we get it... daily
October 3, 2005
The Dangerous Whys
Why are some questions so uncomfortable today? Is it because we're comfortably entrenched in a society that blindly accepts the dictates and definitions of the properly politically correct mandate? Or is it simply fear of being identified as incorrect, as insensitive? The personal, social, an even legal repercussions being so inequitable as to be feared above loss of personal expression? And when did insensitivity become equated with conscious aggression? When did the slip of the tongue become an inexcusable issue - beyond a momentary apology? But worse, why is there such an obvious duality, a undeniable dual standard, when it comes to these sensitive issues?
By way of example, some questions that fall in this category:
Why is it OK for a race to call itself by names that others are chastised for using? Why can Chris Rock refer to Niggers like he's possessed with Tourettes Syndrome, but you'd never hear David Letterman use it even in contextual reference?
Why do cities pass laws against Men-Only clubs, while we embrace the sisterhood of Women-Only organizations without question? Why has no one sued a nightclub over its "Ladies Night" policy?
Why do we, in the name of equality, dismiss the potential that biology and heredity make some people truly smarter, more able, more adaptable, more aware than others, and that these differences could be attributed to social, or evolutionary environmental conditions, or ever simple gender?
Even asking these questions probably brings knee-jerk reactions to surface in the pre-programmed reader: The question's author is a racist. The questions author is misogynist. (And while we're at it, why do we never hear about the misandrists? It's so bad that even our spell checker recognized misogynist, but not misandrist.) We ignore the fact that it was a question seeing clarification, the mere act of asking is a damnable issue - the question is beneath contempt. Consideration of the question is too close to accepting the concept as valid - we would be so tainted by the act.
We're back to the same old, same old. You people have stopped thinking for yourselves. You accept what the news, what the lawyers, what both the frothy liberals and cold conservatives tell you is right; you simply have lost the ability to decide this for yourselves, to think in context, to consider more than the sound-bite or the still frame image of their composed reality.
That, and you have joined the mob. You delight in the opportunity to "catch" someone else being bad. Oh, the joy of pointing out that John or Jane used a phrase or word that is currently out of fashion, deemed insensitive, or simply not taking the object of discussion's supposed feelings into account. We prove by this that we are superior in our sensitivity, which is in itself an interesting conflict. In the damnable end we spend too much time on this social smokescreen, and too little time on the real problems.
We monitor our thoughts so that others won't monitor us. We hinder our own thinking. We become mentally stagnant.
Why?
| Hey, bet that makes up for all the "Fuck You's" yesterday. |
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