in human history, and it’s a freak of nature.
Man has always been oppressed. It’s much more like it is in China. It’s much more like it is in Africa or the Middle East. That’s the natural state of man because natural man is an enemy to God. Natural man is an enemy to someone else’s freedoms. It’s natural man who then says I want to obey a higher purpose, a higher calling. I want to obey God, and I see my fellow man as another created being who has all the right to live and live the way he wants that I do to be able to then say, “Brother, why don’t we help each other? Why don’t we work together? And why don’t we find other like-minded people?” That’s what happened for the first time in human history, and it’s your job to renew it. Thanks, guys. You’re great.