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The project of modernity is over and the metanarratives have been shuffled out the door, which was promptly slammed shut behind them.

In the postmodern world, there’s no need for those ideas which seek to impose from above dictates that limit, enclose and restrict. Now is the time of freedom, self-expression and individuality. Even those insidious pronouns must now go to the great rubbish tip of controlling ideas – condemned for the crime of imposing an identity unsought, unwanted and undescriptive of a hysterical minority whose shrieks pierce the liberal hearts of those who will dispense with anything that stands in the way of a potential vote – despite the fact that those who shriek loudest are the least likely to impart their largesse upon a besuited mouth of the establishment.

The mass is now dictated to by a very small minority – proving only that metanarratives have switched from being overarching to being undermining.

It has long been recognised that postmodernist ideas are self-refuting – anyone who tells us that the old ideas are outmoded and need replacing with the new is every bit as meta as those narratives they’d have away with. The only reason for getting rid of them, therefore, is to establish one’s own preferred narratives in their place. But, once they are gone, there is nothing preventing every soulless-wonder from seeking the promotion of their own ideas of what should be controlling. Because those who scream injustice at the imposition of a pronoun are doing nothing less than pursuing an agenda of control. By doing so, especially because they are actually being heard, they not only undermine the grand narratives of old, they are destroying Democracy for personal gain. No democracy can survive when the minority overrides the majority for no reason other than their hysterical screaming is louder than the reason of their opponents.

It is time to pause our head-long rush into chaos and consider just what it is that we are giving away.

First among our sacrifices is the very thing the shrieking minority would claim they stand for. Freedom is no permission to bring down the very foundations of society. Quite the opposite – without the structures of society by which to measure, how would one know one is free? I am free precisely because, despite the pressures on me to confirm, I find my own best way to be who I am. I do not need the confirmation of others – if I did, I’d not be free. This is the irony of the dispensing of metanarratives – they may well be an imposition, but they are also the very means by which freedom is measured.

To give what may seem like a counterintuitive example: Jesus of Nazareth was free exactly to the extent the forces of His society tried to prevent Him delivering His message. That he went to the Cross rather than give in to the authorities is the measure of His freedom.

Here’s the rub – the authorities were well within their rights to seek to maintain public order. That is their job, after all.

That Jesus is as known today for His stand against authority as He is for being the Son of God is indicative of His success. Many an atheist can admire the man while disagreeing with His divinity. Now, that is freedom!

Of course, it isn’t really freedom that is being sought by the shrieking minority. That they have adopted the tactics they have is indicative of this. In seeking to impose their feelings upon the rest of us, they demonstrate only that they are too frightened to take responsibility themselves for who they want to be. If they had the confidence of self, there would be no need to resort to the politics of hysteria.

The problem is that life is so easy today. This breeds only the desire for more easiness – and less pain.

Running away from a polar bear may be pointless but it makes sense. Running away from oneself makes no sense whatsoever. But we run in the hope we can escape the pain – little realising, it seems, that however fast, however far, the self is right there when we can run no further – and it’s just as painful as ever it was.

It really shouldn’t matter to you what pronoun I use to address you. As the old adage goes, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Well, of course they do, but they only do lasting damage to those who have no sense of themselves with which to erect all those walls we need to defend, hide behind and patrol constantly if we are to maintain any sense of self.

The shrieking minority do not believe the self is something worth fighting for. They want it given to them. Which, of course, makes it completely useless. Of no use to anyone.

Those metanarratives that the postmodernists so blithely did away with were the only measure we had by which to gauge our success in the finding of our best self. Without them, we are greatly reduced. Is it any wonder that we have no great leaders in the world today? We have no one who has had to test themself against the brickbats of that which is greater than they are. And when we believe there is nothing greater than ourselves, we have descended into the deepest mediocrity!

(Image credit: ‘Everything is Real Except God and Death’ by George J Harding)