Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Political Correctness is Bad for Society

Over the last 20 or so years, perhaps longer, Political Correctness (PC), has become so prevalent that society is hurting because of it.

Just think for a second about what is being Politically Correct about? It is about changing your actions or words so as to be non-offensive. Offensive to whom is dependent on the situation at hand. Perhaps it's about the abortion debate, gay marriage, racism, immigration, even ironically enough, politics! You want to say or do something but you curb your behavior for the sake of being PC. And if you aren't PC then you are labeled a pariah and your social status is reduced, not because people disagree with you but because they don't want to be seen being un-PC.

The problem with being PC is that you are lying to yourself and everyone else. You are not being true to your feelings and what you know. PC has become something to strive for, to achieve, so that you may be seen as the good person who tolerates all. The end is something we should strive for, the means on the other hand are not right.

By biting our tongues we do not allow for social discourse on important topics of our day. There are those who do speak, but do they speak for you? Our political and social commentary seems to have focused on the fringes, while middle and largest portion of us sit quietly in the middle being PC. Those fringes do not represent the best of us. They represent the extremes created by our lack of voice.

Stop being PC and dialog will occur. Yes there will be those who are offended. But rather than being PC and ignoring the issue, perhaps the question of why needs to be asked more. Why is that word, option, or action offensive to you? Why do you feel that it's OK to say those words, options, or do those actions? These questions are not being asked. Without this dialog, feelings are left to fester creating much more harm than if they were just discussed to start with.

Wouldn't society be better off working out issues rather than sweeping them under the rug in the name of being Politically Correct? I give you this challenge. Next time you catch yourself being PC, apologize and do/say what you really feel. If you are in the wrong, work to be a better person by understanding WHY it was wrong. Better to be true to yourself and learn from mistakes than to be PC and harbor ignorance.