Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. [Vol. 5.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 25)
Studies - Pál Csontos: Is Political Correctness Politically Correct? A Tour along the Alleyways of the Shambles Called Political Correctness
between Left and Right are actual "Culture Wars," that can be traced ultimately and finally "to the matter of moral authority." Struggling to define the meaning of America, the two opposing sides are very often talking past each other, each snug and comfortable in its own preconcieved position (44). With the original battlefield (discussions concerning education) widened and extended to such diverse areas as entertainment, politics, news coverage, the media, and the arts, PC has become largely "an empty container of meaning" (45). As a dangerous rhetorical weapon used by the Left and the Right alike, political correctness has acquired a status of a commonplace feature in political rhetoric. Some commentators have already tried to prove that it is already fading into the past. But PC, the author argues, is more alive than ever (45). The selected bibliography completed by Bush in April 1994 lists 148 sources, 61% of which came out in 1992-1993. His contention is that PC is "a representative phenomenon of the American social scene," and its supposed demise has been "vastly overexaggerated (...) by those who wish that the term would go away" (47). II "The cult of ethnicity has reversed the movement of American history, producing a nation of minorities —or at least of minority spokesmen —" states Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. in "The Decomposition of America," a chapter in his The Disuniting of America, and adds that these representatives are "less interested in joining with the majority in common endeavor than in declaring their alienation from an oppressive, white, patriarchal, racist, sexist, classist society" (112). In his view, a "peculiarly ugly mood" appears to have settled over the arena of colleges and universities, which made it necessary for higher education administrators "to adopt regulations to restrict racist and sexist speech. More than a hundred institutions, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, had done so by February 1991" (114). Schlesinger seems to be worried that "what began as a means of s See also Campus Wars: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Difference, edited by John Arthur and Amy Shapiro. 29
