21 July, 2022
Dear Reader,
Last Saturday’s Colloquium was the big event of our year. It lived up to our expectations and indeed soared beyond: all papers were well and evenly matched in their force and relevance.
Putting to one side for a moment our due sense of triumph on the conclusion of an intensely engaging conference, I cannot fail to observe that much was said there had the power to depress and sadden us. The awful truth is that when ten experts in their several fields talk about freedom of speech and religion today, a certain gloom settles upon their audience: traditional rights of expression and even the law itself are yielding to the power of wokery in western countries.
Not only is free speech curtailed, but being merely suspected of harbouring inappropriate thoughts can be dangerous. Jobs have been lost, livelihoods destroyed, for the expression of errant ideas. ‘Sadly, you can say what you like around the kitchen table at home’, said former Human Rights Commissioner Gillian Trigg in 2017. ‘Sadly,’ mark you! Can this really be happening? Do many of our nation’s leaders and law-enforcers actually regret that intimate conversation within the family circle cannot be placed under surveillance – yet – and duly corrected or even penalized? Sadly it appears to be so. A totalitarian impulse within certain sections of western democratic society looks to be well entrenched, a longing to control, a nostalgia for the powers to which the privileged have always felt themselves entitled.
So much for sadness and depression. Confidence and optimism overwhelm gloom, and the sun shines more brightly when you can see more clearly what you have to face and have an informed hope of winning the war, even if some skirmishes don’t go our way. For a start, most of those present at the colloquium have firm confidence in the Grace of God and the certainty of final victory. Another source of encouragement was the opinion expressed by several speakers that the gulf between actuality and delusion has widened now almost to breaking point, and that the whole woke myth based on the false creed that you are what you think you are will sooner or later implode under the sheer weight of its own nonsense, as ordinary people wake up, speak out and take strength from each other.
I suppose the longing to see our dreams come true is a perfectly normal human tendency, particularly among children. But its continuation into adulthood seems to be a peculiar weakness of our own times, helped along perhaps over the last several decades by those sweet, beguiling words of Walt Disney:
‘Makes no difference who you are,
Anything your heart desires will come to you…
…When you wish upon a star
Your dreams come true.’
Brought up on that sort of thing, as so many of us have been, it’s easy to believe that we can be male or female, black or white, or that unborn babies are not really human, or anything else we want – and that mere wishing can make it so.
For the first time we videoed everything and will soon upload all presentations to our YouTube channel. The proceedings will also be published in book form later this year.
Yours sincerely,
David Daintree
IDEAS HAVE CONSEQUENCES
Bishop Robert Barron speaks on ‘philosophers who shaped 2020’. Marvellous lecture on the powerful influence of Marx, Nietzsche, Sartre and Foucault on the world we are confronting. Watch it here. (For some reason I don’t understand there are subtitles in Malay, but they won’t detract from your enjoyment!)
John Haldane, Professor of Moral Theology at the University of St Andrews is interviewed here by former Deputy PM John Anderson. Prof Haldane has just returned to Australia and we hope that he will speak to the Dawson Centre in November. Details soon.
LES MURRAY ONE-DAY CONFERENCE:
LIFE, POETRY & LEGACY
Campion College, 24 September 2022
Campion’s Centre for the Study of the Western Tradition is hosting a one-day conference on the poetry, life and legacy of the late Les Murray AO. The day will include reminiscences of Murray’s life and readings from his extraordinary body of work. Book here.
THE ANNUAL CHESTERTON CONFERENCE
This will also take place at Campion College, on 22 October. Always recommended as a happy and stimulating meeting of minds! Details here.
MATHEMATICS AND CLASSICAL EDUCATION
James Franklin, Honorary Professor of the University of New South Wales, reminds us in this short and lucid article that Maths is and always has been a core subject in the classical curriculum, from the medieval quadrivium to the present day.
‘FRIENDS’ OF DAWSON
We welcome the following new ‘Friends’ –
Dr Caitlin Byrne
Dr Paul Collits
Mr Lucas McLennan
Mr Stephen Paulovics
Ms Naomi Spinks
Dr David van Gend
COMING EVENTS
SUMMER SCHOOLS JANUARY 2023
The Dawson Centre will once again offer three summer schools:
16 – 20 January
THE WESTERN TRADITION: AN OVERVIEW OF 2000 YEARS OF HISTORY, LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY AND ART
23 – 27 January
NEW TESTAMENT GREEK: AN INTENSIVE INTRODUCTORY COURSE FOR BEGINNERS
9 – 13 January
MEDIEVAL AND LATER LATIN: A READING COURSE IN SACRED AND SECULAR POETRY AND PROSE FOR PEOPLE WITH SOME PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE LANGUAGE
A FULL DESCRIPTION OF EACH COURSE IS AVAILABLE HERE.
Each school extends from Monday to Friday inclusive. Bookings can be made directly by email, or shortly on Eventbrite.