The Irony of Political Correctness

Some of the guidelines behind the idea of being politically correct is ironically, still offensive. Terms like homophobic, socially challenged, cosmetically different, least best, differently sized etc., still have some sort of negative connotation, despite its best efforts to masquerade the level of offensiveness.

It seems like in today’s world, any chances of offending someone is deemed to be politically incorrect, the subject of the cause of political incorrect phrase deemed to be blamable and the subject of the political incorrect phrase (or the receiving party) almost pitiable.

On a grander picture, there is this ostensible fear: fear of truth, the truth that may deprive the esteem of someone. Indirectly, it violates the principle of honesty being the best policy. How much of the alternate phrases that are being phased out into our media is politically correct, is a better disguise? The alternate phrases are objectively and arguably, politically incorrect in itself.

Homophobic: why should anyone be labeled homo in the first place? To first, objectify the difference, then categorize them as fear-related seems to be an implicit violation of human rights.

Socially challenged: instead of embracing the uniqueness and differences of people who can contribute to the social culture, we embark on their differences as a challenge of the standard, like it is some sort of a negative connotation.

Cosmetically different: I believe this to be a subjective viewpoint, and to vocalize or note something like that in an objective article, defeats the purpose of the supposedly objective and fundamental arguments.

Least best: implicit criticism of not being good enough.

Differently sized: Again, subjective. Implicitly implying that there should be a norm for size, and the receiving party of the term should or should not conform to the norm.

As a society, we are so readily labeling anybody who is different from us, quick to judge, quick to differentiate that it has become innate in us to speak and articulate the differences, and then call it the freedom of speech. Frankly, even as I am writing this as objectively as I can, I too, often make the mistake of being politically incorrect, quite repeatedly.

In the end, political correctness is really just a roundabout of obscurity stemmed from fear without much alternate solution.

The little bout of happiness

There's nothing more in the world I want than for those I hold dear and near to my heart, to be happy.

The general advice is that happiness is what you make of it. The key is to look for the silver lining, to not let other sources of negativity get into you. The likelihood of the opposing argument is you can't get happiness if you have all sorts of negative distractions that disturbs your center, that when life gives you plenty of lemons, you make lemonade and you end up being unhappy with the result.

I stand for none of that right now, though at different parts of my life, I've stood on both of those grounds.

I think happiness stems from experiences. If you have had mostly negative experiences, it is harder to attain happiness. Likewise, if you have had mostly positive experiences in life, your chances of happiness improves.

In taking into account for the individuals who have had mostly positive experiences, but still is not happy; or mostly negative experiences but still is happy: I pose the following argument.

Ultimately, happiness is learning from those experiences, and altering them in such a way that you can either look past the pain, and find the point where you can emotionally remove yourself to go back to that center. Or, you can remember the positive experiences and go back to it again and again, to feel that emotion, to take you back to the center.