There is a strong strain of the absurd in Political Correctness that encourages multifaceted individuals to dehumanize themselves by focusing on and politicizing one aspect of their identity to the detriment of all the others.
The best example of this is what is grandly referred to as 'the gay community.' One furtive act that some people occasionally perform in the privacy of their bedrooms is hoisted up to become the central identity of a far-flung community.
Has anyone thought about how absurd this is? It is the equivalent of all the auto-eroticists in the land rising up, banding together, and demanding special rights – criminalizing terms like 'w**ker,' for example, and legalizing the right to marry oneself.
In the UK, recent anti-hate laws designed to protect 'the gay community' make it possible in theory for gay comedians to be prosecuted for poking fun at themselves. As political correctness, backed by Orwellian thoughtcrime law, makes it risky for comedians to take shots at protected groups, they will be forced to concentrate their wits on those currently outside the legal umbrella. Baldies for example.
As a result, I predict that the follicly-challenged will increasingly become the butt of jokes until they too form their own 'community' and demand the same degree of protection against their detractors, as well as special rights. They might also want to adopt a pleasant sounding sobriquet like their 'gay' counterparts have done. I would suggest 'shiny.' They can then have 'Shiny Pride' days and march around with banners stating "I'm not bald, I'm shiny," etc.
You can see where all this will go. Once insulting or mocking 'slapheads' has been criminalized, comedians will have to find yet another target. I predict they will move on to nose-pickers, until that group, too, starts to defend itself, and its members start to define themselves by one minor and rather unpleasant facet of their personality.
Instead of a healthy humanism and a robust individualism based on the idea that people are more than the sum of their parts, Political Correctness of the kind espoused by the current Labour and Conservative Parties encourages us to define ourselves as fragmented, bitter and fearful victims, afraid of our own thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
In short, it creates the perfect mind frame on which to build a future totalitarian system, where everyone has grievances, everyone is guilty, and the government is the sole and final arbiter. This is the fragmentary, evil, dehumanizing power, and totalitarian tendency of political correctness.
Identity Magazine
March 2008
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