In Orwell’s “1984” Winston’s neighbor, who works at the Ministry of Speech, brags to Winston about how they, “…eliminated another several hundred words from the dictionary that day.” Well, I nominate politically correct thought as the realization of Big Brother’s dream of a subordinated society. In Orwell’s “Newspeak”, there is no word, “bad”, there is merely “ungood”. For “very bad” there is “plus ungood”, and for “very, very bad” there is “double plus ungood”. No negative thoughts allowed here Winnie. All things are referred to in a “positive” light. This like calling a dead person, “metabolically challenged”.
In a very real sense, this is the same concept involved in how politically correct speech is “cleansing” our precious language. I fully support the elimination of gender specific nomenclature. Firemen are just fine as firefighters. Mailmen can just as easily be letter carriers. Where I draw the line is with the people who actually suggested we eliminate “waiter” and “waitress” in favor of the word “waitron”. Hey, just use “waiter” for everyone, it has no gender specificity.
Whenever I surf past a talk show where Nazi bastard skin heads are spewing their bigoted drivel, I am always amused by the thought that these genetically impure submorons would have been some of the first to be turned into soap at the death camps. Similarly, what a surprise all these liberal PC duck squeezers are in for when they finally realize that the curtailments they helped put in place could easily rear up one day one in the form of prohibition of their precious “New Age” practices and psuedo science mentality.
In an exchange between Beckett and Cromwell or some other set of Limeys, Cromwell is asked, “Would you trample upon justice to get at the Devil?” He replies, “I would trample all law into the ground to get at Him.” He is then asked, “And when the law was down, and the Devil turned round on you, what would you call upon?”. The quote finishes with, “I would much rather give the Devil the benefit of justice so that we might all have it.”
(This is a crude paraphrase. It appeared in a Skeptics Magazine book review of, “Denying History: Who Says the Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It?” By Michael Shermer & Alex Grobman. If someone out there has the exact quote, please post it here.)
What we are confronted with here, is the gradual curtailment of free speech and ipso facto, free thought. Any impediment of this critical freedom is so corrosive to everything that our Constitution stands for that I shudder just to think of it. (Yes, this even includes the free speech of skin heads.) Please try to imagine a website like this one in Communist China. Alright, you may stop laughing hysterically now, no, really, please stop.
Let’s start posting some real examples of this seditious new speechform and turn over the rock all of these PC bastards hide under.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” John Jay (I think)
