00:00:15.940 - 00:00:29.680

Welcome back. It's my privilege now to introduce Dr Tyson who will be giving the third curry lecture and he won't let me tell you the title because he's gonna sneak it into the presentation. But it's really

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, really good. So listen, listen for it . It's probably written down somewhere that you have it . But one of the things that we haven't mentioned in the course of talking about the many accomplishments of

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Dr Tyson and also of his father, vernon, who we've had the privilege of having with us. And also mary Williams. Where's mary mary over there ? Hey, mary out of my line of vision

00:00:55.880 - 00:01:07.940

, it's been wonderful having you here as well. And we're looking forward to this presentation. But one of the many accolades and awards that Dr Tyson has received that I don't believe we've mentioned is something called

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the Graham Meyer Award, the Grammar Award. And Dr Tyson received this award in 2007 for his perhaps most well known work, blood done. Sign my name. Let me tell you a little about the

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Grammy Award. It is an award given by the University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. And we have in our midst jean March who has for a number of years served on the board of the

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, of the grammar foundation. Would that be the word for it? Oh, what? See even I didn't even know that. So from the beginning , one of the first organizers, Thank you Doctor

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Marches teaching old testament here in, at Austin Seminary and has been uh, these last two years and and taught old testament here long before my time, many years ago. So, uh, we have

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just loved having him for these two years. Um , yesterday Dr Tyson was talking about how he found that he was a member of the church that he didn't even realize he was becoming a member of.

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And I thought it was worth noting that he received this award since he's also connected to us in this way, our sibling institution and this award which we're proud to have jean B a part of and also

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proud to be located in Louisville, where Michael Jenkins is now president. And let me read one line that describes this award which is found on Wikipedia, that last line. So it has to be true

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. But it talks about it talks about Graham Meyer who founded the award. And it says that as grandma here, saw it quote, great ideas should be understandable to someone with general knowledge and not be

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the private treasure of academics. Thank you Dr Tyson for demonstrating this in your work with us and in your very person that what you have to offer, what mary has to offer, what vernon has to

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offer, What we all have to offer is not the private treasure of academics, but is for the world that God so loves welcome dr Tyson, thank you. Mhm. Wait, I'm here. Mhm

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. Mhm. Here no line. Yeah. Way out. Long. Bye bye. Yeah. Yeah . Brain. Hey, trade good again, arriving . Trade where Danny young by myself. Yeah.

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Okay. Yeah. Mhm, mm. Yeah. Yeah. Bye. Okay. Okay. By Hamas , I'm here, Yeah. Yeah. Bye. Bye. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah.

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Oh, okay. Uh huh. I am not a crime myself. I can get behind. Great . Yeah. Bye. Nobody. Uh huh. Uh huh. By the great Yeah. Mhm.

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Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm Oh, yeah . Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Mhm . Yeah. Yeah. Mhm. Yeah, mary

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Louise, thank you. Well, surely you can say that I've had a great time here with all of you know, it's been such a pleasure and to meet Mhm dr dr riggs and Agnes, Norfleet

00:09:13.820 - 00:09:24.160

, and Michael, Jenkins, and Ted Wardlow and Cynthia and and all of you whose names I can't , I'll recall. But I got your card and I wrote down your name. That thing you said

00:09:24.170 - 00:09:39.950

to. I promised not to quote you in print without asking. But I did take note of many things that she told me. I missed a couple of things I wanted to hear. But I I'm

00:09:39.960 - 00:09:52.290

gonna get the recordings because I know I was supposed to hear every word. Um I keep running in here late with the page is still warm from the printer. And then even then the plans evaporate on

00:09:52.290 - 00:10:07.870

me. Today's lecture, assuming that I deliver. It Was supposed to be the 1st 1. And make all the others make sense. Imagine that, making something making sense. But I give up.

00:10:07.880 - 00:10:18.070

I wish God would be a little more democratic. Aren't we supposed to have free will? I mean , I thought that was really how part of how it worked. You know, that we had free

00:10:18.070 - 00:10:30.700

will and that's why things don't work because God has granted us free will and we mess things up. Well, you know, I've been very willful, but for good and ill, and I've tried to

00:10:30.700 - 00:10:41.280

mess things up and I really thought I had made my break and gotten away cleanly. About 20 years ago, I got a faculty position at the University of Wisconsin Madison and that, which is a little

00:10:41.280 - 00:10:58.230

bit like winning the lottery in the history business and Perry morgan are not kidnapped, vernon's grandchildren and we took off the road, we're married, me and Perry Maria and Met her at NYF when I was

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14 and she drove the car and mostly and I scribbled in one of my little notebooks mostly. And we were following the North Star crossing over to safety from the slavery of my past. Free and clear

00:11:13.440 - 00:11:31.940

away from the long list of ba gats away from all the ancestors who wouldn't stay buried away from my daddy's wayward and brilliant and mischievous brother Dewey. I used to corner me as I said and say,

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are you still running from jesus boy? Anyway, after being, what's been happening with me lately? I'm sort of haunted by something else. Uncle do he said to me? Uh yeah, that's right

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. Good morning Dewey. Yeah, good morning. Thanks for being here. I'm talking about you again . Anyway, just before I made my escape from north Carolina, Daddy and I went to see doing

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, he was sick, not well and with Dawson and we told daddy that I was moving to Wisconsin to be a historian. He just chuckled and grinned at me and said, well son, right,

