I must say!
Weirder and weirder!
You'd think my topic was really about sending below average non-achievers to the ovens!
Now, I'm wondering.....can it be reading comprehension? Preconceived notions? Sloppy scanning of posts?
Or, do I have a false sense of my ability to communicate clearly? The irony would be delicious, of course:)
LET ME SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT.
ATTENTION! ATTENTION!
It isn't necessary to read into my words an absolute interpretation. Why do so?
If I'm a lousy dancer and somebody tells me I'm a lousy dancer they are not calling into question my right to live. They aren't saying I shouldn't associate with people who can dance superbly. There is no existentialist crisis at all! The reality would be that I'm a lousy dancer and realize it and so do others who are willing to say so.
Should I be unaware of my dancing ability (as sooooo many people are about their ineptitudes) and actually think I'm pretty darn good----plus + people are unwilling to hurt my feelings by telling me the truth.......IS THAT BENEFICIAL TO ME or NOT?
Ignorance is bliss--but--it isn't an honest bliss, now is it?
If I think I'm already good--why would I endeavor to try and IMPROVE?
That's one-half of what this Topic is really about.
The other half is this.
People with organic, physical or mental problems probably can't do things the rest of us find easy to do. Praising their efforts is a wonderful thing. But--telling them that is all we expect (effort) and equating that with actually mastering the deed which cannot be done (because of the infirmity) is simply a confusion at best and outright misrepresentation at worst.
Now---let's put those two halves together and make a point:
Political Correctness has its collective heart in the right place (don't needlessly offend those less fortunate) motive-wise.
However, the damage it does (granting permission from others to view an inability as a King's X accomplishment) is the damage of UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.
Calling a spade a spade is correctly identifying what something is by comparing it against a normative standard.
If we distort our standard and grant special terminology to bypass what is real and true---what happens? (Calling a spade a club!)
THIS IS MY PREMISE: What happens when we distort our standards of truth or reality is that we erode consciousness of things.
In what way? We blur the distinctions between what something IS and what it ISN'T. By doing this (no matter how kind or loving our intentions) we create a false sense of self (approval of others for sub-standard accomplishments) which destroys something valuable.
What does Political Correctness destroy? The currency of social values (what is acceptable for all rather than what is for a select few.)
We become---as a group---guility of Counterfeiting our values collectively!
Once we destroy the bedrock of social values (standards) the slide into chaos, underachievement and fecklessness runs riot.
THIS IS MY PREMISE.
No euthanizing somebody because they can't spell cat.
The foundation of society is the individual. If the individual is incapable of correctly appraising his/her own efforts toward achievement, SOCIETY AS A WHOLE BECOMES DEFICIENT.
Why?
Feedback.
One example and then I'll shut up.
Once upon a time, after a stage performance, an audience which had been entertained to the point of overwhelming enthusiasm could communicate its approval to the performers by giving a STANDING OVATION. This was the ultimate---the supreme accolade a performer could gauge his/her performance by.
But now? In Fort Worth--no matter who does what on stage there is a perfunctory "standing ovation" which follows!
The currency of audience approval and communication has been destroyed as a validation superlative.
There is not good, better, best.
This is Political Correctness at work.
