It is a buzz word like, Radical Chic, a term thrown around in the 70's.

Anita



>From: "Lyle E. Browning" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history         
>      <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: The Trajectory of PC
>Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 15:02:59 -0400
>
>The trajectory of PC is interesting in its own right. What started  out 
>with entirely admirable aims, such as (in this particular  instance and 
>there are others that vary by region and issue) the  absolutely valid 
>recognition that folks other than white had a past  that was largely 
>ignored and for which terms in use were "imposed" by  the same folks and 
>attempted to find phraseology that accommodated  everyone; over time was 
>transformed by uncritical adoption (and  probably by design by those wont 
>to ride such horses to death) to  mean anything and everything that didn't 
>fit the mental template of  those holding it. A sort of Talibanization of 
>popular thought.
>
>That in turn allowed what have been called "unreconstructed rednecks"  to 
>jump on the bandwagon with thinly veiled denigration of the aim of  the 
>entire structure, presumably hoping to get the proverbial baby  thrown out 
>with the bathwater.
>
>PC is no different than any other popular culture item. It shoots  into 
>prominence for valid reasons, and in this case does some initial  good, 
>then shoots itself in the foot and is largely discarded. BUT,  the primary 
>effect that PC has had is that not all of it will be  thrown out.
>
>When I lived in Britain in the 1970's I saw news clips wherein  typically 
>intelligent but hopelessly innocent Oxbridge graduates  stood in front of 
>what everyone in Britain called "yobs" and  interviewed them as if they 
>were the sudden fonts of all secret  knowledge. I believe that the Pythons 
>did variants of that in their  program. The Yobs were absolutely not open 
>to criticism. After a few  years of that, it was quietly realized by the 
>more intelligent folks  that all that came forth was certainly not as right 
>as it might have  been. What was good was mainstreamed and what was idiocy 
>was trashed.
>
>I suppose one might say that pendulums swing in both directions, but  the 
>clock that is history is constantly moving so that for the most  part, the 
>swing backwards does not go quite so far as it once was.  These discussions 
>will ensure that to be the case.
>
>Lyle Browning

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