24 March 2004

PC’s communist origins should not be dismissed

Political correctness (PC) is not just about using inclusive language; it is a serious attempt by the State to control thought and behaviour.

A new book published by the Maxim Institute shows that political correctness had its origins in Russia in the early 1920s, when Lenin was trying to consolidate Communist Party control over the new Soviet state. It was subsequently taken up with a vengeance by Mao Tse-Tung in China.

Author Dr Frank Ellis reveals that in much of our Western civic, media and academic life, political correctness is still alive and well, reshaping language and thinking. Having originated in totalitarianism, it is heading back towards totalitarianism.

“We have now moved from the struggle to control the means of production, the characteristic of class war and traditional Marxism, to the struggle to control and regulate the means of expression. Language is the new means of production. The politically-correct intellectual class are its new managers. This is Marxism without the economics”, says Dr Ellis.

Enormous psychological pressure is brought to bear on academics and students to submit to the general line on all issues dealing with multiculturalism, race and feminism. “The atmosphere is not one which is conducive to asking questions - it is one of coercion.”

Dr Ellis says the growth of PC has undermined our confidence in our ability as individuals to make moral and intellectual judgements. In fact, to make judgements is the new sin.

“Note what has happened here: the politically correct commissariat condemns us for being ‘judgemental’, yet reserves the right to pass judgement on us...chastised and bullied in this manner, we fall silent. And this silence in the face of intimidation, which masquerades as the defender of tolerance, is deeply threatening to democratic society”. Dr Frank Ellis, a lecturer in Russian studies at Leeds University, is in New Zealand to release his new book Political Correctness and the theoretical struggle, and to speak at the Maxim Institute 2004 Forum Political Correctness: end of an error?

The forum is on this Saturday March 27, at the Waipuna hotel and conference centre. A book launch will take place following the political party leader’s forum scheduled to finish at 5:30pm. The book is available on request.

ENDS

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