Clarity

 "Grant us a right judgement in all these things".

Book of Common Prayer.

Summer in England comes this year with a most welcome extended bank holiday. 

A visit to London during the jubilee celebrations amidst gorgeous weather allowed me to encounter the relish amongst the crowds for something good, something necessary, in respect to coming together and seeking an identity that meant validating the moment in respect to a genuine connection and celebration of what ratifies us. No doubt some of these expectations and aspirations were mis-placed, or beyond what was possible, but it was certainly understandable after the events of the last few years.

All of this was actually peripheral to my visit. Aside from enjoying a return to one of my favourite galleries to renew an acquaintance with the Pre Raphaelites, I was able to make a first trip to the Imperial War Museum and whilst there, encounter the 'weight' of their current exhibition on the Holocaust.

What I encountered there was one of my most sobering experiences, not only because of the history that unfolds, but, as I shall come on to, the ramifications of what is said there in respect to the present cultural turmoil.

If you are able, you should certainly visit this presentation.

The exhibit begins by entirely humanising those who would be come so maligned, so victimised, by a pernicious indeed deadly ideology. As you wander amidst the scant artefacts and photographs of these people, you realise that what was about to be destroyed was the very richness of human life - the very 'normality' of what defines people who were merely, like the crowds in London this weekend, looking to live in a fashion that valued what allows us to genuinely enrich each other - to begin to cherish what is good and true, and thereby grow in the deeper riches of our being made in the divine image.

The second section introduces the forces which arose that would facilitate the demonising of the people we had just encountered.

Whilst I was a tad disappointed here - not in what was said, but on a few important omissions (in respect to some of those behind National Socialism), the message comes across loud and clear - when you have a major cultural "force" which is seeking to perpetuate itself by imposing a terrible lie upon us, then we are on the cusp of something far more horrifying - a poison that will kill what is good in our society, and turns us into persons that not only accept evil but demolish what we actually must hold onto if we are to continue to be persons as opposed to drones of a vile ideology.

What comes next is the real shock.

The 'engine' that gave real push to the National Socialist initiative was that there was a definable "scientific", vital distinction between one group (those defined as viable 'persons')  and another group (deemed subhuman) amongst them. The realm of Eugenics (which, by the way, hasn't gone away), provided the vehicle by which a society could justify the coming extinction of millions. One poster in this room  -similar in theme to this one, from the American eugenic project -

-spoke of how just one "man" with "bad hereditary" was responsible for siring numerous 'degenerate' offspring. The obvious conclusion was then brought to bear - the kindest treatment to be employed was the eradication of such "non" persons, clinically, methodically, so that 'true' persons could then flourish in respect of their full potential.

Such notions facilitated the creation of a social 'wedge' - a political movement that slowly but surely gained the momentum to allow it leaders to force their way into government and dictatorship.

The results, as the exhibit and history reveal, were the content of nightmares.

Given where I started, this may appear to be a peculiar place to conclude on such a 'bright' weekend, but the actual context of our moment in 2022 bears very troubling similarities to those events of nearly a century ago.

We are now emerging from a moment where large numbers of people in modern democracies were recently stripped of most of their basic civil rights because they made the personal choice not to participate in the use of an experimental medical procedure involving materials which, it is now becoming clear, may have widespread detrimental effects for decades to come. Such people have become defined as misfits by our society, which is most certainly caught in a moment where such unjustified control and punishment could easily become commonplace as an acceptable norm.

What the last two years reveal is that those who employ and implement power have learned nothing in respect to the folly and danger of human nature when it holds such an office, or the monstrous consequences to those who must suffer beneath such an evil.

We need more than just a recognition of these truths. As Neil Oliver touches on in the conclusion of this interview, we need a 'clothing' of our thinking that returns us once more to the truly transcendent, for it is only when we are so clothed, by the health unique to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that we can truly begin to become whole once again.