Democracy has its advantages and disadvantages. She brought into our lives many new concepts. Among them is political correctness. We began to use this word only a couple of decades ago, without thinking about its semantic load. What does it really mean? When is it appropriate to apply? This topic will interest people who want to speak correctly. If you are one, let's try to figure it out.
Origin of the concept
Political correctness is a compound word. It, like the concept itself, came to us from the English-speaking world. Political correctness, or politically correct, in translation means "compliance with certain rules." Initially, it describes the norms of behavior in society. We live in a global world, representatives of different cultures and beliefs collide and communicate with each other. And each has its own ideas and norms defined by upbringing. People often make blunders by expressing their own thoughts. Progress is rapidly changing society, and internal culture is not keeping pace with it. In ordinary behavior, we strictly adhere to moral standards inherent in our civilizational code, and sometimes we don’t know anything about someone else’s. Political correctness is a way to introduce unified rules of communication that do not offend people with different views. This is an attempt by society to reach consensus in an ethical sense.
Examples of abusive language
Political correctness is a western innovation. It should be noted that it is of a general cultural nature. In a Russian-speaking society, this concept is given political meaning. In fact, it arose not for this, but to reconcile different groups of people who are adherents of one or another idea. So, in Western civilization it is considered offensive to emphasize the gender of the interlocutor or the person in question. Everyone heard about moms and dads with numbers. In order to prevent excessive gender references, it is right to say, for example, "Mr. Minister," even if a woman is in office. That is, officials are addressed in a masculine manner. Negro also can not be called on the basis of his racial affiliation. About this they say "African American." Another rule prohibits emphasizing the physical characteristics of a person. For example, if you call someone blind, deaf or lame, break the rules of political correctness. Now in relation to such people it is customary to say "a person with disabilities." Although why be offended if hearing or vision were lost due to an ailment?
Political Correctness Protection
We started by saying that democracy, like any phenomenon, has two sides. Most likely, innovations in culture seem strange to many, while others consider them to be correct and progressive. But in fact, the founders of the political correctness of the choice do not leave their citizens. Violation of the rules leads to punishment. Offended by a politically incorrect statement, a person has the right, according to the legislation, to apply to the court. The lawsuit threatens the careless commentator with an exhausting process and a fine. In the West, people are forced to learn what cultural speech is. Although there is always a chance to negotiate without a court hearing. Statistics about this are not kept. It is only known that people try to avoid using publicly incorrect terms, as they say, away from sin.
Distortions of political correctness
When a society consists of representatives of different religions, sexual minorities, civilization groups, it is rather difficult to take into account the interests of all. But Western democracy has set itself such a goal and is stubbornly moving towards it. There are many oddities in this activity. So, now it’s not customary to wish a merry Christmas. Can you imagine? This can offend Muslims, although it would seem, what do they care about someone else's holiday? In the USA, they decided to wish happy holidays. Gradually, it creeps, like the corrosive smoke of an extinguished conflagration, into a Russian-speaking society. But try to remember when your Muslim friends pouted you or your parents for celebrating Easter, for example. This has never happened before. The Russian world is composed of different nations, accustomed to respect each other's traditions. Rather, you can hear the Muslim shouting the loudest "Christ is risen!" and reaches out to kiss three times. The following question arises from this ...
Do we need political correctness?
A lot of copies have been broken in the expert community on this subject. Some are trying to prove the progressivity of the studied concept, its usefulness to society. Others are perplexed: what can political correctness bring to our civilization? It is in the West only learning to build a multinational and multiconfessional society. And the Russian-speaking world solved this problem perfectly two centuries ago. Why do we need political correctness, if people have long been using clear principles of ethics and morality in communication, and they learn to speak correctly from the cradle? What do you think? Do we need western news that can, by the way, change the civilization code? The opinion of each member of society on such global issues of importance is more expensive than gold of brilliant and burning diamond. What do you think?