When recounting his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell admits, while being killed or maimed by bombs was a threat, he was equally concerned about the destructive impact of the lies and deceit pushed by newspapers, political parties and commentators.

Orwell writes, ‘This kind of thing is frightening to me, because it often gives me the feeling that the very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. After all, the chances are that those lies, or at any rate similar lies, will pass into history.’

Orwell’s concerns about the destructive impact of denying the truth is further illustrated by the dystopian novel 1984 where he vividly portrays what happens when logic, rationality and reason give way to irrational mind control and groupthink.

The central character, Winston, concludes, ‘In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it.’

While the world of Big Brother and the thought police, where citizens are indoctrinated with the belief ‘war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength’, is a fictional one, if Orwell were alive today, he would conclude truth is stranger than fiction.

We are living in a post-truth world where logic, rationality and reason no longer apply. Instead of ‘I think therefore I am’ the default position now is ‘I feel therefore I must be right’. Logic, objectivity, and rationality have been replaced by emotive cant, ad hominem attacks and no-platforming.

When explaining the current parlous state of academic research and public debate, it’s important to begin in the early 1930s with the Frankfurt School’s concept of critical theory.

As detailed by Gary Marks in his chapter of Cancel Culture and the Left’s Long March, the Frankfurt School’s neo-Marxist academics responsible for Critical Theory describe it as a liberating, emancipatory, and radical theory designed to critique bourgeois, capitalist society.

Expressed most clearly by Louis Althusser’s concept of the ideological state apparatus the belief is concepts like objectivity and truth, instead of being beneficial and worthwhile, camouflage the inherently oppressive and exploitative nature of capitalist, Western societies.

Since the 1930s, and as a result of the 1960s cultural revolution, Critical Rheory has morphed into a rainbow alliance of radical, neo-Marxist inspired ideologies including postmodernism and radical feminist, gender, postcolonial, and Critical Race theories.

All conspire to critique and denounce once accepted truths about the need for objectivity and impartiality when evaluating and weighing arguments. Knowledge is a social construct designed to marginalise and disempower already disadvantaged and oppressed minorities.

Cultural-Marxists argue the academic, competitive curriculum is designed to privilege the elites and oppress working-class students. Radical feminists argue rationality and reason are binary concepts employed by men to subjugate women.

As a result of post-colonial theory, Enlightenment science is condemned by academics at the University of Sheffield as ‘inherently white’ and guilty of ‘Eurocentrism’. Radicalised students argue Western science is only considered superior because it embodies ‘the knowledge and moral standpoint of wealthy white, cis-gendered, able-bodied men’.

Such is the destructive impact of this rainbow alliance of Woke ideology that even human biology is not immune. While, with rare exceptions, babies are born with either XY or XX chromosomes, children are told gender and sexuality are social constructs and they have the freedom to identify anywhere on the LGBTIQA+ spectrum.

Basic facts about climate change are also ignored in the pursuit of ideological purity and conforming to cultural-Marxist-inspired orthodoxy. Even though the science is not settled and Australia will have no global impact, billions have been wasted, pristine landscapes and coastal areas destroyed, and citizens subjected to unsustainable increases in the cost of living.

Notwithstanding this descent into irrational and destructive mind control and groupthink there is cause for optimism. In 1984 Winston realises, ‘Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the Earth’s centre.’

If planes are to stay in the air and bridges are not to collapse there are certain laws that must be taken as absolute regardless of sex, ethnicity, race, culture or class. There is a reality that must be acknowledged and, thankfully, more and more people are reacting against woke ideology.

In the UK, Europe and the USA the tide is moving against gender transitioning, climate alarmism, imposing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), and multiculturalism.

While still in its infancy, across Australia parents and teachers are establishing schools committed to an education that is academically rigorous, morally grounded and emotionally and spiritually enriching. Sanity and reason might yet prevail as more and more are saying enough is enough.

Dr Kevin Donnelly is the author of Wake Up To Woke Why Pauline Hanson’s ONP Is So Popular.