Political Correctness is Destructive but Unstoppable

When a City Goes Mad

Political Correctness (“PC”) has washed through modern life quicker than a Cheviot flood. Where has it come from? Equally important, where will it take us? This post addresses both these important questions.

Most people know PC when they are confronted with it. However, few are able to define it. They just know that, whatever it is, when exposed to it, one is confronted by an unpleasant, malodourous influence. This lack of clarity does not make the general reaction wrong per se: rather, it probably indicates a disquiet over PC that arises from intuitive common sense. People know its wrong; they just don't know why.

PC is an ideology which arises out of the heart of secular humanist Unbelief. It is a consistent extension of Athenian idolatry. It is a logical extension and expression of Athenian religious belief. This explains why it has spread so quickly; why it has insinuated itself into law, government, media, schools, public institutions, and national life so easily. If you are already leaning over the edge of a cliff, it takes just a mere puff of wind to overbalance you and send you into the abyss.

The consistency of PC with modern Athenian belief means, also, that Athens cannot easily combat or reject it. It cannot do so easily because to reject PC ideology is to attack implicitly the very foundations upon which Athens has been built.

The doctrines of PC arise from the all-pervasive Athenian doctrines of human rights. In particular, the deeply held belief that human beings are equal. All modern Athenian polities and cultures are built upon this ideological mantra. But, in what sense are human beings equal? Clearly, “nature”—that is, the natural order presents us with rampant inequality. The distribution of human gifts, talents and abilities is so wide and diverse that talk of natural order equality is a nonsense. This, of course, is an acute problem for modern secular humanism, insofar as Athenian ideology overwhelmingly acknowledges the material realm only as god. Anything not reducible to a test-tube, or experimental equivalent, is mere prejudice, cant, whimsy, or self-delusion. The material world is the real world, according to modern secular humanism, yet the real world presents us with both extreme and persistent human inequalities.

When the doctrine of the equality of human beings was first promulgated in the West, its application was severely limited. It meant, essentially, equality before the law. Regardless of a person's race or culture, economic circumstances or sex, they were to be equal before the law, before the courts, before institutions of justice. Justice was blind to such differences; to be just was to treat all people before the bar impartially and disinterestedly.

But over time this narrow application of the doctrine of human equality grated and proved unsatisfying. The canons of human equality had to be extended to other areas. Increasingly, attention focused upon the pervasive and persistent inequalities of nature regnant on every hand. The first was the Marxist approach which energetically focused upon economic inequality. Men could not be truly equal until there was a “fair and equal” distribution of capital and money to everyone.

As we know, Marxism took two forms: revolutionary and gradualist. Revolutionary Marxism we now know as Communism: it attempted by force to create one giant commune, where private property was abolished, and all men held all wealth in common. The second form, gradualist Marxism, sought to use lawful, non-revolutionary means gradually to redistribute wealth through the mechanisms of progressive taxation and government re-distribution to remove the very rich and the very poor and make everybody equally middle class.

Revolutionary Marxism created untold suffering and horrors—becoming the extreme antithesis to the doctrine of equal human rights—so it has ended up being comprehensively rejected by the West—at least for the moment. Gradualist Marxism, however, has been widely adopted, and its ideology and practices are now conventional in modern secular Athenian societies. Note, however, that gradualist Marxism, as an outworking of the Unbelieving ideology of human equality, has led to an enormous extension of central government powers at the expense of the liberty of individuals, families, communities, and non-governmental groups.

The ideology of equality—so patently contradicted by the natural order—could only be achieved by counter-acting nature itself, by “compensating” for the natural order, through increasing forceful intrusion of the state into human affairs. This has led not only to an attempt to make all of society roughly equal in income and wealth, but has extended to an attempt to create equality of opportunity for everyone, through universal, “free”, education and health systems.

Very quickly, then, health, education, and welfare became the biggest and most expensive and intrusive activities of governments throughout the West. The ideology of equality of human rights leading to radical extension of state powers and governmental intrusions, with a corresponding diminution of personal and private liberties and responsibilities, have proved remorseless and unstoppable. Athens cannot resist it; it can only cheer it on.

Cheering aside, however, Athens has once more it has failed to deliver on its promise of building its nirvana of human equality. We have now had five or six generations, in the West, of gradualist Marxism. Human equality, as understood by Athenian religion, is as elusive as ever. This is deeply troubling to the high priests and the keepers of the secular humanist flame.

Enter the third phase of the dogma of human equality. The first application called for equality before the law; the second application called for equality in wealth. Both failed to deliver comprehensive human equality. So now we are entering the third phase: equal human rights means all humans must be equally respected and affirmed. Human beings must be made to regard everyone else as their equal. Enter the practices and ideology of PC. Under PC, respect must be shown, inclusion must be granted, acceptance must be demonstrate, and tolerance must be extended to all human beings regardless of race, culture, colour, age, sex, or whatever. PC is an assertion that the dogma of human equality requires equality of respect for all human beings and their activities.

The applications of PC ideology are legion. Equal respect or toleration touches all public discourse and acts, the entire legal framework, education, health, welfare, family life, child rearing practices, attitudinal discrimination, employment and commerce—literally, every area of human life and endeavour. In principle, every practice is acceptable, as long as it can be asserted to be intrinsic to one's existence as a human being. If I can credibly claim that I was born a homosexual, PC ideology requires that all that I am is to be respected and accepted by everyone else. Respect means that society must affirm who and what I am. Even if I were not born a homosexual, but assert my strong preferences and rights to live as a homosexual, PC ideology requires that everyone respect me and affirm my choices, extending the utmost tolerance to me.

PC's ideological respect and enforced tolerance are part of the same apple. Moreover, tolerance must be enforced for under PC ideology, respect is regarded as a human right, intrinsic to the notion of justice. Therefore, the state must promulgate and prosecute the cause of PC by force, because it alone is the ministry of justice sanctioned by force.

We noted above how gradualist Marxism has led to an enormous extension of state power in its drive to create a pseudo-human equality. PC ideology is leading to a further quantum leap in state power and intrusion. Not content with mere externals, people are now being told how they must think, what opinions they must hold, how they have to speak—and what thought, speech and actions are consequently unacceptable. The justice rights of PC demand that people conform in heart, mind, and soul to treating all human beings with equal respect. Now the state, in its attempt to reify equality, despite the natural order, has extended its control to thought and speech. Its totalitarian aspirations are becoming more and more evident.

Where will PC ideology lead us? It will produce a quantum increase in state power, interference, and intrusion into every day lives and into all non-state aspects of society. It will lead to an Orwellian world. It is already well down the track. Frowning official disapproval of any thought, word, or deed that does not affirm the equal value of every human being and his/her endeavours is growing by the hour. The increasingly heard phrase, "nanny state" is symptomatic of the increasingly stifling influence of PC ideology.

Will Athens be able to reverse this dangerous, self-destructive drift? It is highly unlikely. To combat PC ideology requires intellectual and spiritual resources to engage in a thorough-going critique of the dogma of rights-based human equality. But Athens's very foundations rest upon these doctrines. Athens cannot muster or marshal such a critique, without gnawing at the very vitals of its existence.

This explains why, that, although there has been widespread irritation over PC ideology, there has been no thorough-going critique or rejection of it within Athenian society. Any attempts to deal with it have been both superficial and trivial—therefore, ineffective. Of course, PC ideology will fail to deliver equality, even as the other versions and extensions of the ideology of equality have failed. But the damage done will be extensive, if not irreparable.

Athens is cannibalistically eating itself, from the inside out. Liberal society is not self-sustaining. Liberals of yesterday are rapidly becoming the totalitarians of tomorrow.