Political Correctness is control or etiquette?

Democracy has advantages and disadvantages. She brought many new concepts to our lives. Among them is political correctness. This word we began to use only a couple of decades ago, without thinking about its semantic load. And what does it really mean? When is it appropriate to apply it? This topic will interest people who are trying to speak correctly. If you belong to such, let's try to figure it out.

Origin of the concept

Political correctness is a compound word. It, like the very concept, 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 encounter and communicate with each other. And everyone has their own ideas and norms determined by upbringing. People often make gross mistakes expressing their own thoughts. Progress is rapidly changing society, and the internal culture behind it is not keeping pace. In ordinary behavior, we strictly adhere to the moral norms inherent in our civilizational code, and sometimes we do not know anything about a stranger. Political correctness is a way to introduce unified rules of communication that do not hurt people who have different views. This is an attempt by society to reach a consensus in an ethical sense.

Examples of offensive language

Political correctness is a western innovation. It should be noted that it is of a general cultural nature. This concept is given political meaning in the Russian-speaking society. In fact, it arose not for this, but to reconcile different groups of people, adherents of this or that idea. So, in Western civilization it is considered insulting to emphasize the sex of the person or person in question. About mothers and dads with numbers all heard. To avoid excessive indications on the floor, it is correct to say, for example, "Mr. Minister," even if the post is occupied by a woman. That is, officials are treated in a masculine way. Negro also can not be called on the basis of his race. About this 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, with regard to such people, it is customary to say "a person with disabilities". But why take offense if the hearing or vision is lost due to ailment?

Protection of political correctness

We started with the fact that democracy, like any phenomenon, has two sides. Probably, innovations in the culture of many seem strange, while others consider them to be correct and progressive. But in fact the ancestors of political correctness of choice to their citizens do not leave. Violation of the rules leads to punishment. Offended by a politically incorrect statement, a person has the right, under the law, to go to court. The suit threatens an imprudent commentator with an exhausting process and a fine. In the West, people are forcibly forced to learn what cultural speech is. Although there is always a chance to negotiate without court hearings. Statistics on this matter is not being conducted. It is only known that people try not to use publicly incorrect terms, as they say, from sin far away.

The distortions of political correctness

When a society consists of representatives of different religions, sexual minorities, civilizational 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 a lot of oddities in this activity. So, now it is not customary to wish a happy Christmas. Can you imagine? This can offend Muslims, although, it would seem, what does it matter to someone else's holiday? In the US they decided to wish happy holidays. Gradually it creeps, like a corrosive smoke of a put out conflagration, into a Russian-speaking society. But try to remember when the familiar Muslims pouted at you or your parents for celebrating Easter, for example. This has never happened. The Russian world is made up of different peoples, accustomed to respecting each other's traditions. Rather, you can hear how a Muslim screams louder than all "Christ is risen!" And stretches to kiss three times. From this follows the next question ...

Do we need political correctness?

Copies in the expert community on this occasion are broken a lot. Some try to prove the progressive nature of the concept being studied, its usefulness to society. Others are perplexed: what political correctness can this bring to our civilization? This in the West only learns to build a multi-ethnic and multi-confessional society. And the Russian-speaking world solved this problem perfectly well two centuries ago. Why do we need political correctness, if people for a long time in communication use all clear norms of ethics and morals, but speak correctly from the cradle? What do you think? Do we need Western innovations that, by the way, are capable of changing the civilizational code? The opinion of each member of society on such issues of global importance is more precious than gold and brilliant gold. How do you think?