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McCarthyism
by Glenn Woiceshyn
[The letter below was read (on Oct/11/97) on a popular 3-hour Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (CBC) radio program called *Definitely Not the Opera* (DNTO) in response
to a piece on McCarthyism (Oct/04/97) from a leftist perspective. I got the idea
for the letter from recently listening to a tape from Dr. Peikoff's radio show--Philosophy
Who Needs It--the one on "Dirty Words."]
Dear Nora,
I caught your DNTO discussion on "McCarthyism" and decided to try and engage
you in the art of philosophical investigation.
"McCarthyism" is one of several booby-trap terms--or conceptual landmines--and
the (philosophical) investigator's job is to spot them and get them de-activated
before they "explode" in people's brains.
Unfortunately, the term "McCarthyism" is over 50 years old and has already
done a lot of damage. But still--better late than never.
The booby-trap works by coining a term with a meaning that combines two very different
ideas--two ideas that don't belong together. The two ideas blend together in the
victim's mind to become something quite destructive.
"McCarthyism" puts together "unjust persecution" and "anti-communism."
The "unjust persecution" part is the alleged meaning, but "anti-communism"
is the intended meaning.
Notice that there isn't a special term for "unjust persecution by pro-communists,"
even though a lot of that took place.
What I'm trying to say is that there is no intelligent basis for coining such a word
as "McCarthyism." Unjust persecution is bad regardless of who does it.
But there is a devilish ideological reason--a diabolical motive--for creating a booby-trap
term such as "McCarthyism". What happens in people's minds is that anti-communism
becomes associated with something bad--something evil. Imagine that!
So whenever an anti-communist criticizes a person for being pro-communist--bang--before
you can say "Rex Murphy," the anti-communist gets smeared as a "McCarthyite."
The pro-communist doesn't even have to come up with an argument defending communism--he
just yells "McCarthyism" and the argument is over.
That's what happened to many anti-communists since the 1940s--thus helping to promote
communism. Ingeniously wicked, don't you think?
Given that communism has been responsible for slaughtering tens of millions of people,
and also responsible for most of the real landmines in the world, one can't help
appreciating how dangerous and deadly a booby-trap such as "McCarthyism."
can be. Senator McCarthy was a Godsend for pro-communists. They couldn't have had
a better friend to promote their
fiendish ideology.
So, now that you know how a booby-trap term works, I'll leave you with a few other
booby-trap terms to practice philosophical investigation on--if you want to, that
is. You can try the following easy ones: "extremism," and "isolationism."
After that you might try the following: "consumerism," "simplistic,"
and "intolerance".
Yours Truly,
Glenn Woiceshyn
© 1997 Glenn Woiceshyn. All rights reserved.
This article can be found on-line at at http://www.capitalism.org/glennw. |
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