From Jorge Montojo
https://www.takimag.com/article/prophylactic-society/print(I really like his writing, thoughtful and inventive.)
The much-vaunted new world order is a birdcage. Western democracies are playing social seppuku with the dictatorship of a hysterical political correctness that encourages single-mindedness and self-censorship of opinion, promotes cowardice, and rewards cultural illiteracy.
Authoritarian regimes in the rest of the world are very happy. “Why do you want freedom?” they ask their herds of single bleaters. “You see that the decadent Westerners have grown tired of freedom of expression and aspire to an official truth that offends no minority. Now you know how exhausting it is to think for yourself.”
The virus has triggered a new self-castrated society. The propaganda of fear, the allergy to human contact, the compulsive use of cybernetic gadgets, the obligatory mask even in open spaces (a mask that causes people to wander less oxygenated and hinders mental clarity, a mask that aesthetically matches the new nanotechnological canon, a mask that transforms us into an amorphous and faceless mass, a mask that is of tremendous bacteriological focus).
Cui prodest? The viral terror has given wings to totalitarians. Overnight, it was the same to live in Madrid as in Beijing. Curfews, wild fines urbi et orbi, information designed to manipulate the masses, and a formidable idiotization of society.
In the midst of so much confusion it was easy to foresee the eruption of a new urban guerrilla who wishes to burn down the winter palace. It is the revolution of the illiterates of the new age, the inclusive language, the iconoclastic rage, the badge on the lapel, the slogan on the T-shirt, the magazine culture of the tricoteuses, the absence of a sense of humor, etc.
“The mask looks like it’s going to stay for a while, but an international outcry rises against this gag.”
Fortunately, many intellectual sacred cows around the world have awakened from their sweet siesta and strongly denounce the gross nonsense of a revolution without any spirit, without debate or poetry. It is also true that, if such a revolution were to triumph, the first ones to be executed would be the illustrious freethinkers. And not everyone is willing to drink the hemlock or go into exile, no matter how much they corrupt the youth in a Socratic way.
But where did such suicidal nonsense come from? Incredible as it may seem, there is a consensus on blaming some American universities that abandoned the aspiration to raise society and have dedicated themselves to a lower level in service of the pretense of equality. There has never been a more vulgar Trojan horse! They were soon copied by socialist parties all over the world. And very soon after, too many self-conscious conservatives adopted PC tyranny, not to be lynched on social networks. It’s good for them, so they don’t have to show off the wit they don’t have. And besides, it’s already known, since Chesterton, that progressives go on making mistakes that conservatives prevent from being corrected…
The mask looks like it’s going to stay for a while, but an international outcry rises against this gag. The virus escaped from a lab too soon for this evil plan. There is much weariness of idiotic plans, and people do not want to swallow millstones. And we can still smoke and have a drink, virtuous vices that have historically been an antidote to any fanatical hysteria virus.
The prophylactic society is the aspiration of those who are afraid of life. Let’s not allow ourselves to be infected
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