Tuesday 10 February 2009

LIBERTARIAN SUS: Political Correctness = Fear

There is more than one way to exercise control, says Susan Ryder (originally published in the Franklin E-Local).

“I disapprove of what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it.“  This aphorism has long been attributed to French philosopher Voltaire (born Francois-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778), although some believe it the work of SG Tallentyre in her biography The Friends of Voltaire, where she summarised his attitude toward another writer’s controversial book. No matter who is actually responsible for the line, the phrase accurately defined Voltaire’s philosophy of individual liberty.

Central to this philosophy is freedom of speech, something we in the western world take for granted. New Zealanders turning seventy this year were born the year the Second World War started, which means that most of us here today have no experience of that dark time and no concept of living in a country where freedoms are severely restricted or unknown.

My own personal experience of totalitarianism is limited to a visit to Bulgaria and Yugoslavia in the early 1980s. The Berlin Wall was several years from falling and the Iron Curtain appeared as fortified as ever. My Bulgarian visa was valid for a mere forty-eight hours with strict instructions as to where I stayed and went.

The country was bleak, grey and poor, there was virtually nothing to buy and the people were reluctant to engage in conversation. Yugoslavia was different in that though its people still endured a markedly lower standard of living than their western counterparts – the daily sight of long queues for basic food items will stay with me forever - it was not a member of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The late President Tito had long defied Moscow by allowing his people certain freedoms, e.g. to travel outside its borders and to engage in limited private enterprise. Having said that, the people I met, although considerably more outgoing than those in Bulgaria, were still mindful of what they discussed with strangers.

A better example was one related in the late 1970s by a family friend who travelled to the former West Germany annually on business. One year he had the opportunity to visit East Berlin for the first time, where his contact invited him home to meet his wife and family, the latter of which consisted of two teenage sons and his elderly parents. Our friend – let’s call him Bob – always carried a few family photos and upon request brought them out to show his hosts, particularly the boys, who were keen to know about faraway New Zealand. They enthusiastically commented that “your government provides wonderful homes and vehicles!”

As diplomatically as possible, Bob explained that he and his wife saved up for their house and cars over time, buying them personally. He tried to lighten the situation by joking that they certainly lived more modestly in the earlier days of their marriage. The teenagers flatly refused to believe him, while
their parents, Bob’s contemporaries, also looked askance at the concept of private ownership. At that point the grandparents leaned over and addressed him for the first time, nodding quietly. They well
remembered the days before German communism and the Third Reich, but their children and
grandchildren simply wouldn’t listen.

Thirty years on, that story still horrifies me. That a government in modern times could wield so much power as to blatantly deceive its population, so much so that younger citizens firmly disbelieved any contradictory viewpoint held by close elder relatives.

So what has that to do with political correctness? In a word, control.

Freedom and control are diametrically opposed. The measure of a country’s freedom lies in how far the balance tips either way. Thomas Jefferson, third US President and principal architect of its Declaration of Independence said that the natural progression of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. In other words, the struggle for freedom is ongoing and hard going.

Once upon a time, people controlled other people via the club, the mace, the spear and the arrow. It was brutal and effective. Centuries later, weaponry has developed to include the gun, the bomb and the nuclear warhead. They are brutal and effective.

But today, in more peaceful parts of the world, there is a more subtle, cheaper form of civil control. It is much less messy, but remains powerfully effective and yes, its effects can be brutal. It is, of course, the placing of restrictions upon free speech, thereby interfering with one’s right to hold opinions without fear of persecution. Political correctness, as I have said before, dictates thought and behaviour by the imposition of certain beliefs to which everybody must adhere or be ridiculed or punished. It conjures images of an angry mob of finger-pointers towering over a cowering individual for committing the cardinal sin of speaking her mind. It is ironic that those who scream against intolerance are themselves so often guilty.

And for those who would defend the process by suggesting that political correctness prevents Peter from making derogatory remarks against Pita or Peta, I again refer to Mr Jefferson. In his lifelong defence of the rights of the individual, he eloquently said that errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. He understood that respect for free speech automatically includes the toleration of dissenting viewpoints. He rightly saw that two wrongs did not make a right, that censorship of the individual to stop incivility was precisely the wrong way to go about it. That, in fact, in order to combat it, freedom of expression was paramount.