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when you get work. Yeah. Mhm. Now at the time I thought that he might no, a little bit more about the academic life than I'd realized and he might know more about what college professors

00:12:35.260 - 00:12:48.790

do on sale Tuesday morning. So he was sort of making fun of me and celebrating me at the same time. You know, if you if you don't work you could be a college professor I guess

00:12:48.800 - 00:12:58.320

. You know like that. There's a lot of preacher jokes on that line to you've heard them all right now. But I didn't as his, as his mother Irene would say I didn't, I didn't

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have a bucket to carry indiana because what he really meant of course, but didn't say was that he knew that I was still running from jesus and that I probably thought I'd escaped and he found that very

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amusing having been something of a long distance runner himself . Anyway last night I lit out for the territory as I'm prone to do with Sharon Bryant and her friend Andrew and we went to uh they took me

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to a bar where I thought I'd be safe from jesus and all my ancestors. It's right down the end of the street here, the Crown or something like that. Don't don't go there running from jesus

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because he he knows where it is. We had a wonderful time but at closing time when you you don't have to go home but you do have to go um the man working at the door stopped us

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and he said it seemed like we were having a good time and he wondered if we were from the seminary. Mhm. And he was looking at me so I said, you'll be pleased to know perhaps

00:14:24.080 - 00:14:37.380

or not that I said yes, I suppose so . And I swear that's all I told him. It's all I told him. All I said was Yeah, yeah, I guess so. You know

00:14:37.390 - 00:14:46.820

. Yeah. I didn't say one third one word about what this meeting or what we've been talking about her daddy or do we or URL or my alleged line of work, whatever it is or anything like

00:14:46.820 - 00:14:58.630

that. I just said, uh and I quote . Yes, I guess so. Yeah. He said he figured we were from the seminary. He told me he was a preacher's son and he had

00:14:58.630 - 00:15:15.070

something he wanted to tell me. I didn't resist . I didn't confess. I just said okay. So I said okay. He said I read my bible every day and God told me to tell you

00:15:15.070 - 00:15:31.460

all proverbs 6 22 that's all goodnight, God bless you. I didn't say what was in it. Just Proverbs 6 2010 30. So I kept my cool. I didn't run away screaming at this point

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. I said well okay, Okay Lord I'll go back to my room and look up proverbs 22. I just hope it didn't say I have to run away and join the circus or something. I'm just

00:15:41.440 - 00:15:52.570

I'll go look at it. But I got back and I started working on my talk and I forgot about proverbs 22. And so I fell asleep this morning right after breakfast. I was sitting out in

00:15:52.570 - 00:16:03.540

the lobby where I'm staying and I started working on the talk again and I was trying to take the reins back you know from if you must know. So I was I was interrupted by a very nice

00:16:03.540 - 00:16:22.570

lady who I hope is not in this room and she said excuse me, but are you a minister ? Do I have a sign over my head? Yeah, convenient. Anyway, I've framed refrained from

00:16:22.570 - 00:16:34.290

saying to her or to God what I wanted to say, which was something along lines of could you please just leave me the hell alone. I didn't say that mama said be sweet. She said before

00:16:34.290 - 00:16:48.070

I left the house, she said be sweet. So I I didn't say that I but anyway, this nice lady had no idea that God and I were talking so much. So she just wanted to

00:16:48.070 - 00:17:00.420

know if I was a preacher because she had a little question about scripture. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Agnes I did, I did say I am okay, I didn't thank you. So she

00:17:00.420 - 00:17:15.030

was very pleased because she did have that question about scripture. She didn't know, you know that my last biblical training was in vacation bible school write. Yeah. She was wanting to go to the doctor

00:17:15.030 - 00:17:30.500

and she's like, you know brother loves traveling, you know snake oil sales. Yeah, who's been drinking his own medicine too. So but she said do you believe in the virgin birth? I swear

00:17:30.500 - 00:17:47.360

if I'm lying, I'm dying. I said well . Mhm. Yes and no, I think the hebrews was wearing the habit of speaking metaphorically. I've heard tell then anyway that in the ancient world they

00:17:48.040 - 00:17:56.980

they said that born of a virgin stuff about a lot of folks, emperors and things and um I think it was their way of saying that somebody was really mighty, special and important and you need to

00:17:56.980 - 00:18:11.880

pay attention to what they said. And uh somebody told me that probably in a bar, so when anybody and then I said, you know, I really have no idea honestly and that seemed to confuse

00:18:11.880 - 00:18:19.430

her the last part, the first part may have confused her too. But the fact that I said I have no idea. She had stopped a preacher and I wanted to know about what he thought about

00:18:19.440 - 00:18:38.240

something in the bible and he had no idea. Uh she said well do you believe in the resurrection of jesus now? You know, I wanted to say believe in it. Hell, I don't think

00:18:38.240 - 00:18:56.360

he's left, he's been hounding me like half to death, right? If he went anywhere he came back, I'll tell you that because he's count fucking me. And I just said Agnes yes, period

00:18:57.240 - 00:19:06.670

, but you know she wouldn't let it rest. She said because she didn't, she kind of didn't , I think maybe she wondered if I really didn't think what she wanted me to think about it.

