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What an Indian Chief Taught Ben Franklin From a Single Wooden Arrow

September 28, 2016
Lori Hanes

Writer

If you try to break a single pencil, you probably can. Group a bundle together and the task compounds exponentially. This simple lesson, taught to Benjamin Franklin by an American Indian chief, revealed how the Founders could defeat the most powerful nation on earth.

"He took an arrow, and he handed it to Ben Franklin," Glenn said Wednesday on his radio program.

RELATED: #NeverTrump #NeverHillary #NeverMind: A Convention of States Is the Answer

Unknowingly, the chief demonstrated an ancient Roman concept.

"Imagine just rods and you have two bands . . . a band at the top and a band at the bottom. Have you ever seen that symbol before?" Glenn asked. "It's the fasces symbol. It's where we get fascism. You gather enough people together, you can't break them."

Fascism requires everyone to be the same. The motto of the United States --- E pluribus unum --- is the exact opposite of fascism: one from many. Individualism and personal responsibility are defining principles of the American ideal.

"The idea of America is self-reliance and self-governance," Glenn said. "So my question to you is, Do you even know what that idea is anymore, and are you really willing to live that idea?

Read below or watch the clip for answers to these singular questions:

• How is fascism related to the Tower of Babel?

• Do you prefer building with identical bricks or one-of-a-kind stones?

• Have we been talking about the Constitution and Founding Fathers too much?

• How is the Constitution like a security system?

• Are you willing to fight for the idea of America?

Enjoy this complimentary clip from The Glenn Beck Program:

Below is a rush transcript of this segment, it might contain errors:

GLENN: Benjamin Franklin was trying to figure out, how do we pull this off? How do we beat England, the most powerful nation on the earth?

Remember, this is a country that the -- the sun never set on. Its empire was so spread out, its empire was always in the daylight. How are we going to beat that? We are a bunch of farmers.

And an Indian chief was there with him, and he took an arrow. And he handed it to Ben Franklin. Let me hand this pencil to Stu. Break the pencil.

He said, "They're easy to break one by one, but if we gather them all together -- yeah, no, you shouldn't be able to do it. I don't have enough in there if you can -- yeah, you can't break them. Right? Yeah, can't break them.

STU: No. I wish I was -- I was hoping for like a really powerful moment to show my muscles off. But no, cannot do it.

GLENN: Yeah, right. So no, you can't break them, and this is just with 12 pencils. You can't break 12 pencils.

Okay. If you imagine as just rods and you have two bands at the top -- this group of pencils, and you have a band at the top and a band at the bottom -- have you ever seen that symbol before? What is it called? Fasces. Fasces symbol. It's where we get fascism. You gather enough people together, you can't break them.

So this was a Roman idea. But the Native American chief didn't know that. But here's -- here's the difference between fasces and e pluribus unum. E pluribus unum: From many, one.

Fascism requires you all to be the same. It goes back to the Tower of Babel. "Let us make bricks, and we'll build a tower to the sky."

What politician tells his people, "Hey, everybody, you're going to be so excited about my new plan: We're all going to make bricks?" You don't start that way.

You start with, "Let me tell you what we're going to do. We're going to build a tower that's going to reach the sky." Not, "Let's make bricks."

This -- he was not speaking of bricks. The Scripture talks about bricks and stones. Stones are individual. When you are forced to make bricks -- what happened with the pharaoh? He was taking people and all making them slaves. Making them all uniform, making them exactly the same. You made a brick in that mold, and that's who you were. Nothing else. We're not going to make anything out of stones anymore.

The Lord builds things out of stones. We are all unique. We are all different. And it may take some extra time. But when you cobble that together, there's nothing more beautiful than a stone fence. Much more beautiful than a brick fence. A brick house. A stone -- a natural field stone house is beautiful because it's a work of art. It took time to put it all together.

Fascists, they make everybody the same. The Indian chief knew is, you guys are rallying around a principle. And if you can get everybody around that principle -- and what is that principle? What is the idea of America?

