https://www.prageru.com/video/saving-history-the-case-for-clay-pots
Dear Graduates,
Congrats on making it here. But I’ve got some tough news: your future? It’s not guaranteed.
I know, that’s not the usual “go chase your dreams” spiel you expect at a commencement. But I’m not here to fluff reality—I’m here to give it to you straight. And the straight truth involves… clay pots.
Clay pots. And what someone found inside them.
Picture this: 1947, the Judean Desert near the Dead Sea, a dusty spot called Qumran. A bored goat herder chucks a rock into a cave, expecting an echo. Instead—crack—pottery shatters. He climbs in and finds clay pots stuffed with linen-wrapped scrolls. Not just any scrolls—the oldest surviving copies of the Hebrew Bible, from 300 B.C. We call them the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Think about that. For centuries, the Jewish people faced invasions and atrocities—Babylonians, Romans, Nazis, you name it. Scattered worldwide, what kept them going? Faith in their God and their texts. Then, in 1947, right after the Holocaust and just before Israel’s rebirth, these scrolls surface, proving their story wasn’t myth.
All because someone, over 2,000 years ago, hid those pots in a cave.
That hit me hard. History isn’t just “there”—it has to be kept. Physical stuff—scrolls, letters, objects—grounds us in what’s real. Take George Washington crossing the Delaware. It’s a defining American moment, right? But imagine some skeptic says, “Nah, never happened.” How do we push back? Paintings, diaries, eyewitness accounts—stuff preserved from the time.
Here’s the catch: we assume history’s safe. I did too, 20 years ago. Not anymore. It’s under attack. George Orwell nailed it in 1984: “Who controls the past controls the future.”
Look at the 1619 Project published and promoted by the New York Times in 2019. It claims America’s true founding wasn’t 1776 with the Declaration of Independence but in 1619 with the arrival of the first African slaves. Historians—left and right—said it was way off base. Yet it’s now taught in over 4,500 schools.
Then, in 2020, mobs tore down statues of Washington, Jefferson, even Lincoln. And the National Archives, the place where so many of our national treasures are stored? They slapped warnings on the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, calling them “triggering” and “harmful.”
What’s happening? People are rewriting history they don’t like. If this keeps up, the truth could vanish, replaced by whatever fits the loudest narrative. That’s not a future I want for you—or anyone.
So, I acted. I started collecting the stuff that made America… America.
250,000 pieces and counting. They’re now in the American Journey Experience Museum in Dallas, Texas, co-founded with my friend David Barton. Check it out if you’re ever nearby.
Here’s my point: history isn’t someone else’s job. It’s ours—yours, mine, everyone’s. We’ve got to preserve it, the highs, the lows, all of it, in our own clay pots.
The great thing is, you are at the perfect spot to jump in. You 20- and 30-somethings—you’re tech-savvy, scrappy, and not afraid to question the script. But this isn’t just for you. Teens, you’re building your own stories. Older folks, you’ve lived history—your memories matter. We all have a stake.
Start small. Grab a book from a used shop about the Founding. Snag a vintage flag on eBay. Write your own life—journal it, post it, whatever works. Record your grandparents’ stories on your phone—those are gold. Sketch your family tree on a napkin if you have to. Every piece you save is a thread to the past—and a lifeline to the future.
I hope it doesn’t get grim out there. But if it does, we need to be ready. Imagine someone, a thousand years from now, finding your clay pot—your journal, your artifact, your voice. They’d see what America was, what it could be again. That’s how we keep the story alive.
You’re not just graduates—you’re history’s keepers. Don’t let it slip away. Your future is not handed to you; it’s built by you. Get out there, collect the truth, and stash it somewhere safe. Your own clay pot. Because if we don’t, who will?
I’m counting on you.
I’m Glenn Beck for Prager University.