A tale of two seasons – part 2

Part 1 was published here yesterday.

Children are being subjected to an onslaught of ‘we are all going to die tomorrow’ propaganda ranging from ‘there will be danger and chaos when we leave the EU’, to everyone you meet is a potential child abuser, through to the latest climate and global warming demonstrations, where children are being encouraged to truant from school (or strike as teachers and the media like to call it) and demonstrate about climate change. Odd sort of safeguarding and locum parentis that but seemingly lost on the educational establishment who apparently have no problems with that sort of behaviour.  Teachers working ‘outside of authority’ perhaps? Two towns near St. Mary on the Wold have now declared a ‘climate emergency’. Rather like some towns, older people may remember, were designated and declared Nuclear Free Zones in the 60s and 70s. They may of course be better employed declaring pollution and litter an emergency and doing something effective about that.

Children who would once have thought themselves a boy or girl are now confronted by the LBGT agenda being taught in even primary sector schools.  Now there is probably a case for this to be explored and discussed in schools but in the primary school context? And given the age of pupils, is this a case of ‘give me the child until he is seven and I’ll give you the man’? (Presumably ‘man’ would now have to be changed to person, but hopefully you get the idea.)

What is a 10-year-old to make of a sign noticed in the entrance of a junior school: ‘School Milk is provided by the citizens of the european union’?   That was news to me but there you go, I’ve no idea if this still goes on but at one time school libraries were full of EU propaganda, not that it seems to have worked particularly well with many young people who are not particularly impressed with the EU not that you will find the MSM giving them much air time.

Children are being exposed to ideas and concepts that many adults would find either offensive or questionable, which is fine as long as they are old enough to understand and happy to question or can ask parents or other adults.  Although that can often be difficult as so many adults are wedded to the ideas and opinions of the vested interests of big business or the media and just cannot be bothered to look elsewhere for news or evidence.

Much media advertising pushes unremittingly, without question for the most part, a fictional reality of many things, ranging from family life – now almost always multicultural, or a feminist agenda or both.  If Father is present, he’s some sort of idle, not very bright individual who leaves everything from buying insurance to borrowing money to get something repaired, to his all-suffering all-knowing multi-competent wife or partner.  Goodness knows what young children think of that. Although I do know from personal experience that many children who want help, guidance or something repaired will go and ask Granddad or Grandma, as one or other of parents is either unavailable or just not interested. Try attending a parents evening at any school which is not solidly ‘middle class’.

Propaganda is having an effect on young people, who are now being led to believe it’s OK to break the law, not go to school, demonstrate and basically do what you want. What, for instance, is a parent to say to a child who cites the 16-year-old Greta Thornberg, who doesn’t bother to attend school, gets feted by politicians and gets to lecture to world leaders at the United Nations, because ‘you are not doing enough and are wrecking our future’ as ‘you will die of old age and we will die of climate change’. I was looking last week at a photograph of a team of Oxford Eight rowers taken in 1938, all young Oxford University students, four were dead by 1940 flying for the RAF, that’s having your future ruined.  They, like tens of thousands around the world, had no future at all.

The arts, or much of it, is seemingly the province of a majority of left-leaning or hard left-leaning celebrities, working in the media and theatre with an agenda that is not always obvious to followers or patrons.  For so long now the collective thinks it has a God-given right to actively pursue any objective, political or otherwise, that they wish, substantially funded by public bodies which hand out taxpayers money taken from, in the main, people who would not dream of visiting the theatre and paying for what they see, in many cases, to be an elitist and posh experience.

Take the Shakespeare industry, long political and now into the gender argument, which has not always gone down well with its traditional audience.  In a production of King John this year the title role is played by a woman, the director stating it was not a gender choice but that the woman actor was the best during the audition.  Which begs the question if it was not a gender choice why were women auditioned for the role, the title being ‘King John?’ Historically of course female roles were played by men, there being no choice in the matter, so I suppose there are precedents for gender bending.

The theatre, like everything else, changes to meet new audiences and contemporary attitudes but often it seems to me that the story lines are far removed from the original.  When does a play written by an author, stop being as the author intended when it’s evaluated and changed by others to give it more contemporary relevance? It’s said that theatre attendances are falling, due to a variety of reasons.  Could one of those be that audiences are not particularly impressed by what is being offered or being lectured to by leading actors/directors as to what they, the audience, should be thinking saying or doing?

We are, it seems to me, in great danger of throwing out all our traditions and institutions without really understanding why, usually at the behest of a minority; perhaps in time there will be a ‘majority rebellion’.