00:19:07.140 - 00:19:22.350

Maybe it wasn't a question so much about scripture, but she said I mean do you believe in the physical, you know literal resurrection of jesus christ and and he's coming back later in the body like that

00:19:23.540 - 00:19:34.170

and I finally broke and I just said look I don't know, I don't know about the resurrection, you know, I said I'm not sure he ever left to be honest with you, I don't really

00:19:34.640 - 00:19:48.060

understand it and and she was very compassionate, she told me to read something from his echo, I made sure not to write it down, Somebody's gonna tell me at the airport anyway, so it's fine

00:19:48.070 - 00:19:59.660

, I don't have to write it down, I wanted to tell God, I said I think that I think this is a little heavy handed, you know, basic, you know, I wish you'd

00:19:59.660 - 00:20:11.300

be a little more democratic, a little more respectful in my space, you know, can't he see I'm trying to work here or I'm off work for that matter, you know, Does he really need

00:20:11.300 - 00:20:26.490

to send strange messengers by day and night, drunk and sober? Um but I did not have the strength to argue. Um but her mention of the verse from his Echo did remind me of what I

00:20:26.490 - 00:20:40.670

had forgotten, which was the verse from proverbs 6 22 from the barman. So I looked it up and here's what it says. Some of you may know when you walk, they will lead you,

00:20:41.740 - 00:21:00.670

when you lie down, they will watch over you and when you are awake, they will talk to you. Mhm. But onward, the name of this book that seems to be jumping out of me

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, which is a problem, but it's called Teaching the Dog to say Grace a spiritual autobiography. There's two Coghlan's three different sections of it, Teaching the dog to say Grace. A spiritual autobiography. Freedom

00:21:19.040 - 00:21:38.860

, politics, public education, and the religion of jesus. I can explain everything too much sunday school can addle a child, my niece, Jessie Catherine , she became possessed of a piety That pressed her

00:21:38.860 - 00:21:56.890

to teach her£90 Irish setter bailey to say the blessing before meals. And she, with jesse, Catherine would crank open the can and smelly mush in the bowl and then she would begin to admonish him

00:21:56.900 - 00:22:08.890

to uh pause and think almighty God for his gracious providence, and ask God to bless this food, to the nourishment of bailey's body in bailey's pause to his service. And also to keep bailey, ever

00:22:08.890 - 00:22:22.000

mindful of the needs of others, especially dogs, less fortunate than himself. Uh, men, which by the time that time the food was gone and her homily about the providential grace of God, entirely

00:22:22.000 - 00:22:38.180

unheeded. I'm sure this experience is entirely alien. two preachers and teachers in Texas where your sermons and lessons wear boots and spurs. I know that people in Columbia, south Carolina do not have this problem

00:22:38.180 - 00:22:52.550

that is quite evident to me. But in north Carolina at least where two or three are gathered in his name, one of them is sure to fall asleep. Probably, probably the one that was listening

00:22:52.040 - 00:23:07.160

. Mhm. So I think we're all familiar with the folkways of dogs and parishioners and undergraduates. This is not all the same category really, but uh , and we understand why Pyatt neither pilot in our

00:23:07.160 - 00:23:22.400

patients and our gratitude nor solicitude for the needs of others was really brother bailey's particular genius in this regard . I think he stands no better or worse than other dogs and beyond that. I think at least

00:23:22.400 - 00:23:37.270

I may, perhaps many of us can acknowledge our deep spiritual kinship with bailey whom I I personally find to be a very sympathetic character for reasons I'll leave to your sorted imaginations. Um whether I prefer the

00:23:37.270 - 00:23:53.050

pleasures of sin or repentance is unclear to me, but I'm always suspicious that my real motive either way is food or to be petted. Anybody who is tempted to credit me with other motives should examine my

00:23:53.050 - 00:24:11.810

entire body of work. Beginning with my early classic . I like you. Do you like me? Check yes or no. Uh huh. I have grown more skilled since I'm addressing a more sophisticated audience

00:24:11.810 - 00:24:32.080

but the purpose of literature marches on like bailey and his bowl and jesse. Katherine's reform program fell by the wayside. Has so many. Now I'm sure that this episode of Stupid Pet tricks is a week

00:24:32.080 - 00:24:48.640

read to hang the thomas curry lecture zone. But I'm I'm standing at the Wellspring the very well spring of my deep empathy for bailey and I hope my new brothers and sisters in the household of faith and

00:24:48.640 - 00:25:03.410

hope that you know what it means as I do to confront a task for which one is not at all. Well suited. Yeah. When President Wardlow first invited me here, I wrote back and I

00:25:03.410 - 00:25:18.780

told him that he should be careful, More careful with his office letterhead because some mischief maker, perhaps a professional rival bent on ruining his career, had invited me to lecture at Austin Theological Seminary. Uh

00:25:18.790 - 00:25:33.470

I wondered actually had a suspect. I thought it was probably Stanley higher wash one of my colleagues at Duke. Um I thought maybe he had his eye on test job. I'm, um, he's very

00:25:33.470 - 00:25:45.660

nice and I'm not really given to conspiracy theories, but, but it's a certain paranoid logic to it . You know, how watches from texas. He's shrewd, he's ambitious to get a raise. He'd

00:25:45.660 - 00:26:04.040

probably need some kind of presidency or maybe even a football coaching job really. But so, and of course, he would suspect that the presbyterians might not be my strongest demographic. Um, I could sort

