Most of us agree that we are defined by what we do, and to a much lesser extent- what we say. The phenomenon known as political correctness, is a reflection of societal behavior, the ways in which our culture has transformed. It also has a great influence on behavior, reinforcing the arc of that transformation.
PC culture has become a useful way to understand our current condition, and the direction the nation is headed in as a people, and as an economy. It shows the effect words have on how we work, and how we live.
How the movement toward political correctness came to be is a long story. But today, it’s pervasive everywhere. The best way to cope with it is understanding what it is: Political correctness means collectivism, it is opposed to and destroys individualism. It tells us competition is injustice, that everyone is a winner, that everyone must be treated the same.
Picking out individuals for their talents or uniqueness is exclusive. Individual responsibility is out the window. Accountability equals victim blaming, and the drive to win, to be recognized for superior performance- is oppressive.
Political correctness aims to level the playing field, to bring everyone down to a common low where no one has to feel bad about not being on top- because there is no ‘top.’ Star performers must curb their performance so everyone can feel like winners. In this way, it decreases the performance of the whole team.
Language has to be censored so no one becomes offended. This slows down the progress of learning and information processing, dilutes communication, strips out essential data, and waters down meaning. As a result, it undermines genuine understanding and effective decision-making.
Here’s where it gets ugly. All kinds of accusations of bigotry over the tiniest action or inaction, however insubstantial, are encouraged and rewarded. Claims of victimhood become a kind of status or currency.
Soon, blame becomes the name of the game, and nobody takes responsibility- except those who eventually fail to avoid the spotlight.
Inevitably, a group of people is selected as an oppressive class- and without exception, it will be whoever is responsible for the current infrastructure that benefits everyone. They will be cast aside, or worse- kept around in a hobbled condition to serve as an example of oppressive privilege to be disdained and insulted- and to serve literally.
It’s Atlas Shrugged made real, a living nightmare. In such a culture, you can’t blame Obama for out of control debt and an anemic economy. No. It’s got to be Bush’s fault.
By removing personal responsibility, telling people they’re excelling when they are not and rewarding them for doing nothing, eventually, they come to believe they deserve it. This is what conservatives call a culture of entitlement.
By failing to provide citizens with sufficient and meaningful incentives to perform well, work hard and live in a financially responsible way as a path to long-term prosperity, happiness and security, anyone can guess what society will devolve into.
People become disinterested in being productive. They begin to see hard work as the purview of fools. They either forget that the benefits they enjoy have been brought to them by others and that the money that funds their lives of leisure are derived from the labor of others, or they come to believe they have a right to be taken care of by so called ‘privileged classes’- which is code for those who should support them.
Now, what about the growing problem of youth violence? If we do not teach children the value and importance of personal responsibility– they simply never grow up.
What do children do when they are deprived of the attention they believe they deserve?
They throw a temper tantrum. Any psychologist worth his diploma will tell you, if children don’t receive positive recognition, they will act out, taking negative or harmful actions as they seek a negative replacement for the attention they crave. It doesn’t matter if the attention is unpleasant, as long as it feeds the self-concept they have developed as entitled- anything that feeds their out of control egos.
Political correctness isn’t just an annoying pastime of college freshmen or a resume embellishment for academics and politicians. It is a force that is, even now, driving the shape of our culture and the formation of policies that will hobble our economy.
When the insistence on talent, skill, merit, performance, quality, and dedication are abolished as oppressive- as the hallmarks of an imagined tyranny- then our economy will begin to circle the drain. If, that is, it isn’t circling the drain already.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
