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	Politics of The Forked Tongue

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Political Correctness Survey
All quotations are from The Politics of The Forked Tongue by Dr Aidan Rankin

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11	"Lenin once described communism as socialism plus electrification. The centre left's 'Third Way' might be considered in similar terms as market forces plus political correctness."	(page 15)
12	"An important aspect of political correctness is its lack of any reasonable sense of proportion, as if its proponents were incapable of distinguishing between the significant and the trivial, or for doctrinaire reasons refuse to do so."	(page 15)
13	"In their response to political correctness, liberals are deceived by the apparent triviality of the demands and by the activists' appeal to rights, freedom and dignity, the traditional liberal rallying cries."	(page 17)
14	"Liberals do not readily grasp that individual acts of censorship can be part of a far wider assault..."	(page 17)
15	"Minor issues of freedom of association amount to much more than trivial issues of convenience or taste. Together they define the difference between a free society, with the individual as its starting point and a collectivist society where the group matters more than the individual and group identities are assigned by the state."	(page 19)
16	"International bodies, such as the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations have become the most zealous champions of group rights."	(page 19)
17	"International bodies are less inhibited than national governments by local custom, cultural precedent or democratic accountability."	(page 19)
18	"Increasingly group rights and internationalism enjoy a symbiotic relationship."	(page 19)
19	"Political correctness is far from being a series of disconnected parts, or fragments of a dismembered radical left of sixties vintage. Although based on a series of single issues, it possesses a unified, uncompromising ideology, with an effective strategy to back it up."	(page 19)
20	"Political correctness has no ultimate goal except for an ill-considered 'equality', which when defined at all, is in terms of equality between groups, with no reference made to individual needs and tastes, or whether individuals should receive fair treatment."	(page 19)

 

21	"[The equality of the political correct campaigners] is comprised of rights, presented by pressure groups as demands, implemented by the state through court rulings, charters and edicts, along with intrusive pieces of legislation."	(page 19)
22	[The equality of the political correct campaigners] is enforced by vigilant activists in collusion with state and corporate bureaucrats, who work outside any recognisable democratic process."	(page 19)
23	"Those who work for a politically correct society use their strident, emotional hatred of privilege to justify attempts to impose uniformity, a 'level' playing field' which suppresses difference, in which everyone has the 'same chance' - to succeed or (more usually) to fail."	(page 19)
24	"[In the Looking-Glass world of political correctness], liberals become authoritarian collectivists without knowing it."	(page 20)
25	"[In the Looking-Glass world of political correctness], the principle of equality is used to advance the principle of inequality."	(page 20)
26	"[In the Looking-Glass world of political correctness], 'equality' is expressed in social and cultural, rather than economic terms...and so racial prejudice is held up as a greater social ill than poverty, although it is poverty that crosses racial lines and at the same time fuels racial tensions."	(page 20)
27	"In identity politics the pressure group becomes the equivalent of the revolutionary vanguard. Its aim is not to represent the oppressed identities but to write policy for them and determine how they should think and feel."	(page 22)
28	"Politically correct Puritanism influences strongly the legislative agendas and structures of the European Union, largely because these structures lack historical roots and have no genuine connection with European culture - except perhaps for those elements in European thought that seek perfection and centralised uniformity."	(page 25)
29	"Religious Puritanism, despite its restrictive practices, makes moral demands of the individual and strong appeals to personal responsibility. Political correctness, however, robs the individual of responsibility and demands that he subsumes his personal identity in a group identity."	(page 28)
30	"Political correctness is an urban phenomenon best suited to large units of government, multinational states or those metropolitan areas increasingly balkanised on ethnic, cultural or sexual lines."	(page 28)

 

 

31	"Political correctness, unlike Puritanism, lacks any genuine popular base and so must be imposed from above upon an unwilling citizenry."	(page 28)
32	"Alexis de Tocqueville's account of the French Revolution and its origins shows how certain sceptical, but strangely uncritical, philosophical movements undermined social stability and eventually liberty itself, by their intemperate assault on everything tried and tested."	(page 31)
33	[The new liberal's] ceaseless talk of diversity is forked tongue for under the rubric of political correctness they seek to impose a uniformity of behaviour and thought."	(page 31)
34	"New liberals do not appreciate true diversity. They place abstract principles before real human need, regarding those principles as universally valid and beyond question."	(page 36)
35	"New liberals put their faith in laws and structures erected by the state or imposed by court ruling, regarding local initiatives and voluntary activities with great suspicion."	(page 36)
36	"Small businesses, craftsmen and independent farmers are natural enemies of the new liberal who favours large-scale units, be they state or corporate."	(page 36)
37	"Whereas traditional liberalism has strong local roots, new liberalism is a centralising force, prepared to coerce instead of persuade. Its commitment to political correctness blocks off the possibility of local variation and prevents consideration of individual needs."	(page 36)
38	"By failing to adopt human-scale economics or face down a new breed of Puritan bigotry, the left lost any vision of civil society that it had previously possessed."	(page 41)
39	"[In the last century] Conservatives were discarding most notions of common endeavour, embracing a bogus form of individualism by which human beings are reduced to economic units and the measure of all things is economic growth, not quality of life."	(page 41)
40	"The liberal tradition in Britain characterised by tolerance, a sense of individual liberty and a belief in social justice has been losing its intellectual momentum for some time."	(page 41)

