"Racism in science is endemic because the systems that produce and teach scientific knowledge have, for centuries, misrepresented, marginalized and mistreated people of colour and under-represented communities. The research system has justified racism — and, too often, scientists in positions of power have benefited from it. That system includes the organization of research: how it is funded, published and evaluated." Source: Nature.
Comment: Nature, one of the most prestigious science journals in the world, has been corrupted by the ideological poison of critical race theory which has been spreading through western institutions like a bad case of gangrene. The journal recently announced that it was starting an internship restricted to black candidates only in an effort to "expose and tackle racism in science by publishing more research, commentary and journalism about racism and racial injustice" and to "forge stronger connections with communities of black researchers". The fact that this is blatant racial discrimination doesn't bother the "anti-racists" on the journal's editorial staff, who seem to think that there are armies of black researchers out there who have been unjustly barred from publishing by the journal's own inherent racism. This is all meaningless virtue-signalling, of course, but never mind that. If Nature's editorial staff are as racist as they say they are, then they should all just resign.
Novelist Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen runs a YouTube channel and website devoted to Viking life, bushcraft, hiking, camping, the Norwegian wilderness and related topics.
A horrifying example of the way systemic racism was running rampant at Princeton back in 2019.
"Princeton University will no longer require students to take Latin or ancient Greek to earn a classics degree, a change that comes as part of a larger effort by the school 'to address systemic racism' on campus." Source: Breitbart (May 30, 2021).
"Princeton faculty in April approved the elimination of the Classic’s Department’s 'classics track,' which required students to have an intermediate proficiency in one of the two languages before entering the track, and approved removing the requirement that students take either language as part of the major, according to a May issue of Princeton’s alumni magazine.
"Classics professor Josh Billings, the director for undergraduate studies, said faculty believe the change will improve the Classics Department because it will add 'new perspectives' to it."
News report (2020) exposes a secret meeting of white supremacists in New England.
Comment: Up until now, the Princeton classics department was considered to be one of the top programs in the world, but that's about to change. Getting rid of Latin and Greek requirements for a classics degree is like dropping the requirement that math majors learn calculus (or any kind of math at all). It's insane, an act of academic suicide, but the Princeton faculty think the change will be worthwhile because it will "add new perspectives" -- presumably the perspectives of classics majors who are incapable of reading the source material in their field of study.
This is all about addressing the "systemic racism" which has supposedly infected Princeton since it was founded in 1746. People of color, etc., are apparently too stupid to learn ancient Greek or Latin so the only way for the university to meet its "equity" quotas is to dumb down the program enough for everybody to get in (though why anybody would want to is another question). The Classics Department claims, bizarrely, that they haven't wavered in their commitment to teaching ancient languages even though that's exactly what they're doing. Their justification for dropping the language requirements is a typical example of meaningless, left-wing jargon:
"We believe that an approach based on inclusion and persuasion will be more effective in encouraging language study than one based on compulsion. We are confident in the appeal and excitement that the study of Ancient Greek and Latin hold, and see our changes as a means of growing the field (including the study of languages) by removing barriers to entry."
I read that statement several times and I'm still not sure what it means. As far as I can tell, the Department has decided to let anybody in and then try to "persuade" them to study Greek and Latin once they've been "included" in the program. If the students don't feel like putting in the effort, it won't matter, though, because Greek and Latin are just going to be electives from now on, I guess. I'm not sure how Princeton can grow a field like the study of languages by dropping the language requirements, but never mind that. I never went to Princeton so I guess I'm too stupid to understand the subtleties of their reasoning.
The bottom line here is that the virtue-signaling faculty at Princeton are screwing their students. After all, what good is a classics degree -- or any kind of degree -- if the program has been dumbed down so much that anybody can get into the field? And eliminating the language requirements isn't going to attract any more nonwhites into the classics. In fact, I expect enrollment in the program to decline precipitously after this moronic decision. If the Princeton classics department survives another ten years it will be a miracle.
