I deology offers f r eedom f rom doubt , a focal point for the disaffected, a refuge f rom reason. Thus, (PC) is not a complete stranger in the history of ideas. Behind the rainbow-colored mask lurks a familiar and de fo rmed face. Orwell did not use the appellation political correctness in his analysis o f language and ideology, yet the principles of Newspeak clearly anticipate some of the main trends and consequences of the platform. Likewise, Leslie Hartley's grim parable of compulsory egalitarianism, Facial Justice, 1 points to the dangers for f reedom of expression in the leveling of language. So, in theory we British should be well-equipped to resist this lessthan-desirable export f rom North America. Publicity sur rounding the trial by media of Clarence Thomas (referred to by one British paper as a PC lynching party2), the unexpected commercial success o f Henry Beard and Chris topher Cerf's The Official Politically Correct Dictionary & Handbook, 3 a steady stream of articles in the national and local press, not to ment ion lengthy reviews of Robert Hughes 's Culture of Complaint: The Fraying of America, 4 and, most recently, David Mamet 's play Oleanna 5 all have raised the profile of in Britain. Reactions to vary f rom wholehearted suppor t to con tempt and horror . Dismissed as last month ' s flavour 6 by Dr. J o h n Casey, a history lecturer at Cambridge University, has nevertheless struck a chord at some of Britain's newer universities. The University of Middlesex has drawn up a paper calling for the banning of unsound words. Similarly, s tudents a t tending teachers' training courses at Not t ingham Polytechnic have been instructed to use words such as cave-person, not caveman. Tame by comparison with the American experience of PC, such proposals are seen by some as the thin end of the wedge. In the words of Giles Auty, art critic of The Spectator, Within the next five years I fully expect to see the full horrors of impor ted lock, stock, and barrel f rom American academic institutions to our own. 7 Students of American culture in Britain are divided on the question of PC's origins: has it grown f rom predominant ly American soil, or have larger historical forces played a role? Sixties radicalism and the civil-rights m o v e m e n t offer