Since you can't do anything about global totalitarianism, why not just make the best of it?
Why not exploit the situation instead of moaning about it?
Do what is expedient - why not?
Why not make a successful career out of leftism - like so many others?
Why not surrender your private mind to leftism, in the same way as you have already surrendered your public behaviour?
By having any reservations at all, you are making yourself miserable - why not simply cast-aside those reservations?
Just say an inner yes to what you will, anyway, be forced to do (sooner or later)...
Since you necessarily inhabit the thought prison that is leftism – then why not, at least, become one of the ‘trustys’ among the inmates – to assist with the smooth running of the gaol, and get yourself a few privileges?
Why not, indeed, strive to become one of the prison guards? Somebody has to do the job? Maybe you could temper the severity of the regime?
(And herein lies the particular temptation for the intellectual elite – a temptation few resist.
That (literally) soul-destroying pragmatism by which (for eminently sensible reasons) we quietly, by gradual degrees, change sides in the spiritual battle of the world: that unseen warfare between The Good and that which opposes The Good.)
Well why not?
There is no earthly reason why not.
In a world of pervasive and powerful PC, there is really only one compelling reason for holding back and resisting in any way, shape or form - which is that embracing leftism will shrink your soul.
If you do not believe in the soul, this reason will carry no force at all: so by your own calculations you are stupid to resist leftism.
Or, if you believe the soul is inviolable, and that nothing you think or do can affect the soul: then also, by your own calculations, you are stupid to resist leftism.
If you do not believe in Natural Law (innate knowledge of The Good), and that breaking Natural Law harms the soul: then logically you should learn to love leftism.
If you do not believe in the reality of transcendental good - then you might as well go with the flow, allow yourself to be re-programmed: learn, by regular practice, to re-label lies as truth, ugliness as beauty, evil as virtue; until leftism has entered into your heart and soul, as well as pouring into your ears and out-from your mouth.
But leftism is nihilism; therefore it is not merely political: it is also existential.
To fight against political correctness is therefore ultimately an existential act: a battle to preserve the eternal soul.
But if you do not believe that political correctness will harm your eternal soul: then you would be well-advised to suck it up.
Why not?...
(The above is adapted from the closing passages of my 2011 mini-book Thought Prison.)
9 comments:
“Why don’t you convert to leftism?”
Because as a white male (with a bunch of white male children) it offers me nothing. Career? No, I’m a low achiever. I’m not the type that will benefit from a leftist career. Leftism says as a white male I’m bad and I have unearned privilege (with the implication that the unearned things I have need to be taken away). Same for my sons. And, ultimately, they’ll come for my daughters too.
Because I instinctively value heritage, ancestors, etc. and leftism says my heritage and ancestors are evil and need to be erased.
Because leftism says that the most beautiful created beings, European women, should belong to other (non-European) men and therefore, cease to exist in the future.
Because it “liberates” women which means there will be no decent women for my sons to marry. No posterity.
Because I’d rather die than give in to it. If I die I go to be with God. Even when I was a non-believer I would have rather died than give in to it since death just meant release from the misery the left has created.
I could go on and on. It doesn’t offer me anything.
"Why not surrender your private mind to leftism, in the same way as you have already surrendered your public behaviour?"
Ouch.
There is an old cartoon from the 1930s of two women at a high society party. One has a cross expression on her face. Her smiling friend says to her, "Why don't you become a Democrat and ENJOY politics?"
There is something wicked in human nature that ENJOYS wrecking things and shoving other people around. Without repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ many will resort to leftism to vent this will to rapine, cruelty and destruction.
@BB - The thing is - all of these worldly things will be worse for you and yours if you oppose leftism.
It's not just about a successful career - as a non-leftist white male (one who does not *actively* support the left agenda, wherever it may lead), you may be without a job.
Whereas the world (the multi-billionaire class, and most major institutions) is run by mostly white males who are 'career leftists'
(I once saw one of these say, literally, that my *successor* must be a woman/ of colour. Not me, but he one who replaces me after I have drawn my pension. Rather like the ultra-woke US president. Affirmative action for women of colour!... *after* I'm retired.