White supremacists address a group of Princeton classics students who were no longer required to learn Latin.
Note: The collapse of the Minoan civilization is often attributed to an explosive volcanic eruption that occurred on the island of Thera around 1600 BC. There's no question that the devastation caused by this eruption played a large role in the fall of Minoa, but it appears that the situation may have been more complex than that:
"Many archaeologists believe that the eruption triggered a crisis, making the Minoans vulnerable to conquest by the Mycenaeans. According to Sinclair Hood, the Minoans were most likely conquered by an invading force. Although the civilization's collapse was aided by the Thera eruption, its ultimate end came from conquest. Archaeological evidence suggests that the island was destroyed by fire, with the palace at Knossos receiving less damage than other sites on Crete. Since natural disasters are not selective, the uneven destruction was probably caused by invaders who would have seen the usefulness of preserving a palace like Knossos for their own use. Several authors have noted evidence that Minoan civilization had exceeded its environmental carrying capacity, with archaeological recovery at Knossos indicating deforestation in the region near the civilization's later stages." (Wikipedia)
"The grand metropolises of 21st Century civilisation will leave a geological legacy that will last for millennia, but as the author David Farrier writes, some things will endure far longer than others." Source: BBC .
"... France boasts a glorious and splendid Catholic legacy -- from the iconic Notre Dame cathedral in Paris to its status as one of the first countries to adopt Catholicism as its official religion. In fact, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in the year 800, France’s history became inseparable from that of the Catholic Church." Source: International Business Times (2013).
It's hard to overestimate the importance of Catholicism in French history. "Established in the 2nd century in unbroken communion with the bishop of Rome, [the country] is sometimes called the 'eldest daughter of the church.'" (Wikipedia) The church has been in decline for years, however. At one time the vast majority of the French population were Catholics, but that's not the case anymore. According to the IBT, only about 1 in 20 people regularly attended mass in France (back in 2013), a major demographic collapse.
The church isn't just losing people; it's shrinking physically. The Catholic News Agency reported this year that "one religious building is disappearing in France every two weeks." Some of these churches are being demolished or converted to mosques. Others collapsed, presumably from old age or neglect, while others burned down (it turns out that "two-thirds of fires in religious buildings are due to arson"). And some churches have simply been abandoned. The next video (2019), for instance, shows an abandoned church somewhere in France.
It looks like someone has been taking care of this church to some extent.
Catholicism is in decline, but evangelical churches are spreading rapidly in France. According to Evangelical Focus (2021), "Historian expert in Protestantism Sébastian Fath has issued the new data as of 2021 which confirm the shift of Protestant Christianity in France. In the decade of the 1960s, only one in ten Protestants identified as evangelical Christians. Now, more than half of Protestants attend a free evangelical church."
Report from 2019.
Protestantism has been in decline across Europe for some time now, but the situation seems to be different in France for some reason. According to Wikipedia, "a new Evangelical church is built every 10 days and now counts 700,000 followers across France." Protestants still only make up around three per cent of the French population, however. The bigger story here is the collapse of Christianity and religious belief in general in the West.
"Christianity, specifically Catholicism, remains the dominant religion in the Republic of Ireland. In the 2016 census, 85.1% of the population identified as Christian. However recent social changes ... have solidified the growth of liberal thinking in Ireland, particularly within the younger community. An Irish priest, Fr. Kevin Hegarty ... reported that there is only one priest under the age of 40 in the entire diocese of Killala; only two priests have been ordained over the last 17 years, and there have been no candidates for the priesthood since 2013 ... A continued requirement for children entering Irish Catholic owned schools to be baptized keeps the overall level of baptisms high, though the number of individuals practicing a faith or attending church is at an all-time low and rapidly decreasing." (Wikipedia)
Video from 2016.
