Category Archives: Political

Catholic Church, Left, Political, Religion

A moral panic in the 1980s

This is the first of two outstanding articles by Julia Yost in First Things. She reviews We Believe the Children: A Moral Panic in the 1980s by Richard Beck
public affairs, 352 pages, $26.99. The article has direct relevance to the ‘Pell Affair’.

Children of Desire
by Julia Yost

My sister and I were preschoolers in the 1980s. Once upon an afternoon, our mother instructed us: If ever she were unable to pick us up and had to send another grownup in her stead, she would impart to that grownup a “secret word.” If ever a grownup approached us, neighbor or stranger, claiming that our mother wanted us to go with him in his car, we were to require of him this “secret word.” If he did not know it, we should run to the nearest policeman. We rehearsed. Our mother: “Hi, little girls. [Lies, lies, lies.] Why don’t you get in my car?” Our line was: “What’s the secret word?”

It was snickerdoodle, if you want to know. It never did turn out to be useful. Our mother was reacting to news reports that America was creeping and crawling with child predators. These were people undetectable by the casual observer but secretly organized in rings or cults dedicated to the violation of children, whether recreationally or as stipulated by satanic rites. Often they operated preschools or daycare centers as fronts for culling. Read on…

Islam, Political, Politics, Religion

Understanding Islam V – The Apostasy Wars

Understanding Islam V

THE APOSTASY WARS
Bloodbaths over ‘a camel’s hobble’
Paul Stenhouse
This is the fifth in a series of seven articles

THE ‘APOSTASY wars,’ or the ‘Ridda Wars’ were to occupy the greater part of the two years’ Caliphate of Abu Bakr. Almost all of the Arabian tribes that originally accepted Islam, apart from the Quraish in Mecca and the Thaqif in Ta’if, had used Muhammad’s death as an excuse to refuse to pay tribute [sadaqah] and the wealth tax [zakat], and were declared to be ‘apostate’ [murtadd]. The penalty for apostasy was death. They had looked on Muhammad more as a political figure – the prince of Medina – than as a religious leader – a prophet – and when Muhammad died they were unwilling to accept Abu Bakr as their new prince.

Read on here: Understand Islam V

 

Already posted:

Islam I – Christians in pre-Islamic Arabia: islam-1

Islam II – Setting the stage for Muhammad and Islam: islam-2

Islam III -Islam, the sword or the tax: islam-3

Islam IV – Political Islam: The beginnings: Understand Islam IV

Annals Australasia
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Editor: Paul Collins MSC PhD – editorannals@gmail.com

Left, Philosophy, Political, Political Correctness, radicalism

What is ‘intersectionality’?

Another form of Marxist revolution poisoning the Western Academy

First Church of Intersectionality
Elizabeth C Corey
First Things

I recently attended an academic conference at the University of Notre Dame called “Intersectional Inquiries and Collaborative Action: Gender and Race.” It felt like a return to my undergraduate years in the early 1990s. I saw women with shaved heads wearing ethnic print scarves, Birkenstocks, and baggy black clothes. Many of the participants smelled of curry and incense. I attended the conference because I was researching the concept of “intersectionality” as part of a year-long fellowship to study academic diversity. A year ago, I knew almost nothing about the diversity movement in academia. Now I’ve learned that it is only the tip of a very large iceberg, and that this movement is more extensive, and more radical, than the anodyne term “diversity” would lead one to ­believe.

Intersectionality is a wholly academic invention that plays a large role in this movement. Indeed, it stands in the vanguard of the progressive academy, allied with critical race studies, queer studies, women’s studies, and ethnic studies. Intersectional scholars proudly proclaim their goal: to smash the neoliberal, corporate, heteropatriarchal academy and then to reinvent it in a way that rejects traditional notions about what universities are meant to do. These scholars also want to redefine the family and to abolish the “binary” of man and woman. Read on…


QUOTES

‘Thus the metaphor of “intersectionality” was born. Black women found themselves at the intersection of two different kinds of prejudice—about race and gender…’

‘In 1968, the political philosopher Eric Voegelin published a little book called Science, Politics and Gnosticism. In a section of that book entitled “Ersatz Religion,” he argued that modern ideologies are very much like ancient Gnostic movements. Certain fundamental assumptions, Voegelin wrote, characterize both ancient and modern Gnosticism.’ 

 

Left, Philosophy, Political, Political Correctness, Politics, radicalism

Penises cause climate change?

It would have you screaming in laughter if were not (tragically) true. James Delingpole wrote the following piece in the English Spectator. It is literally to make you laugh until you cry – out of despair. The Western academy has become a joke.

‘Why not think about Gender Studies?’ asked an advertorial aimed at prospective students in the newspaper I was reading. Actually, I can think of lots of reasons, starting with: what kind of employer in his right mind (or her right mind, come to that) would be insane enough to take on a graduate with an intellectually worthless degree indicative of shrill resentment, bolshiness, blue hair, lax personal hygiene and weaponised entitlement?

But two US academics, Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay, recently came up with an even better one. They managed to get published in a social sciences journal a paper arguing that the penis is not in fact a male reproductive organ but merely a social construct and that, furthermore, penises are responsible for causing climate change. Read on…

‘Gender studies is crippled academically by an overriding, almost religious belief that maleness is the root of all evil.’

 

Conservatism, Philosophy, Political

New website – new start

Welcome to my new website dedicated to the thought of Edmund Burke and to philosophical conservatism in general. The website is in the skeleton stage. Comments and blogs will be added from now on, in addition to the more important talks and presentations I have given. I recommend a perusal of the ‘About’ page for an understanding of the mission of The Edmund Burke Society. The foundation meeting will be on 13 December at the RACV Club. Information is on the Events page and on the new Facebook page.

Gerard Wilson