Questions You Should Never Ask a Writer (Doris Lessing on Political Correctness and Communism)

The New York Times ^ | 26 June 1992 | Doris Lessing

[burzum]

WHILE we have seen the apparent death of Communism, ways of thinking that were either born under Communism or strengthened by Communism still govern our lives. Not all of them are as immediately evident as a legacy of Communism as political correctness.

The first point: language. It is not a new thought that Communism debased language and, with language, thought. There is a Communist jargon recognizable after a single sentence. Few people in Europe have not joked in their time about “concrete steps,” “contradictions,” “the interpenetration of opposites,” and the rest.

The first time I saw that mind-deadening slogans had the power to take wing and fly far from their origins was in the 1950s when I read an article in The Times of London and saw them in use. “The demo last Saturday was irrefutable proof that the concrete situation...” Words confined to the left as corralled animals had passed into general use and, with them, ideas. One might read whole articles in the conservative and liberal press that were Marxist, but the writers did not know it. But there is an aspect of this heritage that is much harder to see.

[burzum]

This is an excellent editorial by the 2007 Nobel laureate in literature. She nails why political correctness and communism are related and discusses the most common forms of political correctness. She also quite harshly slams the close mindedness of Marxist youth.

[Army Air Corps]

Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc...

[rlmorel]

Just Wow.

I have no idea what she writes now, but in 1992, in this one article linked, she is dead on.

Just dead on.

[rlmorel]

I have always found it curious (it would be amusing if it were not deadly serious) that liberals seem to think that Orwell’s “1984’ is what the world of conservatives would be like if conservatives had their way.

The reality is, liberals are the ones who attempt to shape and control the meaning and use of words in an effort to shape and control thought.

A good example is the use of the word “gay” to describe homosexuals. They have succeeded brilliantly, in that it is nearly impossible to use the word “gay” in its original meaning anymore.

And that is just one example.

[ishabibble]

And this is the kind of thing that was printed in the New York Times in 1992. The old handcart is traveling downhill faster than I realized!

[Grizzled Bear]

How the hell did she slip under their radar?

[jiggyboy]

Few people in Europe have not joked in their time about “concrete steps,” “contradictions,” “the interpenetration of opposites,” and the rest.

Any time I see or hear somebody using the phrase "speak truth to power", I know it's a Fellow Traveler. Ditto for any modification of the concept of reality or truth, e.g., "emotional truth".

[buffaloKiller]

By using the Commie agitprop terms - ie, gay instead of queer, homophobia instead of ???, racsism/racsist/bigot, progressive instead of marxist, Islamophobia instead of ??? - the enemy succeeds and we lose.

By acquiescing to the enemies terms used in the propaganda war battles, success is seriously compromised and our efforts to fight back are weakened

D.Lessing’s article indirectly suggest what must be done INITIALLY to resist the Marxist efforts to destroy the West.
STOP USING ANY MARXIST AGITPROP TERMS IN THE MEDIA.
FORCE THE RETURN TO MORE ACCURATE TERMS USED.
PURGE ACADEMIA OF ALL MARXIST (any/all antiWest enablers) INFLUENCES.

We are in a fight to the death against these enemies and must adopt a cominsuratly serious attitude to the assault against us if we are to survive.

[rlmorel]

So true.

I find it both amusing and disconcerting when I use the term homosexual in a discussion, and you can tell people are uncomfortable with it.

I refuse to use the word “gay” in that context, but I no longer feel comfortable using the word “gay” to describe joy. I guess that is just me.

[GOPJ]

It troubles me that political correctness does not seem to know what its exemplars and predecessors are; it troubles me more that it may know and does not care.

Yep - Lessing "gets it" here...

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

How the hell did she slip under their radar?

She struck in 1992 before they got radar.

[buffaloKiller]

As I have written/suggested in other posts to FR, the QueerWars/antiChristian Wars as being fought in EU/Canada/Brazil and other places is the main battleground in the current war(three sides) against the West.

The antiIslam segment of this war is a side matter for now (except in Londonistan and Switzerland)- Iraq and Afganistan are not the main battlefields (but are the main killing fields) in the propaganda war as presently fought by Soros/NWO/etc.

Any terms used in describing the “enemy” will NECESSARILY be descibed by them as “hate speech” and one will have to put up with that nonsense (hearing truth hurts Liberal delicate sensibilities).

