Sowing The Wind: The New ‘Newspeak’

Authored by Lani Kass via RealClear Wire,

The presidential election is eight months away. Yet the campaign to preclude a second Trump administration is already in high gear. In the course of two weeks, the public was given a preview of the undemocratic, uncouth, racist dystopia MAGA America is doomed to become. Against the backdrop of the most virulent antisemitism sweeping the U.S. in the wake of Hamas’ savagery, the media has chosen to pillory “white nationalism” as the clear and present danger.

First, a new tome, “White Rural Rage,” is hailed by the New York Times as “an important book that ought to be read by anyone who wants to understand politics in the perilous Age of Trump.”

Next, Politico’s Heidi Przybyla proclaims that people who believe human rights come from God are “Christian Nationalists.” She triggers an uproar. Yet she doubles down in an even more incendiary piece: “Christian Nationalism is a political movement. … The thing that unites them … is that they believe our rights as Americans and as all human beings do not come from any earthy [sic] authority. They don’t come from Congress, from the Supreme Court, they come from God.”

Evidently, people who have read America’s founding document – the Constitution – are a mortal threat to our very survival.

Then, on March 3, CBS’s “60 Minutes” broadcasts a segment about “Moms for Liberty” waging a “campaign to ban books on race and gender from school libraries.” Could “Fahrenheit 451” be far behind?

We are witnessing what Hannah Arendt calls “the atomization of society.” It is a well-tested tactic: Shatter every natural connection in society; twist the language; isolate people from each other. The individual is all alone – an atom. No family, no community, no solace.

Totalitarianism of all stripes finds fertile ground in frightened, isolated individuals. 

Technology accelerates this “atomization.” We relate to each other in “virtual reality.” Our “friends” are on Facebook.

Truth itself is erased, because the Internet offers “facts” to fit any narrative. We have access to unprecedented amounts of information; yet our knowledge and intellectual discourse are beggared. The free market of ideas gives way to mutually reinforcing opinions, shared in closed echo chambers.

To disorient the “atomized” individual still further, “Political Correctness” takes hold. Things which were acceptable yesterday will get you a reprimand today. You’ll be censored online. You learn to obfuscate, because you need your job; you don’t want to be “canceled”; and, most of all, you dread being labeled “racist.” You self-censor – just like in the U.S.S.R.

Soon, a new language takes hold. Not only our pets can be “groomed”; so can our children. We ask about “preferred pronouns.” We learn new words: “cisgender,” “woke,” and “micro-aggression.”

We’re taught that “the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.” And thus, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

The term “Newspeak” originated in George Orwell’s novel “1984.” “Newspeak” is a controlled language, designed to limit critical thinking.

In Orwell’s dystopia, “The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies. … These contradictions are not accidental; they are deliberate exercises in doublethink.”

In today’s Department of Defense:

Diversity management calls for creating a culture of inclusion in which the diversity … shapes how the work is done. … Although good diversity management rests on a foundation of fair treatment, it is not about treating everyone the same. This can be a difficult concept to grasp, especially for leaders who grew up with the EO-inspired mandate to be both color and gender blind. Blindness to difference, however, can lead to a culture of assimilation in which differences are suppressed rather than leveraged. Cultural assimilation, a key to military effectiveness in the past, will be challenged as inclusion becomes, and needs to become, the norm.

The statement is from the 2011 report of the commission on “Military Leadership Diversity.”

Orwell would be proud.

The report – and the implementing law – are breathtaking in scope and implications. MLDC calls for a fundamental “transformation” of our military – making racial and gender representation a “top defense priority.” This effort continues with a new Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion.

We know that accentuating what is different among us fosters division and erodes cohesion. Yet we’re told that it’s “diversity” – of gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation – that makes our nation prosperous and our military strong.

We try to reconcile this with our motto, “E pluribus unum.” But we can’t reconcile the irreconcilable. This inevitably leads to cognitive dissonance – disorienting, disconcerting, and further “atomizing.”

A new Utopia emerges, wherein there are 57+ genders and men can give birth.

We know that is inconceivable, but it’s all around us – and suddenly we can’t talk to our children anymore. They think we are racist, sexist, transphobic bigots. We feel like aliens – from outer space, not from across the Southern border. “Up is down, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” We are atoms, untethered, disoriented, disconnected.

“And, thus, they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind.”

Dr. Lani Kass served in the Department of Defense for 30 years. These views are her own.