Because right now, we're not fighting for the idea of America. I don't know anybody who is even talking about it. We're even talking about the Constitution. But the Constitution is not the idea of America. We've been too technical. We've gotten bogged down in the -- the Founders and the Constitution and everything else. And I know that sounds crazy, coming from me. Bogged down in the Constitution? Yes.

Because what is the Constitution? The Constitution is only a fence around the idea. How do we -- we have this idea. How do we build a government around that idea, that the only job of the government is to protect that idea.

We've been rallying for the Constitution. Why?

We should rally around the idea. Because that idea is pretty gone. It's pretty gone.

When you say people don't understand personal responsibility, what are you saying? The idea of America is over. Because without personal responsibility, there's no chance. Our faith has failed us.

Well, the idea of America is self-reliance and self-governance. And all of our Founders said, "Without a religious and/or moral people, this system won't work." They're saying the Constitution won't work.

Because the people no longer want the idea. They no longer want to be that person. So my question to you -- not to all of America -- to you, is: Do you even know what that idea is anymore, and are you really willing to live that idea?

There is such growing hate right now, and we're making everybody into bricks. I'm really disappointed in Ted Cruz.

Let me rephrase that. I'm disappointed in me. Why would I make this about him?

Now, part of it is, I want to believe that -- that George Washington can exist. I want to see it from somebody. I want to see somebody that is willing to stand and lose everything because it gives me hope. It gives me hope that I can do it.

Well, if he can do it, I can do it. Somebody who is just unwavering. But that's what I'm looking for.

And I'm not a politician. I don't say that in a pejorative way. Politicians go to compromise. You have to compromise. Our system was built on compromise. And so you get to a point to where you're like, "Okay. I got to compromise here or here. Where am I going to compromise?"

And if anybody is against that, what do you think the majority of Trump supporters are doing? They're compromising. They're saying, "I know I don't want this in Hillary Clinton. I know I have my values. I know he's not that. But I'm going to compromise."

And the only difference between us is the level of compromise that you're comfortable with. And we're not all bricks. We're stones. And we're meant to be stones. So you're not my enemy. He's not my enemy. I have no reason to be angry with you.

And to be honest, you don't have any reason to be angry with me. We're stones. We see things differently. And our levels of compromise are different. That's it. That's it.

We both love the country. I think there are Hillary Clinton -- lots and lots and lots, the vast majority of Hillary Clinton supporters love our country. I think Hillary Clinton does. She just has a different view of what our country is. And why is that?

Because while we argue the Constitution, we're arguing over the security system. Imagine if you spent generations arguing over the security system for a house and you paid no attention to what was in the house. You don't even know anymore why that security system was even put in, in the first place. Nobody's even talked about the treasure. The treasure is probably gone.

If the family hasn't looked and known what that security was on for, they might have sold it. They might have given it away. They might be using it as an ashtray or a footstool. You don't know. Because nobody has said, "What the hell are we even protecting?"

The treasure could be gone. And we're arguing over the security system, if that.

We're now arguing over which one should be in charge of selecting the security system, and neither one of them have even talked about the security system, let alone the treasure.

They're just saying, "I'm not moving from this address." They want you to move your house into another ZIP code. No, sir, we're not.

What difference does that make? Because it's not about the stuff, it's not about the location. This is another controversial thing to say. But all these -- all these lefties, they always say the same thing, "Donald Trump gets elected, George Bush gets elected, if John McCain gets elected, if Bob Dole gets elected, if Ronald Reagan gets elected, I'm -- go ahead and fill in the blank, everybody. I'm going to...

STU: Moving.

PAT: Leaving. Leaving the country. I'm going to Canada.

GLENN: I'm going to move to Canada. Okay. Okay. Go.

STU: None of those racists ever say they're moving to Mexico.

GLENN: Right. Yeah, right. I'm going to move to Canada. Okay. You're going to move to Canada. I'm not threatening I'm going to move to Canada if these guys are elected. First of all, Canada is not going to protect you from anything. Second of all, let me spin this around: I'm not going to move from here because of something -- hopefully. I'm going to move towards something.

