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Old May 15th, 2013 #38
Alex Linder
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Comparative Summary

The main features which Western political correctness derives from as Soviet and Maoist variants can now be summarised as follows:

Quote:
i. No limits to the competence of politicians and activists to remould human societies are recognized. There is no area of human endeavour which cannot be "deconstructed" and improved. All versions of political correctness are genuine manifestations of ideology in the definitions provided by Apter, Arendt, Francis, Heller, Kirk and Lin (Apter, 1964, Arendt 1973, Francis, 1999, Heller, 1988, Kirk, 1984, Lin, 1991);

ii. Political correctness denies objective truth, or something close to it. See the istina/pravda split identified and discussed by Berger.

iii. Only certain types of art, literature, scientific research and thinking are permissible. Soviet ideologues believed mistakenly, that they could co-opt the tradition of nineteenth century Russian literature for their own ends. Rather than acknowledging the grandeur of the great canon, postmodernists have chosen to attack the canon with the aim of destruction through leveling. Both Western and Soviet/Maoist versions accept the need for truth and facts to be censored if this conflicts with politically correct aims. When harvard professor, Barbara Johnson, as part of the AWARE campaign (Actively Working Against Racism and Ethnocentrism), declared that 'professors should have less freedom of expression than writers and artists, because professors are supposed to be createing a better world' (Beard & Cerf, 1992, 97), she reveals her full commitment to the spirit of Soviet socialist realism and Leninist partiinost'. Whereas the Soviet communist party was brutal in regard to censoring forbidden manuscripts, killing and imprisoning writers without hesitation, more diverse approaches are favoured in the West. The following can be noted: outright suppression of manuscripts by a publisher, even hen teh author has been earlier informed that publication will proceed (as in the case of Chris Brand's book on the g factor); intimidation of publishers by left-wing extremists who often adopt a guise of "anti-racism" or "anti-fascism"; failure or refusal on the part of university librarians to consider certain titles for collection development (a very effective long-term form of censorship); refusal to review certain books; ignoring a book even when it sells well; organising a discussion panel to attack an author or publication, ensuring that the author under attack or advocate of certain views has minimal time to respond. This is a favourite technique of the British Broadcasting Corporation, Britain's state-owned television station, when a politically incorrect opinion or book cannot be ignored since to do so merely draws attention to the silence of the state media; ideological and political attacks on the institution of free speech frequently based on the straw man fallacy that free speech is not absolute (no man-made institution is);

iv: Use of the print and broadcast media to vilify and to demonise those who break any taboos prescribed in paragraph iii. This is important in the Western version since the totalitarian violence used by the Soviet Union is not currently an option;

v. We find exceptional importance attached to the need to establish and to maintain correct theoretical approaches (Chuang, 1968, Chung et al, 1996, FLP, 1970, Khrushchev, 1959, Lenin, 1901, 1902, 1905 & 1906, Resheniya, 1967, Schoenhals, 1992, Thom, 1989). For contemporary political correctness domination of political discourse -- symbols, words and usage -- is all important (Goldberg, 2002, Stein, 2000);

vi. The role of a demon figure either the class enemy or currently the white, heterosexual male;

vii. Political correctness has, to paraphrase Thom, turned the world into language. And strives for absolute control over the dictionary;

viii. Envy is exploited to an unusual degree;

ix. Freedoms guaranteed in Western societies are exploited in an attempt to destroy those freedoms while arguing that these freedoms are a sham (free speech, equality before the law, freedom of assembly);

x. The Soviet and Chinese Communist Parties seized power and proceeded on the basis of the tabula rasa or Year Zero. In the West, we are experiencing a process of slow and incremental Sovietization.
Conclusion

Emerging into the wider public domain at the end of the 1980s and early 1990s, the term political correctness, much to the surprise and chagrin of those who used it, rapidly became associated with the Phrarisee and the tyrant. As early as 1992, the compilers of The Official Politically Correct Dictionary & Handbook were quick to spot the danger and tried to blunt the attack, warning their readers that: "The term "politically correct", co-opted by the white power elite as a tool for attacking multiculturalism, is no longer "politically correct" (Bear & Cerf, 1992, 87). Attacking political correctness with some vigor in Culture of Complaint, Robert Hughes nevertheless felt obliged to balance his criticisms wtih the invention of "patriotic correctness", which, he assured us, was as bad as political correctness (Hughes, 1993, 28).

[onto page 78, more thur.]

Last edited by Alex Linder; May 15th, 2013 at 08:05 PM.