Just came across this and it asks the same question that I, an ordinary person without a degree, have been asking for the best part of 3 years.
Where were the educated professionals, with their superior brains to mine, who should have been speaking out whilst I was being spat at for not wearing a theatrical mask as a matter of priciple? The legal profession in the main, other than Lord Sumption, were noticeable by their absence; the cynic in me would answer that unless there was an obvious 'buck' to be made from it they were quite happy to sit at home and accept the furlough silver whilst sipping Chardonnay in the garden.
Equally lamentable were the medical professionals who rather than look out for the best interests of their patients scurried off to hide behind plastic screens, closed their surgery doors and completely gave up on the principles of their oath; "I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug."
Other professionals from police officers to local government officials revelled in their new found authority and gleefully removed people sitting on park benches or banned elderly couples, sometimes 50 or 60 years married, from removing masks to look at each other or kiss each other in a nursing home.
When the chips were down they all lost their humanity. They shrugged their shoulders and in the words used by defendents in previous trials would now say 'we were just following orders'. I wonder if these people will, like Martin Niemoller, reflect on their position and their guilt and responsibility?
Interesting! Thanks for this. I've been charting the same process in my published academic work so it is great to know I have at least one fellow traveller.
I could not agree more with what you say here - my wife and I terminated our donations to Amnesty International over this disgrace. It has never been clearer that the whole apparatus of 'human rights', which descends from Kant's political philosophy, is now moribund, a kind of lumbering zombie that doesn't even know that it is dead. Politically, I rather suspect I'm quite a bit to the left of you, but I must concur that one of the most shocking things revealed in the last few years was an utter lack of principle - in the sciences, in legal circles, in journalism, in medicine... the list is endless. We have completely forgotten that principles are promises we make to ourselves, not weapons for battering down other people's viewpoints.
My primary motive in starting Stranger Worlds and How To Live In Them was an utterly implausible attempt to recover any capacity to live by principles - regardless of what principles we might choose. Alas, all I can do is reflect upon the many different principles for living and discuss them with the other political and ethical misfits along for the journey... I simply have no idea what else I could do with my words and thoughts now. Your fear of being forced to live in Uncibal is my horror at this imperial technocracy that has no role whatsoever for citizens, and which remains oblivious to the idea that 'inclusion' is the antithesis of 'diversity'.
Glad to hear it! I wrote my main pieces on the collapse of the era of human rights, and its relationship to the Rights of Man that preceded it, last year. I'll include a link to this, but with neither expectation nor obligation to read it:
Just came across this and it asks the same question that I, an ordinary person without a degree, have been asking for the best part of 3 years.
Where were the educated professionals, with their superior brains to mine, who should have been speaking out whilst I was being spat at for not wearing a theatrical mask as a matter of priciple? The legal profession in the main, other than Lord Sumption, were noticeable by their absence; the cynic in me would answer that unless there was an obvious 'buck' to be made from it they were quite happy to sit at home and accept the furlough silver whilst sipping Chardonnay in the garden.
Equally lamentable were the medical professionals who rather than look out for the best interests of their patients scurried off to hide behind plastic screens, closed their surgery doors and completely gave up on the principles of their oath; "I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug."
Other professionals from police officers to local government officials revelled in their new found authority and gleefully removed people sitting on park benches or banned elderly couples, sometimes 50 or 60 years married, from removing masks to look at each other or kiss each other in a nursing home.
When the chips were down they all lost their humanity. They shrugged their shoulders and in the words used by defendents in previous trials would now say 'we were just following orders'. I wonder if these people will, like Martin Niemoller, reflect on their position and their guilt and responsibility?
Fear explains an awful lot. They were either scared of the virus or scared of the consequences of speaking up, or both.
Once upon a time human rights concerned itself with those rights of daily life and thought that government was barred from restricting. Now it seems human rights is more concerned with excusing the growth of government power over our daily life and thought. How this came about is well described in Aaron Rhodes' work, described here: https://bookswithbond.wordpress.com/2018/11/01/the-debasement-of-human-rights-how-politics-sabotage-the-ideal-of-freedom/
Interesting! Thanks for this. I've been charting the same process in my published academic work so it is great to know I have at least one fellow traveller.
I could not agree more with what you say here - my wife and I terminated our donations to Amnesty International over this disgrace. It has never been clearer that the whole apparatus of 'human rights', which descends from Kant's political philosophy, is now moribund, a kind of lumbering zombie that doesn't even know that it is dead. Politically, I rather suspect I'm quite a bit to the left of you, but I must concur that one of the most shocking things revealed in the last few years was an utter lack of principle - in the sciences, in legal circles, in journalism, in medicine... the list is endless. We have completely forgotten that principles are promises we make to ourselves, not weapons for battering down other people's viewpoints.
My primary motive in starting Stranger Worlds and How To Live In Them was an utterly implausible attempt to recover any capacity to live by principles - regardless of what principles we might choose. Alas, all I can do is reflect upon the many different principles for living and discuss them with the other political and ethical misfits along for the journey... I simply have no idea what else I could do with my words and thoughts now. Your fear of being forced to live in Uncibal is my horror at this imperial technocracy that has no role whatsoever for citizens, and which remains oblivious to the idea that 'inclusion' is the antithesis of 'diversity'.
Stay valiant!
There is an awful lot to say about the death of human rights, but it has been a long time coming. Expect further posts about it!
Likewise principles. I have started this substack for a similar reason as you. And I will also write more about that point.
Glad to hear it! I wrote my main pieces on the collapse of the era of human rights, and its relationship to the Rights of Man that preceded it, last year. I'll include a link to this, but with neither expectation nor obligation to read it:
https://onlyagame.typepad.com/only_a_game/2022/09/the-fall-of-the-old-republic-a-memorial-for-human-rights.html