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Maiden Mother Matriarch with Louise Perry
The sins of the cognitive elite | Maiden Mother Matriarch 177
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Charles Murray is a political scientist best known for his work on intelligence, socioeconomics, and the American welfare state. In books including 'Losing Ground' (1984), 'The Bell Curve' (1994), and 'Coming Apart' (2012), Murray has offered an interpretation of the world that foregrounds the role of genetic luck in social outcomes. A lot of people dislike this interpretation, to put it mildly. But I'm convinced by the evidence that genetic luck is important, and that we can't ignore this factor when trying to make sense of the world.
One profound problem that we face in the twenty-first century derives from the fact that unusually intelligent people – i.e. people who have lucked out in terms of both their genetics and their environments – are often very bad at understanding how others experience the world. Murray describes a process we've undergone since the end of the Second World War whereby a new cognitive elite has become increasingly isolated – socially and geographically – from the rest of society. This distance encourages feelings of contempt towards people further down the class system, who in turn feel anger at the ways in which they are misgoverned by an elite that feels no sense of noblesse oblige. The result has been bitter political polarisation – one of the many subjects that we discuss in today's episode.
Find ad-free and bonus episodes of the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast at louiseperry.substack.com.
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Taking the culture war seriously | Maiden Mother Matriarch 181
01:18:56|Give the gift of everyday luxury and make every moment comfortable. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code COZYMMM for 20% off sitewide. And if you get a Post-Purchase Survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth at the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast.My guest today is George Owers, historian and author of a new book, 'The Rage of Party: How Whig Versus Tory Made Modern Britain.' Owers traces our contemporary culture war back to the end of the seventeenth century, when the conflict between Whigs and Tories was the central drama of English politics. One side was isolationist, opposed to immigration, and preferred a small state. The other was open to the rest of the world, and had ambitious plans for tax rises and state expansion. The two sides differed on the role of religion in public life, and on which ideas and symbols ought to be considered sacred. Does any of this sound familiar? Owers argues that we are still seeing this drama play out, not just in England but across the Anglosphere. Our political conflicts are still theological conflicts, and they are surpassingly important.
The nature of women's activism
20:25|In this bonus episode, RobHenderson and I discussed the shooting of Renee Good and the role of women in political activism. Discussed in the episode:My WSJ column on Mamdani and communism. Paper on infant psychology and egalitarianism. Amy Chua book on violence against market-dominant minorities. Emmeline Pankhurst photo
Work fit for a goddess | Maiden Mother Matriarch Episode 180
01:07:18|Give the gift of everyday luxury and make every moment comfortable. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code COZYMMM for 20% off sitewide. And if you get a Post-Purchase Survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth at the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast. "So powerful, in fact, is simple string in taming the world to human will and ingenuity that I suspect it to be the unseen weapon that allowed the human race to conquer the earth." That's a quote from 'Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years', Elizabeth Wayland Barber's landmark contribution to archeology, recently re-published in the form of a 30th anniversary edition. Wayland-Barber argues that the creation of string, and later of weaving, was one of the most crucial innovations in human history. And it was the work of women. Up until really very recently in human history, the creation of textiles was an extraordinarily time consuming and important aspect of women's daily lives. If we had not undergone the 'string revolution', we would not have been able to keep ourselves warm in cold weather, to use textiles for hunting, and to develop various complex tools essential for human survival. It's no wonder that spinning and weaving have such a central role in mythology. Today we examine the ancient connection between spinning thread and creating life. For ad-free and bonus episodes of the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast go to louiseperry.substack.com.
The wisdom of looksmaxxing
18:42|In this bonus episode, Meghan Murphy and I discussed the online community of young men making every effort to improve their appearances.Discussed in the episode:Clavicular in conversation with Michael KnowlesOlly Murs photosDocumentary on sperm donor, ‘The Man with 1000 Kids’
The age that abandoned reason | Maiden Mother Matriarch Episode 179
01:18:34|The Medieval period is sometimes described as the ‘Age of Faith.’ This was a world in which the church dominated every area of life and it was almost impossible to think outside of Christianity.It was succeeded, of course, by the ‘Age of Reason’, a period in which Enlightenment thinkers placed an extremely high premium on rational inquiry.Which era are we living in now? Robert P. George suggests that we have entered an ‘Age of Feelings’, in which people derive their beliefs from emotion, which is now understood as the central source of truth.He makes this case in his new book, ‘Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth: Law and Morality in Our Cultural Moment.’ Robert P. George is a highly esteemed legal scholar and political philosopher, once described in The New York Times as America’s “most influential conservative Christian thinker.” Today we discuss faith, reason, abortion, same sex marriage, repaganisation, and more.MMM is sponsored by Cozy Earth. Get a 40% discount at cozyearth.com/maiden or use the code COZYMMM, and in the post-purchase survey let them know you came from the podcast!
Two tier Keir
22:30|In this bonus episode, I spoke with Nina Power about the scandal regarding Egyptian dissident Alaa Abd El Fattah and the degraded legitimacy of the British state. Mentioned in the episode:Telegraph reporting on Abd El Fattah Lucy Connolly interviewMan jailed over anti-immigrant posts viewed only 33 timesSteve Laws speaks to Andrew GoldEmployers to be made liable for staff being offended by third parties, such as customers or members of the publicElectoral Commission condemns postponement of council electionsLabour councillor acquitted of encouraging violent unrest
The lost generation
21:28|In this bonus episode, I spoke with Rob Henderson about Jacob Savage's viral article in Compact on discrimination against white men in creative industries. Discussed in the episode:'The lost generation' - Compact Magazine'The vanishing white male writer' - Compact Magazine'The vanishing' - Tablet Magazine'The Daily' episode on media trust
The gay rights movement got it wrong - Julie Bindel, Matthew Vines & Ronan McCrea | Maiden Mother Matriarch Episode 177
01:18:46|Give the gift of everyday luxury and make every moment comfortable. Head to cozyearth.com and use my code COZYMMM for 20% off sitewide. And if you get a Post-Purchase Survey, be sure to mention you heard about Cozy Earth at the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast.MMM is sponsored by 321 - a new online introduction to Christianity, presented by former MMM guest Glen Scrivener. Check it out for free at 321course.com/MMM. Just enter your email, choose a password and you’re in — there’s no spam and no fees. We have seen an extraordinary change in attitudes towards gay and lesbian people over the last half century in the West. Within living memory, homosexuality was criminalised. Now, same-sex couples can get married and share custody of children. This is nothing short of a moral revolution. Plenty of progressives think, not only that this change was inevitable, but also that further liberalisation is inevitable. My guests today are not so sure. They note that, for the first time in a long time, younger people on average are less accepting of homosexuality than are slightly older people. Perhaps this is a result of immigration patterns. Perhaps it's a result of strategic errors made by activists. I'm joined by three people who all agree that something has gone wrong, although they disagree – subtly – on exactly how and why. Ronan McCrea is professor of constitutional and European law at University College London and the author of 'The End of the Gay Rights Revolution: How Hubris and Overreach Threaten Gay Freedom.' Matthew Vines the the Founder and Executive Director of The Reformation Project and the author of 'God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships.'And Julie Bindel is a journalist, broadcaster, author, and the co-founder and co-director of The Lesbian Project.All of these guests share a concern that the wins of the gay rights movement are very fragile. There is a very real possibility that we will look back on the early twenty-first century as an historical blip – a brief moment of victory that was squandered. We ask how that fate might be avoided. Discussed in the show: 'The End of the Gay Rights Revolution: How Hubris and Overreach Threaten Gay Freedom''God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships' 'Lesbians: Where are we now?' The Lesbian Project podcast Stephen Ireland news storyMy interview with Darel E. Paul Operation Spanner