Comment: If you ask me, the dramatic decline in religious belief which has been occurring in Ireland is more apparent than real. In a country where being a Catholic and being Irish were considered to be one and the same thing, where 90 percent of the population went to church every week, most people probably called themselves Catholics just to fit in with their community. In other words, they were Catholics because it was traditional to be a Catholic and their faith never went much deeper than that. Once the social pressure to conform let up, they simply dropped out altogether.
There are a lot of factors involved in the decline of Catholicism -- the aging out of congregations, church scandals, the spread of secularism, the liberalization of church doctrine, etc. etc. -- but I would also argue that Ireland was never all that religious in the first place. Being a Catholic and being "religious" in the sense that you actually believe in Christianity and church dogma are two completely different things. The sex-abuse scandals and their subsequent coverup turned people against the church, obviously, but the picture is more complex than that. One way or another, what we are seeing now is a kind of shake-out process where the true state of the Catholic faith is being revealed.
Whatever the reason, a lot of people in Ireland stopped going to church altogether. That's one trend. The faithful remnant -- the true believers, so to speak -- have also been turning to more "vibrant" evangelical-style denominations which feature lots of singing and swaying and musical stage performances that make their services seem more like tent-revivals than anything else. When it comes to the Catholic church in particular and Christianity in general, the current situation is best summed up in a 1994 book called The Dark Side: Thoughts on the Futility of Life from the Ancient Greeks to the Present:
"Philosophy has argued itself out of existence. Theologies? Devotees either adopt a defiant fundamentalism or abandon the spiritual life altogether."
"It seems that there was a war leader, whose name we do not know, who defeated the Saxons, checking their advance temporarily ... Eventually the name Arthur adhered to this folk memory, and his list of accomplishments grew. Arthur is in many ways greater because we do not know the truth ..." Source: Britain Express.
"The real Arthur may have been a man named Ambrosius Aurelianus, or perhaps his war leader, who defeated the Saxons in a major battle we know as Mount Badon ... halting their advance for as long as forty years. In the end, however, the superior might and numbers of the Saxons and their allies were too much for the islanders, and Arthur's efforts became little more than a historical footnote. A terrifically romantic and exciting footnote though, for Arthur and his deeds were woven like a silk thread into the fabric of myth and legend in which Celtic storytellers delight."
Did a King Arthur actually exist? As mentioned above, various attempts have been made to connect the legendary king with actual historical figures. For instance, according to a 1998 Archaeology story, "possible evidence of the existence of Arthur, the legendary warrior king, has been found at Tintagel in Cornwall. A Cornish slate with sixth-century engravings was found in July on the eastern terraces of Tintagel on the edge of a cliff overlooking the place traditionally known as Merlin's Cave [see next video for more on Merlin]. It was discovered under broken pottery and glass from the late sixth or seventh centuries during the re-excavations of an area last dug in the 1930s." The evidence here consists of a Latin inscription which may refer to Arthur.
Tintagel is only one of the Arthurian locations proposed over the years. Historic UK has a list of places that have been associated with Camelot, though the consensus is that the legends are entirely fictional. That could be true, but these stories must have come from somewhere. "The King Arthur we know is one of romance, ephemera and myth," according to the Independent (2010). "But is he real? Arthur has been in and out of fashion more than denim: one year his veracity is being argued by every archaeologist in Britain, the next he's ignored or derided."
Video from 2016.
Maybe I'm just a hopeless Romantic, but I like to think that King Arthur actually existed. Despite its implausibility there's a fair amount of documentary evidence to support the idea:
"One school of thought, citing entries in the Historia Brittonum (History of the Britons) and Annales Cambriae (Welsh Annals), sees Arthur as a genuine historical figure, a Romano-British leader who fought against the invading Anglo-Saxons some time in the late 5th to early 6th century." (Wikipedia)
"The Historia Brittonum, a 9th-century Latin historical compilation attributed in some late manuscripts to a Welsh cleric called Nennius, contains the first datable mention of King Arthur, listing twelve battles that Arthur fought. These culminate in the Battle of Badon, where he is said to have single-handedly killed 960 men. Recent studies, however, question the reliability of the Historia Brittonum."
