Public Considerate Political Correctness?

“I got a feeling about political correctness. I hate it. It causes us to lie silently instead of saying what we think”
Hal Holbrook

It’s that thing we’re not supposed to talk about. You know what I mean right? That government conspiracy that halts every aspect of life? It is ridiculous isn’t it? I mean, I can’t even run naked through the streets with a toaster on my head because of Political Correctness. I’m right, aren’t I? This is Political Correctness gone mad?

Or maybe I’m just behind the times.

Political correctness doesn’t mean I can’t run naked through the street, that’s the law on public indecency. And as for having a toaster on your head, unless you find it offensive for me to tell you that I have a toaster on my head, it’s again not PC, just health and safety.

Just to clarify: I do not have a toaster on my head.

The other day I was having an in depth conversation with an ‘old codger’ about child protection policies, and how annoying it can be when you’re involved in youth work. He looked at me and said, “It’s that thing isn’t it, that, what do they call it? CP? No, PC!”

The sad part is that this is true for much of our older generations, and the trend of being anti PC is quickly flying down the ranks.

The rebellion against Political Correctness, although in its majority passive, is a bizarre scenario. Whilst there is a public outcry against PC, with slogans such as “its PC gone mad!” there is evidence that PC is actually working in our society. To understand what PC is doing to our society, you must first realise how it is trying to achieve its goal.

So what is Political Correctness and what is it doing?

It’s a Jedi mind trick. Hypnosis. Subliminal messaging. None of the above.

PC is simply an attempt to change the way we think as a society for the better. The whole idea is based upon the Theory of Determinism, which whilst sounding like a bunch of boring whatever jargon, is actually pretty sensible. You see, Determinism is the idea that as a society, the language we use determines the way we think. I know this sounds quite terrifying and mind controlling, but when you give it a bit of thought it all makes sense. Here’s an example phrase: ‘Friendly Fire’, this one is a corker, since when is shooting your teammate a friendly thing to do? Only when there’s some politically awkward friendship with daft Americans involved. The idea with the use of ‘Friendly Fire’ here is to soften the blow, change the way that we feel about the event, make it all a bit nicer. Be truthful to yourself now, what sounds better? ‘Friendly fire’ or’ Americans with bigger guns than their brains shooting our brave Tommys?’.

So really Political Correctness is out for good, to make the world a bit brighter and stop people being so pessimistic. And for a lot of people this eventuality is an acceptable, or even  good thing. Some however, particularly stubborn old traditionalists, disagree with PC.

The Scottish Feminist Linguist Deborah Cameron has strong views concerning PC. She claims that Political Correctness ‘Covers up the bigger issue’. Essentially she is concerned that by focussing so much on the language used today, we are not effecting the subject of this language.

Put into context she is saying that, by stopping racist language, we are pretending that racism isn’t happening. So what some factions do is take these racist, taboo words and make them their own, dusting them up with a brand new meaning.

Reappropriation

The reappropriation of words is quickly becoming a trend, particularly among those who are less appreciated by our society’s use of language. Reappropriation is essentially where a group decide to take a word and use it differently, to give it new meaning, or ‘re-appropriate’ the word. By doing this they hope to change the way that the rest of society perceives the meaning of the word. An example of this is the black community’s use of the ‘N word’. The term nigger became taboo after the mass racial discrimination of black people throughout the 1900’s, but its use is surprisingly coming back.

Less surprisingly than the reappearance of nigger, or ‘nigga’, is the way in which it is used.

The newer generations of the black community have taken it upon themselves to reappropriate the word. On the agenda for this horrific word, is the opportunity to be a term to describe your best mate. In essence, the ‘N word’ is being used in much the same way as ‘homie’, or ‘bro’.

Yes it’s lovely that they’re bringing words back and all getting along smashingly, but it’s still not quite right. The downside of the way in which Reappropriation works, is that it still doesn’t solve the problem. What ends up happening is that we move from no-one making use of the word, to a minority of people making use of the word.

Taking our example, we are now in a place where it’s socially acceptable for black people to use the word amongst themselves, but for any other skin colour it’s an outrage.

Now this may sound all tickity-boo to you, but should it? After all, what’s really happened here is that a word has gone from being abusive, to being a ‘privilege’ only held by a minority within our society. And this sadly emphasises once again, the division our language can create within our communities.

And on that note our publicly hated, yet unknowingly loved friend Political Correctness steps back in.

The only thing is that PC can never seem to do it quite right either. It always ‘takes it too far’, or is just generally ‘ridiculous’. An example regularly used is the use of ‘Visually Impaired’ or ‘Hearing Impaired’, where deaf and blind people say that there’s nothing wrong with being deaf or blind, and that they feel offended by these new terms. Not that it’ll make any difference to someone who is both deaf and blind.

So whilst it’s true that PC doesn’t always get it right, does that mean it’s wrong?
All that Political Correctness is trying to do is sculpt a polite, caring community that use a polite and caring language. Is it really so wrong? Should we really hate it so much? Not really. And if you suddenly decide to run naked through the street maybe now you’ll now know not to shout “its PC gone mad!” as they cart you into the van. You might even remember to respectfully call the Bobbies ‘Police Officers’.

Political Correctness has set itself a long struggle, against the current of our society, and it has a never ending job to do. It’ll have to push through abuse, rebellion and a few stubborn camels before it ever gets near its goal. And for that I respect Political Correctness.

If you choose not to, that’s up to you, but for those of you still thinking it’s a suppressant, a terrorist, a nuisance, an annoyance, or generally any other nasty noun, just remember one thing:

It’s still your choice.

I’m off to buy a toaster.