Theodore Dalrymple | Historiography and the State of the Western Mind | NatCon UK

Theodore Dalrymple's address at the London National Conservatism Conference on May 15, 2023.

[@georgehill9959]

This man is exceptional. He provides a truly profound description and analysis of the dreadful condition of our country today. Deep insight alongside humour.

[@jeandevalette8860]

Good man. A rare treat to hear him.

[@kevinmccann2170]

Dalrymple is, as usual the most prescient observer of the UK

[@nathanielmaisey9414]

A true legend

[@roberthumphreys7977]

Dr. Daniels is a treasure and, speaking as an American, not just a national one. I think it is becoming increasingly clear that what he described also is not a national but a Western state of affairs that cannot continue. Absolutely nothing works as it should or once did, and I know it once did because I was present when it did. And people, that is, human beings, seem to be more of a nuisance to the system than the purpose the system exists. Many people are now asking, why does such a system exist since it no longer serves the purpose for which it was intended?

[@maureennewman905]

As soon as started listening to this gentleman, I knew I would admire and love listening to him ,

[@livetwice7702]

Gloriously acidic …….gosh I’ve suddenly been transported back to a world that I knew and loved ……

[@pascal8306]

Brilliant mind, sensitive soul.

[@markc6411]

I agree. The Conservative government ought to be ashamed of itself. How could so much that is bad (and anti-conservative) have been brought about under their governance?

[@sarahlou4233]

Because they are conservatives in name only. There are very few actual conservatives in any government anywhere in the West now. The West has mostly become a uni-party and dissent is not tolerated in the halls of power.

[@EE12CSVT]

That's the $64,000 question. The Conservatives are remarkably bad at actually conserving, so much so that I have to consider them to be an anti-conservative force, a wolf in sheep's clothing. I can't believe that it's taken place by accident.

[@user-tg9nn4nn9h]

They are globalist puppets for the NWO WEF!! UN's Agenda 2030.

[@maureennewman905]

Simple , they are not conservatives, they are following an unelected WEF agenda , not only conservatives but the British Parliament.If we don’t come to realise this soon we are truly finished , and democracy finished .Looks like Hitler won in the end if these people get their way

[@bell191991]

It's a scandal that this speech didn't get more coverage in the mainstream media. Everybody was too busy trying to make it look like a far right conference full of racists, they didn't notice the great speakers like Dr Dalrymple.

[@sylviam6535]

‘Bigot’ is just a code word for anyone who dissents from the left’s looney ideas.

[@cecilefox9136]

Sure!

[@ZephaniahL]

How long until the charge of ‘racist’ induces the yawns in everyone, as well it should?

[@cargumdeu]

God this was a star-studded lineup! Great thanks for promoting the event.

[@winnluke1976]

😂

[@jenniferrobinson4464]

Excellent, particularly liked the example of pride in a job, I have been saying this for ages. All these things are tied in to where we are today

[@wendywolfman]

Read his books. The man has a fantastic mind.

[@markc6411]

Yes, his writing's good.

[@BusterCapInYoAss]

​​@@BrianT-jj3eind so it follows that pouring scorn on those criminals at the top, ignores the criminals and poor, uncivilised behaviour of those at the bottom.

[@harrytd]

A gem. I loved Anthony's Spectator column.

[@REwing]

Wonderful to find this excellent brain still writing and telling us what we the public have let happen to our western countries.. But how many of us have done anything about it!!! His books are well worth reading and passing on to another reader. I’m very grateful to have learnt from this man’s wisdom.

[@TC-cd5fh]

Great writer thinker. The combination of practitioner and good writer is potent.

[@fraserbailey6347]

Great stuff from Mr Dalyrmple, as always.

[@richierich291266]

A moving lament about the state of a nation badly let down by Conservative governance.

[@Happyheretic2308]

Liebour is as bad.

[@jonah9861]

The British mind belongs to Sørøs.

[@gandydancerfilms6272]

Brilliant.

