Hmmm\u2026<\/p>\n
On one hand, me noticing a few TV shows and movies doesn\u2019t make it a trend. And even if it is a trend, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean it\u2019s a commentary on our times. I remember when you couldn\u2019t change the channel (all three of them) without hitting a Western \u2013 that doesn\u2019t mean the 1960s were the Wild West version 2.0.<\/p>\n
Further, the Victorian era was a great time for English literature, including the beginnings of modern science fiction and horror. It had authors like Arthur Conan Doyle, Oscar Wilde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, and Jules Verne (who was French but whose work was translated into English and numerous other languages). There\u2019s a lot of good source material to work with from this era.<\/p>\n
However\u2026<\/p>\n
Something about this feels right\u2026 and not in a good way.<\/p>\n
A quote of uncertain origin<\/a> says that history doesn\u2019t repeat itself, but it often rhymes. I think it\u2019s worth exploring the rhymes I\u2019m hearing.<\/p>\n A word for the historical purists. The Victorian era encompasses the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901, a period of 63 years. Victoria was the longest reigning monarch in British history until Elizabeth II passed her in 2015. For the purposes of this essay, I\u2019m talking about the late Victorian period and slightly beyond \u2013 from the mid to late 1880s to the early to mid 1900s. We could call this the \u201cGreater Edwardian Era\u201d and perhaps we should. I\u2019ll leave that to the professional historians, as it\u2019s not particularly relevant to our discussions here.<\/p>\n Technology has been growing at an ever-increasing rate since the beginning of the Industrial Age 300 years ago or so. But that rate really picked up in the Victorian era.<\/p>\n This was a time of transition: from gas light to electric light, from telegraph to telephone, and from horses to automobiles. Our time has seen the explosion of the internet and all it\u2019s brought, especially smartphones.<\/p>\n No technology is socially neutral. The automobile had a huge impact on how we live, especially in North America. All the fossil fuels we\u2019ve been burning over the last century have changed our climate. We\u2019re only starting to understand the impact of today\u2019s new technology, and we\u2019re still not sure if clean energy can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n This definitely rhymes.<\/p>\n Most of the movies and TV shows about this time focus on the nobility and other very wealthy families. But those who weren\u2019t rich lived very different lives. One of the complaints I read about The Irregulars<\/em> was that it didn\u2019t accurately portray the depth of brutality and filth on the streets of London.<\/p>\n In this country, this was the Gilded Age \u2013 a time of monopolists and robber barons. The reaction to that led to a progressive movement and things like the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890), the Pure Food and Drug Act (1906), and the federal income tax (1913).<\/p>\n The movement toward greater equality reversed beginning with election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. In 2019<\/a> the top 10% of families in the United States controlled 76% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% controlled just 1%. The pandemic has made this even worse<\/a>.<\/p>\n The ultrarich have done a good job convincing the bottom 50% that their problems are caused by immigrants and liberals. Donald Trump was\/is a symptom, not the problem. I\u2019m not optimistic as to how this will play out.<\/p>\n Many of the Victorian movies and TV shows include elements of the Women\u2019s Suffrage Movement<\/a>. In most of the West, that movement wasn\u2019t successful until after World War I.<\/p>\n On one hand, women have more opportunities now than ever. The Vice President of the United States and the Speaker of the House are both women. But 100 years after women gained the right to vote in this country, they make up only 27% of US Representatives, 24% of Senators, and 3 of 9 Supreme Court Justices. Women make 82 cents<\/a> for every dollar men make.<\/p>\n Reproductive rights are under attack to an extent not seen in decades. Texas just passed a \u201cfetal heartbeat\u201d bill that effectively outlaws all abortions \u2013 multiple other states have similar laws. It will be overturned as it violates the constitutional protections outlined in Roe v. Wade<\/em>. But the Supreme Court has agreed to hear an abortion case in its next term, and with three Trump-appointed justices now on the bench, the outlook isn\u2019t good. Even if they don\u2019t overturn Roe v. Wade<\/em> (and I don\u2019t think they will) they will chip away at it, letting red states continue to take away reproductive rights.<\/p>\n And make no mistake: they\u2019re not just after abortion \u2013 they\u2019re also after birth control. The legal reasoning behind Roe v. Wade<\/em> is grounded in Griswold v. Connecticut<\/em> (1965), that established the right to privacy and did so in the context of overturning laws that outlawed contraception.<\/p>\n The far right wants more children (mainly more white children) and it wants women restricted to \u201ctraditional\u201d roles, in practice if not in law. Will they get it? One thing I\u2019ve learned about the far right is that they\u2019re patient, and they\u2019re willing to take incremental victories.<\/p>\n If the Victorian era is known for anything, it\u2019s its uptight prudish restrictive views on sex and sexuality. At first listen that hardly seems like a rhyme with our era of LGBTQ Pride, same sex marriage and no-fault divorce, and porn of every description only a click away.<\/p>\n As usual, the battles are being fought on the edges. And trans people are on those edges.