{"id":18563,"date":"2011-03-17T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T00:21:59","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-07-20T00:21:59","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T00:21:59","slug":"what_worries_the_maha_rushie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2011\/03\/17\/what_worries_the_maha_rushie\/","title":{"rendered":"What Worries the Maha Rushie?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: Hey, folks, here\u2019s a shock. Stand by. Fox News has a new poll out which finds an increase in nuclear doubts and fears. (laughing) I got an e-mail last night. Snerdley, something about the shows, the programs this week is bringing more questions than I usually get, questions about me. I got a question last night in the e-mail, “Does nothing bother you? Do you care about anything? All you do is make fun of everything people are concerned about.” I think the question was legitimate. <\/p>\n

By the way, welcome back, El Rushbo, 800-282-2882 if you want to be on the program. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t make fun of everything. I love to illustrate absurdity. The question: “Does anything bother you?” The best way to answer this question, I am not worried that anything that happened in Japan is gonna happen in the United States because it happened in Japan. Now, I\u2019m well aware nuclear power plants can have accidents. I\u2019m well aware an earthquake can happen, the earth could split open. Heck, the EIB Network could be swallowed up tonight. But I don\u2019t worry about it and I don\u2019t make the correlation. If I ran Germany, I would never think I gotta shut down my nuclear industry because an earthquake happened in Japan, which, by the way, if you look at history, Japan has these kinda earthquakes, maybe not 9.0 earthquakes, but every century they have huge earthquakes, Tokyo, the whole nation. They\u2019re not unfamiliar with them. I don\u2019t know what the earthquake frequency is in Germany. But even that\u2019s beside the point. <\/p>\n

Folks, I am totally immune to anything in the media making me scared, from the stock market, to — you wouldn\u2019t believe, I mean, you know me. I am constantly trying to inform myself. I\u2019ve got people who are smart sending me e-mails, “Rush, cash is where you want to be.” I\u2019ve had people for three years telling me the municipal bond market is done, it\u2019s gonna crash, and if you don\u2019t get out of it, you\u2019re gonna be — and I read \u2019em and I say, “Yes, sir,” and I call the people who I have hired and I ask them now and then, I accept the answer and I move on. I am not oriented to panic. We\u2019re all different. But what\u2019s happening in Japan doesn\u2019t scare me in the least. It just doesn\u2019t. It doesn\u2019t tell me, “Oh, my God, okay, oh, wow, what happens if a nuclear plant&hellip;” I am not oriented that way. To the extent that it sounds like I don\u2019t care, what is caring? You know, this came up earlier this week in regard to these guys writing columns, “Don\u2019t give money to the Japanese people, they got their own money, they can print it. Give money to the Third World. Don\u2019t get sucked into this.” Now you\u2019ve got even the president echoing that sentiment. <\/p>\n

That led to a discussion here, what was the concept of caring and what does caring, by itself, accomplish? By itself, what does sitting around caring about something accomplish? Now, if it motivates you to do something that\u2019s an entirely different thing. I find that most people, particularly people on the left, want plaudits, they want gold stars, they think of themselves as superior people just because they care. Well, why wear the ribbons? And if you don\u2019t care, well, you\u2019re heartless and you\u2019re cold and you\u2019re cruel. And the whole purpose of wearing ribbons, what does it do? It\u2019s an upper for the person wearing the ribbon. That\u2019s why on my television show, famous TV show, I once did the show with every ribbon known to exist on my suit coat the whole week. Whatever color there was, I explained it all, to show how much I care. Did it change any of the events I cared about? No. Am I cold-hearted and cruel? Not in the slightest. <\/p>\n\n

Empathy raises our humanity. Who said that? Voltaire? Pascal? Henry VIII, in a midnight snack? Empathy is caring. Okay, you know how I use empathy? It very seldom happens, but wherever young, budding young broadcasters ask me what is the number one characteristic you can have for success, I say after you\u2019ve learned the language, learn to speak it and to write it as best you can, \u2019cause I said if you do that, that will alone attest to your perceived intelligence. If you can master the English language, pronouncing it, speaking it, writing it, that alone will tell people you\u2019re smart, whether you\u2019re intelligent or not, whether you have knowledge or not, that is a good way to create the perception that you are. That\u2019s a fundamental for you to be in broadcasting. The way I use empathy, I try to empathize with the audience. For example, right now I am engaging in empathy. And I\u2019m asking myself, while talking about it, are they getting tired of hearing about this? Are their fingers near the button on the car radio to change channels? And if, as a successful radio host, you have enough empathy with the listener, if you can put yourself in the position of listener as you are hosting or speaking, then you will know when it\u2019s time to switch, go to something else, change, whatever. Now, that\u2019s how I use empathy professionally. <\/p>\n