[@kitstr]

Delighted to find this channel and Mr Dalrymple’s address.

[@mariamichael1669]

I so wish there were more people like Dr Daniels, a man of integrity and profound wisdom something so lacking in our society today.

[@nathanngumi8467]

Hear hear!👌🌟

[@johnjones6601]

A true gentleman and scholar

[@ian_b]

Regarding arithmetic: a few years ago I was informally teaching two ladies arithmetic to help them with their job prospects. Regarding the uphill struggle, one day I lamented to several degree educated colleagues ranging from mid 40s to late 50 that the said ladies didn't know their times tables so wouldn't even know what six times nine is. I was met by absolutely blank looks; these degree holders didn't know either. They went to school decades ago, in the same era as myself. It's been a problem for a long time.

[@user-tg9nn4nn9h]

A total disgrace! I learnt my timestables when I was 8 years old. Could recite them all flawlessly. Nowadays, anyone under the age of 50 has to use a calculator. Drivers are unable to even look at maps as they use satellite navigation. People have become mindless robots. This will only get worse in the 15-minute cities with the internet of bodies.

[@ian_b]

@@user-tg9nn4nn9h I've worked with young adults who are not inherently low in IQ who can't even add and subtract small integers. They can't estimate values and can't tell if a calculation (on their calculator) is in the right ballpark (so don't realise they've miss-keyed something), they have no feel for numbers at all. They have no feel for numbers whatsoever. Neither can they write coherently or formally, for instance composing emails to customers. It feels to me like those who have numeracy have so because of private interests such as an interest in computer programming. Like you, I learned my times tables at primary school. It was an "old fashioned" school run by a cadre of stern women who would e.g. just point at you and tell you to stand up and recite a particular table. Good spelling and learning a vocabulary was considered a baseline. Looking at the modern state of things, it's hard to think of a greater failing of an "education system".

[@neilreynolds3858]

@@ian_b I'm sure that the reason they can't do math is so they'll never realize that the numbers that politicians produce are obviously impossible.

[@maureennewman905]

I remember the class reciting the time tables together , now 74 can still recite

[@Jack-bs6zb]

I too learned the ‘times tables’ at nine or so. In my fifties i shared an office with two intellgent young graduates. I recall my shock upon dicovering neither knew how to express one number as a percentage of a second number. This is basic numeracy expected of all 11 plus failures like myself who attended secondary modern schools, before they were destroyed by a doctine of phoney egalitarianism. God help us because politicians will make matters still worse.

[@ajs41]

The Post Office scandal is a very good example of what he was talking about. I would encourage everyone to watch the KZbin videos of the interviews with witnesses at the inquiry.

[@DaboooogA]

I hope Dr Daniel / Dalrymple makes more public appearances like this one

[@colinbryant5598]

Eloquent, intelligent and incisive. How refreshing to hear high quality speech backed up mental acuity and thinking. Please keep speaking out. Hopefully you might strike a chord in the increasingly moronic masses. Unfortunately I cannot see that happening but there is always hope.

[@sharonfarrelly7146]

This is very good…This correct observation of Britain…

[@user-xg1hq5yl7g]

Great to see Dr Dalrymple.

[@doreenmusson4891]

Thank you Dr Dalrymple. Your are spot on. Sadky your country's lesrners sound like ours in South Africa. A world disaster. Love that Churchillian paraphrase!

[@floydffrogfloydffrog7453]

Anyone who hasn't had the good fortune to have read "Life At The Bottom" can easily remedy that, and I can only heartily encourage you to do so. The bluntness and clarity of Dalrymple's observations are bracing and saddening. Yet to ignore or downplay his comments is to ignore our current situation, and that is the saddest of all. The other value of his writing is a sharp reminder of the effect of a good education on a good mind, as evidenced by his varied and rich prose which is a delight to read yet can be challenging and that that's a good thing. We are also reminded that the loss of the opportunity of a good education at the individual level is a loss for us all.

