Human history is filled with the atrocities committed against one section of society by another simply for being different. Segregation, the holocaust, slavery; All caused by a proliferation of prejudice and hatred. Until relatively recently you could not vote based simply on your gender or on the color of your skin. Of course that was then and we live in a more enlightened time right?
Well a bit more enlightened maybe but we are still a long way from the free Utopian society we dreamed of in the 1960's. That era gave us the civil rights movement, the free love movement and the beginnings of a new term we now know as political correctness. This was a new philosophy that aimed to end hatred and bigotry by encouraging us to view each other as equal. At it's heart is the ideal that everyone deserves the same chances, should have the same basic rights. A noble philosophy indeed and one we can all get behind. But has this ideal now gone too far? Are we now living in fear because of it?
The problem with modern day political correctness is it subjectivity. It has strayed from the original concepts of equality and moved towards making sure no one is offended by anything at anytime....ever. This is, of course, totally impossible. We now live in fear of everything we and everything we do. This has lead to an unfortunate side effect; The current trend that people don't have to take responsibility for their actions or situation. In fact what we have is more of the same, only this time instead of one group blaming another for all of societies ills we have people blaming others for their own personal failings.
Are things like affirmative action still needed in this day and age? The term was first coined by JFK during his presidency during a time of racial inequality. Does that inequality still exist now? There are many on both sides of that argument that will give you different answers. For those that might not know (and this is a very basic rendering of the concept), affirmative action deals with treating every applicant for a job the same, regardless of race, sex or religion. Unfortunately this is not exactly what this legislation gave us. Instead we got what I personally refer too as ethnicity quotas. Companies being told that they must have a minimum amount of African American, female etc employees. What this ends up meaning is that you may not be able to employ the best person for a certain job. This alone can and indeed has caused a lot of tension and contempt among people. Even now when I see the words "We are an equal opportunity employer I wonder if I will be passed up even if I am the best applicant simply because they have not fulfilled their quota. This is seen as progress by some, I think we need to look harder at what is really happening.
Now I have nothing against affirmative action or really the original ideals behind political correctness. The problem is what they have sadly evolved into. We are now at a point that we have to watch every single word we say just in case someone around us takes it as sexist or racist. What I, personally, find interesting is that often the people who will call you out on something that you never considered any kind of "ist" are often the ones who are more racist, more sexist than any one else. The same people who claim to be completely tolerant are normally the ones who see "ism's" wherever they go, even when none are actually present. An anecdotal example that I experienced happened during the recent presidential elections. I was asked if I was going to vote for Barack Obama. When I said, to their horror, that I was most definitely not I was accused of being a racist. At no point did this person consider that there could be other reasons I wouldn't vote for him. They instantly assumed that it was to do with race. This by the way is not true, I would not have vote for him because of his stance on certain issues; But that's something for a different article.
The response I had was what I like to call passive racism. The passive racist is not a racist themselves, they just see it in everyone else everywhere they go. This is a fantastic example of the almost paranoid state we can be left in if we take modern political correctness to far.
Sadly the very idea that was to have brought us new enlightenment has simply given us a new range of prejudices. We should all have the same freedoms and rights. The right to the best education, the right to be have our voices heard and our opinions considered. That's what a democracy truly is. Is everyone equal? no. It would be a pretty dull world if we were. However we are each responsible for the opportunities that come our way. If we decide to ignore those then we have no one to blame but ourselves. If you dropped out of high school and now find yourself, 10 years later, stocking shelves for minimum wage, then there is only one person to blame.
Some might say that it's easy for me to say that, that I am lucky to have a good, fairly well paying job. I simply reply with a quote form Thomas Jefferson:
I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it - Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
Political Correctness is not the be all and end all to societies problems. We each need to be able to take responsibility for ourselves as well.
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