00:26:04.040 - 00:26:14.260

of hear him captain, you know, Wardlow is going to pay for this. Yeah, This will , this will show him. I figured maybe he recommended me for this. They, you know,

00:26:15.440 - 00:26:32.800

Doctor Hawass stands high in the long line of genius at the curry lectures, um, which was interrupted until just now. Uninterrupted till just now. But they, he would know that I'm pretty much all

00:26:32.800 - 00:26:52.210

but hardwired culturally, possibly even predestined to arrive 10 or 15 minutes late to become decided by my own pros to prattle on well past the allotted time, which is as close to grounds for jihad as presbyterians

00:26:52.390 - 00:27:11.850

come, I think, and in the ensuing scandal , Wardlow might get blamed. How was his moment might emerge if this seems like another monastery mystery novel ? The Calvin Code, the name of the name

00:27:11.850 - 00:27:25.160

of the Yellow Rose. That's my but it's not more far fetched than the invitation, really. But of course, now we know who was in charge , not how was not Wardlow, certainly not me

00:27:26.640 - 00:27:42.930

anyway, Against all odds. Ted did swore that his summons had been intentional, which mystified me since I'm not a theologian, but a historian, one of my favorite Texans. Lawrence Goodwyn, one of

00:27:42.930 - 00:28:00.950

my mentors said called, we said it was poetry with footnotes, our craft. But I'm also of course a storyteller from storytellers who tells the stories of storytellers. Um So in the beginning was the word

00:28:00.940 - 00:28:19.990

are illiterate, illiterate ancestors overheard that somewhere. And have we've given the world no peace since. Um we've sometimes neglected to distinguish between the word and our word, but I think theologians should be sympathetic.

00:28:21.010 - 00:28:38.420

But anyway, history came before historians. There was history before historians, back in the pre Historia graphic age before uh journals or conferences. You know, that darkened plane of suffering human beings nonetheless marked their

00:28:38.420 - 00:28:52.030

lives and and made their cultures by narrating them. They figured out who they were. You know, like the the old woman who said, I'll I don't know what I think. I'll have to see

00:28:52.030 - 00:29:03.080

what I say. It's an old uh saw. But I think it's a little bit like that. We find we sort of the poets, we stayed up late and we tended the fire. We told

00:29:03.080 - 00:29:22.000

the story. The grandmothers gathered us on the porches , the shamans piled up stones and pulled the people around them. The teachers smooth the sand and scratched crude footnotes with a sharp stick. Anyway, wise

00:29:22.000 - 00:29:38.470

or otherwise, our ancestors chanted and sang the stories that made us who we were and reminded us from which we have strong, many of them about God and the nature of the universe and our place in

00:29:38.470 - 00:29:51.670

it and our relationship to one another. Professional historians don't do a lot with that. It's odd really to tell you the truth history. Business is a very, very secular place. Even the religion is

00:29:51.670 - 00:30:03.340

obviously, even if you were, if you're an atheist, you'd have to concede that religion has. Really, it's like leaving out armies. You know , it does things on the planet. If you're

00:30:03.340 - 00:30:15.350

trying to tell the story, religion affects things quite a bit. I think it's a little bit like leaving out armies, you know, when 50,000 folks with weapons run across the surface of the earth and

00:30:15.350 - 00:30:29.300

do things, it changes things and religion has done a lot of that, but we don't we don't do much about it. We also, you know , Homer and his colleagues didn't have much in the

00:30:29.300 - 00:30:48.010

way of didn't have computers or archives are recorders or evidence or research. They just told the story. And they had gotten the story from the storyteller before them and they of course, we're sort of politicians

00:30:48.010 - 00:31:02.050

to, so they kind of tweaked the story a bit just to make it fit and make it make sense and make it useful. I'm not trying to question their motives, it's actually, I think necessary

00:31:02.050 - 00:31:15.340

. We were talking about how culture works and transforming preserving culture by transforming it. The story changes a little bit so that it remains relevant and stories that are no longer relevant don't get told anymore. The

00:31:15.350 - 00:31:26.310

things that aren't memorable eventually are not remembered. All cultures, even african american culture, you know that I've described yesterday in such rich in glowing terms. It has, it's trivia and the things that nobody

00:31:26.310 - 00:31:38.660

knows anymore and nobody says anymore because they don't, they weren't that good to begin with. It's, you know, some books 10 years later, nobody will recognize the name of it, etcetera. So

00:31:38.660 - 00:31:56.350

all cultures produce that sort of thing. But there's a kind of forgetfulness I think among the Chroniclers and the Chronicled, that it goes beyond any of our individual failings of aesthetic or moral or civic judgment.

