Our gender, our job, the colour of our skin, the country we live in, the languages we speak and the lifestyle we lead all culminate in our identity and individuality. In recent years various governing bodies have been attempting to remove that identity, to remove our freedom and cast out tradition all in the name of protection or as it is commonly known, actions of ‘Political Correctness’. I am writing today to not only bring to light the causes and affects of this liberal mutation, but to rally you and the people as a whole into shaking off the shackles of this oppression currently imposed upon our society.
Throughout Europe and America hundreds of changes to our society have taken place in very recent years. Some of these changes make the headlines whilst others are more secretive. Regardless they are all classed as Politically Correct. Some more ‘left wing’ individuals describe Political Correctness as an excuse for Conservatives to shun new ideas that might better us as a country. However, when these ideas extend to that of changing the name of the well known bakery products; Gingerbread men, to Gingerbread persons, I am led to doubt these claims. After all how can you possibly discriminate against a biscuit?
This, though silly, is a less harmful example of modern day changes, a much more harrowing one is the current implementation of health and safety and its spiralling paranoia. In schools, teachers have to adhere to safe-handling policies, that prevent teachers from disciplining pupils who act up, helping students when injured or offering them basic medicine for such as Paracetamol and even prevents them from restraining children whilst they fight for fear of being sued. These are restrictions that leave teachers virtually powerless to bad behaviour and have resulted in a new generation who have grown up with fewer role models from which they can learn to be respectful. In the pursuit of protection, schools have also doctored traditional nursery rhymes such as the fascist, Baa Baa Black Sheep, the excessively violent; Humpty Dumpty and the perverse, old Macdonald. Whether you found the story of the black sheep upsetting or not, you have to admit that it’s culturally diverse counterpart, Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep, does nothing to add to the rhyme. Poor ol’ Humpty Dumpty was removed for the trauma that children have suffered upon hearing about his tragic accident. Maybe this ordeal goes someway to explaining the cognitive capacity of some of the older generations. And Old Macdonald can’t be married anymore, as it is essential to specify to children that he is in a comfortable civil partnership, so that all those children with single mothers and homosexual parents aren’t singled out and discriminated against.
The truth is that this subtle change is constantly happening throughout literature and the media. But what does Politically Correct truly mean and where did it come from?
To be politically correct was a term originally invented to specify what actions and words the current governing body deemed appropriate for use. It is believed that this all began, in a modern sense, after the Civil Rights and Age Discrimination Act of 1964 and became more prominent after the Race and Sex Discrimination Acts came into fruition in 1974. The first case of a term being band for the offence it may cause, occurred in 1957 when England, in an attempt to appease their Russians allies, outlawed the commonly used term ‘bourgeois’, which was used to describe the middle classes. Although none of the hypersensitivity over race, religion and biscuits was anywhere near the levels it is today, in fifties culture, the western world was incredibly uptight in its views of sex and ignorant of other races and lifestyles. This was the very reason that Political Correctness came to pass, in accordance with the civil rights movements it protected discriminated groups from being abused verbally or in a derogatory manner. And for this purpose, it is essential. However, like all things with good intentions the civil rights acts left society wide open to abuse by selfish opportunists who used the system for their own ends. There were several widely reported court cases at the time that saw men being torn apart socially and stripped of their assets for discrimination in the work place. In a lot of cases it was valid but in some it was abused. Davis Mamet’s, ‘Oleanna’ is a fantastic dramatisation of some of these cases. Since then consciousness of Political Correctness has slowly spiralled out of control to the point where an underling fear now sits in the back of everybody’s minds as to what they can and can’t say. The effects of this are detrimental to our society.
Political Correctness has forced us to trade tradition, manners, customs and beliefs for often forced ethnic and social respect, tolerance and equality when these things should be earned, learned and come naturally. The reason I suggest that this tolerance is forced is because people skirt around important issues such as immigration and religion through fear of persecution causing ignorant beliefs to sink below the surface. If somebody is ‘racist’, silencing them doesn’t solve the issue it simply forces them recede out of public sight, allowing their ignorant beliefs to fester into further resentment. Take the British National Party for example, until recently there entire party consisted of name and a few signatures but due to the social muzzle of Political Correctness and the ineffectualalety of successive recent governments they are now a party with an MP in parliament. Now, whilst this isn’t a huge number it goes to show that there is an underlying culture of unrest within certain sections of our society and should disturb you deeply. Instead of labelling people as racist or intolerant and disregarding their opinions, we should find what causes their ‘intolerant’ beliefs try re-educate instead of letting hate bubble beneath the surface. People deemed racist may be ignorant but it is their right, living in a free county, to be ignorant, as long as they don't hurt anybody and do not spread hatred.