Voltaire would have cheered.

* * Read Libertarian Sus every week here at NOT PC * *

15 comments:

Elijah Lineberry said...

Excellent article, Sue! one of your better ones.

What disappoints me is the number of Libz members who regularly engage in PC totalitarianism, seek to curb the opinions of others...and DENY actually doing so (PC and liars).

Loved the story about the teenagers refusing to believe the State did not own everything ha ha!

Anonymous said...

Well done Susan, keep it up!!

Anonymous said...

Bravo Susan. Loved the quote from Thomas Jefferson.

Lucy said...

Excellent! I am finding it worrying the number of people who cannot accept another point of view and agree to disagree on issues.

It tend to stiffle healthy debate and definately kills new ideas it is the start of a very slippery slope.

The Tomahawk Kid said...

I felt compelled to comment that this is an excellent article, only to get here and find others had beat me to it.
Good work Sus!

Anonymous said...

My freedom of speech allows me to ridicule a racist joke, even to indulge in an ad hominem attack against the speaker.

It is very very important to distinguish between the use of state coercion and behaviour of free people.

Jefferson wrote of 'government gaining ground'. Liberty doesn't yield if free people say what they think - even if this upsets other people who consider themselves torch carriers for free speech.

Dave Christian

The Tomahawk Kid said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I agree with anonymous. I think a lot of the backlash to "Political Correctness" has been unjustified. There's nothing wrong with myself or any other expressing the opinion that people with bigoted, ignorant opinions should strive for better things. I also beleive that the state and it's organisations should be free of discrimination. No private individual should be subjected to that standard however.

Anonymous said...

Thank you ladies & gents.

"There's nothing wrong with myself or any other expressing the opinion that people with bigoted, ignorant opinions should strive for better things."

Correct, David S. And nowhere in the article do I say anything to the contrary.

Anonymous said...

I've been thinking about what political correctness is. It goes beyond mere disagreement. It is the opinion that you do not (or should not) have the right to disagree, and that breaking that unwritten rule ought to carry consequences. It is collectivism: the majority should correctly decide for all. You're right, it is control, and it ignores or misunderstands the subtle but extraordinary value and power of free speech.

Anonymous said...

"Correct, David S. And nowhere in the article do I say anything to the contrary."

True, but the term, "Politically correct" has often been used to label specific opinions, rather than the use of coercion or force to impose those opinions on individuals.

If I were to say, "People should not descriminate on the basis of sexual orientation", I might be labeled, "Politically correct", regardless of the fact that I would simply be expressing a personal opinion rather than advocating state intervention.

I guess my point comes down to the need to define these terms before discussing them.

Anonymous said...

The basic concept of political "correctness" implies force - that a matter is settled and dissent is not even deserving of a cogent response.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes, people speak in deliberately divisive and purposefully intimidating ways for some purpose of their own.

Sometimes, opposing such speech is morally correct (think opposing proto-fachist rabble rousing for example).

We should never enlist the power of the state to suppress ideas which we don't like, but we have every right as individuals to shout down speech which we consider dangerous or immoral. Protagonists will say that such opposition is "politically correct". Being labelled as such doesn't make people bad or wrong. What is wrong is the use of state coercion to suppress ideas. Use of the term "political correctness" creates ambiguity.

Dave Christian

Anonymous said...

"We should never enlist the power of the state to suppress ideas which we don't like, but we have every right as individuals to shout down speech which we consider dangerous or immoral."

Agreed. The point was made in the last paragraph.


"Use of the term 'political correctness' creates ambiguity."

I disagree. I stand by my definition that it "dictates thought and behaviour by the imposition of certain beliefs to which everybody must adhere, or be ridiculed or punished".

In other words it is a means - a tool - of control, either official or unofficial. It might be subtle in application, (might not either), but its effects are pretty clear-cut.

Look, my point is this: 'Free' speech - warts & all - is, by definition, not 'controlled', hence my distaste for anyone who would interfere with another's right to free expression -- for whatever reason.

Shane Pleasance said...

Illuminating, thank you, and a great resource to Libertarianz and need to-be-libertarianz (Everyone else, basically).