It starts with a discussion between At and me where he gave me the
"homework" of thinking about political correctness to investigate the
"rich picture" lying therein. Personally, I don't think I have enough
"paint," but I'll begin to prepare the canvas and offer it up for you to
paint upon.
Although we don't hear a lot about the buzzword Politically Correct (PC)
much more in the US, we see constant vestiges of it. The goal is not to
hurt anyone by insulting them with a label (fat, dumb, short, black)...so
we created better labels (weight-challenged, special, vertically
challenged, African-American) hoping that these "neutral" labels would
spread to an entire non-judgmental syntax.
Companies don't really fire people anymore...they downsize them, lay them
off, right size the organization. We've learned how to teach employees to
communicate with one another when one thinks another's idea is
crazy--they'll say, "hmmm...I'll consider that."
We've mastered the art of marketing everything bad with a positive spin.
No one lies anymore, they just side-step the truth and it's okay. Our
President "mislead" us--not me by the way, I understood what happened in
the Oval Office with the first report--and I trust you did also.
How does this hurt us and our organizations? All those systems that would
like to learn?
If we simply go after solutions on a surface level (ie, by relabeling)
we're going to miss the forest for the trees. Do employees at XYZ company
feel better because they've been right-sized out of work than if they'd
been fired? I suspect they feel even worse because of the disingenuous,
euphemistic way the muckity-mucks side step the reality...and presumably
sleep better at night.
Will we ever get to a real political correctness? What is 'correct' for
relations with people?
If we're so sensitive to others feelings that we don't say what we really
think, is the result less hurtful?
--LR Communication Systems, Inc. http://www.LRcom.com 139 Dogwood Lane Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922-0264 USA
Training in business writing and presentation skills. Seminars, distance learning/correspondence programs with personal feedback. Online options. Editing services. Founded in 1969.
E-mail for business: mail@LRcom.com personal: dmax@bellatlantic.net
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