Victims of the Marketplace Idols

When Children and Science are Sacrificed in Service to the Transgender Dogma

Tall tales and grand lore often paint for us a rather whimsical picture of what the marketplace of seventeenth century England might have looked like. One can imagine vendors hawking their wares and services in the busy, filthy, cramped streets, shouting out, "Hot broth!" or "Knives and scissors sharpened!" Today, we see only a shadow of what this marketplace might have been like, whenever we visit quaint, local festivals (minus the filth, thanks to local health department codes and inspections).

Sir Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England commented at length on the marketplace of his day—but rather bustling with soup vendors and smiths, Bacon's marketplace was replete with ideas. Ideas exchanged between what he termed vulgar¹ men in the same way one exchanges currency for a commodity: shillings or pence for a bag of oranges. Bacon had little respect for many of these ideas, calling them words ". . . imposed according to the apprehension of the vulgar²." Not stopping there he indicted the purveyors of these words further, stating, ". . . men believe that their reason governs words; but it is also true that words react on the understanding; and this it is that has rendered philosophy and the sciences sophistical and inactive³."

If you, like me, read this for the first time the insult may have slipped your notice. To label an idea as sophistical in seventeenth century England was to consider it having two properties: 1) it was first asinine and inane, and, 2) donned a lovely and erudite varnish capable of reigning in the foolish masses. Bacon's harsh rhetoric stemmed from his contempt for men who distorted the understanding of words and names—with the aim of furthering an idea, agenda, or philosophy—to the end that their real meanings were lost. He thus relegated the notions these meaningless words and names characterized as little more than fallacious fables, idle fancies, or what we might call today urban legends, myths, and fake news. Adding insult to injury, Bacon disparagingly termed these notions and their labels Idols of the Marketplace.

The Lord Chancellor viewed these idols as most troublesome in part because they found their circulation so quickly among the vulgar, kind of how a fire spreads, unimpeded, through dry grass in late August. Now before you write the gentleman off as an elitist, it might help to understand what he was trying to accomplish in his day with these excoriations: the establishment of an objective methodology for ascertaining knowledge and appropriating it for the good of humankind. His methodology worked quite well, and laid the foundation for the scientific revolution; we can be thankful to Baconian science that we no longer practice bloodletting for the release of "humors" in the face of illness!

Laugh as you may now at the idiocy of bloodletting, but keep in mind that its birth and support in medical practice was due to its enduring status as an Idol of the Marketplace (of all institutions to frown on this practice was the twelfth-century church).

Today's marketplace is different from Bacon's by order of degree only. For one thing, idiotic ideas do not spread like wildfire through dry grass; rather, like wildfire through dry grass doused with gasoline—no small thanks to social media. One would think that with the full adoption, implementation, and establishment of an empirical methodology, that ideas as absurd as blood-letting would gain little ground. Unfortunately, ideas even more radical are not only gaining traction among the marketplace's vulgar, but impacting public policy, political campaigns, implementation of grade-school curriculum, and worst of all: the way we practice medicine. Enter: the marketplace idol of transgenderism.

In true comportment to Bacon's indictment, this idol has its origin in the distortion of words and bastardization of the language. The ideology demonstrates sophistry at its best by presenting an asinine argument (that gender is fluid, and has no basis in biological structures) and dressing it with marketplace sophistication. Today, the ultimate litmus test of marketplace-defined morality within the social media sewer is the degree to which you follow all the creeds of transgenderism (just ask the recently deposed J.K. Rowling).

The danger of this idol lies in the havoc it wreaks everywhere it enjoys unadulterated worship. Quite sadly, as Moloch⁴, when this idol is adored by the fearful faithful of the medical community, children experience the worst abuse. The UK Telegraph reported recently that thirty five psychologists resigned from London's Gender Identity Service (GIDS) over the past three years because they felt pressured to over-diagnose children with gender dysphoria—out of fear of being labeled transphobic. Daggers drawn, the priests and priestesses (sorry for the gender-specific words) serving the transgender idol will bastardize even science, satisfying its insatiable appetite for power.

Consider the power of an idol possessing the ability to leverage medical professionals out of fear—to turn a blind eye from their medically-informed opinion, in the sacrifice of children. One psychologist wishing to remain anonymous lamented that he/ she and colleagues working for GIDS ". . . have had front row seats to a medical scandal," expressing grave concern of the consequences for the young people under their past care. These matters are not inconsequential, as referrals for treatment have swelled from seventy seven a decade ago to 2,590.

Where the treatment for gender dysphoria is concerned, we can only hope that the medical community⁵ will at some point experience a renewed Baconian instauration⁶, return to first principles of medicine to do no harm, and cast down this dark idol threatening the well-being of not just our young, but society as a whole. The marketplace which gave it birth and continues to nourish it is one of vitriol and venom; God bless those precious few who have bravely trodden its filthy streets only to be met with vendors hawking persecution, job losses, and public humiliation, with the hearty approval of the most faithful vulgar.

Notes:
1. Vulgar as Bacon used it means "of or relating to the common people." From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.
2. Bacon, F. (2016). New Atlantis and the great instauration. John Wiley & Sons.
3. Ibid. Emphasis mine.
4. Moloch was "a deity whose worship was marked by the propitiatory sacrifice of children by their own parents." From Dictionary.com.
5. The American College of Pediatricians has issued a statement that Transgenderism in Children is Child Abuse.
6. Instauration means "restoration after decay, lapse, or dilapidation." From the Merriam-Webster online dictionary.