There was a time when democracies had majorities. Whoever governed, the two-party system took care of everything, sometimes on the right, sometimes on the left. Minority political forces scraped what they could, but were rarely decisive in larger national or foreign decisions. But that is no longer the case, far from it. The minorities have become so strong that they practically dictate the policy of the increasingly fragile majorities that still barely hold power.
Political correctness arising from hyperactive protest movements, especially in American universities, is now the one who decides what we can or cannot say; and when, where and how. The class struggle has given way to a bloody cultural war, especially in everything related to gender or nationalist aspirations, and woe betide anyone who opposes their inflexible and insatiable demands.
Even the prestigious French literary prize Goncourt has fallen into the trap of letting sensitivity readers review books before they are published. Sensitivity readers are, more or less, sensitivity readers, that is, sensitive people, people with very thin skin, although, yes, they always have censor scissors at hand. One of the finalist novels selected by the Goncourt Prize jury is by Kevin Lambert, a Quebecer delighted that his work has previously undergone a sensitive review, a practice that is widespread in the United States but viewed with suspicion in France.
The main task of these censors is to start reading, before publication, manuscripts received by publishers, in search of what could be considered possible - possible! - offenses against minorities, whether racial, sexual or, for that matter, religious, as long as these are not against Christianity. And by doing so they provide the author with a priceless service, since, if they do not pay attention to the sensitivity reader, they could very easily find themselves the target of vicious attacks from those who feel offended or outraged, as has been the case. by JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter saga, who has been harshly persecuted for tweets that some considered “transphobic.”
South African Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee published Against Censorship years ago. Essays on the passion to silence (Debolsillo, 2007), which continues to shed light on this new wave of paralyzing censorship. Already in the preface he says: "The punitive gesture of censure has its origin in the reaction of being offended. The strength of being offended, as a state of mind, lies in not doubting oneself; its weakness lies in not being able to allow oneself to doubt oneself. ".
If we take into account that these accurate reflections date back to 1996, when they were published in English, that is, before the tsunami of social networks, the woke movement, sensitivity readers and others, we would do well, in view of what is falling, to retrace his judicious steps.
Another pearl from Coetzee, which fits perfectly with the insane Spanish political circus, says: “The fact of being offended is not exclusive to those who find themselves in situations of subordination or weakness. However, the experience or premonition of being disempowered seems to me intrinsic to all cases of someone being offended. (It is tempting to suggest that the logic of name-calling, when used as a tactic of the weak against the strong, is that if the strong can be made to take offence, they will thereby put themselves, at least momentarily, in trouble. skin equality of the weak)”.
But it is not necessary for Coetzee to warn us that the greatest success of censorship is the imposition of self-censorship, which apparently is what sensitivity readers and their bosses intend.
