Образователен портал,теми,реферати,лекции

I remember our first or maybe second course when we were talking about hypocrisy – we were discussing things such as «Do all people wear masks? » and «Are we all hypocritical in a way? » and finally we came to a conclusion that yes, we are. Every day we say some things we don’t think are the things we want to say, and ask some questions we don’t really want to ask. So why do we behave in such a strange way? Why can’t we talk straight and, for example, don’t ask somebody how it’s going by him\her if we really don’t take any interest in it?

The fact is that political correctness or "communication hypocrisy” is in part just banal rules of decency, and to observe the proprieties is social obligation of every intelligent citizen who respects himself. Everything we say and the way we say it show our attitude to the interlocutor – if you respect your interlocutor, you’d never allow yourself to use some obscene language, for example. But on the other hand everything we say and the way we say it shows the level of our self-respect and education. Actually speaking is actually a vestige of the past; in modern society it’s important to be polite. Political correctness helps to avoid conflicts and discriminating other people, because even one single word can offend your interlocutor and cause serious problems; so we can say that PC is quite a good thing.

But OTOH the application of political correctness in political, economic and other important social spheres often has another sense – it can be is a very good instrument of mass-control: reporting quite an important information as if it is not significant at all or vice versa; turning "bad guys” into good ones, making hostile actions look pacifistic or at least loyal, denying responsibility etc-etc. The language of double speak is in this case very sophisticated and strategic and not everyone can cotton on at once.

Some people also think that political correction contradicts the idea of freedom of speech. Today in our democratic society we have freedom of choice and speech and have a right to say what we think. It can be a good idea, but reverting to things described above – who needs conflicts and who wants to be regarded as a boor or a fool?

In conclusion I can only say that political correctness is a very many-sided phenomenon – it is hypocritical but polite, it can hide some facts but in some cases for the sake of peace, it’s quite formal and full of clichés but while used with proper intonation and in proper context can be a good joke and make our speech richer; overall there is a time and place for all things, and PC is not an exclusion.