The fact that ultra-leftism at the highest levels is also ultra-selfishness (me, here, now - and Nothing else matters), is what we are up against.
As of *now*, the self-hating-white-man is a valid/ optimal career option.
"I instinctively value heritage, ancestors, etc" - Same here, and for many people; but such instincts have proved to be insufficiently motivating and en-couraging to make a difference; while espousing the opposite will help you here-and-now.
"the most beautiful created beings, European women" True enough (a least wrt my wife!) - but European women bosses/ judges, journalists would see you sacked for saying so.
" no decent women for my sons to marry" again, to care about your posterity just counts as an evanescent idiosyncratic lifestyle preference. Post-Christianity, the British aristocracy have gone from planning three generations ahead, to being indifferent about next year, when it comes to leftism.
"Because I’d rather die than give in to it. If I die I go to be with God. "
That's the only real answer; and my point. The left has this transitory mortal world pretty much sewn-up (at least on the large scale) - so leftism can only be opposed on the basis of the eternal happiness of the next world.
As of 2021, nobody can be a leftist and a Christian; because to be a leftist (here and now) is to reject resurrected life in Heaven.
Luckily, there is repentance...
@Avro: "Without repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ many will resort to leftism to vent this will to rapine, cruelty and destruction."
Yes, most already have resorted - but so-far more for the positive hedonic benefits thahn the exercise of spite. But since the birdemic the impulse to "rapine, cruelty and destruction" is ever-more evident and widespread.
We cannot, because we cannot reach a good end through evil means.
We cannot deny Christ before the emperor with our fingers crossed, thinking that God know what’s truly in our hearts.
We must be true in all ways.
Joining the woke is out of the question. Beating them is rather unlikely. Confronting them can be an invitation to personal ruin. So I disengage as much as it is possible to do so. Thankfully, I am retired, and I do not have to confront the insanity in the workplace. I stay home, put my energy into my artwork, and try to create a little beauty in the world. I am quietly non-compliant in every possible way. I will not mask.
Yesterday I had to go out and attend to a few errands. Mandate, or no, all the employees at all the stores were masked. A good half the people alone on the street were masked. The sight of the faceless engenders a kind of nightmare level horror in me. It's like we are trapped in a bad movie, but it's real.
What bothered me most, yesterday, was that I noticed that I no longer feel the keen edge of that horror. I've become almost numb to the disgust I feel at tattooing. I see so much of it that it no longer registers. It's getting to be the same way with the faceless. It's like outrage and disgust are drugs to which we've acquired a tolerance. Or maybe the numbness is a shield. A constant diet of anger is toxic, too.
JWM
I read your book Thought Prison around 2016-ish (in fact, I knew that this blog post was not original as soon as I began to read it, because this particular section of the book struck me particularly at the time and stayed with me!).
I decided to click on the link to read it again, to see if 5 years later it may furnish further clarification.
As I was reading the headings in the content section, it it really felt like I was reading a bullet point list of all the things which have really caught my attention about the past 18 months ("maginary enemies preferred.", "The mass media and the memory hole", "PC depends on both the mass media and an intellectual elite", "Immune to evidence, "Indifference to outcomes", etc.), although I think this might be the first PC Witch Hunt which includes all of these elements simultaneously, constantly and with high-intensity.
Looking forward to re-reading, I think it will be worth it.
Yesterday I and hundreds of others voiced our opposition to "peck" mandates at a city council meeting (in one of the largest cities in California, a leftist stronghold if there ever was one). The sellouts on the council were blasted for about four hours, with only three supportive comments the whole time. And yet, today they voted unanimously for the peck mandate.
Unless these politicians are actually demons disguising themselves as humans, the "go along to get along" with tyranny mentality you are describing has to be the only explanation for their behavior. They just can't be that brainwashed...can they?
@TTL - I worked in the NHS (National Health Service) bureaucracy for a while - that's how people who want a career behave in bureaucracies. The instructions come from above, and are implemented on those below. There is never any point at which the truth or goodness of instructions from above are to be questioned.
One of many reasons why bureaucracy is intrinsically and necessarily evil - and now the world is one bureaucracy.
Post a Comment