In the last part of George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the main character, Winston Smith, is arrested by the Thought Police and subjected to a long interrogation process by O’Brien, a member of the Inner Party. “There are three stages in your reintegration,” O’Brien tells Winston, “There is learning, there is understanding, and there is acceptance.”
During many abusive brainwashing sessions in the Ministry of Love prison, Winston “learns” to see four fingers as five, recognize that two plus two equals five, and develop the “luminous certainty” that every suggestion that O’Brien makes, no matter how incorrect, is “absolute truth.” O’Brien asserts that these processes are necessary to “cure” Winston so that he can have his consciousness transformed and become one with The Party. In O’Brien’s words:
[The Party is] not content with negative obedience, nor even with the most abject submission. When finally you surrender to us, it must be of your own free will. We do not destroy the heretic because he resists us: so long as he resists us we never destroy him. We convert him, we capture his inner mind, we reshape him. We burn all evil and all illusion out of him; we bring him over to our side, not in appearance, but genuinely, heart and soul. We make him one of ourselves before we kill him. It is intolerable to us that an erroneous thought should exist anywhere in the world, however secret and powerless it may be. Even in the instant of death we cannot permit any deviation.
At the end of the novel, after going through the “understanding” and “acceptance” stages, the “reintegration” of Winston is complete. Sitting in the Chestnut Tree Cafe drinking clove-infused gin, Winston finally realizes that he loves Big Brother.
Although Orwell’s story is fictional, it was extrapolated from real-world examples drawn from his experiences with Stalinism while fighting in the Spanish Civil War, as well as his association with Arthur Koestler. Koestler, author of Darkness at Noon, tells the story (informed by accounts from Stalin’s purges) of a Bolshevik by the name of Rubashov who is arrested by the authorities and tried for treason. In the novel, Rubashov confesses to crimes he has not committed and recants:
The undersigned, N. S. Rubashov, former member of the Central Committee of the Party, former Commissar of the People, former Commander of the 2nd Division of the Revolutionary Army, bearer of the Revolutionary Order for Fearlessness before the Enemy of the People, has decided, in consideration of the reasons exposed above, utterly to renounce his oppositional attitude and to denounce publicly his errors.
Extracting false confessions was also an important aspect of “thought reform” in Mao Zedong’s China.
I also was subjected to a number of inquisitional processes at Mount Royal University (MRU) before I was fired. (These processes were, admittedly, far less draconian than those described above.) On December 13, 2021, one week before I was terminated, I was directed to participate in a disciplinary meeting. The meeting was the outcome of a number of investigations that took place because MRU had decided, without promulgating its policy change, to regulate the private social media accounts of faculty members. In this meeting, the acting provost asked me to “accept responsibility” and “show remorse” for my actions. She implied that if I failed to do so, my employment relationship with MRU would be unviable.
[Related: “The Sign in Lee Jussim’s Window”]
In response to this intimidation, I stated that I could not “accept responsibility” for my actions because Section 25.4.1 of the Collective Agreement stated that “An Employee may not be disciplined for violation of a rule, regulation or instruction unless that rule, regulation or instruction has been promulgated, and communicated to the Employee, by the appropriate authority …” Because MRU had never announced that it intended to regulate private social media activities as a workplace issue, I could not have known that my actions violated MRU policies.
Meanwhile, I could not “show remorse” for my actions because I was simply defending myself from the mob. I continually alerted the university administration to how numerous MRU faculty members trivialized my academic achievements on social media and ostracized me for years, and nothing was ever done about it. I was, therefore, forced to turn to social media to respond to this academic bullying. A public defense became especially necessary in July 2020, when an indigenous scholar-activist attempted to mobilize an anonymous “student-led” group against me for defending the journalist Wendy Mesley. Mesley’s word-crime was a reference to the title of Pierre Vallières’ book White Niggers of America and to mention (not use) this racial epithet in an anti-racist context in a private editorial meeting.
