By James Alexander, Daily Sceptic.
I want to draw your attention to two academics who are contributing to the task of waking up England. Academics are not known for courage. And these two are courageous: one, perhaps, to a fault. Most academics overrate their own intellectual powers, since they contribute supinely to emasculated and unread literatures, repeating elite or establishment opinions as if they somehow believe them. It is a vast hall of mirrors, the academic world. But every now and then someone comes along and uses their research to say something extremely bold: and here, I mean not just bold (BBC bold: you know, “Oh, I am not sure we can say that on Question Time”), but bold (Gilgamesh bold, Veil of the Temple bold, Cry Havoc and Let Slip the Dogs of War bold).
You may have heard of David Betz, but you are less likely to have heard of David Hughes. Both are what I think we can call genuinely interesting academics: in one case, now, a former academic. Betz has recently entered the public consciousness this year just on this side of respectability with his claim that the UK is close to civil war. He has evidently published many books, but his recent articles entitled ‘Civil War Has Come to the West’ recently brought him to public attention, at least on the podcast side of things. A cursory inspection of YouTube reveals that he has been interviewed by Andrew Gold, by Triggernometry, by Mary Harrington for UnHerd, by Louise Perry and by The New Culture Forum.