beware of the knights in shining armour

A chillingly plausible article by Theodore Dalrymple, worth quoting in full, i feel:

Signs of our new, improved multicultural times: a friend of mine, a small independent bookseller, told me that her store recently received a visit from a woman who announced that she worked for the Equal Opportunities Commission. The commission—one of England’s busy-bodying, quasi-governmental organizations—sniffs out racism, much as the Spanish Inquisition once sniffed out judaizing heresies among the conversos, and in the process it provides non-manual employment for the semi-educated.

“Where is your section by black authors?” she demanded to know.

“We don’t have one,” replied my friend.

“Why not?”

“Because we don’t classify authors by race.”

The lady from the commission demanded to know where the volumes by such and such black authors were. My friend showed her where they were, among all the other books.

“You should have a section for black authors,” she said.

“We don’t classify books by race,” my friend repeated.

The lady from the commission, very annoyed, stormed out, exclaiming for all to hear, “This is a white racist bookshop!”

My friend told me this in her bookshop—sotto voce, when she was certain that there was no one who could overhear.

It seems a rule of human psychology that those who would pass themselves off as the shining knights of virtue, riding bravely against tyranny & oppression, are at best deluded fools, and at worst thoroughly corrupt, self-serving liars.

These worthless, Politically Correct dregs prowl about searching out an enemy to ride against; not a true enemy, of course - they would not want to go into a Nazi pub and take on some real trouble - but harmless human beings minding their own business, these are their ideal victims. Then they cry ‘racism!’ and praise be! - for then they become Sir Galahads, riding valiantly against evil, their faces flushed with the joy of dragon-slaying, screaming ‘racist!’ for all they’re worth.

It seems, rather, that these Stasi busybodies are the true evil-doers, that in any age they would ally themselves with oppression and tyranny, and they would call it virtue. As long as they can feel the flush of self-righteousness, these purulent vermin will follow any flag. They are the sciaurati, the wretches, of Dante’s vestibule of Hell (Inferno, III):

E io, che riguardai, vidi una ‘nsegna 

 che girando correva tanto ratta, 

 che d’ogne posa mi parea indegna; 

   e dietro le venìa sì lunga tratta 

 di gente, ch’i’ non averei creduto 

 che morte tanta n’avesse disfatta. 

[...]   

   Incontanente intesi e certo fui 

 che questa era la setta d’i cattivi, 

 a Dio spiacenti e a’ nemici sui. 

 

-

And I, who was gazing, saw a banner that whirling ran so swiftly that it seemed to me to scorn all repose, and behind it came so long a train of people, that I could never have believed death had undone so many [...] At once I understood and was certain that this was the sect of the villains hateful to God and to His enemies.

-

These sciaurati are beneath the contempt of both God and the Devil. In life they lacked the courage to take a stand either for good or evil, following the banner - any banner, it doesn’t matter which - as base, servile cowards. They are those che visser sanza ‘nfamia e sanza lodo, who lived without praise and without blame, who hide behind the banner of Communism or Nazism or Political Correctness; they are the damned unworthy even of a place in Hell, and so go forever chasing a banner about the entrance. And they are numberless - I could never have believed death would undo so many - because it is the easiest sin of all, to line up behind the other Politically Correct or Nazi or Stasi fools, and repeat after Foucault “it is a construct! baa baa baa!” and “patriarchy! patriarchy! patriarchy!”, and of course “racist! racist! racist! baa! baa! baaaaaaaaa!”

In death they are bitten by wasps, their faces streaked with blood as they pursue their banner. But in life - ah, here they are the shining knights wielding their banner of Political Correctness. Political Correctness is one of those bad ideas which, if one were naive enough, one could theoretically credit with some sense; it’s just that in practice it appeals solely to the self-important, the arrogant and the humourless, those who wish to persecute others in the name of an ideal (any ideal; any banner). They must energetically seek out PC crimes, and if they cannot find any, why, then they will invent them; for such people must have victims, or how can they bask in their self-righteousness?