Although I provided the acting provost with detailed evidence of the campaign that had been waged against me since 2016 and explained that I had changed my behavior in accordance with her instructions to “refrain from posting to social media … commentary directed at individuals of the Mount Royal community,” this made no difference. MRU’s termination letter one week later included the following two “examples” for why I could no longer be employed at the university: “You have indicated that you will not take responsibility for your conduct” and “You have indicated that you have no remorse for your conduct.”
On a superficial level, one could see MRU’s demand that I express contrition as a way to obtain an admission of guilt, so as to justify the discipline that I had received and any punishment that would be forthcoming. At the same time, however, it is difficult not to link the acting provost’s attempts to extract an admission of wrongdoing with the increasing influence of what Helen Pluckrose, James Lindsay, and Michael Rectenwald have called “reified postmodernism” (known colloquially as “wokeism”). According to this anti-Enlightenment, reactionary position, individuals ought to be coerced into stating things that they do not believe in order to “make real” the subjective beliefs of oppressed groups, which will in turn empower these groups.
This can be seen in the diversity, inclusion, and equity loyalty oaths that universities now demand of job applicants. While such oaths were opposed by professors during the McCarthy era, they now are embraced because they allegedly support “social justice.” More specific attempts at thought reform include official land acknowledgements and pressure to declare one’s pronouns. While land acknowledgements used to be voluntary moralizing, they are now imposed on decision-making bodies at universities because they are “the right thing to do.” Similarly, woke academics used to add pronouns to their Twitter bios and email signatures to virtue-signal, but now trans activists recommend interrupting meetings so that individuals can announce them to the group.
[Related: “The Woke Academy’s Rejection of the Rule of Law”]
What we are seeing is a transition from arguments advocating that we support allegedly oppressed groups to official declarations mandating pretended agreement with their views. This is an indication of growing autocracy and the beginnings of totalitarianism. As Orwell and others have alluded to in their writings, it is important for authorities in such an environment to coerce people to state a lie out loud so that it can become publicly accepted truth. Mouthing falsehoods will also gradually reshape individual thought processes because avoiding cognitive dissonance will require aligning oneself with what everyone else declares to be true.
Although some might think that linking reified postmodernism to the emergence of totalitarian regimes is alarmist, we ought to recognize the similar manipulative techniques that underlie both. We are no longer using reason, evidence, and logic in decision-making, but dogmatically imposing a predetermined conclusion and punishing anyone who dissents from it. And while this has terrible consequences for the dissenter, the social implications are much worse. It results in self-censorship for fear of being targeted, giving even more weight to the public perception that everyone is in agreement.
In my case, trying to get me to state that I “accepted responsibility” and “showed remorse” was part of an attempt to force me to comply with MRU’s diversity managerialist regime. Despite providing valid reasons for why I could not have understood how to conduct myself on social media, and despite explaining that I had changed my behavior after receiving direction six months earlier, my principled refusal to submit to arbitrary punishment was used to justify my termination. This is indicative of the totalitarian impulse of thought control that is beginning to manifest itself in our colleges and universities.
Soon after Nineteen Eighty-Four was published, George Orwell gave the following warning: “The moral to be drawn from this dangerous nightmare situation is a simple one. Don’t let it happen. It depends on you.” We should all take this warning seriously and do our utmost to stand by the truth. This is particularly important in higher education, as it is the one institution where the pursuit of truth is supposed to be unfettered. The fact that such anti-intellectual intimidation tactics are deployed in an environment created to protect dissent shows how much Enlightenment values are under threat in Canada today.
Totalitarianism is on the move. We need to fight back with everything we have before it is too late.
Image: Adobe Stock
Academia is a lost cause. In Canada, the USA, and Europe, it is so riddled with pseudo-intellectual Marxist degenerates that it can’t be salvaged.
It’s time to stop rewarding incompetence and malevolence with taxpayers’ money.
