One Thing Leads To Another

Wednesday, October 1, 2025

First of all – Pray for the Philippines.  Major earthquake – at least 69 dead.  The fact that I cannot find this story on “the front page” of major newspapers as of this writing is shameful.  If the Beeb has it, the world has it.  I know it is early in the morning, but don’t these big papers have any night staff?  Or do they just not care?  Either way, it is a sign of the self-absorption that possesses this nation that I was going to write about this morning anyway.

The spate of violence in which we find ourselves did not simply pop up out of nowhere.  And granted, the killers in each instance are suffering mental difficulties of one sort or another.  But even mental illness expresses in a fashion that is somehow strangely appropriate for the social milieu in which it resides.  This violence is social commentary of a sort, all other factors notwithstanding.

My mother’s brother was originally diagnosed with what would now be called “bipolar schizophrenia” in the 1960’s.  He lived, mostly out of institutions, but occasionally in them, until well into the 2000’s.  My family was burdened with his care for many, many years.  I watched him, and in the end cared for him, for most of my life.  Over those decades, the crazy was always there, but its expressed itself many different ways over those decades and the changing expression was always linked to what was happening in the world.  From greeting the First Infantry Division on its return from Vietnam in a white dinner jacket with a ferret in the pocket in the 60’s to fisticuffs with his then wife in the 1990’s – the crazy sought an outlet driven by its environment.

We have to ask ourselves what it is in our general social climate right now that is causing the crazy to express itself violently?

I encountered a couple of stories in the last 24 hours that have me thinking along these lines.  The first looks at secondary and tertiary effects stemming from the school closures during covid and ends up cursing teachers unions.  We all like to think covid came and went without lasting consequence, but we fool ourselves.  It was a time of mass hysteria in which, data was ignored, debate was squelched and reason was completely jettisoned.  While public health officials worked very hard to control us, they only succeeded because the vast majority of us were a little too willing to consume the nonsense they were offering.

I find this excerpt from the article fascinating:

Consider the children who lacked engaged parents during lockdowns, left to navigate a hostile cultural landscape alone. While some of us fought to keep our children grounded, most families trusted the system. That system betrayed them. I recently spent time with parents whose children have “transitioned” to different genders. These parents were devastated. Their children, teenagers during school closures, were isolated without teachers or peers. Still, online communities of transgender activists were accessible, welcoming vulnerable young people: “You’re different, you’re unique. Come join us.”

One mother, educated and affluent, described torment. Two of her children transitioned, and a third struggled to maintain relationships with siblings whose identities had been transformed. Activist networks enveloped these vulnerable children, offering constant affirmation. When her son expressed doubt — “Mom, maybe I’m not a woman after all” — activists reassured him, “You are your authentic self.” With only his parents offering alternatives, the family was fractured. She asked in anguish, “How did they take our children?”

At least some of the violence under which we suffer is rooted in gender identity confusion – and here we see some of that confusion rooted in the covid shutdowns.  Which brings me to the second article.  The article is easily dismissed as “typical Christian bigotry” as it attempts to point out in very evangelical speech patterns some of the long term affects of Obergefell.  Again, we do not seem to want to talk about that subject.  But at some point we have to consider it.

At a minimum, same-sex marriage makes for a much more confusing and bewildering world when it comes to human relationship and social structure.  From such confusion and bewilderment can grow the crazy.  It is remarkably difficult to make sense of a world where the social order clearly defies biological realities.

The closures of covid were, in no small part, born of a selfish desire to not have to work so hard.  Same-sex marriage is an expression of self-absorption for those souls that find themselves outside the norm.  Both issues have, at least in some part, contributed to the spate of violence we are currently experiencing.  Maybe it is time we looked at things we don’t really want to look at.  The stakes are growing increasingly higher.