4 minute read
The war against women
Faith doesn't compromise on the Truth, says the Lone Veiler
We have the ancient world to thank for democracy. Ancient Athens, particularly the Athens of the 5th century BC, is hailed as the birthplace of all the freedoms we hold so dear today. Along with the art, the philosophy, the dramatists, the architecture - so highly thought of even a couple of thousand years ago, that the Romans (so imaginative, the Romans), pinched it all for themselves.
Athens, a beacon of reason and enlightened thinking, contrasting with the harder, more martial and equally famous, democracy of Sparta. Wait. Sparta? Democratic? Why yes, it was, it was just as democratic in its ancient way as Athens. Sparta even had what we would recognise as a constitutional monarchy, except there were two kings, not one. So what sent me on this present wander into antiquity? The news.
I have been watching with some bemusement the shenanigans and posturing of various flavours of political and apolitical groups recently. Not only flavours, but the whole rainbow of competing and self-contradictory statements from those unhappy with biology, presidents, free speech, stay at home mothers, religion, politicians - you name it, someone has just hated it in the press. Yes, even stay at home mothers, but more of that in a minute. Here, unlike Athens or Sparta, every citizen can vote. We have a duty to vote, it's an important freedom. Yet the more I see in the media, the more I believe we could be heading back to the dark days of the first “democracies”. Dark because, of course, they weren't really that democratic. If you were enslaved, poor, or just female, you had no say, couldn't vote. Not all citizens were equal, and some were eminently more equal than others. It reminds me that oligarchies were the norm in the ancient world, and throughout all of history, closed groups of individuals have been electing more of the same individuals. So very, very, self-perpetuating.
Then, as now, a lot of this equality is of course based on filthy lucre and contacts. You have the means, you can lobby, you can try and adjust people's thinking under the guise of equality and in a short time you have a group of people right where you want them, especially if you appear to be giving them just what they want. Same today, history is so repetitive. So where, for example, does the stay at home mother fit into all this? She doesn't. She doesn't fit the current Western narrative at all. The concept of a woman being content to bring up her own children, and making considerable financial sacrifices to do so, is anathema. There is so much made of the “rights” of various groups to parenthood in the media, that those just getting on with it and being financially penalised for doing so are ignored at best, and reviled more usually. The war against women is constantly being played out in the media and society in general. We all know the evil one is behind it all, we all know Our Lady will sort him out, but witnessing the anger and hatred against the ordinary family from some quarters is still staggering. When will biology books have to be rewritten? Perhaps there will be addenda, or a helpline for those offended by the XX/ XY-ness of real life. Common sense, science and reason are being sacrificed to the gods of the age.
In ancient Greece, citizen women didn't get out much. They were almost invisible, they had no vote. Yet they were depended upon to provide the next citizen generation, and in spite of our modern media's insistence to the contrary, society today still depends on ordinary families bringing up ordinary children. Invisibly.
Which brings me to free speech, or as our esteemed leaders and news providers practise it, mediated truth, a current challenge for us all. Ancient Greece was famed for its free speech... wasn't it? Uh, heard of ostracism? It was the Greek way. Free speech was only free if you weren't worried about being banished for saying something some folks didn't like. Lots of debating in private behind closed doors, but in public it was a dodgy thing. No parallels there then.
We all see the world slightly differently. No two people see or describe the colour blue in the same way, the ancient Greeks didn't even have a word for the colour blue, but there is blue in the world, lots of different shades of blue, all beautiful blue. Real Truth is a bit different. You can't have shades of real Truth, our faith doesn't compromise on the Truth, and that's what I hang on to. We have been told by Our Lord that the servant isn't greater than the Master, we are to expect persecution, division, and ridicule; if the world doesn't hate us, we aren't doing it right. Not that this is easy, of course it's not. We have to do the best we can, be true to our Faith and pray. A lot.