41	"Equality has come to be seen as breaking the population into groups and distributing collective rights at the behest of self-appointed lobbyists."	(page 43)
42	"Political correctness and free market fundamentalism have become orthodoxies at the same time. Both are based on a deterministic belief in 'progress', both seek wholly materialistic solutions to human problems, both are 'internationalist' in the same sense that they have no respect for local customs or differences between nations. Both claim to promote 'diversity', but in practice seek to impose 'one-size-fits-all' solutions to economic and social problems. Both philosophies contend that human beings are essentially plastic, that constants in human nature can be legislated away or abolished by the play of market forces."	(page 59)
43	"Identity politics inherits from Marxism the idea of groups engaged in economic struggle with each other. It shares with free market fundamentalism the belief that there is no such thing as a civil society with a common purpose, merely a plethora of competing individuals and groups."	(page 59)
44	"Identity politics and free market fundamentalism...encourage the individual to retreat from civil society, to become a consumer of, rather than a participant in the political process -a consumer of identity-based 'rights' much as he is a consumer of brand products."	(page 59)
45	"An 'authoritarian collectivist ideology' has been allowed to assume the liberal mantle, abuse liberal vocabulary and cynically manipulate liberal sensibilities for totalitarian ends."	(page 62)
46	"The distinction between individual problems and individuals as problems is important if we are to understand the shift in political language and practice over the last thirty years."	(page 62)
47	"The all-encompassing totalitarian ideologies of far left and far right still exist but they have for the most part given way to lesser totalitarianisms, or rather to forms of extremism that take single issues as their starting point. Their intention is to transform society and irrevocably alter human behaviour, but the 'ultimate goal' is less coherent than that of previous ideologies."	(page 67)
48	"The watchwords of these single-issue, totalistic movements are change, equality and rights. Yet through their rhetoric and their practice, they point the way to a society where the right to criticise is curtailed or abolished, equality before the law gives way to special pleading, social evolution to authoritarian stasis."	(page 68)
49	"Whilst claiming to be the harbinger of freedom and diversity, the dogma of 'political correctness' increases the power of the state, and big business, over the individual. It does so by eroding the intermediary structures of civil society: the family, the local community; voluntary associations (except for those that serve political agendas); and the ethos of self-restraint."	(page 70)
50	"Far from encouraging diversity the partisans of political correctness try to enforce one-size-fits-all solutions. These ignore differences between individuals and assume that the human species can be moulded by 'enlightened' legislation or brainwashing."	(page 70)

 

 

51	"Good government is in general non-ideological, although it may be guided by ethical principles, both religious and secular."	(page 70)
52	"Good government is that which works with, rather than against, the grain of human nature. It is about taking human beings as they are, rather than what small groups of activists would have them be."	(page 70)
53	"Good government recognises that man is territorial by nature and so does not attempt to impose artificial, multinational states, governed by bureaucrats who scorn the desire for independence."	(page 70)
54	"Good government realises that there are positive and worthwhile differences between men and women, and so does not force them to adopt the same roles."	(page 70)
55	"The arbitrary justice dispensed by politically correct campaigners is becoming apparent to their supposed beneficiaries as much as their natural opponents. This offers the prospect of a rejection of group rights in favour of individual freedom within civil society: true liberalism, in place of the politics of the forked tongue."	(page 70)
56	"The new liberalism's resemblance to fascist ideology is more marked than its resemblance to the left. This is not because the right-wing bogeyman has disappeared, rather it is because the liberal-left bogeyman has arrived and manages at once to threaten individual liberty and undermine liberalism as a credible political ideal."	(page 74)
57	The true liberal believes in individual freedom under the rule of law, the removal of obstacles to individual success and a society which aims to be tolerant and fair-minded."	(page 74)
58	"The true liberal accepts that freedom depends for its survival on respect between individuals who disagree with each other, and on a culture that encourages polite behaviour, rational argument, good manners and voluntary restraint."	(page 74)
59	"The true liberal recognises that certain areas of private life, and certain public institutions, possess distinctive and valuable cultures on which external change should not be imposed."	(page 74)
60	"Unlike the idealogue of right or left, the true liberal accepts that reforms should be incremental, that positive traditions should be preserved, that there are constants in human nature that reformers ignore at their peril. In short he believes that treating people fairly does not mean forcing them to be 'equal', and that the general principle of opportunity does not require interference in private realms, nor forcing inappropriate change on institutions that work well."	(page 75)

