Political correctness is killing us.
Political correctness is actually complaining disguised and elevated to acceptable social status.
Note: This blog is politically incorrect.
The Age of "isms"
I listened to a high school coach express his conundrum regarding court time for his two teams. The girls team began complaining that the boys were receiving more practice time. While the coach was trying to be as equitable as possible, the girls felt he was discriminating against them. There was no arguing with them as this would make him appear insensitive. Instead he felt it was necessary to defend himself and prove them wrong by bending over backward the other way - which angered the boys. This is really a metaphor for our current state of world affairs.
Despite what we may think it means, political correctness is actually complaining disguised and elevated to acceptable social status. With the best of intentions, our increased sensitivity to those we feel have been unjustly treated, has created a society of humans looking for opportunities to complain and blame. Political correctness has made it our right and even our duty to do so.
In our culture, it is not a judgement but a fact that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Ironically, we complain about this yet all succumb to being that person at some point because we don’t know a better way to get attention. Racism, sexism, genderism, agism etc... are all a socially sanctioned, thus justified forms of blaming someone or something else for the way we feel.
While the solution to ‘isms’ logically seems to be more sensitivity, what we have found with this approach is that things are getting worse not better.
Blaming and complaining are symptoms of a compromised sense of self. When we are blaming and complaining, be it about the pain in our leg, inequitable gym time, a disrespected pronoun or the state of our union, what we are really doing is confirming to ourselves via anyone who will listen that we are victims. In fact, we will complain until we get the acknowledgement we are seeking. When we collude with another In acknowledging their perception of themselves as victim we deepen their pain rather than alleviate it.
A victim is not defined by an objective set of circumstances, it is a learned mindset. For the collective it has become the way we see the world - filtering everything we see through the lens of victim or aggressor. We are either victims of Trump or in support of his aggression.
The path to peace begins with the understanding that victim/aggressor is the same mindset. Two sides of the same come coin.
All victims are aggressors and vice versa.
All anger is fear
All aggression is fear
Only the weak attack
The weak are victims
Victims defend themselves through attack
Victims attack
Growth is outside of this thought system completely. It begins with doing away with the structures that support that mindset i.e political correctness, labels, reinforcing the victim/aggressor perception. Victims cannot be empowered they can only defend and aggress.
These mindsets are mutually exclusive. Logically, it makes no sense to try and empower someone by first calling them a victim. Labeling ourselves or anyone with anything i.e. short, white, female, smart, poor, weakens us all. We fight to throw off our labels or strive to overcome them. They create the need for political correctness. The coach did not have a girls team and a boys team, he had two teams made up of one people. There is no distinction between the two, therefore there is no injustice.
The way out of victimhood and our culture of judgement and blame is to know that we are not and never can be a victim of another or of our circumstances - though we are free to believe otherwise.
Political correctness has seen an exponential increase in new labels now clamoring for justice. It is a colossal failure and has eroded our true power which lies in individual responsibility and choice. Despite what we have been led to believe, no one can make us feel or do anything we do not want to do. We are 100% responsible for the way we feel. We may not choose our circumstances but we choose our thoughts, our emotions and thereby our experience.
In this moment of now, we are being called to move beyond the paradigm of political correctness and victimhood/aggression into responsibility and powerful choice. This means actively choosing the world we live in, not blaming it or reacting to it.
For Fear: Let go of labels
1) Know what you are defending
While most of us are not conscious of being victims, the labels we accept are indicators of our ‘victim mindset’ - that we need to either overcome, fix or defend. All labels weaken us and others. This includes all descriptors i.e. pretty, heavy, wealthy, smart as well as medical and psychiatric diagnoses i.e. ADD, cancer patient, anxiety, depression.List the labels you have of yourself List the label you have of othersThe more labels we hold the more vulnerable we are to attacking and being attacked.
2) Anger is never an appropriate response
Only victims aggress. Anger toward self or other is a always a reaction to feeling victimized by our environment or circumstances. Knowing this helps us move out of the belief that our anger is justified and into personal responsibility for identifying our victim in that moment.
List what you are angry about
Ask yourself if you are willing to see each of these of things differently or if you want to hold onto your victim/anger
If you are willing to see this differently move on to Step 3.
3) Mantra: I could see peace instead of this
Actively refuse to see anyone including yourself as a victim or an aggressor but rather see everyone as they truly are - infinitely powerful, divine Children of God. Seeing people as victims and aggressor will never bring peace. Whenever you are feeling anger or labeling someone, recall the mantra. By using these words you begin to undo the learned victim/aggressor program.
4) Stay the Course: This takes practice but the results are beyond anything you have known thus far.
5) Notice the subtle changes in you life.
Do you feel calmer?
Have more joy?
Feeling lighter and freer?
Do you smile more readily?
Are you more patient?
More social?
Welcome to label free living! Enjoy the love and peace that comes with connecting to your true powerful Self. Have a great week and be sure to share the love!!!
Xoxo Jill
*Typos happen but only ego judges :-)