Day: November 27, 2018

Following the end of the Second World War and until the advent of the Swinging Sixties the world seemed set on a trend that understood concepts like normal and natural, and we lived in a world where the ordinary and stable was the accepted reality. Truth had a place that seemed secure, the world had been shaken to its core but it had settled into a relatively mundane order. And then came Mary Quant and mini skirts, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, Teenagers, violent demos against the American Embassy, flower power and so on. I was a teenager when the decade began. Looking back I now think it was the beginning of the end. Depending on opinion we have evolved to a higher place or hit rock bottom. In retrospect I wonder why no rock group came up with the name Rock Bottom. (Having just checked it out on the internet I see that one such band was formed in 2012). The Sixties opened Pandora’s Box, and the evils let loose rather than being expunged from society are being welcomed and applauded as social advances.

But we are where we are, and that is either newly enlightened or entering a new dark age, depending on your worldview.

I scan the media for news and note changes that would have once been thought inconceivable, even to works of fiction. A society in which genders can be made up at will. One in which schools, hospitals, offices and many other areas are having to make different arrangements for toilets, changing rooms etc. Gender blurring is altering everything, including how we act, think and speak. What was once comparatively easy, like communication between sexes, has become a minefield. Say or do the wrong thing, and who can be sure what that is, can lead to a reputation being forever lost. The redefinition of male and female will have consequences beyond those anticipated, because people must by threat of law adapt to the new reality; and some will and others will not. Sometimes not because of intent but just because they do not understand or cannot keep up with the relentless changes. From the sixties to now is roughly sixty years and in that time the world has, from my perspective, gone mad. I remember days when to be in debt was a shame; now it is way of life. The duty to live within your means and to respect your elders and betters was drilled into you as a child, but no more. The old has gone and the new has come. Was the old good? No, not always, far from it, there were many faults and failings. The sixties did address some of those, but then it moved on to become a permissive crusade which tugged at all the old certainties.

In retrospect we are beginning to see exactly what has been laid waste, what it has led to and perhaps getting an idea about where it is leading. Regret is an emotion left for the elderly to dwell on, a world once loved gone beyond recall. How did it happen? We scratch our heads and wonder. Here, in the video below is what at first glance seems innocent enough. I entered this world at the age of sixteen as an art student. There is just one hint in the commentary which links this era to our own. A comment about the young seeking their identity. You do not have to look far to see where that impulse has led us.

National papers were recently reporting an astonishing 17 pupils at a single British school who were in the process of changing gender.  Most of those undergoing the transformation are autistic, according to a whistle-blower. The teacher said vulnerable children with mental health problems were being ‘tricked’ into believing they are the wrong sex, claiming few of the transgender children are suffering from gender dysphoria: the medical term for a person who feels they were born in the wrong body. The accusation is that these vulnerable children are easily influenced because they are coping with problems caused by autism. This makes it all sound very manipulative and ideologically driven. Maybe, the first stirrings of these identity problems began in the Swinging Sixties. My belief is that this decade opened the way to love of excess in every area of human activity and thinking. When you read about a six year old being repeatedly raped at school by two other pupils during playtime, then surely it is time to take a look at the world that is forming around us. What began with the appearance of freeing up a psychedelic, drug fuelled world of innocent fun in the sixties has degenerated into something that has the appearance of being out of control. It could legitimately be described as evil.  We do not have to do the so called ‘progressive’ thing, and just keep on going. We could take a breath and consider rewinding the clock, teach moral standards, stamp down hard on anti-social behaviour of every type, and perhaps reintroduce this generation to its Christian God.

When I was young this was the call a bus conductor would make when we reached the bus terminus. If you hung around long enough you might see the bus number and destination being scrolled round to designate it would be taking a new route. We as a society have changed route, from a people who knew who and what we were to one that creates whatever we want be. The following saying is attributed to the philosopher Nietzsche in Beyond Good and Evil. I agree with it wholeheartedly.

“Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples, and ages, it is the rule.” 

In my view those who have chosen the modern consensus have fallen into exactly that certifiable condition. If you can open your eyes to all that is going on around us by way of change you cannot help but see the trail of devastation Post Modernism has set in motion. It is as if a wild boar has been let loose in a well established smooth running household. It represents a paradigm shift in our society. What is happening can easily be missed; we are the recipient generation of a philosophical idea, the intention of which is to change us, cause us to think about everything in another way. Its promotion involved the invention a new hyphenated word: Post-Truth. This word was thought so significant it became the Oxford University Dictionary word of the year in 2016. The expression suggests Truth has had its day and as the title of this web/blog-site suggests, been laid in a casket and unceremoniously buried.

Basically it means you can throw out everything you once knew to be true and good and replace it with something called cognitive confinement. If you want to know what that means then do not ask me. I looked it up on the worldwide web and found no explanation. That perhaps is the explanation, its meaning is open only to those who dabble in the worlds of psychology and psychiatry. It could mean freeing the mind to receive almost anything, or a mental straight-jacket. Either explanation would make sense in a post-truth world. Whatever else it may mean, this much is certain; the old idea of an overarching truth that holds and explains all reality, including human nature and our relationship with our Creator is gone. Any claim to truth is reduced to that of yours and mine and his and hers and nowadays any other approved personal pronoun. Truth is fragmented and personalised and one truth is only superior to another if it is the one which conforms to the views of the State. You see the State has taken on the garb and role of God. There is an overarching truth and if you disobey its commandments ( British Values ) then your freedoms are likely to be much reduced. There are some today suffering confinement in the UK for their faith or their views. If they have avoided a prison cell they will quite likely have lost their jobs or their reputations or a large part of their wealth due to legal fees and court costs.

Welcome to the Post-Modern world! A strange one insofar that the claims made on behalf of Post Truth are of the exact variety of the one it eradicated. An overarching new truth replacing an overarching old truth. By defining all former capital T Truths as naïve or repressive, the modern state has become as doctrinaire as any former religious monopoly. But this thing that has arisen in our midst, despite its well-established creeds, is not religious. On the contrary it is root and branch secular. If you doubt, it’s domineering nature then examine the reach and influence of Politic Correctness.

Here is just a mild taste of the gathering madness. Modern Feminism has more than a hint of colonialism about it: the movement keeps looking for new areas to suck the life out of, and to spread its condemnation of male privilege into every inflection of speech and expression through touch and gesture. These, which are often signs of consideration: kindness, sympathy and the desire to protect, are rejected and sometimes categorised as assaults. It may never occur to a rabid feminist that not every expression like this is loaded with sexual intent or a desire to exploit women. Not to be able to see or discern this is a sign of a fanatic.