"Political correctness," the tactful leftist-invented euphemism
for suppression of dissenting views, pervades our culture. It, of
course, is merely one term amid a sea of them, packaged with
meaning, absorbing other, more proper expressions, connoting
incompatible concepts (in the case of "political correctness", the
ideas of multiculturalism and committing no offense) as one.
Newspeak, in George Orwell’s 1984, had been designed to
alter the underlying linguistic devices employed by the masses, so
that the latter would become unable to even conceive of thoughts
contrary to establishment dogma. Precisely that purpose is served
through terms invented by the leftist elites of today.
While
"political correctness" had been exposed as such a deceptive tool
by numerous men of insight, others remain cloaked or still focused
in the connotative directions intended by their malignant
inventors. With the unmasking of "political correctness" emerged
yet another substitute for "artificial equating of all cultures",
the so-called "diversity". The meaning infused into this "ideal"
is the co-existence of numerous "traditional" modes of life.
(Where "traditional" has come to define a stale structure which
does not permit any adjustments to its flaws and regards itself as
a finished product. It possesses a positive shade of meaning in
the eyes of modern academia.) It rejects as "unnatural" or
"disruptive" elements of cultural diffusion as well as individual
attempts to reform those practices harmful to themselves and
antiprogressive in regard to a majority of their fellow men. As a
matter of fact, to embrace "diversity" is to embrace an ethic
which condemns variety in personal convictions and practices,
negates the human ego's central role in the formulation of
concepts and mechanisms, and attempts to coerce men into
submitting in their entirety to a mode of behavior attributed to
circumstantial aspects, as race, ethnicity, nationality, and place
of upbringing.
Dr. Michael
Berliner, former executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute,
along with Dr. Gary Hull, a prominent Objectivist philosopher and
writer, expose empirical manifestations of the true meaning of
"diversity" as well as the implications those carry.
"Advocates of
'diversity' are true racists in the basic meaning of that term:
they see the world through colored lenses, colored by race and
gender. To the multiculturalist, race is what counts - for values,
for thinking, for human identity in general. No wonder racism is
increasing: colorblindness is now considered evil, if not
impossible. No wonder people don't treat each other as
individuals: to the multiculturalist, they aren't. Advocates of
'diversity' claim it will teach students to tolerate and celebrate
their differences. But the 'differences' they have in mind are
racial differences, which means we're being urged to glorify race,
which means we're being asked to institutionalize separatism.
'Racial identity' erects an unbridgeable gulf between people, as
though they were different species, with nothing fundamental in
common. If that were true - if 'racial identity' determined one's
values and thinking methods - there would be no possibility for
understanding or cooperation among people of different races.
Advocates of 'diversity' claim that because the real world is
diverse, the campus should reflect that fact. But why should a
campus population 'reflect' the general population (particularly
the ethnic population)? No answer. In fact, the purpose of a
university is to impart knowledge and develop reasoning, not to be
a demographic mirror of society. Racism, not any meaningful sense
of diversity, guides today's intellectuals. The educationally
significant diversity that exists in 'the real world' is
intellectual diversity, i.e., the diversity of ideas. But such
diversity - far from being sought after - is virtually forbidden
on campus. The existence of 'political correctness' blasts the
academics' pretense at valuing real diversity. What they want is
abject conformity. The only way to eradicate racism on campus is
to scrap racist programs and the philosophic ideas that feed
racism. Racism will become an ugly memory only when universities
teach a valid concept of human nature: one based on the tenets
that the individual's mind is competent, that the human intellect
is efficacious, that we possess free will, that individuals are to
be judged as individuals - and that deriving one's identity from
one's race is a corruption - a corruption appropriate to Nazi
Germany, not to a nation based on freedom and independence."
(Michael S. Berliner, Ph.D., and Gary Hull, Ph.D. "Diversity and
Multiculturalism: The New Racism." The Ayn Rand Institute.
http://www.aynrand.org)
Again, the
Orwellian molding of perception is evident through the racism
subtly concealed under the title of "diversity", which has become
a blind allegiance to a product of sheer chance, and a rejection
of the truly significant, a man's freedom to exercise his will to
ascend toward extraordinariness.
Social institutions have embraced another manner of Newspeak, that
promulgated by cliques pretending to struggle for women's rights.
Here is exposed another aspect of Mr. Orwell's prediction, the
destruction of terminology to ensure a "successful" linguistic
reformation.
