We have come to a point in our culture in which a person
can say an innocent, relatively innocuous statement and suddenly be descended
upon by the perpetually outraged PC Police.
By the time the self-appointed arbiters of what-is-allowed
and what-is-not-allowed are done with their campaign of demonization against
the hapless speaker of the politically incorrect word/phrase the very fact that
the person actually exists has been brought into question.
What happened to freedom of speech?
It is on the endangered list.
What happened to a robust exchange of ideas?
It is frowned upon.
Jerry Seinfeld recently spoke about the “creepy” PC
culture that now prevails on American college campuses. This is why he will no
longer perform at colleges. Sadly, many of these institutions which—at one time—existed
to promote a wide and freewheeling exchange of ideas have become the places
that are least open to differing thoughts and opinions.
If things keep heading in this direction, soon legitimate
discussion of certain subjects will no longer be allowed. There will be the
culturally approved position on topics and all other positions will be banned.
(And you will be obedient if you know what’s good for you…you punks!)
It’s too bad. I remember a particular class back when I
was in my senior year of high school (approximately 145 years ago) in which we
debated the current issues of the day. (Some of the issues are still hot button
topics today, believe it or not.)
There were strong differences of opinion expressed. We
argued. We even yelled occasionally. But we also laughed a lot and teased each
other mercilessly. No one ever whined and complained with great indignation
about being offended. It was fun. As a matter of fact, I recall it being one of
my favorite high school classes. And then we walked out of the classroom and we
were still friends. Crazy, huh?
What bothers me the most about the “I’m-offended-by-everything”
crowd is that they are trying to pull all the rest of us into their dull,
uptight misery.
I like to kid around, joke and tease in a fun way. I
think it’s healthy for people to play around in this manner. Life can be very
serious and it is important have some laughter, lightness and mirth. When I was
young, a little teasing was even a way of being affectionate with friends. But
I find now I do a lot of this joking around only in my own head and never out
loud. When technology becomes sophisticated enough to actually read my thoughts
and it is discovered I am teasing people in my mind, I’m really going to be in
big trouble. (Maybe I’ll be old enough to blame it on senility when this
technology is prevalent.)
[ Imagining some point in the future.] “Are you kidding?!? You can’t take anything we
read in Dan’s mind seriously! For crying out loud, look at the old codger, he’s
drooling again!!!”
I have expressed a lot of foolish and cringe-worthy
thoughts in my life. I’ve been wrong, misinformed, ill-advised, exhibited poor
judgment and have drawn the wrong conclusions on many occasions. The truth is,
we have all done this. Right? We’re human.
But if we have a culture that allows regular people to have
freedom—including freedom of thought and speech—then us regular people are
bound to get it wrong sometimes. I would prefer we put up with regular people
saying dumb things than living in a culture in which the PC Police and the Phony-Outrage-Community
control everything that is said.
“We must picture hell as a state where everyone is
perpetually concerned about his own dignity and advancement, where everyone has
a grievance, and where everyone lives with the deadly serious passions of envy,
self-importance, and resentment.”
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
*NOTE: By the way,
I wrote this thought yesterday and have started to post it several times and
then stopped. Ironically, I’ve been hesitant to post a thought about not being
able to share certain thoughts because I didn’t want someone to read it and
then be hurt, or bothered, or offended. But I’ve determined it is important to
express thoughts—particularly thoughts that make a case for protecting our
freedom to express thoughts.
*FINAL NOTE: If this post truly irks you and you are
deeply offended by it, keep in mind that sometimes computers get compromised
and something gets posted on a person’s account by nefarious, politically
incorrect hackers. (It’s theoretically possible, right?)
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