The Sophisticated Language of Fascism

March 25th, 2007 Posted in Of Interest

Just another bit of experimental dilettantism, to see if the police state suits us after all:

But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped “N.Y.P.D. Secret,” the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show.

“Activists are showing a well-organized network made up of anti-Bush sentiment; the mixing of music and political rhetoric indicates sophisticated organizing skills with a specific agenda,” said the report, dated Oct. 9, 2003. “Police departments in above listed areas have been contacted regarding this event.”

Yes, it sure does take a lot of sophistication to get together and make music and speeches (perhaps there was a sophisticated use of E-vite using something called the in-ter-net). “Sophisticated” is a nonsense word that the government and social science academics use when talking about organizations, especially about terrorist organizations, to make it sound as if they’re talking about something both a) complex and b) threatening. You give your discussion the aura of being simultaneously scientific, current, and urgent. It’s not surprising to see such jargon put to use for lame justifications of police state actions: “gee, these people are sophisticated, just like the terrorists!” (the word can do its work in the service of typical right-wing anti-intellectualism as well).

Notice also the imprecision of the language, something we see more and more in everything from police reports to journalism: the network is “made up of anti-Bush sentiment”, not of people with anti-Bush sentiment. That imprecision may seem trivial, but it is the kind of generalization that fuels poor judgment: “they bombed us, so we bombed them, it’s only fair.” The ability to make distinctions is critical to the ability to be humane. When mere sentiment forms a “network”, as in terrorist cell, the idea is that mere sentiment is a crime — a thought crime.

“Billionaires for Bush is an activist group forged as a mockery of the current president and political policies,” the report said.

Sadly “sentiment” and “mockery” have become data for mindless, half-literate, bureaucratic reports. And the police have been used aggressively on behalf of a particular political party by pro-actively arresting the “sophisticated” networks of sentiment and mockery — er, I should say (in my sophisticated way) the bearers of those mocking sentiments ….

Of course, if only we could arrest mockery itself, and bad sentiment itself, all our problems would be solved. (The intruding afterthought: But can’t we? There are certain techniques, ways of making someone talk, ways of changing the way they feel … ways of reducing their sophistication).