of the past 20 years, he has appeared on book tv cause to 20 times first out, in 2007 on a monthly call in program, "in depth" . p.j. o'rourke discusses politics and why he uses humor to address political and social issues. host: is the real picture of you not awake. >> oh yeah, not awake. i would guess that was in 71. not quite positive.

host: will you for your politics is anyone . >> i think marsha left would be the easiest way to summon up. p.j.: i was a left-winger but, i did not make enough sense to actually be a communist or anything like that. host: when did the transformation occur . p.j.: it was gradual. there is a book coming out, i just about this. it's coming out from the hoover institution is backing this. it is called why i turned right. this is to rebut a bunch of us who went right. it is a long story in a motel it will give you the short version. i was a radical left. very much in favor of some sort of socialist thing in america.

i got a job. and i get the job paying $150 a week. i was a messenger in new york. that was a lot of money as far as i was concerned. i was living down in the lower east side. i was very broke. i get paid every two weeks. i was really looking forward to that 300 bucks. and so was my landlord mistake. in my drug dealer. among other people. i got my first paycheck and i got down to 178 or so . this must be $300. but after federal taxes and state taxes, city taxes and social security. healthcare, retirement fund which i really care a lot about those days. i had been advocating socialism, marxist pretty communism. for your screaming and yelling and demonstrating in the street. and we already have it.

they just took half of my fate. what is going on here. i'm not rockefeller. he just took out my pay . of socialism. that is when i started to step out of it. it took a while. host: somebody else made a switch in their politics was christopher hitchens. p.j.: much more recently. host: 's and 93, this is what he had to say about you then. >> this guy is a next another ex- leftist radical from the 60s. and being permanently paranoid. in the 60s. they put on a tie and is been catching this chip ever since . and he's humorist. first books and essays . one is quite funny. it's called republican party reptile. in the next one was called holidays and health. in more recent one is called give the war a chance.

and much better than any of my books have done. it is my revenge upon him. i met him. hung out with him in a bar. so i reckon it was running on empty with this chip. but i know, i have been there. i've been the radical. now i see how wonderful it would be completely buttoned up and button down toy. and basically depends on the satire. some people are trying to make jokes. okay slot nice to have the people. i said look, in the words of the title, is quite funny but not funny enough. speech of christopher christopher christopher. i might get away with slander and a verbal assault. i don't think i have ever gotten away with just a little guy.

not even gotten away with physical assault. so i think he overstates the case. and also the course, i'm long past the point where i can claim to be republican button down or not. i'm an old republican. nine like most like white guys. we are all republicans even if we sometimes callers loves something else. like democrat. host: you didn't know you will come over here and get attacked did you. >> all the trouble in the world. p.j. o'rourke . in any good book to read people. the first book. when was this put out. >> the racial addition of that was 1983. host: was is about. p.j.: this book bound up being adam smith. i was simply puzzled and i did not understand why some countries are rich in other countries are poor.

and so i started poking around, going to rich countries and poor countries and try to see if i can figure out why this country was rich in other countries report. that was from that experience that the editor of globe clinic in england, who came up with this idea of a series of books . books that change the world. i went my books on adam smith is one. christopher has been also on thomas paine. twice the men. in very good to dance. it was because of adam smith in the poking around that toby asked me to write on adam smith. host: command, new jersey. >> i am not sure why p.j. o'rourke deserves to be taken seriously to given time on the

show when a man who i suspect never wore the uniform, and a from hearing about his politics in the vietnam era, would not have done is artist maybe to even avoid wearing the uniform . we have homework now that we should not have had. it might happen to been a republican for 50 years. voting three times for richard nixon twice ronald ragan. thousands of americans have been killed . a lot of iraqis have been killed. no useful purpose is served by the store. i think it is it, that p.j. o'rourke can make fun of work and find something amusing about it but the question that i wanted to ask ms. pretty he talks about the imperative of the free markets. dizzy of any conception about why we have things like the minimum wage law, maximum laws and osha laws . is he remember the condition that existed in america before we had those

laws. and the way that laborers were obliged to work 12 hour days, 60 weeks. is that what he thinks is freedom. host: thank you color . so that was on the democratic line. in your dedication to give law a chance print here's what you) like many men of my generation i had opportunity to get for chancellor probably chickened out. i went to my god physical and sunny when the doctors on or about the history of drug abuse. the letter was for a half pages long with three and half pages devoted to listing the drugs that i end up used. i was shuttered into the office of psychiatrist who who had a 45 minute meeting with me. and he said and shouted at me, you are aft up and do not along the army. i do not have to go but then of course meant that someone else

