Be reasonable! That’s a cry I’ve not heard for some time. Maybe ‘reason’ is out of style in our modern ‘what you feel is what you are society’.
But one aspect of the controversial Scottish Government Hate Crime Act is that it is predicated on what a ‘reasonable person’ would think what has been reported is hateful, likely to stir up hatred and cause ‘fear and alarm’. But there is the rub – what is a ‘reasonable person’?
During the lengthy period of debates about same-sex marriage and sexuality, the Church of Scotland leadership often spoke of the ‘trajectory’ that the Church was on.
By this they meant a trajectory towards a more ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’ theology and practice. For over 20 years I have been writing about the Church of Scotland’s ‘trajectory’ – a trajectory which I believed would end up with its demise. I had thought it would be a gradual decline resulting in extinction by 2050. I was wrong. As this year’s Assembly demonstrates, the Church of Scotland has now fallen off a cliff edge and is in a state of terminal decline. It is doubtful whether it will exist in any meaningful form by 2030.
In many ways George Orwell’s 1984 could be regarded as a prophetic novel. Although written in 1949 there are parts of it that are even more apposite for 2023.
In the novel Orwell describes the Two Minutes Hate – a daily public period in which the citizens of Oceania watch a film showing Emmanuel Goldstein, the main enemy of the State, and his Brotherhood. They are encouraged to show their hate for him and their love for Big Brother. Orwell’s picture is a masterful description of group psychology – what he calls groupthink. It shows how people can transfer their own anxieties and anger on to an external enemy (who doesn’t really exist), and thus diverts them from questioning The Party – the governing authorities. In this way The Party can deal with thoughtcrime and thoughtcriminals.
‘Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?’ (Who guards the guardians?) is the question the Roman poet Juvenal asked, at just about the same time as the New Testament church was rapidly expanding.
It’s not often that Latin phrases come to mind (mainly because I know so few), but this one seems entirely appropriate for the increasing tendency we are seeing in our major internet platform providers to decide that they, and they alone, are the arbiters of truth.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in New York – an event which was the catalyst for the modern LGBT movement.
‘Pride’ marches, days, weeks and months have become ubiquitous throughout the Western world – especially in the English-speaking countries. The politicians and the corporations are falling over themselves in the rush to identify with ‘Pride’.
What is ‘reasonable’ in a society losing its head?
Be reasonable! That’s a cry I’ve not heard for some time. Maybe ‘reason’ is out of style in our modern ‘what you feel is what you are society’.
But one aspect of the controversial Scottish Government Hate Crime Act is that it is predicated on what a ‘reasonable person’ would think what has been reported is hateful, likely to stir up hatred and cause ‘fear and alarm’. But there is the rub – what is a ‘reasonable person’?