 

61	"If liberal principles become inflexible and coercive, then they both lose their value as principles and cease to be liberal at all."	(page 75)
62	"The 'pseudo-liberal' demands a socially engineered 'equality', a concept which has little if anything to do with fairness."	(page 75)
63	"To pseudo-liberals, extreme disparities of income are of little concern, unless they are differences in pay between men and women or differences between one 'ethnic group' and another."	(page 75)
64	"Equal opportunities are not about individuals but groups."	(page 75)
65	"In the name of abstract equality, the principle of equality before the law is denied to large numbers of individuals."	(page 75)
66	"To pseudo-liberals 'equal opportunities' is viewed as an opportunity for social engineering, and as a further mechanism for distributing power between groups."	(page 76)
67	"To pseudo-liberals, the idea of opportunity for individuals of whatever background gives way to the politics of preference."	(page 76)
68	"Applications from women and ethnic minorities especially welcome' is the post-modern version of 'No Irish Need Apply'. But unlike 'No Irish Need Apply' signs, which were the work of privately unenlightened individuals, reverse discrimination is endorsed by the nation-states and promoted actively by those pan-European institutions that seek to supplant the nation-state although they lack true democratic legitimacy and have no true political roots."	(page 76)
69	"The secular missionaries of political correctness are far more uncompromising than their religious ancestors, many of whom were restrained by the belief that they were imperfect before God. Like the missionaries of old, however, they ally themselves with modernising elites against the most conservative and religious elements within Third World societies."	(page 80)
70	Pseudo-liberalism expresses itself through movements so alien to the wishes of the majority that a reaction against it is already beginning. To ensure that this reaction is a tolerant one instead of simply reactionary, politicians of courage and dignity are needed. They should remind us that we are robust individuals, still able to think for ourselves, who can and must restore tolerance and fair play."	(page 81)

 

71	"Political correctness has become the practical expression of pseudo-liberalism, the term reflecting, in ironic manner, the obsession with 'correct' language towards or 'correct treatment' of 'oppressed groups' that characterises pseudo-liberal activities and propaganda."	(page 89)
72	"The censorious, puritanical tone and tyrannical social engineering of pseudo-liberalism triggers intolerant backlashes against those 'groups' favoured by the politically correct."	(page 90)
73	"Pseudo-liberalism arouses great hostility to liberalism itself, and with it the notions of fair-mindedness and justice on which a free society is founded."	(page 90)
74	"Pseudo-liberalism undermines citizenship as a common bond, uniting people of different backgrounds, interests and situations. It breaks up population, arbitrarily, into 'groups' based on abstract characteristics, such as skin colour or sexual orientation, rather than inherited loyalties, such as family or region, or to chosen loyalties, such as to profession or hobby."	(page 90)
75	"The process of classifying individuals is central to pseudo-liberalism. It perpetuates, often wilfully, the very divisions it is claiming to heal."	(page 90)
76	"Contempt - often vehement - for political correctness is one of the few potential sources of political unity. It cuts across traditional barriers of region, class and race, the barriers which pseudo-liberals rage against but in practice reinforce."	(page 91)
77	"To ensure that the reaction against pseudo-liberalism is a tolerant one, instead of simply 'reactionary', politicians of courage and dignity are needed. They should remind us that we are robust individuals still able to think for ourselves, who can and must restore tolerance and fair play."	(page 91)
78	"An assumption parallel to that of group rights, and possibly related to it is the idea that a corporation has the status of 'a person' in law, and so is accorded the rights and protections traditionally accorded to individuals."	(page 98
79	"The concept of corporation-as-person is most fully developed under American law, and it is in the United States that the idea of group rights has been most politically pervasive."	(page 98)
80	"Unlike Marxism, but like certain forms of liberalism, anarchist thought is informed by a strong sense of the individual, or at least a balance between the individual and the collective. And, like the green movement, anarchist thinkers favour community over bureaucracy, ethical codes over written charters and human scale economics over large units of production, whether they are controlled by corporate business or the state."	(page 122)

