Re: Political Correctness + Nobel Prize

[larbaud <larbaud@mandic.com.br>]

John King wrote:

>
> Umberto, "political correctness" is not just a US phenomena, although the
> phrase was first coined there. Germany also has a huge dose of it. And it
> applies, as I see it, to a wide range of university political practice.
> The reason is quite simple - only in the academy (in the most general
> sense) does the Feminist/Green/Marxist/Anti-Fascist/whatever Left actually
> wield much in the way of power - like controlling courses, hiring and
> firing professors, legitmating knowledge, etc. And in the student bodies,
> the Left as a whole tends to dominate political discourse. "Political
> correctness", as I see it, is basically the dominance in the Universities
> of left critiques and ideologies of emancipation which tend to the
> exclusion or silencing of the Other through the exercise of political
> power. Paradoxically, it is often against an exclusion of Others, that
> they themselves are protesting.
> 
> An interesting comment on the future of sociology from the UK sociologist
> Zygmunt Baumann in a recent article of his suggests that all these left
> academic discourses circulate in a closed system - in other words that
> they are profoundly irrelevant and ignored by the rest of society, which
> keeps on functioning in its nasty old capitalistic way. "Real politics"
> exists and functions mostly outside the academy. "Political correctness"
> thus remains a loud irritation for most people in the Uni, and an object
> of ridicule for most people outside it.
> 

Sorry, but I think you minimize the phenomena. Political correctness
goes far beyond the university world. Its main weapon is the mass media
and tends to control the whole ideological production, not only the
academic discourse. And its centre is not the university, but the
political and economic power.
And it's not just a ridiculous attitude, but also a huge ideological
power in the world, unfortunately.
I agree with you that it's "an object of ridicule for most people
outside it", but the problem is how to go out of it. It's not easy.

That's my opinion, at least.

Best wishes
Larbaud Jr.