00:31:57.140 - 00:32:14.160

But it's a dangerous thing. First television and then the internet have shouldered aside print and oral culture and uh, they've replaced these with these rapid fire illusion machines which have in common, you need a change

00:32:14.160 - 00:32:30.770

of mental scenery about every four seconds, which I think possibly is not true. Um, academics persuade ourselves that the life of the mind is like a kind of broken kaleidoscope filled with floating fragments of text

00:32:31.740 - 00:32:52.610

and that the distance between the english language and the planet Earth to say nothing of the distance between me and you is unbridgeable of the prison house of language they're in. Um, now they assume that ironic

00:32:52.610 - 00:33:13.960

detachment is the hallmark of intellectual sophistication, which I think is, it is not mostly and you know , I don't think that ornate misgivings about the hardships of truth telling are really not headline news around the

00:33:14.340 - 00:33:28.130

camp fire that the historians have forgotten. So we have this profound thing about the, you know, the break between what, what we can say and what the world out there and is that, you

00:33:28.130 - 00:33:42.230

know, is there one, I think Galileo was emailed the Modern Language Association the other day and wondered if they wanted to trade the Prison House of Language for the actual prison house, right? At any

00:33:42.230 - 00:34:02.450

rate, ironic detachment often fronts for deeper sanctums where cowardice and indifference prop their feet up and pretend to be scruple and circumspection. So, in this intellectual immoral fog beneath the kind of storm sky of lightning

00:34:02.450 - 00:34:21.670

quick images and thunderous narratives between Hollywood and history, the difference between politics and spectacle and documentary and docudrama seemed to kind of fade. I don't know if it's just me, but my students, they routinely

00:34:22.040 - 00:34:36.540

call a book a novel and it doesn't matter whether it is or not, I don't really think it's a matter just of addiction. Something else is going on. There are all these stories, all these

00:34:36.540 - 00:34:45.360

narratives, they're floating around out there on the internet where everything is, by the way, do you realize everything's on the internet if you google it and can't find it, why it's all a lie?

00:34:50.840 - 00:35:04.350

But do you know, if they'll open the ancient scroll at all, they call it a novel? And I think that's interesting. Pop culture has really become our most influential history. But of course,

00:35:04.350 - 00:35:23.040

it's all infected with nationalism and nostalgia and heritage and commerce and extravagant organza The ref race have really stopped the boxing match between Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. It's a technical knockout. The Phillies and Soma and

00:35:23.040 - 00:35:43.450

The Soulless Pneumatic Sex of Brave New World have clobbered Big Brother for the dystopian heavyweight title. Basic Cable is the dictatorship of the proletariat, who demand the proletariat is rising and demanding that the government cut Warren

00:35:43.450 - 00:36:01.430

Buffett's taxes. Unfortunately, the most reliable political role for the white working class in the United States is rooted in racial antagonisms that uh huh the tenacity of which was unanticipated by their sympathy by sympathetic partisans in

00:36:01.430 - 00:36:16.700

the New deal and the old left. The uh turns out kevin phillips who actually designed Nick Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy in 1968. It was not published at the time, but his book, the emerging Republican

00:36:16.700 - 00:36:31.810

majority. He explains that the secret of American politics is knowing in his words, who hates who. And he envisioned a huge realignment where the Republican Party would would have its base in the south, in

00:36:31.810 - 00:36:47.270

the white South, and also among what he called White Ethnics, in the northern neighborhoods that ring the cities where those folks have fled to that will be our stronghold, he explained, uh, to Nixon

00:36:47.270 - 00:37:00.320

, taking a lot from George Wallace, his presidential campaign and the insights that it was generating. And that seems to me it doesn't fit into the master narrative of the civil rights movement, the one where

00:37:00.320 - 00:37:16.250

it succeeded because of course the enemies of the movement ascended to power and they defang the movement. And we told a story about it that was a lot less complicated than it was and sanded off all the

00:37:16.250 - 00:37:36.980

rough edges. And of course it worked, Which I don't think people really thought that in 1968, you know, in april, when the news from that bloody balcony in Memphis came. But the stories

00:37:36.980 - 00:37:59.760

get told and retold. Pop history proves every day that individual hero, heroics and moral exportation can accomplish anything in the past, regardless of their strange impotence in the presence present. We can't the fact that

00:37:59.770 - 00:38:13.010

you can't rely on us scholars to explain anything meaningful about the actual history of social change in this country sort of robs us of the only heirlooms we have . We failed you at the campfire. We were

00:38:13.010 - 00:38:22.210

supposed to remember the story, the one that tells us how to get out, how we're gonna get over. I mean, how how how did we get over last time to what, what did we

00:38:22.210 - 00:38:40.370

achieve? Um and how did we achieve it? We don't know because we say things like it's a rising tide of something or other spread like a prairie fire and courage is very important and you know,

00:38:40.370 - 00:38:52.260

somebody made a stand and then the violins kind of go up in the background. And but you know , in any, anytime anybody says anything, spreads like a prairie fire, rest assured they do not

00:38:52.260 - 00:39:09.620

know what happened. Beware the metaphor of meteorology, the wind, the rain. The flood is particularly dangerous anytime people are saying that they have no idea what happened, they just know something happened. So

00:39:09.620 - 00:39:24.060

they're calling it a flood. When in point of fact history is not the weather we make it, it is the combined expression of our efforts. The things we value, the things we take time to

00:39:24.060 - 00:39:37.130

do, the things we know how to do. The things we learned at our mother's knee. The things that the stories that we heard that told us who we were. That's what we use when we

00:39:37.130 - 00:39:50.340

make history and we make it and if we leave it, somebody is going to make it, who can tell the story better. You know it this may come as a surprise to you, but you

00:39:50.340 - 00:40:07.330

can't just your work cannot go on national television just because it's a good story or entertaining or important. Mhm. Somebody else owns it and they tell the story how they please. And they hired the most

