RUSH: Here is Genevieve. She’s 15 years old in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Great to have you, Genevieve. Hello.
CALLER: Hi, Mr. Limbaugh. I first wanted to tell you what an honor it is to be able to speak to you today and that my family and I are praying for you.
RUSH: Well, I appreciate that. And you know what? You know, what, I’m praying for you too. I prayed for 30 minutes in bed last night for this to end because of what it’s doing to everybody.
CALLER: Thank you, sir. And I’m a Rush grandbaby, and I wanted to tell you how much I love listening to your show and reading your books. And the other week I was sitting in my room thinking about how you’ve inspired me. And I realized that you reminded me of the prophet John the Baptist, who was sent before Jesus to prepare the world for his coming. And he inspired and educated the people for their own benefit, not for his own glorification. And because of this, the Pharisees, who I equated to today’s leftists and elites, hated him for this. But he persevered through the hardships just as you do today. And I thank you for that.
RUSH: Genevieve, that’s a mouthful for a 15-year-old. You’re claiming that I taught you how to critically think? When do you have — don’t misunderstand, but when have you had a chance to listen to the program? You’re in school. Are you homeschooled, by any chance?
CALLER: Yes, I am.
RUSH: A-ha. I knew it. I knew it had to be the answer. Well, aren’t you sweet. That is a special compliment because it’s one of the many things that I actually hope happens as a result of people listening to the program like this, is they end up thinking for themselves rather than just accepting.
So many people are sheep, Genevieve. The experts, wherever they are, say something and you believe it, and conventional wisdom forms and that’s groupthink and everybody goes along with it. And, if you question it, it takes guts to question conventional wisdom. It takes guts not to be a conformist. I could have never made it if I were a conformist. I’m not a conformist. It’s why I couldn’t make it in corporate America. But you’re ahead of the game. That’s very, very flattering. I appreciate it.
CALLER: Thank you. You’ve certainly helped me with different debates and reports, and, that in itself, thank you for that. In eighth grade we had —
RUSH: I’m sure your parents have had a lot to do with this, too, now. You can’t give me all the credit ’cause I would take it. So you have to make sure you give your parents some of the credit too.
CALLER: Well, they introduced me to you.
RUSH: Well, see, there you go.
CALLER: I had a speech meet, and I chose to do climate change for my debate, and all your facts definitely helped because —
RUSH: Oh, man. That is even better, that I helped you to see clear through the fog of deceit that is climate change, man-made climate change.
CALLER: Oh, that was my whole prompt.
RUSH: Well, this call gets even better.
CALLER: And it went pretty well. Again, it definitely helped. I could have gone on and on with the report, but unfortunately we only had a page, so I couldn’t go too much.
RUSH: Well, how are you whiling away the time now? Are you in fact at home with your parents?
CALLER: Yep.
RUSH: How are you keeping busy?
RUSH: Now, you get bored I’m sure. You’re 15. You’ve got energy, you can run rings around your parents energy-wise. How are you personally dealing with any boredom? ‘Cause your answer here could help people, ’cause I guarantee you there are a lot of people going stir-crazy inside trying to figure out, you know, how to keep themselves engaged, busy. You can only read so many hours a day, you can only watch television so many hours a day, you can only talk to so many people. So how do you do it? How do you deal with — maybe I should ask, have you gotten bored yet?
CALLER: Well, I have three younger siblings, so that definitely helps with the boredom. So far we’ve planted a garden and I’ve taken the chance to learn new things, such as crocheting or — I’m definitely reading a lot as my mom fondly calls me a bookaholic.
RUSH: You know, you just said something. I think you said something that’s a key, for me, anyway. I strive every day to learn something. I strive every day to learn something I didn’t know. I try to learn something new about something I do know. I don’t think there is anything that can keep a person more engaged than learning. The learning never stops. It’s impossible for any human being to know everything that humanity knows now. You know when that was? When was the last time in world history when it was possible to know everything that was known?
William F. Buckley Jr. tackled this, in of all places, a Playboy article which was entitled, “Redefining Smart.” And I can’t remember it. I’ll have to look up the article, if I’ve kept it, but he calculated when it was that the most educated human being on earth was capable of knowing everything that was known, all of the knowledge that had been charted. That’s impossible today. It’s impossible for any one person to know everything that’s known, because what is known now is massive. But that means there is a heck of a lot to learn.
I try to learn something new, for example, about my iPhone every day and then use it. I try to learn something new about my iPad every day. I try to learn something about news items, stories that I’m interested in, be they political or scientific or whatever. Learning something every day and then being able to explain it to somebody else is one of the things I’ve always thought would keep my mind young. Not my body, but my mind young, keep me engaged. And that’s what you’re doing. And you can’t help at your age, at 15, you’re gonna be learning simply by getting out of bed every day and absorbing what happens to you. And that will go a long way to keep you from getting bored.
CALLER: I agree.
RUSH: And you can learn anywhere. You can even learn from watching Tiger King. It may be insufferably painful — (interruption) Yes, you can. You can learn what not to do. You can learn things not to say. Learning opportunities are virtually everywhere out there. At any rate, Genevieve, great to have you in the audience. I’m so glad you called. Thank you so much.
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