This is one of the most well-written, penetrating and thought-provoking things I have read in a long, long time. The author has revealed a paradigm that I was trying to intuitively describe but couldn’t quite explain. Thank you.
Firas, I have shared it far and wide. Shared with the new Parochial Vicar at my parish in Texas. He was duly impressed and intrigued. He mentioned a quote from Cardinal Manning as his response:
"All human conflict is ultimately theological." - Cardinal Manning
Wokeness, Marxism, and most other forms of leftism are no more Christian heresies then Islam is. They arose in a Christian milieu (often via assimilated secular Jews), but they're clearly their own distinct thing.
Islam is, in fact, a Christian heresy, but that's for another piece.
My argument is, briefly, that an Aztec, Viking or Roman pagan would not in any way want to do justice to those he vanquished, but to crush, enslave or annihilate them.
Thank you Firas for this very interesting piece. It is making me ask myself so many questions on a subject that I find fascinating, and you are someone that has had exposure to a very different parts of the world so I value that you've been able to use that to back up your theory here. Thank you.
I just wanted to share my thoughts, if you don't mind. I started reading your piece and felt in agreement with a lot of what you said, so easy reading for me. Then as we moved into the trans related part, I found it a bit more difficult from a personal point of view as I define myself as gay and non binary. But not afraid of different points of views and neither are you ;)
I've always thought that the guilt part in our Western societies was more to do with upbringing and particularly the upbringing of men. An example is that when I lived in Egypt a couple of times I saw young boys with their mothers nearby who looked at me and said "boy or girl" (ragil wala bint?), and the reaction of the mother was to laugh. Same situation happened in Turkey, kadinmi, erkekmi?, but the mother told the boy to be quiet and that it was rude. Both mainly muslim countries but culturally very different.
I was brought up in a village in Andalucia, very catholic but with some Arab influence from our history. The 'catholic' men from my village would not generally question themselves in terms of their country being racist, homophobic, or not doing enough for the environment. On the contrary they hate environmentalists because they are seen as people who have been to university for 4 years and think they know more than the people who have looked after the land their whole life and for generations. While the catholic men in my village might not describe themselves as religious, I have seen very similar types of men in places like Hungary, Russia, Poland, Georgia, place where they do strongly define as Christian and have very little wokeness going on :)
Personally I think that as long as you base reasoning on facts, i.e. whatever has been proven in history as a fact regarding slavery, or scientific proof regarding the environment then it's easy for me to agree with you. When it comes to religion and sexuality they are so subjective. Religion can be interpreted and used by so many people in so many different ways, that I'm sure it plays a part in these things but I find hard to define how much of a role it plays compared to the level of education, gender, culture etc.
When it comes to sexuality, we have throughout history tried to put people in boxes, and some people don't want to be in boxes. When we started 'tolerating' or 'accepting' gay people we decided we would be ok with 2 boxes. But in reality there are many boxes out there, in certain cultures people will spend a lot of energy trying to make sure that everyone appear to fit the one box, and that box works for a huge percentage of the population, but not for all. For those who don't want to fit that box or any other box there shouldn't be a threat to the big part of the population that is in the box to carry on doing things as normal. But at the same time I don't think that those of us who decide to go outside of the box, should stop those inside the box saying how wonderful their box is.
Thank you again for this piece, I really enjoyed it, and now I'm interested in reading other things that you have written. A bientot!
It has been ages! Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
On the trans question, I hesitiate to deal with the issue directly as this has often cost people friendships. That said, I trust that you are thick skinned and confident enough, so, here goes.
When you say non-binary, what do you mean, and how does it get tested or diagnosed? How do I know if a child is going through a phase that he or she will grow out of, or if this is a serious issue that requires medical intervention? Is there a test to determine if someone is non-binary or gender fluid or demiboy or demifemme or whatever? If it is not a medical thing, and is just a feeling, then, what does it mean in practical terms and why does it matter? More importantly, why are adults and kids being encouraged to go through life altering hormone treatment or surgeries or the like? It cannot be both - a feeling that cannot be clearly expressed, and an issue that requires deep and thorough medical treatments.
I think more than anything, the trans issue is a fad, a fashion, and a sign of misery and dissatisfaction. I don't think there is such a thing as non-binary because we are, according to evolution theory, evolved to reproduce sexually, and, like all species that reproduce sexually, are sexually dimorphic. We are, scientifcally, binary, and there is no such thing, medically speaking, as being non-binary. Now it may express a feeling, a sense that there's more to you than what science says about you. That, I embrace in principle, as I do agree that there is more to any human being than what the study of matter says. I just don't agree that non-binary is the correct way to express that in general. If you want to use it to express yourself, that is, to some extent, your prerogative. Once it starts affecting me - once people demand new pronouns, or want to introduce this kind of thing to children, or whatever, then I put my foot down and say no.
Here is a more strident piece of mine on the topic. I do not expect you to agree fully, but I do hope you might read it with an open mind.
This is one of the most well-written, penetrating and thought-provoking things I have read in a long, long time. The author has revealed a paradigm that I was trying to intuitively describe but couldn’t quite explain. Thank you.