to go in my place. i would like to dedicate this book to him. i hope you got back in one piece fellow. i hope you are more use to your platoon mates that i would've been. i hope you're into helping out in a 191, 170 punch me in the face for me along here peacefully, i hope that was you. i got a couple nice letters from a dedication like this . the people who thought maybe they had punched me in the face . host: with with the fellow said on the phone. i never asked somebody to take me seriously. p.j.: is making fun of war, let's put it this way. a bad situation, and war is a really rotten situation. like the disease, death itself. it is not change, we make fun of things not because we approve of them or love them. not because they are cute and

cuddly. we make fun of things in order to cope with their own terror in our own unease. our own horse. our anger to god. our disappointment with ourselves etc. and so forth. humor is a defense mechanism. you can just take drugs, you can make yourself all pompous and pious. we can do all of those things. so when i made fun of war, don't make fun of work. it's unfortunately not point to make war better. nor is it going to make it worse. as to free markets and minimum wage, and people working in coal mines and working putting on hours a day, 90s a week and so on and so forth, it is interesting you say you are in

favor it's pretty you mediate to get that a lot of people. but of course and all what adam smith meant what adam smith was talking about was keeping coercion on a bike. and keeping it out of marketplace is only one aspect of keeping it out of life targeted announcement the nations, the evidence that he wrote is a very important book that he wrote called the theory of moral sentiments which is about morality. all about making people live on persuasion and i give up group force. that is the core of morality. it is the core of a free society. nf democracy. he lived in a pre- democratic era rating he didn't quite understand it. that democracy could work but he did understand the freedom could

work. dave was the moral and practical and just plain sort of synthetic advocates of freedom. the roots of freedom is persuasion. it the idea that you want free markets this not mean that you want markets moved by force. it does not make that you want markets will fight anarchy. in fuzzy rollup and good enough lives that we are only for the fourth level. it is not prescriptive. it does not tell us exactly how to conduct a free market. it does not give us exact rules. it does tell us that there should be rules we should all of a those rules but it does not say what exactly what those rules are. in both five and the wealth of nations, adam smith actually tries to look down some rules. he tries to take his theories and make them prescriptive actually give us political

policy. someone failed book. it there five books in the fifth book stinks. management turns into a policy, he becomes his foolishness as the rest of us to put the pad in this white house and the home this congress said to the very angry color, i would just like to say this. first i have no idea why three hours should be wasted on me. and i'm not going to claim there is good reason. if you have certain ideas about how freedom should be conducted, may well be right. the ledges are worth arguing about. they may not be the same as i have. don't just because you want to

limit certain freedoms from the market, you may be wise. maybe the correct thing to do is to limit those freedoms. but them and smog but your desire to limit freedom. everybody wants to limit freedom from those who desire that there be human slavery to the to people who are in favor of minimum wage laws. everybody is smug about their desire to limit him and freedoms. some really do need to be limited. that does not make you a good person for recognizing that. assuming your organs are good but nothing a person you deserve no smugness. and you don't deserve to be venture anger on foolish innocent humorous just because you have some desire to limit so there.

>> p.j. o'rourke has been on book tv over 20 times over the past few years. attribute to the american automobile. driving like crazy. this event was held at that eaters and automotive museum in los angeles. in june of 2009. it is i'm afraid, thus time to say how shall we put it, sayonara to the american car. the market automobile companies, 40 gm and even chrysler, they will live long in some form predict haven't dubbed a dragging their chains that taxpayers expense. and the fools in the corner offices in detroit and the fools officials at detroit unions will retire to their vacation homes in palm beach and st. petersburg respectively. they don't deserve our sympathy. a more than the trolls under the capital down in washington too. the pity the poor american car

when congress and the white house get through with it. a lightweight vehicle with them a small carbon footprint using alternative . when i was a kid we call in the schwinn. [laughter]. and it is been a great hundred and ten. it is been a great run. 110 years since the brothers but the first american automobile. in springfield, massachusetts . the second company, if it had been a success, springfield, massachusetts might be today, as motor city and full of envy house. which is it so happens, is full of anyway. but, where the emerging car, a lot more than the entertaining spectacle of the detroit helen bring in fact many people my age, we are very existence to

the car. to his backseat. if you check our parents wedding anniversary with her birthdate time the right, that's probably what we were conceived. there was no premarital before the invention of the internal combustion engine brain is true pretty good snake in burlington or commit your farmhouse because your mom and dad, they didn't have a car so they can commute so they were stuck on all day working on the farm. your farmhouse did have a rec room because recreation had get not been discovered due to all of the formwork. on a saturday night you could take a girl on the buggy that it was hard to get her into the mood to let you bust into her course that because you were facing behind and of course. and just boils atmosphere. so the car let us out of the farm or out of the barn and while the car senate destroyed the american nuclear family and anyone who's had one can tell

