"Monsieur l'abbé, I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write."
—Voltaire
It's a hideous historical irony that sizeable pockets of "millennials" are, along with Muslims and the media, the locus of totalitarianism in the modern world. University students in particular, even more than their state-worshipping tutors, are at the forefront of the war on free speech. Millennia ago when I was at university it wasn't this way at all. Universities the world over took very seriously their role of exemplars of untrammeled debate where every school of thought could freely contend. At the one I attended, Victoria in Wellington, every Wednesday lunchtime there was an event called The Forum in the Student Union Building common room, where hundreds of idealistic youngsters would gather for a debate-fest, an intellectual free-for-all in which no opinion and no topic was taboo. Those who didn't take part directly were free to jeer and cheer the speakers as the spirit moved them. As intense as the fiery clashes of opinion that occurred on matters of real substance, was a commitment to the underlying premise that free speech mattered, that the contest of ideas was urgently important. Separate from my own participation in the Forum (as a Marxist who believed Russia and China had got it wrong and were practising "state capitalism"!!) I helped organise debates on campus on matters of the moment—for example, an altercation on apartheid between Matt Rata, MP, and an elegant fellow named Mitchell who, next to the South African Consul-General, was the most public apologist for apartheid at the time in New Zealand. Nowadays, of course, that simply couldn't happen. Racists would not be allowed to purvey their views on campus. Worse, non-racists would be deemed by the reigning PC Thought Police to be racist and wouldn't be allowed to purvey their views on campus either. What would mark them out as racist according to the Thought Police? Why, their choice of words, of course. Words such as "black" and "white" might seem innocent on the surface, but their use is a ruse designed to camouflage a White Supremacist agenda. You doubt that? Then you too are a shill for that agenda. In such a climate, of course, all discussion is shut down—the exact intent of the PC Thought Police (PCTP henceforth).
The University of New Hampshire—the state whose official motto, in another hideous irony, is "Live Free or Die"—has a "Bias-Free Language Guide" on its website, which "is meant to invite inclusive excellence in [the] campus community." According to this "Guide"—read, "List of Prohibited Terms"—it's "problematic" to describe anyone or anything as "American" because the term excludes Canadians and South and Central Americans as inhabitants of the American continent. "Resident of the United States" is acceptable. "Homosexual" is out, "same gender lovers" is in; "foreigners" is offensive, "international people" passes muster; "illegal aliens" is definitely offensive, "undocumented immigrants" is borderline, "people seeking asylum" is better; "handicapped" is of course imprisonable, but "physically challenged" doesn't measure up either—it has to be "wheelchair-mobile"; "healthy" is not allowed—"non-disabled" will do; failure to provide bathroom facilities for sundry categories of "gender-neutral" people who are neither male nor female nor transexual is "cissexism," etc. Gender-specific pronouns such as "he" and "she" are strictly verboten and even "they" and "their" are out; instead one must use a new possessive pronoun, "hir" (pron: "here"), as in "hir eyes gleam," so that the listener is given no clue as to the gender or lack of it of the party or parties whose eyes gleam.
The "Guide" gives advice as to how to avoid committing "micro-aggressions"—inadvertent lapses into some forbidden "ism" or other. At the University of California where a similar code is being put in place, to say things like "the most qualified person should get the job,""America is the land of opportunity,""America is a melting pot," or, "There's only one race—the human race," is being touted as a "micro-aggression"—deserving, no doubt, of a spell in a PCTP Sensitivity Training Camp.
I don't mean to lay all the blame for this unmitigated excrement at the door of millennials—I'm directly aware that it started decades ago. As co-presenter of National Radio's Morning Report, in the early eighties, I was asked by Beverly Wakem, then-Director General of Radio New Zealand, now Dame Beverly Wakem—a new broom sweeping filthy with all manner of PC crapola imported from America (ooops!)—to sit on a committee set up to address the problem of sexist language on our airwaves. I declined, on the grounds that no such problem existed. The project went ahead without me, and the upshot was a risible list of forbidden terms and what we were to replace them with: "All the king's men," for instance had to be "all the monarch's support-persons" (I'm not kidding—this was on the list), "manhole" had to be "person-hole" and so on. To repeat, I'm not blaming millennials alone for this, but I am dismayed by the fact that, consistent with their status as the most militantly, sullenly, inarticulately shallow, conscientiously anti-idealistic and empty-headed generation ever, they acquiesce to it so mindlessly. Thanks to them and the Marxist mentors over whom they so slavishly fawn, universities, instead of being bastions of free speech, are fortresses of tyranny.
