28 January, 2022
Dear Reader,
In this our first newsletter for 2022 we wish you every blessing in the year ahead, freedom to move and grow, freedom from fear. Big aspirations but shrinking prospects, I fear, as crazy ideas vie tirelessly with each other for dominance in almost every area of human life and letters. As usual we provide evidence of this (never hard to find!) in our links below.
We began our year with two one-week intensive summer schools. The second of these (17-21 January) was a pilot programme called Western Civilisation. A total of 15 attended (almost a miracle with Covid excitement still raging). One day was allocated to each of five ‘core’ subjects: History, Philosophy, Literature, Theology and Art. I taught the History and Literature days myself, David Moltow taught History and Art, Xavier Young gave the Theology lectures. An additional feature was an online presentation on by two Benedictine monks on Chant and the evolution to modern music. I hope to persuade my colleagues to join me in offering the same course next year, building on the lessons we learned this time, and the helpful comments of our diverse and intelligent participants
As a ‘teaser’ directed at possible future enrolments, you might be interested to know something about content. The history segment centred on Greece, Rome and the gradual emergence of the modern world – a huge span. In literature we looked at Homer, Virgil, Dante and a good amount of later English poetry, especially Shakespeare. Philosophy focused on Plato (‘The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato’ – A N Whitehead), moved on to Aristotle and the neo-platonists, the scholastics, Hume, Kant, Nietzsche and many others. The scope of Theology is very much broader than most people imagine and we were well taught that the wisdom of Scripture and its interpreters throughout the centuries have shaped our thinking in so many often unsuspected ways. The Art lectures (concentrating on but not confined to painting) gave us a marvellous illustrated overview of the medium from renaissance classicism to Picasso and up to the present day.
The other school (10-14 January) was a reading course in Late and Medieval Latin. This has been a regular for many years; eight participants made it to Hobart. The study of Latin, having bottomed out during the past few decades, is making a comeback as people recognize its importance as a background and foundation for a great deal of Western literature and history. T S Eliot wrote: ‘Without knowing any Latin you may write English poetry; I am not sure whether without Latin you can wholly understand it.’ It’s a hard saying, but the same may be said of history before the modern era.
Tennis Australia celebrated 24 January this year as Gay Pride Day. Australia has changed a lot in the past couple of generations, few now challenge the freedom of LBGTQ people to celebrate their diversity, and many warmly applaud them and defend their right to do so.
But the official sponsor since 2015 of the Australian Open is Emirates airline, owned by the government of Dubai. Homosexuality is illegal in Dubai and penalties for ‘offenders’ can be very severe.
It almost defies belief that a national sporting body can accept money and sponsorship from an organisation (and a country) that is deeply hostile to some of the freedoms long since enshrined in our wicked western laws.
Other instances of large-scale two-facedness abound in our world. The winter Olympics in China are to be boycotted by Australian and allied government officialdom in reaction to the treatment of the Muslim Uyghurs and other persecuted minorities. But will that stop the Games? Of course not. The show will go on, enjoyed by athletes and spectators, with occasional messages of encouragement and sympathy for the suffering perhaps – but hey, it’s just sport isn’t it?
It would be useful if we could blame governments for all the hypocrisy in the world, but that would actually be two-faced. Evil prevails when good men and women are silent.
I am very conscious that while our base is in remote Hobart a high proportion of our readers are interstate or overseas. One of our aspirations for 2022 is to acquire the skills and the technology to be able to offer our summer schools online. Everybody’s doing it, and the growth of the online education ‘industry’ may well be an unforeseen benefit of the Pandemic. Let’s look for the silver lining where we can – and be grateful for it!
Yours sincerely,
David Daintree
PSYCHOPATHY AND ITS ‘USEFUL IDIOTS’
John Cleese, in his book Families and How to Survive Them (co-authored with his personal therapist) noted that psychopaths are often found – unless, as too often, they escape our notice – in high positions of leadership and authority. This article by James Lindsay achieves the extraordinary feat of explaining why that might be and almost everything that happens in our crazy world! So if you want to know how the unclothed emperor manages to deceive most of us most of the time, read on here.
LIBERAL ARTS
- Steven Schwartz’s latest piece is as provocative and exciting as ever – who would have thought of Macron and Putin as champions of western civilization?
- The Arts of Liberty project at the University of Dallas is the most recent addition to our list of small institutions returning to the cultural and educational basics.
- The Third Education Revolution driven by renowned Scripture scholar Vishal Mangalwadi and others in the Protestant tradition has a radical new agenda to ‘equip a million churches in 20 years, to take education back from the Devil and make it a means of healing nations’!
- New Christian Classical Schools making an appearance in the US, and a new Evangelical Classical School in Sydney.
- Why we need a Classical Renewal: this online conference 8-9 April is hosted by the US Circe Institute, in collaboration with Victorians for Classical Education. There will be a strong focus on liberal arts initiatives in Australia.
THE FUTURE OF WARFARE?
‘Weaponising’ the brain, using thought to control armaments, is no longer science fiction. This article in The Epoch Times paints a grim picture of a future beyond human experience.
COLLECTIVE INSANITY
This horrifying video exposes addiction to TikTok-induced craziness and among young people, including manifestations of Tourette’s syndrome and a conviction that their sexuality is constantly in flux. Here is psychobabble gone viral.
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.