Chris Herrington, Contributing Writer
Politically Correct: The thought form that what someone says may in some way dishonor the thoughts or feelings of others. I know that many people feel or think that being politically correct is a bunch of hogwash.
I know, because I have heard them talk disparagingly about other human beings in a callous and mean spirited way, only to excuse their comments of hate and cruelty as a joke that they should be able to throw in someone’s face without his taking any offense at all to it.
I also know that these same people are the first ones to get their feelings hurt, those who want to justify homicide, beat to a pulp, engage and enrage, curse and disperse, belittle and humiliate, and publically destroy and personally traumatize those who say anything they don’t like because they themselves can dish it out and yet they themselves can’t take it.
They use abusive language because they lack the ability to present a cogent argument in their defense, and yet they believe that their fallback position of cruelty should be acceptable and tolerated. It takes a small mind to use small words.
A person who performs a hit and run inflammatory drive by is a person who does not have the courage to face those he abuses in public and yet his favorite topic is fairness. I have no words of wisdom for such a person, since I leave him to his misery.
This does bring up the issue of what to say to others when they step over a line that we find sacred, patriotic, sexist, racially biased, difficult to swallow, or hard to hear. We all have our tolerance levels, and when we get our feathers ruffled, we know it, even if we are not aware of it.
Religion and politics are the two main problem areas that people have in every day conversation. Almost anyone with a lick of sense will avoid these two ideas or areas of discussion with every possible avoidance mechanism. I have noted that some people will simply stop the discussion and make a mental note and then say out loud, “I don’t like to talk about politics.”
Sexuality and innuendo are everywhere in our society, and yet still, most people will shy away from any confrontational discussion about sex. It’s just too m difficult to hear about it, and it is often even more difficult to mention. Can’t we just talk about something else?
So, we have become a nation of safe talkers, not that we are necessarily philosophical about it. And not that we don’t mind being sarcastic or radically opinionated. We are experts on everything and we have mastered hardly anything of late.
How then can we formulate relationships; what is our defining intersection with others? TV, sports, food, vices, entertainment, music, events, church, and politics. It seems we cannot leave the modern mind out of it. It is safe to waste time. We are dogmatic, insensitive, and often less than encouraging. We have our aesthetic, and we keep to it.
So, we hang out with others like us, and we extend junior high out into life. The cliques continue on, living in the lives of those who want more thrills. The name calling, the same kinds of social games, the same humiliations, and the same abuses, only we are older and still settling things in the parking lot of life.
What would be so bad about really taking a few minutes? We do it for an advertising champagne. What would be so bad about having a nerd or a book worm for a friend? Think about who you exclude from your list of people in your life. Look at how you set yourself up to ostracize them. Look at how self-righteous and pretentious that looks. For those of you who say you don’t care, then why do you bother to look? What is the draw card for being politically incorrect?
Why are we attracted to some people and not attracted to others? Is that the gauge then for the importance of people in your life? Your mother, for example? What if you used a completely different method of gauging who is worthy to be allowed into your sphere of influence without the sarcasm and treachery? What other methods of access allowance could you use?
Maybe you will definitely be friends with all of the people who are just like you: male/female, black/white/Hispanic, or gay/straight, Christian/Muslim. Maybe if the entire world looked talked, smelled, walked, drove, or sounded…just like you. Maybe then you would be satisfied, tolerant, less agitated, more giving.
Maybe if in the world we knew just a few people, a few who knew what was up, some who thought and sounded just like you. 24 hour monotony. Only you on channel YOU, 24/ 7/365. Then maybe boring would be the new fat, the new gay, the new what not to be, and different would be the new hip and we would be right back where we were, except now everyone would get it.
runningturtle87
