Friday, December 13, 2002
One thing I might add to King's note yesterday is that the sub-title of Sowell's book is "Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy." He analyzes the way the politically correct get to judge and criticize the rest of us without any ned to analyze themelves, their motives ,or their rewards; they get to congratulate themselves mightly as a result, judge the rest of us like crazy, and feel superior. The people who are forcing their social vision on us are powerfully sanctimonious, forceful in finding racist/sexist/homphobes hiding under every bed, or in every unconscious motive; they are also puriticanical in their impulse to sniff out the faintest hint of any attitude they disapprove of (which means any attitude that disagrees with them). But they show no impulse whatsoever in questioning themselves and their own motives. And none of these folks read Sowell.
They are probably right about the rest of us of course -- most of us are in denial about most things, and most of us are at leasat a little guilty of almost everything. Like Hamlet said, if we got what we deserved nobody would escape whipping. And like Jesus said, we should be looking for logs in our own eyes rather than specks inthe eyes of others.; but looking for specks in others is a lot easier and much more self-satisfying. The Politically Correct simply assume that the motives of anyone who opposes them are Evil, and you can tell they are evil because they oppose some part of political correctness, which is always Good and beyond question, for to question is to be in dennial. It's that simple for them: "I and everybody who unquestingly agrees with me are Good; anyone who disagrees or opposes us in any way is Evil, even if the evil comes from the subconscious motives the evil folks aren't aware of or are in denial about." The only acceptible actions is in the silly little emails we get where some faculty member or other simply replys to a message and said, "I agree." Of course they agree; it's all that is possible for them.
It's the old psychology of theTrue Believer. When Hofer wrote his book 50 years ago he was thinking mostly of the fanaticism of the right,and today it's of the left, but it's the same stuff; probably the only real dmage is that this time it's much more damaging to higher education that it had been back in the McCarthy days. It almost makes you nostolgic for tail-gunner Joe, doesn't it?
They are probably right about the rest of us of course -- most of us are in denial about most things, and most of us are at leasat a little guilty of almost everything. Like Hamlet said, if we got what we deserved nobody would escape whipping. And like Jesus said, we should be looking for logs in our own eyes rather than specks inthe eyes of others.; but looking for specks in others is a lot easier and much more self-satisfying. The Politically Correct simply assume that the motives of anyone who opposes them are Evil, and you can tell they are evil because they oppose some part of political correctness, which is always Good and beyond question, for to question is to be in dennial. It's that simple for them: "I and everybody who unquestingly agrees with me are Good; anyone who disagrees or opposes us in any way is Evil, even if the evil comes from the subconscious motives the evil folks aren't aware of or are in denial about." The only acceptible actions is in the silly little emails we get where some faculty member or other simply replys to a message and said, "I agree." Of course they agree; it's all that is possible for them.
It's the old psychology of theTrue Believer. When Hofer wrote his book 50 years ago he was thinking mostly of the fanaticism of the right,and today it's of the left, but it's the same stuff; probably the only real dmage is that this time it's much more damaging to higher education that it had been back in the McCarthy days. It almost makes you nostolgic for tail-gunner Joe, doesn't it?