you that that was a relief to all concerned. and they caused america to be paved . there's much things much worse things than the private. but why, we never hear a thank you, forgetting all of america paved from those kids in the body gas to skateboard all the time. cars provided america with an enviable way to live. you could not get a good job putting enters on counseling just cannot be done that the car . and i think that american car was a source of intellectual stimulation. did you even think of the innovation. but the invention, sheer genius that transformed the 1908 model

t ford into the 1968 shelby gt 500. in the course of one single human lifetime. eating tickets. compare this to progress in the previous mode of transportation. horse production, or's design pretty unchanged for thousands of years. and you know when it comes to creativity with a horse, actually did a little research on this when i was writing about the separated unto that. nobody thought to put a stroke, nobody thought topanga syrup from the saddle. until about 580. the syrup isn't invented then. people have been riding horses for thousands of years and it took him until 582 event this. what were they putting the feet . if automobile design and engineering and proceeded to the same pace as course design and engineering, we would be

powering ourselves in the road by running with both of our feet stuck through a hole in the floor like fred flintstone. although it may come to that with it 2010 obama will be. but most important of all, cars fulfilled the ideal of america's that if others. of all of the truths, we hold to be self-evident, of all of the unalienable rights with which we are endowed, which one is most important to the american dream. it is right there, front and center. flat in the name, the declaration of independence. freedom, freedom to get out of town. freedom to get the neck out here. king george, you have the keys . and that's within the declaration of independence is what it says. i've got to tell you the saga of the markings are pretty slim

abstract matter to me. this is no subject of fanciful theories. now nancy pelosi, she may think she was transferred home from the maternity ward of pink lovely clothes supported by low carbon seraphim. but i know it was the car got me to where i am. my grandfather, jacob, he was born in 1977 for he was born on the farm the size of this funding here. in lime city, ohio which was on the city. it didn't even have any lime. grandpa was one of ten kids in the growth in a one room unpainted check. i have a photograph of of them lined up by age . staring at the photographer, amazed to see someone in juice. my great grandfather, barney. he was woodcutter . in the

midwest. when there are countries unemployed quite a lot. some drunken villager it . i got a copy of his marriage certificate with his expert there. his only compliment aside from the ten think anyone. the only thing amber compulsion his life was a train barreled thanks, to haul them on, dead drunk. he would follow the cabin to pass on the wagon and the horses would bring him home. j, he let them armed with a fifth grade education headed for the bright lights of toledo ohio. a motoric is among the mechanic and then one day, horses but equal of the shop he saw the future. he fixed that to read it and didn't take long to clean her

hands were to be had more money was to be made. selling them instead of repairing them. also my uncle archie's birthday, and wedding anniversary were a little too close for comfort. he got in the car business. by the time i came along in the 40s, we had the buick dealership. my spotter was a sales manager. and joe is younger brother ran the garlic and parts department and all of the ensign the girl cousins work in the office. now the boy cousins and me, we worked out of the car lot cleaning and waxing cars. arches son-in-law, when going to run the ohio car dealer association and i would go on to do whatever it is that i do. and even in these dark days, for the american automobile, the

times that we should've stayed in toledo and taken over the buick agency. because really man those late night tv local car dealership ads, i got this whole that i wanted to pirate treasure island buick. about with a parent on my shoulder eyepatch . on down to pirate patch. and where you can walk the plank. don't miss our pieces of used cars pretty free chocolate lens with the kitties. it's been a great life. but what died in 1960. an aspirin but car dealer. we owe everything to the american car. without it, we cannot read. we didn't have enough food and suffering so our history begins the beginning of the american car ., no, some of us, having

gone to college. we didn't go far in college we didn't do very well but we went. so i take the demise of the mark inc. i take it personally. i am mad. all are going to be like ralph nader. what fun to be to jump on him with both feet print and send the biggest squirting out of his quite and can bring an annoying 75 clearly insane, think we should do that. clint took more than one man in his ignorant and well-written book of unsafe at any speed direct the most important industry in the nation. the corvair and rough was just wrong about it high school girlfriend connie had a corvair. she was the worst driver in the world one of the fastest. she could not get yourself killed in it. it could not be done.

