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21.08.2017 Feature Article

Will Political Correctness Be The Death Of Us All?

Will Political Correctness Be The Death Of Us All?
21.08.2017 LISTEN

The violent events in the U.S. city of Charlottesville - where counter protesters confronted white nationalists recently - were most unfortunate. Having said that, it also ought to be pointed out that clearly, it is now obvious to many around the world that political correctness has outlived its usefulness.

Why should we be attacking each other over symbols of the past - because some of us find them offensive today? How absurd. History's revisionists around the globe do a great disservice to future generations of their own people. We are who we are today, precisely because of the events of the past that shaped our nations. The question is: What do we gain if we tear down monuments from that past because we allow ourselves to feel offended by the social narratives of a long gone era that shaped us?

Let us leave the flags, statutes and other monuments of the past alone. They must not annoy us. Neither must they strike fear in our hearts. They are part of our collective history as humans. Why should flags, statutes and other monuments that serve as signposts of that past and offer meaning to the lives of many in present day society, cause offence to some? That should never be the case.

We must leave political correctness out of our past history if we are to live in harmony today. that is obvious. The past is a different country in a very real sense. We can only know about it and learn useful lessons from it if we preserve it and don't seek to fit it neatly into today's societal norms. That serves no purpose.

We cannot and must not pretend that the brutalities and barbarism of slavery and colonisation did not occur. They did indeed occur - but that is in the past. And neither can we pretend that many positive societal changes did not result from the occupation of many nations by a few once-powerful colonising nations that exploited other peoples. They did - long ago.

Those who seek the revision of the history of nations do a great disservice to their societies. If today's white nationalists want to live the kinds of lives that give meaning to their days on this earth, they have a constitutional right to do so and must be allowed to do so - as long as they do not infringe on the rights of other people in society. Naturally.

Regardless of the hue of our skins, we are all members of the one human race that inhabits this delicate biosphere we share as our only home in the universe - and is the origin of our common ancestrage. Let the white nationalists and neo-Nazis of the political spectrum's ultra-right demographic be - wherever in the world they reside.

They too deserve their place under the sun. As do the rest of us - a fact that white nationalists need to accept if there is to be harmony in this world. Above all, we must also ensure the preservation of the flags and monuments of the past that white nationalists revere. We owe them that. We must ensure their preservation in order to teach future generations (of all hues) about their past as it actually was.

That is the only way our progeny will be able to see just how far the human race has progressed as social beings during their era. It is one of the reasons why we must leave the past alone - so that future generations will be able to know the truth about their own past histories too. Do we not owe them that? Finally, if we are not careful, political correctness will be the death of us all - a catastrophe we must never allow to occur.

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