Dropping the Pen

Thoughts on life through the lens of what life has taught me

My wall watching seems to be evolving as we start to emerge from the deep dark winter, with that hard frost which overwhelms the land each night gradually beginning to thaw out, giving way to some uplifting days of clear skies and bright warming rays of sunshine. I follow the cat in search of sheltered hot spots and watch the earth rise from its slumber to re-engage with life once more. Spring is nearly upon us. I remember mornings many years ago when I stood on the headland of what appeared to my then young eyes as a very large field, tying jute sacks around both my knees in preparation for thinning the turnips that filled that field in front of me. Little wavering nascent plants, to be more precise, which would eventually develop into fully grown turnips that we would harvest and pulp for fodder during the winter that would inevitably circle its way back upon us later that year. Rotha Mór an tSaoil, the great wheel of life. Many years later, as a mature student, I sat attentively at the front of what appeared to my then faltering eyes as a very large lecture theatre, listening to eminent professors expound on the way our evolving society had left this type of life and living behind us. We were now not just living in what they called a post traditional society, we were living in a post modern world, if you don’t mind. Referencing highly acclaimed sociological works such as Ulrich Beck’s “Risk Society – Towards a new modernity” they said that the certainty of the old world had evaporated into thin air and that the rituals, religions and ways of life that had given us this ‘certainty’ in the past were also dying out. Those that still clung to the old ways were labelled as fundamentalists or foundationalists who were unable or unwilling to adapt and take advantage of what Anthony Giddens called ‘the open spaces’ that this new evolutionary process was presenting us with. We now had to learn to live with doubt, uncertainty, ambiguity and relativism in this emerging ‘Risk Society’ but we also had the opportunity to literally rewrite our own biography in these new open spaces that stretched out before us. We were no longer constrained by birthright, culture, ethnicity, race, gender, class or any legacy from the past. We could be anything we wanted to be. However, in order to navigate this ‘Risk Society’ successfully, we needed to develop our own critical thinking capacity to become what they were calling ‘reflexive agents of high or post modernity’. To survive in this new world we must become more reflexive so that, as Giddens put it, we could “challenge and reflexively monitor the existing institutional dimensions of modernity that restrict, limit and colonise our lifeworlds”. Bejaysus. Heady, exhilarating stuff for the nascent sociologists studiously taking notes in the jammed out lecture halls. Referencing Beck again they informed us that ‘institutional education’ would be like a wet-nurse nurturing these reflexive agents of ongoing modernisation because ‘the educated person incorporates reflexive knowledge of the conditions and prospects of modernity’. That, I can tell you, was a major pen drop moment for me because I, in this instance, had no doubt whatsoever that I had learned far more about the conditions and prospects of life during my time roaming the turnip fields than I had ever learned in any classroom. In fact I could say with a great deal of certainty that I learned very little, if anything at all, on my journey through primary and secondary school while third level had also become a major disappointment. Give the lecturer back what they’re spouting from the podium and seemingly you can’t go wrong. Reflexive Education my arse. It’s certification of memory and regurgitation with no real understanding necessary. A process to go through to get a slip of paper that you can frame and stick on the wall to impress the unsuspecting and move onto the next level if that’s your thing. A bit like what the witchdoctors of old would have done, decorating their hut with the type of paraphernalia that would impress the rest of the tribe and mark them out as specialists or experts in their area. That’s our ‘post traditional’ society. That’s this famous nurturing that our reflexive agents of post modernity are getting is so called institutional education. It’s like the time I heard a professor tell a room full of trainee teachers that if you were to pay too much attention to Ivan Illich’s book ‘Deschooling Society’ you would be only putting yourself out of a job. There’s your critical thinking for you now. A box ticking exercise where the lecturer puts Illich on the reading list and on a ‘Philosophy of Education’ powerpoint projection slide in the lecture hall and the student teachers go home happy in the knowledge that they can edit Illich out of their revising schedule because the likelihood of him coming up as an exam question is now slim to none. Yet, ironically, it