Pogue,

Hi, I’m back after a month off. In honesty I found myself with nothing meaningful to say and, throughly believing if you can’t add something of worth to the conversation you should keep quiet, I withdrew. In reflection a month on the road in Nepal and Bhutan, whilst labelled a holiday by most, took a lot out of me. Travel, daily interaction with a different culture, sleeping in numerous different beds, it’s wearing. Then to return, only to leave for Croatia with more interaction, this time with small children. As said, after all this I found myself with nothing to say. So I read.

If I’d written the book of Revelation, from the Bible, coffee and a good book would have been how I interpreted the vision of heaven that John struggles to put into words!

And what did I read? Well I began with What’s Our Problem by Tim Urban, a self help book for societies so the author claims. Then I progressed to Douglas Murray’s War On The West, and unintentionally I had pick two books on the same subject. Both authors address the current trend in Critical Race Theory (CRT) highlighting how it has now gone to extremes that endangers the balance of Western Society. Both books are packed with factual examples of wrongs now committed by the advocates of CRT (maybe too many examples) in the guise of addressing racism, both highlight it’s inconsistencies, it’s lack of academic rigour in many places and both include sections on how its practitioners are trying to vilify white history by use of selective occurrences or practices. If you want more, and to form your own opinions, I suggest you read the books. Oh, I did also read a couple of novels to keep things balanced.

People tend to reduce dissonance by changing their thoughts, beliefs, attitudes or actively attending to information which supports one of their beliefs and ignore all else. This phenomenon is called Selective Exposure Hypothesis.

Thepsycmind.com

I will diverge for a moment.

I went to church on Sunday. I see the look of surprise on your face. The leader spoke on the death of Uzzah. Let me fill you in in case the story doesn’t spring readily to mind. King David was bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Jerusalem. For some years it had resided in the house where Uzzah grew up. It was now on a cart being pulled by ox and the assembled, including King David, celebrated along the road with “all their might”. Then, the ox stumble, Uzzah reaches out to prevent the Ark from falling and, bang, Uzzah is dead!

Pause for breath.

The leader then suggested that God had struck down Uzzah (the account does attribute Uzzah’s death to God) for his complacency, his over familiarity with God and his lack of reverence for this holy item. Well, the man had lived in a house where the Ark was kept and must have seen it on a daily basis. Surely familiarity can be understood? And all the time I’m sitting there thinking “Really?” I mean, the oxen stumbled, the Ark was falling and Uzzah instinctively acted. Then, due to the weight of the Ark it continued to fall and fell on Uzzah killing him. Obvious answer? (I was always taught that the obvious answer is the primary answer).

And then God gets falsely accused or perhaps more correctly, credited with the death! Why? Well the cult, the priests, the religious hierarchy needed an explanation because after all, the Ark falling off the cart doesn’t look particularly good, especially if someone is killed, and here’s an opportunity to instil “fear of the Lord” in the populace whilst promoting a sense of reverent awe at the same time…and avoid any health and safety issues.

So history allows for Uzzah to become the bad guy.

And here’s the thing. People read into history what is of advantage to themselves, their situation, their agenda and other possible interpretations or evidence that may hinder or contradict that reading are disregarded. Spin isn’t something limited to modern politics. It’s been going on for years, hundreds of years. As far back as the Old Testament and the Uzzah event people have been spinning the story to their advantage.

Back to the books I read whilst having a writer’s block. There is a question coming through, particularly from Murray, about firstly reading the whole of history surrounding an event and not being selective, and secondly, concerning how much responsibility do we have for the deeds of our forebears?

Add to this the fact that I have progressed to Otto English’s Fake Heroes which, through seemingly thorough research, seeks to expose the myths surrounding a number of history’s so called great figures. And I’m thinking many historical events that are currently being brought to the fore now need a thorough analysis. Add to that the possibility of alternate readings. Yes there are some undeniably bad and evil things that were done in times gone by and, yes, if the effects of these are still prevalent we should not ignore them, but at what point do we look to the future, a better future as the true balm for our history?

The past is our lesson
The present is our gift
The future is our motivation

Simplyneo.com

Neither you or I can change the past. The proponents of CRT do well to draw our attention to it but neither can they change it. We have to learn from history and build a better future, and that applies at a societal level and at a personal level. Can we do things better? The answer is invariably yes but lets understand the whole story and not build our improvements on selective information.

Open mind, open heart, better future.

Yours, back at the keyboard,

Wic