Movement in the right direction.
Rewind to April 3rd of this year.
Fr. De Souza reviews an article by another well known Canadian clergyman who, somewhat surprisingly, given the media-star priest's somewhat unfortunate associates who are not in the respect-the-Magisterium camp, relies on Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) to expose the latest front in the cultural-political wars in Canada.
For the full article, click HERE.
“Whereas relativism… seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.”
At first it might seem that relativism — you have your truth, I have my truth, but there is no objective truth — should be the opposite of dictatorship. If there is no truth, then there can be no standard to force upon anyone. We just all do our own thing.
That relativism cannot last for long. If there are disagreements, one view has to prevail over another in practical arrangements. And if there is no objective standard to determine which view prevails, it comes down to power. The person or judge or party in power gets to decide. In democracy that can be tolerable, as the procedures for determining who holds power are agreed upon and assented to as fair.
But given that persuasion is not always possible in a relativistic world — on what objective grounds could you persuade someone? — the temptation is to force people to assent in case of disagreement. If there is no truth, why not use my power to see that my view prevails? That temptation can be resisted, but increasingly is not. Ratzinger saw the danger in general. (...) Trudeau is guilty of it.
In the same issue of America, the editor, Fr. Matt Malone, also refers back to Ratzinger (...).
“By ‘dictatorship of relativism’ I take Cardinal Ratzinger to mean a sociopolitical movement that refuses to recognize an ultimate objective reality called ‘the truth’, ” writes Malone. “It seems that the battles being waged in the public square are not so much about whether ultimate truths exist, but which absolute ‘truths’ will govern public affairs. In that sense, Pope Francis’ warnings about the dangers of ideology and ‘ideological colonization’ appear more relevant.”
Indeed, St. John Paul II saw the same phenomenon at work as early as 1991.
“It must be observed in this regard that if there is no ultimate truth to guide and direct political activity, then ideas and convictions can easily be manipulated for reasons of power,” John Paul wrote in Centesimus Annus. “As history demonstrates, a democracy without values easily turns into open or thinly disguised totalitarianism.”
Whether it is called a “dictatorship of relativism” or “ideological colonization” or “thinly disguised totalitarianism,” it is easily recognized as spreading in Canada today.
Lindsay Shepherd, the courageous woman—a graduate teaching assistant at the disgraced Wilfred Laurier University—who was summoned before a University committee that attempted to bully her into submission for merely presenting a forum in which controversial ideas could be encountered and debated, has disavowed the leftist brand.
"Goodbye to the Left"
The video linked in the title above captures Ms/Miss Shepherd's reorientation, and clarifies her positions on free speech, intellectual discourse, etc. Without intending condescension toward her, she still has work to do to free herself of the lingering effects of the debilitating ideologies shared by her former academics who persecuted her. Those highly oppressive currents of thought seem to be fast fading from her cognitive bloodstream. So, when watching said video, keep in mind that she, like us all, is a work in progress.
After her unfortunate experience at Wilfred Laurier University, Lindsay Shepherd appears to becoming a true progressive. That is, she is progressing toward the True, the Good and the Beautiful in ways that many, many more people should travel if they are to be part of the solution—a recovery of civility and intelligent discourse—in Canada and elsewhere.
Pray that Lindsay Shepherd continues to encounter people such as clinical psychologist and author Dr Jordan Peterson, who will treat her with the respect she deserves.
People of faith can and should celebrate Shepherd's triumph over the fascistic behaviour of academics who, by verbally keelhauling Ms/Miss Shepherd, proved that really smart people can be as guilty as anyone of ignorance and of dangerous behaviour of a kind that threatens to rob people of their fundamental freedoms. The downward slope into barbarism begins with the little slips, the failures to defend fairness and civility.
Clearly, the WLU academics who attempted to skewer Lindsay Shepherd have not learned the basic lessons which the previous century has to teach: that fascism is all the fashion among those who proudly think themselves so much better than ordinary folk, and truly enlightened academics. It is the ordinary folk raised in faithful Catholic homes, mothers and fathers and children formed in the Corporal and Spiritual works of mercy, obedient to Jesus Christ and His Church, who can see monsters for who and what they are.
"Goodbye to the Left"
The video linked in the title above captures Ms/Miss Shepherd's reorientation, and clarifies her positions on free speech, intellectual discourse, etc. Without intending condescension toward her, she still has work to do to free herself of the lingering effects of the debilitating ideologies shared by her former academics who persecuted her. Those highly oppressive currents of thought seem to be fast fading from her cognitive bloodstream. So, when watching said video, keep in mind that she, like us all, is a work in progress.
After her unfortunate experience at Wilfred Laurier University, Lindsay Shepherd appears to becoming a true progressive. That is, she is progressing toward the True, the Good and the Beautiful in ways that many, many more people should travel if they are to be part of the solution—a recovery of civility and intelligent discourse—in Canada and elsewhere.
Pray that Lindsay Shepherd continues to encounter people such as clinical psychologist and author Dr Jordan Peterson, who will treat her with the respect she deserves.
People of faith can and should celebrate Shepherd's triumph over the fascistic behaviour of academics who, by verbally keelhauling Ms/Miss Shepherd, proved that really smart people can be as guilty as anyone of ignorance and of dangerous behaviour of a kind that threatens to rob people of their fundamental freedoms. The downward slope into barbarism begins with the little slips, the failures to defend fairness and civility.
Clearly, the WLU academics who attempted to skewer Lindsay Shepherd have not learned the basic lessons which the previous century has to teach: that fascism is all the fashion among those who proudly think themselves so much better than ordinary folk, and truly enlightened academics. It is the ordinary folk raised in faithful Catholic homes, mothers and fathers and children formed in the Corporal and Spiritual works of mercy, obedient to Jesus Christ and His Church, who can see monsters for who and what they are.
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