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What’s the biggest threat facing Australia right now?

The obvious threat is China. While their military build up continues at pace and as their ICBMs streak across our skies, we can barely manage to put a single submarine in the water.

Others might argue that out greatest threat is technological.

While the rest of the world is racing to develop robots and drones we continue to make great coffees… provided, of course, you have the requisite 37 government licenses and approvals.

And then there’s the economy which the federal treasurer now says is doing well because, though inflation should be at two percent, it’s only at almost four percent rather than at seven percent.

All of which means, the economy is on the up, not thanks to lower prices but thanks to the government continually lowering the standard by which we define economic success.

While national defence, technological development and economic growth are all major threats to our national well-being, I would argue there’s an even greater peril facing our country.

A threat not talked about nearly so much.

And that threat is the slow erosion of common sense.

Willingly Accepting Contradictions

We now have a populace that is far too accepting of ideas that would have been laughed out of the room only a decade ago.

And those of us who point out the contradictions in modern society, are told that we are the problem for daring to notice them.

Remember George Orwell and his novel 1984?

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

Orwell’s slogans weren’t meant to be persuasive. They were meant to be absurd.

Their purpose was to show how a population can be trained to accept contradictions until reason itself becomes optional.

Well that environment feels increasingly familiar.

Let me give you an example you’ll immediately recognise.

We’re told the measure of a good society is that we judge people not by race or sex, but by their character.

In the same breath, we’re told organisations should fill positions according to race or gender quotas because equal treatment doesn’t result in equality.

It makes sense if you stand on your head while thinking about it.

Or what about this…

When North Is South, and East Is West

We’re warned that words are violence, and that an offensive opinion is a public safety risk.

Yet when protests spill into vandalism or riots, we’re assured that broken windows are merely another form of expression.

It’s almost like the definition of violence depends less on the act than on the politics of the person committing it.

It’s completely reasonable, again, provided you stand on your head while considering it.

Here’s a good one…

We’re told women’s rights are sacred.

And at the exact same time, we are told that men who identify as women should be allowed to use women’s bathrooms, join women’s chat groups and participate in lesbian social groups.

On the one hand we’re continually told to “trust the science” but when it comes to transgenderism we’re told to ignore the science.

And if you point out the absurdity of this, you’re accused of intolerance… and told to stand back on your head.

So here’s the threat.

A society trained to live with contradictions — as we are — eventually loses the ability to recognise contradictions altogether.

A Real Threat: Disappearance of Freedom

Or let me put it another way…

Once people become accustomed to believing two opposing ideas simultaneously, critical thinking doesn’t merely weaken — it becomes completely unnecessary.

And that’s the real danger.

Tyranny doesn’t always arrive wearing jackboots. Sometimes it arrives carrying a diversity policy, a censorship guide and a reassuring smile, insisting that the contradiction isn’t in the system.

It’s in your head.

When governments, corporations and cultural institutions reward conformity and punish independent thought, people eventually stop speaking up.

They begin to repeat what they’re expected to say rather than what they know to be true.

This exactly what George Orwell warned about in 1984.

His fictional regime survived by convincing people to accept contradictions as normal.

And once citizens lose confidence in their own judgement, they become far easier to control.

Australia should never become a country where common sense is treated as extremism and asking reasonable questions is considered dangerous.

Freedom doesn’t disappear because people lose an argument.

It disappears because people stop being allowed to have one.

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Republished with thanks to The James Macpherson Report. Originally titled, “The Most Dangerous Crisis in Australia Isn’t Economic. It’s Intellectual.”.

Image via Adobe.