so ralph was all right. there's plenty of blame to go around for the death the market car. not really sure about that either. it's true that the car executives are knuckleheads. but all of them are. the bill gates . know if you are where the god zillion dollars, when you go to a barber college and get a decent 5-dollar haircut. labor union leadership is mending. one thing to be mad at them another thing to expect does labor union leaders to be done at the uaw hall sitting on a chair yelling we demand less money from the buses. let's just not going to happen. car workers make $600 an hour or so i'm told. they get laid off every time a camel parts and opec meeting. maybe a phase two-so if they're

getting up a braided so i think to understand what doomed the american automobile, we have to give up on economics in turn to melodrama. politicians and journalists, financial analysts and all of the others purveyors of the but now, they been looking at the cars as if a convertible with this, fire the nba's, hiring boat. fate of detroit is not a matter of financial crisis of foreign competition corporate greed and union trans energy costs or measuring shoe size of the thumbprint in the carbon. it's a tragic romance. titanic clashes and lost love in wild horses. especially wild horses. >> we have opened up our archives to look at other programs with p.j. o'rourke and

he is the author of 19 books bring in 2010 he appeared at the institute in washington dc . is also a senior fellow toughest thoughts on politicians and the federal government. i will not be satisfied until every seat in the house and senate, is filled by a regular person. regular person who quite reasonably hates being there. i want government to be like jury duty. then not jury duty for some exciting crime like the o.j. simpson murder rate i want government to be like jury duty for a long boring complex, confusing trial concerning tax law. let me suggest indicting our federal tax code. just resource. and that is nothing but pride. i want government to be double,

and onerous responsibility like an apparent teacher conference. something to be undertaken with a weary reluctance because good citizen ship requires it. i want every congressman every supreme court justice, to be wishing, longing, banking to go back to his apartment real job in real life. i want them hoping and wanting to be allowed to return to their personal obligations. i want them yearning to be sitting in front of the tv with the beer, watching a train was money on his world series pets. i wonder elected officials to say that they intend to spend more time with their families and mean it. we will know when we have one in

election. we will know when we have one in the election when every single candidate who has voted into office begins his or her victory speech by saying oh shipped. now i am working in this new book on the new theory of political science. ... ...

>> the example my wife gave when she was telling me is conan o'brien and david letterman and jay leno. and also then mary jay leno. i am laughing but then it struck me that is politics that's how we picked the president of the united states so in 1992 presidential election george w. bush, clinton and ross perot. and then we married george h.w. bush. the outcome is not always a foregone conclusion instead of the walk down the aisle with george the 2000 presidential

election america was equally divided whether to screw george w or be screwed by al gore we all wanted to kill ralph nader i want to mention any other elections last making attention to secret service although that's hard to do in the obama white house. [laughter] kill the postal service mary armed forces screw agricultural subsidies mary social security and health care reform kills us. it is great for political analysis because free and democratic country politics is the three-legged stool the balance upon the tripod of power and freedom and responsibility. we live in a free and democratic country little less

democratic than it was before last night which is fine with me. also a great tool of political analysis because we are so passionate about our politics they and in a passion usually in a crime of passion and occasionally they turn into stable permanent arrangements for that quarrel known as marriage. so how do we approach the political institutions of a free and democratic country? overthrow with violence, cheat on them or build something that is lasting and boring and annoying virtuous and stifling, a marriage. when i first began to think about politics when mastodons

and nixon roamed the earth, i was obsessed with the freedom i had a messy idea of freedom back in those days but i had an idea that freedom was the central issue of politics. i love to politics. many do kids can spot a game without merit this is a reason professional politicians retain a youthful zest ted kennedy was a boy up into his last moment i was wrong about the lovable nature of politics but i was sure i was right about the preeminent place freedom should have an a political system. but there are a lot of definitions of free. thirty-six of webster's third international plenty of people

are theoretically in favor of freedom we are all but overrun with allies we have collaborators in the fight for freedom the proletarians have nothing to lose with their chains the second to last sentence in the communist manifesto now announced leading the schools that content to policy half a million people died in that definition of freedom we should probably keep in mind the original definition of the word free is not in bondage the most thing to remember to have a sick any history of slavery we have freedom because we have rights the same way to get mixed up with

freedom we can get mixed up about our rights. two kinds the scientists call them positive rates and negative rights sometimes we call them opportunities or privileges but i called them get out and give me rights politicians always tell us about that give me rights especially the one in the white house right now. as in give me healthcare insurance. the bill of rights does not mention any give me rights but is about our freedom to say i have guns and if the jury finds me guilty the judge will list of the bail the freedom from interference usually from government but also when they want us to sober up and quit