Empathy raises our humanity. Meaning what? Meaning if I sit here or if anybody sits here and watches television and sees what\u2019s going on in Japan and we feel horrible and sad and that raises our humanity, as opposed to sitting here and looking at it and saying, “Well, it\u2019s 5,000 miles away, what the heck? I can\u2019t do anything about it. That\u2019s their problem. I got my own. That could happen to me someday and I know nobody in Japan\u2019s gonna be able to help me out. I gotta take care of myself.” Is that not empathy, and is that not — I\u2019m not saying that\u2019s what I do. I\u2019m just saying the opposite here because if you sit here and empathize with the people in Japan, you\u2019re obviously not doing anything for them, but your theory is that you are elevating your own humanity and becoming a more in touch, complete person, right? You\u2019re a better human being. Well, then what\u2019s the point? What is elevating your humanity if not making you a better human being? (interruption) What do you mean, callous to the suffering that\u2019s going on in the world? You know what Shakespeare said during one of his lucid moments? I contend that half of what he wrote he had to be stoned, but nevertheless — and that\u2019s empathy. He-he-he. Shakespeare said, “He who jests at scars never felt a wound.” Whoever laughs at scars has never felt a wound. <\/p>\n

Well, I\u2019m sorry. People perceive me as laughing at scars. I have felt many wounds. You know what I find fascinating? I really do. I\u2019ve been on the radio 23 years. That can\u2019t be an accident. There have to be, particularly among others in this business, there has to be an appreciation for how it happened. There has to be a little bit of an understanding for how it happened, yet none of that is present in any reporting on me. Last night I got a note, friend of mine was reading the ABCnews.com RSS feed, and there was a story about some UCLA student who had made fun of something to do with the Japanese earthquake who had been forced to apologize. I was in the headline. UCLA student, Rush Limbaugh, da-da-da-da-da, feeling whatever, da-da-da, I forget what the headline was, but I was not in the story. When you read the story that you got after clicking on the link I was not in it. So I said, “Well, how did I end up in the headline? My name is even in the link to the story but I\u2019m not in the story.” <\/p>\n

So I started thinking, well, I know what this has to be about. I haven\u2019t made fun of anything about this. I have bucked the conventional wisdom. I haven\u2019t made fun of one aspect of this. Not like Gilbert Gottfried. Joy Behar makes jokes about it and she doesn\u2019t even know it. She was on The View yesterday. People were telling her this isn\u2019t going to have any impact on food in the United States. She said, well, what happens if you go to a Japanese restaurant? Now, she was not cracking a joke but I mean that\u2019s laughable. No, don\u2019t go to Benihana, folks, it\u2019s Japanese. You know, they have an earthquake over there, there\u2019s radioactivity. Anyway, I know what that ABC story was about. I did make fun of Diane Sawyer, but not the Japanese people. And maybe somebody at ABC finally figured that out after they wrote the headline, “You know, we\u2019re not gonna put this in because he\u2019s not making fun of the Japanese people, not making fun of the earthquake. He\u2019s making fun of our anchorette.” (imitating Sawyer) “Look, recycling.” Sorry. It was funny to me. And then we did have the guy call who said, “You know, the poor Japanese people, they\u2019ve done everything in the world to make amends to the earth for all the destruction here and look what Gaia did, unleashes a tsunami on \u2019em.” <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think that\u2019s making fun of the Japanese people. I think that is cramming it down the throats of the liberals, which is what happens here on this program. Sometimes we do it with irreverent humor. By the way, I love Diane Sawyer. I have talked to her many times. Gosh, I have a couple secrets I could tell you about Diane Sawyer and me and ABC, but I\u2019m not gonna go there. Many, many moons ago back in the nineties. She used to work for Nixon. She was a former Miss America, I think, or contestant or what have you. I can\u2019t think I\u2019m the only one who finds it funny that in the midst of nuclear rubble, “Wow, recycling.” It\u2019s like spitting on the fire in the reactor. It\u2019s kinda not relevant, but, again, that\u2019s probably me and a lack of empathy and a lack of caring. “Nothing seems to worry you. Nothing seems to bother you.” I don\u2019t worry about things that I have no control over. I used to, big time. I can\u2019t tell you the shackles I had on myself worrying about all kinds of stuff. I was worrying about what might happen next year if I did this or did that. There was nothing more paralyzing in my life than to worry about stuff I had no control over. And in the process, I actually limited what I could control.<\/p>\n

BREAK TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

RUSH: It\u2019s very simple, folks. What\u2019s the difference in empathy and sympathy? Empathy is an understanding of things; sympathy is feelings. They\u2019re two entirely different things. Empathy does not involve feelings at all. That\u2019s what sympathy is. Sympathy\u2019s fine and dandy for a while, but after a while, what does it get you? What is accomplished? Snerdley\u2019s in there saying, “It elevates your humanity.” <\/p>\n

Okay, I got that.<\/p>\n

END TRANSCRIPT<\/p>\n

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