Yesterday, I was pleased to be able to attend part of a conference in New York on Reclaiming American Liberty. Sponsored by The Hudson Institute, in conjunction with Family Security Matters and Human Events, the day-long conference set itself the lugubrious task of registering the many ways in which American liberty is being eroded by an intrusive government. The morning panels, which I missed, included of economic matters and national security, and included talks by Betsy McCaughey, Gen. Richard Myers, and Andrew McCarthy, among many others. The afternoon panel was devoted to national sovereignty, which is another ways of saying it was devoted to the task of self preservation. The panel, moderated by Midge Decter, featured talks by former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, Joseph Loconte, a research fellow at The King’s College in New York, my Pajamas Media colleague Claudia Rosett, and the Mark Steyn, the prolific author and columnist.
I won’t endeavor to provide a precis of the proceedings other than to note that the picture presented was a grim one. David Hume remarked that “It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.” But as we look around the world today, the assaults on liberty are as multifarious as they are insidious. Whether one considers the resurgence of socialist sentiment in this country and in Europe, the top-down policies promulgated by increasingly centralized and increasingly unaccounted governmental agencies, or the smorgasbord of legislation designed to stymie innovation and enforce conformity on issues from energy consumption to health care, we live in an age in which freedom is regularly bartered for the that peculiar emotion of virtue that is never far away from the heart of leftist sentimentality.
Although the speakers ranged widely, touching on issues from the proper way to deal with terrorists to the depredations of that embarrassing international sink hole, the United Nations, the unifying theme was something Mark Steyn dilated on in his remarks: political correctness.
The very phrase “political correctness” has a certain period feel to it — is it not just a bunch of silliness that sweep through college campuses in the 80s and 90s but that we are now well beyond?
Hardly. At the core of political correctness is a refusal of reality, a refusal to call things by their real names, hence a the propagation of a lie.
Today, the phrase “political correctness” is generally accompanied by a smile — an uneasy smile, but a smile nonetheless. The phrase describes some exaggerated bit of left-wing moralism — so exaggerated that it is hard to take seriously. We smile when we read about an elite American college that has enrolled the sin of “lookism” — the unacceptable belief that some people are more attractive than others–into its catalogue of punishable offenses. We laugh when hearing that a British academic has condemned Frosty the Snowman as a white “male icon” that helps “to substantiate an ideology upholding a gendered spatial/social system.” We scoff when we hear about the University of Michigan professor who complains that J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books “conventionally repeat much of the same sexist and white patriarchal biases of classical fairy tales.” We smile, we laugh, we scoff. But we do so uneasily.
Ah, the stupidity and thuggism of the left and academia is duly noted, and I despise it. BUT ain’t it grand, though, how the right, center, and apathetic can be equally stupid and thuggish each in their inimitable ways? Of course, often they are responding to the thuggery of the other side, or some of the thuggery inherent in human nature, as in bullying policies to stop bullying. Maybe the new PJM-MarkSteyn-Roger Simon meme should be, “Let bullies be bullies; anything else is un-American.”
And yes, bullying may be the core issue here. A lot of these policies are attempts to stop bullying, whether by seven-year-olds or 19-year-olds away from their parents, both of whom can now also be bullied in cyber-space.
Seriously, do we want a world (and it is possible that we do or should) where bullying in its infinite number of human manifestations, is given laissez faire treatment and we focus on making children tough so that they can stand it…and the weak ones will be traumatized, or occasionally die, because that is the natural and unavoidable plight of the weak, a basic law of nature, so to speak?
As for my own views, they would call for “reasonable restraint” on bullying, but I’m still working on exactly what “reasonable” is, and how loaded firearms fit into the equation.
At the core of political correctness is a refusal of reality, a refusal to call things by their real names, hence a the propagation of a lie.
Amen
Let us know when the lecture series moves on to solutions. Here is mine: those of us who understand the danger of this type of behavior need to cease granting the perpetrators the benefit of our politeness and begin greeting such blather with condemnation as offensive to the blatherer as the blather is offensive to us. Like last fall when I calmly and confidently explained to my son’s pretty little doe eyed early 20’s kindergarten teacher that the reason my son said “diversity is a load of crap” is probably because I told him that it was, and that the reason I told him it was is because it is. Unpleasant, but this garbage is learned in environments where it goes unchallenged and challenging it is the only reason to kill it.
