Dennis Prager and criminologist Roy Baumeister examine how the self-esteem movement, launched by California senator John Vasconcellos in the 1970s, misunderstood the link between self-worth and behavior. Baumeister found that many high-self-esteem individuals he studied were murderers. True self-esteem, they argue, must be earned through good deeds, not inflated regardless of cheating or wrongdoing.
Before you were born, well before, the self-esteem movement was created. I think it was in the 1970s in California, naturally.
Yeah, shocking.
I even remember who did it. For some reason, I can't forget his name. He was a California state senator. He has since passed away. John Vasconcellos. This is— this will fascinate you because most people don't know the origins of the self-esteem movement. It started in California. The state of California gave a certain amount of money to explore the, the self-esteem roots of crime, which sounds great, but it was, of course, as soon as it happened, I knew it was stupid. What they really were saying is, you know, poverty causes crime, racism causes crime, and now they were adding a third one, low self-esteem causes crime. By the way, poverty is a lie, racism is a lie, not that poverty doesn't exist, it's a lie that it causes crime, and low self-esteem. Roy Baumeister, one of the greatest criminologists in American life, professor of criminology, psychologist. He spent his life with criminals, I mean murderers, right? He said to me on my show, Dennis, the people with the highest self-esteem I have ever counseled, interacted with, yes, are murderers. So related, yes, so, so related is the high— well, not related, it's the high self-esteem. So you and I have high self-esteem. It's, it's obvious from what you said, but there's a very big difference. Our self-esteem is morally rooted. I, I like Dennis when he does good. I don't like Dennis when he doesn't do good.
I would feel so hollow. That's the point. I feel like a cheat. I would feel like—
so your self-esteem would go lower. Yes. If you cheated to get a disability note.
Yes.
That's the— but vast numbers of people, it would not work that way. I— if I can get a, a doctor's note to get on Southwest faster, to have more time taking an LSAT, then damn it, I'm going to get that note. And their self-esteem does not sink.
Yes, yes, it's self-esteem.
Oh, it's, it's everything. If self-esteem is rooted in the moral, in other words, I have to earn my own self-esteem. You know, earn is one of my two favorite verbs. So I have to earn. That's how I feel. By the way, I believe I have to earn God's esteem.
Well, that's another thing that I thought of. What would God think of me?
That's beautiful.
Life, Legacy, and a Dangerous Mission in the Soviet Union | Sunday Fireside Chat
