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Historical Grinches – Political Correctness

We’ve seen ruthless kings and emperors. We’ve seen wild-eyed revolutionaries. Now we’re looking at something altogether worse. Madness usually ends with the madman.

A bad idea spreads like a virus and kills like the slow, creeping chill that causes hypothermia and death from exposure to cold weather.

The bad idea in question is Political Correctness.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines this as:

Definition of Politically Correct

: conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated
—political correctness noun

The friendly face of this dreadful behavior is that a well-meaning individual has observed some boorish behavior and is kindly offering correction of the behavior and point of view that inspired it. Certainly, it is a key part of family and society for more experienced people to correct the missteps of less experienced people. Parents don’t wish to inflict ill-behaved children on the community at large, so they correct the children’s misbehavior. This is a familiar pattern, so it explains why it has become such a handy tool to social engineers.

The main problem of Political Correctness is that it continuously presses forward its own boundaries and never gives back ground that has been claimed. If I can tut-tut an inadvertent misstatement today, I can prohibit discussion of that topic tomorrow. It is an all-consuming sociological glob that presses forward day after day, year after year.

What does that have to do with Christmas?

Going back to our example of the well-meaning individual correcting boorish behavior, isn’t it rude to say Merry Christmas to a person who doesn’t celebrate Christmas? Some people might think so. How dare you just assume that people participate in Christmas!

Well, no. Wishing someone a Merry Christmas is to include them in your joy. It isn’t rude, it is kind. It’s rude to assume that just because somebody doesn’t participate in Christmas, that they wouldn’t appreciate a kind word.

Following the example of the well-meaning, politically correct person’s admonition, what if you wish somebody a Happy Hanukkah or Happy Kwanzaa or a Blessed Bodhi or whatever. That would be politically correct, right?

Well, no. If you wish somebody a Happy Pancha Ganapati but you are not actually a Hindu, then you are not being pleasantly cosmopolitan. You are actually guilty of Cultural Appropriation and you will be brow-beaten accordingly by someone who is more socially aware than you. That’s how political correctness works. There is always somebody more socially enlightened than you and they will always take any and all opportunities to hammer you for your repressive boorishness. How dare you even breathe! CO₂ is a world-ending toxin. Why don’t you just die so that endangered species can live and the planet can thrive without all of us on it?

An example from the 1994 movie “The Santa Clause” takes place in the classroom with Tim Allen’s son introducing him as Santa Claus. The teacher, played by Mary Gross, appropriately corrects one boy for calling his classmate stupid. That’s rude and will get you a stocking full of coal. She then goes on to correct him for using the word ‘elves’.

Why? Obviously, it’s a funny stab at political correctness but if this were a real classroom with a real teacher, what possible benefit could possibly come from telling a child not to call elves elves? This is the unending overreach of political correctness. There is always another nit to pick. There is always another insensitive racist to shame.

But why stop with simply shaming people when you can legislate political correctness? What about prosecuting thought crimes? What about staffing your entire education system from kindergarten through graduate school with oh-so-enlightened paragons of political correctness? How does a civilization run when anything you say or do is likely to offend someone?

It doesn’t.

The very students who are driven to the paralysis of analysis by the unending trauma of negotiating a route through the minefield of all possible offense are left in sobbing heaps when the world doesn’t conform to their sad preconceptions. Safe places are stocked with play-doh and coloring books to soothe the psychological damage caused by a racist, misogynist, xenophobic, callous world that refuses to bend to the narrative they’ve been force-fed all their lives.

In society, trends swing from left to right and back again like a pendulum. Political correctness is a swing to the left that has been cutting an arc since the 1970’s. I believe we may have actually passed the top of the arc. We may actually be swinging back towards free speech and common sense after all this time.

It may actually safe to simply say Merry Christmas again. I certainly hope so!