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We are living through a left-wing revolution imposed from above by authority figures and few dare criticise them. It is in some ways as nihilistic as the attempt by anarchists in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent to blow up the Greenwich Observatory and therefore destroy Greenwich mean time.
In fact Greenwich mean time is now renamed universal time to be less... well, add whatever word is to your taste.
An attempt is also being made to abolish the sexes, or rather something called genders (dread word in Wallace Arnold's invaluable phrase).
The headline of this article reads
An attempt is also being made to abolish the sexes, or rather something called genders (dread word in Wallace Arnold's invaluable phrase).
The headline of this article reads
Gender-neutral beauty goes mainstream, here's what you need to know
Epicene, I suppose, is the word. It is certainly as dull as puritanism always is. Give me 1950s film stars, though they were thoroughly laden with forbidden ideas.
Here is a critique of how the heroes behaved in old Hollywood films and how it often amounted to assault. Trigger warning: readers are advised that stolen kisses and spanking are mentioned in the article to which I link.
Here is a critique of how the heroes behaved in old Hollywood films and how it often amounted to assault. Trigger warning: readers are advised that stolen kisses and spanking are mentioned in the article to which I link.
An attempt is being made to rewrite almost every aspect of the world along left-wing, egalitarian lines but the left, meaning cultural and social liberals, have captured government and the institutions in all Western countries. This is not happening in Eastern Europe, but in Eastern Europe the EU fills in the role of socially liberal establishments in countries on the other side of the former iron curtain.
Donald Trump's unexpected victory challenged the left's control of the USA but he has not achieved very much to change the zeitgeist, apart from appointing judges whom Republicans hope will construe the law as it is written.
This is not a normal revolution. These come from below. This revolution comes from above because the left, meaning cultural and social liberals, have captured government and most Western countries and the institutions. See Toby Young on the Woke Corporation in this week's Spectator.
But I suppose you could say that the earlier cultural revolution, Mao's, and all the communist revolutions from 1917 onwards were imposed on the masses by small groups of men and a much smaller numbers of women.
The French revolution, the revolution behind the Republican lines during the Spanish civil war and the Romanian peasants' revolt of 1907 were different. They were real revolutions. The early signs of a spontaneous revolution seem to be visible with the Yellow Jackets in France and there the left greets these non-political demonstrations with fear and distaste. Danny Cohn-Bendit, Danny the Red as he was known during the unrest of 1968, is shocked.
Donald Trump's unexpected victory challenged the left's control of the USA but he has not achieved very much to change the zeitgeist, apart from appointing judges whom Republicans hope will construe the law as it is written.
This is not a normal revolution. These come from below. This revolution comes from above because the left, meaning cultural and social liberals, have captured government and most Western countries and the institutions. See Toby Young on the Woke Corporation in this week's Spectator.
But I suppose you could say that the earlier cultural revolution, Mao's, and all the communist revolutions from 1917 onwards were imposed on the masses by small groups of men and a much smaller numbers of women.
The French revolution, the revolution behind the Republican lines during the Spanish civil war and the Romanian peasants' revolt of 1907 were different. They were real revolutions. The early signs of a spontaneous revolution seem to be visible with the Yellow Jackets in France and there the left greets these non-political demonstrations with fear and distaste. Danny Cohn-Bendit, Danny the Red as he was known during the unrest of 1968, is shocked.
This is not a normal revolution. These come from below. This revolution comes from above
ReplyDeleteWhat about 17th century England? Wasn't the victory of Parliament essentially a revolution of the rich against the ordinary people? That was a revolution from above, surely.
If you look at the fall of Imperial China at the beginning of the 20th century it's the same. A revolution of the rich and powerful and the intellectual elites. The ordinary people were not asked whether they wanted a system that had functioned well for a couple of thousand years to be summarily trashed. Was the American Revolution organised and led by poor dirt farmers, or by the colonial elites?
The idea that revolutions are spontaneous uprisings of the oppressed majority is alas false. Successful revolutions are much more likely to be led by the elites, or by some faction within the elites.
Unfortunately this really is a normal revolution.
You are right and I betray my ignorance. Someone said that the French revolutions was created not by hungry peasants but by hungry lawyers. Still the French revolution was not hatched in the court of Louis XVI nor the Chinese revolution by the Emperor's entourage. But probably all successful revolutions captured the institutions in one way or another. This revolution seems even to be capturing the Catholic Church. Are there no counter revolutionaries? In Britain it seems not, unlike in Europe.
DeleteBut probably all successful revolutions captured the institutions in one way or another. This revolution seems even to be capturing the Catholic Church.
DeleteYes, and the revolutions that have destroyed all the major Christian churches were classic top-down revolutions. Back in the 1950s were ordinary rank and file Catholics demanding that a Church Council should be held to begin the process of destroying the Church?
If you look at the transformation of the Anglican Church into an atheist, feminist, homosexual political front organisation. it was carried out by people who were very much a part of the elite class.