Politically correct speech handicaps the power of language. As a student, and indeed, a human, I owe my life to words. We all do. Language is our lifeline to the world. All we feel and know, all we learn and like is barred from the world until we attach letters to it. Words are a means to communication, and communication is a means to civilization. Therefore, there is nothing greater for society than the richness of words and nothing worse than their destruction.
This is because a language is only as effective as the range and clarity of its words. These words must describe everything before us, everything worth noting is real, but they must do so with accuracy, not ambiguity. The more specific our words, the more we can understand our world, our friends and ourselves. But there is a great disturbance in the Force. It goes by the name "political correctness." It is out to destroy our words, to maim in the name of ignorance.
As civilizations decline, they become increasingly concerned with form over substance, particularly with respect to language. At the time of the First World War we called it shell shock--a simple term, two one-syllable words, clear and descriptive. A generation later, after the Second World War had come and gone, we called it combat fatigue. It meant the same thing, and there were still just two words--but the two syllables had grown to four. Today the two words have doubled, and the original pair of syllables have mushroomed to eight. It even has an acronym, PTSD--post traumatic stress disorder. It still means the same thing, and it still hurts as much or as little, but it is more in tune with current sensibilities.
What is Political Correctness? Political Correctness (PC) is the communal tyranny that erupted in the 1980s. It was a spontaneous declaration that particular ideas, expressions and behavior, which were then legal, should be forbidden by law, and people who disobey should be punished.
