“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” (George Orwell, 1984)
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exist” (Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, as quoted in “Hannah Arendt On Standing Up to the Banality of Evil”)
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Well, they’ve actually done it.
In a 7-2 vote, the school board of Loudoun County, Virginia voted on August 11, 2021 to require staff and students to conform their speech to the wishes of transgender students. Anyone persistently not doing so will be in violation of the policy.
From the policy: “School staff shall, at the request of a student or parent/legal guardian, when using a name or pronoun to address the student, use the name and pronoun that correspond to their consistently asserted gender identity. […] Inadvertent slips in the use of names or pronouns may occur; however, staff or students who intentionally and persistently refuse to respect a student’s gender identity by using the wrong name and gender pronoun are in violation of this policy.”
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“But they are only words,” you might say, “why does it matter what someone wants to be called?”
Most people (I included) are not generally worried if someone wants to be called this or that. Many people will accommodate in some way to be sensitive to the person requesting it. Most people (I included) do not enjoy hurting anyone’s feelings. The problem comes when speech is imposed, when you are commanded by authorities that you must say this and may not say that.
And it does matter; it matters a lot. Language is the vehicle of thought, and when any governing authority can limit the words people use, that authority will be able to control the way those people think – ultimately disconnecting them from their ability to discern true and false. This is one reason the American founders passed the First Amendment: There is to be no thought control imposed upon the people by governing authorities in the United States.
This fact of human psychology is also precisely why controlling the words that people use has been the centerpiece for every oppressive authoritarian societal transformation in modern history, from that of Joseph Goebbels, to Vladimir Lenin, to Chairman Mao, to (now) Beth Barts, Brenda Sheridan, Altoosa Reaser, Denise Corbo, Harris Mahadevi, Leslie King, and Ian Serotkin.
What is the difference between the first three on this list and the last seven? Part of the answer is that we see Goebbels, Lenin, and Mao, and the millions of innocents murdered at their hands, through the rear-view mirror, whereas the last seven individuals are active right now, are at an earlier stage in the stepwise process, and are in some cases unwitting in where what they are imposing upon us will lead.
So, that is where we are today in beautiful Loudoun County. For the first time in the nation’s 245-year history, compelled speech is getting a foothold in the United States.
FURTHER THOUGHTS ON DESENSITIZATION
If you can force everyone, including people who feel moral conviction to only speak what is true, to speak things that they know are not true, something happens: Their moral compass becomes dulled, and their suppressed conscience begins to find ways to justify the false speech. “It is respectful.” “I know it is not true, but I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.” “It is school policy, so I really have no choice.” And so forth.
But then the speech becomes a habit. After regular affirmation of falsehood via officially compelled language, people begin to lose connection with the real world. This is the literal meaning of “brainwashing,” and it does not always involve being tied to a chair in a basement of undisclosed location with a single flickering lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. Brainwashing is a process of disconnecting people from reality, and it begins with language.
And remember: The prized targets of this whole process are the minds of the current and future children who are passing through the public education system. What happens to these young, impressionable minds when they see not only those who choose to so speak, but every teacher (including those that they know to be Christian and see at church functions) and every other student, many of whom are role models, regularly and without hesitation referring to boys as “her,” girls as “he,” and so forth?
Think about how this shapes a young mind. Then, multiply it by millions of children each year passing through our public schools nationally.
I will not belabor the point but leave it now to your personal reflection. American society is being transformed at this very moment by people with a totalitarian mindset: “You may not speak freely. You must speak only as we tell you. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”
Please take a moment to reflect upon the fruit that indoctrination of an entire generation will soon yield, even within our (tottering) system of representative self-governance. If you are horrified by what you see coming, then we need you to stand up and fight for a different way.
I conclude with further quotations from Orwell’s dystopian novel that so aptly foresaw the present moment:
“Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.” (1984)
“He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.” (1984)
“Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.” (1984)
“The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.” (Hannah Arendt, The Life of the Mind, as quoted in Jack Maden, “Hannah Arendt on Standing Up to the Banality of Evil.”)