The Courage to Use Your Own Understanding
Cowards abdicate common sensibilities in favour of "official" narratives.
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.”
— Immanuel Kant
Sapere aude is a Latin phrase meaning “dare to know.” It's a cool sounding phrase (it's Latin after all) often translated as have the courage to use your own understanding.
If there's one thing that's been sorely lacking in contemporary society, it's courage. This is evident most notably in politics, but also in our universities, corporations, professional sports organizations, and just leadership in general. It's as if we're being ruled by children. And not just ordinary children, but the most annoying, entitled, spoiled versions imaginable. Technically, it's not that the children are in control, but that the leadership is powerless to resist their whims and demands, which in all practicality means that - the children are in control. One might also say, the inmates are running the asylum.
Nowhere is this more obvious than where anything “trans” is involved. Common sense and centuries of knowledge has been sacrificed on the altar of inclusivity. Not to mention the serious sacrifice of hard won women's rights, specifically in the arena of professional sports.
For years now I've been lamenting the spineless leadership that has overtaken our institutions and government departments, attributing most of it to cowardliness. I still stand by that assessment, but recently I've noticed something else as well: not only are our institutions being run by spineless cowards, but these cowards are really more like overgrown children.
Kant’s definition of immaturity was “the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another.” What a perfect description of our current age. It seems like the only way most individuals will get up and make any kind of statement is if that statement has already been screened and pre-approved by some mysterious Ministry of Social Acceptability. In other words, as long as someone more important than yourself has already said it, you may now feel safe to let your true feelings be known - as long as they happen to coincide almost perfectly with those aforementioned statements.
What's your understanding of current events? Do you even have an opinion? Or do you just borrow someone else's opinion? Now, to be fair, I realize that most of what we believe is a result of external influences, many of which are other people's ideas and beliefs, but there’s a vast difference between believing something, and knowing something. And then there's another level beyond that, which is understanding. Simply knowing the facts does not guarantee that one has any real understanding of the facts, or how they fit together. Obviously, context is a big part of this understanding, which is why I go on about it so much.
Headlines like these are becoming more common all the time:
People who stuck by UK Covid rules have worst mental health, says survey
Like, wow, really? A decade ago, if you'd have asked anyone about these issues, they'd have told you right away exactly how this stuff worked without having to consult experts, or their family doctor, or any government policies.
They'd have been able to tell you without a moment's hesitation that of course separating yourself from your family and friends for lengthy periods of time is bad for your mental health. Obviously a “six foot rule” while standing in line at the grocery store will do nothing to prevent you from catching a cold. And of course these things are driven by seasonality. This was not controversial or conspiratorial - these have always been facts.
Now we have voices implying (or outright insisting) that one needs to have a medical degree to make these kinds of assessments and so we get headlines like those above and people think this is news. Not too long ago, headlines like these would have been as ridiculous as this headline:
This is what has always been known as “common sense”. It's people using their understanding to navigate the world, also known as critical thinking.
These people of a bygone decade would also have been able to tell you that just because a patient comes in to the clinic with a self-diagnosis doesn't necessarily mean that it's accurate. Can you imagine a severely anorexic teenager walking into her doctor’s office and having the following conversation?
Anorexic Girl: I'm so overweight! I just need a prescription for medication to help me lose weight as well as liposuction so I can feel better about myself.😭
Doctor: Sure, no problem, Miss. I just really want to affirm your identity as a fat girl and let you know that I'm here to help in whatever way I can. Here's some pills, and here's the number of my favourite surgeon…
Of course you can't imagine that. Because it would never happen. Doctors have known for centuries that many physical ailments have psychological roots and causes.
And yet, we end up with headlines like this one:
Hilary Cass: Weak evidence letting down children over gender care
Sane people, many of whom are legitimate experts in the relevant fields have been saying precisely this for at least the last decade and have been soundly condemned on social media and by politicians of all stripes. They were accused of “doing their own research,” of not following The Science™, and of all manner of bigotry and phobias. Now, finally a more “official” statement has been made by someone who was commissioned by the UK government to conduct a review on all the relevant studies and surprise, surprise - it fits very neatly with conventional wisdom and common sense.
So imagine my surprise when I saw this latest report from the British government:
In April 2021, the government appointed Dame Sara Khan to carry out an independent review into social cohesion and resilience in England. As the Independent Reviewer, she was tasked with examining the negative impact that extremism and other divisive activity was having in local communities and on victims.
The main takeaways from this report are basically what most of us have known all along, but have been discouraged from mentioning, namely that there are divisive and toxic ideologies that are working to undermine our democratic and free society. And while this report focuses specifically on the UK, these problems are not limited to the UK. In fact, it may be even worse in North America.
One of the biggest threats to our social cohesion identified in this report is what the author calls freedom-restricting harassment. She provides several examples of this, but it mainly comes down to what's become known as cancel culture. I know, another shocker. And yes, I still have people telling me that cancel culture doesn't really exist.
I apologize for the disjointed nature of this piece, but the point I'm attempting to make here is that many of the things that are deemed newsworthy today would have been unremarkable a few years ago, but now are supposed to carry great import simply because the right people are saying them.
The only way one could be surprised by the above headlines is if one was totally taken in by the propaganda efforts initially surrounding those topics before those articles came out. And obviously, many were - because many of us are like children who don't know how, or don't have the courage to use our understanding.
One might wonder why it has come to this, but maybe the simplest and most obvious answer is that we're teaching it to our young people.
“This is a fully inclusive and supported space for everyone,” the university’s lead adviser on disability, accessibility, and inclusion wrote in an email that was provided to True North.
“Low/reduced sensory spaces provide customized environments for people to decompress and have much needed breaks from overwhelming sensory input (noise, crowds, smells, lighting), strong emotions, and socializing.”
Is there a better example of how we're training our next generation of leaders to remain children? Obviously these kinds of “safe spaces” are nothing new in our universities, at least not in the last decade or so, but again we’re left wondering what will happen to these students one they're forced out into the real world. Maybe we can stop wondering now because we've seen what happens to them:
They become union leaders advocating for the protection of their members from a solar eclipse because, “if it's not safe for children, then it's not safe for adults.”
They demand legislation to protect them from “online harms” because they don't know how to deal with someone disagreeing with them on any topic.
They perpetuate a burgeoning DEI industry that enforces the idea that they're all victims who require constant support and validation from their superiors in order to function.
They refuse to stand up to tyrannical workplace leadership even when their fellow employees are being publicly mistreated and humiliated by said leadership.
These are real problems that stem from refusing to use our basic understanding of established facts, or from entrusting that understanding to actors with less than pure motives. It seems strange to say it, but this takes courage, and in some cases it takes a lot of courage. Thankfully at least the Brits seem to finally be using their understanding. Hopefully we in the Americas can eventually find the courage to do so as well. And hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.
Sadly, cowardice is a virtue in the current administration. And one has only to look at Bill C63 to see why. Instead of rooting out the bad actors on the internet, the official narrative will prevail. In other words, every Canadian will be subject to draconian punishments if they speak ill of this government. Or if this government gets criticised.