New World Thought. The renaissance of political correctness

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

What is becoming ever more clear is that there is a movement which calls itself progressivism that is growing in the world today.

Another terminology for progressivism is political correctness.

It’s mission and goal is quite simple. There is only one right way of looking at existence,people,things,and subjects.

There is only one right way to act, live, think, behave, and interact in the world of existence.

There is only one right way to look at gender, race, history, governments, prosperity,sex,social interaction,existence, and people.

There is only one right way to look at the past, present, and future.

It’s entire viewpoint is that it is the sole point of intellectual superiority over all other forms of thoughts, expiriences, and perspectives which is one of the reasons why it seeks to destroy all other thoughts by that of defamation,censorship, or slander where it won’t be satisfied until it is the only remaining form of perspective in human existence.

In it’s eyes it is the enlightened renaissance of world thought where all other thoughts or opinions derive from obsolete know nothings.

It is a extremely arrogant position in that it is a movement that can’t possibly imagine that anybody is right on anything beyond what it itself has to say.

What is extremely spooky about the movement of progressivism is that with it’s viewpoint of there being only one specific right way to live, think, behave, and act it almost seems like it imagines a very rigid specific destination or goal for humanity in the future that it believes everybody must conform with.

It almost seems like it’s central viewpoint is one where itself alone has a grasp on a objective destiny that all must fulfill or else.

2

Can you support your claim, give an example of this growing movement maybe, because I don’t see it. Europe shifted to conservative right just yesterday.

3

Every philosophy regards itself as absolute.

It is to do with survival in a world of inherently subjective human invention …

4

It stems from the movement from physical to intellectual enslavement.

Assimilation is the name of the New Game. All the universities are playing it.

To use the words of Satyr:

"The western ideal of obliterating everything, even religion using humanitarian secularism, is a blatant attempt to find the least common denominator, in this case the species, our identity with the concept ‘human being’ and from there building an edifice of delusions.

The American culture is, in fact, the obliteration of all culture, under the pretext of then allowing the individual to choose his own identity.
In reality this leaves the individual vulnerable to then be integrated within whatever environmental norm dominates because few people have any real sense of self and a strong character. If you take from them a cultural foundation you are making them more vulnerable to social conditioning."

The only way to stop this is to overturn the institution of public schooling.

5

[list]
The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc [[size=93]English Socialism[/size]], but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought – that is, a thought diverging from the principles of IngSoc – should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words.

George Orwell, “The Principles of Newspeak”
[/list:u]

welcome to the 21st Century.

6

No examples, figures, no comparison, no arguments to build a case? From nobody? C’mon people, you can do better than some very general allusions, with the only evidence apparently being your gut feelings.

Maybe there is a problem, but making wide and vague assertions won’t help much to identify the problem and look for a solution.

7

are you saying that such an obvious, pervasive phenomenon as the politicization of language needs “proof”?

i could go compile a list of words from watching CNN for 5 minutes that would quality as politicized, such as (off the top of my head) freedom/change/equality/terror/torture/fairness/wealth/business/greed/selfish/individual/socialist/captalist/political/
transcendent/progressive/conservative/liberal/investment/challenge/sacrifices/common good; i could examine those words on that list to show the difference in the implied vs strict meanings, or between the connotated vs denotated associations, or between the emotionalism vs factual intentions, or between the broad/general/abstract meaning vs the closed/one-dimensional/limited meaning… would that do it for you? is that really necessary? because the time that would take would be a waste, at least for me, since it is a self-evident fact that language in media/politics, and therefore common usage, is trending into vacuity, vagueness, superficiality, emotionalism, stagnation and stupidification.

are you just trying to make a point here of backing up what you say with evidence, or are you seriously in need of such a clear-cut demonstration?

8

No, I’m wondering where you, and the others, got the impression that things got worse and are getting worse. What has changed, as in renaissance, as in welcome to the 21ste century… I’m not saying you’re all definately wrong, it just isn’t clear to me what the sudden problem is. As I said in my country and Europe people are voting more to the right than ever. That is one indication that progressivism isn’t on the rise. What are you indications?

Yeah, people don’t tend to say what they mean on TV, there are less consequences if one person listens to what you say then if 5 million do. It does tend to political correctness and ambiguïty, it’s probably a smart thing to do. Has it ever been different?

I’m not trolling. Maybe it’s because I don’t live in the USA, I don’t know.

I’m interested in the effects of the modern civilised world on people. I think there are some clear problems, i’ve read a lot of antropology, psychology… I’m allways interested in learning more about this. But this all just seem broad generalisations, and as I said don’t help much to form a better understanding.

