I don't think the issues of gender ideology and ME conflict are actually moral failures. They both share the same fundamental causative: failure to perform intellectual due diligence. In both cases the goodthinkful rushed to profess allegiance skipping the usual step of assessment whether the claimant's claim is actually valid - we go straight from is-a-victim to therefore-is-right.
In each case it is morality driving the activism, but the mis-placement of advocacy is due to this missed logical step. What would this step would have involved?
Doing objective research into the underlying causes of trans ideation, testing whether such claims can be substantiated in each individual who makes the claim, whether the rights they demand would be in conflict with established rights of women... Needless to say these vital steps would have not produced the quick outcomes the activists demanded - so they infiltrated power structures, institutions and implemented the agenda through organisational capture.
I discovered a neologism by Wesley Yang: "Non electoral politics", a form of political activism that implements policy by going around the voters so they can't say no. In other words subversion of public will.
With regard to the Jewish/Islamic issues, I have been quite uncomfortable. The July 7 slaughter and cruelty was appalling and unforgivable. But the slaughter and destruction in Gaza is appalling and unforgivable too. I have worked with Jewish colleagues in the past and envied their sense of community. They were good people. I have rarely worked with people of Islamic and know only a few, but love Islamic Sufi poetry.
The current conflicts are beyond my power to change so I have stopped following closely whilst hoping intently for a ceasefire. I do not watch TV news reports of the Gaza conflict because they are unbearable and physically hurt. SBS News has tolerable reports so I watch those sometimes.
After quite a long life and much experience and reading, I've come to believe that religions are simply ways by which humans search for meaning, but also ways by which they organise themselves culturally and politically for the sake of survival. Patriarchy usually rules supreme in most religions and cultures. I was raised Catholic but never strongly believed in the Church. My father spent time in a religious novitiate as a young man and I had a cousin who was a Jesuit scholar. and others who were missionary nuns. I loved the stories of strong women in the Church, usually nuns, and as a teenager I hoped to enter religious life. At 18, I read some history and gave up all participation in religion. Some behaviours in the Catholic Church were unbearable too. I used to say I was agnostic.
Decades later, I came to believe in a being or dimension beyond human understanding, beyond words. That is enough. Nature and other living things are an expression of this life force. That belief/faith is enough It is very simple. I smiled when you and Paul were discussing theological atheists and philosophers etc. My Jesuit cousins wrote theology books that nobody reads or understands now. Obviously they were not irrelevant to him. He became an academic.
Thank you for the references to gender ideology in your discussions. The deceptive emergence of this in our current society is disturbing and life changing. We have to understand where it comes from and how it works in order to survive, and we need different frameworks to help with this. So we need education. I read Holly Lawford Smith and Kathleen Stock too but some style and content is beyond me. I love their willingness to be accessible and open, however.
Thank you, Julie. I was trying to say that none of us have to be products of our backounds 🙏. Sometimes traditions need to go but institutions are often not good at change.
I don't think the issues of gender ideology and ME conflict are actually moral failures. They both share the same fundamental causative: failure to perform intellectual due diligence. In both cases the goodthinkful rushed to profess allegiance skipping the usual step of assessment whether the claimant's claim is actually valid - we go straight from is-a-victim to therefore-is-right.
In each case it is morality driving the activism, but the mis-placement of advocacy is due to this missed logical step. What would this step would have involved?
Doing objective research into the underlying causes of trans ideation, testing whether such claims can be substantiated in each individual who makes the claim, whether the rights they demand would be in conflict with established rights of women... Needless to say these vital steps would have not produced the quick outcomes the activists demanded - so they infiltrated power structures, institutions and implemented the agenda through organisational capture.
I discovered a neologism by Wesley Yang: "Non electoral politics", a form of political activism that implements policy by going around the voters so they can't say no. In other words subversion of public will.
Couldn't agree more. Smart guy that Wesley Yang.
Fascinating.
With regard to the Jewish/Islamic issues, I have been quite uncomfortable. The July 7 slaughter and cruelty was appalling and unforgivable. But the slaughter and destruction in Gaza is appalling and unforgivable too. I have worked with Jewish colleagues in the past and envied their sense of community. They were good people. I have rarely worked with people of Islamic and know only a few, but love Islamic Sufi poetry.
The current conflicts are beyond my power to change so I have stopped following closely whilst hoping intently for a ceasefire. I do not watch TV news reports of the Gaza conflict because they are unbearable and physically hurt. SBS News has tolerable reports so I watch those sometimes.
After quite a long life and much experience and reading, I've come to believe that religions are simply ways by which humans search for meaning, but also ways by which they organise themselves culturally and politically for the sake of survival. Patriarchy usually rules supreme in most religions and cultures. I was raised Catholic but never strongly believed in the Church. My father spent time in a religious novitiate as a young man and I had a cousin who was a Jesuit scholar. and others who were missionary nuns. I loved the stories of strong women in the Church, usually nuns, and as a teenager I hoped to enter religious life. At 18, I read some history and gave up all participation in religion. Some behaviours in the Catholic Church were unbearable too. I used to say I was agnostic.
Decades later, I came to believe in a being or dimension beyond human understanding, beyond words. That is enough. Nature and other living things are an expression of this life force. That belief/faith is enough It is very simple. I smiled when you and Paul were discussing theological atheists and philosophers etc. My Jesuit cousins wrote theology books that nobody reads or understands now. Obviously they were not irrelevant to him. He became an academic.
Thank you for the references to gender ideology in your discussions. The deceptive emergence of this in our current society is disturbing and life changing. We have to understand where it comes from and how it works in order to survive, and we need different frameworks to help with this. So we need education. I read Holly Lawford Smith and Kathleen Stock too but some style and content is beyond me. I love their willingness to be accessible and open, however.
Thanks for the heartfelt feedback Kate. I'm pleased you took something away from the discussion. And that's interesting about your relatives!
Thank you, Julie. I was trying to say that none of us have to be products of our backounds 🙏. Sometimes traditions need to go but institutions are often not good at change.