[@amandahelenatkins8636]

BRILLIANT

[@maureenbarclay2127]

Every word is so true and so very sad. Our country is all the poorer for it.

[@EE12CSVT]

"The multiplication of independent administrative authorities which come to make themselves independent of politics and even to replace them in the name of an expertocracy that is judged superior." What the French author refers to there is what I understand to be the creeping technocracy and trend of scienceism. The root cause of the lack of pride and the replacement of work with activity isn't just ignorance, it's primarily hedonism, and immediate gratification. To 'unscramble the eggs' as Daniels puts it requires a generational cultural change in human behaviour, in organisational management, and in less cynicism about power. There's so much I could go into regarding his talk, and if I had the opportunity, I'd have liked to have followed it up with an off-the-cuff speech of my own.

[@user-xg1hq5yl7g]

Anthony is a remarkable thinker and writer.

[@dartharpy9404]

Awsome

[@MarcasLancaster]

National Treasure.

[@FiveLiver]

The little Emperors who rule us? Or the civil serpents, as Jeff Taylor calls them

[@BertoniBertone]

….”senior police officers charged with ‘wasting police time’…” is up there with Twain, WC Fields and GBS. Funny, beautifully put and terrifyingly true. God help us…except we don’t do God anymore if Tony Blair is to be believed. Which of course he was…and that’s why we’re all here.

[@arctic004]

A supernova exploding in the stygian darkness of our age. Thank you!

[@clarehaven6068]

Decency just oozes from Anthony Daniels. He more than any other (apart from my own father) has taught me what it means to be a civilised human being.

[@Orson2u]

@16 Mass voluntary ignorance: “Those who know only their own generation shall always remain a child.” -Seneca

[@hariwilliams8208]

cant believe Peter hitchens didnt speak at this!

[@mataform]

I could not believe that teachers were asking for easier exams for children this week. This exemplifies the state of thinking and behaviour which is reducing our society to helpless victims. I do blame women for a lot of this nauseating 'there there 'culture defining any form of challenge which requires application, striving and determination as cruelty. I am a woman so I can say that.

[@maidsubrena]

interesting and brave perspective, no doubt reinforced by the fact that something like 80% of our education system is populated by women. i wish not to come across as misogynistic, however there are some who believe the malaise which Theodore so eloquently presents, is derived from and propagated by our educational system. In particular the social "sciences" are heralded as the derivers of these new theories of humanity. There are even fewer men in these departments. i am minded of some who work and comment in the educational system, and say that anyone with any form of right wing perspective is bypassed of responsibility and promotion on the basis that the ideology must be maintained at any cost.

[@gregorytaylor9104]

Jordan Peterson was ruminating about the growing effect of female pathology on political life. We have millenia of examples to know how male pathology pans out.

[@gregorytaylor9104]

​@BrianTA Labour party feminist here in Australia was moaning about how a conservative Christian woman politician was trying to drag women back to the 50s. Yet left liberal women are becoming more and more miserable.

[@alandinsmore1186]

"Shepherds to us all but indifferent to wolves" applies so well to Islamic immigration.

[@wendywolfman]

Comprehensive schools at work 👍

[@amb-yz9ee]

The OG

[@ianl5882]

Bravo!

[@johnl5316]

change cannot await "voluntary" action in schools. FLORIDA recognized that gov funded schools have a responsibility to the taxpayers, and certain topics have been made off-limits. Thank you Governor DeSantis

[@coraynbell8991]

Education, education, education can be summed up in one word in the UK today, indoctrination! Students from primary to university are taught WHAT to think, not How to think!

[@sylviam6535]

Also, failure to teach literacy and numeracy is the highest level educational failure.

[@neilreynolds3858]

And they're taught how to feel about some event instead of knowing what happened.

[@markpower9081]

To believe that, you'd have to believe that all teachers are malevolent, and all students passive. Both propositions are stupid, and quite nasty.

[@MrGraemeb2022]

So true. So depressing.

