Fortsätt till huvudinnehåll

Clerical and other sexual abuse

The scandal of sexual abuse by the clergy continues to make the Catholic Church a target for criticism. One excuse is that "it wasn't taken so seriously in those days".

Having grown up "in those days", perhaps I can shed some light on the subject. A minority of classmates talked about their sexual activity even in primary school. This was usually with older brothers. In secondary school, it was common between the boys by the age of twelve, and usually initiated by another slightly older boy, in one case a young man, a scoutmaster. But since both parties were happy to relate in detail what they regarded as adventures, with a sense of achievement, it is obvious that the matter was between equals - we were all willing participants and it was something that happened amongst friends. On one occasion I was approached by a creepy man in his thirties, which was a different matter. I made a quick getaway.

Things were slightly different in the boarding school, then an all-boys' institution, I attended from the age of 13. The authorities took a strict line on sexual activities and anyone caught was asked to leave. This acted as something of a curb but still did not stop a lot of the 14-year-old boys in the 8-bed dormitory pairing up and sleeping with each other. One of the masters was of dubious sexuality, but everyone gave him a wide berth. Another was definitely weird. He was in charge of the prep school and attracted to the better-looking fifteen-year-old boys whom he called "my specials". One of the prefects' duties was to keep an eye on the prep school after lights-out in the early evening and when the master came back, the prefect had to report if any of the boys had misbehaved. Of course there were always a few, and they had to be given the slipper. The master clearly enjoyed watching the handsome prefects whacking the naughty eleven-year-olds. But to my knowledge it never went further.

I don't know what one can conclude from all this.

Kommentarer

Skicka en kommentar

Populära inlägg i den här bloggen

Importing people to sustain demand

I got involved in a discussion with a Youtuber called “Philosophy all along”. This was in connection with criticism of Trump’s policy of deporting illegal migrants, which he argued would be bad for the economy as it would reduce demand. This implies that there is a need to import people to sustain demand. There is no obvious reason why a population should not be able to consume everything that the same population produces. If it can not, then something else is going on. It is a basic principle that wages are the least that workers will accept to do a job. Wages are a share of the value added by workers through their wages. The remainder is distributed as economic rent, after government has taken its cut in taxes. Monopoly profit is a temporary surplus that after a delay gets absorbed into economic rent. Land values in Silicon Valley are an example of this; it's like a gold rush. The miners get little out of it. Rent and tax syphon purchasing power away from those who produce the g...
Skicka en kommentar
Läs mer

The Zombie Train that refuses to die

The Guardian has published a couple more articles against HS2, one by specialist rail commentator Christian Wolmar, and another today by journalist Simon Jenkins. The main arguments in favour will doubtless be wheeled out by the commentators: the need for capacity and the disruption caused by upgrading existing routes. HST itself will severely disrupt services to Euston during the construction period. Capacity can be increased at a fraction of the cost by a variety of measures, provided that it is accepted that the additional traffic will run at existing speeds. It is not generally known that the Midland main line is, or was, four track all the way from London to Trent Junction, between Nottingham and Derby. This is because the additional tracks are separate, having been added for coal trains which trundled down to Brent sidings, on the edge of London, from a collection point at Toton in Nottinghamshire, where the Midland Railway build a huge marshalling yard. Beyond Derby, the main l...
Skicka en kommentar
Läs mer

How much more will the British tolerate?

The British are phlegmatic, tolerant and slow to rouse. Thus there was no great reaction after the terrorist attack in July 2005. The murder of Lee Rigby created a sense of outrage, but nothing more, since it appeared to be an isolated incident. Two serious incidents within a fortnight are another matter. Since the first major terrorist incident in 2001, authority has tried to persuade the public that Islam is a religion of peace, that these were isolated events, or the actions of deranged "lone wolves", having nothing to do with Islam, or to reassure that the chances of being killed in a terrorist attack were infinitesimally small. These assurances are are beginning to wear thin. They no longer convince. If government does not act effectively, people will take the law into their own hands. What, however, would effective action look like? What sort of effective action would not amount to rough justice for a lot of innocent people? Given the difficulties of keeping large n...
Skicka en kommentar
Läs mer