Political Correctness Breeds Mediocrity

Ah, the thread continues. One modern social development I fully abhor is political correctness. To me, this is a movement by a misguided people who do not have a realistic view of human society. In many ways, a mind-think that is trying to reduce the world into a mediocre mixture of pablum.

The focus of this entry is labels. I remember, in the beginning, when the goose-stepping PC minions rose to the surface with ideas like calling blind people visually impaired or retarded people as mentally challenged to get rid of prejudice. In their narrow views, they believed that by changing the label, this would change peoples' perceptions and attitudes. What a crock!

My brother, Erich, has Down's Syndrome. The PC police want people to call him mentally challenged or some other nice euphemism. But in their minds they still say retarded, as most people do. Changing one label for another does not change what people think.

Erich will not be any more accepted if he is called mentally challenged. People will still move away or stare. Changing a label does not equate to educating. But the PC minions does see that because that takes time. They want a quick fix. Point of fact, Erich is retarded based on the definition of the word. He was never challenged mentally because he will be forever at the same mental stage. There is nothing that can be done.

This does not diminish Erich's accomplishments. He is a great guy. He is an amazing bowler and swimmer. He has many medals and trophies to his name. Physically he is an adult but mentally he is an 8 year old child. Affixing a new and improved label on him is not going to change Erich or the reactions he gets from people who do not know him, or his accomplishments. Calling him mentally challenged did not prevent him from being fired from a job when a new boss came in and felt he would give the place a bad name.

To me, the PC police see the world in a simplistic way. As I said in my previous blog, by changing or claiming a label will not change the attitudes behind the label. I do not feel more empowered be calling myself queer especially when I am called queer by a group of guys at a street corner. The words like queer or nigger, when said by hateful people is not blunted by claiming the word. It is the hate behind the word, not the word itself.

The PC police want the world to be simple, controllable. Everything fitting in their simple categories. This makes life easy one when you have pigeon-holed people. Labels become important in a PC world. Things have to be black or white.

Yet the PC police are quick to use labels as weapons. You slap on a label such as misogynist and then that person is dismissed by a set of groups. If you are a feminist, a complete catalogue is placed upon you. I could go on but the point is that this dehumanizes the person, categorizes people in nice safe cubby-holes. We want the world to be set up neatly and orderly. And then life will be better.

A good example is an argument I got into with someone I once knew. He was adamant about me being a gay writer. Or a queer writer, depending on the moment. I countered that we don't say that of person who is straight.

The response was you don't need to, it is assumed. Which I could see, up to a point. The conversation started to spiral and I got a little silly. I don't write gay literature. I write different things. So to end the argument, I suggested I be called a white single gay fantasy writer. The guy I was arguing with was not impressed.

But it did make me start to think about labels. Now the person I was speaking to was a full blown PC adherent. Whereas I could see an aspect of his argument, I was bothered by the idea of limiting oneself. Yes, I am a writer, I am gay, I am white, etc. etc. Different things conspired to make me who I am, not just my sexuality. In the end, I drew a quick Venn diagram of some of the labels which could describe me:


The circles show how each 'sphere' that defines me interacts with others. Yet all the 'spheres' intersect in on area, where the black dot is. That black dot is me. With what I have here, I should call myself a white English cat loving engineer over 40 writer who was left handed.

The absurd thing of this, these labels can be changed or added to. I'm inexperienced (gay-wise), male, I've been homeless, had a nervous breakdown, three major depressions, was an annoying telemarketer, have one tattoo, fractured my hip, a Scorpio through and through, sometime drink too much beer and I can go on. So to me labels are completely arbitrary.

I do not see 'gay writer' as an appropriate label to define me. Especially since I have never written any gay short stories or novels. Some of my stuff has gay content, and the current series I am working one does have some gay themes and characters, yet the story is not a 'gay' story. It is just a story.

From my POV and experiences, the worst when it comes to PC are the feminists and gays. There is a mind-think you must adhere to else you are not one of them. I have been labelled misogynist by feminists and an assimilationist by gays. All of this because I dare to disagree with them and not fall the party line. Which is the dogma of any PC group.

And in the end, that is all political correctness is. A stifling dogma. Doctrines you must accept as truth without question. And all dogma does is breed conformity and mediocrity. It prevents honest dialogue because the vocal minority stridently drown out any dissenting voices. And it makes those who wish to speak out afraid to do so because they will be labelled as racism, homophobic, misogynist, etc. etc.

I have been called a self-loathing queer by one person because of things like my views on 'marriage' and that I don't go to gay pride functions because there is no floats for gay engineers or lawyers. I should be celebrating the diversity of the gay culture. I should embrace the uniqueness of the community. And I should not voice any dissenting opinions.

Wel I am not a self-loathing queer. I am Louis C. Vroomen, a complex human being forged by elements from the past 48 years of my life. And I am an on-going project. And hope to continue to evolve over the next 40 or more years, God willing. And you will not be able to define me by mere labels. I will not acquiesce to mediocrity and the boring view of the simple life the PC police wish to force on us, whether we like it or not.