[@stevenlightfoot6479]

That non-crime 'hate' incident stuff is out of control. So far it hasn't entered Canada, but there are definitely authoritarian forces at work trying to bring it here.

[@hanskloss7726]

Here in Germany is the same with some local features. I am really sorry for my kids. We all failed them. The teachers and the state they represent coerce us into this so they are at least as guilty as we the parents are. Yet this is no different than any other time in history - it was a tiger or a snake of a broken leg for millennia, now it is stupidity and fascism that seems to be inherent to the overcrowding of countries all over the Western world. Once i thought anarchism was a good idea. I learned very fast that this is just an utopia. It seems to me that the principles on which the still existing prosperity of the Western world is based are just utopian in nature too. We eete just lucky the almost utopia happened in our lifetimes. Let us hope that criminaly insane people that rule us do not succeed in kiling us all while they try to "save" the world.

[@therealtoni]

dreadful ignorance on display among our youth. It hurts my heart to witness it every day!

[@mbpinder]

I like Theodore Dalrymple, but here he is literally reading from his book 'Life at the Bottom'.

[@lydiamalone1859]

If you love your children, educate them yourselves. Real math, real reading, etc.

[@cecilefox9136]

I love the bit about the police.I've had a hell of a time with them here in Spain-during Plandemic lock-downs.

[@user-tg9nn4nn9h]

Likewise here in France. Fascists, the lot of them!

[@Frederer59]

I can just imagine having TD comment on my grade 7 report card.😅

[@larrye3602]

Such great conservative thinkers, yet a party of gravy trainers

[@bobtrewin1610]

Pulled no punches. Needs to be said. Unfortunately it was significant that the applause was only desultory. If this conference intended to revive conservatism it's not done very well.

[@shawnpatrick4703]

Seems to be the same everywhere.

[@yaryar3468]

When's the next event?

[@pg618]

Now I know we are really in trouble, us Americans used to look up to Europe for a higher broader education, oh boy oh boy.

[@stevenvater2681]

When will we see him on the bbc?

[@albert21able]

The USA are leading the English speaking West into Cultural Destruction.

[@sylviam6535]

All by design.

[@neilreynolds3858]

We never had a culture here. We used to talk about that already in the 1960s. If you don't have a culture, you can't have cultural decay.

[@JacobJonker-xu6fs]

If we need a prime example of the very reason why British (English) conservatives have failed, and failed dismally, here it is. His writing is funny, if you like feeling smug and superior. He, as most others who made good, has made the effort, and some, and made a living or a paying hobby enumerating all the ills in society which are directly attributable to a failure, a total lack of empathy and knowing one’s role in society. The English conservatives are totally responsible for the mess they made of Britain.

[@ZephaniahL]

Right - more egalitarianism is the solution. Are you insane?

[@maureenbarclay2127]

Similar findings to gen z in America. They thought Russia borded America .

[@shamster7182]

College of policing needs shutting down.

[@annemarieforprimeminister8020]

Anne Marie Waters has re-joined UKIP, and will be standing in Hartlepool at the General Election.

[@mkkravist11]

She’ll be wiped out, sadly, and has lost her way somewhat, but she has the same base values as a lot of Nationalists. I wish her every success and good luck to her.

[@johnl5316]

an observation cannot be "random".

[@ashleysavillewatson1748]