yelling. politicians don't like that they only like they give me rights they do not like it that i get out of here rights because for one thing all legislators are invited to get out of here and another thing strict adherence leaves little scope for legislation something that legislators love to do give me rights is more politically alluring and we find ourselves tempted with the right to living wage or the high-speed internet access three french hens and a partridge in a pear tree. the politicians showed no signs of knowing the difference between get out of here and give me rights and by the dazzle of anything that makes them popular honestly they cannot talk but there is

evidence the confusion was presented to the public with malice aforethought franklin roosevelt appears to be at first glance as natural as the norman rockwell illustrations freedom of speech freedom of religion freedom from want and freedom from fear. noticed that freedom from want has slipped in from the freedom family. want what? saying as roosevelt did to look forward of the human freedoms that is freedom from want this is not an expression of generosity for roosevelt declarations like freedom from want are never expressions of generosity there were 6 million jews in europe who

wanted nothing but a safe place to go and where was roosevelt there? when special privileges and benefits killed freedom they are the source of abusive political power years before i realized i first got interested in politics i realize the central issue of politics is power, not freedom kill. only an idiot would not have seen this and i was one i was not alone. moderates and conservatives consider those sweeping give me rights from the social welfare programs to be extensions of freedom with the opportunity people were given the opportunity to not starve to death is not purely evil way to look at it and not all social welfare programs were bad but the candidates failed

to properly scrutinize those programs it's not that we failed to examine if the programs were needed or not but what we failed to look at was the enormous power being taken from people and give into politics with that freedom be turned into power the politicians are careless they are cynical about delivering them that they are expendable the government gives me the right to get married this means ever right to a good marriage and is made better by my children's right to daycare and then be trained in their development they all have the right to a happy

childhood i have the right to happy children richard children are happier give me some of those angelina jolie's children's they make politicians happy to do the spending even get out of here rights are not free. and those on they want us to sober up. but they give me rates require and that is the least of their cost that means the transfer of goods and services from group of citizens to another the first loses those goods and services but they all lose the power the must have been given to a political authority to enforce the transfer. we didn't want to understand that power so it's obvious in

the way we reacted as politicians use their power to draft us into the war in vietnam we fought the establishment by growing our hair long and dressing like circus clowns. >> we are the generation that changed everything. hours is the one made the biggest impression on ourselves. [laughter]

>> @-at-sign is an important accomplishment we created the south. and then said that there be self. born between 1946 not to say we are selfish. that means to concerned with the self. we are self. without form and void. and the person is a social economic if the baby boom has

done one thing is to get a personal universe and our apologies. self is like fish proverbially speaking given in a fish freedom for a day teach them and with that fanatic. and with that fanatic. pestering trial. and a life partner is glad to have him out of the house. [laughter] here we are in the baby boom kosmos to the individual needs and predetermined to be fresh and novel. and we saw that it was good.

>> so now we are described as exploding. now we splatter ourselves all over the place where the baby boom to look back at what made us who we are and act the way we do. >> if we haven't decided to that we would be old. >> when everybody thought it was cool to like lyndon johnson we would be sad about getting old if we were not re- marrying younger lives and those that hear and hit glass ceilings and renewing prescriptions we will never

retire. we can't and then up to the rogaine for the college education and it serves us right for that passion for living should replace working for one. it is an appropriate moment and reaching the age of accountability the generation has an excuse for everything of the greatest contributions to modern life but it's a matter of power and privilege if anything happens anywhere somebody signed the bill over 50. the baby boom is hearing

generation x and generation why. check please. >> i also chose just another couple of paragraphs do you need your reading glasses this year? yes. >> near the end of the book so you can see where tj lance. >> and we are the best generation in history which goes to show. >> at least we are fabulous by historical standards that was a scientific experiment the

results are up. take the biggest generation in the most important country into excessively happy families to extract a modicum of peace. and that opportunity in a collapse of social standards. and then you get better people and that is maddeningly hug but we are better behaved we are willful and careless and entitled but we are still swell. [applause] >> so this has a very

interesting structure the chapters are essay length and you bend into the memoir staff about your life about the baby boomers and how we got this way. you start with the baby boom in 1946 that was 1954? but that is a defining characteristic. but it's all the same age. so you describe that baby boom experience as seniors and juniors and sophomores and freshmen just like high school. you are in the senior class.

