The Power of One: Glenn Beck Speech

We all feel it.

We feel the foundations cracking.

The foundations of our country,

some of the erosion is just the inevitable settling that happens to any foundation, especially when apathy keeps us from maintaining it.

Some may even be from gaps in the original stonework.

But the purposeful dismantling of our nation's foundation is causing our nation to crumble around us.

And we're more divided than we've ever been.

And on both sides, we're mad as hell.

One side wants to pull the Republic down and change it.

The other says, not on my watch.

When we see what's happening, we feel angry.

I mean, you should feel angry.

I want to fight.

I'm guessing you want to fight.

But we don't

know how.

In a few minutes, I'm going to give you a way to fight, to begin that long journey.

But first, we must recognize why we're fighting.

You want to fight because You see injustice in the world.

You see hate and lies winning, winning in our schools, winning in our churches, winning in our children.

We want to crush the chaos, stamp it out with our foot.

And it's really easy to misdirect our anger, point it at everyone, at every institution, every system, every politician, every journalist, every single person on Twitter and Facebook because we feel they deserve it.

And the world is just so messed up.

And I have a right to be angry, don't I?

Don't you?

Maybe.

But before you act in your anger,

ask yourself this question.

Why am I so angry?

What is the anger here for?

Because just like pain, Pain tells your body, hey, don't do that again.

Anger is there for a reason as well.

So what is the anger here to teach me?

Anger, like sadness, comes from somewhere deep inside of us.

And sometimes we don't even know where or why it's there.

It just is.

This is where we make a crucial decision.

Do I allow an anger that I don't understand to tell me what to do?

Or

do I not?

I want you to think of anger like rocket fuel.

Imagine, because it is that powerful, you can use it to launch a rocket into space, or you can blow everything up.

There's lots of people that will tell you to blow everything up, and I implore you, don't.

Even on the days that you really want to, even on the days that it's really completely justified, just don't blow everything up.

Instead, ask yourself,

why

am I so angry?

What is it that you love that you lost?

Because I think that's where anger comes from.

When you lose something you love.

So, what is it that you've lost?

What is the foundation that is being pulled out from underneath us?

Close your eyes and really think about it.

Now,

can you restore it?

Can you use this feeling inside of you to fix the problem that's making you so angry?

If you really, really humble yourself,

ask yourself if you somehow are contributing to the problem.

Is there something in you or in me?

Is there something broken that can't be fixed?

Something that your anger is trying to tell you about?

The reason why this is important is we can't fight the demons of the world while fighting, or worse yet, denying the demons that live inside all of us.

We have to find inside ourselves the true empathy to see the pain that those who are so misguided and angry must be in.

It's going to be hard, but we have to find ourselves being a true reflection of the man from Nazareth.

Now, in our nation's desperate hour, perhaps its most desperate hour,

you must know who you are

and why you fight.

You must reinforce your own foundation and work with others to shore up the foundations of themselves and our nation, so these foundations can can stand for generations to come.

There is destruction, there is hatred and lies everywhere.

But we must lead in the other direction.

It is the direction that many, if not most Americans want to travel in.

Most of us don't want to fight, we don't want to hate, we don't want to destroy.

Americans are good.

They still believe in being fair, kind, and helpful.

They just need to be reminded what it feels like, and it feels good,

to do good.

You see, this is why those in power tell us, like they told the people in Los Angeles, you can't bring sandwiches to the homeless.

Or, in Miami, on one of the hottest days in this last August,

You can't give free air conditioners to the poor or the elderly in Miami.

It's why they told us we couldn't rescue those in Afghanistan who were left behind.

Well, we did.

Yes, we can.

But I say better yet, yes, we must.

Because it's in the smallest of acts that we'll find our miracles.

It's in the opening of a heart.

That open heart that still remains on the outskirts of the mob, that offers kindness or comfort, that will change us, will change our families and our world.

When we love those who hate us, or who the world tells us we're supposed to hate, we begin to melt the ice of frozen hearts.

I want to tell you the story of one of the most well-remembered Soviet dissidents.

His name was Alexander Stolosnitsyn.

He spoke out against Stalin and communism, and for that he was thrown in the gulag over and over and over again.

He was a true believer at first.

But he saw when observing the people at the gulag that in the worst circumstances, there was still a way to be more noble or less noble.

Some refused to defy their convictions.

Others rose in the ranks to become the camp masters and oppressed others in a more brutal way than they themselves had been oppressed.

Some escalated tyranny by their works, others by their neglect, but there were a noble few that refused to participate in it.

Which one will you be?

He wrote many important works while contemplating his own role in the demise of goodness in his nation.

He considered how he personally may have been guilty.

And from that deeply humble place, he saw a way out.

I've updated his way out.

It's a call to action titled, Live Not by Lies.

A call to action that we all must do.

Today we gather in our home.

