There is never GROWTH without conjugate DECLINE because Reality is

TRANSFORMATION

 

 

Does the metaphor “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” capture our social scene where political correctness abounds?  I should say; ‘our WESTERN CULTURE social scene’ because the indigenous aboriginal culture, for example, does not embrace this ‘political correctness’.  In the WEST, observations such as the following by Max Planck do seem to prevail;

The German physicist Max Planck said that science advances one funeral at a time. Or more precisely: “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

There is also the story of Rip van Winkle and in the case of ‘political correctness’, many of us have had the experience of ‘waking up’ to the fact that ‘things have changed’.  For example our years of managing to drive safely WITHOUT SEAT BELTS have now been superseded by the powerful force of ‘political correctness’ that is poised to ‘tar and feather’ those who continue to practice behaviours that were perfectly ‘normal’ and socially accepted on a ‘that’s life’ kind of basis.

“Flirting” was one of those things, but as a Saturday Night Live satire points out, a male had better be handsome and confident in order to pull off ‘flirting’ without his face slapped or having the police called to arrest him.

So Planck’s observation on how scientific understanding changes, is pretty much on target for how social-relational understanding changes.

The ‘Rip van Winkle’ who cares deeply for others and has cultivated his driving skills to protect the safety of children when they are passengers in his vehicle, may be surprised if he ‘wakes up’ in a new era where he is regarded as a nasty criminal because, in the interim, seat-belt technology has arrived and laws have been passed criminalizing those who drive without ensuring that both passenger and driver are secured by seat belts.

What I am trying to bring forth for consideration here is this WESTERN CULTURE JUDGEMENTAL ATTITUDE termed POLITICAL CORRECTNESS.

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