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In this interview, John Anderson talks with Mary Harrington, who shares her journey from radical leftist and non-conformist, to discovering fulfilment in embracing traditional societal expectations.

She offers commentary on elitism and the current state of democracy, arguing that its current form fails to represent the will of the masses. This, she suggests, is due to their diminishing leverage over the ruling class in the modern age.

Mary Harrington is a contributing editor at UnHerd. She writes on Substack at Reactionary Feminist, and tweets as @moveincircles. Feminism Against Progress (Regnery, 25 April 2023) is her first book.

Mary’s grandmother once advised her to ‘grow her hair and get married!’ Perhaps this was the best advice she had ever been given. She did!

The idea of the ‘normal nuclear family’ is ridiculed by the ‘right’ (the Conservative Party, in the UK). What hope then have those who feel that this is the best recipe for raising healthy, well-balanced children? No wonder the ‘far right’ is growing across the Western world.

In a shaft of light, Mary explained why the suffragettes did so well after World War I. So many men had been slaughtered in the Great War, that women simply had to be given the opportunities previously the preserve of only males. They had leverage. Mary fully supported original feminism.

However, for today’s feminism, Mary politely mounted argument upon argument as to why it’s bad for women, why it’s bad for society and most importantly, why it’s bad for children.

Progress?

There was a great discussion about the origins of the idea of ‘progress’. Our society, based on the Judaeo-Christian tradition has, built into our culture, the salvation story. God created us, we fell, we were offered a saviour in Jesus Christ; He is coming back in the last days, and ultimately, there will be a new heaven and a new earth. In other words, everyone’s journey can be seen as a ‘progress’ towards ‘heaven on earth’.

Mary then pointed out that man has bought the progress goal and said: he can bring about progress without God. And that this is the ultimate error that will bring about the collapse of our civilisation if we let it.

Returning to Mary’s grandmothers’ advice, to ‘grow her hair and get married!’, Mary talked about today’s ‘dating app’ generations. She said that the simplicity and accessibility of ‘alternatives’ simply means that today’s women aren’t expected to compromise and work it out with the ‘one’. Rather today, feminism encourages them to ‘move on’ to the ‘next one’.

Mary talked at length about the experience of bringing her first child into the world:

Why are mothers always marginalised? One in four babies in the US are put into daycare at two weeks, I think this is barbarous. (Mary, 1hr 3 min)

This is no way to care for the most vulnerable in society, the newborn, the ones with no voice. Mary felt that for mothers to go back to work after a year (typical in the UK), is too early. She feels it should be no sooner than after 18 months.

Science Experiments

The discussion ended on the topic of ‘transhumanism’, the welding of biotechnology with our unique God-given DNA. Mary reported that the Japanese have engineered mice from entirely male mice DNA. As you can imagine, this has raised the expectations for male same-sex couples to have their ‘own’ children.

Children will pay the price for this quest for freedom. Who are the most vulnerable in this context? It’s always the babies. (Mary, 1hr 15 min)

John reflected on the potential horrific ‘mistakes’ that will no doubt accompany transhumanism experimentation:

True freedom is never licence. (John, 1hr 16 min)

I have long admired John’s selection of interviewees. He doesn’t agree with everything they say, but there is always a lesson to be learned. For example, Mary Harrington admitted to having had a Christian faith, that she has now lost. I don’t think that this need minimise any of her observations. I would argue it equips us to better understand our world, so that we can go out and be salt and light everywhere we go.