Political Correctness itself has a basic flaw. If all views are equal, why do some who embrace this view feel the need to push an agenda as the ‘correct’ one whilst at the same time demonizing other views as ‘incorrect’? This is because complete equality is an impossibility and ‘right and wrong’ are rules set in place by society and its governing body, a select few. When anything is deemed wrong by society it is standing up for one group and not for the others. For example ‘Humpty Dumpty’ is a rhyme that has deep tradition and history within English culture. The rhyme is not based on an egg at all but a tortoise siege engine that was unsuccessfully used to assault the parliamentarian owned City of Gloucester, during the English Civil war, in 1643. After years of this rhyme being passed down from generation to generation, at the whim of a few over protective mothers – and it was only a few – some schools abandoned the oration of the rhyme to its children. Political Correctness is hypocrisy: be tolerant of others because intolerance will not be tolerated. This seems to be its flawed policy.
The main weapon of Political Correctness is fear. It is this fear that allows it to be successful and has materialised as the ability to sue. The suing culture that exists, especially in America has created the fear of saying or doing the incorrect thing for fear of punishment; the punishment being a tattered reputation and a sizable financial toll in hard financial times. In a politically correct society, if I was to criticise a religion such as Islam or Christianity I would be censored, without criticism there can be no evolution. Censorship creates ignorance as it is once again infringing upon Freedom of Speech.
There are signs that we are beginning to fight back against social repression. The traditional puppet show, Punch and Judy, was band on some beaches of the United Kingdom for its ‘violent’ and ‘sexist’ themes but after a fight back from the community and many hundreds of signatures the ban was repealed. It was a small victory but a victory nonetheless.
If you want to see the devastating long term result of parents and teachers restrained by Political Correctness, then look to many secondary schools in England, look to the London Riots. Thousands of children have grown up without any discipline, traditional morals or respect for anyone and in some cases, even their parents. During the riots people sought to rob and destroy other peoples livelihoods for nothing more than fun and petty selfish gains. Hundreds of children, teenagers and young adults with no concept of respect or even thought of their fellow man took part and still stand to suffer little punishment or remorse for their actions. So what happened, we clean up, put a political plaster on the problem and more people join the BNP.
In reality decent people know how to treat others properly, how to be respectful and considerate. And for those who don’t, it can be learned. We don’t need hypocritical, hypersensitive, social politics monitoring our speech for even the slightest offence. Maybe our time would be better spent teaching etiquette and culture to the youngest generation and even some of our elders. Be more relaxed in are speech and not so easy to jump to offence. A level of decorum is required is required in our lives people need to be protected from discrimination but there are other, better methods of achieving this. Living in a fear controlled state where our very speech can be incorrect is no way to live at all. Political correctness stands in the way of Freedom of Speech but in the end Freedom of Speech will always prevail.
.Thank you for reading,
Alec:
Meat 'N' Potatoes 'N' Iron Filings:
Current Project Round-up:
-The Bloody 13, status update:
Continuing from last week, I am posting the next character from the Bloody 13's crew. It have included my own [Terrible] sketch and a brief description. Below is how I picture all the basic uniforms to looks, so bare that in mind when you look at the sketches.
Bloody XIII Attire:
Hat, Trench Coat, Leather Gloves, Toe-Capped Boots (All Black). Band-over scarf (Red).
II
Code Name: Mort
Looks: (The website won't let me upload the image so here is the link.)
http://alec4u.deviantart.com/art/I-AD-253196052
Full Name: Rafael Morte
Description
This Dutchman is ex-army and AD's closest friend. Mort, is every bit as tough at AD but lacks the charisma required for personnel management. Mort is often in charge of jobs when AD isn’t available, or heads up the ‘B team’. He distinguishes himself by wielding the family Broadsword and by wearing a long red scarf down his back instead of the Bloody XIII Neck-chief.
Writing of the Week:
This week two poems for your pleasure:
Time Sink [Read]
A poem about a man washing his face and time slipping away.
Omega Strain [Read]
A freeverse poem depicting the horrors of living upon Omega Strain. A grey bleak fantasy world where everything is grey.
Quote(s) of the Week:
"I believe that political correctness can be a form of linguistic fascism, and it sends shivers down the spine of my generation who went to war against fascism." ~ P. D. James
Don't forget to bookmark this page, so you can check back in future. Make love not war, then get 'em whilst they are most vulnerable! =)
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