And we wish things were not as they are.

We speak privately with the conviction of patriots, and then return to the work of our everyday lives with withered and unresisting spirits.

If only things were different, we say.

We become resentful.

We feed off of judgment.

We suppress the nagging thought that perhaps, just perhaps, we're the responsible ones.

They are marching us into socialism.

They've stolen our nation, we say.

Have they stolen it?

Or did we give it away?

Because if they were able to steal it, how firmly was it really in our grasp?

Besides, who is this invincible they?

The all-powerful they versus the helpless we?

We the people

versus they

the dominant?

Is it all their fault?

Are we truly powerless?

The answer is no.

I don't have to tell you that we're at a tipping point in our country.

You can feel it.

We confuse our children and kill our babies.

We fight about how many layers of cloth should be on our faces and if the unvaccinated should be allowed to travel freely.

Our neighbors are dying in autonomous zones.

Petty tyrants are taking over our major cities.

Someone has to stop this, we say.

But we never consider that we are that someone.

So we just continue on with our lives, hoping if we just comply,

we'll get by and it will become normal again.

If we just do what they ask, then we can maintain the veneer of freedom.

If we remain silent, then perhaps the powers that be will throw tiny morsels of liberty our way.

Perhaps we'll be well liked by the ruling class.

We don't fear the chemical castration of our children more than we fear being fired from our jobs.

We're more afraid of losing our internet privileges than losing our rights.

We concern ourselves with our image and not our deeds.

We care only for ourselves waiting for a Messiah.

We have accepted the ideology of the people who are intent on denying us our freedom.

We drink in the idea that the state holds the power and that our circumstances dictate who we are.

For years they have forced these ideas down our throat and now we consume them freely, even offering the fruit of tyranny to our neighbors.

We have forgotten.

We have forgotten that we are the state.

That the government derives its power from the governed.

We have forgotten that we are America.

We change things.

Today,

you can begin to change things.

You can change everything, starting now.

Yeah, but they lie and they cheat and they rig the system.

We don't have a chance.

We're not even sure if our elections are free and fair anymore.

They don't listen to us.

No,

they don't listen to us.

They may never listen to us.

They do cheat.

They do lie.

They do steal.

But if you wait for the perfect group of people and the perfect circumstance, you are going to wait forever.

If they cheat and lie, Do we resign ourselves to private patriotism and public compliance?

No,

we do the harder thing.

We take responsibility.

We admit it's not them, it's us.

Yes, we are the problem.

Which means that we can be the solution.

We are the nation that dumped tea into the sea rejecting tyranny.

We are the nation that peacefully protested arm in arm with Martin Luther King.

Yet we've also been the nation of Antifa, of violent protests, of cancel culture and dehumanization of those we disagree with.

We have seen the fruit grown on the tree of evil, and we cannot, we must not eat of it.

We cannot turn to dehumanization, violence, and chaos.

We must not adopt the means of an end that we know is wrong.

We must be beacons of light.

We must maintain our goodness, our steadfastness, our commitment to one another.

We must remember why we fight in the first place, and it's not to win,

but because we want to partner with God in ensuring the liberty of all people.

Yeah, but if we don't fight like them, aren't we destined to lose?

Do we do nothing?

No.

We unravel the tyranny starting at its most vulnerable point,

lies.

Violence cannot stand when propped up by lies.

It's not necessary for violence to reveal itself every day to persist, only that every day we provide it cover with our lies.

That's all violence demands.

Then it can continue gaining in strength and confidence.

And as we lie, we participate in the unraveling of our nation, in the destruction of our peace.

If we can do nothing else, we can still tell the truth.

If we've lost support of the government, economics, culture, we can still resist the tyranny by refusing to participate in lies.

Let the tyranny stop at your lips.

Let it die in you.

Because lies are like demons.

Without a host, they cannot survive.

Without us, the lies are powerless.

Now maybe you're not ready to quit your job and take to the street with the truth.

Maybe you aren't even prepared to post the truth online.

But you can commit yourself to never again saying the things that you know are not true.

This is your task.

Simply do not lie.

It was true in the gulags of Russia, and it's true today.

Truth is an option available to all of us, but it does come with risks.

Perhaps you've been lying to protect your job, your status, even your family.

And yet all of that is for nothing if our children are birthed, nursed, and raised on deceit.

This is the large path to destruction, and we're all walking on it.

Today you must decide, will I use my life to uphold lies or stand in the truth?

Will I today commit to doing the harder thing and stand proud in that truth?

To maybe be persecuted by my peers.

but to be remembered and to remember myself and yourself as honorable, good, and decent in the most trying of times.

If this is the path you choose, then I ask you to commit to these things.

Starting today,

I will not write, share, or distribute anything that I do not believe to be completely true.

I will not use my influence in public or private, at family dinners or in the workplace to protect or spread lies.

