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
giving at Christmas; museums; and even personal computers © "the advent of the PC of PCs" (46). 1 4 Before offering an evaluation of the authors' effort displayed in The Official Politically Correct Dictionary and Handbook , I will move back to my original query: Whose concern really is PC? Is it the all-powerful media, or the government, maybe the administration, or all of them intertwined in a unison of common interests? Could it be the vast and allegedly allencompassing middle class that wants to shed one of the last vestiges of diversity by attempting to conform to yet another set of idiot-proof but Procrustean precepts on the road from insecurity of all sorts to evolving into a smily, happy people? 1^ But why can it not be just normal healthy individuals aspiring to be more sensitive about their overall environment? Why? Good question... Maybe because 'normal' and 'healthy' by themselves are suspect in PC as examples of ableist language that can serve the purpose of "oppression of the differently abled by the temporarily able" (Beard 3). But surely, there must be an honest desire in most of us, caring human animals, to think and behave in a manner apt to improve our chances to survive in a brave, new, cruelty-free, environment-friendly, etc. world —or is there not? I would believe that there should be. Nevertheless, we cannot always rest assured that we invariably make the right decision about which behavior pattern in a certain situation is correct for us to champion, or take the right choice in accepting or rejecting certain attitudes by others. If you feel that it is important for you to be politically correct or, in other words, if you want to abide by a code commonly shared by people whose opinion you think you should trust and accept, and if you want to be acceptable in your present niche in (1)1 installed a low-flow shower head. (1)1 bathe less frequently. (1) / flush the toilet less often (25). The bottom line is that the reader is still left in two minds about the actual intentions of the anonymous authors. However, when we look at the names in the list of adjuncts their approach becomes quite clear. 1 1 As far as the Hungarian applicability of PC is concerned, see, for example, István Kenesei's article called "Kis politikai jelentéstan." For an interesting opinion on this issue, cf. John K. Wilson's "Preface: PC and Me" in his The Myth of Political Correctness. 32
