Titley, Gavan (2008) Backlash! Just in Case: ‘Political Correctness’, Immigration and the Rise of Preactionary Discourse in Irish Public Debate. Irish Review, 38. pp. 94-110. ISSN 0790-7850

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Abstract

In the shadow of the gulag Someone had to speak out. On September 27th and 28th 2006, the Irish Times prominently advertised the publication of an article by William Reville on the 28th entitled 'How the culture of political correctness is damaging academic freedom'. After an undisclosed period of no doubt admirable restraint, Reville was motivated - through personal academic embarrassment and in defence of science - to take a stand against the intolerant orthodoxies and illiberal rigidities that have calcified universities everywhere. Political correctness, or PC as he terms it, is an 'intolerant and deeply dodgy' ideology characterised by 'very tolerant attitudes on issues such as gender, race, sexuality and the environment', and based on an 'ethical theory' of relativism. Relativism, he explains, holds that there is no such thing as superior knowledge or 'higher standards in human choices', thus ' ... if a pre-modern jungle tribe believes that the moon is a luminous lantern suspended by the gods above the tree-tops, relativism proposes that this knowledge is just as valid as the scientific understanding that the moon is a satellite of the earth that revolves around our planet'.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Backlash; Political Correctness; Immigration; Preactionary Discourse; Irish Public Debate;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Arts,Celtic Studies and Philosophy > School of English, Media & Theatre Studies
Item ID:	4634
Depositing User:	Gavan Titley
Date Deposited:	04 Dec 2013 15:49
Journal or Publication Title:	Irish Review
Publisher:	Cork University Press
Refereed:	Yes
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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