600
PART ISAN lliVLEW
from one ano ther in numerous parti culars, bu t it seems as if each of them
is conceived as a specul ati ve mode l rather than as a se ri es of w retched
histo rical cases. Spreadin g from th e English department to the social sci–
ences and law fac ulti es, th e feti sh of literary th eory - th e popularity of
the idea that everything is fin ally tex tual - has helped fos ter an atmo–
sphere in whi ch the adept can avoid reckoning w ith th e hi sto ri cal par–
ti cul ars that would wreck a utopian thesis. T here is no truth ; th ere is
o nly discourse. Kn owledge has little to do w ith fac t, every thing
to
do
w ith theo ry. Thus th e romance of th e left has continu ed un abated de–
spite the t:1ll of the Berlin Wall , the co llapse of Communism in Eastern
Europe, and the inco ntrove rtible proof that Marxism in practice is ru–
inous economi cally and tyranni cal po liti call y, bringing no thing but mis–
ery to the peoples w ho have li ved under its yoke.
T he romance of th e left rests o n that rusty old tenet of romanti cism,
th e identifi ca ti on of poverty with virtue. (Pove rty had previo usly been
assoc iated with vice, as you ca n see if you check the etymology of words
like "scamp " and " rascal. ") Mary McCa rthy, in
The Groves
~f
Acadellle
(1952),
describes a " tru e liberal" as o ne "who could no t to le ra te in her
well-modulated hea rt that o th ers sho uld be wi ckeder than she, any more
than she could bear that she should be ri cher, better bo rn , better look–
ing than some stati sti cal medi an ." There is something of this sentime ntal–
ity in th e behavio r of th e po liti ca ll y co rrect - as in , fo r examp le, their
well-documented , mu ch-l ampooned depl oyment o f euph emisms, whi ch
work by a process of lingui sti c wish-fulfillment, obfusca ting inconvenient
fac ts, so th at "fa t" becom es "c ircumfe renti all y challen ged" and
" handi capped " turns into " handi capable." Th e speed w ith whi ch the
politi call y co rrec t bureaucrat w ill reach fo r a euph emi sm - o r for the
ce nso r's sc isso rs - argues a ce rtain beli ef in th e powe r of words, of
rhetori c. Wh oeve r controls the di scourse, co ntrols everything: the influ–
ence o f Mi chel Fouca ult has bee n as considerabl e as th at of J acques
Derrida.
A ge nerous view : w hen idealism goes academi c it turns in to ideol–
ogy, and w hen ideo logy hardens into doc trine, politi cal co rrectness re–
sults. Th e road to politi cal co rrec tness is paved w ith good intentions. A
severe vi ew: it is a symptom of bad fa ith and inauthenti city and should be
trea ted within th e large r co ntext of th e "treason of th e cle rks." An
iro nist's view: the use of " di versity" to desc ribe th e po liti ca ll y charged
atmosphere o n college campuses proves the deconstru cti o ni st's point that
a word can mean its own opposite. An educa ti o nal refo rmer's view: po–
liti cal co rrec tness is part and parcel o f the entire syndrome of academic
snobbism , th e fea r of being w ro ng, th e terro r o f assoc iatin g with one's
intellectual inferi o rs. Academi cs dec ry hi erarchi es but have an ac ute
