Real Power: "You Are Not Allowed to Say That"

Down the centuries, we have tended  to think of power as the clunking fist of political and military power: Roman legions, the Royal Navy, US Carrier groups.

But is not the real power just simply to power to say: "you are not allowed to say that" and make it stick with the punishment of defenestration, either through a real window or the the metaphorical window of being defenestrated from your job?

I suppose it is obvious from my maxim, that politics is downstream from culture is downstream from religion.

The notion that to utter a "racist" remark is evil obviously suggests a religion, from the left's religion of anti-racism. So nobody even thinks of uttering the "N-word" except for African Americans, who use the word just because they can. But woe-betide Megyn Kelly for suggesting that going black-face for Hallowe'en is harmless. Oh no it isn't, say the Social Media Commies, and they have the power to make it stick and get Kelly fired.

That, I suppose, is real power. Jolly good fun, and very intoxicating to boot. Unless you are Megyn Kelly.

Of course, this is nothing new. There was never a time when blasphemy, "the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence to a deity, or sacred things, or toward something considered sacred or inviolable," didn't get you in trouble.

Only difference is that today you can swear up and down about God and nobody will bother you. Back in the day, W.C. Fields used to say "Godfrey Daniels, Mother of Pearl." I can translate most of that, except for "pearl." What is that standing in for? That is the job of a comic, to almost say what the ruling class and "the priests" say you are not allowed to say.

So the fact that comics like Seinfeld say that they could never take their acts to college campi these days is telling us a lot about who is defining what you are not allowed to say.

So today the worst thing in the world is to say something "racist." Whatabout the idea of "the race" according to La Wik?

A race is a grouping of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into categories generally viewed as distinct by society. First used to refer to speakers of a common language and then to denote national affiliations, by the 17th century the term race began to refer to physical (phenotypical) traits. Modern scholarship regards race as a social construct, that is, a symbolic identity created to establish some cultural meaning. While partially based on physical similarities within groups, race is not an inherent physical or biological quality.

So if "race" is a "social construct," according to "modern scholarship," who cares? Well, everyone, at least for now. But why? Because of slavery? Because of western colonialism?

Because, sports fans, the only power in the world that really matters to people in love with power is the power to make people grovel at your feet for saying the wrong thing.

You can see that this power, of punishing "thought-crime," is much more convenient than, for instance, the power of punishing for the crime of a deed. You can see that in the Kavanaugh episode. There, at least, there was in the background the question of "did he do it?" But punishing people for saying something like:

But what is racist? You truly do get in trouble if you are a white person who puts on blackface at Halloween or a black person who puts on whiteface for Halloween. Back when I was a kid, that was OK, as long as you were dressing up as like a character.

Hey, that is real, delicious power. And cheap too! All you need is lefty social media that permits your noble left-wing hate speech and that censors eevil far-right hate speech. No need to maintain a police force and its expensive pensions, or a military and its expensive gadgets. Just lubricate social media with a teensy bit of Soros money and you are ready to go!

The thing is that "racism" is clearly a movable feast. And, according to my doctrine of "fake tribalism" developed here and here, all concepts of political groupings, of clan, tribe, nation, religion, race, gender, etc. are purely made-up out of whole cloth by religious, cultural and political leaders in order to separate people into separate groups for the purpose of religious, cultural, and political warfare.

Never mind. Say the wrong thing on race, Megyn Kelly, and you get fired. Say the wrong thing on "women," Tim Hunt, and you get fired. Say the wrong thing on gays, Brendan Eich, and you get fired. As in racist, sexist, homophobe.

The joke is that, 50 years ago, all we heard from liberals was what a dreadful thing the Salem Witch Trials were. And lefty playwright Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to prove it. And the worst thing in the world was the witch hunts to winkle out Commie schoolteachers wherever they might be found and fire them! Yeah! That'll teach 'em.

But that was before liberals acquired the religious and cultural and political power to fire people that they disapproved of. So that is different.

So how do we get out of this trap? I am hoping for the moral and cultural equivalent of organized sports. Today we channel a lot of the male appetite for violence and military glory into organized sports where we can cheer on the home team in sports stadiums instead of raping and plundering folks on the battlefield. Surely there is a genius out there who can invent something to divert the social media mobs into safe channels where they can demolish people for liking the wrong dog or the wrong Christmas decoration.

Because in my view the benefit of rousing everyone into a howling mob to defend the tribe is probably past its sell-by date.