Parrhesia[1] and Political Correctness
Aurelio Porfiri
Sometimes the gift of parrhesia does not resemble a real gift. Indeed speaking plainly, honestly and without hypocrisy is something many people do not appreciate. Not in China at least, where the keywords are “control and stability,” but also not even in Italy. This is why I have come to admire all those people who speak their minds against what is considered politically correct. Jesus was not PC, and this is why he had so many troubles. He had spoken against the mentality of the world. And in a democratic election he lost to Barabbas. He was the Son of God, but democracy follows other rules. I am quite sick of these PC words, like democracy, majority, people…all words used to manipulate the weak brains of the masses. I mean, these may be noble words, if just used properly…
Why weak brains? Weak because made stupid by the entertainment industry, firmly in the hands of leftists. Andrew Breitbart, in his book Righteous Indignation said it well:
“The left does not win its battles in debate. It doesn’t have to. In the twenty-first century, media is everything. The left wins because it controls the narrative. The narrative is controlled by the media. The left is the media. Narrative is everything.”
Yes, narrative really is everything. If you control the narrative you control also the mind of the people, the passive people. Ben Shapiro in Primetime Propaganda has said:
“The overwhelming leftism of American television was too universal to be merely coincidence. It had to be the product of a concerted effort, a system designed to function as an ideological strainer through which conservatism simply could not pass. And the more I investigated, the more I saw that Hollywood was just that: a carefully constructed mechanism designed by television’s honchos to blow a hole in the dike of American culture. Television’s best and brightest wanted to set America sliding down the slippery slope away from its Judeo-Christian heritage and toward a more cultivated, refined, Europeanized sensibility.”
I am not sure I understand well, as European, what he is implying with this “Europeanized sensibility”, but I agree with this quotation for the most part. And also when he writes: “If Jesus had appeared today, he would have had it much better”—as Andrew Lloyd Webber put it in Jesus Christ, Superstar, “If you’d come today you would have reached a whole nation—Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication.” That is, as long as Jesus didn’t have to go up against American Idol in primetime. In that case, Jesus would have been canceled by ex-NBC president Jeff Zucker within three weeks.” Because Jesus, of this I am sure, would not be politically correct.
Jesus was for authentic tradition against certain uses of his times. In Matthew (5, 17-39) we read:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.’ But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
“Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”
Here Jesus is not PC but he is not denying tradition but he offer a new hermeneutic of tradition and he must, because he was the Son of God.
This is why those that use parrhesia live always at the margins of society, ejected from these political, religious and cultural systems. We live in the kingdom of PC, and those that want to sing outside the choir sound completely out of tune. As a choir director myself, I should be disturbed by this, but in this case I must say it is certainly a blessing.
Aurelio Porfiri,
[1] Defined by Merriam Webster as speaking candidly.