Warning - Political Correctness can be Harmful to U. S.

Max DePree an expert on leadership states that, “the first role of the leader is to define reality.” I believe Mr. DePree is suggesting that no matter where you are going; you must first know where you are to be effective in your journey.

From Wikipedia - Political correctness (adjectivally, politically correct; both forms commonly abbreviated to PC) is a term applied to language, ideas, policies, or behavior seen by some[who?] as seeking to minimize offense to gender, racial, cultural, disabled, aged or other identity groups. Conversely, the term "politically incorrect" is used to refer to language or ideas that may cause offense or that are unconstrained by orthodoxy…

From Webster - correct - 1. to make right; change from wrong to right; remove errors from. From Political Science 101 at USL (1967) - Politics is the art of compromise. From this author - political correct is a compromise of what is right or correct. Farfetched - you decide.

I believe the greatest threat to us as living individuals is the belief that we are victims not survivors. In my opinion the victim give all his / her power to the condition, person, or circumstance that challenges them. To declare ourselves survivors - we take the power back.

I believe the greatest threat to us / U. S. collectively is political correctness since it diminishes our ability to define reality. If you can’t define a problem you can’t solve it. I’m not encouraging hate speech, rudeness, or offensive language but I also don’t believe denial of or spinning of facts helps in effective problem solving.

In our world we often hear - perception is reality. To that I offer the following: Reality is the facts. Perception is how we view the facts. To change reality we must intervene with resources - money, time, physical force, energy, etc. To change perceptions we merely have to change our point of view – how we look at the facts. As an example - tell me the color of an apple. Slice it and tell me the color again. Our perception of an apple is it is red or green, or golden. The fact is that no matter how you slice an apple the dominant color is white.

Today - if a person or group isn’t blessed with the facts to support their position and they lack the skills needed to win people over based upon their persuasiveness then the best they can hope to do is to constrain the effectiveness of the opposition. Political correctness allows such a control on expression of thought.

Need an example - today, we’re told that Evolution is science and science is about facts. Intelligent design or God may make us feel good but Evolution is where it’s at. Many of these same scientists will, however, go to extreme lengths to protect an endangered species that by nature evolves in and out of the world. As an aside - put most of these same scientists in a foxhole and they’ll pray… Reality or perception?

Copyright - Michael G. Manes (May 30, 2009)
All rights reserved