Examining The Concept of Politically Correct Speech Essay

â€Å"Let’s be politically correct about this.† This is a common statement people make when they want to avoid offending people. This is the goal of the concept of being politically correct: avoid offending people’s sensibilities. Case in point, it is not uncommon to call blind people â€Å"visually impaired.† The reason for this is that somehow the word â€Å"blind† became derogatory. Well, actually it didn’t and neither did a number of benign words but in the 1990’s there was a movement that started with the clear intention of making words as antiseptic as possible. The movement was somewhat mocked at first and pop culture comedian George Carlin quipped â€Å"It is just a means of people hiding their guilt without really atoning for their sins.† But, the politically movement has far from gone away. In fact, it has gained significant momentum in certain quarters. This is good in some ways and negative in others. One of the most negative aspects of the political correctness movement is that perpetually trying to be politically correct has a tendency to hinder communications. That is, when people are always trying to choose their words or phrases carefully they may find the end result to be stilted. That is to say, the words they select in their writing or oral presentations may end up being silly. Again, most people assume a blind person is blind. If one refers to a blind person as â€Å"optically challenged† then one may discover the audience laughing at the choice of words. This is because it is obvious the individual is going really out of the way to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings. Granted, this end result may avoid offense but it could also yield laughter. If that was not the intended result of your actions then the actions would be deemed a flop. Sorry to be so blunt but this is the common end result of going to ridiculous extremes in order be politically correct at the expense of using â€Å"good† language. There are, however, some benefits to politically correct speech. This is most evident in the workplace. Remember when it comes to success in the workplace success will often be based around relationships with people. If your relationships with others are not as best as they can be then you may discover your career suffering. This would obviously be a bad situation and best avoided. Since one of the most common ways of developing bad relationships is through offending people seeking to be more politically correct in your dialogue would not be a bad idea. If you are involved in the insurance sales business there will be a multitude of people whom you will come in contact. As such, you would want these people to feel as comfortable as possible and opt to avoid using words that may prove offensive. For example, you would want to avoid calling the elderly â€Å"old† if you come in contact with such individuals. Sticking with the term â€Å"senior citizen† would be a much wiser option. Of course, you will want to select words that are sensible and not silly. There is a fine line between politeness and parody when it comes to speaking in a politically correct manner. However, if you use simple logic and common sense in your approach to selecting politically correct terms you will avoid many of the common â€Å"political correctness† pitfalls associated with the movement.