-jcr
Frances Widdowson is a liar. She was fired because she lost multiple workplace harassment complaints. This has nothing to do with her racist “scholarship” or social media. She leaves out the real reasons she was fired, omits the many peer-reviewed assessments of her racist scholarship, and then drones on with far right nonsense about “wokeism”. Citing James Lindsay? LOL. You mean the guy who hangs out with the leader of a sex cult that trafficked children? https://twitter.com/AnOpenSecret/status/1597011956996902913
That’s an ad hominem attack and just distracting noise suggesting you don’t have a substantive reply.
The claim is that wokeism dictates that:
“individuals ought to be coerced into stating things that they do not believe in order to “make real” the subjective beliefs of oppressed groups, which will in turn empower these groups” and that this ideology permeates academia through DEI indoctrination.
Do you agree or not, why and upon what evidence? Simple.
Whoever wrote this needs to proofread their rants.
“This has nothing to do with her racist “scholarship” or social media. She leaves out the real reasons she was fired, omits the many peer-reviewed assessments of her racist scholarship…”
I’m really not sure what to make of this. If it has nothing to do with her scholarship, then why mention peer-reviewed assessment of her scholarship? What’s with air quotes?
This reads like one her detractors has ventured out of its echo chamber.
Rubbish.
1. Frances Widdowson has long complained about harassment from colleagues to no avail because she was complaining against those who whose views are deemed infallible. Id she lost these charges of being harassed, how could that be a legitimate ground for her dismissal.
2. You omit the real reason for her firing: refusing to accept fake indigenous grievances and nonsensical claims of moral superiority.
Yes, Dr. Rubenstein. And those “fake indigenous grievances” brought in 5 Billion Dollars for the Indigenous Residential Schools (so-called) “Settlement” Agreement — when the original amount was allegedly going to be “only” 2 billion dollars. When the 5 billion dollar bill was settled, in 2015, then the Federal Court of Appeal in B.C. ratified a so-called “Day Schools” legal class action against Canada’s government.
When that suit was getting “bogged down” post legal discoveries; where actual cross-examination discloses the sort of “arguments” and “evidence” provided by “Frances-Widdowson-Lies” above; then the so-called “discoveries” of unmarked graves at Kamloops (1st discovery; May 17th 2021), Marieval on Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan (2nd discovery June 24, 2021) and St. Eugene’s Residential School at Cranbrook British Columbia (June 30, 2021) occurred.
You know, Professor (emeritus) Rubenstein, about Scott Hamilton (anthropologist-archeologist) PH.D.’s report to the 3 Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners of early in 2015, entitled “Where are the Children Buried?” Why have you not, yet, apparently looked at page 15 of that Report???
The Kamloops alleged “cemetery” and first so-called “discovery” is mentioned at the bottom of the first long paragraph. The actual grave yard at Cowessess and 2nd so-called “discovery” is mentioned at the top of page 15. The 3rd so-called “discovery” of a 3rd known cemetery at Cranbrook is halfway down that first long paragraph of the same page 15 of Hamilton’s Report.
In sum, the “discoveries” are simply a list of known graveyards where First Nation’s person’s indifference and neglect along with the indifference and neglect of municipal, provincial and federal bureaucrats (responsible for maintaining graveyards and/or cemeteries) resulted in thousands of missing wooden grave markers, that were either burned up in prairie grass fires, washed away by overland flooding or decayed, dried up and blew away during the “dirty thirties” — not to mention the distinct possibility that many of them could have been used for firewood to keep other people from freezing to death during long forgotten Canadian blizzards.
