The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Strong Fathers Build Civilizations—Weak Ones Lose Them

Episode Date: June 13, 2025

In a culture that increasingly downplays masculinity and the traditional family, Hanson calls for a reevaluation of fatherhood—not as an optional accessory, but as a cornerstone of moral courage, responsibility, and strength on today's episode of "Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words." “ One of the roles of fathers is to give young children, especially males, a sense of direction. And almost this tragic sense that sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to do, but somebody else won't do them, you're going to be in trouble.  “To the degree this country will make it, it will be a strong father figure that instructs us how to be masculine. How to be a man. How to protect the weak. How to stand forward and challenge bullies, that prey on the weak and the innocent. And that's a lost art now.  00:00 Introduction to Father's Day 00:54 Personal Reflections on Father's Day 01:37 Lessons from My Father 01:56 Stories of My Father's Support 05:15 The Role of Fathers in Society 06:22 Conclusion and Final Thoughts 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1  👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/victordavishanson7273 👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

June 15th is Father's Day. It's always the third Sunday of June. It derives in our country from the early 1900s because we had a previous holiday of Mother's Day. They wanted to also honor Father's Day in Europe. I think it's called St. Joseph's Day to honor the husband of the Virgin Mary. In any case, we honor what our parents did for us by Mother's Day and for Father's Day. And I think all of us in this period of turbulent times, I think we must reevaluate the role of fathers. To the degree this country will make it, it will be a strong father figure that instructs us how to be masculine, how to be a man, stand forward and challenge bullies that prey on the weak and the innocent. I think that's the role of fathers, and that's a lost art now.

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June 15th is Father's Day. It's always the third Sunday of June. I remember when I was in college for the first time they made it a national holiday, I think, at 1972. It derives in our country from the early 1900s when people wanted to, because we had a previous holiday of Mother's Day, they wanted to also honor Father's Day. In Europe, I think it's called St. Joseph's Day to honor the husband of the Virgin Mary. And in any case, we honor what our parents did for us by Mother's Day and for Father's Day. It recalls something that I like to share with you. One of the roles of fathers is to give young children, especially males, a sense of direction.

And almost this tragic sense that sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to do, but somebody else won't do them, you're going to be in trouble. And I look back at my father. I'd like to relate just three things very quickly. Once he wanted us to work in the summer, we were working on the farm. There wasn't enough work. So he had a friend that wanted us to shake almonds with a mountain. Those days, there was no machine.

You just hit the mallet with a canvas. But it was 110 degrees in August. So he dropped us off in this 40-acre almond field, the four of us, and he started to worry. He said, my God, it's hot. I've got to go talk to this guy. And the guy said, no, you said you're going to drop them. Bottom line, he came back in his early 50s, and he had his work clothes on, and he got a mallet,

and he worked every day for a week hitting the trees where we move the canvas and put them in gunny sacks. And he was completely in sweat, and he said, you boys are going to be in trouble. And every hour he went down to a mountain drive-in and brought back drinks and water. But he stood by us the whole time, and he outworked us. Second thing I remember was I was in Greece and I had a torn urator. That's when a kidney stone, a staghorn calculus, gets lodged and the urator begins to cut. And I was at pretty bad shape and I called my parents. They knew about it.

And I said, the doctor can't take it out. I've got to get home. My father said, you get on the next flight. I wire you the money. Your mother will find a surgeon and I will pick you out. I said, well, how am I going to get from the airport to Fresna? You worry about that. You worry about the flight, I will get you.

So I got 20 hours later, I go there, and here's my father at the airport. I was 20 years old. 20, excuse me, 24? And he picks me up, he was 6'4, he puts me into this old Buick station wagon that he'd made into an ambulance. He put down all the seats. He had pillows, and he said, we're off on a wild ride, Victor. And we drove 200 miles in the middle of the night, and he pulled up right to the ambulance entry at Fresno Community Hospital. He pulled over in Las Banos. He called the surgeon and said, I'm going to be here, you operate. He pulled in and within 40 minutes I was being operated by a surgeon in Fresno because of him. He saved my life. The other thing that I remember was I was very quickly. I was at Stanford University in a very bad neighborhood. I didn't have a lot of money. I was on a scholarship and he was very worried. My mother, of course, was too. And he said, I'm going to drive up and see this. So he went to

up and he saw it was a rough neighborhood, didn't have a lot of money. The next thing I knew, he came over to my apartment and he had these sacks of frozen foods. And they weren't just prepared foods. They were steaks. They were roast. He said, I bought you enough meat for six months. Let's put it in the freezer. And I said, oh my gosh. And my roommate, he was very poor. He was from a steelworkers family in Ohio. So we had all this meat. And then he said, do you have any money and I said he looked give me your wallet so I had $20 and that was a lot of money in 1975 so he pulled out his wallet he had 320s he gave all three to me I said you don't have any money to drive home and said you don't worry about it and he said that $80 now you're going to be I want

you to eat well he did that every time I was in trouble and I think that's the role of fathers and finally I said to him dad why do you always do this And he said, because that's my responsibility, and that will be your responsibility when you have children. You're always there if they need you. You're not there to pamper them. You're not there to subsidize them. But they need you to keep them going when they can't go on their own. And he didn't mean that in a sense of dependency.

And he was always like that. And I cherish the memory of him. And I think all of us in this period of turbulent times, I think we must reevaluate. the role of fathers. To the degree this country will make it, it will be a strong father figure that instructs us how to be masculine, how to be a man, how to protect the weak, how to stand forward and challenge bullies that prey on the weak and the innocent. And that's a lost art now. And to the degree that we've had strong fathers, as I did, I think each year of our lives, we appreciate it any ever more on Father's Day. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis Hans.

for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to The Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at Victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.