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The Christchurch Civic Crèche Case |
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A City Possessed: A City Possessed is the title of Lynley
Hood's book on the Christchurch Civic Creche case. Every New Zealander should
read it. You might think you have heard all you need to know about
the Peter Ellis case. However, only the last half of the book is directly
concerned with the trial. The first, and more interesting half, provides a
short history of witch-hunts in particular and hysteria in general. We can take some comfort that the worldwide hysteria over
child abuse has passed its peak - although the odour lingers on. But as I read these horrifying stories from the recent
past two thoughts kept coming to mind. First, I used to think those who talked about "the
lesbian-radical feminist conspiracy" were going somewhat over the top.
It's a shock to find that the grand plan to minimise the role of males in
general, and fathers in particular, was so real and has been so successful. I
wonder how many men have been working in creches and pre-schools since the
Ellis case? Second, could it be that the like minded
"wimmin" of today are more likely to gravitate to the
"environmental abuse" industry, where it is just about as easy to
whip up a good dose of hysteria and find just as many scapegoats. Certainly, there are now a host of university courses
within the tertiary education sector proposing that radical feminist wimmin
should take control of the "eco" movement because only they can
undo the damage done to the Earth Mother. Ms Hood documents the witch-hunts, scapegoats and general
hysteria that fed the cause of the sexual abuse campaigners. A similar mindset now promotes environmental hysteria
based on the fear of chemicals, genetic engineering, cellphones, radiation,
herbicides and pesticides of all manner of fears and frights culminating in
Global Warming, the grandest fear of all. These all kept coming to mind as Ms Hood documents the
story of perverted science, ideologically driven functionaries, bureaucratic
abuse, helpless victims and dedicated gravy trainers fired up by false
statistics and media driven myths. I suspect one day another Lynley Hood will write a similar book called A Nation Possessed: The Story of New Zealand and the Kyoto Protocol. Readers will nod wisely and look back at those foolish people who were wound up by so little and who left so much damage in their wake |