All these so-called discoveries of unmarked graves were known to be located in neglected and/or abandoned graveyards by all 3 Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners, as of 2015 — exactly 6 years before the bogus “discoveries” of 2021. And nobody mentioned either cemeteries or graveyards when they “discovered” unmarked graves — just the fact that either “mass graves” or unmarked graves were found at or near a residential school. When I wrote Dr. Hamilton about his report in June of 2021 he replied that it wasn’t “his report” to comment upon because it was the property of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Since all 3 Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners (arguable neo-Marxist commissars) participated in an emergency House of Commons response to the first so-called “discovery” of an alleged “mass grave” at Kamloops and not one of the 3 commissioners mentioned either tuberculosis deaths or neglected grave yards to the Commons Committee members, it follows that all 3 commissioners have aided and abetted and been parties-to one of the biggest frauds on any government in modern history, contrary to Section 137 of Canada’s Criminal Code [fabricating evidence no incitement to commit perjury] and contrary to Section 380 [fraud] of that same criminal code.
To refresh your memory, Hamilton’s Report (especially page 15) and accompanying illustrations are at:
https://nctr.ca/records/reports/#highlighted-reports
Kevin James “Joseph” Byrne [B.Sc., Med Lab Science, 1971; UofA]
Although we do not know who “Frances Widdowson lies” is, because they are hiding behind anonymity, their misinformed allegations are similar to those made by the anonymous “Mount Royal Anti-Racism Coalition” (@MRUAntiRacism) – https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2022/11/03/anonymity-the-cowardly-enabler-of-cancellation/ – which was part of the mob that got me fired.
1. As is extensively documented on http://www.wokeacademy.info/episodes, ALL the substantiated claims about “harassment” concerned social media posts. These posts satirized misgendering fatigue, responded to an attempt of an indigenous scholar-activist to mobilize an anonymous “student-led” group against me, or were poking fun at ridiculous reified postmodernist claims (for example, that 215 “murdered children” were found in an apple orchard at the Kamloops Indian Residential School and that this fabrication was somehow indicative of “genocide”).
2. @MRUAntiRacism, or its three spokespeople, have never shown how my scholarship is “racist”.
3. Many scholars – Alan Cairns, Leslie Pal, Tom Flanagan, John Richards, Rodney Clifton, and a number of others – have praised my work. My co-authored book (with Albert Howard) was short-listed for the prestigious Donner Prize.
4. The reference to James Lindsay’s supposed associations has nothing to do whether or not his characterization of “reified postmodernism” is valid.
Always remember. What cannot go on forever, won’t.
These DEI loyalty oaths are all the rage now—until leftist professors (both with and without tenure) start getting fired because of minor transgressions. And that day is coming. Remember the professors were all supporting Mao, until their students turned on them. Suddenly the professors were subject to public shaming, termination, and in some cases physical violence and imprisonment.
There will be a day of reckoning for these bloated DEI bureaucracies and the adminstrations who created them. College enrollments are dropping, because of demographics and wokeism, which means fewer people paying tuition. Revenue from state coffers is also decreasing because states don’t have the money. Inflation makes alumni less willing to give. In the end, Colleges will start shutting down departments. (My university already announced it will shut down some departments by June; departments with tenured faculty, too.)
I strongly suspect colleges 10 years from now won’t look anything like they do today.
University administrations seem to be inspired by the Soviet imposition of ideology through commissar oversight and enforcement. Now in almost all universities there is a huge proliferation of “diversity and inclusion” officers to police speech and thought and to punish ideological “deviants.” It is not an exaggeration to characterize the spirit of contemporary universities as “totalitarian.”
The more tendentiously irrational & asylum grade an idea or set of ideas are, which might therefore make them all the more vulnerable to dissonant criticism & mockery, the greater & more drastic the need for not just humble conformity to them, but acknowledgement of their overwhelmingly reverential seriousness…..which is why even micro disagreement is severely punishable heresy.
In the world of the insane & emotionally disturbed, logical consistency becomes all the more necessary & no wrinkle is too small not to to be ironed out without delay.
All the best to you in your fight for actual justice and the defense of reason, objectivity, and freedom of expression. So much more than the career of one professor is riding on this.