Really enjoy the Hitchen's video, I want to send it on to my daughter. She has just graduated from Vancouver Island University with a Bachelor in Music. VIU is small, but nevertheless 'infected' university one might say, and she finds it very troubling. Her father and I are very much opposed to all things woke. We are reasonably well read, and particularly in the areas of history and politics. So she has grown up knowing our views and after some heated discussions understanding and in many cases accepting our positions on various things, based on facts and logic. This is the trouble she faces, as she feels she cannot challenge anything her professors have said regarding slavery (which they seem to think was only ever practiced in the US and if anywhere else only by whites), that colonialism and white people are the root of all evil) etc. etc. So she simply remains quiet, and has, to some degree been 'captured' by some of this nonsense. On a final troubling note in this regard. There was, I guess at some point, a discussion with one of her professors, --a music teacher -- I might add, about the Freedom Convoy. Of course, he had drank the Trudeau koolaid on them, and in their discussion she mentioned that both her mother and father, had when the Freedom Convoy was in Ottawa, took it upon themselve to visit it and see for themselves what they were about, and found it nothing like the media was reporting. His response to her. verbatum... "I have never met your parents, but I already think less of them." To her face he said that! No asking her or saying that's interesting, what did they see or say about them? How can young people in today's universities do anything but become captured by this close minded poison when their professors are so badly infected with it and unwilling to have a open discourse about topics that are controversial. So very sad. I give my kid props, for doing her best to fight against the wokeness, but it's a tough slog, but we try to keep her thinking critical in the face of it all.
I was expecting a mention of Kathleen Stock's forthcoming (?) address to the Oxford Union, the details of which are described in this recent interview https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/kathleen-stock-philosophical-knots/id1540134798?i=1000614997685 (perhaps that's the subject of NileGardiner's tweet). Please let me also mention a recent talk by Charles Eisenstein "Staying Sane in the Next Five Years" available on youtube or via a link in his recent substack. Also Paul Kingsnorth's latest substack "The West Must Die" links to another youtube video which is another Freddie Sayers/Unherd interview this time with Iain McGilchrist which I loved when it was published 4 weeks ago and so glad PK has endorsed it with his wise words).
Sorry Trish to pile all this onto your substack comments but to me these people are the new flagbearers of type of deep though you have praised in your piece.
I was born in London in 1948. I was sent to school in 1952. In April 1955 my parents moved to Canada. I was seven. I do not remember when I could not read. Spelling for me was easy. I was taught and knew my 13 times table. In fact they were taught as introduction to algebra. I was taught to write not print. My grandparents and great aunts and uncles were well educated.
At one regatta my Great Aunt informed me that although Cambridge had a pale blue I preferred I remember her saying to me “…yes dear you may prefer pale blue (Cambridge colours) but we’re Oxford.” Oxford colours were navy i.e. Oxford Blue.
She was proud of her antecedents contributions to Oxford's development and her antecedents post graduate successes. My grandmother told me “…the wars ruined England.”
When I began school in Canada the 7 year old boys could barely read, did not know any of the times tables, and were learning to print. At some point writing was taught — but with a nib and a bottle of ink. My father brought me to the local Carnegie library — some of the books I wanted to read had to be checked out on his card.
School for me was suddenly boring. I now know it was intentionally structured to be boring. I was too immature at 7 to understand my plight — I did not say I was bored. I frittered away my days in school and stayed away every opportunity. I failed a couple of grades along the way to leaving school when I was seventeen. Of course I never earned a degree.
Most of my friends attended university and graduated. Some became doctors, some lawyers, some engineers, some nurses — graduating with specialized degrees. I chose to earn my living otherwise. Founding and running my businesses.
None of my childhood friends read serious books. They are all experts when it comes to parroting the received they hear on the radio and watch on TV. They believe the CBC is neutral and benign — as they believe the Globe &Mail is as well.
My grandmother read to me, I’m told, when I was barely 18 months old. She played cards with me. Memory and counting games. My Great Aunts and uncles homes were full of books as was my home growing up. My father used to have me identify the composers of the music he listened to.
