The most offensive word of the 90’s

Image by Carolyn Tiry via Flickr

Jean-Paul Bosque | Contributing Writer

opinion@fiusm.com

We live in a society that the concept of individualism has been pushed so much that it’s become mainstream to be an individual. So much so, that conformity is an out of the box concept.

We no longer tell you how to dress or how to act (or so you think). We let you be “you” and not care what others have to say about it.

We as a society value the “I” in Individuality so much so that it has become the common but this norm is only superficial. You can be as much of an “individual” as you like, but do you feel like you’re really an individual?

In the 1990’s one of the most verbally limiting and degrading terms came out and has shaped the way we articulate our thoughts –Political Correctness.

Being politically correct (0r PC) is the new way of mental conformity that has swept the nation. We pick at every sentence fragment before we spit it out or slap them on paper.

So where is the sense of individualism if we have to measure our words?  Lets not confuse being PC with having a filter, there is a big difference in speaking your mind and dropping an F-Bomb at free will, there is a time and a place for everything.

But the concept of political correctness has been inflated so much due to people that can’t take criticism, that we have to filter the way we address issues in a public/professional domain. We have to tailor every word we speak to not offend a person that might be sensitive to the subject that we are speaking of that our vernacular has become unnatural, artificial and robotic.

For example you can’t tell (enter someone’s name here) that their performance sucks in the workplace, when it’s evidently clear and everybody in that workplaces knows that said person doesn’t pick up their own slack.

You need to sugar coat a positive constructive criticism when in reality there’s nothing nice that could be said about said person’s performance. So the message you’re trying to convey gets lost in translation due to you having to be politically correct, because the person you’re addressing can’t handle some straightforward criticism.

You as a professional adult should be able to speak your mind and tell a coworker what’s on your mind without having to rethink what you’re thinking to say, by that same token the recipient of the news should be damn mature enough to take what is being put down like an adult and not be insulted by it.

Now let me reiterate, I’m not saying to go out and start dropping F-bombs and offending people just because. There is a fine line between slurs and speaking like a human being. But the concept of political correctness has been abused and is adding a filter to our current common sense (which evidently doesn’t seem to be so common) filter. Its taken the human factor out of our day to day vernacular.

Soon we will have to adopt speaking in parables to not offend the people that are offended by the people that will be offended by the comment of the people that aren’t meant to be offended that might offend the offender.  (If you got that, then you’re ahead of the game buddy boy….or girl. Whatever.)