14 December, 2020 

Dear Reader, 

An attempt to boost circulation of my last newsletter (‘Better History’ 30 November) was rejected by Facebook: it didn’t ‘comply with [their] advertising policies’.  I could ‘request a review’, but half an hour trawling the site yielded no means of doing so.  Their policies reveal no way in which a general condemnation of slavery and racism, together with a brief meditation on Advent, could possibly offend a reasonable person.  But we are not dealing with reasonable people, are we?  Rejection is a damned nuisance, but being spat out as unpalatable by a faceless monster is a compliment to the Dawson Centre! 

I try to keep my newsletters short, but can’t resist including the following stanzas from a poem by W H Auden. 

September 1, 1939 

I sit in one of the dives 
On Fifty-second Street 
Uncertain and afraid 
As the clever hopes expire 
Of a low dishonest decade: 
Waves of anger and fear 
Circulate over the bright  
And darkened lands of the earth, 
Obsessing our private lives; 
The unmentionable odour of death 
Offends the September night. 

Accurate scholarship can  
Unearth the whole offence 
From Luther until now 
That has driven a culture mad, 
Find what occurred at Linz, 
What huge imago made 
A psychopathic god: 
I and the public know 
What all schoolchildren learn, 
Those to whom evil is done 
Do evil in return. 

Exiled Thucydides knew 
All that a speech can say 
About Democracy, 
And what dictators do, 
The elderly rubbish they talk 
To an apathetic grave; 
Analysed all in his book, 
The enlightenment driven away, 
The habit-forming pain, 
Mismanagement and grief: 
We must suffer them all again. 

Defenceless under the night 
Our world in stupor lies; 
Yet, dotted everywhere, 
Ironic points of light 
Flash out wherever the Just 
Exchange their messages: 
May I, composed like them 
Of Eros and of dust, 
Beleaguered by the same 
Negation and despair, 
Show an affirming flame. 

The poem’s target is Hitler, of course, but Auden sees a much wider picture.  Tyranny, whether of the right or of the left, can arise at any time, if we let it, and darkness can obscure the light that has rarely burned brightly since the world began, but which many fought so hard to win: ‘ironic points of light flash out wherever the Just exchange their messages.’   

I have no idea whether Christopher Dawson read this poem (he died in 1970 so it’s entirely possible) but it certainly resonates with his outlook.  The whole poem is well worth reading.  If I may adapt a fine ending:  beleaguered by…negation and despair, let’s do all in our power to show an affirming flame! 

I feel it necessary to add that we must not fall into the foolish trap of likening all those we disagree with to Hitler or Stalin.  That kind of hyperbole is common and its overuse cheapens or trivializes serious matters.  All on the left are not communists neither are all on the right are fascists.  But vigilance is always necessary, for weeds can thrive on neglect! 

COVID: THE GREAT BARRINGTON DECLARATION 

What has a pandemic got to do with Western civilisation?  A great deal if hard-earned freedoms are threatened and inconvenient truths are suppressed.  I recommend this statement by epidemiologists and scholars of the highest distinction.  Any ‘concerned citizen’ can sign: ‘As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection.’  

SYSTEMIC RACISM IN UNIVERSITIES 

This article from Quillette relates the sorrow of a professor from an immigrant family in Canada: ‘please stop telling me that my university is racist.’  He writes under a pseudonym, of course, because he knows what can happen when you buck the system. 

KIERKEGAARD AND CHESTERTON 

‘Kierkegaard defined worldliness as treating relative values as if they were absolute, and absolute values as if they were relative.  Generally speaking, that is what newspapers – and the broader media – are about; what they regard as significant and newsworthy are often matters that are ephemeral, even trifling, while eternal, spiritual matters are routinely neglected.’  Gary Furnell, in The Defendant, Spring 2020. 

ITA BUTTROSE AND DONALD TRUMP 

Gerard Henderson gets the balance right. 

‘ESCAPE HATCH FROM THE CULTURE OF DEATH’ 

This obituary of an extraordinary man, Dr Hasuda Taiji, tells the story of his introduction of the Babyklappe (‘baby hatch’) as an alternative to abortion.  Thanks to our friends at New Oxford Review for this link. 

EXCITING NEW WEBSITE 

I’ve recently discovered The Brazen Head.  Its editor describes it as ‘a metapolitical journal – a culture war piece of ordnance, hopefully well-aimed as well as long-range, rather than a party political site. It’s an effort to make the Right more ‘arty’ and ecologically-oriented. The Right generally suffers from a (often deserved) reputation for philistinism, and a lack of interest in the environment – these hold it back amongst the young, and ensure its voters get older and crabbier with every generation. I seek to present often ‘difficult’ ideas, but wrapped in attractive, rather than drab or even ugly packaging. I want it to seem positive and practical.’  We wish it well and will follow with interest. 

With best wishes always, 

David Daintree 

FOR YOUR DIARY 

SUMMER SCHOOLS 

MEDIEVAL LATIN, 11-15 JANUARY 2021 

Only a handful of enrolments so far, but it will certainly go ahead!  I’m still hoping for a few more, so if you have some Latin, even a rusty smattering, give it a try! 

PHILOSOPHY, 25-29 JANUARY 2021 

A five-day overview of the history and core trends of Philosophy taught by University of Tasmania academic Dr David Moltow.  I’m pleased to say that enrolments for this new programme are very good.  We could still accept a few more enrolments however. 

Both January Summer Schools will be held at Jane Franklin Hall (University of Tasmania), 6 Elboden Street, South Hobart.  Parking is readily available in the college grounds. 

COLLOQUIUM 2021 

Our annual conference originally scheduled for 2020 has been postponed to 25–26 June 2021.  We’ll be a year older, and perhaps wiser.  It will be worth waiting for!  Our plan is that it will run online as well as on site in Hobart.  The theme will be secondary education, with a particular focus on the development of the spiritual and religious dimension of human nature.