Thank you so much! I am very pleased that you liked it! Do share it, please.
Firas, I have shared it far and wide. Shared with the new Parochial Vicar at my parish in Texas. He was duly impressed and intrigued. He mentioned a quote from Cardinal Manning as his response:
"All human conflict is ultimately theological." - Cardinal Manning
Indeed, all conflict is ultimately theological. Thank you for sharing both the article and the quote!
Wokeness, Marxism, and most other forms of leftism are no more Christian heresies then Islam is. They arose in a Christian milieu (often via assimilated secular Jews), but they're clearly their own distinct thing.
Islam is, in fact, a Christian heresy, but that's for another piece.
My argument is, briefly, that an Aztec, Viking or Roman pagan would not in any way want to do justice to those he vanquished, but to crush, enslave or annihilate them.
Thank you Firas for this very interesting piece. It is making me ask myself so many questions on a subject that I find fascinating, and you are someone that has had exposure to a very different parts of the world so I value that you've been able to use that to back up your theory here. Thank you.
I just wanted to share my thoughts, if you don't mind. I started reading your piece and felt in agreement with a lot of what you said, so easy reading for me. Then as we moved into the trans related part, I found it a bit more difficult from a personal point of view as I define myself as gay and non binary. But not afraid of different points of views and neither are you ;)
I've always thought that the guilt part in our Western societies was more to do with upbringing and particularly the upbringing of men. An example is that when I lived in Egypt a couple of times I saw young boys with their mothers nearby who looked at me and said "boy or girl" (ragil wala bint?), and the reaction of the mother was to laugh. Same situation happened in Turkey, kadinmi, erkekmi?, but the mother told the boy to be quiet and that it was rude. Both mainly muslim countries but culturally very different.
I was brought up in a village in Andalucia, very catholic but with some Arab influence from our history. The 'catholic' men from my village would not generally question themselves in terms of their country being racist, homophobic, or not doing enough for the environment. On the contrary they hate environmentalists because they are seen as people who have been to university for 4 years and think they know more than the people who have looked after the land their whole life and for generations. While the catholic men in my village might not describe themselves as religious, I have seen very similar types of men in places like Hungary, Russia, Poland, Georgia, place where they do strongly define as Christian and have very little wokeness going on :)
Personally I think that as long as you base reasoning on facts, i.e. whatever has been proven in history as a fact regarding slavery, or scientific proof regarding the environment then it's easy for me to agree with you. When it comes to religion and sexuality they are so subjective. Religion can be interpreted and used by so many people in so many different ways, that I'm sure it plays a part in these things but I find hard to define how much of a role it plays compared to the level of education, gender, culture etc.
When it comes to sexuality, we have throughout history tried to put people in boxes, and some people don't want to be in boxes. When we started 'tolerating' or 'accepting' gay people we decided we would be ok with 2 boxes. But in reality there are many boxes out there, in certain cultures people will spend a lot of energy trying to make sure that everyone appear to fit the one box, and that box works for a huge percentage of the population, but not for all. For those who don't want to fit that box or any other box there shouldn't be a threat to the big part of the population that is in the box to carry on doing things as normal. But at the same time I don't think that those of us who decide to go outside of the box, should stop those inside the box saying how wonderful their box is.
Thank you again for this piece, I really enjoyed it, and now I'm interested in reading other things that you have written. A bientot!
Francisco,
It has been ages! Thank you for your thoughtful reply.
On the trans question, I hesitiate to deal with the issue directly as this has often cost people friendships. That said, I trust that you are thick skinned and confident enough, so, here goes.
When you say non-binary, what do you mean, and how does it get tested or diagnosed? How do I know if a child is going through a phase that he or she will grow out of, or if this is a serious issue that requires medical intervention? Is there a test to determine if someone is non-binary or gender fluid or demiboy or demifemme or whatever? If it is not a medical thing, and is just a feeling, then, what does it mean in practical terms and why does it matter? More importantly, why are adults and kids being encouraged to go through life altering hormone treatment or surgeries or the like? It cannot be both - a feeling that cannot be clearly expressed, and an issue that requires deep and thorough medical treatments.
I think more than anything, the trans issue is a fad, a fashion, and a sign of misery and dissatisfaction. I don't think there is such a thing as non-binary because we are, according to evolution theory, evolved to reproduce sexually, and, like all species that reproduce sexually, are sexually dimorphic. We are, scientifcally, binary, and there is no such thing, medically speaking, as being non-binary. Now it may express a feeling, a sense that there's more to you than what science says about you. That, I embrace in principle, as I do agree that there is more to any human being than what the study of matter says. I just don't agree that non-binary is the correct way to express that in general. If you want to use it to express yourself, that is, to some extent, your prerogative. Once it starts affecting me - once people demand new pronouns, or want to introduce this kind of thing to children, or whatever, then I put my foot down and say no.
Here is a more strident piece of mine on the topic. I do not expect you to agree fully, but I do hope you might read it with an open mind.
https://convertordie.substack.com/p/trans-lies-matter