I don’t see why I should have to get fat if I eat fatty foods. I don’t see why I should have to get pregnant if I have sex. I don’t see why I should have to be rejected from Cambridge if I didn’t earn top grades. I don’t see why I can’t get married if I’m gay. I don’t see why I can’t be a pilot if I’m blind…
OK, that last one is a stretch, but the sentiment is the same.
In other words: I don’t like the natural consequences, so they must somehow be frustrated artificially.
And this is what we have done.
Unlike wise parents, who recognise that an infant cannot have whatever he wants — either because it is impossible or because constantly relenting will stunt his flourishing — we have become the parents who give in to every whinge, every tear and every complaint simply to pacify the child. We will even invent things to shield him from the consequences of his choices.
What kind of person does that child become?
We all know.
Roald Dahl knew when he sketched out his most memorable child characters, and the result was ugly. We used to recognise ugliness for what it was. Now we pretend it is beautiful.
But it isn’t.
We have become a society of weak cry-babies, throwing tantrums whenever we don’t get what we want. The infants are in charge. Professors who are idiots. Models who are fat and unattractive. Britons who can’t speak English. Boys who are girls.
The infant does not like authority. “It’s not fair!” So every authority must be smashed down, leaving the few remaining adults to live among the ruins.
This revolution has been a long time in the making: a revolution first against God, then against authority, against reason, against one another and, ultimately, against ourselves.
Because that’s how it goes.
Mess with God and with what God has given us, and watch the whole thing unravel. It’s not as though Scripture isn’t absolutely clear on this point. No matter how clever we think we are with our contraceptive pill, our anti-fat injections and our AI, we remain silly babies mucking it all up.
I blame the Protestants (naturally).
In a recent The Rest Is History podcast, Tom Holland commented astutely on über-Prot Martin Luther, saying that he had:
