Opinion
21st March 2021
Census Day
Today is Census Day, that once-a-decade snapshot of society used to shape public policy for the next ten years. However, the census also expresses public values in the questions it asks. This year, questions are asked about people’s identities according to Pseudo-Liberal criteria for dividing people up. You will not be surprised to learn I have declined to answer most of the voluntary questions in this category.
That is not because I have anything to feel ashamed about in this area of my life. Nor is it that I consider the questions too intrusive and wish to avoid them. No, my rejection of them is much more basic then that. I simply do not agree that people do divide along the categories Wokists have decided to impose upon society. Who is to say that people have something called a sexual orientation or a gender identity? These concepts are bandied around as if they are somehow irrefutable facts, but are they? People have preferences and experiences. People have urges and feelings. People have anxieties and phobias. We are all individuals who will tend to seek others who share our perspective to work and socialise with (if we are allowed to work or socialise, which is a different issue at present). What we are not is members of predefined groups to whom we owe some sort of tribal loyalty. Categorising us in that fashion denies our individual unique nature and experience. It devalues our contributioon to society. It denies us a chance to judge issues objectively, forcing us into a narrow group-based perspective. It denies us a chance to be ourselves.
Invention of categories creates false dichotomies, false divisions, false politics and ultimately a false basis for public policy.
Truth depends on being able to think outside predefined categories, to redefine, to recategorise, to work beneath any imposed surface to find out what is underneath. Truth does not need to be constrained.
I shall answer the factual questions. I’ll leave the imaginary categories to those who like them that way.