just serves to reaffirm the very point that Illich was trying to make and his claim that “schooling initiates the citizen to the myth that bureaucracies guided by scientific knowledge are efficient and benevolent…..this type of design tends to reinforce a non inventive society in which the experts find it progressively easier to hide behind their expertise and beyond evaluation” has withstood the test of time especially when you think of the goings-on in the world today. You could call it the era of the expert leading us astray. Follow ‘the’ science they say. So instead of science reflexively refuting itself, as Giddens would have it, we are falling flat on our arses and not questioning anything at all, least of all the so called experts being rolled out onto TV platforms around the world. So much for these reflexive agents that school was primed to churn out. It looks rather like the longer in institutional education the bigger the gobshite. And if you do have a different point of view then you certainly wont be found sweltering under the TV studio lights or headlining the front page of the national newspapers. Instead the wolves that make up your professional regulatory body will be unleashed to hunt you down and tear you apart. “Scientific research is a wolf in sheep’s clothing because the funding is endless if you turn a blind eye.’ In fact I’m of a mind to replace this notion of ‘reflexive agents of post modernity’ with what they like to label as ‘conspiracy theorists’. You might laugh dismissively but just think about it. Many so called conspiracy theorists predicated what has actually come to pass and they are the ones who have being challenging ‘the’ science with alternative views and perspectives that with time have regularly been proven to be correct despite the best attempts of sold out media outlets and kangaroo professional regulatory bodies to censor, silence and sack them. They certainly are thinking on their feet these conspiracy theorists and are the only ones actually doing what the likes of Beck and Giddens hoped their ‘reflexive agents’ would do. They are literally ‘challenging and reflexively monitoring the existing institutional dimensions of modernity that restrict, limit and colonise our lifeworlds” They are also on the front line in the battle against this new ideology that is attempting to conquer the world. Wokeism is the term most often used to describe it and just like the colonial forces of the old world they are planting a flag symbolically on each new terrain they annex and occupy. Oxford University for example are now proudly flying the LGBTQ flag and this capitulation has been replicated in prestigious Ivory Towers around the globe. The fluttering multi coloured flag that they have hoisted for all the world to see and worship is also referred to as Pride which is interesting because the old people used always say that pride cometh before a fall. Now I’m sure at this stage there is a chorus jumping up and down screaming homophobic, racist, right wing, far right, fascist and other such inanities, words that have been almost completely drained of their original meaning because of their misuse and misappropriation for the purposes of stifling debate or smearing the ‘other’ who dares to have and articulate a different perspective. So to avoid any further confusion or muddying of the water, as they say, I would just like to clarify that I am not targeting the lesbian and gay community. I am just pointing out the fact that their movement has been infiltrated and used as a Trojan horse by sinister forces. Call me old fashioned if you like but I don’t buy into this transgender hysteria as having anything to do with the LGB community and the sooner they offload this perverted parasite from their ranks the better. For all of us. A stand up drag queen once put it well, to an adult only audience I hasten to add, that you either like pricks or you like pussy. The rest is bullshit. I would add that whatever your preference is, it has nothing to do with children’s lives whether in school or any other place. Which is why this new fascination with drag queen story time for toddlers is so repugnant. Drag was always a performance or spectacle for adult gays to enjoy. Now it appears to have become an indoctrinating tool for the modern day Zealots of this new woke religion who are targeting the young and once again it just happens to be a global phenomenon. It’s suddenly happening everywhere. Just like that. So you do have to wonder about what exactly is going on in the world today. With regard to the once proud flag that is fast becoming a symbol of shame, I feel it is incumbent on the ‘straight’ LGB community to either reclaim their flag or ditch it altogether. Having sneaked in through the gates of the establishment under the cover of the LGB flag, the Trans brigade are now unfurling their own flag anyway. As for parents who willingly bring their children to drag shows or story time I have no words.