Our individual efforts will have to be to resist giving in to “induced white guilt” as that is “their” main weapon against us (some of us are further along this path so that will help).
NO MORE WHITE GUILT - STOP BUYING INTO IT NOW !!!
HATE THE ENEMY - NOT YOUR ANCESTORS !!!
HATE IS A GOD GIVEN EMOTION - NOT A CRIME !!

So when you are in “conversation with Liberals” help them get to “the Ephihany” by your not having any recognition of their “uncomfortableness” with using terms like “queerism” or “marxistLiberal” or feeling that “extreme positive regard for one ancestors is a good sensation” (racism is good for ones soul,REALLY).
Rather help them to “give voice to the terms/relax into the new sensation” as a first start into the land of free thinking and deliberate living.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

I find it both amusing and disconcerting when I use the term homosexual in a discussion, and you can tell people are uncomfortable with it.

I refuse to use the word “gay” in that context, but I no longer feel comfortable using the word “gay” to describe joy. I guess that is just me.

Want to have fun? if they object, then call them homophiliacs or homofascists whichever fits the bill at the moment.

[rlmorel]

LOL...kind of reminds me of Rush Limbaugh needling the Environmental whackos about Dihydrate Monoxide...

[buffaloKiller]

Homofascist - that’s good!@ or homoNazis or homoQuisling !!
Now we are getting to the nitty gritty.
Our terms - NOT theirs!!! Drop some of these new terms into a college newspaper article or better yet an English class.
Let ‘em sizzle on the gridle while their mind goes wobbly -they’re such panzies when a street fight starts.

[Rocky]

The article is prefaced with the following:

On Thursday, the novelist Doris Lessing won the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Moments after the announcement, the literary world embarked on a time-honored post-Nobel tradition: assessing - and sometimes sniffing at - the work of the prizewinner. One of the most pointed criticisms of Ms. Lessing came from Harold Bloom, the Yale professor and literary critic, who told The Associated Press, "Although Ms. Lessing at the beginning of her writing career had a few admirable qualities, I find her work for the past 15 years quite unreadable." He went on to add that the prize is "pure political correctness." Interestingly, Ms. Lessing had some strong thoughts about political correctness, thoughts she expressed in this adapted article, which appeared on the Op-Ed page on June 26, 1992.

"I find her work for the past 15 years quite unreadable..." So, in response to this, they print an article 15 years old? I guess there is some irony there.

From Wikipedia:

Lessing's fiction is commonly divided into three distinct phases: the Communist theme (1944-1956), when she was writing radically on social issues (and returned to in The Good Terrorist (1985)), the psychological theme (1956-1969), and after that the Sufi theme, which was explored in a science fiction setting in the Canopus series.

Also, Sufism is a mystic tradition within Islam that encompasses a diverse range of beliefs and practices dedicated to Divine love and the cultivation of the elements of the Divine within the individual human being.

Although the article posted here from the NY Times hits the bulls eye, I am wondering if it is an anomaly, based on the subjects addressed in the main body of her work. If someone on FR has read any of her works, I would be interested in hearing an assessment.

On the other hand, Harold Bloom seems to be a bit of a weirdo, as well:

Bloom's theory of poetic influence regards the development of Western literature as a process of borrowing and misreading. Writers find their creative inspiration in previous writers and begin by imitating those writers; in order to develop a poetic voice of their own, however, they must make their own work different from that of their precursors. As a result, Bloom argues, authors of real power must inevitably 'misread' their precursors' works in order to make room for fresh imaginings.

[ken21]

communist behavior as she describes,

the mindless marching out to protest,

is on display at stanford university now.

professors protest the addition of donald rumsfeld to the hoover institute.

[burzum]

Lessing's fiction is commonly divided into three distinct phases: the Communist theme (1944-1956), when she was writing radically on social issues (and returned to in The Good Terrorist (1985)), the psychological theme (1956-1969), and after that the Sufi theme, which was explored in a science fiction setting in the Canopus series.

Thanks for bringing that up. I should have pointed out that she is commonly cited for her social commentary and 'feminist' work though as she discussed in this article, she does not like to be pigeonholed into specific categories. Specifically, she won the Nobel Prize this year due to her 'feminist' work, though she has been harshly critical of feminism in the last decade or so and flatly rejects being called a feminist.

[Winniesboy]

Good old Doris. One of my heroines. Shame about her diversion into a SF backwater - but of the relatively recent work, the autobiography is by far the best read.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Liberals seem to think that Orwell’s “1984’ is what the world of conservatives would be like if conservatives had their way.

1984's parallels with Stalinist Russia seems to fly right over their heads, doesn't it?