Liberalism = Mental Illness

Liberalism has been described as a form of mental illness (Lyle H, Rossiter, Jr., MD, The Liberal Mind : The Psychological causes of Political Madness, Free World Books LLC, St. Charles IL, 2006). [n.b. There are other books out with similar titles and conclusions, but to mention them here would immediately cause manifestation of psychotic symptoms in people whom I wish to cause to think rationally.]

One of the hallmarks of the modern liberal movement has been the concept of political correctness, that is,

1. Of, relating to, or supporting broad social, political, and educational change, especially to redress historical injustices in matters such as race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.
2. Being or perceived as being overconcerned with such change, often to the exclusion of other matters.

(Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Houghton Miflin Company, NY, 1997)

In attempting to redress perceived injustices, it is argued by those subscribing to the concept that censorship is good if it is controlled by people who have a more righteous mindset (i.e, similar thinking liberals).

Enter the selective use of certain words. At this point it is appropriate to postulate a null hypothesis that God did not confuse the languages at Babel to try to prevent political correctness. I welcome any and all tests which might tend to cause that null hypothesis to be rejected at, say, a confidence level of 10%. In any event, the PC (politically correct) crowd has moved with great success to take out of literature those things which they deem offensive; they specialize in tare removal (viz. Matthew 13: 24-30). That this is a good thing is possibly linked to the belief that people with sensitivity to gluten won't miss the wheat anyway.

Here we have poor Huckleberry Finn on the cutting room floor (New edition of 'Huckleberry Finn' to lose the N-word) where the term that Huck uses throughout the story to describe his friend Jim is converted to a form that is less offensive to Certain People.

Language is a means of transporting thoughts from one person's mind to the mind of another. It may be through the use of words; the term has also been logically extended to drawings (the alphabet is a type of abstract art), gestures ("body language"), actions (kisses and punches come to mind), or smells (some people are deliberately raunchy). What is most important, however, appears to be context. Pushing a person into the path of a car has a completely different meaning from pushing a person out of the path of a car -- both actions are communicating a thought by pushing, but the context makes the message.

So I would ask, what is the difference between the term that Mark Twain placed in Huck Finn's conversation, and the use of "n-word", "n*****", or some other euphemism, as used by good liberals, if the intended meaning is the same? For that matter, as a descendant of Slavs, I should be able to claim that the term "slave" needs to be banned, since it is a derogatory word that is derived from the language of my ancestors, and besides, sláva roughly translates as "glory" (moc a sláva = power and glory, or, sláva Kristu veliká = glory to Christ the great).

Further, the word "slave", which is to be used instead of "n-word" in this new PC re-write of Twain's classic is quite imprecise. The classic Latin term servus, or "slave" is the origin of our English word "servant", but servitude is broken down into both voluntary and involuntary servitude. The latter is what most people mean when they say "slavery". However, voluntary slavery -- indentured servitude -- was the means by which a substantial number of Europeans were brought to America. Thus, to be precise, if Huck's companion is to be called Slave Jim, he should really be retitled Involuntary Slave Jim to differentiate him from some immigrant Irishman of the time who would properly be called Voluntary Slave Jim.

There is another consequence to this whole flapdoodle. Let us say that another generation passes, indoctrinated in the new PC ignorance. The only people who use the "n-word" are people privileged by birth and skin color to do so. Students reading history will have the impression that the involuntary servitude of people of African descent was really not such a bad thing after all, since, based on rewritten PC literature, the slave owners politely called their slaves "Slave ***", and whenever they see the "n-word" used in a historical context, it will have been laundered to mean that the person so tagged was viewed as a fraternal comrade. So much for the corruption of history.

Indeed, liberalism is a mental illness.