The Dark Side of Political Correctness

What follows is basically a lead-in or preface to my next article, a rant about my efforts to understand what’s happening in the world and how we got where we are today. Some stuff I’ve learned has either led me to some (possibly) weird or hair-brained conspiracy theories. As a consequence, I’m trying to be rational and base my information on not-easily-verified but interesting information from outside sources.

The article below was first published on Helium.com on May 24, 2008 under my Helium pen name.

Political Correctness Gone Wrong

by Sondra Deuber, May 2008 [lightly edited in 2011]

Here's a purely rhetorical questions: how can something that was wrong from the start go wrong? Political correctness was never a good idea, but the ramifications are either worse than its creators ever dreamed or (heaven forbid!) it's exactly what they had in mind from the beginning.

According to Philip Atkinson, "Political Correctness (PC) is the communal tyranny that erupted in the 1980s. It was a spontaneous declaration that particular ideas, expressions and behavior, which were then legal, should be forbidden by law, and people who transgressed should be punished."

Mr. Atkinson points out that freedom of choice and freedom of speech are the community's safeguards against tyranny and states
that the rationale behind political correctness was to keep people from being offended.

Writing about incidents in Australia, his homeland, he talks about the barbaric reaction to a politician's very truthful comments and the attacks that ensued when listeners heard unpopular truths. He also cites Communist Russia and the severe penalties for expressing any opinion that varied from the official truth. So this is not a new phenomenon nor is it restricted to the U.S.

In an Accuracy in Academia Address by Bill Lind, Mr. Lind states, "For the first time in our history, Americans have to be fearful of what they say, of what they write, and of what they think. They have to be afraid of using the wrong word, a word denounced as offensive or insensitive, or racist, sexist, or homophobic."

He goes on to say, "The name originated as something of a joke, literally in a comic strip, and we tend still to think of it as only half-serious. In fact, it's deadly serious. It is the great disease of our century, the disease that has left tens of millions of people dead in Europe, in Russia, in China, indeed around the world. It is the disease of ideology. PC is not funny. PC is deadly serious."

Mr. Lind's comparison of Political Correctness with classical Marxism applied to cultural issues is definitely worth reading, addresses the subject in depth, and is terrifying. Lind asserts that both PC and classical Marxism are totalitarian ideologies.

Although Political Correctness did not become a major issue in the U.S. until the 1980s (according to Atkinson), it has invaded our society and our interactions with each other. The results are becoming far too obvious. Its history goes back much farther and includes many countries where a particular ideology has become the official truth and those who express a different version of the truth are subject to punishment. Lind puts its beginnings with Marx in the early 20th century and traces its development, which was not spontaneous or accidental, but quite deliberate, it seems.

Both cited authors discuss the ideological aspects of PC, the thought control. It seems to me, from personal observation, that in addition to accepting the "truthiness" (thank you, Stephen Colbert) of the official ideology in our speech and studies, it extends farther into our lives and contributes to the chaos of our current society.

For example, if you accept the word of the experts' and abide by the law, you will not punish your children in any significant way, not in a way that will teach them that there are consequences to their actions. I learned right from wrong because my mother punished me the old fashioned way, long before there was any local awareness of PC. I hated it, but it did me no lasting damage. Rather, it taught me that there would be a price to pay if I was dishonest, disrespectful, or stole something. If she had been limited to making me take a time out and sit on the couch for half an hour, I would have been up to my old tricks in no time.

When I was in school, people who didn't earn good grades weren't given good grades just so that they would feel good about themselves. We got to feel good about ourselves when we accomplished something of value, like studying, learning, and passing tests on what we were supposed to have learned.

How do you raise children to be responsible, caring, and resilient adults if merely existing in the world is all they have to do because PC will protect them from ever being told the truth about themselves? Will the real world think that each and every one of them is the most special person ever? Will they reap all the rewards of hard work if they never produce anything of value? If they learn in their 20s that everything they've been taught was a lie, and the world is definitely not their oyster, will they explode with rage? Go on a rampage with automatic weapons to punish those who refuse to recognize their superiority or understand that they are entitled to have whatever they want—at no cost or inconvenience to them?

Certain kinds of touching is not politically correct. If a child falls down and skins a knee on the playground, a reassuring hug from a caring teacher can help dry the tears and make it better. I know: I had some very kind and caring teachers. My little friends and I used to skip around the playground holding hands, bonding and having some perfectly innocent physical contact with other human beings. That's no longer okay in some places either and can get a child expelled from school and sometimes, get a teacher fired.

We played cowboys and Indians or cops and robbers a lot. We aimed and shot at each other, using our index fingers as guns and making silly sounds to indicate that we'd pulled the trigger. I've never killed anyone as a result of my childhood play.

As an adult at work, I had many friends. Sometimes one or the other of us is away, traveling on business or on vacation. There were always hugs when we saw each other after an absence, with both male and female friends; friendly hugs, human contact with people we care about and who care about us. Physical contact is supremely important to us as human beings. It is an expression of caring. It's the human thing to do. It's no longer acceptable and could get you fired.

I was proud at my retirement party when a good friend of more than eleven years didn't hesitate to give me a hug to celebrate my retirement and wish me luck. Others in the room were shocked, especially considering that I was an employee and he was an executive vice president. But we were work friends, and had a great deal of respect for one another.

There are times when you have to risk your freedom, risk punishment, risk the consequences to say, "I've really enjoyed working with and for you, and I'll miss our friendship." When it becomes illegal to do that, or to greet an old friend, or offer a hug to someone who seriously needs one, I'll risk whatever I need to in order to retain my humanity.

I've always been a rebellious brat, a seeker and speaker of truth. And now, officially a senior citizen, that isn't about to change. Let the consequences of ignoring the official ideology be damned. I hope that I'm not susceptible to mind control without the use of drugs or torture. It hasn't been put to the test, but nothing would surprise me anymore. Sometimes being "mature" is pretty good: there's much less to lose, especially if you've decided that if the current trends continue, you might decide you'd rather not be around to witness the results.

If you doubt Political Correctness is a problem, just think back over the last several years, when it has reached its worst level, with the official truth proclaimed in the face of contradictory evidence. Go back ten or twenty years; it was there. Go back as far as you'd like in the U.S. in the 20th century and you'll find evidence of the development of the official truth that, at times, has made us doubt our own sanity or ability to interpret truth as the government and media tell us we should.

This should be an area of concern for writers. How would your passion to write be affected if you knew that every word would be under government scrutiny and if expressing anything other than the government's official versions of the truth might cause you to lose your job, land you in jail, or worse. I recommend reading Bill Lind's article as it provides a good, brief history of the origins of Political Correctness and its implications for all of us. Perhaps in this case, knowledge is power: you can't fight what you don't recognize or understand. 

RESOURCES

Political Correctness by Philip Atkinson: http://www.ourcivilisation.com/pc.htm
The Origins of Political Correctness

An Accuracy in Academia Address by Bill Lind (2000) http://www.academia.org/lectures/lind1.html