Note: I really doubt if King Arthur killed 960 men in battle, but it would be interesting to know how Nennius came up with that specific number, assuming, that is, that the 9th century Welsh monk actually wrote the Historia Brittonum. Some authorities believe he compiled the book from various older sources.
"The other text that seems to support the case for Arthur's historical existence is the 10th-century Annales Cambriae, which also link Arthur with the Battle of Badon. The Annales date this battle to 516–518, and also mention the Battle of Camlann, in which Arthur and Medraut (Mordred) were both killed, dated to 537–539. These details have often been used to bolster confidence in the Historia's account and to confirm that Arthur really did fight at Badon."
The most well-known account of the Arthurian legend is Le Morte d'Arthur, first published in 1485 and written by Sir Thomas Malory, whoever he was. Several candidates with the same name exist, but he was most likely Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel, a soldier, former MP and possible "thief, bandit, kidnapper, and rapist," said to have written the book using French and English sources while he was being held prisoner during the Wars of the Roses.
"Marcus Aurelius Mausaeus Valerius Carausius (died 293) was a military commander of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. He was a Menapian from Belgic Gaul, who usurped power in 286, during the Carausian Revolt, declaring himself emperor in Britain and northern Gaul (Imperium Britanniarum). He did this only 13 years after the Gallic Empire of the BatavianPostumus was ended in 273. He held power for seven years, fashioning the name 'Emperor of the North' for himself, before being assassinated by his finance minister Allectus." (Wikipedia)
Note: Carausius, a Roman naval commander, was driven to revolt by accusations of treason which may or may not have been justified. According to the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, he "was stationed by the emperor Maximian at Gessoriacum (Bononia, Boulogne) to protect the coasts and channel from Frankish and Saxon pirates. He at first acted energetically, but was subsequently accused of having entered into partnership with the barbarians and was sentenced to death by the emperor. Carausius thereupon crossed over to Britain and proclaimed himself an independent ruler. The legions at once joined him; numbers of Franks enlisted in his service; an increased and well-equipped fleet secured him the command of the neighbouring seas..."
Carausius had some success at first, beating off an attempted invasion by Maximian and forcing the emperor to acknowledge his rule in Britain, but his reign only lasted around seven years before he was overthrown himself in a pattern that was to become all too typical of the last centuries of the western Roman empire:
The rule of Carausius "continued until 293, when Constantius Chlorus (Constantius I), now the western Caesar, marched into Gaul and reclaimed it for the empire. He isolated Carausius by besieging the port of Gesoriacum ... and invading Batavia in the Rhine delta, securing his rear against Carausius's Frankish allies. He could not yet mount an invasion of Britain until a suitable fleet could be built. Nevertheless, Carausius's grip on power was fatally undermined. Allectus, whom he had put in charge of his treasury, assassinated him and assumed power himself. His reign would last only three years, after which he was defeated and killed by Constantius' subordinate Julius Asclepiodotus." (Wikipedia)
And around and around it went, the instability growing until the barbarians eventually overran the West.
"Amid apocalyptic scenes on 18 April, fire tore through part of the 200-year-old university’s campus on the slopes of Table Mountain, torching the library building and destroying a plant research unit."
Comment: The Jagger Library, named after the British politician and businessman John William Jagger, a major benefactor of the UCT libraries in the early 1900s, held thousands of irreplaceable books and manuscripts, including the first Xhosa-language dictionary, compiled by the Scottish missionary, John Bennies, in 1823, and copies of the first Xhosa-language newspapers published by missionaries in the 1870s.
According to early reports, the blaze which engulfed the library may have been started by a cooking fire which got out of control. Cape Town apparently has a major problem with homeless people sleeping on the streets and in the surrounding countryside. It now looks like the blaze was intentionally set, however. According to Cape Town's Eyewitness News, one man was arrested six days ago after authorities received reports that several people were moving through the bush, starting fires.