“A few years ago the EU made it illegal for journalists to criticize its policies.”
Really?
That explains why there is no more criticism of the EU in the European press, appart from the occaisonal stories written by the few courageous journalists willing to go to gaol for the truth…..er hold on…
It’s not true is it? The EU never made it illegal to criticize its policies. So why is would Roger say this thing, why, why. Did Roger make it up? Has he gone mad? What is going on?
Well, it went like this. There was a man who worked for the EU as a Civil Servant called Bernard Connolly. While he was on holiday, but still an employee of the EU, he wrote a book called “The Rotten Heart of Europe: The Dirty War For Europe’s Money” which, denounced the EU policy of monetary union. The EU fired him. In 2001 He appealed against the dismissal. The body that hears appeals against dismissal of EU Civil Servants is the European Court so it appears as a legal case even though what they argue about is the Staff Code not laws that apply to non-employees:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:61999J0274:EN:HTML
Mr Connolly said I can say what I like about my employers and they can’t do a thing about it because of my right to freedom of speech and anyway ‘I was on holiday’. The court said, you can say what you like about your employer, but if you break trust with your employer then they also have the right to fire you This didn’t create a new precedent to stop criticism of the EU it just maintained the right of employers to fire employees who write and publish a book calling them evil and stupid.
Then, the Daily Telegraph mischievously reported it as “Euro-court outlaws criticism of EU”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1325398/Euro-court-outlaws-criticism-of-EU.html
Then the proto-rightwing-o-nut-o-blog-o-sphere picks up the Telegraph reporting and, nine years later, Roger notices and writes about the EU outlawing criticism as an example of the menace of political correctness.
But it never happened. It has a grain of truth, but like most of these “POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD” stories, it just didn’t happen the way it is told.
The exception is the case of the British city that outlawed the use of the word “crazy” for unwise ideas or policies. “Madness gone politically correct” really did happen.
Mr.Kimball: first and foremost, it is a redeemable moment to spend time with your blog,here…with thanks and ,perhaps,your lamplighting response to my struggle with James Brady’s “novel”-The Imperial Cruise, dressed up as historical “re-writing”- yes! your observ. of the Runnymede trusts’ thrust( couldn’t resist)caught the eye. Grains of truth melded with boorishly incessant white-christian male bashing- all taken out of time/context- and , even , Howard Zinn& Walter Williams, amoungst others sited in appendix glossary. Trouble is, he purports to head a foundation ( Brady Trust )that sends young Americans abroad to live with foreign families(most certainly not Israel)…a venture that certainly resonates with my view that Americans must obtain passports and get out to know the world – if they are going to continue to be an effective Superpower ( I am an English immigrant educ.in the US ) however, that appears to be our only congruency. with curiosity I await your response.
3. Duke of Sharon: ‘I calmly and confidently explained to my son’s pretty little doe eyed early 20’s kindergarten teacher that the reason my son said “diversity is a load of crap” is probably because I told him that it was, and that the reason I told him it was is because it is. Unpleasant, but this garbage is learned in environments where it goes unchallenged….’
Well, for your son’s sake, I sure hope someone challenges your garbage soon.
As we saw in Texas, PC can kill,it is not funny anymore.
Dwight, yes, there was plenty of bulying before. Yes, “get tough and suck it up” is a lousy response to bullying. But so is institutionalized bullying from the bureaucrats and the self-righteous.
Natural rights are the gifts of our Creator, not government. It is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, describing individual freedom. It only exists in America and is under assault today. Free individuals are the only pebble-droppers; the nails sticking up that government people are afraid of tripping over and seek to hammer down. It also means individual self-interest is more important than are the interest of communities. Obama and modern Democrats are opposed to that, as they are united in their support of Rousseau and Marx, not Jefferson and Madison. Check claysamerica.com for a new book, SAVE PEBBLE DROPPERS & PROSPERITY, soon to be on Amazon.com.
Duke,
Well said. The one-to-one confrontation is the most likely way to roll back PC. These cowards cannot stand that.
I feel some sympathy for the poor little girl. She was perhaps trying to do her best. If she has a degree in education, she would have learned a pile of crap, nothing worth passing on to your kid.
So now maybe she will wake up?
Wisdom from Theodore Dalrymple:
“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”