If India all of a sudden had the idea, the original idea of America and said, "Look at our Constitution."

Now, I'd have to give it 25 years to see if it was stable, but if all of a sudden they had the idea of America, and we were like, "Holy cow, look at -- look at. They're kind to each other. They understand moral sentiments and the invisible hand of the market. They understand both parts of Adam Smith. They're good, they're charitable, they're standing on principle, and it's an entrepreneurial place, where you can go chart your own course. There is no caste system, no overseer that's going to keep you down."

If it was truly the spirit of the idea of America, I would move there in a heartbeat. Because I'm not betraying my country. My country is an idea. Everybody else's country is a space. My country is an idea.

Featured Image: This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1923.

The melting pot fails when we stop agreeing to melt

Spencer Platt / Staff | Getty Images

Texas now hosts Quran-first academies, Sharia-compliant housing schemes, and rapidly multiplying mosques — all part of a movement building a self-contained society apart from the country around it.

It is time to talk honestly about what is happening inside America’s rapidly growing Muslim communities. In city after city, large pockets of newcomers are choosing to build insulated enclaves rather than enter the broader American culture.

That trend is accelerating, and the longer we ignore it, the harder it becomes to address.

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world.

America has always welcomed people of every faith and people from every corner of the world, but the deal has never changed: You come here and you join the American family. You are free to honor your traditions, keep your faith, but you must embrace the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. You melt into the shared culture that allows all of us to live side by side.

Across the country, this bargain is being rejected by Islamist communities that insist on building a parallel society with its own rules, its own boundaries, and its own vision for how life should be lived.

Texas illustrates the trend. The state now has roughly 330 mosques. At least 48 of them were built in just the last 24 months. The Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex alone has around 200 Islamic centers. Houston has another hundred or so. Many of these communities have no interest in blending into American life.

This is not the same as past waves of immigration. Irish, Italian, Korean, Mexican, and every other group arrived with pride in their heritage. Still, they also raised American flags and wanted their children to be part of the country’s future. They became doctors, small-business owners, teachers, and soldiers. They wanted to be Americans.

What we are watching now is not the melting pot. It is isolation by design.

Parallel societies do not end well

More than 300 fundamentalist Islamic schools now operate full-time across the country. Many use Quran-first curricula that require students to spend hours memorizing religious texts before they ever reach math or science. In Dallas, Brighter Horizons Academy enrolls more than 1,700 students and draws federal support while operating on a social model that keeps children culturally isolated.

Then there is the Epic City project in Collin and Hunt counties — 402 acres originally designated only for Muslim buyers, with Sharia-compliant financing and a mega-mosque at the center. After public outcry and state investigations, the developers renamed it “The Meadows,” but a new sign does not erase the original intent. It is not a neighborhood. It is a parallel society.

Americans should not hesitate to say that parallel societies are dangerous. Europe tried this experiment, and the results could not be clearer. In Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, entire neighborhoods now operate under their own cultural rules, some openly hostile to Western norms. When citizens speak up, they are branded bigots for asserting a basic right: the ability to live safely in their own communities.

A crisis of confidence

While this separation widens, another crisis is unfolding at home. A recent Gallup survey shows that about 40% of American women ages 18 to 39 would leave the country permanently if given the chance. Nearly half of a rising generation — daughters, sisters, soon-to-be mothers — no longer believe this nation is worth building a future in.

And who shapes the worldview of young boys? Their mothers. If a mother no longer believes America is home, why would her child grow up ready to defend it?

As Texas goes, so goes America. And as America goes, so goes the free world. If we lose confidence in our own national identity at the same time that we allow separatist enclaves to spread unchecked, the outcome is predictable. Europe is already showing us what comes next: cultural fracture, political radicalization, and the slow death of national unity.

Brandon Bell / Staff | Getty Images

Stand up and tell the truth

America welcomes Muslims. America defends their right to worship freely. A Muslim who loves the Constitution, respects the rule of law, and wants to raise a family in peace is more than welcome in America.

