St George in Retirement Syndrome

“In some ways the debate around the Trans question is the most suggestive of all. Although the newest of the rights questions also affects by far the FEWEST number of people, it is nevertheless fought over with an almost unequalled ferocity and rage. 

• It affects ALMOST NO-ONE 

• Women who have got on the wrong side of the issue have been hounded by people who used to be men. 

• Parents who voice what was common belief until yesterday have their fitness to be parents questioned. 

• In the UK and elsewhere the police make calls on people who will not concede that men can be women (and vice versa).

Among the things these issues all have in common is that they have started as legitimate human rights campaigns. This is why they have come so far. 

But at some point all went through the crash barrier. Not content with being equal, they have started to settle on unsustainable positions such as ‘better’. 

Some might counter that the aim is simply to spend a certain amount of time on ‘better’ in order to level the historical playing field. 

In the wake of the #MeToo movement it became common to hear such sentiments. As one CNN presenter said, ‘There might be an over-correction, but that’s OK. We’re due for a correction.’

To date nobody has suggested when over-correction might have been achieved or who might be TRUSTED to announce it. 

What everyone DOES know are the things that people will be called if their foot even nicks against these freshly laid tripwires. 

‘Bigot’, ‘homophobe’, ‘sexist’, ‘misogynist’, ‘racist’ and ‘transphobe’ are just for starters. 

The rights fights of our time have centred around these toxic and explosive issues. But in the process these rights issues have moved from being a product of a system to being the foundations of a new one. 

To demonstrate affiliation with the system people must prove their credentials and their commitment. How might somebody demonstrate virtue in this new world? 

• By being ‘anti-racist’, clearly. 

• By being an ‘ally’ to LGBT people, obviously. 

• By stressing how ardent your desire is – whether you are a man or a woman – to bring down the patriarchy. 

And this creates an AUDITIONING PROBLEM, where public avowals of loyalty to The System must be volubly made whether there is a need for them or not. 

It is an extension of a well-known problem in liberalism which has been recognized even among those who DID once fight a noble fight. It is a tendency identified by the late Australian political philosopher Kenneth Minogue as ‘St George in retirement’ syndrome. 

After slaying the dragon the brave warrior finds himself stalking the land looking for still more glorious fights. He NEEDS his dragons. 

Eventually, after tiring himself out in pursuit of ever-smaller dragons he may eventually even be found swinging his sword at thin air, imagining it to contain dragons.

If that is a temptation for an actual St George, imagine what a person might do who is NO saint, owns NO horse or lance and is being noticed by NOBODY. 

How might they try to persuade people that, given the historic chance, they too would without question have slain that dragon....?”