Steve Went Looking for Grace
1 day ago
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Political Correctness as a Control Tactic?
Something dawned on me the other day. Is political correctness a controlling tactic? The essence of political correctness, which by the way is straight from Continental postmodern philosophy (poststructuralism, deconstructuralism), is treating the Other with dignity and giving them their due rights. That sounds good and it should be. But when political correctness comes in and interferes problems arise. By the Other is meant anyone who has a history of being oppressed. These include, African-Americans, Latin-Americans, Asian-Americans, Indiginous peoples (North and South American Native Indians, Eskimos, Aboringinals, Maori,Polynessians women, children, animals, gays and probably others that I've not thought of. This leaves the oppressor to be white men of mostly European descent. But when the Others are put over the white men as in political correctness, then who is oppressed and controlled? An interesting thought isn't it?
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2 comments:
Hi Diane,
Imagine yourself in a small crowd maybe in the UK (where I come from) in a pub or a Coffee bar. The subject of gay marriage (or adoption) comes up and people start sharing. Suppose there are about 8 people in the group. Everyone takes it in turns until they come to you (or maybe someone with just conservative values). All of a sudden you speak and rather than parroting (and yes it is parroting) the received 'tolerant' wisdom you say something along the lines that although you respect the rights of everyone to be treated equally under the law and treatment as regards say government services you believe that homosexuality is aberrant sexual behaviour and that homosexuals and lesbians are more in need of not only understanding and compassion but also counselling, help and gasp! repentance and faith in Christ.
Depending on where you are and who you're with depends on whether the rest of the group thoughtfully (even if in disagreement) respect your views or point at you and say homophobe. If it's the latter ask yourself if the same kind of group discussion occurs again whether you would be prepared to say the same thing?
If you 'get' the above you'll realise what PC, identity rights etc is all about. Its about controlling what you say because if they (and there is a they) can control what you say, 'they' can start to control what you think.
So in the next group (even if there are people who agree with you but are not as vocal) if you decide to keep silent on the subject anyone in the group will feel that if they speak out they will be the minority and nobody really like being in the minority do they.
And that Diane as you said is what Political Correctness is all about. Sadly.
Mark,
Excellent illustration. Sadly, today's younger Christian has a great need to be hip and cool, and to be accepted by the world. Although my generation did parrot, we did stand up for our convictions. If we can drop the parroting and get back the "standing up for one 's convictions, I think we might be in pretty good shape.
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