5 February, 2022
Dear Reader,
This newsletter has always taken a questioning view (to speak with restraint!) of the world’s responses to the Covid crisis. In our opinion this article by Phil Shannon, COVID, Politics and Psychology, is a must-read. As we enter the third year of pandemic-driven fear we need to take stock of the whole range of its consequences: deaths and hospitalisations certainly, but also lives broken by business failures, the cruelty of forcing isolation on dying people, abuse of authority, absurd and scientifically unfounded regulations, the craven submissiveness of most of the media, profiteering by drug companies, and the unspeakable hypocrisy and point-scoring of our political leaders of all stripes. Boris Johnson partied on, aloof from the miseries of others, an egregious abuse but by no means the only one. There will probably be a day of reckoning.
‘Patriotism is not enough,’ said Edith Cavell, but for many in Australia the lesson of Australia Day (26 January) is that there’s not enough patriotism. Every year at this time we are told how horrible Australia is by citizens who have come to loath their own country, and the calls to ‘change the date’ are redoubled. We can’t change the date: it is the anniversary of the introduction into Australia of Christian civilization, English common law, our language, our science, our music and our art. Those who see no value in all such things write them off as worthless and undeserving of commemoration. But in praising the achievements of the West there is no disparagement of native culture, no lack of fellow-feeling for those who were dispossessed, overwhelmed or even murdered by settlers. It happened, the bad along with the good, and the whole nation has been immeasurably enriched by the blending of cultures. A new kind of apartheid is emerging in Australia, however, that will do nobody any good. It must be resisted.
Yours sincerely,
David Daintree
MORE ON THE LIBERAL ARTS
The former Victorians for Classical Education has now re-launched itself on a larger scale as The Australian Classical Education Society. Apart from adopting a new logo (the sprig of wattle is a charming touch!) they now have a strong and vigorous national committee. One of their first functions will be an online conference in partnership with the US-based Circe Institute, on 8 and 9 April.
Alphacrucis College has become the fourth independent institution in Australia to be elevated to University College status. You could miss this tiny item in the media, but it’s of huge significance: Australia has a dominant tradition of state-owned universities and membership of their ‘club’ has been closely guarded. As mainstream arts faculties have so dismally ceded to Wokeness, these small new institutions have a precious role to play in saving western civilization from obscurity.
Here are two more small schools specializing in Philosophy: the Independent School of Philosophy specializes in teaching Plato through the medium of the Greek language – a bold and exciting pedagogic venture – while the Platonic Academy of Melbourne follows a more conventional approach using translations.
Braniff Graduate School (US) offers exciting studies in Philosophy, Politics, Classics and Literature.
THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM
This announcement gives grounds for cautious optimism. But it’s still a draft, and ongoing attempts to diminish and dilute the reputation of western arts and sciences are inevitable.
NOTRE DAME, FREEDOM AND JIMMY LAI
This article by the Rev Bill Miscamble CSC, Professor of History at Notre Dame (USA), urges his university to do for Jimmy Lai ‘what Fr. Theodore Hesburgh did for Lech Walesa in 1982, when the great Polish leader of the Solidarity trade union movement was imprisoned by the Soviet-backed Polish regime. He received an honorary degree in absentia with the Solidarity flag draped over an empty chair.’
Fr Miscamble says that ‘focusing on Jimmy Lai’s life will tell Notre Dame students that standing up for faith and freedom matters.’
…AND FREEDOM FOR THE CHURCH?
The Florida senate has passed a bill recognising churches as ‘essential businesses’ in the context of Covid closures. I suppose that’s progress. Can this report of police ‘interrupting’ a church service in Perth (Western Australia) be true? If so a reappraisal of attitudes to religious practice is overdue here.
DECOLONISATION: GOOD BUSINESS STRATEGY
Prof Robert Tombs writes on the ‘cynical wokeness’ of some (but happily not all) Cambridge colleges.
‘CONVERSION THERAPY’
If you sometimes have the feeling that you’re living in some kind of parallel universe, the following extract from Canada’s recent legislation will confirm it for you:
‘If the court is satisfied, on a balance of probabilities, that the publication, representation, written material or recording referred to in subsection (1) is obscene, child pornography, a voyeuristic recording, an intimate image, an advertisement of sexual services or an advertisement for conversion therapy…’
Similar legislation is planned in other jurisdictions. One senses a deliberate, mischievous spitefulness behind wording that links a sincere desire to help others (whether or not misguided) with active gross obscenity.
TRIGGER WARNINGS
Here is a piece of my own on ‘weasel words’, from the Epoch Times.
WOMEN IN LORD OF THE RINGS
This clever piece by Catherine Sheehan charmingly analyses some of the leading female characters in Tolkien’s epic myth.
FREE BOOKS TO GIVE AWAY
For those in Sydney, the Rev John Bunyan, Anglican priest and honorary hospital chaplain, has large numbers of books to give to students, libraries, schools and colleges, book fairs and church libraries. Subjects include biography, history, theology, liturgy.
Also special collections on Biblical versions, poetry, Scotland, militaria, R.S.Thomas, Francis Kilvert, learning Latin, Folio Books. Most as new, some new, many recent, some rare. Plus some fine new inexpensive gift books. Contact bunyanj@tpg.com.au, (02) 4627 2586.
GERARD HENDERSON’S
CARDINAL PELL, THE MEDIA PILE-ON
AND COLLECTIVE GUILT
$40 a copy (postage free within Australia)
Buy online here.
‘… a meticulous chronology which draws together all the stakeholders, as they would call themselves, in the attempted destruction of Cardinal George Pell. As Gerard illustrates so eloquently, they believed what they wanted to believe.’
– Margaret Cunneen SC launching Cardinal Pell, The Media Pile-On & Collective Guilt
‘… a detailed but rollicking read that does question why some journalists failed to test the claims of their sources before publishing them. … The book also focuses on flaws in the findings of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.’
– Chris Mitchell, The Australian, 29 November 2021
COLLOQUIUM BOOK RELEASED
The Proceedings of the Dawson Centre Colloquium Passing on the Faith 25-26 June have now been published and copies may be ordered directly from director@dawsoncentre.org. The price is $35, including postage.