But an Islamist movement that rejects assimilation, builds enclaves governed by its own religious framework, and treats American law as optional is not simply another participant in our melting pot. It is a direct challenge to it. If we refuse to call this problem out out of fear of being called names, we will bear the consequences.

Europe is already feeling those consequences — rising conflict and a political class too paralyzed to admit the obvious. When people feel their culture, safety, and freedoms slipping away, they will follow anyone who promises to defend them. History has shown that over and over again.

Stand up. Speak plainly. Be unafraid. You can practice any faith in this country, but the supremacy of the Constitution and the Judeo-Christian moral framework that shaped it is non-negotiable. It is what guarantees your freedom in the first place.

If you come here and honor that foundation, welcome. If you come here to undermine it, you do not belong here.

Wake up to what is unfolding before the consequences arrive. Because when a nation refuses to say what is true, the truth eventually forces its way in — and by then, it is always too late.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Shocking: AI-written country song tops charts, sparks soul debate

VCG / Contributor | Getty Images

A machine can imitate heartbreak well enough to top the charts, but it cannot carry grief, choose courage, or hear the whisper that calls human beings to something higher.

The No. 1 country song in America right now was not written in Nashville or Texas or even L.A. It came from code. “Walk My Walk,” the AI-generated single by the AI artist Breaking Rust, hit the top spot on Billboard’s Country Digital Song Sales chart, and if you listen to it without knowing that fact, you would swear a real singer lived the pain he is describing.

Except there is no “he.” There is no lived experience. There is no soul behind the voice dominating the country music charts.

If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

I will admit it: I enjoy some AI music. Some of it is very good. And that leaves us with a question that is no longer science fiction. If a machine can fake being human this well, what does it mean to be human?

A new world of artificial experience

This is not just about one song. We are walking straight into a technological moment that will reshape everyday life.

Elon Musk said recently that we may not even have phones in five years. Instead, we will carry a small device that listens, anticipates, and creates — a personal AI agent that knows what we want to hear before we ask. It will make the music, the news, the podcasts, the stories. We already live in digital bubbles. Soon, those bubbles might become our own private worlds.

If an algorithm can write a hit country song about hardship and perseverance without a shred of actual experience, then the deeper question becomes unavoidable: If a machine can imitate the soul, then what is the soul?

What machines can never do

A machine can produce, and soon it may produce better than we can. It can calculate faster than any human mind. It can rearrange the notes and words of a thousand human songs into something that sounds real enough to fool millions.

But it cannot care. It cannot love. It cannot choose right and wrong. It cannot forgive because it cannot be hurt. It cannot stand between a child and danger. It cannot walk through sorrow.

A machine can imitate the sound of suffering. It cannot suffer.

The difference is the soul. The divine spark. The thing God breathed into man that no code will ever have. Only humans can take pain and let it grow into compassion. Only humans can take fear and turn it into courage. Only humans can rebuild their lives after losing everything. Only humans hear the whisper inside, the divine voice that says, “Live for something greater.”

We are building artificial minds. We are not building artificial life.

Questions that define us

And as these artificial minds grow sharper, as their tools become more convincing, the right response is not panic. It is to ask the oldest and most important questions.

Who am I? Why am I here? What is the meaning of freedom? What is worth defending? What is worth sacrificing for?

That answer is not found in a lab or a server rack. It is found in that mysterious place inside each of us where reason meets faith, where suffering becomes wisdom, where God reminds us we are more than flesh and more than thought. We are not accidents. We are not circuits. We are not replaceable.

Europa Press News / Contributor | Getty Images

The miracle machines can never copy

Being human is not about what we can produce. Machines will outproduce us. That is not the question. Being human is about what we can choose. We can choose to love even when it costs us something. We can choose to sacrifice when it is not easy. We can choose to tell the truth when the world rewards lies. We can choose to stand when everyone else bows. We can create because something inside us will not rest until we do.

