When I went to high school in the late 1950s and into the '60s, I revered figures like Isaac Newton and Adam Smith. Many individuals gave us the Age of Enlightenment which was a period of history during the more significant part of the seventeenth and eighteen centuries when there was an explosion of free expression in the sciences, philosophies and political thinking. The era was also called "The Age of Reason". Rationality was a feature of the humanistic and scientific disciplines.
Other prominent individuals stood out during the Enlightenment like Johannes Kepler, Robert Hooke. Voltaire and Benjamin Franklin. During this period, the power of the church diminished.
Before the enlightenment, the church was all-powerful, and individuals who challenged authority were often severely punished. The Italian astronomer, Galileo, confirmed that the earth revolved around the sun. To the church, such pronouncements were heresy, and Galileo had to spend the rest of his life imprisoned at home. So it was the enlightenment that allowed the modern world to evolve and where Liberalism–the sharing of varying points of view–flourished.
Today, however, things are rapidly changing. The same way that the power of the church gave rise to the age of reason, today we seem to be reverting to a form of religious repression, only this time the religion is what some are calling the "Church of Woke". I refer to it as The Age Of Dis-enlightenment.
The scientific method has taken a back seat to emotional feelings on many subjects. Today if you state that biologically there are only two genders you will get raked over the coals for being a transphobe or homophobe. At last count, the woke community tells us that there are up to 63 different types. Of course, this is based on feelings, not on science.
If you dare to challenge the prevailing paradigm that Climate Change is destroying the earth, you may be barred from speaking your mind and possibly losing your job. Meanwhile, Al Gore, the guru of climate change, has been wrong on virtually every prediction. It's not surprising as Gore is not a scientist. Even among scientists, opinions can vary widely. As Denis Prager states, "Science and scientists are not the same."
One of the hallmarks of the enlightenment was that people were free to express their opinions. Today, universities which were once the centres for rationality and free-thinking, have become centres of closed-mindedness and the stifling of open debate. Students who don't follow the "rules" and express contrarian viewpoints are vilified, if not outright assaulted.
There is a concerted effort by many to eliminate history and the symbols of history. Understanding history, warts and all, are important to understand your country and how its values have evolved. Sadly, because of the educational system today, many of the young are ignorant of history.
Even mathematics cannot escape the "cancel culture". Professor Brittany Marshafourl states, "The idea of 2+2 equaling 4 is cultural and because of western imperialism/colonization." Others are encouraging the elimination of grammar as a valid subject of study because it is related to white privilege. How far we have fallen. Someone needs to inform Professor Marshall that mathematics originated in ancient times with the Babylonian and Arab cultures.
The medical bureaucracy is not immune to irrationality. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, we have a medication, Hydroxychloroquine, that has great success in early treatment. Yet, in many parts of the USA and Australia, it is banned, despite the scientific evidence that it is effective. If you so much as promote the drug's effectiveness on Youtube or Facebook, you are likely to get "cancelled". In 2005, the Journal of Virology confirmed Hydroxychloroquine's effectiveness against the Corona class of viruses:
The cancel culture is becoming insidious, especially in American society. It is a throwback to the days of the Spanish Inquisition. In the late 1400s, Jews and Muslims had to convert to Catholicism or be banished. We can quickly go down this slippery slope, especially if there are elements of society who do not know their history. Remember, history often repeats itself.
We are witnessing the decline of logic where whites, families, education and cultural symbols are under threat. We mustn't stay silent and we need to reject the falsehoods permeating society. If we don't, the result will be a loss of the gains made during the past few centuries with a breakdown of western culture and values.
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