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.