>> me and share and hillary clinton and bill. cheech. [laughter] so with this wage exploration. and behind her parents of the greatest generation to say if we wind up a little soggy as financial advisors with tongue studs and trying to start the tea party protest. >> your senior class was on the vanguard of so many things like vietnam and drug taking and by the time the freshman class came along so i'm the

youngest of four i watch my siblings do all these things and it scared me so i do none of those. >> younger baby boomers are more cautious so they embrace sex drugs and rock 'n roll. and then to cvs and action. and what works in general doesn't always work to sit on the beanbag chair. [laughter] and then to be better behave as it goes along. >> so one delightful aspect as you start with a very early memory in toledo ohio we were watching the world with your family friend.

>> i am standing there but i'm watching my big kids go to school and it's a silent generation they are yelling and screaming and that all generations of kids that want to be grown-ups except us we wanted to be bigger kids. that's about that we kept. >> you actually make an observation that struck me with the baby boom children are in control of their own childhood in the children work like maniacs and we were a generatio generation.

>> it out of the house. >> it's raining. and then i never figured out that parenting style we take we for helicopter parents they could be so cautious and fearful of things don't get to know people who are not from europe that would be scary. on the other hand the fourth of july would come around and there are some explosives that would take a license everybody has the young goals. and actually this is the more respectable uncle and then to

give us each a lit cigarette. [laughter] because that was the safeway starting to fiddle with matches and then of course they drank. that can i take the car? [laughter] >> how could a person like

donald trump possibly become president? maybe it's just a matter of the good satirist said that democracy is the theory that people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. [laughter] or more likely something larger and then to hear that political awkward moment to be in the political elites with the international order for the past 70 years and running everything into the ground as the ordinary voters are concerned we see a rise with that authoritarianism and it

ranges from that comics spectacle with that deeply sinister activities of the ten and you would think that they have seen worse than a mere standard issue political elitism jabber sure hillary clinton. and then in part of the past for generations the hallmark with the expansion of political power. but one third of the world's gdp is now spent around the world. one out of every three things that you make if your cat has three kittens one is a government agent.

and then to cast the net over every little aspect of life nothing is so private it is entangled up in politics with the transgender bathrooms and that is a political issue and i have to say to the political elites when will you realize that politics is a two-way street to create and unstoppable monsters truck and then they get off shocked on the older politician we detest turns the truck around we need to make the truck smaller and the foot pedals make it into a

kitty car so people all over the world and then to hell with the deep thinkers and driving on - - everything that we've got in that this revolt against the elites in the brexit vote and alternative political parties in europe with both ends of the political spectrum. we can sit in brazil left right or a middle-of-the-road charge with corruption. so in the case the brexit the business of the and trade union elite all go to brexit

plus those that call the global financial crisis and to nationalize the british automobile agency and that was all one issue with this trifecta and it was latin america the columbia's elites and with the communist guerrilla my rotting since 1964 asking columbia's voters to ask after 52 years to traffic in narcotics they are getting retirement benefits? in the politics of australia they are so dull and that the

name of the party is the liberal party that australia has five prime ministers in a hung parliament it must have been tempting as hanging legislators is immoral and probably illegal except in queens land. so those politics of canada with the politics of australia to be completely unexperienced name justin i have a google canadian politics but i am assuming that is justin bieber. and of course here in america we saw the revolt against the really on - - elites and the rise against donald trump and

so that desire to shake things up why trump? maybe he's a rich guy or a member of the 1 percent but there is nothing elite about him. and the way that he sounds like the rest of us after we have had six drinks he's a jerk. and imagine playing a round of golf with him. now imagine a round of golf with hillary clinton all of those that of read the books but not on the links and the secret service is there to make sure you take hillary's advisers suggestion to hear from the fairway with the sand

wedge and then to move closer to her lie in the appropriate turn in the scorecard winds up on the e-mail server a first on the other hand i don't know how long i would stand to give in to that temptation them with his ball and his foot for that alternative fact. that the global revolt against the elites in many ways it's a little puzzling. and to feel the power of this myself it seems like an odd time especially in the country like ours we are not in

desperate financial straits for the great recession of 2008 was painful and waking up after somebody took the house but in these days everybody has had a divorce. we been to that before if there's any redlines are in the great recession of the low carb thin slim. we are embroiled in a long war. those that died during the 15 years 7800 combatants died at the battle of gettysburg streets are not filled of protesters and to be culturally and politically polarized and then start all the old school history professor to be 1861 that was

polarized fort sumter is in taking anything but yet the american people are fearful they blame their fears on the political elite. one of the reasons for this to do a lousy job and the middle east for example have been unleashed in the middle east. that caused the demons to be unleashed and in the kennels of the geopolitics in the military strategy and then to turn them loose as the endangered species to be

introduced demons it has been murder all over the world how much further from the quarrels and the hatreds could a person get to be in a gay club in orlando florida? and a force the mishandling of the middle east with the refugee crisis in europe and the european say what did the elites care? and the core doors and the halls of the european parliament. and on the private country clubs also those for new restaurants they don't seem to see any similarity from the wall that donald trump has promised.

