Madly politically correct

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Wed, 27 Jul 2011
News: Schools News | Secondary Scene

Sarah Mosley: Year 13, South Otago High SchoolLittle Miss Muffet
sat on her tuffet
eating her curds and whey
along came a spider and sat down
beside her
and got hit with a harassment suit
and restraining order.

Political correctness. Is it a well-meaning initiative, or an attempt to undermine our laid-back way of life?

No more can we have policemen and firemen. We must be non-gender specific, and don't even think about mentioning religion or race. The world is going into PC overdrive.

Although my opening nursery rhyme may not be the official PC Little Miss Muffet, it is just as crazy as the now commonly used Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep. Has anyone pointed out there is no such thing as a rainbow sheep! They say the words black sheep alienate and offend young black children. It's not the only nursery rhyme to be deemed inappropriate.

Humpty Dumpty has now escaped his original fate. He still falls off his wall, but now stays in one piece. Hello?

This could lead to a whole generation thinking that if you fall off a wall, you won't get hurt. Dear me, where could this lead?

Political correctness in New Zealand is on a smaller scale compared to the madness in the United Kingdom. A chief constable refused to release pictures of two escaped murderers because it might breach their privacy. What about the victim?

New Zealand hasn't completely escaped though. The PC fog is sneaking down the country.

Auckland's Middlemore Hospital has removed the crucifix from the hospital's chapel, oh, sorry, I mean the spiritual centre. How much comfort will patients or visitors find in an empty room, devoid of any of the religious symbols that they have come to expect?

Little to none, I'm sure.

The Eskimo lolly is one of our country's favourites. Last year, there was a lot of publicity about them. The large majority of us have all eaten at least one, if not 50. Apparently that makes us cannibalistic, Inuit-hating people. Get real. Most of the time they're processed so badly that you can't tell what they are anyway.

I haven't seen Sir Edmund Hilary's "Risk Management Plan" for climbing Mt Everest displayed in any museum.

Nor have I seen a photo of Richard Pearce wearing his fluoro vest during his flight attempts. These good old-fashioned Kiwi heroes succeeded before the days where everyone had to be kept safe in the bubble wrap we're expected to use for everything we do.

Political correctness is a crazy plan to stop human beings doing what we were designed to do - think for ourselves.

To stop this dangerous trend we need to stand up for what we believe in and think for ourselves. Keep a sense of humour and stop small-minded people ruining our lives.

These PC trends are sneaking in all over the world. Society is at risk of being destroyed. We need to unite, burn those risk management plans, buy a big bag of Eskimos, and take responsibility for our own actions.

- By Sarah Mosely, Year 13, South Otago High School 

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Too much PC

Submitted by Selina on Sun, 31/07/2011 - 9:52pm.

I find it impossible to believe the views expressed here could stem from this child alone. The author uses examples of "political correctness" of which she would, at
her age, have no direct experience.

She has not presented any compelling evidence that "society is at risk of being destroyed". At what age do kids these days start learning about the history of human
rights, about feminism, about Maori rights, about workplace accidents and occupational diseases, about injustices to indigenous peoples,  and when do they start sampling from the breadth of human experience instead of formulating opinions from a narrow perspective.

 

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PC

Submitted by raymondo12 on Thu, 28/07/2011 - 8:53am.

The wise young lady was saying that PC thinking stops us from thinking for ourselves. She is spot on. Our freedoms, which are based on common sense, must be protected and supported at all costs, so good for you Sarah Mosley. [Abridged]

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PC

Submitted by Rob Fischer on Wed, 27/07/2011 - 4:26pm.

For Sarah's information, the "now commonly used" "baa baa rainbow sheep" was used by two .. yes two .. private nurseries in Oxfordshire. Hardly "commonly used".

The gender specific issue is one that Miss Mosely will reconsider when gendered stereotypes are pressing her head up into the glass ceiling. That's right, let's get the best man for the job.

Sir Edmund Hillary might not have written a "Risk Management Plan" but you can be pretty sure he had one.

The cross in the hospital should remain of course, but, unless we are advocating a "Christian" only state (that's not an issue of PC, that's about freedom of religion, i.e. individual rights) we'd need to place the symbols of all the other major religions up there too. They'd be flowing down the hallways. [Abridged]

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Sarah Mosely for Prime Minister

Submitted by Ian Smith on Wed, 27/07/2011 - 12:01pm.

Well put Sarah, at last a glimmer of commonsense in a world beset by stupidity. It happens everywhere, and, I suspect, some people make lifetime careers out of perpetuating such nonsense. We live in a world of 'thou shalt not', and it is being added to by the day.

Here in New Zealand, it manifests itself in what I call 'scatter-gun' solutions, blanket legislation at both local and national level, designed to scoop up the law-abiding in 'blanket' solutions designed to deal with only tiny minorities of offenders, but nonetheless depriving almost everyone of their rights. The present situation regarding Dunedin's John Wlison Drive being a classic case in point. 

'Political correctness' absolves us of the need to think, it entraps everyone in sets of rules, usually put in place by minorities with 'agendas', and we don't kick back, because some of us find it 'comfortable' to be relieved of the need to think for ourselves. The ultimate beneficiaries are, all too frequently, ethnic minorities, which authorities fall over themselves to appease, rather than being seen to confront 'real', as opposed to 'contrived' issues.

Speaking and writing are both forms of communication where there is both a 'sender' and a 'receiver' otherwise information is not transmitted from one to the other. To make the process effective, everything should be stated as simply and unambiguously as possible, and the gobbledy-gook of political correctness, of course, is the antithesis of that simplicity.  

 

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