Dennis Prager reflects on what makes people trust him, from his choice of fountain pens to his refusal to endorse products he doesn't believe in. He argues his honesty comes from accountability to God, not fear of getting caught, and that decades of consistent work prove it.
You know, it's a funny thing. So many funny things happen when you're a public figure. You experience things in life that are not experienceable if you're not a public figure. This is not a boast or anything silly like that. It's just a fact. They say, for example, that the rich leave the country. Completely different lives from the non-rich, which may be true in many ways, but I believe that the life of the rich is imaginable to those of us who are not particularly rich. But I don't think that a public life is fully imaginable. So there are so many funny things and interesting things that happen And I'll give you what a little tiny— it seems tiny, but it's, I think it's not tiny. So I mentioned fountain pens. So at all these events, and I've had 3 events in 3 states in the last 3 days. That's why I haven't been on the air for 3 days, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. I'm on today and I was on Monday. And I sign books and take photos prior to almost every lecture, just the way it works out. And of course, I always have a fountain pen or two fountain pens in case one runs out of ink with me. Very often people will say when I sign, let's say, one of my books, they'll say, oh wow, you know, Yeah, you really do use a fountain pen. Now, what are they saying when they say that? This is what I think they're saying. You really are honest. You're telling us the truth when you mention that. What else can it mean? You really do. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm reading into it. It'd be interesting to have people react. But the reason that I say this is to make that point that people don't know whom to trust. Is, for example, a lot of people will tell me who work with me or are in my life in other ways that when they mention my name, one of the first questions they get is, what is he really like? By the way, these are all totally legitimate reactions. The fountain pen, or what is he really like? But it all emanates from Is somebody really trustworthy? I mean, I get, for example, the question, does Relief Factor really work? It's another example of, are you for real? Are you trustworthy? Like, there's a certain amount of money I could be paid to lie about a product. I mean, I would say 90% of the people who have heard me for any length of time know that the idea is preposterous. Aside from having this strong commitment to honesty, I feel that I am accountable to God for not lying. But it's revelatory that people see people in public life and they really do wonder, are they for real?
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