9

the fact is that words and concepts are becoming politicized to the least common denominator. ask an american off the street how many branches of government there are: most wont know. ask who the secretary of state is, ask what capitalism is, ask what the preamble of the Constitution says, they wont know. nor will they care. if you ask them why they dont know, they will just shrug or get mad.

people think less and less. just because they “vote” more doesnt mean anything; really, it just means that people are becoming more conditioned to their subservient and prescripted roles within society, such as casting meaningless ballots for rigged elections for politicians who could not care less about them. for all those so-called politically minded people you seem to be implying are “making it better” (im speaking about america here, i dont know about EU), all they do is stare at the TV news guy, read some diatribe in a tabloid press, and go on voting day with a vew empty slogans and media cliches in their heads. stereotypes and conditioning determine which box they check, and they go about their day feeling vindicated, justified, happy that “they did their part”, theyre a good person, they wear their “I Voted” sticker with pride.

these same people know nothing of history, of geography, of sociology, of political theory, of economics, of important literary or philosophical thinkers of recent history… they dont know and dont care. why should they, it doesnt affect them, right? just zone out to Friends for a couple hours, order a pizza and pass out. then tomorrow go to work, stand in place at work, recite the right words and motions at the right time, then go home to zone out again. or maybe inebriate yourself with drugs such as alcohol or weed, its all the same.

this is the common person in america, politically speaking (im mostly, but not completely, speaking in metaphor, but you get the idea). im not sure how it is in EU, but i have seen no reason to think its any better. these are the people you think are “voting more to the right”, when the “right and left” are so butchered and merged into each other, stripped of all meaning within a system that marginalizes all extreme or truly dissenting opinions, no one knows where one starts and the other ends… so-called convervatives calling for global climate regulations, higher taxes on the rich, government healthcare and housing and transportation and financial management, anti-free speech laws, trillions of dollars of deficit spending, borrowing and printing… im not sure what you mean by the “right” that these people are “voting” for, because in america at least, its a sloppy, second-rate version of the “left”, and the left itself being just a vague cesspool of emotional rhetoric, envious greed and superficial facades of teleprompter-regurgitating parrots with big smiles.

like i said, i dont know how it is in EU, but i see no reason to assume its any better than here… the marginalization and mediocritization of humanity. prevalence of distraction and escapist entertainment, loss of historical perspective or ability to think or carry on a conversation of deep ideas or theory, loss of principles relating to politics or government or economics in general… who cares about the new trillions in made-up money that government is pouring down the drain (and back into the hands of their constituent elite backers), who cares that freedom no longer means anything in a world of the patriot act and a united nations that calls for the “well off” nations to be taxed billions each year to help out the “disenfranchised” poor of the world… who cares, as long as American Idol keeps making new seasons, as long as the liquor store down the street stays open and i keep getting my unemployment checks.

](*,) like i mentioned, i dont know how it is in EU, but here, in america, like i said, welcome to the 21st Century… if you truly think things are “going in the right direction”, then i would be interested to hear why you think this.

10

I’d agree that people now don’t know and don’t care a lot about politics. Speaking about the EU, a lot of different factor play a role here IMO, not limitative :

  • Society generally became more and more depoliticized in Europe. Politics used to be interwoven within the very fabric of society. Almost everywhere you turned you where confronted with the implications of politics, and had to choose a side, usually a chistian inspired party, a not radical social inspired party and to a lesser extent a mildy liberal inspired party. Depolticization of society probably has more pros than cons, there’s definately more freedom now.

  • Closely related to previous point, politics have been dethroned, and is more and more looked upon as just another specialisation, the job of organizing a country. Interest fades… I also don’t know that much about laying bricks and building houses.

  • There are not a whole lot of serious issues left. Even in times of crisis, there’s an excess of wealth, almost nobody has to live in absolute poverty anymore, not in Western Europe anyway. All Liberals (which is more to the right in Europe), Socialists and Christian Parties all more or less got what they wanted and are all shifting to the centre. Some new parties for new problems have been formed, immigration problems and enviroment. But all these problems really aren’t that serious, and so people naturaly care less.

  • A lot of political decision power has shifted to the European level, pushing the direct influence and consequences of politics even further away from the people.

  • There’s indeed a general trend towards more personal narratives, instead of more societal oriented narratives. People try to focus more on their personal lives. I don’t know if this is necessarily a bad things, the future will tell.

  • …

I think one should look at the entire, or at least at a bigger, context when drawing conclusions. Who’s to say this is really a bad trend. Maybe daddy spends more time with the children now, instead of waving the party flag.

People never thought a lot IMO. Don’t make the mistake of thinking people made a well reasoned out vote in past times. It has allways been more a vote of the social group you belonged to… Eccletical knowledge has allways been a fad for the select few. And if you want a crown example of docile people fulfilling their prescibed roles take a look at the sixties.

It’s funny you’d say the right in the US is a second-rate version of the left. The left is the US would be more equivalent to the right in Europe. Left in European standards, doesn’t exist in the US. You certainly don’t want to live in Europe :laughing: .

Maybe there’s some sort of a decline, I might be willing to grant you that. Massmedia certainly had it’s effects. But i’m not sure if it’s that clearcut unidirectional and if it’s “knowledge” that has diminished. I’d say not general “knowledge” itself , but maybe practical knowledge of the (social) world arround people, or common sense and the ability to reason and act on it.

But i’m not overly worried by this, I see it more as a recurring cyclical movement. Decadence will subside when it needs to, necessity being the mother of all change. Meanwhile I’m curious was these new currents will bring.

