Have Courage, Face Reality | 5-Minute Videos

@AyaanHirsiAliOfficial grew up in Africa and the Middle East. Her life was steeped in danger and chaos. In contrast, young people in the West today are steeped in comfort and security. But ironically, they face the same challenge Hirsi Ali did. What that challenge is, and how to overcome it, is the topic of PragerU’s 2026 commencement address.

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Transcript:
Have Courage, Face Reality
Presented by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Class of 2026: Congratulations!

Of the many pieces of advice a commencement speaker might impart, I think the most important one is this: stay connected to reality.

This is a more difficult task than you might think. Reality can be deeply painful, and there will be many temptations to run from it.

When I was growing up in Africa and the Middle East, I lived in uncertain and often dangerous circumstances. Hardship was universal. My life, and the lives of everyone I knew, were touched by war, poverty, disease, famine, and disorder. Our reality was brutal.

The temptation we all faced was to run from that reality — to give away our minds to strongmen, false prophets, and radical ideologies. We were encouraged to channel the pain of our reality into tribal and religious enmities. But these were just coping mechanisms, ways to run from a reality that felt hopelessly difficult.

Ironically, you face the same challenge — running from reality — but from the totally opposite perspective. Whereas my life was surrounded by chaos, your life is surrounded by comfort. For you, real poverty is virtually non-existent. Physical danger is barely a concern.

But you are not free from psychological danger, and this can also be perilous.

Boredom and anxiety are your enemies. As you struggle to find your purpose in life — something we all must do — you will be tempted not to run from your reality, as I was, but to go to war with it, to attack the very institutions that make your life so comfortable. You will be drawn to a counter-cultural cause that you think will give your life meaning. But this is a false god.

Bad actors will seek to take advantage of this and attempt to control your mind—to buy your attention, to win your loyalty, to influence you—by confirming the worst doubts you have ever had about yourself, your family, and your country.

Friends, teachers, and “influencers” will encourage you to reimagine your good fortune as “privilege.” They want you to be ashamed of your cultural inheritance so that you will willingly give it up.

At the same time, they will urge you to dwell on times you have “suffered” and to see yourself as a victim of injustice, insensitivity, and inequality; to reject the love and guidance of your parents, your family traditions, and your heritage and to escape from reality by finding meaning in destruction.

Do not give in to these temptations.

Stay anchored in reality.

In reality, the life upon which you are embarking—the opportunities afforded to you by growing up in the United States, by receiving an education, by being young in the 21st century — is one of tremendous promise. Your inheritance is a political, legal, and social order that has afforded more prosperity and more freedom for more people than at any other time or place in history.

Access the full transcript here…👉 https://l.prageru.com/42W5SA6