00:40:07.810 - 00:40:22.530

brilliant minds in the country, young folks, ambitious folks and they take those talents and they they tell these stories that they don't know the first thing about and people believe them, they're very heartwarming. and

00:40:22.530 - 00:40:40.530

in 22 minutes with minus the commercials, everything is fine. Now the hucksters and the propagandists and you know, here are misguided, but they are not idiots. Our past has a future and it does

00:40:40.530 - 00:40:52.730

indeed hang in the balance. Much is at stake in the way the stories are told. So, you know, even historians were like theologians and politicians were a little tempted to put our thumb in this

00:40:52.730 - 00:41:07.300

scale and become attorneys for our aspirations. Trying to avoid the cards. Dictum that life must be lived forward, but can only be understood backward. We're hoping for some kind of yellow brick narrative that will

00:41:07.310 - 00:41:21.750

locate the ruby slippers of history and alter the outcome . But see our actual history stretches out behind us . Whether we if you don't ignorance history doesn't care whether you know it or not, it's like the

00:41:21.750 - 00:41:30.290

river, its power does not depend on your acknowledgement of it. It's like this thing that's got me in the grips here lately. It really doesn't care what you think about it. And if you don't

00:41:30.290 - 00:41:43.140

know what's going on. Well, that's all the easier for the river, isn't it? Since you don't know, you're just easily washed down stream. If you don't even know you're in the water then

00:41:43.510 - 00:41:52.000

. But if you were hoping actually to channel the stream somehow, to help out a little bit to fish some of the survivors out of the flood water , or two, maybe channel it so that it

00:41:52.000 - 00:42:00.960

didn't destroy the Children. You know, there's an orphanage in the school down the way. Maybe you were trying to think we should get some sandbags and we should try to how would you do that if

00:42:00.960 - 00:42:08.800

you didn't know that you were in the river, you didn't know what from, which if you were just lost in the flood and you didn't know which way the banks were and you didn't know where it

00:42:08.800 - 00:42:22.290

came from, so you'd be lost. So the story is important. Um, and those of us who tell it are inevitably part of those who make the tapestry or part of its unfolding. Whether we

00:42:22.290 - 00:42:35.520

acknowledge that or not, there's I think many historians , it's really I swear this is true, It's a little amusing, but many of us kind of privately fancy ourselves revolutionaries. We have very uh our

00:42:35.520 - 00:42:51.930

work is very significant politically. And this of course though no one reads it. I mean no one , I mean the audience is really statistically zero for history. You know, um the masses would rather

00:42:51.930 - 00:43:07.070

undergo dentistry than history and they managed to resist the riveting blurbs that we right for each other on the back of those books. Yeah. And our humble duty is really to chart the river, not row

00:43:07.070 - 00:43:16.720

the boat ashore so much. If we rowed the boat ashore. It's on our own time. But and that's good. And I'm not denigrating the value of historical work. I am denigrating the value of

00:43:16.720 - 00:43:29.570

historical work. I'm with Mr Graham are, believe me and I really am. I like that man . But uh he was right about that. Well if something so important why not say it so somebody

00:43:29.570 - 00:43:45.610

can hear you it so they can understand, I find it. But I'll just tell you this, I swear I'm not making this up when if it's actually sort of harmed my career I could care less

00:43:45.620 - 00:43:58.710

, but it is actually harmed my career. I was a very promising and distinguished young historian. What about much of prizes and stuff. But when I wrote a book that people started reading like a lot

00:43:58.710 - 00:44:09.390

of people read Not that many, it's really tiny . I mean it sold 100 and 160,000 copies or something like that. I mean, But in the history realm, you know, 4000 copies is a

00:44:09.390 - 00:44:30.630

big hit, but actually not very frequent anyway. Um they actually the historians, they sort of don't like it that way. It's not nobody reads their book and so it's distinguished and important. Consequently,

00:44:30.630 - 00:44:45.160

you can see the logic here. If someone reads , if people read a book, then that's, it's not distinguished are important. It's pop history and that's really a term of denigration. You would think

00:44:45.160 - 00:44:57.100

that a more normal ordinary theory of communications would be that the purpose of language, even though we're in the prison house of language, the purpose of it would be for, uh, us to speak to

00:44:57.100 - 00:45:07.000

one another and for me to understand what you said as best I can and to respond to you and for us to understand that's the purpose of language. But actually, if you just change the words and

00:45:07.000 - 00:45:22.810

put a lot of gibberish in and make it pretty dog gone hard to read, They'll think it's smart , I can prove it, but I won't bother anyway. Nonetheless, it's important work. I don't

00:45:22.810 - 00:45:42.400

usually quote joseph Stalin. I really don't. But he made one good point as he was instructing the bolsheviks. He said, uh you have to watch the historians. They can spoil everything from Stalin's lips

00:45:42.410 - 00:46:00.500

to the texas, school boards ear. Yes, but see, the problem with historians is we're like the bolshevik biologists, you know, who obediently reported back to Stalin. So as he wouldn't shoot them

00:46:00.510 - 00:46:17.570

, um that you acquired traits could be inherited. So I cut off my arm or maybe Stalin did . And then my my Children are born with one arm, acquired traits can be inherited. That makes

00:46:17.570 - 00:46:30.960

it possible to change history so much faster. And so that's what science, that's what the soviet biologist reported. And I think historians are like that a little bit and that we are prone to forget basic

