20 December 2014

Victor Pelevin on political correctness and the case of prof Walter Lewin

Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought?


Victor Pelevin, one of the very few best and brightest in modern Russian literature (if not the best and brightest) has the following to say about the malady that consumes the Western civilization nowadays:
I think political correctness is justified when it allows you to preserve human dignity. When it becomes a fetish and a national cult, it is a bit ridiculous. Nobody wants linguistic He-or-shema, as in America, but in any society where different ethnicities live one next to the other, a certain minimum of politically correct clichés will not hurt. Americans are very pragmatic people. They introduced political correctness because it instantly creates a formal bridge across the emotionally charged quagmire. Call a black person a Negro and you immediately acquire a share of responsibility for the slave trade. Call him/her an African-American, and it will be easy to fire him/her. Political correctness creates clear rules, relying on which you can avoid ambiguity, although by itself political correctness is a very ambiguous thing. The essence of political correctness - a social contract in the shortest form. This is convenient because it saves time and effort...
Well, it saves also the necessity to think in many cases, but otherwise: spot on.

Update: this post and its headline updated due to the following news item :
MIT has removed the lectures of a retired faculty member from a popular online learning platform after determining that he had sexually harassed a woman on the Internet, the school’s News Office announced Monday.
I don't doubt that MIT's investigation of the case was thorough:
During the investigation, MIT also looked at additional interactions between Lewin and other online learners. According to the News Office, Lewin, 78, ended his teaching on campus in 2008 and last taught an online MITx course in 2013.
And the measure described below is totally justified, if the allegations checked out:
When the investigation of Lewin began, MIT said it instructed him not to contact any students or online learners, current or former.
However, the additional decision could have been only a rotten fruit of our PC age:
By indefinitely removing his online lectures, MIT hopes to prevent any further inappropriate behavior, the News Office said. The lectures were taken down from MITx and the broader education platform edX.
More in an excellent post by Scott Aaronson.

13 comments:

Sennacherib said...

Very interesting. I submitted a sample of Mr. Pelevin's work to my learned councilors who reported back to me that "He's a witch, burn him!"

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Very much recommended, that one. But after two or three of his books the councilors will vote to burn you too...

SnoopyTheGoon said...

And you are right at that.

Dick Stanley said...

Disgusting taking down the lectures, and without any explanation of the charges against the prof. Why should his science die with his supposed transgressions? Supposed because that's all they are without public disclosure. Witch hunting, indeed.


As for Aaronson's remark that MIT is private, they are still under the thumb of the federals, as is private SMU in Dallas: http://texasscribbler.com/2014/12/16/no-due-process-at-smu/

Dick Stanley said...

Care to recommend a novel of Pelevin's?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Absolutely disgusting. And my guess will be that it was under influence of two factors: overwhelming PC and a fear of possible legal suits in case of repeat offenses, although how could a lecturer forbidden to contact his students perpetrate such "on-line offense" isn't clear.

And I believe your remark is correct: private places like MIT bend over for the same federal oversight.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Answered off-line.

peterthehungarian said...

As a student in Australia defined it using a short and to the point sentence:
"Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of dogshit by the clean end.”

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Ach, that's a sweet one. I shall definitely use it later, with your permission, Peter, and thanks.

peterthehungarian said...

Granted. This is my Hanuka gift for you Snoopy...

SnoopyTheGoon said...

And happy Hanuka to you too!

Dick Stanley said...

His Omon Ra novel, which you suggested, looks good in the Amazon sample. A put-down, it seems, of the old Soviet space program. Others might be interested in it, too.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Enjoy! It is rather a put down of the whole fricking system, bu no spoilers ;-)