"Let not England forget her PRECEDENCE of teaching Nations HOW to live" (Milton) [true, of course, while Israel, future "chief of nations," resists the Gospel of "Everlasting Salvation," of their own New/renewed Covenant - Is 2:2-4; 45:17-25; Jer 31:31-36; Jn 4:22; Heb 8:8-12] Let us not forget the irrefutable truth that that Precedence was born of the Gospel, the ultimate sanction against tyranny, and guarantee of one's birthright to the wisdom of Nationhood and holy Patriotism, according to the pattern which Israel repesents (Nu 23:9; Deut 33:25-29; Jer 31:7,10,17,31-36; Amos 9:15; Acts 17:26-31) For "There'll Always be an England" IF "we'll not cease from mental fight/Nor our swords sleep in our hands/till we've built Jerusalem (i.e. redeemed the faith's foundations, and the virtue of our culture, noble institutions and values, being ravaged by human philosophy, relativism and Philistinism)/In England's green and pleasant Land" (Blake) to truly BE "Mother of the free" (A C Benson) to fulfil "the charter, the charter of the Land" which "at Heaven's command Arose from out the azure main/When guardian angels sang the strain/'Britons never, never, never shall be slaves' " (Mallett: Alfred) For was "the Holy Lamb of God" not the Blood that "made us free" from slavery to sin (Rom 6:18-23; 8:3), for freedom purchased in that Blood to be MAINTAINED BY LOVE FOR TRUTH, by walking in His footsteps, to be ALL we were called to be, and beyond reproach? (Jn 8:31-36; 1 Cor 4:7; Eph 3:14-21; Col 1:21-23; 2:6; 1 Jn 2:3-6) Only by so doing shall "Wider still and wider/Shall our bounds be set (by)/God Who made us mighty (to)/Make us mightier yet" (A C Benson) to find greatness again in new ways and dimensions, through the humility of trust in and obedience to the Gospel, through the cleansing of the nation from its sin (Prov 14:34; Is 53:6-12; 1 Jn 3:1-10), to prosper in righteousness through "the Blood a Hero Sire (the Heroic faith of the Lamb of God - Matt 26:39-46) hath spent/to nerve (inspire and strengthen the endeavours of) hero sons" (A C Benson) So "never, never, never" underestimate the mercy of the GIFT OF BREXIT, as the highway for RIGHTEOUS CONSERVATISM to CHART what our God-breathed CHARTER and inspired national and patriotic anthems prophesy as a necessary (for the world) and entirely feasible future for our unique island kingdom-nation "For the whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were (deemed) invaluable at first, but DEADLY afterwards (inevitably fanned by pluralism, whereas) strong (timeless, tried and proven) beliefs (grounded in "inherited creed" and "fixed traditional sentiments" upon which human nature depends to attain the Divine character) win strong men, and then make them stronger" (Bagelot) As "the Ransom for ALL" (Mk 10:43-45; 1 Tim 2:1-6), the true salvation of MANKIND which is found in union with Jesus the Messiah through the Gospel of grace, is the ONLY filter through which we are able to recognize our desperate need of salvation FROM DEFINITIONS and expectations of ORDINARILY BENIGN concepts like equality, diversity and inclusivity (whose etymology is Biblical), now TWISTED into a deranged triumvirate of contorted rogue ideologies. Ideologies well described by borrowing Pope's satiric, aphoristic 'COMMONWEALTH of MALIGNANTS,' being used to vilify conservatism's COURAGEOUS CONSERVATION of a deeply rooted, holistic culture of truisms, being rocked by the bedevilling of reason and logic which is threatening to irreversibly damage the national psyche and erode the pillars of state, the once collective will of the nation that broadly knowing right from wrong, repressed every ill-wind blowing in from other, lesser-schooled, less literary and less astutely constituted lands. So again, "Let not England forget her PRECEDENCE of teaching Nations HOW to live" Britain's heritage and legacy are both contained in those words. Then and only then, will the future hold great promise. For as Byron warned: "A thousand years scarce serve to form a state; an HOUR may lay it in the dust" Don't let THAT hour overtake a deceived, slumbering nation

[@stevenvater2681]

I don't think I've ever read a better letter /reply. Have you ever come across "the FOXES PROPHESY "by DW Nash?...you'd like it. My favourite is I vow to thee my country.(banned in many churches)

[@fatosshubert7272]

Genesis 11 : 1 to 9 is coming back and hitting us in a different cloak.

[@wbw910]

I'm sorry, he doesn't draw any conclusions between the decline of moral standards with the rise in police violence? With people becoming more destructive and defiant to the rule of law is it a wonder the beat downs increase? It is a societal breakdown not a policing problem.

