18th-Century French essayist Joseph Joubert wrote “It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.”
George Steiner, a Franco-American literary critic, essayist, philosopher, novelist, and educator died this week. He was 90 years old. He left a legacy of brilliance. I am writing about him because back in the 1970’s he warned us about our loss of critical thinking, our moving away from the primacy of the left brain that is the seat of “the verbal, the Greek half, the ambitions, the dominating, the mastering half.” We have turned to other systems, including Eastern philosophies, for answers to our questions. These systems are contrary to Western culture. They promote “passivity against will; a theosophy of stasis and eternal return against a theodicy of historical progress; the focused monotony, even emptiness, of meditation and of meditative trance as opposed to logical, analytic reflection; asceticism against prodigality of person and expression; contemplation versus action.”
As I wrote in my book, Back to the Ethic:Reclaiming Western Values, Mr. Steiner warned about being urged “to give up the proud image of Homo sapiens—man the knower, man the hunter of knowledge—and go over to that enchanting vision [of] Homo ludens, which means, quite simply, man the player of games, man the relaxed, the intuitive, the pastoral being.” There is a danger in this philosophy of “I feel, therefore I know,” because it lacks the understanding of the importance of the need to acquire knowledge through critical thinking.
He also wrote about language. The beauty of language, its boundless possibilities, was also its tragedy. “Language admits everything. It’s an alarming truth we hardly ever think about: We can say anything, nothing stifles us, nothing shocks when someone says the most monstrous things. Language is infinitely servile, and language — this is the mystery — knows no ethical limits.”
And we have been living that lack of ethical limit far too long. Saying anything. Even the most monstrous. It has taken us to a place where we are in need of that politically incorrect little boy who looked at the emperor, proudly “wearing” his new clothes, and cried out “But the Emperor is wearing no clothes!”
Let me share the great Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Weavers had come to the palace having heard about the Emperor’s love of fine clothes. They said they could weave the most magnificent fabrics imaginable. Not only were their colors and patterns uncommonly fine, but clothes made of this cloth had a wonderful way of becoming invisible to anyone who was unfit for his office, or who was unusually stupid.
Needless to say all the courtiers loved the “clothes” as they were not unfit for office. And the Emperor, how beautiful, for he was not stupid.
“Well, I’m supposed to be ready,” the Emperor said, and turned again for one last look in the mirror. “It is a remarkable fit, isn’t it?” He seemed to regard his costume with the greatest interest.
So off went the Emperor. Everyone in the streets and the windows said, “Oh, how fine are the Emperor’s new clothes! Don’t they fit him to perfection? And see his long train!” Nobody would confess that he couldn’t see anything, for that would prove him either unfit for his position, or a fool.
No costume the Emperor had worn before was ever such a complete success.
“But he hasn’t got anything on,” a little child said.
“Did you ever hear such innocent prattle?” said the father. And one person whispered to another what the child had said, “He hasn’t anything on. A child says he hasn’t anything on.”
“But he hasn’t got anything on!” the whole town cried out at last. The Emperor shivered, for he suspected they were right. But he thought, “This procession has got to go on.” So he walked more proudly than ever, as his noblemen held high the train that wasn’t there at all.
Someone with the ability to think critically called out the big lie: and opened the eyes of others.
We in the 21st century have pandered to those who spread a big lie. It must stop for the sake of our children and our society.
It is time to state that no, a man cannot become a woman and a woman cannot become a man. There is no doubt that men and women are on a spectrum: from manly women to feminine men. You may not “feel” comfortable in your skin, but you cannot switch your sex.
A man can dress like a woman, feel very feminine but even with removing his penis and his testicles, he cannot become a woman. And a woman can remove her uterus and her ovaries, but she cannot become a man.
There are stories about trans couples who have babies.
Jay Thomas, 33, decided he wanted to get pregnant in 2016.
The doctor told him he ” had likely gone through early menopause.”
