What is "Political Correctness"?
William S. Lind
Most Americans look back on the 1950s as a good time. Our homes
were safe, to the point where many people did not bother to lock
their doors. Public schools were generally excellent, and their
problems were things like talking in class and running in the
halls. Most men treated women like ladies, and most ladies
devoted their time and effort to making good homes, rearing
their children well and helping their communities through
volunteer work. Children grew up in two-parent households, and
the mother was there to meet the child when he came home from
school. Entertainment was something the whole family could
enjoy.
What
happened?
If a man from America of the 1950s were suddenly introduced into
America in the 2000s, he would hardly recognize it as the same
country. He would be in immediate danger of getting mugged,
carjacked or worse, because he would not have learned to live in
constant fear. He would not know that he shouldn't go into
certain parts of the city, that his car must not only be locked
but equipped with an alarm, that he dare not go to sleep at
night without locking the windows and bolting the doors - and
setting the electronic security system.
If he brought his family with him, he and his wife would
probably cheerfully pack their children off to the nearest
public school. When the children came home in the afternoon and
told them they had to go through a metal detector to get in the
building, had been given some funny white powder by another kid
and learned that homosexuality is normal and good, the parents
would be uncomprehending.
In the office, the man might light up a cigarette, drop a
reference to the "little lady," and say he was happy to see the
firm employing some Negroes in important positions. Any of those
acts would earn a swift reprimand, and together they might get
him fired.
When she went into the city to shop, the wife would put on a
nice suit, hat, and possibly gloves. She would not understand
why people stared, and mocked.
And when the whole family sat down after dinner and turned on
the television, they would not understand how pornography from
some sleazy, blank-fronted "Adults Only" kiosk had gotten on
their set.
Were they able, our 1950s family would head back to the 1950s as
fast as they could, with a gripping horror story to tell. Their
story would be of a nation that had decayed and degenerated at a
fantastic pace, moving in less than a half a century from the
greatest country on earth to a Third World nation, overrun by
crime, noise, drugs and dirt. The fall of Rome was graceful by
comparison.
Why did it
happen?
Over the last forty years, America has been conquered by the
same force that earlier took over Russia, China, Germany and
Italy. That force is ideology. Here, as elsewhere, ideology has
inflicted enormous damage on the traditional culture it came to
dominate, fracturing it everywhere and sweeping much of it away.
In its place came fear, and ruin. Russia will take a generation
or more to recover from Communism, if it ever can.
The ideology that has taken over America goes most commonly by
the name of "Political Correctness." Some people see it as a
joke. It is not. It is deadly serious. It seeks to alter
virtually all the rules, formal and informal, that govern
relations among people and institutions. It wants to change
behavior, thought, even the words we use. To a significant
extent, it already has. Whoever or whatever controls language
also controls thought. Who dares to speak of "ladies" now?
Just what is "Political Correctness?" Political Correctness is
in fact cultural Marxism - Marxism translated from economic into
cultural terms. The effort to translate Marxism from economics
into culture did not begin with the student rebellion of the
1960s. It goes back at least to the 1920s and the writings of
the Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci. In 1923, in Germany, a
group of Marxists founded an institute devoted to making the
transition, the Institute of Social Research (later known as the
Frankfurt School). One of its founders, George Lukacs, stated
its purpose as answering the question, "Who shall save us from
Western Civilization?" The Frankfurt School gained profound
influence in American universities after many of its leading
lights fled to the United States in the 1930s to escape National
Socialism in Germany.
The Frankfurt School blended Marx with Freud, and later
influences (some Fascist as well as Marxist) added linguistics
to create "Critical Theory" and "deconstruction." These in turn
greatly influenced education theory, and through institutions of
higher education gave birth to what we now call "Political
Correctness." The lineage is clear, and it is traceable right
back to Karl Marx.
The parallels between the old, economic Marxism and cultural
Marxism are evident. Cultural Marxism, or Political Correctness,
shares with classical Marxism the vision of a "classless
society," i.e., a society not merely of equal opportunity, but
equal condition. Since that vision contradicts human nature -
because people are different, they end up unequal, regardless of
the starting point - society will not accord with it unless
forced. So, under both variants of Marxism, it is forced. This
is the first major parallel between classical and cultural
Marxism: both are totalitarian ideologies. The totalitarian
nature of Political Correctness can be seen on campuses where
"PC" has taken over the college: freedom of speech, of the
press, and even of thought are all eliminated.
The second major parallel is that both classical, economic
Marxism and cultural Marxism have single-factor explanations of
history. Classical Marxism argues that all of history was
determined by ownership of the means of production. Cultural
Marxism says that history is wholly explained by which groups -
defined by sex, race, and sexual normality or abnormality - have
power over which other groups.
