Thursday, November 19, 2009
If it's really PC....
The standard media are (quite properly for once!) looking with distaste at the Army's failure to toss out Nidal Hasan. Even as they belatedly do their job, they're still missing the point in a subtle but important way. Every report refers to the Politically Correct atmosphere, or Political Correctness Run Amok.
PC began as a Maoist term, part of the old set of required English translations of Chinese Communist terms. This strange sub-language was often found in the English broadcasts of Radio Peking, or the English editions of People's Daily. Deviationist-roader, imperialist running dog, hegemonist, and so on. All of these constructions were awkward, but the translators had no choice.
PC was first used in a jocular way by American academic leftists in the '80s who knew that they were censoring their heterodox colleagues and students, didn't quite like the idea, but again had no choice given their own rigid adherence to Chairman Mao.
Since then it's loosened up, lost force and meaning, used by both sides in all possible directions.
In the Hasan case it takes a peculiar twist. Consider that the proper meaning of PC is censorship by the government, applied to the people who are opposing the government. If we truly had a case of PC here, and if the Army authorities were pro-American, the censorship would have been directed against Hasan. And this would be normal in the Army, which has never been an open and free forum. Because of the Army's unique job and unique need for complete loyalty, it has always been much stricter than the civilian government.
But here we have the exact opposite. Here the censorship was by the Army, applied to the people who tried to defend the Army from Hasan.
This leaves us with only one conclusion. The upper levels of the Army are on the same side as Hasan. ¶ 5:17 PM
PC began as a Maoist term, part of the old set of required English translations of Chinese Communist terms. This strange sub-language was often found in the English broadcasts of Radio Peking, or the English editions of People's Daily. Deviationist-roader, imperialist running dog, hegemonist, and so on. All of these constructions were awkward, but the translators had no choice.
PC was first used in a jocular way by American academic leftists in the '80s who knew that they were censoring their heterodox colleagues and students, didn't quite like the idea, but again had no choice given their own rigid adherence to Chairman Mao.
Since then it's loosened up, lost force and meaning, used by both sides in all possible directions.
In the Hasan case it takes a peculiar twist. Consider that the proper meaning of PC is censorship by the government, applied to the people who are opposing the government. If we truly had a case of PC here, and if the Army authorities were pro-American, the censorship would have been directed against Hasan. And this would be normal in the Army, which has never been an open and free forum. Because of the Army's unique job and unique need for complete loyalty, it has always been much stricter than the civilian government.
But here we have the exact opposite. Here the censorship was by the Army, applied to the people who tried to defend the Army from Hasan.
This leaves us with only one conclusion. The upper levels of the Army are on the same side as Hasan. ¶ 5:17 PM