[@daffidkane8350]

The quality of education has fallen considerably in the last 30 years. No pride nor interest in learning. It designed to control people without taking away superficial democracy. I agree with the comments on fascist policing.

[@TheWhitehiker]

Berlin, for example, has beautiful modernist buildings--creative and not jarring.

[@ajs41]

True, but it's unusual for modernist buildings to be beautiful. Most modernist buildings in the UK look horrible.

[@TheWhitehiker]

@@ajs41 depends where.

[@notreallydavid]

Dr Daniels has written approvingly of Niemeyer's work in Brasília. It's a remarkable place that amply deserves its World Heritage Site status, but the style jars when set beside anything but itself.

[@TheWhitehiker]

@@notreallydavid indeed.

[@mark6809mm]

Disconnection from the past is a feature of the far left. Erase the past and you can start again like Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin etc.

[@ericgillespie7799]

His audience laughed?

[@clapoldme6061]

Do you think there is anything at all about life today that he thinks well of? But then he was a psychiatrist.

[@IAm1InTheIAm]

Comical, if it weren't so tragic.

[@moodyonroody5313]

So Theodore .. what the heck can we do about all this?

[@lavillablanca]

Collapse and cease to exist. It’s too late.

[@shabbos-goy9407]

Correct

[@phwbooth]

Damien Hirst - charlatan.

[@Heretic-007]

Why Fascist. Who not communist?

[@lenwilkinson672]

Once the police did not wear beards,with so many stupid types, neither did they have their hair in so many silly looking styles,some with elastic bands ln a stump on the top of their heads.They look like Fred Karnows Army.not a police force. My father was a sergeant in the Met.he would be shocked if he was alive today.

[@johnl5316]

the audience laughs in the 1st 2 min. It is not funny

[@marklilly9161]

The grandiose title of this video has nothing to do with its contents. TD here makes a series of valid points but with no connecting link or theoretical underpinning, so we are simply left with the whinings of an often trivial and bigoted curmudgeon. In previous talks he has denounced those who are scuffy in their dress [sic] as though his own brand of sartorial elegance was a moral virtue rather than an unpleasant display of vanity.

[@Orson2u]

You, sir, are anathema to our culture.

[@ZephaniahL]

Ah yes - ‘theoretical underpinnings.’ What a peculiar view. So it is a virtue to be easily categorizable as a thinker, so that Mark Lilly can mentally slot you in where you belong and keep his brain neat and tidy?

[@barryday9107]

I find this belittling of young people distasteful and it says more about those who do it than it does about their intended targets.

[@ajs41]

What belittling of young people? The problem is that they haven't been taught properly. The belittling is of the idiotic theories that have led to this situation.

[@barryday9107]

@@ajs41 Anyone can mock a section of the population by telling anecdotes about an unrepresentative sample to make a point. I teach children properly and don't have any idiotic theories like most teachers. Watch University Challenge to see what young people educated under this system can achieve.

[@fringedweller5425]

You're Gen Y. Yes?

[@barryday9107]

@@fringedweller5425 No! Many letters before. Born the day Churchill died. 'Don't suppose these dumb kids today know who Churchill was!' Sneer.. sneer.. ' 'Aren't our generation superior'?.. Perhaps I could speak at the next conference?

[@marklilly9161]

Good for you Barry.

[@danielbecker4365]

Is he talking about America?

[@danielbecker4365]

Now I understand why the Brits hate Russia.

[@patrickparsons2378]

Which 'Brits' are you talking about? The stupid ones who believe any old propagandistic crap from the Marxist Wokeist US and UK media? I have no hatred for Russia or the Russians. They defend their people, their culture and their Christianity This is what we should do and are failing to do. I despise the Americans and their Wojeust fascism. It was the Russians who destroyed Hitler's Whermacht and annihilated two-thirds of its strength on the Eastern Front 1941-45.

[@ivanpenkov2612]

Bravo!