the another problem elites have caused for themselves is that politics can fix everything. so when you promise you can fix everything then everything that is broken is your fault political elites say it affects climate change and i want to see bill clinton shoveling my driveway. i know he has heart trouble that things to global warming only had a few inches of snow. so they end up getting blamed for everything whether or not it is their fault including the time of rapid change nevermind that is good change people worldwide living in extreme poverty on less than a dollar a day has been reduced by half but yet also despite

some recent backsliding , overall growth in human liberty the past 30 years definitely since the 89 fall of the berlin wall. to be fair rapid change creates problems speedy transformation and social mores can confuse everybody especially those who thought they were leading that parade. mankind no longer has to march in lockstep they are becoming individual persons this is great but certain difficulties arise when the stride is broken when the band breaks up a can lead to turn into a beerbohm or the guy on the

bass drum paying the so low the trombone trying to seduce the clarinet player the nobody can spell glockenspiel. otherwise the drum major is wearing a goofy hat weaving a stick in the street. so transport of communication and technical capabilities have international trade shrinking to a plato -sized planet. we love to have everything from everywhere brought right to our door except when we don't. how much do we like hearing the herds of bison in the rec room? and then to find out about the job that does is make the

political elites think everyone would get along? to put them in a small place such as the backseat of your car. or taken to yellowstone park or new jersey. how are your kids getting along? did not take family car trips or go economy class. so wherever it is with the internet i am the wrong person to ask. i finally got my space figured out but i'm the only person there. incidentally so every idiot in

communication with every other idiot in the world. [laughter] but i take it on trust the digital revolution would change everything and has done so already as far as i know. and i am but then to have it delivered the next day with free shipping but the kenmore repair man is now a foot soldier in the opioid addiction attack. how do i get it into the dropbox changing a diaper, change of life, and then people asking for spare change on the street.

so to be combined with contemporary distrust that in some cases the results can be disturbing russia's ugly new nationalism comes from putin harnessing popular but all the tea in china scaled among the chinese elites those are the anti- early dish i suspect terrorist have talked to the elites so much they have suicide squads a lot in the world is a scary world and we have a monster at the blackboard and how people but

then to make those items that scale so what happens is the people >> wineries and the concept of money violates common sense is that governments do nonsensical things of that money. and another reason it violates common sense is we don't have

to use real commodities the written promises. paper money is fiduciary many from the latin word to trust and not be too quick to do so. trust but verify the only president we had to have libertarian inclinations. it's a free market invention paper money was developed privately in the 13th century for bills and exchange traded from italian markets and receipts from goldsmiths that precious metals were entrusted for safekeeping but it did not take long for political authorities to steal the idea and the government fiduciary many was first printed in sweden in the west traditional money was copper plates so a large fortune was

a large fortune and in 1656 the stockholm debacle began to issue paper notes they issued too many in the sweetest government folded in 1716 the scotsman helped to establish the bank royale issuing notes backed from landholdings west of the mississippi they issued too many notes the french government went broke the most extensive the modern experiment happened in america 1775 the second continental congress not only created paper money but passing a lot refusing to accept it it issued too many notes and a pattern emerges all fiduciary

many is backed by a commodity even if they lie. historically the most common commodity is called by the 19th century the major currencies were based on gold and those that was almost a currency like the british pound this is not coincidentally of great economic growth some people think we should go back on the gold standard not everybody lives in a compound in idaho many should be worth something in gold is good but the high value of gold is a social convention a habit left over. gold could go to fashion a generation could come along that regards that is gross and immoral like millennial's look and feel and we may discover to get new amounts of it this happened to the spanish when they came to the new world they obtained tons of gold

melted down and sent it to amend on - - i meant it never created on - - none of them to get they were creating more money prices in spain went up 400 percent. present to spain took the gold is like they bobbed the bank installed nothing but deposit slips. gold is not absolutely perfectly rational basis for a currency but the real problem from the government standpoint not that is irrational but inconvenient currency converted into a commodity limits the currency that can be printed a government has to have some of that commodity or the world makes a laughing stock out of the banknotes. is fiduciary many governments lie about having the precious

