Political Correctness: A Response from the Cultural Left
by Richard Feldstein
Category: Political Science

If our so-called culture war seems all on the side of the right, there's no reason. It is all in their heads. From the beleaguered - some would say baffled - silence on the left, this book at long last emerges with a devastating diagnosis of the "debate" over political correctness. Written with refreshing clarity and wit, "Political correctness" describes a cultural non-phenomenon brought into being by the desires of new-conservatives. Nostalgic for the simple moral logic of the Cold War, the conservative right has created an evil empire within and conferred upon its enemies - from multiculturalists to postmodernists and poststructuralists - an agenda that demands action from the high-minded. What clearly marks this as a projection, Richard Feldstein points out, is the moralism attributed to the forces of political correctness by their conservative critics. And where, in fact, do we find the obsessive fixation on judgement, morality, and correct and appropriate behaviour, that might make political correctness so reprehensible? It is, Feldstein argues, a central feature of right-wing thinking, projected onto those who reject such black-and-white, good-and-bad views as naive. "Political correctness" defines this procedure in comparison with the process of psychological projection, in which consciousness transfer onto others what it cannot tolerate. In the case of cultural projection, Feldstein says, the transference is often intentional. This book is not just an essential tool to understanding the way the right deploys this powerful weapon; it is a guide to resisting the cynical use of these tactics in our media-saturated society, one that acknowledges the complexity of life in our multicultural, postmodern world.