I suppose, in a way, it is not that surprising that the academic world is falling prey so easily to what is essentially a new type of doctrine. When I think back to this so called inevitable detraditionalisation process they were wetting themselves over and their constant refrain of how the ‘certainty’ of the past, which they believed was gained from religions, rituals and cultural traditions, was being usurped by the doubt, uncertainty and open spaces of this new risk society, well you would have to wonder what planet they thought they were actually living on. I mean if anything there was even more doubt and uncertainty in the past but people just turned to prayers or rituals or wise old women in search of some sort of reassurance or understanding or temporary relief from the turbulences and vagaries of life in the same way that people today turn to ‘the’ science or therapists or other so called experts to ease their worries fears and confusion. Nothing has changed that much really, except that in this new world of ours there has been a tendency to denigrate the past as outdated and irrelevant while reifying change and new ways of doing things. No questions asked. Out with the old, in with the new. As the old people used to say, we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater and cut ourselves off from the precious knowledge and experiences of previous generations. Perhaps if these academics had spent a little more time in the cut and thrust of ordinary everyday life and a little less time in lecture halls, libraries and research labs there might have been more insightfulness in their analyses of how society actually works.

The cat has moved on as a chill penetrates the air. Clouds float into view blocking out the sun temporarily. Some things change, some things stay the same. The descent into dogma whether religious or secular is always dangerous and destructive but there are some immutables. Night follows day. The changing seasons roll around each year. The innocence of a new born baby. In comparison with other species the human baby takes an incredibly long time to develop. Mentally, physically, emotionally. Decades even. The old people had their children out thinning turnips at a very young age but they didn’t trust them with the front door key until they were at least 21. With good reason. Even some of today’s experts have been known to claim that a young man’s brain is still a work in progress until well into his late twenties. In fact it could be said that the brain of a human is its Achilles’ heel which is why it needs to be protected and carefully nurtured as it develops. It makes perfect sense to err on the side of caution. The reality is that some things once encountered can not be unseen, unheard or undone. So why expose children to issues that mature fully grown adults struggle with and disagree over? Why the sudden imperative that issues surrounding sexuality be taught to toddlers and pre-teens? A stranger given licence, to stand as an expert, a figure of authority in a classroom, to explore sexuality issues with innocent young children. Not their own children. Yours. Sounds a bit dodgy to me. Yet politicians from across the political spectrum are all now singing in unison about what must be taught in our schools. They’ve all suddenly become Paediatric experts. Just like that. In lock-step, of course, with governments all over the world. It just happens like that, doesn’t it? Or does it? I’m with Illich on this one, now more than ever. Mark Twain is famously quoted as saying that ‘I was educated once. It took me years to get over it’. Recovery can be difficult and many, like Beck, prefer to remain in denial rather than face up to the reality of what it has done. Perhaps, as with all toxic substances, school buildings should carry hazard or health and safety warnings. Something like ‘you leave your child here at your own risk. The management accept no responsibility for any mental or emotional damage done’ or simply ‘schooling can damage your child’s mental and emotional development’. That way people can’t say they didn’t realise what was going on behind the classroom door. That way there could be real informed consent and the freedom for parents to choose to place their innocent babies in this increasingly toxic environment. That way the lazy, taken for granted notion of school being the only way for children to be educated could be openly challenged and allow parents to investigate viable alternatives if they so wished. Unfortunately we are a long way from such a scenario with Giddens’ open spaces now disappearing down a black hole with the ‘educated’ elites nodding in agreement. That’s the catch 22 situation we find ourselves in. Through this schooling mechanism we have willingly handed over our sovereignty to these so called educated elites who maintain their elevated status through this systemic abuse of innocent children. Because, going back to Illich’s quote ‘Schooling initiates the citizen to the myth that bureaucracies guided by scientific knowledge are efficient and benevolent…..this type of design tends to reinforce a non inventive society in which the experts find it progressively easier to hide behind their expertise and beyond evaluation” I can’t help thinking of Dorothy, Toto and the 3 buckos they brought with them on that yellow brick road. “Oh we’re off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz” who, like all our so called modern day wizards or experts, was hiding behind his own propaganda. School has now herded all of us onto this yellow brick road of reification of the ‘expert’ which is why governments now want every child inside their institutional education system. That way the elites will continue ‘to hide behind their expertise and beyond evaluation’ So watch out for the disappearing freedom to educate your children outside of institutional education because, of course, these ‘experts’ know best. Elementary my dear Watson. Therefore, to use another quote from our old friend Mark Twain, “Never let schooling interfere with your education” because despite their detraditionalisation process, their linear progressivism and their postmodern ideology, that great old wheel of life just keeps on turning. Year in, year out. Some things will change, some things will stay the same and some things inevitably circle their way back to where they were before.