PC and Terrorism

Submitted by J.T Fiddes (Denmark), Sep 9, 2004 at 07:23

The point of Political Correctness is to recognise that the values and custom of other cultures, ehtnicities, groups need to be respected. A somewhat obtuse and frustrating process maybe, but its implementation helps to promote a notion of empathy amongst our communities. This to me is healthy. It is a process some resent however, for it is seen as avoiding the issues at hand; some express a right to be more objective, to call a 'spade a spade', a terroist a terroist.

To be PC is to unnecessarily cloud an issue. Whilst I see value in this approach, it does appear that most critics of political correctness have a different motive for their retort.

The notion of PC questions the very process in which our opinions have come to formed. It is a term implicit with a critical thinking that seeks to dis-establish a world formulated via simple binaries. It states that we can not view the world in terms of Us/Them, Good/Bad, West/Islam, for this process will always previlege one term over the other. It is an inevitably Western construct that explicitly privileges the West over the Muslim East.

Very generally, it appears that those critical of Political Correctness are so for they wish to maintain this oppositional way of thinking. They are used to asserting a morally superior position. Ironically this formation of the world is extremely subjective, and Sir in your opinion even un-journalistic. For objectively, purely to call a spade a spade, what is the difference in a young girl dying by the hand of a Chechan Rebel (terrorist), a Palestinian Militant (terrorist), a Basque Separatist (terrorist) or an American Soldier. For why, how and where will you stop asserting what is a 'terrorist'? On what terms, on what basis does this term come into its own?

I feel that Sir, you are simply asserting a moral highground for which you have no right. What happened in Russia constitutes a tragedy, simple.

But as for what constitutes terrorism, that Sir is not your right alone to decide.

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