by Charles Penman

Created on: June 06, 2008   Last Updated: December 24, 2010

Political correctness is two words that define intolerance.

Democracy allows individuals to express preference without, by and large, fear of retribution. The fact that the preference they express makes your blood boil should be more to do with your ability to tolerate opinion that digresses from yours than labelling it politically correct because it provides some justification for your indignation. But the truth - the honest truth - is we find more comfort labelling something than spending any real time trying to understand its reasoning.

There are times when we all see or hear things that stretch the very limits of our tolerance. We read and hear things that strain our emotions to the limit. We have fellow citizens fighting and dying for our country and yet we see or hear about some bizarre decision aimed at placating a minority view. We get indignant, frustrated and angry. Why do we get so angry? Because we can't or won't try and see the issue the way others do. And so we roll out the term 'political correctness' and smile. Job done - everyone knows what this means.

Yet lables are easy, at times funny and profoundly satisfying. It is so easy to lie back and wave the banner of political correctness rather than try to understand, if not agree, why someone else feels so strongly about a particular issue which draws nothing more than incredulity from you.

This difficulty is exaggerated further by the blazing spotlight of a media that neither cares nor desires to inform in detail preferring glibe headlines and razor sharp sound bits. Just when was the last time you saw something that you considered 'politically correct' and where did you see it? Drawing breath to answer that question simply illuminates why political correctness is a symptom of intolerance rather than an outbreak of some incurable disease.

And then we have the actual definition of the term 'political correctness'. Would allowing people to sit in the same bus because there skin colour was different been considered politically correct in the 1950's and 1960'? Simply trying to define this ubiquitious term leaves a dry mouth.

Is your understanding of political correctness the same as mine? Then again, does it need to be? If we all have a different interpretation of the term doesn't that reveal more about us than the term? We all carry baggage.

Political correctness is a label used to paper over our intolerance of others and their views when we decide to oppose them. Democracy must survive political correctness. Should it fail, all we have revealed is our inability to tolerate the opinions of others.

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