Amerika

From a politically-correct article praising political correctness:

Correct terms change with bewildering frequency. Felix Leiter tells James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever: ‘People are so dam’ sensitive about colour around here that you can’t even ask a barman for a jigger of rum. You have to ask for a jegro.’ That was published in 1956: perhaps the first recorded joke about political correctness.

But at heart, political correctness and its attendant language are about inclusivity: race, religion, sexual orientation, age, gender, physical and mental capacity. Non-PC views, however jovially expressed, are about exclusion, generally exclusion of the weak by the strong.

Another word for “inclusive” is “egalitarian.” You do not need to demonstrate some kind of fitness or character to be included, but are part of the club just because you are human.

Astute observers will note however that any benefit not won is not actually valued.

This is why modern people are pathologically in pursuit of quantity over quality: equality destroys quality, so all that is left is to pile up a whole lot of the mediocre.

In the meantime, we see the origins of political correctness: sensitivity. What a salesman does to make a sale is to portray your weaknesses as strengths. Sensitivity does that on a social level.

Is nature “inclusive”? No, not at all — but all things received are won and thus valued.

Tags: felix leiter, inclusivity, james bond, political correctness