Thursday, October 13, 2016

If impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature . . .

It is immensely annoying to experience the in-roads critical theory has made into some of our more valued institutions with efforts to shut down the free exchange of ideas, fight "cultural appropriation," and the emphasis from SJWs on identity such that no one can write about anyone else from a different race (or, presumably, religion, class, region, gender, etc., though they rarely play out the logic of their Reform Marxist theories). They are simply dogmatic bigots and they ruin everything they touch. Universities are falling into disrepute, the entertainment industry stagnates, book publishing languishes. Now even the NFL is touched by the infection and is beginning to see declines in their viewership as people refuse to have totalitarians dictate what they should view.

But there is nothing new under the sun. What we are experiencing now from the dogmatic bigots is nothing compared to earlier forms. What is different is that most normal people are cowed from responding. We need to reawaken the dextrous dismissal as illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien. In 1937, after the publication of The Hobbit, Tolkien's British publishers were approached by a German publisher seeking to publish a German edition. The German publisher, in compliance with the bigoted laws of their country, sought to validate the Aryan purity of Tolkien's lineage. Such is the world of the SJW dogmatic bigots.

Tolkien would have none of that. His polite and pointed response:
25 July 1938
20 Northmoor Road, Oxford

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject — which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.

I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and

remain yours faithfully,

J. R. R. Tolkien
Oh so British - "I trust you will find this reply satisfactory".

Gamergate, Hugo Awards in Science Fiction, PC Movies, Book Publishing based on identity, Safe spaces, Disinvitation of speakers, abandonment of due process, and speech suppression at universities: all infected by the dogmatic and totalitarian bigotry of the Social Justice Warriors and other philosophies deriving from Reform Marxism. It is outrageous that people do not reject the cult of hatred and ironic that they accept it as a simulacrum of tolerance when it is the reverse.

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