I will not allow my art or my stories to distort even one bit of truth as I discern it.

I will no longer quote or misquote the words of others past or present to prop up my own bias without being absolutely sure I understand and share the quote in full with the proper context.

I will not be forced to participate in a social movement or an event that defies my personal convictions.

I will not lend my voice or my presence to anything that I do not believe to be rooted in truth.

I will vote my conscience both publicly and privately regardless of external pressure or scrutiny.

I will not vote for anything or anyone I do not sincerely support.

I will not participate in any gathering or meeting where a dishonest or unfairly solicited discussion is taking place.

Upon finding myself in a dishonest meeting or gathering, a play, a movie, a lecture, a class, the office, I will speak up or walk out upon hearing even one lie, one moment of nonsense ideology, or an instance of blatant propaganda.

If asked why I'm leaving, I will politely and earnestly explain my discontent.

I will not subscribe or purchase from any news outlet, be it print, television, radio, podcast, that I know to knowingly distort the truth.

You see,

the truth is eternal.

There is such a thing as the truth.

There's an interesting scripture that Paul wrote about the foolish that will confound the wise.

It's taken me a while to really understand this.

And up until recently, I don't think I could have a real example, but I see the wise now in our society, and I see who's deemed foolish.

The foolish aren't foolish.

They are only foolish in the eyes of a world gone mad.

They are the few, the few left that still hold true to those things that the world now denies.

And because those things are true,

they confound the worldly wise.

Let us today declare that we still hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and have God-given rights that can't be changed or taken away by any man.

Let us declare that two and two does equal four.

That men cannot have babies, and there are are only two genders.

We deny and reject the lie that only white men can be racist, that segregation is now good and Martin Luther King is bad.

We deny that all cops are evil and burning and looting is somehow peaceful.

We deny that January 6th was worse than the Civil War.

We not only deny and reject all of this, but we declare today that we will stand at the very jaws of hell as they gape open before us.

That the documents held in our national archives that freed the entire world are not racist or triggering.

They instead are instruments designed to end slavery in all of its forms.

We must stand by lovingly, yet confidently, and clearly state those things that the elite, the sophisticated, the worldly wise, or the coward will say is foolish to speak out loud.

Let us boldly declare it.

We need to stop telling them who they are.

Because they know who they are.

We need to tell them who we are.

Better yet, we need to show them who you are.

This is how we begin to engage in the fight.

These days will just be the beginnings of times that will try men's souls.

And many in the end will shrink from the fight as they always do because the price will be too high for them.

But those who stand will forever be remembered as heroes of this grand American experiment called Liberty and Freedom.

Yeah, you're going to be called names.

You'll be smeared.

And it will feel many times like we just cannot win.

But I know something

that you may have forgotten.

We are all Americans.

Americans never sit down when a challenge was unwinnable.

We are the people that beat the British, the greatest navy and army on earth.

We chased them from these shores with pitchforks and farmers.

We drove the dictators, the communists, the Marxists, the collectivists, and the Nazis back into the hole from which they slithered from.

And when we got into that war, did you know our military trained with broomsticks because we didn't have enough guns?

Yet within four years, we were manufacturing guns, planes, tanks, and ships faster than the Germans Germans could sink, shoot, or destroy.

Yes,

we're late to this fight.

But we were also very late to join the fight against Hitler's monsters.

But know this,

that is because Americans don't like to fight.

But when we must,

When we sew ourselves together with common purpose to stand up for the things we love

no one can stand against us

too many will try to convince you that to not strike back

to not use the violent tactics that the left uses to not use them against the left it's not only foolish but weak

I again return to Paul

And he will use the weak things of the world to confound the mighty.

You,

we,

cannot win their way.

We cannot become all that we despise.

Because we have the truth on our side.

And if we stand in that truth, the only truth, then we will be on God's side.

And the foolishness of God is wiser than men, Paul writes.

And the weakness of God is stronger than man.

Our founders wrote with firm reliance on divine providence,

That's not faith.

That is unshakable faith.

That's build your house upon this rock kind of faith.

With that kind of faith, let us declare that we still hold these truths to be self-evident.

Let us now pick up the mantle that has been given to us, that those things that so many Americans have died for, and so many Americans came here for, and those who still in distant lands that feel the lash of the whip, the loneliness of political prison, or the jack boot on their back still hope for,

let us at least stand for those things.

Let us declare those truths our nation was founded on are worth living for.

And if not for us, then for our children and our children's children still to come.

We must commit ourselves to telling the truth and only the truth as we know it, and rejecting all lies when we see them.

As you live in truth and the principles that built this nation, you will be strengthened and magnified by God's power.

And when the earthquakes occur, you will assure that our nation stands strong because the foundation is solid and immovable.

This is who you are.

This is who we are.

This is what we love.

This is who we serve.

This is why we stand.

And this is how we fight.