11

Take your pick.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_correctness

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanism

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futures_studies

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthumanism

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthuman_ … man_future

12

I’m familiar with all three concepts, thank you. I don’t see any evidence however of political correctness, or progressivism being on the rise, in fact I see the exact opposite happening at the moment. Transhumanism is virtually unknown where I live.

13

Somthing which I should of said earlier in my first post:

The goal of progressivism guided by it’s enacted political correctness of new world thought is to have differences of living, thinking, believing,behaving, and acting eradicated where there instead becomes only one singularity of being where everything becomes singular or uniformic in that there is only one singular way at having a lifestyle and existing.

We already see this emerging singularity in politics and social phenomena with political correctness.

We can also see this emerging singularity with the advent of globalism aided by technology.

The goal of progressivism is to create a post-human being or a post human race that exists singularly in complete uniformic conformity around the globe.

It is the antithesis of diveristy in that it seeks to create one giant pan-culture and pan-race of human beings around the world in it’s goal of having a global uniformic singular existence.

Sameness is the philosophy of progressivists in that in their singular envisionment ideologically of the future is where everybody must exist in the same manner and means.

14

That’s the goal of transhumanism, not the goal of political correctness or progressivism. I’d agree that Transhumanist are a distastefull group, but it’s a marginal phenonemon, at the moment at least.

15

Not just transhumanists but progressivists too since all progressivists are transhumanists in that they believe there is a destination of the human species that all must conform too.

As for political correctness that is merely the methodology of transhumanists and progressivists.

16

And George Orwell of course is a inspiration in creating this thread. ( Excellent quote.)

17

A lot of progressivists would reject transhumanism, and would probably even be appalled by the idea if they knew about it. There’s a difference.

18

he didnt claim that all progressives accepted transhumanism. if you re-read what hes saying, its that both transhumanists and progressives use the methodology of political correctness (at least i think this is what hes saying). transhumanists and progressivists are different groups from each other, like you say the means/intentions/goals of one may not be those of the other (but there is still some overlap, just not complete overlap)-- however, BOTH GROUPS utilize political correctness in a similar manner to further their goals of global homogenization of all human societies, the subsuming of all elements of culture/language/progress/politics underneath one universal singular Order… political correctness is one means or method used to further this agenda. it is not the only one, but it is one used by progressives and transhumanists alike.

19

So what’s to be done about it?

A total collapse of the current geopolitical world is required to undo the growing trend towards mass-conformity …

Unless … one revalues morality and calls evil all that advocates equality, charity, human rights and the other various tools of the levelers.

:-k

20

i dont really think theres much we can do. this will play out until its maximum saturation ability, at which point the pendulum will begin to swing the other direction. a scenario like 1984 is unlikely simply because human nature does not bend and conform itself to such a massive, permanent level… not that it could not be conditioned to do so, just that the amount of sheer force required would be tremendous, and that level of force would tend to destabilize society and economic functioning to such an extent that it would liberate radical resistant forces within man, destabilizing the system itself from within… and adding further resistance against conformity-pressures or global systems of order.

but, such things are social forces and natural forces, they are outside the realm of complete control by man even were he to work together within societies towards a common goal of resisting… as for individuals, we can work to achieve our own butterfly effects, but in the end it is highly unlikely that anything we do will end up being more than a mere temporary slowdown of the progress of progressivism and political correctness, and the underlying forces of homogenization and collective conformity which give rise to them… and such slowdowns actually tend to restabilize and lend greater power and control to homogenization forces themselves.

the battle between individual and society has been going on ever since there were societies. it is becoming far more powerful and potent due to globalization and technology. however, its still a battle of natural forces, human nature vs itself. the operations of such forces will play out through the medium of society and interconnected factors across boundaries, and will expand only until it meets sufficient internal instinctive or systemic resistance to push it back and contain it. once contained, there will be a struggle of “wills” between forces of homogenization/collective conformity and forces of individualization, society vs man, and the stronger will end up the victor. however, at that point the cycle will just start over again.

of course, due to technology being where it is at, and due to globalization, it is now for the first time in human history possible that a dictatorship such as Big Brother could indeed be created and attain permanence. its not likely at this point, for many reasons such as i mentioned above, but it is possible, it no longer entails contradiction as it would have in the past— the mechanisms of control exist, at least in theory. it only remains to be seen if the human spirit and intellect can be sufficiently molded and repressed to the point of establishing such universal permanent systems of control. at this point, it seems VERY unlikely… however, in the future, who knows; this present crisis and homogenization/social struggling may fail and we may see a reemergence of individualization and freedom, but perhaps it will only be a relative success, and will nonetheless have laid the grounds for a future struggle in which society will attain its permanent victory over man.

either way theres little we can do about it. so its sort of useless to worry about, other than from an academic level. we can try to affect change, but the individual and local movements are so marginalized and ineffectuated that its all but hopeless, and even if you try its more likely that you will end up creating reactionary forces in society which benefit growing homogenization… “silent resistance” or “passive noncooperation” as much as is practically possible seems the best choice for now, until we reach a more volatile point in the cycle, a point where individual action can indeed sway the entire future of the conflict due to the immense fluctuations in power that happen over very short times frames. and we may indeed be fast approaching that time…