Years ago I learned of the “Law of Successive Approximation”. Don’t run off. This will be a fun article. I promise. It a nutshell this concept or “Law” is where you want to present a “Big Idea” that may be beyond the ability of others to accept. So, you break it down into small or even baby steps.
Now, anyone who has ever dated knows that a first date doesn’t begin with hand holding and kissing. For that matter it may not end there. But if it is ever to get there the “Idea” has to become comfortable in the minds of both daters. Usually the male begins with casual movements that allow him to get ever closer to the female. He may take her hand to help her from the car and perhaps there is a dance or two. Often hands become tangled and faces become closer and possibly that first kiss. I’m blushing. Anyway you get the idea.
Using this real life experience it is easy to understand that big leaps are often best taken with small steps. You know this and apply this in your everyday life. Sometimes it is harder to see when it occurs very, very, slowly. Political correctness is that way. It started off being a concept of being more in tune with sensitivities and now it seems that has evolved into a school of mind control. Surely you have found yourself thinking something that wasn’t politically correct and pondered whether there was something wrong for you to think this way. Sensitivity is nice. Sameness is absurd.
I am who I am and am more than the accumulation of a few thoughts. I am complex and have my life experiences and ideology to guide me; not to mention whatever effect genetics may or may not have on me. I can be sensitive without thinking like anyone: you or anyone else. (Did you ever notice that you can’t find “who” determines the rules of PC?) So I find that I can be sensitive to your thinking and still think that you are absolutely wrong. You too have that same right. Yet, someone, (the “they”) said you are wrong to think a certain something. You are even more evil if you say it. Now Elton John can say Jesus was a Homosexual but I’m not to speak out against EJ and his ideology because it would be gay bashing. I don’t hate gays. I just want them to shut up already. It is not all about gays. Now I will be labeled a “Homophobe”. Thirty years ago there wouldn’t have been any consequence for my opinion. See the “Law of Successive Approximation” at work here?
A lie used to be a “LIE”. Now it is called spin. The “War on Terror” is now a “Man Made Contingency Operation” and “Socialism is Liberalism or Progressivism”. What in the heck is going on? If you call a shooting a “high velocity projectile encounter” will the victim still be dead?
As a boy I remember my dad saying that we were becoming a nation of “educated fools”. As I consider the fact that the President, Congress, and many Americans no longer think the truth matters and that honesty is relative to the outcome, I find my dad words truer than I could have imagined. What can restore us to our sensibilities and make “right” and “wrong” real again? What can return us to “America: Land of Opportunity” thinking where you can work hard and improve things for your family? Who can put “Dignity” back into government and raise up Statesmen?
Perhaps if we make it Politically Correct to be Honest, Hardworking, and Truthful we might get it done. See you at the Polls.
PS. In the meantime, it is not wrong to speak up it is just politically incorrect.
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