The Marxist Revival (9): Why the Mayor of Brussels Gags Free Speech

~ Continued from Part 8: Hysterically Moving the Goal Posts ~

In the present series on the intricacies of Postmodernism (Pomo, or crypto cultural Marxism) we are looking at the use of language, speech in particular. In the preceding posts we discussed a number of the peculiarities that are the result of the Postmodern way of looking at language: not as a vehicle for the transmission of objective data, but to convey a personal version of reality.

In this instalment we'll go further into what the consequences are for the application of Pomo speech: the restriction of free speech by the apparent changing of the rule book in mid-play, as witnessed at present by the Socialist Mayor of Brussels in prohibiting an independent, Paneuropean, grassroots demo against the Islamization of the continent.

In an article adapted from a lecture address given by Stephen Hicks at The Objectivist Center during the 2002 Summer Seminar we find our answer. Hicks uncovers the Left's totalitarian designs on free speech, which they find must be 'redistributed' like tax payer's money.

Hicks, in explaining the idea, uses the analogy of a largely American policy, which has proved useful during the early years of civil rights movement: positive action (or affirmative action, or positive discrimination), and a practical example from the world of sports: shooting hoops with a star basketball champ, who's been lumbered with ankle weights to equalize the chances.

As in some sports, this Marxist vehicle to multiculturalism posits to fit out the stronger, established groups with a similar 'handicap'. The weaker cultural, social and ethnic groups - the subjective minorities, or oppressed victims - are compensated in a measure approximately proportionate to their inequality. Thus the playing field is levelled.

As a temporary policy positive action may have served its purposes, but it has created institutionalized inequality instead of eradicating it. It now comes back to haunt us: the Left is using the same principle to suppress speech rights for the established, supposedly stronger majority.

The collectivist, subjective set of measures is the expectant mother of many evils, but a potentially devastating consequence is, that it may turn the Western world into an intellectual graveyard as individual freedom to pursue knowledge through debate, critique and free enquiry, is being suppressed.

Hicks provides a few samples of speech code which we've all come to know very well, potentially turning perpetrators into veritable criminals:

"Any behavior, verbal or physical, that stigmatizes or victimizes an individual or a group on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, creed, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry or age of the individual or individuals, etc. etc. ...... "

... which acts as a handicap for the established, stronger social groups. Moreover, Postmodern Leftists have literally taken leave of their senses, making no distinction between speech, and act, as Classical Liberalism has always made a point of doing.

Speech may have the intent to hurt. Sound waves beating against the other party's eardrums are just as bad as hitting him over the head with a baseball club. Therefore, the symbolic date of 9/11 for the Brussels demo, lumped the process of Islamization together with a terrorist act on that date!

That's why, in the International Herald Tribune Burgomaster Freddy goes on the record as saying that in a secular democracy "it cannot be that women and men are ... suspected of having committed the worst crimes" simply because they are Muslims, while in fact the demonstrators are not committing any such crudity! All they want is equality and Roman law, not Sharia.

The moving of the goal posts - declaring the rules applicable to one side only - works in tandem with the above surreal confusion of terms. It is one of Marxism's concepts to win power - or destruct. We've seen it at work in the persistent calling for tolerance, to which we should add: "yes, but that only applies to you, stupid!", as it acts as an equalizing ankle weight for the establishment: they are to practice tolerance, they may not generalize, are not allowed to stigmatize, or discriminate.

The Left on the other hand, and by extension all the weaker, oppressed minority groups which they portent to represent, are above such conventions and can breach the rule book for all they are worth. And we, stupid objectivists, still thinking there's just one set of rules for the whole of humanity ...!

It's a decades old invention of the grandfather of the Frankfurt School of Western Marxism, Herbert Marcuse. It's called repressive tolerance. The Socialist Mayor of Brussels is simply applying cultural Marxism to the entire continent of Europe!

For daily purposes the Left imposes their one-sided rules by the social pressure of political correctness. In other cases a verdict by an independent court* is required. That court will apply the Belgian Anti Racism Act.

While redistribution of capital used to be the favorite means to Utopia for economical Marxism, in this case the redistribution of speech rights is the pet vehicle to cultural egalitarianism (multiculturalism). As for the Muslims, success breeds conceit: they're supposed to be the new gays!

* Update 31/8 23:55H: A post on Brussels Journal provides the latest news on the 9/11 Stop Islamization of Europe demo, throwing as well an interesting light on the state of independent courts in the Kingdom of Belgium. The movement is gathering pace. The VLD students are also in, as they should be! The MSM are roaring increasingly louder, a sure sign this cannot be ignored anymore! Don't forget to sign the petitions!

Update 1/9 17:15H: Up Pompeii reports that "The whip for Italy's anti-immigrant Northern League party in the European Parliament, Mario Borghezio, issued a statement in Brussels on Thursday condemning the court ban on the planned protest."Banning SOIE's protest, which is intended to commemorate the victims of '9/11' and oppose the perilous Islamisation of Europe, violates the fundamental rights of the European Union," Borghezio said."The risks to public order invoked by the mayor are a clear strategem to ... >>>

Update 1/9 17.50H: Here the latest from HQ on the legal status and some instructions for the rally.

(If the video refuses service, here's a link.)