Jay, a woman who had become a man,took all the hormones that men naturally have and “he” got pregnant with his wife who was a man. How is it possible for a man to get pregnant? Because men can have babies, too! And we teach this in our schools.
Is Jay a man? If she had truly wanted to be a man why did she still have her uterus and ovaries? Because you do need those to get pregnant to have a baby. Although today you can buy ovum, you still need the internal incubator. And then there is the man, his wife, who wants to be a woman. So he takes different hormones. But keeps his penis and I have to assume his testicles-to make sperm. Why did she keep her penis and testicles? Or, Jay received sperm from a donor. He said “we got pregnant,” but today that does not necessarily mean that they are the natural parents.
Seems he is not alone.
In Australia, where government agencies began tracking both sex and gender in official records in 2013, 54 transgender men gave birth in 2014, according to statistics from the country’s universal health care system. And a Dutch study published in the journal Human Reproduction in 2011 found that a majority of trans men reported wanting families.
And we sit there and cheer them on because to not cheer on this insanity is to be a transphobic.
How did we get to a place where someone who is uncomfortable in their skin is encouraged not to live with the feelings and be the best they can be? No, they are told they can become the opposite sex. Have you met anyone who has changed his race? The colour of her skin?
No one thinks mental illness? Body/gender dysmorphia? Or perhaps they just think and remain silent.
Who is making money from this?
From The Big Idea:
Transgender kids often have that trans identity by adolescence, and sometimes as young as 18-24 months. Kids whose families are accepting and supportive of their identity are much more likely to thrive.
Turns out kids often know by adolescence, and sometimes as young as 18-24 months.
Dr. Johanna Olson-Kennedy, medical director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, says:
The truth is that we don’t really know whether that child who is gender non-conforming in childhood is going to go on to have a trans identity in adolescence or adulthood. What we do know is that by the time kids reach adolescence, if they have a gender identity that is different from their sex assigned at birth, that it is very likely that they will continue on to have that gender identity. (Human Rights Campaign)
We allow children under ten to make these monumental decisions when in most provinces and states they are not old enough to stay home alone or walk by themselves to school!
And then to add insult to injury we allow drag queens to speak to our children in schools and libraries. Why? How many children will bump into drag queens in their lifetime that they need to become comfortable/familiar with them in public school? Or is it to promote the “fact” that you can switch sex? Are they being used to promote the big lie that you can switch sex, as they hide behind the word gender, which is fluid. Who comes up with these brilliant ideas?
Then we wonder why so many children today suffer from anxiety? Look what you are feeding them at such a young age when they can barely tie their shoelaces.
And what about people who regret their “decision”?
The number of young people seeking gender transition is at the highest it has ever been, but little is reported about how many of them regret the decision later, finding they are unhappy with their new gender.
Where are the stories about them?
The last thing we want to do, today, is listen to well-educated experts who question the veracity of the statement that the emperor is clothed.
Dr. Ken Zucker, a pioneer and leading expert in the field of gender dysphoria, headed up the Gender Identity Clinic at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), a post he’d held for decades. He was targeted for condemnation by trans activists, who accused him of practicing “conversion therapy,” a false allegation that led to his summary dismissal. Dr. Zucker successfully refuted the charge in a later lawsuit against CAMH, resulting in a payout and retractions, but not in reinstatement. Dr. Zucker does in fact endorse supervised hormone therapy where warranted for adolescents on a case-by-case basis, but is a proponent of watchful waiting and for treating patients holistically. He is one of many who try to share facts.
The problem, you see, is that he is not fast enough in promoting the fact that this little boy really thinks he is a little girl. He is not jumping at the opportunity to “fix” this little boy whose parents, or parent, know for a fact that he is a little girl because he thinks so.
People like Dr. Zucker are not allowed to speak truth, fact, science, today, because it has been established that the Emperor’s clothes are gorgeous.
It takes courage, or innocence, to go against the grain. How sad is that?
From the Ethics of the Fathers: “Rabbi Tarfon used to say, it is not incumbent upon you to complete the task, but you are not exempt from undertaking it.”
