Chairman's Blog

This post, from February, was deleted last night by Blogger. The explanation was that it violated their terms of service in relation to 'malware and viruses'. Hmm. 

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Most people are blissfully unaware of the vast extent of intellectual fakery which inhabits universities around the world. The fact that a great deal of it is paid for by taxpayers is bad enough, but sometimes it rises to levels which raise a different kind of question. This is the case with this articleby Alison Phipps, Professor of Gender Studies at Sussex University. She shares this institution with the ‘Gender Critical’ feminist Kathleen Stock whom I wrote about here, but describesher colleague’s views, such as that women should not have share refuges with biological males, as beneath debate (“‘Reasonable debate’ cannot counter unreasonable ideas.”). In the article, Phipps writes that women expressing trauma about sexual violation, a phenomenon she describes as “white tears”, is a tool of oppression.

It is difficult to find words to do justice to the outrageous nature of this claim, and it calamitous consequences if taken seriously. But these are not the ravings of a lone madwoman. Phipps is a professor at a serious university, these reflections of hers are published in a mainstream journal, and she has also published a book on the same theme, with Manchester University Press. More significantly, she is one of many radical feminists of the new school. Put “white tears” (with quotation marks) into Twitter’s search bar, and say hello to a truly grim new world.

Phipps’ central idea is summed up in the title of her book: “Me Not You”. In the cover design these words are superimposed on the words “Me Too”. The idea is that when a woman complains about being raped, as happened with the “MeToo” movement, she is drawing attention to her own suffering, and therefore drawing attention away from the suffering of others. If she is relatively privileged, this is an act of oppression against those less privileged than her, who are thereby silenced.

It is a very strange argument. It is certainly true that when a more “privileged” person is the victim of abuse or injustice, he or she has an opportunity to fight back which other victims may lack. All kinds of resources, contacts, legal assistance and so on may be available to such a victim. Again, an abuser so bold as to tackle a Hollywood star, for example, will almost certainly have been abusing less well-connected victims. Is this a reason for the star to ignore the abuse and remain silent? Of course not. When the most well-resourced victims, the ones with least to fear, finally turned on Harvey Weinstein, they did what many other victims could not so easily do: they brought his abuse to an end.

As a matter of fact, even very humble victims of abuse can sometimes be successful. The gilded career of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund, was shipwrecked by a New York hotel maid. (The criminal prosecution was dropped but he settled a civil suit out of court.) As so often happens, when the appearance of vulnerability is diminished, other victims come forward. In one sense it doesn’t matter who is the first victim to take the plunge with a formal accusation, but I bet the poorer, more isolated, and less well-advised ones fervently hope that the way will be cleared by someone with the best possible chance of success.

Indeed, I would say that to make an accusation can in certain circumstances be a public duty, and this is a duty particularly incumbent on the most privileged. If an abuser can silence even them, then he is truly invulnerable. Many victims of abuse are plagued with the worry that they won’t be believed, but someone whose social status gives them credibility can make the testimony of other victims’ more credible.

In Phipp’s world view, one might imagine that there is a limited amount of outrage to go round, but the “MeToo” movement showed, on the contrary, how outrage can magnify itself: the more outrage is generated, the more, in some cases, there is left over for others. It is certainly not a zero-sum game.

What are the practical implications of Phipps’ view? That those considering complaining about any kind of bad treatment should “check their privilege” and remain silent if they decide that they lack status in the inverted hierarchy of victimhood, which is conceived of at least in part in racial terms. This is not an inversion of the view she is attacking: she is actually doing the same thing as she accuses others of doing: namely, of determining, by reference to an arbitrary and racially-aligned set of criteria, who is to be allowed justice, and who should continue to suffer exploitation and abuse in silence.

In her world, it is to be women, above all, whose abuse will be tolerated, and whose suffering ignored. This is the woke Feminism of the 21^stcentury, whose advice to women seems to be “suck it up, buttercup”. 

Although the Chartes Pilgrimage will not be taking place as normal in 2021, a victim in part of its taking place relatively early in the year as we emerge from epidemic restrictions, I'm delighted to bring to a wider public information about a traditional walking pilgrimage in northern Spain, 24th to 26th July, 2021, which everyone should be able to join.

I should also mention that the the Latin Mass Society's annual walking pilgrimage to Walsingham is also open for booking. The dates for this are 26th to 30th August. See here for information and registration.

Nothing will make you feel like a human being and a Catholic again quite like participation in a three-day walking pilgrimage!

Here is more information about the Spanish pilgrimage, which has the support of Una Voce Seville.

Our Lady of Christendom – Spain (NSC-E) is an annual pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Covadonga (Asturias) organized by a group of faithful lay Catholics devoted to the celebration of the Holy Mass according to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite. It takes place around the feast of St. James the Apostle (July 25th), patron saint of Spain.

The aim of the pilgrimage is the sanctification of the soul through the graces asked to Our Lord, through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by the offering of prayers, sacrifices and mortifications during three days. During these days of pilgrimage we especially commend our Homeland and the Holy Father.

NSC-E seeks to contribute to the restoration of the spirit of Christendom – according to our possibilities and always with divine help – which has given the Church and the world so many saints, heroes and defenders of the Faith. We are talking about Christian social order, which is only possible if we commit ourselves to the restoration of everything in Christ, beginning with those of us who are on pilgrimage, our families, and the various spheres of society in which we find ourselves.

My latest on Life Site News.

The year-long lockdown had a disastrous effect on the education of many of those children who were relying on conventional schools, which did not always rise to the challenge of teaching remotely. Many parents, again, found it difficult, at short notice, to create an environment in which their children could learn effectively, whether through lack of technology, physical space, or for other reasons. These children were still enrolled in schools, and it was the school system which failed them. Children being home-educated, by contrast, found their education disrupted the least of anyone’s.

What happened in 2020 illustrates the robustness of home education. Being tailored to the needs and circumstances of the family and the child, it can deal with the disruption caused by things like illnesses or the family moving house far more easily than a bricks-and-mortar institution. Similarly, providing tuition for a child who wants to study a relatively obscure subject may not be easy for a home-educating family, but in most schools is would be out of the question. All things considered, it’s not going to be home-educated children who are still suffering educationally two or more years from now.

The natural reaction to this situation for some is to attack the very concept of home-education. The latest is Fraser Nelson. He lets the cat out of the bag when he says that it became worth worrying about only now that it has grown, partly thanks to the epidemic. It is not the failure of home education, in other words, that Nelson is worried about, but its success.

Read the whole thing.

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