ON ‘POLITICALLY CORRECT’
The first time I heard this term used was by Bill Clinton in some statement or other. He seemed to be saying that an astute politician must alertly avoid offending blocs of voters, by choosing words carefully and not getting identified with controversial positions. I had no doubt that he was adept at such maneuvers. I didn’t think for a moment that it was the same as Christian charity. Since then I have encountered it repeatedly, it becoming so familiar in the argot that it could safely be abbreviated ‘PC’. As time went by, I saw that to a goodly number of people, it had become a synonym for an obsession with so structuring one’s speech and behavior as to avoid any recognizing or referring to the reality of the foibles and unseemly characteristics of minorities, a sort of turning a blind eye. By extension, it seems to have come to also include identifying oneself with the type of people who do such such structuring, so that one not only dosen’t say anything that might ‘offend’ the protected species, one also makes it clear that one has no hint of the chararcteristics of those who would, it is assumed, be likely to burst the bounds and restrictions of all the safe niceties.
