DoctorOz: Humanity Needs a Better Story | Dr. Oz at ARC 2023

I attended the ARC Forum in London last month, and I developed a deeper understanding of an approach that might, just might, help heal some of the divides, some of the nihilism that so many of us sense in the modern world. Let alone, I think many of you feel it as well. I interviewed these wonderful thought leaders who were on this adventure. I went backstage with them so they could share the elevator speech, so-called elevator speech, the short version of their onstage presentations. And no matter what your current biases are, and we all have some, all curious minds are invited to think through these ideas. Now, I've pulled these concepts together into five videos, pretty straightforward. These five videos are going to help everyone appreciate the basic story of the ARC. And I've got a metaphor that might aid in the process. The metaphor is that of a tree. So let's start with the roots, which feed everything. Just like society is nourished at our foundation by the stories that we tell ourselves, the world today needs a better story. At its core, humans are not the problem, my friends. Rather, we are the point of civilization. That was highlighted by Douglas Murray, who you're going to hear from right after Oz Guinness, who reminds us of the dangers of losing touch with our roots and not listening to our enemies. Because they're saying things we need to hear. Constantine Kissin, he explains why young people are not excited about the current story they're hearing. Every age needs to hear this story. And Fraser Nelson shares the power of ideas in crafting a robust social fabric that binds us together. It's the social fabric that wraps that wonderful story we should be telling. Greg Hurwitz, he explains why the ARC form is important. Now, as you watch, let's envision all of us creating abundance rather than just rationing scarcity. Let's lead with brave optimism. So everybody, aim up. 90 seconds of all the material you discussed, distill it for us. Most of the great civilizations in history are either in ruins, you visit the Parthenon or the Colosseum or the Pyramid, or in history books, or in museums. Why? Whatever made them what they were, there's a moment in which they lose touch with their roots. And when that moment comes, when they lose touch with their roots, you've only got three broad choices. Renew the roots, replace them with something equally good, or decline. The West is there. The roots of the West are basically Jewish and Christian. Secularism in the 18th century tried to replace them and has failed. And today we're faced with powerful alternatives, such as cultural Marxism, not only against the Jewish and Christian faiths, but against the West. And that's the crisis of the West in a nutshell. I would just challenge people to take some of our enemies seriously when they say they're going to do things to us. So I live in Virginia at the moment as an outsider, and many people suddenly discovered critical race theory. And they had no clue where it came from. But if you read, say, the architects of the sexual revolution, they're saying a century ago, we want to oppose the church, we want to oppose parents, so we will sideline children, or rather sideline parents by sex education. So they spelled out what they're going to do very, very clearly. We should have been forewarned a long time ago, and ready for all the challenges coming. People need to take seriously what our enemies say they're going to do to us. The whole idea of having a positive vision for the future, at a time when particularly young people are being taught cataclysmic calamity, you know, stuff is just really important. I mean, I think we are demoralizing a generation at the moment by telling them stories about the future, which are not accurate, and which are just horrible stories that would enervate and de-energize anybody. So it's really important that people come up with a better story, a more optimistic vision for the future, which includes, you know, the possibility that maybe life will get better. So I happen to enjoy waking up once a week and reading, or that's rather listening to your poetry. So you enjoy that medium of storytelling? Yes. Well, yes. With the free press, every week I select a poem that I have by heart, and I say why I have it in my memory, and why I think it's worth having. I believe that everybody should try to have a well-stocked brain, a well-stocked memory. Apart from anything else, it helps you keep everything else in perspective in the world. So, you know, every Sunday I hope to provide people with a little glimpse of a reminder of the eternal, of things that are important, things that are deeper than the age sometimes you want to admit. Give me two lines that have stuck in your mind this week. Ecclesiastes, about to everything there is a season, and a time for everything upon the earth. This includes, of course, a time to be born, and a time to die, a time of war, and a time of peace. You captivated folks on that stage. I mean, you got a standing ovation. What do you think resonated most? I think the message that this is a pivotal moment. We are in the fight of our lives. This isn't trivial. This isn't theoretical. This is real. This is where we are. But I also think, and something I always try to do, is saying things that people in the audience need to hear, as opposed to want to hear. And I think my message to politicians in particular, about the fact that you're not going to get young people to want to conserve a society that's not working for them. Actually, when I went back and watched it, that got the biggest round of applause. So I hope that they take note of that, because less the case in the US, but here in this country, and in many other European countries, young people really have very little reason to be conservative. The policies have not helped young people, but there's also seemingly an existential crisis, where the hope that we should be struggling for, which is what I keep hearing on the stage as well, the story is not there. Yeah. Well, the story is part of it. I think if there was more opportunity for people, if they saw a better future for themselves, it would be easier to have hope. Nihilism is very easy to have when things don't look like they're possible for you. Of course, the story I talked about as well, we need adventure, we need confidence in the future and in our past and our values. And also, we need to start thinking about how do we reorganize our society in a way that works. I must say, the part of the story that I like the most is that hope is found in the struggle. And so quitting isn't one of the answers. Agreed. That's part of the challenge, I think, for young people. I couldn't agree more. Main purpose of the conference, in your opinion, what do you want folks to walk away from, listen to the ARC? I'm a great believer in the power of ideas to shape society for good or for ill. I think it's a great thing when you're able to convene so many good thinkers coming at really important problems from different perspectives. I think in Britain, this whole agenda has been almost at the mercy of party politics for too long. And that means the questions that the parties don't want to raise never really get on the agenda. One of the things that ARC is doing that's quite important is bringing a whole bunch of other things that isn't really on the political agenda right now. For example, the social fabric, the effect of social media on children. These are things that are important, but you won't find them in the top 10 of any political party's to-do list. So it's great to have a forum here where these interesting points can be discussed. You're a storyteller. The ARC is about creating a better story and then a social fabric to make sure that it grows. What have you taken away from the conference? Well, I've long held that a proper liberal and a proper conservative are handshake, distance across the aisle. And if we can find reasonable contact between the two sides, we can accomplish almost anything. We've done a lot of polling and looked at a lot of things in America. 70% of Americans agree on almost everything. So we have weaponized algorithms, we have weaponized dialogue. We have a shrinking of what words we're able to use, a shrinking of the Overton window of what conversations we're allowed to have. And we've had a complete denigration of where we can even go for expertise. Who do we trust? Do we trust mainstream media? Do we trust podcasts? Do we trust journalists? Do we trust the president of the United States? And so if you have an erosion of words, of conversations you can have, and of expertise, we're finished. It's not possible to establish common ground. And I think now more than ever, it's absolutely essential to get in rooms with good faith, true liberals and true conservatives, which map very improperly on the political parties and on the politics, to have conversations towards a common aim.