There’s no doubt, like Alice in Wonderland after falling down the rabbit hole, we live in a nonsensical and dangerous world where reality no longer applies, rationality and reason have ceased to exist, and words can mean anything you want.
Millions of Australians are convinced the billions of dollars invested in renewable power and banning fossil fuels will reduce global warming even though Australia’s contribution is approximately 1 per cent and major contributors like China continue to use coal to generate power.
Environmental alarmists argue the Great Barrier Reef is doomed as a result of global warming notwithstanding, proven by research carried out by Dr Peter Ridd, the science is not settled.
The ABC, state and commonwealth governments, businesses and corporations, plus schools and universities pay homage to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait culture. It is praised as peaceful, civilised, at one with nature, and worthy of the description ‘nations’ even though the evidence strongly suggests otherwise.
And in Australia legal arguments rage trying to decide whether a man is entitled to self-identify as a woman even though, as decided by the UK’s Supreme Court, the concept of sex is binary and biologically determined.
How have we come to this?
Those old enough will remember a time when schools taught clear thinking and the ability to weigh evidence and evaluate arguments rationally and logically. Being subjective, making exaggerated claims, and relying on fallacious arguments were unacceptable.
The English classroom has long since jettisoned clear thinking with students now being taught truth is relative and it’s OK to be subjective and to rely on one’s feelings. I think therefore I am, is replaced by, I feel therefore I’m right. (Except, of course when it comes to being Woke where thought control and groupthink reigns.)
In universities, cultural-Marxists, radical feminists and academics committed to postmodern and critical theories argue that binary concepts like male and female, good and evil, and right and wrong are constructs designed to enforce capitalist hegemony and the power of the ruling class.
Language is especially critiqued on the basis words no longer have common and agreed meanings as language represents an endless play of signifiers. While Alice disagrees, Humpty Dumpty has every right to argue a word ‘means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less’.
The flaws and contradictions inherent in postmodern theory and deconstructionism are many. Even though the cultural-Left argues there are no absolutes and that truth is relative when it comes to global warming, gender theory, Western society being racist, and capitalism being oppressive there is no doubt – there is right and wrong.
Any who disagree or fail to conform are attacked as sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, and guilty of oppressing the ‘other’. Academics espousing opposing views are no-platformed, harangued by students or fail to get promoted or published in peer-reviewed journals.
If rationality and reason are constructs employed to enforce capitalist hegemony and Western supremacism, then on what basis are arguments won or lost? If reason, logic and common sense no longer apply then the only alternatives are silence, epistemological suicide or violence.
Illustrated by George Orwell’s 1984 where citizens are conditioned to believe war is peace, slavery is freedom, and ignorance is strength once rationality and reason disappear – the world becomes a terrifying and oppressive gulag where 2+2=5.
The irony is even while the cultural-Left and its rainbow alliance of adherents champion anti-discrimination, freedom of thought, and tolerance the opposite is the case. The result, as argued by Camille Paglia is, ‘We are plunged once again into an ethical chaos where intolerance masquerades as tolerance and where individual liberty is crushed by the tyranny of the group.’
The good news is eventually reality and truth win out. For planes to stay in the air and for bridges not to collapse there are universal laws that must be applied. No amount of indoctrination about Western science being guilty of imperialism and colonial oppression can escape the fact it is preeminent.
Proven by Hitler and Nazism being defeated, the Berlin Wall collapsing, and the USSR falling apart – history tells us the thirst for rationality, common sense, and freedom eventually win out. The popularity of conservative bloggers and commentators including Jordan Peterson and Australia’s John Anderson also shows there is still an audience for logic and truth.
While not the only reason explaining President Trump’s victory and the success of centre-right parties in Europe it’s clear more and more citizens are fed up with Woke-inspired ideology, especially cultural relativism and the failure to protect and sustain family, community and national pride.
Dr Kevin Donnelly is a conservative writer and author of Wake Up To Woke It’s Time, Australia