"Official
thought control has reached Calgary. In November 1994, the Calgary
Board of Education imposed Policy 1028 on teachers: 'gender
inclusive communications.' The word is out that teachers who
refuse to obey its dictates are at risk of dismissal, of losing
their livelihoods. The policy states: 'The Board directs that all
communications be sensitive and inclusive.' Its meaning can best
be learned by observing what its 'Guidelines' forbid. Polite forms
of address are verboten: you can't say 'Mr,' 'Mrs,' or 'Mr and Mrs,'
can't use 'Sir' or 'Madam,' can't use 'Ladies and Gentlemen' when
addressing a meeting. Specifically feminine terms for occupations
are verboten. You can't say 'waitress,' 'stewardess' or
'actress.' Above all, English's gender inclusive terms are
verboten. You are forbidden to use 'man' as an inclusive term,
either alone or in compounds such as 'businessman' or 'spokesman.'
You are forbidden to use English's gender inclusive pronouns
inclusively: the inclusive sense of 'he,' 'him,' 'his,' and the
like are all verboten. This allegedly 'gender inclusive' policy
prohibits the gender inclusive terms of English! Therefore,
'gender inclusive' is the wrong name for the language it seeks to
impose. In view of its obviously feminist origins, and its
similarity to Orwellian Newspeak, it is better called Femspeak."
(Michael Miller, Engineer, Objectivist philosopher, founder of
Quackgrass Press. “Femspeak.")
Femspeak, in
essence, deprives one, with force at its side to stifle
disobedience, of the opportunity to express one's ideas in any
manner contrary to the beliefs held by the so-called "feminist"
movement. One is forbidden to, through his language, address an
individual generically, without reference to gender (using
terminology such as "man", which has been derived from the German
and Anglo-Saxon device, "man", meaning "one", "they", "person", or
"people", or the inclusive "he", which can become an abstract
reference to a man regardless of gender), or with a courteous
recognition of the individual's gender through "Sir" or "Madam",
terms intended to lift one's image rather than degrade it. The
words permitted, such as "he/she" or "person" bear with them no
particular distinction nor any sign of respectable approach. They
are, in a way, hints of the establishment's wishes to restrict
individual prominence and not allow it to surface even through the
form of a slight nuance. "Man", too, is suppressed as a result of
its dual reference, one to the individual, the other to humankind
at large. The word is an expression of the most profound respect
possible, that the person addressed embodies certain qualities
worthy of a superior species such as Homo sapiens. It is a
lofty title praising the humanity, ingenuity, and deserved mastery
of its bearer, who, ideally, would possess precisely the face the
Party of Ingsoc would have wished to place its boot upon, but
would remain unable to, for the spirit of man, in a fitting
condition, will under no circumstance defer to mediocrity.
"Person", on the other hand, is a reference to merely the fact of
one's existence. It possesses no glorious parallel, and a man
addressed as "person" is informed that he is "just like the rest
of them", i.e. susceptible to savage urges of obsequy and
self-degradation. This is an implication submerged too deeply for
a common "person" to detect it, yet the one who becomes treated as
a "she" instead of a "Madam" and as a vulgar brute instead of a
"man" will experience frustration and disappointment at the least.
Is
there a link between this manner of censorship and the censorship
of righteous ideas through the employment of terms such as
"political correctness", "diversity", and "traditionalism"? There
exists such a connection through the essence of the mainstream
feminist movement itself. Mr. Miller explains.
"Feminism is a
form of collectivism which seeks to divide mankind into warring
factions based on sex—just as Nazism sought to divide mankind into
racial factions, and Communism sought to divide mankind into
economic factions. Feminism no more seeks fair treatment for women
than Nazism sought fair treatment for Germans. Collectivism
promotes collective guilt. The feminist version is that males
living now, and those not yet born, must be made to suffer for the
alleged offenses of their (male) ancestors. (But then why not
compensate them for the alleged injustices suffered by their
female ancestors? No answer.) Males are to be targets of
discrimination, subject to quotas and legal disabilities. The Nazi
parallels are obvious. Collectivism needs a fundamental Big Lie,
and feminism's is that women have been systematically excluded
from mankind, that virtually everything—from reason, to law, to
marriage, to the forms of language—is a male plot. If feminists
can make us forget that 'man' has always meant the whole human
race, then they can re-write history to suit their lie. For
example, they can claim that the philosophers who upheld the
'rights of man' meant to exclude women. The inclusive use of 'man'
is a barrier to such re-writing. That is why feminists are
campaigning to snuff it out. They might succeed. They don't need
you to agree with them, they just need you to act as if you did.
If you and others use femspeak in your daily vocabulary, the
inclusive use of 'man' will gradually fade away—and they will win
this round. Whether you use femspeak from conviction, from
intimidation, or from a desire to blend in, the result will be the
same."
(Michael Miller, Engineer, Objectivist philosopher, founder of
Quackgrass Press. “Femspeak.")
