Wednesday, December 12, 2001
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Wednesday, December 12, 2001 |
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Casualty of war: politically correct By
BILLY MURPHY Where is political correctness now? In times of war, we see just what is important and what isn't. Our war, which is a response to being attacked, has suddenly made it all too evident just how ridiculous the religion of "PC" ever was. Our sheltered, privileged world in the United States was shattered when we were attacked by terrorism, and we need to accept and realize that too many years of PC mentality played a part in just why we were attacked. Any act of aggression is based on disrespect. And in the ultimate show of disrespect, others took advantage of our true vulnerability: Our semblance of being divided. Though today we as a nation stand proud together, over the past number of years, nothing has divided us more than the philosophy (or religion?) of political correctness. Political correctness advanced the ideal that if we just labeled people correctly, that, if we call them by the right name, everything would be all right. Political correctness condemned the use of certain terms and attitudes that might, in any way, show that we are different. When, in reality, it gave us added terms and attitudes that divided us only more. A perfect world would not need such a feeble value system as political correctness, yet in the hands of imperfect humans, the age of PC has only made us all the more artificial and ironic. The PC movement divided us by creating "proper" designations for people like African-American, Native-American, Irish-American, etc., instead of just American, for example. The PC movement cared more about the full sound of a correct title than the "hollow echo" of right and wrong. Once people latched onto the overly simple premise of the PC movement, things went downhill from there. Everything, all of a sudden, became offensive. Political correctness, in seeking to heighten our sensitivity towards others, only heightened our sensitivity of ourselves. Suddenly, our playground of life was blanketed with eggshells. All of a sudden we were fighting over our right to stamp out noisy leaf blowers. People were placed on disability for their sensitivities to others' perfume. You couldn't even shop without being drawn into the battle of what was environmentally right or wrong: "Paper or plastic?" The PC movement also exalted loud, brash and very, very small voices to the forefront while scoffing at time-honored institutions such as family, marriage and religion. Equated with tolerance and intellectualism, political correctness asked us to pretend through the use of our words. The PC movement placed semantics above and beyond integrity. The name you used for someone was more important than how you felt about him. Is all that dead now? Nowadays, does anyone feel like defending the terrorist as "misunderstood," "a product of his environment," or "afflicted with an inherited disease"? Has anyone tempered the terrorist's name to: "Respect-of-life-challenged?" I don't think so. Political correctness was a great start to an idea; it just never went near far enough. Like too many things in our society it was just an edifice, a facade of propriety covering a too shallow morality. It was just plastic surgery for Lady Liberty. Important issues such as racism, intolerance and prejudice should continue to be a focus for a nation seeking to treat all men equal. PC was just fast food for the malnourished. Political correctness was just another invented concept for a fabricated world. As devastating as they have been, our nation's current problems have done something political correctness could never do hold a mirror up to our true selves. We, as a people, have done better as times are tough, rather than when times were easy. Is PC dead? Do we need this pious, moral barometer any longer? Before Sept. 11, we as a people seemed to make our own crises. Since then, through our humanity, our patriotism and our deliberate purpose of one mind and will, our crises have made us. [Visit Billy Murphy on the Internet at http://www.ebilly.net.]
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