I think they thought these interactions were normal. They expected me to clean my room, rake the lawn, cut the grass, polish our shoes, and to play outside. And dry the dishes. They encouraged me to play hockey and baseball and ski.
They quickly realized school was different in Canada. This I found out much later. The knew I was bored and said very little about my absences. I would spend the day in the National Gallery and the library. Certainly I was fortunate in many ways. Does one choose one’s destiny before birth? Life is a mystery. I remain grateful for my blessings and challenged by my opportunities.
Was I disadvantaged by attending to other interesting things rather than attending school? But most certainly I escaped being brainwashed and being shortchanged by believing education ceased when one graduated and began a career.
Most certainly the “wars” did ruin England. But they ruined a certain disposition which prevailed in Great Britain for hundreds of years. A close reading of history reveals many unpalatable facts. In fact polite company does not tolerate the conclusions one can not avoid by reading widely.
Tragically my contemporaries hold views which I do not share. They are completely brainwashed. I did not read to have my views confirmed. But I had questions. Many
‘facts’ at bottom are lies. The present leadership in the west is frighteningly ignorant and undereducated indeed isolated in their various professional and siloed domains of expertise.
So many people believe their brainwashing. For them self awareness is non existent. Clearly the majority of the citizens have been convinced i.e. brainwashed — to believe that they are educated and informed.
Peter Bruegel gave us a perfect illustration of our predicament today. His painting, The Blind Leading the Blind, may not have been meant as a political statement when he painted it. It depicts well enough the terror of the situation, I’d say, prevailing now.
What sort of people allow their media properties to be owned by foreign interests?
I am still digesting your article Trish, but felt compelled to comment on the comments. Absolutely Fab! All of them. I learn so much more about an article when I read the comments too....what a bunch of brilliant minds amongst us, very uplifting.
IMO helicopter parenting did more to make these kids and young adults the way they are. Instead of learning independence and how to navigate the real world, they grew up sheltered, every minute scheduled and controlled, with mommy and daddy there at every step. No wonder they are anxious and threatened by everything and everyone.
I remember when Solzhenitsyn was one of the the college age must read of the day. (Not a bad thing but ...it was also coupled with the latest in drug use too) Unfortunate that the fact that college age kids follow the winds of the latest trend , while thinking they are very wise while not having any wisdom of experience, is so lost in bowing to their childish rantings. ( I mean really, that law students can shout down a man who has worked for years in this field?!) It's not new, just accepted now as virtuous and must be honored by feckless leadership- who appear just as lost and foolish. God help our grandkids.
Trish, I love the title of your piece, "Live Not By Lies". That, of course, was the title of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's last essay written in the USSR. In fact, he was exiled the day after its publication in 1974. Quite interesting that he was welcomed to the USA with open arms. I can only imagine what his reception would be today.
Yes, the lack of critical thinking in an age of Siri, Alexa and the Google Assistant, all virtual with only the fact. I hesitated to use the plural of fact, since so many folks today suck up the first spoken *answer* or boxed text. Most cannot even use an old style paper map. And we're gonna fix the climate ecological nightmare with those minds? hahaha
At this moment as I scribble with thanks to the "Foth", my province of NS has joined the west in uncontrollable fires. I have a short length of garden hose if the forest erupts 'round me, so as I can jump in the pond and make pals with the leeches.
To really get to the heart of where we are with this patriarchy, imperialism and inverted totalitarianism one ought to give Brian C. Muraresku's tome: The Immortality Key: Uncovering the Secret History of the Religion with No Name. It's mind blowing even dealing with the age ole query of what came first beer or bread?
To have some insight into what this eminently readable work of classical scholarship is all 'bout, find Joe Rogan on Spotify interviewing him a year or so ago.
Hitch, after spending his time at Oxford reading philosophy, politics, and economics, graduated a socialist in 1967. To me his demonstrates just how long the whole higher education edifice has been rotten. How many graduates of these institutions lack Hitch's mental agility and remained some flavour of socialist their whole lives? How many of them inhabit the highest offices in western governments?