metals and the governments do worse. those holding fiduciary many can wake up like dated april 5, 1933 when fdr signed the executive order banning the ownership of gold they can find out read the paper currency is against the law. if the government can lie and steal to support the currency why can't they lie and steal everything to do with the currency? that is exactly what all governments have done. instead of passing a law that one dollar equals this amount of gold our government says one dollar equals one dollar. it is fiat money for a binding edict or a cheap and not

reliable car. [laughter] fiat money is backed by nothing but faith that the government won't keep printing money until we use it in place of a place more important such as toilet palin - - toilet paper which is what it comes to venezuela no intrinsic values are involved with any fiat money it is just a pronouncement of existentialism from government central banks trillions of dollars we are here because we are here which is a popular tune all of the money in the world today is fiat money we got it because the government says we have to. it should be worth for what i call the lousy parent the inept government tells us like

we tell our children because i said so. is cryptocurrency the answer? that's and i glad you asked that question so what they mean is i have no idea what the answer is. as a libertarian i want a medium of exchange and the money that adheres to the libertarian principles and actually what adheres to that principal would suffice on this is the privacy principle. what i do that does not physically harm anyone else is none of anyone's business. business conducted with money that is the kind they want.

in the two most important senses first cryptocurrency is not public or subject to government public policy and with money it is to issue is much and then posting things on facebook and a couple of clicks and but i'm finding that government? that's very difficult to do. second currency for the transactions what you are buying or selling is not revealed to the government. i'm fairly law-abiding guy and i wait for the lock and as the walk sign i don't even cheat on my taxes more than the

loopholes require me to do. i wouldn't use cryptocurrency for any scheme. but no matter how legal the purchases i make are, i don't like them being on the public record with credit card records and sales receipts. to who knows what knows the government agency and i don't like other people's purchases on the public record either. if somebody buys the plastic inflatable i want to know about i don't want the government to know because the epa may impose endanger regulations on all of us or maybe high minded information to cause the inflatable mouse valves to be vandalized with

the paint job. >> i'm more worried about individuals purchasing powers said that is the case in favor of cryptocurrency. i don't own any and i have no use for it. that coin is down this morning. i checked it is hovering around $7000. but but if that was the case i would tell you to bite me. i'm ignorant and confused by the intricacies to form the computer programming block chain.

i am confused about a lot of things but i am particularly confused by the internet. i look and i think whose bright idea was it to make sure every idiot in the world is in touch with every other idiot? [laughter] also as far as i can tell the internet is the enormous hacking industry with the global interconnected computer network. and i fear somehow cryptocurrency is but right now but with those empty snickers rappers logging on to

make himself a billionaire. >> i hope walgreens expects cryptocurrency. but to sum up many is at the root of libertarian arianism anybody that's confused is insane. and it is not the antipsychotic medication needed. we worry about money and the medium of exchange and that collapses our society will collapse. a number of years ago i thought about this may be the way to understand about society collapsing is go someplace where it has collapsed already. back in 1992 i went to somalia to cover the us lit military commission insists that you are accused of being in our

guest? is not true. you believe in social structure that protects individual liberty and upholds the dignity to ensure responsibility. this is very different than believing in no social structure at all in somalia has no social structure at all. it was true anarchy. vicious dictatorship and they celebrated their independence because to try the six claims and each is defended so they fight each other with mortars and cannons and the mogadishu

wads of silk. not one stone stood up on another. everything was built about of concrete that was blasted back into cement and rebar. no water or electricity and at night the only illumination is when tracer bullets and then to wind up for the payment. >> everything that guns can accomplish can be achieved and will continue. >> i signed on as a radio reporter for abc news. they managed to hire a 40 man army of mercenaries to protect

this compound 20 some of us camera crews, producers, tech people were all housed in the campaign and but then they would bag and steve and hans talk to their pockets no wristwatch then no foreigner could not even make a move without demanding pushing those scaring people so young man waving ak-47 assault rifles pushed among the crowd with those pickup trucks and sputtered around. there is another abc reporter who had been in somalia six

months and so what they are buying and so on will turn up. i learned an important lesson about the medium of exchange in that market in mogadishu. i learned there will always be a medium of exchange. the currency may not be what you expect that no matter how society collapses there will be a form of currency. so traveling with the armed somali driver in translator and this truck full of arm security but getting down to the market my friend leon and to pull out and to rack a

bullet commences i call it the visa card of the future. [laughter] . . . .

>> he offers his cousin being black in america. find more information on our website, booktv .org program guide. >> hello everybody welcome. my name is beth. i think is much for joining us in this format we are continuing to bring you books. to the community at any time during the event tonight you can click on the green button below and put two nights book on the book fair . recently offering shipping as an extension especially as our physical stars, and on line purchases order bringing thisgr