I indict millennials—yes, with exceptions who prove the rule—as a major component of the forces arrayed against reason and freedom, which forces I habitually generically designate as The Filth. These nasty little Nazis are the contemporary equivalent of Hitler Youth, slightly older but every bit as vicious. In the name of "diversity" they impose the most stifling conformity; in the name of "tolerance" they stamp out dissent from their orthodoxy with all the fascistic fervour of their precursors. Not for them "I disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it"; rather, "I disagree with what you say and will do whatever it takes to stop you saying it." Tellingly, these creatures are themselves proudly incapable of human speech; frenetic, unintelligible, adenoidal quacking and gabbling is their specialty—and woe betide anyone who points it out.
As a two-fingered gesture at them and the rest of The Filth, I conclude with this spoof of the PCTP (authorship unknown, slightly tweaked by me) that arrived in my Inbox this morning. As Brahms might say, if there's anyone not offended by it, I apologise:
The Story of Admiral Nelson, Updated
Nelson: Order the signal, Hardy.
Hardy: Aye, aye, Sir.
Nelson: Hold on, this isn't what I dictated to Flags. What's the meaning of this?
Hardy: Sorry Sir?
Nelson (reading aloud): "England expects every person to do his or her duty regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religious persuasion or disability"? What gobbledygook is this, for God's sake?
Hardy: Admiralty policy I'm afraid, Sir. We're an Equal Opportunity Employer now. We had the devil's own job getting 'England' past the censors lest it be considered racist. Strictly speaking, I shouldn't be calling you "Sir," Sir, but rather, "Person of Consensus-Based Enhanced Authority."
Nelson: Gadzooks, Hardy! Hand me my pipe and tobacco.
Hardy: Sorry Sir, all naval vessels have now been designated smoke-free working environments.
Nelson: In that case, break open the rum ration. Let us splice the mainbrace to steel the men before battle.
Hardy: The rum ration has been abolished Admiral. It's part of the Government's policy against excessive enjoyment.
Nelson: Good heavens Hardy! I suppose we'd better get on with it, then. Full speed ahead.
Hardy: I think you'll find that there's a 4 knot speed limit in this stretch of water.
Nelson: Damn it man, we are on the eve of the greatest sea battle in history; we must advance with all dispatch. Report from the crow's nest, please.
Hardy: That won't be possible Sir. Health and Safety have closed the crow's nest. No harness, and they said that rope ladders don't meet regulations. They won't let anyone up there until proper scaffolding can be erected.
Nelson: Then get me the ship's carpenter without delay, Hardy.
Hardy: He's busy knocking up a wheelchair access to the foredeck, Admiral. Health and Safety again, Sir—we have to provide a barrier-free environment for the differently-abled, wheelchair-mobile.
Nelson: Differently abled? I've only one arm and one eye and I refuse even to hear mention of the words. I didn't rise to the rank of Admiral by playing the disability card.
Hardy: Actually, Sir, you did. The Royal Navy is under-represented in the areas of the differently-sighted and the differently-limbed.
Nelson: Whatever next?! Give me full sail. The salt spray beckons.
Hardy: A couple of problems there too, Sir. Health and Safety won't let the crew up the rigging without hard hats. They don't want anyone breathing in too much salt either. Apart from the racism inherent in its whiteness, it's full of sodium. Haven't you seen the Ministry of Health adverts?
Nelson: I've never heard such rubbish. Well, break out the cannon and tell the men to stand by to engage the enemy.
Hardy: The men are a bit worried about shooting at anyone, Admiral.
Nelson: What?! This is mutiny!
Hardy: It's not that, Sir, it's just that they're afraid of being charged with murder if they actually kill anyone. There are a couple of Legal Aid lawyers on board, watching everyone like hawks.
Nelson: Then how are we to sink the Frogs and the Spanish?
Hardy: That's "residents of France and Spain," Sir. And actually Sir, we're not.
Nelson: We're not?!
Hardy: No Sir, the residents of France and Spain are our European partners now. According to the Common Fisheries Policy, we shouldn't even be in this stretch of water. We could get hit with a claim for compensation.
Nelson: But you must hate a Frenchman as you hate the devil.
Hardy: I wouldn't let the ship's Diversity Coordinator hear you saying that, Sir—you'll be up on Disciplinary Report for Hate Speech.
Nelson: You must consider every man an enemy who speaks ill of your King. That's a matter of black and white.
Hardy: That's "monarch-person," Sir. And your point is controversial and problematic, Sir. Apart from "black and white" being offensive to people of colour, we must be inclusive in this multicultural age. Now, put on your Kevlar vest. It's the rule. It could save your life.
Nelson: Don't tell me, Health, Safety and Disability. Whatever happened to Rum, Sodomy and the Lash?!
Hardy: As I explained sir, rum is off the menu and there's a ban on corporal punishment.
Nelson: What about sodomy?
Hardy: Good news there, Sir—sodomy is now compulsory.
Nelson: In that case ... kiss me, Hardy.