00:46:30.960 - 00:46:49.800

information about the species that we're talking about. So we insist that if bailey will bark the blessing and take the biscuit, she will birth litters of pious puppies. So I often think of bailey's failure to

00:46:49.800 - 00:47:04.850

say Grace as I read the newspaper every morning and try to do my job, feed my family and you know, hear the news without losing my tiny mind. Um I think about the human truths of

00:47:04.860 - 00:47:16.270

bailey's canine shortcomings which are sort of thumping on the floor of this book. I'm trying to write the basic premise. Yes, or the first premise is uh Mhm. Oh Lord have mercy, what a

00:47:16.270 - 00:47:35.870

gasbag I am. That's not the premise but but it's relevant, I'm trying to say that human beings are not god nor his angels uh instead were flawed human beings, not just as individuals, but we've

00:47:35.880 - 00:47:51.740

got a species wide problem here, you know. Now with enough dog biscuits and and doggedness, pardon the pun? Uh I'm sure Jesse Catherine could have taught bailey to pretend to say grace, but there's

00:47:51.740 - 00:48:02.030

no amount of sunday school that could persuade bailey or any other dog to say Grace without a dealer in dog biscuits close at hand. Dogs do not know piety, which is one of the things I like

00:48:02.030 - 00:48:15.240

best about him. Um, you can call it whatever you like, but humans don't just cause problems . They don't just have problems. We are problems , you know, and then you can call it

00:48:15.250 - 00:48:30.590

original sin or incomplete evolution or tragic comic misfires of intelligent design or you know, the, the fellow I was watching shave this morning is really the more of a minutes to me than Osama bin laden.

00:48:31.670 - 00:48:45.920

Oh, and it's, I don't think I'm alone in this. I've learned a few parlor tricks. I can stand on my hind legs and lecture and right books. Um, jury is still out as

00:48:45.920 - 00:49:01.870

to whether or not these capacities do enough good to offset the trouble they've got me in. But um , I'm not alone and anybody who is shocked that human beings have created explosive devices, any small hand

00:49:01.880 - 00:49:15.260

, thousands and thousands and thousands of them, any small handful of which could end life on the planet . Is not anybody shocked about that has not been paying attention. I don't think humans, if you

00:49:15.260 - 00:49:29.760

think we won't use those devices, then you've got a son, your historical understanding or theological theological understanding than I do. We've used everything else. It's pretty much what we're capable of doing, what is

00:49:29.760 - 00:49:37.820

what we do and that, that's cause for some concern. Now there are different ways to respond to that and I don't have very long. So I'm just gonna just sort of say, you know,

00:49:37.820 - 00:49:49.400

there's a, and this is not standard issue among other species. A two year old horse is pretty good at being a horse. You can go put that fell in the pasture and go on vacation,

00:49:49.870 - 00:50:04.910

you know. But my, My two year old son, I didn't know the difference between his playpen and a long flight of concrete stairs. It takes a long time he survived and thankfully, uh,

00:50:04.920 - 00:50:20.330

uplifting influence of his sister mostly is a fine young man. But the implications of this very basic truth for our education and sort of species grooming project is very serious. I think, you know, the

00:50:20.330 - 00:50:31.460

male homo sapiens catches on none too quickly, were rarely fit to live with till our late 20s. If then If a man has any sense that 30 10 years later, he's liable to lose himself in

00:50:31.460 - 00:50:46.420

Dante's darkened wood and forget everything he ever knew and abandoned his offspring and their mother, and running headlong headlong off with the first woman. It takes him seriously what she only does because they just met and

00:50:46.430 - 00:51:00.010

because their previous encounters with the male of the species have set the bar quite low. You may not think this is true, but I have been to the county firing back and observed a few things on

00:51:00.010 - 00:51:14.970

the way. I don't mean to low rate my brethren of the proud tool bearing symbolic logic wielding species . And I prefer us. I actually love people were so interesting and I think God must love us

00:51:14.980 - 00:51:30.770

. The God's love made. Maybe it's stupid to say, and maybe it baffles other people, but it sort of doesn't baffle me. I think we're really interesting, strange and wonderful and fearful. We

00:51:30.770 - 00:51:42.020

may blow up the planet, but we may have already busted the thermostat. I don't know, but I'm open to the great leap forward. We do some things that are remarkable and have done some things

00:51:42.760 - 00:52:00.370

. But there's something, you know, when when when William Faulkner says that man will not only survive but will prevail or when DR King says that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in

00:52:00.370 - 00:52:17.570

reality. Deep in my heart, I do believe . And deep in my other heart, I would like to pour them both a dream and and say something terribly condescending question. I worry about it.

00:52:19.050 - 00:52:29.640

I think there are different ways to respond. Hobbs , thomas Hobbes said, you know, the war of all against all, what he considered our natural state pretty dark few of things. So he favored

00:52:29.640 - 00:52:44.060

the all powerful government leviathan. Which is a little bit like the Oh dear. I have to tell you about the Grand inquisitor. They go to the brothers Karamazov and read the Grand inquisitor again. You

00:52:44.060 - 00:52:58.880

know who, who is coming? The inquisitor is coming with the inquisition through the countryside and they come to him dragging our Lord and whom he recognizes. And he explained that there's been a terrible mistake.