The third parallel is that both varieties of Marxism declare
certain groups virtuous and others evil a priori, that is,
without regard for the actual behavior of individuals. Classical
Marxism defines workers and peasants as virtuous and the
bourgeoisie (the middle class) and other owners of capital as
evil. Cultural Marxism defines blacks, Hispanics, Feminist
women, homosexuals and some additional minority groups as
virtuous and white men as evil. (Cultural Marxism does not
recognize the existence of non-Feminist women, and defines
blacks who reject Political Correctness as whites).
The fourth parallel is in means: expropriation. Economic
Marxists, where they obtained power, expropriated the property
of the bourgeoisie and handed it to the state, as the
"representative" of the workers and the peasants. Cultural
Marxists, when they gain power (including through our own
government), lay penalties on white men and others who disagree
with them and give privileges to the groups they favor.
Affirmative action is an example.
Finally, both varieties of Marxists employ a method of analysis
designed to show the correctness of their ideology in every
situation. For classical Marxists, the analysis is economic. For
cultural Marxists, the analysis is linguistic: deconstruction.
Deconstruction "proves" that any "text," past or present,
illustrates the oppression of blacks, women, homosexuals, etc.
by reading that meaning into words of the text (regardless of
their actual meaning). Both methods are, of course, phony
analyses that twist the evidence to fit preordained conclusions,
but they lend a 'scientific" air to the ideology.
These parallels are neither remarkable nor coincidental. They
exist because Political Correctness is directly derived from
classical Marxism, and is in fact a variant of Marxism. Through
most of the history of Marxism, cultural Marxists were "read
out" of the movement by classical, economic Marxists. Today,
with economic Marxism dead, cultural Marxism has filled its
shoes. The medium has changed, but the message is the same: a
society of radical egalitarianism enforced by the power of the
state.
Political Correctness now looms over American society like a
colossus. It has taken over both political parties - recent
Republican conventions were choreographed according to its
dictates, while cultural conservatives were shown the door - and
is enforced by many laws and government regulations. It controls
the most powerful element in our culture, the entertainment
industry. It dominates both public and higher education: many a
college campus is a small, ivy-covered North Korea. It has even
captured the higher clergy in many Christian churches. Anyone in
the Establishment who departs from its dictates swiftly ceases
to be a member of the Establishment.
The remainder of this short book will explore the subject of
Political Correctness further: its history, its method of
analysis (deconstruction), and the means by which it has
attained its influence, especially through education.
But one more question must be addressed at the outset, the most
vital question: how can Americans combat Political Correctness
and retake their society from the cultural Marxists?
It is not sufficient just to criticize Political Correctness. It
tolerates a certain amount of criticism., even gentle mocking.
It does so through no genuine tolerance for other points of
view, but in order to disarm its opponents, to let itself seem
less menacing than it is. The cultural Marxists do not yet have
total power, and they are too wise to appear totalitarian until
their victory is assured.
Rather, those who would defeat cultural Marxism must defy it.
They must use words it forbids, and refuse to use the words it
mandates; remember, sex is better than gender. They must shout
from the housetops the realities it seeks to suppress, such as
the facts that violent crime is disproportionately committed by
blacks and that most cases of AIDS are voluntary, i.e., acquired
from immoral sexual acts. They must refuse to turn their
children over to public schools.
Above all, those who would defy Political Correctness must
behave according to the old rules of our culture, not the new
rules the cultural Marxists lay down. Ladies should be wives and
homemakers, not cops or soldiers, and men should still hold
doors open for ladies. Children should not be born out of
wedlock. Open homosexuality should be shunned. Jurors should not
accept race as an excuse for murder.
Defiance spreads. When other Americans see one person defy
Political Correctness and survive - and you still can, for now -
they are emboldened. They are tempted to defy it, too, and some
do. The ripples from a single act of defiance, of one instance
of walking up to the clay idol and breaking off its nose, can
range far. There is nothing the Politically Correct fear more
than open defiance, and for good reason; it is their chief
vulnerability. That should lead cultural conservatives to defy
cultural Marxism at every turn.
While the hour is late, the battle is not decided. Very few
Americans realize that Political Correctness is in fact Marxism
in a different set of clothes. As that realization spreads,
defiance will spread with it. At present, Political Correctness
prospers by disguising itself. Through defiance, and through
education on our own part (which should be part of every act of
defiance), we can strip away its camouflage and reveal the
Marxism beneath the window-dressing of "sensitivity,"
"tolerance," and "multi-culturalism."
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