Really enjoy the Hitchen's video, I want to send it on to my daughter. She has just graduated from Vancouver Island University with a Bachelor in Music. VIU is small, but nevertheless 'infected' university one might say, and she finds it very troubling. Her father and I are very much opposed to all things woke. We are reasonably well read, and particularly in the areas of history and politics. So she has grown up knowing our views and after some heated discussions understanding and in many cases accepting our positions on various things, based on facts and logic. This is the trouble she faces, as she feels she cannot challenge anything her professors have said regarding slavery (which they seem to think was only ever practiced in the US and if anywhere else only by whites), that colonialism and white people are the root of all evil) etc. etc. So she simply remains quiet, and has, to some degree been 'captured' by some of this nonsense. On a final troubling note in this regard. There was, I guess at some point, a discussion with one of her professors, --a music teacher -- I might add, about the Freedom Convoy. Of course, he had drank the Trudeau koolaid on them, and in their discussion she mentioned that both her mother and father, had when the Freedom Convoy was in Ottawa, took it upon themselve to visit it and see for themselves what they were about, and found it nothing like the media was reporting. His response to her. verbatum... "I have never met your parents, but I already think less of them." To her face he said that! No asking her or saying that's interesting, what did they see or say about them? How can young people in today's universities do anything but become captured by this close minded poison when their professors are so badly infected with it and unwilling to have a open discourse about topics that are controversial. So very sad. I give my kid props, for doing her best to fight against the wokeness, but it's a tough slog, but we try to keep her thinking critical in the face of it all.
I was expecting a mention of Kathleen Stock's forthcoming (?) address to the Oxford Union, the details of which are described in this recent interview https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/kathleen-stock-philosophical-knots/id1540134798?i=1000614997685 (perhaps that's the subject of NileGardiner's tweet). Please let me also mention a recent talk by Charles Eisenstein "Staying Sane in the Next Five Years" available on youtube or via a link in his recent substack. Also Paul Kingsnorth's latest substack "The West Must Die" links to another youtube video which is another Freddie Sayers/Unherd interview this time with Iain McGilchrist which I loved when it was published 4 weeks ago and so glad PK has endorsed it with his wise words).
Sorry Trish to pile all this onto your substack comments but to me these people are the new flagbearers of type of deep though you have praised in your piece.
I was born in London in 1948. I was sent to school in 1952. In April 1955 my parents moved to Canada. I was seven. I do not remember when I could not read. Spelling for me was easy. I was taught and knew my 13 times table. In fact they were taught as introduction to algebra. I was taught to write not print. My grandparents and great aunts and uncles were well educated.
At one regatta my Great Aunt informed me that although Cambridge had a pale blue I preferred I remember her saying to me “…yes dear you may prefer pale blue (Cambridge colours) but we’re Oxford.” Oxford colours were navy i.e. Oxford Blue.
She was proud of her antecedents contributions to Oxford's development and her antecedents post graduate successes. My grandmother told me “…the wars ruined England.”
When I began school in Canada the 7 year old boys could barely read, did not know any of the times tables, and were learning to print. At some point writing was taught — but with a nib and a bottle of ink. My father brought me to the local Carnegie library — some of the books I wanted to read had to be checked out on his card.
School for me was suddenly boring. I now know it was intentionally structured to be boring. I was too immature at 7 to understand my plight — I did not say I was bored. I frittered away my days in school and stayed away every opportunity. I failed a couple of grades along the way to leaving school when I was seventeen. Of course I never earned a degree.
Most of my friends attended university and graduated. Some became doctors, some lawyers, some engineers, some nurses — graduating with specialized degrees. I chose to earn my living otherwise. Founding and running my businesses.
None of my childhood friends read serious books. They are all experts when it comes to parroting the received they hear on the radio and watch on TV. They believe the CBC is neutral and benign — as they believe the Globe &Mail is as well.
My grandmother read to me, I’m told, when I was barely 18 months old. She played cards with me. Memory and counting games. My Great Aunts and uncles homes were full of books as was my home growing up. My father used to have me identify the composers of the music he listened to.
