To understand this unnatural liberal doublethink, one needs to realise how the left has used certain words loaded certain words with connotations through their version of History
Girish P
The other day a self-confessed liberal friend informed me that she was ‘depressed’ at the prospect of war after the Pulwama terror attack. She is a very nice person but I can’t remember her being depressed about the loss of CRPF lives. Apparently, terrorism is not as depressing as the ‘prospect of War’.
I have observed this phenomenon among many liberals. They go ballistic to certain terms like ‘War’. Some of the other trigger words being – ‘Racism’, ‘Fascism’, ‘Misogyny’ ‘Patriarchy’ and even ‘Peace’. Now, let me be clear – No sane person would wish for war, or Racism for the matter. But for the ‘idea of war’ (never Terrorism) to induce depression/nervous breakdown is a bit of an overkill. To understand this unnatural, liberal doublethink, one needs to realise how the left has used certain words or loaded certain words with connotations through their own version of History. These words, thus loaded with effects, have been instruments in their hands for triggering emotions like depression, revulsion, fear and guilt among their political constituency.
Many of these words are borrowed from 20th Century European historical experiences. ‘Peace’ and ‘War’ are two such terms which have roots in the US-USSR nuclear confrontation in Europe and the Left inspired agitation-propaganda ( Agit-Prop) across West. During that era, ‘Peace’ became a political slogan of the Left in its proclaimed objective to remove tactical Nuclear weapons which protected Western Europe. ‘War’ as per the Left narrative became synonymous with the preparation of the West to defend itself – just as for the modern ‘Left Liberal’ Indian counter-strike is ‘war mongering’ yet terrorism which prompted it is not. Many gullible liberals were/are thus co-opted by the communists in their propaganda ploy. Joseph Stalin called them ‘useful idiots’. During those years I remember Marxist ClTU members at Trivandrum shouting slogans against America’s ‘Star Wars’ missile protection shield in the name of ‘World Peace’.
Through their repeated and global use spanning across decades, words like ‘Peace’ and ‘War’ acquired new grotesque forms capable of triggering irrational reactions. Mussolini’s ‘Fascism’ and Euro-American ‘Racism’ were similarly loaded and mapped on to the Indian political landscape. It is interesting that the word ‘Racism’ is used by Left-Liberals both in India and Europe to describe the opposition to Islamism–which by definition is a religious issue and not a racial one. The revulsion associated with these terms has been internalised by long years of Communist indoctrination in academic circles so much so that genuine liberals like my friend tremble at the prospect of being labelled a ‘fascist’ or ‘warmonger’. This Communist psychological conditioning has been so systematic that it actually makes Liberals act strangely and even fall physically ill at the mere mention of terms like ‘War’ – even as an act meant to defend their own people.
All this reminds me of a 70’s Charles Bronson movie ‘Telefon’. The movie was about deep cover Soviet
sleeper agents leading perfectly ordinary lives in America. Suddenly they would be called up by their Communist handlers and triggered by certain pre-programmed words to carry out zombie-like irrational acts of sabotage and self-destruction.Even today, Left-liberal reality can be as crazy as a B-Grade Hollywood flick.
