I’ve just seen one of the most disturbing videos I’ve seen in a while – which is saying a lot.
The video I am referring to was yesterday published in the National Review, and was produced by the Family Policy Institute in Washington. In the clip begins with addressing the topical issue of gender identity and the use of gendered restroom facilities on college campuses.
The interviewer, Joseph Backholm talks with several university students who we see in the video are unable to tell him why he is not a woman, or Chinese, or a first grader, or is 6″5′ tall. In fact, some of the students are quite happy to accept these clearly untrue statements about Joseph, and to support his misplaced identification with them.
I share the Family Policy Institute’s alarm at the disturbing ‘moral code’ held by the students which asserts that everything is okay, as long as it (purportedly) does not harm anyone else. Of course, this morality doesn’t seem to follow in instances which expose women and girls to risks, specifically those that arise from giving anyone who feels that they are female an invitation to use women’s change rooms and toilet facilities (as one example).
Yet, the most disturbing issue is not the twisted and corrupt morality espoused, but the twisted and corrupt thinking which underlies it. In fact, “twisted and corrupt” are quite generous words to use in relation to a kind of reasoning that has no basis in reality. Heaven forbid anyone leave me without question in my own de/lusions this side of dementia. I can scarcely think of a more terrifying hell.
If we can’t even agree on what is real, then we find ourselves in a universe which is completely unintelligible. In this universe, governance, trade or even basic learning would be impossible. And so would any relationship with any other being, least of all our environment or even ourselves.
We have spoken at length before of the tyranny of our Brave New World which asserts that 2 + 2 = 5, and the suppression of dissidents who will not relinquish their right to believe and say that 2 + 2 = 4. And now we see that university students, those who should be the most trained in critical thinking are defending untruth.
The risks here are not simply moral or political. They go much, much deeper than even that. The great risk is losing our capacity to think, reason, and even relate to one another. What’s more, in seeking to define our identities against reality, we risk completely losing ourselves.
XYZ
Photo by pictour_this 