The Clerical Curmudgeon - divers thoughts on the Church, the world, etc.

 Pater Contra Mundi

I am a contrarian, not in the current usage within the stock exchanges, but in the older and more accurate sense.  I oppose and reject popular opinions and current practices, not simply because they are modern, but because they lack foundation, logic, decency, and morality.  I utterly loathe and despise wokism because it embodies that lethal combination due to it being based upon emotion and tribalism.  In essence it is pure Marxism, relativistic, and based on nothing more than desire for power over others.

Have I lost friends and acquaintances due to my stance?  Yes, indeed.  While it is sad, I can honestly say that my life is not lacking due to their exit.  I will honestly admit, I did, in the recent past flirt with some progressive ideas, but in trying them, I found them wanting.  As a student and teacher of history, I can say I have the pattern recognition of where the path of wokism leads - to ruin and perdition.  

In this upside-down world when it is pushed that I should be ashamed of being a male of caucasian ethnicity, I say bah!  I am not ashamed of my European ancestry, in fact I rejoice in it.  I am the descendant of one of the most ingenious and successful peoples on earth.  The vast majority of my ancestors from the British Isles and France came to this continent by the mid-seventeenth century and carved a civilization out of a wilderness.  Colonizers?  No, they were settlers.  Stolen land?  Perhaps, but let’s be honest.  What Indian tribe didn’t “steal” land from other tribes.  The same holds true in Europe, or in any of the continents of this planet.  History shows that the strong and the smart end up conquering the weak and the less advanced.  Some of my ancestors conquered some others of my ancestors. Does this make me a “fascist”?  Methinks not.  The same mob which decries “colonization” and “invasion” defends the millions of illegal, unvetted, undocumented migrants into this country and into Europe. So who’s “stealing” land now?  A wee bit hypocritical, eh?

This wokism teaches that men should be ashamed of masculinity, and despise the “patriarchy”.  How can I be ashamed of what I was born?  I am a man, and I rejoice in it.  Ah, “white male privilege” some will scream.  I think each ethnicity should be proud of its achievements, and the same with each gender (note:  there are only two - male and female.  If you doubt me, then you must have failed high school biology.).  The young men of the past couple of generations have been taught to hate being male, despise their masculinity, and we wonder why so many of them are subject to depression, anxiety, and anger issues, and loathe to enter into the dating pool.  In media, men are portrayed as simpletons, bumbling oafs, thick headed boors, well meaning but inept husbands and fathers. Why?  What’s the motivation?  I think much of it is rooted in the “smash the patriarchy” school of thought.  

The art of being a gentleman is one that has been dying a slow death, but one which needs to be revived, lived, and passed on to the young boys and men of today.  It is not snobbish or classist to be polite to others, to have a sense of personal honour, to use one’s strengths to defend the vulnerable, to be a man of one’s word.  In a word - chivalry; that code of conduct expected of a gentleman.  Aside from the most ardent and  misandrist of feminists, how many ladies expect a man to pay when going out to eat, to buy her this, that and the other, all while crying about the “patriarchy”? Patent stupidity, I say.  If they want to be treated as equal to men, then don’t expect to be placed on a pedestal.  Yes, women and men share equal human rights, but not equal abilities (once again, go back to basic biology class).  Both sexes are physically, psychologically, emotionally, and in some ways intellectually different, and meant to be complimentary to each other, not as rivals for power, but as helpmates in service.  That seems to have certainly gone by the wayside these days.  

I am so tired of the manufactured outrage of the progressives.  It seems that they want nothing more than to see Western Civilization burn.  When opposed they resort to futile name-calling - fascist, racist, and the like. But if the fall of Western Civilization happens, then what will replace it?  An egalitarian utopia?  I doubt it, just based on what history has shown when previous groups of progressives burnt other nations and civilizations to the ground.  They’ll turn quickly from victims to persecutors in the blink of an eye once in control.  Old contrarians like me will be swiftly ushered into “re-education” camps, or most likely just disposed of, in the manner of Stalin’s or Mao’s enemies.  I, for one, shall not dye what is left of my hair blue; I shall not get facial tattoos or piercings; I shall not indulge the delusions of others. I shall however, respect the human person, their inalienable rights, their basic human dignity, even while I may think them foolish, unlearned, ill-informed, delusional, or even destructive.  I shall not like them, but I am commanded to love them. Until then, I shall be contrary, obstinate, and a gadfly to this crazed world which I am forced to endure, and which is forced to endure me.