In
this case Newspeak and the mutability of the past possess a
discernible tangent at the doctrine of feminism. "Feminism" itself
is a Newspeak term simply due to the connotative aura of
egalitarianism which it had acquired. Any concept associated with
"feminism" is automatically judged by the impulsive as seeking the
elevation of females to a state of dignity they rightfully
deserve. Such a surface-oriented philosophy possesses no flaws
within it, yet the feminist movement does not adhere to it. It
holds a collectivist, circumstantialist perception that brands one
evil for no fault other than that of having been born male, and
exalts one as a goddess for the contrary accident of chance. The
deception lies in the cloak of virtue that such a term, which from
its literal Latin origins means "rule by women", acquires within
vulgar minds. Affirmative action is mistaken for equal
opportunity, the sensuous ridicule of males for good taste, an
abusive wife for a dispenser of rightful punishment upon an innate
fiend. The aforementioned atrocities are henceforth permitted to
persist and become aggravated under such a collectivist framework
of interpretation. Yet does the collectivist movement profit from
such wickedness? It does indeed.
Collectivism is a means to the most immoral of ends, the
deprivation of meaning from the individual's life, the removal of
justification from his aspirations for comfort and, therefore,
from his struggle to live and to live as prosperously as he
pleases. From one half of the population, those happening to
possess a male gender, feminism attempts to deprive the very human
worth that they must discover within themselves prior to attaining
the confidence, resolve, and skill necessary to establish
successful lives. The tragedy lies in that a frightening quantity
of those males have blindly and willingly embraced the doctrine
preaching their own inferiority and have strived to surrender
their well-being so as to be judged "politically correct."
The other half
of the population becomes not degraded but stagnated. Its members
are informed that they have reached the most sublime apogee of
human worth because of their feminine classification. Since
a collectivist outlook does not recognize the existence of an
individual apart from a circumstantial herd, and its feminist
variation views inherent superiority to be contained in the female
gender, it therefore presumes that the female group is the highest
among all things living, that there is no superior stage to reach,
merit being considered irrelevant if not a sign of inferiority in
a collectivist ideology. Therefore, the females, by such a system
of value, are robbed of the stimulus to aspire for their own
comfort, to succeed, to elevate themselves, and thus ameliorate
their lives. They neglect, as a result, to control their own
existences; they surrender this authority to the collective force
referred to as Nature (although Wilderness would be more
appropriate in reference to a setting not affected by human
beings). They become dragged into the primeval bog, affected by
the law of all systems' decay omnipresent in a state of a man's
passiveness, equivalent to a state of man's non-existence. This
condition is precisely what the heirs of John Dewey had embedded
in the hippies and the achievement of which they are approaching
with the youths of today. Feminism is merely another avenue toward
such deterioration, its founders hoping for it to occupy the minds
of those perhaps remote from the other collectivist trends. It is
no longer the struggle for suffrage and equal protection under the
law envisioned by Elizabeth C. Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. As a
matter of fact, the censoring variety of feminism had sprouted its
roots during the rallies of the 1960s.
The
modern Newspeak is far-reaching in its grasp. It encompasses the
foul terms employed by hippies to demonstrate their scorn at the
world, presently entrenched in almost every field of
popularly-embraced entertainment and, consequently, in a majority
of young minds. Originating from the repulsive jargon of the
slums, these four-letter words are in common usage among wealthy
and poor children alike. To imitate the lowly and rotten has
become a fashion among the aristocrats of wealth, the so-called (anti)"progressive
rich" who will, according to Ms. Rand, be the first to fall prey
to the blinding dogmas of collectivism. These men with means,
those who once possessed the most certain of opportunities to
create wonders from their lives, shall destroy their desires for
such success through the self-debasement of uttering such
profanities as the four-letter words imply, the desire to perform
the most barbaric and animal of acts upon one's fellow men, to
molest them, to injure them, both in a casual manner reflecting
that in which those words are spoken, to repress their yearning
for greatness as well as to quell their wishes to rise from such
disgusting deeds, obeying all of the above as if they were
inviolate and profound laws. In the Wilderness they are. The very
phonetics of the syllables involved are reminiscent of one of two
sounds, a semi-animate mountain of swine wallowing in a puddle or
a dull, coarse blade slicing through one's neck. Or perhaps it is
that of the porcine abomination wielding the blade...
But
the most destructive variety of Newspeak can be visible in the
overall reduction of eloquence within the comprehensive capacity
and utility of the average American. With mass media rendered
available, the academic elite had obtained to ability to broadcast
to the masses the culture which, for them, was deemed most fitting
to replace the stifled one of the West, that of the slums.