I think they thought these interactions were normal. They expected me to clean my room, rake the lawn, cut the grass, polish our shoes, and to play outside. And dry the dishes. They encouraged me to play hockey and baseball and ski.
They quickly realized school was different in Canada. This I found out much later. The knew I was bored and said very little about my absences. I would spend the day in the National Gallery and the library. Certainly I was fortunate in many ways. Does one choose one’s destiny before birth? Life is a mystery. I remain grateful for my blessings and challenged by my opportunities.
Was I disadvantaged by attending to other interesting things rather than attending school? But most certainly I escaped being brainwashed and being shortchanged by believing education ceased when one graduated and began a career.
Most certainly the “wars” did ruin England. But they ruined a certain disposition which prevailed in Great Britain for hundreds of years. A close reading of history reveals many unpalatable facts. In fact polite company does not tolerate the conclusions one can not avoid by reading widely.
Tragically my contemporaries hold views which I do not share. They are completely brainwashed. I did not read to have my views confirmed. But I had questions. Many
‘facts’ at bottom are lies. The present leadership in the west is frighteningly ignorant and undereducated indeed isolated in their various professional and siloed domains of expertise.
So many people believe their brainwashing. For them self awareness is non existent. Clearly the majority of the citizens have been convinced i.e. brainwashed — to believe that they are educated and informed.
Peter Bruegel gave us a perfect illustration of our predicament today. His painting, The Blind Leading the Blind, may not have been meant as a political statement when he painted it. It depicts well enough the terror of the situation, I’d say, prevailing now.
What sort of people allow their media properties to be owned by foreign interests?
Or controlled by them!
I am still digesting your article Trish, but felt compelled to comment on the comments. Absolutely Fab! All of them. I learn so much more about an article when I read the comments too....what a bunch of brilliant minds amongst us, very uplifting.
IMO helicopter parenting did more to make these kids and young adults the way they are. Instead of learning independence and how to navigate the real world, they grew up sheltered, every minute scheduled and controlled, with mommy and daddy there at every step. No wonder they are anxious and threatened by everything and everyone.
I remember when Solzhenitsyn was one of the the college age must read of the day. (Not a bad thing but ...it was also coupled with the latest in drug use too) Unfortunate that the fact that college age kids follow the winds of the latest trend , while thinking they are very wise while not having any wisdom of experience, is so lost in bowing to their childish rantings. ( I mean really, that law students can shout down a man who has worked for years in this field?!) It's not new, just accepted now as virtuous and must be honored by feckless leadership- who appear just as lost and foolish. God help our grandkids.
Trish, I love the title of your piece, "Live Not By Lies". That, of course, was the title of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's last essay written in the USSR. In fact, he was exiled the day after its publication in 1974. Quite interesting that he was welcomed to the USA with open arms. I can only imagine what his reception would be today.
Such important work you do, Trish. Thank you!
Yes, the lack of critical thinking in an age of Siri, Alexa and the Google Assistant, all virtual with only the fact. I hesitated to use the plural of fact, since so many folks today suck up the first spoken *answer* or boxed text. Most cannot even use an old style paper map. And we're gonna fix the climate ecological nightmare with those minds? hahaha
At this moment as I scribble with thanks to the "Foth", my province of NS has joined the west in uncontrollable fires. I have a short length of garden hose if the forest erupts 'round me, so as I can jump in the pond and make pals with the leeches.
To really get to the heart of where we are with this patriarchy, imperialism and inverted totalitarianism one ought to give Brian C. Muraresku's tome: The Immortality Key: Uncovering the Secret History of the Religion with No Name. It's mind blowing even dealing with the age ole query of what came first beer or bread?
To have some insight into what this eminently readable work of classical scholarship is all 'bout, find Joe Rogan on Spotify interviewing him a year or so ago.
Hitch, after spending his time at Oxford reading philosophy, politics, and economics, graduated a socialist in 1967. To me his demonstrates just how long the whole higher education edifice has been rotten. How many graduates of these institutions lack Hitch's mental agility and remained some flavour of socialist their whole lives? How many of them inhabit the highest offices in western governments?