Eric Voegelin: Philosopher of Consciousness, Part 6

[MarcusCMarcellus]

The ideology that has hamstrung the West over the past forty years, the Cultural Marxism of the Frankfurt School manifested in political correctness and the whitewashing of reality, is every bit as nefarious and evil as what swept Germany in the 1920's and Russia in the 1910's. The people now pushing this revolution in Europe and America are not "misguided" or "well-intentioned adversaries" but simply evil ideologues.

[MuhakgreetsWonhyo]

@MarcusCMarcellus ...I always understood political correctness as simply an extension of courtesy. What did I miss that makes it evil?

[MarcusCMarcellus]

@MuhakgreetsWonhyo You remind me of a Stalinist apparatchik asking his "comrade" why he is so rude as to point out that 20 million innocents were killed since 1929.

[MuhakgreetsWonhyo]

@MarcusCMarcellus I'm not being facetious, but am genuinely interested to know what is abhorrent about political correctness. Seriously, isn't political correctness about expressing respect and courtesy to others?Isn't it hyperbole to compare it to mass slaughter? I'm only seeking to understand here, not to condemn.

[fernandodemorais]

@Muhakgreets Hello! Political correctness is not really about being respectful. It is about inducing people -essentially by sentimental blackmail- to give way in the field of language in order to the set the terms of the debate and therefore control one's means of thinking and symbolization. Call pedophilia intergenerational love and you'll soon forget what you are talking about. Being politically correct is nothing but playing nice towards the crowd shouting louder.

[MuhakgreetsWonhyo]

@fernandodemorais & @MrSuperGodzilla I thank you sincerely for your responses. I feel I now understand more concretely the motivations for opposing political correctness. However, I still have some questions that might benefit from your clarification - I am purely interested in the reasoning processes involved here.

1. Is speech modified by political correctness under no circumstances to be deemed respectful? I am thinking here of the removal of pejorative terms for racial minorities.

[MuhakgreetsWonhyo]

@MuhakgreetsWonhyo

2. It is an interesting question as to whether this is sentimental blackmail. Might it also not be considered as the extension of empathy?

3. "Controlling thought and symbolization". I believe it certainly has a neutralizing effect on the character of political discourse. Yet, where there is a site of intellectual contestation I'm not sure it would control thought. E.g. the example of paedophilia would require an argument in order to bring it into effect.

[MuhakgreetsWonhyo]

@MuhakgreetsWonhyo

4. "Playing nice toward the crowd shouting louder." Political correctness has grown up around the development of multi-cultural identity politics. In this sense it is actually a defence of the status of a minority against a majority (I think here of the repudiation of derogatory words for homosexuality).

[MuhakgreetsWonhyo]

@MuhakgreetsWonhyo

5. In your opinion what are the most heinous instances of political correctness? Does the existence of unnecessary applications of political correctness imply the ideal is itself faulty?

[MrSuperGodzilla]

@MuhakgreetsWonhyo What you've missed is that political correctness has been used for many years as a tool to manipulate coletive thinking. It's a weapon in the cultural war, as well pointed below by "MarcusCMarcellus". It's an ill intetioned form of politeness.

[outsidethesquares]

The left now think their shit does not stink as they force a tax on the emission of CO2 claimed by them man made, while ignoring empirical evidence that the sun is the primary source. Inigo Jones (rip)

[cirosuperiore]

EV may have had more in common w/ Leo Strauss than we want to admit.

in other words that religion is good because it keeps the masses placid.

ER was not religious at all, which is typical of intellectuals in the West. but he wanted society i.e. the masses, to be religiously pious. how odd is that?

[MarcusCMarcellus]

@cirosuperiore As a former Starussian" and UChicago graduate who discovered Voegelin only in graduate school - at a Catholic college, I would say that Voegelin was a more spiritual thinker than Strauss and took religion much more seriously - at least Catholicism/Christianity. Strauss and his students tend to be overly "political" in the sense of believing there are political solutions to what Voegelin considered metaphysical problems. The idea that Gnosticism would not occur to a Straussian.

[BrotherWoody1]

Superb & long awaited video retrospective on the great political philosopher, Eric Voegelin. For fans of Rene Girard, Voegelin fits Girard's philosophical anthropology like a glove. Not to be missed!

Thanks much for posting.