I never thought I’d say this, but I kind of miss the days when there were genuine injustices. Injustices, such as segregation in the southern U.S. or apartheid in South africa or the exclusion of Canadian Indians from liquor stores or bars were all issues that could raise one’s blood pressure. Today’s injustices tend to be a lot more trivial and benign. I believe that a lot of so-called injustices are merely acts of thoughtlessness or extraordinary rudeness and the only reason that they are considered injustices is because many people are too easily offended.
as a culture we have become so thin skinned that it’s awfully difficult not to offend someone these days by saying even the most innocent things. It seems that terms such as "racist", "bigot", "sexist" or "chauvinist" are bandied about at the drop of an insult. and think just how destructive this trend of crying "wolf" has become, where we are now afraid to gather crime statistics, lest they reveal the fact that a disproportionate amount of crimes might be committed by minorities. (and I’ll probably be labeled "racist" for mentioning this.)
People are cautious, if not downright uncomfortable, talking about immigration for fear of being labeled racist when they suggest that perhaps our immigration policy could use some serious revision. It’s like there is an 800-lb. gorilla in the room that everyone sees, but no one is willing to acknowledge.
Men are reticent to hold a door for a woman for fear of being labeled sexist through the mere extension of a courtesy to another human being. People twist themselves into pretzels in efforts to keep their speech gender neutral, so as not to offend anyone. Thus individuals will settle for being called a piece of furniture (chair) in order to avoid the emotional potential of using a more traditional word.
Many pundits have written about today’s social climate being devoid of humour. We have adopted a grim, soviet-bureaucracy style of deportment, where everyone watches what everyone else says or does in an effort to identify and isolate torts. Heaven forbid, someone tells an off-colour joke or even an ethnic joke. Right away the barbs come out with accusations of (fill in the blank).
Socially speaking, this is a really destructive practice. First of all, it imposes an overall air of oppression to all social discourse, which makes conversations with strangers seem like walking through a minefield. On a more serious and potentially destructive note, it prohibits us from frankly and candidly exploring issues that affect our potential well-being. Hence we are squeamish about discussing radical Islamic terrorism, lest we offend Muslims. For fear of appearing racist we are willing to accept immigrants who would normally not qualify for admittance into any other country. The results of this have been empirically destructive if not demonstrably catastrophic. For evidence please reference the names ahmed Ressam (the Moroccan immigrant from Montreal who was arrested attempting to cross into the U.S. on New Year’s eve 1999 with a bomb in the car) and Clinton Junior Gayle (the Jamaican drug dealer who was convicted of fatally shooting Toronto police officer Todd Bailiss)
The more we engage in avoiding reality, the more stilted we become in our quest to be inoffensive to anyone and everyone. Being mindful of others’ feelings is a common and necessary courtesy that defines a civilized society. Being so mindful of others that we endanger ourselves is sheer stupidity.
That’s why I long for some real injustice, the kind of injustice that’s clearly black and white (no pun intended) and leaves no doubt in one’s mind about how wrong it truly is. But then, in the absence of real injustice some of us like to make up our own injustices, just to keep things interesting.
It seems as if political correctness is creating a plethora of new "victims", all of whom are clamouring to have their causes at the forefront. What would they do if someone really did discriminate against them?