This week the entire Greens party walked out of the Senate in protest while weakly holding their fists in the air and shouting “Free Palestine”. The Greens offer one-sided criticism of Israel even though the opponents of Israel (like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood) would punish many Greens members in line with Sharia Law.
It is like the Greens are using a distorted version of Groucho Marx’s famous quip. The Greens seem to only want to join a club that would not have them as a member.
But if only it was just the Greens that lack gratitude for the free and prosperous country we have inherited. Right across our universities, media and politics there are Australians ashamed of the club they are a member of.
We are all members of a country that has been built on Judeo-Christian values. These values have become so entwined in our society that we do not even realise what a unique society they have created.
The Old Testament taught that man was created in God’s image and each individual human being had inherent value. The New Testament taught that “there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
These concepts changed the world. Because of their radical beliefs Christians led the charge to abolish slavery. They created free and democratic societies. And you do not need to believe in Christ to share and see the positive impact of these changes.
The unleashing of individual enterprise helped create the industrial revolution which has made our societies the most prosperous in human history.
Those alive today inherited this fortune yet many of us seem intent on destroying the environment that created it. The self-hatred of the Greens is only one small manifestation of this trend.
More grave challenges involve the destruction of the family unit, the prohibition on using our own energy resources and the elevation of freedom over responsibility.
A new organisation has been formed over the past year to defend the foundations of our civilisation. The Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (or ARC for short) held its inaugural conference in London last week and I was one of over 100 Australians to attend.
ARC was the brainchild of Jordan Peterson, Baroness Philippa Stroud and Australia’s former Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson. A year ago I met Jordan when he came to Australia and he told me of this new idea to fight for the values that have made our civilisation great.
Their first conference was a great success and not just because of the rockstar lineup of speakers. The greater value was the coming together of over 1500 people from 72 different countries.
Given that an ideology of self-hatred has captured the commanding heights of our society, it can feel lonely in the valley when you think differently from our betters.
When you start talking to others though you begin to realise that most do not believe that they are morally superior to their grandparents. Most do not want to apologise for our past while living off the fruits of it. Most do not want to hand over our industrial strength to authoritarian regimes while we engage in a futile attempt to change the temperature of the globe by eating bugs. Most agree that kids do best when they can enjoy a loving Mum and Dad in their lives and it is not wrong to seek to promote that.
The world will not change because of one conference but groups of people can. It is not yet time to walk out on our society. Our civilisation is worth fighting for. There is no point walking out like the Greens if nothing else because there is no better place in the world to walk to.
