Apparently, it all starts in childhood, at least some people’s childhood. I distinctly remember my mother telling me (when I was maybe five years old?) “Be nice.” I think at the time, it had something to do with not hitting the neighbor’s three-year-old.
I also vaguely remember my mother telling me that, if I couldn’t say anything nice about one of my schoolmates, I shouldn’t say anything at all. And didn’t Thumper the Rabbit say something like that to Bambi? Omigod, Walt Disney was one of the authors of political correctness! Is no one safe?
And then I started going to Sunday School, where I distinctly remember my teacher telling me that Jesus said to do unto others as I would have them do unto me. This conspiracy has no limits!
Well, I’m about to run out of exclamation points, and I’m only on my fourth paragraph. But I can find almost no place safe from the sinister forces of PC, and just switching to a Mac won’t help. Actually I do remember where I first heard the term (aside from computers, that is.) Back when I was working as a military counselor (trying to help people get out of the armed forces, most of whom as a taxpayer I really didn’t want in there anyway, but that’s another story), my work required me to go to meetings and conferences with various kinds of Left and Far Left organizations. I learned all kinds of interesting stuff about the American Left of the 1970s. I learned, for instance, that Maoists always come on time to meetings, but Stalinists are more fun at parties. I learned how to spot undercover government agents (they do all the scut work and make meetings last forever.) I learned that the women in the local chapter of the Revolutionary Communist Party all got their hair cut at the same place.
And, dear reader, that was where I first heard the term “politically correct.” It was used by a Stalinist describing a Maoist (or possibly the other way around—gimme a break, I’m going on 75 now.) It was, as we would say now, snark, used to describe somebody’s excessive or even obsessive devotion to the minutiae of political principle. It was a kind of in-group joke. Not long after, a colleague of mine suggested raising money by printing up some T-shirts with “POLITICALLY CORRECT BRIGADE” in Boldface Old English type on the front, and “PCB” on the back. We never got around to doing it, but it was a fun thing to contemplate. PCBs, the real ones, I mean, polychlorinated biphenyls, were big back then. They were a nasty chemical that kept turning up all over the place no matter how hard the EPA tried to get rid of it. And then I never heard the phrase again, for another decade or so. When it did turn up again, it was in a totally different context and with a totally different meaning.
A digression here: I used to be an English teacher. I even got a Master’s degree in the subject. One of the papers I wrote in pursuit of the degree was a study, mostly through the OED, of all the major dirty words in our current vocabulary. The study revealed that almost all of them had started out as euphemisms for something presumably even dirtier.
Most of them had started out as some kind of slang, too. Slang changes faster and more often than more conventional usage. Back in the 1960s, for instance, Black youth (and white youth who thought it was cool to emulate them) used the words “tight” and “up tight” to mean close to another person. But in less than a decade, “uptight” had found its way into the general vocabulary, with the meaning “anxious, rigid.”
Which is pretty much what happened to “politically correct.” It started out meaning “excessively devoted to arcane political principles,” as part of the in-group vocabulary of the American Left. And then it turned up on the American Right with the meaning “avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to exclude or marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against” (I got this straight from Webster’s.) “Politically correct” gets defined as “Conforming to a particular sociopolitical ideology or point of view, especially to a liberal point of view concerned with promoting tolerance and avoiding offense in matters of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation.” What the American Right (and, apparently, the Right in the UK as well) mean by it is “those prissy prigs who won’t let me bad-mouth people I don’t like.” (Or, as I’m sure Donald Trump been known to say, “who won’t let me call a spade a spade.” If he hasn’t, he will.)
Most recently, the sinister forces of political correctness are credited with objecting to laws allowing doctors and other health care providers to refuse to serve members of the LGBTQ community. If they’re right, of course, Hippocrates was among the first of the Politically Correct Brigade, well before even Jesus.
Okay, it’s time for a philosophical analysis. I can’t take full credit for it. Jonathan Haidt’s “moral foundations theory” is what got me started thinking about it. That theory posits that all human morality rests on some or all of six foundational values:
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Care: cherishing and protecting others; opposite of harm.
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Fairness or proportionality: rendering justice according to shared rules; opposite of cheating.
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Liberty: the loathing of tyranny; opposite of oppression.
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Loyalty or ingroup: standing with your group, family, nation; opposite of betrayal.
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Authority or respect: obeying tradition and legitimate authority; opposite of subversion.
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Sanctity or purity: abhorrence for disgusting things, foods, actions; opposite of degradation.
Political groups can be divided on the basis of which of these values they prioritize. Conservatives prioritize Liberty, plus Authority and Sanctity. Liberals prioritize Care, Fairness, and Loyalty. But Haidt doesn’t cross-cut this matrix with what I see as the equally significant division between absolute values (which are always and everywhere to be applied) and relative values (which are no better than the particular people or purposes they are applied to.)
For liberals, authority and loyalty are no better than the people one is being loyal or deferential to. They are relative values, whereas care and fairness are absolute. (For more PC background, see Matthew 5/ 43-47:
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.)
And for conservatives, care and fairness are no better than the people one is being caring or fair to. The main reason conservatives dislike liberals is that liberals feel obliged to at least try to respect everybody, even people the conservatives view as immoral or disgusting. Giving that kind of respect to criminals, or sexual deviants, or welfare drones, is what “political correctness” (as a Right-Wing slur) is all about.
I have long since gotten used to people saying “I’m going to say something politically incorrect [snigger snigger]” before saying something unpardonably racist or sexist or just plain obnoxious. It’s roughly equivalent to the driver who honks his horn before zipping through a stop sign or a red light or a pedestrian crosswalk. I have to give Donald Trump credit for not introducing his various tirades with that phrase. (Not unlike the rabbi who could find no suitable way to eulogize a particularly vile decedent except by saying “His brother was worse.”)
And yes, sometimes PC language can be really funny. The first and possibly the best treatment of the PC phenomenon happened in 1957, well before anybody ever used the term, at the hands of the Stan Freberg (see www.freerepublic.com/...; But a lot of good things can be funny, especially the first few times we hear them. That doesn’t necessarily invalidate their goodness.
So anyway, the next time somebody accuses you of being politically correct, don’t bother arguing with him (it’s almost always a him.) Just say “thank you,” try to deserve it, and go on about your business.
Tzivia L.