00:52:58.880 - 00:53:13.110

He asked the soldiers to let him go and let them talk privately. And then he explains to God that God made a terrible mistake. He overestimated our capacities and he gave us free will and we're making

00:53:13.110 - 00:53:28.580

a mess with it. So we, the church , he said, are correcting your error and we are controlling man with these lives and we're uh, giving him what he really needs and watch, which

00:53:28.580 - 00:53:40.310

is miracle mystery and authority. And so we're merciful were burnt. You know, we're burning people at the state. But that is an act of mercy compared to what happens if you let people run around

00:53:40.310 - 00:53:58.300

doing what they would do. And then of course , he bids jesus goodbye and the soldiers dragged him away where the obedient town folk are piling up the bundles of wood. Mhm. So there's that temptation

00:53:58.300 - 00:54:15.400

, but I actually think that's not the way to go. I understand the way of the authoritarian is a big mistake because it leaves out the capacity of the authoritarian himself who is part of the same species

00:54:15.410 - 00:54:30.350

, how terrible that can be. So, we've got to I think stand up for a kind of civic pluralism, where are we? And we have to have public education and lots of it. And

00:54:30.350 - 00:54:38.220

I do think we need to change it some, for instance, where is the love? I don't want the school's preaching my religion, which I don't even know what it is is, you know,

00:54:38.230 - 00:54:51.200

and then, but I don't want my Children going to buddhist schools or muslim schools or I don't really want my kids going to christian schools. I think we need public schools. But all of those folks

00:54:51.200 - 00:55:04.490

believe in love. What's wrong with love? My son came home from school and he'd gotten in trouble . He was in the second grade and I found out there was a note that he brought home and

00:55:04.500 - 00:55:15.860

it was closed. And you and I hope that he apparently had been questioned by the teacher about something and uh, not a teacher actually with somebody else like a principal type. And he had told her

00:55:15.240 - 00:55:31.340

he didn't have to do what she said. This didn't really sit well in with the Wisconsinites so much there, you know. And I'm not sure she knew what he meant exactly, but she was serious

00:55:31.340 - 00:55:45.000

about this. and then his teacher came Mission E cloth. She's been driven out of the teaching profession and I Too bad. She was a great teacher . She taught for four or 5 years but she

00:55:45.000 - 00:55:55.460

came to my house and she sat there I think she needed us to be there for this. But I wasn't involved. I just sat there and she looked at Sam and said Sam I love you.

00:55:59.040 - 00:56:15.270

She said do you know? And then she told him and he understood they had the communication. She said you know I love you. And she said do you know that you don't have to tell everybody

00:56:15.270 - 00:56:30.190

everything. He said. She said do you know that you have a right to your thoughts. She said you're not a problem for me but I do have a problem with Miss whatever her name was,

00:56:30.930 - 00:56:49.220

she said doc you don't she doesn't have a right to know what you think about everything. You cannot say. You don't have to roll your eyes even you can just know what you know and trust what

00:56:49.220 - 00:57:04.550

you know, but you don't have to tell everybody . It can be your secret. He has not given us a moments trouble. I mean, you know, he's got a critique of school. You

00:57:04.550 - 00:57:16.450

bet he does and he acts on it, but he defends himself against it. He doesn't. The love parts, what I want to say is we can we can do better. We need to teach

00:57:16.450 - 00:57:29.800

the Children that we love them and we can't do that by abandoning the public schools. There's millions and millions of dollars. I don't have time to explain it because I'm already over my time. But there's

00:57:29.800 - 00:57:42.960

millions of dollars coming in from americans for prosperity Flowing into the Tea Party, but it's also flowing into and they've sent uh, put about$100,000 into our school board race, where I'm from last time,

00:57:43.110 - 00:57:54.860

the whole school board race, that doesn't spend that much money ever in the past. You know, they gave somebody$70,000, you know, You know , it's a anyway, and they've elected people who

00:57:54.870 - 00:58:05.990

who really don't want to have public schools. In fact, they don't want to have public anything because they're ideologues and they think that all things public are bad and all things private are good and they really

00:58:05.990 - 00:58:17.270

don't want to have public schools. They're intellectuals admit that in the papers. They right, but the politicians don't quite yet at anyway. But what they're doing is resegregating the schools and then destroying them.

00:58:17.270 - 00:58:31.750

And then uh their major backers are actually building private schools. There's the largest funder. Local contributor is funding is buying a big chain of public schools, private schools. They're going to shift the whole thing

00:58:31.750 - 00:58:42.920

over and they're coming and they're coming to where you are. There's a, somebody told me, I'm sorry, I can't remember. There's a rally in in Austin here in the next few days, if

00:58:42.920 - 00:58:55.960

you tomorrow when at the capitol In the 10:30 AM at the Capitol. But all across this country, we're doing this because we, you know, we this species needs a lot of education, even the

00:58:55.960 - 00:59:07.220

people who are improvident, even the people who are unlucky, even the people who are, you know , people accuse them of not caring about their Children , which is absurd. But, you know,

00:59:07.230 - 00:59:20.380

nonetheless, whether your life is messy, like mine or whether it's quite orderly like yours, the uh , maybe, you know, we still need we still need it and and they need to know their

00:59:20.380 - 00:59:30.040

loved, your loved. Thank you very much. I have to run away and catch an airplane, I believe. Is that true? That is true . L Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.

00:59:30.050 - 00:59:32.440

Thank you so much. It's been great to be