<\/p>\n As I write this, a Texas bill that would outlaw gender affirming medical care for trans kids is not yet dead, as is another bill that would charge parents who enable such care with child abuse. Similar bills have already passed in other states. The purpose is clear \u2013 to pretend trans people don\u2019t exist and force them to act cis.<\/p>\n President Biden said \u201cyour President has your back<\/a>.\u201d That\u2019s good to hear after four years of non-stop bigotry and harassment from the previous President, but it remains to be seen what he can \u2013 and will \u2013 do.<\/p>\n As with reproductive rights, the attacks never stop. If the anti-trans laws are upheld, they\u2019ll go back to pushing anti-gay laws. Adoption rights and same sex marriage will be first, then recriminalization of consensual same sex activity.<\/p>\n The goal is total conformity to their religion and morality, and they will stop at nothing to achieve it. They must be defeated in every election, every legislative session, and every court case.<\/p>\n The modern Pagan movement has roots in the religions of antiquity, but it first started taking shape in the late Victorian era. Much of what we do today can be traced back to the Spiritualist Movement of the 19th<\/sup> and early 20th<\/sup> centuries, and especially to the Golden Dawn (1887-1903).<\/p>\n What started then continues today. This is the new Golden Age of magic and Paganism (which aren\u2019t the same things, but there\u2019s considerable overlap). There are more books available (both ancient and new), more information, and more practitioners. Whatever religion calls to you, whatever your preferred form of magic, someone somewhere is practicing it and can help get you started.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s a good thing, because we need all the magical help we can get to make it through these times.<\/p>\n The late Victorian period is generally considered the peak of the British Empire. Like all empires eventually do, they overextended themselves. What didn\u2019t crumble in the aftermath of World War I mostly fell after World War II. The center of power moved from London to Washington, but the Anglo-American empire is still very much in decline.<\/p>\n In Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows<\/em> (2011) Professor Moriarty attempts to start a war so he can sell munitions to both sides. This is not historically accurate. Rich industrialists did not cause World War I, although they certainly profited from it. The true causes are many and complex. At the top of the list are the attempt by the great powers to maintain and expand their empires, and especially the oppression of ethnic minorities within those empires.<\/p>\n Europe around this time has been described as a powder keg. The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand was simply the spark that set off the explosion.<\/p>\n There are numerous powder kegs in this country and around the world. We saw a huge one last year after the murder of George Floyd. We saw another one of a very different nature on January 6. There\u2019s a far more deadly powder keg in Palestine<\/a> right now.<\/p>\n Are any of these enough to start a world war? Probably not, but sit on a powder keg long enough and eventually someone will set it off.<\/p>\n As I began working on this post, it struck me that the writers, directors, and others responsible for making all these movies and TV shows set in the Victorian era are seeing much the same things many of us are seeing. Only they\u2019re not listening to the Morrigan and they\u2019re not dealing with the Fair Folk (thought I\u2019m not sure about Fair Folk, given the level of fae propaganda<\/a> I see in entertainment), so they don\u2019t have our context for interpreting it.<\/p>\n What we see as Tower Time<\/a> they see as the Victorian era repeating itself. They\u2019re not wrong.<\/p>\n So, what do we do?<\/p>\n Earlier this year I taught an on-line class on Navigating Tower Time \u2013 Magic for an Era of Change<\/a>. The class is on-demand \u2013 it\u2019s still available<\/a> if you want to take it. It focuses on seeing things as they really are, figuring out the approach you want to take, and then developing both a magical and a mundane plan to accomplish your goals.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a better alternative. There\u2019s a mid-term election next year with huge consequences. Most of the trouble is being created at the state level \u2013 the more we can do to keep the Neo-Victorians out of office the better.<\/p>\n But while participating in the political process is necessary, it\u2019s not enough. Politics won\u2019t save you.<\/p>\n That\u2019s up to you and your allies, both in this world and between the worlds.<\/p>\n Good luck.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If art imitates life, then all the current movies and TV shows set in the Victorian era say something about our current era\u2026 and they\u2019re not good things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":22418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[3665,4,5,2984,3560,3557,3662,3656,3659,3668],"class_list":["post-22412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-myth","tag-enola-holmes","tag-pagan","tag-paganism","tag-penny-dreadful","tag-sherlock-holmes","tag-the-irregulars","tag-the-nevers","tag-victorian","tag-victorian-era","tag-world-war-i"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2021\/05\/New-Victorian-Era-1024x536.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA time of technological transition<\/h2>\n
Wealth and income inequality<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2021\/05\/Williams-House-2015-1024x536.jpg\")
<\/a>A struggle for women\u2019s rights<\/h2>\n
Suppressed sexuality<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2021\/05\/Williams-House-2015-02-1024x536.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA magical revival<\/h2>\n
The roots of World War I<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2021\/05\/St.-Cyprians-Church-1903-1024x536.jpg\")
<\/a>A mundane response to Tower Time<\/h2>\n