By RENATO ORTIZ*

Political correctness suffers from the temptation of Good and a certain optical illusion, it aspires to a world in which the shadow of objects is projected onto its own essence.

On one of his imaginary journeys, Gulliver visits the Academy of Lagado, where several experiments were carried out to find complete happiness. The wise men, convinced of their certainties, had abolished language. Tired of the misunderstandings that words contain – they merely disguised reality –, they decided to communicate through the objects to which they referred. They walked around with bags and carts full of things and, when questioned, they would show them to say exactly what they wanted to express. However, linguists say, even if it were possible to gather a significant number of whales in one place, it would be impossible to say “all whales”. The meaning of “all” transcends the empirical materiality of what it denotes. There is a long history of the daydream of the perfect language, the language of Paradise (Umberto Eco dedicated himself to deciphering it); its celestial structure would be capable of capturing the world with accuracy and precision, and between words and things there would be no gap of inaccuracy. For each object or idea there would be a single term to name them; thus, any ambiguity of meaning would be eliminated.

However, language is a representation; it is not limited to the message it conveys. Political correctness believes that the terms of a language contain the essence of what it refers to; between words and the world there is a harmonious and integral conjunction. Thus, to say something wrong is to be mistaken in relation to the essence; correction is necessary to adjust the assumed deviation between language and reality. “Cancellation” arises from this intention: to isolate the true from the false.

There is nothing new in this; there are several examples of the disciplinarization of language; such as the French Revolution. The revolutionaries sought to eradicate all traces of the Christian tradition from French life; the reform of the Gregorian calendar had precisely this objective. The twelve months of the year were renamed (Brumaire, the month of mists; Nivoso, of snow; Pluvioso, of rains; Florial, of flowers; etc.), the days of the week were redefined (primidi, duodi, tridi, quartidi, etc.) and would no longer be dedicated to the names of saints (they were replaced by elements of the earth: saffron, grape, chestnut, etc.). Some words were also banned from everyday vocabulary, “sir” and “madam” being replaced by “citizen”, a manifestation of the spirit of equality between people. However, the “linguistic terror” (as it was called at the time) had a greater scope; the emergence of the republican nation-state required the manifestation of the uniqueness of the language; The various dialects that existed in the country were therefore censored and persecuted, and everyone had to speak a single language: French. The nation's totality was affirmed in order to counter the diversity that threatened it; as in the myth of Babel, diversity was a curse. In the case of political correctness, there is something ironic: the ideal of diversity requires control of language, but diversity is the foundation of the desired homogeneity.

Jakobson said that a language is defined by what it can say, not by what it allows or should say, which is why no language is superior or inferior to others (much has been written about the superiority of English, which is capable of expressing things that other languages ​​are unaware of). In fact, languages ​​represent the world in their own way, each of them containing a truth on which the language is based. However, every language is realized in context (this is the difference between language and tongue); in it, the meaning of words is transformed and unsaid. The intonation of the voice, indicating softness or harshness, irony, and the facial expression of the speaker are elements that modify the expressed meaning of what is said. The context is the situation in which the words (a sentence is said to have been taken out of context) or the individuals find themselves. Language, as a structure, does not immediately guarantee the intelligibility of speech (or writing); it is necessary for it to be inserted into a certain network of social interaction. The same thing said in different places, with different intonation, has a different meaning. To imagine the existence of a manual for the correct use of words, reducing them to a militant determinism, is a chimera. Context is history and history is a collective destiny, not the monopoly of defining good intentions. The richness of a language is expressed in the multiplicity of meanings it allows to express, be it tenderness or hatred, frustration or sadness, domination or freedom.

I have always been intrigued by Botero's work, with its fat men and women. I didn't understand his aesthetic intuition until I visited the museum in Medellin. There are several sculptures there, fat women, fat priests, fat cats, fat bourgeois, tables and chairs with rounded edges, round vases, etc. It is clear that he is interested in curves, the volume of things, in short, that which is spherical and round. Botero's universe is without edges, everything is synthetically integrated in the sinuosity of forms. Faced with the hardships of reality, contradictions, and bitterness, the artist imagines a configuration of elements that ideally contrasts with its harshness. However, like all artists, he knows that his fiction is distinct from what surrounds him; reality is the starting point for his imagination. Political correctness suffers from the temptation of Good and a certain optical illusion; it aspires to a world in which the shadow of objects is projected over its own essence. This eliminates the gap between truth and doubt, being and existing.

* Renato Ortiz He is a professor at the Department of Sociology at Unicamp. Author, among other books, of The universe of luxury (Mall). [https://amzn.to/3XopStv]

Originally published on BVPS blog.

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