Glenn Beck Program June 24, 2011

In studio audience.

Next Thursday is the last broadcast.

History

• The best history book Glenn has ever read – Chris Stewart’s “7 Tipping Points That Saved the World”.  It tells the story of the following tipping points:

1. Defeat of the Assyrians – God
2. Victory of Greeks Over the Persians – Arrogance
3. Constantine in Rome – Baby in the trash.
4. Defeat of Islam in France – Line in the sand.
5. Mongols in Eastern Europe – Horror.
6. 1492 – No hope.  New hope.
7. 1940 – One Man Alone – Outgunned

Guest Chris Stewart, Author “7 Tipping Points That Saved the World”  (http://www.amazon.com/Miracle-Freedom-Seven-Tipping-Points/dp/160641951X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308966084&sr=8-1 )

The Book

• This book is a story of freedom.
• Freedom is fragile, rare, and precious.
• Only a tiny fraction of people has ever experienced freedom.
• In all of history, there have been 110 billion people ever to have lived on earth.
• Only 5 billion have experienced freedom.
• Three billion are alive today.
• Only 22 nations have experienced democracy.

The Stories

• Baby in the Trash

• It happened about the time of Christ.
• Rome was very powerful at that time.
• The empire did not value human life.
• The story starts with a young Christian boy looking for food in a trash dump and finding a baby.
• He decides to take it home.
• This starts the Judeo-Christian value system that every life is precious.
• At that time, babies were routinely thrown away.  Any normal Roman citizen would have ignored a crying baby in the trash dump.
• Ultimately, Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity.
• That started the period when Christians were no longer persecuted.
• Much of the Roman Empire converted shortly thereafter.
• Genghis Khan
• He used the bodies of captives as ramps to breach the walls of walled cities.
• He conquered twice the territory of anyone else.
• In 25 years, the Mongols conquered more territory than the Romans did in 400 years.
• He just erased entire cities and populations.

There was a discussion about whether today is a tipping point.  Both Glenn and Chris agree and think it is.

Glenn discussed the progressive view that men learn and get better and therefore we progress.  History suggests that when men come to power, they apply tyranny to obtain and retain power and control.  The Founders knew that Man could rule himself.  Men cannot and must be restrained.

• Defeat of the Assyrians
• Chris’ favorite story.
• In 700 BC, the Assyrians were one of the most brutal empires in history.
• Assyrians wanted to defeat the Egyptians, but had to go through Judea to get there.
• So they invaded Judea and conquered everything except Jerusalem.
• They put Jerusalem under siege.
• 180,000 Assyrian soldiers got sick and died.
• The Assyrians packed up and went home.

The Future

Glenn asks the audience for a show of hands if they believe their grandchildren will live like we do today.  No one raised his or her hand!

Glenn asked if he had asked them that question five or eight years ago, would they have agreed?  About two thirds of the people there raised their hand.

Glenn said that you don’t know how good you have it until you read this book.  Also, how bad it could get.