Politically correct..

Censure.

Censure, but not that of information, the one about which everybody talks, not the one that all hell is usually raised because of, no...

Censure of the words. The so-called politically-correct language.



In those two words, I find a very special definition of bullshit. A very true one, too.

Like all horrifying things that twist and turn your world into a less emotional, more rational and definitely more boring in the mind-and-heart-freezing way, it started at its core from a very good idea.

They say language has power. A big lot of power. And before, when we used to suit our language for the discrimination, some words really needed polishing. However, as with all good ideas, we've successfully managed to turn them into complete and utterly useless junk. From the idea for a non-offensive society language, we've reached the opposite -- a society in which every second word is offensive.

Of course, nobody made the effort to ask themselves if language has any power or not. It really doesn't. The words hurt more than stones? That's something one should believe in only at the age of 3. Because the words hurt more than stones only if the stones are very small and if you really take the words seriously.

What I'm trying to say is -- language has as much power, as you put in it. You can just ignore it or you can give it the full might to make one entire nation sacrifice its men and children for some distant tyrant's goals. Whereas you can't just say 'no' to a flying stone at your face, you can easily say that to anybody's statement. But in any case, you make the choice to give language power, no matter if it's knowingly or not.

In these last years, we have given it so much power. Suddenly, half of the words we can use are incorrect. Why? Because somebody might get offended, they say. And since something is announced 'offensive', then people really do get offended.

It has reached the point where we can't call the world for what it really is. We can't face it. We hide behind all those polite and easy words, as if the truth is not there if we just ignore it. The latter tactic seems to be working perfectly for many politicians, yes, but I doubt it's the same with life.

Every condition or discrimination has now a polite word about it, because the other one is offensive. Has anybody even asked why is it offensive? No. Or if they have, they've probably been shot for giving voice to reason.

Words like "black" /which isn't offensive, but is replaced by African American/ are not offensive; why create a word like "Chicano", when you could simply call the person by their (notice the PC here) nationality /chicano is used as a PC synonym of the longer word Mexican American/?

Quoting:

Guys: Very controversial. Used, especially in the Midwest, when referring to a group of people. “In Chicago that word gets used a lot,” says Hill. And Baim says, “I use it all of the time.” Some feminists, like Andi Zeisler, the editor of Bitch, find “guys” problematic.

Some of them were/are offensive, indeed, but 90% -- not quite, as you can see. People didn't even suspect they could be offensive, why would they? If there are 5 boys and 5 girls and somebody comes and starts off with, "guys," nobody would even think that could be offensive. But of course, when you hint them it could be...

I mean, imagine this situation. Let's say, a rock could speak. What would you call a rock? Yeah, that's right -- a rock. Then, some guy in an expensive outfit comes and says it's offensive to call a rock a rock, because it's discriminating. Rockism, they'd call it, and there'd be a lot of lawsuits to prove its existence.

Eventually, they'll call it "hard, possibly-sharp natural object" (HPSNO for short, if it follows GLBTQ2IA's example) and 'rock' would be filed under the 'bad' words.

At the same time, there's a very simple pattern that gets obvious. By now, the whole society is split up in different groups of people that get offended by different words. Before that, nobody got offended, because nobody considered the such-and-such words offensive, but now, it's different -- now, they're in their own cliques, defending themselves against the world of discrimination.

Some types of discrimination were never there before somebody deemed a word 'inappropriate'.

You know, for the most intelligent species on this world, we sure are pretty gullible. All it takes is to utter the word "discrimination", and we're ready to jump the defend-my-rights bandwagon.

P.S. Think the number of times I've used the words "offensive" and "discrimination" is close to infinity... or at least, trying to be.

Happy new year! Честита нова година :)

With the coming of 2010 also came a very forgotten thought in my head: new year's resolutions.

One of the reasons why I'm making this post now and not, let's say yesterday, nor earlier this morning, was the fact that, stupid as it may sound, new year's eve caught me by surprise resolution-wise.

And while I was trying to resurrect (was and still am) my numbened-by-last-night brain all day long, I actually decided to read. It did not kill me, yet, but it did make my head hurt in a very strange way. What I read was others' new year's resolutions. /Note here: no, still not turning this place into "Dear diary", but this should be somewhat relevant to the idea behind this post./

I thought about doing what I did two years ago: forgive everyone everything and start afresh. But then, I decided that a) I haven't got anything to forgive, because whatever it might have been, it's already forgotten and b) it is a very discrete way to also 'forgive', along with the bad things, the good ones too, at least to me. When I thought about my last "clean plate" resolution, I noticed how I've 'forgiven' everything, not just the irritating and annoying.

So I decided instead not to 'forgive' this time. Because 2009 was an incredible year. And forgetting that would be the most stupid thing I've done in a very long time. I will remember my last first day at school, I will remember all the people who helped me through a relatively-hard-for-my-lazy-head year. I will remember what I did well and what I didn't.

And since this sounds well and looks finished, I'll stop my post in English here and continue in Bulgarian. Despite the fact I feel myself more capable in English than in Bulgarian, symbols are symbols. And at least my second resolution should be in my native tongue.

Знаете ли кое е толкова хубаво на новата година? Не е само виното, нито другите видове алкохол, погълнат по случай началото й, но има и нещо специално.

Има нещо различно в тази атмосфера, нещо, което отличава нова година от, да кажем, националния празник, когато просто се извършва националния ритуал /ритуал -- вж. пие се много/. Краят на астрономическата година определено не е краят на работната сесия, не е и краят на зимата, но все пак нещо в хората им нашепва, че е някакъв край, а следователно -- и някакво начало.

А покрай думите 'начало' и 'край' хората се замислят. Въпреки че голяма част от хората през цялата година изобщо не са се замисляли за абсолютно нищо, точно в този ... период да го наречем, защото мисленето е очевидно прекъснато от празнуването, хората всъщност спират за малко и се замислят.

Веднъж в живота си, ние решаваме да мислим, да оценяваме себе си. Какво трябва да подобрим, какво трябва да променим, какво трябва да се стараем да запазим, всичко това минава през една глава, ако ще и за 1 минута да бъде.

А дори 1 минута размисъл за себе си е много и изключително ценна.

Това ми е другата резолюция -- резолюция за всеки ден от 2010, а ако може и след това. Да правя това, което се сещам само на нова година. Да отделя тази една минута.

Пожелавам го и на всички. Наред с щастието, късмета, успехите и новогодишното хапче за глава.