Brief Word Issue #35 November 2013

Hi,

Brief Word Issue #35 November 2013 is now available on the Brief Word page at www.goodwordsnz.blogspot.com

Enjoy!

Blessings,

Stephen

The CC of PC (The Community Corruption of Political Correctness).

This is basically the text of a speech I gave recently at Toastmasters.  I’m loving it there!  And learning heaps! 

I want to talk today about the Community Corruption of Political Correctness.  Political Correctness is one of my greatest annoyances. 

Recently I went to one of my grandson’s soccer games.  It was a “tournament” with a good number of teams, some having had to travel an hour or so to be there.  But, no scores were kept!  It was just a friendly game, and they were supposed to just have fun and a good kick around.  Trouble is, my grandson is fiercely competitive, so that didn’t go down well with him!  He learns and functions best where there is the possibility to win or lose.  So, they didn’t go to the next tournament under the same rules – they went to a chess comp instead, where they played for a cup! 

It got me thinking! 

Let’s ask three questions:  - What is PC?  

- What does it do to our Community?  

- What can we do?

1.         What is Political Correctness?

Political correctness is the attitude or policy of being extremely careful not to offend or upset any group of people in society.  (www.collinsdictionary.com).  The idea has been around for centuries, but the term perhaps since about the mid-20^th century.  In its benign form PC is an attempt to help people tolerate each other in a multicultural society.  Don’t offend anyone is the catch-phrase.  In its malign form, as used by say Stalin and Hitler it’s an oppressive way of manipulating and brainwashing a public for political gain.

2.         What does PC do to our Community? 

Let me give you just a few examples.  It is rampant in the USA!  Did you know, the New York Department of Education has banned the use of dinosaurs, birthdays, Halloween and terrorism from tests administered to students?  Dinosaurs may upset those who don’t believe in evolution, birthdays may provoke Jehovah Witnesses and Scientologists because they don’t observe them, Halloween implies paganism, and terrorism is too horrific. 

It gets even more bizarre in the USA.  One major publishing house, McGraw-Hill Publishers instruct their writers not to use the words “tomboy”, “Lady”, or “he took it like a man”.  Writers must never describe a country or boat as a “she”, nothing can be “man-made” even if it was, and “founding fathers” are to be “founding precursors”. 

Comedy isn’t immune either.  Comedians can no longer make jokes about blondes, baldies or blacks, religion, race or rights for fear of offending someone. 

Freedom of speech and action is curbed, and debate is restricted. 

Frank Ellis, lecturer in Russian at the University of Leeds, writes; “PC is strangling western society.  It is being used to shut down debate, and marginalise opponents of any social reform by branding them as bigots, racists, homophobes, and the like.  It is destroying language and culture, and making it impossible to critique what is happening in society”. 

And, we’re being coaxed into saying “Happy Holidays” instead of Merry Christmas! 

New Zealand is affected too.  Some schools are refusing to allow scores to be kept in team games, in case children are unable to cope with defeat.  Case in point my grandson’s soccer game. 

The NZ Rugby Union I believe, attempted to not allow any schoolboy team to win by more than 35 points.  Why?  Because the game might become less enjoyable.  Josh Kronfield was horrified at that suggestion. 

Political Correctness is actually a dumbing down of our society.  It is over-protecting our kids, and there is a price to pay.

3.         What can we do? 

A lot!  Yes we can do a lot!  But in short here’s a few things.

i.          Don’t allow the Political Correctness ideas to embed in our minds and thinking.  Stand true gracefully to values and culture and principles, thus being examples. 

ii.         Let our kids climb trees, play of jungle gyms, run bare feet on dirt, fall over, win and lose in things, be competitive, we can un-stifle them, bring them up with adventure and risk, (obviously with wise parental guidance), stop molly coddling them! 

iii.        We can challenge and debate the ideas without debasing the person! 

iv.        We can allow the adversity of failure to develop the character necessary to navigate life – in us and in our kids. 

So in summary:

i.          What is PC?   It is social engineering to change our thinking and behaviour, and making us overly sensitive and tolerant, so that we can’t agree to disagree. 

ii.         What does it do to our Community?   Quite simply, I believe, it corrupts it!  And unobtrusively it is being CC’d (get it?  The CC of PC!) to everyone in many ways. 

iii.        What can we do?  Don’t let the ideas take hold, let kids be kids!

The CC of PC – The Community Corruption of Political Correctness.

A story to illustrate and close.  A woman buys a parrot at a pet shop.  She was assured it was a talking parrot.  She takes it home, sets it up in a special cage, and waits.  The parrot doesn’t say a thing.  She goes back to the pet shop and says “He doesn’t talk”.

The pet shop owner says “What you need is a mirror.  Yes, parrots like to look at themselves, that’ll get him talking”.  So off she goes, and sets up the mirror. But, the parrot doesn’t talk. 

So back to the pet shop she goes, and says the same thing, “My parrot doesn’t talk.  I put the mirror in but he doesn’t talk”.  “Ah, what you need is a ladder, yes that’s what you need, that’ll get him talking”.  So, she buys a ladder, takes it home, puts it in the parrot’s cage, and waits.  Still no talking!

So back she goes, again, to the pet shop, and again says, “I put the ladder in like you said, but still he doesn’t talk”.  “Ah!  What you need is a swing.  Yes, that’ll do it for him, that’ll get him talking”.  So, she buys a swing, takes it home, puts it in his cage, and waits.

Next day, she goes back to the pet shop, and the owner sees her and says, “Well, what happened?”  She says, “He died”.  “What?  He died?”  “Yes, he died”.  “Well, did he say anything before he died?”  “Yes he did”.  “What did he say?”  “He said, ‘Does that pet shop have any food?’”. 

Let’s feed our kids the right food!