Since Jeremy Clarkson put his ample foot in it again last week, I have been thinking about the dilemma of political correctness. It is a dilemma really, not because of its clunking name, nor the aims behind most PC activity (undoubtedly well-intentioned), but because it turns decent people against principles that they would normally have stood up for. Who doesn't think that people should be treated fairly and equally regardless of their race, religion, sex or whatever difference seems to separate us as human beings?
The problem occurs, I think, because of the institutionalization of goodness, niceness, decency or fairness. It just doesn't work. People end up being resentful of being told how to act and think. They don't like being robbed of the virtuousness, or the feeling one gets from acting decently, without prodding instruction or reference to a code of conduct.
In this sense, PC is counterproductive and ends up alienating the very people who actually support its underlying principles. If you take away the opportunity for people to act well because they want to, then you risk undermining the good-will that exists already.
There will always be those who act badly when confronted by difference. I see no reason to be alarmed by that, just so long as the rest of us can get on with acting for the good.
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