An AI content generator can borrow our melodies, echo our stories, and dress itself up like a human soul, but it cannot carry grief across a lifetime. It cannot forgive an enemy. It cannot experience wonder. It cannot look at a broken world and say, “I am going to build again.”

The age of machines is rising. And if we do not know who we are, we will shrink. But if we use this moment to remember what makes us human, it will help us to become better, because the one thing no algorithm will ever recreate is the miracle that we exist at all — the miracle of the human soul.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Is Socialism seducing a lost generation?

Jeremy Weine / Stringer | Getty Images

A generation that’s lost faith in capitalism is turning to the oldest lie on earth: equality through control.

Something is breaking in America’s young people. You can feel it in every headline, every grocery bill, every young voice quietly asking if the American dream still means anything at all.

For many, the promise of America — work hard, build something that lasts, and give the next generation a better start — feels like it no longer exists. Home ownership and stability have become luxuries for a fortunate few.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them.

In that vacuum of hope, a new promise has begun to rise — one that sounds compassionate, equal, and fair. The promise of socialism.

The appeal of a broken dream

When the American dream becomes a checklist of things few can afford — a home, a car, two children, even a little peace — disappointment quickly turns to resentment. The average first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Debt lasts longer than marriages. The cost of living rises faster than opportunity.

For a generation that has never seen the system truly work, capitalism feels like a rigged game built to protect those already at the top.

That is where socialism finds its audience. It presents itself as fairness for the forgotten and justice for the disillusioned. It speaks softly at first, offering equality, compassion, and control disguised as care.

We are seeing that illusion play out now in New York City, where Zohran Mamdani — an open socialist — has won a major political victory. The same ideology that once hid behind euphemisms now campaigns openly throughout America’s once-great cities. And for many who feel left behind, it sounds like salvation.

But what socialism calls fairness is submission dressed as virtue. What it calls order is obedience. Once the system begins to replace personal responsibility with collective dependence, the erosion of liberty is only a matter of time.

The bridge that never ends

Socialism is not a destination; it is a bridge. Karl Marx described it as the necessary transition to communism — the scaffolding that builds the total state. Under socialism, people are taught to obey. Under communism, they forget that any other options exist.

History tells the story clearly. Russia, China, Cambodia, Cuba — each promised equality and delivered misery. One hundred million lives were lost, not because socialism failed, but because it succeeded at what it was designed to do: make the state supreme and the individual expendable.

Today’s advocates insist their version will be different — democratic, modern, and kind. They often cite Sweden as an example, but Sweden’s prosperity was never born of socialism. It grew out of capitalism, self-reliance, and a shared moral culture. Now that system is cracking under the weight of bureaucracy and division.

ANGELA WEISS / Contributor | Getty Images

The real issue is not economic but moral. Socialism begins with a lie about human nature — that people exist for the collective and that the collective knows better than the individual.

This lie is contrary to the truths on which America was founded — that rights come not from government’s authority, but from God’s. Once government replaces that authority, compassion becomes control, and freedom becomes permission.

What young America deserves

Young Americans have many reasons to be frustrated. They were told to study, work hard, and follow the rules — and many did, only to find the goalposts moved again and again. But tearing down the entire house does not make it fairer; it only leaves everyone standing in the rubble.

Capitalism is not a perfect system. It is flawed because people are flawed, but it remains the only system that rewards creativity and effort rather than punishing them. The answer is not revolution but renewal — moral, cultural, and spiritual.

It means restoring honesty to markets, integrity to government, and faith to the heart of our nation. A people who forsake God will always turn to government for salvation, and that road always ends in dependency and decay.

Freedom demands something of us. It requires faith, discipline, and courage. It expects citizens to govern themselves before others govern them. That is the truth this generation deserves to hear again — that liberty is not a gift from the state but a calling from God.

Socialism always begins with promises and ends with permission. It tells you what to drive, what to say, what to believe, all in the name of fairness. But real fairness is not everyone sharing the same chains — it is everyone having the same chance.

