The destruction of traditional values and institutions in the name of freedom of pluralism is leading to the despotic rule of political correctness, guarded by liberal states, corporations and international organizations, a senior MEP for Poland’s governing party has claimed.
Professor Ryszard Legutko, a philosophy scholar and Law and Justice (PiS) MEP, told the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that mankind has a natural tendency for self-destruction because of its ability to change the world through technology, but these technological developments can be a force for good or ill.
It often leads man to hubris and pride, which, as the Greeks observed, always comes before a fall, he noted.
Legutko observed that hubris is dominant in today’s world with man feeling he can control the world, that he can experiment with gender, death, life, and family. The result is that man is becoming ridiculous in his fallibility. All systems of ethics always warn against hubris.
The professor believes that memory is crucial to overcome hubris, and the lack of memory leads to man’s downfall. Revolutions are a classic example of societies losing their memories and destroying their own experience and traditional institutions such as church, family and heritage.
“We had hoped that communism might teach people to have respect for the experience of history. It has not. We are now moving in the direction of another revolution targeted at ending the traditional family, the nation-state and religion,” warned Legutko. The present cultural revolutionaries remind us of the ancient Greek shoemaker Herostratus, who burned down the Temple of Artemis in an effort to become significant by destroying something of value.
He sees many such examples in modern society, people specializing in being offensive and blasphemous. They think they are special and on a mission to create a brave new world in which they will play God, but without memory and experience they fail to spot the long-term consequences of actions such as undermining parental control and family ties, he warned.
The paradox here is that the mania of liberation leads to slavery. The democratic liberal state is hyper-active and regulates everything; the way we behave, speak and even think. A repressive system is developing and those who do not conform are increasingly subject to punishment.
Corporations and international bodies such as the EU are actively engaged in assisting in the creation of the new despotism.
According to Legutko, the more they say we are diverse, the more uniform we become in our behavior and thinking. It is a global fraud that spells doom for mankind.
“There is some resistance and pushback toward freedom and learning from experience, but it is not enough. Conformism and political correctness are still on the march,” the senior Polish MEP added.