81	"Historically more popular amongst artisans, craftsmen and itinerant labourers, as opposed to industrial workers and students, anarchism has a conservative strand not share by other revolutionary movements. Proudhon, who is regarded as the modern movement's founder, was explicitly socially conservative, even reactionary. Both he, and the influential Russian thinker Peter Kropotkin, idealised the peasant commune, with its emphasis on a sense of place."	(page 122)
82	"The modern anarchist revival is characterised by a sweeping universalism, its activists allying themselves with the far left as storm troopers for politically correct campaigns."	(page 122)
83	"In English cities the beliefs of the Trotskyist or anarchist 'anti-racist' campaigners are indistinguishable from those of race relations bureaucrats, except that they are prepared to use violence against their opponents. In such confrontations, the 'anti-racists' tend to be students and young professionals, whereas the 'racists' tend to be working-class youth of low educational attainment, living in socially-deprived areas - once a natural constituency for the left."	(page 122)
84	"The anti-globalisation protesters have come closest in recent years to creating a large-scale social movement not linked to 'identity politics'."	(page 123)
85	"Anti-globalisation protesters tend to be reactive, placing coalition-building before both the theory and practice of politics defining themselves by what they are against rather than what they are 'for'."	(page 123)
86	"The idea that globalisation and political correctness are two sides of the same coin has not occurred to many anti-globalisation protesters. To others it is potentially divisive, or represents a positive threat to their 'left-wing' worldview.	(page 123)
87	"Some of the most strident opponents of economic globalisation are the strongest champions of global political correctness, whilst some of the strongest opponents of 'monopoly capitalism' and multinationals favour the stringent regulation of small business."	(page 123)
88	"Far from advocating as much variety in human affairs as possible, anti-globalisation protesters favour forms of 'global governance' that involve imposing Western, new liberal norms whether they are wanted or not."	(page 123)
89	"Conservative modernisers on both sides of the Atlantic are ahead of the green left in seeing the connection between political correctness and market fundamentalism."	(page 123)
90	"Conservative 'modernisers' see the link between political correctness and market fundamentalism as desirable interpreting political correctness as a form of 'social liberalism' to complement the economic liberalism of the unfettered market."	(page 123)

 

 

91	"The new social liberalism speaks of diversity and inclusion, co-opting the rhetoric of civil liberties, but it quickly hardens into an authoritarian pseudo-liberalism because it takes too little account of the way real people think and feel. In this it matches well the doctrine of market supremacy, which is as rigid and inflexible as the state socialist doctrine it supplanted."	(page 124)
92	"Market fundamentalists seek to remove all barriers between the individual and the market. New liberals wish to remove all barriers between the individual and the state."	(page 125)
93	"There is a symbiotic relationship between large political units which transcend national frontiers or suppress regional cultures and transnational corporations which believe that their form of wealth creation is valid for all human beings, all cultures and all ecosystems."	(page 125)
94	"A breakdown of civil society is occasioned both by social engineering that undermines family and community and by free-market doctrines that undermine our sense of shared citizenship and responsibility to each other."	(page 126)
95	"Markets fundamentalists require a strong state to prevent popular revolt against economic policies that enrich some but impoverish others and create an atmosphere of continuous anxiety for rich and poor alike."	(page 126)
96	"The anti-racist movement is a coalition of bureaucrats and comfortably-off activists, practising an inverted class struggle against indigenous communities with no impact on the welfare of black people or other ethnic groups."	(page 126)
97	"The theory underlying free-market fundamentalism was that it would roll back the frontiers of the state. In practice, it has reduced the influence of civil society and so increased the influence of movements that balkanise the population, both within nations and on a global scale."	(page 128)
98	"Both 'Jihad'-based fundamentalist and politically correct campaigns combine a sense of historical destiny or inevitability with a missionary impulse to impose their will on others. Islamic fundamentalism is merely the most fearsome expression to date of a worldwide upsurge in militant identity politics."	(page 129)
99	"The belief that nations should cooperate gives way to a soulless internationalism, which scorns any sense of place or loyalty to the nation-state and favours impersonal, bureaucratic blocs of standardised political ideology and identical economic systems."	(page 129)
1 0 0	"The ethos of tolerance is founded on a resistance to the idea that every aspect of life is political, or can be politicised. It is based on freedom of association and an acknowledgement that individuals have different interests and needs. It is anti-bureaucratic and based on devolution of power downwards - to local communities and self-governing nations."	(page 133)

Aidan Rankin is co-Editor of New European. His book, The Politics of the Forked Tongue: Authoritarian Liberalism was published in 2002 and is available from New European Publications, 14-16 Carroun Road, London SW8 1JT, price £9.

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