Political Correctness

I don’t know who first coined the phrase, political correctness but it has been on everybodies lips for the last ten years or so. It’s a strange expression in an era of moral permissiveness and decadent values – it sounds at least Victorian to talk about correctness and could conjure up the spectre of the cane-wielding head-teacher of old.

We all know what it means or do we ? It is an attempt on the part of the powers-that-be to keep us in line on how we speak and act concerning certain social issues revolving round race, religion, gender, sexuality and possibly national and social status. The first casuality of P. C. was the popular Black and White Minstrel Show of the fifties and sixties. White men blacking up to represent black men of Dixie or the Southern States of America was an affront it was felt to all negroes. Even one’s use of the word black must be with great care and discretion – it is dangerous to refer to that thing teachers write upon in class as a blackboard. Any expressions however seemingly innocuous that could be construed as to inflaming racial or religious violence or hatred could bring the full force of the law upon one. Any jokes, however hallowed that make fun of mothers-in-law or unmarried ladies or Irishmen could land you in a lot of trouble. Even if for sincerely held religious reasons one passes a negative judgement upon say homosexuals then you can expect to be, if not immediately arrested, certainly interrogated by the police for at least two hours.

Now any reasonable, fair-minded person would agree that any inflammatory behaviour, including words which provokes discrimination and violence towards any law-abiding and legitimate section of society, or towards people of different ethnic origins is to be deplored and prevented. And possibly the intentions of many people or institutions that follow a policy of political correctness are good and worthy and would want to make for peace and harmony and equality in the life of society and of the nation.

But having said that there is a much more sinister side to what has become the cult of political correctness. There are two aspects of our social, religious and political history (that is speaking of Great Britain) that on the surface may seem contradictory but which together focus this notion of political correctness. The first is the struggle this country has gone through since the sixteenth century for the principle of toleration and the freedom of speech and action. It began with religious toleration eventually leading to a liberal democracy under a constitutional monarchy. Without it neither the trade union movement or the Labour Party would have got off the ground and neither would the evangelical revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries been able to mould the moral and spiritual values of this nation. Whilst it is true that certain Puritanical excesses and imperial ambitions created moral and political blemishes without this tolerant and unbound background Britain could never have achieved any of its greatness. One only has to compare the history of some of our continental neighbours.

The other and opposite-working factor is what I have already mentioned the growth of the so-called permissive society of the last fifty years or so. Many people would argue that this self-same period has seen an advance in humanitarian and also egalitarian values and practises e.g. the welfare state with its effect especially on health and education; the ending of the death penalty; the decriminalisation of homsexuality between consenting adults; the abolition of racial and other forms of discrimination; greater sexual equality and so on. But whatever one’s views on the desirability or otherwise of these reforms, one is bound to admit that within our society and country over the last fifty years (if not longer) there is a growing moral confusion as to what is right and what is wrong and in some parts of the country there has been a complete breakdown of law and any semblance of order and the accepted values of honesty, integrity and respect for others have totally collapsed.

Whilst many people do not actually live at the sharp end of this social chaos the general effect has been to create a moral vacuum into which various forces have been sucked –religious fundamentalisms; New Age and occult practises; political extremisms; consumerist addictions; drug cultures and not least political correctness. Now compared with the other demons mentioned P.C. may seem fairly innocuous but its very presence against a mixed background of moral and social uncertainty suggests that after all as human beings we do live in what is essentially a moral universe ultimately ruled by a power that does distinguish good from evil, truth from falsehood and love from hatred. Also as human beings, however inhumanly we may at times behave, we do have a moral conscience or consciousness that reflects the heart and mind of our great Creator. I believe that the Christian account of the order of things takes us nearest to the heart of the matter and the ultimate solution of the human dilemna.

The Cult of Political Correctness