The Economic Nationalist

A familiar propagandum of Cultural Marxism makes English a “living language.” It is a pleasant image. What the Cultural Marxist actually means by “living language” however is more or less the following: the language is one in which you and I must allow him to redefine clear, familiar, straightforward, serviceable words like marriage, family, welfare and he when he pleases, with the object of frustrating you and me from speaking sensibly of the things the words name. Too often, he gets away with this. English is our cradle language, after all; we would not want it “dead,” would we? By such a shabby trick are we robbed of our words.

Impressively, the “living language” trick is recursive; for, while we weren’t looking, the Cultural Marxist has slyly redefined even the participle “living.”

Well, here at The Economic Nationalist, we are having none of it. Today we mean to reclaim one great old English word from undeserved dishonor. That word is prejudice.

Webster, 1913, defines the word as it stood before the Cultural Marxist first thought to monkey with it:

Prejudice: an opinion or judgment formed without due examination; prejudgment; a leaning toward one side of a question from other considerations than those belonging to it….

Now hear the wise 18th-century words of Edmund Burke:

To avoid therefore the evils of inconstancy and versatility, ten thousand times worse than those of obstinacy and the blindest prejudice, we have consecrated the state, that no man should approach to look into its defects or corruptions but with due caution; that he should never dream of beginning its reformation by its subversion; that he should approach to the faults of the state as to the wounds of a father, with pious awe, and trembling solicitude. By this wise prejudice we are taught to look with horror on those children of their country, who are prompt rashly to hack that aged parent in pieces, and put him into the kettle of magicians, in hopes that by their poisonous weeds, and wild incantations, they may regenerate the paternal constitution, and renovate their father’s life….

You see, sir, that in this enlightened age I am bold enough to confess, that we are generally men of untaught feelings; that instead of casting away all our old prejudices, we cherish them to a very considerable degree, and, to take more shame to ourselves, we cherish them because they are prejudices; and the longer they have lasted, and the more generally they have prevailed, the more we cherish them. We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason; because we suspect that the stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and of ages. Many of our men of speculation, instead of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them. If they find what they seek, and they seldom fail, they think it more wise to continue the prejudice, with the reason involved, than to cast away the coat of prejudice, and to leave nothing but the naked reason; because prejudice, with its reason, has a motive to give action to that reason, and an affection which will give it permanence. Prejudice is of ready application to the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, sceptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice renders a man’s virtue his habit; and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.

After such lessons, what excuse have we to denigrate the great moral principle of prejudice? Concepts like “senseless cruelty to innocent blacks” speak for themselves, without misappropriating words that mean something else entirely. Today we are pleased carry Mr. Burke’s good word prejudice back into the light.

HJH

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Language. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.