The American dream was never about guarantees. It was about the right to try, to fail, and try again. That freedom built the most prosperous nation in history, and it can do so again if we remember that liberty is not a handout but a duty.

Socialism does not offer salvation. It requires subservience.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Rage isn’t conservatism — THIS is what true patriots stand for

Gary Hershorn / Contributor | Getty Images

Conservatism is not about rage or nostalgia. It’s about moral clarity, national renewal, and guarding the principles that built America’s freedom.

Our movement is at a crossroads, and the question before us is simple: What does it mean to be a conservative in America today?

For years, we have been told what we are against — against the left, against wokeism, against decline. But opposition alone does not define a movement, and it certainly does not define a moral vision.

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

The media, as usual, are eager to supply their own answer. The New York Times recently suggested that Nick Fuentes represents the “future” of conservatism. That’s nonsense — a distortion of both truth and tradition. Fuentes and those like him do not represent American conservatism. They represent its counterfeit.

Real conservatism is not rage. It is reverence. It does not treat the past as a museum, but as a teacher. America’s founders asked us to preserve their principles and improve upon their practice. That means understanding what we are conserving — a living covenant, not a relic.

Conservatism as stewardship

In 2025, conservatism means stewardship — of a nation, a culture, and a moral inheritance too precious to abandon. To conserve is not to freeze history. It is to stand guard over what is essential. We are custodians of an experiment in liberty that rests on the belief that rights come not from kings or Congress, but from the Creator.

That belief built this country. It will be what saves it. The Constitution is a covenant between generations. Conservatism is the duty to keep that covenant alive — to preserve what works, correct what fails, and pass on both wisdom and freedom to those who come next.

Economics, culture, and morality are inseparable. Debt is not only fiscal; it is moral. Spending what belongs to the unborn is theft. Dependence is not compassion; it is weakness parading as virtue. A society that trades responsibility for comfort teaches citizens how to live as slaves.

Freedom without virtue is not freedom; it is chaos. A culture that mocks faith cannot defend liberty, and a nation that rejects truth cannot sustain justice. Conservatism must again become the moral compass of a disoriented people, reminding America that liberty survives only when anchored to virtue.

Rebuilding what is broken

We cannot define ourselves by what we oppose. We must build families, communities, and institutions that endure. Government is broken because education is broken, and education is broken because we abandoned the formation of the mind and the soul. The work ahead is competence, not cynicism.

Conservatives should embrace innovation and technology while rejecting the chaos of Silicon Valley. Progress must not come at the expense of principle. Technology must strengthen people, not replace them. Artificial intelligence should remain a servant, never a master. The true strength of a nation is not measured by data or bureaucracy, but by the quiet webs of family, faith, and service that hold communities together. When Washington falters — and it will — those neighborhoods must stand.

Eric Lee / Stringer | Getty Images

This is the real work of conservatism: to conserve what is good and true and to reform what has decayed. It is not about slogans; it is about stewardship — the patient labor of building a civilization that remembers what it stands for.

A creed for the rising generation

We are not here to cling to the past or wallow in grievance. We are not the movement of rage. We are the movement of reason and hope.

For the rising generation, conservatism cannot be nostalgia. It must be more than a memory of 9/11 or admiration for a Reagan era they never lived through. Many young Americans did not experience those moments — and they should not have to in order to grasp the lessons they taught and the truths they embodied. The next chapter is not about preserving relics but renewing purpose. It must speak to conviction, not cynicism; to moral clarity, not despair.

Young people are searching for meaning in a culture that mocks truth and empties life of purpose. Conservatism should be the moral compass that reminds them freedom is responsibility and that faith, family, and moral courage remain the surest rebellions against hopelessness.

To be a conservative in 2025 is to defend the enduring principles of American liberty while stewarding the culture, the economy, and the spirit of a free people. It is to stand for truth when truth is unfashionable and to guard moral order when the world celebrates chaos.

We are not merely holding the torch. We are relighting it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.