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Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learnt to Love PC
Thursday, April 20th, 2006 01:29 amToday, one of my students e-mailed me to ask for information on Political Correctness, after I had set an essay which involved analysing current debates about this subject in terms of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty. I answered as well as I could as a Turco-Brit who is confused by the fine differences between “African Americans”, “People of Colour” and “Niggas”—from where I am, all you American imperialists look the same. [ducks]
As though I hadn’t had enough of the PC debate to last me for several incarnations, I dutifully scoured the web for useful sources. What I found confirmed my original supposition (based on personal experience) that the term “political correctness” surfaced in the early ’80s as a left-wing in-joke, and was later taken up by right-wingers who, unsurprisingly, did not understand left-wing humour. This in turn prompted a reaction from the left, who intensified their efforts to bring the class war into the culture wars, but this was relatively insignificant compared to the efforts of well-meaning but essentially clueless liberals. Here I should stress that I mean “liberal” in the American sense of the word, which seems to mean someone who has no coherent political ideology (which is understandable), feels bad about the plight of those less privileged (which is laudable though sometimes inaccurate), feels guilty about their privileges (which is unnecessary) and believes that peace, justice and warm fuzzies can be achieved without any radical changes to capitalism if everyone behaves like American liberals (no comment).
It is thus that we encounter the famous absurdities of PC-speak. Terms for ethnic groups change every other year, with those who fail to keep up with the fashion being branded as racist. (While we’re at it, do you know the correct term for Lapps?) If you have a part of your body that doesn’t work, you may be handicapped, disabled, differently abled, or crippled. If you're a guy who likes having sex with other guys, you might be gay, queer or differently horny. Worst of all, if you’re poor, you might get branded as a “person of poverty”.
OK, enough fun. PC people come out with a lot of linguistic silliness, but so does anyone who attempts the thankless task of reforming language. Over here, the Turkish Language Institute prompted hilarity by suggesting gökgötürgeç konuksal avrad as an alternative to ostes (air hostess—the proposed alternative literally translates as “sky-send-implement guest-related mature female”). I also have some serious problems with the whole PC thing, because often it makes the left look silly, obscures real injustice by reducing everything to cultural niceties, and (in its more centrist forms) tries to pretend that capitalism would work fine if we got rid of prejudice and everyone had equal opportunities. However, these objections are trivial when weighed against the valuable service PC provides in pissing off conservatives. I react with amusement to the latest PC absurdities, but it drives right-wingers into fits of apoplexy. When I googled “political correctness”, almost all the results pointed to right-wing sites railing against it. In particular, a speech addressed to “2000 Consevative [sic] University at American University” caught my eye by attempting to trace PC back to Adorno and Marcuse. Personally, I find Adorno perceptive but depressing, and Marcuse rather silly, but anything that resurrects these two beloved bogeymen can’t be all that bad.
As though I hadn’t had enough of the PC debate to last me for several incarnations, I dutifully scoured the web for useful sources. What I found confirmed my original supposition (based on personal experience) that the term “political correctness” surfaced in the early ’80s as a left-wing in-joke, and was later taken up by right-wingers who, unsurprisingly, did not understand left-wing humour. This in turn prompted a reaction from the left, who intensified their efforts to bring the class war into the culture wars, but this was relatively insignificant compared to the efforts of well-meaning but essentially clueless liberals. Here I should stress that I mean “liberal” in the American sense of the word, which seems to mean someone who has no coherent political ideology (which is understandable), feels bad about the plight of those less privileged (which is laudable though sometimes inaccurate), feels guilty about their privileges (which is unnecessary) and believes that peace, justice and warm fuzzies can be achieved without any radical changes to capitalism if everyone behaves like American liberals (no comment).
It is thus that we encounter the famous absurdities of PC-speak. Terms for ethnic groups change every other year, with those who fail to keep up with the fashion being branded as racist. (While we’re at it, do you know the correct term for Lapps?) If you have a part of your body that doesn’t work, you may be handicapped, disabled, differently abled, or crippled. If you're a guy who likes having sex with other guys, you might be gay, queer or differently horny. Worst of all, if you’re poor, you might get branded as a “person of poverty”.
OK, enough fun. PC people come out with a lot of linguistic silliness, but so does anyone who attempts the thankless task of reforming language. Over here, the Turkish Language Institute prompted hilarity by suggesting gökgötürgeç konuksal avrad as an alternative to ostes (air hostess—the proposed alternative literally translates as “sky-send-implement guest-related mature female”). I also have some serious problems with the whole PC thing, because often it makes the left look silly, obscures real injustice by reducing everything to cultural niceties, and (in its more centrist forms) tries to pretend that capitalism would work fine if we got rid of prejudice and everyone had equal opportunities. However, these objections are trivial when weighed against the valuable service PC provides in pissing off conservatives. I react with amusement to the latest PC absurdities, but it drives right-wingers into fits of apoplexy. When I googled “political correctness”, almost all the results pointed to right-wing sites railing against it. In particular, a speech addressed to “2000 Consevative [sic] University at American University” caught my eye by attempting to trace PC back to Adorno and Marcuse. Personally, I find Adorno perceptive but depressing, and Marcuse rather silly, but anything that resurrects these two beloved bogeymen can’t be all that bad.
