Angelo M. Codevilla has written a brilliant
piece, The Rise of Political Correctness. For a
few days I have been thinking about how to summarize it and add something to
it. I have read it several times and decided I cannot – I cannot
summarize it; I cannot add something to it. If the subject of culture and
liberty matter to you, it must be read.
Gray North has written an excellent summary; it is still worth
reading the original.
Codevilla traces political correctness to
its roots – Machiavelli and communism. But it wasn’t Marx’s communism
that spawned this evil; it was Antonio Gramsci’s. I have written on this before in the context
of libertine-worshipping libertarians; I became aware of the Gramsci connection
only because of something I read from Dr. North.
Today’s progressives have gone well beyond
Gramsci; Gramsci was only after a replacement. For today’s progressives,
having won the cultural war a generation ago isn’t enough; having destroyed
traditional western (i.e. Christian) culture isn’t enough. They want
more; and after they get more, they will want more.
I keep trying to write something more, cite
something from his piece. Each time I try, I fall short. So I will
not. I will offer only one cite – an example of the over-reach that
Gramsci would not support:
Consider our ruling class’s very latest
demand: Americans must agree that someone with a penis can be a woman, while
someone else with a vagina can be a man. Complying with such arbitrariness is
beyond human capacity.
As Popeye says, “that’s all I can stand, I
can’t stands no more.”
Conclusion
OK, one more cite; Codevilla’s, conclusion,
not mine (emphasis added):
In short, the P.C. “changes in law and
public norms” (to quote Galston again) that the ruling class imposed on the
rest of America, rather than having “gradually brought about changes in private
attitudes across partisan and ideological lines” as the ruling class imagined
(and as Gramsci would have approved) have set off a revolution—of which we
can be sure only that it won’t be pretty.
(Note: Codevilla has written of this coming revolution before;
I offer my attempt at summarizing it here. I have grown more humble since
then.)