Definite, literal, lyric terms of European origin had given way to
incomprehensibly superficial, untraceable, mind-warping slang of
the uneducated. Instead of a genuine (and rarely dispensed)
inquiry into one's welfare, "How are you?" had become a mere
ritual greeting. The expectation in response is a brief comment
consisting of no greater a number of words than two. In reality,
of course, no sole term is capable of describing the individual
condition during even a single hour. The variety of experiences
and reactions in its intricacy would have barely been grasped had
volumes been written addressing such a topic. Yet, to achieve a
twisted manner of politeness, a sincere respect for the state of a
man's affairs is replaced by a feigned interest to satisfy one's
pretense at courtesy while in reality possessing no respect
whatsoever for the addressed individual. To the man of sloth it
presents an image of moral elevation while in reality destructing
any integrity that would have otherwise remained in him.
In circles of
greater vulgarity such a cliché is replaced by the even more
unfathomable "What is up?" or distorted phonetic variations
thereof. The range of "proper" answers in the face of such a
ludicrous and illogical (for a man of sight) inquiry is limited to
but one, the despicable "Nothing much." In the literal sense (of
course not consciously grasped by those employing the expression)
it can be interpreted as a revelation of the creature's rejection
of understanding, his passive dismissal of his surroundings
through an outburst of apathy. "Whatever exists in the absolute,"
implies the brute, "holds no significance to me. I do not wish to
study it, nor master it, nor extract anything from it to my
advantage. I, in my extensively lauded condition of indolence,
refuse to even lift my porcine head and my un-penetrating eyes to
glance at a fact of reality." The message is subtle, nevertheless
rendered ever more horrifying by precisely that fact. The
ignorami, those favored drones of the Witch Doctors, embrace it
without becoming aware of the consequent destruction of that one
portion of their mind which is integral to survival, the ego. Mr.
Orwell's connection between unconsciousness and orthodoxy again
emerges to the surface through this example.
Approximately two dozen of such automatic questions and responses
(which are addressed by the brute to all those whom he meets
without discrimination) are in constant circulation, millions of
them floating around the country daily, dulling people's minds and
consciences. They may be identified by two unifying deficiencies,
those of deliberation and originality. The anatomy of another may
display another dominant characteristic among them, a demeaning
undertone. "Hey, man" has become a typical vulgar greeting. The
utility of the word "man" as a generic term has remained here and
here only within Newspeak, but to serve a vile purpose. "Hey" is a
crude address demonstrating both a lack of refinement and a lack
of respect for the individual addressed. By greeting a true "man"
(which, as we had previously examined, is a noble distinction)
with a phrase suitable only for one's disobedient hound, the very
virtue of manhood is questioned and denied by the person uttering
the remark. It is, in effect, a statement of the worthlessness of
genuine humanity, i.e. of that creative spirit of the ego which
renders possible the uplifting of the human condition. It is an
eager (although subconscious) upholding of the direct antithesis
of objective progress, collectivist nihilism, the base upon which
the leftist oligarchy seeks to erect its own metaphorical
construction, which, instead of an edifice, shall be a wrecking
ball to demolish all others.
A
decent, respectful conversation seldom occurs in an era where such
terminology has become as parasitic a mark on an individual as is
a tattoo. Both are imprints of whimsical societal trends and an
atmosphere permeated by vulgarity; both are signs of an
individual's incompetence and surrender to the above. Specific,
definite terms are falling into a category defined by Newspeak as
"old-fashioned" but possessing the same meaning as the Orwellian
"old-thinking". Vocabulary, art, clothing styles, and ideology of
the Enlightenment and the Victorian Era (in the mainstream,
neglecting the socialism spreading clandestinely from Hegel's
philosophical blunderings) are all classified under such a
category, unified by the elements of rationality and objectivity
which had been in the field of Mr. Orwell's recognition. The
culture which we shall for the sake of encompassing both time
periods classify as True Western was founded upon logic,
precision, and science, which had been properly judged to be
necessary conditions for progress and thus for individual life.
The struggle for the individual is thus becoming branded as
obsolete by the confused impulsive cortices of the indoctrinated.
It becomes replaced by thoughtless subservience to the dominant
paradigm, by implications of worthlessness, by censorship of
dissent and mislabeling of concepts. Children are taught in the (anti)"progressive"
schools to throw off the "shackles" of proper grammar, they are
subtly encouraged to punctuate however they please, to not
capitalize the necessary words of their electronic communication
(as the bureaucrats in 1984 did not capitalize their
Newspeak memorandums), to spell "creatively", i.e. haphazardly and
without the logical structure of proper English to rely upon, to
employ such perversions without penalty and with subsequent
replication on the behalf of their peers. What they truly throw
off, however, is the exhilarating range of freedom that proper
grammar and an ample arsenal of vocabulary render possible. One of
them would not have comprehended even this simple commentary. They
would have and will remain immune to its warnings (which are
intended for men of intellect because intellect is precisely that
capacity which my ideological endeavor seeks to uphold and
justify). As thought the Party Witch Doctors, so do the Deweyites:
"Ignorance is Strength." It is their strength.
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